Distributed Contact Center

Distributed Contact Center
A retail organization with outlets across the country maintains a call center with 200 agents, primarily for inbound customer service. To remain competitive, this retailer must provide extended hours of service, with a "follow-the-sun" approach, by having two call centers, one located on the Pacific and the other on the Atlantic coast. Both call centers have overlapping hours of coverage to assist during the peak call load periods during the day. The centers are supported by two networked digital PBXs with ACD and customized CTI.

In addition to supporting regular inbound calls, the retailer is looking to implement a converged IP contact center, which integrates the functionality of the call center with their Web site. Web site users are to have seamless integration when working with the site and the new contact center.

To build this capability, IP telephony technology has been defined for use. The organization has the choice of purchasing IP-PBX systems or using an IP-Centrex service from a national provider. With the IP-PBX option, the retailer will run VoIP traffic over the corporate WAN between the sites (a 3-Mbps LAN extension circuit derived from a carrier-provided MPLS network). With IP-Centrex, the carrier will be responsible for connecting the traffic between the two sites (resulting in a broadband interconnect charge).

In the estimates for IP-Centrex, we have included a figure of $80 per month for each agent, for the rental of contact center-related software (ie., ACD and CRM). Because this results in a 5-year total of $870,000, compared with an estimated $500,000 purchase cost for two copies of the software on the IP-PBXs, it is probably a higher figure than can be justified.

We should also note that the expected annual cost for the system administration/software support personnel has been set at $70,000 each, to account for the high skill level required in this complex contact center environment.

The bottom line totals show a 10% lifetime cost advantage to the IP-Centrex solution, compared with two IP-PBXs.

Contact Center Applications

Simple uniform call distribution (UCD) has been available for some 20 years on digital Centrex offerings. The limited features with UCD are suitable only for some small call centers and are not widely used.

Full-scale ACD, based on Centrex, was first launched by NYNEX in New York City in 1990. The vital core of an ACD service for a contact center (or a multimedia call center) is the management information system (MIS) system, which delivers real-time statistics to the supervisors, and printed, historical reports to management and the system administrator. BT (formerly British Telecom), for example, identifies "FeatureNet Call Centres" as a major part of its digital Centrex service.

The design and implementation of contact centers has been one of the busiest parts of the telecommunications industry in the past decade, employing much of the talent available. The acceptance of Centrex-based ACD services has been disappointing and has not nearly matched the growth rate of premise-based contact centers over the past few years in North America. This lack of enthusiasm was due to the perceived problems of integrating in-house systems and software with a remote switch, together with concerns over the lack of administrative control.

The generally accepted allocation of operating costs for a contact center is 50% for network services, 40% for personnel, and 10% for equipment maintenance. A CO-based Centrex-ACD service can save up to one-half of the trunks that would be needed for a separate ACD system on the customer's premises. This savings is made possible because the call queuing occurs in software at the CO, rather than farther out in the network.

Also, a CO-based service can grow one line at a time, up to an open ended maximum. It is easy to handle seasonal business with Centrex, since lines can be turned up and down at short notice, adjusting costs in line with demand. The staffing aspects of contact center operation can be addressed through Centrex by taking the work to the agents, rather than bringing the agents to the center. A standby, part-time pool of agents, who work from their homes, can be easily arranged over a managed IP-WAN.

The availability of IP-Centrex, based on a common voice-data network, should remove management's inhibitions regarding Centrex-based contact centers. In the IP-based environment the physical locations of applications, including call management and customer relationship software, and of agents, are no longer significant concerns.

The shortage and cost of competent people to implement and maintain complex contact center configurations can, hopefully, be addressed by the service provider and not remain as a problem for the customer. The outsourcing of contact center business, which now employs 5% of the working population