Keith Dawson (Author) - The Call Center Handbook-CRC Press (2007)

THE
CALL CENTER
HANDBOOK
The Complete Guide to
Starting, Running and
Improving Your
Call Center
by Keith Dawson
Publisher of the
Call Center News Service
CALL CENTER HANDBOOK
The Complete Guide to Starting, Running and
Improving Your Call Center
2ND EDITION
Copyright ©1998 Keith Dawson

Published by Telecom Books and Flatiron Publishing.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright conventions,

including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatso-
ever. Published in the United States by Telecom Books and Flatiron Publishing, New
York, divisions of Miller Freeman, Inc.
12 West 21 Street
New York, NY 10010
212-691-8215 Fax 212-691-1191
1-800-999-0345
1-800-LIBRARY
www.telecombooks.com
ISBN # 1-57820-019-9
by Keith Dawson
January, 1998
Manufactured in the United States of America
Book Design by Andrew Torio

Cover design by Mara Leonardi
Printed at Command Web, New Jersey
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CH•IPTER PAGE #
INTRODUCTION 1
WHERE IT STARTS: FINDING THE BEST SITE

FOR YOUR CENTER 7
HOW TO DESIGN A SUCCESSFUL CENTER 19
ACDS: CALL CRUNCHING POWERHOUSES 25
HOW TO MANAGE SKILLS-BASED ROUTING 39
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

ABOUT PREDICTIVE DIALERS 46
IVR: THE BEST FRONT DOOR TO ANY CENTER 69
EVERYTHING STARTS WITH VOICE PROCESSING 80
THE BENEFITS OF FAX-ON-DEMAND 89
COMPUTER TELEPHONY INTEGRATION:

THE ADVENT OF AN OPEN CALL CENTER 95
10 BUYING THE BEST HEADSET 106
11 READERBOARDS - A FEAST FOR THE EYES 110
12 SAVING MONEY WITH REFURBISHED EQUIPMENT 114
13 CHOOSING WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE 119
14 TELEMARKETING SOFTWARE:
NOT JUST FOR SCRIPTING ANYMORE 127
CHOOSING HELP DESK/CUSTOMER SERVICE SOFTWARE 134
DISPATCH SYSTEMS:
THE PERFECT COMPLEMENT TO THE HELP DESK 144
17 SYSTEMS FOR FAST, FLEXIBLE ORDER-TAKING 148
18 WHY YOU STILL NEED CALL ACCOUNTING 153
19 HANDLING TELEMANAGEMENT 163
20 TOLL-FREE SERVICES: THE LIFELINE INTO YOUR CENTER 167
21 WHEN SHOULD YOU GO OUTSIDE FOR HELP? 174
22 GETTING THE FRESHEST, CLEANEST LISTS 179
23 USING MESSAGES ON HOLD: SILENCE IS NOT GOLDEN 184
24 CAN AGENTS WORK FROM HOME? 192
25 MONITORING: WHY IT'S IMPORTANT &

HOW TO DO IT RIGHT 196
26 SMALL SOLUTIONS FOR BIG RESULTS 199
27 ADD CHECK PROCESSING TO YOUR REPERTOIRE 206
28 THE IMMENSE VALUE OF ANI 210
29 PREPARING FOR THE WORST - SO IT NEVER HAPPENS 214
30 ISDN: THE ULTIMATE CONNECTION FOR CALL CENTERS 223
31 HOW THE WEB IS CHANGING CALL CENTERS 228
32 THE BENEFITS OF A VIRTUAL CALL CENTER 238
33 THE NEW ROLE OF THE CALL CENTER 241
• APPENDIX: A GUIDE TO KEY CALL CENTER RESOURCES 245

INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS A
CALL CENTER?
This book is for anyone who works in a call center. For anyone
who sells by phone. Or who helps customers. It's about everything
you'll need to make your call center run — and run better.
A call center is traditionally defined as a physical location where
calls are placed, or received, in high volume for the purpose of sales,
marketing, customer service, telemarketing, technical support or other
specialized business activity. One early definition described a call cen-
ter as a place of doing business by phone that combined a centralized
database with an automatic call distribution system. That's close, but
it's more than that:
• Huge telemarketing centers
• Fundraising and collections organizations
• Help desks, both internal and external
• Outsourcers (better known as service bureaus) that use their
large capacity to serve lots of companies
Estimates of the number of call centers in North America range
from 20,000 to as high as 200,000. The reality is probably somewhere
around 70,000 to 90,000 depending on what you consider a call cen-
ter. Some experts believe that you shouldn't count centers below a cer-
tain number of agents (or "seats"). I believe in the widest possible def-
inition, all the way down to micro-centers of four or five people.
Why? Because those centers face many of the same kinds of problems
on a daily basis as their larger cousins: problems of training, staffing,
call handling, technology assessment, and so on. Those smaller centers
have to put the same kind of face forward to the customer as the
largest centers, in order to remain competitive. And more often than
not, those small center become medium-sized centers over time.
Call centers are generally set up as large rooms, with workstations
that include a computer, a telephone set (or headset) hooked into a
large switch and one or more supervisor stations. It may stand by itself,
or be linked with other centers. It may also be linked to a corporate
data network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs.
Call centers were first recognized as such in their largest incarna-
tions: airline reservation centers, catalog ordering companies, problem
solvers like the GE Answer Center or WordPerfect's customer support
services. Until the early 1990s, only the largest centers could afford
CALL CENTER HANDBOOK 1

WHAT IS A CALL CENTER?
the investment in technology that allowed them to handle huge vol-

umes (the ACD). More recently, with the development of PC LANs,
client/server software systems, and open phone systems, any call cen-
ter can have an advanced call handling and customer management sys-
tem, even down to ten agents or less.
As companies have learned that service is the key to attracting
and maintaining customers (and hence, revenue), the common per-
ception of the call center has changed. It is rarely seen as a luxury
anymore. In fact, it is often regarded as a competitive weapon. In
some industries (catalog retailing, financial services, hospitality) a
call center is the difference between being in business and not being
in business. In other industries (cable television, utilities) call centers
have been the centerpiece of corporate attempts to quickly overhaul
service and improve their image.
It's a good working hypothesis to assume that any company that
sells any product has a call center, or will shortly have one, because
it is the most effective way to reach (and be reached by) customers.
CHANGE IS COMING
But just when you thought you knew what you were doing —
technology is redefining the call center, changing it into something big-
ger, more complex, and ultimately more customer-pleasing.
You could choose to define a center in terms of its physical reality,
like the traditional definitions just given. It is a roomful of people, devot-
ed to the task of making and/or receiving calls to and from customers. It
is the place where those calls are handled, and the accumulation of tech-
nologies that assist: phone lines, switches, software, human expertise.
Or, you could look at it from the point of view of function — the
call center as the locus for customer satisfaction. In that view, the cen-
ter is the "place" where the customer goes to complain, to place an
order, or get help — even if the agents are widely disconnected from
each other, or if the database is halfway around the world from them.
There may not seem to be too much difference between those
two points of view. Until recently, there wasn't. Whether you sub-
scribed to one or another definition mattered little in the day to day
running of a center. You could even hold both views without much
cognitive dissonance.
In the past five years call centers have emerged as powerful, strate-
gic tools in the fight to gain and keep customers. Running a center has
become its own corporate discipline. The call center industry has
become an industry — not simply a collection of dissociated vertical
markets with similar needs. We've seen phenomenal growth in all seg-
2 CALL CENTER HANDBOOK

Video/Kiosk
Internet/On-line
Telephone/
Voice Mail Fax
ments — equipment sales, outsourcing services, toll-free traffic, cus-

tomer sales made by phone.
And yet, the moorings are coming loose. Something ironic has
happened. At almost the precise moment that we can herald the
arrival of the call center industry, we can see, looming out there on the
horizon, the signs of something coming along to replace what we
know as the "call center."
Don't worry. What I'm talking about isn't necessarily dire. It
isn't even a problem. What it is is a technological and cultural rev-
olution in the way customers interact with companies. Call centers
started that revolution, by creating a place (a real, physical place)
where customers could get in touch with intelligent representatives
of a company. Information could pass in two directions.
Here is what will happen. What is already happening. Starting
with IVR, technologies enabling automated contact with companies.
Nobody does this better than banks and financial services. Anyone
who wants to transfer funds can do it at 3 am without talking to a
person. AND, anyone who wants to report a stolen credit card can
also do it at 3 am, through a live agent.
IVR cuts out the agent for routine database transactions. It han-
dles as much as 40% of the call volume that formerly went to agents.

And like all good technologies, it creates its own demand — people
who call trying to get the IVR system, who wouldn't have called at all
if they didn't know they were going to an automated system.
IVR was step one. Step two is fax-on-demand. Call an agent or an
IVR system and retrieve a document instantly. Directions. Brochures.
White papers. Sales literature.
We are now in the middle of step three: the internet and Web sites.
Self-support by customers who search your database for the answers
to their questions. Who log their own cases by e-mail and wait for
your reply. By combinations: fax-enabled Web sites, for example.
At the same time, the physical center itself is devolving. Smaller
centers are more practical. You can put a fifty seat center into virtual-
ly any town or city in the US, without worrying about telecom infra-
structure or labor. Cities and states are falling over each other to offer
tax incentives for call centers.
Centers can use agents-at-home, virtual agents who sign into a
center from their homes whenever demand requires, the ultimate in
just-in-time staffing. We heard of one company that trains spouses of
call center agents. Those spouses, who already know much about the
company, are then equipped to pick up part-time work on very short
notice, and can sign onto the phones from their kitchen tables.
This is happening more and more. Technology makes the role of
an agent more powerful — more of an analytic and interpretive skill,
as well as more interpersonal. They have access to more information
about the customer and the company. And the kinds of questions they
are called upon to answer are different. They are higher level, more
complex, often requiring more decision-making authority for cus-
tomer service and support.
We are rapidly approaching the time when more calls coming into
the call center are not directed at agents. When you add up the total
— IVR calls, fax-back retrievals, hits on Web sites — you may already
be there. That forces us to rethink two things.
1. We need a broader definition of a "call." With so many alter-
nate entry points into a company's sales/service operation, we need to
rethink the traditional measures of service level, revenue generated per
call, cost per call, and so on. What is the relative cost of a Web hit,
and its benefit. (The economics of the Internet are a very fuzzy area.)
In the same vein, can we afford to treat e-mail requests for service any
differently than we do live calls?
Most of what we now call a call is really best described as a trans-
action or an interaction between two parties, you and the customer.
Soon (within five years) most customer interactions won't involve an
agent. They will be electronically processed database transactions.

2. We have to recognize that the call center is more than a place

for making and taking calls. It is best described by its function — as a
collection of people and technologies whose role is to serve customers.
A call center is really the most visible part of what we are now call-
ing a customer contact zone. You are on one side of a chasm, your cus-
tomers on the other side. There are many ways to get from one side to
the other. The customer chooses which route depending on their needs.
A customer contact zone is the imaginary space created by all your
call centers, plus the intra- and internet processes you open to the out-
side, plus your front-end systems (IVR, fax).
This is not a guess. It's already happening. ACD vendors are
already grappling with the need to route incoming internet traffic.
The ACD itself will evolve from a voice-call routing processor into
an all-purpose traffic cop for all the voice and data pathways into
the center.
The agent does not disappear in this scenario. There will always
be a need for human problem solving, not to mention sales. There is
already evidence that the role of call center agent is changing, into
more of a knowledge worker. Reps are now, more than ever, on a
career track to supervisory and management positions.
Things are changing faster than ever before. As soon as this book
hits your hands, we'll be ready with a pile of new technologies to write
about, new products that are out there, and new ideas about how to
run the call center.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

This Handbook contains a lot of different kinds of information.
There are practical observations about how to use particular technolo-
gies. There are also a lot of specific examples given of products and
companies. It is important to remember that these are given for illus-
trative purposes — often, technology products are superseded by new
versions, improved, upgraded, at lightning speed. By the time you read
this, some of the products cited may not have exactly the same features
described here. The best thing to do is to check with the vendor.
One way to keep up with the breakneck changes in the industry is
with the Call Center News Service, a bi-weekly newsletter (call 718-
788-6220 for details). The newsletter keeps track of the changing fea-
tures and technologies available for many products mentioned in this
book. It also reports on hot locations for call centers.
There is a vendor listing at the end of this book — it too is as cur-
rent as we could make it. For updates, check out the Call Center News
Service's website: www.quicklink.com/-dawson. That's where the
most current version is always available, free of charge.

As always with any project this size, you might find errors of fact
or judgement in this book. If so, please let me know, and if possible
I'll correct them in the next edition. In the meantime, use this book as
a starting point — for figuring out what kind of tools and techniques
you need in your center. And for using your center as the best way ever
invented to please your customers.
Keith Dawson
August, 1997

CHAPTER ONE
WHERE IT STARTS:
FINDING THE BEST SITE
FOR YOUR CENTER
Before you buy a switch, hire an agent, install a single piece of
software, train any agents — before you take a single call — you're
going to have to find a place to put your center. Site selection is one
of the biggest decisions you'll make. It affects every decision that
comes after — from the kinds of wiring you install to the services you
offer your customers, for years to come. Where do you locate your
call center to provide the maximum advantage to your organization
and your customers?
Finding a site for your call center is more difficult than finding a
site for many other types of business. And it is more difficult to find
the ideal site for your call center now than it was just a few years ago.
The choice of locations has never been broader — you can put an
effective center just about anywhere these days. But having more
choices means you have to do your homework better than ever to find
the right site for your center. It used to be a simple matter. You'd put
your center in an established call center-friendly city, like Omaha,
hoping to get the best telecom connections, and an educated, accent-
free workforce.
But that's not the most cost-effective solution anymore. While
there are a huge number of centers scattered throughout the American
(and Canadian) midwest, other factors let you enlarge the area of con-
sideration. In effect, you can place a call center anywhere you'd like.
That's thanks to the widespread availability of labor and good tele-
com, a soft real estate market, and advanced technology for smaller
and distributed centers.
What is good news for call center managers is there are plenty of
locations, both in the United States and abroad, that are eager to have
your call center join their business community.
Like mushrooms after a spring rain, call centers are popping up in
the unlikeliest of places. Is New York City the first place you'd think
of for your new sales center? It might be, if that's where your cus-
tomers are. Or how about Ponca City, Oklahoma?
Sykes Enterprises, an outsourcer of customer support services
(among other things) recently invested more than $5 million to build

WHERE IT STARTS: FINDING THE BEST SITE FOR YOUR CENTER
a 42,000 square foot center in Ponca City. Why this small town of
29,000 people? Marcia Quinn of Sykes cites two reasons:
• Incentives from the state of Oklahoma,
• And the work ethic in small communities.
Dig a little deeper, and you find that Ponca City has an excellent
school system, including vocational schools, that can provide a steady
stream of support reps with some technical skills. The University of
Oklahoma is not too far away, either. Sykes likes small towns: other
centers are going into Greeley and Sterling, both in Colorado.
At the other end of the scale, New York City has some of the high-
est costs for office space and labor in the country, plus a telecom envi-
ronment that's not always what we could call a welcome mat for high-
tech businesses. But that's where TIE/Communications set up a center
dedicated to outbound calling on small accounts.
This non-traditional "relationship building" center has just six
reps and two managers who call existing accounts, setting up appoint-
ments for field sellers. The decentralized company has five national
regions, with branch offices in each region. The New York area has
the second largest installed base of customers, says TIE's Tom Francis.
So TIE put the center right into the existing New York office. Francis
says it cost $100,000 to put it together, including the computers, soft-
ware and rep training.
Obviously, something very different is happening in call center site
selection. You no longer have to put Omaha — or even the midwest
— at the top of the list when contemplating a new sales or service cen-
ter. In fact, you can put a center just about anywhere these days.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
"Labor availability is number one," says Seth Bornstein of

National Consulting Services (Omaha, NE). NCS helps companies
find sites, and sites find companies.
Next, you need to explore the overall educational level of the
community. Is there enough educated labor to support a center, given
the churning nature of call center work? You need a constantly
replenishing supply.
"You don't want to train more than you have to," Bornstein says.
Good sites will have job training programs, community colleges and
vocational centers. These tend to produce employees with the right
mix of skills for call centers.
Another consideration is safety and security. "Is it in an area
where people want to work?" Bornstein asks. And along with this
go amenities that cost relatively little, but attract workers who will

stay and keep them from burning out: accessible day care, parking,
even windows.
Labor has clearly replaced telecom as the first criteria for site
selection. Just a few years ago, call center planners were asking very
different questions of target sites. "With few exceptions, you can get
good telecom anywhere," Bornstein says.
"It's not the issue it was five, or even two years ago. Technology
changed that. You can be anywhere. You don't need a point-of-pres-
ence thanks to T-Spans," he says. Small telephone companies are more
HOW TO GATHER INFORMATION

CATEGORY INFORMATION SOURCE
• Labor Force Participation by Gender • Employement Security/Job Service
•Unemployment Rate •U.S. Census Bureau
• Training/Skills of Unemployed
• Graduates, by Degree Program • Local School System
• High School Graduates, w/Percent College Bound •U.S. Census Bureau
• Names. Services, Employment Levels of Major Office Employers • Local Chamber Surveys
• Average Number of Applications per Position
Public School Indices: • Local School Districts

• Average ACT Scores • U.S. Department of Education (Comparison Data)
• Teacher / Pupil Ratio
• Graduation Rate
• Turnover • Local Wage Surveys
• Absenteeism • Local Human Resource Officials
•Employee Impressions
• Wage Rates by Occupation • Area Wage Survey
• Local Newspaper Classified Ms
• Cost of living Index • ACCRA Index
• Specific Degree, Certificate and Other Programs listed •State Department of Economic Development
• School Location •Local College & Universities
•Real EslaleiSiles •Commercial Real Estate brokers
• Transportation • Official Airlines Guide
Air • Interstate Commerce Commission
Rail/Freight •Local Port Authorities
Water •Local Department of Highways/Transportation
Local Surface •Utility Company
•Local Educational Organization
• Stale Educational Organization
• Infrastructure •Utility Companies
• Telecommunications • Local and Long Distance Carriers
Before you make a decision, you need to gather data about the locations that are
competing for your center. Much of the information you need is easily accessible, if
you know where to look. This checklist can help cut straight to the assessment phase
of the process. This material was provided by National Consulting Services, an Omaha-
based site selection assistance firm.
CALL CENTER HANDBOOK

innovative than they used to be, he suggests, and are more likely than
ever to bend over backwards to assist economic development efforts
that bring in jobs.
In North America, the southern states are the hottest areas for call
center development right now. The south is particularly attractive to
companies because it not been deeply penetrated by call centers in the
last twenty years.
Bigger centers (of 200 or more agents) find that the low cost of
labor and the preponderance of right-to-work states make for better
sites than the crowded midwest. Even so, some of the larger cities in
the south are already reaching saturation, like Raleigh-Durham,
North Carolina. Raleigh-Durham is popular, but expensive, and the
labor supply is (ironically) thinner for lower echelon call centers
because of the high level of education.
If you want an urban or suburban environment for your center,
good candidates Bornstein suggests exploring second and third tier
cities in the south. Examples are Wilmington, North Carolina,
Gainesville, Florida, Shreveport, Louisiana, and Beaumont, Texas.
"Aggressive localities are the key," Bornstein says. A company that's
bringing jobs and high-tech facilities into a city is worth incentives. If
two or more locations are competing on an even playing field with
regard to telecom, labor and amenities, then incentives are a critical
lure — and something a call center planner should insist on.
"You should look off the beaten path," Bornstein says. There are
bargains to found, and attractive locations that can serve very well as
the long term home of a call center. The important thing is to be flex-
ible, and work with the community economic development officials.
"You don't need to be in a big city, or even in the midwest."
INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
Customers in Canada and Europe are just as likely to call you for
service as their American counterparts. In fact, some sectors of
American industry — travel reservations and high tech, for example
— have been setting up call centers outside the US for some time.
Hardware and software companies like Intel and Microsoft have
globe-girdling linked centers that answer calls related to the same
product lines they sell domestically. Hotel chains and airlines are in
the same predicament — they deal with customers who could be locat-
ed anywhere, and who want to travel into and out of the US.
For companies like those, borders mean little when a customer
calls. Other issues come to the fore:
• Answering the call in the right language.

• Taking orders in the right currency — and not losing time or money
exchanging that currency back into dollars.
• Appearing transparent to the caller — "non-national," or as little
like an American company as possible.
If you're getting the impression that most international call centers
are inbound, you're right. For a variety of reasons, telephone selling is
not as popular outside the US as it is here. In Europe, that has a lot to do
with privacy regulations and restrictions on the way companies can sell
over the phone. Lack of customer lists and databases also plays a role.
Many companies take their first step overseas with a customer
support center. They find that to grow overseas, they need to provide
assistance to existing customers already gathered by overseas sub-
sidiaries. These tend to be larger companies.
As you send salespeople around the globe to dig up new cus-
tomers, you're going to need international call centers to support both
sales and service. But it's even harder to make an overseas site selec-
tion than it is in North America. Questions of language, culture —
and of course complicated economics — all come into play.
If Europe's your goal (as it often is), the first question an American
firm should ask itself is this: do I need a pan-European center, or do I
want to target my center to a single country's market?
A pan-European center requires you to staff up for calls in a mul-
titude of languages. You'll need switches and software that can han-
dle skill-based routing, and probably a voice processing system to
offer language-based prompts.
Another option is to identify the call's originating country using
the phone network itself. The advantage is that it's more transparent
to the caller if your rep answers right away in the language of the
caller, without voice system intervention.
What are your options in Europe? You have several really good
ones. The top-tier countries are already so similar in the quality of
their telecom, that they are differentiating themselves on the basis of
pricing, incentives, multi-lingualism and local regulations that help (or
hinder) call center activity.
QUICK TIP
Another drawing card for some communities is a nearby mili-

tary base. Spouses and children of military personnel can flesh
out an educated full- or part-time workforce. And a locality with a
military presence (or even a former presence) is likely to have
good infrastructure.

Look for the same things you would in the US: labor pool, telecom
infrastructure, regulations and taxes, education. But look harder, and
deeper. Comparing the incentive packages from different countries
(with different currencies, tax rates, languages and and levels of tech-
nology) can be frustrating.
One area that's long been a top manufacturing site, not interested
in attracting communications businesses like call centers, is the North
of England. They boast 140 US companies (including 40 in the
Fortune 500). The area is now trying to augment its older industries
(steel, shipbuilding) with more diverse service sector businesses.
Farther afield, Telstra of Australia counts as its call center cus-
tomers Dell Computers, Marriott and Novell. They help set up and
operate regional call centers in Asia and the Pacific. Global companies
can offer Asian customers full localized customer service in native lan-
guages. Telstra builds network hubs in Australia that connect coun-
tries from India to Korea. It is estimated that 35% of overseas net-
work expansion by US companies in the next two years will occur in
the booming Asia/Pacific region.
Telecom Ireland recently launched an international toll-free rout-
ing service that lets call centers seamlessly send calls between the US
and Ireland. Interflow is offered at rates below current toll- free US-
Ireland traffic. It incorporates a rich panoply of network-based rout-
ing features, like time-of-day, day-of-week and percentage allocation.
It's being offered in conjunction with AT&T in the US.
Belgium's big draws are its language skills and its position at the
center of western Europe. French, Dutch and German are all official
languages. They also offer top-notch telecom services, direct toll-free
links with 37 countries (including the three major US carriers).
In the Netherlands one company, Project Support, is trying to teach
American companies how to integrate direct mail and call center sell-
ing in ways that appeal to the European consumer. They'll help you set
up a center and customize your marketing for each country you do
business in. Also, the national phone company PTT Telecom
Netherlands has been aggressively marketing its services here in the US.
Other countries like Denmark, and to a lesser extent France and
Germany, are good choices for a call center. Germany suffers from
tighter regulations restricting outbound calling.
CANADIAN POSSIBILITIES
Canada is an interesting choice of location for American compa-

nies looking for a low-cost, high-visibility center. One obvious benefit
is proximity — it's as centrally located as the American midwest. If

you need full time zone coverage, you can function just as effectively
in Canada as you do in Omaha.
Also, you can take advantage of a completely open border, a citi-
zenry with a high education level and a multitude of language skills. A
currency disparity gives Americans more buying power in Canada than
in recent years. More US-based companies are basing their call centers
in Canada to take advantage of this favorable exchange rate. These
centers serve not just Canada, but the companies' US customers too.
Ontario, for example, has strong incentives for call centers, includ-
ing a $10,000 per employee jobs program. The province's schools
have training programs to develop call center-related skills. And real
wages tend to be lower than in the US's central states.
Winnipeg, Manitoba is also a magnet for call centers. It's an
attractive city with a skilled workforce. They city is positioned at the
hub of Canadian east-west transportation and fiber optic lines. The
province is supporting the installation of a high speed fiber optic back-
bone. There is also no tax on 800 numbers. The area has attracted a
lot of Canadian companies for call centers and back office operations,
and some American service bureaus.
Other areas that are making strong efforts to attract call centers
from US companies include Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Vancouver,
British Columbia. New Brunswick, Canada has proved to be a popu-
lar call center location with US companies. Nova Scotia, one of
Canada's east coast provinces, is trying to lure call centers with its
available labor force (close to 11% unemployment) and ties to the
French-speaking market. Halifax is home to seven universities and a
host of financial and high-tech companies. Other western Canadian
provinces like Alberta are working for similar success.
INBOUND ABROAD
The vast majority of the call centers in Europe are inbound.

There are several reasons for this. First, European privacy laws are
strict. They make it all but impossible to telemarket there.
Second, Europeans are not used to being called by telemar-
keters, and by all accounts don't respond well to the experience.
It is a cultural difference between the US and Europe.
Other factors include the price of long distance service and
incredible number of languages and cultures crammed into one very
small continent. All the changes that must be made to accommo-
date those languages and cultures means that telemarketing does
not have the same economy of scale in Europe that it has in the US.

FOUR KEYS TO SUCCESS
Whether you are searching for a location in Europe, the United

States or Canada, there are common traits your call center location
must offer. Let's take a look at these four traits and discuss how where
you look affects what you are looking for.
1. Telecommunications. When Telecom Ireland, PTT Netherlands
and Telecom Denmark brag about their countries' superior telecom-
munications facilities, pay attention.
The biggest difference between choosing a call center location in
the US and choosing one in Europe is the amount of consideration you
have to pay to the telecommunications infrastructure. In Europe you
can't take high quality telephone service for granted. The level of ser-
vice we expect even in rural areas in the US can be tough to find
Europe. Quality varies greatly from country to country.
Within the US, sophisticated telecommunications is the norm. While
it is important for your call center site to have sophisticated telecommu-
nications, you can find this level of sophistication even in the hinterlands.
Is there an advantage to locating your call center in a city that has
supercharged their telecommunications in hope of attracting call cen-
ters? While often this boasting is just so much hype, we think it can
be important for filling certain needs.
For example, centers with extremely high call volumes may find
the fact that Kansas City, MO is a major switching center for both
Sprint (which is headquartered there) and AT&T a big plus. Or, if you
plan to use videoconferencing or want to use work-at-home agents,
then the extensive fiber-optic cabling installed in Paducah, KY's
Information Age Park will give you a head start on the special tech-
nology required for these applications.
The cost of telecommunications is also an issue. Long distance
costs in Canada have dropped 50% in the past few years, reports one
Canadian location consultant. Without this drop in prices, few US
firms would consider Canada as a North American call center location.
As telecommunications prices drop throughout the world, compa-
nies will be able to consolidate their call centers into fewer locations
and those locations can be more remote.
2. Labor. You might look at Ireland's high unemployment rate and
think that Ireland's workforce is abundant and inexpensive. But you
would only be half right. Ireland has all the hallmarks of an excellent
labor market, but it is the fact that its population is young and grow-
ing that is the real attraction for call centers. Fifty percent of Ireland's
population is under 28 years old.
While many believe that an area's unemployment rate is the most
important indicator of workers available, the best indicator is how

FOUR THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN EUROPE
Here are the most important things to look for in a site for your
pan-European center. (Most of them hold true for North American
centers too.)
1. Language capabilities. And equipment that lets you route
calls to the right person based on language skills.
2. Worker productivity/cost of labor. This includes their educa-
tional level, the historic turnover in the local area, and work rules
for hiring and firing employees.
3. Telecom infrastructure and cost. Also, access to advanced
network features including service assurance, dynamic call routing
and data communications links back to the US.
4. Government help. They all offer some incentives (to one
degree or another) to help you locate your center. Look for tax cred-
its, grants and on-the-ground assistance from local officials.
likely that market is to grow. Unemployment gives you a quantity of

workers from which to choose, but is not a guarantee of quality.
If the labor market is growing, a company can set high standards
for recruiting. Growth allows that company to let go of employees
who don't meet its standards. High growth also lessens the inflation-
ary pressures on wages and benefits in that market.
In the US, this kind of growth is usually indicated by a high num-
ber of people moving to the area. A large percentage of young people
— and even a high birth rate — are other signs to watch for. (One con-
sultant notes that Salt Lake City is a popular call center location, in
part because of its nation-topping birth rate.)
A growing labor pool is more important for call centers than for
most other industries. Because of the stress and the high turnover rate,
call centers tend to burn out a labor pool faster. After a while your
help wanted ads may go unanswered by a populace battle-scarred by
call center work.
A steady supply of new workers can make finding employees easi-
er when your best employee retention efforts fail. Also, call center
employees are different from most. They are usually part-time workers
that don't share a demographic profile with the usual nine-to-fivers.
Analyze an area for students, senior citizens, housewives, people
in a career transition and people new to the area. It is from these labor
pockets that call centers usually draw their workers.
3. Regulatory issues and taxes. Considering an area's regulations
and taxes. Don't just consider what is in place today, but analyze what
may happen in the future.

In the Canadian province of Manitoba (which is in the favored

Central time zone), for example, there is no provincial sales tax
on 800 service. Regulations and taxes will probably remain favor-
able there because large centers for AT&T Canada Transtech,
Canada Post and CP Rail already wield influence in Manitoba's
business community.
Other Canadian provinces, especially Nova Scotia, Prince Edward
Island and other Maritime Provinces, have their own tax breaks on
long distance services to entice call centers to their areas.
TELECOM SERVICES YOU NEED
Here are some of the services you need from a community

that wants your call center, divided into two categories: Basic ser-
vices (essential in any circumstance) and Enhanced (those you'll
probably need later, if not now). The fact that a community has
Enhanced services available probably means they're thinking
about the future.
Basic:
• Access to digital switching.
• Fiber optic cabling to building.
• Full-featured telephone system.
• Underground installation of cables.
• POP accessibility.
• DS-1/Capabilities.
• Point-to-Point dedicated high capacity lines.
• Alternate routing/Disaster recovery.
• Power protection system.
• Videoconferencing.
Enhanced:
• Private line multiplexing.
• High speed data transmission.
• Building to building networks.
• Computer Aided Design capabilities.
• High speed/Group 4 fax.
• DS-3/Capabilities.
• Bulk data transfer.
• Private fiber optic networking.
• Call management systems.
• Computer time sharing.

Call center managers tend to take local business regulations for

granted. The further you get from home, the fewer assumptions you
can make about the way business is done.
For example, Telecom Denmark promotes employment regula-
tions that are similar to the US. In Denmark there are no restrictions
to operating 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. Employers pay for a
12 month work year, not 13 as in some other countries. And while the
country's social security and unemployment benefits are good,
Telecom Denmark points out that employees, not employers pay the
bulk of the cost.
4. Education. Locating your call center near a big name universi-
ty might lend your call center prestige, but for real benefits look for
junior colleges, trade schools and business schools. While many areas
talk about their institutions of higher learning as sources of training
for business, many call centers see them as sources of labor.
Using student labor is a very personal corporate decision. Students
offer a ready source of low-cost labor. They have higher academic cre-
dentials and are generally articulate. But to students, school comes
first, employment is second. Their schedules are often more important
than their jobs. Companies that can compensate for this, and students'
high turnover rate, find a ready source of student labor very attractive.
Other companies avoid student workers.
Whether you are looking for students or graduates, junior col-
leges, trade schools, business schools and even high schools are often-
overlooked resources. The curriculum in these schools often does a
better job of preparing students to work in a call center. Some schools
even fashion their curriculum to meet the needs of business. Phoenix,
AZ's community college system as an excellent example of this. The
system offers computer training, and even secretarial skills which pro-
vide the business etiquette required in today's call center.
On the high school level a good example is Clark County, NV
(where Las Vegas is located). Their classes lend themselves to the quali-
fied student wishing to enter the business world right out of high school.
Student populations are not confined to large cities. We found
over 10,000 students in two-year college and technical schools in the
southwest Indiana region served by SIGECO (Southern Indiana Gas
& Electric Company). The same region had nearly 10,000 more
enrolled in four-year colleges.
But what makes site selection so difficult for call centers is not any of
these issues in particular, but competition from other call centers. There
are many more call centers now than there were just a few years ago.
As the first call center in an area you get first crack at the best
employees at the lowest wages. But you might stand alone on regula-

tory issues. Later centers must fight for employees, but may find it eas-
ier to lobby against prohibitive regulations and taxes.
But just when it seems an area can't fit another call center, some-
thing changes and a new area becomes attractive. Lower long distance
rates and a favorable currency exchange rate have opened new doors
for US firms in Canada. Better technology and lower prices will soon
open up Eastern Europe for overseas call centers.
Finding a call center location may not be easy, but endless oppor-
tunities exist for those willing to go the extra mile.

CHAPTER TWO
HOW TO DESIGN A
SUCCESSFUL CENTER
The furnished environment your agents have to live and work in
for four to eight hours a day affects their attitude more than whether
the technology they are using shaves a few seconds off call duration.
Their comfort, or discomfort, within that environment has an undeni-
able effect on the way they deal with customers.
But there's more to call center design than picking out pretty
colors and sleek workstations. The right call center furnishings
can help the work get done faster and better. Employees are hap-
pier, they are out sick less, they sell more and serve your cus-
tomers better. Here are some of the important factors that go into
a successful design.
Times have changed. In the past you could say the chairs, the
lighting and the design of the workstation were the most important
elements of call center design. Those things are still important, but
issues of health and safety are increasingly on people's minds these
days. Yes — even in call centers.
Today, legislation and pending legislation mean the call center man-
ager has to be more astute. There are management challenges you have
to meet before you consider whether the chairs should be red or blue.
The legislation falls into two broad categories: worker safety and
civil rights.
San Francisco's video display terminal (VDT) operator laws are an
example of worker safety legislation. These laws mandate adjustabili-
ty of chairs, keyboards and monitors; set standards for lighting; and
require eye- and healthcare be made available to VDT workers.
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law that
can affect call center design. And the ADA is civil rights legislation,
not a building code.
Some states have building codes that require ramps, accessible
restrooms and other accommodations for the handicapped. The ADA
does not require you to have any of these things — but it does make
it illegal to reject a qualified applicant because your facilities are not
accessible to him or her.
Many telemarketing firms find handicapped workers desirable,
but when they bring the workers into the call center things don't work
out. They find the workstation doesn't accommodate a wheelchair, or

HOW TO DESIGN A SUCCESSFUL CENTER
a random floor plan makes it difficult for a blind TSR to get around.
Good call center design recognizes the relationship between people
and the physical constraints of the workplace.
States and localities around the country are following San
Francisco's lead. (It's a good idea to check with the local authorities at
the site selection stage — so you can compare the restrictions between
competing localities before you place your center.
Safe work environment. Human safety should be your first priori-
ty. Make sure everything is fire resistant, that the exits are appropri-
ately open and marked, and that all fire safety regulations are followed.
And that call center personnel are aware of fire safety procedures.
The call center's application. For order entry applications, for
example, one expert recommends at least 35 square feet for each per-
son's workspace. But for customer service, you might need more, up
to 45 square feet. (That's because service and support reps often have
to refer to manuals, documents, and other peripheral materials that
should be stored within easy reach.
You'll also want to account for the number of people in groups or
teams, and the position of supervisors and team leaders. Corporate
cultures may dictate particular placement, and that too should be rec-
ognized when planning the layout.
The relationship to other departments. Remember, once the center
is active, you're going to be watching the length of calls as a key com-
ponent of costs and productivity. If call center agents are running up
and down halls to another part of the building regularly, you didn't
plan well. If they need to be in constant contact with the fulfillment
department, for example, work that out ahead of time.
If you can't physically bring the two departments any closer,
then explore some kind of automated networking solution that will
tie people and systems together — that may alleviate some of the
distance trouble.
What support systems do you need? Will you need a training
room? A cafeteria? Consider long term plans and the company-wide
flow of traffic. How many conference rooms will you need? Where is
the copy room, the time clock? Will you have central or local filing?
All these questions must be answered in advance. But it's critical that
these questions be answered by call center management as well as by
the architects and the company's upper management.
WHAT TO CONSIDER
There are a lot of options in putting together the interior design of

the call center. Much of it is often overlooked, or put aside as man-

agers think more about the critical (and expensive) technology and
hardware they need. It's easy to forget that labor is the single biggest
ongoing expense in a call center. Intelligent workstation design is an
easy way to reduce costs over the long term by keeping turnover low
and employees happy.
Here's a quick checklist of the things you can control:
1. The height of the walls between employees. High walls reduce
noise, but they also cut agents off from one another and reduce col-
laboration. Sometimes the best way to deal with a call is to lean over
the partition and ask another agent. Also, you want them to be able
to see any electronic status display boards you're hanging on the
walls. One generally accepted height is 42 inches. That gives a cer-
tain amount of privacy without shutting the agents off from what's
around them.
2. Lighting. Indirect lighting is the best if you can afford it. If not
you should use florescent pink tubes and parabolic lenses. These lens-
es diffuse light straight down to eliminate glare. Full spectrum fluo-
rescent tubes are available from some manufacturers that give a nat-
ural sunlight-like illumination.
Full-spectrum lighting is color balanced so there's no yellow tint
and less glare than with florescent lighting. The tubes fit into existing
fluorescent fixtures.
3. Sound Control. Nothing is noisier than a roomful of people all
talking at once. It's hard on the employees, and it makes callers think
they're calling a roomful of people. If you want the both the caller and
the rep to feel more comfortable, try acoustic wall paneling, and if funds
allow, white noise machines to diffuse noise. Using sound-absorbing
foam or tiles on the ceiling, walls and other soft surfaces, and carpeting,
REFURBISHING
As much as you might love a new center, you might not have
the money to invest right now. Here are some tips that won't break
the bank.
• Give the whole office a fresh coat of paint, but don't paint
the ceiling. It will ruin acoustics.
• Install wall vinyl. It's great for sound absorption and doesn't cost
much.
• Get carpets.
• Put plants around the office. They're great for the air and for
absorbing sound.
• Keep a clean office and clean lounges. Hire a cleaning person.

keeps the sound from bouncing around. Plants are also good for the air
and absorbing acoustics.
4. Seating. Your full-time agents spend at least seven hours a day
at their cubicles sitting. The chairs you choose mean a lot. A chair
affects posture, circulation and pressure on the spine.
We recommend chairs with height-adjustable armrests, split backs
that hug your back (to relieve pressure on the spinal column), a move-
able seat and an adjustable back angle.
5. Monitor position. The top of the screen should be at eye
height or slightly below and about 18 to 24 inches from the eyes (30
inches if you are concerned with electromagnetic radiation and
your monitor is unshielded). The monitor should swivel to help
reduce reflections.
GETTING AGENTS INVOLVED
Agents ought to have some say in how call centers are designed.
They're not the only ones who benefit when you give them input —
managers and supervisors get happier, more productive employees and
fewer compensation claims.
In the past, call centers typically consisted of a bunch of desks and
chairs sprawled out in one room with some monitors and telephones.
Designers didn't put much thought into appearance, or the comfort of
the people who would spend the most time here — the employees.
Today, more and more call centers are collecting input from their
employees before buying workstations, for the simple reason that they
want to keep those employees as long as possible.
Because call center agents must perform repetitive phone and
keyboard tasks and spend all day (excluding breaks and lunch) at
their desks, using ergonomic equipment is crucial. You'll get happi-
er, healthier and more productive employees. In the long run you'll
save a bundle in time and money since you'll have lower turnover
and better morale.
There are several ways to minimize work-related health problems:
• encourage people to take breaks;
• buy adjustable furniture
• teach people how to adjust that furniture for comfort;
• and train people how to perform keystrokes with less strain.
Considering there are more employees suing now than ever
before for repetitive stress injuries (reported incidents of RSIs are
higher than ever, accounting for 60% of all occupational illnesses)
there's no better time to offer courses in prevention and re-evaluate
your center's set-up.

WORKSTATIONS
The major task in furnishing a call center is selecting worksta-

tions. The type of workstations you choose can facilitate team
building or discourage it.
There are three types of workstations: the cluster, a pinwheel like
setup with four to six work areas sprouting from the core in the middle;
the rectilinear, a traditional panel system with four wall panels at each
station set up in rows; and the modular or free-standing workstation.
Tab Products Company (Palo Alto, CA) makes both kinds. Tab
says cluster workstations are beneficial to companies, like large catalog
or insurance companies, that need to put many telephone- and com-
puter-intensive workers in the same room. That's because clusters let
you fit more people into less space, but the people don't feel cramped.
In fact, the cluster arrangement lets you save 10% to 25% of your
floorspace and doesn't give you that mousetrap/maze effect that recti-
linear workstations sometimes do.
The gentler floor plan makes it easier for people to walk through the
call center and between groups, fostering teamwork. CenterCore (Wayne,
PA) is another well-known company that makes cluster workstations.
One downside to the circular workstation arrangement is that the
partitions between stations are sometimes too high, making commu-
nication between agents on the telephone difficult. With the cluster it's
easier to talk between workstations, but hard for people to come in.
Rectilinear, or panel, workstations are a good choice for centers
that need more space for each agent or that need more flexibility in
panel and desk heights. The design of a center around these stations is
more forgiving, and easier to change as conditions change. The work-
surface can be moved between notches in the side panel to accommo-
date wheelchair-bound agents or agents of different heights.
Rectilinear workstations are popular choices for engineers, managers,
people who need extra room for storage cab
inets and anyone who has conferences with coworkers. The type
of workstation you choose should complement your company's team-
building style.
When evaluating workstations:
• Look for one that's easy to install and reconfigure. Look for some-
thing that doesn't have too many parts and pieces, but where you
can add overhead shelves and in/out boxes.
• Make sure the equipment can be connected within a panel, rather
than to a box that sits on top of a desk.
• Buy through a local dealer so you'll have nearby on-going support.
And a dealer can help with things like placement of workgroups for
departments who need to communicate regularly.

• Look at it as a strategic investment. Chances are, you'll have it for

the next ten years, so you don't just want to look at price. It should
be pleasant and functional.
• Get panels with metal frames because they're more durable than
wooden ones. Also, get fabric panels that can be re-covered if damaged.
HEALTH & SAFETY
The National Institute of Safety and Health sends investigators

to evaluate potential health hazards in workplaces in response to
employer, employee and agency requests. They refer to the term
"Indoor Environmental Quality" to describe problems such as air
quality, comfort, noise, lighting, and ergonomic stressers (poorly
designed workstations and tasks). These are what NIOSH investiga-
tors typically look at to determine if there is an air quality problem.
1. Pollutant sources: Is there a source of contamination or
discomfort indoors, outdoors or within the mechanical systems
in the building?
2. The Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) sys-
tem: Can the HVAC system control existing contaminants and
ensure thermal comfort? Is it properly maintained and operated?
3. Pollutant pathways and driving forces: The HVAC system is
the primary pathway. Are the pressure relationships maintained
between areas of building to that the flow of air goes from cleaner
areas to dirtier areas?
4. Occupants: Do the building occupants understand that their
activities affect the air quality?

CHAPTER THREE
ACDS: CALL CRUNCHING

POWERHOUSES
The ACD is the heart and soul of the modern call center. It is the
engine of productivity — the single piece of technology without which
the whole edifice of inbound sales, order taking and customer service
all crumble. What the ACD has done is enable the volume of calls you
take to escalate intelligently, and in ever more specialized complexity.
Once the term "ACD" meant a very specific type of telephone
switch. It was a switch with highly specialized features and particu-
larly robust call processing capabilities that served at least 100 sta-
tions (or extensions). It was purchased mostly by airlines for their
reservations centers and large catalogs for their order centers.
Companies with less specialized needs bought different technolo-
gies that didn't offer the same specialized features. Today true ACD
functionality is found in telephone switches that range widely in size
and sophistication.
Today there are PC-based ACDs, key systems with ACD functions,
key systems that integrate with a computer and software to create a
full-featured ACD, PBXs with ACD functions, PBXs with ACD func-
tions that are so sophisticated they compete with stand-alone ACD sys-
tems, stand-alone ACDs that serve centers with less than 30 agents, tra-
ditional stand-alone ACDs (don't misunderstand, these are usually the
most sophisticated), ACDs that integrate with other call center tech-
nologies, and nationwide networks of ACDs that act as a single switch.
There is simply no technology more suited to routing a large num-
ber of inbound calls to a large number of people than an ACD. Using
an ACD assures your callers are answered as quickly as possible. It
can provide special service for special customers.
ACDs are capable of handling calls at a rate and volume far
beyond human capabilities, and in fact, beyond the capabilities of
other telecom switches. They provide a huge amount of call process-
ing horsepower. Using an ACD assures your human resources are used
as effectively as possible. It even lets you create your own definition of
effectiveness. An ACD gives you the resources to manage the many
parts of your call center, from telephone trunks to agent stations to
calls and callers to your agents and staff.
With all these call handling options, many of them surprisingly
open and modular, why would anyone still want an expensive stand-
alone ACD for their center? Two simple reasons:

ACDS: CALL CRUNCHING POWERHOUSE
Power. Nothing has more raw call processing ability than a first-
tier standalone. Nothing else is so uniquely suited to the needs of
today's reservation or financial service megacenters.
Technology. When it comes to integration with other call center
systems like IVR, data warehouses and intranets, nothing can beat a
powerhouse ACD. The same goes for multi-site networking and skills-
based routing, two of today's most sought after inbound features.
No knock on smaller systems like PC-ACDs and PBX/ACD
hybrids (which account for much of the industry's phenomenal
ROUTING CALLS IN THE NETWORK
Agent Milo, f
Voice Services Module
Voice Services Module

Supervisor PC
UST
V.
ISDN packet or
LAN messaging
Here, you can see how Teloquent's Distributed Call Center provides multi-site net-
working using either fully-integrated or peer-to-peer arrangements. The control links
between the server and other system elements can use either ISDN D-channel pack-
et or customer LAN connections. It lets you use the public network to manage calls,
agents and voice processing equipment, wherever it's distributed.

growth in small centers), but there is no substitute for the call-crunch-

ing strength of a standalone ACD in many high-volume applications.
Here are some of the key trends that are changing the ACD
marketplace:
1. More information. Call center managers need information —
presented in a form that makes it easy to grasp quickly. High-end
ACDs vendors are adding data management modules at a rapid clip.
These include workforce management tools that forecast load, and
software systems that put real-time and historical data into any form
needed (like reports and readerboard displays).
And they are improving the tools the supervisor has to tweak the ACD
while it's in motion: things like creating groups on the fly, moving calls and
personnel around, monitoring for quality, to name just a few things.
2. Alternate methods of call delivery. In fact, a changing definition
of what we traditionally know as a "call." We've been dealing with
ACD/IVR integration for several years, and the same goes for
ACD/fax. Now we're seeing vendors grapple with the Web and the
Internet, with calls that come in from PCs and that terminate in data-
bases instead of agents.
The call center itself is giving way to something more amorphous
known as (for lack of a better term) a "customer contact zone," in
which what's important is the transaction between the customer and
the company, not what wire that transaction passed through.
Rockwell and Aspect are two of the key ACD vendors taking the
plunge. Rockwell's Internet ACD, for example, lets customers review
graphic online catalogs and informational materials, then request a
call from a live agent. Aspect has long had the ability to let callers
roam out of the queue, perform numerous database activities, then
come back into the queue where they left off.
3. Skills-based routing. This is a system for distributing calls that
come into an ACD. Traditional routing is based on two factors — an
equitable distribution of calls among available agents, and the random
nature of incoming calls.
Skills-based routing changes this somewhat: it routes calls to the
agent "best qualified" to handle the call, measuring "qualified" by agent
parameters you set. The ACD does this in two steps. First, some front-
end technology must be used to identify the needs of the caller. That's
usually accomplished through DNIS, ANI or an IVR system. Then that
information is matched against the sets of agent skill groups. There are
two ACD advances that let you run skills-based routing effectively:
• Leaving a call in an initial queue while simultaneously and continu-
ously checking other agent groups for agent availability;
• Or allowing an agent to be logged on to more than one agent group

(in this case a skill group) at a time, assigning priorities to those

groups by skill type.
4. Multi-site linking. In some ways, this is operationally an exten-
sion of skills-based routing. It's not enough to choose the best avail-
able agent — often you have to choose the best available agent at the
most appropriate location (based on time of day, traffic at one or more
sites, skill clusters or call priority).
One side effect of linking centers: your reporting software has to
be able to coordinate values for service level and queuing that are dif-
ferent when calls are being handed off from center to center, or are
holding in the network itself.
To a greater or lesser degree, vendors of standalone ACDs are
pushing the technology envelope with their switches. Some are con-
centrating on software development to add value to the core switch.
Others are paying more attention to integration with third-party call
center technologies like the internet and IVR. Still more are adapting
their switches to smaller, departmental call centers, hoping to catch
some of the growth in the industry that way. In all, it's created a
dynamic atmosphere — one in which if you want a feature, all you
have to do is ask. Here are some of the technical developments com-
ing out of the major switch suppliers.
ASPECT
Aspect's (San Jose, CA) latest development for their CallCenter
ACD is software. They offer a series of management information
products that take the raw call information out of the switch and pre-
sents it in a customizable form that the rest of the company can use.
CustomView ReportWriter, ReportRunner and ReportFolios let
you integrate information from the call center with any other corpo-
rate databases on the network. You can create your own reports, use
a preconfigured template, or "slice and dice" the data any way you
want. You can also deliver the data to the end user through a variety
of delivery methods PC, fax, email, etc.
Why concentrate on management reporting? Because it's a way to
bring the reams of data that accumulate in a center out into the rest
of the company. With a system as large and complex as the CallCenter
(up to 1,200 total trunks, 128 trunk groups), the number and kind of
connections between the call center and the enterprise multiply. It's
more important than ever that a person in marketing, or finance, or
upper management, have some way of extracting essential informa-
tion from the call detail.
The latest version of Aspect's Agility voice processing system is
very Web-centric in its outlook. It features something they call

ActionAgents, which are trainable software agents that execute Agility

applications. Capable of handling thousands of transactions per hour,
they can interact with virtually any network information system--
databases, mainframes, minicomputers, or LAN-based servers --and
communicate with customers via a wide variety of communications
media. ActionAgents can handle a customer transaction from start to
finish, as well as perform supporting tasks such as retrieving and con-
solidating information from multiple sources and delivering it to a
customer service representative.
ActionAgents can also update databases with information gath-
ered during a customer contact and proactively send personalized fax,
Web, e-mail, and pager messages -- all without human intervention.
This lets the call center communicate with more customers through
more media -- telephone, Web, fax, electronic mail, or pager.
INTECOM
Intecom (Dallas, TX) has been a champion of the little guy, mak-
ing advanced features available to the small- and medium-sized call
center market through their CallWise platform. That's not to say large
users are left out in the cold. Their switch supports up to 4,000 agents
and 6,000 trunks.
The key is the CallWise software. The E CallWise platform sup-
ports analog and digital trunk and station interfaces, including both
Primary and Basic Rate ISDN. It supports direct inward dialing, as
well as DNIS and copious overflow/diversion features.
It's conceived as an incremental system, the kind that you buy
a small piece of when you're small, and then add to — emphasiz-
ing the multi-site linking capabilities. (We know of one center
using an Intecom E that has more than 4,000 agents scattered over
nearly a dozen sites. It belongs to a major software company in
Redmond, WA.)
CallWise software delivers graphical real time information to
supervisors. It permits any user on the system to be an agent, allows
any agent to serve more than one group, and to be stationed at any
location on the network.
NORTEL
Nortel (Dallas, TX) has been busy crafting software enhancements

that add value to their Meridian ACD. The most recent — two new
call center products, FastView and FastView+, that integrate the
Meridian's ACD features with Windows compatible software.

NETWORK ACDS
One change in the nature of switching is the use of the network

itself as a platform for queuing and routing, even after the call has
been answered.
For example, a couple of years ago GeoTel (Littleton, MA) intro-
duced Intelligent CallRouter, a system that lets you perform ACD-
style call flow manipulations directly in the network. Remarkably, it
works with a variety of phone switches and carrier networks.
What's the advantage of this? Simply, that it turns a collection of
linked call centers into a true, single "virtual" center. Your switch's
data is processed by ICR's servers, which tell the carrier where to
send the call before it enters the switch.
This network-based call routing system works in conjunction with
any routing schemes you already use: agent skills, for example, or
time-based routing. You can even process ANI or caller-entered infor-
mation, just as if you were working with a single site ACD. But this
way you can apply those techniques across varied distant sites.
Another approach to networking ACDs is taken by Teloquent
(Billerica, MA). Their Distributed Call Center (DCC) is a software-
based system that uses ISDN to put full ACD features in the hands
of agents — wherever you want them. It sends calls to geographi-
cally dispersed locations from within the public network, and does
not require dedicated facilities such as T1 links or a dedicated ACD.
They are also working on a demonstrated a prototype of a video
call center application (with Bell Atlantic). For this application they
will predominantly target the financial sector.
Agents get on-screen displays of current queue statistics, timed

return of calls to queue after no answer, keystroke macros for call han-
dling rules and automated outbound call handling. They can also see
data on agent log-in, call supervisor and activity code displays right
from their keyboards.
There are advanced options like dynamic data exchange (DDE) for
increased flexibility and customization. FastView+ enables outbound
preview dialing from more than one application. FastView is based on
Nortel's Visit FastCall application, a PC-based TAPI-compatible PBX
desktop system for informal centers. FastView also takes advantage of
TAPI functions.
The Meridian itself uses ISDN and private Virtual Network
Services to queue calls simultaneously at up to 20 different remote
locations, ultimately delivering the call anywhere.

ROCKWELL
Rockwell's (Downers Grove, IL) main switch offering is the

Spectrum, an ACD that stands at the center of the company's growing
repertoire of value-added software for call centers.
Total Recall Reports, for example, is a graphical SQL-compatible
report generator that helps you get information from your call center
into other part of the company (and back), over your data network.
The company's Information Gateway Architecture for Call
Centers (IGACC) is a data collection tool that works tightly with
InfoServer, a system for gathering data from multiple switches and
then storing them in SQL databases, where it can then be sliced and
diced by Total Recall — you get the idea. All integrated, all on indus-
try-standard platforms.
Also from Rockwell, advanced inter-center routing capabilities.
Using what they call Telescripts, they can analyze what's going on
with groups, agents and applications (at multiple call centers) to deter-
mine the best route for an incoming call. You can even route to non-
Rockwell switches, using ISDN. And to take some of the guesswork
out of complex multi-center call tracking, you can generate a Call
Trace report. This tracks the steps each call makes as it travels through
the various routing schemes. Find bottlenecks, examine caller prefer-
ences — it's a great tool for micromanaging after the fact.
SIEMENS
Siemens recently showed what they call Media Blending, an appli-

cation that routes calls coming in to a center regardless of how that
call arrived. (Read: Web calls.)
Ultimately, a Web user will be able to click on a button for a call-
back, which will activate an application that gathers the data the call
center needs to route that call correctly.
ResumeRouting (Siemens' existing routing app) will use that data
to find the best person to handle the transaction and generate an out-
bound call.
ResumeRouting is a strong skills-based router that automatically
identifies agents' skills (and the degree of proficiency in that skill). It's
power lies in the fact that you don't have to define specific agent
groups around skills. Instead, the entire agent pool is treated like a
large, virtual skill group. The pool is essentially reconstructed with
each call. You can work with up to 250 skills, and proficiency ratings
of one through nine.
New from Siemens is an enhancement to CallBridge, the CTI link
that lets you create custom apps to run on your switch. The latest ver-

sion lets the computer app define the routing scenarios and triggers
using virtually any information in the IS environment.
TEKNEKRON INFOSWITCH
Teknekron's (Ft. Worth, TX) Series III can handle 75,000 calls per
hour, delivered to up to 1,000 agents over 1,200 trunks and 2,000
simultaneous talk paths.
It's a modular, open system built on ISDN. One of their strategies
has been to enhance the value of the switch with a line of software
products for call center management and operation. Several of these
software systems can run in non-Teknekron environments.
For example, Orchestra is the voice/data integrator. It launches all
sorts of desktop applications, enabling transaction processing and bet-
ter agent stat collection. More advanced computer telephony applica-
tions are enabled with Rendezvous/cs, a middleware system that con-
nects to Nortel and AT&T switches as well as Teknekron's own.
AutoQuality and P&Q Review handle monitoring and perfor-
mance/quality assurance, respectively. AutoQuality helps you institute
fair, random recordings of calls, and integrates wit
h your workforce manager for scheduling. P&Q Review helps you
define productivity criteria, and maximize the value of training.
PC-SYSTEMS: THE DAWN OF THE DEPARTMENTAL ACD
Advanced call center technologies have arrived for even the small-
est call centers — in the form of software that adds ACD features to
your switch. The benefits are revolutionary. Expand your definition of
a call center. Think not of the huge reservation center, nor of a five
hundred agent telemarketing area.
Instead, think of the five or ten person collections department, the cus-
tomer service area of a larger company. They have many of the same needs
— and problems — as larger centers. But until now, there have been few
call handling tools that deliver state of the art features at a reasonable price.
These small centers can't justify the expense of a large, standalone
ACD. Their personnel are not always dedicated phone reps. They need
flexible solutions that build on the systems already in place, that give
them room to grow without putting the company in the poorhouse.
The response to those needs is a new variety of call handling sys-
tem— the ACD without the box, or the PC-based ACD. Thanks to
the new-found openness of switch vendors, developers are offering a
host of software products that add ACD features to key systems and
hybrid switches.

