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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Avaya Call Center ............................................................................................................................ 2 Avaya Call Center Elite .................................................................................................................... 4 Call Center Features ...................................................................................................................... 13 Avaya one-X Agent ........................................................................................................................ 40 Avaya IP Agent .............................................................................................................................. 51 Avaya Customer Service Essential Edition .................................................................................... 60 Avaya Customer Service Standard Edition .................................................................................... 63 Avaya Customer Service Advanced Edition .................................................................................. 66 Avaya Contact Center Express ...................................................................................................... 70 Whats New ................................................................................................................................ 73 Contact Center Express Components ....................................................................................... 74 Supported Platforms and Minimum System Requirements ....................................................... 95 Avaya Contact Center Express Sample ROI ............................................................................... 100 Avaya Interaction Center ............................................................................................................. 116 Avaya Proactive Contact .............................................................................................................. 126 Proactive Contact Overview ..................................................................................................... 128 Differentiating Features of Proactive Contact .......................................................................... 137 Multi-Dialer Capabilities ........................................................................................................... 144 Avaya Proactive Contact System Feature Summary............................................................... 146 Avaya Customer Interaction Express .......................................................................................... 153 Avaya NES Contact Center ......................................................................................................... 191 Avaya Aura Contact Center...................................................................................................... 196
network design, integration, implementation, security, business continuity, maintenance, and support are available globally.
When an inbound ACD call arrives for a skill, the ACD software checks to see if a staffed agent with the desired skill is available to handle the call. If an agent is not available, or busy, the call enters the skills queue. Calls queue only if no agents are available, a queue is assig ned to the skill, and the queue is not full. A skill queue is a holding area for calls waiting to be answered. When a call is put into queue, the caller may hear one or more delay announcements, music, and/or silence, depending on the treatment assigned for the skill. Calls enter the queue at the bottom and move toward the top or head of the queue. After a call reaches the head of the queue, it connects to the next available agent. Call Center Elite can allow your staffed agent to be active in as many as sixty assigned skills. With Expert Agent Selection (EAS) active, you can administer agents to accept delivery of inbound ACD calls under call surplus conditions using Greatest Need, Skill Level with support for up to sixteen different skill levels per skill, or Service Level Maximizer. You can set the Avaya Call Center software to maintain a separate queue for available agents in each skill ensuring that when agents answer an ACD call they are only removed from the available agent queue for the skill for which that call arrived. Or, you can create one systemwide combined queue for all staffed agents, ensuring that staffed agents are removed from the queue whenever they answer a call for any of their assigned skills.
Logical Agent
Logical Agent is a capability of the Expert Agent Selection (EAS) feature. With Logical Agent, an agents ACD Login ID is associated with a particular telephone only when the agent actually logs in at that telephone. When the agent logs off, the association of an agents ACD Log in ID with a particular telephone is removed. Extension numbers from the system station numbering plan are used to assign ACD Login IDs. Agents become logical entities and not physical entities. Logical Agent allows ACD agents to log into any telephone on the system regardless of type, designation, or location. This can be very useful when additional ACD positions are needed on short notice or when a disaster strikes. All agents in the system can be designated as Logical Agents if desired. In addition to skills, the following capabilities are associated with agents' login IDs. Calls Calls to the Login ID reach the agent independent of the telephone the agent is currently using. These can be Direct Agent calls (calls to a particular agent treated as an ACD call). Name Calls to the Login ID display the name associated with the Login ID and not the name associated with the telephone. This is also true for calls made from a telephone where an agent has logged in. Coverage When the agent is logged out, or when calls go to coverage because the agent is busy or does not answer, calls to the Login ID go to the coverage path associated with the agent and not the telephone. When an agent is logged out, calls go to the agent's busy coverage destination. Restrictions Calls to the Login ID or from the agent use the restrictions associated with the agent and not the telephone.
Work Modes A single work mode button applies to all the skills assigned to the agent currently logged in. The Multiple Skills feature allows agents to log in to up to 60 skills simultaneously. Message Waiting Lamp This lamp by default tracks the status of messages waiting for the logged in Expert Agent Selection Login ID rather than messages for the physical terminal. If desired, the Message Waiting Lamp can be programmed to track the physical terminal. Auto-Answer With Expert Agent Selection, auto answer settings can be assigned to agents on the Agent Login ID form. An agent's auto answer setting will apply to the station where the agent logs in. If the auto answer setting for that station is different, the agent's setting overrides the station's setting.
The vector variables are defined in a central variable administration table, but the values assigned to some types of variables can also be quickly changed by means of special vectors, Vector Directory Numbers (VDNs), and Feature Access Codes that you create for that purpose. Different types of variables are available to meet different types of call processing needs.
Depending on the variable type, variables can use either call-specific data, or fixed values that are identical for all calls. In either case, an administered variable can be reused in many vectors. These variables, which can also be VDN Variables, are: ani - a local (per call) variable used to test the calling partys telephone number. asaiuui - a local (per call) variable used for processing call-specific user data associated with the inbound ACD call collect - either a global or local (per call) variable used for processing collected digits for user-defined control, routing, or treatment tod - the global variable used to hold the current time of day for processing dow - the global variable used to hold the current day of week for processing. doy - the global variable used to hold the current day of year for processing. stepcnt - a local (per call) variable used to count the number of vector steps executed for the call, including the current step in the vector. value - the global variable used to hold a single user-defined numeric digit (0-9) for user-defined processing. vdn - a local (per call) variable used to hold the VDN extension number of the call for processing. vdntime - a local (per call) variable used to test the time, in seconds, that a call has been in vector processing.
Reason Codes
This feature allows agents to enter a numeric code that describes their reason for entering auxiliary (AUX) work mode or for logging out of the system. Reason codes give call center managers detailed information about how agents spend their time. You can also use this data to develop more precise staffing forecasting models or use it with schedule-adherence packages to ensure that agents are performing scheduled activities at the scheduled time. You must have Expert Agent Selection (EAS) enabled to use reason codes.
Logout from ACW feature. The forced logout due to timeout in ACW will be reported with a customer assignable AUX (Auxiliary) Work Reason Code which is administered on a systemwide basis.
Holiday Vectoring
Holiday Vectoring enables a set of commands that can be used to write vectors for calls to be routed on holidays or any days when special processing is required. Holiday Vectoring allows for branching and routing of calls based on information about special schedules. The special schedules are recorded in tables.
resource that will provide the best service. For single-site Best Service Routing applications, your communication server must meet the same requirements as for multi-site Best Service Routing applications except that Look Ahead Interflow and ISDN or SIP interconnectivity are not necessary. Single-site Best Service Routing is a simple, logical extension of call vectoring. Like any other vector, vectors with Best Service Routing commands are assigned to one or more Vector Directory Numbers (VDNs). Using vector commands, you tell the communication server to compare, or consider, specific skills for each call that is processed in that particular vector. Throughout the comparison, the server remembers which resource is the best based on how you define best. Best Service Routing vectors can deliver a call to the first available agent found, or they can consider all of the specified resources and deliver the call to the best skill. If no agents are available in any skill, the call is queued to the skill with the shortest adjusted Expected Wait Time (EWT). For purposes of calculating the best resource in a call surplus situation, Best Service Routing allows you to adjust the Expected Wait Time calculation for any skill. The consider vector command is used to obtain the Expected Wait Time or agent data that is needed to identify the best local resource. One consider command must be written for each skill that you want to check in the order that you wish to check them. Because the consider command is usually designed to compare two or more resources, consider commands are typically written in a series with the sequence terminating in a queue-to best vector step. In an enterprise with multiple Communication Manager instances and Avaya Virtual Routing (Multi-Site Best Service Routing), a call that arrives at a local Communication Manager, regardless of the type of Avaya Server used to drive it, can be rerouted to a remote server located in a different part of the world. When the trunks between the sending and receiving switches are IP trunks, bandwidth is utilized when music or recorded announcement packets are sent from the destination switch to the caller. Because of the continuous nature of music, the bandwidth required to provide this audible feedback to callers in queue is generally greater than that required to support a conversation between a caller and an agent. Communication Manager allows vector processing to continue at the local sending switch, even after a call has been routed to a queue on a destination switch. Vector processing at the sending switch can then continue to provide audible feedback to the caller while the call is in queue at the destination switch. No packets need be sent over the IP trunk during the queuing phase of the call. This feature provides the following benefits for call center operations: For multi-site operations that include sites located in different countries, the local treatment feature can result in significant bandwidth savings for IP calls. Audio quality problems that may occur when music is sent over wide area networks that use low bit-rate codecs are eliminated. Announcements and other treatments can be maintained and managed in a central location.
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Restriction can be set up to specify which agents can or cannot be forced to logout and which users can dial the Feature Access Code to force agents to logout.
Star, Pound, and Digits Allowed in Route-to Destination Command with Variables
The route-to number command destination syntax has been expanded to allow combinations of star (*), pound (#), and digits with vector or VDN variables. This capability allows the destination for a route-to number command to be greater than 16 digits.
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In addition, a hunt group might consist of a group of shared telecommunications facilities. For example, the group might be: A modem pool A group of data-line circuit ports A group of data modules
A system administrator can add or remove splits/skills from the system, add or remove announcements, add or remove agents, add trunk groups, and route calls to the appropriate splits or skills. The administrator can also specify ACD measurement criteria and use an optional Avaya Call Management System to provide reports on ACD efficiency. Agent availability is different for splits that are assigned the Multiple Call Handling (MCH) feature.
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MIA Across Splits/Skills can be assigned by Expert Agent Selection Login ID as well as by a system-wide setting.
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ACD calls are usually more important to your business than non-ACD calls. So you could use Multiple Call Handling to interrupt staffed agents who are on non-ACD calls with an inbound ACD call. In an EAS environment (Call Center Elite is required) that features active skills based routing, inbound ACD calls directed to one skill may be more important than calls to another skill, so Multiple Call Handling could be used to interrupt an agent who has a call from a less-important skill with a call from a more-important skill. Agents can receive multiple calls only when in auto-in or manual-in work mode. All forced Multiple Call Handling calls are delivered with ringing at the agents station, not with zip tone. Requested Multiple Call Handling calls are delivered with ringing or zip tone. Agents can toggle between auto-in and manual-in work mode. If an agent selects ACW (After Call Work) or AUX (Auxiliary) work mode with calls on hold, the work mode is pending until all calls complete or until a manual-in call completes. New ACD calls are not delivered when AUX work is pending. When an ACD or direct agent call with pending ACW completes, the agent enters ACW. When an agent is active on a non-ACD call with ACW pending, the staffed agent can receive forced Multiple Call Handling calls. If an agent is either in auto-in work mode and active on an ACD or direct agent call, or in auto-in or manual-in work mode and active on a non-ACD call and a Manual-In ACD or direct agent call abandons from hold, the agent is pending for ACW work mode and the after-call button lamp flashes. If a staffed agent reconnects to an ACD or direct agent call on hold, their work mode changes to the calls work mode (auto-in or manual-in). Do not use forced Multiple Call Handling with Direct Department Calling (DDC) distribution because the first agent continues to receive calls until all line appearances are busy.
Multiple Call Handling On-Request would commonly be deployed with a feature such as VuStats, which enables staffed agents to see when the queue is getting full and take additional calls. Agents and supervisors in on-request Multiple Call Handling splits/skills can use Queue
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Status, VuStats, and Basic Call Management System or Call Management System reports to determine how quickly calls must be answered.
As long as an ACD call is active or held, the staffed agent does not automatically receive an additional ACD call from the one-forced split/skill. An agent in a one-forced split/skill in auto-in or manual-in work mode is unavailable for that split/skill from the time that an ACD call rings until all ACD calls are abandoned, redirected, or dropped. However, the agent can request another ACD call from a one-forced split/skill by placing the active call on hold and selecting Manual-In or auto-in work mode. If an agent with multiple skills is active on an ACD call for a group with one-forced Multiple Call Handling, the staffed agent could be forced to take an ACD call for one of his or her other skills, depending on that skills Multiple Call Handling settings. Because one-forced Multiple Call Handling forces an ACD call to alert a staffed agent who is not on an ACD call, use it when you want inbound ACD calls to take precedence over other calls.
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the term agent is used to refer to the extension, attendant, or logical agent being observed. A vector directory number (VDN) call can also be observed. Observers can observe in either a listen-only or a listen-and-talk mode. You set up Service Observing to observe a particular extension, not all calls to all extensions at a station. Service Observing may be subject to country, state/province, or local laws, rules or regulations or require the consent of one or both of the call parties. Because of this, it is a good idea to understand and comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations before using this feature. To begin observing, the observer presses the Service Observing button and dials the agents extension number. Initially, the observer is in listen-only mode. The observer presses the Service Observing button to toggle between listen-only and listen/talk mode. The lamp indicates which mode the observer is in. To deactivate Service Observing, the observer hangs up, selects another call appearance, or presses the disconnect or release button. An observer can observe an agent who is not active on a call. The observer is in the wait state until the agent receives a call, and then the observer is bridged onto the call. You can administer a warning tone on each system to let agents and callers know when someone is observing a call. Before connection, the warning tone may add 2-3 seconds delay if enabled. The parties hear a 2-second, 440-Hz warning tone before an observer connects to a call, followed by a half-second burst of this tone every 12 seconds during observation. Although a staffed agent can be a member of multiple splits/skills, an agent can be observed by only one observer at a time. If two agents with different supervisors are being observed and one agent calls the other, the originators supervisor observes the call, and the other supervisor is placed in the wait state. An attendant can be service observed but cannot be a service observer.
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In support of Vector Directory Number (VDN) level security, use the following COR restrictions for VDN-call observing: For the VDN extension to be observed, set the Can Be Observed field on the COR form to yes. For the VDN destination, set the Can Be Observed field on the COR form to yes. Enter the VDN extensions to be observed in the observers Service Observing Permissions COR table. In support of vector level security, use call prompting commands in Service Observing vectors to provide passcode protection and limit access to specific destinations or vector-verified, caller-entered digits. Use Time of Day and Day of Week checks in Service Observing vectors. Create a vector used exclusively for Service Observing. If you use route-to commands to observe a VDN extension, ensure the extension has an observable COR. If the observer is observing locally, grant calling permission to the observer on the VDNs COR.
In vector-initiated Service Observing, the Class of Restriction (COR) assigned to the VDN used to initiate Service Observing, the COR assigned to the internal caller extension, and the COR assigned to agent to be observed are used to determine if Service Observing will be allowed. If the agents COR is not observable, observation fails regardless of the VDN or caller COR. When a call routes through multiple VDNs, the COR of the last VDN is used for calling/observing permissions regardless of VDN Override settings. If you have administered the optional warning tone, the caller and the observer hear the tone only when the system connects the call to the answering or routed-to destination after vector processing is finished. The periodic tone is heard during the call even if the call is transferred off the communication server. Use a warning announcement at the beginning of vector processing to inform the caller of observation since the system cannot give a warning tone until the call is out of vector processing.
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With Call Vectoring, an observer accesses a communication server by dialing a VDN extension or a Central Office (CO) trunk that has a VDN extension as its incoming destination. Using route-to commands, you can design a Service Observing vector to allow a VDN call to directly access a specific extension to be observed or a Service Observing dial tone. You can combine Call Prompting and Call Vectoring to provide security and to limit observation. At the dial tone, observers can enter any extension that they are authorized to observe.
VuStats
VuStats presents contact center statistics on phone displays. Although VuStats can run with either Basic Call Management System or Call Management System enabled, neither is required. Agents, supervisors, contact center managers, and other users can press a button and view statistics for agents, splits or skills, VDNs (vector directory numbers), and trunk groups. An example of Vu-Stats is: STAFF = 4 AV = 0 AUX = 2 WAIT = 4 ASL = 87. These statistics reflect current information collected during the current Basic Call Management System interval, information collected since the agent logged in or since the day began, or historical data accumulated over an administered number of intervals. The information is limited to 40 characters displayed at a time. VuStats can display on demand or update periodically. With VuStats, anyone who is using a telephone with digital display can view statistics which are otherwise available only on Basic Call Management System or Call Management System reports or management terminals. These statistics can help agents monitor their own performance or can be used to manage splits/skills or small contact centers.
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Data In/Voice Answer (DIVA) Capability - Allows the caller to hear an announcement based on the digits that they have entered, or to be directed to a hunt group or another system extension. Data Collection - Allows the caller to enter data that can be used by a host/adjunct to assist in call handling. This data, for example, may be the callers account number. CINFO (Caller Information Forwarding) Routing - Allows a call to be routed based on digits supplied by the AT&T network in an ISDN-PRI message. CINFO requires the AT&T Intelligent Call Processing (ICP) service, ISDN-PRI, and Call Vectoring (Prompting) Message Collection - Gives the caller the option of leaving a message or waiting in queue for an agent.
Basic Call Management System provides the following Historical Reports: Agent Agent Summary Split/Skill Split/Skill Summary Trunk Group Trunk Group Summary VDN (Vector Directory Number) VDN Summary
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and returned to the common pool. There are enough queue slots to allow all possible calls to queue.
Redirection on IP Failure
Redirection on IP Failure is applied system-wide and the default for the system is not active. The Redirection on IP Failure feature applies only to agents using ACD auto-answer and IP telephones or softphones. Redirection on IP Failure provides redirection of calls back into queue or to the specified Vector Directory Number (VDN) when calls to auto-answer ACD stations cannot be connected due to loss of IP connectivity. Redirection on IP Failure works as follows: When the system option is active, Redirection on IP Failure checks IP connectivity before delivering an inbound ACD call to the staffed auto-answer agent using an IP phone. Invokes Redirection On No Answer (RONA) if IP connectivity is not acknowledged which means that the staffed agent will be taken out of service and the call is either placed back into the queue or forwarded to a RONA-specified Vector Directory Number (VDN). This ability prevents a lost call during the period when IP connectivity failure has not been detected by Communication Manager Maintenance. Redirection on IP Failure places the non Auto-Available Split/Skill agent into Auxiliary (AUX) Work mode, and then redirects the call to the split/skill queue or RONA-specified VDN if an IP connectivity failure is detected while that call is being delivered. If the Reason Codes feature is active, the change to AUX Work is reported with the Redirection on IP Failure reason code. Logs out the Auto-Available Split/Skill agent instead of putting the agent into AUX Work.
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recording was stopped) or be able to have an observer monitor Expert Agent Selection agents or stations for quality while being observed for recording. If a call-conference occurs with more than two service observers in both call legs, this feature allows the conference to take place, but only two observers will be left in the merged call with an observer in each call leg. Highest preference is given to keeping the service observer(s) whos associated Class of Restriction (COR) has the Service Observing by Recording Device? field set to yes. That is, automated equipment can be given preference over a supervisor.
Call Vectoring
Vectors are equivalent to call control tables and are used to process incoming and internal calls according to a programmed set of commands that often feature if/then routing logic. These commands, called vector commands, determine the type of processing that calls will receive. For example, vector commands can direct calls to on-premise or off-premise destinations, to any hunt group, split/skill, or to a specific call treatment such as an announcement, forced disconnect, forced busy, or delay. Vectors can queue or route calls based on a variety of different conditions. With combinations of different vector commands, incoming callers can be treated differently depending on the time or day of the call, the expected wait time (EWT), the importance of the call, or other criteria. Each vector can have up to 99 commands. Vectors can be linked through the goto vector command.
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There are many different applications for Call Vectoring. However, it primarily is used to handle the call activity of ACD splits/skills. Features such as Best Service Routing, Look Ahead Interflow, and Network Call Redirection all are implemented using Call Vectoring.
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Vectoring Subroutines
Subroutine calls for vector processing are provided through use of the goto vector command and a return command allowing the use of common vector programs by many different vectors. This feature helps customers consolidate redundant vector routines which will help reduce the need for more vector capacity and simplify administration. Vector subroutines can be utilized by many vector programs without duplicating the same sequence in each vector. This can significantly decrease the number of steps and vectors required.
If ANI is not provided by the network for an incoming call, ANI is not available for vector processing on that call.
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Help detect fraudulent orders for catalog sales, travel reservations, money transfers, travelers checks, and so forth Assign priority or special treatment to calls that are placed from pay telephones, cellular telephones, and lines originating from prisons, hotels, motels, and so forth. For example, special priority could be given by an automobile emergency road service to calls that are placed from pay telephones Convey the type of originating line on the agent display by routing different type calls to different Vector Directory Numbers (VDNs)
II-digits are a 2-digit string that is provided for an incoming toll-free call delivered to a Communication Manager by ISDN PRI trunks. II Digits can be used with vector routing tables in much the same manner as is true for ANI routing and collected-digit routing. When a call is returned to vector processing as a result of the VDN Return Destination feature, the II-digits are preserved.
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optionally administered to VDNs, the vector associated with a VDN controls when and to which VDN skill the call queues.
