Myth Busters: The Role of Asterisk in World Class Contact Centers

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Myth Busters The Role of Asterisk in World Class
Contact Centers

• Kelly Duerr, Senior Product Manager
• October 25, 2006

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The Role of Asterisk in World Class Contact
Centers

• Topics
• Introduction
• Challenges in Todays World Class Contact Centers
• Changing the Way Customers Think
• Asterisk Business Edition from Aspect Software
• Contact Center Myths and Realities
• Myth Buster Balancing Flexibility and Value

3
Who is Aspect Software?
4
Global Presence
2005 Product Sales North America vs.
International
5
Global Trust

• 1.2M agents globally manage125,000,000
  interactions daily
• That equals more than 3,000,000,000 interactions
  annually
• We power
• 10 of the top 10 telecommunications companies1
• 10 of the top 10 commercial banks1
• 8 of the top 10 airlines1
• 14 of the top 15 India-based outsourcers2
• 9 of the top 10 US-based outsourcers
• 1 According to the April 2006 Fortune 500 List
• 2 Source Nasscom

6
Business Process Insight
7
Recent Industry Acknowledgements Awards

• Aspect Uniphi Suite won Product Development
  Leadership Award Frost Sullivan
• Aspect Spectrum  ACD won Best ACD/ Switch -
  ContactCenterWorld.com Members Choice Awards
• Aspect eWorkforce Management won Best Workforce
  Management Solution - ContactCenterWorld.com
  Members Choice Awards
• Aspect Customer Self Service won Best of Show
  ICCM
• Aspect eWorkforce Management won Innovation
  Workforce Productivity Award TMCnet.com
• Aspect EnsemblePro won for Groundbreaking
  Product TMCnet.com
• Aspect Uniphi Suite won Excellence and Product
  of the Year Awards Internet Telephony Magazine
• Aspect Customer Self Service won CRM Excellence
  Award Customer Inter_at_action Solutions Magazine
• Aspect Uniphi Suite won IP Contact Center
  Technology Pioneer 2005 Product of the Year
  Awards - Customer Inter_at_action Solutions Magazine

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Unparalleled Insight into Customers Business
Processes
MANAGE
DELIVER
ENGAGE
SATISFY
TRIGGER
BUSINESS RESULT
OPTIMIZE
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Challenges in Todays World Class Contact Centers
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Myth Buster What Do World Class Contact Centers
Really Need to Be Successful?

• Myths?
• Customers Want a Totally Open Flexible Solution
• Customers Want a Really Powerful Application
  Programming Interface
• Asterisk Can Solve Any IP PBX Business Problem
• Asterisk Is Free

11
Increasing Pressures to Reduce Costs

• Reduce move, add, and change expenses
• Achieve economies of scale for transmission
  services
• Reduce long term equipment costs
• Reduce maintenance expense
• Converge systems management and maintenance staff

Costs are one reason!
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Consumer Expectations are Not Being Met
Source 2005 Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction
Index
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Increased Globalization and Mobility

• Speed of Deployment
• Reduced geographic barriers
• One common transmission and switching
  infrastructure
• Business continuity
• Collaboration
• Ability to support new applications

Flexibility!
14
IP PBX Shipments Increasing
)
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VoIP Enablement Chronology
Presence-based Communications enable
Future
High Value
Converged architecture
SIP enabled agent communication
Leverage existing IP infrastructure via H.323
Proprietary Voice Over IP
Centralized Control with remote telephony nodes
Low Value
Present
Pyramid of IP Benefits Based on Chronology of
Acceptance and Value
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There are Still Many Challenges

• 80 to 90 of all data networks will need to be
  upgraded to handle the more stringent
  requirements of voice
• VoIP expertise will need to be developed
• Will change the way people work and interact
• It is always more difficult to implement than
  plan
• Every access point is a potential security threat
• Law of unintended consequences

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Contact Centers Must Find the Right Balance
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Open Source Telephony is Changing the Way
Customers Think About Contact Centers
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Drivers of IP Adoption in the Contact Center
Very dynamic processes and practices
Very consistent processes and practices
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Gartner on IP Migration

• Call centers that operate in industries
  characterized by low customer turnover (either by
  choice or by regulation), that place greater
  importance on cost control than on profitability
  (such as in regulated industries), or that tend
  toward physically centralized operations, will
  find little value in the benefits of the
  standards-based IP contact center and will likely
  be uninterested in this architecture until at
  least 2008.
• Source IP Contact Centers Not Right for
  Everyone, Authors Jeff Snyder, Drew Kraus, Terry
  Wright, Rich Costello, Steve Cramoysan, Bern
  Elliot, Geoff Johnson, Jay Lassman, Girish
  Trivedi, Earl C Steman
• 16 February 2006