FOUR STEPS INTO THE FUTURE
We started with dedicated ACDs. We march into a future

where (hopefully) we'll be able to walk into Staples or Egghead
and buy a shrinkwrapped call processing application. Here's how
we get there.
1. First there was the ACD, the highly sophisticated, expensive
call processor. It brought unbelievable benefits to call centers —
indeed, made the call center as we know it possible. But because
of the cost, only well-funded companies could afford them.
2. Enter the PBX ACD. Software that gives you a connection to
your ACD, letting you upgrade smoothly without losing your PBX.
But the first ACD packages were strictly written and not very flexi-
ble. There was not much choice — each switch had a limited num-
ber of software choices written for it.
3. We are now in the very beginning of the period of aggressive
third-party developers, says Computer Telephony expert Ed
Leibowitz. People from outside the telecom world, many from the
computer industry, are developing applications for every open
switch. There is increased competition, an increased variety of
applications, and increased choice.
4. In the future, hopefully, that will lead to a multitude of choic-
es for any given switch. Instead of two or three add-ons, you'll
choose from 10 or 12. Software will be bought off-the-shelf.
Cross your fingers.
THE BENEFITS
Managers at small centers have a lot of reasons to cheer these

developments:
• It's far less expensive. With larger ACDs, it's very difficult to justify
at the six agent size, or anything below thirty agents. For example,
Innings' ACD-Star adds value to the Northern Telecom Norstar key
system. Add the ACD-Star and your Norstar blossoms with features
like call routing, reporting, status monitoring and an integrated digi-
tal announcer.
• It's more flexible. You can easily integrate top-notch systems like
interactive voice response or voice mail, giving your small center a
highly professional appearance.
Intellivoice (Atlanta, GA) has crafted an integrated system for
the Norstar that includes four of the most important call center
functions: ACD, voice mail, IVR and outbound dialing. The Voice

Star ACD emphasizes call handling features; Voice Star

MessageCenter the voice mail side. All four elements are easily
added to either system.
• Add third-party call control. You don't need to know how to pro-
gram to set up a rule-based system for getting the right call to the right
agent. With the PC it becomes a low-end solution You can do a lot of
things: special treatment of customers based on the language they
speak, internal agent routing based on skill sets, or based on time of
day for full 24-hour coverage.
• Enable ACD-dabbling. Smaller companies can join the call process-
ing party. PC ACDs allow small installs (typically 10 to 15 people) to
be placed on the same technological plain as bigger centers.
Since many companies already have PBXs that can be enhanced
with available software, they can dabble. It's possible to convert a few
users and then decide that if things go well (they usually do), to
expand further.
For example, Cintech (Cincinnati, OH) offers Prelude, by its very
name a starter system that encourages people to step up to Cinphony,
Cintech's more advanced software ACD.
Prelude is aimed at retail stores, pharmacies, universities, car
rental agencies — places that until now might have gone without fea-
tures like call categorization and advanced routing.
Comdial's (Charlottesville, VA) QuickQ software lets you set over-
flow patterns between multiple small groups, and lets you change
those parameters quickly, with a minimum of required knowledge.
• Provide a migration path to larger, more powerful standalone ACDs.
Breaking into the PC ACD market is looking more attractive to the
established ACD switch vendors.
It links with Telcom's standard ACD, but provides a way for a
company just starting out with a center (or expanding to add a small
one) to get robust features at a reasonable price.
These systems do not deliver everything you'd expect if you used
a dedicated ACD, but they don't have to. Departmental needs are dif-
ferent. Few need multi-site routing, for example. Department heads
(who may not be telecom people) need different kinds of reports that
have more to do with sales and costs than with call traffic.
There are many small call centers that are just beginning to realize
they are call centers. And that they need the same kind of technologies
big centers have been using for years. Customers demand the same
kind of service, no matter how big you are.
This new software enables them to reach their full potential for
pleasing customers at reasonable cost.

VIRTUAL ACD REALITIES
Call centers have become a computer telephony developers'

paradise. More and more application smarts are being added to
the actual ACD by external servers and intelligent middleware.
Virtual is the hot buzzword in call-center circles. With some of
today's cutting-edge ACD systems, there really isn't an incredibly
knowledgeable, efficient, accessible, clairvoyant and ever-coddling
person waiting patiently just for your call.
It just seems like it.
Call them "virtual" agents. They live in virtual groups naturally.
And as your call comes into the system, their virtual master dis-
covers who you are (through Automatic Number Identification (ANI)
or voice response-prompted digits) or, at the very least, what you
want (through Direct Number Identification Service — DNIS), col-
lects all the information he has on you and decides in a flash which
available virtual agent is best suited to service you, passing your
complete personalized profile down to the desktop along with your
call and scripted apps to further improve the transaction.
It's a call-processing world that's the direct result of computer
telephony integration or, to be more exact, computer dominance
over telephony.
That is, after all, the only way to build this kind of virtual ACD.
The key is understanding who you are: what your buying prefer-
ences are; what language you speak; where you live; etc. There's
no way telecom switch vendors can fold this information into their
boxes. Only the call centers have this kind of information. And they
keep it in their computers.
Not that we're ready to bury ACDs completely. Reliable complex
switching is still critical in call centers. But there's no denying that
more and more they're being relegated to a role of just reliable
audio-path and basic call-info providers, their smarts stolen by
external software that taps into database-driven intelligence.
The better makers understand this. They've focused their R&D
away from app software development and concentrated on becom-
ing even more reliable and, perhaps just as important, "opening
up" to outside software developers for computer control. Aspect is
an excellent example of this trend
Still other traditional ACD vendors, like Rockwell, have moved their
business out of the realm of mere switching and are getting heavily into
the call center CT integration arena. And Teknekron InfoSwitch, for years
a notable ACD maker, has re-vamped entirely towards developing the
above-mentioned virtualizing software. They don't even like to be called
an ACD maker anymore, though they are and they do make good stuff.

THREE EASY PIECES

Integration. It's a single word that sums up what has been hap-
pening in ACD technology recently.
ACDs have always made connections. Now the connections are
not just between incoming callers and available live agents, but
between incoming callers and a variety of technologies.
Integration might seem like old news. In the past year integra-
tions with outbound dialers, interactive voice response (IVR) sys-
tems, large host computer systems and other ACD systems (mul-
tisite networking) have been the talk of the industry.
The difference now, the experts say, is it's real. These appli-
cations are not just dreams, they are running in call centers
around the country. ACD manufacturers are still pushing the inte-
gration envelope. Innovations in networking, IVR integration and
fax integration are still making news. But vendors are already tak-
ing the next steps toward a call center that is totally integrated to
the rest of your business.
Thanks to telephoneintegration protocols introduced by Intel,
Microsoft and Novell, ACDs have embraced PClevel computer tele-
phone integration. ACD vendors are also reaching out (electroni-
cally) to thirdparty call center management software packages.
More open systems mean realtime data exchanges with these
software packages. The perfect illustration of this "integrate every-
thing" theme is Aspect's (San Jose, CA) Agility.
Agility is based on a technology called a "software agent." This
has nothing to do with a call center agent, a real estate agent or any
human. A software agent is software that automates the handling and
exchange of information. It's built on technology from Edify's (Santa
Clara, CA) ElectronicWorkforce, which is itself agentbased software.
What Agility will do for your call center is let you maintain a
seamless flow of information between technologies. You run into
traps when you try to switch information between technologies that
have been cobbled together. ActionAgents are applications trig-
gered by an incoming call, an incoming fax, by the time of day, day
of week or another software agent.
An ActionAgent can collect an incoming caller's credit card
number (from a VRU) before a live rep handles the call. After the
call the ActionAgent takes ACD stats about how long the call last-
ed and adds it to the database or similar post call processing. The
product works with IVR to change menu choices dynamically based
on the caller's previous response. It works with call center man-
agement software to change a rep's ACDgroup assignment to han-

dle overflow calls when predefined conditions are met.

These changes are reflected in organizational changes within
ACD vendors. New partnerships are being forged, as are new rela-
tionships with thirdparty developers. The companies are starting
new programs and groups to help their customers take advantage
of all the new options.
Let's take an indepth look at what the ACD manufacturers are
offering in each of these areas.
1. PC integration. Rockwell (Downers Grove, IL) is hot on inte-
gration with clientserver computer systems. These networks let
users take information off the switch and combine it with other
applications running elsewhere. The computer network is a meet-
ing place for different devices to come together. Users can mix and
match different types of tools especially by taking advantage of
new applications developed by thirdparty developers. Rockwell's
role is to provide access to these new applications.
Northern Telecom (Nashville, TN) announced plans to integrate
all of their Meridian 1 and Norstar switches with Novell's Telephony
Services for NetWare known as TSAPI. (That's Telephony Services
Application Programming Interface for you acronym fans.)
Northern also has a CTI product called Visit FastCall for
Windows. This product lets call centers link their Meridian 1,
SL100 and Centrex switches with Windowsbased applications. It
provides directory dialing and customer screen pops with the deliv-
ery of calls.
Further tightening the bond between Nortel's switches and
PCs, and the whole PCIevel computertelephone integration scene,
is Nortel's development of a software module that lets the
Intel/Microsoft Windows Telephony Application Programming
Interface work with TSAPI. The module, called Tmap, lets CTI appli-
cations written with TAPI run on Novell LANs with TSAPI. In some-
thing approximating English, this means that not only can your
LANbased computer applications be linked to your Northern
Telecom switch, but your Windowsbased PC applications can be
linked to your LAN applications and to your switch.
It also means you can tap in to the CTI applications being writ-
ten with these interfaces and that CTI developers can write appli-
cations for the Northern switches.
In the future expect to see more "shrinkwrapped" CTI applica-
tions from Siemens (Santa Clara, CA) and their partners. Siemens
expects to develop applications targeted at their larger customers
and to focus on the agent workstation to create a better set of
tools on the desktop.

The latest version of AT&T's (Bridgewater, NJ) Generic 3 lets

agents answer calls and enter orders from their PCs running
Windows. CallMaster PC software, the CallMaster phone terminal
and PassageWay software make it happen.
2. IVR and fax. Teknekron lnfoswitch's (Fort Worth, TX) Series
III ACD supports a digital IVR interface using open Ti or El chan-
nels. This means signaling information (ring, hangup), ANI and
DNIS crosses from the ACD to the IVR. Routing information,
wrapup information and automatic caller identification for screen
pops can now travel from the IVR to the ACD.
Combined with Teknekron's enhanced reporting features,
these capabilities can pack a punch for analyzing calls handled by
your IVR system, in addition to the benefits of a closely linked IVR
and ACD system.
A new version of Nortel's Meridian Mail has a faxondemand
option. In a call center, this feature will let you offer menus of top-
ics for your callers to choose from, so they can fax themselves
brochures or product descriptions.
3. Management reports. Teknekron has put a lot of work into
new ACD reporting features. Their ASCII data file interfaces with
the forecasting application in software packages from TCS
Management Group (Nashville, TN) and IEX (Richardson, TX). That
means the ACD delivers more detailed statistics to these software
packages by the halfhour.
An enhanced agent status display gives you extra information:
how long each agent has been in his or her current call state. It
tells you how long an agent has been available, on an ACD call, on
an internal call or on an outbound call.
Teknekron has also added configurable wall displays, activity
and report lists that are easier to use, multitenant reporting and
multiple wrapup codes per call.
Tomorrow's management reports will pull together all the data
on the ACD side and all the data from the customer database side.
The report will show the net impact of the interaction with each
customer. This reporting will have powerful call center benefits.
Imagine telling your agent, not just, 'here's how many calls you
handled,' but 'here's how much revenue you created today.'

CHAPTER FOUR
HOW TO MANAGE
SKILLS-BASED ROUTING
Routing agents by skill delivers profound benefits to your center —
but the technique is not without problems.
In theory, skills-based routing is a call center manager's dream
come true. Always handle the call based on exactly what that call
demands: the agent who deals with the customer is precisely the right
person for the job. It allows you to provide the ultimate in quality cus-
tomer interactions.
But there is a flip side. With high quality comes a high price.
Because when you classify agents by skills it can become a nightmare
to determine exactly how many people you need at any given time.
The traditional methods of workforce planning break down in the
face of too many variables assigned to each call and each agent.
Skills-based routing is one of the most requested features in new
ACD purchases. That's not surprising — it gives the center manager
much more flexibility in assigning agents to groups. It gives you pre-
cise tools to determine that if a call meets certain criteria, it goes to a
particular group or person.
For example, you may set it up so that calls are separated by lan-
guage. With an IVR front-end, the ACD can send Spanish-speaking
callers to a set of agents who are fluent in that language. Or, you might
send calls from priority customers to the most senior agents. Or calls
for a particular service to agents trained in that area. There are few
limits — which is what makes it very appealing. It gives the call cen-
ter manager the ability to construct call flow patterns that — more
than ever before — match the real needs of actual callers under their
real business conditions.
WHAT IS SKILLS-BASED ROUTING?
At its heart, skills-based routing is a system for distributing calls

that come into an ACD. Traditional routing is based on two factors —
an equitable distribution of calls among available agents, and the ran-
dom nature of incoming calls. Skills-based routing changes this some-
what: it routes calls to the agent "best qualified" to handle the call,
measuring "qualified" by agent parameters you set. The ACD does
this in two steps. First, some front-end technology must be used to

HOW TO MANAGE SKILLS-BASED ROUTING
identify the needs of the caller. That's usually accomplished through

DNIS, ANI or an IVR system. Then that information is matched
against the sets of agent skill groups.
There are two ACD advances that let you run skills-based routing
effectively:
• Leaving a a call in an initial queue while simultaneously and con-
tinuously checking other agent groups for agent availability;
• Or allowing an agent to be logged on to more than one agent group
(in this case a skill group) at a time, assigning priorities to those
groups by skill type.
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
When you increase the number of options for routing, you natu-
rally increase the complexity of the calculation involved in figuring
out the optimum call center configuration.
When you want to figure out how many people you'll need on
staff during a particular period of time, or how many trunks, you
might turn to a workforce planner. This kind of software takes
known data, adds your expectations (parameters) and calculates the
state of the call center during the period you need to know about.
And it helps you create the operational things you need to base on
that, like work schedules.
The problem is that most of these software systems rely on the
Erlang formula for analysis. And Erlang assumes that calls coming
into the queue are random and unknown. Once you know something
about the identity or needs of the caller, you are moving the ACD's
routing away from Erlang. In other words, Erlang-based predictions
won't work well in call centers that use skills-based routing.
Some software vendors are trying to move beyond the limitations
of Erlang calculations, with mixed results. Pipkins' Merlang, for
example, is an attempt to move past Erlang to something that more
accurately represents call center traffic.
Jim Oberhelman of Bard Technologies says that Erlang is not use-
ful at all in predicting for skills-based routing, because to do skill-
routing you need to know what's in the queue.
Also, he says that predictions based on Erlang overstate require-
ments by an average of 3% to 7%, depending on the type of applica-
tion. In larger, high volume sales centers, for example (like cata-
loguers) Erlang predictions tend to come out very close to reality. But
in help desks, with their lower volume and longer talk time, predic-
tions can vary quite a bit.

WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT?
One way to deal with this problem is with simulation, rather than
prediction. A simulator actually models the center's traffic based on
your parameters. In the case of callLab, Bard's ACD simulator, it gen-
erates random calls, each with identifiable qualities. You can examine
what-if scenarios that explore all the possible skill groups you'd want
to create. Simulation will help you understand the effects on service
level and cost of your routing schemes.
For example, we asked Bard to run a simulation showing the rel-
ative changes in the same call center under three different routing
plans. The center is a hypothetical one offering sales and service on
four separate products. Also, callers can get any of those sales or ser-
vice options in either French or English. They posited 100 seats with
a varied arrangement of skills.
That works out to 16 potential skill categories (four products
times two options times two languages). A given agent can be profi-
cient in any one or more categories.
In the first example, calls are routed traditionally — one call type
to one agent group. Here, the average speed of answer was high, 109
seconds. All the other numbers were also high, but not out of the
norm for your typical call center.
In the second example, calls are routed to the most qualified avail-
able agent using skills-based routing. The numbers are markedly bet-
ter by all measures here.
As a control, they also simulated a theoretical maximum scenario:
what would happen if all the agents are assumed to be perfectly cross-
trained to take all of the calls and are organized into a single agent
group. This is the highest cost, probably impossible example.
The difference between examples two and three are striking —
because they are not that different. The simulation shows that skill-
routing is far more efficient than traditional routing, and not so far off
the impossible-to-achieve maximum.
(Bard's simulations project that to get skills-like results with tradi-
tional groups, you'd have to add 50% more people.)
And the savings are not just in people — the numbers for trunk min-
utes are even more startling, a key stat for an inbound 800 call center.
It's clear that skills-based routing brings major improvement to call
centers. And it's possible to quantify that using simulators. They are a
good planning and staffing tool — but they are not schedulers. They can
tell you how many people you'll need in given circumstances. But they
can't work out break schedules, or figure out how to slot in vacation time.
Also, with the increasing popularity (and sophistication) of dis-
tributed ACDs that use skills-based routing to send calls through the

public network to a linked center, managers need better tools to mea-

sure performance.
Teloquent, for example, has incorporated more advanced supervi-
sor call management features into the latest release of its Distributed
Call Center product. Supervisors have enormous ability to route calls
based on either primary or secondary skills.
More work is needed from the vendors of traditional workforce
management software. Skills-based routing is only going to get more
widespread. Call center managers need software that can help them
manage this powerful tool.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SKILLS-BASED ROUTING
You can reap impressive benefits when you add this technique
to your routing scheme — but it's not without hazards, or confu-
sion. Here's what you need to know.
Skills-based routing is all the rage in call centers. It's one of
the most sought-after, and misunderstood, features available in
ACDs today.
Unlike traditional routing plans, skills-based routing sends calls
to the agent "best qualified" to handle the call, measuring "quali-
fied" by agent parameters you set. Several major switches and soft-
ware systems are now equipped to route calls using this method.
The ACD does this in two steps. First, some front-end technology
must be used to identify the needs of the caller. That's usually
accomplished through DNIS, ANI or an IVR system. Then that infor-
mation is matched against the sets of agent skill groups.
We asked several experts in inbound call routing to help call
center managers figure out what the impact of this dramatically dif-
ferent scheme would be on a call center: Gus Agusti of
Cybernetics; Max Fiszer (of Siemens at time of this conversation
— now at MultiCall); Maggie Klenke of TCS Management Group;
Jim Oberhelman of Bard Technologies; and Martin Prunty of The
Telecom Group.
Q. What is skills-based routing? How Is It defined technically?
Prunty: "Skills-based routing is a relatively new mechanism for
matching a caller's needs with an agent who is capable of meet-
ing those needs. In traditional call centers, agents are grouped
into like categories. That is, each agent, regardless of his/her indi-
vidual knowledge and capabilities, is organized in an ACD group
which is assumed to be comprised of individuals with an equal
level of knowledge and experience. When a call is answered by
that group, theoretically any agent is assumed to be equally
equipped to handle that caller's needs.
"In the real world, agents have very different capabilities or
skills. For instance, a new employee may only have the experience
to handle very basic types of calls. An experienced employee, on
the other hand, may be able to handle a wide variety of call types.
SBR essentially embraces this reality and views each agent as
being unique.
"A fundamental characteristic of SBR is its ability to define and
inventory the unique strengths of each individual. As callers
request specific types of assistance, as defined by a variety of
means, including VRU selections or DNIS digits dialed, SBR match-

es those needs with an individual capable of responding to them.

In effect, SBR breaks down the tradition of assigning agents into
ACD groups and views each agent as its own 'group'."
Fiszer: "We believe that skills-based routing originated as an
extension to the classic 'next-available-agent' algorithm; allowing
ACD designs that include overflow groups, queuing to groups of
similarly skilled agents, routing to specific agents, and allowing
agents to be logical members of more than one group."
Q. What are the benefits to a call center?
Oberhelman: "SBR enables call centers and help desks to
approach that ideal goal of having a call answered by the right
agent, correctly and efficiently. In other words, creating the best
match between caller and agent with the least effort on the part
of the call center manager.
Q. What's the downside?
Klenke: "One of the obvious downsides is that it is very difficult
to manage. There are simply too many variables that influence the
quality of service experienced by a particular kind of caller and the
degree of utilization experienced by different types of employees."
Q. How can it be implemented technically? (I.e., through the
ACD itself, through add-on software, in a PBX/ACD, etc.)
Agusti: "Typically, SBR is implemented through the ACD/PBX
software (usually as an optional feature) and requires that special
routing tables and individual agent skill capabilities be input."
Q. What is the real impact on call center productivity using
this style of routing?
Klenke: "The impact can be significant, especially in call
centers where there are many different types of calls being han-
dled and many different mixes of employee skills. The impact is
likely to be relatively small in a large call center that handles
only a few different types of calls and has relatively few cross-
trained employees."
Q. What does SBR do to Erlang-based workforce scheduling?
Prunty: "SBR is not good news for workforce scheduling sys-
tems who rely solely on Erlang C, or any other method designed to
determine the number of seated agents in a group handling a
known number of equal calls at a specific service level. Since each
agent in an SBR environment may be required to handle a calling
load quite different from the individual seated next to her, Erlang
C simply does not work well."
Q. Are there non-Erlang scheduling/prediction methods on
the market? Or enhancements to Erlang that account for SBR?
Oberhelman: "Call-by-call simulation technology is capable of

quite accurately predicting the results (ASA, service level, number

of calls answered, agent occupancy, etc.) of any proposed sched-
ule in any call center environment, including SBR. The simulation
tool and the scheduler can work together, interactively, to develop
a schedule that meets the users requirements."
Q. How good a substitute is simulation for prediction? What
CAN'T a call center manager do with a simulator that she can do
with a scheduler? In other words, what are they LOSING in the
switch to SBR?
Agusti: "Simulation techniques provide an enhancement to
the forecasting components of workforce management products,
not a substitute. The scheduling considerations in SBR are out-
side the realm of simulation techniques (or Erlang for that mat-
ter). The scheduling components deal with maintaining employ-
ee's skills inventory and the optimization rules used to schedule
each call type."
Q. How does SBR function In a distributed call center envi-
ronment (where calls are queued and then parcelled out to mul-
tiple sites, for example)?
Prunty: "It is my belief that SBR works equally well (or equally
badly) in a distributed environment. The key to its success is
matching caller demand with internal resources. If adequate
resources exist, it shouldn't matter whether or not the resources
exist in one location or many."
Q. What techniques are the vendors of workforce management
software tools working on to ensure compatibility with SBR?
Agusti: "Integrated simulation techniques are an important
addition to the workforce management software tool chest. In addi-
tion, enhanced schedule optimization and reporting techniques
which look at multiple groupings according to skill."

CHAPTER FIVE
WHAT YOU NEED TO

KNOW ABOUT
PREDICTIVE DIALERS
As an outbound call center manager or supervisor, you get more
than a little annoyed when your agents can't reach the people on their
call lists. You know it's not your agent's fault. Much of their time is
taken up trying to get through to a prospect to make a sale or collect
a bill, and the longer it takes them to do their job, the more it costs.
Even if you have a small call center, a typical agent only reaches
25 to 35 people per 100 attempts, which could take hours. Enter pre-
dictive dialing: automation provides the same 100 calls in about 90
minutes, routing your agent only the ones that reach a human voice.
Today's dialers are sophisticated powerhouses. They screen out the
busy signals, no answers, answering machines and Standard
Information Tones (SIT). With so many products on the market, it's
hard to decide what's right for your center.
Predictive dialing automates the entire outdialing process, with the
computer choosing the person to be called and dialing the number.
The call is only passed to the agent when a live human answers.
Predictive dialers screen out all the non-productive calls before
they reach the agent: all the busy signals, no-answers, answering
machines, network messages, and so on. The agent simply moves from
one ready call to another, without stopping to dial, listen, or choose
the next call.
True predictive dialing is merely one kind of automated dialing —
there are others. But predictive is the most powerful and the most
productivity-enhancing. True predictive dialing has complex mathe-
matical algorithms that consider, in real time, the number of available
telephone lines, the number of available operators, the probability of
not reaching the intended party, the time between calls required for
maximum operator efficiency, the length of an average conversation
and the average length of time the operators need to enter the relevant
data. Some predictive dialing systems constantly adjust the dialing rate
by monitoring changes in all these factors. The dialer is taking a sort of
gamble: knowing that these processes are in motion, and knowing that
there is a certain chance that a call placed will end in failure, it must

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PREDICTIVE DIALERS
throw more calls into the network than there are agents available to
handle them, if they all succeed.
Sometimes the prediction is wrong, and there are fewer failures
than expected. In this case the called party will pick up the phone, say
hello, and be hung up on when no agent is available. One of the intri-
cacies of predictive dialer management is finetuning the aggressiveness
of your dialer's algorithm.
Predictive dialing has been nothing short of revolutionary in the
outbound call center. When operators dial calls manually, the typical
talk time is close to 25 minutes per hour. Most of the rest of that time
is non-productive: looking up the next number to dial it; dialing the
phone; listening to the rings; dealing with the answering machine or
the busy signal, etc. Predictive dialing takes all that away from the
agent's desk and buries it inside the processor.
When working with a predictive dialer, it is possible to push agent
performance into the range of 45 to 50 minutes per hour. We've heard
of centers going as high as 54 minutes per hour. (You can't really go
higher than that, taking into account post-call wrap up time.)
There is more to the technology than just the pacing algorithm.
Predictive machines excel at detecting exactly what is on the other end of
DIALER-CENTRIC VS. ACD-CENTRIC
Dialer-centric ACD-centric
UNISON
Davox's view of the role in call center is a smart on. It lets each piece of equipment
do what it does best — in the case of an inbound call, that role would fall to the ACD.
Davox's dialer helps in the handoff. though both of the call and the agent (from out-
bound to inbound and back). The result: more efficient management reports and bet-
ter control of the call flow process in the center.

the phone, including the ability to differentiate a human voice from an

answering machine. They typically decide that the call has reached a per-
son within the first 1/50th of a second — the start of the word "hello."
Here are just a few of the important ways predictive dialing sys-
tems can help you.
• They completely automate outbound consumer calling. That
includes the actual dialing, assigning agents and controlling the list
you call from.
You can run multiple inbound and outbound campaigns, and lets
you specify names on a list not to call. It also schedules automatic call-
backs for nonproductive calls. Dialers let you set the parameters for
the dialing algorithms to meet the needs of a particular campaign, like
the percent of overdials the system sends out.
With collections applications, for example, you may not care if the
dialer has to hang up on a "customer" if there is no agent available.
You'll trade the customer's good will for a higher volume of calls. But for
a sales promotion, you'd want to keep those hang-ups to a minimum.
• You can manage your call center more effectively.
Standard features include real-time statistics about how each
agent, group of agents or list is performing. Also, trunk pooling,
which reduces operating costs by processing both inbound and out-
bound over the same trunks.
• They reduce agent burnout and turnover. Just imagine all the tedi-
um they avoid: finding the phone number, typing it in, waiting for the
phone to connect and the number to ring.
The dialer makes sure that the only calls an agent has to deal with
are real calls, with a live customer on the other end. No busy signals,
no endless ringing, no answering machines.
Cutting out that stalling doubles the time spent talking on the
phone. Talk time jumps to 40 to 50 minutes. Agents like their jobs bet-
ter when they don't have to wait around for the phone to be answered.
• Reach more people in less time. You penetrate lists more deeply in a
fraction of the time.
Predictive dialers adjust the balance of agents from one list to
another, taking into account factors like list performance, time of day
and the success of particular agents.
BREAKING OPEN THE DIALER
It wasn't so long ago that predictive dialers were a simple purchase

— you bought the one that gave you the most talk time per hour, or
the one that had the best answering machine detect. What you looked
for in a dialer was dialing features. That's changing immensely.

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The Mega+ Call Blender and Call Center Support System (from Telegenisys) brings
inbound call handling to your LAN-based dialing system. Their systems allow you to
integrate inbound call processing (through ACD or PBX) with the network of agent
clients and the predictive dialer. IT features everything you'd expect from a dedicated
inbound setup: IVR, ANI/DNIS routing, caller-selected transfer — adding powerful effi-
ciencies to your outbound campaigns.

Like most other hardware technologies, predictive dialers are

responding to changes in the nature of the call center. Nowadays you
want more flexibility with your agents, inbound or outbound. You
want to link your hardware systems together: switches and comput-
ers, dialers and voice systems.
More than anything else, you want to choose the software appli-
cations that make sense for your business, and get cost-effective hard-
ware to run them. Decoupling the software apps from the hardware is
the most impressive development to come along in years.
Predictive dialer vendors, like PBX and ACD vendors before them,
have been forced to adapt to a changing world. People are less inclined
to choose a standalone system they can't program and can only be
connected to a limited range of compatible peripherals.
How are they doing that? By focusing on their strengths.
Predictive dialing has always been a software application. It
required a great deal of processing power, so the vendors put their spe-
cialized software onto high-powered computers, most of them with a
closed architecture. But the research and development was always
geared to better dialing algorithms, more sophisticated call tracking
features, and better database management — essentially software apps.
What started as a great idea for outbound telemarketing and col-
lections — fire out more calls than necessary to maximize agent pro-
ductivity — became the platform on which software companies con-
tinued to refine and develop new features for handling calls.
It was such a good idea that companies in other areas (telemar-
keting software, especially) began adding predictive dialing modules
to their systems. The logic was good: if dialing features are mainly
software, and powerful generic processors are available to run them,
there's no reason not to create a whole new category of product — the
PC-based (or at least client/server-based) dialer.
The traditional hardware/dialing vendors are now changing to
match. Several of them have taken their core technologies, enhanced
them, and are presenting them to call centers in a new light. They are
creating systems for managing all aspects of the call flow. They let
agents make calls in predictive mode, and receive incoming calls as well.
They let you connect peripherals like voice response units to their
systems. And some, finally, let you develop applications to sit on top.
DIALERS HEAD FOR SOFTWARE
This is the most important piece of information you need: predic-

tive dialers, which usually run you $7,000 to $15,000 per seat, can be
had for as little as $2,000 per seat.

WHEN IS PREDICTIVE NOT PREDICTIVE?
When shopping for small-scale predictive dialing systems,

beware of the loose use of the word "predictive." Predictive dial-
ing, by definition, is not available for one agent. It requires groups
on which to base its assessment of how many calls to place into
the network. A single agent (or even a small group) is not enough
on which to base an accurate judgement.
What some vendors offer as predictive dialing is really antici-
patory dialing. What's the difference? It uses the statistics gener-
ated by a single agent to "anticipate" when that agent will be ready
for the next call. It dials the call while the agent is still talking. If
that call takes too long, then you have an abandoned call. It only
takes one abnormally long call to throw off the stats. What you
don't have with anticipatory dialing is the cushion of averaging talk
times across groups of agents.
Another term you might run across is power dialing. This is
(roughly) a bulk dialer that shares some characteristics of a pre-
dictive dialer (good for small groups) but that does not have an
algorithm for calculating ahead of the agents and predicting when
one will be ready. It will, however, screen out busies and no-
answers. This is part of how the Call Center Dictionary (available
from Flatiron Publishing, 212-691-8215 or 800-LIBRARY) defines
power dialing:
"If a vendor makes a dialer that doesn't have a predictive algo-
rithm, but they want to position it in the marketplace as more
advanced than a mere preview dialer, they may tag it as a power'
dialer, confusing all and enlightening none. As the term with the
loosest definition, it's rapidly losing all meaning."
Caveat emptor.
How is that possible? We found one company that put together a

custom installation, using their own programmers, with a software-
based predictive dialing system and Dialogic boards. It may not be the
best system for everybody, but it is definitely possible to get predictive
dialing for less than you expect.
Dialing is by definition software. It always has been. For years, the
predictive dialing vendors (rightly) competed with one another on fea-
tures — answering machine detect, speed of answer, and fundamental
algorithm — that were software. The boxes were of secondary impor-
tance. They were proprietary because you needed lots of processing
horsepower to drive those software applications.

Enter software-based dialing. And client/server computing. And

companies that don't want to pay high costs to replace their existing
data networks.
Nowadays you want to have more flexibility with your agents,
inbound or outbound. You want to link your hardware systems
together: switches and computers, dialers and voice systems.
The logic behind it is overwhelming: if dialing features are mainly
software, and powerful generic processors are available to run them,
there's no reason why they can't be part of an overall inbound and
outbound call routing system on a client/server platform.
So what should you be thinking about when buying your predic-
tive dialer? Integration — with every other piece of hardware and soft-
ware in your call center. Mostly software.
EIS's (Stamford, CT) new dialer, for example, is more a "plat-
form" or an "architecture" than a predictive dialer. (We are seeing a
lot of changes in the words companies use to describe their offerings.)
Unlike traditional dialers, Centenium is based on an open, client/serv-
er architecture: Unix servers, Windows clients, TCP/IP in between.
The key is not the hardware; it's the software. Recognizing that
the modern call center is like a puzzle — the dialer a piece fitting
alongside other critical technologies — EIS opened up the processor to
developers. They claim you'll be able to use other people's dialing soft-
ware on their platform, if you want to.
Developers will be able to construct specialized third-party prod-
ucts for Centenium, apps for collections, fundraising or telemarketing.
What's happening in the call center now is the marriage of voice
and data. Call centers are using open dialing platforms to take advan-
tage of other niche technologies in the call center. It's a powerful
means of taking the benefits of predictive dialers even further.
Why is integration important to call centers? Primarily because of
NEED A BLENDER?
If you already have a predictive dialer, and want to enhance it

to add inbound blending capability, Telegenisys (Pleasant Hill, CA)
makes a dialer add-on that fits the bill.
The Mega+ Call Blender acts as an ACD-like device intercept-
ing the inbound calls, adding screen pop along the way. If an agent
is not available to handle an inbound call, it sends the call to an
alternate agent or voice mail system.
Telegenisys says that it works with virtually all predictive
dialing systems.

the increased control call center managers have over their technology.
Essential call center equipment like ACDs, PBXs and predictive dialers
now work in concert, allowing for greater efficiency and productivity.
Companies are driven to make better use of their resources. There
are so many technology directions that companies can easily fritter
away resources and not really improve the service they provide or the
bottom line that they protect.
An example of predictive dialer integration is Rockwell's Galaxy
ACD, which contains sophisticated predictive dialing features.
Through their Contact GateWay II call processing system, Rockwell's
predictive dialer controls the pacing of the outbound calls from a
group perspective rather then from an individual agent.
Companies' retention of people is higher because the repetitive
dialing aspect of the job is eliminated. Companies aren't just throwing
employees in front of telephones — employees believe it's a higher
level job, even a career track.
When should you consider a client/server-based system?
• When you have an existing PC or client/server data network leading
to agent stations.
• If you are thinking of buying telemarketing software to automate
your outbound calling. Many vendors now include predictive dialing
modules as part of their outbound call or list management. Others cre-
ate links with dedicated PC-based dialing products.
• If you are trying to integrate a number of inbound and outbound
technologies using a client/server or network database architecture.
• If your center is too small to justify a larger standalone dialing plat-
form, but you still want to extend the talk time for agent efficiencies.
(And you think you might grow in the next few years.)
PC-dialers themselves vary a great deal. Some concentrate on
small installations, while others are suitable for centers with several
hundred agents. Prices also range from as low as $1,000 a seat up to
$10,000. Here are some of the approaches predictive dialing vendors
are taking in their technology.
OUT OF THE BOX, ONTO THE PHONES
It's a great idea for people enchanted by the idea of incredible talk
time but put off by the high cost of traditional dialers. It's competitive
in quality, and easier for a small center to get up and running.
These big savings came at a price: thousands of dollars per seat,
reflecting the cost of standalone (largely proprietary) dialing proces-
sors and very sophisticated software development. Predictive dialing
was most effective for large high-volume centers.

TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS
Here are some list analysis and management tips to keep in

mind when considering a dialer.
• You should be able to cross-reference lists with other databases
based on demographics, geocoding or other characteristics.
• You should be able to change lists on the fly and have these
changes instantly affect the current project.
• Maintain a "do not call" list, as required by recent Federal legis-
lation and some states.
• Create your own customized reports. And, you should be able to
import or export fields in different orders, so you can exchange
data with the rest of the world without writing custom programs.
There are now dialing systems on the market that take advantage of
today's powerful generic processors to run across local area networks.
They compare favorably to their larger standalone cousins for hit rate.
Smaller centers have loads of options:
• Buy a turnkey system (which may be proprietary) and build a tele-
com and computer system around it. This is good for companies that
want to dump older equipment.
• Go for an integrated solution, combining the power of PCs and LANs
with software or hardware dialing processors and a phone system.
Using off-the-shelf parts, you can put together inexpensive solu-
tions. You can grow into it slowly, without sacrificing the dialing fea-
tures you need: swift answer detection and screen transfer.
• Or lay a dialing solution on top of the existing telecom and data
infrastructure. Your best option here: talk to the vendors who make
your existing equipment and software. Chances are you might find a
dialer maker among the vendors of your ACD, VRU or call manage-
ment software.
The UniDial system from Ontario Systems (Muncie, IN) is a good
match for small centers. It goes up to 96 agents and 144 lines. A typ-
ical setup ranges from ten to 30 agents.
Part of Ontario's system is a digital switch that manages both
incoming and outgoing calls. There are several advantages to the dig-
ital switch:
• It provides operational benefits for training and monitoring. When
a call is monitored, there is no drop off in volume to tip off the caller
or the agent.
• The switch is compatible with all the new network services, like ANI
and ISDN.

• The investment in your system is protected longer because it is lead-

ing edge technology.
Many call centers already have a great deal invested in custom
applications — programs customized for their business or industry. In
this case, InterDial from InterVoice (Dallas, TX) is an option.
It acts as a peripheral to the host system, rather than as a stand-
alone dialer. The difference is InterDial doesn't manage any of the
campaign details. No record management and no reporting. That's
what you have a host application for. The host sends the dialer the
records and the commands to dial, getting back status messages.
The advantage is you get a system for only about $3,000 to
$5,000 a seat. If you've already got a system that works and all you
need is the engine to dial predictively, this is a good solution.
Surprisingly, integration is a benefit that is not lost with software-
driven predictive dialers.
Software-driven predictive dialers integrate into the call center
environment because they're based on multipurpose minicomputers
that let users run other software and because they employ industry
standard computer-telephone devices to perform predictive dialing.
Besides predictive dialing, many dialing systems let call center
agents perform "preview" dialing where agents call up data and
review it before the call is placed. Preview dialing mostly benefits
small call centers making business to business calls.
As for the future of predictive dialers, most agree about the impor-
tance of integration. For some call centers, integration means less
dependency on mainframes, while others see it as a way to tie dialers
into a national database of people who don't want calls. Even more
adventurous is the theory that full function predictive dialing will be
possible from an agent's home phone.
Regardless of what happens in the future, one thing is true: for-
ward thinking has turned a once limited piece of hardware into a ver-
satile and vital piece of technology. As long as that persists, its value
in today's (and tomorrow's) call center remains undiminished.
Here are some things to look for in a dialer:
• Databases. The dialer must connect to your host system to access
your call lists. It's got to switch between lists and campaigns and it's
got to reschedule call backs for busies and no-answers.
• Continuing improvement in software and applications. One exam-
ple: Davox (Westford, MA) upgraded its Unison dialer with a star-
tlingly intelligent feature called Just-In-Time dialing.
It adds a level of decision-making never seen before — you can
cancel and reschedule dials during the dialing process itself. You get
even better connect rates and fewer abandoned calls.

Mosaix (Redmond, WA) offers four software applications for its

Mosaix Solutions dialing system. One, ARES (Acquisition, Retention
and Enhancement System) is a client/server script development tool
for supervisors.
Another, Super Agent Workstation, lets agents pull information
from different hosts without toggling from screen to screen. The other
two add-ons are a reporting system and a program geared to the col-
lections industry.
• Call blending. You don't have to divide agents into inbound and out-
bound pools anymore. Once, it was necessary. But why should you have
outbound agents rushing through a call list while inbound agents sit idle?
What happens when an automated outbound center starts to
receive callbacks from the people not reached on the first call? (That
happens a lot in collection environments.)
If the ACD and the dialer don't communicate well, the calls could
go to an inbound-only group. But you may want the same agents to
handle inbound and outbound. Or a particular account may belong to
an agent or a group.
Intelligent features are available for "blending" inbound and out-
bound calls on the dialer. You adjust for peaks and valleys by dynam-
ically switching agents from one group to another. It reduces staffing
inefficiency and maximizes agents' talk times more than ever before.
There are two kinds of call blending: reactive blending, where agents
are switched around when the system detects an overflow; and predictive
blending, in which you predefine when the pools are switched.
• Computer/telephony integration. Dialers should be linked to the
host telephone switch, as well as fax and voice mail systems. Monitor
ACD activity through server-based connections to the switch. These
reports help control workflow in a call blending situation. All this
information is vital — how many calls come in, how long they are on
hold and when the call center is busiest.
For example, the Intelligent Call Processing System is an architec-
ture created by TeleRelation Systems (Mountain View, CA) for its
ContactMaker software. Now, your existing LAN and/or client/server
system is the heart of your outbound operation.
It works with the Norstar switch and Dialogic cards to automate
inbound and outbound call processing. (More and more, dialers refer
to themselves as "call processors." In the new, integrated call center
world, this makes sense.) Packed into ICPS's software is everything
you expect from a dialer — the scripting, the call scheduling, and the
list management.
You can reap the benefits of a totally software-driven system with
Ontario Systems' (Muncie, IN) Onyx Call & Contact Management

THE BENEFITS OF PREDICTIVE DIALING
In a nutshell, predictive dialing simply means: more. More con-

tacts. More sales. More happiness for your agents. Here's the
case for automation.
• More profits due to increased productivity.
• Increase contacts per hour as much as 300% to 400%.
• Improve agent morale by increasing their connect rate, reducing
burnout and "phone rejection."
• If you are a service bureau, improve your standing with clients by
improving your hit rate.
• Better cash flow (especially in a collections application).
System. This Unix-based program gives you full capability to mix

inbound and outbound agents, to manage scripts and campaigns, and
monitor agents.
This software is at the inevitable meeting point between software-
based dialing and telemarketing software. These two market niches
have been converging for some time (because the user base is the same).
• Networks. Agent workstations rarely stand alone anymore. The
days of having to use a specific workstation with a dialer are effec-
tively over. Most companies have a LAN and agents have their own
workstations. Predictive dialers are rapidly moving to open architec-
tures to accommodate the networks.
Melita's (Norcross, GA) PhoneFrame dialer lets you use existing
switches or its own Universal Switch (or both, using CTI) to synchronize
the voice call with the customer record, whether inbound or outbound.
There a myriad of ways you can connect the system together:
whether you use an AS/400 or a Novell network, one site or multiple,
you can connect everything together.
With a token-ring or Ethernet LAN you can hook up hundreds of
workstations, multiple hosts, PhoneFrame servers, other file servers
and gateways. The dialing system you set up does not bind you to
hardware that will soon become obsolete or will constrict your soft-
ware applications.
TCM+, from TeleSystems Marketing (Fairfax, VA) runs off net-
worked PCs equipped with special dialing components. Operator
workstations can be either the PCs or terminals.
You get a full suite of database integration tools and dialing fea-
tures (like real time reporting, least cost routing, advanced detection
algorithms and the ability to use either analog or T1 phones).
The call center shouldn't be cut off from the rest of your compa-

ny. Quite the contrary. Inbound agents need customer info. Managers
need service level info. Accountants need sales data. It all fits togeth-
er, and now the dialer is an integral part.
WHERE THEY STAND & WHAT THEY OFFER
BUFFALO INTERNATIONAL
PC-dialing is one of the fastest, easiest — and cheapest ways to

develop your automated outbound capabilities. Buffalo International
(White Plains, NY) offers a system called the Open Architecture
Predictive Dialing Engine. It's a truly flexible dialing component sys-
tem — you can develop whatever application or connectivity arrange-
ment you need with it.
Typical single PC systems can carry from 12 to 72 lines and eight
to 48 agents. You can add more PCs through SCSA. The dialing
engine works with, or without, a PBX, giving you options for the way
to structure your internal telecom.
The big advantage of this system is that Buffalo has isolated the
key components — the dialing engine and the call processing func-
tions. The user can control the dialer through virtually any external
software system through a variety of available hooks.
The bare-bones nature of OADPE makes it especially well-suited
to departmental call centers. They provide a generic predictive dialing
core for VARs and call centers that already have their own database
infrastructures. A developer's kit is available that lets you mesh your
existing applications into their dialer.
By going with a do-it-yourself PC-dialer you are not sacrificing the
advanced features of a standalone box. You get a full-featured system:
a pacing algorithm that uses 20 factors in each "dial/wait" decision;
answer machine detection; user-control over supervisory and agent
functions; and support for multiple agent groups and campaigns.
CANADIANLYNX
The TelePredicter from CanadianLynx (Richmond Hill, Ontario,

Canada) is a client/server-based open architecture predictive dialer
with "True Blend," an inbound/outbound blending module.
TelePredicter is a hardware/software bundle that sits on a LAN
and serves call centers with 48 agents on the low end, as many as 350
(so far) on the high side.
When a call is transferred to an agent, the agent's workstation
simultaneously does a screen pop of caller data. An advanced multi-

lingual scripting system guides the agent through the call. Script field
substitution allows the agent complete the call while carrying on a
natural conversation with the caller.
The TelePredicter's integration capabilities make it possible to imple-
ment a totally paperless call center, even when the task requires interac-
tions with multiple software applications and/or multiple host systems.
True Blend allows call center managers to respond to dynamic
inbound call loads under program control. The TelePredicter can be
configured to manually or automatically shift agents between inbound
and outbound modes at specific times, or when inbound call hold
times hit predetermined thresholds.
Sophisticated agent profiling assigns each agent a "blend priority,"
which allows agents who are most qualified to change modes first.
Agent profiling takes several agent attributes into account when con-
sidering them for transfer under blend, including language skills, agent
group, and other characteristics.
CAS
Call centers that rely on IBM's AS/400 and CallPath/400 for their
data and call processing will find an integrated dialing / call manage-
ment system from Communicator Asystance Systems (Chelsea, MA)
for that platform.
This IBM Business Partner offers software that integrates all the
applications you could want in a call center (contact management,
reporting, desktop telephony, and of course, digital predictive dialing)
with your existing AS/400-based data networks. Modules for dialing
run under the umbrella of CAS's Castel software (which handles the
integrations and the ISDN support).
The AS/Dialer module gives you a variety of outbound dialing
modes, including predictive, with multiple time-zone settings and
optionally automatic callback scheduling. It uses ISDN for answer
supervision, which CAS asserts is the best way to determine if a live
human has answered the phone.
A key feature is inbound/outbound call blending. This is rapidly
becoming a necessary capability in today's multi-purpose call center.
With Castel, agents can be available to any number of user-defined
inbound and/or outbound calling campaigns.
DAVOX
One of the leaders in moving from closed, proprietary boxes to the

open, flexible systems call centers need today is Davox (Westford,

MA). Unison, introduced last year and upgraded in 1995, is a

client/server system that integrates closely with a center's ACD to con-
trol call flow from both the inbound and outbound side.
The theory is simple: let each call center device do what it does best.
Unison's Smart Management Center monitors inbound call volume
through a connection to the ACD's supervisor port. Once the inbound
threshold is reached, an agent is automatically logged off the dialer,
sent a message indicating a transition to inbound work, and logged
onto the ACD. The advantage to this: all normal ACD features (includ-
ing record-keeping) are preserved, and all inbound calls are recorded in
one device (the ACD). And true agent blending is achieved.
Davox takes what's called a "ACD-centric" view of call blending,
as opposed to a "dialer-centric" view. The difference is illustrated on
the inbound side. In a dialer-centric scenario, the ACD loses track of
inbound calls, as separate inbound lines are run into the dialer to han-
dle the inbound traffic it generates. Davox's approach is to transfer the
agent back and forth between inbound and outbound, as needed.
Unison also sports tight integration with voice response units. For
example, routing the inbound call to the VRU when there's no agent
available lets the caller decide what the best option is: hang on, or
enter a phone number and and best time for a call-back. The infor-
mation can be loaded automatically into the Smart Management
Center for automatic outdial scheduling.
EIS
Unlike traditional dialers, Centenium is based on an open,

client/server architecture: the servers run on Unix, the clients on
Windows, and the communications between them on TCP/IP. If you
want the clients to run character-based terminals, you can have that too.
The key is not the hardware; it's the software. The initial applica-
tions are geared to telemarketing; future apps will suit collections, cus-
tomer service, and more.
Not all of the apps are outbound. That perhaps represents the
biggest change in the thinking behind dialers. Agents need to take
calls, not only make them.
The modern call center is like a jigsaw puzzle — the dialer is a piece
that fits alongside other critical technologies. To make your agents more
productive, you add pieces like voice response or fax-on-demand. All the
technologies must work together, or you waste money and agent time.
And that means open connectivity and non-proprietary solutions.
They are mixing inbound and outbound in a hardware-independent
environment. The result is a system that the call center manager can

use with EIS's own predictive dialing software, or anyone else's.

Centenium, which works with a variety of switches including
AT&T, Aspect and Northern Telecom, is designed for user customiza-
tion. Scripting packages let you design the flow of calls and the look
of agent screens. Another module lets you design the reports — and
because it's a Windows application you can pop data in and out of
other programs easily. Also, developers will be able to construct third-
party applications for Centenium.
Move agents from inbound to outbound, manage the processing
of lists and database records, and of course, dial predictively — EIS is
positioning Centenium not so much as a dialer, but as a way to man-
age all the information floating around in a call center.
EIS's Call Center System Architecture (CCSA) provides three mes-
sage interface layers to facilitate integration with various computers, call
center products such as IVR units, and third-party application software.
It supports multiple switches for outbound dialing and inbound
call distribution. Centenium software includes tools for efficient pac-
ing of outbound calls, fast voice recognition, real-time reporting, list
management and other call center functions.
There are two scripting packages available to create screens, com-
plete with logical branching, pop-up menus and even incorporated
graphics and sound.
THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS PROBLEM
Predictive dialers are great when you have large lists of cus-
tomers or potential customers. But they don't work well when you
have to call businesses.
That's because companies almost always answer their
phones, even if the specific person you want to reach is not
there. You lose the efficiency gained by screening out no-answers
and busies. The same problem applies to people whose job it is
to screen calls.
If you need to do this kind of calling in conjunction with con-
sumer telemarketing, consider a dialer that lets you shunt several
agents into a separate campaign, then run that campaign with the
predictive features turned off. Lots of dialers let you do this.
If you do this kind of calling exclusively, try a sales management
software program that controls your lists, feeds the sales person
the phone numbers, but lets them keep control of the call from dial
to hang-up. This is called preview dialing and it's common to most
contact management or sales automation software programs.

And with the optional GURU (Graphical User Real-time Utility),

you can display as-it-happens operational data on screen for assess-
ment of performance: of agents, lists and campaigns.
INTERVOICE
Continuing the march to combined inbound and outbound call

processing is InterDial, the predictive dialing product from InterVoice
(Dallas, TX).
It hooks into your existing telephone and data system. Anyone
who can log into your computer and phone systems can be an
InterDial agent — even if connect remotely. The existing host system
does all the database management, including campaign and call list
control, and reporting.
What InterDial does is place the calls, doing all the complicated
monitoring and detection that predictive needs to work properly. It
also plays voice messages and manages transfers into and out of IVR.
InterDial can take you up to as many as 240 lines and 120 agents
(in a 2:1 ratio; your actual ratio may differ according to applications
you choose to run).
The InterDial system is part of an overall architecture from
InterVoice called OneVoice. That platform integrates a number of
hardware and software systems (auto attendant, voice processing, fax,
dialing, etc.).
MELITA
Their PhoneFrame dialer is a link between the phone system and

other call center systems, particularly data systems. (This is a by-prod-
uct of predictive dialers' traditional strengths: list management and
scheduling call-backs.)
PhoneFrame lets you use existing switches or its own Universal
Switch (or both, using CTI) to synchronize the voice call with the cus-
tomer record, whether inbound or outbound.
The beauty is in the myriad ways you can connect the system:
whether you use an AS/400 or a Novell network, one site or multiple,
you can link everything together.
A Token-ring or Ethernet LAN lets you hook up hundreds of work-
stations, multiple hosts, PhoneFrame servers, other file servers and
gateways. The dialing system you set up does not bind you to hardware
that will become obsolete or will constrict your software applications.
One add-on module, the PhoneFrame Command Center, lets
you manipulate all the operational variables. Download call lists

HOW ANSWERING MACHINE DETECTION WORKS
Just about every predictive dialer offers some kind of answer-

ing machine detection, usually based on "Voice Cadence." The the-
ory assumes if there is a short burst of words followed by silence
("Hello!"), it's a person. If there is a long burst of words ("Hello.
This is the Stone residence, thank you for calling.") it's an answer-
ing machine. Many manufacturers say their answering machine
detection is 90% accurate, but in reality it can be no better than
60% to 70% accurate.
The best systems electronically measure the voltage and line
noise that is produced by an answering machine, using a cadence
measurement as an auxiliary test. This type of answering machine
detection is often referred to as "Frequency Detection," and it can
be over 98% accurate within 2/10ths of a second. Only a few out
of the 30 major predictive dialing manufacturers offer "Frequency
Detection" on their systems.
and transfer files to and from the host. Create reports on agent per-
formance. Change dialing parameters. See real-time performance
statistics, graphically.
Also from Melita, Explorer is a combo software suite: a graphical
application development toolkit matched with a script builder and a
back-end database.
Magellan is the first product offering under the Explorer ban-
ner. It's a branching scripting package for telemarketing, sales, col-
lections, fundraising and other typical outbound applications. This
Windows-based client/server system consists of an application
builder (for controlling the screen, performing data actions and
commanding the dialing engine); and software that interfaces with
multiple data sources.
It'll help you quickly create applications, run them, and use the
data in many different ways.
ONTARIO SYSTEMS
Ontario's (Muncie, IN) Onyx was created to work with custom or

proprietary collections, telemarketing or contact management soft-
ware running on a host computer.
Onyx lets you choose between several outbound dialing modes,
including predictive, progressive and what Ontario calls "progressive
pool," which has elements of both.

The system also has an inbound function, which manages cus-

tomer information and interacts with the ACD or PBX as it does for
outbound dialing.
Onyx can run in different modes, across different campaigns. For
example, a call center can use Onyx's built-in software for a telemar-
keting of customer service application, while at the same time inte-
grating with multiple host systems for a collections app. That's help-
ful for companies that need to share call center resources among
numerous departments. It's also great for service bureaus.
DIALING TERMS TO KNOW
Autodialing: The process of placing calls without wasting time to

actually punch in the numbers.
Gateway: A link between networks. When two networks don't speak
the same "language" (they don't use the same protocols) a gate-
way is used to convert communication between the network in the
correct protocols.
Host Computer: A computer attached to a network that provides
special services or programs to other computers on the network.
Integration: Linking one system (voice or computer) with another
so that each system can take advantage of all or most of the fea-
tures of the other.
Predictive Dialing: A system to place outbound calls, in high vol-
ume environments, in the most productive manner possible, which
involves using a dedicated dialing processor to make more calls
than there are available agents at any one time. If the dialer hears
a busy signal, an answering machine or a no answer, the call goes
back into the queue. Agents only field the calls that have a live per-
son on the other end.
Preview Dialing: A method of automated dialing where the caller
pulls up data on the target and reviews the information before plac-
ing the call.
Progressive Dialing: Slightly more automated than preview dialing.
The customer data is not displayed until the number is dialed, giv-
ing the agent less time to review it and a shorter period of rest
between calls.
Standalone System: A voice or data system that performs all its func-
tions without needing to integrate with other systems or products.

