Call Centers Move To the Cloud

Hosted PBX systems are becoming popular alternatives to in-house telephone system upgrades. More and more businesses are discovering the advantages of having their phone switching done in the cloud. So, why aren’t call centers doing the same thing?

In fact, some company contact centers are already well entrenched in the cloud. The smaller or more distributed the contact center, the more it makes sense to make the move from premises to hosted phone system. It’s been harder for the larger call centers to do likewise. Why? Because the phones are only a part of what they need. In addition, call centers need Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) functions to create customer “screen pops” and management monitoring and control software.

The days on on-premises call center systems may be numbered. Cloud based services have become more sophisticated. A decade long pioneer in enterprise VoIP solutions, Smoothstone IP Communications, now offers a system with unlimited scalability and the more advanced functions that call center managers need.

Smoothstone’s ControlMaxx lives in a set of geographically distributed data centers monitored by a 24/7/365 Network Operations Center (NOC) to ensure that the system is up to date and available. Monitoring of Quality of Service (QoS) and security is proactive. The system is based in the cloud, but integrated into your business processes and applications.

The ControlMaxx Call Director allows you to manage your inbound numbers and how they route. You can base this on geography, time of day, holiday schedules, and even in response to disaster recovery plans if trouble strikes your facility. The point is that you have control to adapt call flow patterns on the fly as business conditions dictate.

Call Queuing can be set for agent priority, call distribution, music or message on hold and overflow conditions to better manage your agent staff and minimize caller hold times.

Management can record or monitor calls without disrupting the agent for the purpose of quality assurance, training or compliance. You can record both individuals or call groups and then retrieve them through a simple interface

Call Reporting has the status and analytics you need to manage your call center, including reports by queue, by agent, by call or by path. Combined with recording and monitoring functions, this reporting gives you the tool set you need for efficient call center operation.

The agent can be set up with an Agent Desktop Client, a PC application that gives them access to real-time queue/call statistics and alerts, call status, transfer capabilities and secure chat. The screen pop functionality integrates with your CRM software, such as Salesforce.com.

A combination of cloud based call center technology and high bandwidth low latency connectivity enable you to establish a call center of any size and staff it anywhere it makes sense. That includes existing call center facilities, satellite offices worldwide and part time or full time homeworkers. With communications in the cloud, you have a flexibility to adjust resources beyond what you normally expect.

Do you run a large call center or company contact center that is costing a pretty penny and may have scalability or maintenance issues? Before you go out and raise capital for a big construction project, give cloud based call center solutions a closer look. You might very well get more performance at a lower cost than with what you have now.

VoIP Replacement Services

Are you dissatisfied with your current VoIP service provider? Are you getting poor customer service, or even no service if they have gone out of business? Then use this handy VoIP Service Finder to compare offers and find a new provider. There are also some other alternatives you should consider if you are running a business.

VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol zoomed onto the scene and has made quite a splash for residential, small business and enterprise users. What's propelled the growth of VoIP has been the opportunity for cost savings on telephone services.

At the residential level, competitive phone service providers figured out how to use the Internet so they wouldn't have to lease regular lines from the local phone companies. They give you an adaptor so you can connect your phone to your broadband router or modem and then offer attractive bundle pricing for local and long distance service. This type of service is also attractive for very small businesses with only a single phone, including home office businesses. VoIP providers typically include many features, such as Caller ID, that traditional phone companies offer as options with extra charges.

Enterprise VoIP is a bit more sophisticated. There's big capital and expense savings to be had by using phones that connect to the company LAN rather than a separate telephone network. There's also an opportunity to tie computer screens and telephones together in computer-telephone integration to increase productivity in customer service and call center operations.

A big factor in VoIP call voice quality is the quality of the network connection. A good, solid high bandwidth Internet service with low latency and jitter and few lost packets can provide high call quality. A flaky Internet connection is going to sound bad no matter who the service provider is.

Enterprises rarely use the Internet as their telephone network. Instead, they terminate calls to the outside world through traditional digital telephone trunks or contract with a SIP Trunking provider that offers a private network connection.

A VoIP option called Integrated T1 service offers the benefits of lower cost telephone service for businesses using 6 to 12 phone lines and broadband Internet. A special access device connects to the service provider over a private dynamic T1 line. That line carries both telephone calls and Internet service. The quality of the phone calls is protected by the equipment, which assigns priority to any phone conversations and uses the remaining bandwidth for broadband Internet. The dynamic aspect is that any bandwidth not needed for telephone service is automatically reassigned to boost Internet speed.

Contact Center Telecom Service Savings

Contact Centers consolidate communication services for companies and other organizations. That includes the telephone call center, FAX messaging, email and mail room.

Today's contact centers are heavy users of electronic communications and are likely to be the major telecom cost center for the company. A typical contact center may have a combination of technologies that include individual analog telephone or FAX lines, T1 or DS3 based digital telephone trunks, SIP trunking for VoIP based communications, broadband dedicated Internet service, and perhaps point to point private lines for PBX tie lines or electronic data transfer.

What contact center managers really need are voice and data services that save them money while maintaining or improving center performance and reliability. Thanks to competitive carriers and new technology introductions, it is indeed possible to get more for your telecom dollar on your next service contract.

The most basic service is the standard telephone line for local and/or long distance calling. Many companies have a need for both incoming and outgoing calls plus multiple toll free lines. In the call center, screen pops generated by CTI or Computer Telephone Integration increase staff productivity. For this you need Caller ID information as well as a voice channel.

T1 PRI or ISDN PRI is the proven telephone trunking technology that gives you multiple phone lines that can be configured as required, Caller ID data, and fast call setup & teardown to improve efficiency. A single T1 PRI offers up to 23 lines plus a signaling and data channel. A larger PBX telephone system can be configured to accept multiple T1 PRI lines. If your contact center is large enough to require hundreds of phone lines, DS3 telephone service can easily provide this cost effectively.

Alternatively, small contact centers may enjoy the cost savings of combined telephone and Internet service on a single Integrated T1 line. Integrated T1 service works well for operations that need from 6 to 12 outside lines plus broadband Internet access for a small team.

A competing technology to the traditional T1 PRI digital trunk is called SIP Trunking. SIP is Session Initiation Protocol, a popular signaling format for VoIP based telephone systems. SIP Trunking offers a single private line network connection between the contact center and service provider for converged voice and data. The service provider handles call termination with the public switched phone network, usually at very attractive rates.

Regardless of whether your contact center employs only a few people or a large staff, it is well worth a few minutes of your time to see how much you can save on your telecommunication services. Get a quick online quote now and also a free consultation by our telecom experts who can match your requirements with the most cost effective service options.