Transcript What You Need to Know BEFORE Making the Move to VoIP

What You Need to Know BEFORE
Making the Move to VoIP
Sanjeev Sawai
Vice President, Research and Development
Envox Worldwide
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Every day, millions of people experience Envox
Voice Solutions
When Calling
Customer
Service
When Calling
for Directory
Assistance
When
Scheduling
Appointments
When
Providing
Information
By Phone
When
When
Completing Communicating
Transactions
at Work
IP Mobility & Contact Center Solutions
Platform & Development Software
Professional Services
The Impact of VoIP
• On the call center
– Easily enable virtual call center and home-based agent solutions
– Seamless routing between call centers maximizes agent
utilization and lowers overall staffing requirements
– New capabilities resulting from integration of enterprise
applications
– Softphone/PC configurations reduce move, add and change work
• On IVR & self-service solutions
– Server consolidation
– Centralized applications reduce administration and upgrade
issues
– In many cases, out-of-date proprietary solutions can be replaced
for the maintenance costs
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
The Impact of VoIP
• For the enterprise
– Reduced call charges: intra-company long distance, tariffs
in some regulated markets, fewer leased lines
– Reduced equipment charges: one network, consolidated
servers
– Agility: application control, rapid application changes,
improved integration/use of corporate data
• For IT
– More uniform application development
– Simplified administration and upgrading of voice
applications
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Key Standards and Technologies
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Key VoIP Standards
• H.323
– Standard that bridges IP and PSTN networks to enable
interoperability
– Gives priority to voice traffic over a LAN to ensure QoS
through bandwidth management
– Not well suited for large user groups or multimedia
applications
• SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
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Lighter weight - based on HTTP and SMTP
Easier to implement than H.323
Faster call set-up
More “familiar” to IT and Web developers
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Architecture: Migrating from TDM to
VoIP
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
TDM Call Center
PSTN
ISDN (E1)
Envox
IVR
ISDN/analog
PBX
CTI Link/CSTA Link
Agent Stations
w/TDM Phones
Envox
CT Connect
CTI
Application
Customer
Database
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Hybrid IP Call Center: IP Phones
Cost Savings
VoIP Gateway
• Internal Toll Charges
• Moves/Adds/Changes
PSTN
VoIP Gateway
ISDN (E1)
Envox
IVR
TCP/IP
PBX
CTI Link/CSTA Link
Envox
CT Connect
Agent Stations
w/IP Phones
LAN/WAN
CTI
Application
Customer
Database
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Hybrid IP Call Center: Softphones, IP IVR
Cost Savings
VoIP Gateway
• Internal Toll Charges
• Moves/Adds/Changes
• Phones
PSTN
VoIP Gateway
ISDN (E1)
Envox
IP
IVR
PBX
CTI Link/CSTA Link
Envox
CT Connect
Agent Stations
w/Soft Phones
LAN/WAN
CTI
Application
Customer
Database
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Pure IP Call Center: Softphones, IP IVR, SoftPBX
Cost Savings
• Internal Toll Charges
• Moves/Adds/Changes
• Phones
• PBX Maintenance
PSTN
ISDN (E1)
IP PBX,
VoIP
Gateway
Envox
IP
IVR
CTI Link/CSTA Link
TCP/IP
Envox
CT Connect
Agent Stations
w/Soft Phones
LAN/WAN
CTI
Application
Customer
Database
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Pure IP Call Center: Soft Phones, IP IVR, Soft PBX
Cost Savings
• Internal Toll Charges
• Moves/Adds/Changes
• Phones
• PBX Maintenance
• Server Costs/Maint.
PSTN
ISDN (E1)
IP PBX,
IP IVR,
VoIP
Gateway
CTI Link/CSTA Link
TCP/IP
Agent Stations
w/Soft Phones
Envox
CT Connect
LAN/WAN
CTI
Application
Customer
Database
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Customer Care in the Distributed Enterprise
Cost Savings
•Int./Ext. Toll Charges
•Moves/Adds/Changes
•Agent Costs
•Phones
•PBX Maintenance
•Server Costs/Maint.
