Understanding the value proposition in using call center software on rent. -By Sumit Malik
The paper discusses the evolving call center environment, challenges facing call centers and the advantages of using call center applications through the ASP model. Call Center Technologies: The Dawn of a New Era
Call centers have entered an era of unprecedented change. Once viewed as labor-intensive, backoffice operations dedicated to niche markets, today’s call center is an essentia l business tool for companies across a broad range of industries. Today all businesses depend on call centers to lower costs, deliver new services and, most importantly, solidify customer relationships. The impact of technology on call centers is perhaps b demonstrated in the growing number of est distributed call centers. In distributed call centers, agents from different locations are all connected by a network (WAN, VPN, Internet or extranet). Data and processes are shared across multiple sites for multiple tasks. Advantages of distributed call centers: • • • Flexibility in assigning the right resources Reduced labour costs Availability of expert resources
Technology is having a tremendous effect on the size and scope of call center operations around the world. The dramatic growth of distributed call centers is leading to an increase in the total number of seats in the U.S. and Canada, even as the number of large, single -site centers is leveling off. In Europe, where call centers are often smaller than their U.S. counterparts, market growth is strong, largely because the European business community invested heavily in technology that permits them to unite multiple small call centers into a single large virtual call center. This enables scalability without the need to relocate staff from country to country. Projections for call center growth in the Asia Pacific region are virtually limitless, with Japan and Australia showing the greatest potential. In fact, the total number of call centers worldwide will more than double by the year 2002, with the majority of growth occurring in Europe and Asia Pacific. However, there are new challenges. As call center operations continue to grow larger and more complicated, their support needs increase as well. This is especially true for the many organizations that have merged or acquired new companies in the past few years. Beyond having to manage larger call centers, these organizations must also successfully integrate multiple diverse call center environments that may span a number of countries —or even continents. And while call centers were once dependent on limited proprietary technology, current information technology (IT) support and enabling options are more numerous and complex then ever. In order to meet these new challe nges, today’s call centers, both single -site and distributed, need comprehensive IT solutions that provide agents with immediate access to distributed information, whenever they need it, wherever they are. This must be accomplished in a way that ensures maximum uptime while also reducing the risk and uncertainty associated with supporting large, complex computing environments.
Challenges in the Call center market
Today’s call centers are redefining how companies manage virtually every aspect of their customer relationships by providing a proactive means for retaining existing customers and generating revenue. While service and retail industries have traditionally relied on call centers to supplement their sales organizations, new technologies have enabled businesses to market more efficiently and less expensively than a large, dispersed sales force or a costly branch office. As call volume grows, companies are having to open additional call centers, each complete with automatic call distributors (ACDs), interactive voice response (IVR) units, email servers, Web servers, predictive dialers, intelligent workstation applications and screen-pop servers. Each center must run business-critical applications to multiple stations across its own supporting infrastructure. Unfortunately, many of the technologies deployed within call centers offer limited—if any—interoperability between systems. As a result, many call centers cannot respond quickly to changing customer demands. Worse yet, systems can become overwhelmed with crossplatform, multiple application activity and risk shutting down. Today, the challenges facing any call center environment can be summarized as below: 1. Maximum Up-time 2. Rapid Application Deployment 3. Dial-in and Remote Connectivity 4. Management and Integration 5. Mixed Desktop Platforms and Configurations 6. Legacy Desktops with New Applications 7. Advent of Distributed call centers
Maximum Uptime
The primary mission of any call center is to provide a positive, productive experience for customers, whether they are ordering goods or services, scheduling a flight or requesting additional information for a possible new purchase. There is no more certain way to anger and even lose customers than to have a call center system shut down. That’s why maximum uptime is so important. From lost revenue opportunities to driving customers to competitors, a call center that crashes causes tremendous, potentially fatal harm to any business.
Rapid Application Deployment
In order to ensure that agents are fully prepared to meet the needs of customers, call centers must be able to rapidly distribute vital information throughout the enterprise. From application upgrades and script changes to customer purchase histories and real-time inventory figures, it is critical that call center agents can get the data they need whenever they need it. Call centers that cannot respond quickly to the needs of customers fail in their primary mission.