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Choosing the Appropriate Voice Transport
Very dynamic processes and practices
Very consistent processes and practices
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VoIP Investment Indicators

• Business will invest its scarce resources, in
  areas which generate the greatest return (value)
• PBX technology has become a commodity(Multiple
  suppliers of essentially the same product)
• Flexible, cost effective infrastructure
  alternatives exist in the form of Open Source IP
  PBXs
• Open Source IP PBX is changing the way customers
  think about investing in the contact center

23
Disruptive Technologies Have Been Beneficial to
the Contact Center
FIRST ACD Automated customer service and
incoming sales
1973
PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION Integrated WFM and
KPIs
2000
FIRST WFM Agent forecasting and scheduling
1980
1983
FIRST CTI IMPLEMENTATION Integrated data and
telephony
FIRST VIRTUAL OUTBOUND Business
Continuity FIRST UNIFIED ARCHITECTURE Reduced
Complexity
1996
FIRST DIALER Automated collections and
telemarketing
1981
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Open Source

• The Concept
• Open-source software is software that is built
  and enhanced through public collaboration. It is
  free and it gives the user access to the source
  code.
• Advantages of Open Source
• Economics lower costs to try and implement
• Free market analogy
• Minimal central planning
• Community of self-interested developers
• Necessity is the mother of invention
• Features and fixes follow community (market)
  needs
• Quick time to market, short development cycle
• User Transparency results in quick fixes to
  problems
• Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow (E.
  Raymond)
• Open Standards
• If supporting company dies, software lives on

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Open Source IP PBXs Have Gathered Momentum

• Over 2,500 Asterisk downloads per day
• Estimated over 1 million Asterisk installations
• Competitive replacements
• Support by major corporations

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Common Characteristics in Each of These
Disruptive Events

• Bigger,
• Better,
• Faster,
• Lower Cost

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Asterisk Business Edition from Aspect Software
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VoIP Enablement - Meeting the IP Need

• Opportunities
• Voice over IP is being readily adopted
• IP infrastructure becoming QoS ready
• Role of contact center broadens (self-service,
  collaboration)
• Emerging convergence applications
  (text-to-speech, presence)
• Business Drivers for IP
• Distributed / remote workforce
• Outsourcing (other remote office applications)
• IP infrastructure adoption / standardization
• Increasing acceptance of SIP as industry standard
• Telephony network cost reduction

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Asterisk Business Edition from Aspect Software
Aspect Contact Center Products

• Aspect Software Package
• Asterisk Business Edition Software Package
• Installation Services
• Support Services
• Aspect Professional Services (customization)
• SIP Phones
• Aspect IP Gateway
• Application Servers

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Asterisk Business Edition from Aspect Software
Aspect Contact Center Products

• The Asterisk Business Edition from Aspect
  Software solution will always be deployed as part
  of a complete contact center solution, including
  one of our contact center products (Aspect
  Software Unified IP product line or Signature
  product line)
• All Aspect Software contact center functionality
  is maintained when using Asterisk
• The contact center establishes a direct SIP
  connection to the IP Phones to avoid feature
  interference with Contact Center Agent activity
• The SIP Proxy provides the ability to route calls
  by source, allowing calls from the Contact Center
  to directly interface with the subscriber IP
  Phones
• Multi-line phones may be required to support
  concurrent contact center and IP PBX functions
• Typically the contact center will have direct
  connections to the PSTN through TDM, though calls
  from Asterisk are supported
• Asterisk provides all IP PBX features for
  subscribers and agents when not logged in

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Asterisk Business Edition from Aspect Software
Aspect Contact Center Products

• Customer Benefits
• Open Standards
• Fully Supported Package
• Cost Effective
• Customizable
• Rapid/Agile Development
• Stable/Secure

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Asterisk Business Edition from Aspect Software
Aspect Software Contact Center Solution
Configuration Model
Customer
Contact
Aspect Contact Center Solution
Contact Center Agents
Contact Center Agents
T1 / E1
IP
IP
Aspect IP Gateway
T1 / E1
IP
Asterisk Business Edition IP PBX
IP PBX Users
Asterisk Business Edition IP PBX
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VoIP Enablement for Remote Office Configurations
LOCAL CONTACT CENTER
Aspect Software