10 TIPS FOR BUYING AND USING YOUR DIALER
Your predictive dialer is a powerful — even transformative —

call center tool. Used right, it can buy tremendous benefits in
productivity and sales to your center. Here are some ways to get
the right system, and to use it to the fullest advantage.
1. Beware of slow transfers. If the prospect has to say hello

three times before the call reaches the agent, you might lose the
sale before you've made the pitch. Your system should transfer the
call fast enough for the agent to hear part of the first "hello."
2. Beware of call abandonment. Some lower-end predictive
dialers hang up on 20% or more of prospects. The last thing you
want is to generate complaints: for people with Caller ID to be call-
ing your center, or calling the phone company, of the state regula-
tors. List owners who receive complaints may stop renting you
their lists. Try to buy a system capable of a zero abandon rate. This
is a necessary precaution in case future regulations require it.
3. Get inbound/outbound call blending. That's the ability of
every agent to handle both incoming and outgoing calls from the
same station. This leads to higher list penetration and more sales.
The outbound agent can leave a message explaining what the call
is about. Calls that come back in based on that are more likely to
end in a sale. Likewise, inbound-based agents can handle out-
bound calls during slow periods.
4. Watch hidden equipment costs. Besides the T-1 lines, many
predictive dialers user analog technology, requiring a channel bank
to be connected to the phone lines. Getting one from the phone
company costs $300 to $500 a month.
A dialer with a digital network interface can link right to the phone
lines without a channel bank. If your system needs two or three lines
per agent along with a channel bank, that's an extra hidden cost of
almost $1,000 a month, or $60,000 over a five-year period.
5. More leads can mean a lower sales conversion. Perversely,
when the supply of fresh leads is unlimited, agents sometimes
don't try as hard for the sale as they do when the supply is limit-
ed. Especially with very little wait time between calls.
6. Get call tracking and custom list loading. Your system should
keep a record of call attempts to be certain that each attempt is at
a different time during the day and on different days. Some weaker
systems have no call tracking abilities at all, and every time you load
the dialers the same people are always called first.
7. Keep transition times short. Predictive dialing should

reduce the after-call work time (that time between when your agent
hangs up the phone and when they are back on the phone) at a
given low abandonment rate, say, 2%.
Only a few predictive dialers can achieve list penetration level of
50% with daytime calling, while maintaining an average wait time
between calls of nine to 20 seconds at a 2% abandonment rate.
8. Get full branch scripting. The best scripting systems allow
data and calculations to be performed in the script and the screen
routing is based on the answers given.
Also when an agent hits a key to change screens, it must be
instantaneous, no matter how many people are on the system. A
multiple-second wait time is unacceptable. The system should also
provide function keys for access to questions most likely to come
up at each specific place in the script.
9. Ensure campaign flexibility. There should be no limit to the
number of campaigns or number of projects that can be called.
Every operator should be able to call a different campaign at the
same time.
10. Make sure it's expandable. What if your company
becomes a big success? Plan for future growth. (We always have
to say this, but it's true.)
WHEN SHOULD YOU CONSIDER A PC-BASED SYSTEM?
• When you have an existing PC or client/server data network lead-

ing to agent stations.
• If you are thinking of buying telemarketing software to automate
your outbound calling. Many vendors now include predictive dialing
modules as part of their outbound call or list management. Others
create links with dedicated PC-based dialing products.
• If you are trying to integrate a number of inbound and out-
bound technologies using a client/server or network database
architecture.
• If your center is too small to justify a larger standalone dialing
platform, but you still want to extend the talk time for agent effi-
ciencies. (And you think you might grow in the next few years.)
PC-dialers themselves vary a great deal. Some concentrate on
small installations, while others are suitable for centers with sev-
eral hundred agents. Prices also range from as low as $1,000 a
seat up to $10,000.

THE CALL CENTER PARADOX
Matching staffing levels to call volumes is an imperfect sci-

ence, even with the assistance of complex ACD scheduling pack-
ages. One inevitably encounters the dread Call Center Paradox:
you can maintain high service quality with a lot of agents, but then
you have low agent productivity. Lower the number of agents to
boost individual productivity and your queue grows too long and
you diminish service quality.
What to do? Blending. Perhaps the most innovative idea to
resolve the Call Center Paradox is blending, which actually combines
inbound customer service with outbound telemarketing or collections.
Let's say you've hired lots of agents but there's a lull in
inbound activity around the traditional 3 PM "slack-off" time. If
your agents are also trained to handle outbound telemarketing or
collections, you can keep them busy with a system that continual-
ly monitors and evaluates incoming call volumes and transitions
agents to "outbound mode" when necessary.
If your system permits it, you can even have your outbound
agents leave messages on any answering machines they
encounter, since incoming calls can now be handled.
Thus you can keep a lot of agents on staff (maintaining service
level quality) yet maintain agent productivity. Agents actually tend
to like blending since they aren't restricted to performing the same
repetitive, boring task all the time.
Call blending comes in two forms. Reactive blending automati-
cally switches pools when there is an overflow. Predictive blending
will automatically switch pools during pre-defined business hours.
If your system can predict patterns, go with predictive blending. If
there's no rhyme or reason to your calls, go with reactive.
Davox International makes another distinction between "Dialer-
centric" blending where the Dialer takes over for the Automatic Call
Distributor (ACD) as inbound calls are routed to the dialer to be
handled by a dialer agent, and "ACD-centric" blending where an
agent is dynamically reassigned from the dialer to the ACD or from
the ACD to the dialer as required by inbound / outbound call vol-
umes. The VU-ACD/100 system from Perimeter Technology is a
good way to keep track of the data for both inbound and outbound.
This is a Centrex-based ACD, with excellent data gathering and MIS
analysis tools, for centers large and small. It focuses on three
kinds of information that helps with blending: real-time data, his-
torical data and ACD load management access.

ACD-centric is better from the standpoint of better queuing,

better accessible ACD functions (like DNIS and ANI) and better
computer telephony integration.
The only expense of call blending is training agents in both
areas, unless you have a system that can include / exclude agents
from groups depending upon their attributes.
The only problem with blending appears to be one of office pol-
itics — managers of outbound services dislike their agents' out-
bound activities being usurped by the specific goals of inbound ser-
vices when the incoming call volume increases.
Ultimately, however, the bottom line will also force a "blending"
of management styles.
BUYING TIPS
• Do a 30 day test of the dialer with each vendor you're consider-

ing. With a 30 day test, managers will experience not only what the
system can do but what impact it will have on your people.
• Make sure the system supports the number of users you need now
and in the future. Take a close look at the stability of the company.
• It's important that there is at least one person within your com-
pany whose primary job is to see the project through. This should-
n't be just a part of their job but a major function of their job.

CHAPTER SIX
INTERACTIVE VOICE
RESPONSE: THE BEST
FRONT DOOR TO
ANY CENTER
Simply put, interactive voice response (or IVR, as it's more widely
known) is a customer-oriented front-end for your call center. That is,
it's a system that is stuck on the front end of a computer system that
lets you enter information from that system either through a telephone
keypad, the spoken word. You receive information through the system
through a recorded (and digitized) voice or a synthesized voice. (In
some cases you may receive information through fax, or even infor-
mation on a special screen attached to your telephone.)
Whatever you can do with a computer, you can do with IVR.
Customers can retrieve virtually any kind of data — from account
balances to the weather in chicago to the location of the nearest
movie theater.
The benefits are vast. The telephone is familiar to everyone. It
already has a world-wide network. Accessing information by tele-
phone lets anyone interact with the computer from anywhere in the
world. It also cuts down on the need for agents — especially when
repetitive questions and answers are involved. Not only do you save
on personnel costs, but you are more likely to keep the agents you like,
because their job is less boring.
Used as a front-end for an ACD, an IVR system can ask questions
(such as, "what's your product serial code?") that help routing and
enable more intelligent and informed call processing (by people or
automatic systems). IVR far supersedes more rudimentary technolo-
gies (such as Caller ID) in such applications.
At one time there were no choices in how to implement it. You
bought a dedicated box, integrated it with your ACD and the vendor
would work with you to design your applications. Eventually you'd be
up and running. So much has changed since those not-so-good old days.
The benefits today? Well for one, the market is truly open. For the
most part, any ACD can integrate with any IVR system.
CALL CENTER HANDBOOK 6 9

INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE: THE BEST FRONT DOOR TO ANY CENTER
There are tools you can buy that let you design the system you
want. These tools are simply software requiring industry-standard
boards. Using these tools eliminates or greatly reduces reliance on IVR
vendors. Such reliance (that could also get quite costly) used to be the
only alternative to get you up and running or to make program changes
— unless you had knowledgeable well-paid programmers working for
you. Now set-up has become inexpensive and almost simplistic.
When application generators first came out, the programming had
to be done in DOS. Now you can opt for Windows, with a GUI, so
you don't need to be a great programmer or telephony expert.
Some of the application generator (app gen) vendors are even cre-
ating full-featured software bundled with low-end voice hardware
(such as two-port) for under $1,000 so you can try out the product
before making a long term investment.
Even if you buy a ready-made standalone system, many vendors
have made developed enhanced, easy-to-use developing tools (such as
GUI voice editors) to make it easier than ever for you to be up an run-
ning and make changes to the program on the fly. Here's the latest
scoop in the IVR market.
WHY YOU SHOULD USE IVR
Interactive voice response has become common in many types of

call centers. Once very common in large banks, it's branched out to fit
the needs of the smaller center. You're no longer forced to buy large
expensive standalone boxes. Like most other call center equipment you
can find PC-based IVR applications. Here's what IVR will do for you.
1. IVR is widely accepted by callers. One of the reasons more
callers than ever accept IVR is that as the technology matures there
has been more emphasis on correct implementation.
When "voice mail jail" (when callers can never reach a live per-
son) and badly designed scripts are eliminated, callers like the result.
Some companies are improving their implementation by taking
matters into their own hands. They use an IVR system's application
generator to tweak the system into perfectly fitting their needs.
2. It keeps your call center open 24 hours a day. It seems
everyone nowadays is complaining about being understaffed. As a call
center manager you probably dream of the day when you can staff
more than enough agents for unlimited hours. Unfortunately that
dream is not reality.
Using an IVR system to let callers get the information they need
when no agents can take their call is a reality. And it's effective. IVR gives
caller a nice impression of your company when they can get information

at 2 a.m. IVR never calls in sick, takes vacations, breaks or lunch.

You can also use an IVR system to make handling calls easier for
agents. For example, Moscom's (Pittsford, NY) TeleVoice IVR system
lets callers listen to company offerings, and when they hear something
they would like to order or book, they just say "agent" and the sys-
tem connects them to a live agent. Agents then hear an excerpt of what
the caller expressed interest in so they know how to handle the call.
3. IVR can increase call volume. In one application over a six
month period the call volume handled increased more than five times
(from 30,000 to over 150,000 calls per month) At the same time, the
number of messages left for agents remained relatively constant.
As voice processing systems take over more calls, the pie grows as
well. These systems seem to create their own traffic.
This causes problems for businesses that try to cost-justify IVR
purchases through the number of staff positions they will be able to
cut, because as an effective application creates new and better service,
people will use more of it.
Some IVR manufacturers understand this tendency and design
their systems for ease of growth.
4. IVR can't replace humans, only assist them. Transactions
that are easily automated have already been, leaving call center agents
with the calls that require human skill and intellect. Some companies
have gotten into trouble by trying to handle all calls through technolo-
gy. The experts say that this is just not possible. Some calls will always
require the kind of assistance that only a human being can offer.
You don't have to think of IVR as an all-or-nothing situation. Just
because a system can do something doesn't mean you have to use it
all the time.
5. It's cost-effective. Call center managers tell us an IVR system
pays for itself in less than a year. That makes sense when you consid-
er the number of questions it can answer without the aid of a rep.
Most of the questions it answers are routine inquiries that would eat
up valuable agent time. With IVR, agents can be left to handle only
the more complicated questions or the callers who request a live agent.
What also makes IVR cost-effective is its flexibility. With most sys-
tems you can start small and just add lines as call volume grows.
Brock Telecom (Ontario, Canada), for example offers pre-built soft-
ware "templates" that you can snap together to create applications
that you can update when your needs change. Their system runs on
Northern Telecom's Meridian IVR platform. You just plug in the
ready to use graphical interface and you're ready to go.
With any of the IVR systems from Periphonics' (Bohemia, NY)
VPS/sp series, you can always add new features and performance

upgrades without scrapping the system. Through its non-blocking

design, the system will use more resources when call volume increases.
6. It's easy to integrate with your ACD. When you integrate
your IVR system with your inbound switch you can route calls to
the right agent group (based on call volume, agent skills, ANI or
other routing criteria) when callers press one and you've pro-
grammed the system to route callers who press one to a particular
agent group.
The Intellisystem from Intellisystems (Reno, NV) can function as
a standalone call routing system or it can work behind your ACD. It's
an interactive expert system that answers support calls. Callers get
information from the knowledge base to solve their problem without
the need to speak to a technician.
The system asks the caller questions to try and find the right solu-
tion. The system's engine takes information stored in the knowledge
base and information supplied by the caller to reason how the prob-
lem should be solved.
7. IVR gives callers control. Callers have options with IVR.
They can press a key to reach the department they need, hold for a live
agent, or get what they need without having to speak to a rep. During
working hours, make sure callers can get out of the IVR system to
reach a live operator. It's nothing but frustrating to press 0 trying to
get a live voice and instead being disconnected or forced to listen to
voice prompts again.
Not having a live operator available is only acceptable during after
hours. In such a case voice prompts should announce something like
"Thank you for calling XYZ company. While no one can take your
call during these hours, you can press one to hear information on A,
two to get information on B faxed," and so forth. A final prompt
should announce "Press 5 if you would like to leave a message for a
return phone call during office hours. Thank you for calling."
5. You can create special temporary applications. You can tie
you IVR system into advertising campaigns. Each month you can offer
different specials. Run an advertisement on television, in a newspaper
or even in the yellow pages. Then, when callers reach the IVR system
you can have a menu choice directly related to your ad.
When the special ends, you can return voice prompts back to nor-
mal. The benefit is that a large volume of callers get fast, consistent
information without bombarding your agents.
Application generators are great for changing applications on the
fly. You can use app gens to test applications before running them.
The best part is you don't need to rely on your vendor to make
changes for new applications or any of those that you want to edit.

The next best part is that many app gens now run in Windows so it's
just a matter of pointing and clicking to build applications.
TIPS FOR BUYING
Here are some selection and installation tips to keep in mind when
evaluating an IVR system.
• Telephone interfaces must be compatible between the IVR system
and the phone system, in cases where equipment is to be installed on
site. Some service bureaus offer remote IVR applications. This is a
feasible alternative when direct agent or service personnel contact is
not required.
• Choose a system that lets you easily add more telephone interfaces
and voice storage capacity — you should always anticipate growth.
• Line capacity describes the number of simultaneous conversations
the system can handle. This requirement is a function of anticipated
traffic, peak volume demands and the tolerance of the caller receiving
a busy signal or a ring-back of more than two or three rings.
• User interfaces are typically subjectively evaluated during the sys-
tem selection process, and are a function of the script and record-
ings. Recordings are usually first created by the installer, but
updates are maintained via recordings made after the installation.
Thus, the ease with which the system administrator can manage
recordings is critical.
The product should allow high quality recordings to be made
directly with a microphone or telephone set, but should also support
recordings made by commercial studios.
• System usage reports are critical in preventing a business using an
IVR system from isolating itself from its callers. The system must be
capable of supplying informative reports about the nature and dispo-
sition of incoming calls, such as: How long did people stay on the line?
How many hung up without making any selections? What items were
selected most often? How may after-hours callers left messages for an
agent to return their call?
• If an application is to communicate with another database sys-
tem, then integration with the host system is required. Systems of
this type can be difficult to install, as they usually entail develop-
ment of new protocols between the various systems or the addition
of voice onto a product that had not been designed for it. There is
no way to avoid the complexity; the best precaution is to choose a
system installer who is willing to assume responsibility for overall
smooth operation.
• Make sure the vendor understands exactly what you want. Tell

them exactly what you want your customers to hear. Check references
so you'll know their history of service and support.
• Your system should not force regular callers to listen to lengthy
prompts. Callers should be able to bypass recordings and skip to the
prompt they want to hear.
HARDWARE
When using software-based voice processing systems you'll need

the voice and (if using fax-on-demand applications) fax boards.
Dialogic (Parsippany, NJ), Natural Microsystems (Natick, MA) and
Rhetorex (Campbell, CA) are three biggest board manufacturers.
A four-line card kit should only run around $1,000 to $1,200.
Add the developer's toolkit, write a little software, and you'll have
IVR up and running.
The three major board manufacturers are vying for a piece of the
app gen pie with their latest releases and developer programs.
Both Rhetorex and Natural Microsystems recently added app gen
software to their offerings. Now developers can purchase more than
just the boards from them to create IVR applications. Previously
developers had to purchase software from other app gen vendors and
could only get the boards from these companies.
Rhetorex's Visual Telephony Developer's Kit (VTDK) for
Windows 95 comprises hardware, software, tools and samples for
developers to create Rhetorex-based computer telephony applications.
Dialogic (Parsippany, NJ) who now refer to themselves as "lead-
ing suppliers of open systems CT hardware and software compo-
nents" recently released the Dialog/4 four-line voice board in a half
size format. Their Toolkit Developer Program includes several app
gen developers who will market the new boards with their software.
These half size boards are a less expensive but fully functional hard-
ware solution.
THIRD PARTY INTEGRATORS
An alternative to rolling your own IVR is to work with a devel-

oper. In some cases third party developers buy an application genera-
tor and develop an application specific to a particular industry. You
can also hire them to develop the application you want.
For example, Voice Integrators (Upper Saddle River, NJ, an IBM
Business Partner) uses IBM's (Research Triangle Park, NC) DirectTalk
2 and DirectTalk 6000 to create specialized applications. They sell
prepackaged applications modules, products to enhance the operation
7 4 CALL CENTER HANDBOOK

of various platforms and also offer integration services. These systems

are also available directly from IBM.
Arkansas Systems (Little Rock, AR) and DCI (Dynamic
Communication Inc., Denver, CO) also offers specialized IVR appli-
cations. Arkansas Systems' Tele-Banking system is a specialized bank-
ing application. DCI offers IVR systems to a variety of industries with
their product TelePath for the AS/400.
MicroAutomation's (McLean, VA) CallCenter/6000 interfaces
with IVR systems from Periphonics, AT&T and IBM to take rou-
tine information callers enter and add ANI or DNIS so you can
identify callers. The system gives you detailed MIS and error logs to
help you track information like agent talk time, agent work time,
ANI and DNIS.
SERVICE BUREAUS
IVR front-end services are also available through outside service

providers. Outsourcers like Pacific Bell Information Services (San
Ramon, CA) offer full IVR capabilities at their offices. They'll let you
test an application, a good idea before you buy your own system.
Here are some reasons to use a service bureau:
• You can start small. If your call volumes are low, the vendor can
start you off with just a few mailboxes or some combination of voice
messaging and call routing.
• Your current system has a longer life. Assuming the vendor's prod-
ucts integrate with your existing PBX, PC-based services and other
hardware and software, you can enhance and expand your current
system without starting over.
• You are protected from obsolescence. Financial institutions can take
advantage of state-of-the-art technology without locking themselves
into systems that may or may not be appropriate in the future. It is the
vendor's responsibility, not yours, to upgrade systems as new tech-
nologies become available.
APPLICATION GENERATORS
Perhaps the greatest technological advance in IVR came not in

hardware, but in software — namely, the "applications generator," or
"automated programming tool."
An application generator is a software tool that lets you produce
software quickly. In response to your input, it writes code a computer
can understand.
Writing an IVR app with only the voice or fax software support

you get from leading card makers can be a nightmare. Try fathoming
the details of controlling cards, queues, OS calls and other excruciating
technical items. Then start dealing with host interfaces like cluster-con-
troller emulation or XBase LAN database access from the bottom up.
It's mind-boggling. That's why the "mere mortal" subset of devel-
opers buy IVR app generators, software that buffers them from the
troublesome down-and-dirty coding tasks so they can concentrate on
the application itself, respond quickly to an ever-changing market-
place and make money.
There really are three types of IVR app gens to choose from. At one
extreme is the truly "pure" GUI or object-oriented approach, like
Brooktrout's Show N Tel, where you can drag and drop features into your
app. At the other end of the spectrum you have specialized programming
languages, built specifically for the IVR job, like Parity's VOS and U.S.
Telecom's VAL. In the gray area between you find packages that, although
not strictly GUI, have one or more strong "visual" components, such as
state-machine tree structures displayed on screen.
Of course, just because a program is pure GUI doesn't mean
that it's necessarily superior to a non-GUI. The number one key to
purchasing an app gen is always functionality, though ease-of-use
ranks a close second.
They're great because you don't need to be a technical wizard to
use most of the application development software on the market. The
drawback is that the code they produce often isn't as efficient as the
code a good programmer could produce.
Application generators offer pre-packaged solutions to some of
the basic problems IVR programmers encounter. If you will need to
make changes to your voice processing system often, an application
generator is a handy tool. You won't need to rely on your vendor to
USE IVR DURING PEAKS

Use IVR as a way to handle an especially large volumes of calls
for special applications. If Monday morning is your busiest time,
rather than adding staff, use IVR to handle the extra calls. Or,
rather than staffing up for special promotions and offers that you
know will heat up the phone lines, consider ways you can use IVR
to handle the callers who don't need to speak to a live agent.
Since the technology is something callers have become accus-
tomed to, most will feel comfortable punching in a credit card num-
ber to order a product from a catalog or seen in an advertisement.
Peak ordering for pay-per-view television, for example, takes place
between 8 pm and 2 am, and the hour before a big sporting event.

make changes to the call flow. You'll save money in the long run on
vendor service charges when you make your own changes.
SpeechMaster from SpeechSoft (Ringoes, NJ) is off-the-shelf soft-
ware that requires no programming to write IVR applications. You
can also use SpeechMaster to change or configure your voice mail,
automated attendant setup and audiotex applications.
Ease by Expert Systems (Atlanta, GA) gives users a series of menus
and pop-up windows for the developer to select from for their appli-
cation. Ease also supports voice applications other than IVR.
With Technically Speaking's (Ashland, MA) Show N Tel, cus-
tomizable PowerBlocks let you define functions in your application.
The PowerBlocks are laid out in a flow chart form. Click on one and
a form you need to fill out on screen is revealed. Then you just record
the prompts from a string of phrases the system gives you. It's that
simple. The built-in voice mail system has features like corporate
directory look-ups and day and time-based call forwarding.
ADDING ON MORE FEATURES
IVR rarely stands by itself — it's the perfect integration technol-

ogy for a whole host of voice and data applications. Add-on features
like voice recognition, text-to-speech and fax-on-demand are
becoming popular.
It's important to choose a system with open integration so you can
always add these features.
In narrowing your search down to the best vendor, look at the
application you need, the services the company provides for support
and the image and reputation of the company.
Adding speech recognition is a time saver — especially when you
have several prompts. A caller who knows what he wants to do can
just say "claims department" and be connected.
Some of the companies who have added speech recognition appli-
cations to IVR include Syntellect (Phoenix, AZ), Moscom (Pittsford,
NY), Talk Technology (Brooklyn, NY), Voice Control Systems
(Dallas, TX) and Voice Processing Corp. (Cambridge, MA).
InterVoice's (Dallas, TX) RobotOperator System interfaces with
Rolm's ACD software. Through the interface, you can tell callers how
long they should expect to wait in queue.
Then they can make a decision about how to use that time: remain
in queue, listen to product info while waiting or leave a message. The
RobotOperator system also has features like voice recognition, fax
capabilities, ISDN and T1 connectivity.
Computer Communication Specialists' (Norcross, GA) FirstLine

IVR system offers text-to-speech as an optional feature. The system

reads information from a database to the caller in a synthesized voice
without any pre-recording. This is a good feature for applications that
rely on a lot of database information that changes often.
As people become more comfortable using the Internet, more and
more companies will be offering access through all kinds of call center /
computer telephony products. Some IVR vendors have already started.
InterVoice offers Visual Connect on their IVR platform which
gives users Internet capabilities to support Internet access to legacy
systems and applications over the net. Users can now see on their PCs
what an IVR system would read to them over the phone.
Periphonics also makes Internet access tools. Using a hypertext link,
users of WWW browsers can get into their IVR system interacting with
text as opposed to listening and responding to prompts on the phone.
THE FUTURE
If this is today's IVR system, what about tomorrow's system?

Where is the future of IVR taking us?
The cutting edge will probably bring us into the world of
"screen-based" systems, including Web- and fax-enabled document
retrieval services.
IVR manufacturers have long urged their users to think of their
systems as voice-based information servers. Screen-based IVR takes
this concept one step further by dropping the voice restriction. IVR
systems are database interfaces that let distant users retrieve and enter
information through the public telecommunications network.
THINK OF TOMORROW
If you think you may need a higher capacity system in time to
come, choose one that will let you add voice storage capacity and
telephone interfaces.
Like most other products, many IVR systems have become
client/server-based. Since these IVR systems work like clients to
gather data from servers, more complex programming is
required. A mainframe system relies on terminal emulation; net-
work file servers let developers use SQL (Structured Query
Language) to get info.
A client/server-based system gives you more efficient data-
base access and the ability to create multiple voice response sys-
tems that can support a lot of ports.

DON'T OVERUSE IT
You should not overuse IVR or overprogram voice prompts.
Think of the application as a tree with branches. Too many prompts
at once will confuse callers, or by time they get to "press 6 for X"
they will have forgotten what one, two and three announced. Three
or four prompts is enough. After callers press a corresponding
number you can have another three or four menu prompts lead to
more options based on their first selection.
During business hours callers should always be able to press
0 to reach a live operator.
KNOW WHO YOUR CALLERS ARE

In order to develop the best caller interface, you should know
who your callers are. Look at the most common questions, com-
ments and information your callers request. This should guide
you in determining the types of inquiries you should let your IVR
system handle.
Getting a good handle on who your customers are and the rea-
sons why they call can lead you toward an IVR system with appli-
cations specific to your needs.
GrapeVine Technologies (Morrisville, VT) makes an IVR system
for securities and financial institutions. Order it/Check it lets cus-
tomers check account status and get personal account informa-
tion. It's designed to provide callers with order entry access and
account info.
Centigram's (San Jose, CA) Voice Gateway applications include
Account Inquiry, Order Entry and Status Inquiry, Service Dispatch,
New Service and Human Resources.
Another good reason to choose a system designed specifically
for your industry is that you won't need to do much, if any, of your
own programming. Syntellect's (Phoenix, AZ) Bankworks, for exam-
ple comes with all the software, hardware and voice recordings
that you'll need to get the application up and running right away.
Other applications offerings include MortagageWorks,
UniversityWorks and ApplicationWorks/Financials with a telephone
interface into Oracle Financials applications.

CHAPTER SEVEN
EVERYTHING
STARTS WITH VOICE
PROCESSING
Customers demand convenience. They want information fast, but
they also want specialized attention.
Voice response assures callers reach the right department without
the need for an agents. Callers like having options. They hate being
forced to wait in queue. Voice processing means you can offer them an
option. Depending on the technology you use, they can leave a mes-
sage for a return phone call, retrieve information themselves, or
request that it be sent to them.
And the benefits to you are even greater. When you use a voice pro-
cessing system, more calls get handled through the system. Instead of pay-
ing your reps to answer every call, they can handle just the callers who ask
to speak to them. You'll need fewer reps even when call volumes increase.
Information that an IVR system captures is always accurate. It
comes firsthand, from the customer. By now everyone realizes the value
of customer information. You can use it for cross marketing, surveying
demographics about who your customers are, and so much more.
A lot of information about IVR was presented in the last chapter.
It's without a doubt the key voice processing technology for call cen-
ters. But there are others that are, if not as critical, then important for
specific applications and industries.
Less than 10 years ago it was possible to go through each voice pro-
cessing technology and give an example of a stand-alone system that
offered that technology. Today's systems are much more sophisticated.
These days certain technologies are found almost exclusively as
functions in larger systems. When there is a stand-alone product, it is
usually aimed at the low end of the market. But today's voice pro-
cessing market is also a place where you can get what you want —
exactly what you want. The hottest technologies are application gen-
eration software products, voice boards and the accessories needed to
create "do it yourself" voice processing systems.
Here, we've outlined all the technologies that are available.
Depending on your call center and what you want to achieve, you'll
need to decide what will work best for your center. Each technology

EVERYTHING STARTS WITH VOICE PROCESSING
offers different features and applications. But no matter what type of

voice system you choose, they all share one common characteristic —
you'll be more productive and will save money in the long run.
AUDIOTEX
Audiotex is a simple technology. It plays callers recorded mes-

sages. A typical example may be press 1 for store hours, 2 for direc-
tions, 3 to hear info about a latest product. Depending on the caller's
selection, the system would play the appropriate message.
Over the years audiotext has come to be defined by what it is not:
it is not interactive voice response (IVR). An audiotext system is self-
contained and does not interact with a separate computer system.
In call centers, audiotext frees agents from answering simple and
repetitive questions and improves service for callers who need special
help. It also answers callers questions 24-hours a day, seven days a
week without any fuss. This lets you offer your customers at least
some service at all times.
Although audiotex may seem a bit behind compared to the more
advanced systems out there, it's a cheap way (cheaper than advertis-
ing) to appeal to a large target audience.
Brite Voice (Wichita, KS) for example, makes audiotex systems
that let callers search through a database for a house or automobile.
Audiotex can also be used for special promotions. Advertise a small
blurb about your company/product with a phone number. Then give
those who call the full scoop — incentives to buy, or special offers.
Locator Services from Voice Integrators (Mahwah, NJ) lets callers
enter their zip code to find out addresses and phone numbers for the
nearest location where they can get a product or service. Using the
system, callers typically hear this information about a second after
entering their zip.
Audiotex is often part of a complete voice processing system with
other options like voice mail, auto attendant, and sometimes IVR.
Standalone systems, once common, have now become part of an inte-
grated system allowing you to pick and choose the applications you need.
It's pretty hard to find a stand-alone audiotext system these days.
Most audiotext systems are functions of a voice mail or IVR system.
ANNOUNCEMENT SYSTEMS AND MESSAGES ON HOLD
The most basic building block in the suite of technologies we call

voice processing is the announcer. An announcer simply answers an
incoming telephone call and plays a recorded message.

DEVELOPING A SPEECH RECOGNITION APP
Customer
Application
Application Layer
Application Catalog Reservation Other Voice Flight Other
Templates Ordering System Applications Dialing Status Applications
Base Speech Forms Speech Query
Product Sets (e.g. Order Entry, Customer Service) (e.g. Order Status, Information Services)
Dialogue Module Layer
Other
Name and Credit Card Product
Date Reservation Dialogue
Address Info Selection
Modules
/\
Core Technology Layer
Natural Database Dialogue

Speech Speech
Language Integration and System
Recognition Generation
Modeling Mechanisms Manager
Hardware Interlace and API Layer
Telephony Other Comm

Board Telephony Standards Text-to- Other
Interfaces Database speech
Interlaces Interlaces Supports Links software
(e. . LAN, (e.g. SCSA) Drivers APIs
(e.g. i (e.g. PBX/ AN)
Ari el, NMS), A
This diagram shows how Applied Voice Technology's overall software architecture
is organized into layers and modules that encapsulate different functions. The use
of software "objects" allows the software to be quickly adapted to add new func-
tionality, support new hardware, integrated with other software and customized for
new applications.

Digital announcers use a computer chip to store the recorded mes-

sage. Other systems use tape to store the message, similar to the way
an answering machine does.
You can have the system play a message and simply hang up, or
ring the caller through to your phone system after playing the message
if they choose to stay on the line for more information.
Announcers can also work with ACDs to play messages to
callers in queue. You can program a message to simply thank the
caller for holding, play on-hold music, or even better, play recorded
promotional messages.
Because an announcer is so simple, it doesn't have the high-tech
appeal of other voice processing technologies. But announcers are
vital to most call centers and many other businesses because they play
music and messages to callers waiting on hold or in queue for a call
center agent.
Call centers turn to sophisticated technologies like computer inte-
gration to save a few seconds per call — and may spend hundreds of
thousands of dollars to do so.
A simple announcement on hold that tells callers to have a credit
card ready can save that same call center five seconds per call at
almost no cost.
When choosing an announcer you need to decide on the amount
of recording time you'll need.
AUTOMATED ATTENDANT
Automated attendants answer a call, play a message with a menu of

options and route the caller to the extension or menu choice selected.
In call centers, automated attendants are helpful in having callers
direct themselves to an appropriate queue. For example, an automated
attendant in a call center might ask the caller to dial one for sales, two for
billing or account information and three for technical support. The call
would then be routed to the correct depai iment or the correct ACD gate.
Once it was common to find standalone automated attendants.
Today they are usually a part of a voice mail or other voice process-
ing system. Dacon (Danbury, CT) is one company that still makes a
standalone system.
VOICE MAIL
A voice mail system answers telephone calls to individual phone

numbers or phone system extensions, plays a greeting from the mail
box owner and records the callers message.

At the mailbox owner's prompting it plays back messages, for-

wards them to other extensions, saves them or deletes them.
Voicemail has a different role in the call center than anywhere else.
While it can be used in the traditional sense for call center managers
or upper management, it's most often used to give callers an option to
leave a voice mail message as opposed to waiting in queue for an agent
when integrated with your ACD.
A voice mail system appropriate for the special needs of a call cen-
ter should alert agents when there is a message in waiting. If the voice
mail system you choose cannot do this, it's important to create a sys-
tem designating certain agents to return voice mail calls when call vol-
ume falls below a pre-determined level.
Voice mail is a critical tool for the small center that cannot afford
to staff agents after-hours. A voice mail system won't shut out any
callers. It keeps your center open 24 hours a day.
Not long ago voice mail was the classic voice processing applica-
tion and usually came in a stand-alone system that was sometimes
bundled with an automated attendant.
Today voice mail is usually a part of a complete voice processing
system. For example, the voice mail system from SpeechSoft
(Ringoes, NJ), also comes with audiotext, automated attendant, out-
calling and fax.
The latest thing in voice mail is "screen-based" voice mail that lets
you call up messages of many kinds on your computer screen includ-
ing your voice mail, e-mail and fax messages.
More and more vendors are jumping on the bandwagon to offer
computer/telephony interfaces that put voice mail on your desktop
PC. With this kind of interface you can get information not only about
your voice mail messages, but also view e-mail messages or faxes from
your PC. This "unified messaging" gives you one mailbox combining
voice, fax and e-mail messages. Unified messaging gives you an easier
interface than the telephone keypad. Most unified messaging runs
across a LAN and integrates with your phone
system. The object is to have desktop control over all of your mes-
sages, with the ability to retrieve them, read e-mail messages or listen to
voice mail and store and forward them through your computer or phone.
Some benefits:
• Users can view messages that come in even if they are on the phone.
• There's no need for dedicated voice mail hardware.
• The user can do all the configuring.
• If you have a Wide Area Network, you can move voice, data and
e-mail from site to site.
• It eliminates the need to use the phone pad to issue commands.

HOW AUDIOTEX WORKS

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For real desktop control, the software you choose should use some
type of standard protocol like TAPI or TSAPI. TAPI is the standard
protocol for connecting Windows software to you PBX. TSAPI is a
similar protocol only for Novell.
The TAPI Service Provider from MediaTrends (Concord, MA), for
example, enables any modem or other telephone connection to control
Centrex features on normal phone lines and control similar features of
PBXs when equipped with analog phone lines.
Previously, telephone-oriented software had to run on systems
connected to ISDN or proprietary digital phone lines to control fea-
tures like hold, transfer and conferencing through TAPI.
Active Voice (Seattle, WA) was one of the first companies to put
voice mail on the user's desktop. Their product, TeLANphony,
bridges local area networks, telephone systems, voice processing and
desktop computing.
When a call comes in, a window on your PC pops up and gives
you information about the call. With the click of the mouse you can
ask callers to identify themselves, hold, play a greeting, transfer the
call to another extension or ask the caller to leave a message without
picking up the receiver.

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE
Getting a voice processing system to do exactly what you want can

be frustrating. That's why call center managers with computer exper-
tise sometimes create their own systems using a PC, voice processing
boards and application development software (also called an applica-
tion development generator).
These software packages make putting together a system easier
by protecting you from the lower level computer languages (read
"harder to use") through graphical user interfaces and object-ori-
ented programming.
Sometimes a voice processing system includes application devel-
opment software to help you tweak the system to fit your exact needs.
When should you look into using application development soft-
ware? If you are frequently going to modify your voice processing
application — say for each campaign — then you could easily benefit
from software that will let you do this yourself instead of waiting for
your vendor.
SPEECH RECOGNITION
Speech recognition is a lot like IVR, only callers get to speak selec-
tions rather than press corresponding numbers on their phone pads to
get information.
Speech recognition gives callers without touch tone dialing the
same access to information as those with touch tone service. Not only
will it satisfy these callers — but think of the population of callers who
need glasses to dial. These callers won't have to juggle their glasses
with the phone pad to see the numbers they are pressing.
Although over-the-phone speech recognition still has a limited
vocabulary, most systems are effective enough to allow callers to
speak selections such as "sales," "flight number 123," "transfer cash"
or "order baseball cap."
Speech recognition technology is constantly improving.
Vocabularies keep growing (which means you can program the system
to understand more caller commands). It seems almost all systems are
now continuous speech.
Make sure you choose one that is indeed continuous speech.
Otherwise callers will be forced to pause and wait for a beep after say-
ing every word or number. Since it's an unnatural to speak this way,
callers may be more likely to hang up or ask for a rep. There's also an
increased chance of the system not understanding every word, since
it's hard to tell speech from silence.
For audiotex applications using voice, Moscom's (Pittsford, NY)

TeleVoice lets callers navigate through recorded information. If they

want to hear segments of the message again they can say "repeat",
speed up sections by saying "next" or when they hear the information
they need, say "stop" and transfer to an agent.
Voice Processing Corp. (Cambridge, MA) offers their VProFlex
Speech Recognition Engine, which features a flexible vocabulary. It
can recognize a particular key word you've programmed the system to
pick up when the word is said in a series of words (this is known as
word spotting).
BBN Hark's (San Jose, CA) Version 2 Recognizer supports up to a
2,000 word active vocabulary, but for smaller applications you can
buy their 150 active word vocabulary.
If you already own an IVR system and want to add speech recog-
nition capabilities, you should check with your vendor. Many of the
big manufacturers like AT&T (Basking Ridge, NJ), Syntellect
(Phoenix, AZ) and InterVoice (Dallas, TX) have added speech recog-
nition to their IVR systems.
For off-the-phone speech recognition, companies like Talk
Technology Inc. (Brooklyn, NY) and Dragon Systems Inc. (Newton,
MA) have 120,000 word vocabulary speech recognition systems for
anyone in your center who cannot type or who would prefer to speak
and let the computer type. They can integrate their systems to voice
enable any software package.
For the most part, speech recognition is a part of the system you
buy. Even if you are buying a voice board, it may already come with
speech recognition built in.
For example, Dialogic uses Lernout & Hauspie's automatic speech
recognition in their voice boards. AT&T uses both Lernout &
Hauspie and BBN Hark technology in different voice processing
products. You get Lernout & Hauspie technology with your Unisys
voice mail system and BBN Hark technology with your Inference
CBR2 customer service system.
COMBO SYSTEMS
Many of the packages you should be looking at combine voice

mail and automated attendant. A system with an automated attendant
can answer calls, play a day or night message and transfer callers to
the right department, at the very least. Some combine voice mail with
auto attendant, audiotex, fax-on-demand and Integrated Voice
Response (IVR) too.
SpeechSoft's (Ringoes, NJ) SpeechMaster incorporates voice mail,
auto attendant, audiotex and even a power dialing feature called

Outcall in one package. No separate modules are needed to run these

applications to their fullest.
OneVoice from InterVoice uses Voice Channel Architecture to
direct calls to different enhanced network services. You can direct calls
to other sites across the country. OneVoice is their voice and data plat-
form which can support IVR, voice recognition, audiotex, "screen
pops," and more.
Other companies that have taken this all-in-one approach to voice
processing include International Voice Systems (WS, Blauvelt, NY),
International Voice Exchange (Salt Lake City , UT) and Intelligent
Technologies Corp. (Pine Bluff, AR).

CHAPTER EIGHT
THE BENEFITS OF
FAX-ON-DEMAND
Fax is so easy, and inexpensive, that you should be using it as an
adjunct to your voice response system. You can give your callers lots
of information without using an agent.
Fax technology has been around for over two decades. It's simple
technology. It's so simple, in fact, that fax systems and services are rev-
olutionizing the way people get data from companies — in much the
same way automated voice response systems did just a few years ago.
The major application for interactive fax is product literature ful-
fillment and technical support. Close behind that are government
applications and catalog distribution.
Interactive fax saves money in quite a few ways. You don't waste
staff time manually faxing out requests. As with IVR, customers don't
have to speak to a rep (cutting phone time) when the information they
need is readily available.
Fax-on-demand, for example, allows anyone on the outside to call
into your company and request specific information. It gets sent, often
within seconds, to any fax machine the customer desires.
Or, use a service bureau to send and receive thousands of faxes at
a time for a fraction of the cost of buying your own hardware. It's one
of the best ways to reach customers with instant offers or user tips.
A fax server is a network device which allows people in a call cen-
ter to keep track of who's asked for what documents. A service rep can
fax any document to a customer right from his workstation. The fax
starts transmitting before the conversation terminates.
Here are some of the ways interactive fax helps call centers — and
saves them money.
• Fax-on-demand service siphons off some of the call volume, partic-
ularly those that deal with routine inquiries. Also, the information you
can deliver this way is far more detailed than with standard voice
prompts through IVR.
• It expands the range of abilities for technical support people at help
desks. You can preempt many questions by using the fax system as a
front end to send callers a set of prepared answers.
If they still have questions, the help desk rep knows that the caller has
already seen some basic information. With some systems, the caller

THE BENEFITS OF FAX-ON-DEMAND
can request info without losing his or her place in the queue. And the
agent's screen shows what documents the caller looked at.
• A sales center can deliver timely, consistent information to reps in
the field. Information like updated prices and product information is
as close to a salesperson on a call as the nearest fax machine.
• Fax servers have the unique ability to deliver large quantities of
detailed information, something you can't do in a voice call. Pictures,
schematics, charts and lists all come across better this way.
• Information is available on a 24-hour basis, which is great if you run
a technical support service.
• You get better billing and control of the information delivery
process. You can keep better records of who requested what, when.
And you know how the amount of service delivered relates to service
contracts purchased.
HOW TO CHOOSE A SERVICE BUREAU
Some companies find it's easier to do their faxing through outside

fax service companies. That way, they can take advantage of the latest
technologies without making an investment in expensive hardware.
Here are some things to look for when choosing a provider.
1. Ask the service bureau who their client base is made up of. Are
the needs of their other customers similar to yours?
2. How long has the service bureau been in business? If the service
bureau is new, you might want to hold off until they are established
and recommended.
3. What capabilities can the service bureau's interactive fax system
offer a subscriber? Will all your present needs be met? What about
your future plans?
4. Have the service bureau do an estimate on six months worth of
document delivery based on your company's statistics. If the total
exceeds $300 per month, then it's probably better to have your own
fax-on-demand system on site.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT FAX-ON-DEMAND

(Prepared with the help of Leslie Townsend of MarketFinders,
an Austin, Texas-based consulting firm.)
Q. What kinds of call centers can benefit from fax-on-demand?
A. Call center managers should interview agents to determine
as closely as possible the quantity and types of information being
requested. Fax-on-demand can be used as a substitute for time-
sensitive information that is frequently requested. Some of the
most successful fax-on-demand applications (outside of a purely
publishing-oriented environment) are for dissemination of market-
ing literature and technical support specifications.
For these reasons, high-technology and manufacturing compa-
nies can benefit greatly from fax-on-demand, even if they already
provide similar information on the Internet or through some other
form of online retrieval.
Q. What Is the typical cost of a fax-on-demand system?
A. Fax-on-demand systems begin under $5,000. However, total
system cost will be determined by the number of incoming calls
and the anticipated duration of each call. Call duration will depend
on how long it takes callers to maneuver through the voice menu
and select their documents, plus the time it takes to deliver those
documents.
An added factor is call distribution: If calls are evenly distrib-
uted throughout the day (rather than occurring in dramatic peaks)
fewer ports will be required. The vendor should be able to help you
calculate your port requirements. Modular systems allow you to
add ports as needed, so that you can start small and increase the
system size as needed.
The primary cost of your system will most likely be in on-going
administrative expenses and in telephone line charges. Therefore,
you should invest in the type of system that offers the features
and functionality you desire, and focus efforts on implementing an
application that is easy for you to administer, update, and manage.
One way to reduce telephone expenses is to structure the voice
prompts in such a way that the first option is the one most fre-
quently selected. Try to keep fax images to black and white wher-
ever possible, since gray-tones take longer to transmit. Using thin
lines rather than thick ones for diagrams will also reduce transmis-
sion time. Test documents before loading them onto your system to
determine how long they will take to transmit. Use sans-serif fonts
on documents wherever possible. Focus on how document updat-
ing and indexing procedures can be automated to reduce your
administrative burden.
Often a fax-on-demand system can be cost-justified on the
basis of reduced call completion times. If callers are not connect-
ing to an agent, usually call durations are shorter. This translates

into reduced 800 number charges and/or the need for fewer
agents. Often fax-on-demand systems can be cost-justified in a
period of three to four months.
Q. What kinds of documents should I put on my system?
A. Make available documents that are both timely and fre-
quently requested. Users are more likely to call in frequently if they
know that documents will change regularly.
Conduct follow-up studies to see what types of information
callers would like to retrieve, in addition to those they are already
retrieving. Determine their level of satisfaction with the system.
Study management reports carefully. They provide information
about which documents are requested most frequently, how fre-
quently certain callers use the system, when drop-offs occur, etc.
Often they provide vital feedback.
It is not sufficient to simply put documents on the system that
you think callers will want. Unless the fax-on-demand system is pro-
moted in some way (such as in corporate brochures or print ads), your
prospects and customers will not know that the system exists and will
not use it. Promotion of the system is vital to its success and must
be incorporated into the company's overall marketing program.
Q. What can I expect from my fax-on-demand system In terms
of number or percentage of incoming customer calls that don't
have to be handled by my agents?
A. There is no straightforward answer to this question. There
are many ways the information provider can control this process.
Fax-on-demand systems can be structured to replace calls to
agents, can be used simultaneously with agent calls (that is, the
agent might fax out information while speaking with the caller) or
the caller could be offered a choice of receiving information by fax
or speaking with an agent. Only a beta test will provide the answer
to this question.
One company, a specialty chemicals supplier, replaced the
agent function with fax-on-demand. That service was rated very
highly by customers. In this case, 100% of customer calls went
into the fax-on-demand system.
Often, callers with access to a fax machine prefer to receive
information by fax, as opposed to waiting in queue to speak with
an agent. Often they will try the fax-on-demand system first and
only call back with questions they could not answer through the
fax-on-demand system.
Traffic patterns may change over time if the fax-on-demand
application becomes a high-volume one. Experienced callers may
delay calls until after normal business hours because they know
that there is a 24-hour fax-on-demand solution. Thus, through time,
a higher percentage of calls occur during off-peak hours, when no
agent is on duty, and hence are answered by fax-on-demand.
Q. How much time and money should I be prepared to Invest

In maintaining the documents on my system?

A. Any information that is to be retrieved should be tested for
"faxability." How does your marketing literature look when it is
faxed? It may need to be redesigned for black-and-white format.
Typically, the cost associated with document preparation is far less
than the original preparation for glossy brochures that were sent
out by mail.
How often does the information change? Some information
changes real-time, some monthly or quarterly (such as financial
information) and some when new products are announced or
prices change. You should be prepared to make changes as often
as required by your environment.
Another factor to consider — and one that is unfortunately sel-
dom considered — is corporate image. Many divisions or depart-
ments maintain independent control of their fax-on-demand systems.
Do you want a common corporate image to appear on all faxed doc-
uments, along with a common voice menu? If so, the administrative
costs will be higher to coordinate efforts among all departments.
Q. What kinds of technology are available (servers, dedicat-
ed systems, etc.)?
A. The choices consist of both servers and dedicated systems
as well as service bureau solutions. Look carefully at the flexibili-
ty of the system you are purchasing. Questions to ask when shop-
ping include:
• How easy is it to structure voice menus?
• What types of add-on software modules exist?
• How useful are the management reports?
• How well does the vendor keep up on current and future
technology?
I If your application grows, can you expand your system, or will
you have to replace it?
Most fax servers do not provide voice integration, and typical-
ly vendors focusing on dedicated fax-on-demand platforms — such
as Copia, FaxBack and Ibex — provide by far the best range of fea-
tures and functions.
Q. Are there ancillary uses to the technology that will help
me Justify the purchase of the system?
A. Fax-on-demand systems also offer broadcast capabilities.
As an example, you might want to retain the fax numbers of indi-
viduals that have retrieved specific types of information from your
fax-on-demand system and follow up with a notification of price
changes, new product availability, or coupon specials.
Some systems also offer fax mailboxes. These are temporary
storage facilities much like e-mail that can be particularly useful to
mobile workers. They are designed to store incoming faxes until
the user wants to retrieve them. The user interface is similar to
that used to retrieve information for fax-on-demand.

Q. Should I get an IVR or audlotext system Instead? Won't

they serve the same caller needs? If so, how do I know which Is
better suited to my needs?
A. IVR is better for applications in which the message is short
and in which a simple menu can be constructed (no more than
three tiers of prompts if at all avoidable). When information
becomes complicated or needs to be written down, fax is desir-
able. If in doubt, beta test both applications and then determine
the results. Some centers offer callers a choice of fax-on-demand
or audiotext. One example is retrieval of laboratory test results. If
the caller is familiar with medical terminology, audiotext will suf-
fice; if not, fax-on-demand is a better alternative. The caller
decides which technology she is more comfortable with.
Q. Is It better to buy and use my own system, or should I go
through a service bureau?
A. This depends on your internal company philosophy and
resources, as well as the degree to which the fax-on-demand sys-
tem will be integrated with your call center. A service bureau is a
good solution if you are short-handed on technical expertise or do
not want to invest heavily in capital equipment.
It may be a short-term solution if you are uncertain what size
of system to purchase. Some service bureaus will provide a
turnkey solution, seeing you through the critical period of system
turn-up, but then turning it over to you to manage and operate.
Most fax-on-demand applications require minimal capital
investment. Think carefully about your call patterns. To send out a
fax broadcast, you might want to reach several thousand people in
a short period of time. For this type of application, service bureaus
are optimal. For fax-on-demand, however, this scenario is rarely the
case. Usually your calls will be staggered throughout the business
day and into the evening. It may not be critical for a fax to go out
immediately — a delay of 10 or 15 minutes might be acceptable if
the system becomes unusually busy.
In these scenarios, it is often less expensive to purchase a
system unless there is additional expertise that you require,
because ports are tied up throughout the day as opposed to brief
periods of time.
Most fax-on-demand vendors are small companies. Look care-
fully at the customer support they can provide and determine if
their response time will be adequate for your needs. This is one
additional area where a service bureau might be of help.

CHAPTER NINE
COMPUTER TELEPHONY
INTEGRATION:
THE ADVENT OF AN
OPEN CALL CENTER
In no area of American industry has the open application interface
taken as great a hold as in the modern call center. The ability to inte-
grate your computer and telecom systems to automatically deliver a
customer's phone call along with her datafile has translated to massive
savings in 800 line charges and agent labor.
Predictive dialing applications now relentlessly execute thousands
of outbound calls to prospects, terminating the connection when there
is no answer, shunting the caller instantly to a live agent the second the
phone is picked up. Few major airlines, catalog purveyors or insurance
companies have resisted the lures of switch-to-host applications.
The phenomenon of switch-to-host integration represents a total
transformation of the ACD audience. Thanks to highly effective devel-
opment toolkits, software packages and enabling hardware, the
sophisticated call center is no longer the exclusive province of service
bureaus and reservations centers.
Small companies can now avail themselves of once prohibitively
expensive call center technology, taking full advantage of ANI, DNIS
and other network-provided services. This places them on a level play-
ing field with their most mammoth competitors.
Indeed, stunning development tools, written for large ACDs like
the Aspect CallCenter, and for smaller PBX-based switches, now
allow customers to mold the best in time-tested hardware with
innovative software.
Computer Telephony is simply defined as "adding computer intel-
ligence to the phone call." The central focus of computer telephony is
on the call center.
Some benefits computer telephony offers the call center:
1. Shorter calls. Cut hold time dramatically. Speed information to
the agent's desktop, then to the caller. Reduce your telephone usage
costs (the second biggest expense in a call center).

COMPUTER TELEPHONY INTEGRATION: THE ADVENT OF AN OPEN CALL CENTER
2. Happier customers. Simply put, your agents solve more of their

problems the first time out. And faster.
3. Higher sales. You have more information about the caller. You
know what they like to buy, what problems they've had in the past.
You can appeal to them on their terms. They don't get passed from
agent to agent. And you can cross-sell/up-sell them while building
their loyalty.
4. Better use of agents through combo inbound/outbound tele-
marketing systems. Gain efficiencies with better ways to group agents.
Slow period for calls coming in? Move some of those reps over to the
outbound group. A dialer seamlessly starts sending them calls, a script
pops up on the screen, a whisper prompt in their ear tells them the
name of the person they're talking to. Presto — no more down time.
(Agent salaries are the biggest expense in a call center.)
Some of the many technologies computer telephony employs:
• Intelligent voice mail.
• ANI. Caller ID.
• Switch to host links.
• Inbound and outbound call processors.
So what's new? Three things: The major trend in computer tele-
phony is driving more of this technology into smaller call centers. You
don't have to be 500 seats to benefits. Second, there's a lot more use-
ful technology around that will automate call center tasks that most
of do today manually. Third, it's harder and harder to choose which
is best — because there's more of it around.
The switch-to-host call center brings sophisticated ACD features
— discriminative queuing, algorithms, simultaneous voice and data
delivery to an agent's desktop — to scrappy start-up companies, small
branch offices, help desks and technical assistance depots.
However, many mid-sized and smaller call centers have yet to inte-
grate their operations. The obstacles can seem daunting.
The MIS manager, telecom supervisor and call center manager of
DON'T EMPHASIZE CUTS

Reducing headcount through shorter call lengths is a poor way
to justify a CTI investment because there are many less complex
ways to reduce call lengths and headcount is often not reduced by
the amount calculated a head of time.
Make sure you relate CTI to your company's three to five year
business objectives, how you differentiate yourself from your com-
petition and your customer service strategy. Doing this, your case
to justify the CTI investment becomes all the more compelling.

a company must join forces with the computer vendor, switch manu-
facturer and applications developer to plan the new system. The per-
ils of implementation — agent re-education, destablization of the
workforce, the often rocky transition from manual to automated
operations — can lead to further hesitation.
For the telecom manager willing to brave these hazards in the
quest for greater efficiency and customer satisfaction — the twin ben-
efits of the switch-to-host application — we offer these nine sugges-
tions for a smoother implementation.
Playing politics. One of the stumbling blocks in implementing
• an open architecture interface (OAI) automatic call distributor
(ACD) solution stems from rivalries and turf battles within a compa-
ny — not from technological or cost considerations. In many corpo-
rate cultures, the MIS director feels he owns the data side and there's
nothing you can do except chip away at those politics.
Of course, the rise of OAI has encouraged — forced, perhaps — a
spirit of cooperation between MIS and telecom managers that did not
exist before. The fusion of telephony and data through open applica-
tions continues to blur the border between these two jealously held
territories. A willingness to compromise and cooperate is essential to
the implementation of any successful OAI solution.
2 Single out the high-volume areas of your call center operations.

• For a telemarketer selling stereo equipment, the customer ser-
vice and new orders division may field many calls, while the help desk
may get a relatively low load. For a PC vendor, however, the help desk
may be just as inundated, or more so, in the face of decreased sales.
Before contacting any vendor, you should define the internal
environment. The areas with high volume are going to have the
highest payback when you implement open applications. Possibly,
only one or two of your applications would really benefit from com-
puter-assisted telephony.
The telecom manager should also assess the nature of each depart-
ment, to see if the switch-to-host application would enhance or
besmirch the corporate image.
When calling the complaints division, for instance, the caller usu-
ally expects to air her grievances to a live agent. Her resentment and
frustration may only build if greeted by a VRU unit.
3 LANs, Minis or Mainframes — sizing up your host solution.

• For smaller call centers, a local area network can serve as the
entire host side of the solution. Clearly, the last few years of applica-
tion development have shown that a LAN-based of client/server-based
application gives you more flexibility when it comes to importing tele-
phone functions to the workstation than you'd get with a mainframe.

Of course, if you have a mainframe or mini already in place, you'll

probably work with this existing hardware. You can often use these
hosts as central servers, connected to workstations via local area net-
works, combining the flexibility of a LAN with the processing power
of amainframe.
4 Pin down the value-added reseller on probable savings and

• goals.
Before you even think of contacting an applications developer, you
should evaluate the time it takes to handle a given call. Only then will
you know what your projected savings might be.
Bear in mind that most applications salespeople are just that —
salespeople. Get past the vague promises and pin them down on how
much will be saved. Demand detailed projections and scenarios. Ask
to speak to a few happy customers — even among happy customers
you may find some potential drawbacks of a particular system.
If you're fortunate enough to be running a regional monopoly —
a utility or water works — you can call colleagues from other areas to
discuss any open applications they may have implemented. If you run
a mail order house, you may have less luck getting your competitors
to divulge their secrets.
Starting over or improving upon the existing order. Many
5 applications can be integrated into an OAI environment
•
rather painlessly.
For instance, you may have an application that calls up customer
profile information by having the agent key in the customer's social
security number. Using ANI, the open application automatically sum-
mons the file to the agent's screen simply by replacing the social secu-
rity number with her home phone number.
Many open applications, like predictive dialing engines, are more
efficient or economical if purchased as turnkey applications.
Sometimes, it pays to scrap the old order rather than undergo an ill-
fitting adaption.
6 Testing the waters. There are two ways to test an OAI applica-
• tion prior to full implementation. Dummy applications are
available, simulating call traffic, your workforce, the equipment you
plan to employ, your network services and your application code. You
can also have a test region on the host, where you can run pilot tests
while you're making changes, perform load analysis.
Many telecom managers prefer to phase in the new regime gradu-
ally through such separate testing areas. One way is to phase in with
with 10% or 20% of your customer base, then gradually broaden the
application to include the entire call center.

WILL IT WORK FOR YOU?

Typical CTI applications include customer service, telemarketing,
order entry, help desks and emergency centers. If your application
has one or more of these characteristics, it can benefit from CTI:
• Telephones and computers are used to enter, provide or update
information during telephone calls.
• Increased personalization during a telephone call has business
benefits.
• A large call volume means a 15 to 30 second reduction in aver-
age call length produces large expense reductions.
• Budgeted staff is unable to handle the call volume.
• Outbound agents are frustrated by the amount of time they lis-
ten to business signals and unanswered ringing.
7 Avoid glitz for its own sake. Open applications perform some
• feats so stunning that even the most sober telecom center man-
ager can make the mistake of letting her customers in on them.
Few would argue that the act of automatically shunting a caller's vital
data and his phone call to an agent's terminal before that agent even picks
up can save a lot of valuable seconds in WATS time and agent labor. All
of these precious seconds are lost, however, when the agent picks up the
phone and exclaims — "Hello Mr. Brooks, how may I help you?"
If you call people by name before you give them a chance to
introduce themselves, you're going to waste 20 seconds of your
time with 'how did you know I was calling?" The result is a trans-
action three times as long, and three times as expensive, than the
manual solution.
8 Agent considerations. Weeks before you implement the appli-

• cation, you should set up a training program — coordinated by
the applications developer — to master the system.
As with any introduction of automation, you may need fewer
employees on the job — in this case, agents at their terminals. Perhaps
your budget will permit you to divert customer service reps to a larg-
er support group or complaint division. You may also be compelled to
reduce the workforce, either through attrition or layoffs.
Also consider the implementation of new evaluation criteria for those
who remain at the call center. If your application incorporates a voice
response unit, for example, the unit will handle most of the simple
inquiries without any live agent intervention. Which means that your
agents handle only trickier, more difficult calls. So you should expect that
the duration of an average call fielded by an agent will increase.

9 Reality checks. Three months after your application is in place,

*then three months after that, you should take a look at how
much you are saving.
Note that while it is relatively easy to calculate lower toll-free
usage or fewer agents needed to staff the phones, other benefits are
more difficult to gauge — such as how many new policies have been
taken out by insurance customers simply because the agent was able
to transfer both their datafile and screen immediately from the life
insurance division to the accident group.
FIVE REASONS TO LINK YOUR ACD TO YOUR LAN

Here are five persuasive reasons to link your ACD to your LAN.
(There are others.) The benefits are always the same — faster and
better customer service.
1. Simultaneous Screen Transfer. An agent is speaking to a
client. The agent has the client's database up on his screen. The
agent needs to send the call to someone else for special treat-
ment. Push a button on his screen, "Who would you like to send
this call to?" He types the name, hits Enter. The call and the updat-
ed screen go to the specialist.
2. ANI/Caller ID Database Lookup. A call comes in. It car-
ries the calling number. Your ACD grabs the calling number,
passes it to your database over your LAN. As the phone rings
on an agent's desk, the agent's screen pops with a screenful
of information on the caller. What he bought last time. What his
problems were. How they were resolved. What he tried to buy
last time.
Automatic phone lookup can shave 15 minutes off a typical
call — the time the agent takes to ask the hapless caller such
questions as "What's your name, address, phone number, etc.?"
3. Predictive Dialing. When your agents are not answering
incoming calls, they could be making outgoing calls. "Last month
and the month before, Mr. Smith, you bought four dozen boxes of
paperclips. May we send you another four dozen?"
4. Other Database Lookups. Many agents are linked to only
one database. But customers always want more information than
one database can provide. A price list. A list of your dealers. Other
machines you're compatible with. How to get the machine fixed.
Layouts of the hotel rooms you're renting.
5. Fax server. Your agent is answering a call for help. Explaining
the solution is too difficult and time consuming. It's easier to say,
"May I fax you several pages of explanation?" Let your fax server
send the pages while you make another phone call. Let your cus-
tomer follow the jumping ball on the fax he just received.

Often, you'll find you must alter your long-distance contract, your
agent scheduling, even the capacity of your computer plant to accom-
modate the changed call processing environment.
From a bottom line standpoint, though, these changes are proba-
bly for the better. Many end users report a nine to 16 month payback
on their investment.
MIDDLEWARE
In the task of building integrated systems out of the bricks of telecom

switches and computer networks, middleware — the software that fits in
between the application programming interface (API) and the applica-
tion — is the mortar that smooths things out and binds things together.
FastCall, from Aurora Systems (Acton, MA) can be used in a
client-server configuration, to serve small to medium-sized call centers
or in a desktop (one user) configuration for Windows "power users."
(Aurora is thinking executives here; we are thinking field salespeople.)
FastCall provides screen pops based on automatic number identifica-
tion (ANI), dialed number identification service (DNIS), ACD group or
other information. It interacts with other Wmdows-based software pack-
ages so the screen that pops up can be one from your existing applications.
It also provides intelligent call routing, coordinated voice and data
transfers and outbound preview dialing. You may have already guessed
that FastCall supports Microsoft's Telephone Application Programming
Interface (TAPI). The client-server configuration comes thanks to
Novell's Telephony Services Application Programming Interface (TSAPI).
Aurora has recently announced partnerships with a software
company and two telephone system makers. By teaming with Lotus
and their Lotus Notes software, Aurora's FastCall will be able to pro-
vide groupware solutions. A partnership with Lucent Technologies
adds connectivity to their popular Partner phone system. NEC has
made FastCall part of the CTI package they offer with their NEAX
phone systems.
Genesys Labs (San Bruno, CA) offers a variety of software prod-
ucts, including T-Server (allows LAN-based applications to control
ACDs, predictive dialers, IVR systems or other call center devices),
Call Center Manager (a real-time graphical display of call center
events), Client Application Interface (delivers screen pops, and lets an
agent use telephone functions from her PC) and Call Router (uses ANI
or DNIS to route calls to the most suitable agent).
Other interfaces are available for Northern's Meridian 1 PBX,
AT&T's Definity G3, Rockwell's Spectrum and Galaxy, Aspect's
CallCenter and switches from NEC and InteCom.

DON'T EXPECT SMALLER BILLS
Do not automatically assume your phone bill is going to fall.
Our company's bill did, but with shorter calls you may wind up tak-
ing more calls, and this could actually cause your phone bill to go
up. shorter call lengths is a poor way to justify a CTI investment
because there are many less complex ways to reduce call lengths
and headcount is often not reduced by the amount calculated a
head of time.
Make sure you relate CTI to your company's three to five year
business objectives, how you differentiate yourself from your com-
petition and your customer service strategy. Doing this, your case
to justify the CTI investment becomes all the more compelling.
WHY CTI MATTERS TO CALL CENTERS

We are closing in on 100,000 call centers in the US, Canada and
Europe. Those centers are buying everything from switches to call
handling software to ready-made applications to middleware. They
are buying with a frenzy, because for the first time in the fledgling
industry's history, there exists a supplier infrastructure. Call centers
can get off-the-shelf systems for just about any need. That supplier
infrastructure, of course, is the computer telephony business.
Call centers are the ultimate consumers of computer telepho-
ny technology. There is no other point where the need for welding
the computer and the telephone is more urgent than at the cus-
tomer transaction, whatever that transaction might consist of. But
because the technology has matured, call centers have access to
robust products that fit every application niche, from the vertical
(banking IVR apps) to the horizontal (multi-center call routing sys-
tems for service bureaus).
The technology trends that have made the computer telephony
industry grow have given call centers the tools they needed to
break out of their limited role of the 1980s and early 1990s. Now
they are poised to transform every business by acting as central
customer data clearinghouses, feeding information to all depart-
ments in a myriad of ways.
A call center is not just a place. It is a set of functions. It is the
process of selling to people who are not in the room with you. And
of serving their many varied needs. A call center's primary function
is to create and keep customers.
Right now, that function requires a physical presence, a loca-
tion — an actual set of seats filled with people to help customers.
Agents that have access to stores of data about the customers

and the company, and the points of intersection. These people act
as gatekeepers for the two-directional flow of information — as
intermediaries and interpreters.
What if those functions could be accomplished without people?
Or with a vastly fewer number of people, so that those who are left
are true experts who add value to the transaction, and who don't
merely funnel that transaction along.
Customers who solve their own problems, who in essence sell
themselves, and a specially trained cadre of agents dedicated to
doing what only humans can do.
To some extent, the call center industry has been flirting with
this notion for years, with varying degrees of success. First there
was fax, then fax-on-demand. Want information about our compa-
ny at 2 am? Rather than pay to staff off-hours, make information
available for retrieval by the customer himself. It's fast, cheap and
gets generally high satisfaction marks from the customers.
Then there's IVR. It's great for routing calls to agents, short-
ening call times, getting people into the right queue, etc. But it
also allows people to self-serve for simple database lookups like
an account balance, an order confirmation or shipping status. Or
to diagnose a technical problem.
The reasons are clear:
* Automated responses are cheaper than agent-provided ones.
* They are always the same for all callers. Two people who call
for directions from the airport to your office won't get different
routes from different reps.
* Automation is always available, even when you're closed.
It's easy to forget that these are all computer telephony apps,
made possible by voice boards that fit in a PC, by switches that
are open to third party developers, by technology standards.
Without CT, we head back to the old days, when inbound and out-
bound were separated by a technological wall; when screen pop
wasn't possible; when dumb terminals were the state of the art for
agent stations.
The Web is the third advance in self-serve automation. It has
many of the advantages of fax — it's a dynamic, easy-to-maintain
format. It is (now) available to huge numbers of potential cus-
tomers. And it surpasses fax or IVR in one critical area: it has enor-
mous multimedia capabilities (sound, graphics, video, and more).
It is rich in the one quality IVR lacks — the ability to control appli-
cations that require visual presentation or extensive keyboard out-
put, or both. Customers can order products. They can download
software. They can read catalogs.
Ultimately, as more kinds of call center applications are devel-
oped that bypass the agent, a given customer will have more choic-
es for entering the zone and concluding the interaction. Some
points of entry may be better for making a sale — document

retrieval by fax-back, for example. Others are better for customer

support, like IVR.
A few years ago integration with groupware products like Lotus
Notes was heralded as the best way to get information flowing
among support personnel within a company, and with customers
on the outside. Now, talk is turning to Intranets and the Web for
the same reasons. The Web is an open system, non-proprietary
and cheap. It has the potential to remake the way we exchange
information in much the same way as fax did ten years ago.
This is the next step for the computer telephony/call center
alliance. Computer telephony suppliers are increasingly adding the
Web and the rest of the Internet to the mix as they brew together
different technology combinations in their product offerings. In call
centers, the Internet will probably soon take its place next to IVR
as a customer service and sales vehicle of choice. It helps accel-
erate the transformation of the center from a physical space into
a fuzzier "zone" of customer contact. And, like IVR, it will give
agents the breathing room to solve problems, close sales and
build relationships with customers, things only humans can do.
Without computer telephony, call centers wouldn't be able to
isolate the information needed to handle a customer transaction.
It's been a tremendous enabler, pushing call centers to demand
more apps, more features and more status within organizations.
CTI and the Call Center: The 2% Solution

Say "computer telephony integration" to most managers and
the first thing that they'll think of is "screen pop." Unfortunately,
that's often the last thing, as well. Despite great strides in the
development of technology, and the creation of applications for
that technology, there are still far fewer real-life examples of the
kind of intricate, top-to-bottom CTI call centers than we thought
there would be by now.
Kevin Kerns, COO of Apropos Technology (formerly Teledata
Solutions) told me that CTI is in use now in 2% of call centers —
or less. That figure includes "informal" call centers, like help
desks. Why so few?
The first reason is because of the sheer size of the market.
Best estimates are that there are somewhere between 75,000
and 100,000 call centers in North America. Most of those are
small- to medium-sized centers, and a large portion are those so-
called information centers. At the top of the pyramid, in the range
of the very largest — at the banks, reservation centers and ser-
vice bureaus — sit many of the centers that are already CTI-
enabled.
Another, subtler reason has to do with the way the technology
is presented to call center managers — the people who have to

buy, recommend, and use CTI on a daily basis. CTI technology, in

the form of sophisticated features like skills-based routing, net-
work intelligence, and yes, screen pop, have come to market faster
than the user community can assimilate. They have simply not yet
figured out how to integrate these capabilities into the daily oper-
ation of their centers.
That will certainly change as the community becomes better
educated. Vendors and systems integrators need to pay more
attention to how CTI installs affect both agents and upper man-
agers. One call center manager at a bank recently told me that
when his company installed CTI, the biggest mistake they made
was not paying enough attention to the human factor— the agents
who had no idea what was happening, or why it was good for the
company.
Upper managers need to be sold on the cost-benefits of the
technology. Vendors need to make clear that the savings are real,
not theoretical. And that they can help turn a companyis call cen-
ter into more of a strategic asset. The future vision of much of the
industry centers on a picture of the call center linked so tightly into
the rest of the enterprise that information passes seamlessly
between departments; whenever contact with a customer occurs,
so much intelligence can be brought to bear on that interaction
that it will almost always go smoothly. The vision is so tangible, it's
easy to forget that linking phones and computers is hard stuff.
"CTI is definitely in the early adopter phase," says Kerns. "It's
still about five years away from enterprise deployment." But the
tantalizing possibilities are beginning to see the light of reality. One
of Apropos own customers, US Robotics, used CTI to shorten call
duration. They've seen their call volume increase by 600%, but
only had to increase the number of agents by 350%. Real savings
of $6 million a year. Customer wait times were cut from 12 min-
utes to two.
Numbers like that help illustrate how CTI is one of the few
things that can simultaneously cut costs and improve service. Yes,
screen pop is at the heart of most apps, because few things
speed the call better than a screen full of data. But it also lays the
groundwork for the technologies at the next level, the multi-site
routers and dynamic call processors that lie ahead.
And it says to the 98% of call centers without CTI: now you are
playing catch-up.

CHAPTER TEN
BUYING THE
BEST HEADSET
Headsets are a key ingredient in every call center. They provide
hands-free operation for your reps, letting them type faster, talk on the
phone longer, and walk away without annoying neck pain.
They are also the most abused, wear-intensive items in your cen-
ter. People swing them around by the cord. They yank them out of the
socket. They throw them in the drawer. You'll buy them this year. And
next year. And the year after that.
Luckily, vendors keep upgrading them to provide more comfort
and durability. Warranties have gotten longer. Prices are coming down,
too. Most good headsets average between $120 and $250, depending
on features and the volume you purchase. By some estimates, the aver-
age life of a headset is about 29 months. The now-standard two year
warrantee is a good hedge against failure during that period.
But consider: if your center seats hundreds of agents, you could be
spending thousands of dollars each year for new and replacement
headsets, plus backups.
It's not true that all headsets are alike. They vary in style, sound
quality, and technology (to some extent). Here's what you should look
for when buying.
1. Which style? There are two main categories: monaural (one ear)
or binaural (two ears). Monaural comes in over-the-head, over-the ear
and in-the-ear styles.
A lot of this choice will depend on individual comfort. Some people
don't like the feel of one or more of these styles. In-the-ear could feel like
it's going to pop out, or you might feel lopsided with monaural.
If it's at all possible, try to give your staff a choice of styles. Not
only does that help the reps feel like they have some control over their
work environment, but it lets them choose based on personal criteria:
"this one will mess up my hair and that one won't," or even "this one
sounds better than that one."
Also, pay attention to headset complaints. If reps tell you some-
thing is wrong with the headsets you've already got, take them seri-
ously. Physical discomfort or poor sound, if left uncorrected, will affect
your customer service in the form of higher turnover and bad morale.
Unex (Chelmsford, MA) offers FlexPro headsets that are about
20% lighter than previous offerings. That makes it more comfortable,
especially in the monaural version.

BUYING THE BEST HEADSET
They also have a feature called Quick Response Pivoting Speakers,

which lets the user swivel the speaker around to answer a call without
putting the headset on. This is important because one of the best ways
to break a headset is when you yank at it to put it on in a hurry when
the phone is ringing.
Hello Direct (San Jose, CA) offers three basic headsets (one in each
of the three modes — ear clip, over-the-head monaural and binaural.
The heaviest of the three weighs just 1.6 ounces. The ear cushions are
either foam pads, or leatherette. Your choice — the over-the-head sets
come with both.
2. Consider noise levels. Base your headset selections on the real
world conditions inside your center.
Is it very noisy? Then choose a binaural model with a noise-can-
celling microphone. But if your reps need to consult with one another
MAKE MORE CALLS
% of Work Day # of Calls Total Minutes Minutes Saved Additional

Spent On Phone Per Day On Phone Per Day Calls Possible
Based on average phone transaction of 3.2 minutes
Using a headset saves time, as this chart from Plantronics shows. The more time
you spend on the phone, the more savings from using a headset adds up. If your
telepphone people are still picking up a handset with every call - thinkk how much
they couldd get done if they only had a headset.

WATCH OUT
Here's something to look out for when you're switching over from
handset to headset. Sometimes, the headset lets you control the vol-
ume in both the headset and the handset. One headset user reports
that when the headset was connected, the volume was too low on the
handset, and couldn't be adjusted. If you plan on using both, make
sure the volume can be set properly through both instruments.
during or between calls, then a monaural might be better. That way

they don't have to take the headset off and put it on every time they
need to speak to someone nearby (which itself can reduce it's lifespan).
3. Sound quality. The caller should never know that they're talk-
ing to someone on a headset. They should also never hear much of the
ambient noise of the rest of the call center (other agents talking, or a
keyboard clacking).
That's why noise-cancelling microphones come in handy. They
raise the rep's voice while reducing the background noise. This is
becoming a standard feature on call center headsets; at a recent trade
show, most vendors were showing headsets equipped with flexible,
noise-cancelling mics.
A good tip when selecting headsets: find out if you can buy (and
get a good deal on) accessories (another way of saying "spare parts").
The best way to get value out of your headsets is to extend their life
through repair. Buy extra foam ear pads, eartips and connector cords.
Replacing these relatively cheap parts keeps you from buying a whole
new headset.
4. Convertibility. Some headsets are modular — that is, they let
you reconfigure the way they're worn, switching between headband
style and contour style. (This is a way to get around the impracticali-
ty of letting everyone choose their own headset. One model can suit
many needs.)
If you go this route, though, be careful to check the construction of
the headset and make sure it's rugged enough in all its configurations.
ACS's (Scotts Valley, CA) Stratus Ultra has a thin headband that
can be changed into an over-the-ear clip. It's lightweight, and the mic
boom is very adjustable.
5. Universal amplifiers. These are great because they make your
headsets compatible with different phone systems.
Check carefully to make sure the amp you want is truly universal.
Some vendors make amps specific to one phone system or another.
Ideally, the headset should move from phone to phone with no trou-
ble. Also, make sure you know how to adjust the amp yourself, with-

out relying on a technical person to set dip-switches and controls.

A significant development from ACS is a line of headsets compat-
ible with computer telephony boards and digital signal processors
used in CTI applications. The Voice Pilot, for use with "voice-navi-
gated applications," stresses sound clarity.
By the time this book reaches your hands, it's likely that the head-
set vendors will have rejiggered their product lines and changed fea-
tures somewhat. This happens all the time. Headsets are a mature
technology, with little fundamental change from year to year. What
changes are hidden features, like warranty length, durability, and
sometimes design.
As long as you buy based on comfort and durability you won't be
making a mistake.
HOW TO MAKE THEM LAST

• Clean the cushions and voice tubes regularly; these parts accumu-
late grime and dust.
• Start a program to educate your employees in good headset care.
They should know what it costs to replace and repair headsets.
They should be made responsible for their maintenance.
• Keep extras on hand — extra headsets and spare parts (if the
vendor makes them available). They are cheap enough to justify
the expense.
• If the headset uses eartips, use the proper size. Women should
start with Size 3, men with Size 4, and the eartip must fit into the
outer ear canal.
• If it uses earpads, make sure the cushion is centered over the
ear, that hair is out of the way and that the foam is in good condi-
tion. Replace it as soon as it becomes torn.
• If headset transmission drops over time, try cleaning the micro-
phone screen or voice tube. Sometimes they get clogged with debris.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
READERBOARDS ARE A
FEAST FOR THE EYES
Display boards — readerboards — are a stable, versatile technolo-
gy, and an inexpensive way to quickly improve call center performance.
Most of the talk you hear about managing your call center
employees focuses on agents — do they have enough say, control or
information. But do you ever think about the supervisors?
For quite a while, the case for readerboards has been that they put
useful data out there on the call center floor for agents to see it, where
they can use it to make better decisions about how to do their job.
It also helps supervisors, who are no longer chained to the ACD
stat terminal, who can get up and help people individually at their
desks, without fear that an alarm threshold will pop up as soon as
they walk away.
Supervisors spend less time playing catch up, more time doing
people-work than babysitting the numbers. Agents feel less like they're
being treated like children. Everyone likes their job better and
turnover goes down.
End of story? No, not when you realize that the possibilities in
readerboards are broader than you think. There's a lot you can do
with them, and a lot of ways to configure them. It's not just a matter
of throwing one up on the wall and watching data scroll by.
THE BENEFITS
There are five major benefits reaped by call centers with elec-
tronic displays.
1. Improved call statistics. Simply put, when people know what's
going on, they respond faster. If agents know how many calls are in
queue, or that an alarm threshold has been reached, they are less like-
ly to go on break at that moment. They are likely to speed through
post-call work, or put off optional assignments until the peak
smoothes out. The readerboard then has a hand in bettering the stats,
not just reporting them.
2. Enhanced supervisory time. Get the supervisor out from behind
a desk, and onto the floor where she can answer questions.
Readerboards, which usually work in tandem with an ACD stat ter-
minal sitting on or near the supervisor's desk, give managers flexibili-

READERBOARDS ARE A FEAST FOR THE EYES
ty. They have time to monitor more calls, improving call quality. They
can confer with agents about specific problems, or give better training
and guidance.
This is possible because they know, as they move around the cen-
ter, exactly what the ACD status is. With most models, they can pro-
gram the display board to show rotating groups of statistics (for dif-
ferent ACD splits, for example). Alarms can trigger bright colors,
audible tones or other special effects.
3. Improved morale. Agents know about problems as they are
happening -- not later, when they can't do anything about it.
Lowering turnover reduces training costs. It also improves service
by establishing a core of experienced reps.
4. Empowered workstaff. Agents feel like they are in control of
their job, their actions, and most important, that they control the
numbers (not the other way around).
According to one survey, service reps improved their self-manage-
ment by 17%. (And respondents were able to decrease staff levels 4%
due to greater efficiencies.)
5. Allows you to achieve other goals. Say you want to allocate
some agents to a part-time outbound program, for follow-up or post-
sale calls, for example. Without some kind of display, the supervisor
has to control when the agents flip between inbound and outbound.
But a call center readerboard gives agents the ability to know that
when calls are low, they can move over to outbound and make a few
calls. And when a surge of calls comes in, they see it and can flip back
to handle the queue. It takes a lot of the pressure off both the agent
and the supervisor.
WHAT'S OUT THERE
There are a lot of options for your display. You can choose from
models that deliver a variety of colors, sizes and lines of text. The soft-
ware that drives them is another key component — it has to be com-
patible with your existing networks. And it has to be able to read the
data pumped out by your switch.
You aren't even restricted to the standard lightboards that most
people think of when they think displays. Some vendors let you add
television monitors to your existing configuration.
One system, CC Broadcaster from Chadbourn Marcath (Chicago,
IL), uses TV monitors exclusively. Broadcaster, which can be run as a
standalone system, or as an add-on to Chadbourn's CC Advisor
reporting package, puts three stats up on a monitor: calls waiting, the
length of the longest waiting call, and the service factor. The bottom

READERBOARDS AREA FEAST FOR THE EYES
of the screen is available for scrolling informational messages.

You can display data on up to four queues, with all stats color-coded
to represent current conditions. (Each of the four queues also has a
unique color associated with it so you can tell which one is displaying.)
A LAN-based version of the software is also available. This lets
you send the stats and messages to a screen Window on any supervi-
sor PC on the network.
QuickCom is a Windows-based display system from Texas Digital
Systems (College Station, TX). Any authorized workstation on an
Ethernet or Token Ring network can transmit messages to the system
for display or broadcast.
QuickCom features a very wide variety of display board options,
including Micro MDU 16 and 32 character boards that are one inch
high. There are, of course, many larger boards as well as the option to
use VGA monitors and television sets. The system connects to major
ACDs (and ACD management software), and even lets you output
messages to a pager.
Digital-Fax, a system from Visual Electronics (Aurora, CO) lets
you display the information on your board in 15 different ways. Their
board displays the number of calls queuing, longest wait time, agents
available — all the usual data.
But what if you have something unique that you want to put up?
They point out that if the information you need can get to the super-
visor's console, they can convert that data and throw it up on the dis-
play boards.
Professional Resource Management (PRM, Palatine, IL) has a real-
ly interesting feature in their Alpha 4000 series boards. Anyone walking
around the call center can program messages into the boards using a
handheld remote control that works from within 30 feet of the display.
You can link 255 message centers, controlling them all with a sin-
gle PC and modems, all with optional software.
When you network Telecorp Products' (Walled Lake, MI) boards, you
have the ability to program messages to display either globally or locally.
And messages can be keyed to predefined thresholds or times of day.
One of their systems, Q-Watch, displays key stats without needing a
computer to drive it. You get the queue number, the length of the oldest
call, the number of calls in queue and the number of manned positions.
USING PCs INSTEAD
As useful as they are, displays are not always practical. You may be
in a center with high walls around agent stations. Or in an L-shaped
configuration where some people just can't see the readerboard.

READERBOARDS ARE A FEAST FOR THE EYES
Since the underlying technology — the software — is fluid, it real-

ly doesn't make much difference what form the output takes. Most of
the work involves pulling data out of the ACD and formatting it. The
lightboard is just one output method among several (it's the most pop-
ular and most useful for open call centers).
Stat-VU, Perimeter Technology's excellent ACD status product, is
a Centrex-based system that pushes information across a LAN to a
window on the agent desktop screen. It continuously updates, includes
color-coded thresholds, and works with any Windows 95 desktop PC
attached to a Stat-VU server.
Display vendor Symon, offers software that puts those stats on an
agent's PC screen in a desktop window. WinView is exactly like the
readerboard displays, and it can show up on any networked Windows
computer. The same server that gives data to the board gives it to the
PC. AgentView, from AAC (Irvine, CA) pops a screen of call center
statistics to the agent's and supervisor's desktops.
In each of these applications the agent has a tiny version of the
readerboard in the corner of his screen, complete with color-coded
thresholds and audible alarms.
HOW TO BUY SMART
Here's some advice on what to look for when shopping for a

readerboard or other display system:
• Audible alarm at a threshold you choose.
• Three-color LEDs that change color in response to thresholds
you set.
• A refresh rate (how fast the data is changed) that is fast enough
for your needs. (Some displays refresh data in 30 seconds. Some
call centers have high abandon rates at 30 seconds. The two
wouldn't work well together.)
• Displays that can be individually addressed and work in a network.
• Messages that are flexible. Can you change the header to say
"rep" instead of "agent" if you want?
• The ability to schedule messages, to save messages and call
them up later, and to have a message sent after a certain thresh-
old is reached.
Also, ask about installation. In some cases your telephone suppli-
er must install your readerboards.

CHAPTER TWELVE
HOW TO SAVE MONEY

WITH REFURBISHED
EQUIPMENT
Telecommunications equipment doesn't come cheap. In fact —
ACDs, predictive dialers, phone systems, even headsets — can be quite
expensive. There are alternatives.
The secondary market is a good place to start. Whether you're
replacing out-of-date or equipment or adding technology in search of
more advanced features, secondary dealers have the products you
need at the prices you want.
There's no stigma to using secondary equipment. Quite the con-
trary — it can be a handy cost-saving tool. You can find lots of top
quality equipment that's been reconditioned for a fraction of its
original price.
It used to be that if you had a problem with used equipment it was
just that — your problem. That's not the case anymore. Many dealers
offer a warranty. In fact, if you look around you'll find dealers so
proud of their refurbishing skills that they're offering longer-term war-
ranties on used than on new equipment. You should be able to get a
warranty of up to several years.
Most brokers are trying to get away from the image of the fast-
talking salesman. They know that you're looking to venture into a
long-term service-oriented relationship with a secondary broker.
The current bestsellers in the secondary market are voice pro-
cessing cards. Integrated voice processing has become commonplace.
The emergence of computer telephony applications is also affecting
the the secondary market.
Computer-integrated applications are causing users to get rid of
their existing closed architecture systems and take advantage of the
newer open systems. As the replacement rate increases, so does the
supply of used equipment.
If you're wary of committing to a new technology — especially
expensive ones like ACDs or predictive dialers — secondary sys-
tems let you test the waters. Small and mid-sized businesses can
especially benefit.
Start off with a good refurbished system. After a while, if you find

HOW TO SAVE MONEY WITH REFURBISHED EQUIPMENT
you need more options or greater capacity, trade it back in. Secondary
dealers will often gladly take back your old system and hook you up
with an upgrade.
DEFINING SECONDARY EQUIPMENT
Secondary equipment is used, but that doesn't make it old. In fact,

refurbishing the equipment means the "bugs" have already been
worked out and repaired. You almost never have to worry about get-
ting a "lemon."
You can define the various classes of secondary equipment this way:
New - In The Box: New, still in factory sealed cartons with all
OEM provided accessories and the standard new factory warranty.
New: New with all OEM provided accessories and standard new
factory warranty, removed from the factory sealed carton for tagging
or asseting and initial calibration; Not yet put into service.
Refurbished: Previously in service but has undergone a complete
refurbishment process to make "near new" with all OEM provided
accessories and the standard warranty. Cosmetics are "near new".
Demo: Received from the OEM with a new factory warranty and
essential accessories but previously used. Not put into commercial ser-
vice. Maintained by the factory or factory service center with good to
excellent cosmetics.
Used - Excellent: Has been in moderate service and is equal in
condition to Demo with essential accessories. Not put into commer-
cial service. Maintained by the factory or factory service center with
good to excellent cosmetics.
Used - Good: Has been in normal service with the electrical and
cosmetic condition equal to a rental. Delivered with some acces-
sories and a certain number of days "Right-Of-Refusal." The system
may include minimum warranty. Fully functional and calibratable
and has had some prior periodic calibrations performed. May
require some minor repair/replacements. Good cosmetics and some
expected defects.
Used - Fair: Has been in extended service with electrical and cos-
metic condition equal to the instrument's age and normal wear and
tear. Delivered with a certain number of days Right-of-Refusal. May
include some accessories. Will require repair/replacements, full cos-
metic refurbishment and re-calibration prior to being put in service.
As is: Condition is unknown. There will be no right of refusal nor
warranty offered. Major electrical repair and refurbishment is to be
expected. Complete accessory replenishment should be planned for.
Full re-calibration is the norm.

Refurbished equipment is cheaper than new. But don't compro-

mise quality and service for price. Don't use price as your only guide-
line. Take into consideration warranties and support policies.
The last thing you want is to be stuck with equipment that does-
n't work and is "non returnable, non refundable". Shop around,
weigh your options and remember — if a price seems to good to be
true, it probably is.
Here's a quick rundown of buying criteria:
1. Price. Secondary equipment usually costs 30 to 70% less than
new. Generally, the older the equipment, the greater the discount.
HOWEVER. In the application-rich call center market, it's harder
to get things cheap. Call centers are looking for the latest technology
and whiz-bang features. These are a lot harder to find on the sec-
ondary market. When you do find them, you'll find the price is per-
haps only 5% to 10% less than the list price. For a particularly new
and popular system, you might even pay list.
Call center people find the system they want through the manu-
facturer, then call him to see if they can get it for less. These shoppers
are often disappointed with the discount they get — if they can get the
system at all in the secondary market.
2. Options. Many remarketers will lease or rent equipment. They
will also assist in acquiring financing through third-party leasing com-
panies or from the original equipment manufacturer.
3. Quality. Refurbished equipment is known for reliability. Some
say it's because it "stood the test of time" or that the equipment has
already endured the usage that identifies faulty circuits.
4. Service and Warranty. Warranties should parallel those for new
products. Many remarketers have increased their warranties from 90
days to one year.
Select remarketers offer either their own installation and service
contract or they sanction other companies to do it. Then there's the
option of having installation and service performed by the original
equipment manufacturer.
5. Availability. Remarketers focus heavily on the resale of parts so
they should provide ready availability and fast delivery on equipment.
Many customers purchase parts to upgrade or add to their existing
system — in fact, that's what makes up the majority of sales.
And for those who can't wait weeks for delivery from the manu-
facturer of a complete system, or a critical part, the secondary market
might be the only choice. Secondary vendors go out of their way to
make sure they do have the part you need in stock. Some track the
average rate of failure for various components and stock their shelves
according to the forecasted needs of their customers.

6. Inventory management. More and more of the market for

secondary systems is coming from companies that don't want to
keep their own telecom inventory. Parts are now the lifeblood of the
secondary market.
One secondary marketer puts a serial barcode on each item, so its
history is always known. Anyone who has found a shelf-load of dusty
circuit cards in the telephone closet knows the benefit of good label-
ing and a database of inventory information.
HOW TO CHOOSE A VENDOR
• Look for an established company. The main thing, our sources say,
is stability as demonstrated by the number of years the company has
already been in business.
• Assess their knowledge of the market. A reputable secondary vendor
will use the same consultive selling tactics used by a new-product vendor.
"Look for a willingness in the company's representative to learn what
business you are in," says Delgado. "If they are just quoting a price,
and not asking about your company and how a particular system can
help you, you are already heading down the wrong path."
• Evaluate their ability to support the product after the sale. Our sources
felt having technicians on staff was a good way to determine this ability.
It's probably a good idea to check out the proficiency of those techni-
cians. Are they certified or authorized by the manufacturer? Do they
receive regular training? Are their other customers happy?
What about a warranty? A warranty is no guarantee. Assurances are
only as good as the reputation of the people that offer them.

DEALING WITH THE MANUFACTURERS
Manufacturers' policies on selling used equipment vary great-

ly. Some forbid it. Some abhor it. Some are in the business them-
selves. Even if you don't buy from the manufacturer, it's a good
idea to check out their policies on used equipment — especially if
you want a manufacturer service contract or guarantee.
The other big issue, according to our secondary vendor
sources, is software. There's not much a manufacturer can do
about the sale of used hardware, but they can be pretty tight-fist-
ed when it comes to software upgrades.
You might get a great bargain on an IVR system, for example,
and then wind up spending $50,000 for a software upgrade.
Similarly, if you want your system serviced by the manufactur-
er, they will sometimes require that you have the latest software
release for that system. Paying for the upgrade might eat away
your original savings.
A SECONDARY MARKET TRADE ASSOCIATION
Sometimes referred to as the "Better Business Bureau" of

the secondary industry, the NATD (National Association of
Telecommunications Dealers) sets industry standards. If you
have a question, problem, or concern about a dealer, call them
at 201-444-8946.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHOOSING WORKFORCE
MANAGEMENT
SOFTWARE
Your ACD is probably spitting out tons of valuable information
about how your call center is running. Are you taking advantage of
that data?
If you're not using call center management software to get a han-
dle on the current and historical activity in your center, you're missing
an opportunity. These software packages are invaluable resources —
not only for analyzing the past, but for managing the present.
Use them for forecasting call loads, scheduling agents, or alerting
supervisors to exceeded thresholds. If you do, you'll see tremendous
benefits. Here are some of the advantages of using ACD software, and
some things to look for when buying.
• More efficient staffing. You can project the call load for a given day
from historical data. You'll know on that day how many calls you
expect, what hours they tend to come in, and how many people you'll
need on hand to answer them. That removes a lot of the guesswork in
creating schedules.
You'll be able to gauge busy and slow times. If you know things
get crazy around the holiday season, you can look at how your call
center management software told you to staff last year.
Most programs are color coded so when service levels are not met or
other user-defined thresholds are exceeded, displays in the system change
color. Green may mean all is okay, but a switch to yellow may mean too
many callers are holding for too long. Or maybe too many calls are in
queue. Red usually means you're not meeting service levels. Parts of the
screen may flash or sound an alarm when at or close to the red zone.
Based on these indicators you can take action quickly. See who's
on ACD calls (or non-ACD calls), which agents are ready for calls,
which are on break or lunch, and which are logged out.
Since you'll know what times are likely to be busy and slow, you'll
know how to schedule for things like meetings, training, breaks,
lunches and vacations without affecting service levels.
Cybernetics' (Coral Gables, FL) EMPS basic system gives you sev-
eral features without having to add additional modules. Through an

CHOOSING WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
ACD interface the system collects ACD data and stores it. It estimates
future call volume and the number of employees you'll need. Then it
generates schedules.
It prevents a situation where too few people are on hand and
callers have to wait on hold. The result: better quality of service,
reduced stress on agents.
Many programs allow you to micro-manage the agents' status. You
can be more flexible in creating custom work schedules for people with
special needs — students with classes, parents with children, older people.
You can give your agents printouts from the software so they can
plan their day. They'll have call volume projections for various times
of the day. When phone lines heat up, you can add more agents, but
when things are slow you can distribute other tasks among agents.
Have them make outbound calls, or return calls if you have a system
that lets callers leave messages.
Sometimes projections, no matter how good, need adjustments.
Employees could call in sick, leaving you shorthanded. Or calls could
suddenly jump for some unforeseen reason. For example, the
TeleCenter System from TCS Management Group (Nashville, TN)
continually updates the call volume forecasts within a single day, on a
half-hourly basis.
That lets you know mid-morning, say, if you are going to need to
add agents in the afternoon.
• Give supervisors immediate information. Software that reads data off
the ACD (usually using a serial port directly from the switch to the com-
puter running the management software) shows the supervisor a wealth
of detail. How many people are holding? What's the longest hold time?
Where are the agents assigned, and how many of them are idle?
Much of this data is presented in real time, in a graphical, colored
form that's easy to see at a glance. Also, you can pump select portions
of it to a larger screen in the call center for agents to see. That'll let
them respond to problems quicker.
With Telecorp's (Walled Lake, MI) Agent Window, for example,
supervisors see clearly the status of each agent, elapsed time of their
present task, and totals for the group. All is shown in colored win-
dows to make important details stand out.
The software you choose should make it easier to categorize
information. Your real-time screens should be clear and not cluttered,
so you can focus on abnormal conditions and problems and not have
to search. This is important because chances are you'll want to glance
at the screen often.
• Detailed reports keep management and reps alert. You get more than
a global picture — good software gives you reports on agents and agent

groups. Compare agent performance and set goals for progress. For
example, you'll see clearly if someone needs more training by compar-
ing their time spent on calls with other agents handling similar calls.
Management gets a picture of the service quality in the call center
from data on average speed of answer, call handling time, and the
number of calls abandoned.
Reports should be designed for business people, not engineers.
That means presenting the ACD data in a usable form, not just pump-
ing it out into raw tables.
A good call center management system should track historical
information for up to a couple of years. But rather than having to look
back to view statistical information, you should be able to get
detailed, concise reports.
Agent activity reports should give you information like the num-
ber of calls, times they came in, the call length and type. There should
also be reports that show log-in and log-out times so you can keep
track of when agents come in, leave and take breaks.
Most of today's software has good looking real-time display
screens, and good graphical reporting. You can schedule the software
to print out reports on-demand or at time intervals you specify. The
reports should let you compare actual performance and call condi-
tions with what your goals were. You'll want to share these reports for
management evaluation.
For small call centers (up to 30 agents and 85,000 calls a month)
Chadbourn's CC Analyzer offers a Quick Stat feature so you can get
reports displayed at any workstation instantly or print them on the fly.
The reports let you compare agent productivity with expected perfor-
mance goals.
• Learn why you're not meeting service levels. At the end of the day
you can look at reports. You may have had more abandons than
usual. Or maybe between noon and 1 p.m. you were unusually bom-
barded with calls.
The software will indicate if someone took a break too early, came
in late for their shift or took too long a lunch. You'll get individual agent
statistics and know when and for how long each agent is logged out.
Chadbourn Marcath's (Chicago, IL) CC Advisor, part of their Call
Center Solutions, alerts you to potential problems by highlighting
them, so you can respond quickly.
Their CC Link gives you CTI capabilities. It can send agents cus-
tomer records automatically over your LAN, before a call is answered.
"We work in a 100-seat or smaller call center for this capability," says
Chadbourn Marcath's Elizabeth Eugenio. "It gives a smaller center the
same CTI functionality found in larger centers."

OUTBOUND
Traditionally, outbound call center systems have taken a com-

pletely different approach to management. There's no guessing when
calls might come in. Things go more or less as you plan them to.
Expect this to change in the near future. Already predictive
dialer companies (like EIS, Melita and Davox, in particular) are
making a commitment to provide tools to manage all the tech-
nologies in an integrated call center.
One tool of special note: Centenium's optional, Windows-based
EIS Guru (Graphical User Real-time Utility), which lets you monitor
call center dynamics including agent and campaign productivity. EIS
Insight gives you what you need to prepare custom reports.
Professional Resource Management's (PRM, Palatine, IL) Agent

Power has five separate modules. The Planning/Scheduling module
takes into account part and full time agents, breaks and preferences
based on when agents want to work.
The system then gives you a daily printout of every agent sched-
uled to work — comparing your calculations to anticipated call vol-
ume. Then, it advises you of staffing shortages and surpluses.
• Set up incentive programs. Management software gives you the tools
to single out successful performance. Readerboards let you congratu-
late an agent, or a whole call center on a superb job done. (There's
nothing like a public pat on the back for motivation.)
• Reduce costs. You won't pay overtime for people you don't need.
You'll be able to justify hiring more people to handle calls when man-
agement can see for themselves the number of agents needed to keep
up with service levels.
Pipkins' (St. Louis, MO) Merlang (for "Modified Erlang") equation
model takes busy signals and abandonments into consideration when
calculating the number of agents and trunks necessary to meet your ser-
vice levels. The formulations are devised from the data you plug in.
Using the Merlang Call Center Consultant Profits feature you can
determine a profit level that coincides with your service standards.
Things like hourly wages, expected profit per call and long distance
charges can be used to help determine the right number of agents.
Workforce Planner is Cybernetics budgeting and planning module.
It takes the guesswork out of planning a budget for quality service.
The system allows you to see how revenue would be affected for a
change in staffing and service. It takes into account new people hired,
overtime, agent salaries, cost per call and lost call costs.

• Multi-center coordination. Some software packages let supervisors

remotely supervise another site. If you have multiple centers you should
look for software that lets supervisors in one center see real-time stats
in other locations. If you're only supervising one center all managers
should be able to get the same information from one database.
You shouldn't have to duplicate databases. One software package
should let each user log on through a LAN. It's actually more cost effi-
cient because if you don't have this capability, you'll need to purchase
several pieces of software.
Symonview from Symon (Stafford, TX) is software you view on
37" VGA monitors. You can display selected stats in multiple centers.
Even if you have different ACDs and platforms at each location, the
system lets you monitor statistics for each remote ACD on one screen.
The software has a built in monitoring system. It can report prob-
lems with a mainframe so a CSR will know why they're getting
delayed response time if they are trying to get a customer file from the
database, for example. The system can be programmed to display
instructions to agents for getting the information an alternate way.
Every ten seconds the system updates real-time stats. You can cus-
tomize the system to sound an alarm or change the colors of messages
when exceeding certain thresholds.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Here are the most important things you should look out for
when buying workforce management systems:
• Software that managers can fine tune. It should give them more
control over what they view. They should be able to drill down to
look at more in-depth information. They should be able to attach
revenue figures so they can see if money is going down the drain
or if service levels are not being met.
• Targeted reports with summaries. You want to be able to seg-
ment agents into work groups based on similar salary levels and
other attributes so you can compare how each agent is performing
relative to others in the work group. It's not 20 to 100 reports that
managers are looking for. They want a finite number of good qual-
ity reports that they can customize rather than reports they have
to create on their own.
• Software you can run on a LAN. Most of the vendors we talked
to see multi-user access as an important feature so all managers
can retrieve the same data from one database.

QUICK TIP: USE READERBOARDS TO SPREAD THE DATA
Some centers have supervisors and managers walk around

and tell agents the general status of queues and wait times. When
things get bad they run around and yell at agents.
Using readerboards to pass supervisor statistics on to agents
increases productivity. It gives agents a chance to monitor them-
selves and decide when it may be okay to log out for breaks and
lunch. And it gives supervisors freedom to move about the center,
giving individualized assistance.
Thresholds can be assigned and ACD statistics will turn colors
(like yellow or red) to show critical conditions are sound a tone to
attract agents' attention to the display. No yelling.
These electronic display systems free supervisor for other
work and let agents manage themselves. Companies that use
these systems find that not only does their customer service
improve, but their agents' morale improves too.
• Give agents a way to see what call volume is like. Responsible agents
don't need you to tap them on the back to say it's okay to go on break,
or tell them they need to wait. If they can see call statistics, they can
monitor themselves.
If more than four calls are in queue, for example, a flashing
readerboard indicates that they should avoid leaving their desks until
the callers are taken care of. This is where electronic displays come in.
• See what the switch vendors have to offer. They are rapidly adding
management software to their suites of offerings. Teknekron
Infoswitch's (Ft. Worth, TX) Orchestra includes a module called
AgentStats. It shows the agents' individual productivity statistics, and
compares performance with supervisor-set targets.
Northern Telecom's (Research Triangle Park, NC) Call Center MIS
manages up to 2,000 agents on Meridian ACDs and PBXs. It provides
built-in and custom reporting on present and historical ACD activity.
• Enhance the ability to perform call center simulations. When you make
projections about call load and staffing, you are assuming a certain level
of service. Changes to the projections lead to changes in service level.
Look for software that allows you to play with different scenarios.
An interesting call center modeling tool is callLab, an ACD simu-
lator from Bard Technologies (Bedford, NY). It doesn't generate
schedules or manage actual agents. It simulates the actual operation of
a call center for analysis purposes.

It shows you the service level implications of any changing cir-

cumstance you think of, taking into account multiple centers, voice
response systems, complex routing and overflow patterns.
You may want to see what would happen if you took away two
agents on certain days of the week. Would abandonment rates go up?
How high? How much longer would callers wait in queue?
You may notice you get bombarded with calls on Mondays at 10 a.m.
You may want to see how many callers would leave messages if agents are
not available. You may want to let some calls go into a VRU system.
The system tells you what the average speed of answer and the
number of abandons would be if you overflow calls between existing
centers; if call volume exceeds what's expected; or if you'll need to add
trunks if you decide to expand.
With most software you need to actually wait until the first day of
making a change before you can see what will happen. You won't
know in advance. If you want get a scenario ahead of time, a call cen-
ter simulator tool is a good idea.
This is increasingly important when you use skills-based schemes
to route incoming calls. Predictive models based on traditional
EVEN MORE INFORMATION
There's no doubt that all the products we've discussed will

lead to more organized center, but what if you could get even more
detailed information about callers and their calls? What if you
could know who agents were talking to all the time, and why these
callers called? No, you wouldn't be psychic, but certainly well
informed and better equipped to make changes.
Outlook from The Info Group (Framingham, MA) does this. It
uses CTI link information and VRU data to provide call details from
the time the call arrives to the ACD until it's disconnected.
It will tell you time spent at non-ACD extensions, time spent in
VRUs and time spent in queue. Instead of just knowing the num-
ber of calls received it also gives you caller names and the specif-
ic agent or VRU path the caller reached.
Such information lets you learn who abandoned a call and get
insight into why they may have abandoned. If there's no data from your
VRU for a particular call you can see what selections the customer
made. This can help you in evaluating the effectiveness of your scripts.
Another twist to traditional management software is sharing sta-
tistics with your agents. If you can inform agents when thresholds are
exceeded they can respond accordingly before service levels drop.

Erlang algorithms don't work in skills-based environments. That's

because Erlang assumes randomness in call delivery. Skill routing is
exactly the opposite — you know a lot about the call. This is an
ongoing problem (getting worse as front-end systems for ACDs
grow ever more popular). Many, if not all, call center management
software vendors are struggling with it. Right now, simulators are
the only way around it.
SIMULATE CONDITIONS
Do you ever wonder what would happen if you let two agents go
on vacation at once? Or if you added a part-time agent for a few
hours on Mondays? Or what would happen if call volume increased?
Using software to create these what-if scenarios lets you know
how high abandons will shoot up and how long callers will be likely
to wait in queue. Find out the effects before you make the changes.
TotalNet Visualizer from IEX (Richardson, TX) lets you simulate
operations and measure the effectiveness of network routing using
actual operating history or your projections. You can execute multiple
what-if scenarios in minutes. Graphical data displays plot key statistics
so you can evaluate alternatives and change operating parameters.
TotalView's Vacation and Holiday Planner is an optional feature
to their workforce management system. It takes into account
seniority rules or open bidding when planning vacation schedules.
It eliminates manual big logs and allows employees to enter
requests for vacation days. TotalView is compatible with all leading
ACDs. The system includes a local or remote server that links to
one or multiple ACDs and up to hundreds of workstations.
Call Center Designer from Portage Communications (Seattle,
WA) uses versions of Erlang C and Erlang B probability algorithms
for staffing and trunking calculations. It gives you other predictions
too. You can plot in what-if scenarios to see the effects of any
changes, then adjust call volumes, lengths and service levels.
Relatively new from TCS (Nashville, TN) is their Skill-Based
Routing Simulator which imitates call center operations on a call-
by-call basis for a single day or part of a day, to predict the service
levels calls will receive. It allows you to test different call routing
rules and skill assignments based on the workload forecast it's
fed and TCS schedule information.
The system helps to maximize the effectiveness of ACD skill-
based routing capabilities. The what-if simulation allows testing of
ACD routing rules, various pool assignments and agent schedules.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
TELEMARKETING
SOFTWARE: IT'S NOT
JUST FOR SCRIPTING
ANYMORE
Telemarketing software is a major investment, but the amount of
money saved through increased employee productivity allows the sys-
tem to pay for itself — usually within the first six months of use.
No matter the size of your call center or the level of automation, the
right telemarketing software can add productivity to your operations.
Customers get better, more personalized and faster service when your reps
use telemarketing software. Your agents have everything at their finger-
tips. They have time to make more calls. It makes follow-up much easier.
This software keeps contact lists, fulfilment information and buy-
ing history. It runs scripts and campaigns. With most packages, all
information can be retrieved and updated by any of your reps.
This means customers get the same service each time they call,
regardless of what agent they talk to.
In the last year, this software niche broadened. Vendors are
enhancing their products, bringing their data- and call-handling abili-
ties out of the call center and into the rest of the organization.
Most of systems are now concentrating on taking the data out of
the call center — allowing managers to track customer information
"enterprise-wide."
Here are some of the things you should think about when consid-
ering what kind to buy.
1. Telephone-computer links. Some software takes advantage of a
new openness in hardware. A customer's call is linked to the data
about the customer from your computer database. The agent has
access to both halves of the call and when he transfers the call, both
the voice and data travel together.
You may already use industry-specific software or a custom
order entry system. The right telemarketing package will let you
add the call center automation features you need, without sacrific-
ing the existing platform.

TELEMARKETING SOFTWARE: IT'S NOT JUST FOR SCRIPTING ANYMORE
2. Scripts. One of the best ways to break in a new sales agent is

with a script. You can create scripts for different telemarketing activ-
ities like sales, follow-up or customer service.
Then, agents who move from one group to another (or cover for
another group on short notice) a way to handle calls without sinking.
Software makes creating scripts a matter of flow-charting the answers
to various questions. The screen shows the rep a question to ask and
the keys to hit for various answers.
TeleScript from Digisoft (New York, NY) includes branching
scripts with multiple responses allowed. Users can restrict fields to cer-
tain types of responses. Their scripts can also incorporate branches
based on calculations.
A similar feature is the automatic wrap-up. Marketrieve Plus, a
product from Marketrieve (Londonderry, NH), lets you include a
mandatory wrap-up screen with questions the rep must answer before
moving on, like call results. It simplifies data collection and makes
your end-of-day reports more consistent.
3. List management. Telemarketing software's other defining
function is the ability to create a calling list from information in
your database.
Use telemarketing software to clean your existing calling lists.
Some programs are able to merge/purge out useless names. Or you can
run the lists against larger databases to flesh out missing information.
At the very least, a good telemarketing program ought to perform
day-to-day maintenance of the company's in-house lists: customers,
leads, sales, fulfillment. This goes hand in hand with a program's
database features.
4. Sales pipeline analysis. One of telemarketing software's most
important features is the ability to give management instant feedback.
How many calls turn into sales? What is the return on investment in
the call center?
Managers want to see how these programs are working to pro-
duce sales, so they can correct scripts or change the segmentation of
lists. The software you choose should let you analyze how much time
and money each account costs at each stage of the selling process.
That helps the call center focus on revenue generated from each sale,
rather than just on the number of calls made or contacts reached.
5. Ability to handle inbound calls, outbound calls or both. You
may want to run simultaneous campaigns. Or feed the results of
inbound-generated leads into an outbound calling cycle. If your soft-
ware doesn't have this capability, it doesn't have much. At the very
least, you should be able to switch reps between handling inbound
calls and making outbound calls, and you should be able to see —

instantly — all queues, surveys and scripts tied to campaigns.

