November 1997

Applied Voice Technology
11410 NE 122nd Way
Kirkland, WA 98034
Ph: 425-820-6000; Fx: 425-820-4080
Web Site: www.appliedvoice.com

Price: $1,800–2,700 per agent.

ACDs (Automatic Call Distributors) have been part of the call center industry for some time now. These days, it is difficult to find a call center without one. The popularity of ACDs is obvious. They reduce agents’ idle times while maximizing efficiency in handling calls. ACDs also play an important role in quickly routing incoming calls based on caller information, agent expertise, or time of the call. ACDs are effective tools to reduce cost, maximize customer satisfaction, and keep a detailed record of the activities in the call center.

Traditionally, ACDs have been sold by the same companies that provided call centers with their PBX and other telecommunications equipment. ACDs are frequently difficult to set up, configure, and manage. It takes a great deal of ground floor planning and design before an ACD can be successfully deployed. That’s about to change. Enter AgentXpressNT by Applied Voice Technology (AVT), a sophisticated but user-friendly ACD product which runs on the Windows NT platform. Don’t get us wrong. You’ll still have the daunting task of prior planning regardless of which ACD you use. But a product such as AgentXpressNT could make the setup, deployment, and maintenance of an ACD a lot easier on you. With its clear graphical user interface, flexible connectivity, and client/server capability, AgentXpressNT has set new standards for other ACDs to follow.

INSTALLATION
AgentXpressNT is shipped as a turnkey system ready to be connected to the call center’s telephone lines. Our system was a DAX 166MHz Pentium PC with 64 MB RAM running Windows 4.0 Workstation on which AgentXpressNT Server 3.00C was installed. The system came with a Matrix Switch Controller (MX) board, Speech Analysis and Synthesis (SAS) board, Dual T1 Interface boards (DTI), and a DDS Interface board. Since connecting the system to outside lines was not important to our review, we used a loop-back cable to connect the two T1 ports. With this configuration, we could test all the capabilities of AgentXpressNT and our system would not know the difference.

We also had two Digital Display Sets (DDS) attached to the DDS Interface board. DDSs, which are also supplied by AVT, are specifically designed for call center agents. They include buttons such as SIGN IN/OUT, AVAILABLE, UNAVAIL, and WRAP UP, which call center agents frequently use in their daily work. AgentXpressNT can also be outfitted with Analog Station Interface boards that support 2500-type analog stations. The DDS interface boards and the Analog Station boards come with their own external power supplies necessary to drive the telephone sets. Program StartUp The AgentXpressNT Server program takes about 4 minutes to initialize the boards, attach to the database, initialize the agents, and set up reporting. We wished the server start-up process could be accelerated, even though there are a large number of tasks to perform in order to get the system up and running. As the AgentXpressNT Server booted, we monitored the system’s activities from the main screen’s several message windows. The Server window offers the user the ability to view running statistics as well as run diagnostic procedures on the AgentXpressNT system. From the Diagnostics menu we were able to get information on the trunks, stations, agents, and agent groups. Choosing the Processes item gave us a screen containing all the AgentXpressNT processes together with their status. This is a helpful tool for verifying that all AgentXpressNT processes have started and are running in normal states. The Processor Status screen from which we launched the Status Reports item of the Diagnostics menu was also useful. This screen gave a snapshot of the boards and their status in the system.

DOCUMENTATION
The AgentXpressNT manual is divided into 5 parts covering hardware setup, AgentXpressNT server software installation and configuration, AgentXpressNT System Administration program, building AgentXpressNT applications, and maintaining the system. The appendices cover board configuration and connection and interface methods. The manual could use more screen shots to clarify some of the more complex procedures, but, other than that, we found it quite complete.

We were equally impressed with the System Administration program’s help screen which we found well organized and easy to follow. Contextsensitive help was also available in certain fields where extra assistance might be needed.

FEATURES
AgentXpressNT has the following features:

• Operates as a stand-alone ACD, or in conjunction with PBX, Key telephone systems, or Centrex services.
• Automatic server recovery: the server continually monitors the computer. If the computer does not respond, the server program attempts to restart it.
• Complete ACD feature set: ANI/DNIS/DID (Digital only), Loop Start, Least Cost Routing, Priority Timers, etc.
• Open architecture: client/server access to enterprise-wide capabilities.
• High performance: highcapacity matrix switching resource card improves performance and minimizes risk of down time and processes in excess of 7,000 calls per hour.
• Standard suite of PBX features including: call park, camp-on, 4 way conferencing, hold, speed dial, station to station dialing, transfer, etc.
• Specialized Digital Display Set telephones (DDS) are available for each agent workstation. Selected caller information can be routed to display on telephones.
• Active agents: from 4 to as many as 96 DDS-equipped agent stations.
• Up to 144 trunks available for inbound/ outbound transactions that can be flexibly configured for digital and/or analog trunk interfaces: analog interfaces support 16 to 120 trunks. Digital (T1) or ISDN PRI interfaces support 1 to 6 T-spans (24 to 144 trunks).
• Music-on-hold: two ports are available for music-on-hold devices.
• Software includes all management and network reports: Agent Activity, Agent Trace, Call Data Statistics, Digit Table, System Activity, Trunk Utilization, and Network Utilization.
• Data export: all data can be accessed by packages such as Excel, Crystal Reports, etc. for further analysis and data storage. The following options are offered with AgentXpressNT:
• AgentXpressNT System Administration for Windows NT or Windows 95 Pentium PC.
• Digital Display Set: the Digital Display Set (DDS) is a proprietary digital agent telephone designed specifically for call centers using AVT’s AgentXpressNT. It shows vital call information at a glance, such as: number of calls in queue, longest queue time, actual queue time for call offered, supervisory messages, status of lines, status of agent, and type of trunk or transaction.
• Enhanced Agent software: several modules available to deliver screen pops, fax library, telephone set emulation on PC, outdial queue, and other CTI functionality.
• Networking: Hardware and software options are available to network up to 16 AVT ACD systems.
• IVR/Voicemail interface: hardware and software options are available. AgentXpressNT server software requires at least Windows NT 4.0 running on 166 MHz Pentium with 64 megabytes of RAM. The workstation minimum requirements are Windows NT 3.51 or Windows 95 running on Pentium with 32 megabytes of RAM.

OPERATIONAL TESTING
Setting Up Agent Groups Having successfully started the system, we turned our attention to setting up some of our agents and agent groups. To do this, we had to launch the AgentXpressNT System Administration program located in the AgentXpressNT folder in the Programs item of the Start button. System Administration then prompted us to enter an account and a password to enter the program. We liked this security feature of the program — it doesn’t rely solely on the Windows NT security.

Remote Control
One of the great benefits of AgentXpressNT is its client/server feature. AgentXpressNT allows the user to install the system administration and the reporting modules on a client in the network.

For our client machine we used a Pentium 120 MHz, with 32 MB RAM running Windows 95 and ran the setup program from the program CDROM. The installation procedure was relatively simple, but after the installation was completed, we had to launch the Windows 95 Registry Editor program to specify our server name in one of the fields pertaining to AgentXpressNT. It would have been great if the client could poll the network and identify the existing servers automatically.

On Tour
After launching the System Administration program on the client and entering the account information, we began a tour of the program. On the server, we confirmed our client was connected by selecting the Active Clients item from the menu and observing our client name in the list. One of the first features of AgentXpressNT System Administration that we noticed was the administrator’s ability to send selected agents text messages that appear immediately on their DDSs. From there, we entered the Port Configuration screen using the toolbar. This screen allows the administrator to view, add, or modify the ports on AgentXpressNT including 2500-type stations, DDSs, trunks, and digital links (such as T1, E1, or ISDN) by clicking on their corresponding buttons.

Building Agent Groups
From the Configure Agent screen we could define Agents, Agent groups, and Agent Priority timers which are used to tag agents to receive more or fewer inbound calls. Using the Agent button we defined a few of our own agent groups and we followed it up by adding new agents to the system and assigning them to the newly created agent groups. We found the Agent Configuration module of the AgentXpressNT very intuitive, flexible, and powerful. This module also supports many coverage types to determine forwarding targets for unanswered calls, including Agent Group, Dial Number, Digit Table, Route Table, Time Table, and Conditional Route.

Inbound Call Routing
We examined the inbound routing capabilities of AgentXpressNT by clicking on the Inbound Routing button. AgentXpressNT permits several types of inbound routing, including those defined with Digit, Route, and Time Tables. The tables give the administrator the flexibility to set up the call center for the variety of ways incoming calls can be handled. Of course, the administrator can also set up the system so that the inbound calls are forwarded directly to the dialed extension, disconnected, not answered, or routed to another AgentXpressNT server on the network.

Another inbound routing option we examined was the Route Table. A route table describes a sequence of actions for AgentXpressNT to follow in handling an incoming call. Typical actions include playing voice messages, and forwarding and queuing calls. Each action has an associated delay or threshold value that specifies the number of seconds for the system to wait before taking the action. The Route Table Configuration window consists of the Route Table and the Route Table Entry sections. We were able to easily create a few route tables from the Route Table sections.