VDN Override
VDN Override allows information about a subsequently routed to Vector Directory Number, if any, to be used instead of the information about the current VDN. The term active VDN represents the active VDN as modified by VDN override rules and the term latest VDN represents the most recent VDN to which the inbound ACD call was routed. VDN Override can be used in conjunction with a vector that prompts the caller for a particular service. Let us assume that your company has a Sales and a Service operation. Callers to a particular toll-free number could arrive at a Main Vector and be eventually routed to either Sales or Service. If VDN Override is assigned to the Main VDN, the Sales VDN name appears on the agents display when the call is connected to the agent. If VDN Override were not assigned to the Main VDN then the agents display would have shown Main. In this case, Main is the active VDN and Sales is the latest VDN.
Display VDN (Vector Directory Number) for Route-to Direct Agent Call
This feature gives Expert Agent Selection agents the ability to correctly identify the Vector Directory Number (VDN) associated with a personalized service Direct Agent Call that is initiated by a route-number or a route-to digits vector step with the with cov parameters set to yes. Typical customer types requiring this feature are travel agencies, banks, and insurance companies that provide personalized customer service by assigning an Expert Agent Selection agent to a particular customer account or accident claim. If a personalized service agent has to answer these calls from many different VDNs, and they want calls to follow the agents coverage path when not logged in or not available, the VDN Display for Route-to DAC information (showing the VDN associated with a call) is very beneficial.
Voice Response Unit (VRU) Connect & Disconnect (C&D) Tones (DTMF)
Voice Response Integration (VRI) integrates Call Vectoring with the capabilities of Interactive Voice Response units (IVRs) such as Avaya Interactive Response. You can: Run an IVR script while retaining control of a call in vector processing Run an IVR script while a call is queued, retaining its position in the queue Pool IVR ports for multiple applications Use an IVR as a flexible external-announcement device Pass data between the system and an IVR Tandem IVR data through a communication server to an ASAI host
Communication Manager uses the Converse vector command to pass information to and from the Avaya Interactive Response system. The data passed (such as ANI, DNIS, expected wait time, queue position, or digits) is used to perform database lookups or execute IVR scripts in order to determine a Route-to destination which can be passed back to the Avaya Server to support Custom Call Routing applications. Any data passed from the Avaya Media Server to the IVR is outpulsed in-band. The Converse command can outpulse up to two groups of digits to the IVR. The digits typically serve two
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purposes: the digits may notify the IVR of the application to be executed, and they may share call-related data, such as ANI, DNIS, expected wait time, queue position, or digits collected from the caller. In many applications, both application selection and data sharing are required. The touch-tone outpulsing rate is adjustable. Voice Response Integration allows callers and companies to make productive use of queuing time. For example, while a call is queued, a caller can listen to product information using a textto-speech or recorded speech application or can complete an interactive voice-response transaction. It may be possible to resolve the callers questions while the call is queued, which helps reduce queuing time for other callers during peak times.
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calls as possible but want to use another skill as a backup skill. You can write the consider step that checks the backup skill to increase the returned Expected Wait Time by a set amount.
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Callers
This skill definition capability allows you to organize call handling based on customer, product, and language, for example. Expert Agent Selection can use either Uniform Call Distribution (UCD) or Expert Agent Distribution (EAD) to select agents for calls. Both methods can use the Most-Idle Agent (MIA) or the Least Occupied Agent (LOA) algorithm to select agents.
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The vector variables are defined in a central variable administration table, but the values assigned to some types of variables can also be quickly changed by means of special vectors, VDNs, and Feature Access Codes that you create for that purpose. Different types of variables are available to meet different types of call processing needs. Depending on the variable type, variables can use either call-specific data, or fixed values that are identical for all calls. In either case, an administered variable can be reused in many vectors. These variables, which can also be VDN Variables, are: ani - a local (per call) variable used to test the calling partys telephone number. asaiuui - a local (per call) variable used for processing call-specific user data associated with the inbound ACD call collect - either a global or local (per call) variable used for processing collected digits for user-defined control, routing, or treatment tod - the global variable used to hold the current time of day for processing dow - the global variable used to hold the current day of week for processing. doy - the global variable used to hold the current day of year for processing. stepcnt - a local (per call) variable used to count the number of vector steps executed for the call, including the current step in the vector. value - the global variable used hold a single user-defined numeric digit (0-9) for userdefined processing. vdn - a local (per call) variable used hold the VDN extension number of the call for processing. vdntime - a local (per call) variable used to test the time, in seconds, that a call has been in vector processing.
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and relies on IP Agent at the desktop for communication. Advanced Segmentation provides an out-of-the-box solution for screen-pop that does not require custom development, as it simply uses the IP Agent screen-pop feature to open a browser window to display the customer data at the time of call arrival. Avaya Professional Services can provide custom screen-pop solutions, which open 3rd party applications and pass them customer data.
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After Call Work (ACW) Agent Considered Idle Auxiliary Work Reason Code Type Logout Reason Code Type
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EAS: Support of Avaya SIP 16CC Desktop Telephone (true SIP Endpoint)
The Avaya Agent Deskphone 16CC, requires Communication Manager 5.0 or later and is an affordable, purpose-built SIP telephone that supports Avaya Call Center Elite agent features. Expert Agent Selection (EAS) must be active. The 16CC combines traditional agent features such as LED (light emitting diode) buttons and fixed feature keys with todays latest SIP deskphone enhancements including softkeys, a navigation wheel and a context sensitive agent interface.
EAS: Avaya Intelligent Enterprise Connect (IEC) Best Service Routing Polling
Avaya Call Center Elite running on Communication Manager supports shared User-to-User Information (UUI) in the INVITE message to provide Call Center Multi-Site Best Service Routing (Avaya Virtual Routing) with Information Forwarding (CINFO) and Universal Call ID (UCID). This enables all the normal UUI-related Call Vectoring and CTI event notification features to work across SIP trunks. For UUI and CTI routed calls based on adjunct route with UUI, User-to-User Information can be provided for outgoing as well as incoming calls.
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Communication Manager resources are removed following the SIP NCR request and the Userto-User Information (UUI) for the call will also be inter-worked.
Capacity Increases
The following call center capacities have been increased for Call Center 6.0: Skills per agent increased from 60 to 120 VDNs increased from 20,000 to 30,000
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Skills per ACD increased from 2,000 to 8,000 Policy Routing Tables increased from 2,000 to 8,000 Policy Routing Table Routing Points increased from 6,000 to 24,000 Vectors increased from 2,000 to 8,000 Maximum number of agents logged in simultaneously increased from 7,000 to 10,000 Maximum number of administered agent login IDs increased from 20,000 to 30,000
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Star, Pound, and Digits Allowed in Route-to Destination Command with Variables
The route-to number command destination syntax has been expanded to allow combinations of star (*), pound (#), and digits with vector or VDN variables. This capability allows the destination for a route-to number command to be greater than 16 digits.
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administrators will have the option of providing global user configurations to each desktop, either as part of an MSI transform installation, or by other standard PC administration tools. Avaya Professional Services provides a comprehensive set of services to support customized installations, configuration, screen pop, agent greetings, and other valuable desktop related services.
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Contact Log - Keeps call records for incoming and outgoing calls. A single call record contains contact name, telephone number, date/time, and call duration. Each call record also contains dialed number, screen pop name, and work code details. Contact List This administrable list of agent contacts can be managed within Avaya one-X Agent or integrated with Outlook or an LDAP directory. Its search capabilities speed access to commonly dialed numbers for consultation, conferences, or transfers. Section 508 compliance means you can expand your agent pool to include the physically handicapped. Keyboard shortcuts provide access to common agent functions. Alerts are both visual and audible, and Avaya one-X Agent is easily integrated with text to speech applications. Business continuity options are inherent with the connectivity and virtualization choices embedded in Avaya one-X Agent. Even companies who have no immediate plans to deploy remote agents are beginning to include remote agent capabilities as part of their business continuity and survivability operations in case of disaster, or for instances where severe weather conditions may prevent agents from coming into the office. With Avaya one-X Agent, in-office agents simply become remote agents for the necessary period of time, and your business continues its operations without a hiccup. Central Management enables you to create and manage user profiles centrally via a web client interface. These profiles include user customized data (such as feature access), contact logs, and recorded agent greetings. No matter where agents log in from, their own configurations follow them. Supervisor Desktop features are embedded, giving one-click access to features such as service observing and barge-in. A supervisor can coach an agent in real-time via instant messaging, and view agents history logs and presence status. A quick -alert messaging capability enables supervisors to send an immediate notification to a group of agents when the situation demands. The Subscribe and Command API allows other applications to subscribe to events as well as to execute common one-X Agent functions, facilitating integration of one-X Agent into existing environments. Feature Access Control - Administrators can control which features can be accessed or configured by agents. The dynamic user interface presents the agent with only those features to which they have access.
Connection Modes
Agents can choose one of the following connection modes depending on their location, telephone set, and network: My Computer (VoIP) - Agents can connect to the Avaya communication server by using their personal computer and an IP network connection. In this connection mode, a telephone set is not necessary because all communication is performed through a sound device on the personal computer. Another Phone (Telecommuter) - Agents can use the advanced call features provided by the Avaya communication server using any phone. In this connection mode the
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signaling between the application and the call server is IP while the voice media is delivered over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to any device whether it is analog, digital, cellular or other. For example, an agent working from home can use Avaya one-X Agent and their home telephone to transfer calls, place calls on hold, change agent work mode, and perform other agent activities. Desk Phone (Shared Control) - Allows Avaya one-X Agent and Avaya DCP and IP telephones to share control of the same administered station.
VuStats
The VuStats feature passes contact center information from Communication Manager to the VuStats Monitor display. Supervisors and agents use the VuStats feature to monitor critical contact center activity and statistics such as queue status, talk time, and other configurable metrics. Now agents have the information they need to help meet the companys business goals.
Agent Greetings
Agents can record, play, stop or configure and erase greetings through an easy to use wizard. Greetings can be based on variables such as login status, agent work mode, agent ID, prompted digits, Automatic Number Identification (ANI), or Vector Directory Number (VDN). Agents can choose a greeting to be played by clicking an icon on the standard desktop. The agent greetings are stored as .wav files on the agent's PC.
Work Item
A Work Item provides an optimized Work Item paradigm for agents in the contact center. Work Items in the work list window provide a superior way to manage multiple concurrent interactions and allow agents to understand the status of each interaction with its corresponding media items.
Screen Pops
Agents can display Web pages, start applications, or retrieve and display caller information from a database. They can create Screen Pops using the Screen Pops menu on the System Settings window. A Screen Pop can consist of any process or application that can be initiated through one of the commands in the Windows executable or through registered file type activation.
Launch Application
With the Launch Application menu, agents can centralize, organize, and launch applications directly from the Avaya one-X Agent primary window.
Follow Up Work
Follow-up Work is an extension to Communication Manager After Call Work (ACW). Agents can perform follow-up work for an associated work item after the call disconnects. A timer can
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be set for the follow-up work. In follow-up with timer, the countdown timer starts when the agent begins to complete the task for the associated work item. When the wrap-up time reaches its limit, the work item closes and the agent status changes accordingly. When the agent is in the Follow-Up Work mode, Communication Manager interprets the agent's status as Auxiliary and does not send any calls to the agent's extension until the agent's work state changes to Ready. In follow-up without timer, an agent's status remains Auxiliary until the work item is manually closed.
Caller information
This feature allows agents to display the following caller data: Caller ID Automatic Number Identification (ANI) Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) User to User information (UUI) Prompted Digits
When an agent clicks the phone display, the application displays caller information with other collected digits originating from other applications, such as an Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
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Contact List
The Contact List window contains a list of individual records of customers, prospects, vendors, and business partners. Each contact record can contain a work telephone number, home telephone number, cell phone number, postal address, and other personal information. Agents can create any number of contact records, or import a contact from Outlook or from the corporate directory. Agents can manage these contacts within Avaya one-X Agent, or integrate Avaya one-X Agent with Outlook or a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory. Agents can also import a contact list from an existing Avaya IP Agent or IP Softphone program.
Outlook Contacts
This feature provides support for configuring Microsoft Outlook to include Outlook Contacts in the Avaya one-X Agent contact list. Agents can configure the exchange sever address with Avaya one-X Agent and import contacts from Outlook Contacts. With Outlook integration, agents can click to dial a call to Outlook Contacts in the Avaya one-X Agent Contact List. Agents can also search any contact in their configured Outlook directory through the advanced search feature of Avaya one-X Agent.
Directory Services
The Directory feature allows agents to define a public directory service and configure it within the Avaya one-X Agent. Directory provides access to corporate or public directory services. Agents can search through public or company information using the advanced search feature of Avaya one-X Agent.
Work Log
The Work Log window maintains all records of agent interactions. These include incoming and outgoing call records, IM interaction records, TTY interaction records, and desktop sharing records. A record contains contact name, telephone number (for a telephone interaction), date/time, and interaction duration. Further, each call record contains dialed Dual Tone Multiple Frequency (DTMF) number, screen pop name, and work code details. Agents can search or sort work log records from the work log window and add the search records to the Contact List. Avaya one-X Agent can also import the work log records from Avaya IP Agent (if the computer
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has an existing IP Agent installation) and IP Softphone when an agent launches the Avaya one-X Agent program for the first time.
Supervisor desktop
Contact center supervisors need to perform various functions to monitor quality and perform contact center management. Avaya one-X Agent integrates telephony, presence, instant messaging, desktop sharing, agent monitoring, reporting, and Communication Manager supervisor features into a single user interface.
Service observing
Service observing allows a supervisor to listen to an agent-customer conversation. Service observing is displayed as a work item on the Avaya one-X Agent application interface of the supervisor. The supervisor performing service observing can see the name of the agent being observed and the time duration of observation.
Quick alert
Quick alert provides an instant messaging capability to the supervisor. You can use this feature to send important messages or reminders to an observed agent while the agent is on a call. The messages are displayed to the agent on the Top bar of the Avaya one-X Agent application interface.
Agent coaching
A supervisor can perform agent coaching while an agent is on a call. A supervisor can listen to the agent's telephone interaction and simultaneously engage in a coaching session using instant messaging (IM). An agent can respond to the supervisor's messages on the IM window.
Barge in
The Barge In feature allows a supervisor to directly enter an active call and engage in a conversation with the agent and customer.
Ad hoc transfer
Ad hoc transfer is done for calls where a supervisor has already connected to a call between an agent and the customer, and the agent has to drop from the call. After the agent drops the call, the call appears as a normal work item on the supervisor's Avaya one-X Agent application interface. The call gets transferred to the supervisor and is treated as a normal call work item.
Other features
Voice Mail
Avaya one-X Agent provides voice mail support for registered extensions in the voice mail system. It provides message waiting indication and allows the agent to call a number or to
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execute a program. Agents or system administrators can integrate a voice mail system with a telephone system, third-party voice mail application, or web-based voice mail server.
Speed Dial
The Speed Dial feature allows agents to quickly dial numbers that they dial frequently. Agents can save the contact numbers of agents and others in the Speed Dial list.
Favorites
Agents can save contacts to the favorites list. This feature can be used to gain quick access to contacts, especially when the Contacts list is large.
Conference call
Avaya one-X Agent offers two types of conference calls: Direct Conference: Agents use direct conference to add a participant to the conference call first without speaking to the contact. Consultative Conference: Agent use consultative conference to conference a call after announcing the call to the contact.
An agent can add a maximum of five participants to a conference call. Agents can drag an active call and drop the call into another active call to initiate a conference.
Call transfer
Avaya one-X Agent offers two types of call transfer: Direct Transfer: Agent uses direct transfer to forward an active call without speaking to the contact. Consultative Transfer: Agent uses consultative transfer to forward after announcing the call to the contact.
Call Hold
The Call Hold feature allows agents to put an active call on hold. An agent can answer other calls while the call is on hold. Depending on the system settings, an agent can either put a call on manual hold or on auto hold. By default, Avaya one-X Agent puts an active call on hold automatically when an agent initiates a new call or reactivates a previously held call.
Click-to-Dial
The Click-to-Dial feature allows an agent to use the mouse to automatically dial the properly formatted telephone numbers that appear on Web pages. This feature only functions with Web pages displayed in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Video
Avaya one-X Agent supports video with H.323 telephony protocol in My Computer and Desk Phone modes. Using video, agents can conduct face-to-face video communication with a customer or an agent. An agent can also share a desktop or an application. The video feature provides the following controls:
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Desktop video controls: start, stop, mute, unmute, display properties and options, and relinquish camera control Point-to-point video control Bandwidth management and class of service control
Favorites toolbar
Avaya one-X Agent allows you to set the toolbar buttons on the main window. These buttons provide quick-access to options including release a call, changing the answer settings to manual or auto, changing the agent status to ready or auxiliary, make a call to the supervisor directly, assign a work code to the work item, and dial the last-called number.
Phone display
Avaya one-X Agent allows you to view a 40-character display of information from Communication Manager. You can view both call-related and non-call-related information including call-prompting digits, VuStats data, and the local date and time display from the ACD.
Dynamic Hot-Desking
Agents can sit at any desk and make or receive calls. Agent settings get automatically downloaded to the agent desktop immediately after an agent authenticates against the Central Management server. For agents to be able to hot desk, they must be administered on Central Management.
Configuration features
Central Management
Avaya Central Management is a Web-based solution developed to centrally manage operations for contact centers running Avaya one-X Agent. It can manage end points, Avaya one-X Agent users, and agent configuration data from a central location. This is an optional solution that can be deployed based on management requirements. Avaya one-X Agent Central Management has a task-based user interface that helps in efficient and effective management of Avaya oneX Agent users and user settings. The user interface is consistent with the Avaya one-X Agent client interface for the respective settings and therefore is easy to configure. The prominent features of Central Management are listed below: Provides secure and role-based access. Provides centralized control of end points.
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Allows creating global settings for all users. Allows creating parent and child templates that can be assigned to agent groups based on role and business area. Centrally controls agent from accessing various critical client settings. Imports multiple agent profiles, with their customized settings, from an existing setup. Supports Active Directory User infrastructure. Centrally stores setting changes made by an agent and makes them available the next time the agent logs on. Centrally stores and manages predefined location data and links the desktop client to Communication Manager. This enables agent hot-desking.
Profiles
A Profile is a collection of pre-configured settings and preferences. Agents can select profiles to load the pre-configured settings required to handle calls. Administrators can design profiles for agent groups and deploy them with the installation.
Importing settings
If IP Agent or Avaya IP Softphone is installed on your computer, you can import the following settings: Login credentials Contacts Work log
Silent installation
In Avaya one-X Agent, installations without user interaction are accomplished through the use of MSI command-line parameters.
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Alternate Gatekeeper
When an agent registers an IP endpoint with a Communication Manager, the Communication Manager sends a C-LAN IP address to the IP endpoint. If registration is successful, Communication Manager sends back IP addresses of all the C-LAN circuit packs in the network region. Agent can use these addresses if call signaling on the original C-LAN circuit pack fails.
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Avaya IP Agent
Avaya IP Agent
Avaya IP Agent, Release 7 is a soft phone application that enables agents to work from any PC, anywhere, as long as they can connect to your corporate network. Avaya IP Agent provides the complete set of sophisticated agent features that youve come to expect from Avayas best-in-class suite of contact center products, plus an additional set of powerful capabilities. IP Agent is often a call center's first step towards SIP and Presence, improving agent productivity both in the office and in the virtual office with its strong integration and interoperability with other applications. IP Agent incorporates enterprise Instant Messaging in conjunction with the Converged Communication Server. IP Agent can provide a screen pop of customer-contextual data when integrated with Advanced Segmentation. It interoperates with Internet Explorer and Outlook to provide click-to-dial. And, using shared control mode, IP Agent adds value to Callmaster IV and V terminals by adding agent greetings, VuStats Monitor, and other IP Agent enhanced features. IP Agent can address several separate client scenarios or requirements: Allows a customer to extend their call center with a converged IP solution and take the first step toward SIP and Presence. Provides a PC-based agent Softphone that allows agents to focus all their attention on the PC, rather than splitting their time between two devices to complete a transaction. Delivers a sophisticated, full-featured remote agent solution. Provides the same user interface for remote and on-premise agents to help reduce training time.
Avaya is creating and executing one of the best suites of Contact Center solutions in the industry. The IP Agent application will interact with and access these solution features and capabilities and bring them wherever an enterprise chooses to put its workforce - at home or in the office.
