Is your network ready for IP Telephony? What's the first step to enabling IP Telephony?
Many modern network installations can support VoIP already. If not, the choices are to upgrade just those sections of the network required by the IP telephony, implementing a separate higher specification network for voice or design a new infrastructure from the ground up. The right choice depends on your business requirements and existing capabilities.
The top 10 reasons to implement a Computer Talk hosted communications solution
Flexibility - multiple locations receiving multiple format communications. Calls, e-mails, Instant Messages, video calls, conferences, tasks, texts. All can be queued and distributed across continents, countries, cities, offices and workers at home.
Expandability – a completely scalable and downsize-able solution, ideal for seasonal demand.
Simplicity – fully managed if required. Easy to implement and use: we look after the technology, you look after your customers.
Reliability - centrally managed, maintained and updated.
Tried and tested - used by some of the world’s largest organizations, banks and governments
Quality - tier one carrier grade telephony solution
Security – class leading security used by governments and banks around the world.
Future proof – a centrally managed service where hardware and software is seamlessly updated to stay on the leading edge.
Predictability – control your costs and forecast your growth. No hidden costs. All hardware, software, support and maintenance is included.
Visionary - tomorrow’s business communications today, forever.
The truth about migrating to IP telephony
IP telephony can be problematic to implement. If you choose a mature solution with a company that has track record in this field, it is no more challenging than any other type of system. Having networking specialists with experience in VoIP is essential for any vendor – ComputerTalk excels in this field.
How can IP telephony help mobile workers to become more productive? (And environmentally friendly)
IP telephony is all about flexibility – allowing users to log onto their phone system from any location, any office, home or mobile gives them the ability to work from anywhere. Home working releases workers from the daily commute; logging on from alternate locations can reduce travel (helping the environment). Mobile working keeps you in touch always. iceł is a complete all in one box communication technology that embraces both the mobile world and the traditional telephony world.
What is the difference between a traditional contact center and an IP contact center?
Essentially they are the same, except that an IP contact center uses VoIP instead of traditional analogue or ISDN phone lines to connect agents. This provides the contact center with greater flexibility at lower cost, allowing home working, multiple sites and distributed working at low cost. All of the professional ACD features within iceł are available to premise based or hosted contact center, whether IP or traditional TDM.
Creating competitive advantage through unified communications?
People will always want to talk, especially if they have a problem or don't understand a product or offer. Competitive advantage is created by implementing a communication solution that retains its accessibility whilst maximising the effectiveness of the business. The key is to provide a live person interface efficiently at low cost. In every business people are an expensive resource and therefore need to be utilized as fully as possible. Providing easy to use communication tools that improve the customer experience, reduces training and increases productivity is the holy grail of achieving competitive advantage through unified communications. Streamlining business communication through a unified communications portal, iceł, provides central administration, comprehensive visibility, 100% analysis and maximum competitive advantage.
Will Computer Talk Contact Center solutions run over IP?
Yes. Both in a hosted or premise based environment, our iceł solutions fully support native IP, requiring no additional or third party technology.
Is IP technology reliable?
Like anything, you get what you pay for. Business class IP telephony has now evolved to be as reliable as traditional telephones. In fact, the diagnostic tools available to the IP specialist can make running and diagnosing an IP telephony solution more resilient. However, there is a but: this level of service requires specialist hardware and configuration which comes at a premium. iceł is a very cost effective way of implementing an IP telephony solution – providing class leading technology with business grade reliability.
How are intelligent communications revolutionising the customer experience?
In many ways the intelligence in intelligent communications is invisible to the customer - and so it should be. The customer calling a business wants to get through to the right person as soon as possible. If this happens, regardless of skills, performance based routing, database integration, CTI or whisper prompts, the caller just gets to the right agent in good time. Where the caller does see a benefit is in the variety of contact methods they have to choose from. Emails and voicemails that get queued and answered in good time; self service applications using voice recognition or DTMF that offer services round the clock; web chat, instant messaging, SMS messaging all offer greater scope for people to interact with your business.
How can I increase productivity and reduce conferencing expenses?
Using iceOffice, people can collaborate using desktop sharing and white-boarding. The multi-party conference facility allows large numbers to talk and share presentations and applications. Because iceł integrates fully with Microsoft Office and Communicator, this ensures high productivity and makes learning the business communication tools as straightforward as any other business application.
What is mobility? What is presence? Why do I need mobility and presence?
Mobility gives a user the flexibility to work in multiple locations, completely seamlessly. With a single contact number, logging onto ice³ from any location, multiple office sites, home, internationally, hotel rooms or cell phones, the system knows where you are. You work in the same way as normal - receive the same contacts, information and features as if you were at your office desk.
Presence gives you a graphical indication of where your contacts are, and their availability. This allows you to choose when and how to contact them. At their desk? Place a call. On the phone? Send an email or instant message. In a meeting? Send an SMS. On holiday? Generate a reminder to call on their return. This saves time by avoiding calls to people who are unavailable. With presence awareness, the busy tone will become a thing of the past. ice³ has the ability to provide mobility and presence to your entire business, both contact center and back-office. ice³ is the only communications platform you will ever need.
What is unified communications? Who benefits from Unified Communication?
Unified communication combines all types of contacts (call, e-mail, text, IM), handling them in a controlled way through a centralized portal. Contacts can be distributed to the staff most able to deal with them. Different contacts can have differing priority, but all will be handled, monitored and reported centrally. No more ignored emails, forgotten call-backs, unchecked voicemail boxes, unhandled web-chats. Every contact is treated with the same care and thoroughness. ice³ has a single interface for administration, real time monitoring and statistics. This gives genuine and meaningful control and analysis for all business contacts.
How will presence awareness transform business communications?
You need to talk to a key contact but their phone is either engaged or you get diverted directly to voicemail. You then logon onto instant messenger to chat to them, but they’re logged off or away. You then send an e-mail; the question you have really does need immediate attention….You know the rest. Sound familiar?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Conservative estimates have shown that up to 20% of our time is spent unproductively in this fashion. Put in monetary terms, 20% of your company’s operational overhead is making absolutely zero contribution to the business.
A presence awareness solution from Computer Talk will give you back this 20%. Presence awareness allows you to see in real time who is available and who is not available under all circumstances. Is your contact on the phone, in a meeting, delivering an online conference or just simply on holiday? With presence awareness you will know before you call or e-mail. You and your team will stop wasting time chasing contacts or waiting for replies. Imagine the efficiency gains. With the inclusion of collaboration and productivity tools as part of our presence awareness solution, information sharing and document/data integrity is also far more controlled and much more dynamic. Presence awareness can be provided for your entire business, regardless of their location.
I want my staff to have access to the latest business communication technologies but don’t want them to be overwhelmed with contact center technology; they just need access to telephones.
iceOffice is the ideal way to bring intelligent business communications to the back office user. All of the intelligence normally associated with a powerful ACD system is now available to office workers. Instead of being the poor relation of the business, the back office worker can have Microsoft Office integration, intelligent call routing, presence awareness and collaboration tools.
Concerned about choosing the right technology to support your business strategy?
It is vitally important that you choose a system that will cater for your business not just now but also well into the future. iceł gives the business the ability to start anywhere and grow anywhere. iceł is an all in one box solution covering back-office communications, ACD, call recording and unified communications. It also has the ability to deliver technologies such as IVR, text to speech, voice recognition, presence awareness, collaboration and multi-media queuing. iceł has the ability to cater for your business today and tomorrow.
How do I ensure a successful implementation of my communications solution without over-committing my own internal resources?
ComputerTalk allocates a professional project manager to each project. They will produce a plan in accordance with your requirements to make best use of the resources you have, and agree on how much of the work is carried out by ComputerTalk. If required, a complete managed implementation can be performed with little or no resource utilisation of the customer’s staff.
How can Computer Talk help to maximize my communication systems?
iceł is designed from the ground up to be switch independent. What this means is that it is can operate standalone or integrate with any existing telephone switch. This is important when a legacy system is in place or a recent investment made in a system, where the current platform does not have the features required to support the business's needs. ComputerTalk have extensive experience integrating with all of the major PBXs available, and are registered delivery partners for all the major manufacturers.
A Managed Services solution is ideal for those companies without the resources to look after their telephony - or would rather get on with running their business than looking after their technology. Whilst iceł is a very easy platform to maintain, many customers prefer this model. Computer talk can carry out all of this work for you, from setup to moves, additions, changes, to statistical analysis and efficiency recommendations. This leaves you to concentrate on running you business.
What are the benefits of hosted over premise-based?
No capital expenditure - Everything from phones, consultancy and infrastructure can be paid for in the monthly rental of the system. This eases cash-flow and ROI calculation
No server location issues or costs - Servers must be located in air conditioned environments with smoothed and protected power supply. Rack space in server rooms is often at a premium or non-existent.
Always cutting edge - With no upgrade or hardware replacement costs, you can be assured you are always getting the latest releases and features at no extra cost.
Resilience - Unless your premise based solution is mirrored and switchable (an available option recommended for all critical applications) you are at risk from hardware failure or environmental disaster. With a hosted solution, all servers are backed up with resilient hot spares in tier-one hosting facilities. In the event of total building loss or evacuation, alternate premises can be provided requiring only an IP connection to restore all existing functionality.
Flexibility - The ability to expand rapidly without requiring additional hardware, engineers on site, downtime etc. Also the ability to downsize with no loss of investment - This is very useful to businesses that are highly seasonal or require short term access to technology.
What is hosted? What can be hosted?
A hosted solution is where instead of purchasing a "box", you rent features and access. This gives you all of the functionality of a purchased system, without any of the investment. This is a highly flexible model - you can pick and choose which features are relevant to your business and only pay for those you need. Packages of features offer discounts for small, medium and large organizations. You can trial, add and remove these features as your business grows and develops. All features of iceł are available whether hosted or premise based from back office users, through complex ACD, to state of the art voice recognition technology.