AgentXpressNT also features conditional route tables which work according to existing conditions such as queue times and number of available agents, and time tables which route incoming calls by date and time. Other options available from the Inbound Routing Configuration screen are Voice Messages (to create and edit voice messages that guide callers through the system) and switch hook and DTMF tables (to route calls to PBX, Centrex, or voice mail systems). The Miscellaneous option is used to define default routing, after-hour routing, and camp-on voice message. We were very impressed with the power and flexibility of AgentXpressNT when it comes to inbound call routing. However, we had some reservations about the complexity of implementing some of the inbound routing procedures. Fortunately, as the administrator becomes more experienced at using AgentXpressNT, the inbound routing facility becomes second nature. Also, AVT has definitive plans to make this module simpler and more intuitive in future releases. It should be mentioned that AgentXpressNT servers can be set up in a network configuration to provide additional callhandling capacity and improved traffic management.

Outbound Call Routing
Just like Inbound Routing, clicking on the Outbound Routing button brought up the Outbound Routing Configuration screen containing several options. The Outbound Groups option is used to manage outbound calls by assigning them to predefined groups. The Least Cost Routing option allows AgentXpressNT to examine the dialed digits on the outbound calls and use the cheapest method of handling the call. Finally, the Route Tables button leads into the same Route Table Configuration screen used for inbound routing.

Report Generation
AgentXpressNT provides 90 data entry codes that enable agents to quickly enter data such as callers’ ordering information. The Data Entry Codes screen allows the administrator to define these codes and then set up DDS keymaps for the codes using the DDS Keymap Configuration screen. Later, a report can be generated based on the entered codes. The DDS speed dial configuration permits the administrator to define speed dial sequences to expand to full telephone numbers as outbound calls are routed. One of our favorite menu items was the Route Trace command, which brought up a screen containing a list of all routing selections in the system. This is a very helpful snapshot of all existing routing capabilities that can reveal hidden problems with the routing configuration in the system.

Reporting capability is a must for any ACD, and AgentXpressNT is equipped with a capable reporting module. The AgentXpressNT System Administration is used to configure the reporting option, however the reporting module itself runs as a separate program. The Options item from the Reports menu is used to configure reporting for system abandon levels (indicating the number of callers who disconnected before agents could answer their calls) and system service levels (indicating the amount of hold times for those calls that connected successfully). Other reports include system activity (a combination of system abandon levels and system service levels reports ordered by agent groups), trunk service levels (providing information on trunk activities), and trunk utilization (providing statistics on the number of calls passing through each trunk in either direction). The administrator can set up schedules for these reports to be printed at certain times using the Report Schedules command, or he can produce these reports immediately by choosing the Forced Reports command.

Tracking Performance
The AgentXpressNT System Administration program’s Diagnostics menu is armed with a variety of preprogrammed tests to check the system’s integrity and performance. System Tests check the SAS and the analog trunk boards, Status Reports display five types of information on the status of the AgentXpressNT server hardware such as the MX board and trunk failures, and other options for technicians configure the system for troubleshooting.

The final piece of the AgentXpressNT System we examined was the Dynamic Display module accessed from the Display menu. Dynamic displays are windows that allow administrators to track the performance of the system and its agents in real time. This allows for continuous inspection of the system and the agents at any desired time. We found the Dynamic Display module a powerful tool for call center managers who need to or want to be aware of the performance of their call centers at any given moment.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
One nuisance about the System Administration program was that every 30 seconds or so the mouse pointer changed to an hourglass for about 2 seconds during which time we were prevented from using the program. This apparently happened during the cycles when the system was collecting and recording information. AVT assured us that this problem has been resolved in the newly released AgentXpressNT 3.10. The new version also comes with a plethora of enhancements including color dynamic display, an interface to IEX TotalView workforce management, and an expanded agent capacity supporting up to 96 agents per server (up from 84).

We’d like to see a more intuitive approach used in some of the System Administration modules, especially the inbound call routing. We also wish for a faster startup process for the server and a more responsive System Administration module (we found it to be sluggish at times).

CONCLUSION
With the proliferation of Windows NT and its increased adoption in the CTI market, it was inevitable that we start seeing ACDs offered on this platform. AgentXpressNT by AVT is the first and a fine example of an NTbased ACD system for the small to midsized call centers. This is a powerful and flexible ACD utilizing many benefits of Windows NT such as client/server, networking, services, threading, and an easy and intuitive GUI interface to deliver impressive performance. We were very pleased with the system’s comprehensive approach to call routing, diagnostics, and reporting.

One of the best features of AgentXpressNT is that once the system has been initialized it operates independently from the operating system. This means that even if Windows NT crashes, the AgentXpressNT server continues to operate uninterrupted since it relies on the MX board for its processing needs. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the new release of AgentXpressNT (3.10) contains many extensive improvements, making it an even more robust and comprehensive ACD all around.