Dial-in and Remote Connectivity
Call center agents and their expert contacts are becoming more geographically dispersed and mobile. In response, call centers need a fast, easy and reliable solution for connecting agents and other resource staff, wherever they may happen to be.
Management and Integration
In the past it was adequate to have IT staff on premises to support a large single -site call center. But in today’s distributed call center environments, it is physically impossible for IT administrators to “touch” every desktop. As the number of smaller and remote call centers continue to grow, businesses n an effective means for remotely managing, integrating and eed supporting existing sites, as well as adding new sites.
Mixed Desktop Platforms and Configurations
Call center functions are increasingly handled by organizations (both within and outside the enterprise) that use a variety of different hardware, software and operating systems. While one company’s call centers may equip agents with only PCs, it may merge with a second company whose agents use a mixture of desktops and appliances including old PCs, UNIX workstations, network terminals and handheld devices. It is imperative that today’s call centers can effectively operate and support a diverse, “mixed breed” computing environment —without deterring performance.
Legacy Desktops with New Applications
Many call centers are equipped with desktops that have been in service for years. Yet, to remain competitive, they must be able to run the latest applications and upgraded software. Companies need a flexible, cost-effective solution that enables call centers to run new applications without having to invest in new desktop hardware every few years.
Advent of distributed or virtual call centers
Today with new technological changes, distributed or virtual call centers have become a reality, thus adding another dimension to the complexity of call centers. It is possible to support agents sitting at multiple locations to be working together in the same call center. Agents can log in from the web and access their call center sitting anywhere in the world. Today it is possible to “follow the sun”, with call centers switching operations between different geographic locations based on time or skills. GE Capital’s call centers being run out of India answer customer queries from the US, Europe and Australia. Some of their call centers in India are to complement the existing call centers located in these countries and ensure that customers get 24X7 support. What this means is that a new dimension of technological complexity has now been introduced in the call centers. Today there is a need to integrate multiple call centers, enabling remote agent connectivity and managing not just the servers and software, but also the networks which allow you to distribute your call centers worldwide.
Solution: Out source Technology
Using an ASP: Answering prayers of call center managers
With call centers managed in an ASP environment, managers can now look forward to outsourcing all their technology needs and focus on their core business of running a call centers. In a typical ASP scenario, the call center servers would be hosted centrally at one place and all the PSTN terminations across all customer locations would be routed to the same. This server would be connected over leased lines to the customer premises where agents are placed to answer
customer queries. In case, a customer wishes to use multiple locations to place agents and answer queries, the same can also be established. Remote dial up agents now would not need to dial into company premises to log in but at the ASP site to get connected. The schematics explaining how ASP model for call centers would work are appended and explain in detail the entire solution. Figure 1: Schematic of ASP model
Customer
CRM database
Router
C all Center System
Router
Leased Circuits VPN/ Leased line
External PSTN Lines/E1 CC Database Server
Agent Desktops
Customer Premises
ASP/ISP Premises
Because an ASP would allow companies the benefit of distributed and virtual call centers and thus use remote agents —from small centers in rural, affordable labor markets to home-based employees with Web-enabled PCs —multiple centers can be cost-effectively operated as a single center. This would make call centers a much more a ttractive customer support option to all industries.
Advantages of ASP model for call centers
The ASP model enhances efficiency while freeing your valuable IT staff to focus on core competencies. As enterprise software becomes an increasingly sophisticated, multi-layered assembly of interconnected applications, managing these mission-critical solutions has, by necessity, become the primary focus of many IT departments. This leaves little time, money, or resources to focus on core competencies and e -business strategies. Having these applications delivered as services means lessened demands on IT, more immediate benefits, and more value over the long run. As a recent Fortune article noted, “Web-savvy businesses are using the Internet to eliminate the burden of buying and running expensive, hard-to-maintain computer systems.”
Rapid deployment
Because applications are being hosted on servers at a data center, the need for complex onsite hardware and infrastructure is also made obsolete, collapsing the ramp-up time for deployment. This makes the ASP model an ideal solution for many companies looking to translate their business infrastructure to an e-business platform quickly and efficiently. This rapid application deployment dramatically reduces the roll-out time of new and upgraded applications from months to minutes, saving organizations time, money and resources. Productivity and customer service are improved, since agents are always working with the latest applications and upgrades. And because applications are managed from a single site, call center managers can selectively deploy applications to a desktop or a browser according to an agent’s needs and area of expertise.