Central Office
PSTN
VoIP
Gateway
Envox IVR w/
Routing App.
Envox
ACD
Remote Office
Envox
Call Info. Mgr.
VoIP
Gateway
Envox
CT Connect
At Home Agents
VoIP
Gateway
Agent with
IP Phone
PBX
Agent with
Std. Phone
Agent with
IP Phone
IP Agent with
Soft
January 23-26, 2007•
Ft.Phone
Lauderdale, Florida
Approaching a VoIP Project
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Common Problems to Avoid
• What do you mean I can’t do that?
– VoIP is a new and changing technology
– Misinformation/lack of knowledge in vendors
•
•
IT vs. telephony
Evolving standards
– Vendors support different standards or parts of standards
• Voice quality/recognition quality vs. bandwidth
• Centralized operations = increased impact of
system failures
• Duplicate functionality, but don’t plan for future
• Security issues – need a plan that fits IT policies
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Recipe for Success: Preparation
• The team: involve IT, telephony, business reps.
– IT: bandwidth, firewalls, security, devices
– Telephony: hardware/software, phones
• Gather feedback on current telephony system
– What features need to be carried forward?
– What are drawbacks and what is lacking?
• Identify business and technical needs of system in
the future
– Infrastructure that will remain (IVR, phones, etc.)
– Changes needed to IP network to support voice
– Quantity and quality of business applications
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Recipe for Success: RFP & First Steps
• Input from multiple vendors (RFP)
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Architecture plan (routing, firewalls, telephony, data flow)
Redundancy plan
Security plan
Can you provide all features? How?
Quality of service guarantees
Implementation plan
• References – been there before?
• Prove it in a pilot
– Effects on infrastructure, IP network?
– Do I still have all the functionality I need?
– Special monitoring for transmission over the public internet
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Special Considerations for ASR/TTS
• Compression of voice signal in VoIP network
– Selection affects quality of audio/recognition and
bandwidth
– Conventional wisdom – stick with telco-quality
(uncompressed, G.711) audio
– Latest engines support other codecs (Nuance supports
G.711, G.723 and G.729)
• Platform must support required codec
• Affects both TTS and ASR
• Advice - check with your speech vendor for
compression/bandwidth requirements
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Case Studies
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Retail Chain Reduces Infrastructure Costs with VoIP
Customer
Description
 1,000+ stores
Why VoIP?
 Consolidated network
 Separate PSTN, IT
networks
 Fewer internal resources required to
manage and upgrade solutions
 Satellite transmission for
data consolidation
 Fewer deployed systems
 Corporate goals
 Easier to roll out upgrades
 Cost savings
 Upgrade obsolete
technologies
 Less hardware
 Reduce the number of vendors
 Eliminate phone charges
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Collections Agency Uses VoIP to Reduce Call Wait Time
Customer
Description
 6,000+ calls per day
 Inbound/Outbound
 Multiple call centers,
each with IP PBX
 Must respond
IMMEDIATELY to
inquiries or lose revenue
Why VoIP?
 Centralized system reduce
administration and development
 SoftPBX, IVR, Predictive Dialer, Agent
Screen Pop, etc.
 Enabled virtual call center
 Reduced wait time - call transferred to
next agent regardless of location
 Centralized switching maximizes
coverage AND streamlines staffing
requirements
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Software Company Improves Operations at Nursing
Homes and Hospitals
Customer
Description
 AccuNurse
 Speech-enabled access
to patient care plans
 Point of care reporting
via wireless headset
 Silent paging
 Speech-to-text database
input
Why VoIP?
 Lowered overall cost of integrating
information sources
 Rapid introduction of service
enhancements
 Next-gen technology provides
important marketing advantage
 Simplified integration with database
and web-based systems
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Resources
• Download Envox development software at
http://www.envox.com/gettingstarted/index.asp
www.envox.com
508-898-2600
[email protected]
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida