One of the reasons Asterisk has taken such a large share of the telephony market is the ease of deploying it on commodity hardware with free, Open Source operating systems. Commoditizing hardware and simplifying its deployment has been a key factor in the widespread adoption of the Cloud as a business concept. This makes the Cloud an ideal target for deployment of Asterisk-based contact center software. However, requirements such as long-term storage of recordings or data have complicated the picture. Once again, the Cloud offers a solution. Services such as Amazon S3 provide a widely-available interface for the long-term storage of recordings while providing easy access when required. Amazon RDS, their database offering, puts the headache of tuning and configuring the database server back in the hands of Amazon. Continue reading “Cloud Offerings Simplify Call Center Deployment”
Integration to Cloud Contact Center Services using API
Application Program Interfaces (API) are essential for integrating business and third party systems into the contact center solution work-flow. This is an important consideration when selecting a Cloud contact center solution. Mature service providers offer web services API that allow external applications to automate tasks. Almost all contact center software functionality available through a user interface can be exposed through Web API.
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Evaluating Cloud Contact Center Solutions
Cloud contact center solutions are becoming mainstream and are rapidly gaining market-share. Telecom, Internet and infrastructure service providers are diversifying into contact center services to expand their portfolio by utilizing multi-tenant contact center software. Cloud based deployments offer contact center software and associated infrastructure as a service, catering to on-demand growth. Using Cloud contact center services, with minimum capital expense, it is possible to start a contact center operation as long as there is adequate network bandwidth and connectivity. Continue reading “Evaluating Cloud Contact Center Solutions”
Integrating Phone, Email and Trouble-ticket support through Multi-Channel ACD
Providing good support to existing customers for your products or services will preserve customer loyalty and generate long term support revenue. This is especially true with software and information technology products and services. In the global market place, phone, email and web based support are the norm for offering customer service but they consume significant resources. With so much emphasis on sales, a lot of programs are offered to push sales, resulting in large volumes of customer inquiry. It is useful to look at how phone, email and web inquiries are organized before presenting them to a multi-channel call center software for routing.
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SaaS and Cloud deployments – Important considerations for Managed Services
There are a variety of reasons why companies are considering a move to Cloud or SaaS (Software as a Service) based contact center setup. The foremost consideration is the flexibility in terms of capacity and call center location. This has a bearing on the cost of the setup and on-going management. There are other aspects like on-going access to more recent technology, better functional capabilities and reducing internal IT resources for on-going upkeep. Ultimately it is the total cost of ownership and the return on investment that decides if managed services is the right option for a contact center operation. Continue reading “SaaS and Cloud deployments – Important considerations for Managed Services”
Managed services and Call Center as a Service
Managed Services is a way to off-load the responsibility for software, infrastructure and connectivity to a provider. Organizations are embracing managed services as a means to avoid the burden of capital cost and cost of IT management. It is a way to boost productivity and profitability in an increasingly competitive market with commodity-type price pressures.
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Distributed Multi-site ACD and Contact Center Setup
The availability and growth of Internet and IP network access has changed the landscape of the contact center industry. Its positive impact is seen in the growing acceptance of SIP and VoIP as well as the expansion of Cloud based infrastructure. This in combination with the ease of access and falling bandwidth cost has created a significant opportunity to re-look at the way multi-site distributed call centers are setup and managed. Continue reading “Distributed Multi-site ACD and Contact Center Setup”