Setting up an IP Contact Center

Holding hands of technology, call centers have undergone a paradigm shift from using plain old telephone service (POTS) to a true IP voip contact center . This has not only reduced costs but even facilitated innovation to optimize customer experience. The voip call centers which have failed to make this transition are among the disadvantaged lot.
There is so much happening in so little time that it often becomes very difficult for a call center to make a right choice that ushers in optimum utilisation of capital and human resources along with profit. Flexibility is the key for call centers, they need to plan everything in a manner where there is sufficient scope to expand and contract operations. It has been found this is not the case with existing call centers who fail to switch over to modern techniques due to their inability to innovate new services because of the rigid, proprietary nature of its call center architecture.
It is not very difficult to create a true IP contact center in which both voice and data communications can be joined and efficiently routed to an IP-connected agent. Call center need to “Voice-enable” their IP network. Voice-enabled Intranets open up the ability to embed real-time communications into the very fabric of the customer support processes. Besides it also facilitates linking enterprise resources into the customer service process, and for sophisticated contact center functionality to be leveraged throughout the enterprise.
Experts are of the view that the first step towards attaining an IP contact center is by embracing technical standards and moving to a standards-based infrastructure with protocols such as SIP, SIMPLE and SOAP, which enable companies to collapse all communications onto a single IP network . These simultaneously increase the ability to add new services like IM and click-to-talk, which reduces costs and increase customer satisfaction.
Second step is about having a central data center, which serves as the heart of the operation by providing shared voice, video, IM, email and other services as well as intelligent call routing to agents in geographically distributed contact centers. It is very beneficial as it drastically reduces IT complexity and costs.
After consolidation and convergence, real-time communications is embedded in customer service business process with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) which enables communication application and allows agents to communicate with supervisors, peers and experts to seamlessly support customers.
By taking these small steps, a call center can reap big benefits including better performance, quality, reliability and security as any other IP application.

AUTHOR bIO: James is an associated author to the
obelyx.com, write articles for Voip call centers, Voip dialers, call centre software.