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Avaya IP Agent
user experience, but also simplifies installation, configuration and administration, serving to reduce overhead and the total cost of ownership. Enhanced Security Underlying these capabilities is a focus on security from encrypted signaling links to user account security for multi-user desktops; IP Agent puts security at a premium. The Secure Desktop feature brings IP Agent R7 in conformity with Microsoft best-practice security guidelines by storing all configuration files and user-specific information in Windows user specific locations. A single PC can now be used by multiple users, all with individual settings. Support for new Contact Center capabilities New Avaya terminals are now added to the list of natively supported IP Agent telephones the 9620, 9630 and 9630C, 9650, 4622, and 2410. IP Agent R7 also supports a 13-digit dial plan. Usability enhancements Avaya IP Agent R7 makes it easy to launch other applications from the agent GUI by adding icons to the tool bar. Any item that can appear on the Windows desktop up to 20 icons - can be added here. And, two dynamic parameters can be added as well. For example, a link to the callers web site, or a link to a record-on-demand application, serves to put relevant tools at the agents fingertips, thereby enhancing agent productivity. Web Dialer Enhancements Provides more support for international number formats, one-click dialing from arbitrary customer selected text and support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 7. Support for 60 Agent Greetings An increase from the previous maximum of 15 Agent Greetings.
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Avaya IP Agent
The highly customizable graphical user interface gives agents easy and immediate access to customer care functions supported by Avaya Aura Communication Manager on an Avaya Media Server. Agents can customize their desktop by selecting their most frequently used phone features for display in a separate window. In addition the solution enables features such as integrated phone directories, last numbered dialed, and screen pops with relevant customer data to enable more personalized service.
Feature Summary
Administrable program options Answer calls from system tray Auto-answer support Basic phone features: hold, transfer, conference Call timer and hold timer Contact direction status (e.g. incoming, outgoing) Contact history dialing Dial a number from any Windows application Dial from Internet Explorer Dial from Microsoft Outlook Dial pad Dial Recent call Enhanced transfer and conference Message waiting lamp and missed calls indication Personal phone feature list Program setting - Import/Export Public directory search (LDAP) Second line display Station buttons support Extremely flexible Rich set of features facilitates agent tasks Quick dial when experts are needed History of previous contacts serves as a handy reference Allows personalization of agent phone display and features Easy to build and share directories via Import/Export feature and LDAP compliance Improves agent productivity Multiple call appearances
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Avaya IP Agent
Drop down list to publish IM status New IM response button appears on the call display. When an incoming call phone number in the contact table matches an online tracked contact, the agent can respond with a canned IM to the inbound call. IM presence status bar indicator if the IM feature is active. This visual indicator will reflect the Presence status of the registered end-user.
Instant Messaging
IP Agent integrates Instant Messaging with telephony contact handling. The user's IM and phone Presence can be made visible (or hidden) to other Presence-enabled IP Agent and IP Softphone users (unless the IM-only mode is used). The Contact list also integrates phone and IM contacts showing their status (Available, Away, Busy, On the Phone, or Offline). The Contact History includes a log of IM transcripts and indicates whether the session was inbound or outbound in origin. This feature facilitates first call resolution by enabling agents to find expert help within or beyond the contact center. Instant Messaging requires registration with the Avaya Converged Communications Server (CCS) and does not support either the Callmaster VI endpoint configuration or the Terminal Services / Citrix configuration.
Screen Pops
Screen pops provide a way of displaying information related to a telephone call on a terminal screen before, as, or right after the call arrives. The information, usually a customer record, is popped by a customer application in response to a trigger from IP Agent. The trigger (e.g. prompted digits, calling party number) to the customer record will be sent to the application using dynamic data exchange (DDE). A wizard greatly simplifies screen pop set-up. Screen Pops shorten talk time and improve agent productivity. Customer satisfaction is increased as the caller does not have to wait for the agent to do a database lookup.
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Avaya IP Agent
The North American phone numbers and the most common formats for Internal numbers (E.164) are highlighted. Just click on the highlighted number and IP Agent will dial the number for you. For Outlook, the Click-to-Dial from Outlook feature does not have IP Agent User Interface impact. The Microsoft Outlook phone line needs to be administered to dial the phone numbers for contacts in the Outlook contact list with Avaya IP Agent.
Click to Dial
Customizable Interface
IP Agent has an easy to use and easy to learn user interface. It uses standard Microsoft Windows conventions. The toolbars can be toggled on and off or they can be arranged in any order. Most of the windows can be resized. A simple user interface is used to transfer or conference calls. Agents can use the shortcut icon to make and receive calls from any application.
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Avaya IP Agent
Speed Dialing
The IP Agent interface supports speed dialing. Agents dial stored numbers by selecting them from the list. Additionally, telephone numbers can be mapped to keyboard function keys. When the key is pressed, the related number is dialed automatically. Again, the focus remains on the interface, and the agent's attention is not divided between the PC and telephone.
VuStats Monitor
Agents and administrators can check the VuStats Monitor window for information on Contact Center operations, such as the number of calls waiting for a particular skill. The information is updated periodically, based on user-selectable refresh rates. Improve your agent productivity by providing call center status that your agents can use to guide their talk and wrap-up times.
Administration Features
Almost every feature provided by IP Agent can be configured using the Program Options window. Administrators can set up and maintain program options for all agents by providing a configuration file to all agents using a menu driven import/export option. Some of the program options include: Automatic Station Login and Agent Login Location of program database, enabling agent to have same information on multiple PCs Administration for voice messaging access
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Avaya IP Agent
Enabling and viewing of program event logging Feature restriction and deactivation CALLMASTER VI phone settings PASTE feature access code
This provides enormous flexibility in customizing the agent desktop. The administrator will be able to deactivate IP Agent features that will not be used by agents. The features that can be deactivated include: screen pops, screen pops administration, phone directory, public search directory, call history, phone features configuration, personal phone features, program options and agent greeting selection.
Configuration Options
Avaya IP Agent supports seven configuration options including a dual-line mode for separate voice and data, combining over one VoIP path, and sharing control with an existing phone. Avaya IP Agent supports agent greetings for the Road Warrior, Telecommuter, Shared Control, and Callmaster VI configurations as described below. (Telecommuter and Shared Control use the Avaya Switch II adapter.) Telecommuter One network connection for the PC and one telephone connection. Supports agent greetings using Avaya Switcher II. Road Warrior (VoIP) One network connection for the PC to access the Avaya communication server. Agent greetings are stored in the PC.
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Avaya IP Agent
Terminal Services/Citrix One network connection for the client device and one telephone connection. No greetings. No IM Shared Control - Avaya Telephone (DCP and IP) One network connection and one DCP/IP telephone connection (DCP: 2400 or 6400, IP: 4600 series telephones), one network connection for the PC to access Avaya communication system 2.0 (DCP) 2.1 (IP). Supports agent greetings using Avaya Switcher II. IP Telephone One TCP/IP network connection for the PC and one IP network connection for the IP telephone. Does not support greetings. Callmaster VI One DCP connection to the Avaya communication server and a serial (RS-232) connection between the PC and the Callmaster VI telephone. Greetings stored on the Callmaster VI. No IM.
In the VoIP Telecommuter, and Shared Control configurations, the agent greetings are stored as .wav files on the agent's PC. Up to 60 different greetings can be recorded, each with a length of approximately 30 seconds. For the Telecommuter configuration, an additional piece of hardware is required, the Avaya Switcher II. In the CALLMASTER VI configuration, the agent greetings are stored on the internal announcement unit within the voice terminal. Up to six different greetings can be stored, each with an approximate length of 9 seconds. Neither the IP Telephone configuration nor the Windows Terminal Services/Citrix configuration supports agent greetings.
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Avaya IP Agent
Agent Greetings
IP Agent will provide support for selecting the appropriate greeting when receiving an incoming call. The user (agent or call center administrator) will be able to administer which greeting is played based on the login status, agent state, agent id, prompted digits, and ANI or VDN. Starting with IP Agent R5, a new program option has been added to allow for the agent greetings to be stored on a network drive rather than on the local agent PC. This feature is ideal for call centers who utilize hot seating arrangements. Agent greeting can be accessed on the main window with the Agent Greeting toolbar. The Agent Greeting toolbar allows the agent to select a greeting, play, and stop the greeting. The greetings are administered on the Agent Greetings window. The window allows the user to record, play, stop, and erase or delete a greeting.
System Requirements
Operating System for IP Agent desktop: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional for Intel x86 processors or Microsoft Windows XP Professional PC Configuration: Intel Pentium III 300 MHz or higher PC, 30 MB of available hard disk space, Minimum of 128 MB RAM, Full-duplex sound card, headset, microphone, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 or higher Avaya PBX release: Avaya DEFINITY 10, Avaya MultiVantage 1.1 or 1.2, and Communication Manager 1.3 or higher Call Center software release: Avaya Call Center, Release 9 or later (NOTE: Release 7 requires Call Center, Release 2.0.1 or later) Advanced Segmentation (AS) Screen Pop requires Communication Manager, Release 3.0 or later with Advanced Segmentation Instant Messaging requires Converged Communication Server, Release 2.1 or later Shared Control of Callmaster IV and V terminals requires Communication Manager, Release 3.0 or later Agent Greetings in telecommuter mode requires the Avaya Switcher II adapter
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Benefits
Avaya Customer Service Essential Edition offers proven capabilities to help you drive real results today with the flexibility to change with you as your business evolves. Avaya consultants have extensive experience in designing communications solutions that deliver the right level of access, convenience, and personalization that are essential to nurturing customer relationships and building repeat business.
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business applications. Essential Edition includes application design support for Web Services technologies such as SOAP/XML/WDSL and initiatives like OASIS. Web Services and SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) support improved responsiveness, reducing the time-to-market for new applications and services. Exposing telephony and system management functions via a Web Service provides a standard and familiar method for application developers to implement value-added solutions.
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Benefits
Avaya Customer Service Standard Edition offers proven capabilities to help you drive real results today with the flexibility to change with you as your business evolves. Avaya consultants have extensive experience in designing communications solutions that deliver the right level of access, convenience, and personalization that are essential to nurturing customer relationships and building repeat business.
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Agent desktop
Agent desktop options are fully configurable and customizable to customer service needs. Configure agent desktops with screen pop, customer data, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and enterprise applications information. Agent desktops can be deployed to a variety of client operating systems including Windows, Mac, and Linux via the desktop software development kit (SDK). Mix and match deployment options unify agent interfaces while significantly reducing IT maintenance and management needs. Streamlined access to information and contact history improves agent productivity and increases responsiveness to requests. Preconfigured, standardized, agent desktops improve consistency in service response and first contact resolution, resulting in greater customer satisfaction and loyalty.
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Unified reporting and analysis tools streamline management of business and customer service initiatives turning data into knowledge into action. Integrate key enterprise data with key customer contact information to generate reliable, credible reports and analysis that enables more effective KPI (Key Performance Indicators) dash boarding and cross enterprise problemsolving for increased customer satisfaction. Agent behavior reporting helps spotlight exemplary customer service behavior and better manage problem behaviors and staff. Optional call recording and agent performance management solutions help managers monitor service quality and optimize utilization of staff.
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Benefits
Avaya Customer Service Advanced Edition offers proven capabilities to help you drive real results today with the flexibility to change with you as your business evolves. Avaya consultants have extensive experience in designing communications solutions that deliver the right level of access, convenience, and personalization that are essential to nurturing customer relationships and building repeat business.
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Agent desktop
Agent desktop options are fully configurable and customizable to customer service needs. Configure agent desktops with screen pop, customer data, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and enterprise applications information. Agent desktops can be deployed to a variety of client operating systems including Windows, Mac, and Linux via the desktop software development kit (SDK). Mix and match deployment options unify agent interfaces while significantly reducing IT maintenance and management needs. Streamlined access to information and contact history improves agent productivity and increases responsiveness to requests. Preconfigured, standardized, agent desktops improve consistency in service response and first contact resolution, resulting in greater customer satisfaction and loyalty.
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The self-service software includes a VoiceXML 2.1 certified voice browser and an application generator that creates VoiceXML markup dynamically during run-time.
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Framework applications for the contact center, including Intelligent Routing, Interaction Data, and Centralized Configuration. Powerful application development tools for complete customization and integration capabilities. Simple and fast wizards for desktop screen pops and routing rules.
Contact Center Express provides functionality that can easily and quickly adapt to business dynamics without requiring a large budget and IT staff. Contact Center Express is able to fully leverage the unique abilities of Communication Manager, and provides multi-channel and agent performance enhancement capabilities that translate into real results for your contact center, for example: Increase revenues through enhanced customer interaction, differentiated service, and customer satisfaction. Improve communications by offering your customers their preferred method of interaction, leading to better customer loyalty and retention. Enable competitive differentiation and build lasting relationships by implementing effective customer relationship strategies to create better customer experiences across all contact channels. Enable business anywhere and scale operations as conditions change by employing strategies such as home agent, remote worker, and universal agent while integrating these with the business ecosystem of branches, partners, and suppliers. Optimize contact center operations by improving the handling and tracking of online customer requests through contact center routing and management capabilities. Optimize agent productivity and improve agent utilization by using CTI screen pops, blended inbound/outbound and multimedia, unified desktop, and application integration. Improve customer segmentation and increase customer loyalty and retention by leveraging customer insight and previous interactions or purchases to optimize interactions. Increase investment value by building upon existing functionality with powerful self service applications and other products from the Avaya portfolio. Provide differentiated service to your customers, leading to a competitive advantage. Enhance contact center efficiency by providing options for routine information requests, designating universal agents (working in all access methods) to maximize use of available agent workforce, and improving handling and tracking of online customer requests through contact center routing and management capabilities. Reduce contact center costs through optimized agent resources and improved use of existing contact center systems. Leverage existing Avaya Call Center implementations and infrastructures, increasing the value of legacy investments.
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Integrate seamlessly with Communication Manager call centers and take full advantage of advanced routing and reporting capabilities. Enhance customer service and satisfaction while boosting agent productivity. Reduce time and costs associated with implementation, integration, and technical support. Because Contact Center Express is IP-enabled, it can be easily extended to remote agents, allowing to scale operations as conditions change, and implement and manage contact center applications centrally without a large IT staff
Contact Center Express is a very attractive option for mid-sized businesses like , which need robust contact center solutions, because the solution offers a wide range of capabilities, as well as ease of implementation, and integration with new media channels. This multi-channel contact center solution can be implemented in hours or days, at a budget-conscious price, for an attractive return on your investment. Implementing simply a voice channel in your contact center is only addressing 25% of customer requirements today. Contact Center Express will quickly and effectively allow your business to address many of todays contact center and customer service challenges in an affordable and smart way. With Contact Center Express, you can leverage and integrate existing legacy systems and databases, as well as utilize Avaya Call Management System (CMS), Avaya IQ, and Avaya Call Center capabilities (such as pending wait time, reason codes, and agent state) to provide maximum effectiveness in the contact center. All of this allows you to deploy and grow your CTI and multi-channel solutions at your pace, and in a way that makes sense for your business.
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Contact Center Express has been designed with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in mind. Contact Center Express uses and includes application design support for Web Services technologies such as SOAP and XML. Included is support for Web Services Description Language (WSDL) for interface definition and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) over eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for Web Services integration.
Whats New
Contact Center Express Release 4.1 is primarily focused on enhancing administrator and supervisor capabilities to help better manage the contact center performance while improving the customer experience. The following capabilities have been added in Contact Center Express 4.1: Administration Enhancements Contact center administration has been further simplified. The Contact Center Express administration tool has been enhanced to provide administration for contact center related components of Avaya Communication Manager such as agents, agent stations, VDNs, skills, and Holiday and Service Hours tables. With new administration capabilities, Contact Center Express supervisors can now quickly change skill and skill levels for agents, helping to reduce customer waiting time and improve the customer experience. Additionally, Contact Center Express database administration has been further simplified by providing easier upgrade and management of the Contact Center Express database through the Contact Center Express administration tool.
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Reporting Enhancements Contact center managers can now schedule reports to be generated at specified intervals and sent automatically to a connected printer or written to a file. Supervisor Dashboard Enhancements The supervisor dashboard has been enhanced and is now integrated within the Contact Center Express desktop application as a plug-in to provide a unified view. The new supervisor dashboard can be setup to display and manage up to four different agent groups. Microsoft Office Communicator Plug-in With the new Microsoft Office Communicator client plug-in to Contact Center Express desktop, agents can send Instant Messages to other agents, supervisors and other subject matter experts within the organization to improve first call resolution. Contact Center Express does not ship with the Microsoft Office Communicator server infrastructure, but merely uses it, if available in the enterprise. New Instant Messaging Gateways With support of Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) Gateways, Contact Center Express further expands the set of IM clients that customers can use to reach the contact center. Contact Center Express can now interface with generic XMPP servers as well as the Google Talk server; thereby increasing the flexibility of the contact center and improving customer satisfaction. Option to Enter Call Back Number for Customer Requested Call Back Contact centers can now provide more choices to customers to improve their customer service experience. Contact Center Express enables customers to enter a call back number while they wait in queue for the next available agent. Platform Enhancements Contact Center Express now supports Windows 7 OS for desktop applications and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 as a supported database server.
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Without leaving the Contact Center Express Desktop, agents can: Receive and reply to work items from customers who make contact using: Telephone Email Web chat MSN Messenger AOL or ICQ Instant Messenger Simple message service (SMS)
Record specific, work item-related notes as well as general, session related notes Work quickly and efficiently by inserting auto text, spell checking their work, and printing work items View the conversation history of the customer they are working with Search a directory for a phone number or email address View real-time statistical information on their personal work performance
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Monitor the telephone activity of other call center agents or staff they work closely with
Contact Center Express Desktop also distributes internally held customer records to agents, prompting them to initiate contact with customers by phone. It also gives agents access to external applications within the Contact Center Express Desktop interface, such as Internet Explorer, so they don't have to minimize their work screen. Or, Contact Center Express Desktop can be configured to launch external applications in a separate screen. The application can be different depending on the work item type and task required. Contact Center Express Desktop also offers a complete range of telephony functions, which are fully synchronized with a desk phone, so a user can: Make a call Answer a call End a call Hold a call Divert calls Send DTMF tones (Touch Tones) Transfer a call Conference a call with up to six members Drop yourself or another party from a conference call Forward all incoming calls to voicemail or another extension
What's more, if you choose to integrate Avaya iClarity with Contact Center Express Desktop, agents can complete their telephony tasks using voice over IP functionality. When an agent makes or receives a call, iClarity enables them to speak and hear the other party via a headset connected to their PC or the PC's microphone and speakers. Contact Center Express Desktop is available in the following languages: English Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) French German Italian Japanese Korean Portuguese (Brazilian) Russian
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Desktop Plugins
The following plugins can be added to the Contact Center Express Desktop: AutoText Presents the following buttons to the user: An AutoText button that allows the user to insert pre-defined text into their current work item to save typing time. A Work Codes button that allows a user to assign a work code to a work item.
Text for both buttons is categorized by topic and presented via a drop-down list. Call Information Allows an agent to view four plug-ins in a four-item grid. Close Suspend Work Item Allows an agent to suspend a work item so it is presented to another agent at a later date. It also allows an agent to close the work item and record the outcome. Contact Management Allows an agent to add, change and delete a contact's information via Contact Center Express Desktop's directory. It also allows an administrator to customize some of the field names in a contact's record. Custom Buttons Allows an administrator to create buttons on the user interface that the agent can click to perform certain actions. It works in conjunction with the Rules Plug-in. After a custom button is clicked, the event associated with that button is initiated, triggering any rule set up for it within the Rules Window. Customized Forms Allows an administrator to add one or more additional work forms to multimedia work items. These work forms, which are accessed through additional tabs on the side of a work item, are created using Contact Center Express Control Panel. DMCC Allows Contact Center Express Desktop to communicate with the station (phone) it is connected to as though the buttons were being pressed on the phone itself. On connecting to the station, the buttons configured in the Communication Manager for that station will be displayed within Contact Center Express Desktop. Device, Media, and Call Control (DMCC) buttons may be placed on either a left or right toolbar in addition to the standard top and bottom toolbars. Directory Allows an agent to search a database for a contact based on first name, last name, full name or phone number. Once found, they can dial the contact or transfer or conference an active call. Email Allows an agent to receive email work items. E-mail capabilities include: Close E-mail, Reply to sender, Reply to all, Forward, Forward to Subject Matter Expert (SME), Suspend, Send, and Attach File. Email Template Allows an agent to insert text and attachments from an email template into the body of any replied to or forwarded email work item.
