Returning for 2015, What was missed during the holidays.

As the new year rolls in and we start to get back into the normal work day lets review a few posts that might have been missed.

Stephen over on indosftnotes.blogpost.ca continues with Part 3 of How to Populate Client Info which is timely and I can envision uses with open data that James talked on blog.indosoft.com.

Planning an upgrade or new system in 2015? These posts covering pros and cons of On-Premise or Cloud Solutions for your Contact Center may help with your decision.  Both options have their benefits even for those who want to get under the hood although going with a shared cloud solution will limit some options for how deep one can dig.

We’ll be back to the normal weekly posts starting next week.

Getting Under the Hood With Your Call Center Software

Man using vacuum to clean out computer
I don’t think they were this careful

We once received a call from a client who was down. It turned out that he kept his server sitting open so that the cleaning staff could vacuum it out periodically. One overzealous cleaner (and it doesn’t take much here to count as overzealous) accidentally knocked a Pika card too hard, knocking loose several of the DSP modules. Those were the days when we were a little cautious about exposing too much functionality and monitoring to clients. Continue reading “Getting Under the Hood With Your Call Center Software”

Decision 2015: On-Premise Call Center?

The old gatekeepers are stumbling. The momentum behind the change to the Cloud has caught them off-guard. That’s not to say that the Cloud is the right solution to every problem, but it is increasingly a solution for call centers that must decide how to allocate their resources in the future. Having said that, decision-makers must weight the advantages and disadvantages of Cloud-based contact centers and on-premise solutions. Continue reading “Decision 2015: On-Premise Call Center?”

Populating Client Information – Part 3: Getting the Data Back Out

Data that can’t be extracted or reported is worth less than data that can be reported. In “Populating Client Information to Agents In Your ACD” Part 1 and Part 2 discussed getting data into the system and to agents. Once the agent has gotten their hands on it, there can be updates, changes or even new data that needs to be reported back. Details about the call usually also falls under the rubric of exportable/reportable data.
Continue reading “Populating Client Information – Part 3: Getting the Data Back Out”

Adding Reliability With The Overseer and High Availability

Failure is not an option. Failures are disruptive, and a disrupted call center floor is an expensive headache to manage. The promise of Asterisk, which was replacing monolithic telephony hardware installations with multiple commodity servers running call center software, was a lowering of the total cost of ownership. The promise has been fulfilled, but enterprise contact center installations have to be mindful of the possibility of hardware or software disruptions. This is why we introduced the HAASIPP, to allow call survival, and the Overseer to manage processes and allocate them between servers in a high availability solution. Continue reading “Adding Reliability With The Overseer and High Availability”

Distinct Agent Logins in Multi-Tenant Call Centers

Not even the clown is me

There is more than one person named Stephen Ray. There are even more people who have Stephen and Ray as part of their name. It’s not the most common name; I’m sure there are a lot more John Smiths, Maria Silvas, etc.. Large call centers often have to contend with name clashes when designating login names for various services, especially when you consider a few years of normal employee turnover. The problem compounds when you are using multi-tenant call center software. Continue reading “Distinct Agent Logins in Multi-Tenant Call Centers”