ONE VIEW OF THECONTACT CENTER

This white paper exploreshow to create a toolsetthat integrates diverseapplications andinformation types withlatest Enterprise 2.0 andreal-time services. It describeshow a unified desktopenvironment helps contactcenters access informationand streamline their businessprocess to achieve theirbusiness goals.

IntroductionNo company wants to be listed in the Customer Service Hall ofShame, MSN Money's annual ranking of companies with the worstcustomer service. Besides the obvious embarrassment andnegative publicity, research shows a direct correlation between thequality of a company’s customer service and its stock price.Unhappy customers lead to unhappy shareholders. Poor customerservice is bad business.

Contact centers are a critical element in the delivery of customerservice. Understanding this, enlightened enterprises no longconsider their contact centers solely as cost centers—necessaryevils that must be managed for maximum efficiency. Instead, theysee contact centers as strategic assets that contribute to customersatisfaction and top-line revenue and should be managed formaximum effectiveness.

This shift from efficiency to effectiveness means not only a newmindset, but also a new toolset. Today’s agents and supervisorsmust contend with multiple applications—ACD, CRM, workforcemanagement, quality management, performance management,order entry, knowledge base, etc. However, the applications residein separate “silos,” each dealing with different information andpresenting a different user interface. As a result, agents see multipleviews of each customer, and supervisors see multiple views of the

contact center. These confusing, often overlapping displays wastetime, degrade service quality and interfere with productivity.

In addition, contact center workers often interact with more thanone application to complete a given task, and different roles needdifferent access to features within these applications. For example,agents and supervisors both need workforce management, buta supervisor likely needs extensive access to scheduling andreporting features, whereas an agent need only access his or herschedule and certain shift change requests.

To be most effective, agents and supervisors need a toolset thatintegrates diverse applications and information types, incorporatesthe latest Enterprise 2.0 real-time services, and presents everythingthrough a unified desktop environment. If best practices require auser to touch two or more applications to complete a task, the usershould not have to cobble them together manually.

Agents should have—right at their fingertips—everything theyneed to resolve customer requests on the first call, to identify andact on sales opportunities, to build customer loyalty and tostrengthen competitive differentiation. Supervisors should havefast and easy access to everything they need to monitor and adjustfor performance against goals, quality and brand and to managecontact center resources for maximum effectiveness. This requiresintegration—not just of the software—but of the user’s workflow(Fig. 1).

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Figure 1. Diagram of siloed vs. integrated applications

From Efficiency to EffectivenessFor years, the quest for efficiency has driven contact centeroperations. Contact centers were viewed strictly as cost centers,and agent performance was judged by factors such as averagehandle time (AHT), average speed of answer (ASA) and average talktime (ATT). A typical contact center objective was to maintain aservice level (SL) that answers 80 percent of incoming calls within20 seconds. In short, the overriding strategy for most contactcenters was to handle as many customer interactions as possible atthe lowest cost per call.

But now this outlook is changing. As stated in a recent YankeeGroup report, “Moving Contact Center Strategies BeyondEfficiency and Into Effectiveness”:

The market’s view of the contact center and its tightly integratedrelationship with customer service is quickly shifting froman enterprise cost center, obsessed with the measurement ofoperational efficiencies, to a revenue-producing asset charged withdriving customer satisfaction and loyalty. As a result, thecontact center [is broadening] its mission to include improvingcompetitive differentiation, ensuring repeat business andenhancing up-selling and cross-selling possibilities.

In other words, the quest for efficiency is evolving into a quest foreffectiveness. In addition to performance indicators such as SL orASA, contact centers are being measured on revenue per call,up-sell percentage, first call resolution rate and other indicatorsthat relate to revenue generation, customer satisfaction andcustomer loyalty rather than just cost.

This new orientation calls for new tools, as further described in theYankee Group report:

Top achieving centers will reach [a] level in which effectiveness isoptimized, the center is a value-based profit center in a businesssense, and there is a strategically effective blend of strategic andtactical information flowing through tightly integratedoperational systems enabling peak performance and a high level ofcustomer care. The rise to this level of excellence will require a tightintegration of contact center applications, including apre-integrated suite, one single view of customer information and aunified agent desktop environment that consolidates customerinformation (objective profile and contextual information) at theagent’s desktop. It will also require a contact center supervisorydesktop with integrated key performance indicators formonitoring and management purposes.

Or more succinctly: To be most effective, contact center agents andsupervisors need unified desktop environments. Moreover, theunified environment should not only help agents streamline their

minute-to-minute activities, but also help supervisors gaugeongoing performance against tactical and strategic business goals.

The Unified DesktopToday’s contact center desktops are far from unified. Agents andsupervisors alike must contend with multiple, often overlappingapplications. Agents are faced with ACD applications, CRMapplications, order entry systems, knowledge managementsystems, scripting systems, email, instant messaging, schedules andmore. Supervisors deal with all of the above plus qualitymanagement (QM), workforce management (WFM) systems,performance management systems and others. The result is aconfusing hodge-podge of diverse applications delivering differentslices of customer, support or product information. To complete acustomer transaction or other activity, users often must deal withmultiple applications. But each application has its own style of userinterface and may generate a different set of key performanceindicators (KPIs), and is generally not geared to the role of aspecific user (Fig. 2).

Moving from application to application during the course of acustomer interaction takes a toll on agent efficiency. Shiftingsubsets of customer information make it difficult, if not impossible,for an agent to formulate a complete view of the customer. But acomplete view is essential to ensuring customer satisfaction,building customer loyalty and identifying up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. Supervisors face similar impediments as theyjump from application to application trying to monitor, evaluateand support agent performance. With different applicationsgenerating different KPIs, how does a supervisor pull together acoherent picture and make critical adjustments?

There are efforts afoot to relieve some of this confusion by unifyingWFM, QM and performance management applications intoworkforce optimization (WFO) suites. However, these efforts maynot go far enough. They integrate the application software andeliminate overlaps, but they do not unify the user interface, andthey do not allow contact centers to add their favorite real-timeapplications or web services. To be most effective, applicationintegration must be accompanied by desktop integration thatstreamlines business processes and automates best practices. Theuser interface should provide a unified view that parallels andsupports workflow automation, hides any overlap or gaps betweenapplications and makes it easy for contact centers to customizetheir views.

Moreover, agents should have ready access to anything andeverything that promotes customer understanding and aids firstcall resolution: real-time services like presence, instant messaging(IM) and RSS feeds, modern Enterprise 2.0 services like corporateblogs and wikis, and performance data that helps agents

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self-improve. Similarly, to maximize contact center effectiveness,supervisors need integrated information, e.g. KPIs from multiplesources, plus the same real-time and web services that agentsfind useful.

More Effective PerformanceThe following examples show how application integration andunified desktops can improve customer service by making contactcenters more effective. In each of the examples, the applicationsexist originally as separate tools. Workers must toggle betweenapplications, determine next steps and integrate the tools andprocesses themselves. With all of the different tasks a worker mustcomplete in a day, it is easy to see how integrating the tools behinda unified desktop interface can minimize time, frustration anderror. These examples are meant only as illustrations. Actualinteractions among these and other tools will be unique to eachcontact center based on its particular transactions and bestpractices.

Integrated Workforce Scheduling (integrating WFMforecast,meeting schedule, collaboration)A lot more goes on in contact centers than just customer calls.Agents and supervisors also attend training sessions, groupmeetings and other ancillary activities. Finding time for theseactivities and coordinating them without impacting service levels

can be a challenge. Say a supervisor scheduled a meeting and laterdiscovered that the impact on service levels was going to besignificant. Typically, to reschedule the meeting, the supervisorwould use a WFM program to identify times when the right agentswere available, to determine which time would have the leastimpact on service levels and to schedule the meeting. Thesupervisor would then use a separate tool to notify agents ofthe change.

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Figure 3.Workforce Management integrated with schedulingand notification

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Functional Applications

Sales and MarketingCRM

Order ManagementProduct/Service Catalog

LogisticsInventory Management

Distribution Management

FinanceBilling

Customer Information System

Internal OperationsDocument Management

Knowledge Base/FAQs

CSR Tools

Softphone

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DispositionSystem

The CSR Desktop

Figure 2. Screenshot of multiple overlapping application windows

With an integrated interface (Fig. 3), a supervisor could see that,given WFM-predicted call volume and scheduling obligations, theplanned meeting would prevent a particular queue from meetingits service level obligations. The supervisor could then use onestreamlined process to:> Select a meeting time with less potential impact on service

level,> Adjust each agent’s schedule to reflect the new

meeting time,> Trigger an automatic alert to tell agents the new

time and location.

Unified Performance Analysis (integratingperformance reports, quality scores)Agent scorecards record performance against key metrics: first callresolution, revenue, AHT, quality and adherence. But finding thereason for an unsatisfactory score can require extensive searchingthrough multiple data sources and archives. A unified approachmore efficiently and effectively relates performance to specificcontributing statistics.

With a unified approach, a supervisor or agent first views acomposite performance management scorecard with a single valuethat represents performance in a number of areas: first callresolution, revenue, AHT, quality, adherence, etc. Using astreamlined process, the user drills through the data and viewscontributing scores in each area—quality scores, for example(Fig. 4). The user then drills down further and views the recordingand evaluation of a particular quality score, relating that specificinstance to the top-level composite score. The facts behind thetop-level score are discovered without time-consuming searchesthrough multiple sources.

Accelerated First Call Resolution (integrating CRM,call history, presence/chat, call handling)Often, agent teams and external contact center resources operateseparately, each with its own set of communications tools. Thesebarriers between groups can present challenges when non-ACDworkers are needed to help resolve a call.

Typically, if an agent needs outside assistance, the agent puts thecaller on hold and phones around the rest of the enterprise to see ifan expert is available. This hit-or-miss process can frustrateboth the calling party and the agent. By integrating the agent’scollaboration toolset with enterprise presence tools, this process isboth simplified and extended.

Using integrated presence capabilities, the agent can quicklydetermine if another agent or expert is available to help by viewingthe teammate’s current ACD state or presence state and initiating achat. Call data can also be shared with non-ACD workers forcontext as well as to expedite the progress of the call (Fig. 5).

As these examples demonstrate, application integration anda unified desktop yield multiple benefits:

> Improved first-call resolution – With a unified view ofcustomer information from multiple sources, plus easy accessto subject matter experts, wikis and other resources, agentsare able to resolve more issues without putting callers onhold, without handing off callers to other agents or supportpersonnel and without requiring additional phone calls.

> Increased revenue – A unified view of customer informationhelps agents identify up-selling and cross-selling opportunitiesso that they can “strike while the iron is hot” and improvetheir revenue-per-call performance.

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Figure 4. Performance analysis with drill-down to root cause.

Figure 5. Ectending customer interaction to non-agent experts throughintegrated presence

> Increased customer satisfaction – A unified view givesagents a better understanding of the “whole customer” so thatthey can approach each customer as a unique individual andanticipate and respond to each customer’s needs moreeffectively. Together with improved first call resolution, thisimproves customer satisfaction and increases customerloyalty, which in turn leads to reduced cost, increasedrevenue per customer and improved stock value.

> Lower total cost of ownership – A unified desktop and theintegrated applications behind it are easier, faster and lessexpensive to install and operate than a gaggle of independentapplications. Because the applications are designed to worktogether, integration costs and professional services costs arekept to a minimum. Moreover, flexible architecture makes anintegrated system easy to modify and scale as the contactcenter grows and changes.

Flexible Architecture – Lower Costof OwnershipContact centers differ widely. Some are highly centralized whileothers are distributed. Some employ thousands of agents, whileothers have just a few. Some have highly specialized roles for eachagent, while others assign each agentmultiple responsibilities. Plus,each contact center has its own mix of application software. So anysystem that delivers a unified desktop must be easily adaptable bysystem integrators and enterprise IT staff to meet each contactcenter’s specific goals and requirements—without excessiveprofessional services cost.

A unified desktop system should accommodate all types of contactcenter roles—specialized agent, blended agent, supervisor,evaluator, manager, executive or knowledge worker—and severaltypes of client software—rich clients, thin clients, web browsers, etc.Likewise, the system should support a variety of user interfaces,integrating applications “behind the scene” and allowing differentways to create a unified view.

Some contact centers will prefer a “container” approach with allinformation presented in a single, unified window, like the CalabrioOne desktop shown in the previous examples. Others may preferto make a CRM application the primary interface, with otherapplications accessible through buttons on a toolbar. Still othersmay prefer to have applications represented by desktop “widgets”(Fig. 6) that users can arrange to fit their personal requirements. Inall approaches, the desktop environment must be extensible.System integrators must be able to easily integrate data from newapplications and services. And ideally, contact centeradministrators should be able to customize the unified desktop,dropping in RSS feeds, wikis, blogs and other Enterprise 2.0services without outside help.

Calabrio OneTo facilitate the shift from efficiency to effectiveness, Calabrio isre-architecting its industry-leading Unified Interaction Suiterenaming it Calabrio One. Calabrio One integrates WFM, QM andperformance reporting within a common desktop. The newarchitecture takes the model a step further by unifying theunderlying information to better streamline user-facing businessprocesses. Calabrio One integrates a rich set of contact centerapplications for presentation through a variety of unified desktopviews. With Calabrio One, each agent has one view of the customer,and each supervisor has one view of the contact center.

Calabrio One provides a unified view of the processes that compriseeach user’s daily activities. Flexible views will allow users to accessapplications and services in the way that is most appropriate fortheir work styles and the company’s best practices. Third-partyintegrators and even contact center administrators have the abilityto add other applications or custom “mash-ups” to the unified view.Easy installation and maintenance, automatic software updates,and minimal bandwidth consumption at the network edge, makeCalabrio One ideal not only for traditional contact centerenvironments but also for remote workers in virtual environments.

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Figure 6. Screenshots of toolbar and widget interfaces