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Enhanced Dial Allows an administrator to include user-to-user information, which follows a customized format, with a new outbound call, transferred call, or conferenced call. External Application Container Allows an agent to view and use a completely different application within the Contact Center Express Desktop interface. External Application Execute Allows an agent to transfer information from an incoming work item to another application. It copies information from the incoming work item and stores it in an XML file which is then sourced by the external application. The application launches independently of the Contact Center Express Desktop interface. GN8120 Headset If agents are using the iClarity Plug-in with Contact Center Express Desktop, this plug-in allows them to use the GN8120 headset. History Allows an agent to view or change information in old work items as well as view a customer's conversation history. The History tab (plugin) allows you to: Open a previously closed work item so you can remember the customer's situation or issue Open a previously closed work item and perform some action, such as replying to an email work item or calling a customer from a preview contact work item. View the conversation history of the customer you are currently working with. The Customer History tab displays the conversation and interaction history of the customer you are currently working with. The Agent History tab displays a list of work items that you (or another agent you specify) have previously worked on. It gives you the ability to search for work items based on type (email, preview contact or simple messaging), age and state.
iClarity Provides Road Warrior (Voice over IP) or Telecommuter connection modes which gives Contact Center Express Desktop voice over IP functionality, enabling remote agent functionality. When an agent makes or receives a call, iClarity enables them to speak to and hear the other party using a headset connected to their PC or the PC's microphone and speakers. This is the same functionality as that provided by Avaya IP Softphone with the User and Telephony plugins providing the Agent and Call functionality. MS CRM GUI Microsoft CRM integration is a pre-built connector that makes it possible to provide screen pops for incoming calls based on contact phone number or account phone number. There are also icons on the Accounts and Contacts screens to provide dial capability from the phone fields. Presence Allows an agent to monitor the telephone activity of other call center agents or staff they work closely with. A quick mouse-over this tab and the Presence window will provide an array of details about agent availability as well as contact information. Presence allows you to monitor a group and several tabbed sub-groups and people within those groups. To contact any of the agents displayed in Presence simply right click anywhere along their information line to reveal various options to call, transfer, or use conference options.
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Preview Contact Allows an agent to receive preview contact work items. Printing Allows an agent to print all the information associated with a work item. Python Breakout Allows a developer to invoke IronPython scripts when Contact Center Express Desktop events are triggered. Quick Dial Allows an agent to create buttons on the user interface that can be clicked to make a call. This saves them from typing in the number or searching the directory. Rules Allows you to create rules that will automatically perform actions on call events that meet certain criteria. For example, you can configure a rule to deflect calls from a specific phone number to voicemail. Save Close Document Window Allows an agent to save new and edited data back to the ASContact Database, the telephone directory used by Contact Center Express Desktop. Session Notes Allows an agent to record notes that don't specifically relate to a work-item. Simple Messaging Allows an agent to receive simple messaging work items. Spell Checker Allows an agent to check the spelling accuracy of their work item text. Telephony Connects an agent to the Communication Manager. Time In AUX Display Adds a time counter to Contact Center Express Desktop's status bar that displays how long an agent spends in any of the three work modes: Available, Auxiliary, and After Call Work. User Allows an agent to log in and out of skills, change agent mode, select reason codes, access voicemail, and forward calls to another agent. It displays as an interface toolbar. Voice Allows an agent to make, answer, transfer, conference, and end calls. It displays as an interface toolbar. Wallboard Displays real-time and statistical information on agents, Vector Directory Numbers (VDNs), queues, and splits/skills. Work Item Notes Allows an agent to record work item-related notes. Several notes can be stored for one work item and they are displayed chronologically at the top of the window. Work Item Alert Alerts an agent with a pop-up window when a new work item arrives.
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Directors. It also allows you to add and manage data in the ASMediaStore and ASContact databases. Contact Center Express Control Panel receives information from the Application Management Director, an application that runs in a Microsoft server environment and gathers status and health information about Contact Center Express servers. Contact Center Express Control Panel connects to Application Management Director to display that information in graphical tree structure.
Connections to Application Management Director are established either by multicast functionality or the pre-configured data from the configuration set or both. When a connection is established to Application Management Director, Contact Center Express Control Panel indicates that it is a management interface and asks the Application Management Director to send a complete list of available information. The control panel receives a collection of XML documents that allow it to accurately display that information within a hierarchical node structure.
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How customers make contact How often they make contact How customers are treated (for example, how long they wait before talking to an agent) How you could restructure your staffing according to the busiest periods of the day How successful various methods of contact are (email vs. simple messaging vs. voice) How well agents are meeting expected levels of service How long agents are taking to complete a task How long agents are talking on the phone How long customers wait for their call to be answered before hanging up How many work items are being suspended and why How work codes are being applied How well your multimedia system is performing, for example: How long work items are spending at certain phases of the work flow process How many work items some queues are processing How many calls some VDNs are processing How busy some stations are
Contact Center Express Reporting also allows you to evaluate the operation of your contact center programs and schedules that govern when and how a work item flows through your call center. The reporting application provides the exact same functionality as the Contact Center Express Desktop application, with the addition of the Reporting functionality, so it is not necessary to install both applications on each Desktop. Agents requiring Desktop functionality need only install Contact Center Express Desktop while Agents and Supervisors requiring the reporting functionality should install Contact Center Express Reporting. Real-time reporting provides current, blended data on multi-channel Agent, Device, Queue, Split/Skill, and VDN statistics in your contact center. Historical reporting provides historical blended data on all channels from an agent and customer perspective. Optionally, an Avaya Call Management System (CMS) interface enables Contact Center Express data to be displayed using CMS reporting via a collection mechanism to pull data into a CMS Informix database.
Historical Reports
Agent: Agent Attendance, Agent Graphical Time Spent Daily, Agent Group Attendance, Agent Login-Logout (Skill), Agent Split Skill, Agent Summary Interactions: Conversations And Interactions, Customer Statistics, Customer Statistics - Order By Agent
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Outcomes: Queue Service Level, Work Code Programs And Schedules: Program Interactions, Program Interactions - Date Details, Program Interactions - Date Details (Order By Agent), Program Schedules, Program Schedules - Daily And Weekly Schedules, Program Schedules - Monthly And Yearly Schedules, Program Statistics, Program Status Split Skill: Split Skill, Call Profile (Graphical), Split Skill Service Level (Graphical), Split Skill Summary, System Report VDN: Call Profile, Call Profile (Graphical)
Real-time Reports
Agent Reports: Realtime Agent Status - State, Realtime Agent Status - State (Order by agent), Realtime Agent Status - Statistics, Realtime Agent Status - Statistics (Order by agent) Device Reports: Realtime Device Status Queue Reports: Realtime Queue Status - Count Statistics, Realtime Queue Status State, Realtime Queue Status - Time Statistics VDN Reports: Realtime VDN Status
Whats more, if Supervisor is connected to the Interaction Data Server, supervisors can: View the current state of each agent and call statistics relating to agent work patterns, such as number of calls taken and average time spent in work modes Send text-based messages to agents Send call-related data to the Interaction Data Server and agents.
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Server Components
ASContact Database
ASContact Database is Contact Center Express's repository for all contact information. Contact Center Express uses ASContact Database to identify people and to understand how it should communicate with them. Contact Center Express refers to ASContact Database for all its contact-focused activities; no contact specific data is held elsewhere in Contact Center Express. Instead, other Contact Center Express databases hold a contact's ContactId (a key that uniquely identifies a contact within Contact Center Express, and potentially, beyond it) to link contact data in ASContact Database. We appreciate that many organizations prefer to store their contact data in databases external to Contact Center Express. So ASContact Database comes with a Contact Gateway that can
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point directly to external data, and then use it as if it were its own. In this mode Contact Center Express never updates the external data. However once the gateway is in place, the external data participates fully as contact data within Contact Center Express. As ASContact Database accumulates history and detail about its contacts, Contact Center Express will increasingly offer communication tailored specifically to contact preferences, and to their value to your organization.
In addition, the Application Management Service allows you to add and manage the following data in the ASMSControl Database: Programs Schedules AutoText Priority contacts Denied contacts Allowed contacts
The Application Management Service consists of two components: Application Management Director is an application that gathers status and health information about Contact Center Express servers Contact Center Express Control Panel is a desktop application that connects to the Application Management Director to display the state of currently available servers. Contact Center Express Control Panel allows users to start and stop, view and change server configuration information. It also allows you to add and manage data (such as programs, schedules and AutoText) in the ASContact Database.
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Manages VDN licensing Registers for routing services Receives call events Issues routing instructions Manages generic extensions, such as the Generic SQL Extension, which gives the server access to SQL Server databases.
Configuration Server
Configuration Server is a central repository for all configuration data belonging to Contact Center Express applications and is an alternative to files residing on every workstation. Configuration Server allows a contact center or network administrator to change an application's configuration without needing to go to individual desktops. All the information processed by the server is stored in a backend database.
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Task Director
The Task Director provides mechanisms to execute tasks as per the defined schedule. In Avaya Contact Center Express, Task Director is provided as a server component that users can install and configure. Using Task Director, users can do the following: Define tasks Store tasks in a database Define an instance of a task Edit the task definition Access the defined tasks stored in a central database Manage the defined tasks Make a task active or inactive Request a one-off execution of a task
An administrator can interact with the task definitions. This allows the administrator to view the tasks that have been defined and to view scheduling details of each task, such as: The type of task. For example, email, report, and so on Where the task will be executed Scheduled rules When the next task execution is scheduled
An administrator can also monitor task execution and view the following: Which tasks have been executed When they were executed If and when they completed What was the terminating condition for the task Which tasks are currently running Which tasks are scheduled to run in the next period where the period is provided by the administrator Terminate a running task
Following are the tasks that can be scheduled using the Task Director: Create reports Create ASMSData databases Import data into the ASContact database Create Preview Contact lists Cleanup Databases
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License Director
License Director is a central repository for all Contact Center Express run-time licenses. License Director can also poll licenses from the WebLM server. License Director manages licensing by accepting license requests from Contact Center Express applications. It only issues the number of licenses that have been purchased or made available for trial. If the number of licenses requested exceeds the number purchased, the request is denied. The number of purchased run-time licenses is encrypted in a license key. License Director has no direct user interaction once it has been installed. License information is added, deleted and modified using the Application Management Service.
Media Director Queuing Email, Web Chat, Instant Messaging & Outbound Contacts for Your Agents
Media Director distributes non-voice work items to contact center agents. These items could be email, web chat, AOL or MSN sessions, an SMS text message, or an outbound call request. The distribution of the work item is achieved using the queuing algorithms built into the Communication Manager server. Non-voice work items originate from plug-in modules called media stores. Media stores connect to disparate sources such as email servers or web servers and interact with the Media Director and clients using a well-defined protocol. When a media store receives a new work item from a media source, it creates a work item object and passes a reference for that object to the Media Director. The reference tells the Media Director what queue the work item is to be associated with and what priority it must have in the queue. Using the information in its configuration that relates specifically to that queue, the Media Director asks the Communication Manager server (via the Avaya Application Enablement Services server) to queue it to the appropriate skill group. When an agent logged into that skill group becomes available, the Communication Manager server delivers the most appropriate work item to the agent. The Media Director is monitoring the Vector Directory Number (VDN) and sees the work item delivered to the agent. The Media Proxy delivers the reference to the correct client application based on the specified work item type. The client application uses the reference to retrieve the data directly from the actual work item at the media store.
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Media Proxy
Media Proxy is a bridge component that manages the connections between Media Director and any number of client applications running on the same computer. Running as a Windows service in the background, Media Proxy: Reduces network traffic when multiple client applications on one machine need to connect to the Media Director Automatically connects to the Media Director when it restarts (client applications do not need to re-connect to the Media Director when they restart) Allows users to build client applications using the Contact Center Express Desktop.
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A campaign's configuration identifies which queue work items must queue to and their priority within that queue.
Voice work items are stored like other multimedia work items (for example: email or simple message work items) in the ASMSControl and ASMSData databases. As the work item below shows, Voice Media Store creates and stores a sequence of data that shows the progress of the call through various devices within the switch:
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If the customer's calling number has been matched with a contact record in the ASContact database, a vertical contact tab appears on the left as part of the work item (as shown above).
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While handling this inquiry, an agent can click this tab and edit the customer's contact record. If the customer has not been matched with a contact record, the agent can create a new contact record and associate it with this work item. The next time the customer makes contact, their contact record will automatically display as part of the work item. Each contact record has a unique Contact ID as shown at the top of the Contact tab.
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The Virtual Agent service supports up to 300 concurrent virtual agents, each capable of receiving one work item per second. The service starts automatically with the server's operating system, and is fully configured using the Contact Center Express Control Panel. Virtual Agent comes with the following plug-ins: Web Service Worker Plug-in This plug-in gives customers who call a phone number answered by an Avaya Voice Portal, access to data that is stored in Contact Center Express's customer database. Outbound Worker Plug-in This plug-in gives you the ability to automatically send simple outbound email or text messages to customers.
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Short Message Service Gateway sits between the remote server and Simple Messaging Media Store.
Rules Plug-in
The Rules Plug-in is used to create a simple set of rules that automatically perform actions on call events that meet certain criteria. This rule functionality is similar to the email rules capability in the Microsoft Outlook.
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Without changing an application's code, you can use the Rules Plug-in to enhance desktop functionality. For example, you can configure rules to: Deflect calls from a specific CLI to voicemail Open another application or web site Send data and key strokes to another customer-related application Bring another window to the front to help process a call
Rules Wizard
The Rules Wizard provides a user interface for the Rules Plug-in. The Rules Wizard allows users to create and manage the rules that automatically perform actions on call events that meet certain criteria.
Script Plug-in
The Script Plug-in is a simple plug-in that takes advantage of scripting engines developed by Microsoft and others, to allow simple scripts written in VB Script or Java Script to be executed and provide services to the Contact Center Express suite. This plug-in can be plugged in to any Contact Center Express server application that supports the Plug-in Manager, such as Virtual Agent and the Call Routing Server. All scripting engines that conform to the Microsoft standard implement the IActiveScript interface. This common interface allows all scripting engines to be consumed by parent applications in an identical manner regardless of the scripting language they implement. The two most commonly available scripting engines are VB Script and Jscript from Microsoft. These are components installed with Internet Explorer.
SOAP Plug-in
The SOAP Plug-in is a simple plug-in that allows you to integrate Avaya Contact Center Express server applications with any web service or SOAP service on an intranet or the internet, without the need for new development on the server. This plug-in can be plugged in to any Contact Center Express server application that supports the Plug-in Manager, such as Virtual Agent and the Call Routing Server. The SOAP Plug-in uses the Microsoft Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to connect to the web service and allow web-based information to be available to the controlling application. SOAP is a message-based protocol based on XML for accessing services on the Web. Initiated by Microsoft, IBM and others, it employs XML syntax to send text commands across the Internet using HTTP.
SQL Plug-in
The SQL Plug-in is used to integrate Avaya Contact Center Express server applications with any SQL Server database without the need for new development on the server. This plug-in can be plugged in to any Contact Center Express server application that supports the Plug-in Manager, such as Virtual Agent and the Call Routing Server.
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SQL Plug-in uses Microsoft ADO to connect to a database and allow simple SQL functionality to be available to the controlling application. The plug-in's detailed configuration set allows named events to be received from the controlling application. The events and associated parameters are converted to a direct SQL statement which is then passed to the database for processing. Returned results are extracted from the returned record set and passed back to the controlling application via an associated return event.
Developer Components
Developer is a collection or toolkit of .Net assemblies for Avaya switches. Developers can use these controls to quickly build CTI applications. Developer controls make it is possible to build the foundation of a soft phone with no coding required. The toolkit includes: XML Client XML Station XML Routing XML VDN Multimedia
Avaya Application Enablement Services Any Avaya telephony server hardware and media gateway R4.2 supported by Avaya Computer
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Windows XP Professional 32- Agent example: bit, SP2 or SP3 A 1.6 GHz Pentium or higher Citrix Presentation Server 3.0.2 processor* or Windows Terminal Service 32bit with Avaya Application Enablement Services client software release 4.2.1 At least 512 MB of RAM memory* 50 MB of free hard disk space for the application, 10 to 18 MB for online documentation (file sizes depend on the language you install), Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and about 2 MB for client sample applications. SP1 or higher Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 or A DVD drive. 2.0 SP1 A graphics card and monitor with resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels or higher. A mouse or other Windowscompatible pointing device. A TCP/IP LAN connection.
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Windows 2003 Server (Enterprise & Standard) 32-bit At least 2GB of RAM memory*
or Application Management Service Windows 2008 Server (Enterprise or Standard) 32-bit Media Director with Application Enablement All Media Stores and Services (AE Services) client Gateways software, Release 4.2.1 Call Routing Server Virtual Agent Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 or higher Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 or 2.0 SP1 VMware and Virtual Server are also supported
*These are minimum specifications. Additional CPU and RAM may enhance performance.
Interaction Data Service Either: A 2.4 GHz Pentium or higher Only processor* Windows 2003 Server (Enterprise & Standard) 32-bit At least 2GB of RAM memory* or Windows 2008 Server (Enterprise or Standard) 32-bit with Application Enablement Services (AE Services) client software, Release 4.2.1 Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 or 2.0 SP1 *These are minimum specifications. Additional CPU and RAM may enhance performance.
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Databases for One of the following: Interaction Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Data Server Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Configuration Server Databases for ASMSControl, One of the following: ASMSData, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express ASContact For best performance host Microsoft SQL Server on a dedicated machine and ensure that both the Interaction Data Server and ASContact database are run on identical operating systems.
IVR Support
Item IVR support Operation System or Platform Avaya Interactive Response 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, 4.x Voice Portal 3.x, 4.x
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levels to improve and abandons of Sales calls to drop. A total of 5% improvement is expected as a result of better reports. Agents at Company One earn an average of $29,400 in wages. Cost of benefits above wages is 25%. Wage increases have averaged 3% for the past 2 years.
Reporting Benefits
Additional benefits will result from clearer, more detailed reporting that helps managers take actions to eliminate wasteful practices and to improve productivity. These benefits are expected to total 5%. The benefit in productivity from improved, actionable reporting is expected to be just over $82,000 annually.
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margins could reach $158,000 in the first year. Combined with margin from calls that would otherwise abandon and not return, there is the potential for $325,000 in incremental margin in Year 1. The graph shows the effect of the up-sell program on increasing call volumes would reach $374,000 in Year 5.
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Expected Costs
Company One currently has 45 agents but would like to purchase 55 agent licenses in order to accommodate the growth expected in the next one to two years. Management has requested that the proposal include multimedia agent licenses, even though agents are only handling inbound voice today. The implementation costs, however, are based on implementing only the inbound voice channel. Other channels will be implemented at a later date as needed. Company One management has asked that, in addition to the costs for the system, a $4500 annual budget line item for recurring training and $65,000 annual labor cost line item for an additional systems administrator be added to the case. This final cost will be incremented by 3% annually to account for wage increases. The initial costs for the Solution total $162,980 in the first year. $85,380 is the initial cost for Contact Center Express. $8,100 is the initial cost for servers. $69,500 is the initial years budget for systems administration. Notice in the chart below that Year 5 costs are not populated. In this conservative analysis, costs are assumed to be paid one year ahead. For example, the first year costs for maintenance are assumed to be paid in full on the first day or beginning of year 1. The costs of maintenance in year 2 are paid in full on the last day of year 1. Therefore, the maintenance costs shown in year 4 are paid on the last day of year 4 to cover year 5. This simplification is conservative.
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Notice that the table below illustrates the end-of-year assumption for benefits. For the purposes of the Net Present Value calculations, all of Year 1 benefits are assumed to arrive in lump-sum at the end of Year 1. Year 1 post-tax cash flow of $141,263 are reduced to a beginning of Year 1 value of $122,838, a 15% decrease according to the clients required rate of return.
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The payback illustration below charts the benefits on a monthly basis with a graph of front-end loaded costs. The first point at which benefits exceed the purchase + operational costs is in month 8. At month 12, if we assume all of Year 2 costs are paid at once, the costs approach the benefits line very closely. However, the dotted line in the graph illustrates a more realistic cost curve where monthly payments, rather than a single annual payment, are expected.
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The Payback Period, or the number of months until a positive cash flow, is now only 5 months. In reality, the payback period is less because the ROI methodology used here treats administrator salary costs and training costs as initial costs to the project, when in reality these costs are paid over time. The project has a positive NPV by the end of the first year and the first year IRR of 57% exceeds the requirement of 15%. The 5-year NPV of the leased solution to Improve Existing Operations is $578,000 roughly the same NPV as the purchase option over this time frame.
Benefits are modeled as back-end loaded. All benefits from Year 1 are assumed to be available to the business on the last day of Year 1, resulting in a full years financial discounting of these benefits from a Net Present Value view
Benefits are assumed to ramp-up to full run-rate levels over a period of several months, reducing early benefit levels For the Improved Operations case, benefits are assumed to reach full run-rate only after 9 months of operation
All benefits were subjected to a conservative factor that addresses the lack of accuracy in projecting incremental revenues and labor savings throughout the 5-year projection. In no case were savings credited at more than 80% of the nominal, calculated value
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Incremental costs, such as network costs for new, additional outbound calls were added at 100% of nominal, calculated value
In addition to the above capacity expansion plans, the abandons on Sales calls should be reduced from 7% to 3%.
Productivity Improvements
All of the productivity calculations performed in the first evaluation apply to this second evaluation. What is different in the second evaluation is that the productivity improvements that resulted in the possibility to redeploy agents will now result in additional call handling capacity.
