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Call recording and monitoring systems have become a necessary tool within
the call center to provide training, coaching, monitoring, as well as
protect against liability. Dictaphone is a well-known leader within the
call recording and monitoring industry with its da Vinci and Symphony CTI
products, both of which target the medium- to large-sized call center. Now
Dictaphone is addressing the small call center with a budget-conscious
product called Freedom QMS.
Traditional voice recording platforms required the usage of a
proprietary storage medium or they used archive storage media such as DAT
or DLT tapes. With Freedom, you can leverage your existing network storage
infrastructure to store and retrieve your voice recordings. Since the
recordings can be stored on any drive on the network (such as a RAID file
server, DVDs, Quantum Snap Server, etc.), call center agents and
supervisors have instant access to the voice recordings. Also, adding more
storage space for recordings is as simple as mapping to a new storage
device that you can add to the network.
Essentially, Freedom uses standard file access methods (like NFS, SMB
and FTP) so regardless of what the future has in store in terms of storage
media, the Freedom product will not become obsolete. The IT department
will love this solution since they can use existing backup procedures to
backup the voice recordings.
Freedom also features a browser-based, customizable evaluation form
system to make scoring a call as easy as filling out an on-screen survey.
Both the voice playback interface and the scoring system are viewed from a
browser, which allows a supervisor to fast-forward and rewind portions of
the call, as well as score the call as it is being played back. The
recorded call is saved along with the associated evaluation for easier
retrieval later. From this you can run reports that analyze the
performance of your agents and your entire call center operation.
Freedom has innovative features such as standard .WAV file support, voice
file authentication and encryption. Also, with Freedom's encryption
software, you can securely transport sensitive voice files over an open
network.
TMCTM Labs engineers recently visited Dictaphone's facility to learn more
about Freedom and found that the best attributes of this product were that
it was easy to implement and simple to use.
Installation
Since we visited Dictaphone's lab, we did not actually install the Freedom
system from scratch. We did, however, examine where and how Freedom sits
on both the telecom and the network sides of the equation. Essentially,
the Freedom system sits just after the telecom punch-down block, which is
also known as the demarcation point. Inside the Freedom system is a
compression card that compresses the 64kbps voice down to 6.3kbps to
conserve the use of hard disk space when recording. Also, each Freedom
system can have up to 16 channels of recording. Since the Freedom system
sits on the LAN, any recorded calls can be put onto any drive volume that
can be mapped on the network. By observing the Freedom system already
connected in Dictaphone's lab, we were able to determine that setting up
Freedom from a hardware perspective was not very complex. From a software
perspective, we uninstalled/reinstalled various software components just
to check out the ease of the software installation process. From the
Freedom software, we also tested the set-up of various volumes of
recordings on varying drive media (discussed further in the Operational
Testing section). Overall, the software installation process as well as
configuration was quick and painless and we were quite pleased with this
portion of the Freedom product.
Documentation
The documentation was quite extensive, consisting of three separate
manuals, including the Operator's Guide, Archive Software Guide and the
System Administrator Guide. All three manuals are well laid-out and
contain plenty of screenshots. All three also have tables of contents and
indexes, which makes for quicker searching. Overall, we were pleased with
the documentation, although we would like to see a Quick Start Guide that
demonstrates a new installation step-by-step through the entire process.
Features
The Freedom system supports 4 to 16 channels of recording per
recorder/telecom module. In addition to automatically recording calls and
scheduling the archiving of calls to any drive media, Freedom features
browser-based, customizable evaluation forms for scoring and evaluating
calls. The recorded call is saved along with the associated evaluation for
easier retrieval later on. With Freedom's reporting capabilities, you can
run reports to analyze the performance of your individual agents and the
call center as a whole.
Another feature is the ability to mix multiple channel recordings. An
important feature is querying certain call records via filters, which the
the Freedom system does very well. Several built-in filters are included,
such as "All in this week," "All in last 24 hours,"
"All in this month," and more. You can also create custom
filters using a very straightforward system that does not require a SQL
expert. Other important features include an event/alert system, the
ability to assign users with specific permissions, as well as the
capability to associate notes with a particular call recording.
Operational Testing
The Freedom recording system can be broken down into three main
components: Telecom Block, Recorder and Workstation. The Telecom Block
provides the integration layer between the voice/PSTN network to the
Freedom system so the voice can be recorded. The Recorder serves as a
command and control point for the Telecom Block, supporting a graphical
user interface for accepting user commands, such as requests for
modification of the system configuration. The Recorder is responsible for
storing audio and call reference data in a Call Record Database. It
receives, formats and stores audio data files as .WAV files with call
records. The Recorder also provides file server functionality for network
access to audio files, allowing calls to be played back at a PC with the
Workstation software installed. Finally, the Workstation piece of the
Freedom software gives PCs with multimedia capabilities the ability to
play back recordings made by the Recorder. You can search for and display
calls based on any of the data fields stored in the Call Record Database.
We examined and tested the usability and features of both the Recorder
and the Workstation software components, since these are the
"core" of the Freedom product. We tested the Recorder first,
since this component is the "server" portion that needs to be
configured first, as well as recordings made, before the Workstation
software has any recordings to play back. You can configure the Recorder
to take certain actions when an error condition occurs, such as logging
the error or forwarding a message to the Event System. Running on an
embedded real-time operating system (RTOS), the Freedom Recording
communicates with the Telecom Block through a serial datalink and features
a disk capacity of 500 channel hours.
