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How it works

Some companies choose to separate the handling of customer contacts by medium. For instance, a company may establish a department for inbound calls, one for outbound calls, and a group for e-mail. (There are as many organizational permutations as there are ways to communicate.) Some companies, especially smaller ones, opt to create "universal agents" who handle all contact types. Companies create universal contact agents for reasons of efficiency and service, and often because they find it easier to train agents in multiple communication methods than to train multiple agents in product or service information.

Contact centre technology is becoming increasingly integrated, making for improved processes and resulting in increases in customer satisfaction, efficiency and revenue generation.

An IP contact centre deploys sophisticated applications and utilises enterprise resources, both technical and human. Branch or remote sites can provide seamless global coverage and respond to spikes in call volume, all through a connection to the central hub. IP telephony enables the call centre and supports the use of agents from anywhere, including their homes. This capability has become a cost control strategy for many contact centres.

To take the call centre or contact centre to the next level requires true integration -- embedding intelligent communications in the very fabric of business processes. This revolutionary concept heralds innovative new ways of operating the contact centre to win customers, be competitive, and build revenue. It is a new way of doing business.

For those contact centre managers looking for ways to improve operations, IPT offers many advantages over what traditional circuit switching technology can offer to a call centre. IPT can enable several operating models and ultimately lead to a contact centre based on Intelligent Communications.

Key to leveraging Intelligent Communications as a new way of doing business are two recent innovations -- Session Initiation Protocol or SIP and Service Oriented Architecture or SOA.