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It is expected that each of these employees will spend 1525 hours annually actively engaged handling contacts. By setting the usage of these hours to 90%, the analysis accounts for interruptions or special needs that occur during these hours. A level of 83% occupancy is set to ensure that good service levels are maintained overall. On a per-FTE basis, the usage of a given individuals time an annual total of 1139 hours of contact handling in this case is illustrated below.
Representation of FTE Time 2500 2000
Hours
Using these factors as well as the expected average handle time for each type of contact, the percent of the available 3.0 voice FTE are applied is set to derive the number of contacts required for outbound voice, email, and web chat. Only 82%, or 2.6 FTE of the 3.0 FTE, need to be applied to new contact in order to produce the required number of contacts. The chart shows that 0.9 FTE is allocated to voice calls in order to handle 15,364 new outbound voice calls of 240 sec average handle time; $161,322 is the incremental margin from these contacts. 0.5 FTE is allocated to email in order to handle 5,298 email replies with an average handle time of 360 seconds; $22,251 is the incremental margin from these contacts. 1.2 FTE is allocated in order to handle 15,099 web chats with an average handle time of 320 seconds; $158,541 is the incremental margin from these contacts. A total capacity of 35,761 additional contacts can be accommodated with an incremental margin contribution totaling $342,115. The additional voice minutes at 4 cents/minute will cost about $2,458 in the first year.
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The remaining 0.6 FTE is unallocated. Further analysis (not shown) would indicate that, at a weighted average handle time of 243 seconds for the current mix of voice calls (assuming expected productivity gains in talk time); an additional 9,300 calls voice can be handled annually.
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Benefits Summary
The benefits portrayed in the Improve and Expand Operations evaluation do not include any type of labor savings. All redeployment of labor (to reduce abandoned calls and to handle new contacts) is part of Company Ones existing labor costs. The benefits that are included are the areas for increased margin, which not includes margin from new contacts. For a conservative view, the increase in margins is counted in the case at an 80% level. Network cost savings are modest and are also offset by additional network costs for new voice calls, taken at 100% of calculated value. The benefits are further subject to a Ramp-up curve that projects that Company One will not reach peak usage of its new contact capacity until one year after project cut-over. This assumption reduces the benefits in the first year, but may reflect a more realistic situation for expanding the business.
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The Payback illustration for the Improved and Expanded Operations case again shows a stairstep view of purchase costs and an alternative view of a more realistic, smoother cost curve, as a dashed line. Payback points for Purchase (10 months) and Lease (5 months) are shown with dotted line for emphasis.
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Benefits are modeled as back-end loaded. All benefits from Year 1 are assumed to be available to the business on the last day of Year 1, resulting in a full years financial discounting of these benefits from a Net Present Value view
Benefits are assumed to ramp-up to full run-rate levels over a period of several months, reducing early benefit levels For the Improved Operations case, benefits are assumed to reach full run-rate only after 9 months of operation For the Improved and Expanded Operations case, benefits are assumed to reach full run-rate only after 12 months of operation
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All benefits were subjected to a conservative factor that addresses the lack of accuracy in projecting incremental revenues and labor savings throughout the 5-year projection. In no case were savings credited at more than 80% of the nominal, calculated value Incremental costs, such as network costs for new, additional outbound calls were added at 100% of nominal, calculated value
Company One may invest in either a solution to improve its existing operations or in a solution that will allow them to improve and expand their operations. A summary of key ROI analysis findings are shown below. While each case is strong on its own merits, the strategic case to expand the business yields the higher Net Present Values whether for purchase or lease. The higher NPVs are primarily due to the additional margins from increased contact volume. Increased revenue, contact volume and the choice of media for competitive customer service make the business expansion case the more strategic choice for Company One.
This Company One case is meant to be illustrative of how a company could benefit from a solution such as Avaya Contact Center Express. The choices in how a company implements the capabilities of a solution, restructures call handling or other business processes, and realizes the benefits of improved productivity will determine many important features of an ROI analysis. All ROI analyses are projections, based on reasonable assumptions of current and future conditions and investment requirements. For help in learning how your company could benefit from Avaya Contact Center Express or any other solution from Avaya, contact your Avaya sales representative.
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Key Benefits
Deliver consistent, personalized cross-channel customer care -voice, email, web, and video - based on predefined segmentation policies and service levels Optimize efficiency and first contact resolution by applying segmentation that routes interactions to the best available resource Improve agent productivity through screen pop and unified agent desktops you design to meet your unique service and business requirements Reduce development time, costs, and risk by using pre-built and pre-tested applications and systems integration Minimize cost of ownership with accelerated installation and configuration, pre-built agent clients, and pre-tested integration to applications and systems
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Capabilities Summary
Agent Desktop
Fully Customizable Unified Desktop Mix Browser-based and Standard Clients Agent Status and Control Work Status Summary Interaction History Transaction History Agent Scripts and Resource Library Common Work Handling Controls (work acceptance, transfer, conference) Media Controls Voice, video, email/fax, web chat, and other media Agent Directory
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Web Collaboration
Text Chat Voice over IP Chat Escorted Browsing Page Push Collaborative Form Filling Customer Call Back Chat Transcript Viewing Frequent Response library Spell Checking Configurable Emoticons
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control and intelligence for all defined interactions. This enables organizations to create and apply routing strategies and business rules across the entire agent pool and all channels simultaneously, instead of managing each channel separately, regardless of the physical location of agents and enterprise resources. The contact engine coordinates and personalizes routing decisions while collecting interaction and transactional customer information in a common Customer Interaction Repository. Data capture and coordination is accomplished via a shared data object called an Electronic Data Unit (EDU). As workflows are executed, the contact engine uses the EDU as input and then contributes more data to it based on customer profile and other enterprise data. The EDU is created for each interaction to record the cradle-to-grave history of that interaction and to allow each application and employee that interacts with the customer to access the shared data and contribute to it. This allows your contact center to leverage the latest customer interaction and transaction history to make the best routing decision for each and every customer contact. Through EDU technology, Interaction Center tracks and records every detail of every interaction, which a business can then use to improve future routing decisions, to update customer profiles, and to generate additional sales. The EDU allows all applications and agents to know what has occurred so far in each customer transaction independent of the media through which the interactions occurred. Previous customer contact history and business data collected via EDUs is archived in real-time to a common, centralized Customer Interaction Repository. The Customer Interaction Repository allows a contact center operation to provide an integrated, consistent view of a customer and contact center activities, real-time and historical, across all communication media, and across all contact center sites and locations. Interaction Center includes Avaya Business Advocate which can be optionally configured to manage agent selection, staff resources, and customer service levels across all channels. Business Advocate is a set of patented algorithms that evaluate real-time conditions and distribute work items to the right agent based on agents available, agent skills, service level objectives, and expected wait times.
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Web Collaboration
Interaction Center web collaboration helps differentiate your customers online service experience by integrating live help options. Online customers can be greeted with intuitive selfhelp tools that provide browsing, targeted searches, and automatic responses to inquiries. Interaction Center web collaboration tools offer several ways for businesses to enhance and deliver a more satisfying online user experience through web chat, collaborative browsing, web form completion, and scheduled callback. Customers can continue to view the web while agents synchronize browsers to see exactly what customers see and to assist them as they browse, fill out order forms, and ask questions via live web chat.
Agent Desktop
Productivity and customer goodwill decrease every time an agent asks callers to repeat key data or has to waste time searching for scripts, applications, and information. The Avaya Agent desktop environment improves service and reduces frustration via a single easy to use unified desktop with pre-built access to your key enterprise applications and contact management controls. Agent screen pop provides immediate access to the right information and applications. Context based menus and controls dynamically adjust the agent desktop based on task selected to display relevant data only, while windows containing pertinent customer information display throughout the contact session. Managers can centrally administer individual and grouped agent task assignments and media channel workload and can deploy updates immediately across all locations and switching environments. Agent prompting can be designed to accompany each task with all the appropriate scripts or prompts for FAQs, URLs, and company policies and procedures. Businesses can choose browser based thin or thick client desktops depending on technology and business need. Open standards-based design tools enable easy customization of the agent desktop to meet specific needs of your business and contact center. Developers
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use server side configuration and agent desktop designer tools to define a standard interface which optimizes access to scripts, information, and contact management controls required for web chat, e-mail, contact history, web pages, customer data, as well as back-office enterprise and CRM applications. Interaction Center also includes a multi-media software development kit (SDK) that gives developers the ability to custom design clients based on your customer care practices, processes, and applications without the need for extensive professional services or IT support. Toolbars, communication controls, and informational displays (like contact history) can be designed and embedded within existing enterprise applications. Standalone, web-based, or client-server clients can be deployed in any language, even alongside existing Avaya Agent clients, and can support any operating system supported by .Net or Java including Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and others. The SDK includes a single common client interface API, documentation, as well as both .Net and Java sample clients from which enterprise developers can design new agent interfaces within their development tool of choice.
Agent Desktop
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Workflow Design
SIP Services
SIP is an information-rich protocol for powerful peer-to-peer communication that allows simpler, lower-cost design and execution of communication services. SIP Services capability is included within Interaction Center to enable organizations to more easily manage the myriad of new SIP-capable communication devices and media. Innovations like 3G mobile video, presence-based user collaboration and access to available resident experts through capabilities like Find-me/Follow-me can help differentiate service, drive firstcontact resolution and ensure delivery of a consistent customer experience. Businesses can reduce ownership costs by taking advantage of low-cost, high density SIP trunks terminating on SIP self service applications that can collect information from users and can pass call and context to the contact center for routing and reporting. SIP can also be used as a medium to lower the infrastructure costs for deployment of new sites, home and remote workers, integration with other native SIP applications and devices, and support for SIP VoIP contact center architectures where both the end customer and agents leverage their own native SIP device or endpoint.
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Database
IBM DB2 9.5 Microsoft SQL Server Oracle 11i
Switches
Avaya Aspect Cisco Nortel Meridian, Symposium
IVRs
Avaya Voice Portal Avaya Interactive Response Edify/Intervoice
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IBM Nortel
Languages
French German Russian standard Italian Latin American Spanish Brazilian Portuguese Japanese Korean Thai US English Simplified Chinese
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A low risk migration from your existing Avaya platforms that provides minimal disruption to your current operations. A move to the Red Hat Linux operating system, in order to provide a more open system, and to better align with the rest of Avaya's contact center portfolio. An 80% increase in scale, from a maximum of 240 agents to a maximum of 432 agents, on a single, robust, highly reliable switch and server. Over 25 major security enhancements with Proactive Contact R4. The industry's most effective Call Detection algorithms, improved from 97.5% accuracy to 98.9% accuracy, as verified by an independent test lab, IQ Services. (White paper available upon request.) Integration with Avaya's industry leading IVR applications, Avaya Interactive Response (IR) and Voice Portal, which allows companies to cut labor costs and increase revenue using automated agents instead of costly human agents, where feasible, such as early stage collections or reminder calls. Integrated inbound and outbound data with Avaya IQ, Avayas next generation enterprise reporting package. Cruise Control, a revolutionary predictive dialing algorithm that allows companies to adhere to the ever increasing regulations governing outbound calling.
What's New?
Avaya Proactive Contact 4.x is the newly evolved, enhanced release of the trusted, awardwinning Avaya Proactive Contact system, and delivers an extensible and scalable solution that builds on the superior call detection, pacing algorithms, and blending functionality of previous versions of the system. Avaya Proactive Contact 4.x provides you with critical changes designed to increase your ability to administer the system and guarantee the long-term viability of the systems within the overall suite of Avayas contact center products. Key changes include: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Operating System This aligns Proactive Contact with the rest of the Avaya contact center product suite. This enables tighter long-term product integrations that deliver value-added features and return on investment to your call center. Enhanced Security Based on input from our installed base we have greatly strengthened the systems security features. Security enhancements include the implementation of Secure Shell, Secure Sockets, Secure FTP, CORBA security layer, and advanced Oracle security. Calling List Management Via a series of easy to use Wizards, the new calling list management features provide full add, change, and delete for all host downloads, calling lists and host uploads. This provides you with the flexibility to quickly adapt to the ever changing requirements of your business. Enterprise Licensing This provides aggregated licensing across all systems within a call center. This provides management the flexibility to strategically deploy agents on a
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day-to-day basis without the limitation of licenses that are system specific. In addition, enterprise licensing provides a great opportunity to build robust disaster recovery scenarios. Roles Based Access -- Through this feature, you can set up specific roles for Supervisor and/or Administrator access. Each role created is assigned specific system functionality and whether the permissions are read or read/write. Finally, individual users of the systems are assigned a role which in turn limits their access to what is defined in that role.
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In this implementation, Avaya provides the Avaya PG230 RM switch, which houses the Digital Switch and the ENBC I/O Transition Module, and a DVD containing the Avaya Proactive Contact system software applications. All the other system components are purchased directly by the customer, or are available from Avaya at an additional cost. This implementation is offered to give you more latitude when sourcing the system components, which can result in a cost savings.
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provides the same full-featured dialing application, without the PG230 digital switch that is typically used where high performance dialing is required. The Supervisor, Agent and other dialer applications are identical between CTI enabled dialing and the traditional Avaya Proactive Contact System deployment.
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The following screen shows the Editor Main Screen for editing all parameters associated with a campaign. Please note that the tabs on the left of the screen provide administrators access to all these features. Access to this functionality is restricted based on user login and the role associated with that login.
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exactly what each supervisor needs to see. Supervisors can also monitor inbound and outbound wait queues and view call completion results for each campaign to analyze current campaign effectiveness. The following is a sample Monitor screen showing three real-time views; Dialer Agents, Job Status, and Job Quality. Supervisors can use Monitor to easily create and save similar views to meet their particular business needs.
In addition to presenting comprehensive real-time statistics, Monitor allows real-time control of many agent and campaign settings. For agents, supervisors can right-click on the agent to see additional statistical details or, as shown in the sample screen below, can monitor the agent, transfer or remove the agent from the job, or send the agent a message.
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For Jobs, supervisors have an extensive set of controls that enables them to maximize the effectiveness of each campaign. Shown below, these controls include system pacing, phone strategies, time zones, and phone line usage.
To help manage the contact center more effectively, supervisors can set both visual and audible alarms that are triggered when certain characteristics of a campaign or agent performance are reached: for example, when an agent has exceeded a specified talk time or when a campaign has reached a preset goal. These alerts can even be emailed to the supervisor and then forwarded to a pager or other mobile device. Used effectively, alerts can
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all but eliminate the time consuming process of constantly monitoring agent and/or system performance.
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Health manager also displays system resource usage statistics for the CPU, disk, memory, and processes. The following sample screen provides a view of a Proactive Contact system with a down process, Stats_Pump, which is highlighted in red. As shown in the second screen the user simply right-clicks on the service and selects Start Service in order to fix it.
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As is the case with Monitor, administrators can set visual, audible, and/or email alarms that are triggered when the status of a service changes from up to down, or vice-versa.
It should be noted that all functionality within Avaya Proactive Contact Agent is also supported with the Avaya Proactive Contact Agent API and its associated Software Developers Kit (SDK). The Agent API provides an open interface to accelerate integration with existing proprietary and third-party desktop applications. With the Agent API SDK, you are able to build customized agent applications that meet the contact centers specific needs.
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Internet Monitor
Internet Monitor provides low-cost real-time campaign monitoring visibility that allows an unlimited number of workstations to view real-time Proactive Contact results via the Internet. This can be accomplished from any computer equipped with Web browser software and Internet access. Internet Monitor enables a person to view agent and active call campaign information (calls remaining, call results, and agent activity).
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The Proactive Contact Enhanced Call Progress Analysis (ECPA) has been independently tested to be 98.9% accurate, the best in the industry. This accuracy, combined with the powerful predictive dialing capabilities of Avaya Proactive Contact, drives the maximum number of productive customer contacts to the agents. Simply put, ECPA is the process of determining how a telephone call is answered and is designed to distinguish between various possible conclusions when a call is placed. The categories handled by ECPA include: The Phone keeps Ringing This is called a Ring No Answer condition. Most people listen for five or six rings and then hang up, assuming that no one is there. In the United States, ring cycles run about six seconds (two seconds ring, four seconds silence). The Ring No Answer condition is normally defined for the Avaya Proactive Contact by the administrator, who specifies the number of rings the system listens for before "hanging up." A Busy Signal is Heard The busy signal tells the caller that the phone is off-hook at the other end of the line; that is, the receiver has been lifted from its cradle and, presumably, someone is talking on the phone. An Operator Answers the Call This condition, known as Operator Intercept, occurs for a variety of reasons, but basically means that the call cannot get through. It could be that the phone has been disconnected, the number was misdialed, long distance circuits are busy, and so forth. Live operators do not often handle these calls anymore, except on very old network switches, and intercepts are now handled automatically. A Series of Three Tones and an Automated Recording is Heard This condition is also known as an Operator Intercept, but is fully automated and does not require a live operator. The tones heard are known as Special Information Tones (SIT) and the tone frequency and duration provide a readily identifiable coding for this specific condition that can be recognized by a well-designed call progress analyzer. An Automated Voice Answers the Line with no Special Information Tones An AutoVoice condition has been reached, which is usually a voice mail system or an answering machine. The Phone is Answered with a Continuous Tone In these cases, a fax machine or a computer modem has answered the call. A Live Voice is Heard on the Phone The called party has answered the phone.
From the beginning, the Avaya Proactive Contact set a new standard with fully digital call progress analysis capability. Our Enhanced Call Progress Analysis (ECPA) is quicker, more consistent, and more reliable in discriminating between the conditions that occur on the telephone line than all other call progress analysis solutions on the market. It builds on years of highly optimized, proprietary algorithms, coupled with high speed Digital Signal Processing technology and can identify and categorize call responses with higher accuracy than ever before. ECPA is also able to hear and identify weaker signals (as well as signals hidden in static or other sounds) better than ever before.
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How it Works
The heart of the Avaya Proactive Contact ECPA technology is advanced signal processing software techniques, based on extensive field experience in accurately analyzing telephone line signals. The technology is built on powerful Signal Processing chips. This enables the ECPA to determine whether an outbound call has been connected to a live voice, an answering machine, voice mail, operator intercept, Special Information Tones (SIT), a modem or fax machine, a busy signal, or there is Ring No Answer. Based upon the results of the ECPA analysis, the telephone line can be connected to an agent or any other appropriate handling method. Special handling may include leaving an automated message on an answering machine. The way an Avaya Proactive Contact responds to line conditions is defined by a sophisticated, supervisor-determined call strategy system. All call outcomes identifying the call type are recorded in the data record associated with the call.
Cruise Control Cruise Control automatically maintains the Service Level of outbound dialing during a job and connects the calls to the agents within a specified period of time. During the job, the supervisor does not have to monitor or modify the call pacing settings. When setting up an outbound job that uses Cruise Control, the Desired Service Level and the Time to Connect Tolerance settings must be defined. The system uses these settings to: Predict when to automatically dial phone numbers Distribute phone calls within the tolerable time period that was set.
Once a job that uses Cruise Control is started, the settings do not have to be changed. In fact, to change the settings the job must first be stopped, the changes made, and then restarted in order to resume calling activities with the new settings. Cruise Control is the latest creation to emerge from a long series of advancements in predictive technology from Avaya and its predecessor, Mosaix. It is the culmination of 20 years of experience in real-world dialing environments, complemented by deep expertise in queuing theory, statistical analysis, and software implementation and testing. Cruise Control takes into account the full spectrum of outbound dialing considerations, from the age-old problem of optimizing the dialing rate to exactly match the availability of agents, to the latest issues in nuisance calling compliance and reporting required by state and federal agencies. Cruise Control is backed by solid mathematical principals, patent-protected software implementation, and rigorous testing load testing at call volumes up to 400,000 calls per hour. Technically speaking, Cruise Control is an adaptive, closed-loop control system with optimizations for specific stochastic factors that are important in maximizing outbound call
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center profitability. Cruise Control automatically adjusts the pacing of outbound calling to meet a guaranteed Service Level goal set by the supervisor/administrator, while simultaneously optimizing performance to minimize Agent Idle Time. This is accomplished by a system that utilizes multiple feedback loops to calculate the probability of availability for each agent in the system in real time, and adjusts the number of outbound calls accordingly. Many semi-random factors in the outbound calling process, such as hit rate, agent talk time, wrap-up time, and so forth, are continually absorbed as input into the predictive calculations, resulting in the best possible match of outbound calls to available agents. The Cruise Control dialing algorithm lets customers better utilize their agents to match the needs of their business by managing Nuisance Calls while optimizing Agent utilization. This is accomplished by real-time monitoring of service levels. Avaya Proactive Contact now has the ability to control outbound service levels to achieve Contact Center goals by determining the nuisance forecast, determining arrival forecasts by tracking agent states, self-adjusting based on the number of agents, and ensuring service levels up to 99.9%. Expert Calling Ratio Expert Calling Ratio allows the supervisor to change the way the system determines when to place the next call while a job is running. When an outbound job is set up using Expert Calling Ratio, the supervisor selects the following settings: The method that the system uses as a basis for its predictive dialing algorithm calculations. A value that sets the pace at which the system places phone calls.
