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iLink– Spring, 2008
Your
Source for Call Center and IVR Solutions for
the System i
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If
you are interested in obtaining more
details about any of the products or
information contained in iLink,
please contact
us. We are interested in your comments
and suggestions and would like to incorporate
them in future issues of iLink. |
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One of our recent clients, MESVision, has used iNspire with great results. MESVision provides vision-care services to employer groups though a nationwide network of ophthalmologists, opticians and optometrists. Being in a highly competitive field, this company recognized the need to focus on providing the best possible service to eyecare professionals and patients who telephoned. iMessaging Services was able to furnish the perfect solution: our iNspire Call Center Suite.
With iNspire, MESVision has been able to give callers a more pleasant and efficient telephone experience, while also reducing operating costs. You can find out why MESVision's director of information systems said, “iNspire delivered dramatic telephone service improvement,” by following this link. This installation was featured in the January 2008 issue of IBM Systems Magazine in the Winter 2008 i On Business supplement.
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Now that the waters have calmed a bit regarding IP Telephony (also known as VoIP) on System i, what is happening in this arena? It seems like much of the buzz initially generated when IBM first announced IPT on System “i” at Common’s 2006 Conference in Minneapolis has quieted a bit.
 Well, rest assured, here at iMessaging Systems the excitement surrounding IBM’s important IPT Telephony announcement is still very real and remains an important element of our future strategy. Last year, working with IBM we completed developments of the initial release of our SIP interface for IPT Telephony on System i. That release added the SIP interface to the existing TDM interface options of our iNspire Call Center Suite. SIP is the VoIP standard protocol for many VoIP systems. We also participated in a variety of discussions, including Technical Review Boards at IBM's Rochester Lab. These
meetings were intended to help chart the future course of our solutions.
This year, and in great part as a result of the foundation work completed in 2007, we are working on enhancements that will make iNspire a more feature-rich product with availability to a broader array of clients. As for IBM, they have continued to enhance IP Telephony offerings as part of their broader Unified Communications strategy. In addition to 3Com’s VCX platform, IBM has announced the availability of Nortel as the second IP Telephony offering for System i. Complete details may be found on IBM’s website at: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/i/solutions/iptelephony/aboutnortel.html
So, watch iLink, the press and IBM announcements. There will be more excitement coming in the area of IP Telephony and Unified Communications for the System i and the power platform. And, iMessaging Systems will be a prominent part of the future strategy as the key "Telephony Integration" player in the space. As many of you already know, iMessaging’s iNspire solution provides the elements to easily integrate telephony functions with System i applications whether your telephone system is 3Com, Nortel, Avaya or another. Please let us know if we can assist you with your telephony related questions.
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All DIALING solutions are not created equal! |
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We often field inquiries from our clients and prospects about dialing solutions. When we get these questions, we’ve found that it’s a good practice to step back and offer a quick primer on dialing solutions and capabilities because … not all dialing solutions are created equal!
Below, we provide an overview of the different categories of “dialing” solutions available. As always, should you have questions, feel free to contact your account manager or sales team for further information.
Here are the common dialer solution categories available on the market today:
Automated Dialers with Static Messages: These systems have the ability to place as few as 2 phones calls or hundreds of calls simultaneously to a list of telephone numbers supplied by a database (DB). Automated Dialers have the ability to recognize the disposition of the outbound call; that is whether the call encountered a busy signal, an answering machine or if a live person picked up. Once the connection is made the system plays a pre-recorded message.
Automated Dialers with IVR Capabilities: These systems are similar to Automated Dialers with Static Messages, but add the ability to play custom messages to callers and begin an interactive “conversation.” The addition of custom messages provides the system with the ability to play a specific message based on who is being called and can even insert DB information specific to the call. For example, if the dialer is calling individuals about a promotional offer, the DB may contain information identifying the called party as being eligible for a $100 discount or the special “platinum” offer. Being able to customize messages means the message can be unique and specific for each call. And, through the use of advanced technologies such as Text-to-Speech, the system can even speak the called party's name or street address. In addition to custom messages, systems with IVR capabilities can ask to the person who picks up the phone for responses, such as:
“Is this John Smith?”