Maximum Uptime
From large single -site facilities to centers using distributed and virtual infrastructures, the ASP model ensures improvement in service levels across dozens or hundreds of servers while maintaining business-critical application performance and security. Distributed call centers can share applications and other resources, since agents —regardless of their location— can work in real-time with critical databases, such as financial management or travel scheduling. While the applications execute on servers, they look, feel and perform as if they were running locally, enhancing agent productivity. The ASP model streamlines application management and facilitates technical support. This not only ensures maximum uptime, it also provides call centers with substantial savings in administrative costs.
Manpower Issues
Since the technical solution is deployed and managed by the ASP, the call center manager does not have to bother about hiring and retaining technical staff. Today, with high demand for technical people and rapidly evolving technology, there is a constant shortage of correctly trained manpower with the right skills. Ask any organization about the issues related to retaining and training technical staff, and they would be most happy to outsource the technical work to experts who would have the right infrastructure to hire, retain and train such people and fostering their growth.
In fact, the proliferation of the ASP model will have a multiplier effect on availability of the technical manpower, which would prefer working in such technically oriented organizations as compared to end user organizations where IT is not the core function.
Management and Integration
The ASP model simplifies life for companies that would rather not license the call centers; buy the computers, storage, and networking systems; or hire experts to install and maintain their entire system. The IT department would not have to invest in maintaining and upgrading the application, thus obviating the cross platform translation problems which breed inefficiency. Executed correctly, application hosting means maintenance-free desktops, and ensures timely, company wide upgrades with online training and 24x7 online customer support. Because of the centralized nature of the computing environment, all applications and data are managed, integrated, configured and supported from a single point. This provides call center managers with an extremely flexible, scaleable and secure call center environment. If a new application update is required for certain agents, the change is made once on the server and the update will automatically be distributed to other servers across the enterprise, which will distribute the update to every specified desktop. Additional call centers (both servers and desktops) can be integrated into the system just as easily. There is never any need for special emulation software, changes in system configuration or application rewrites. Agent productivity is increased and training costs are reduced, since users can work on their preferred desktop. Thus, real-time business reporting to every agent is ensured, regardless of desktop or operating system.
Dial Up Agents and Remote Connectivity
Since the ASP would be hosting the software at a central location, the infrastructure for supporting dial up connectivity is common for example, Remote access servers, firewalls, authentication softwares etc. are not required to be hosted individually and managed by call center managers. This ensures a more robust, secure and a low cost option for managers to outsource their technology to ASPs.
Legacy Desktops with New Applications
If the delivery is through a web based browser interface, the call center software can work with any desktop hardware, including legacy equipment suchas 486 PCs and a wide variety of thin clients and network computers. Companies can thus, maximize their investment in the latest applications and upgrades while extending the life of their hardware investments. This change resilience” helps organizations avoid the expense of investing in new desktops every few years. The ASP model, thus, spares companies from the recurring hardware costs of keeping up with the application life cycle.
Cost Savings
In addition to the above, a low-cost initial investment is another advantage for those setting up call centers. Companies can conserve cash and realize an early return on available cash reserves. And the model’s flexibility allows for better management of peak workloads without additional investment in hardware or personnel, which can mean significant long-term cost savings for both smaller and larger companies.
Conclusions
ASP hosting of call centers provides both immediate benefits and strategic value over the long run. For start-ups it helps to get complex software into production immediately and with the potential for easy scalability. Larger companies are recognizing the strategic value of outsourcing their mission-critical enterprise solutions with an ASP that can meet their needs. The flexibility and cost savings attributed to the ASP model are just the starting point of its business value for hosted call center apps. Quick deployment, ease of use, and the availability of Web access add up to instant functionality, freeing people to do their work without thinking too much about how to use the system. For more information or feedback on hosting your call centers through the ASP model, you may get in touch with the author at sumit.m@parsec.co.in