To access the Recorder application, we entered a valid user name and
password. Then from the graphical user interface we were able to access
the "Recorder Neighborhood," which is conceptually similar to
Microsoft Windows' "Network Neighborhood." From the Recorder
Neighborhood we were able to see all the recorders on the network and
manage and configure them from the Recorder application. Configuring and
monitoring the status of channels can be done from the Recorder interface.
Overall, we were pleased with the ease with which we were able to view or
change the various parameters.
The Freedom platform features a comprehensive Event System for alerting
users and administrators of problems. An audible alert is generated as
well as a flashing icon in the lower-right system tray until the alert is
acknowledged. During our testing, we determined we could also suspend
alerts if we desired. From our tests, it appeared that we could not set
the permissions on a user-by-user basis to allow or block certain users
from accessing or acknowledging alerts within the Event System. We would
suggest that this be added in a future release.
The real power and beauty of the Freedom product is the Freedom
Workstation software, which allows call center managers to listen to the
entire enterprise's recorded calls from a multimedia PC. This very
user-friendly interface allows you to sort by date and time, add and
remove columns on the call records grid, and even drag-and-drop a series
of selected calls into the playback interface. Both the ctrl-click for
selecting individual calls and the shift-click method of highlighting a
series of calls are available.
TMC� Labs was very impressed with the power and flexibility of
choosing which calls to playback and the ease with which you can listen to
multiple calls. We were able to highlight three calls in the archives and
then drag-and-drop them into the playback window. By turning on
"continuous" mode, the three calls were played in sequence
without us having to click the "play" button after each call
record had finished playing. We liked the ability to use the mouse and
move a slider bar to speed up a "slow talker" or slow down the
playback of someone talking too fast.
Another nice playback feature is the mixer, which allows you to
drag-and-drop a series of calls into the mixer, enabling you to play back
all the calls simultaneously. Since each call is "time indexed,"
each of the recorded voice channels will be perfectly synchronized. We
liked the color-coded graph bars, which were offset from each other
according to their time index. As a series of mixed channels were played
back, a vertical line intersected the graph bars moving from left to
right. Unfortunately, it didn't appear we could use the mouse to move the
vertical line "on the fly" to fast-forward or rewind to
different sections of a recording.
A good application of the mixer would be in a 911 environment. For
example, assume Channel 1 is recording the conversation between a 911
agent and a person in need of help, and Channel 2 is recording the radio
conversation between the 911 agent and emergency personnel. These two
channels can be mixed together for a complete and accurate reconstruction
of events and played back to determine response time as well as be used
for training and liability protection.
Another important feature within Freedom is the ability for supervisors
to assign security privileges so that call takers can only play back their
own call recordings. Another important piece of the Freedom platform is
the Freedom Select application. We likened Freedom Select to "Freedom
Lite," because it essentially was a simplified, scaled-down version
on the Freedom Workstation software. Freedom Select was designed for the
agent's desktop, enabling the agent to quickly start and stop recording a
call manually simply by pressing F1 or F2. In addition, this application
gives the agent the ability to easily play back his or her own call
recordings simply by applying filters and then double-clicking on the
appropriate call recording. Freedom Select also features the same
excellent media player as Freedom Workstation, with variable volume and
speed controls.
One of final major tests involved looking at the browser-based
evaluation form. The first thing that caught our eye was that the
Web-based QMS evaluation form actually features the same media player for
playing back call recordings. This consistency across the various Freedom
applications lowered the learning curve. We should point out that although
the figures of the media player in this review look a little bit different
from each other, Dictaphone assured us that the final version of its
software would all have the same media player interface. In any event, we
were able to build custom evaluation forms as well as score call
recordings very quickly. The nice thing about having the media player
embedded into the same browser screen as the evaluation form is that a
call center manager can play back the recording and "score" the
agent's performance all from a single screen.
Room For Improvement
Within the Web-based Quality Management System, we'd like to be able to
set a default evaluation form, which could be set according to channel,
agent or some other criteria. This would make for quicker evaluations,
since the call center manager would not need to listen to the recording
first to figure out which evaluation form to use. Another suggestion would
be to allow for what is called "free seating," which allows
agents to move to different locations without impeding the ability to
track their calls. Dictaphone told us this feature will be included in an
upcoming release.
One minor usability improvement concerns the flashing red alert
messages. We noticed we could not double-click on the alert messages to
get to the alerts/events detailed screen. Another minor usability
suggestion we have is to allow the delete key to delete a record within
the Recorder Neighborhood, Archives or any new folder created. As it
stands now, you have to right-click the folder and then choose
"delete." We would also suggest that the Freedom system allow
the user to simply double-click on an alert message to
"acknowledge" the alert.
One final complaint we had with the usability was that
"tagging" call records was a bit of a pain. After selecting the
call records we wanted to tag, we next had to right-click, choose
"Call Properties," then check the "Tagged" box,
followed by clicking on "OK." This was a bit tedious. We would
propose instead the ability to double-click on the tagged field within the
Playback view for a single call record. For tagging multiple records, we
would suggest an icon on the toolbar that when clicked would automatically
tag any highlighted call records. Finally, we determined that the product
must use a static IP address and does not support DHCP, which we would
like to see in a future release.
Conclusion
Though TMC� Labs had some usability suggestions, we should state
that the Freedom system was very easy to use. We especially liked the
user-friendly Web-based evaluation forms with an embedded media player for
playing back voice recordings. IT personnel will love Freedom's ability to
store voice recordings to any media on the network that can be mapped to,
such as a file server or a DVD drive. With a feature-set that rivals more
expensive monitoring systems and a price that is much lower, the Freedom
QMS product certainly merits distinction.
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