“Please confirm delivery date of your order.”
With added interactive capabilities, these systems have the ability to deliver far more specific information and value to the called party.
Automated Dialers with IVR and Agent Connect: In addition to the features above, these systems can connect the called party to an agent if requested. This gives the called party an option to speak to a “live” agent if they have a question regarding the information presented or the responses requested. The idea is to service the caller efficiently but to also offer personal service when required.
Agent Directed Dialers: These dialing systems help companies process more calls more efficiently. The systems are typically designed around groups of agents who have responsibility to make outbound calls in a prioritized manner. The calls are typically processed from a call list which the agent sees when they log into the system each day. The call list is generated from a DB file and prompts the agent for the next call to dial. The agent would select the call to be dialed and the system initiates the dialing process. If a busy signal is encountered, the system resequences the record for another dial at a later time. When a live person answers the call, a screen pop is generated with specific information or a script regarding the agent’s purpose for calling. This process provides the agent with the information he or she requires to handle the call efficiently. With Agent Directed Dialing, it is important to point out the agent initiates each call from their call list. Agent initiation of calls ensures each call has an agent available to speak directly and immediately to the called party. The advantage of directed dialing is that the system controls the prioritization and tracks dialing success and statistics.
Predictive Dialers: Unlike Agent Directed Dialing, predictive dialing does not have the agent initiate the dial function. Rather, the system initiates multiple outbound dials simultaneously and attempts to “predict” the number of “answers” and match that with the number of agents available at any given time. Predictive Dialers use a system-supplied algorithm to match the number of outbound dials made with the number of available agents such that when a connect is made an agent is available to service the call. The challenge of predictive dialers is twofold: first, the system needs to accurately predict the number of calls to make so that an agent is available for each connection made. If not, the called party hears dead air and is lost. Secondly, when the connection is made to the agent there is often a delay and sometimes the caller can hear transfer tones in the form of clicking. This delay often confuses callers causing them to hang up. New techniques in Predictive Dialing help to eliminate the delay with the result of more completed calls being accomplished.
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iLink Definition |
The Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) is an Internet protocol standard that specifies a way for programs to manage the real-time transmission of multimedia data over either unicast or multicast network services. Developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), RTP is commonly used in Internet telephony applications. RTP does not in itself guarantee real-time delivery of multimedia data (since this is dependent on network characteristics); it does, however, provide the wherewithal to manage the data as it arrives to best effect.
Source: http://whatis.techtarget.com/
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Upcoming Events: COMMON, NEUGC
Visit iMessaging Systems at the following events this spring:
As a perennial exhibitor, iMessaging System will again be one of the foundation exhibitors at this year’s event. 2008 marks the first full year of the new COMMON format featuring a single, comprehensive vendor exposition. See iMessaging at booth #510.
Additionally, iMessaging will be presenting at the COMMON education conference on Tuesday, April 1 at 8:00AM. The session topic is “Integration of Telephony and i5/OS Applications Using iNspire”
The eight iSeries user groups of the Northeast, from the states of CT, ME, MA, NH, NY, RI, and VT, have joined together to offer an annual IBM iSeries technical conference in Framingham, MA. The conference consists of approximately 100 sessions, 20 speakers (from both IBM and the iSeries community), as many as 500 attendees, and 30 vendor sponsors. The conference covers a variety of technical subjects and includes seminars, workshops, and hands-on labs.
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Customer Service Benefits from te-leph’-o-ny, not tela-foh’nee
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Using a telephone call to communicate interactively with a computer to retrieve or submit information from or to a database has revolutionized the customer service industry.
Click here to visit our blog and learn how industries such as Finance, Business, Healthcare, Transportation, Government, Utilities, Manufacturing and Distribution are utilizing telephony and, more specifically, IVR to enhance the customer/CSR interaction.
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