6. Database compatibility and maneuverability. Even if you are
just beginning automation, finding software that works with a num-
ber of database formats is vital for sharing information with other
departments, other companies, even for importing list information.
And while you hope it never happens, if your vendor goes out of
business, or if you decide to switch systems, you don't want to lose
your investment in your database too.
For example, Database Systems' Telemation has a subsystem,
called Transport, that assures data from other computer sources, such
as outside mailing or calling lists, can be imported into and exported
from the Telemation system.
Transport lets you take data from your Telemation files and trans-
fer them to a different system. These data can be changed through cus-
tom subroutines that are executed before each output record is writ-
ten. Up to ten output files can be updated from an input file.
You get to chose which files are updated with the imported
data. The system maps fields and converts data types automatical-
ly during processing.
THE NEW COMPONENT-BASED ARCHITECTURE
Versatility's introduction this year of the 3.0 release of their signa-

ture CIS software Telesales/Teleservice) marks a new direction for the
company, and probably for the field of call center software development.
The product is feature-rich, with new CT integrations (screen
pop, voice/data sync, etc.), OLE automation support, enhanced
screen customization and full 32-bit Win 95 and NT compatibility.
But the most significant change is the way the system is built at
its core: as a series of linked but independent components.
The component-based architecture is like object development
taken to the next level. Componentization allows a developer to
break the program apart into (relatively) tiny parts: the interface
would be one, the workflow another, and so on back down the line.
In Versatility's banking example (banking is a strong vertical for
them), the application for processing a stop-check order is its own
component, and that in turn integrates with the data source and
the host interaction systems.
Technically, component-based systems are easier to upgrade
and deploy than non-component systems. Ideally, if developers
wanted to change a feature, they would have to code and test only

the one component that contained that feature. If the process for
stopping a check changed, for example, only the stop-check app
would need to be fixed. Every other component stays the same —
no more extensive compiling, testing, reinstalling the entire sys-
tem at the customer site.
On top of that, componentization allows for more flexibility at the
end-user. Individual Telesales/Teleservice users can be equipped
with different front-end GUIs — because the GUI is simply a small
component of the whole, creating separate front-ends takes far less
time than creating different versions of the program. Everything
behind the GUI is the same no matter who is using the system.
Componentization also gives developers the ability to create
very customized applications that work off of a common system. A
customer can come to a developer and ask for something very spe-
cific to their business process — and the developer can say yes,
and deliver it with a quick turnaround. That's because the rest of
the system remains untouched.
In Versatility's case, components are created for functional
things like order fulfillment, different kinds of data retrieval and
display, or creating quotes. It's made possible by Microsoft's
Component Object Model (COM) and Distributed Component
Object Model (DCOM) and ActiveX technology.
According to Versatility's Marcus Heth, creating a component-
based system is difficult in the first iteration — an existing pro-
gram needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. It took more than two
years to revamp Telesales. Other vendors are reported to be close
behind in componentizing.
Versatility's software began life as an outbound-based tele-
marketing management system, including such features as cam-
paign management, and outbound dialing. It's far more advanced
now, but what it retains is its customer transaction focus.
With all the attention paid to call center/enterprise integration,
perhaps the move to component architecture will let companies
integrate their processes more tightly without losing sight of the
importance of the customer interaction.

MONITORING
Telemarketing software can serve as a monitoring tool. Good

reports can tell you a lot about rep activity: the number of calls, the
time spent on each call, the outcomes of the call. If the rep follows
a script you can see how customers responded to each question.
What it won't tell you is how the rep might have asked these
questions. Whether he or she was reading (sounding unnatural), or
speaking too fast. You also won't know what else might have hap-
pened during each call. But there are tools you can use to monitor
rep activity without actually standing over reps shoulders.
For example, Teknekron Infoswitch's (Fort Worth, TX)
AutoQuality! lets you automatically schedule when you want to
record rep conversations. Recordings are played back using a
touchtone phone. You can capture the best examples to play back
during training. P&Q Review!, also from Teknekron, uses your per-
formance criteria but ensures that all agents are evaluated against
the same criteria for fairness and objectivity.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD CALL?
Here are some of the elements of a successful call — tips

for what reps should and shouldn't do.
DO:
• Relax and clear your mind before you start.
• Convey your message in an orderly flow of information and per-
suasion.
• Practice your presentation out loud until enthusiasm can be
heard in every line.
• Know your products and services.
• Ask for the order.
DON'T:
• Adapt your presentation from an advertising campaign.
• Wing it.
• Inflect your personal opinion.
• Wander off on unrelated subjects.
• Mumble, hesitate, sigh, or use words like "um," "gee," "like,"
and "you know."

CHOOSING HELP DESK/CUSTOMER SERVICE SOFTWARE
SOFTWARE PLUS DIALING
If you're in the market for a predictive dialer, keep in mind that

you can get some good software with the dialing engine. The dialing
companies don't just make high-powered hardware. Many dialers
are now PC-based and come with snazzy telemarketing software.
You can look to Ontario System's (Muncie, IN) Onyx or EIS'
(Stamford, CT) Centenium to see some major breakthroughs.
And Davox, (Westford, MA) a traditional predictive dialer manu-
facturer, has branched out and now offers the Unison system
which offers features like branch scripting, the ability to make
changes to campaigns in progress, a report writer and Enhanced
Recall Queuing. This feature lets reps remain available for calls on
completed campaigns while working on new campaigns.
The Centenium system from EIS (Stamford, CT), a power-
house predictive dialer manufacturer, is billed as a complete
call center software solution. The solution includes not one, but
two sophisticated scripting packages: EIS ScriptVision and
Advanced Scripting.
EIS ScriptVison is for PC workstations. It uses pop-up menus
and buttons, and its branching scripts can be enhanced with graph-
ics and sound. It also lets you automate on-line or post-call
processes such as skip tracing and fulfillment.
Advanced Scripting is for computer terminals. Agents use logic
fields to move through the script. Pop-up windows give the agent
needed information or an extra place to enter data. Creating
scripts for the system is easy with a script-writing utility that lets
you see what you are creating while you are creating it.
Digital Systems' (Redmond, WA) Mosaix Solutions includes the
"Acquisition, Retention and Enhancement System," better knows
as ARES. This client/server software provides a graphical inter-
face for script development. The scripts, not surprisingly, interact
with the Mosaix call management system.

DATABASE ACCESS
Customers get optimum service from any one of your reps

when they're all able to retrieve the same information from a local
area network. When did the customer order last? How did the last
rep make the sale? What else is the customer interested in?
Telemarketing systems should provide on-line histories to all reps
from the mainframe.
You can call customers who've bought before and resell them.
("Mr. Johnson, I see your one-year supply of paper towels is almost
up. May I send you some more?") The system shows the reps what
specific pitch made a customer buy in the past.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHOOSING HELP
DESK/CUSTOMER
SERVICE SOFTWARE
Your help desk is one of the key points of contact between you and
your customers. It is the place where the customer may decide whether
to do business with you again.
That's why it's important to provide the best, most efficient auto-
mated service you can.
It doesn't matter what kind of service you provide — if you've got
customers, central help desks make sense. It doesn't matter what
industry you're in. Whether your customers are internal or external,
help desks have shown they can deliver faster service, quicker answers,
and better follow-up.
Help desks take advantage of all the latest call center technolo-
gies — more than a third use ACDs to route calls to agents. Half use
voice mail. And most are either using or planning to use problem
management software.
At the most effective help desks, callers are tracked from the first
moment they call in. Call management software systems retrieve infor-
mation about who the caller is, and what kind of equipment he or she
uses. Has the person called before? What problems have they encoun-
tered? It's all there, right at the agent's fingertips.
So are the answers to many of the caller's problems. First line sup-
port people have access to knowledge bases of solutions to common
questions. That saves time: the length of the call is shorter. It also saves
money: expert technical support reps (who cost a lot more than first
line reps) only handle the really sticky problems.
Clearly there are benefits to automated customer support:
1. Gather information about how people are using your products.
That way, you can identify future avenues for marketing new prod-
ucts, and at the same time prevent production problems.
2. Maintain accurate inventory records (for internal help desks).
Today's software is better than ever at tracking what people have, and
especially what combinations of equipment they use. Knowing how a
caller's computer is configured, including what software they use, dra-
matically speeds the call.

3. Analyze what kinds of calls you receive. Management sees what

products need redesign, or which customers need training.
The most effective help desks are the ones that combine ele-
ments of all these technologies in ways that reflect their own unique
industry and customer base. The best way to make your center into
a well-oiled service machine is to learn from those who've already
blazed that trail.
Help desk products range from simple software that tracks calls to
complex problem-resolution engines. Some of the ways they can be used:
• To collect information on how products are used, either for pre-
venting production problems or identifying future customer needs.
• To identify areas where end-users may need more training.
• To analyze the types of calls that come in. Management can see what
the common questions are and prepare standard answers to help those
people quickly.
• To rapidly search a database for information about that particular
VIEW CUSTOMER SUPPORT AS PART OF THE PRODUCT
A. k.
Customer
Satisfaction
The Old Product Paradigm The New Product Paradigm
• Service is an afterthought • Service is an integral part

• The service provided of the product bundle
is reactive • Service differentiates
• Service is viewed as damage the product
control: can never improve • Quality of service can
the product improve the product
While service was once just an afterthought, call centers realize the importance of
giving customer support an instrumental part in the entire development process.

AT YOUR SERVICE
CUSTOMER
• REQUEST MORE INFORMATION
• ENLISST HELP WITH SUB-CASES
• TRACK COMMITMENTS
• CREATE NEW SOLUTION FOR
FUTURE REFERENCE
RESEARCH
PHONE INTERNET E-MAIL
KNOWN SOLUTION
• OPEN CASE
• ID CALLER
• REVIEW ACCOUNT HISTORY
• VERIFY CONTRACT
• CHECK CONFIGURATION
• LOG PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
• LOOK FOR KNOWN SOLUTION
FIND SOLUTION
DISPATCH FIELD ENGINEER

ONSITE • TRACK TIME AND EXPENSE
VISIT
FULFILL PART REQUEST

PART • MANAGE SERVICED INVENTORY
NEEDED • UPDATE CUSTOMER CONFIGURATION
LOG/LOCATE
DEFECT CHANGE REQUEST
• ASSIGN
• FIX
• TEST
• UNTEGRATE REMOTE FIX PROVIDE IMMEDIATE SOLUTION/
WORKAROUND
CLOSE CASE(
PRIORITIZE
BASED ON
CUSTOMER
INPUT
A complete help desk software system automates all aspects of customer ser-
vice, as this chart from Clarify shows. Functions include problem management,
problem resolution, dispatch and management reports.

customer. The rep sees what kind of equipment that person has and
any previous questions he's had.
• For internal help desks, to maintain accurate inventory records.
• To quickly give callers the most up-to-date information on how to
solve their problems. They do this by combining the expertise of many
technical people into a form that the rep can easily access.
What combination of uses and features you need will depend on
the size of your help desk and the nature of the products you need
to support.
Systems generally fall into three broad categories: advisory tools,
retrieval tools, and hybrids.
ADVISORY TOOLS
Advisory tools basically tell you what to do. It's something that
asks you what product you have, and leads you through a problem
and tells you the solution.
Key to getting the solution is the knowledge base which can be any
collection of knowledge about a particular subject. It can be trou-
bleshooting strategies, or descriptions of how a device works.
You get the information out using simple scripts called decision
trees, or more complex ones called expert systems. A decision tree is
like a flow chart — if a certain condition is met, then one answer is
found; if not, you get another.
Expert systems (or knowledge systems, as they are sometimes called)
are more complex. The best way to think of them are as rules-based sys-
tems. If the power light isn't on, then it is not plugged in. You have if-
then rules that aren't connected in any predictive processing path.
They are unconnected, like islands of knowledge. The way they
get connected is with an inference engine. If you have 1,000 rules, and
someone posts a goal, the engine knows that there are five rules that
can help here, and it weeds them down. Based on what information is
fed into the system, different rules fire.
The advantage to this kind of system is that it allows virtually any-
one to provide first-line help to a caller. No expert interpretation is
expected or needed from the rep. That can be a downside, too, for
more complex problems that need technical support. Also, someone
must maintain the knowledge base on an on-going basis.
RETRIEVAL TOOLS
Retrieval tools bring up useful information and leave it up to the

end user to interpret. "It requires more skill to use," Pepper says.

There are three major retrieval methods in these help desk proucts:
• Text search and retrieval. This is the simplest: type in some words,
and the system finds instances of those words in a document. "The
problem is that it may retrieve too much — you may learn 50 differ-
ent reasons why a PC won't boot.
Some products have a 'bubble up', where the most recent or most
frequently used solutions come to the surface. Another approach is to
give people ways to prune the list by putting more constraints on it.
• Hypertext. This is not really a retrieval process so much as a way for
the user to root around in a large pile of information. Concepts and
phrases are linked together. It's used by skilled people who need to
find something in a technical manual, for example. It is not very good
for first-level technical support. But it can be combined with other
methods of retrieval.
• Case-based reasoning. In this method, the software searches for an
answer based on the content of a case,rather than a keyword. It needs
more sophisticated indexing and software to match up the problem
with the solution. The one big advantage: it learns from experience.
In a case-based system, the knowledge is contained in an external
database maintained externally. If the first level of support comes
across a problem he's never seen, he can filter it past a more technical
person, then input the case into the database so that it is accessible
next time.
Entering the new case is a matter of data entry, rather than repro-
gramming, as it would be with an expert system. Using a "learning"
case system can save you the cost of creating the thousands of rules
you'd need for an expert system.
A knowledge system might lend itself to a help desk where there is
a high level of attrition or low skill, where they need that interaction.
Case-based lends itself to a more mature help desk.
PROBLEM MANAGEMENT
Of course, there is more to the help desk than finding solutions.

Systems allow you to log in a call, track that call, and collect and put
in a repository all the information generated.
The networking component is important. You can disseminate
information outside of the customer service group, to groups like
sales, product management, or administrative.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
1. Adaptability, flexibility, and customizability.

WHAT TO AVOID
• Don't trust a vendor who won't customize.

• Don't let customers use you as a crutch. Provide adequate training,
or a voice response unit as a front-end to answer routine questions.
• Ask the right questions of your vendors. Make sure the fea-
tures you request are features you actually need (or might need
in the future) — and that those features really work the way you
want them to.
It's not enough just to ask a vendor if his product is "web-
enabled," for example. Many will say yes and leave it at that, not
explaining that there are many ways to web-enable a help desk.
Purchasers should be careful not to simply go down a checklist of
"wants" without knowing how they want the vendors to approach
those wants.
It's important that you be able to change the look and structure of
your software to reflect your ways of doing business. That may be as
simple as changing the titles on fields, or giving the administrator con-
trol over user access.
Consider that help desk software must be especially adaptable to
the changes in your product. If you are using a problem resolution
engine, you constantly fine-tune the questions and solutions as they
evolve. It should be easy to control, and to update.
Expert systems are difficult and expensive to set up and maintain.
The best compromise for many people is an indexed keyword system.
2. Advanced reporting.
Its reports should be either tables of data or in graphical form, and
they should be easy to create (or you'll never use them). The only way
anyone else in your company is going to get any value out of the infor-
mation you put in (for marketing or product enhancement, for exam-
ple) is if the reporting is simple enough to use often.
Look for reports that show you details of call flow: number of
calls, how they are bunched in time (after a launch or upgrade?) and
how particular agents handle them. Also be sure that the system tells
you how long cases stay active before they are resolved.
The report generator should report on anything that's indexed,
meaning most data in the Customer, Inquiry, or Activity files.
3. A billing system for support calls.
A good external help desk system needs the ability to record how
much time is spent with a customer, and provide some kind of billing
module that creates invoices, or at least a report.

FOUR THINGS THAT AFFECT YOUR PURCHASE
Before you buy new software, you should evaluate what you've
already got (and might want to change) in these areas:
• Platform. Have you standardized on an enterprise-wide hardware
platform, and if so, does that keep you from getting the software
you need? Will it keep some people from having access to the data
collected by your help desk?
• Database. Same thing. Any new software should be compatible
with what you already use.
• Interface. Have you moved to Windows and PCs, or is there still
a mainframe in the picture? Staff and training considerations will
also play a role in the character vs. graphical discussions.
• Function. What exactly do you want the system to do for you?
Decide where your needs fall in the technology spectrum before
you start looking. That will help narrow down a very crowded field.
For example, a timer that toggles elapsed time for billing support
and logs it to the system's activity file.
4. Suspensions and overrides.
Customer support software ought to tell you what level of support
a customer is entitled to. Likewise, it should let you know if a cus-
tomer hasn't paid his or her bill for the product you're supporting.
That way you can cut off technical support after 60 days, for exam-
ple, if you still haven't received payment.
5. Strong inventory module for internal help desks.
A lot of support has to do with questions like "I'm trying to run
Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows and the graphics aren't coming up." The
support person would want to know what kind of RAM and graphics
card is in that machine, and what the user's configuration is like.
6. Solid problem solving.
The problem resolution engine is the grease that makes your suport
center wheels turn smoothly. Whether you choose a system that uses
simple keyword searches or more complex rule-based systems, you need
to invest time and effort in keeping your knowledge base updated.
The best way to make your center more productive is to stop rein-
venting the wheel — when someone solves a problem, everyone
should have access to that solution.
For unstructured information retrieval, Inference (El Segundo,
CA) offers CBR Express, a solution-building tool that uses case-based
reasoning. Case-based systems offer more flexible ways to get at solu-
tions, including "fuzzier" queries in natural language. CBR Express

integrates with a wide range of standard database products.

7. Attach voice or fax to a record.
When a customer gives the first line support person a three or four
minute description of their problem, it would be mighty helpful to
store that as a voice message and attach it to the case record.
The voice record should be accessible to anyone who touches the
data file. Anyone who deals with the case, from the first line support
to the technical experts, has the information straight from the source.
8. Ease of use.
Most people find graphical screens easier to use (or at least easier
to look at for long periods of time) than character-based screens. It's no
surprise that most of the new software packages that have come out in
the last year have been Windows-based. Most of the systems that start-
ed on the DOS platform have come out with Windows versions as well.
Easy doesn't mean simple; it means speedier filling in of screens,
agents who are less tired and customers who don't get asked to repeat
themselves. Some things to look for:
• Auto-fill fields, where keying in one part of a field (or a whole
screen) pulls the rest from the database automatically, or transfers a
customer's information into a new, blank case form.
• Pull-down lists. These eliminate keying errors and enforce consis-
tency among users.
9. Escalation and case management. Call tracking is one of the
most important aspects of automating a help desk.
Good software will give you reports in graphical format. It will
keep track of how long cases are open, and if you choose, let you auto-
matically escalate the priority of a case if it exceeds a threshold.
FEATURES YOU NEED
Here are some suggestions for choosing the right features in

your help desk software.
• Flexible diagnostics. A system that automatically learns associa-
tions between problems and solutions saves the cost of updating
the rules required by rule-based expert systems.
• Groupware features. Especially helpful are features that let users
communicate: messaging, smart routing and forwarding, and auto-
matic priority escalation, to name a few.
• Extensibility. Don't "dead end" yourself with closed architec-
tures. Look for a product that contains DDE (Dynamic Data
Exchange), OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) and ODBC (Open
Database Connectivity) standards, among others.

THE HELP DESK, THE INTRANET, AND

THE DATA THAT FLOWS BETWEEN THEM
Quintus Corporation, (800-337-8941 or 510-624-2800,

www.quintus.com ) a help desk software company, recently
advanced the discussion about customer service information sys-
tems with an interesting new product. Actually, it's more than an
interesting new product — it's the first real system that comes
from a year (or more) of thinking about two things:
* the way the data from the call center is going to be exported
from the center into the rest of the organization,
* and the role intranet browsers will play in moving that data. And
helping non-call center people make sense of it on their own terms.
Their product is ImpaQ: it's essentially a data publishing system
that works in conjunction with the existing customer service software
in a help desk (CustomerQ). It takes the data generated by the help
desk (its customer data, along with call tracking info) and makes it
available outside the center. No trick, you say, that's been done for
a long time, thanks to switch-based MIS reporting systems.
Well, that's true enough. You've been able to stream call data
out of the call center for some time now. As long as what you want-
ed to get out of it was call reports and ACD data, and as long as
you wanted to do some database programming, and make sure
that your switch, your third-party reportwriter and the database
were all marching in lockstep.
When that process was done, who would use the information?
Upper management would put the report on the credenza and wait
until the next one was printed next month. Marketing people might,
or might not, have the tools to translate call center data into some-
thing that seemed to apply to their work needs, like product pro-
motion and response data.
What ImpaQ and its competitors (who right now are few, but on
the way) are trying to do is reshape the way the data is presented,
thanks to the intranet. Quintus recently announced an agreement
with TIBCO to put that company's middleware into ImpaQ. TIBCO
makes what's described as a "publish and subscribe" technology:
real-time customer information publishing. Take the information
flowing in and out of the call center, make it available to anyone on
the corporate network who needs it. Allow them to view it from a
perspective that makes sense to them. Allow them to choose the
viewing parameters, and the particular data parts, that help them.
Think of it as Pointcast with a point. Information is sent to them on
the "push" model. They don't have to be hardwired into the call

center information system. The call center puts it out on the net-
work, the application formats it and pushes it to the desktop of
anyone who needs to know about it. Think about that: desktop
access to call center information, in near-real-time.
TIBCO's experience is in providing this sort of data for financial
services. So they know about high-volume, mission-critical appli-
cations. Implicit in this arrangement is an understanding that call
centers and help desks have become critical in their own right. And
that the desire to know what's going on inside that black box has
become intense among sales, marketing, product development,
MIS, and management types.
The Java technology that makes this possible is so open that
it's only a matter of time before lots of other companies get wise to
this delivery system. It's brilliant in its simplicity, and it's wise in its
reliance on open systems and established networks. And it recog-
nizes the inevitable: that everyone wants a piece of the call center.
This raises the basic question that affect the future of all call
centers: Once data is released from the call center, who owns it?
Who's in charge? And how different is that picture from what we
are used to seeing?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
DISPATCH SYSTEMS:
THE PERFECT
COMPLEMENT TO
YOUR HELP DESK
There are times when problems won't go away that easily. Field
technicians sometimes have to go to the scene of an equipment failure.
According to one supplier, companies like Northern Telecom and Rolm
each have about 1,000 field technicians. They rely on dispatch systems
to keep the communication lines open with their people in the field.
You don't need 1,000 techs to warrant a dispatch system. It's
worth it if you only have five technicians. Here are some of the ways
an automated system helps.
1. It figures out who needs to go to the site, based on trou-
bleshooting experience for that particular problem, and availability.
2. It indicates what kind of support is stipulated in the customer's
contract. (Did they sign for 24-hour support, or for a limited period?)
3. It tells the technician what he needs to bring to the job. The cost
of sending someone on-site is usually significant. You want to make
sure they have what they need and understand the problem ahead of
time, so they don't make a second trip.
4. It knows what the technician did and what to charge for the
services.
5. It tracks depot repair — when a circuit board fails, for example,
the tech replaces it but takes the broken one back so it can be fixed later.
Dispatch systems are most widely used at companies that spend mil-
lions of dollars on equipment. Companies that use software and lower-
end hardware often just need parts shipped. On-site engineers are usu-
ally necessary to service the higher-end medical or telecom equipment.
Many companies are building remote phone diagnostics into their
equipment. One telecom company uses diagnostics so if something is
going wrong with their device the system will automatically phone the
help desk. This interfaces with our system which answers the call,
looks into the problem and routes it to the right person. If it's 3 a.m it
will know to page someone at home if the situation is urgent.

DISPATCH SYSTEMS: THE PERFECT COMPLEMENT TO YOUR HELP DESK
One of the most important benefits of a dispatch system is its intel-

ligence. The system automatically knows who to route an on-site
problem to based on information collected by the dispatcher.
Schedules and geographics are things that change dynamically. It's a
lot to ask of a human.
Dispatch systems, at least the ones we are discussing here, are soft-
ware systems that automate the process of responding to a customer
call, creating a trouble ticket, assigning a field technician and later
noting when the problem was resolved.
These systems are used by high technology companies (including
computer hardware and software vendors, and medical equipment
companies), consumer products companies (servicing automobiles,
appliances and more), industrial products companies and internal
help desks.
Dispatch centers have traditionally been independent of either the
help desk or customer service department. Many companies sell a dis-
patch module separately to serve these traditional customers.
What more and more customers are doing, however, is integrating
the dispatch function with either customer service or the help desk.
That's because customer service is holistic. Customers shouldn't
have to cross rigid boundaries to get their problem solved. In the past,
the customer service department and technical support department
were separate. But when companies looked at their operations from
the customer's perspective, they realized they weren't presenting a
coherent image.
LET SOMEONE ELSE DO IT

Even if you already have a dispatch center, it may not be worth-
while to staff up around the clock for the slim chance of a cus-
tomer calling with a problem at 3 a.m. Yet, think of how pleased a
customer would be to reach a live voice at that hour assuring her
the right person would come to fix the problem.
Proxy Message Center (Dallas, TX) offers such a solution.
They provide 24-hour, after-hour or overflow dispatch service sup-
port. They'll screen situations, page the appropriate technician
and automatically route unanswered pages with escalation
instructions to an operator.
A screen pop sends the agent the customer file along with the
call so she can determine the nature of the call, review site loca-
tion, equipment and model numbers and then page the right field
technician for the job. You get a report with dates, times, partici-
pants and events for each call.

As a result, we are seeing those functions merge. Some companies

are even changing the name from field service to customer service, or
the customer satisfaction department.
The technology being supported by these centers is another force dri-
ving the trend. More and more technical support is being done remotely,
rather than on-site. Only a small percentage — averaging well under half,
and for some companies less than 5% — will end in a field call.
The reason for this is that hardware has become more reliable and
often supports remote diagnostics, while software has become more
sophisticated.
The offerings of most dispatch system providers reflects this. For
example, Astea and Clarify's systems are part of a customer service
package, Service Data Management Corporation's system is part of a
field service management package and Xtend (New York, NY) has a
system that is part of a telecommunications management package.
HOW TO CHOOSE
Buying dispatch software is much different from buying any other

kind of software. The main difference is that other areas of business
come with defined standards, but dispatch doesn't.
For example, buying an accounting system is relatively easy, since
there are standards of accounting the package must adhere to. But
each company runs its dispatch center differently. Find the vendor
whose views on dispatch come closest to your own company's views,
then ask the company to customize a system for you — since no "off
the shelf" package will fit like a glove.
It is vital that the product migrate to new computer platforms and
change with your needs. Ask yourself what platforms are you going to
be using five years from now? (Admitting that five years down the
road is almost the end of time to high-growth technology companies.)
The software, of course, should move with you to the new platform.
The one certain thing in a call center is change. You have to adapt
the product to that change without changing the source code, because
as soon as you change the source code it becomes difficult for the ven-
dor to support. And then you would have to hire your own staff to
support the software, a costly proposition.
The heart of a dispatch system is contract administration, not the
service work order process. Many service organizations have complex
contracts to distinguish themselves from the competition. This "cre-
ativity" challenges the notion of a "standard" product.
Field technician dispatch is an important part of the customer ser-
vice and technical support mix. Luckily for those considering pur-

chasing a dispatch software system, vendors seem very aware .of dis-
patch's role in the larger scheme of things. This won't make buying a
dispatch system easy, but at least some assurance that the vendors
speak the language of customer service.
Time is precious in the dispatch center. A dispatch system could
allow each tech to handle one more call a day. If you have 100 field
technicians who handle an average of four calls a day, adding just one
would translate into millions of dollars saved over the year.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SYSTEMS FOR FAST,

FLEXIBLE ORDERS
Order processing systems give you power over your inventory and
pricing. They help you sell more in any given phone call. They take the
guesswork out of the order taking process.
The work is not over once you've made the sale. In fact, it's just
beginning. The productive call center has automated call routing and
the customer data. Why stop there?
Processing orders is the bread and butter of many businesses. If
you are going to spend good money to deliver good service, you
should pay attention to how you deliver the goods as well.
Yes, order processing software can make your order department
more efficient. Yes, it can help your representatives take orders faster
and more accurately. And when things go wrong, it can certainly cut
the time required to search for records of past orders from minutes or
hours to just seconds.
It's true that all the time you'll save using order processing soft-
ware could save you money on your 800 service.
While those are all great reasons to buy order processing software,
there is a much better one: The information you gather while taking an
order can help you offer better customer service and increase your sales.
Software systems make a difference in how you track sales and
manage inventory. They can collect data and show you how well your
products are doing.
It boils down to control: the call center with control of its sales is
only half finished. Here are some of the things you can do with order
processing systems to control the order process.
With many order processing packages, it's easy to generate pick lists
and mailing labels from the data entered on the order screen. This makes
things easier for Fulfillment and means your orders get shipped faster.
More accurate order-taking means fewer complaints to customer
service. When there are problems, your automated records let you
resolve them on the first call.
Automation means when your order department learns the
address and telephone numbers of new customers, or the new
addresses and telephone numbers for old customers, the information
can be used by your list people for more accurate direct mail or tele-
marketing efforts.

SYSTEMS FOR FAST, FLEXIBLE ORDERS
Information about which customers are buying which products,

and which customers are due for a re-order, is valuable to your sales
and marketing departments.
If you've automated the rest of your sales cycle but are neglecting
order processing, the time has come to fill the gap. Here's what to think
about when looking for an order processing system for your call center.
1. Collect data about customers. Like other types of software,
much order processing software is built around databases that hold
information about your callers. They join the call records to the prod-
uct records. That makes it easier to see the big picture. It also helps
you deal with calls.
If a customer is already on the line, an agent may need to review
the history of that account. This kind of software does more than just
take orders — it enhances customer service. So you can ask a customer
`how did you like that blouse you bought back in April?' The cus-
tomer feels like she is getting personalized service, and she is.
Customer data is also important because it speeds each call. If you
get a record out of the database and onto the agent's screen using just
a name or account number, it eliminates repetitive re-keying of data
every time that person calls. And maintaining a history of previous
payment methods speeds up ordering.
2. Micro-manage your inventory, pricing and product develop-
ment. Someone calls to place an order. You should be able to tell them
whether that product is available, when it can ship and describe
important features of it.
Good software tracks the products you sell most (and least). Turn
that information over to marketing and development, so they can fig-
ure out what's working (or not working). For business-to-business
users with regular customers, include details of special pricing plans.
The software you buy should have the ability to calculate volume or
preferential discounts.
When a caller has a question about a product, how will your reps
find the information they need? Must they exit the order processing
software to get to information in another software system?
It's important that your reps be able to retrieve some product
information right from the order processing system so they can answer
customer questions while taking an order.
As with product information, it's important that your agents are
able to quickly check if ordered products are in inventory, without
leaving the order processing program.
Depending on your company's inventory tracking methods, it may
also be helpful if ordered products are deleted from your inventory
records as soon as they are ordered.

QUICK TIP: ALTERNATIVES

There are alternatives to dedicated order processing systems.
For example, you may have already invested in a call management
or telemarketing system that maintains your customer data.
Instead of recreating that information (as some order software
requires you to do), your telemarketing software might do the job.
Or, you can go outside your organization for order-taking ser-
vices. Service bureaus can deliver advanced technology and a
broad range of options.
Some order processing software packages have quite sophisticat-

ed inventory tracking functions, either as part of the basic package,
or as optional modules. For example, Dydacomp's Mail Order
Manager shows if items are available, when a back-ordered ship-
ment should arrive, if you are awaiting drop-shipment or if the item
has been drop-shipped.
3. Use each call as an opportunity to cross-sell or up-sell. Some
order processing systems do double duty with call-management fea-
tures. Users can create scripts to increase sales with each order. It's one
way to keep that customer from walking away without buying.
4. Keep track of your sales data and lists. Your order processing
system must have good reporting and tracking facilities. The informa-
tion you get out of this software is just as important as what comes
out of your ACD. When purchasing a system, ask what reports it gen-
erates. These are a few important ones:
• How much product you sell by source (catalog, ad or special
promotion).
• Product profit reports.
• Comparison of sales month to month, by product and by agent.
5. Integration with other sales-cycle software. The goal is not
merely to automate the ordering process, but to create a cycle of
information that can increase sales and improve customer service. The
ability to share databases and other information between software
packages is crucial.
If you already have sales or other software in place, it may be more
effective to find an independent order processing package that can
share information with your existing systems.
Order processing software now commonly includes features tradi-
tionally found in telemarketing software, including literature fulfill-
ment and post-sale follow-up.
As data about your products is collected over time, augment it
with information about the customers who buy them. Reorders are

critical to staying in business. Software like this helps you develop

controlled, targeted lists to keep the customers you have.
6. Transfer data to other in-house departments. The free-flow of
information makes your organization more productive. When an
agent takes an order, the entire process is sped up.
The details of the order are added to the customer record. Sales
and marketing benefit. That order is electronically routed to the ship-
ping department, where an instant assessment of stock takes place.
Better management of inventory and shipping means money saved.
Software links to accounting and accounts receivable mean fewer
errors. No one has to decipher or re-key details from a form when the
data is transferred automatically.
Another benefit is forecasting. Information gets to financial
departments as quickly as orders are placed. They can make more
accurate — and more timely — projections based on daily sales.
If you use an outside fulfillment service, an order processing pack-
age can let you can send them your orders electronically.
7. Telephone integration. The ability to deliver screens of comput-
er information along with a telephone call saves time — and time is
money when you are using an 800 number.
Find out what kind of telephone integration is available with the
order processing software of your choice. It should be easy to find
sophisticated integration features on programs designed for larger
computer systems like minis and mainframes.
8. Keep track of all the major shipping systems. Whether you use
UPS, Fedex or any other shipper, software gives you more flexibility.
Set up each carrier's rate and zone information, necessary forms
and paperwork. Use inventory tracking features to record the
weight of each product. Combined with the shipper's tables, you
can tell a caller the exact shipping weight, cost of delivery and esti-
mated date of arrival.
9. Interface with credit card authorization systems. Taking credit
card purchases over the phone requires you to verify the authorization
of that sale with the credit company.
Many call centers, with their dozens of simultaneous sales, use a
third-party credit card authorization service. They send credit card
orders in batch mode several times a day and verify them.
Your big decision is whether to go with instant credit card autho-
rization, which is faster and helps weed out fraudulent orders, or
batch processing which lets you use your agent's time and your tele-
phone lines more efficiently.
10. All the other little things. Order processing systems contain all
sorts of neat little features to make your agents' lives easier.

For example, CoLinear's Response system assigns sales tax based

on zip code or county. It's particularly helpful if your company has a
point of presence in several states. Dydacomp's MOM lets agents
enter a zip code and have the city and state fields filled automatically.
It can be a real time-saver.
Browse through some feature lists or stroll through some
brochures. Features like these are not major selling points, so you can
miss them in a targeted search. One of these "nice to have" features
might become a "must" for your operation.
Order processing may never have the flash of sales or the warm-
fuzzies of customer service. But with order processing software, it can
be an important part of your sales cycle, helping both sales and cus-
tomer service, and winning friends for your company on its own.
THE BENEFITS OF AUTOMATED ORDERING

The speed and organization you gain from using order pro-
cessing software means more sales for your business. Here's
what this software can do.
• Make lists of customers who ordered a certain product for direct
mail or telemarketing campaigns quickly and easily.
• Track order rates on products for product development or marketing.
• Look up a customer's past orders quickly, so it is convenient for
him to re-order.
• Take advantage of up-selling and cross-selling opportunities with
scripting functions.
• Inventory status is instantly available.
• No more lost paper order forms.
HOW TO RETAIN CUSTOMERS

• Immediately acknowledge back orders or out-of-stock products.
Be as specific as possible about the actual shipping date.
• Process orders as quickly as possible. A fast response time
keeps customers coming back for more.
• Respond to inquiries the same day you receive them. The faster
you respond, the greater the chance you will get an order.
• Send refunds as soon as they are requested.
• Never fulfill an order without going for an additional sale. Let
customers know about other products or services that might
interest them.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
WHY YOU STILL NEED

CALL ACCOUNTING
Chances are the day will come when your phone bill is several
thousand dollars too high. If you don't have a call accounting system,
there's nothing you can do about it. In fact, you may not even know
what's going on.
Call accounting software lets you find out who are you most pro-
ductive (and least) employees, who is abusing the phones and helps in
the battle against toll fraud.
Where burglars break in through a building's windows and doors,
telephone hackers break in through your telephone system's windows
and doors. The most popular targets are the DISA (direct inward sys-
tem access) port, which gives remote callers (such as field salespeople)
access to your telephone system, especially your long distance services,
and your maintenance port, which lets your vendor or system service
company do remote diagnostics and fixes over telephone lines.
Other vulnerable openings in your system include voice mail sys-
tems, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, and any feature, func-
tion or system that allows remote access (whether you use it or not).
These windows and doors to your telephone system must be pro-
tected with alarms and security systems, just like their real-life coun-
terparts. And if you think your long distance carrier will eat fraudu-
lent toll call charges, think again. Your long distance carrier is no
more likely to cover these charges than your office equipment dealer
is to replace your stolen desk lamps.
Some of the key benefits you'll see:
• Increased employee productivity;
• Accurate departmental spending data;
• Better analysis of phone needs;
• Accurate client billback; and
• Detection of toll fraud.
Because the software prints reports — either by day, week or
month — that show precisely what agents did all day, managers can
easily pinpoint who are their most productive employees and who are
the ones that need improvement. They can also sort these reports by
department for more accurate budgeting and phone allocation needs.
Call accounting allows managers to get a handle on phone usage
by figuring out costs and phone usage per department or per employ-

WHY YOU STILL NEED CALL ACCOUNTING
HOW CALL ACCOUNTING WORKS
l'BX generates call Call records are stored

records in the MegaStore huller
MegaVt/are
PBX call records

are polled
by MegaPoll
MegaCall MegaRates
processes call costs and prices
records call records
MegaBill creates
MegaBase billing records
in-memory
database contains
call records
Report generator
generates reports
Here you can see the process by which Mega Ware (an integrated software/hard-
ware modular call accounting system) gathers, sorts and stores call records and
generates reports.

ee. They can find out if the people that are supposed to be on the
phone are and the ones that aren't supposed to are not.
Call accounting reports also indicate peak busy times and slow ones
for better scheduling and whether there's a need for additional lines. All
of which goes a long way in making your employees more productive.
It's not an ACD — it won't provide staffing requirements for
agents. (For that you need a more robust analysis tool like a work-
force management system or call center management software.) But it
will provide important traffic trend analysis based on SMDR data.
The big difference between call accounting and call center man-
agement software is that call accounting is designed for public branch
exchange (PBX) or key telephone systems and call center management
software is designed for automatic call distributors (ACDs).
Call centers that use a PBX instead of an ACD or automated dial-
ing systems will find that a call accounting system is a valuable man-
agement tool. Call centers that use a PBX/ACD will find that call
accounting adds important information to the reports generated by a
management software system.
HOW CALL ACCOUNTING WORKS
The SMDR (Station Message Detail Recording) port is the

linchpin of call accounting. On most PBXs there's an SMDR port
that captures calling data in raw form and prints it if the port is
attached to a printer. It can't store the data, manipulate it or print
it as charts and graphs.
Call accounting software (with the help of a PC) stores the data
and prints it in organized reports. Some systems also come with a
buffer box, a device that goes between the SMDR port and the PC,
CALL ACCOUNTING TIPS FOR CALL CENTERS

• Back up the system once a month. If something goes wrong with
the system, little personalizations, such as your company's
unique telephone rates and setup variables, will be the hardest
things to replace.
• Before repair work is done, have the technician back up this
month's call records and your setup parameters. Most call
accounting problems are "nudgy little things," says Ambrette. But
a technician can easily turn a small problem into a big one, if this
information is lost.
• Use call accounting data to benchmark high producers. Learn how
your best agents work and train others to meet those patterns.

FRAUD'S WARNING SIGNS

• Long holding times.
• An unexplained surge in usage.
• Calls made to unusual locations or numbers.
• Unexplained 900 calls.
• Odd calls: crank, obscene, or hangups.
• Higher than normal number of credit card calls.
• Blockage. People are unable to call in to the system because it
is always busy.
allowing you to use the PC for other programs. Without a buffer box,
call accounting requires a dedicated PC.
While call accounting may be a necessity for many businesses, an
investigation into the pros and cons of various programs on the mar-
ket reveals many striking similarities between them. It seems once one
manufacturer adds a feature everyone rushes to add it.
It's become a commodity application where all the top vendors
have very similar products. If one vendor comes up with something
new, within a year everyone follows suit.
To combat that, many manufacturers are molding their products
to specific niches. For example, The Angeles Group (Sherman Oaks,
CA) offers a call accounting package just for college and universities.
Computer Information Systems and Yardi Systems (Santa Barbara,
CA) offer packages specifically for the hospitality industry. Xtend spe-
cializes in both the hospitality and healthcare industries.
Soft-Com (New York, NY) and others offer systems designed for
lawyers, doctors and other professionals who need to bill back clients
for their time.
Vendors are also adding value to their systems by designing them
modularly. Both The Teletronics Group's Orbital system and The
Angeles Group's Call-Master system come with basic call accounting.
But for specific needs, there are additional modules such as directory,
inventory, work order and cable and wire.
The benefit of modules is that companies choose the features they
need — they're not given everything and forced to find a use for it.
As if that weren't enough, here are some more reasons why you
should use a call accounting system:
1. It allows you to reconcile incorrect phone bills. Carriers make
mistakes too. An accounting system itemizes each call so you can tell
where you were mischarged. You'll be able to compare charges your
systems figures for each call (based on current rates) with what the
phone company actually charged you.

2. Find out where your calls are going. You can see where misuse
occurs by extension, times and length of calls. You'll know if your
telemarketing reps are making calls outside of their territory area, or
if your inbound agents, who only take calls, are also making calls, dri-
ving up your phone bill.
For example, you can just track calls that are over 10 minutes. If
your sales reps should be averaging five minutes per call and often go
up to ten it could be counter-productive and drive up your phone
costs. You can scan for calls inbound agents make when they should
only be answering calls. Or just scan for calls that go over one minute,
if you don't mind them making quick local calls home.
Use a call accounting system to see where you can eliminate calls
or at least cut down on the length of time spent on a call. Here's an
example from Call Management Products (Broomfield, CO): A reduc-
tion in local telephone usage of 100 ten minute calls per month at 30
cents per call equals $30 per month.
However, those 100 calls add up to almost 17 hours of employee
time. At an average rate of $12 per hour, that's a total of $204 — a
more substantial savings. Depending on the application, you may
recover time from clerks who keep track of telephone time slips man-
ually or who review long-distance charges by hand.
3. Analyze trunk usage. A call accounting system tells you if you
have more trunks than you need.
4. Pinpoint hacking. You can program your system to alert you
when daily call volume exceeds a given threshold. The system will also
alert you if any calls are made when no one should be at office.
According to Micro-Tel, one company had their automated atten-
dant configured to let callers transfer to other extensions. When a
hacker called them, the auto attendant gave the caller the option to
enter in an extension number, so the hacker dialed 9 which gave him
a dial tone, gaining the same privileges as an employee on the PBX
making an outbound call.
By the time the fraud was detected, the company was on the
hook for over $60,000 in one month. If your automated attendant
allows callers to transfer to another extension, make sure they can't
transfer to another trunk as well. If this company had some kind of
call accounting system, they would have caught the problem on the
first day. That's about $60,000 cheaper than waiting for their
monthly phone bill.
5. Break down phone costs for each department or site. You may
have several call centers, but want to manage telecom expenses from
a central location. Most systems let you do this.
6. Calculate costs for client billback. Whether you're in hospitali-

ty, law, education, healthcare or other service industries, you'll want a

system that keeps accurate records so you can bill your clients.
Computer Information System's (Troy, MI) Telephone Tracking
System logs and reports on calls assigned to client accounts, at your
hourly rate. They also offer a package called Inn Tracking System (ITS)
for the hospitality industry. It runs audit reports to reflect profits, tracks
and bills all guest calls and tracks non-billable administrative calls.
7. Compare different carrier rates. You could be getting a better
rate with a different phone carrier.
CALL ACCOUNTING CHECKLIST

Here are some things you should make sure are a part of the
call accounting system you choose.
• Call tracing. Since it's now possible to get the phone numbers of
callers (Caller ID), your call accounting system should keep data on
the numbers of these callers. It's a great way to track the effec-
tiveness of regional ad campaigns, direct mailing profitability or
the ability to weed out the orderers from the callers.
• Since costs and tariffs change so much make sure the vendor
will send you disks with updated carrier pricing or reconfigure the
system on-site or remotely.
• You should be able to work on other applications when perform-
ing any PBX maintenance.
• Report distribution through e-mail. Many systems now make it
easy to capture reports and put them in the graphical formats
you want (data intensive, chart, bar or pie forms) and then sim-
ply send them through e-mail to the departments you want to
see the information.
• Polling of multiple sites. If you have more than one call center,
you'll want a system that can track call activity at all the centers.
• If you want built-in toll fraud capabilities, make sure the prod-
uct can send out a page. Most hackers go to work off-hours
when no one is at the office, so if the system can't sent out a
page, no one will know about the incident until after the damage
has been done.

6 BENEFITS OF CALL ACCOUNTING

1. Monitor telephone abuse. Call accounting tells you who made
calls when. Is a clerical extension racking up outbound calls at the
same rate as one of your sales reps? Is there an hour-long call to
a number in a region where your company doesn't do business?
(Indicating a very long personal call.) Often just announcing you are
installing a call accounting system causes telephone abuse to drop.
2. Track telephone system hacking. What a call accounting sys-
tem can do for internal abuse, it can also do for external abuse
(from hackers and the like). There are special systems designed
just to track security breaches and alert you — long before you get
your telephone bill.
3. Correct telephone bills. Yes, telephone companies make
mistakes. And it's not just long distance resellers or small-town
local companies. Having your own records is a potent weapon
against billing errors.
4. Analyze trunk use. Call accounting systems can give you call
totals by trunk. Perhaps one trunk is never being used. (Is it work-
ing?) You may be paying for more trunks than you need. Or you may
find out all your trunks are always busy, and it's time to add more.
5. Streamline charge-backs to customers or departments.
Especially helpful for small, in-house call centers that bill back
their services to other departments or divisions. A call accounting
system makes billing easier — and can even automatically add a
mark-up.
6. Quantify agent performance. If you don't have a dialer or an
ACD, a call accounting system can give you valuable information
about agent performance. You can get info on individual exten-
sions or on departments. Find out how many calls were made or
taken. How long is the average call?
MAKING IT WORK FOR A CALL CENTER

The most important thing for you to know about call account-
ing is this: call accounting systems are designed and sold for gen-
eral business use.
A call center has special needs. If you don't look out for your
own specific requirements, you can wind up with a system that is
too small, too slow, or just too general for a call center.
What should you look for to find a call accounting system that
will meet your needs?
1. How many calls are processed in an hour? Many call
accounting systems are PC-based. The speed of the computer's
processor is vital to call center applications.

The average business may find that the average call accounting
system is more than fast enough. But too few call center managers
ask how many calls the system can process in an hour. If the sys-
tem can't keep up with the pace of your center, it is useless.
2. How much data fits into one megabyte on the hard-drive?
Most companies want to store 90 days of historical data on the
hard-drive. (Other data can be archived.)
For call centers, many calls means many call records. Efficient
storage is helpful, and so is a big, fat hard-drive. Other types of
businesses can afford to scrimp here, but call centers can't.
3. Does the system have automatic archiving? It's especially
important for call centers to use a system with automatic archiv-
ing. With such a high volume of calls, if the system doesn't auto-
matically archive data to the hard-drive or a tape, you could spend
a lot of time pumping floppy disks into the PC.
4. What is the maximum number of extensions? Call account-
ing systems come in many flavors, and a key differentiation is the
number of extensions handled. The important thing here is that
you can upgrade the system to handle more extensions as your
call center grows.
5. Can you adjust the minimum call length recorded? This is a
common feature, and one that is very important to call centers.
Most businesses just go with a standard drop rate of 30 seconds.
This means the call accounting system ignores all calls under 30
seconds and records all calls longer than 30 seconds.
For an outbound call center that wants to see how many dials
are attempted, the drop rate must be shorter. Try shortening it to
five or six seconds.
Reports with the number of dial attempts made can be cranked
out daily, and can be grouped by agent or work team.
6. Does the system work with an external buffer box or board?
There are a number of reasons for using an external buffer box or
an internal buffer board.
First, there is the number of PCs found in your telephone room.
With a buffer, the PC running your call accounting system can be
used for other things. A moves, adds and changes (MAC) terminal,
for example.
Second, the buffer box protects your data from all types of sys-
tem crashes and glitches. Buffered systems are safer.

HOW TO CHOOSE
Given the number of call accounting systems out there, the vari-
ous modules and the range of price (simple standalones start at less
than $1,000 while huge multi-site network systems with no line limit
could be as much as $60,000) choosing a system that's right for your
business can be complex. Here's some advice from the experts.
• The biggest mistake customers make is they try to put the sys-
tem on the oldest, dirtiest PC they have. But the chain is only as
strong as its weakest link. A bad PC is going to reflect on the call
accounting no matter which product you use.
• Take your business' growth into consideration and by a system
that can be expanded as your company does.
• Try the system out using your own data not just the demo data.
This should give you a better understanding of how call accounting
will affect your business.
• You should be analyzing your requirements and finding the sys-
tem that satisfies it. Too often companies buy huge PBXs and then
cheap out on the accounting system.
• Make sure the software does not have line size limitations.
• Don't choose a package that requires proprietary hardware
which can be expensive and difficult to support.
• Beware of expensive modules and support.
TOLL FRAUD TERMS

CDR: Call Detail Recording. A feature of a telephone system which
lets the system collect and record information on the outgoing calls —
who made them, where they went, what time of day the occurred, how
long they took, etc. Your phone system usually must provide CDR if you
are to take advantage of a toll fraud detection system.
DISA: Direction Inward System Access. This telephone system
feature lets an outside caller dial in directly and access all the fea-
tures and facilities. It's typically used for making long distance calls
from the road using the company's less expensive long distance
lines. With DISA you can dial individual extensions without the aid
of an operator.
SMDR Port: Station Message Detail Reporting port. Modern
PBXs and some larger key systems have this port, usually an RS-
232-C serial port, into which you can plug a printer or a call account-
ing system. When calls are make from extensions, the system
sends information about each call out the SMDR port. that infor-
mation — who made the call, where it went, what time of day — is
printed by the printer or captured by the call accounting system on
a floppy or hard disk. It's later processed into management reports.

CALL ACCOUNTING vs. TELEMANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Is there a difference between a call accounting system and
telemanagement software? We won't slap the wrists of anyone
who uses the two terms interchangeably, but strictly speaking, call
accounting is one function of a telemanagement software system.
Call accounting collects and stores SMDR (station message
detail record) data from a PBX telephone system. It grinds it up
and spits it out as reports. The more types of reports the better.
Some reports are tables of numbers, others are graphic.
Telemanagement software is a suite of functions, usually start-
ing with call accounting, but adding inventory tracking, facilities
tracking, what-if functions, extension directories, trouble ticket
generation, problem tracking and hacker security.
So now you know.

CHAPTER NINETEEN
HANDLING
TELEMANAGEMENT
With all the emphasis on managing software systems and call rout-
ing, it's easy to forget that call centers rely on a great deal of underly-
ing technology stuck up in the walls, ceilings and back rooms. We're
talking about the unsexy stuff: the wiring. Don't neglect the essential
foundation of your call center — the telecom infrastructure that
makes everything else possible.
The most important part of buying and creating a telemanagement
system is YOU. More than any other telecom product, telemanage-
ment software requires you to ask questions, make decisions, evaluate
your workplace, and implement and maintain your system when it's
up and running.
Why? Because telemanagement software varies vendor to vendor
and buyer to buyer. Most of this software is sold in modular configu-
rations. No two systems will be alike, because you can design-your-
own-package.
What is Telemanagement? It's software and systems that let you
keep track of and control the use of telecommunications in your busi-
ness. Traditionally, Telemanagement comprises:
• Call Accounting. This keeps track of phone traffic and assigns costs
to calls in a fashion you specify. In its simplest form, call accounting
can act as a back-check on telco billing, or permit advance billing of
phone services — needed by hotels and other institutions that charge
for telephone usage.
In more advanced forms, call accounting is used as part of an over-
all business cost-accounting system — assigning chargebacks and
facilitating tracking of telephone use on a department or project basis.
Toll fraud detection and documentation is another important facet of
call accounting.
• Facilities Management. This tracks your telecom "physical plant" —
helping you maintain records of equipment and cable locations, cate-
gories, terminations, and inventory. The best packages generate trou-
ble-tickets, track adds, moves, and changes; and coordinate with pur-
chasing to allow inventory control.
Under these two broad headings, today's telemanagement pack-
ages typically include many different utilities. For example, some
packages may feature extensive switch maintenance functions, sup-
port a company-wide Directory and attendant consoles, do phone-

HANDLING TELEMANAGEMENT
traffic analysis (trunk usage, etc.), and poll information from multiple
switches and/or facilities for reporting.
Most telemanagement systems are modular. If you need only call
accounting and toll fraud detection, you won't have to pay for cable
management and inventory. Factors affecting the price will be num-
ber of modules, number of phone extensions, number of locations
and other aspects of your workplace that will change your specific
system configuration.
So before you go software shopping, arm yourself with some basic
information. Decide what you want your telemanagement system to
do (do you need a call accounting feature? Do you have to inventory
your cabling? Do you need a directory?). Figure out how many exten-
sions and locations it needs to support. Know if you will be hooking
the software up to your LAN, and if so, the type of network it needs
to be compatible with.
You should keep in mind the following tips, trends and general
features-we'd-most-like-to-have:
• Modular Integration. This is important if you need several teleman-
agement capabilities. Rather than buying a facilities management pack-
age and a call accounting package separately from two different ven-
dors, your best bet is to find a software package that provides both.
There are several benefits to this. You get a relational database
with single-point-of-entry. It will cost less than two completely sepa-
rate systems. Most important, you will only have to call one vendor
for service. This saves money and time, because you no longer need to
wait while Vendor A blames Vendor B who is still blaming Vendor A
and neither is fixing your product while they argue.
Modular systems also let you pick and choose what options you
need, so you don't pay extra for features you will never use.
• Single-point-of-entry. This is what makes a true telemanagement sys-
tem tick. An integrated modular system provides you with a relation-
al database. This single database saves you time and hassles.
When something changes, say you move employee extensions
around, you enter the information into one database, and changes are
immediately reflected in all your modules. That means the directory is
updated, the cabling maps are reworked, the call accounting system is
aware of the move. It also cuts mistakes down to a minimum.
When you have to rely on a mere human to make several changes
in several databases, you risk tired eyes and a lazy hand entering the
wrong information, or forgetting to enter new extensions in at all.
• LANs. Networks let you put telemanagement applications and data
files on your server. Everyone has access to the features and informa-
tion from the desktop. No one has to waste time running around look-

ing for hard copy, no one needs to worry about losing important
reports. And different people can run different applications at once,
using the same base of information. LANs make these systems multi-
user, multi-tasking and networkable.
One caveat: it's great to give your employees access to the features
of your software, but make sure they can't fool around with configu-
rations from their desktops. You don't want everyone to be able to
redefine calling parameters or input changes in the cabling maps. That
kind of administration should take place from one or a handful of
computers operated by staff that has been trained to do so.
• Report Writer. Definitely find a system that provides you with some
basic standard reports. But since your business isn't like anyone else's,
your reporting needs probably aren't either. So make sure your soft-
ware package comes with a powerful report writer. You want to easi-
ly and quickly create readable reports that give you the information
you want and need to know.
• "What did you call that?" What you mean by inventory may not be
what your vendor means. Be explicit about what you expect each
option to do and ask your vendor to explain each module clearly. You
may want an inventory feature that tracks what equipment each
employee has in their office.
Your vendor's system may provide an inventory feature that lists
equipment and parts in stock. Don't take phrases and buzzwords at
face value. Ask for an explanation.
• PBX Management. Buyers REALLY want this, because it simplifies
that strange and weird phone room that everyone is afraid to walk into.
PBX management modules let you create, delete and change exten-
sions on your phone system. When this happens, it also updates the
other modules in your system. This saves you so much time and both-
er because most PBXs require complex programming knowledge for
moves/adds/changes (MACs), so you probably need your phone ven-
dor to come in and do it for you.
Not only will these modules make the changes for you, they can
usually be scheduled to do these jobs in the evening and on weekends
when the phones are free.
• Graphics. Not just pretty Windows screens, though that's as impor-
tant in this software category as in any other. Here, however, you
should look for a CAD-interface. This is very important if you have a
facilities management module, because it lets you pull up and print
out pretty, colorful, visual maps of your cabling system and equip-
ment. It makes locating and fixing a cabling pair easy-as-pie. They're
so popular, they are usually standard.
• Existing Databases. The hardest part of installing a new teleman-

agement system is creating the new database. Someone has to sit there
and enter all your current information into the new system. And of
course, this leaves you open to basic human error and deletion.
Look for a telemanagement system that will be compatible with
your current database. It will save you time and money and prevent
lots of headaches.
• Service Bureaus. If you're having a hard time finding someone to
monitor and maintain your telemanagement system, find a vendor
that provides a service bureau in conjunction with their software.
They can save you lots of time and bother. They will monitor your set-
up and send you reports, let you know when there is a problem (like
toll fraud detection) and generally keep you up and running.
• Real-time. You definitely need a system that works in real-time. It's
important in the call accounting module because the faster calls are
processed, the more up-to-date your billing and toll fraud monitor-
ing will be.
It's important in inventory, so you know exactly when you need to
order more equipment. It's important in switch administration,
because your phone system needs to know where to transfer calls as
they come in, not after the fact. If a system doesn't work in real-time,
you don't want it.
• Openness. You want to be able to exchange data between applica-
tions. It saves so much time to be able to take the information from
some spreadsheets and transfer them into your cable management
module. Most vendors will be moving in this direction.

CHAPTER TWENTY
800 SERVICES
THE LIFELINE INTO
YOUR CENTER
It was once simple. You'd buy 800 service based on price, or
because a carrier owned a specific number you had to have.
Then portability arrived, heralding openness, and competition on
features, price and service. It's now clear that portability has brought new
opportunities — and new challenges — to the task of buying 800 service.
The shift to network functionality is really in earnest, with some
very strong functionality now available for the enterprising call center.
Specifically, options to improve call routing, queuing, and service
restoration are rolling out at a rapid clip.
Many of these services are expensive, though. In some cases they can
add as much as 50% to the cost of a call, putting the options out of reach
of many small and medium sized call centers. High volume users have
been the main beneficiaries of price cutting and volume discounts, leav-
ing smaller users with higher costs and no appreciable gain in service.
Portability, three years out, has made 800 an intelligent network
application. Users with multi-site centers who want features like Least
Cost Routing, or sophisticated queuing options have benefitted
immensely. And that's just the beginning.
The effects of portability have opened up competition between the
carriers and given 800 customers a wide range of options.
Through bundled consulting plans and alliances with hardware
manufacturers, the three majors are trying to be more to you than just
a series of trunks and switches. Offering everything from complete out-
sourcing of your center to simple "press one for" service, phone carri-
ers are providing more options for call centers than ever before.
Will the call center of the future be paying for carrier services by
the transaction instead of by the minute? This is just one of the possi-
bilities raised by the brave new world of call center offerings from the
three major long distance carriers.
AT&T
In spite of corporate restructuring and recently announced layoffs,

AT&T (Basking Ridge, NJ) still has more 800 customers than any

800 SERVICES - THE LIFELINE INTO YOUR CENTER
other company. Along with providing the lines, the nations oldest
phone company has plenty of options to offer call centers.
Per-transaction pricing is part of a new product offering from an
new group within AT&T: Advanced Network Solutions. This new
group serves the medium-sized to large-ish long distance user that
craves the capabilities offered by AT&T's Global Solutions group for
the carrier's virtual private network customers, but has neither the
traffic to justify those services or the desire to lay out the big bucks
total customization requires.
Advanced Network Solutions offers pre-packaged network-
based applications. There are about 14 applications in all, several
organized to serve particular industries, but a few are organized to
WHERE DO 800 CALLS GO?
STP
Direct
;00 F
access
800 service
provider
Telepluny dials
SOU number
All residential calls go through a local exchange company (LEC). The call is identi-
fied as an 800 (or 888) call by the service switching point (SSP). Call information is
then sent to the signal transfer point (STP). The STP finds out where to send the
call by asking a database called a signal control point (SCP). The SCP is provided
by the LEC and receives its information from a national central database known as
the services management system (SMS). Generally, within four seconds after an
800 number is dialed it is delivered to its destination. Source: Toll-Free Services by
Robert A. Gable.

handle specific marketing functions and are therefore particularly

valuable to call centers.
Of particular interest to inbound call centers is Order Express.
This network-based IVR application prompts callers for their account
number and other information relevant to the transaction — interact-
ing with your database if necessary while it does.
The application can be used to spare live agents from route trans-
actions such as information requests, subscription or membership
renewals and orders. It can also be used to handle overflow calls dur-
ing peak periods when all your live agents are busy.
The application includes authorizing credit card transactions
while the customer is still on the line, and checking addresses against
an independent database.
Order Express is already being used by a health club to automate
membership renewals. The health club found that their agents' time
was being taken up by account inquiries and brochure requests. By
putting Order Express on the job to handle these routine transactions,
the agents now have more time to upsell callers interested in renewing
their membership.
AT&T's Advertising Advantage application lets callers respond to
a market survey, enter a sweepstakes, listen to a promotional
announcement or request an information package. After a time peri-
od you select (daily, weekly, monthly), the data collected is sent to you
by your choice of e-mail, hardcopy, electronic file or magnetic tape.
For help desks, Authorized Access screens callers so only callers
with valid service contracts reach your help desk. The same applica-
tion can be used for product registration or payment collection (when
the caller enters a credit card number).
Industry-specific applications include a voice application for per-
sonal financial services and a World Wide Web application for the
insurance industry.
All of these applications are priced on a per transaction basis. This
will help call centers plan their costs better and put a better perspec-
tive on the value of an individual call.
Of course, putting the emphasis on the value of a completed trans-
action has huge benefits for AT&T too. What they can charge per
minute of long distance service has its limits, no matter what fancy
features are added, but when you consider the value of each complet-
ed transaction, each health club membership sold at $500, they have
a lot more latitude with what they can charge.
These advanced network services add a great deal of value to the
carrier's baseline offerings. AT&T's 800 MasterLine Service is target-
ed to high-volume centers. In-state, out-of-state, Canadian and over-

seas calls are over one dedicated line. Since you won't need multiple
lines at each location, you save on installation and access charges.
For small- to medium-sized call centers with high volume (up to
500 hours a month) there's 800 Readyline Service. Using existing
phone lines, there's no extra equipment or installation required.
If your primary concern is keeping your center up and running at
all times, you should look into AT&T's 800 Gold Service. Costing
about 7% more than regular service, it offers speedier installation and
repairs (five hours or less — one hour for Readyline). There's a 99.9%
call completion rate and a five minute back-in-business assurance.
Another option for your center, AT&T Detail Manager 800,
reveals trends and marketing intelligence within your 800 call traffic.
Every month you receive diskettes containing your complete call
details. You also have a software package that lets you analyze the
data and produce graphs and reports on your PC.
MCI
MCI is protecting its customers from future shock with a wide

variety of offerings, from consulting services to on-premise call center
equipment to network-based call center technology.
With MCI's offerings you can move in baby steps from a call cen-
ter with technology that is exclusively on-site to a call center with vir-
tually no technology on-site. In between you can have some of your
functions based in the network, while others are based in equipment
on-premises.
MCI's premise-based solutions are provided by key vendors who
have been judged by MCI to have products that are the "best of
breed" in their categories.
MCI doesn't have an exclusive relationship with any vendor, so
MCI's consultants can always choose among several systems for the
best fit with a particular client.
By the time you read this, MCI will have relationships with about
a dozen vendors. At press time, they had given the nod to Intecom
and Telcom Technologies for ACDs, Edify for IVR, EIS for predictive
dialing, Lyrix for voice recognition and Magnasync for call logging.
MCI also has three network-based solutions and plans to add two
more in the future. Network IVR has been around the longest. It
offers several advantages over premise-based IVR including freeing up
ACD ports for other calls and freeing you from the responsibility of
updating the equipment (MCI does that).
Once most popular with banks, who used it for account balance
information, Network IVR continues to be a popular application.

Interactive TelePromotions adds the ability to collect information

from callers to your 800 number. It is especially useful for promo-
tional fulfillment, such as a free coupon offer.
Network ACD is MCI's latest network-based offering. MCI will
round out its call center applications offerings with predictive dialing
and computer-telephone integration, which are in the planning stages,
reports Hebner.
The goal is to offer call centers all the functionality now available
with on-premise equipment through network-based offerings. It is the
first step toward that call center of the future where all you need is a
bunch of PCs and a network connection.
These are some of the service packages and bundled offerings you
can get from MCI:
• TrafficView is a reporting and statistics product offered with 800
service. It tells you how many calls were attempted, completed and
gives you reasons for incompletions. It also delivers exception reports
and ANI details, among other data.
These online statistics are available on an hourly, daily, weekly or
monthly basis. Customers can get the data in either hard copy, data
file or e-mail formats. Much of the information is graphical and easi-
ly analyzed with spreadsheets or other tools.
• Toll Free Digital Service connects companies and customers through
applications such as online interactive catalogs, video conferencing,
software and information distribution, remote LAN access, screen
sharing and quicker point-of-sale transactions.
It provides companies with the ability to allocate digital band-
width on-demand on a pay-as-you-go basis. (The advantage to that is
you only pay for what you use, not for a lot of unused capacity.)
Callers are able to access data, video and imaging services, as well
as voice communication, through a toll free 800 number at speeds of
56 and 64 Kbps with this switched data and ISDN service.
• Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) is the umbrella name for a fami-
ly of products that provide in-network voice processing and rout-
ing. For example, a call can be answered before it hits the center.
The network offers the caller voice prompts. Based on the caller's
input and a network database lookup, the call is then routed to a
particular site.
Ideal for dealer locator applications, all you need is the table that
links the zip code to the dealer. The caller's input determines where the
call ends up.
MCI also offers extensive outsourcing and service bureau capabil-
ities. From total management of a large call center to on-call service
for weekend or holiday traffic, they can handle a variety of applica-

COST-CUTTING INTERNATIONAL 800

Info Systems (Buffalo, NY) has come up with a useful tool for
using low 800 rates internationally. Talkie-Globe interfaces with ana-
log or digital lines and can monitor multiple 800 lines. It permits dif-
ferent 800 surcharges to be added, depending on the call's origin.
When a subscriber calls anywhere in the world, it automatical-
ly adjusts the rate based on destination. In addition, it recognizes
the call's country of origin and applies a surcharge based on it.
Another feature allows for service providers to allocate 800
numbers to companies overseas. The bridging capability allows
calls to the 800 number to be connected to that overseas phone
company. Both the overseas company and their clients benefit
from the reduced 800 rate.
tion sizes. Available services include direct response, customer service,

help desk, order entry and fulfillment.
SPRINT
Sprint (Kansas City, MO) has teamed up with several call center
hardware providers to give their customers plenty of options.
CallCenter Connection is a consulting service — Sprint will go over a
call center's carrier service and switching needs, and try to match the
center with the best offerings from vendors they partner with.
The advantage: Sprint customers stay up to date on the latest
equipment and carrier offerings, without heavy investments in equip-
ment and software.
In June, Sprint and Nortel (Richardson, TX) teamed up to offer
businesses all the components needed to set up and run a call center
without hefty up-front capital investments. The integrated business
solutions packages customers access to one-stop-shopping for their
services, including hardware and networking needs.
Sprint has also teamed up with Rockwell (Downers Grove, IL) to
provide support for call centers. Working with the two telecommunica-
tion outfits, users will be able to deploy advanced ACD technology on
site, yet, pay for the turnkey solutions on a per-minute basis. The alliance
capitalizes on Rockwell's Spectrum ACD and Sprint's network services.
Other services and offerings from Sprint include:
• 800 CallDirector lets you view how your call routing plans are
working. You can create routing schemes on the fly, implement them
and verify that they are working.
• Interactive 800. Create your own Interactive 800 service from Core
Building Blocks, a menu of features that allow you to define the level

of information a caller may retrieve, automate call routing and pro-

vide "press 1 for" capabilities.
• FONMagic enables advertisers to measure advertising results, pro-
mote brand awareness, encourage product trial and perform other
marketing functions using 800 or 900 services.
• FONAccess allows companies to sell telephone support to their cus-
tomers through the use of 800 service with personal identification
number (PIN) controlled access, 800 service with credit card payment
or 900 service.
• SiteRP lets you tell the network how to route calls to your centers
on a dynamic, call-by-call basis. It was one of the first services to let
users directly address the network.
SiteRP lets call centers give the network information about how
incoming calls should be handled based on present traffic, or any
other criteria determined by the call center. This service can, and is,
used by third-party application providers, which makes it even more
useful. Rather than providing network-based routing, it provides cus-
tomer-based routing.
It is a heartening vision of the call center of the future: a call cen-
ter with the power of the public switched network, but with the con-
trol of an on-premise system.
In the nearly three years since 800 portability has been imple-
mented, call centers have thrived. A recent market survey found that
75 percent of all 800 calls terminate into a call center.
Examine what your center's needs are and what options the dif-
ferent carriers are offering. Don't be afraid to switch service providers,
if someone can offer you something better. As the competition
between long distance carriers (and soon local carriers) for your 800
business heats up, you only stand to benefit.
QUICK TIP: 888 PROMOTION

A recent Roper Starch Worldwide survey, funded by AT&T, found
that 99% of those surveyed were not aware of the new toll-free pre-
fix, 888. If your call center is caught off guard, it's really no sur-
prise. The issue is complex, confusing, rife with conflicting infor-
mation and short on statistics.
Don't rely on the carriers' 888-as-toll-free promotions. If you
anticipate needed a new toll-free number after April 1996, you
should plan on promoting the new number as toll-free yourself to
target your customers more tightly than the carriers' blitz can.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
WHEN SHOULD YOU GO

OUTSIDE FOR HELP?
They have cutting edge technologies. There are specialists for
every vertical market. And more than anything else — they've built up
years of expertise in running the smoothest call centers around.
Call them service bureaus. Or outsourcers. Or specialists — it
doesn't matter. Because what they are is the backbone of the call cen-
ter industry, the infrastructure on which we all rely.
There's more to telemarketing than making phone calls. You may
think you have a killer campaign planned, but can you really handle
it? Can your marketing and sales departments do the research and
write the scripts? Dig up the right lists and clean them?
Do you have enough people to make calls, and at the right hours?
At the back end, who is going to verify the sales, send out the orders
and maintain quality control?
The harder you look at it, the more it may seem like an impossi-
ble task. That's why you need a service bureau. Today's full-service
call center company can integrate all the front- and back-end process-
es for you. They can save you time and manpower and also take
advantage of volume to give you access to cutting-edge technology.
We used to think of them as predominantly outbound entities,
doing mainly specialty telemarketing. That's not the case anymore. In
fact, the outsourcing functions of a service bureau now go far beyond
what we traditionally expect. Everything we think of as "back office"
is now fair game for an outsourcer: everything from inbound and out-
bound call handling to customer tracking, quality assurance, fulfill-
ment, data processing and even help desk customer support.
Or should we say: especially customer support. More and more,
companies are turning over their help desks to outside experts. It's eas-
ier than it's ever been, thanks to technology that assists in routing and
tracking calls. And it's more cost-effective.
As post-sales customer support becomes simultaneously more
important and more expensive, companies are looking for lower cost
alternatives that don't force them to compromise on quality.
What do you get with a service bureau? A few deceptively simple
benefits:
• Access to technology. Forget about the big capital investments in
switches, dialers, workstations. In upgrades to hardware and soft-

WHEN SHOULD YOU GO OUTSIDE FOR HELP?
ware. Service bureaus are equipped with state-of-the-art call center

systems. They can spread the costs around multiple clients. Unless you
devote strong (and consistent) resources to your in-house call center,
only a service bureau will have the cutting edge technology you need
to stay competitive — and have it in a hurry.
• Vertical expertise. These companies are specialists. In the needs of
banks. Or fundraisers. Or retailers. Whatever industry you are in,
there are outsourcers who know how that vertical market functions
and how to treat your customers.
• Speed. You can respond quickly to seasonal (or even hourly) fluctu-
ations in the number of agents your program will need.
One of the surprising developments in recent years is the way cer-
tain high tech companies are growing into major outsourcers them-
selves. This is due to the need to provide intensely consultative service
to many of their own customers.
IBM (White Plains, NY), for example, is wrapping a variety of
support functions together under a Help Desk Services banner. One,
Help Desk Operations, lets IBM customers "offload" a range of cus-
tomer support services to IBM.
They'll do the call management (they handle 8 million calls a year)
as well as sophisticated remote desktop support for a variety of hard-
ware platforms.
Similar bundles of support services are available from Digital
Equipment Corporation (Shrewsbury, MA). They'll act as either an
on-call tech support service for your reps, or provide service directly
to their customers' customers. Hardware vendors Amdahl (Sunnyvale,
CA) and Xerox are on this track as well.
As call centers change (becoming more distributed, and taking on
more business functions) the companies that provide them with services
change too. There is much more emphasis on advanced computer tele-
phony integration technology at outsourcers these days. And on technol-
ogy for linking call centers with other back office processes. Outsourcers
are now, more than ever, the engine of growth in the call center industry.
Outsourcing service bureaus face many of the same pressures as
in-house call centers. Here are some of the trends and technologies
that will affect how outsourcers do business in the next decade.
Outsourcers are a good gauge of the cutting edge. They've always
been in the forefront of technological and operational change in the
call center industry.
In fact, even before there was such a thing as a call center indus-
try, service bureaus were busy creating it — carving out an identity for
call centers that had less to do with the vertical market served than it
did with the techniques involved in handling calls.

What will service bureaus look like in five years? Not terribly dif-
ferent, at first glance. While there are several trends pushing the call
center in virtualized, dispersed directions, the physical reality of
today's centers — roomsful of people, talking into headsets — won't
change dramatically before the turn of the century.
Here, though, are some things that are changing. Below the surface.
1. Growth. There will be many more outsourced call centers than
there are now. "Companies are learning that the call center is not their
core business," says Diane Fox of GE Capital Technology
Management Services.
"That helps make the case for the outsourcer. Everyone is looking
at containment of costs — doing it better, cheaper, faster." The role of
outsourcers expands as more companies discover the benefits of tak-
ing back-office functions out of the house altogether.
2. New players coming into the market. Companies like IBM and
Xerox are already major providers of support to end users of their
own high tech products. This will continue and accelerate. Also, the
landscape is changing as mergers and consolidations bring even more
efficiencies and economies of scale to the service bureau industry.
3. Two simultaneous counter-trends: centralization and decentral-
ization. The typical call center is small, but service bureaus are, on
average, bigger than the typical center. And better outfitted with lead-
ing technologies. They have to be to attract customers and to serve
multiple clients.
Technology is now available that makes linking small centers eas-
ier than ever before. Network queuing with open switches, for exam-
ple, allow you to treat geographically separate centers with different
ACDs as if they were one virtual center. You can put centers where
they are needed for client purposes, then manage the network of sites
intelligently and efficiently.
On the other hand, good infrastructure in a call center costs
money. A call center that serves only one company can experiment
with telecommuting reps, or with several linked micro-centers (the
kind of two- to five-person sites that are springing up in office parks
all over the country). But a modern high-volume service bureau can't
take the risk.
"What we'll probably end up with are highly centralized centers,
with more than one center per outsourcer," says Diane Fox.
4. An increased use of service assurance systems. If the likeliest
future is one in which each major outsourcer has several dispersed,
linked mega-centers, then redundancy is more important — and feasi-
ble — than it used to be. Power protection is moving beyond the
workstation, with systems available for data networks and telecom

devices. Service bureaus will also be relying even more heavily on con-
tinuity programs from long distance carriers, plus diversified service
from multiple carriers.
And, not surprisingly, who do the outsourcers turn to in an emer-
gency? Other outsourcers: companies (Comdisco and Sungard are
two) whose purpose is to stand ready with portable call-centers-on-
demand, including complete data and voice network availability.
5. More front-end automation. Because it works. IVR. and the
computer telephony applications behind it have reached a level of end
user acceptance that renders them indispensable. They save money.
There will be more flavors in the next few years.
Diane Fox cites speech recognition as a currently underused tech-
nology with a great deal of promise as a call center front-end. Add in
Web-integration and fax-on-demand (and the Web/fax hybrids now
available), and customers have a feast of options for reaching the call
center, all of them far less expensive to you on a per-call basis than a
traditional voice call.
Service bureaus will be required to provide more of these options
to their clients — relieving them of the annoying burden of maintain-
ing documents, prompts and hardware.
The changes in service bureaus over the next few years mirror
what's going on in the rest of the call center industry. They all face the
pressure of improving productivity and delivering more services
directly to the end-user. And they are all scrambling to provide more
"self-serve" methods of interaction — letting the customer search a
database for the answers to his own problems, for example, or use an
automated system to transfer funds.
Available to all these centers will be an evolving basket of pow-
erful technologies, some new, some enhanced. The difference for
outsourcers is that they have even more pressure than the rest of
the industry to stay ahead — to use those technologies to eke out
even tiny efficiencies. To make money in that small spread between
what it costs to handle calls, and what you can charge the client
for that service.
Even if you run your own call center, there are times when you can
benefit from going to an outside service provider. Maybe you want to
try out a new campaign, or expand your hours. Maybe you want to
test a different kind of technology, or ramp up a new product offering
in a hurry. Here's what a dedicated service bureau can do for you.
Convenience. Often, companies turn to service bureaus because
they would rather have someone else deal with the headaches of plan-
ning, technology and follow-up. Service bureaus can take the burden
of a telemarketing program out of your hands entirely, if that's what

you're looking for. Many smaller companies, or those experimenting

with phone sales as a new kind of marketing, fall into this category.
Cutting-edge technology. Service providers take advantage of their
high volumes to afford the latest equipment with the fanciest features
— what you might not be able to cost justify for your smaller (or tem-
porary) applications. They offer predictive dialing, after hours call
routing, and list cleanup services at a fraction of what it would cost
you to buy the systems and software yourself.
Also, smaller companies can present a large-company face to their
customers, even if they can't afford an ACD or high-powered outdi-
aler at any price. A service bureau can be your front door.
Quick help in tough times. Say you've just brought out a new
product and are receiving many times more calls for sales than expect-
ed. (Or worse — more calls for service.) A service bureau helps pick
up the slack. They'll handle the calls (all of them, or just the overflow
from your centers), collect data, make sales or deliver service. From
the customer's point of view, they are talking to you.
List services. You already run a successful inbound center. Now
you want to dip your toe in an outbound telemarketing program.
They'll make it easy for you:
• Clean your lists, including merge/purges.
• Help you develop the scripts and the data collection systems you need.
• Give you reports as detailed as if you were pulling them from your
own switch.
Specialty niches. Are you prepared to crack the hispanic market
with your current staff and configuration? How about Europe? Or
even Canada? There are service bureaus that specialize in Spanish-lan-
guage telemarketing or other multilingual options.
Others take on the needs of a particular industry, like fundraising,
collections or high-technology.
Once you decide to take advantage of a service bureau's benefits,
you still have to decide which of the many service bureaus out there is
best for you. Here's how to get the most out of your campaign and the
most service for your money:
1. Outline the specific goals of the project. Knowing exactly what
your objectives are will help identify the service bureau that's right for
you. If you are able to explain your objectives clearly to the agency
then it should be apparent whether that one is for you or not.
2. Check their references. This helps make sure the bureau is rep-
utable and lets you see if they have done campaigns similar to yours.
3. Do they monitor their telephone service representatives? If they
don't, there is room for inaccuracy. Some bureaus not only monitor
TSRs but let clients listen to the TSRs themselves.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
GETTING THE FRESHEST,

CLEANEST LISTS
There's nothing worse than starting an expensive outbound cam-
paign, and discovering that the target market isn't where it should be
— answering the phone. If something's wrong with the lists, there are
some very simple steps you can take to correct it. Or better, make sure
the lists are the best they can be before you start.
First, you should get your own list cleaned and processed. Next,
you should add phone numbers to the existing names on your list.
Then, you should rent new lists to complement your own, to help you
find new customers.
The good news is there are many companies that can help you with
this. They clean, standardize, maintain, expand and format your lists.
And they can get you new names, based on a myriad of characteristics.
GETTING A LIST
Getting a list has never been easier. There are scores of full-ser-
vice list brokers who can provide you with lists cut any way you
want them, in a variety of forms. Over the last few years, the trend
has been toward a "one-stop-shopping" approach. Instead of buying
a list from one source and taking it somewhere else for demograph-
ic analysis (and perhaps to other sources for direct mail lettershop-
ing or for outsourced outbound calling), many top companies per-
form all these services.
There are two kinds of lists: compiled and response. They differ
in price and quality. Compiled lists are culled from generally avail-
able public records, such as auto registrations and change of
address data.
Response lists, which are more expensive, come from private
sources. They are comprised of names of people who have actually
responded to an offer. Subscriber lists and fundraising donor lists fall
into this category. Response lists are more frequently updated. They
are better for honing targeted marketing campaign than compiled lists
(which provides you with blanket coverage in an area).
Most companies with call centers already have in-house lists of
their customers and prospects. But before you turn around and use
those lists for your next telephone marketing program, you're proba-
bly going to need to clean it up a bit.

GETTING THE FRESHEST, CLEANEST LISTS
There are going to be names without phone numbers, people or

companies that have moved and duplicate listings. That's where a tele-
phone lookup service comes in. They fill in the missing pieces. Here
are some of the services they provide:
1. Cleaning the list. To find the most name/number matches,
the lookup company should standardize all the addresses in the
list. Each company's process differs slightly, but the result should
be a list that responds to the matching process better, giving you a
higher hit rate.
2. Running the list against the lookup service's national file of
names. Lookup services either compile or subscribe to huge national
databases that try to list all households and businesses.
3. Reverse matching. Add names and addresses to telephone num-
bers. Automatic number identification (ANI) is a boon to many call
centers. But sometimes you get stuck with a database of telephone
numbers and no idea who these people are. Perhaps you have a list of
people who called your 800 or 900 number. You weren't thinking of
doing any other marketing at the time, but now you are.
You can take those numbers and turn them into names with
reverse matching. Those people have already expressed interest in
your company by calling once. They are ripe for direct mail or tele-
phone marketing.
With this kind of reverse phone appending, you can also spend a
little bit more and add to your database with demographic data, like
age, dwelling type to your database, or info like this:
• Presence of credit cards,
• Estimated household income,
• Number and ages of children and adults,
• Sweepstakes users, and more.
This data gives you a better idea of who you are calling, helping
you improve scripts and promotions. The tighter you target, the less
time and money you waste calling the wrong people.
Until recently, getting (or freshening) a list was a time-consuming
process. Now, there is no more waiting for list information. List rentals
and look-up information can be in your computer faster than instantly.
In the list industry, which includes look-up services and list
providers, the trend is clear. More suppliers are relying on high-tech,
electronic means of taking orders and delivering lists such as electron-
ic bulletin boards or on-line services.
Transferring data to tapes, then sending it by overnight delivery
has long been a bottleneck in the list industry. With this bottleneck
removed, most service providers are boasting of 24-hour or even same
day turnaround on projects.

People in the industry say that call center managers, and other list
customers, have always pushed for speedier service. The new technol-
ogy just lets look-up companies serve a long standing need.
But call center managers may need to move faster on lists than
they ever have before. The percentage of people moving is as high as
20% a year. The timing on getting a correct phone number as fast as
possible is critical.
In addition, the new technologies just don't save mailing time. On-
line and bulletin board services let you send a list to your service
provider with the touch of a button on your computer. This lets you
(or your assistant) avoid packing, labeling and shipping data tapes.
On the other end of the transaction, the service provider doesn't
have to do those bothersome chores either. Since time is money, the
new technology has opened the door to smaller businesses to use list
services of all kinds.
The electronic transmission of lists for rental or processing has
taken the industry by storm. There is no way to underestimate the
impact of cutting out those two days for shipping. And with huge vol-
umes of information available on simple CD-ROMs and over the
Internet, the push is on among the list providers to deliver value-added
services in addition to the data itself.
In fact, there is a trend toward real-time look-up that lets your
agents perform searches on the fly — sometimes right from your
own sales or customer service software. You can't get much faster
than that.
DNI's Electronic White Pages lets you perform look-up on the tele-
phone companies' own directory databases, which are updated daily.
More than 120 million addresses and telephone numbers are available
through these databases.
A related product, Power Access, lets you use the services of
Electronic White Pages in batch mode.
At Metromail (Lombard, IL) the news is a powerful search engine
that provides a front-end interface for the National Directory
Assistance (NDA) product.
NDA is an electronic, on-line alternative to traditional directory
assistance. NDA keeps current with licensed telephone company data.
Metromail plans to license and compile daily adds, changes and
deletes from the telephone company directories.
Metromail takes advantage of their valuable chunk of NDA
data in many ways. In partnership with another company, they
offer PhoneLine, an enterprise-wide directory that gives your
employees access to corporate, personal and external services from
the same platform.

HOW TO GET A SMART LIST

Of course, direct marketing can't happen without a list. It all
starts there. While the technology for delivering lists has changed
greatly in the past few years, the technique for selecting the best
list for your campaign is evergreen.
Keep these points in mind:
• Know your present and potential customers. Identify the type of
person or business most likely to respond to your promotion from
the characteristics of your customers.
• Determine the right geography to cover in your promotion.
• Make sure the list is sortable for postal discounts.
• Ask about the sources for potential lists to find out how respon-
sive the names might be.
• Some companies specialize in business lists, others in con-
sumer lists. Know which you need and find a company with that
specialty. (Some do "specialize" in both.)
• Research your markets thoroughly. It's your responsibility not to
create junk calls.
• You will probably need to add telephone numbers to most lists.
• Pick a broker who has been around the block a few times.
Experience counts. A good reputation and references count more.
• Know your market. A broker can sell you a list, but he or she
can't do your market research. Know your present and potential
customers. Who is most likely to respond to the current promotion,
given the type of people who are already your customers?
• Decide where you want to market. In your local region? In big
cities? In the West?
• Test a few names before you buy in quantity. Compare respons-
es against a proven campaign. Testing a list with a new script or
product introduces too many variables for a good test.
• Test several different lists or different selections from the same list.
• Get to know your account representative. He or she is a valuable
source of information on what are the right lists for you. If the
account rep isn't worth knowing, it's time to find a different broker
— or at least another rep.
• Test, test, test.
For the credit and collections industry they have the MetroNet
System, which locates difficult to find individuals, and the CheckPoint
Address Verification System that lets credit issuers confirm addresses
before credit is extended.
As for CD-ROM, nothing beats the Select Phone series of disks
from Pro CD, a set that contains the entire country's phone numbers
on five disks, including businesses. It's all fully searchable, down to SIC
codes. And it costs less than $100. Perfect for the small call center.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is this: even if you

aren't using a service to augment your lists, you should still keep them
in good shape. The value is there if you update your list as much as
possible. Unfortunately, many companies, especially in fundraising,
update their file infrequently. And it affects their results.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
USING MESSAGES
ON HOLD: SILENCE IS
NOT GOLDEN
Silence is annoying, tiresome, and makes people hang up before
you can get to them. Play them a message, though, and suddenly they
start listening. And buying.
The hold queue is both a blessing and a curse. First, the curse —
people don't like waiting. Leave callers on hold for a minute or more,
and around half will hang up. Leave those callers listening to silence
and the numbers go even higher — up to 88% of callers hang up,
according to one measure.
Now, the blessing. Done intelligently, the hold queue can be turned
into a sales opportunity. Playing messages or music on hold can
increase a caller's interest in buying, and keep them on the line longer
during busy periods. On hold advertising has the lowest cost-per-
impression of any major medium.
It's the best and least expensive medium to introduce a new product.
You have a captive audience of people who are already looking to buy
something. And it's an opportunity to make the right first impression.
According to one survey, 70% of all calls are put on hold. And
those callers aren't just sitting there, they're hanging up.
One vendor in the industry found that 88% of callers who are put
on telephone hold and hear silence hang up.
But don't think just playing the radio will keep those callers around.
First, the radio plays advertisements, for other products and for your
competition. It's easy for your potential customer to lose interest.
Second, the songs played on the radio have copyrights. You need
to pay a fee to "rebroadcast" them on your on hold system. Those fees
start at over $300 dollars a year and can go up to several thousand
dollars for a company with over 300 trunk lines.
If you don't pay the fee and get caught, you can be fined for hun-
dreds or even thousands of dollars for each song played.
With a message designed for play on hold, you can do more than
keep your customers occupied and your company free from fines.
A survey conducted by Nationwide Insurance showed that mes-
sages on hold reduced hangups by 50% to 80% and increased the

USING MESSAGES ON HOLD: SILENCE IS NOT GOLDEN
amount of time callers were willing to spend on hold 15% to 35%.

The survey also concluded that sales increased 15% to 35% because
of information callers heard on hold. Some of the things on-hold mes-
saging can do for your business:
• Increase sales. You can deliver quick bursts of information about
who you are and what you do: products, services, special promotions.
You can reinforce the messages in your advertising, driving up sales
and increasing revenue.
• Cross-sell. Just because someone calls for service doesn't mean
they're not open to buying. Cable companies learned this lesson a long
time ago, putting messages for premium services and pay-per-view
events on the hold queues for their services lines. Another idea is to
promote products loyal customers might not have heard about, like
extended warranties and service contracts, or limited-time offers.
• Image enhancement. Face it, there's nothing like silence to tell the
caller you don't care much for them. Messaging on hold leaves the
customer with a more positive impression of your company. And it
can make you seem larger and more successful than you really are, an
advantage a small startup might need in a competitive industry.
• Answer frequently-asked questions. There are two kinds of ques-
tions you can deal with in your messages. The first is the kind that
drive your receptionists crazy: your address, business hours, or fax
number. The second is to tell the caller what she is going to need to do
to complete the call when they reach an agent. "Please have your
account number handy, as well as the model number of the product
you are having trouble with."
THE HARDWARE
The hardware you need to implement a message-on-hold system is

pretty cut and dried — and not terribly expensive. (Over time you'll
spend more for programming and production than you will for the
playback technology.) Better still, in the last few years it has migrated
from analog tape-based systems to digital players and analog/digital
hybrids. That reduces wear, lengthens life, improves sound quality and
makes systems far easier to update and maintain.
Most phone systems provide an audio input for you to connect a
playback system. Many automated attendant and voice mail systems
do, too. There are several kinds of on-hold message players. Which
you choose will depend on the quality of the message you can toler-
ate, and the kinds of features you want.
Analog loop-tape players. These are simple cassette players whose
tapes run in continuous endless circles. Pro: some models cue automati-

cally to keep a caller from hearing dead air. Con: tapes wear out. The
more you play a tape, the worse the sound. Continuous loop tapes run
all the time, by definition. You'll constantly be replacing the tapes.
Auto-download digital announcers are the next step up. These are
cassette players coupled to digital playback systems. The units down-
load the program material from standard tape cassettes into the digi-
tal players RAM. Because it gets played back digitally, the endless
looping is all electronic — no degradation of the analog tape.
One advantage to this type of system is that cassettes are a very
convenient way for production houses to distribute programming.
These units are often favored as part of a package deal by turnkey pro-
ducers of on-hold messaging for that reason.
The digital players themselves start with as little as two minutes of
playback capacity. Adding memory adds playback time. Features that
add value: re-downloading message from cassette after a power fail-
ure (eliminating the need for UPS protection), and at the higher end,
the ability to check the message integrity in RAM and re-download if
it finds errors.
The HSR series from Bogen (Ramsey, NJ) offers you a choice of
models that vary by memory length (from four to 12 minutes). They
are easy to use: you simply enter the tape, and the unit automatically
assesses the audio start and stop points, sets the record levels and
downloads the material.
Mackenzie Laboratories (Glendora, CA) makes digital auto-load sys-
tems called the Dynavox DV-1000 and 1000Pro that provide up to 32
minutes of audio storage. Both models feature a pullout battery backup
compartment, a built-in monitor speaker and two audio outputs.
The difference between the two models is audio quality. In either
case, you get audio compression and full digital playback after the ini-
tial tape download.
Interalia's (Eden Prairie, MN) XMU digital announcer works as
well for ACD announcement as it does for on hold music. It also has
automated attendant functions.
To make programming easy, it has a PC interface for system con-
figuration and backup. If somewhere down the line you need more
lines, you can expand in eight line card increments. They also make
announcement systems with 56 channels so you can play up to 56 dif-
ferent announcements or messages.
Racom (Cleveland, OH) makes a digital announcer line that's
all digital — you record straight into memory, no tapes used. The
1700X announcer answers up to six lines (or six messages on one
line — your choice). You can link units for more lines. It can hold
up to 48 minutes of storage.

Valcom (Roanoke, VA) offers an announcer that comes in four- and

eight-minute versions, autoloads the tape, and is housed in a strong
steel case. They supply each system with a tape of licensed music.
Remote-programmable digital announcers. Like their cousins,
these are RAM-based digital players that are equipped with built-in
modems. That lets you download program content from a remote
computer, or from an off-site producer of programming.
If you have a program that requires constant updating, this can
automate the process. Most feature battery backup of RAM in case of
power failure.
CD-based systems are increasingly popular, especially in larger call
centers. These are essentially programmable CD-players. (It is impor-
tant to remember that nearly all the on-hold technology comes from
the audio world, not the telephony or telecom world. And not even
from much of the computer world.)
The simplest CD system lets you cue up a selection of audio tracks
from a CD. Your on-hold program supplier may distribute your pro-
gram on a disc, especially if it's custom content. Also, discs are available
that contain generic licensed music, free of copyright and license fees.
And the inevitable next step up the ladder: blending the output
from the CD player (the music source) with output from a straight
digital announcer (custom voiceover content). You can record a mes-
sage from your handset, phone it in, change it ten times a day if you
like. And the music that sits underneath it is of top quality.
Another way to do it is with the features in the switch itself.
Aspect's (San Jose, CA) CallCenter ACD, for example, lets you play
messages to the caller while in the hold queue. You can program in up
to 100 messages.
One of the advantages to this approach is that messaging becomes
just one possibility for callers in queue. With the Aspect system, they can
access other parts of the system (perhaps in response to something they
hear in a message), and then return to the queue in their exact spot.
Another handy choice is CC Announcer, Chadbourn Marcath's
(Chicago, IL) system that runs off a PC but looks to the switch like a
digital announcer. It uses a 486 PC, Unix, two voice channels and a
dial-up modem.
It's most intriguing feature: because it can talk directly to the switch,
it can tell the caller how much wait time to expect. You can have a set
of messages precreated for different wait-times: very soon (seconds), one
minute, two minutes, and so on. These can be interspersed with other
custom messages to keep that caller from hanging up.
In addition to these options, there are specialty products that are
beginning to make their presence felt, especially at the smaller end of

KEEP IT SIMPLE
Don't succumb to the temptation to make your message a no-
holds-barred extravaganza, catering to every caller and using every
auditory bell and whistle. Messages should be simple, to the point
and NOT ANNOYING. That's what will keep callers on the line.
the market, in micro-centers and and home offices. Products like the
PhoneBlaster from Creative Labs (an all-in-one PC-card that combines
a sound card, voice mail, on-hold messaging and Caller ID detection)
are threatening to turn music and messaging on hold into something
as common as the home answering machine. (This, thanks in part to
the increasingly shrinkwrapped availability of computer telephony
technology.)
But that will only accelerate the process already under way of
making your choice one of programming, rather than hardware.
Choosing a content producer is far harder (and more important) than
picking a hardware platform.
PICKING THE CONTENT
Most of the companies that provide on-hold services (as opposed

to the equipment) are experienced audio production houses, many
sporting their own studios, voice talent, scriptwriting staff, and mes-
sage crafting know-how. Many are from the advertising world, so they
know what kind of information and presentation works in holding a
customer's attention in the short bursts of an on-hold queue.
Some operate subscription services, letting you change your mes-
sage at frequent intervals. If you go this route, you'll want one of the
message players that lets you swap in a new message quickly, either by
replacing the CD or tape, or through an automatic modem download.
In fact, since many production companies act as turnkey
providers, you can get the hardware integrated with the type of pro-
gramming service you need. Service companies often distribute the
hardware made by major vendors.
One advantage of using a service is that you can have them do all
your recorded systems: voice mail, audiotext, even IVR prompts, all in
a consistent voice. Your company will present a consistent face (or at
least, voice) to the world.
There are some things you should look for in a service provider:
1. See how long the company has been in business. It's pretty easy
to see if someone is established in the industry, or if they're a fly-by-
night operation.

2. Call their clients, ask them questions, and most important, lis-
ten to their messages. If you call a reference and find yourself listen-
ing to a scratchy, repetitive, or worst of all, boring message, you and
that production company are not a good match.
3. Try a reasonably priced package of regular changes and
updates. Customers call repeatedly over the years. Hearing the same
old message can turn them off, especially if you're not mixing in some
marketing or sales information.
4. Communicate your promotions and marketing strategies to the
on-hold provider. Give their creative something to work with, and
something to earn their pay.
Some companies provide an 800 number to call for a sample mes-
sage on hold, others provide demo tapes. Either one will be valuable
in examining what the company has to offer.
The more "creative" you want the company to be, the more
important listening to a program similar to the one you have in mind
is. Have your heart set on a humorous program? Listen first. One per-
sons humorous is another persons corny.
(Humor is not the universal language, this may be why so few com-
panies use it in their messages on hold. If you are interested in a humor-
ous message though, many providers will be eager to do your bidding.)
QUICK TIP: DON'T USE THE RADIO

You might be thinking: Why should I invest in programming or
production? Can't I just play the radio on hold to keep people
amused until an agent is available?
The answer is: NO. For three reasons.
1. Playing the radio over the phone amounts to a rebroadcast-
ing of copyrighted material. You can buy a license in advance (for
a sum that depends on the number of phone lines you have). If you
don't do it in advance, you can end up owing ASCAP and BMI much
more, a fee of from hundreds to thousands of dollars per song.
2. If your competitors find out you are playing radio on hold,
where do you think they'll place their ads?
3. You'll lose all the benefits of having someone call — you're
not selling to them, or giving them some value-added information
that's going to gain (or keep) a customer. And you're probably pay-
ing for the call, too.
And one other thing. Many people are already playing music in
their offices or at their desks. Is there anything more annoying
than having to turn down the radio because the music on hold is
blasting in the other ear? Think about it.

SCRIPT TIPS
Writing your own? Here are some things to do and things to
avoid in your message on hold script.
DO:
• Keep individual topic items short.
• Use easy-to-understand words and phrases.
• Thank the caller often.
• Write the way people talk.
• Use phonetic spellings for unfamiliar words.
• Pre-read your script out loud.
DON'T:
• Tie paragraphs together.
• Make any one topic more than four lines long.
• Confuse the caller with complex messages.
• Use "shop talk."
CRAFTING AN EFFECTIVE MESSAGE
1. Don't keep telling customers to continue to hold. Customers

find this irritating. Use the time efficiently to promote.
2. Give callers an option to exit the message. The customer needs
an out. They need an option to leave a voice mail message or reach the
reception area, especially in the call center environment where they
may want to place an order or voice a complaint. Callers don't like
being forced to listen to a message and if they have to, there will be
more abandons.
3. Steer clear of chest beating. Keep the message short, low-key
and to the point. The message should be informational rather than
advertisy. The customer wants to be taken care of, not hear bragging
about the company. It should be viewed as an opportunity to tell
about products and services, offer an toll-free number for future calls
or a fax number.
4. Use MOH as an opportunity to tell customers about other
products. Product A might sell by the thousands, but customers
may not know about B and C products. Using the phone to tell
them is a critical link. There's already a relationship. Its been
proven that people will do repeat business with a company they're
comfortable with.
5. Incorporate thematic elements into an on hold message. Tie in
mottos or slogans used in brochures or even yellow page ads as part
of a complete marketing mix.
Give your program suppliers an activity schedule of what you're

planning to do over the year. That way a tape could be in and running
for whatever you're marketing that month.
6. Watch out for excessive repetitiveness. The first and second time
a caller hears the same message is okay, but once they hear the same
message on a third call (or the third time within a call) you're in the
danger zone.
There's no excuse for not using some form of on-hold messaging.
Its a cheap, easy way to keep people from hanging up. You can have
someone else do nearly all the work, while you reap the benefits. How
often does that happen in life?

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
CAN AGENTS WORK

FROM HOME?
There are powerful arguments in favor of having some portion of
your call center agents "telecommute," or work from home. One of
the biggest is the morale boost — and the resulting money you'll save
on training when they stick around for a long, long time.
Estimates vary on the number of telecommuters (in all fields) in
the US, but they cluster somewhere around seven to ten million peo-
ple. While there are no figures on how many of these are call cen-
ter agents working at home, call center workers are ideal candidates
for telecommuting.
If you haven't heard much about the unique employment situation
of those millions of telecommuters, it is probably because most of
them work for small companies with less than 100 employees.
One reason why smaller companies lead the way is their informal
management style makes testing the idea easier. The companies that
benefit most from having employees work from home are those
which have a workforce made up primarily of information workers
or service workers. Many call centers have employees that fall into
both categories.
The call center is the perfect business to support home agents,
especially with technical developments in the last few years that make
it easier for both manager and employee to do their job well.
Switches (and their software) have evolved to the point where
agents can log into an ACD and receive calls at home in exactly the
same fashion as if they were sitting at a desk in the center. Their PC
screen can receive the same screen pop of data. And most important,
the agent appears on the supervisor terminal in real time — so they
can be counted, evaluated, monitored, and communicated with.
Switches from Aspect and Rockwell, among others, offer advanced
and transparent home-agent capabilities.
Even if your phone switch doesn't offer these sophisticated
remote capabilities, your company can still have agents working at
home. The technology required for a telecommuting program is as
simple as a 2500 telephone set and an OfficeLink I device from
Teltone (Bothell, WA).
OfficeLink I is a device that lets at-home agents receive calls from the
in-office ACD as if they were in the call center. It also lets agents use the
ACD's special functions from home over regular, dial-up telephone lines.

CAN AGENTS WORK FROM HOME
Because agents use a 2500 telephone set (a basic, tone dial, desk-
top model with no frills), they usually use special feature codes to
access those features. In most cases the OfficeLink I keeps a full-time
link to the agent throughout the session. New calls are announced
with a tone.
Supervisors in the office can keep track of an agent's work through
an RS-232 port that pumps out call activity information.
But why would anyone spend even a penny to have agents work
at home? There are nine good reasons.
1. Gain productivity. Trials have shown that workers are more pro-
ductive at home. The main reason for this may be that there are fewer
interruptions. The fact that the telecommuters are more comfortable at
home and are avoiding the stress of commuting also contribute.
2. Reduce training costs. There are many advantages to decreasing
turnover, but the bottom line benefit is the reduction of training costs.
One company saved over $10,000 per telecommuting employee. The
bulk of that was money saved on training.
3. Retain employees when they move. With two-career couples
now the rule, not the exception, it is easy to lose a valued employee
because a spouse's job requires relocation.
Companies can retain the knowledge and experience of these
workers by having them telecommute from their new home.
4. Retain employees with family obligations. Today's workers
have obligations to both ends of the age spectrum. A worker may
leave a job to care for a child or elderly parent.
While working at home is usually not possible when young chil-
dren or seriously ill adults must be cared for, flexible work schedules
let telecommuters fit in part-time work when they are free from their
other responsibilities.
5. Provide call coverage in emergencies. Earthquakes, snowstorms,
floods. The past year has been a real test for call centers. Almost every
region has experienced a natural disaster that made it difficult or
impossible for agents to reach the call center.
Agents can work at home temporarily when disasters disrupt
roads or damage call centers.
Because the overhead costs are so low, temporary at-home agents
are also a cost effective way to deal with peak periods — whether they
are expected or unexpected.
6. Ease workers back from disability. When call center agents are
ill or injured, they usually don't return to work until they have recov-
ered 100%, notes Barrett. When agents work at home, employers
regain these workers' services sooner — even if the agents work for
just a few hours a day while recuperating.

NOT A DAY-CARE SUBSTITUTE

Finding convenient, affordable and safe day care is a big con-
cern for both workers and employers. While telecommuting has
many benefits, it is not a substitute for full-time day care for
young children.
Telecommuting is not a direct replacement for child care It's
too hard to take care of a small child while working.
But working at home can benefit companies and employees
when older children are involved. Parents can work part-time while
their children are in school and can be home when they return with-
out having to commute.
Working at home can also be a stop-gap when a child gets sick.
The parent's productivity may be lower because of the time required
to care for the child, but it will be higher than it would have been if
the parent took the day (or days) off from work completely.
7. Provide a new source of employees. The largest call centers

often employ all qualified agents within a reasonable commuting dis-
tance. , But what happens when those call centers need to expand?
Adding at-home agents that are outside of traditional commuting
distance is one way of expanding the workforce without the expense
of opening another call center.
8. Comply with the Clean Air Act. This federal law requires com-
panies with more than 100 employees in high-pollution areas to
design and implement programs to reduce air pollution.
Telecommuting is a sure way to reduce auto emissions.
9. Comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Another fed-
eral law gives disabled workers the right to employment in jobs they
are qualified for. Agents that can't commute because of their disabili-
ties can be accommodated through a work-at-home program. At-home
employment can also boost the productivity of other disabled workers.
One thing most companies with successful telecommuting pro-
grams have in common is the ability to successfully manage their
workers remotely. The main reason companies don't explore telecom-
muting is fear of lack of control. But with today's systems supervisors
can monitor agents' work as if they were sitting in the call center. It is
possible to randomly access both computer screens and telephone calls
as if the agent were in the same building.
It is important, however, for a company to put prospective
telecommuters through a selection process. Agents should earn the
right to work at home.
You should have stringent requirements for the selection of agents
that participate in a work-at-home program. First, agents should be

evaluated on work performance, including factors like attendance,

promptness and productivity. Then the agents' homes might be
inspected for size, electrical wiring and other factors important for
choosing an office site.
The experts all say that managing the expectations and feelings of
those workers "left behind" in the office is a key part of any success-
ful telecommuting program. It is not just managers who have to know
that the work-at-homer is producing. Co-workers must know also.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
MONITORING WHY
IT'S IMPORTANT, AND
HOW TO DO IT RIGHT
Monitoring your agents is the best way to ensure quality service.
In today's competitive environment, it's more important than ever.
And you can do it without hurting employee morale.
You wouldn't train an agent without listening to his or her phone
technique, would you? Monitoring is a critical part of the process of
teaching a new rep how to deal with customers, how to handle diffi-
cult situations, even simply how to follow a script and read a screen
full of complex information.
Feedback is important. Without it, reps don't improve. Even reps
that have been on the phones for some time need constant skills
assessment and further training. That's just common sense.
In most centers, you come at quality from two directions:
• making sure you have the best agents possible, operating at the high-
est level they can personally achieve;
• and enforcing a consistent standard of quality for customer contacts,
from the customer's point of view.
Monitoring agents is still the best way to ensure that you achieve
quality from both standpoints. If handled with sensitivity, monitoring
can be a benefit to agents because it helps them define and reach
career goals, assess strengths and weaknesses, and mark their progress
according to realistic standards.
Opponents of monitoring cite its possible negative effects, like
stress and reduction of employee privacy. But in products that moni-
tor agents, the emphasis is on how monitoring can help both agent
and manager can work together to improve performance.
HOW TO DO IT
For centers that use ACDs, it's more than likely that you'll have a
monitoring system built right into the switch. Some manufacturers,
like Teknekron Infoswitch (Ft. Worth, TX) build in sophisticated soft-
ware for combined monitoring/quality assurance programs.
Teknekron's AutoQuality and P&Q Review, for example, are

MONITORING - WHY IT'S IMPORTANT, AND HOW TO DO IT RIGHT
Windows-based tools for collecting data about agent performance and

assessing that data over the short or long term. AutoQuality auto-
mates the scheduling of agent monitoring for later review. Managers
don't need to be present to monitor, or to set up tapes.
For smaller centers, though, you may have to look outside your
phone switch for add-on products that help you monitor.
Dees (Redmond, WA), for example, makes a voice logging inter-
face for use with Northern Telecom PBXs and key systems. The MRI-
320 sits between your digital telephone and your recording device.
From there, you select the lines you want to record. Each MRI-320
handles up to four terminal sets.
Comverse/Magnasync (Hollywood, CA) offers the DVL 2000
Digital Voice Logger, a recorder with sophisticated search and archiv-
ing capabilities.
Their Data/Star Audio Search Manager uses databases to let you
locate calls you've recorded by their station, trunk, number dialed or
account number and play them back in seconds.
Also, many headset vendors have training-based models available
that add a second jack on the amplifier, to accommodate a no-mic
headset that, presumably, the trainer could wear when sitting next to
the trainee. Or, as a really low-budget monitoring system, you could
plug a tape recorder into the jack.
THE PROS AND CONS
With monitoring so easy to do, why isn't there monitoring in every

call center?
Fear of legislation, for one thing. For several years, Congress has
threatened to regulate the practice of monitoring surveillance in call
centers. For now that threat appears to have abated, but it's still pos-
sible at any time.
Some cities and states already have rules that may affect how
you monitor employees. All call centers should fully check all local
regulations before embarking on a monitoring program (or pur-
chasing equipment).
But the most obvious benefit of monitoring is that, if done right,
it creates an objective standard of behavior that can be measured, and
if found good, repeated. It helps ensure that you deliver not only good
service, but consistent service. Consistent from each agent, and con-
sistent across agents.
From the agent's point of view, it creates a way to measure per-
formance that can be spelled out in advance and critiqued intelligent-
ly. Results can be quantified and reps can see improvement over time.

MONITORING - WHY IT'S IMPORTANT, AND HOW TO DO IT RIGHT
Plus, it allows management to benchmark standards and ensure that

all reps are treated fairly, by the same standards.
TIPS FOR HANDLING AGENTS

Teknekron offers these suggestions for heading off employee
problems that could lead to litigation:
• Inform employees of performance standards in advance.
• Document all performance problems regularly, and give the
employee a copy immediately.
• Give the employee an opportunity to dispute or comment on the
performance appraisal.
• Establish a review audit system to prevent manager bias or per-
sonal feelings from affecting an appraisal.
• Provide employees with relevant feedback.
RECOMMENDED PRACTICES
The Incoming Calls Management Institute (800-255-8110) has
wisely put together a list of recommended practices for monitoring.
Here are a few of the most important:
1. If monitoring takes place, inform job candidates.
2. Monitoring equipment should only monitor what is said on the
line, not what the rep said between calls at his or her workstation.
3. Let only qualified personnel monitor for quality, or evaluate
the results of monitoring.
4. Clearly inform reps about the purpose of the monitoring, how
it is conducted, and how the results are used. Post the organiza-
tion's monitoring policy for everyone to see.
5. Use objective criteria in evaluation forms and monitoring
techniques.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
SMALL SOLUTIONS
FOR BIG RESULTS
Running a small call center puts you up against many of the same
challenges faced by larger centers. But small call centers aren't as lim-
ited as they once were. The big decision today is choosing the right
system so you can compete with any sized center.
The market for products designed for the small call center is grow-
ing and it's no wonder — more and more small and remote satellite call
center are spring up. According to one recent analysis, in 1995 the one
to 40 agent segment of the call center market generated an estimated
$128 million in end-user revenues and by 1999 this figure may reach
$269 million.
If you're worried you won't be able to afford the technology, think
again. These products were designed specifically with the small center
in mind. So aside from being inexpensive, you're sure to get a return
on investment in a very short time.
Many of the sophisticated features you would only expect to be
used by a large center can be found in the under-25 agent center. CTI
capabilities, functions like skills-based routing, help desk and call cen-
ter management software have become widely available and cost-effi-
cient for the small center.
As any seasoned call center manager knows, responsibilities like
scheduling staff, tracking calls and maintaining impressive service
levels can often be as trying in a small center if not more difficult than
in a large center.
A center that only employs 20 agents may have just one man-
ager to supervise the whole team. In a large center, one manger may
be responsible for managing 20 out of several hundred agents. The
difference is the manager in the larger center is more likely to be
using high tech equipment to help them meet service goals and
enhance productivity.
An important thing to remember when looking for systems for the
small center is that you may not always be small. It's important to
choose a system that's flexible, allowing you to increase capabilities as
you grow or upgrade to something larger at a fair price. Here's a look
at what's available.

SMALL SOLUTIONS FOR BIG RESULTS
AFFORDABLE ACDS
If your customer service center is a place where employees are not

always fielding calls, it can be hard to justify the expense of a large
standalone ACD. That's why there's PC-based ACDs and other
options for the smaller center.
One of the most intriguing solutions for small centers is
Perimeter's Centrex-based VU-ACD — a full-featured call router that
removes the burden of on-premise switching equipment. Installation
charges are low, and maintenance costs are practically nil. Still, the
user has a full complement of critical ACD features for a call center of
variable size: from four to 4,000 agents.
The VU-ACD allows for up to 20 ACD switch data links and 96
remote supervisor terminals, and an optional Agent Adherence
Capability for tracking agent position movement automatically.
One key market is the service bureau industry, which can use a sin-
gle VU-ACD host to service multiple customers. In fact, they can use
it to serve customers with smaller needs than is practical with most
other switches.
Cintech's (Cincinnati, OH) Prelude is a beginner's ACD designed
for users of Nortel's Norstar phone system. It can be used by centers
with as few as two agents. It's modular in design so you can select the
software features, functions, capacity, hardware and voice cards that
you want. The system can route and prioritize calls based on DNIS
(the number the caller dialed in on) or the caller's telephone number
(Caller ID / ANI).
Small centers can even take advantage of high-powered network
intelligence features, without a high-end switch. With Teloquent's
(Billerica, MA) Distributed Call Center and its ISDN-based
PhoneServer, you can manage calls, agents and voice processing sys-
tems — through the public telephone network.
Based on call characteristics, DCC's PhoneServer can route the call
to the best agent available in any center. You only need to purchase
one PC and Teloquent's PhoneServer software. Since you pay only for
each user you only have to pay for what you need.
The system uses Microsoft's DDE to let agents view caller records
on their PC with the call, based on ANI or digits the customer enters.
Teloquent can provide voice services from any major vendor's VRU or
you can use their own Voice Services module.
QStar from Digital Techniques (Allen, TX) plugs into the Norstar
to give you ACD and automated attendant functions. The system can
put callers into queue if all agents are busy and play a recorded greet-
ing and on-hold announcements.
The auto attendant feature directs callers to press a corresponding

digit on their phone pad to reach a certain department. Easily installed

port expansion cards allows the system to grow when business grows.
Lucent Technologies offers a suite of applications for the small call
center in agent packages of 12, 24 and 40. Their ECS system is small
scale version of their Definity ACD for small satellite call centers or
call centers just getting started.
The system easily upgrades to the basic Definity switch. Their
BCMS Vu is a management system for storing historical data, viewing
real time statistics and reporting. Other options include Wall Boards
and a skills-based routing application.
Aurora Systems, (Acton, MA) developers of FastCall CTI software
now makes a product call FastCall Agent which "telephony enables"
Windows applications.
Based on ANI, DNIS or other customer entered information, the
system sends agents screen pops. Nortel is offering the product (call-
ing it Visit FastView) for their Meridian 1 phone systems. Using the
system agents can log in and out of the call center and view real time
call statistics from their PC.
ExtraAgent and ExpertAgent SmartReports from SpanLink
Communications (Minneapolis, MN) works with the Merlin Legend
call center to give you improved reporting and additional ACD fea-
tures. ExpertAgent can identify callers and route them to the most
appropriate agent group, based on agent activity and agent skill level.
The system can play on hold messages and give callers the option to
continue to hold or have an agent return their call.
The reporting system offers six common templates for reporting
and the ability to modify templates or create new ones from scratch.
The system supports about 25 agents, but you can upgrade to support
more if your needs change.
VOICE PROCESSING
Voice processing applications like IVR are especially important for

the small call center so callers with simple questions can get the infor-
mation they need without tying up an agent. Using IVR no longer
mean having to purchase a large, expensive standalone box. Like
many call center technologies, you can now find PC-based systems
that are scalable and less costly.
MultiCall from Venturian Software (Hopkins, MN) is software
for creating voice applications. There are two components: the
MultiCall Generator for developing voice applications without the
need to write code; and the MultiCall Runtime Engine which runs
the Voice Box hardware supporting four to 32 ports per Voice Box.

The MultiCall Voice Box consists of a Pentium PC and a MultiCall

Voice Card.
In addition to IVR the system supports applications like auto
attendant, faxback, voice mail, computer telephony integration (using
Caller ID) and offers voice recognition capabilities.
Voysys' (Fremont, CA) VoysConnect is a phone and voice mail
system specifically designed for small businesses. The system gives you
features like voice messaging, off-site message notification, automated
attendant and fax switching in one product that can work with a vari-
ety of standard phones.
COMPUTER TELEPHONY
Once only for large, well-funded call centers, computer telephony

is now possible in small centers.
CallLink Agent Package from Teledata Solutions (Downers Grove,
IL) lets you add powerful integration without the need to make
changes to your operating system, switch or database.
The system works with your existing switch or Centrex on a LAN.
The Call Services Processor is connected to the switch and since it runs
on standard PCs it's scalable and easy to implement. The system
includes voice response, call distribution and CTI.
Agents receive caller information on their PCs after it's collected
from the VRU or through ANI. The Q-View Intelligent Call
Distributor lets agents view caller info before taking the call.
If you give callers the option to leave a voice mail message, mes-
sages go into a "community mailbox." When agents go into voice
mail retrieval mode they view a screen displaying all messages along
with each caller's identity, time of call and phone number. When pick-
ing which messages to retrieve they also get a screen pop of the caller's
record from the database.
GrapeVine Technologies' (Morrisville, VT) makes an intelligent
inbound call routing system that determines who is calling before
agents receive the call. It sends along the customer's file with every call
based on user-defined rules.
Based on the caller's record, the system can look at information
like which customers prefer to speak with a certain agent, which pre-
fer to reach voice mail (or never wish to reach voice mail) and then
route the call accordingly.
The system is ideal for the small center since it's LAN-based and
you can start with just four lines adding more on an as-need basis.
An ACD is also not required. The system will integrate with key
and PBX systems.

For users of Telrad's (Woodbury, NY) Digital phone systems and

entry-level PBX's, the company now has offerings for adding comput-
er telephony integration links and application software. Some of the
link products take advantage of TAPI and TSAPI. Their MegaSale sys-
tem is a telemarketing application with functions for creating scripts,
real-time reporting and preview dialing.
When the system is configured for an inbound application you can
get Caller ID and ANI information so agents can get screen pops. The
system can also use DID and DNIS information to associate a phone
number someone dials into with a specific campaign.
HELP DESKS
Your techs should not be required to look up answers in bulky ref-

erence manuals and have to waste time asking for routine information
and typing it in.
Even though you may support only a couple of products, customers
expect the same service they would get from high tech support centers.
Baron Software's (Garden City, NY) Manage-IT lets you establish
priority levels for each call and broadcasts time-critical announce-
ments. The data collection and reporting tools lets you evaluate, store
and solve customer problems.
SolutionDesk (Gurnee, IL) makes help desk software with features
found in larger systems but is priced for smaller budgets. A full text
document search engine and a knowledge base of solutions run on a
Windows platform.
If you want to store solutions but can't devote the time and energy
to starting your own knowledge base, KnowledgeBroker (Irvine, CA)
offers Ask.me Pro, a series of standalone problem resolution software
programs. The information in the package was compiled from thou-
sands of callers to their own multi-vendor help desk.
There are four different search algorithms you can use to match
questions with resolutions. You search the system using your own
words. It comes with it's own search and retrieval engine and is sold
by domain so you can purchase only the domains you need (there are
27 for software applications and hardware platforms).
INTEGRATED IVR OR VOICE SYSTEMS
If you already have an IVR system and an ACD, the incremental

cost of integrating the two systems is really very small.
Cascade's (New York, NY) Call Center is a PC-based package that
uses the company's IVR system, Voice Tools as an automated front end.

It delivers both voice and data information when the call is trans-
ferred to a live agent, including information already entered by the
caller while using the IVR system.
Cinphony, Cintech's PC-based ACD for center with 48 or few
agents, integrates with IVR, voice mail, automated attendants and
other call center technologies.
Information Gateways' (Vienna, VA) PhoneOne is a PC-based,
multimedia software tool kit. Running on a LAN server, it integrates
with IVR systems, fax-on-demand systems, even imaging systems
and video.
InterVoice's "OneVoice" philosophy means all InterVoice applica-
tions run on a generalized hardware and software system, making
integration between the applications possible. The company's
InterDial predictive dialing system provides the outbound function to
this mix of applications.
Information Gateways' PhoneOne, in addition to integrating with
outside telecom devices, can be programmed to operate as an ACD,
predictive dialer or both.
MULTI-SITE NETWORKING
Linking together distant call centers into a single functional center

is an important trend in the world of large call centers. But small call
centers are usually in one location.
What do you do when you want to add a single agent at another
location or at home to your call center? Teltone's OfficeLink offers an
alternative to expensive OPX (off-premise extension) lines.
Install OfficeLink as you would connect a single-line telephone to
your PBX or ACD, and your remote agent can dial in and receive calls
at a distant location. The agent can access any functions of your ACD
that are available through a single-line telephone.
Telcom Technologies Call-Master ACD lets you link up to eight
systems using the intelligent networking option. Those eight sys-
tems can be other Call-Masters, or it can be linked to Telcom's larg-
er ECD-6000 systems.
CONDITIONAL OR SKILL-BASED CALL ROUTING
The ability to access ACD functions through the OfficeLink also

means calls can be routed to remote agents on a conditional basis or
through skill-based routing if your ACD provides it.
If you have one or two "specialists" who handle high-end calls,
using OfficeLink with your ACD's skill-based routing means these

"agents" can become a part of your call center even if they work in
another office or from home, says Travers.
The Cinphony ACD from Cintech boasts a raft of sophisticated
routing features. Small call centers sometimes have bigger demands
simply because of their size. They have fewer people and so they need
more flexibility in their system.
With Cinphony that flexibility includes routing that sends calls to
agents based on their skill level in one group and to the agent idle
longest in another group. Priority queuing lets you send all VIP calls
to your top agent and place that agent first in line for other calls too.
The high-tech call center features you want are out there. And they
have been scaled down and placed in small packages sized for your
center. Your most difficult task may be decided which of these tanta-
lizing features will bring the greatest benefit to your call center.
SATELLITE CENTERS
Satellite call centers are used to tap a population of workers in
a remote location, to provide a call center in a branch office or to
locate a call center function in a more logical place (tech support
near engineering).
These centers can use the small call center technologies dis-
cussed here, or take advantage of solutions provided for this purpose
by their switch vendors. Both Aspect (San Jose, CA) and Rockwell
(Downers Grove, IL) have created products for satellite call centers.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
ADD CHECK
PROCESSING TO
YOUR REPERTOIRE
Looking for a way to increase sales by phone? One way is to add
an automated check processing system, especially for smaller compa-
nies. If you're a start-up, for example, the ability to let customers pay
by check might mean the difference between success and failure —
especially if you're not set up to take credit cards yet.
According to a report from Checks By Phone (Boca Raton, FL,
407-737-7500), 70% of callers who don't use a credit card and are
requested to mail a check never do mail it. That's a lot of expected
revenue that never materializes.
And the flip side of that: if you've got customers who previously paid
by mailing a check, persuading them to phone in their orders and pay
with their checking account number can increase order size by 50%.
Checks By Phone is a service that lets clients receive payments
from bank accounts by phone, fax — even on-line. From the cus-
tomer's point of view the transaction is transparent. they give the rep
their account number just as they would a credit card number. The
data is then transmitted to Checks By Phone's processing center for
authorization and overnight payment.
Automatic check debiting means the check is processed the day after
the call, not days or weeks later. Here is how this technology is working
in collections and direct marketing — and how it can work for you.
It works like this: an agent explains to the customer that your
company will have a facsimile check printed and processed. She also
mentions that paying by check over the phone gives him the same con-
sumer protection he would be eligible for if he actually wrote out and
mailed the check in his checkbook.
The customer's check number is sent to a check debiting service by
modem. The service prints out the facsimile check and sends it back to
you for processing by the next business day.
What this does is apply the same impulse buying logic to non-cred-
it card customers that call centers have always applied to credit card
callers. In fact, what it really does is open the call center to a kind of
customer who otherwise might never have called.

ADD CHECK PROCESSING TO YOUR REPERTOIRE
What's more, it opens up those callers to your automated systems

— they can enter checking account numbers into an integrated voice
response (IVR) system, for example, or be included as part of an out-
bound telesales program. This boosts the effectiveness of:
• fundraising,
• collections,
• and direct response inbound sales, to name just a few examples.
HOW AUTOMATED CHECK PROCESSING WORKS
STEP 1: Callers give you their

checking or savings
account number
on the phone.
STEP 2: You transmit the information

to CHECKS BY PHONE
by computer or fax.
STEP 3: CHECKS BY PHONE

authorizes transaction after
screening through seven levels
of fraud control and 77 million
pieces of negative and positive
check information.
STEP 4: CHECKS BY PHONE delivers

checks to you overnight
ready for deposit.
STEP 5: Banks process CHECKS BY

PHONE checks like any
other checks.
STEP 6: Your customers receive canceled

checks with their monthly bank
statement and can easily identity
what was paid for.
Checks By Phone is one of a number of check-processing service bureaus that

automate withdrawals from caller's checking accounts. It's fast and reliable, often
getting you overnight payment with protection from fraud. It's a great way to bring in
new customers and add them to your databases.

Automatic check debiting service companies number among their

clients just about every type of company that does business by tele-
phone. But it is clear that automatic check debiting is most frequently
used for, and has the biggest benefits in, debt collection.
It works for any situation where you would be shutting out a por-
tion of your potential customer base, or relying on them to send
money later (by which time buyer's remorse could set in). But by
adding a check payment option, you add the ability of your agents to
cross-sell and up-sell. The logic is simple: more callers turned into cus-
tomers, more data collected about them, and more revenue. In both
the short and long term.
Here are some suggestions for how to make the best use of auto-
mated check processing. (Some of these tips come from the Checks By
Phone report How to Increase revenue From Every Part of Your
Marketing Program.)
1. Offer the check option as many ways as possible, and let peo-
ple know. In your catalog, wherever you include the credit card logo.
During calls, when agents should mention it as an option for payment.
If you sell using direct response, it should be part of your advertising.
2. Collections programs that take checks will pull in more money
using automated check transactions than they will if they rely on cus-
tomers to pay later. With automated checks, you can take partial pay-
ment immediately and set up a payment schedule for the balance —
A RELATED TECHNOLOGY
SPS Payment Services (Riverwoods, IL) is best known for inbound
telephone customer service centers. But another segment of the com-
pany has been doing "debit processing" for the last couple of years.
Debit processing is when you use your automatic teller
machine (ATM) card to pay for a product or service. It is most com-
monly used in supermarkets and gas stations.
Debit processing is similar to automatic check debiting in that
both transfer funds from a customer's bank account to a vendor's
account without the customer touching paper. But where check
debiting uses verbal contracts and verification letters for customer
approval, debit processing uses the combination of the electronic
information on the ATM card and the customer's PIN number for
security — in the same way an ATM transaction does.
Consumers slide their ATM cards through a magnetic stripe
reader and punch their personal identification numbers (PINs) on a
keypad. A service company, such as SPS, processes the transac-
tion. The transaction transfers funds from the customer's bank
account to the store's bank account.

creating more goodwill and less payment resistance. Remember, it's

harder (and more expensive) to find a new customer than it is to retain
an existing one.
3. In cases where you sell an ongoing product that requires cycli-
cal billing, you can replace much of the billing process with automat-
ed checking account withdrawals.
4. One advantage of using a check processing service bureau
like Checks By Phone or Accelerated Payment Systems is that they
filter out bad checks by running transactions against large fraud
control databases.
These days there's no reason why you should lock yourself out of
transactions involving check-paying customers. If you're a company
with a large, well-established center, you can extend your offerings
and enhance revenue. And if you're small, or you don't take credit
cards, you can use checks as a way to reach every possible customer.
It's a no-lose proposition.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
THE IMMENSE
VALUE OF ANI
There's more coming out your phone line than the voice of the
caller. You also get valuable data telling you the number of the calling
party. Your database can turn that number into gold.
Here is a wonderful small call center application: an airport cab
company writes down the number of every pay phone in the vicinity
of the terminals at Phoenix airport. When a traveler gets off the plane
and calls for a taxi, the dispatcher knows exactly where that caller is
standing. And he knows the route to the nearest taxi stand.
That saves time, pleases the customer (enormously) and it is remark-
ably easy to accomplish, thanks to a Caller ID application developed by
Rochelle Communications (Austin, TX). Rochelle makes a line of prod-
ucts that enhance telephone calls with Caller ID information.
It is estimated that almost half of US call centers use ANI (auto-
matic number identification) or Caller ID in one form or another. It
has quietly become a critical tool for handling calls — determining
where to route them and helping to shorten their duration.
There are various levels of what they can do with it. Small centers can
create clever applications like the taxi locator, and larger, more complex
centers — especially inbound 800 centers — have even more options.
Financial services and mail order companies appear to be the
biggest users of ANI applications.
For most users, making it work is simple. You take the number
coming in and match it against a database. After that, there are as
many possible applications as there are call centers.
• You can use that data to route the call to a specific agent, because
you know who that caller is.
• The number can identify a caller's location or company, letting you
pop a screenful of information onto the agent's desktop.
• You get shorter phone calls — because you stop the keying in of
account numbers and the repetition of names as the call gets passed
from agent to agent.
• Greet repeat callers by name, adding the local, personal touch to
business interactions, even if you have thousands of regular customers.
• Caller ID and its close cousin ANI are at the heart of computer/tele-
phone integration. That phone number, as it comes in, is the critical
link between the telephony world and the computer database. You

THE IMMENSE VALUE OF ANI
may get more precise or detailed information about the caller when
the caller himself punches in digits (to an IVR unit), but it'll never be
as transparent to the caller as it is with Caller ID.
• Stop losing calls. Say your call center starts showing serious spikes
— maybe after a catalog drop. Call abandons go up dramatically. If
you have the ANI data from your 800 carrier, you can call back peo-
ple who hang up while in queue. Apologize, and maybe you'll make
the sale. Without the ANI, though, you'll never know who called you.
THE PRODUCTS
There are lots of hardware and software products that make use
of the data stream coming in with the voice call. They all do some-
thing different with it. Here are a few of the most interesting ones.
A PC-to-telephone interface from Octus (San Diego, CA) includes
Caller ID support as part of a suite of features aimed at enhancing the
PC control of phone calls.
The Octulink delivers the incoming phone number to the PC, and
in particular to Octus' software Address Book. The Address Book acts
as a contact manager, bringing up a screenful of information to review
before you answer the phone.
Centers with T1 lines coming in can benefit from Digital
Promotions' (Boynton Beach, FL) ANlmatic. This turnkey hard-
ware/software combo sits between the T1 and the phone switch. It
routes callers based on ANI, DNIS or a combination of the two.
It works by capturing and holding the incoming call, then query-
ing its database server for handling instructions based on the ANI. It's
lightning fast.
SOFTWARE
On the software side, switch vendor Teknekron Infoswitch (Ft.

Worth, TX) uses ANI to enhance the screenful of information that the
ACD sends to the agent's desk.
When a call comes in, for example, TSRs get a small "ANI"
Window that pops up on their screen with the name of the customer,
the contact and the customer number. There are also two choices the
rep can make just by clicking on a button: "Pop" the data onto the
screen, or "Bypass." These features are part of Rendezvous/CS,
Teknekron's ACD software.
Digisoft Computers' (New York, NY) Telescript software links to
the AT&T Definity switch and Novell/AT&T Telephony Services for
NetWare. This lets Telescript (which is mainly an outbound telemar-

keting system with lots of added features) dial out and receive
inbound calls through switches that support the standard.
Part of the benefit is automatic detection of incoming phone num-
bers, and the inevitable screen pop, and access to DNIS features that
tell you which 800 number a call came in on.
A new feature: Pickup has its own internal database that lets dif-
ferent telephone numbers access the same data record. That way you
can find a record even if a person calls in from a secondary location.
Instor Systems (San Jose, CA) makes software products that works
with your PBX to prevent toll fraud. Call Analyzer collects call records
from the switch. It integrates with the company's Fraud & Abuse
Analyzer to detect abnormal patterns. Once you've identified a security
breach, the ANI data collected identify the hacker's telephone number.
ANI IDEAS
Is automatic number identification (ANI) for you? Here's a list
of benefits:
• Shorten calls. Screen pops can save 10 to 20 seconds.
• More sales per hour. You can make 2% to 4% more sales per
hour and reduce the cost per sale as much as 10%.
• Sell to drop offs. Get another shot at people who hung up by
using ANI to call them back.
• Save on shipping costs. With screen pops from ANI your agents
spend time checking existing addresses instead of entering them
into the system. Greater accuracy means lower costs for re-ship-
ping.
• Prioritize calls. ANI lets you move important customers to the top
of the queue (or even send customers who owe you money straight
to the collections department.)
• Acquire a database. Collect ANI information and you have a good
start toward a customer database. Even without other information,
you have a calling list for outbound campaigns.
• Prevent fraud. Matching ANI to existing records helps secure
computer network access and can even detect fraudulent callers
claiming to be existing customers.

HOW IT WORKS
The US standard CLASS Caller ID information is delivered down
analog phone lines starting right after the first ring, which means
you can't pick up the phone until the second ring or you will inter-
rupt the delivery of Caller ID data.
The data is transmitted using a 1200 baud receive only
modem format which allows full ASCII data to be sent down the
line, but it can't take very long or it would interfere with the sec-
ond ring pulse. Some other countries use DTMF tones sent down
the line before the first ring, similar to DID service.
Note: One major failing of Caller ID is that it won't show you the
number of a cellular phone call. AT&T Wireless and several other
cellular carriers are rolling out the service. But no dice yet.
When it becomes available, you could order pizza from your car-
phone on your way home or, just as important, help emergency
911 operators know who is reporting a problem from a carphone.
Caller ID is available 100% everywhere in Canada. Caller ID is
available 100% on 800 and 888 lines fed to customers on T-1 or
dedicated access lines. Caller ID is available in most places as a
local service in the U.S. and increasingly you're getting Caller ID
on all long distance calls.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A CALLER ID BOX

Features to check:
• Serial Daisy-Chaining: To support more than one device per serial
port, if a single device won't support the number of lines needed.
• Inbound DTMF detectors: If you want to collect digits dialed by
the caller for tracking calls through an auto attendant or other
voice application.
• First Ring Suppression: If you can't prevent a device from picking
up on the first ring.
• Call Duration Timing: If you want to track lengths of calls to clients.
• LCD Information Displays: If you want to be able to view the infor-
mation without a PC being connected to the device.
• Call Data Buffers: If you want the unit to store the last "n" calls
when the computer is offline.
• Software Configuration: Most boxes offer a command set to acti-
vate and deactivate specific features on the Caller ID boxes. Some
don't. They require jumper or switches to be changed.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
PREPARING FOR THE

WORST - SO IT
NEVER HAPPENS
The list of what could happen is long and frightening. Fire, flood,
weather, vandalism, industrial accidents, and so on. The results of any
of those events could have devastating effects on a company. The call
center is one of your company's most vulnerable segments because it
is the nexus of several complex technologies. Losing it means you are
cut off from your customers — so in any disaster it should have top
priority for recovery.
Power protection is probably the most serious ongoing problem.
When a call center goes down, revenue stops coming in. Protecting
yourself from disasters is one of the least expensive — but most
neglected — aspects of call center management.
There is no such thing as "good" downtime. In a call center,
downtime means calls aren't coming, orders aren't being taken, cus-
tomers are getting angry, impatient, upset. Or they're simply calling
someone else, and you'll never know about it.
There are a lot of things that can bring your call center to a
screeching halt. (Actually, the halt will be very very quiet. . . ) Natural
disaster can keep people from coming to work — storms, snow, flood-
ing. A construction crew digging two towns away can cut your long
distance link to the outside world.
Or, in perhaps the most common situation, problems with the
electrical power system can knock you off line in one form or anoth-
er without warning.
The bad news: unless you are adequately prepared for these possi-
bilities, you will be hit hard when they occur. Do not make the mis-
take of underestimating the damage even small outages can inflict on
a company that relies on a call center. We are talking about significant
lost sales, lost customers, lost revenue.
The good news: it is not difficult to plan for these contingencies.
There are useful techniques you can use to minimize the damage. And
numerous technologies can protect your equipment and your data.
You can sleep at night.
Your IVR system is a perfect example. Depending on how it's
implemented, IVR can quickly become a crucial part of your enter-

PREPARING FOR THE WORST - SO IT NEVER HAPPENS
prise — handling a substantial amount of your call traffic, promoting

customer satisfaction, generating revenue. In some cases the IVR sys-
tem actually touches all inbound calls, either handling them outright
or passing them back to the agents in conjunction with an ACD. In
this context, IVR downtime would be as damaging to operations as a
loss of phone service.
Some things you should know about:
• Power problems are the single most frequent cause of phone and
computer system failure. The average IVR system, for example, is hit
with a significant power fluctuation (spike, surge, brownout) approx-
imately 400 times a year. The problem is getting worse, as regional
power grids are forced to adapt to increased consumption.
• Power-related damage is among the most difficult types of damage
to recover from. That's because it does two things: it cripples the hard-
ware, often necessitating a costly replacement (complete with waiting
time for delivery), and it wipes out data.
• Multiple connections (to trunks, networks, peripherals, etc. )
increase the number of routes through which power surges can enter
and cripple an integrated call center. The more components you con-
nect together (and we count data sources here as a component) the
more vulnerable you'll be when something hits.
• Power protection is one of the cheapest forms of insurance you can
buy. The technology is solid. It's been proven to work. The added cost
of protecting hardware is roughly 10% to 25% of the hardware's
value. That does not count the value of the data. You could make the
argument (we often do) that a call center's data is far more valuable
than its hardware.
When you factor in the cost of potential losses, and weigh that against
the likelihood of problems, the cost of protection becomes negligible.
Here are the three main elements at risk in your center:
• People. Anything that keeps your people from coming to work can
cause your call center operations to falter. It doesn't take much — a
freak snowstorm can strand workers at home.
• Data and computers. You depend on the power grid. Without it,
you last as long as your backup system, if you have one. Even if you
can get calls — assuming the power problem hasn't hit your local
phone company or your ACD — you won't be able to take orders or
deliver service.
• Telecommunications. Cable cuts. Fires at the phone company. They
happen more often than we'd like. Forget the storms and power out-
ages. What happens if your operators are sitting in front of working
terminals, but no calls can get through?
There are two parts to a successful disaster strategy:

PREPARING FOR THE WORST — SO IT NEVER HAPPENS
1. Contingency planning. Making sure that you've identified all

the people, processes and equipment that are critical to your opera-
tion. Planning for their unavailability, with backup strategies for a
variety of situations.
2. Installing a technology net. Power protection. Backup power
supplies. Redundant trunks and carriers, etc.
Here's what we think you should do to protect yourself.
• Document everything. From where your wiring runs to the home
phone numbers of all critical personnel. Put your plans down on paper
— yes, paper — so it survives a network crash. Rehearse them. Tell
everyone where they are. Think about how stupid you'll feel if you go to
the trouble to create a plan, then can't find the information in a pinch.
• Identify risks. It's not the same for everyone. Geographically, you
could be more likely to encounter a snowstorm than an earthquake.
Also, it's important to identify exactly what you need to protect. In
every business, there are systems that are supercritical, and those that
you can live without for an hour (or a day). Establish your own prior-
HOW VULNERABLE ARE YOU?
164 Stuges
A typical computer location will experience 289 disruptive or destructive power dis-
turbances each year, according to a power quality study done by National Power
Laboratory of Best Power Corp. (Necedah, WI, 800-251-5415). It collected 1,200
site-months of power line disturbance data from 130 sites in the US and Canada.
The large number of disturbances clearly indicates that you need some kind of
surge protection equipment, battery backup and line conditioning. And what's
worse: this only looked at computers — telecom equipment is just as vulnerable.

ities — is it more important to be able to take orders? Or provide ser-

vice? Thinking about these priorities will also give you useful insight
into the way your call center fits into the company's business process.
• Get a power audit. UPSs (uninterruptible power supplies) are
designed with the assumption that building wiring provides proper
routes to ground and has sufficient ampacity to sink diverted power
surges (from lightning and other "current events).
But the best UPS in the world won't protect you if your building
wiring is crummy. Neither will the "guaranteed" insurance policies
that come with some power protection products (read the fine print).
Find an objective electrician to conduct a true power audit of your
premise wiring, and make necessary repairs and upgrades part of your
power protection program.
• Protect everything. The object is to set up an island of protection
around each crucial piece of equipment. That means UPS protection
behind the system. And properly grounded surge suppressors on network
and phone connections, as well as cables and connections to peripherals.
Other department managers can get away with focusing on one or
two critical elements, but your disaster recovery plan must cover the
protection and restoration of:
• Telecom equipment (hardware and software)
• Computer equipment (hardware and software)
• Networks (voice and data)
• Electric power.
And that's just the technology. A complete plan will also include
contingencies for your facilities and your personnel.
TELECOM PROBLEMS
Assume your phone system will fail, and at the most inopportune
time. We strongly urge you to get involved with your local phone com-
panies and the RBOCs to create recovery plans. Most outages occur
on the local level.
Also, make arrangements with your equipment vendors to have
emergency replacement equipment available on short notice. There
are switch vendors who will take a machine off the assembly line for
a customer that's close to what's in the field and build it quickly into
a machine that's suitable to the loss.
Have lots of backup power supplies in place, because most emer-
gencies are due to disruptions of the power grid. That includes batter-
ies, generators and UPS systems.
There are four specific areas in which you need to be prepared:
• Have a plan documented.

• Maintain the call center's files and knowledge bases backed up, cur-
rent and off-site.
• Have a place to go to reestablish the call center, properly equipped
with computers and telecom equipment.
• And critically: train your people.
Switch manufacturers build in disaster recovery features through
system redundancy, service options and fast turnaround on replace-
ment systems.
The favored way to protect your networks, especially your
telecommunications networks, is through route diversity.
Arrangements for network diversity are made with your local tele-
phone company, an alternative service and your long distance carrier.
At the local level, you don't want all your traffic to be carried over
the local loop supplied by the local telephone company. The local loop
is vulnerable, as is any network connection, to breaks because of con-
struction (backhoe through the cable), destruction (a car crashing in
to a telephone pole) and other disasters.
Your local carrier can usually supply an additional loop. Make
sure route diversity extends all the way to the point where the trunk
enters your premises. Real routing diversity involves at least two entry
points into your buildings.
Some companies achieve diversity in their long distance service by
using two or more long distance carriers. And it's a tactic your carri-
er may not tell you about. Long distance carriers have their own tac-
tics for network diversity that are worth asking about.
Of course, third party suppliers are available also. All of
Comdisco's recovery facilities are linked through a high-speed fiber
backbone network called CDRS Net. This network is also available to
clients to recover voice, data and image communication links between
the client's site and Comdisco's facilities.
Another point of concern is the interface between the telephone
network and your equipment. Not much of an issue on your home
telephone, but in a call center with several T-ls, you can't forget about
protection for all the sophisticated equipment that connects the T-ls
with your telecom equipment.
POWER PROTECTION
It all begins with power. Sure, you can't work when there's no
power, but smaller power problems can create disasters too. Power
disturbances like surges, spikes, undervoltages and brownouts can
damage your electronic gear. Both telecommunications devices and
computers are sensitive to power variations.

TIPS FOR CHOOSING A UPS

How do you find the right Uninterruptible Power Supply for your
center's needs? Here are some key features that you should look for:
• Monitoring and shut-down features, as well as SNMP (Simple
Network Management Protocol) compatibility.
• Online with less than 2 milliseconds reverse transfer.
• The ability to extend the backup time with the addition of exter-
nal battery packs or systems, for up to four hours or more.
• Intelligent line conditioning (for standby units) that maintain the
output voltage within selectable limits, without switching to battery
operation. (This improves the availability of the protected system
while prolonging the life of the battery. )
There are three main categories of power protection equipment

that can protect your call center from power failures, power surges
(often caused by lightning) and other power problems.
An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is a battery system that
provides power to your telephone switch or computer. Surge protec-
tors or arresters, clamp down on high voltages that can surge down
your power or telephone line, frying your delicate equipment. Power
conditioners remove noise, make up for undervoltages, and generally
deliver clean power to your telephone switch or computer.
Many high-end UPS systems roll all of these function into one
unit. The big news in power protection these days is power manage-
ment software, which lets you keep track of power conditions
throughout your network from your workstation, and gives the UPS
more sophisticated features, such as the ability to shut down your
equipment even when it is unattended.
Many power protection systems (especially UPS systems) are mar-
keted specifically for telecommunications applications, but the fact is, the
same UPS can protect a telephone system as well as a computer system.
For example, American Power Conversion's (West Kingston, RI)
Matrix-UPS is used by many companies to protect their computer sys-
tems. Recently though, this UPS was selected by Siemens as the power
protection of choice for their high-end PBX systems and entire
telecommunications networks. (Other APC products were selected for
smaller systems and surge protection. )
For large centers, a UPS such as Tripp Lite's (Chicago, IL)
SmartPro DataCenter Series fills the bill. This is one of Tripp Lite's
largest intelligent network models.
Also for the largest applications is Square D's (Costa Mesa, CA)
Topaz series. The Topaz series boasts a very small size and weight for
the amount of power it offers.

UPSs in the Topaz series are on-line devices, which condition your
AC power, getting rid of noise, undervoltages and overvoltages, giving
you smooth sine wave power — as well as protecting you with battery
back-up if you lose power all together.
On the other end of the spectrum is Panamax's (San Rafael, CA)
Towermax family of power protection equipment. Towermax protects
key systems and small PBXs — the type of telephone systems used by
the smallest call centers — against power spikes and surges. But it offers
complete protection, covering both AC power and telephone lines.
The Towermax line includes modules that protect from four to 16
analog central office lines, and other modules that protect your key
system from lightning-induced surges on digital station set lines out-
side the building. A field trial found that using these modules cut ser-
vice calls 30% on systems that were protected by them.
Of course, a thorough power protection plan for your telephone
system includes more than just keeping the juice flowing. Gordon
Kapes (Skokie, IL) offers power failure transfer equipment, that pro-
tects not only against power failure, but also against hardware or soft-
ware failure within your telephone system.
Gordon Kapes offers power failure transfer equipment for loop
start, ground start and DID analog trunks as well as for digital, 24-
channel circuits (that is, T-1).
Protecting a telephone system from power disturbances that orig-
inate on the AC electric line is common practice at many companies.
What is often forgotten, though, is that your telephone lines are also
a power source that can introduce voltage surges into your system or
be blacked out by lack of power.
With regular telephone service, the problem is that your telephone
switch has no power even though the telephone service itself is work-
ing. Viking's (Hudson, WI) PF-6 lets you bypass your telephone sys-
WHAT TO ASK AN OUTSIDE AGENCY

Unsure of what to look for in a disaster recovery call center?
Here are some of questions you should ask an outside service
bureau before you let them handle your disaster calls.
• Is the call center experienced at handling disaster recovery projects?
• What are the center's hours of operation?
• Can you reach a supervisor or manager 24 hours a day?
• Can the center handle your expected call volume?
• Does the call center have experience with your type of call?
• Is there a premium cost for disaster recovery calls handled?
• Can you be assured of dedicated non-shared facilities at the call center?

tern during a power outage by connecting six preassigned single-line

station phones directly to the central office trunks.
This won't be much help in a large call center, but is just the thing
to let a small call center with only a few lines keep handling calls
through a power outage.
American Power Conversion offers UPS power protection specifi-
cally for ISDN lines with their PowerShield ISDN product. Regular
telephone service provides its own power, but ISDN requires a net-
work interface (NT-1), which in turn requires power from the electric
company.
This makes ISDN telephone service vulnerable, not only to power
outages, but to other problems such as brownouts. PowerShield ISDN
is designed to provide power and protect your equipment.
GROUNDING
There are two distinct types of grounding. One is earth ground-
ing. Earth grounding does three things:
1. Guards against the adverse effects of lightning.
2. Assists in the reduction of static.
3. Brings a zero-voltage reference to system components so
logic circuits can communicate from a known reference.
The other category of ground is known as equipment ground-
ing. Equipment grounding also does three things:
1. Maintains "zero volts" on all metal enclosures under normal
operating conditions. This provides protection from shock or elec-
trocution to personnel in contact with the enclosure. It's for safety.
2. Provides and intentional path of high current carrying capacity
and low impedance to carry fault current under ground-fault conditions.
3. Establishes a zero voltage reference for the reliable opera-
tion of sensitive electronic equipment.
According to the Electric Power Research Institute, electrical
wiring and grounding defects are the source of 90% of all equip-
ment failures. Many telephone system installer/contractors have
found that checking for and repairing grounding problems can solve
many telephone system problems, especially intermittent "no trou-
ble found" problems.
As electrical connections age, they loosen, corrode and
become subject to thermal stress that can increase the imped-
ance of the ground path or increase the resistance of the connec-
tion to earth. There is equipment that tests for proper grounding.
Before you install power condition equipment such as voltage
regulators or surge arresters, you should test for and correct any
problems you have with grounding and wiring.

TAKE PRECAUTIONS
Don't wait until it's too late.
1. Have a viable, testable plan. This is critical. A lot of companies
have plans in a binder somewhere, sitting on a dusty shelf. Test
them regularly.
2. Identify what information is critical to doing business, and what
is not.
3. Designate an alternate site for operations. That can also be peo-
ple's homes, for call centers. Technology exists to reroute calls to
agents' homes, especially when the disaster is weather-oriented
and no equipment is damaged.
4. Have a backup — some way to recover critical information. It
may be customer lists, databases, shipping information or product
data. Make sure you can get at a copy in a hurry.

CHAPTER THIRTY
ISDN: THE ULTIMATE

CONNECTION FOR
CALL CENTERS
ISDN, let's face it, is the "new POTS." Its advantages as a com-
bined voice-data medium are obvious, and point towards a future
where all communications run down the same set of digital pipes.
Why is ISDN phoning better than analog? It's fast: the dial-to-ring
interval is fractions of a second. It sounds great (an ISDN-straight-
through connection carries a full 64 kbps audio payload). It's analog-
compatible (you can still call all your friends with old-fashioned
equipment). But that's not all.
A single BRI can support up to seven attached ISDN devices,
each with its own phone number. ISDN phones can be programmed
to respond only to calls to their own number, data delivered from
the CO, along with Caller Name/Number, etc. So you can hook up
a lot of phones behind a BRI, or set up a system where a single BRI
rings your phone, but doesn't bother your fax, PC with terminal
adapter, etc. Great for small offices. Even a single ISDN phone,
hooked to a BRI, can make two separate calls at the same time, out
the B channels.
Products like Teloquent's Distributed Call Center use ISDN to
pass voice and data calls to PC-empowered agents, anywhere an ISDN
line can reach. Imagine a high-powered, telephony-enabled call center,
with no fixed location (or rent, light bill, etc.) That's the future of
ISDN: a cleaner, faster, connection.
When the application dictates the technology, and not the other
way around, ISDN spells success.
It's easy to get caught up in the "glamour" of Integrated Services
Digital Network, better known as ISDN. It's just as easy to get caught
up in the compatibility hassles, implementation snafus and high costs
that seem to plague this technology.
One problem is that many types of ISDN that exist — and the fact
that not every type is available from every local telephone carrier.
There's the Basic Rate Interface (BRI or 2B+D), that comes in "U" and
"S" or "T" interfaces, and the Primary Rate Interface (PRI or 23B+D)
but that's not all.

ISDN: THE ULTIMATE CONNECTION FOR ALL CENTERS
Different central office switches use different ISDN standards.

BellCore hoped to head off this problem by establishing their National
ISDN-1 standard (or NI-1), which works to the extent that switch
manufacturers use it.
But even under National ISDN-1 there are different flavors. One
is "Intel Blue," which is really just for data communications. Voice is
carried when encoded as data. The other is AT&T Custom. Sorting
through these standards and variations with a local telco rep who
knows as much about it as you do can be an adventure.
WHAT'S IT GOOD FOR?
Think of ISDN as a big, fat pipe down which you can send digital
information of all kinds: voice, data, video, fax. In addition to the
large capacity you get wonderful control over how that digital infor-
mation is handled.
For call centers, the big benefits come from the ability to control
how the information (voice or data) is handled.
For example, one of the pieces of controlling the digital information
is the calling party's telephone number, or ANI. Linked to a database of
customer information, this "controlling information" lets you give a
screen of information about the caller to your agent along with the call.
Calling party information also lets you route callers more selectively.
For example, it lets you answer calls from VIP customers ahead of others.
ISDN basics and the Basic Rate Interface
Public Switched
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The controlling information also lets you include off-site ISDN-com-

patible, or even standard 2500 set, telephones as part of your ACD rout-
ing scheme. This makes telecommuters, remote offices and at-home over-
flow workers possible without installing a private line to each location.
This same function lets you use compatible ACDs in separate loca-
tions as part of a single, networked call center — using the public
switched network, instead of your own private lines.
The "big pipeline" benefits mostly fall on the data side of the
house, but data is just as an important part of your call center as voice.
Using ISDN's large capacity, two people in distant locations can share
a computer screen, each making changes with the other seeing the changes
and making his or her own. It's a feature that's ideal for help desks.
ISDN also lets you link computer networks in distant locations
into a single Wide Area Network (WAN) of sorts. ISDN is perfect for
THE NETWORK AT YOUR SERVICE
Stye,
PhoneSuva VoiS
Module
Without ISDN you need to have a private line to connect your various locations if
you want to do fancy routing and management tasks with your switch. By teaming
a switch like Teloquent's Distributed Call Center with ISDN, you can perform those
fancy functions using the public switched telephone network.

applications that don't require a dedicated link (all day access), but do
need to exchange large quantities of data several times a day.
The common example is a remote office that needs to batch
process customer records several times a day, or occasionally check a
large database before processing an order. ISDN, in combination with
an ISDN compatible router, makes many types of local area network
(LAN) links possible.
TESTING ISDN LINES

Whether an analog line works or not is largely a matter of physics:
voltage is there, or it isn't. Signals propagate with appropriate levels of
distortion, or they don't. You have dialtone, or you don't have dialtone.
ISDN lines have a physical aspect, too — but that's just the
tip of the iceberg. The hardest problems that arise in digital line
and equipment testing have to do with information: the protocols
and message sequences underlying ISDN's physical and logical
transport layers. Put in the simplest way: ISDN lines don't give
you dialtone.
Or rather, sure, you can check a line out at an electrical level,
and still be unable to make a call. Or you can make a call only on
one B channel. Or you can only use 56 kbps of a B channel. Or you
can almost make a call, but your equipment keeps hanging up, just
before connection. It's all in the protocols and provisioning, which,
ultimately, are under the control of human beings: installers,
switch programmers, etc. Who make mistakes. A lot.
Upshot? Unless you have direct access to a central office
switch database, you're often going to be in the position of walk-
ing up to a BRI or PRI demarc, and knowing virtually nothing about
what's happening in the wire. Or you'll have a confirmed work-order
from a telco installer, which (you suspect) differs from the real pro-
visioning on the line. Or you'll have a perfectly-provisioned line that
matches the ordering code on a piece of equipment, and the equip-
ment still doesn't work. What do you do?
You test everything, systematically. Today's ISDN test equip-
ment is very smart, and very adaptable. A lot of it looks similar to
conventional buttsets and line testers (some products even incor-
porate analog line-testing interfaces and routines, meaning you
can use one buttset for everything). But on the ISDN side, you see
functionality an order of magnitude more sophisticated than you
find in most analog test equipment.
Here are the features to look for:
1. Ability to certify the line at the electrical level. Telcos are still
backhauling ISDN service from all over the place, and using BRITE
cards to run it over long distances. So there's a reasonable

chance that faults or non-performance are due to bad signal-prop-

agation, improper line voltages, etc.
2. Ability to test both the U and the S interface. Not all prob-
lems involve the line — some involve the NT-1. These are tricky to
diagnose unless you can connect to both sides of the equipment.
3. Most hot testers can emulate terminal equipment or the net-
work, in a wide variety of modes. So you can use them to figure
out what's happening on the line, or see what your equipment is
sending out. If you're installing ISDN CPE, you MUST use a net-
work-emulating device to check your stuff out, before taking it to
the client premise (and seeing their faces fall when it doesn't
work).
4. Ability to make both voice and data calls in a variety of
modes — ideally, some ability to do bulk call-generation or repeat-
ed testing. An autodial feature is nice, too.
5. BERT (Bit Error Rate Test) capability on single and bonded
channels, under multiple protocols, ideally for a programmable
duration. Intermittent drops are hard to catch, unless you can
leave your tester running for a few hours, then return to read
results.
6. Ability to capture and decode OSI level 1-3 signaling for call
setup and teardown. Realtime decoding is great. Several products,
however, opt to provide only a data-capture feature onboard, and
link to a computer and software for interpretation and display. This
usually gives you a more informative reading on what's happening,
so it's an appropriate tradeoff, depending on your application.
7. Ability to decode X.25 packet-data on the D channel. Lots of
low-profile apps depend on this (ATMs, point of sale equipment,
etc.), and it's often left out of test equipment.
8. PRI testers, of course, should perform all the BRI tests,
plus bulk call generation on 23 Bs and multiples, plus 64 kbps D
signaling interpretation, plus (ideally) overlay protocol analysis (T-
1 over PRI, etc.)
9. Clear menus. Clear readouts. Pre-programmable test-and-
data-capture sequences. The complexities of ISDN can demand
more than one level of technician: the person in the field, and the
rocket-scientist at the home office, who interprets the results.
Simple, programmable, data-capture oriented test equipment is
a boon to making two (or more) tier operations work effectively.
Many of the best products in our roundup are designed for use
by mortals.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
HOW THE WEB

IS CHANGING
CALL CENTERS
Everybody has a Web site, or will soon. It's time to take that for
granted. Now that we've all admitted that to ourselves, we can assess
the impact that this Internet technology will have on call centers.
Here's something to chew on: just two years ago, it was possible
to talk about the different ways of delivering customer service with-
out mentioning online support at all. When you did mention it, it was
in the context of CompuServe forums or company-sponsored bulletin
board systems. The Internet explosion that's brought us Web pages
was still a year in the future. That's how fast things have changed.
A call center is not a place. It is a set of functions. It is the process
of selling to people who are not in the room with you. And of serving
their many varied needs. A call center's primary function is to create
and keep customers.
Right now, that function requires a physical presence, a location
— an actual set of seats filled with people to help customers. Agents
that have access to stores of data about the customers and the com-
pany, and the points of intersection. These people act as gatekeepers
for the two-directional flow of information — as intermediaries and
interpreters.
What if those functions could be accomplished without people?
Or with a vastly fewer number of people, so that those who are left
are true experts who add value to the transaction, and who don't
merely funnel that transaction along.
This is the goal experts are reaching toward when they tout the
Web as a useful adjunct to the call center — the promise of a work-
force deployed in exactly the way that is most useful and efficient.
Customers who solve their own problems, who in essence sell them-
selves, and a specially trained cadre of agents dedicated to doing what
only humans can do.
To some extent, the call center industry has been flirting with this
notion for years, with varying degrees of success. First there was fax,
then fax-on-demand. Want information about our company at 2 am?
Rather than pay to staff off-hours, make information available for

HOW THE WEB IS CHANGING CALL CENTERS
retrieval by the customer himself. It's fast, cheap and gets generally
high satisfaction marks from the customers.
Then there's IVR. It's great for routing calls to agents, shorten-
ing call times, getting people into the right queue, etc. But it also
allows people to self-serve for simple database lookups like an
account balance, an order confirmation or shipping status. Or to
diagnose a technical problem.
Again, the trend is toward providing an automated response to
customer interactions. The reasons are clear:
• Automated responses are cheaper than agent-provided ones.
• They are always the same for all callers. Two people who call for
directions from the airport to your office won't get different routes
from different reps.
LINKING TO THE INTERNET
Your Telephone
System
The Internet
Your Customer
'4,ovew•
( 'men et I itegration
System
Your Web Site
Your Customer
Database
Public Telephone
Your Agent
Network
Internet integration software connects information from your Web site to your tele-
phone system and your enterprise computer system. This lets you respond to cus-
tomer requests for live assistance. When the customer clicks on a button, the call
request is sent to your call center. The agent can then make a call to the customer
over the telephone.

• Automation is always available, even when you're closed.

Of course, there is a downside. Some people miss the personal
touch. And any problem or question not planned for in the rules-
based structures of your system requires human intervention anyway.
The Web is the third advance in self-serve automation. It has
many of the advantages of fax — it's a dynamic, easy-to-maintain
format. It is (now) available to huge numbers of potential customers.
And it surpasses fax or IVR in one critical area: it has enormous mul-
timedia capabilities (sound, graphics, video, and more). It is rich in
the one quality IVR lacks — the ability to control applications that
require visual presentation or extensive keyboard output, or both.
Customers can order products. They can download software.
They can read catalogs.
Ultimately, as more kinds of call center applications are developed
that bypass the agent, a given customer will have more choices for
ASPECT INTERACTIVE WEB
•.:71Web Screen
Pima
PI P.,
Morn ot ••
Flrewall
Web Server
Client/Server
Customer
PSTN
Agent Screen
1 Voice
Data Databases
Aspect Agent Desktop
Call Center
This diagram shows how a "call" is routed from a Web page or a telephone using
Aspect's Internet application.

entering the zone and concluding the interaction. Some points of entry
may be better for making a sale — document retrieval by fax-back, for
example. Others are better for customer support, like IVR.
The Web offers an amalgamation of these techniques. For exam-
ple, one recent application has been coined "Web pages on demand"
— using the Web as a huge fax-on-demand file server. Users can point
to documents they want, have them instantly converted to fax format
and forwarded to a fax machine. (Ibex Technologies, El Dorado Hills,
CA) is a pioneer in this area.)
Where the Web looks like it will take hold is with help desks.
These smaller centers, already strained by escalating call volumes, are
in the vanguard of agent-enhancement technology. Problem resolution
software frees technical experts from the drudgery of answering repet-
itive questions, letting them get to the business of solving more com-
plex problems. It puts them in a position to add value to the customer
transaction, rather than merely pipeline a piece of existing informa-
tion to the customer.
THE MANY WAYS TO REACH A CALL CENTER
Used to be a phone call hit a switch, and you talked to an agent. Now, things are
more complex. The call center is still there, agents and all, but they are aug-
mented by other ways callers can help themselves. By Web, IVR, fax-on-demand
— and other things we haven't thought of yet. The call center is evolving into
something that might be called the "customer contact zone."

Help desk software vendors have been madly adding Web-publishing

capabilities to their systems since 1995, and we expect that trend to con-
tinue. IVR vendors have also been racing to Web-enable their products.
But what about other call center systems, like ACDs? If a caller
has a choice of how to get into that customer contact zone, where will
the switch fit in?
As you would expect, vendors are closely watching Internet tech-
nologies, looking for ways to integrate their switches with Web-
enabled applications. As one manufacturer suggested, it is when the
consumer can (and does) cherrypick from a combination of entry
points — fax, e-mail, Web or voice call — and expects to switch from
one mode to another during a single "interaction" that advanced
ACDs will need to be tightly integrated with the Internet.
For example, if a caller fills out a form on a Web site that requests
a call back. Or calls in by voice, drops into IVR, and requests infor-
mation bounced back via e-mail. (It is at this point that we won't be
able to describe the interaction simply as a "call" anymore.)
Don Aoki of Aspect Telecommunications sees an evolution in the
way people perceive that customer contact zone, from telephone-based
to a more open, multimedia-oriented approach. "The challenge is to
manage communication in a coherent and consistent way," he says.
From where Aspect sits, the IVR system is the place where the ACD
will touch the Internet. ACDs talk well to voice response systems. Voice
response, in turn, does a good job of doing database lookup and for-
matting information for small-scale voice "publishing." It's not that
great a leap to see an IVR app gen module that puts information into
HTML format for output to a custom Web application.
What will happen, he says, is that human interaction will be
reserved for where the agents can add the most value.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU
There are several immediate ramifications for call center managers.

Vendors of IVR and help desk software are or will be adding Web
features to their systems. Those that didn't are now engaged in furious
catch-up. You'll have to assess these features in light of any new pur-
chases you need to make.
You'll also have to gauge the usefulness of extending your
Intranets (the internal networks running on TCP/IP) to the outside
world through the Internet. In the hands of qualified customers, Web
access to your company may be a boon. But you have to weigh the
savings in agent time against the costs of maintaining the server and
the security apparatus to protect your systems.

A few years ago integration with groupware products like Lotus

Notes was heralded as the best way to get information flowing among
support personnel within your company, and with customers on the
outside. Now, talk is turning to Intranets and the Web for the same
reasons. The Web is an open system, non-proprietary and cheap. It has
the potential to remake the way we exchange information in much the
same way as fax did ten years ago.
In call centers, it will probably soon take its place next to IVR as
a customer service and sales vehicle of choice. It helps accelerate the
transformation of the center from a physical space into a fuzzier
"zone" of customer contact. And, like IVR, it will give agents the
breathing room to solve problems, close sales and build relationships
with customers, things only humans can do.
WHAT WEBSITES ARE ACTUALLY DOING

Matrixx Marketing of Cincinnati, OH, recently conducted a sur-
vey of high-level managers of Fortune 100 companies with existing
Websites. The telephone outsourcing service provider asked ques-
tions to find out how they were using their Website. Here is what
they found:
• 96% offer information about their company, its products and its
services.
• 92% provide e-mail access.
• 88% accept customer or consumer complaints.
• 83% distribute telephone numbers and addresses.
• 79% distribute general corporate communications.
Of the companies surveyed, 62% developed Internet sites with-
in the past year and 27% built sites earlier than 1995. More than
one-third expect the Web to become a major factor in their busi-
ness operations over the next five to ten years.
By taking advantage of the communication tools that are cur-
rently common in offices and many homes now, your call center
can be put on the right track for the future. FaxBack (Beaverton,
OR) has come out with a new application that gives your customers
the ability to have Web documents faxed to them even if they don't
have Internet access.
WebWindoW is a fax-on-demand system. It plays a series of
recorded voice instructions and reads the caller's touch-tone entries.
The system then accesses documents located at your Web site.
Wherever a Web page contains a hypertext link to another doc-
ument, an identification number is placed on the fax. This Smart
Index feature automatically creates an index for the Web site, with-
out extra effort on your part.

Another company bringing information from the Internet to your

customers, via fax-on-demand accessibility, is Ibex (El Dorado
Hills, CA). However, with an eye toward the future, they allow your
customers to request information via e-mail.
While the number of people with Web access is still estimated
to be under 40 million, more than double that have and use e-mail
to communicate every day. Email-On-Demand permits your cus-
tomers to request more information and documentation to be
received back by e-mail or fax.
The Windows NT program receives e-mail messages via
Microsoft Mail API (MAPI) or Internet Simple Mail Transport
Protocol (SMTP). It analyzes the message to determine if there is
a request for information. It searches for keywords like "fax,"
"doc#" and "catalog." Also, it searches for other pertinent infor-
mation such as the fax number and the person's name.
The program then searches your document database (be it an
Internet Web site, intranet site or at another location) for the request-
ed document, in the correct format, and process the request. For an
e-mail request, the program attaches the e-mail, using MIME if the
attachment is not text, and sends it out. For a fax request, the sys-
tem creates a fax job and passes it to the fax engine.
The Internet and intranets serve as an ideal place to store and
display company information that is valuable to share with employ-
ees and the interested public, especially present and potential
customer. However, taking an existing database and moving it
online can prove to be less than convenient.
A new toolkit from Telegenisys (Pleasant Hill, CA) aims to eliminate
the hassle. Web-Alive enables the creation of complete Web sites
interfacing with existing applications running on your company's or
third-party systems. The information appearing on your site can be
retrieved live from the your company's own application for each query.
Designed as a middleware server, Web-Alive provides a devel-
opment process for performing Web page applications. This
includes developing a transaction-capable Web site, completely
putting your call center on the Internet.
Web-Alive performs the transactions on the application using a
terminal-emulation sub-system to access and interact with the in-
house application while serving your customer through the Web
server. By developing your own interface, your company controls
the source code, making changes to your site simple and quick.
Unfortunately, a book is the wrong format for presenting infor-
mation about Web- and Internet-based products. The technology
and product development cycles run so quickly that any attempt to
describe the marketplace will be hopelessly out of date by the time
this reaches your hands. Look for constant updates. On the Call
Center News Service, 718-778-6620.

HOW SOME WEB/CALL CENTER SYSTEMS WORK

The ultimate use of the Web for call centers is where cus-
tomers receive service without ever dealing with an agent or tak-
ing up any human resource time at all. Taking audiotex and bulletin
board information and placing it on the Internet not only is conve-
nient to the customer, but eliminates the telephone network
charges you pay to your long distance service provider.
One application that does this is Inference's (Novato, CA)
CasePoint WebServer. It gives your customers direct access to
troubleshooting and product information online. It's an addition to
their CBR2 line.
Call tracking and management can continue even while cus-
tomers help themselves without the supervision of an agent or
technician. Vycor's (College Park, MD) Vycor Web gives end users
access to information maintained in your database and allows your
help desk to track these calls.
Why place hundreds of pages of information on your Web site,
if only 5% of your customers use the Internet? Applications to take
information from your Web server and allow access from other
mediums are here.
One application that expands your Web database beyond the
confines of the Internet is from NetPhonic (Mountain View, CA).
Their Web-On-Call eliminates the need for an Internet connection.
Customers with a touchtone phone or fax machine are prompt-
ed over the telephone through your Web-based documents. Once
they find what they are looking for, they can have information
faxed, e-mailed or spoken to them right over the phone.
Unlike a simple fax-on-demand system, Web-On-Call saves your
customers time by eliminating the trial by error approach of docu-
ment numbers. Instead of having to wait until they receive their fax
to make sure it was the one they wanted, customers can have their
requested information spoken to them. This allows them to know
exactly what will be faxed or e-mailed to them.
Intervoice's (Dallas, TX) Internet offering, VisualConnect,
allows your customers to interact with host and database informa-
tion through Intervoice's OneVoice System. The application works
with standard HTML compatible Internet browsers.
The next step for putting your call center on the Internet is
adding the ability to handle transactions. Periphonics of Bohemia,
NY, has introduced a new software extension that operates Web-
based transaction processing services on Periphonics RISC-based
VPS/is and VPS/VAS IVR systems.
PeriWeb enables application specialists to construct full-func-
tion transaction processing services that access both client/serv-
er and mainframe legacy databases without C programming and
Common Gateway Interface development.

