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Contact Center Software for Cloud Platform

There are two distinct approaches to setting up a Cloud platform for offering contact center services. The first approach is to use a multi-tenant contact center software to build a call center solution on a given infrastructure. The second approach is to virtualize the underlying infrastructure and replicate the Contact Center ACD in each instance. The difference in the two approaches is the level at which abstraction is introduced. Cloud contact center solution does not necessarily mean multi-tenant or virtualization. When a service provider looks at building a Cloud platform to offer contact center solution as a service, these are the two available options.
Virtualization provides the ability to run multiple instances of the operating system co-existing on a shared hardware. This abstracts the underlying resources and the service provider manages multiple instances of contact centers providing dedicated instance for every customer. This approach brings out the benefit of Cloud delivery of service and centralizes the management of the infrastructure. It does not increase the operational efficiency at the Call Center ACD level. This is often the case when service providers virtualize Asterisk to offer Cloud based services.
A multi-tenant contact center software provides the ability to run multiple tenants using the same multi-channel ACD. Here the abstraction is at the contact center software layer, allowing the Cloud platform service provider to run one instance of the multi-channel ACD to deliver contact center solution to multiple, distinct, and separate contact centers. This is preferred to a virtual contact center solution as it brings about greater operational efficiency with less management overheads. There are powerful contact center solutions that support multi-tenant operation at the contact center ACD level with great degee of sophistication. Such solutions scale by increasing the capacity of the system without creating  additional virtual instances to manage.
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Impact of Cloud Contact Center Services on Inbound Call Routing

Cloud contact center services are a natural progression of distributed computing where both voice and data services are made available through hosted platforms. Cloud-based solutions offer flexibility and benefits where services can be scaled on-demand and does away with the need to implement and maintain, hardware or platforms.

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Essentials of a Cloud Contact Center Service Platform

Gartner makes available for public distribution, a write-up called “Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure”.  Aside from the market analysis and evaluation of some of the contact center solution providers, the narrative dated June 18, 2013, also provided insight into how the market perceives the technology. Under “Market Overview” it articulates that more and more solutions are now shipped as contact center software which can be run on properly configured commercial off-the-shelf servers.

Now this may be a recent phenomenon for proprietary solutions that are closed but it has always been the case with open source software driven technology platform particularly the Asterisk based contact center solutions. Linux O/S, Asterisk Telephony, MySQL Database, Apache Web Server, and all the dominant Web Browsers are open source and they form the backbone technology stack of the contact center solution. They are to a great degree, hardware vendor independent. There are many Cloud platform vendors like Rackspace and Amazon who offer the computing power and the backbone technology as a service, for deploying a cloud based contact center solution.

Cloud contact center service providers will require a contact center software that leverages a comparable technology stack and offer the essential functionality required for a contact center operation. Multi-tenant capability with a multi-channel ACD is a must for every Cloud based service provider. Skills based Routing, Dialer, and robust API for CRM integration are some of the other key elements required.

Distributed computing has been around for years. The unprecedented growth of network infrastructure and the evolution of Internet Protocol (IP) based technology methods has made it possible to move distributed computing capabilities to new heights. Cloud  platforms assemble the technology backbone and the contact center software to make it accessible through the IP networks. The shift to a service on demand model is one of the significant advantages offered by Cloud based contact center solutions.

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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”

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Language support and Localization for Asterisk based Multi-tenant Cloud Contact Centers

Cloud offering of call center software and infrastructure as a service, catering to on-demand growth,  has greatly simplified the task of setting up a call center operation. Personal computer (PC) and adequate bandwidth are the minimum requirements to get started. Cloud service providers deploying Asterisk based contact centers around the world, take advantage of the language support and localization capabilities within Asterisk. Continue reading “Language support and Localization for Asterisk based Multi-tenant Cloud Contact Centers”

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Audio alerts triggered by real-time contact center ACD activities

Automatic Call Distributors (ACD) control and manage the work-flow of a contact center. A multi-channel contact center ACD offers skills based routing and queue prioritization for phone calls, emails, and web channels. The real-time queue metrics are a good indicator of the contact center activities. Even with work-force  management (WFM) software predictions, it is not always possible to staff adequately for handling sudden spurts in call volumes. Organizations should have procedures in place to handle such events. One such option is having supervisory staff and supplementary employees participate in call handling if required.

Key queue metrics like the total number of calls waiting in a given queue, the wait time, the abandon rate, and the overall service level provide a measure of  real-time call center activities. A good contact center software will allow call center managers to set conditions based on the  queue metrics to trigger audio alerts. Different audible alerts can be set, each specific to a particular queue metrics parameter.

Q-Suite for Asterisk is a powerful contact center ACD offering such feature as a part of its call center software. It is a multi-tenant software for setting up Cloud based fault tolerant High Availability (HA) contact center solutions. Its audible notifications can be triggered by setting conditions on queue parameters that are monitored as a part of the real-time contact center reporting. These notifications allow the contact center floor operations to initiate procedures that are put in place for handling sudden spurt in call volumes.

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Cloud based contact center solutions

Cloud contact centers are gaining acceptance at a rapid pace due to the availability of quality infrastructure and internet connectivity. The growth of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and the availability of larger network bandwidth at reasonable cost, started the initial migration towards centralized data centers. This infrastructure was available for use to a wider pool of geographically distributed work-force. It also reduced the cost of hiring IT and call center software experts for the management of a local infrastructure. This fueled the initial migration to Cloud contact center.
The availability of Cloud based contact center solutions as a service can be traced to the development multi-tenant software. Contact center is no exception and multi-tenant contact center software have been driving the growth of Cloud based contact center services. Multi-channel call center ACD with Skills based Routing, configurable IVR platform, Real-time and Historical reporting, and Dialer integration are the core components of a contact center software. All of these services are now available from cloud based contact center solutions.
Contact center solutions require a variety of applications like Visual IVR Call-flow Builder, Customer Interaction Scripting, CRM, voice recording, and WFM, all of which are made available as applications in the Cloud. The market share of Cloud deployments will continue to grow for the obvious reasons; contact center as a service eliminates large capital expenditures while providing the ability to scale on demand. Asterisk based contact center services in the cloud have contributed to this growth in a significant way.
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Email and Trouble-ticket integration for intelligent ACD routing

At Indosoft, we support a range of customers around the world, requiring different levels of technical assistance. Our customer support department is directly manned by experienced technical staff who do everything from installation, setup, feature development, and automation, to handling phone support. Supporting a contact center software gets complicated since VoIP is an important consideration. Typical data and information systems deal will data whereas a contact center solution deals with voice and data.

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