Strategic Planning Why IP in the Contact Center

Agenda What is IP What is an IP Contact Center What made it possible Differences: Non-IP and IP CC Main Benefits of an IP CC Important Considerations Justifying the Investment Reducing the Investment

What is IP (or TCP/IP) Stands for Internet Protocol Used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) Resulted from work done by DARPA in the early 1970s March 1982, US Department of Defense adopted it as the standard for all military computer networking Build to: Be the host to be responsible on reliability & be able to join almost any network together Uses encapsulation abstracting protocols and services This encapsulation embeds any application protocol

What is an IP Contact Center All systems / IT solutions involved in the Contact Center use TCP/IP as the protocol to intercommunicate, becoming the unique “carrier” for any type of transaction or media (data, voice or even video): TCP/IP is adapted end to end Multi-Site intercommunication only through Data Links PSTN interconnection done via TDM or IP

What made it possible: The flexibility & reliability of TCPI/IP protocol not enough… In conjunction with other factors and technology was crucial: Telecom Data Networks evolution More powerful equipment Codecs: less bandwidth utilization VoIP application layer protocols standardization Today everybody agrees VoIP is a mature technology But… relays on a network, which must fulfill the requirements!!!

Analyzing a Non-IP Contact Center CLIENTS DATAVOICE ROUTER & FIREWALLS APP. SERVERS CTI PBX IVR SWITCHING & DATA CABLING VOICE CABLING PCsANALOG / DIGITAL PHONES RECORD AGENTS PHYSICALLY DEPENDANT SYSTEMS SEGREGATION REQUIRED Higher Complexity Higher Cost Less Dynamic

Non-IP Multi-Site Contact Center PSTN Internet PSTN Internet VOICE LINKS DATA LINKS

IP Contact Center CLIENTS DATA VOICE ROUTER & FIREWALLS APP. SERVERS CTI PBX IVR SWITCHING & DATA CABLING PCs AND IP SOFTPHONE OR IP HARDPHONE (1 CABLE) RECORD AGENTS PHYSICALLY INDEPENDANT SYSTEMS CONSOLIDATION FEASABLE Lower Complexity Lower Cost Very Dynamic

IP Multi-Site Contact Center PSTN Internet PSTN Internet IP WAN PRIMARYBACKUP Optional

Main Benefits Reduced Costs Management fees (single ACD) Carrier costs Systems and applications costs (fewer needed) Less Power needed (more Green) Less Bandwidth required Extends contact center technology cost effectively to multiple locations Branch offices Satellite offices Retail locations Remote or at-home agents Optimizes Agent usage/productivity Routes each transaction to the most appropriate agent independent of their physical location Facilitates the standardization of service quality Provides a single unified view of contact center operations

Important Considerations Important up-front investment needed Migration might be complex Needed an stable network (LAN / WAN) Requires skilled Data Network personnel MIGRATION MIGHT NOT BE COST EFFECTIVE FOR ORGANIZATIONS WITH A SINGLE SITE WHICH IS VERY STATIC MIGRATION IT IS COST EFFECTIVE IN A MULTI-SITE AND DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT, AND MOST WHEN THE ORGANIZATION HAS MORE SITES AND REQUIRES HIGHER DYNAMISM

Justifying the Investment (measurable) Cost Reduction: Links migration (reducing links = lower monthly cost) Power consumption (less systems = lower monthly cost) Less equipment (less maintenance = lower monthly / yearly cost) Less space / facilities for IT equipment (lower monthly cost) Less UPS and Cooling Equipment needed Only needed one Ethernet cable for the PC and the Phone Productivity Increase: Better Agent Utilization (reduces operation expenses)

Justifying the Investment (difficult to quantify) More Dynamic and flexible: Operation Implementation Support Bandwidth reservation aligned to needs Simplified IT support and administration Unified reporting and monitoring Important drivers: TDM based PBX assets might be already depreciated or requires forced upgrade to keep them on a supported version Some services only viable in time and cost if VoIP is used

Reducing the Up-Front Investment Open Source as an alternative Cheaper Phone terminals Non PoE Ethernet Switches can stay Outsource more than just the Data Links

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