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ACD's
For The Twenty-First Century BY RICH TEHRANI |
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The Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) is the call center equivalent of the
mainframe. Typically expensive to purchase and maintain and relatively
difficult to work with, ACDs have been around for decades and have, in fact,
changed little during that time. The death of the mainframe and the death of
the ACD have been predicted by many. The reality is that neither of these
products will really die: They will evolve. In the case of the ACD, we have seen PC-based ACDs from companies like
AltiGen and network (ATM)-based ACDs from companies like CellIT. These are
forward-looking products that merit some serious consideration before you
purchase an ACD. It is truly quite mind-boggling to see such ingenuity in a
product category that has otherwise remained stagnant for years. And, just when I thought that the innovation in the ACD market had finally
subsided, I was overwhelmed by two recent ACD announcements that are
incredibly unique. ROCKWELL’S TRANSCEND Rockwell has recently become as nimble and quick as any small CTI company
in the industry. In fact, I would be hard-pressed to think of another company
of Rockwell’s size and product breadth that has come up with as many useful,
leading- edge CTI products of late. If ever there was a legitimizer for the
entire PC-based PBX and ACD product category, it is Rockwell’s Transcend.
Known as an ultra-conservative company, Rockwell is putting its latest
mission-critical ACD on a PC running Windows NT. This is the turning point
for which the PC-PBX industry has been waiting for over a year. If any PBX or
ACD vendor is not working on a competitor to Transcend, I believe they will
be in big trouble. Although PC-based ACDs have been around for a few years, most have limited
feature sets and reporting tools, primarily because these new vendors are not
experts at ACD development. In fact, even many large PBX vendors supplying
ACD software usually don’t match the power of Rockwell’s Spectrum ACD which
is designed for the largest and most sophisticated call centers. The good
news is that the Spectrum interface (including reporting and monitoring
features) is available in Transcend. CT Media CT Media streamlines applications development by handling the details of
media resource control and functions internal to the computer telephony
server; it manages system resources while grouping and providing them to
handle application tasks. Furthermore, it transfers calls and resources among
multiple client applications. By abstracting these low-level functions,
developers no longer need to manage these functions from within their
applications. They can now focus entirely on the requirements of application
development and integration. S.100 In the days of DOS-based computing, software developers supplied programs
with hundreds of printer drivers encompassing every popular printer at that
time. Developers could spend half of their development effort writing drivers
for each printer. Ingenuity suffered as a result of this wasted programming
manpower, and printer prices remained artificially high as it was difficult
to break into the printer market unless drivers for your printer existed.
Windows abstracted this programming effort, allowing a developer to develop a
single printer driver that would conform to the specification of the OS.
Programmers could now write to the Windows printer API once and let the OS
handle each specific printer. Akin to the Windows analogy, S.100 allows multiple applications from
different vendors to share a single computer telephony server, reducing cost
and extending system value for the system owner. The many proprietary
hardware APIs of the past are represented as a single API. The many types of
potential resource conflicts are taken into account and handled seamlessly by
the specification. Application developers can now build products that are
more portable and can reach broader markets as they run seamlessly on a
larger number of hardware platforms. Moreover, using S.100 allows upgrades to be seamlessly performed,
including the addition of new technologies and additional capacity without
the need to rewrite applications. As long as new hardware products adhere to
the H.100 specification, they can be added into the system without undue work
or reprogramming. The net effect is lower cost and greater owner investment
protection. CT Media’s open interfaces for call control extensions allow applications
developed to standard APIs like TAPI to access the same CT server resources
used for media applications. This will reduce hardware cost and allow for
development of call control applications like switching that tightly
integrate with media processing services like IVR, messaging, fax on demand,
and others. The full benefits of Transcend will only be realized if others decide to
jump on the S.100 bandwagon. This is the classic chicken-and-egg dilemma.
Some other major telecommunications players have announced S.100 development,
and only time will tell how this shakes out. Rockwell is busy building a
distribution channel for Transcend. Please feel free to contact them directly
for more information, either as a reseller or an end user at
www.ecd.rockwell.com or 630-227-8212. Pricing was not avail-able as of this
writing. AN IP-BASED CALL CENTER SOLUTION Some of the features this software-based call center solution provides are
screen pops, database lookup, video calling, Web integration, IVR, agent
splits, supervisory control, call tracking, and reporting. The feature list
is pretty complete. The Netspeak ACD server routes calls to call center agents equipped with
Netspeak Webphones. Netspeak’s Webphone is a software-based telephone that
can be connected to a headset or handset through a PC’s sound card or
equivalent. When an incoming call is initiated on a network such as the
Internet, the IP packets are simply routed by the software ACD. In the case
of a call originating on the PSTN, a Netspeak Webphone Gateway Exchange (WGX)
converts these calls to IP for routing to agent’s desktops. Ubiquitous packet networks — in the form of intranets and the Internet —
guarantee that the virtual call center is now a reality. As long as an agent
is logged onto the network, calls can be routed to them regardless of their
physical location. Another interesting twist that this product provides is the tight
connection between the bundled IVR system and the ability to push URL pages
onto a caller’s browser. Assuming an incoming caller waiting for an agent has
a Web browser available to them, the IVR system could help answer any
questions the caller has by displaying the appropriate Web page corresponding
to the question. The flexibility inherent in an IP-based call center solution should be
readily apparent. Extending the traditional ACD beyond the walls of the
physical call center allows companies to manage their call center costs more
effectively. Physical call centers set up in expensive offices in areas such
as New York can be staffed by less costly agents in rural America. If your
call center outgrows your office space, you can keep adding agents in a
second location without having to move. Companies with multiple call centers
can easily route call traffic from center to center as capacity limitations
dictate. Multilingual call centers can be set up inexpensively with agents
located in their native countries. Sincerely, Rich Tehrani |
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