June 2000

BY SANDRA REESE, NATURAL MICROSYSTEMS

Business as we know it is changing dramatically as a result of the Internet. The accessibility of information the Internet offers is forcing business to refocus itself from a transaction-oriented corporate perspective to a customer-centric applications and services view. Why? Because customers now have access to a wealth of information via the Internet and it is providing them with a conduit for doing business their way. They want any information, at any time, with any device and from any location. Right now, every business is challenged to provide this self-service and information access environment to create and build "customer intimacy" with the obvious and time-honored objective of maintaining and growing business and revenue. The natural channel for meeting these business-critical challenges can be found in the call center.

The call center is currently going through an "e-volution." Call centers are beginning to expand their service beyond providing or taking information. The ultimate goal of these new customer contact centers is to interactively service the customer and make every interaction a positive, responsive experience -- to create what might be termed "customer joy." To achieve this level of customer service, next-generation customer contact applications and services must bridge existing internal networks, including traditional PBXs, with the vast Internet world.
Before the mass adoption of the Internet, call centers consisted of proprietary PBX and ACD systems and call center applications provided by networking and communication equipment suppliers such as Nortel, Lucent, Siemens, Alcatel, NEC and Ericsson.

As the Internet drives voice and data convergence, these vendors are now designing and delivering systems to take advantage of the evolution to a new network architecture. Initially, this architecture will be a hybrid one, with new technologies introduced to the existing environment via gateway devices.

The New Network Infrastructure
The new network infrastructure will be a multiservice network for voice, data and multimedia applications, services and communications. It will include circuit- and packet-based technologies and transport, both wireless as well as wireline. The new network will be highly reliable, very flexible and always available. In the new network, the enterprise and the network will be one and the same, with no lines or distinctions.

The new network will be a fabric, consisting of gateways, business and customer care applications; carrier-provided services, premium IP services and provisioning, wireless applications and infrastructure -- all interwoven and working together for seamless, transparent, end-to-end communications.

Evolution Within The Call Center
In the past, call centers consisted of automatic call distributors (ACDs), which were specialized PBX systems finely tuned for the volume of outgoing and/or incoming calls generated by the center. More important, call center applications were the first to provide an initial degree of computer-telephony integration through screen pop applications. These applications were the forerunners of what is happening today in the area of true and complete voice and data integration.

Over time, call center equipment and PBX systems have merged somewhat in functionality and have become less distinctive in personality. Many systems available today now offer both PBX and call center capabilities. "Web-enabled" customer contact centers are the direct result of the initial merging and transmission of voice and data across the same network in the form of IP packets while still interfacing to a circuit-switched system and ACD-based customer contact center application.

Over the next few years, these Web-enabled customer contact centers will evolve into true IP-based customer care centers. These care centers will use a LAN and IP network to establish call sessions. This means voice and data will pass across a data network in the form of IP-addressable packets and there will be no circuit switching involved. As the new network topology continues to evolve, future IP customer care centers will achieve closer integration through Web interaction, the actual voice call and data access. The direction of IP-based customer care centers will be to allow customers to "click to talk" with a care agent who will closely collaborate with the client. Information pages will be pushed out to the client and through white board collaboration, customer care advocates will be able to interactively highlight specific areas of interest with their clients.

When voice and data are transmitted over the same local network at the customer care center, historical data on the customer will be readily available. All transactions and/or inquiries will follow the customer every time Web, phone or e-mail contact is made. With the use of management tools, specific customer care reps can be associated with previously supported customers in order to provide an even higher level of personalized service. You can see the degree of customer intimacy growing as a direct result of the new network capabilities.

Advantages Of The IP Call Center
This new type of IP customer care center will provide all the basic features of ordinary Web customer contact centers. In addition, IP call centers have technical advantages over past circuit-switched call centers because they will be able to facilitate the geographic distribution of care centers. By linking call centers over an IP backbone, it will be possible to offer customer care advocates the ability to work from home and provide work opportunities for those who must work from home. Having advocates at various locations around the world will create a truly virtual customer care center. Just think of the possibilities in providing customer care globally with advocates spread out across the world servicing your worldwide customer base with a high degree of efficiency because all pertinent information will be readily available to them and to your customers seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day.

The requirement to facilitate this extended labor pool is in providing DSL or cable modem services to those home-based employees. Initial DSL deployments are for high-speed Internet access only, but voice over DSL is coming in the near future. The competing technology for service delivery to home-based agents is cable, and cable telephony is another emerging packet telephony application. Many carriers are looking to expand the availability of high-speed Internet access and telephone services over the existing cable network.

Many industry experts predict that the IP PBX will replace conventional PBXs and key systems in the enterprise. In the new "all-IP enterprise," IP phones, IP fax machines and PCs all interconnect through the corporate IP LAN. The IP PBX provides PBX, voice mail, interactive voice response, LAN fax and IP telephony gateway applications in a low-cost, highly reliable PC, replacing separate, higher-cost systems. Additional potential benefits of implementing IP-based care centers are seen in the areas of scalability, integration of new applications and improved systems management.

However, there are some legitimate concerns about implementing an IP care center that need to be addressed by the key vendors in this area. In this very competitive electronic commerce world, customer care services and applications will become even more critical to business growth and success than before. Reliability (in terms of five-9s), scalability, versatility and cost-effectiveness will be absolutely mandatory requirements for any further technology deployments.

Planning For The Future
So how do you go about planning for the evolution in your call center? Make sure you have a good understanding of your company's overall business goals and objectives. Then, join forces with your technology counterparts (IT and/or telecom groups, depending on where you sit in the organization) to understand the "big picture" from a communications and data infrastructure standpoint. Don't think you can do it alone without input from other groups within your company. You cannot, and you will not succeed, without a team approach in this effort. Now, put together a joint plan of action and move quickly to implement it.

Work with your data and telecom suppliers to determine and understand the best technologies available today. They are the ones with whom you have a comfort level, they have supported you in the past and they are already building the systems required for the new network. But make sure those suppliers are developing systems based on leading-edge technologies that are standards-based, allowing for future growth and, more important, future change. Challenge them with your requirements and make sure they can provide you with positive responses and an adequate explanation for the checklist provided below.

• Ease of installation, operation and management.
• Is there single view, integrated systems management?
• How well will the system scale?
• Will an increasing number of ports decrease system performance?
• What will be the overall cost of ownership?
• Is the architecture based on open standards?
• Are there any proprietary features or functions?
• Does the vendor offer a choice of support services?
• Will those support services be able to address the overall architecture or a subset of components?

Finally, implement your plan in stages and start now. One of the primary reasons to introduce IP telephony in your organization is not cost savings, although that will be realized over time. The key factor in moving toward the new network is to maintain your company's competitive edge. Remember the Internet is making it easier and easier to compete and lure customers away to more responsive businesses. To keep your customers and to grow your business, you need to move quickly to take advantage of all the new network has to offer.

Sandra Reese is the director of enterprise marketing for Natural MicroSystems. Natural MicroSystems' products and services are deployed in close to 50 countries. The company's quality processes have earned ISO 9002 certification.