E-COMMERCE & THE INTERNET: THE CUSTOMERS ARE READY

The Internet is exploding — not just in the numbers of people
sharing the experience, but in terms of actual commerce transact-
ed electronically. Though it's hard to get an exact fix on the size of
the market, statistics are beginning to bear out what many of us
sense: that once people get online, they gradually use the medium
to explore products and companies. Ultimately, they buy.
A recent study by Computer Intelligence found that 30% of
home Internet users were engaged in some form of e-commerce -
- stock trading, home banking, book buying. There is a level of
trust developing on the part of the consumer. In part, it's due to
the fact that brand name companies are out there, making new
products available to that audience. Despite the many publicized
concerns over privacy and security, consumers are increasingly
willing to treat the medium as they would a phone - when you deal
with FedEx, or Schwab, you are dealing with a known quantity.
And when that consumer-friendly company makes it easier to
do business with them by phone, when they add value by offering
services you can't get any other way, then transacting off the Web
becomes a no-brainer. If I can track a package at 7am while I'm
checking my e-mail, then I will. Once the consumer (or his kid) buys
something by credit card over the Web — and nothing bad hap-
pens — the scare is over. They'll do it again.
At least, that's what another recent report seems to indicate.
AT&T and Mercer Management Consulting released research that
showed that 62% of online shoppers plan on doing more purchas-
ing that way. Only 4% said they'd do less. Also, more than a quar-
ter of traditional shoppers studied said they intended to buy online.
And even more encouraging, 59% of consumers who purchased
online said they were highly satisfied with the service they received.
So where does the call center fit in? Everywhere. The call center
industry has gradually gone from being sales oriented to service ori-
ented and now to a more balanced, integrated way of operating.
Technology has made that possible. Because you can run multiple
centers as one, blend calls at every seat, collate and report on calls
with tremendous power. And because call centers can now manage
the flow of calls coming in from multiple delivery systems: IVR, fax,
e-mail, Web, even kiosks.
Web-based e-commerce makes sense for companies. It is the
cheapest form of sales ever devised. It collects data, collates it,
offers the widest range of product (or the most closely targeted).
This is what I don't think will happen: a person, wanting to buy
something, clicks on a web page to initiate a web call to talk to a
call center rep. Though there are many smart people talking about
web telephony and its potentials, I think it'll be a long time before

that mode makes more sense for people. I think the call center will
expand its traditional role in service and support, that people will
call on the phone while they look at a web site, or after they've
looked at an on-line catalog. I think e-commerce will be as auto-
mated as IVR is today — and as common. People won't listen to
an agent or a voice unit read off a list of their account balances or
stock quotes. They'll download a personal listing, then call a per-
son if there's a problem.
I think it breaks down this way. When someone's motivated to buy
something, they don't need a rep. If they'll buy from a direct response
TV commercial then they'll buy from a Web site. (And Home Shopping
proves that case.) But when they need help, need service, need to
find out why a company does something a certain way ("why is my
statement unclear about this?") then they need a person.
What vendors sometimes forget is why call centers succeed-
ed. It's not the technology. It's the interaction between company
and customer.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
THE BENEFITS OF A
VIRTUAL CALL CENTER
It doesn't matter where agents sit. What matters is that voice and
data flow conveniently between customer and company, wherever
each happens to be. New technologies make that possible.
The call center isn't a place anymore. It's a set of functions: make
contact; receive contact; resolve problems; promote product; facilitate
sales and any other value-added interaction between customer and
company. We're used to thinking of these functions based on their
physicality — rooms full of agents, phones, workstations and clusters.
That mode of thinking, though correct (and still representative
of the dominant way of practicing those core functions) is not the
way of the future. Because technology is advancing that makes it
possible to virtualize all the functions of the call center. Just as out-
sourcing makes sense because it relieves you of the burden of han-
dling tasks outside your expertise, virtualizing your center presents
many opportunities. Most important, it can help you focus more on
the core functions.
WHAT IS A VIRTUAL CALL CENTER
This is a general term that refers to several kinds of call center
setups. It is also tossed around loosely by vendors. A "virtual call cen-
ter" is several groups of agents, usually in geographically separate
locations, that are treated as a single center for management, schedul-
ing and call-handling purposes. In some rare cases the virtual call cen-
ter is made up of agents working from their homes, with a telephone
switch at company headquarters routing the calls.
In essence, a virtual center is really a lot of centers that look and feel
as though they are one single unit — for the purposes of gathering man-
agement information, call data, and ideally, real-time call handling.
All virtual call centers require transmission services between sites
that are more than the average local telephone company offers. To
switch the calls, call routing information, and data between the sites
requires a lot of bandwidth. This bandwidth is achieved with a private
line between locations, switched high bandwidth telephone services or
ISDN. A virtual call center also requires sophisticated routing and net-
working features from all the call centers' ACDs.
Many multi-site linked call centers are already functioning as a
virtual call center under that definition. If you've got multiple centers,

BENEFITS OF A VIRTUAL CALL CENTER
established sequentially, all with the same brand of switch and an

overall management software system in place, then you're probably
pretty well virtualized.
But what if you're a service bureau and you've recently acquired
one or more competitors? You might now have a dozen call centers
spread out around the country (or the world), with two or three kinds
of ACDs and no overflow call handling possible from one to another.
That's not a virtual call center. That's a virtual mess.
WHY VI RTUALI ZE
A networked, virtual call center confers clear advantages to the
company that runs it:
* You can move pieces of it around, placing its sub-centers wher-
ever facility and real estate costs, tax rates and the labor pool are
advantageous.
* You can automatically re-route call traffic away from centers
that are temporarily shut down, or overloaded.
* You can optimize agent resources, especially when you want to
take advantages of the many subtle skill shadings available with skills-
based routing on today's feature-rich switches.
* You can manage your network routing more effectively, based
on real-time call patterns, to get more out of your internal resources
and to better allocate calls among your network carriers.
" On the smaller scale, you can create an ad-hoc call center out of
informal resources, bringing it up online when needed, letting it stand
by when not.
* You can perform very specialized services, like advanced techni-
cal support, by adding specialists to the call center network only when
they're needed on it.
HOW IT WORKS
There are several technical implementations of these techniques.
GeoTel (Littleton, MA) has for several years been offering a way to
combine centers with their Intelligent Call Router, a multi-site router
that uses the carrier network to hold and route calls. In essence, their
system works by having an application on the customer premise
direct the public network with instructions on how to route 800/888
calls. The network delivers a call indication message to the applica-
tion with a string of information identifying the call (including
caller-entered digits); the app sends the network a destination
address for the call.
It requires a heavy investment in T-1 connections and interface cards
for the various ACDs that need to be linked together, but that's often a
small price to pay for the operational benefits reaped in the linking.

BENEFITS OF A VIRTUAL CALL CENTER
For one of the best, and most detailed explanations of the hows
and whys of virtualizing call centers, I recommend the GeoTel web
page document at www.geotel.com/whyisvcc.htm.
IEX's (Richardson, TX) TotalNet is another software-based call
routing system for linking centers and managing them from a single
site. It lets you use multiple carriers, ACDs from various vendors, and
still keep control over the routing of each call through the carrier net-
work. Key features from IEX are future-oriented: play with what-if
scenarios that help you strategize your staffing and network decisions
in a safe, off-line environment. Remember, virtual call centers are
more complicated than real ones; any changes you make in configu-
ration have real — and instant — effects all across your network.
Scenario-building has never been so important.
It's easy to look down the road and posit all sorts of interlinked
but "virtual" futures. So far there are more things we don't know
about the virtual call center than those we do. For instance, how
strong will the Internet turn out to be as a self-service vehicle, or as an
entry point into real call centers? And what about video kiosks? Will
they even come to market at all, given the speed with which regular
PCs gain video capabilities? How will all these alternate call media
(voice, data, web and video calls) be processed and analyzed behind
your walls?
For now, call center managers have headaches enough, with figur-
ing out how to make connections between centers powerful enough,
and seamless enough, to justify the added complexity. But it's becom-
ing clearer every day that the benefits of virtualizing small disparate
centers are compelling.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
THE NEW ROLE OF

THE CALL CENTER
In recent years, technology has remade the call center — it has
given us better tools for analysis, forecasting, and for real time opera-
tion of centers. With new tools at their disposal, managers are capa-
ble of a lot more. So, it bears asking: has the essential mission of a call
center within an organization changed as well?
Not entirely. Instead, I think there has been a reassessment of the
need for coordination between center and enterprise. In many cases
this is less of a "re"-assessment and more of a first-time look. A num-
ber of forces have converged very recently, and have given companies
that operate call centers a dramatic opportunity.
1. CTI products appeared in the marketplace faster than the call
center industry expected. The results from call centers that installed
CTI in the last few years (as early adopters) show good productivity
results from the technology, thanks partly to the efficiencies of screen
pop and intelligent call routing.
But CTI is expensive, and introduces a lot of complexity to the day-
to-day management of a center. So the decision to apply a layer of com-
puter telephony intelligence to a center is often made in conjunction
with other departments, especially MIS and financial management.
2. The growth of the Internet. Actually, despite all the hoopla over
the Web and the Internet, from the call center perspective, this is just
one thread in a tapestry of integrations: web, IVR, fax, video, e-mail;
they all function as alternate pathways into a call center. In the aggre-
gate, they change the dynamic of how a center answers calls (assigning
different priorities to the various methods, for example) and force a
center to come up with new sets of metrics to benchmark performance.
3. Open standards — and not just the CTI standards that help
developers. Java, HTML and COM/DCOM make a big difference in
the way they allow companies to share data among employees,
whether or not those employees work in the call center. For the first
time, we live in a world in which a call center in San Jose can pump
data out to an analyst working in London, who can fire off a product
report to New York — with all the real-time data intact.
What this means for call centers is that their role and prominence
rises within an organization — at the same time as their hold over the
data they generate diminishes. I think that the data that call centers
spit out (mostly ACD stats) has a lot of application to other employ-
ees when formatted intelligently. The more this is done, the more the

THE NEW ROLE OF THE CALL CENTER
MIS department will look on that data as falling under their purview.
Maybe this is a good thing; only time will tell.
While call center management may have to cede some control
over their information infrastructures, they will take on more of a
customer management role. The job of the call center will be to syn-
thesize all the existing pieces of information about customers —
from ongoing interactions and from legacy databases — and
address the needs of each customer on an individualized basis. I
recently saw a talk given by consultant Martha Rogers, wherein she
described it this way: "Treat different customers differently, but
treat each one consistently." (She was talking about a company's
strategy in general, but I think the call center is where this approach
will be put into practice.)
By the year 2001, the role of the call center will be to "mass cus-
tomize" service: to identify the customer, prioritize that person, and
bring all the information resources of the company to bear on that
interaction. The result will be faster service, a higher customer reten-
tion rate, and (believe it or not) lower costs.
CUSTOMIZING EVERY INTERACTION: WHAT ALL THIS

TECHNOLOGY IS REALLY GOOD FOR
Several years ago, I tried out a new way of describing a call cen-
ter. It's not a physical place, went the argument. It's a set of functions
that can be carried out in any number of ways, in lots of configura-
tions, many of them virtual. It's customer contact, no matter how
that contact is handled. (I was trying to get a grip on the way media
blending and the Internet were changing the way call centers were
managed.)
Now, we are at a transitional moment in the call center industry.
Technology has leaped ahead, and all the tools that we could possibly
want or expect (or assimilate) are available. A really motivated com-
pany with lots of money to spend could put together the kind of inte-
grated call center/customer service/database system we dreamed about
a few years ago.
Call centering has also ceased to be an arcane specialty. The peo-
ple running these centers are as likely to be networking experts as they
are telecom people. (I could write an entire book on why we should
stop thinking of call centers as part of the telecom industry at all.)
What it takes to run a modern, top-notch call center requires more in
the way of people skills and organizational savvy than the ability to
program a switch.
In fact, they don't want to waste their time knowing what wire
goes in what socket. That's not interesting, and it's not helpful in
achieving the core goals of the call center. Those goals:

• Create as many points of interaction between company and cus-

tomer.
• Minimize the cost of those interactions.
• Identify those non-customers who might become customers.
• Give everyone outside the company the tools to gather informa-
tion about the company.
• Gather as much information about those customers as possible.
• Provide that information to anyone in the company who can use it.
• The key words here are company and customer. Stop and think
about that: the only thing that matters is bringing together the people
with the money and the people with the product. The call center is the
best tool ever invented to do that. What is not interesting any more is
the call. On a low level of operation, you certainly want to measure
calls, because that's the metric of productivity in a center — how many
calls did these agents answer in how short a period of time, equals
how much it cost you to run the center.
In the future, no one will care much about that. What everyone
outside the call center is measuring is customers, and the results of the
interactions. The call center's role is shifting — from a place where
calls get answered to the place where information is exchanged.
Precious few call centers have made this transition yet. So many
are still operating according to the old rules that it may seem prema-
ture to talk about this radical shift. But the fact that the technology is
out there renders the point moot — this transition will happen, is
already happening. If CTI is only used in 2% of call centers (a low
estimate), and there are 100,000 call centers in North America, there
are still an awful lot of state-of-the-art centers out there testing new
ways of operating in this data-centric environment. And you know
where those CTI-enabled centers are: hidden away in plain sight —
you touch them every time you call Schwab and speak the name of the
stock quote you want; every time you track a package with FedEx's
web site, whenever an airline calls you to tell you your flight will be
delayed. At America's top companies, the ones that have the most rid-
ing on every customer interaction.
In the ideal world, every customer will be handled as if she is the
company's only customer. Every interaction she has with the company
will be enlightened by all the relevant information about her needs
and desires. All the data she has ever expressed about preferences and
background will be saved, and brought to bear on the interaction
intelligently. It is not simply a matter of collecting data and storing it
in a backoffice database somewhere, where it is reported on and for-
gotten. It must travel in two directions. When a company knows
something about a customer, it must use that knowledge to build the
relationship between the two parties. And it must do so relentlessly, so

that the customer reaches the point where she is doing business with
the company because she has so much invested in the company that
it's simply easier than switching to a competitor.
And when you do that for every single customer interaction,
across all customers, whether it comes in the form of a phone call, a
web visit, an outbound telemarketing call or an in-store visit — that
is the mass customization of service.
There are really four ways of practicing customer service. The
first, most basic method, is to treat every call just as a ringing phone
— somebody must answer it at some point. When lots of phones ring,
that means trouble. This is the triage stage.
Then there is the traditional, early '90s method of call-centering-
as-usual. Those phones are ringing? Get an ACD to route them, sepa-
rate the agents into groups, and by God we can handle the volume.
The goal of this method is cost-containment.
Then it gets interesting. There is a natural progression from triage
to cost-containment. From there, companies realize that the call cen-
ter offers an unprecedented opportunity to gather information, and
use that data in a rudimentary way to get new customers, or sell exist-
ing customers more product. This is the old CTI paradigm: "Oh, I see
you've bought a green shirt in the past, Mr. Dawson. We have a new
line of green shirts, would you like to try one on sale?" Crude, but
effective. What differentiates this third stage of service operation from
the cost-containment stage is the more optimistic view of the call cen-
ter as a corporate asset, rather than a cost-center.
Taken to its logical extreme, using current technology, is the stage
four call center: where every interaction is completely customized
from the ground up. Service is designed as a seamlessly integrated
component of the corporate-wide customer retention strategy. It's
reflected in the kind of data gathered and the information that makes
its way to the agent's screen. This is starting to percolate out into the
public consciousness: look at the success of Levi's jeans that are com-
puter designed to fit women; or web sites that let the customer choose
how to view them (Yahoo, for example). Once the processes are
designed, the cost per interaction is negligible. The revenue opportu-
nities are enormous.
And yet, most companies today are stranded somewhere between
stages two and three, between containing costs and starting to think
about ways to add intelligence to their calls. Until they stop thinking
in terms of calls and start thinking in terms of customers, that's where
they will stay.

APPENDIX
A GUIDE TO KEY CALL

CENTER PRODUCT &
SERVICE PROVIDERS
This list, though by no means exhaustive, should point you in the
right direction for a wide variety of call center products and services.
Unlike traditional buyer's guides, this is arranged alphabetically,
rather than by product category. That's because many (if not most) of
these companies make a wide variety of products, fitting into a num-
ber of niches. Where possible, I've described the products.
Anyone who finds an error, or who wants me to add a listing con-
tact me here: dawson@quicklink.com.
AAC Corp./Affinitec
714-756-2700
fax: 714-851-6286
www.aaccorp.com
Call center management software, readerboard drivers, call
accounting systems. Their products include TimeManager,
ForecastManager, ScheduleManager and AgentView. Readerboard
systems typically include both the display board and the ACD data
extraction and formatting tool that it needs. Hence, you can often use
them to extract data to a PC, in addition to (or instead of) the reader-
board. AAC has these functions. AAC recently purchased Affinitec.
ACS Wireless
800-995-5500
408-461-3270
fax: 408-438-2735
www.acs.com
Headsets, wireless and corded. Two models in particular are well-
suited to call centers: the Applause series, and the Contour LX.
AD-HOLD/Nationwide Recording
800-466-1962
www.adonhold.com
Music-and-messaging-on-hold production supplier. They provide

APPENDIX
digitally recorded messages for playing while callers wait on hold.

Also: script-writing assistance and voice talent.
APAC TeleServices
319-369-4070
wvvw.apacteleservices.com
One of the country's largest service bureaus. They also own an
800 number that must make their competitors gnash their teeth in
fury: 800-OUTSOURCE. Services offered include: technical support
and pre-sale services; marketing response tracking and media sourc-
ing; order capture and processing; up-selling and cross-selling; and
financial transaction services.
AT&T
800-222-0400
wvvw.att.com/business/global
Long distance, toll-free and call center consulting. Recently
spun off its telecom hardware business into Lucent (and computers
into NCR). They also feature a variety of network-intelligence call
routing products and service offerings. What else can you say about
one of the largest corporations in the world? They have a huge
impact on the call center industry, and have an enormous well of
expertise on the subject.
Accelerated Payment Systems

800-688-2230
Automated check debiting system for call center transaction pro-
cessing. (That is, callers can pay by check and the transaction is auto-
matically verified, much like a standard credit card transaction.)
ActIonTrac
310-824-8888
fax: 310-824-8885
Active Voice
206-441-4700
fax: 206-441-4784
www.activevoice.com
Repartee voice processing and unified messaging applications. It's
actually one of the most popular voice mail systems around, enhanced
all the time. (They've popularized the "1 for yes, 2 for no" interface.)
Also important is the TeLANophy system, which is essentially a
LAN/voice mail interface — all your calls are viewable and listenable
through your PC. I've tried it, it works. Lastly, if you want a concise,

APPENDIX
unbiased explanation of the benefits from voice processing, look at

their Voice Mail Explained page.
Acuvoice
408-289-1661
fax: 408-289-1177
www.acuvoice.com
Speech synthesis system and text-to-speech system. They've got an
expert system that takes text and parses it into voice sounds. They
point out that it delivers speech in natural sounding tones, not robot-
speech or the typical "drunken Swede" sounds (apologies to my
Swedish friends).
Advanced Recognition Technology

408-973-9686
fax: 408-973-9687
Smart Speak voice recognition software.
Ahern Communications
800-451-3280
fax: 617-328-9070
www.aherncorp.com
A headset distributor that resells lots of brands, including
Plantronics and Uniden cordless, as well as speakerphones, videocon-
ferencing equipment and a variety of spare parts for headsets.
Alert Communications
213-254-7171
800-333-7772
fax: 213-254-6802
www.alertcom.com
Service bureau and outsourcer of call center services. Alert oper-
ates four call centers in the Southern California area. These centers
process both live operator and automated call processing applications,
including Some of Alert's areas of specialization include the catalog
order processing, software and hardware customer support, dealer
location referral services, and Internet call response.
Allen Systems Group

941-435-2200
800-932-5536
fax: 941-263-3692

APPENDIX
Alpha Technologies
800-32-ALPHA
fax: 360-671-4936
Power protection, CFR Series UPS. ALCI industrial line conditioners.
Amcom Software
612-829-7445
800-852-8935
fax: 612-946-7700
www.amcomsoft.com
CTI Smart Center: a suite of call center applications including
auto-attendant, voice response and various messaging features. All of
Amcom's products use ORACLE as the RDBMS system and use
Windows 95 as the GUI user interface. The next revision will use
Windows NT.
American Power Conversion (APC)

800-788-2208
fax: 401-788-2712
UPS, power protection & surge protectors. Power products can
protect telecom, computer and networking systems. They also sell a
series of desktop-based software that helps alert you to and manage
power fluctuations.
Amteico
608-838-4194
800-356-9224
fax: 608-838-8367
www.amtelcom.com
Both developer and more turnkey call center systems, including
1Call, which offers modular ACD functions, directory systems,
departmental registry, and e-mail.
Analogic
508-977-3000
fax: 508-977-6813
www.analogic.com
Speech recognition and text-to-speech systems. Also new is their
IP-Voice, a technology that sends voice over IP networks, bypassing
the public network and its annoying tolls.
Answersoft
972-997-8300
www.answersoft.com

APPENDIX
Sixth Sense computer telephony automation software. They also

offer a variety of call center applications built on their CT platform:
for example, a routing app that automatically retrieves ad routing cus-
tomer data with calls. New: Concerto, an Internet/intranet CTI sys-
tem, along with several other flavors of Inter/intranet product.
Apex Voice Communications

800-379-8400
818-379-8400
fax: 818-379-8400
www.apexvoice.com
Open architecture computer telephony and call processing systems
and toolkits. Specializing in high-density, multi-node systems, APEX's
OmniVox solutions include graphical service creation tools
(OmniView), service provisioning tools (OmniNet) and support for
intelligent call processing (DNIS, ANI, SS7).
Applied Language Technologies (ALTech)

617-225-0012
fax: 617-225-0322
www.altech.com
Interactive speech systems for automating telephone transactions.
SpeechWorks, a software development environment for building
advanced telephone-based speech recognition applications.
SpeechWorks provides developers with the ability to "speech-enable"
a broad range of transaction processing, information exchange, and
messaging applications.
Applied Voice Technology

206-820-6000
fax: 206-820-4040
www.appliedvoice.com
Voice mail, voice processing, unifed messaging and computer tele-
phony. The main platform is CallXpress 3 NT; also available is
Desktop Call Manager, an IVR product called Automated Agent, and
Windows NT-based ACD products.
Appro International
800-927-5464
408-452-9200
fax: 408-452-9210
www.appro.com
Industrial grade computer platforms for critical applications. Like

call centers. Includes hot swap fans, hot swap power supplies, tem-
perature monitoring systems — all the good stuff.
Aristacom
510-748-1564
fax: 510-748-1534
www.aristacom.com
CTI middleware software.
Artisoft
800-846-9726
520-670-7100
fax: 520-670-7101
www.artisoft.com
Toolkit for creating fax and telephony apps (on various Windows
platforms). Also InfoFast, a data retrieval tool for fulfilling customer
info requests.
Aspect Telecommunications
408-325-2200
800-541-7799
fax: 408-451-2746
www.aspect.com
CallCenter ACD, Agility voice processing system,
EnterpriseAccess software for linkage between applications. Aspect's
switches are recognized as high-quality, high-volume ACDs. For sev-
eral years, they've been actively enhancing the value of the switch.
First, through an aggressive and widely-adopted partnership program
with application software developers. Then, through software and
hardware enhancements of their own — Agility, as an integrated IVR
front-end to the switch, then through several iterations of data man-
agement products. These software systems take the data spit out by
the ACD and format reports, funneling them through a pipeline that
allows people outside the call center — in management, or MIS, for
example — to view the data according to their own needs and from
their own perspective. These tools need upgrading in light of the rapid
deployment of Intranets and browsers, but it's a pretty good bet that
will happen soon.
Astea
617-275-5440
fax: 617-275-1910
www.astea.com

Customer Enterprise Series (PowerHelp, PowerSales, Dispatch-1)
for help desks. Strong in the field service and internal help desk envi-
ronment. They also offer the Heat help desk system, acquired through
Astea's acquisition of Bendata not too long ago.
Aurora Systems
508-263-4141
fax: 508-635-9756
www.fastcall.com
FastCall computer telephony software (middleware). Allows you
to hook client/server and LAN apps to your phone system through
TAPI and/or TSAPI standards. The product is sold exclusively through
distribution partners (companies like Nortel, Norstan, Harris, etc.).
BBN Corp.
617-873-3000
617-873-2473
www.bbn.com
Makes the Hark recognizes, a runtime speech recognition engine
used mainly in call centers and central office telephony applications.
Used in client/server Unix environments. Also available are develop-
ment tools, and ready-made integration with IBM DirectTalk and
VoiceTek.
BCS Technologies
303-713-3000
PBX/ACD for small call centers. The DSP1000 is an open archi-
tecture, standards-compliant switch with standard routing capabilities
and both real-time and historical reporting.
Banksoft
714-975-0796
www.banksoft.net
Small call center system called VoiceSolution, which (under
Windows platforms) provides call processing and backend data pro-
cessing with the major industry-standard databases. They'll do soft-
ware-only, hardware-only, or a turnkey package.
Bard Technologies
800-997-4470
www.bartech.com
CallLab ACD Simulator. System that models activity in a call cen-
ter, projecting future activity (in aggregate) and allowing you to exper-

iment with changing call center parameters. A good way to model the
behavior of skills-based routing (and other "random" activities that
bedevil Erlang calculations).
Belgacom
203-221-5280
The Belgian national telecom carrier, which is actively engaged
in assisting companies in locating their call center operations in
that country.
Berkeley Speech Technologies

510-841-5083
fax: 510-841-5093
www.bestspeech.com
BeSTspeech text-to-speech conversion technology. Works with all
major app gens, board lines, operating systems.
Bicom
800-766-3573
203-268-4484
fax: 203-268-3404
www.bicom-inc.com
DSP voice cards, mainly for two and four ports, called the Sonic
C4. They also have a Gemini line of MVIP- and SCSA-compliant
boards (which they claim has a place in Internet telephony).
Bogen Communications
201-934-8500
fax: 201-934-9832
Messages-on-hold, digital announcers, voice loggers and recorders.
The Boyd Company

609-890-0726
Consultant specializing in call center location and site selection.
Bramic Creative Business Products

905-649-2732
fax: 905-649-2734
Ergonomic furniture for call centers. (People tend to forget how
important this stuff is.)
Brite Voice Systems

617-821-0320

fax: 617-828-7886
www.brite.com
Voice processing and IVR systems that integrate voice, fax, CTI
and Internet capabilities.
Brock Telecom
613-342-6621
fax: 613-498-3605
wwvv.nortel.com/english/brocktel/
IVR systems, turnkey products and app gens. A division of Nortel.
Brooktrout Technology
617-449-4100
fax: 617-449-9009
www.brooktrout.com
Fax, voice and telephony products, mainly at the component level.
Known best for the TR series of fax and voice boards, and for Show
N Tell, a voice processing/IVR platform. (This last was a product
developed by Technically Speaking, which Brooktrout acquired some
time ago.)
Buffalo International
914-674-9320
www.buffalo-intl.com
OAPDE (Open Architecture Predictive Dialing Environment), PC-
based outbound dialer. A strong platform for building a LAN-based
dialing and call processing system, at a relatively low per-seat cost (rel-
ative, of course, to a full-featured turnkey dialer).
BWT Associates
508-845-6000
Disaster recovery consulting and services.
Call One
800-749-3160
fax: 407-799-9222
Distributes headsets, conferencing equipment.
CAS Marketing
402-393-0313
fax: 402-390-9497
List management services, as well as phone number appending and
other lookup services.

CallWare Technologies
800-888-4226
801-486-9922
fax: 801-486-8294
www.callware.com
Software for integrating voice, fax, e-mail, IVR.
Castelle (Ibex Division)

916-939-8888
fax: 916-939-8888
www.ibex.com
Fax processing servers, and very interesting web/fax combos that
call centers can use for order processing and literature fulfillment.
CenterCore
800-220-5235
908-561-7662
fax: 908-561-0911
www.centercore.com
Cubicles and agent workstations (the physical desks, not the com-
puters on the desks) for call centers. They make a space-saving cluster
design. And their modular workstations are fully equipped to hold
(and hide) wiring, etc.
Centigram
408-944-0250
fax: 408-428-3722
www.centigram.com
Voice processing equipment. Makes the Series 6 communications
server, which is the basic IVR platform, and a multimedia messaging
product called OneView.
Chadbourn Marcath
312-915-0300
fax: 312-915-0366
CCAnalyzer, call center management software. Software for dis-
playing center stats to agents that runs on tv monitors, not reader-
boards.
Checkmate
UK Tel : 0800-NTHELP
International Tel : +44-116-263-2282
fax: +44-116-263-2222
www.checkm.demon.co.uk

Checkmate is Nortel Europe's only Premier Business Affiliate in
Services and Support. They provide training, support, development
and consulting services for Meridian 1 switches. They also provide
comprehensive European service including helpdesk support, remote
access and onsite visits.
ChiCor
312-322-0150
Software for disaster planning and recovery.
Cintech
513-731-6000
800-833-3900
fax: 513-731-6200
www.cintech-cti.com
Cinphony and Prelude, PC-based ACDs for small centers. New:
Jazz2000. These systems add ACD features to Northern Telecom
PBXs, making them perfect for departmental call centers.
Clarify
408-428-2000
fax: 408-428-0633
www.clarify.com
Help desk software that has moved beyond backend problem pro-
cessing into that fuzzy realm where they can claim to being a total,
enterprise-wide sales and service tool.
Comatrix
800-888-7822
714-992-5982
fax: 714-992-5980
Supplier of used telecom equipment from major vendors, includ-
ing Norstar, AT&T and Toshiba. They also distribute for Voysys and
other voice mail systems.
Comdlal
800-347-1432
804-978-2200
fax: 804-978-2230
www.comdial.com
LAN-based ACD through their QuickQ software product, plus a
variety of interesting software and combo products that bring
advanced features closer to the middle end of the market.

Comdisco Disaster Recovery
800-272-9792
847-518-5340
Disaster recovery and service assurance programs. They can liter-
ally set up an entire center for you if something bad happens (earth-
quake, flood, etc.). Or something less extensive if your problem is less
dramatic.
Commetrex
770-449-7775
fax: 770-242-7353
Computer telephony boards, particularly the MSP ("Media
Stream Processor") DSP resource board. These boards support voice,
fax, speech recognition, etc. for call center applications.
CommuniTech
847-439-4333
fax: 800-783-7800
www.communitech.com
One of the largest distributors of headsets around. Stocks ACS,
UNEX and VXI. Also is the sister company of CommuniTech Services,
a systems integrator.
Computer Communications Specialists

800-227-7227
770-441-3114
fax: 770-263-0487
www.ccsivr.com
A hardware and software combo platform for IVR called
FirstLine.
Computer Talk Technology

800-410-1051
fax: 905-882-5000
www.icescape.com
Server-based ACD (with digital switching and built-in CTI), and a
newly announced Internet ACD.
Comverse information Systems

800-967-1028
516-677-7400
fax: 516-677-7399
www.cis.comverse.com
Digital recorders and voice loggers, and monitoring systems.

Conversational Voice Technologies/ConServIT
888-343-CVTC
800-97-OUTSOURCE
847-249-5560
fax: 847-249-9773
www.cvtc.com
Inbound service bureau.
Copia international
800-689-8898
630-682-8898
fax: 630-665-9841
www.copia.com
They make the FastFax fax server engine, a high volume network-
based fax system. Add-ons and options include broadcast faxing,
internet faxing and international products.
Cortelco
800-866-8880
901-365-7774
fax: 901-365-3762
www.cortelco.com
Switching systems, ISDN equipment, and software to manage it.
Crystal Group
800-378-1636
319-378-1636
fax: 319-393-2338
www.crystalpc.com
Industrial grade "fault resilient computer systems, the kind that
keep mission critical applications like call centers running all the time.
CTL
203-925-4266
fax: 203-925-4267
www.ctlinc.com
VoiceSupport voice processing system for the low end of the market
(2 ports) and the Interactive Support IVR system for higher end users.
Cybernetics Systems
305-529-0020
fax: 305-443-2335
Workforce management system. Owned by EIS International.

DPC Computers
914-426-3790
They make a useful and inexpensive piece of software that shows
sales taxes for any locality during a telephone transaction. A must for
the small center.
Dakotah Direct
800-433-3633
509-624-2401
fax: 509-624-1505
Outsourcing call center service bureau.
Daktronics
605-697-4468
fax: 605-697-4700
www.daktronics.com
InfoNet multiline readerboards with custom and standard
interfaces.
Dash Open Phone Systems

800-464-3274
913-888-7936
fax: 913-495-9482
www.dashops.com
PC-based phone system that includes ACD and goes up to 192
ports. Includes various CTI options as well.
Database Systems
602-265-5968
fax: 602-264-6724
www.dsc1.com
TeleMation telemarketing software.
Davox
508-952-0200
www.davox.com
Predictive dialers. Goes under the banner of the Unison call man-
agement system, purporting to mix inbound and outbound call pro-
cessing. You'll never hear the words "predictive dialer" pass from
their lips. And yet they make.... predictive dialers.
Dees Communications
800-663-5601
604-946-8315

Universe Centrex ACD for Nortel switches. Mediator Direct
ACD, routing system for centrex.
Dialogic
800-755-4444
201-993-3000
fax: 201-993-3093
www.dialogic.com
Voice cards, SCSA hardware, GammaLink fax boards. CT-
Connect CTI Software accessible through HP's Smart ContAct.
Digisoft Computers
212-581-2190
fax: 212-581-2692
Telemarketing, scripting software.
DSP Group
408-986-4300
fax: 408-986-4490
www.dspg.com
Speech compression technology, optimized particularly for confer-
encing and internet telephony applications.
EIS International
800-274-5676
203-351-4800
fax: 203-961-9553
www.eisi.com
Predictive dialers and workforce management (through
Cybernetics subsidiary).
Early, Cloud/IBM
800-322-3042
401-849-0500
fax: 401-849-1190
www.earlycloud.com
CallFlow, distributed software for large-scale call center automa-
tion that allows companies to automate customer contact applications
such as customer service, telesales, account management and collec-
tions. CallFlow lets you build scalable applications in high transaction
volume client/server environments. CallFlow provides application
generation, business workflow, computer telephony integration, con-
tact management, fulfillment and call result reporting. It enables

access to corporate data systems throughout the enterprise through a
unique object-driven technology.
Easyphone SA
011-351-1720-5050
fax: 011-351-1720-5090
email: easyphoneinfo@easyphone.pt
Portuguese firm that makes the CallPath-based EasyPhone Call
Center Management Software system for NT. Incorporates CTI,
software-based predictive dialing and scripting/database features.
Worth a look.
EasyRun
201-541-1855
fax: 201-541-8333
www.easyrun.com
Developer of desktop computer telephony systems. Products
include: ECC, a suite of call center applications featuring integrated
IVR, voice mail and skills-based routing. It provides MIS application
for real-time and historical reports, agent station application and
readerboards. ETSC is a telephony switching system running on a net-
work of desktop PCs. It provides the entire feature set required by a
mobile switching system (MSC) and follows the GSM standards. The
system works with a dumb-PBX to provide a complete switching plat-
form for specialized telephony.
Edify
800-944-0056
408-982-2000
fax: 408-982-0777
www.edify.com
IVR and workflow software for backoffice processing of call cen-
ter transactions.
Edward Blank and Associates

212-741-8133
Inbound and outbound service bureau.
Entertainment Technology
416-598-2223
fax: 416-598-5374
Call center display board system (called FRED) that actually
works with TV monitors; in addition to displaying ACD stats and

other traditional kinds of data, it also allows you to mix in video and
other kinds of messages.
Estech
972-422-9700
fax: 972-422-9705
Makes the IVX telephone/voice mail product. Not really a call
center product except at the very low end, if you need something that
will make a departmental center with rudimentary ACD features.
Exacom
603-228-0706
fax: 603-228-0254
www.exacomusa.com
Automated messaging system (MessageMaxx); digital recording
systems.
Executone information Systems

800-808-1305
203-876-7600
fax: 203-882-0400
www.executone.com
Integrated Digital System platform. ACDs, predictive dialers.
Expert Systems
770-642-7575
fax: 770-587-5547
www.easey.com
Ease IVR development product. Latest platform supported is
Windows NT.
Exsys
505-256-8356
fax: 505-256-8359
Expert system software and services.
Fujitsu Business Communications Systems

888-FBCS-CTI
fax: 602-921-4800
www.fbcs.fujitsu.com
Offers a wide variety of call center tools, starting with core
switches and moving up through CTI links and specific applications
and services.

GBH Distributing
818-246-9900
800-222-5424
fax: 818-246-5850
www.nia.com/headsets
Headsets for a variety of applications, including call centesr.
GM Productions
800-827-DEMO
fax: 404-237-5522
www.gmpvoices.com
Professional recording of voice prompts and other kinds of
announcements, including on-hold systems.
GN Netcom/Unex
800-345-8639
603-598-1100
fax: 603-598-1122
www.gnnetcom.com
Headsets.
Genesys
888-GENESYS
415-437-1156
fax: 415-437-1260
www.genesyslab.com
Call Center Manager: Combined inbound/outbound call proces-
sor. And the Genesys T-Server, a CTI server that provides connectivity
between data and telephone networks. Through Genesys applications,
you can put call center features on your network, like skills-based
routing, or predictive dialing.
GeoTel
508-486-1100
fax: 508-486-1200
www.geotel.com
Intelligent CallRouter (ICR), network-based ACD router. They
have one of the most interesting ways of implementing virtual call cen-
ters (but by no means the only one).
Graybar
800-825-5517
www.graybar.com
Distributor of telecom and call center products along a wide spec-

trum of technologies, from a lot of manufacturers. Their catalog is
worth looking at.
Harris
800-888-3763
415-382-5000
fax: 415-883-1626
www.harris.com
Switching systems & PBXs, particularly VoiceFrame, a program-
mable switch with an NT server.
HTL Telemanagement
301-236-0780
fax: 301-421-9513
Hills B calculator for simulating call center conditions.
Hello Direct
800-444-3556
408-972-8155
Headsets.
ICT Group
215-757-0200
fax: 215-757-4538
Telemarketing service bureau.
IEX
214-301-1300
fax: 214-301-1200
www.iex.com
Call center management software, workforce management software.
Inference
415-615-7900
fax: 415-615-7901
www.inference.com
CBR Express, case-based problem resolution engine for help desks.
The Info Group

800-54-GROUP
508-628-4500
fax: 508-628-4566
www.infogrp.com
Telemanagement and call center information systems.

Infobase Services Inc. (ISI)
800-775-5898
561-681-7061
fax: 561-688-9410
CTI systems. CTI-Link integration system, Monitoring and rout-
ing systems. Systems integration services.
Information Gateways Corp.

703-760-0000
fax: 703-760-0098
Criterion line of "switchless" call center platforms that incorpo-
rate ACD, PBX, IVR, dialing, scripting and campaign management
functions.
Information Management Associates (IMA)

203-925-6800
800-776-0462
fax: 203-925-1170
www.ima-inc.com
Edge TeleBusiness software for telemarketing in particular and call
center management and operation in general.
Intecom
972-447-9000
fax: 972-447-8533
www.intecom.com
Switches for large distributed apps. EyeSite, video call center sys-
tem, introduced in 1996. The Intecom E is a switch often used in high-
volume call centers.
Interalla
800-531-0115
612-942-6088
fax: 612-942-6172
www.interalia-inc.com
Announcement and messaging systems. The XMU Digital Galli
Processing system supports up to 63 ports with ACD announcements
and automated attendant features. Lots of ways to configure custom
announcements through various soft parameters: time of day, holi-
days, etc.
InterVolce
972-454-8582
fax: 972-454-8905

www.intervoice.com
IVR, outbound dialers.
Jabra
800-327-2230
619-622-0764
fax: 619-622-0353
www.jabra.com
Headsets — theirs is a special "in-the-ear" model that combines
the speaker and the mike into one tiny piece called the Ear Phone.
Kaset International
800-735-2738
fax: 813-971-3511
Customer service training programs.
Kirvan and Associates

609-228-7525
Disaster recovery consultants and services.
Lernout & Hausple

888-LERNOUT
617-238-0960
fax: 617-238-0986
www.lhs.com
Speech recognition, text-to-speech, speech-to-text systems.
Featuring speaker independent recognition, barge-in, echo cancella-
tion and line adaptation.
Unkon
203-319-3175
fax: 203-319-3150
www.linkon.com
Makes a variety of interesting products, including voice boards
with a truly unique "universal port" architecture that support a wide
range of advanced voice processing apps; and an all-in-one VRU/IVR
combo called Escape, that scales well and is a robust, easily upgrad-
able system.
Locate In Scotland Call Center

www.scotcall.com
Assistance in setting up call centers in Scotland.

Locus Speech Corporation
514-954-3804
fax: 514-954-3805
www.locus.ca
Speech recognition system incorporated into a "virtual attendant."
Lucent Technologies
800-372-2447
www.lucent.com/BusinessWorks
AT&T telecom systems spinoff. The inheritor of all that was call
center hardware coming out of AT&T: ACDs, voice processing sys-
tems, and so on. The home of Conversant and Definity.
Magic Solutions
201-587-1515
fax: 201-587-8005
www.magicrx.com
Magic Solutions makes help desk and customer support soft-
ware. Key products include SupportMagic (Windows version 3.4
currently available). This problem resolution and call tracking sys-
tem includes: Windows 95 and NT workstation client support, and
integration with NetCensus, (for automatic updating of hardware
and software inventory).
Malibu Software
310-455-3327
fax: 310-456-6225
Manitoba Call Centre Team
800-463-6360
fax: 204-943-0031
Economic development organization for call center industry in
Western Canada.
Maritime Tel & Tel

902-421-5884
fax: 902-429-4983
Economic development organization for call center industry in
Eastern Canada (The Maritime Provinces).
Maxxar Corporation
810-615-1414
fax: 810-615-4499
www.maxxar.com
Centrum 9000 platform for running call center and computer

telephony apps, like voice response systems, IVR, etc. The system is
NT-based.
MCI Call Center Solutions

800-211-8007
770-284-4557
fax: 770-284-5979
www.mci.com
Offers a full spectrum of services for the call center industry, rang-
ing from the obvious long distance and toll-free services, to intelligent
network services and call center consulting. Their own call centers are
some of the most advanced in the world.
Medlasoft Telecom
514-731-3838
fax: 514-731-3833
www.mediasoft.ca
IVS Builder and IVS Server are application generators for building
IVR apps. The app gen itself is Windows based, and the server runs
them on an NT or UNIX platform. Works with most of Dialogic's
SCSA product offerings.
Melita International
770-409-4667
fax: 770-409-4725
www.melita.com
Predictive dialing systems. Melita was one of the first outbound-
oriented companies to try to "retro-fit" their image and their products
for the increasingly inbound-centric call center world. The major
result: call blending, the mixing of inbound and outbound agents,
which Melita's PhoneFrame dialer does very well.
Metromall
708-574-3800
List and lookup services.
Microlog
301-428-9100
fax: 301-540-5557
www.mlog.com
IVR systems for the UNIX and DOS worlds.

Minuteman (Para Systems)
800-238-7272

972-446-7363
fax: 972-446-9011
www.minuteman.com
Power protection devices.
Mitel
613-592-2122
fax: 613-592-4784
www.mitel.com
PBXs that have the ability to spin off and run ACD groups for
small call centers.
Mosaix
888-4-MOSAIX
fax: 206-558-6001
www.mosaix.com
Predictive dialing systems.
Nabnasset
508-787-2800
fax: 508-787-2834
www.nabnasset.com
CTI integration software, really middleware. The Voice Enhanced
Services Platform (VESP) does most of the voice and data routing and
call handling, sitting between the switch and the host — if ever there
was a definition of CTI, that was it.
National Consulting Systems

800-252-7334
Call center location assistance for many US areas.
Natural Microsystems
800-533-6120
508-650-1300
fax: 508-650-1351
www.nmss.com
A major supplier of voice boards and voice processing platforms
for use in call center and CTI applications.
NBTeI/New Brunswick
800-824-7449
506-694-6022
fax: 506-658-7827
www.callcenter.nbtel.nb.ca

The Canadian Province of New Brunswick and that area's tele-
phone service provider, which is trying to attract call centers to come
and locate there.
Netphonlc
415-962-1111
fax: 415-962-1370
www.netphonic.com
They make something called the Web-On-Call voice browser,
which claims to integrate the Internet with an IVR system.
Nice Systems
800-NICE-611
212-267-3545
fax: 212-267-3669
www.nice.com
Digital call logging systems that integrate with all major switches
and CTI servers, and that scale up to 5,000 channels. They also make
a fax management system and unified messaging.
Norte! (Northern Telecom)

800-4NORTEL
408-988-5550
fax: 408-565-3474
www.nortel.com
Switches, ACDs, software. Also owns Brock Telecom. Latest offer-
ing is Symposium, a portfolio of products and services for that provide
multimedia call center systems.
Nuance Communications
415-462-8200
fax: 415-462-8201
www.nuance.com
Speech recognition system that has a large vocabulary and a pret-
ty good natural language processing system. Schwab has used it for
their phone-based stock quote and trading service.
Octel
800-444-5590
fax: 408-324-2632
www.octel.com
Voice systems of all stripes, from VRU to IVR and then some.
Ontario Systems

800-283-3227
fax: 317-751-7198
www.ontario.com
PC-based predictive dialers.
Panamax
800-472-5555
415-499-3900
fax: 415-472-5540
www.panamax.com
Surge protectors and line of power related systems for protecting
phone systems, networks and PCs.
Pegasystems
617-374-9600
fax: 617-374-9620
www.pegasystems.com
"Customer interaction solutions": voice and data integration,
screen pop, etc.
Perimeter Technology
800-645-1650
fax: 603-645-1424
ACD Management Information system for Centrex and SL-1
based ACDs.
Periphonics
516-468-0800
fax: 516-981-2689
www.peri.com
Voice processing, IVR that also includes transaction processing
capabilities and application development tools. And the Internet.
PipkIns
314-469-6106
fax: 314-469-0841
www.pipkins.com
Call center management software, workforce management.
Merlang ("modified erlang") is their version of the calculating algo-
rithm. They claim to be able to schedule through skills-based routing,
which, if true, is quite a feat.

Plantronics
408-426-5858
fax: 408-425-8654
www.plantronics.com
Headsets.
ProAmerica
800-888-9600
www.proam.com
Service Call Management help desk software.
The Product Line

800-343-4717
303-671-8000
Provides live agent inbound and outbound call handling services,
IVR, fulfillment services and transaction processing (credit cards,
checks, etc.) to a variety of vertical markets. Primarily involved in cus-
tomer support and direct marketing applications.
Professional Help Desk (PHD)

203-356-7700
800-474-3725
fax: 203-356-7900
www.phd.com
Help desk software, featuring call management, call tracking,
asset management, problem resolution (via the Help Desk, intranet
and Internet), and customized reporting. Professional Help Desk is
Windows-based and fully ODBC compliant, seamlessly integrating
with virtually any database and systems architecture.
Fn. Telecom Netherlands

212-246-2130
fax: 212-246-1905
National telecom carrier of the Netherlands, active in seeking US
companies that want to open call centers in that country.
PureSpeech
617-441-0000
fax: 617-441-0001
www.speech.com
Speech recognition product suite for high volume apps.
Q.Sys
513-745-8070

fax: 513-745-8077
wvvw.qsys.com
Call Producer telephony server.
Quintus
800-337-8941
510-624-2800
fax: 510-770-1377
www.quintus.com
Help desk software. Offers a web-enabled product with advanced
data "publishing" features in the latest version.
Racal Recorders
800-847-1226
714-727-3444
fax: 714-727-1774
www.racal.com
Voice loggers and recording equipment, with nice software that
drives it.
Remedy
415-254-4919
Help desk and customer service software.
Response Interactive
416-969-7890
www.responseinc.com
Response has a software product called WebExchange. This pro-
vides a live link between visitors to a web site and the appropriate
agents from a company's call center. There is a client and server appli-
cation, as well as a www component. WebExchange uses (optional) a
Dialogic board for making audiotext calls, and performing certain
telephony functions.
Rhetorex
408-370-0881
fax: 408-370-1171
www.rhetorex.com
Voice boards, owned by Octel.
Rockwell International
800-416-8199
630-227-8000
fax: 630-227-8186
www.switch.rockwell.com

ACDs, software. Galaxy ACD, Spectrum ACD and the Gateway
Architecture for Call Centers. Rockwell's ACD systems are good high-
volume inbound switches. They are often found in the largest call cen-
ters, including the punishingly busy reservation centers. (One
ACD,taken out of service last year, is said by Rockwell to be the indus-
try's first ACD — 25 years old, and still in working order, at
Continental Airlines.) Rockwell's VarCTI is the CTI server system that
lets the Spectrum and Galaxy switches process outbound dialing. It
lets you add inbound queueing stats to predictive dials, an increasing-
ly sought-after feature. (There are other CTI links available from
them.) The company is also active in the drive to marry Web-capabil-
ities to the inbound switch, through their Internet ACD system.
Scopus
510-597-5800
fax: 510-428-1027
www.scopus.com
Extended Enterprise help desk system.

ServiceWare
412-826-1158
fax: 412-826-0577
www.serviceware.com
Knowledge Paks, portable help desk knowledge for adding to a
software engine.
Siemens
800-765-6123
408-492-2000
fax: 408-492-22874
www.siemenscom.com
Switches, large, high-end ACDs, software for call routing.
Software Artistry
317-843-1663
www.softart.com
Help desk system.
Soundlogic
604-291-9989 x3001
fax: 604-291-9949
www.soundlogic.net
Help desk system.

Spanlink
612-362-8000
800-452-8349
fax: 612-362-8300
Internet call center products and services (WebCall) and IVR/CTI
combo called ExtraAgent.
Spectrum
800-392-5050
713-944-6200
fax: 713-944-1290
www.specorp.com
ACD readerboards and software to drive them.
Sprint
913-624-3697
fax: 913-624-3080
www.sprint.com
Long distance and consulting services for call centers.
Square D EPE Technologies

714-557-1636
714-434-7652
Power protection systems.
Steve Sibuisky Productions

208-765-4957
fax: 208-667-9792
Message-on-hold production services.
SunGard Recovery Services
610-341-8700
610-341-8739
Disaster recovery and service assurance programs.
Symon
800-827-9666
281-240-5555
fax: 281-240-4895
www.symon.com
Readerboards, and middleware for all sorts of client/server appli-
cations that run in call centers, including networking among multi-
vendor ACD environments. Interesting stuff.

Syntellect
800-347-9007
770-587-0700
fax: 770-587-0589
www.syntellect.com
Voice processing, IVR, predictive dialing and web-related call cen-
ter products. They also run a voice and data processing outsourcer
(Syntellect Interactive Services) and through the acquisition of
Telecorp Systems, they offer Home Ticket Intelligent ANI, a pay-per-
view ordering processing service.
Systems Modeling
412-741-3727
fax: 412-741-5635
www.sm.com
They make Call$im, a simulation tool for modeling call center
performance over the medium and long term, helping you figure out
what the impact of change will be. Not exactly a workforce manage-
ment tool, But increasingly simulators are having to stand in for work-
force planners because of the complex (and non-random) nature of
call delivery systems.
TCS Management Group

615-221-6800
fax: 615-221-6810
www.tcsmgmt.com
TCS workforce management system; Real-Time Schedule
Adherence; Skills-based-routing Simulator. Works with single or
linked call centers.
Tandem Computers
800-NONSTOP
408-285-6000
fax: 408-285-0505
www.tandem.com
High-reliability servers and platforms for running call center
applications.
Taske Technology
414-462-0100
fax: 414-462-0101
www.taske.com
Taske Toolbox, enhancement for small ACD for reports, manage-
ment, supervisor screens in real time.

TeLeVell
408-956-0511
TeleSell telemarketing software.
Teknekron Infoswitch
800-TEKNEKRON
817-267-3025
www.teknekron.com
ACDs, software for management, reports, quality and monitoring.
(Their software works with switches from other vendors.)
Tekno Industries
708-766-6960
fax: 708-766-6533
Call center network management system; reports on status, ser-
vice level.
Telecorp Products
800-634-1012
810-960-1000
fax: 810-960-1085
AgentWatch, ACD management system with readerboard.
TelephonetIcs
305-625-0332
fax: 305-625-3026
www.telephonetics.com
Algorhythms music and message on hold service, with audio pro-
duction and programming.
Teloquent
508-663-7570
fax: 508-663-7543
www.teloquent.com
Distributed Call Center (DCC), ISDN-based remote-agent ACD.
This product is a technological marvel. It lets you place agents wher-
ever you want — anywhere you can get an ISDN line to them. Small
satellite centers, home agents, all become possible with their very clever
architecture. Check out the topology diagrams on their home page.
Texas Digital Systems

409-693-9378
fax: 409-764-8650
www.txdigital.com

QuickCom Visual Message Alert System (readerboard). QuickNet
software for networking the
workstations to the board.
Uniden
817-858-3300
fax: 817-858-3401
Product that interfaces with PBX and desk set telephone to pro-
vide wireless headsets.
Utopia
800-786-4778
fax: 415-956-4260
Utopia help desk software.
VXI
800-742-8588
603-742-2888
fax: 603-742-5065
Headsets.
Vantive
408-982-5700
fax: 408-982-5710
www.vantive.com
Help desk software.
Venturian Software
612-931-2450
fax: 612-931-2459
www.venturian.com
IVR; CyberCall web/call center integration system.
Versatility
800-VERSATILE
703-591-2900
fax: 703-591-2992
www.versatility.com
Telemarketing software and middleware, including PC-based out-
bound dialing features.
Viking Electronics
715-386-8861
fax: 715-386-4349

Fax/data switches, auto attendants, digital announcers, toll restric-
tors, auto dialers.
Voice Control Systems

972-726-1200
fax: 972-726-1267
Speech recognition toolkit.
Voice Processing Corporation

617-494-0100
fax: 617-494-4970
WWW.vpro .com
Speech recognition.
Voiceware Systems
407-655-1770
fax: 407-655-2104.
Call processing systems integrator.
Voysys
800-7-VOYSYS
510-252-1100
fax: 510-252-1101
www.voysys.com
Computer telephony products for small centers, especially IVR.
Wygant Scientific
503-227-6901
fax: 503-227-8501

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THE

Copyright ©1998 Keith Dawson

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright conventions,

Manufactured in the United States of America

Book Design by Andrew Torio

WHERE IT STARTS: FINDING THE BEST SITE

HOW TO DESIGN A SUCCESSFUL CENTER 19

ACDS: CALL CRUNCHING POWERHOUSES 25

HOW TO MANAGE SKILLS-BASED ROUTING 39

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

IVR: THE BEST FRONT DOOR TO ANY CENTER 69

EVERYTHING STARTS WITH VOICE PROCESSING 80

THE BENEFITS OF FAX-ON-DEMAND 89

COMPUTER TELEPHONY INTEGRATION:

10 BUYING THE BEST HEADSET 106

11 READERBOARDS - A FEAST FOR THE EYES 110

12 SAVING MONEY WITH REFURBISHED EQUIPMENT 114

13 CHOOSING WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE 119

CHOOSING HELP DESK/CUSTOMER SERVICE SOFTWARE 134

18 WHY YOU STILL NEED CALL ACCOUNTING 153

19 HANDLING TELEMANAGEMENT 163

20 TOLL-FREE SERVICES: THE LIFELINE INTO YOUR CENTER 167

21 WHEN SHOULD YOU GO OUTSIDE FOR HELP? 174

22 GETTING THE FRESHEST, CLEANEST LISTS 179

23 USING MESSAGES ON HOLD: SILENCE IS NOT GOLDEN 184

24 CAN AGENTS WORK FROM HOME? 192

25 MONITORING: WHY IT'S IMPORTANT &

26 SMALL SOLUTIONS FOR BIG RESULTS 199

27 ADD CHECK PROCESSING TO YOUR REPERTOIRE 206

28 THE IMMENSE VALUE OF ANI 210

29 PREPARING FOR THE WORST - SO IT NEVER HAPPENS 214

30 ISDN: THE ULTIMATE CONNECTION FOR CALL CENTERS 223

31 HOW THE WEB IS CHANGING CALL CENTERS 228

32 THE BENEFITS OF A VIRTUAL CALL CENTER 238

33 THE NEW ROLE OF THE CALL CENTER 241

• APPENDIX: A GUIDE TO KEY CALL CENTER RESOURCES 245

CALL CENTER HANDBOOK 1

the investment in technology that allowed them to handle huge vol-

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ments — equipment sales, outsourcing services, toll-free traffic, cus-

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2. We have to recognize that the call center is more than a place

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

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WHAT TO LOOK FOR

"Labor availability is number one," says Seth Bornstein of

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HOW TO GATHER INFORMATION

Public School Indices: • Local School Districts

CALL CENTER HANDBOOK

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Another drawing card for some communities is a nearby mili-

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Canada is an interesting choice of location for American compa-

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The vast majority of the call centers in Europe are inbound.

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