• Contact Center
• Software
• Administration
• Reporting
• Call Management

• Contact Center
• Media Services
• Queuing
• Treatment
• Signaling

IP Gateway
Administrator
Customers
LAN/WAN

• Corporate
• Applications
• CRM
• Order Fulfillment
• Billing

• Asterisk Business
• Edition IP PBX
• Software
• User Features
• SIP Proxy
• Administration

IP PBX User Stations
Agent
Supervisor
High Speed Bandwidth
IP Gateway
Asterisk Business Edition IP PBX Software
Agent
Supervisor
Agent
Supervisor
Agent
Supervisor
HOME / BRANCH OFFICE
IP REMOTE OFFICE
REMOTE OFFICE
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VoIP Enablement for Oursourcers
LOCAL CONTACT CENTER
Aspect Contact Center Solution

• Application Servers
• Administration
• Reporting
• Expanded Capabilities

Administrator
Customers
LAN/WAN

• Corporate
• Applications
• CRM
• Order Fulfillment
• Billing

Agent
Supervisor
Aspect IP Gateway
OUTSOURCER
Asterisk Business Edition IP PBX
Agent
Agent
Agent
Agent
Agent
Supervisor
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Asterisk is Changing the Way Contact
CentersThink About

• Balancing Consumer Demands with the Bottom Line
• Evolving Infrastructure
• New Opportunities
• Business continuity
• Remote agents
• A disruptive event

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Contact Center Myths and Realities
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Myth Buster What Do World Class Contact Centers
Really Need to Be Successful?

• Myths?
• Customers Want a Totally Open Flexible Solution
• Customers Want a Really Powerful Application
  Programming Interface
• Asterisk Can Solve Any IP PBX Business Problem
• Asterisk Is Free

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Myth Busters The Role of Asterisk in World
Class Contact Centers

• Customers Want a Totally Open Flexible Solution
• And no wonder!
• Inflexible infrastructure
• Slow to react
• Costly implementation
• Specialized expertise

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Myth Busters The Role of Asterisk in World
Class Contact Centers

• Flexibility is not enough
• Consumer emphasis on agent empathy and advocacy
  skills
• Leverage automation and standards to deliver a
  consistent customer experience
• Minimal delays and agent empowerment tools
  improve efficiency
• Reality Customers need a standard feature set
  the optimizes customer contact

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Myth Busters The Role of Asterisk in World
Class Contact Centers

• Customers Want a Really Powerful Application
  Programming Interface
• And why shouldnt they?
• Long lead times
• Complexity
• Business Continuity
• Extensibility

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Myth Busters The Role of Asterisk in World
Class Contact Centers

• Powerful can be dangerous
• Technology solutions must be predictable
• Time to market critical to stay competitive
• Change management and repeatability
• Reality Customers Need to Bring Products and
  Services to Market Quickly While Maintaining
  Solution Stability

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Myth Busters The Role of Asterisk in World
Class Contact Centers

• Asterisk Can Solve Any IP PBX Business Problem
• Can you be more specific?
• Many PBX features are seldom used
• Proprietary solutions are expensive
• Lack flexible alternatives

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Myth Busters The Role of Asterisk in World
Class Contact Centers

• Must leverage existing investments where
  appropriate
• Target common components and vendor neutral
  standards (SIP)
• Tie innovation to tangible business goals
• Increase investment in features that drive
  customer satisfaction
• Reality Customers Need Solutions that Integrate
  Well With Legacy Business Environment

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Myth Busters The Role of Asterisk in World
Class Contact Centers

• Asterisk is Free!
• Is it really free?
• Getting the technology setup
• Managing the technology
• Repeatability

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Myth Busters The Role of Asterisk in World
Class Contact Centers

• Our customers business depends on it!
• Validated solutions with zero downtime
• Training and ongoing support critical
• Utilize rapid/agile development to speed time to
  market
• Reality Customers Expect Products that Are
  Enterprise Ready and Fully Supported

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The Bottom Line
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Myth Busters The Role of Asterisk in World
Class Contact Centers

• Realities
• PBX functionality has become a commodity
• Asterisk is another beneficial disruptive
  technology
• Open Source IP PBX provides businesses control
  and flexibility at a reduced cost
• Its about having the ability to choose
• Asterisk can change the way you think

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Myth Busters The Role of Asterisk in World
Class Contact Centers

• Asterisk helps world-class contact centers
  utilize open source telephony to balance consumer
  demands with the realities of the bottom line.
• Differentiate products and services to drive
  customer loyalty
• Deliver basic reliable telephony at a
  cost-effective price
• Address gaps in consumer satisfaction vs. key
  interaction criterion
• Consistently deliver consumers to knowledgeable
  empowered agents

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