The Expert Calling Ratio method tells the dialer how aggressively to place calls based on one of the following values: Calls in the Wait Queue The Proactive Contact achieves a balance between agents waiting for a call and customers placed in the wait queue. Agent Work Time The Proactive Contact monitors the time agents take to complete calls and update records and adjusts the calling pace accordingly. Agent Update Time The Proactive Contact monitors the time agents take to update records and adjust the calling pace accordingly.
Once a campaign using Expert Calling Ratio is started, the settings can be changed in Monitor without stopping the campaign or the need for agents to logout temporarily.
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Office (CO), a telephony Switch (a PBX), or with inbound trunks from an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD). When Avaya Proactive Contact is working with a CO or PBX, inbound calls are routed directly to Avaya Proactive Contact, whereas, with an ACD, inbound calls are distributed from the ACD to Avaya Proactive Contact based on thresholds configured on the ACD. In either case, ICB distributes a blend of inbound and outbound calls to the Avaya Proactive Contact agents. With ICB, blend agents handle outbound calls until there are more inbound calls than available inbound agents, at which time the excess inbound calls are passed to the blend agents. When the inbound call volume decreases, the Avaya Proactive Contact returns to passing outbound calls to the blend agents.
Agent Blending
Agent Blending integrates outbound calling activities on the Avaya Proactive Contact with inbound calling activities on the ACD. In an Agent Blending scenario ACD agents log on to both the Avaya Proactive Contact and the ACD. The Proactive Contact monitors the activity on the ACD and uses this information to determine when to acquire agents for outbound calling and when to release ACD agents to handle inbound calls. Pooled agents are acquired for outbound calling when the inbound calling activity decreases and the agents are release to answer inbound calls when the inbound calling activity increases. This movement keeps the ACD blend agents busy while keeping the ACD service level within the call centers prescribed limits.
Agent Blending supports two distinct configurations, Predictive Agent Blending and Proactive Agent Blending, which are discussed below: Predictive Agent Blending If the first priority is servicing inbound customers and inbound volume is fairly high, the use of Predictive Agent Blending will be beneficial. Predictive Agent Blending focuses on the inbound mission and only acquires agents for outbound when the Service Level or Average Speed to Answer (ASA) parameters are above the desired value.
These agents take inbound calls until Avaya Proactive Contact predicts that there will be too many agents on inbound (Avaya Proactive Contact bases the prediction on the service level
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requirements set by the administrator/supervisor). Avaya Proactive Contact then acquires agents from the ACD to handle outbound calls until the inbound volume increases. Call Centers with moderate-to-heavy inbound traffic, and more than 25 agents in the inbound pool, will benefit from using Predictive Agent Blending. Predictive Agent Blending uses events from the ACD to forecast call volume and determine when to move ACD agents between inbound and outbound calling. There are two control method options within Predictive Agent Blending: Average Speed to Answer and Service Level. To configure Predictive Agent Blending, an Average Speed to Answer or a Service Level domain group is set up that contains one or more acquire domains and at least one inbound domain. Each type requires different settings. Average Speed to Answer (ASA) This domain group type uses the target ASA field (MAAS) for calculating when to acquire and release agents. Agents are acquired for outbound calls when the average speed to answer for all inbound domains in the group is less than, or equal to, the targeted value. Agents are released when the value rises above the target. Average Speed to Answer (ASA) parameters include: Desired Level (required) The average number of seconds within which agents must answer calls. A setting between zero (0) and 100 seconds is selected and represents an average calculated over the Average Speed to Answer (ASA) interval. Average Speed to Answer The interval that Avaya Proactive Contact uses to calculate the ASA. This parameter influences how responsive the system is to fluctuations in answer delays. This interval is a rolling interval that starts whenever the Avaya Proactive Contact is start or Agent Blending is restarted. The minimum setting is 0.25 hours (15 minutes). For example, a setting of one (1) calculates the activity during the past hour. Traffic Intensity Threshold (required) The percentage of agents available to take calls. This setting is used to determine how quickly Avaya Proactive Contact moves agents between inbound and outbound calls. The goal is to prevent agents from being acquired or released too frequently. Agents are available if they are not taking calls or updating records. Agent Blending tracks calling statistics and uses this information to predict future availability. To calculate the threshold, Avaya Proactive Contact divides the projected inbound call volume by the projected number of available agents. Minimum Number of Agents on Outbound (optional) The minimum number of ACD blend agents, in this domain group, dedicated to handling outbound calls. This setting overrides Desired level. For example, no matter how low the ASA, there will always be this number of agents unavailable to handle inbound calls. This option is used when the call center must meet outbound goals before inbound calls are serviced. Initial Traffic Rate (optional) The estimated number of calls per second. Avaya Proactive Contact uses this rate for the first 30 calls. It ensures that there are enough agents to handle the first 30 calls.
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Minimum Talk Time (optional) The estimated minimum number of seconds agents spend connected on each inbound call. Avaya Proactive Contact adds Talk time and After Call Work time to determine agent availability. Agent availability is sometimes called service capacity. Minimum After Call Work Time (optional) The estimated minimum number of seconds agents spend, after a call, updating records and processing information.
Service Level (SL) This domain group type uses the Service Criterion (SC, seconds), Desired Service Level (DSL, %), and Abatement Service Level (ASL, %) fields for calculating when to acquire and release agents. Agents are acquired for outbound calls when the percentage of inbound calls answered within the Service Criterion is greater than, or equal to, the Desired Service Level percentage. Acquisitions will stop when the actual service level reaches the Abatement Service Level value. Agents will be released back to inbound when the service level falls below the desired value. The actual service level is calculated using all inbound domains in the group. Service Level parameters include: Desired Service Level (required) The percentage of calls agents can answer within the Service Criterion. Abatement Service Level (required) The percentage (of the Service Level, SL) where Avaya Proactive Contact stops acquiring agents for outbound calling. A value greater than the Desired level and less than, or equal to, 100 must be selected. Service Criterion (required) The maximum time within which an agent must answer a call. It measure the seconds an inbound call is in the ACD queue. Service Level Interval (required) The interval that Avaya Proactive Contact uses to calculate the SL. This parameter influences how responsive Avaya Proactive Contact is to fluctuations in answer delays. The interval is a rolling interval that starts whenever Avaya Proactive Contact is started or Agent Blending is restarted. The minimum setting is 0.25 hours (15 minutes). For example, a setting of 1 calculates the activity during the past hour. Traffic Intensity Threshold (required) The percentage of agents available to take calls. This setting determines how quickly Avaya Proactive Contact moves agents between inbound and outbound calls. The goal is to prevent agents from being acquired or released too frequently. Agents are available if they are not taking calls or updating records. Agent Blending tracks calling statistics and uses this information to predict future availability. To calculate the threshold, Avaya Proactive Contact divides the projected inbound call volume by the projected number of available agents. Minimum Number of Agents on Outbound (optional) The minimum number of ACD blend agents, in this domain group, dedicated to handling outbound calls. This setting overrides the desired level. For example, no matter how low the ASA, this number of agents is always unavailable to handle inbound calls. This option is used when the call center must meet outbound goals before inbound calls are serviced.
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Initial Traffic Rate (optional) The estimated number of calls per second. Avaya Proactive Contact uses this rate for the first 30 calls. It ensures that there are enough agents to handle the first 30 calls. Minimum Talk Time (optional) The estimated minimum number of seconds agents spend connected on each inbound call. Avaya Proactive Contact adds Talk time and After Call Work time to determine agent availability. Agent availability is sometimes called service capacity. Minimum After Call Work Time (optional) The estimated minimum number of seconds agents spend, after a call, updating records and processing information.
Proactive Agent Blending If the focus is on Outbound Calling, but there is a need to service a low volume of inbound customers, the use of Proactive Agent Blending will be beneficial. Proactive Agent Blending focuses on outbound calls and releases agents to answer inbound calls only when an inbound call enters a monitored queue on the ACD. When an ACD agent logs on, Avaya Proactive Contact immediately acquires the agent for outbound calling. When an inbound call comes into the ACD queue, Avaya Proactive Contact releases the agent to handle the call. The number of queued calls before agents release to inbound can be configured for each Outbound Only domain group. If inbound calls continue to come in, Avaya Proactive Contact continues to release agents. As soon as the queue is empty, Avaya Proactive Contact acquires the agent for outbound calls.
Multi-Dialer Capabilities
The Multi-dialer capabilities of Avaya Proactive Contact enable a single supervisor to manage multiple dialers across the enterprise. You can create and manage log-ins and passwords for multiple dialers from a single system, create, edit and delete campaign information, combine real-time data from multiple dialers, and share user-defined views. A log-in and password created on one dialer may be populated to all of your dialers, regardless of their physical location. And one or more Avaya Proactive Contact systems can then run jobs using a single master list residing on any other Avaya dialer. Our Multi-Dialer capabilities give supervisors the unparalleled ability to manage jobs and execute big projects across multiple dialers simultaneously and re-allocate resources based on real-time feedback. This provides three important advantages: Agent and List Aggregation Supervisors may execute a campaigns across two, three, or four dialers simultaneously, treating all of the agents in the dialers as a single pool working from a single list.. One or more Avaya Proactive Contact systems can then run jobs using a single master list residing on any other Avaya dialer. In its purest form, any Avaya Proactive Contact system can be used to dial another systems calling list. Execute a campaign across two, three, or four dialers
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Treat all of the agents in your system as a single pool All agents can work from a single list Master list can reside on any dialer Log-ins and passwords can be populated to all dialers.
Simplified Administration Multi-dialer capabilities enable a single supervisor to manage multiple dialers across the enterprise. All of the dialers configured in a Pod can be administered from a single point, and from a single screen, including dispatching campaigns and viewing campaign status. You can create and manage log-ins and passwords for multiple dialers from a single system. And you can combine real-time data from multiple dialers and share userdefined views. A single supervisor can manage multiple dialers Supervisor sees entire enterprise from a single screen Create and manage log-ins and passwords for all dialers Combine real-time data from multiple dialers Share user-defined views.
Load Balancing By treating all agents on all dialers as a single resource, the Avaya Proactive Contact systems can more effectively assign agents to campaigns based on each jobs overall system priority. It is a vital priority for supervisors to ensure that their agents and lines are operating at peak efficiency. Yet all too often, higher-priority campaigns arent given equitable access to Avaya Proactive Contact system resources. The Multi-Dialer option makes it easier for supervisors to deploy campaigns across their entire pool of agents, through its active loadbalancing feature. Assign agents to campaigns based on each jobs overall system priority Ensure that entire agent pools are being utilized on top-priority jobs.
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Proactive Contact also offers a solution for Do Not Call compliance with state and federal laws allowing companies to match their calling list against a national registry before calling potential customers. This solution is delivered through third party integration via Gryphon Networks.
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Campaign Management
The following features enhance the flexibility of campaigns and can be used by the contact center supervisors to design, control, and analyze calling campaigns dynamically and in real time. Agent Keys These provide an interface to add, change, or delete shortcut/function keys for the agent interfaces. Alerts Real-time Alerts can be created based on System, Campaign, Groups, or even individual agents. These audio, visual, or email Alerts can save valuable management time by eliminating or reducing the time required to monitor the system and agents. Campaign Template This feature allows a supervisor to search for a previously created campaign by entering key terms in a search box. Once a list of campaigns is generated based on the search criteria, the user will be able to select one of the campaigns and copy all aspects to a newly created campaign. Completion Code Manager This feature allows supervisors to configure information such as, Completion Code labels, Right Party Contacts, Closures, and Abandonment. The Analyst and Monitor applications can then use this data for labeling and to calculate and group historical and real-time information. Cruise Control Dialing With Cruise Control the Desired Service Level and the Connect Tolerance settings are used as precise limits for automatically pacing the dialing. After starting a job that uses Cruise Control, it is not necessary to monitor or adjust settings relative to call pacing. The system does it for you! And in fact, Cruise Control is designed to always meet or exceed your goals. Expert Calling Ratio This method of call pacing provides full manual control to allow an aggressive or conservative approach to calling campaigns. In contrast to Cruise Control, Expert Calling Ratio may be adjusted in real-time to optimize productivity or adapt to a quickly changing calling environment. Detect the Beep Avaya Proactive Contact detects the last beep of an answering machine before leaving a message, instead of using a timed delay. Event Service SDK and Certified Integrations for Third-Party Applications Event Service SDK provides an open CORBA interface to accelerate integration with existing proprietary and third-party applications. Certified integrations include, Austin Logistics CallTech and OnQ for Best-Time-to-Call Analytics, synTelate agent scripting, NICE call recording, Verint/Witness call recording, IEX workforce management and Syntora/VPI Agent Dashboard. Filters Filters are used to apply one additional criterion to selected Monitor views, for user-specific needs, where the application of criteria is feasible. For example, a supervisor could use a Filter to limit agent data to "agents with a Talk Time greater than 120- seconds". Filters may be created, changed or deleted by the user. Health Manager This provides a unified view of the Avaya Proactive Contact system (or group of systems) processes and services and provides the capability to activate or
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deactivate these services. It also displays system resource usage statistics on CPU, disk, memory, and processes. Job Linking This allows jobs to be chained or linked while enabling agents to move smoothly from one job to another without downtime. Letter Generator This feature enables the creation of customized form letters as a calling campaign follow-up. Data may be extracted from Proactive Contact based on the outcome of any phone call. Based on the outcome of phone calls and the extract data, form letters may be generated using common Word Processing tools. Managed Dialing With Managed Dialing agents are able to provide specialized handling on sensitive accounts by previewing the client record before a call is placed. Messages and Scripts The Message Wizard can be used to add new messages or change existing ones. The Scripts button displays a list of the scripts stored in the system. The Script Wizard can be used to add new scripts or to change existing ones. Multi-Dialer Campaign Monitor Supports multiple dialers across an enterprise, allowing a single aggregate view of real-time job data from multiple dialers. Person to Person Monitors customer connection rates and ensures that excess calls from sudden changes in the connect ratios are answered by a live voice. Phone Strategy Provides a number tools which provide the flexibility for you to determine how to call each account within a campaign. Settings include the first phone number to call, the number of rings before a No Answer is recorded, and automatic system retries. Quotas When using Unit Work Lists users can specify a quota for each unit. Once the quota is met, accounts from that unit will no longer be called but the campaign will continue until all units have met the quota. Real-Time Campaign Management Optimize performance with real-time monitoring and on-the-fly control of campaign parameters and agents. Recent Data The Monitor application will display, at the option of the supervisor, data from jobs that have been completed. This will allow data from previously run jobs to be added to real-time data. For example, rather than only showing an agent's statistics from the currently running job, the data would include data from all previous jobs that they had participated in during the specified time period. Record Selection Provides a number of tools to help you define who to call in each campaign. Settings include criteria based on fields within the customer calling list records, time zones and previous attempts to call each account. These features also enable supervisors to control Agent Set Recalls and the sorting of records within each campaign. Roles Based Access This feature allows assignment of specific roles and permissions for Supervisor/Administrator access to dialers.
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Sales Verification Automatic creation of a second calling campaign (to confirm sales or commitments obtained in a prior campaign) that allows use of a different pool of agents to perform verification tasks. Scheduler Using a familiar Outlook interface, the Scheduler enables system administrators to schedule repetitive tasks such as Jobs, Selections, backups, and so forth. Scope Selectors Settings for common job definitions include options that allow users to specify the data view based on the chosen characteristics. Scope Selectors are used as the default method for filtering the "scope" of the data on any given Campaign Monitor view. For most views, the default Scope Selectors will be System, Job and Supervisor. Options within each Selector include all, multiple, or one of the available options within the List Box. For example, a manager looking at several systems could select all systems, two currently running jobs, and a single supervisor. Data would then be filtered to display only these statistics. Time Zone Control Provides the ability to turn Time Zones on or off before and during individual Jobs. In addition, Time Zones can be configured to provide a follow-the-sun strategy thereby maximizing the number of phone calls in each Time Zone during optimal call hours. Unit Work Lists An outbound campaign during which agents can work specific subsets of customer records within the same campaign. For example, in a campaign for 30 and 60 day collections, half the agents could be working on the 30 day unit and the other half on the 60 day unit.
Report Management
The following features allow contact center supervisors to report on the activities of Calling Lists, Campaigns, and Agents, either while campaigns are running or after they are complete. Campaign Metrics Proactive Contacts Event Service (see Event Service SDK) can be utilized to gather customer interaction and agent performance data in real time. This raw data can then be analyzed, configured and displayed in near real-time to supervisors and/or agents via an agent dashboard. Enterprise Reporting Enables users to combine statistical data from up to four Proactive Contact systems configured in a Pod. Hierarchies Users can create hierarchical relationships such as agents to supervisors. This information is then available to other modules, such as Analyst and Monitor for calculating, sorting and grouping real-time or historical data. The Hierarchy Manager can be used to create additional grouping alternatives for Monitor data. Once a hierarchy is created, it can be substituted for the default Scope Selectors by the enduser. The hierarchy then functions in the same manner as the Scope Selector. For example, a customer could create a hierarchy that defines his/her company's organizational structure; directors, managers and supervisors. The hierarchy can be used by various organization levels to view only the data that is germane to their responsibility.
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ODBC Access This interface allows customers full read access to the systems Oracle 10g database. This enables the data to be extracted or for third party tools to be used for customized agent and campaign reporting. PC Analysis Provides full access to the systems raw statistical data, which allows the raw data to be exported in CSV format for use in the customers own reporting environment or data warehouse. PC Analysis Extracts (automated) Enables managers or supervisors to select critical campaign statistics they want to monitor and set the Avaya Proactive Contact to automatically extract this data hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.
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needed. In cases where dedicated lines are needed for specific campaigns the line pools are simply assigned to specific campaigns. Multi-Country Dialing Configuration allows the system to place outbound phone calls to multiple countries. A single campaign can be used to dial multiple countries. Native Voice and Data Transfer Allows any outbound agent on an outbound or blend job to transfer a call, with its associated data, to any available inbound or blend agent that is actively joined to an inbound or blend job.
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Record-Specific Messaging Specific recorded messages can be played to the called party based on a unique identifier in the customer record. Shared Calling Lists The Avaya Proactive Contact can run jobs using a calling list that resides on another Avaya Proactive Contact, enabling one or more systems to run jobs from a single master list. In its purest form, any Avaya Proactive Contact can be used to dial another systems calling list. Security Secure Sockets, Secure Shell and Secure FTP are all standard protocols. Additionally, data encryption and password aging is standard. Oracles advanced database security is used and the Event Services API uses Secure CORBA access. An Auditor role is provided for monitoring bad logins and historical event data.
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Customer Interaction Express also offers the following features. Flexible routing mechanisms Customer Interaction Express offers flexible routing mechanisms for voice, email, fax, SMS, and voicemail. Depending on priority, calls can be routed to various agent groups, or to the best qualified and available agents using the skill-based routing feature. By identifying the callers number or sender's email address, interactions can be further routed in a customized manner.
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Outbound Campaigns The Customer Interaction Express solution has a built-in Dialer for outbound calling. Agent productivity can be increased by ensuring that agents take outbound calls for the duration that inbound call volume is low or agents are idle. This feature can be effectively used to increase your customer base, creating greater opportunities for revenue generation. Real-time and Historical Reporting Customer Interaction Express offers both Real-time and Historical reporting. Reports can be pulled to consolidate information such as the number of calls, or average time on hold. More granular information can also be obtained like, details on each individual call and individual time on hold. Real-time mode provides a precise look at the current situation without delays. This includes the status of an agent's call as well as the announcement a caller who is in the waiting queue is currently hearing. Reports for other offline media such as email can be made available as well. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text to Speech (TTS) Features Avaya Customer Interaction Express offers standard IVR features that can be leveraged to automate simpler tasks. Features such as account balance inquiry through PIN entry, changing an address using ASR or simply using menu inquiries to pre- qualify a call reduce the number of calls an agent receives. Data entered via IVR is available to the agent when the caller is routed to that agent. Language Localization Customer Interaction Express can be localized in the following languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Brazilian, and Portuguese. Support for Wallboards Customer Interaction Express can be configured to support Messagemaker and Wibond Wallboards. A wallboard is a device used to display real-time call and agent statistics in a contact center. Real-time statistics include: Topic, Team, Agent Group, Time and Date.
Architecture
Customer Interaction Express has a platform independent architecture and can run on Avaya Aura Communication Manager, or Tenovis Integral 33/55 PBXs. Customer Interaction Express is a pure Soft ACD solution. The architecture is divided into several layers (multi-tier) and the communication between each layer is established through Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). This enables flexible distribution over multiple servers.
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Overview
The architecture can be broadly classified into three layers; External media Server Client
External media are located in the bottom layer. These include Communication Manager, Tenovis Integral 33/55, and mail server etc. The different media channels, as well as the different PBX switches are connected via a module called Taskserver. The Taskserver handles the media specific implementation and communicates via the CORBA with the kernel of Customer Interaction Express. The Taskservers are responsible for the task handling. For each media type, a unique Taskserver has to be realized. Therefore, Communication Manager, Tenovis Integral 33/55, and mail server each require a separate Taskserver. Because of this architecture the upper processes are mostly media independent. All the information from the Taskserver is sent to the Kernel where it is processed. The kernel is responsible to combine the different media channels in abstract interfaces. The kernel delivers information to the upper processes for calculating statistics, real-time information and routing. The Vectoring process is responsible for the routing. The routing is programmed with a script generated by the Call Flow Editor Graphical User Interface (GUI). The monitoring system calculates real-time statistical information which can be displayed in the GUI. This statistical information is stored in the database as historic data. The different media channels are handled and viewed only differently in the Graphical User Interface (GUI) which is the front-end of Customer Interaction Express.
The client side is comprised of the Business Logic Components that form the basis for the User Interface. The client part is a Thick client implementation GUI. The information and data from
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the system is abstracted in a Business Logic Component to separate business logic from the external view. Some client parts are thin clients running in an embedded internet explorer object inside the thick client. The upper-most layer is the User Interface which the agents, supervisors, and administrators operate.
Database
All configuration and task record data is stored in a relational database (Sybase) on the server. The relational database is abstracted with a CORBA interface. If configuration data is changed the related servers are notified. The system can be configured dynamically during runtime. Because no SQL or vendor interfaces are needed, there is no need for client database communication software.
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Major Functions
Inbound Voice The inbound voice solution routes the customer to the agent with the best skills to handle the interaction, while providing the necessary customer information to the agent to successfully handle the customer's request the first time. The treatment of a call is designed using the Task Flow Editor which is a component of the Customer Interaction Express User Interface application. Using the Task Flow editor call flows and routing solutions can be created. You can also decide for calls in the waiting queue which announcements or music is to be played to the caller.
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Call with ID based routing allows calls to be identified and treated based on the transmitted phone number. Based on priority assigned, the caller can be distributed with a higher priority or to the best qualified agent. The Customer Interaction Express call distribution can be programmed to meet most contact center requirements, the configuration of the workflows is done with the graphical Task Flow Editor. The callers can be identified based on individual, company, region, country, and VIP.
With Skills Based Routing the distribution is even more advanced. The caller will be automatically distributed to the agent who is best qualified to handle this request. As an example the caller will be distributed directly to an agent who speaks the required language and has the required product knowledge. With skills based routing, efficiency and first call resolution will be increased. Customer contacts from any or all channels like voice calls, emails, fax, voicemails, or SMS are routed through a topic. A topic represents a service or task. Up to 4000 different topics per switch can be configured. In the workflow, such topics will be usually routed to an agent group. Within the agent group the tasks are distributed to the next available agent. The agent has to be signed on to an agent group. The assignment to the agent groups or the selectable agent
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groups for an agent can be changed in real time by a supervisor. If a supervisor sees that an inbound queue is not meeting the desired service level he/she can move agents to the queue using the graphical interface. With the advanced routing feature, additional routing possibilities are available. A supervisor can switch on or off an announcement to every incoming call by changing values of variables in real time. For example, if a power supply company has an outage the supervisor can switch on a welcome message in the real-time information screen just by changing the variable. Every caller will then hear this welcome message. Another possibility would be to switch on an overflow to another agent group for a topic. So a supervisor can influence the Task-flow without the need to reprogram the flow. Outbound Voice Customer Interaction Express offers the Dialer feature that ensures optimal utilization of resources because employees will be more productive and focused on revenue-generating activities throughout the day. Adding outbound work into the slow periods of inbound activity or "agent blending" is also possible with Customer Interaction Express. The outbound functionality provided by Customer Interaction Express is variable based on licenses (Standard versus Advanced), but most importantly based on the agent availability for blended interactions. Agents can be dedicated to outbound calling, or given opportunities based on availability or by campaigns. A call can be initiated from Customer Interaction Express and distributed to an available agent, only upon a live connection. Alternatively, the task can be first assigned to an agent in preview mode, and then initiated via the agent phone. Both inbound and outbound voice calls can be controlled via the programmable call distribution. Additionally, it is possible to view the status of the calls and the status of the whole campaign.
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Dialer Categories
Type Campaign Dialer Explanation When the target numbers are entered in the system it is not determined which agent will process the job. The call distribution of the Customer Interaction Express system (task flow) handles the assignment to agents. In a Customer Interaction Express system a campaign is associated with a topic. When the target numbers are entered in the system, the jobs are assigned to an agent.
Agent Dialer
Dialer Types
Type Mechanic Explanation The customer is called by the Customer Interaction Express system. If the customer is reached, he/she is automatically connected to an available agent. A high efficiency is reached since agents do not have to deal with unavailable customers or invalid numbers. There is, however, the risk that no agent is available when a customer is reached. The call is initiated from the agent telephone to the customer. This ensures a high degree of quality for the customer since the agent is available from the moment of contact. However, the efficiency is low since agents have to deal with unavailable customers and wrong numbers. The agent is automatically provided with customer data and initiates the call from his or her telephone to the customer with an action (e.g. clicking a button). This is a sub-form of the direct dialer where the agent can do preparatory work concerning a call.
Direct
Preview
Power
Progressive
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For the integration of Campaign Management Software there is an easy way of CSV-Import and Export to provide call jobs (the numbers to be called are the so called call jobs) for the dialer. An example of granularity that is offered through the voice outbound feature is that an agent can determine whether a call was successfully initiated, and if not, what the possible reasons are. Also, the outcome of the call can be updated to the system as soon as the call is completed.
Email
Many customers today prefer communicating via the Email channel. The Customer Interaction Express facilitates customers by providing Email as a medium for customer interaction. Customer Interaction Express also includes features for use by agents that can enhance the effectiveness of this medium. The Customer Interaction Express offer allows high quality Email communication by using predefined text blocks. Text blocks are standard pre-formatted responses to routine queries and can be easily inserted into the email to provide uniform answers to the customers. This also saves time on typing repetitive information thus boosting agent productivity. Use of escalation mechanisms in email are important in order to stick to defined service levels. Email can be delegated or postponed. Further, email streams can be initiated. Cross-Media reporting delivers important information on email as well. Unified Media Routing in Customer Interaction Express enables multi-channel routing platform for support of voice-mail, email, fax and SMS channels.
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The Unified Media Routing server receives email messages via SMTP or can collect messages via POP3/IMAP4 from a Mail server Account. Sending an email (reply) and forwarding of customer messages is done via the SMTP Protocol.
Email Inbox
How does it work? A mail message arrives at the Unified Media Routing server via the SMTP server and the SMTP connector. The Unified Media Routing server saves this mail in the database. The Unified Media Routing server requests further processing of email through vectoring. The vectoring process determines how this email should be treated and routed and responds back. The Unified Media Routing server then authorizes the mail client to read the mail in the database. Finally, the mail is displayed in the User Interface via the browser.
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Determining which process is requested. What is done with a connection? Which announcements are played to a caller? Which entries can/does the user have to make? What happens with the user's entries (voice mail, database entries, etc.)?
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Integrators to create custom Customer Interaction Express interfaces and offers functions such as sign in to an Agent group, pause, initiate a call, accept a call, etc.
Reporting
Customer Interaction Express Suite offers both real-time information and historical reporting features. Real-time information, for example, provides a close look at the status of agents, topics and queues. One can find all current and past information using the history reporting feature.
Historical Reporting
Using history reporting, a supervisor can conduct minute-based statistical assessments up to annual-based assessments. Over 1, 000 different counters are available for assessments. Supervisors must only select the desired counter, time periods, agents and topics, groups to generate a new report. The Reporting engine is built into Customer Interaction Express. It collects, analyses, evaluates and presents all contact center data of the Customer Interaction Express System. The reports are highly flexible, configurable and can be customized to meet most contact center monitoring
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requirements. The reports can be generated manually or automatically in a variety of ways. In addition, the data from these reports can be exported to other applications or files including Excel, Word, Adobe Acrobat Reader (.xls, .csv, .pdf, .rtf), etc. Reports can be viewed in table, graph or combination formats. Several tables and graphs can be included in one report. In addition to creating separate reports, frequently used reports are also supplied and can simply be selected. The Customer Interaction Express system delivers detailed information about contact center events, which are processed to statistical data. The system collects and classifies data for the call, email, SMS or fax and additional information like calling number, order codes, or skill combinations for defined objects such as agents, topics, agent groups etc. For all tasks it is also possible to have contact-by-contact tracking. The data can be presented in a variety of ways. Further, reports can be pulled by duration (start/stop, day of week) and time (minutes, hours, days and weeks). Using statistical data, contact centers performance can be evaluated. It also gives an insight into how customer contacts are handled. Furthermore the statistical data can be used by StaffPlanning tools or ERP programs. All statistical values are stored in a database. The collected data are the base for further analyses or special algorithm adjustments. The following types of statistics, which correspond to the different objects, are available: Agent specific statistics Agent Group specific statistics Device specific statistics Dialer specific statistics Trunk specific statistics (only Tenovis Integral 33/55 ) Skill-combination specific statistics System specific statistics Team specific statistics Topic specific statistics PABX specific statistics Voice Unit specific statistics
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Statistic Report
In addition to reports based on statistics, reports can also be generated for Tasks. This adds the ability to generate a cradle-to-grave report on a call. Using Task based reporting the following activities can be monitored: Call and mail handling How does a customer communicate with the call center? Which Topics/Agents are involved? How long does the customer communicate and with whom? Detail of call and mail handling Information about Transfers, Consultations, answering speed Analyzing the work flow (e.g. Announcements in Call Flow)
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Real-time Statistics
Real-time information provides the team leader or supervisor with precise information on the current status of agents, topics, queues and lines. This information is displayed directly in real time. Using this information, a supervisor can intervene directly and initiate counter measures if problems arise. For example, he or she can log additional agents into a group or edit priorities. Because no two contact centers are alike, Customer Interaction Express provides the option to quickly gather real-time information using the drag & drop function, so that each supervisor can configure the data according to their needs.
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Real-Time Monitoring
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The Customer Interaction Express User Interface is separated in the Business Logical Components and the viewing application. Like any standard Windows application, the Customer Interaction Express User Interface has menus, commands, a title bar, a tool bar, and a status bar. In addition, Customer Interaction Express User Interface also includes the Task Bar, The Cockpit Bar, Branding Area, and the Work Area. The following table describes these components.
The Customer Interaction Express User Interface is highly customizable. Any number of elements can be customized, that is, arranged on the user interface. Although the Customer Interaction Express user interface is a common application, the functionality and view are based on roles. A role is the specific function assigned to a user. It
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determines the user's privileges and rights. In order to understand the Customer Interaction Express User Interface it is important to understand the various User Roles and Privileges. User Roles and Privileges There are four main roles in Customer Interaction Express. These are Agent, Team Leader, Supervisor, and Administrator. Each role has access to certain privileges. A user may possess several roles, for example an Administrator may be a supervisor. These roles are managed using privileges. Some privileges are available to all agents while others are only accessible by a few agents, supervisors, and administrators. Furthermore, a team leader can have the privileges of an agent and a supervisor can have the privileges of a team leader and an agent. However an administrator may or may not possess the privileges of team leader or supervisor based on licenses purchased. Any user can possess the rights of an administrator. Privileges control which modules in the Customer Interaction Express system a user can use and which actions a user can carry out within the module. Privileges and rights are normally allocated using a profile and are assigned individually for each user. Rights determine what information a user can access. An agent role in the Customer Interaction Express system is defined using these settings. One agent can be given the right to change settings while other agents may not be able to do so. Also, you can determine whether the agent may pass on his privileges or not. The available User Roles are described in the following table.
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Each of these users has a set of functions which are accessible through respective interfaces. The Customer Interaction Express User Interface can be classified based on users in the following categories: Agent Interface Supervisor Interface (Team leader uses this interface with limited functionality) Administrator Interface
The User Interface for the Agent includes the Home Screen (welcome page), the First Screen for the voice contacts and the Email client for Email, Fax, and SMS.
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The Home Screen is the entry point after login. Contents of Home Screen are configurable with a subset of real-time statistic elements (e.g. personal statistic values or an embedded browser element). In the Home screen the agent can see his personal statistic for the day. The agent can see the number of calls and new emails, how many of them have been finished, or how long in total the agent has been in pause. The First screen is the interface for handling calls and viewing real-time statistic values. Calls are displayed and managed on the agent's First Screen. As the name implies First Screen is normally the primary screen that agents will use to handle inbound and outbound voice work items. The contact bar on the First Screen consists of contact information lines and a function bar. You can also use the contact bar as a minimized view.
Contact Bar
The Email Screen is the application where agents handle their emails. This screen provides the Email Inbox and work space powered with text blocks, if used for compiling replies. This application is available only if it has been licensed. In addition to the Task Bar, agents can also use the Cockpit Bar. It shows information about the current state of the contact center. Agent group topics and assignments can also be seen. Agents can speed up the work to meet the desired service levels. Further, bookmarks can be saved for useful internet links, word documents, or any other useful files.
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Cockpit Bar
Additionally, a web-page like the intranet start-page or other web-pages / web-applications with additional information for the agent can be integrated. Single or multiple windows can be arranged so that an agent can operate the necessary telephony functions quickly and simply. Agents are also informed of processes and get warnings if certain events happen.
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The Customer Interaction Express User Interface Supervisor application allows the supervisor to monitor, control, and receive reports on agent and contact center activity. Supervisors can actively intervene and influence call allocation. Based on volume or any other criteria, agents can be forced to log-in or log-out. In case of high call volume, calls can be pulled from the queue and forcibly assigned to agents. It is also possible to reserve calls for certain agents. Various monitor reports can be pulled to view real-time information. Each monitor report can consist of different sheets. Team leaders can only view reports while supervisors have rights to change reports or create new ones. By assigning certain rights, a supervisor can be limited to view certain agents, groups, topics, or teams. Reports on past statistics (Historical reports) can be started manually or scheduled to run, for example, at night. To create a manual report, you must only determine and select, the time period and time resolution for the desired statistics. Supervisors can also help agents in call resolution. There are two ways to do this - silent listening or active participation of the supervisor. With Customer Interaction Express, Tenovis
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Integral 33/55 supports both types of listening; however, Communication Manager supports only silent listening. Silent Monitoring: The supervisor listens to the conversation silently, while the Agent and the caller do not hear the supervisor. Coaching (Not supported on Communication Manager with Customer Interaction Express 1.0): The supervisor can help the agent actively. The agent can hear the caller and the supervisor. The caller cannot hear the supervisor. Call Escalation Assistance (Not supported on Communication Manager with Customer Interaction Express 1.0): The supervisor is in the conversation and can speak with both the agent and customer. The supervisor can actively participate in the conversation.
Additionally the supervisor can leverage these functionalities without the knowledge of the agent. The supervisor has full voice agent rights and can leverage all features available through the task bar and cockpit bar as needed.
The Administration interface is used for Basic Configuration, User Interface Configuration, task flow editor and dialer, etc.
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The Basic Configuration includes organizing topics, setting up agent profiles, agent groups and announcements. Setting up agents includes authorizing privileges and setting passwords for agents. Each agent is further assigned to an agent group and has certain skills allocated. On the email tab, the email addresses and email groups are assigned. Agent Groups and queue definitions are also created as part of Basic Setup. As part of User Interface Configuration, customized windows and the appearance of the interface to be used by agents is created for each agent individually. This encompasses the Home Screen, First Screen, Contact Bar, and the Cockpit Bar. The data to be presented and made available to the agent is embedded into the various screens. In the User Interface, global settings can be created which are the defaults for all agents. Profile wide or individual agent settings can also be created. The agent settings are the highest priority. Profile or Global settings are used only if no agent settings are provided. Another important module of the administration interface is the Task Flow Editor. In the task flow editor, all routing instructions of Customer Interaction Express are programmed. Based on the source which is usually a topic, you will define the conditions required to handle a contact or to route a contact from an agent group to an overflow group because the waiting period is too long. Announcements can also be included using the announcement element. For more complex scripts additional elements such as queries for the number of agents available, agent group that possesses a certain skill, last agent, and current agent destinations are available as well. For emails, assigning emails to topics, designing the email flow, creating text modules, linking Customer Interaction Express to an existing or new email system and support for multiple languages can all be done.
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The IVR editor is structured like the task flow editor. Creating scripts is nearly identical. Several scripts may be created here as well. If the system is aware of these as a result of the configuration, they are simply called up in the task flow. System- wide Task Tags are available directly in the editor and can be used or edited in the IVR scripts. Campaigns are configured and started in the Dialer. The call jobs can be imported here manually or automatically and then edited. Many parameters such as threshold values are available to manage how the campaign runs. Text modules can also be defined according to topics or system-wide for email routing in the configuration section. If a node should appear in another language, the language must be selected. The text is entered in the corresponding language's tab. This feature adds efficiency in the way emails are handled.
Switch/PBX Connection
Customer Interaction Express can be linked to Communication Manager, Release 3.1 or greater and / or Tenovis Integral 33/55 release E07 and higher. If both systems are in use in an enterprise, separate Taskservers must be installed for each telephone system.
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Communication Manager is linked to Customer Interaction Express via the Application Enablement Services (AES) and the TSAPI basic interface. The Communication Manager powered PBX adapts the TSAPI interface and provides an abstract CORBA application interface. The Communication Manager Taskserver adapts the telephone-specific behavior of the Communication Manager and makes it available to the kernel process and the Business Logical Components (BLC) using the Communication Manager Taskserver. The Taskserver interface has a standardized definition for all Taskservers (voice, email), which prevents the kernel process from having to differentiate between the individual media types and PBX types. The kernel process uses the Communication Manager Taskserver interface to control call routing and agents, monitor agents and devices, forward topic calls to the correct destinations like agent, topics, announcement scripts (Voice Extension Adapter, Common Hardware Abstraction Platform, and Voice Control), external destination, etc. In addition to the Taskserver, the Voice Extension Adapter and Common Hardware Abstraction Platform are required for preparing the Taskserver functions like signaling a topic call, queuing calls on the queue device, and switching calls to announcement scripts. The Voice Extension Adapter controls the call center routing and queuing devices. IP channels are used as routing devices. If a call is pending at a routing device, it is signaled as a route request. The PBX Taskserver notifies the kernel using the Communication Manager Taskserver interface. The Voice Extension Adapter receives the call destination determined by the kernel and vector processes from the Communication Manager Taskserver. The Common Hardware Abstraction Platform provides a specific adapter for each telephony interface supported. A QSIG over IP adapter is currently available. The Common Hardware
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Abstraction Platform also lets you play announcements. The announcements are stored in the database and are available as WAV files. When a Customer makes a call into a specific topic, Communication Manager routes the call directly to the Common Hardware Abstraction Platform in Customer Interaction Express. The calls are then queued in the Common Hardware Abstraction Platform. At the same time, a query is made to Vectoring via the Kernel regarding how the call will be treated. If no agents are available, the call stays in the Common Hardware Abstraction Platform and an announcement is played via the Voice Extension Adapter. If an agent is available, the Common Hardware Abstraction Platform establishes a second connection to the agent. As soon as the agent accepts the call a QSIG path replacement takes place within the Communication Manager. Both lines to the Common Hardware Abstraction Platform are disconnected and the customer is now connected to the agent via the Communication Manager.
Tenovis Integral 33/55 can be linked directly to Customer Interaction Express via an IP connection. You can connect the PBX to Customer Interaction Express using an ISDN card and the Module Manager or with L02. In addition to this the I55 Taskserver must be installed. Unlike Communication Manager, Tenovis Integral 33/55 does not require Application Enablement Services. These already operate the Computer Supported Telecommunications Application (CSTA) tab and the message traffic is processed directly between and Tenovis Integral 33/55 PBX, I55 Taskserver, and Customer Interaction Express. The CSTA protocol is used as the control protocol between these components.
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With Tenovis Integral 33/55 when a customer makes a call into a specific topic, the call is queued within the PBX. At the same time a query is made to the Vectoring via Computer Supported Telecommunications Application (CSTA) regarding how the call will be treated. As soon as an agent is available, vectoring decides, for example, how the call will be routed to an agent. Tenovis Integral 33/55 is informed of this via CSTA. The customer is now connected to the agent via Tenovis Integral 33/55.
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Multiple switches Announcements Number of queue positions Usage of TTS Usage of ASR Complexity of the call flow
The Sizing Tool can be used to determine the exact number of servers to run the system efficiently.
The reports that are generated by the Customer Interaction Express supervisor can be stored within the system and can be run even after the data is archived.
Archives
The Customer Interaction Express Unified Media Routing component works with documents stored in a runtime database and archives these documents in various levels once they have been completely processed. Multi-Level archiving for Unified Media Routing includes: First-level archiving Documents can be archived in the first-level archiving using the Unified Media Routing WebClient. Agents can access these documents from the Unified Media Routing WebClient. They behave similarly to un-archived documents. This is achieved by adding an archive flag to the documents in the runtime database. Second-level archiving
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At the second level of archiving the documents are stored in a second database. The archiving is done by the Archie archiving process and can be started cyclically via the Unified Media Routing Administrator. A second database (archiving database) is needed for the following reasons: If the runtime database (first-level archiving) grows too large and can no longer be handled efficiently it is necessary to store (archive) the data in a second database at certain intervals. A second database (second-level archiving) can make the data access by customer applications easier.
Any ODBC-capable database can be used for Second-level archiving. However, due to the different behavior of ODBC databases of different vendors, only the following databases are supported: Sybase 12.5 MS SQL Server 2000 Oracle (as of 9i)
Only the archive data stored in the Archive folder of the Unified Media Routing WebClient module can be accessed.
Security
Customer Interaction Express has several built-in features that provide security at different levels and for various components of the system. These include:
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User Interface. Additional privileges control which reporting types can be filled by which content by the user. Authorizations and privileges are assigned when you configure the Customer Interaction Express system. Further security for the data is offered by the implemented "FourEye Principle". This principle allows access to reporting data only when two passwords are entered. This enables works councils and other employee representatives to fulfill their rights. Further, Avaya recommends that you protect their systems against viruses as well as other unauthorized intrusion. Several email scanning and filtering products are readily available in the market. Avaya recommends that you scan all incoming emails. If an issue is reported regarding improper functioning of Customer Interaction Express, Avaya will work with you as needed to resolve the issue. Avaya further suggests that you follow the security guidelines and recommendations for Avaya AE Services (AES) to prevent hackers from gaining control of your network.
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Hard disk with at least 10 GB storage capacity Mouse Keyboard Network card (Ethernet card) Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4 or Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 or Microsoft Windows 2003 Server SP1 or R2 or Microsoft Windows 2003 Terminal Server or Terminal Server CitrixXP AES 3.1 TSAPI basic license per Customer Interaction Express User IP Trunks between Communication Manager and Customer Interaction Express The number of IP trunks depends on the call volume and call characteristics in the contact center. A sizing tool determines the required number of trunks for your contact center. QSIG on Communication Manager requires Enterprise Edition
NOTE: The requirements may be higher (number of servers) depending on the number of calls and whether you use Voice Control and Unified Media Routing.
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PC Intel Pentium IV 2.2 GHz processor (or comparable) or higher Memory (RAM): for an Agent recommended (Standard or Advanced): 512 MB, 1GB
for a Team Leader: 1 GB, 2GB recommended for a Supervisor: 1 GB, 2GB recommended
Hard disk with at least 10 GB storage capacity Mouse Keyboard Network card (Ethernet card) Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4 or Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 or
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NOTE: The requirements may be higher (number of servers) depending on the number of calls and whether you use Voice Control and Unified Media Routing.
Licensing
Licensing and pricing for Customer Interaction Express 1.0 is user based. You can choose between number agents based on the agent functionality required Standard and Advanced. Upgrade from standard to advanced agent is also available. Further, a choice can be made between Team Leader and Supervisor Licenses. Additionally, you can choose to purchase licenses for features including IVR ports and ASR and/or TTS. For licensing the Avaya WebLM, license manager is used. WebLM is a Web-based license server that was implemented as a Java Servlet and runs on the Tomcat in the Customer Interaction Express environment. The license client (application/Customer Interaction Express server components) and license server communicate using a standard HTTP connection. Licenses are managed and monitored using a Web browser.
Real time and Historical reporting Skills based routing 1 Team Leader (One per system)
Real time and Historical reporting Selected # of integration interfaces Skills based routing Usage of text blocks in E-Mail 1 Supervisor (One per system) 10 IVR ports (Once per system)
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Implementation Activities
The following are implementation activities that Avaya will perform regardless of the desired solution functionality: Pre-installation Support Avaya will communicate with you to be sure the target environment is ready for installation of the licensed Customer Interaction Express product. Project Initiation and Kickoff Avaya will initiate the project through tasks such as assigning the project team and establishing project timelines and activity assignments. Product Installation Avaya will install the licensed Customer Interaction Express product in your contact center according to the option set that has been chosen. Solution Administration Avaya will administer and configure the solution according to the options that have been chosen for implementation. Solution Implementation Avaya will implement the solution according to the options that have been chosen for implementation. Solution Testing Avaya will perform a unit test of each developed component, and an integrated system test of the solution. Solution Demonstration Avaya will demonstrate the developed Customer Interaction Express solution to your technical and business staff. Solution Documentation Avaya will document the solution requirements and design.
Knowledge Transfer Using the accepted solution in the deployed environment, Avaya will provide one ad-hoc, undocumented, hands-on, installation-specific, single-day knowledge transfer session for to up to two resources.
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Project Completion and Review Avaya will review all work completed for the purpose of acquiring solution acceptance.
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equipmentand hiring and training more employeesto keep your contact centers running. We can deliver the following benefits: Capture new customers in new ways: Deliver high levels of service to customers visiting your Web site with powerful new communication channels to your contact center like Web chat, instant messaging, scheduled call back and email Simple implementation: Enables you to successfully address service needs at each stage of growth Effectively manage on-line customer care: Administrators and supervisors have access to necessary tools through real-time displays, statistics and reports Record customer interactions: Obtain valuable customer insights, enhance training and track for regulatory requirements The comprehensive Contact Center solutions create versatile, end-to-end customer contact centers that deliver complete, seamless customer experiences.
Contact centers are the hub of customer interaction and in most business situations, contact center applications are tightly integrated with business applications and processes. In todays world, if a business requires a change to their customer interaction process, the work required to achieve the desired change is no small undertaking, requiring time and resources. Fierce competition and the need for businesses to differentiate themselves through the customer experience are driving the need for agility within the business and contact center applications. Businesses are finding that having the ability to automate services and process, while offering multiple channels of communication is critical in achieving differentiation through the customer experience. By speeding application integration through open interfaces, businesses achieve greater day-to-day efficiency and cost control. This enhances the customer experience and enables long term customer loyalty. Avaya NES Contact Center advantages include: Communications enablement using Service Oriented Architecture Unified Communications Agent Desktop Unified Contact Center and Self-Service Workflow Orchestration Tool Integrated predictive outbound dialing campaigns Accelerates the speed of doing business for greater cost efficiency Enables proactive customer interaction to increase business profitability Improves first contact resolution and enhances the customer experience
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out notices requesting agents for a particular shift, but only the first 20 that respond will be chosen. And, because the workflow is integrated with the Workforce Management system, only the most skilled and highly rated agents will be chosen for the shift. This is just one example of how automation of processes using Service Oriented Architecture and Web Services can reduce costs and speed time-to-revenue. Some of the other contact center Web Services include: Agent contacts Agent and supervisor information can be retrieved or added to the contact center by third party applications through Web Services. Agent Skillsets Agent skillsets can be added or removed via a Web Service. Agent Presence - Agent availability (agent idle or busy) information can be obtained from a third party application through a Web Service. Historical Statistics Allow custom database inquiries to be run and the data returned as a Web Service. Outbound campaigns Real-time modification of outbound contacts by a third party application while a campaign is in progress. Open queue Third party applications (CRM, etc.) can directly route multimedia contacts to be queued in the contact center. Communication Control Toolkit Communication Control Toolkit Computer Telephony Integration capabilities are available as a Web Service to allow integration with third party applications.
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The integration also provides presence status directly within the agent desktop interface, allowing agents to view the availability of experts and other agents who can help resolve customer interactions faster. And because Contact Center is based on SIP, geographies are transparent, creating a truly virtual contact center and community of subject matter experts around the globe. Federated presence also provides contact center agents with a network of business partner experts to assist in helping customers faster.
Agent Desktop
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processes. Traditional programming methods are time-consuming and tedious, requiring extensive expertise and resources and often the end result is inflexible, making it difficult to make simple modifications. With Service Creation Environment, the workflow orchestration between front and back office applications is simplified using open Web Services interfaces that reduce cost and speed deployment. With this new graphical-based application, you can drag and drop contact center and self-service elements and re-use existing elements. Additional time is saved by having a tool that creates the workflow diagrams for you versus spending time creating these in ad hoc tools. Canned workflows are also provided for simple, out of the box set-up in new contact centers. Service Creation Environment also simplifies the creation of call-flow scripts and removes the need for special expertise required to develop traditional text based scripts. Script quality is also improved with special error checking parameters built in to reduce common scripting errors, resulting in additional cost savings. From initial creation to ongoing maintenance, this easy-to-use tool will simplify management of your contact center environment.
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Contact Center
SMS
Voice
Social Media
SMS
Chat
We are excited by the opportunity to partner with to assist you in overcoming the challenges you face including: Demographics are changing. needs to serve customers with various needs and expectations. Changes in communications include access methods (Web self service), different media (SMS), and exploding types of modes (smart phones). The challenge is that many Gen X and Y and some Baby Boomers do not even consider contacting a businesses call center for information but rather collaborate with peers using social media including tweeting. needs to plan for changes in demographics and how to be flexible to evolve to meet the changing needs and expectations of different customers of how, when, and where to be served. Interactions are changing. Voice is a significant interaction channel but both customers and companies are expanding interaction methods to include email, Web, and other emerging channels like SMS and social media. Customers expect to be able to reach businesses when, how, and where they want. More importantly, customers expect to
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have a consistent experience across the different touch points with businesses. needs to plan for changes in interaction channels and to add additional interaction channels while delivering a consistent customer experience. Customer satisfaction risks are increasing. Although there has been more focus in the last few years on cost reduction, customer satisfaction is critical since customers form their opinions about a business based on their contact center interactions. Surveys highlight that there is a significant customer satisfaction risk based on the gap between the level of service that companies are delivering and what customers expect. Companies need to plan for how to evolve and integrate their communications, information, and processes to be able to dynamically adapt in real time to proactively manage customer experience expectations. The challenge is that every new channel and service added to increase differentiation and stimulate growth also increases the risk of dissatisfying the customer.
We can deliver the following benefits: Increase access options for customers: Deliver high levels of service to customers with powerful new contact center communication channels such as Web Chat, SMS text, instant messaging, social media and email. Integrated applications suite: An integrated, collaborative, multimedia, contact center solution, Contact Center includes reporting, preview and progressive outbound calling, contact recording and quality monitoring, workforce management, as well as innovative features such as the ability to integrate with social media. It reduces the need for customization and utilization of proprietary, CTI-based APIs required by competitors. The out-of-the-box multi-channel agent desktop application reduces cost, complexity, and improves time-to-market. Note: Workforce Optimization on Midsize Enterprise is expected to be available in the next product release. Standards based ecosystem: As a standards-based solution, leveraging SIP, SOA and Web services, Contact Center attracts a larger ecosystem of application developers who can develop and deploy applications to suit the specific needs of businesses. Multi-vendor deployment: As proprietary CTI links are replaced by SIP-based integration, businesses have the potential to standardize their contact center applications on a multi-vendor infrastructure. SIP-based collaboration and conferencing for context persistence is more current, flexible, simple and a lot less expensive to develop and maintain compared to the obsolete model of CTI overlays of networks, applications and protocols. Standardsbased SIP, SOA and Web services interfaces increase deployment flexibility compared to the use of old-world, proprietary APIs to manage old-world infrastructure. Standard SIP, SOA and Web services interfaces increase deployment flexibility compared to competitive solutions proprietary architecture and rip-and-replace approach that may require devices and the underlying infrastructure to be replaced. Avaya single server and compact deployment options result in lower total cost of ownership compared to competitive solutions server proliferation.
A software application that runs on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers, Avaya Aura Contact Center is the next upgrade step for customers who have deployed:
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Avaya Contact Center Express; Avaya Aura 5.2.1 for Midsize Enterprise; Avaya Aura Communication Manager 5.2.1 standalone support will be added at a future date; Avaya Symposium Call Center Server (SCCS), Avaya NES Contact Center 6.0, 7.0 or 7.1 over the Application Meridian Link to Avaya Communication Server 1000; Avaya NES Contact Center 7.0 or 7.1 using a SIP/OCS based integration to Avaya Communication Server 1000; or Avaya NES Contact Center 7.1 Express via SIP on Avaya Communication Server 1000.
Features and Benefits Contact Center helps enterprises improve customer satisfaction, increase revenues and profitability, and enhance agent and supervisor productivity while reducing capital expenditure and operational expenditure costs. Contact Center addresses the needs of all stakeholders including the line-of-business manager, contact center manager, IS/IT manager and agents. The following are some of the key capabilities: Agent efficiency Unified agent desktop: Unified agent desktop allows agents to optionally simultaneously handle multiple contacts of various media types. The Email editor, auto suggest, auto response, Web push and context sensitive handling capabilities substantially enhance agent productivity while minimizing training requirements. Contact Center Offsite Agent: The ability to offer flexible, at-home teleworking arrangements, allows contact center managers to hire the best agents, motivate them, improve performance and reduce agent-churn. This optional add-on feature is currently only supported for contact center deployments over Avaya Communication Server 1000. Proactive interaction: Preview and Progressive outbound dialing enables enterprises to utilize their agents for revenue generating activities. Reaching out to customers with timely reminders increases collections, resulting in higher revenues and profitability. They also shape the type and amount of inbound contacts. Contact Center includes an Email editor that delivers the following capabilities: Full style editing e.g. font, size, bold, italics, 216 colors, bulleted and numbered lists, insert tables, images, hyperlinks all the standard capabilities expected from a fully featured editor. Both text-based and HTML formats supported. New auto-suggest capabilities enable agents to quickly pick from a set of responses to provide professional replies. Automatic tracking of the response usage facilitates optimization of responses in the future. Contact Center includes the ability to identify and highlight keywords in incoming IMs. Note: Reference to IM capability in this document applies to implementations on Avaya Communication Server 1000 and Microsoft OCS. Avaya Presence and IM are expected to be available in the next product release. Dynamic keyword
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groups can be defined and then associated with a group of experts. When the agent clicks on a keyword in an incoming IM, it refreshes the visible buddy list with a corresponding list of experts. This capability is supported only in Avaya Communication Server 1000 configuration where the Contact Center is integrated with Microsoft OCS. This ensures that the best experts to consult with will be displayed based on a given matched keyword in the incoming IM and the expert can be consulted with a single click. Apart from identifying experts who can quickly solve customer issues it also provides a better workload distribution for experts based on area of specialty. Supervisor effectiveness Service Creation Environment (SCE): The drag and drop menus in the graphical user interface of the SCE make it easier and more efficient to develop routing scripts with fewer errors, easing the need for specialized resources. More importantly it makes it easier and faster to modify workflows to meet changing business requirements. Simplified administration: Common, Web-based administration for contact center supervisors and managers reduces configuration complexity, eliminates duplication, reduces errors and lowers implementation time and cost. It allows contact center managers to maintain multiple contact center nodes over the Web from a single point. Unified Reporting: On-board reporting with standard or customized, tabular and graphical, historical and real-time displays with dynamic filtering provide easy-toread information on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), contact summaries and consolidated reports. This reduces the time spent analyzing data and allows more time for coaching agents so that both agent and supervisor productivity can be greatly improved.
Architecture, scalability, security and reliability. Standards based solution: The Contact Center SIP-based architecture makes it easy to develop, implement and maintain screen pops reducing time, effort and cost required to launch new capabilities to further enrich the context and information presented to agents. Standards based Web services simplify the integration between the contact center and back office applications allowing enterprises to quickly and easily adapt to changes. Contact Center also facilitates integration with social media such as Twitter and Facebook. The SIP based solution simplifies the architecture, and reduces the need for expensive and time consuming CTI deployments. Small server footprint and large scalability: Contact Center is appropriate for a wide range of deployments from single-server deployments to mid-size and large enterprise deployments of up to 1000 agents for Communication Manager configurations and up to 5,000 agents for Avaya Communication Server 1000. It also supports multi-site, virtual contact center deployment on Communication Server 1000 with up to 30 nodes.
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Security and authentication: Security includes single sign-on and authentication with Microsoft Active Directory reducing repetitive authentication. Reliability: Real-time shadowing and automatic switchover for all core application components: call processing, multimedia, administration and CTI, with zero-touch recovery enables seamless uninterrupted operation. Support for both Microsoft Hyper V and VMware virtualization environments facilitates server consolidation and deployment flexibility saving capital expenditure and operational expenditure. Rich third party developer ecosystem: SIP, SOA and Web services interfaces encourage a rich ecosystem of third party application developers to develop and integrate applications to meet specific needs of enterprises.
Customer satisfaction Increased access options: Intelligent routing of up to six multimedia contacts: five non-voice contacts such as Instant Messaging (on Communication Server 1000 only), Web Chat, SMS text, email, voice mail, fax and scanned documents plus one inbound or outbound voice contact, through an open, universal queue offers customers numerous contact options. The multimedia capability increases customer options and ease of access. Context preservation: Information such as the customers immediate prior activity, historical data and social attributes helps anticipate user needs and facilitates higher rates of First Contact Resolution and enhances contact center efficiency. Avaya uses conferencing to handle all customer contacts. All contacts are held in the SIP Media Application Server and the agents, experts or other resources required to serve the customer are conferenced in. This anchoring of the customer contact on the SIP Media Application Server enables agents, experts and supervisors to have access to information about the customers context. Customer context information will be used by the work assignment engine in the future to fine tune the match between incoming customer interactions or work and available contact center and enterprise resources. Ease of integration with social networks provides options for business managers to nurture, build and promote brand image, and equally important, resolve issues before they grow out of proportion.
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Value Proposition The Avaya vision for next generation customer care is about delivering superior experience management. Increased competition, changing demographics, the growth of new communications media, and more demanding customers, require enterprises to consistently deliver higher-value customer service and effectively manage their customers experience. Context is critical to experience management. Knowledge of the customers immediately prior activity, past history, purchase behavior, and preferences provides a wealth of information and a rich context for the interaction. Enterprises that harness this context to deliver superior experience differentiate themselves from their competitors. Contact Center is a standards-based customer contact solution that allows enterprises to: Offer more customer access options to improve satisfaction and loyalty; Improve agent utilization and productivity through multiple call handling, inbound and outbound capability and agent efficiency features; Facilitates the use of real-time and historical customer data to frame the appropriate context for each and every interaction to improve first contact resolution; Enhance supervisor effectiveness: Simplified administration and unified reporting. Equip managers to administer the contact center, analyze performance through unified reporting, learn and apply best-practices to continuously improve the agility of the contact center;
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Manage the customers experience, both assisted and automated, to quickly solve customer issues and increase profitable revenue opportunities; Begin the evolution from queuing and routing to resource selection and work assignment; Use standards-based interfaces such as SIP, SOA and Web services to flexibly connect and open the enterprise, eliminate cost and complexity and facilitate integration to business processes and social media; Provide migration paths to protect, extend and grow investments, optimize cost and improve performance; and Ease deployment of reliable, resilient contact centers with uninterrupted operation.
Enterprises can achieve these benefits while preserving existing infrastructure investments and enhancing flexibility, tightening security, augmenting service availability and saving capital expenditure and operational expenditure.
Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7.0 Quad Xeon 2.8 GHz with 8Gb of RAM
Virtualization Microsoft Hyper V, VMware vSphere 4.0 Agent / Communication Server 1000 Devices Supervisor 1100 Series IP Deskphones (as Agent or Supervisor) Devices 1150E IP Deskphone 1200 Series IP Deskphones (as Agent or Supervisor) 1230 IP Deskphone recommended IP Phone 2002 (as Agent) IP Phone 2004, 2050 IP Softphone, M2216 7, 3905 Digital Deskphone (as Agent or Supervisor) 3904 Digital Deskphone (as Supervisor)
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Multiple handling
call Up to six simultaneous contacts can be handled by an agent (One inbound or outbound voice call and up to five additional non-voice contacts).
Virtual Contact Supports networked skills based routing for voice and CTI data across up to Center 30 nodes in a single Virtual Contact Center. This capability is supported only on Avaya Communication Server 1000 configuration. Reporting Granular and customizable real-time and historical reporting for voice and multimedia. Built in Graphical Service Creation Environment (SCE). Legacy text-based scripting fully supported and can be imported into the SCE. Avaya Voice Portal integrated via SIP landing pad; Media Processing Server 500 3.0; or Media Processing Server 1000 3.5, 3.5 MR1 / 4.0 Preview and Built-in (requires separate RTU license). Progressive Outbound WFO Avaya NES Contact Recording and Quality Monitoring (CRQM) 7.0 (requires separate RTU license). Avaya Workforce Management (WFM) (requires separate RTU license). (Note this release will not support SIP call recording)
Scripting
Self-Service
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