Can I manage e-mail, voicemail, web chat in the same way as a call?
Absolutely. iceł is a true multi-media contact center! iceł can queue calls, voicemails, call-backs, emails, web chat/instant messages, video calls, conference calls, web meetings/collaborations, tasks, spreadsheets... You name it, iceł can queue it.
Can I do everything on a hosted system that I can do on a system at my premises?
Yes. Every iceł feature is available to both hosted and premise based customers.
How do I design my contact center?
Setting up a contact center requires careful planning. In many cases the information required to design the ideal configuration is not known to the customer. But with experience, experience Computer Talk has, an effective design can be achieved. With iceł's easy-to-use administration environment, dynamic changes and tuning adjustments can be made immediately. This tuning capability alongside the inbuilt workflow, statistics and reporting capabilities are the key reasons many customers choose iceł.
What can you do for the rest of my business (not just my contact center)?
iceł is a holistic business communications tool. Every worker who communicates will benefit from the features of iceł. Non-contact center staff will increase their productivity from using iceł Office and its complete integration with Windows and Microsoft Office. This gives them the ability to call an outlook contact, email author, or name within a document. Also, they can log on either in the office, alternate location, home or on their mobile. iceł will find them. Presence awareness allows them to see the status of their contacts before they try and contact them. Dial-by-name allows staff or incoming callers to say the name of the person or department they wish to speak to and iceł will direct the call automatically. iceł is a complete business communications platform that can grow with your business and answer all of your communications needs.
What is speech recognition? How can speech recognition improve my business?
Speech recognition can be used to direct incoming callers to their preferred destination. Using computer talk's xTalk system this can easily be configured and maintained by the customer. Internal staff can speak over the dial-tone and reach their internal or external contacts. Bespoke voice recognition applications can be developed to take any information from the caller, from postal codes, addresses, account or credit card numbers, vehicle registration numbers etc. These can be passed to an agent for screen pop, or used in a self service application. ComputerTalk is a world leader in designing and developing speech applications which are developed on our iceł platform – completely integrated with the rest of our technology.
How can I access a cost effective dialing solution
iceł is an all in one box solution that includes a state of the art dialing platform. Accessible as a hosted or purchased solution, iceCampaign offers outbound dialing to your business, either standalone or blended with inbound contacts. iceCampaign is an end-to-end solution requiring no additional or third party hardware or connectivity. iceCampaign has a fully featured web based interface to create and manage prospects and campaigns, as well as the agents who will make the calls. A full suite of reporting, monitoring and call recording tools come with the solution. Whether implemented as a standalone dialing solution or integrated with your call center or back office, iceł provides the ideal solution.
What is dialing? How will it benefit my business? dialing, whether power, progressive or predictive is where a communication system automatically makes bulk outbound calls, instead of agents tapping in numbers. Dialing speeds up the process of contacting clients and prospects and is used widely in the direct marketing industry.
Power dialing is where prospects are loaded into a campaign; agents view a prospect and initiate the call without having to enter the number. If the number is busy or doesn't answer, the call can be rescheduled.
Progressive dialing takes this one step further. When an agent finishes a call and becomes available, the system dials numbers, automatically filtering out busy, no answer and voicemail. When a live person is reached, the call is connected to the free agent, and the prospect's details are displayed on the agent's screen.
Predictive dialing is the ultimate solution for larger businesses. The dialer "predicts" how many calls will be answered by a live person, and when the next agent will become free. It then dials ahead sufficient calls to ensure a contact is reached as soon as possible after the next agent becomes available. This way, the agent is not kept waiting for the next call. The larger the number of predictive agents, the more accurately the statistical predictions can be and the more efficiently the dialler can run whilst avoiding the situation where a contact is reached with no free agent to receive the call. iceł provides a powerful dialing solution that complies with all legislation.
How can I talk to more of my customers without affecting the workload of my existing staff?
If calls are not urgent, peaks and troughs in call volumes can be smoothed out using call-back queuing and voicemail in queue. Proactive outbound contacts using automated text-to-speech calls, text messages and emails can reduce inbound calls from clients requesting updates. Skills based routing can ensure time is not wasted transferring calls. CTI screen pop and database/third party application integration can reduce call time. Using these features of iceł can allow existing staff to make and take more calls.
Can I link my existing business system with my telephony?
iceł is a switch-independent platform. It works equally well standalone, or in conjunction with any existing telephone system. Integration with legacy PBX systems allows new functionality to be added without the cost of replacement, lengthening the lifespan of otherwise obsolete, out of date or simply lower specification systems. Whether introducing database integration and screen pop, voice recognition, self service automation, ACD or call recording, adding iceł to your existing platform is the ideal cost effective way to increase your efficiency and customer experience and extend the return on your existing investment.
How can I monitor the performance of my team whilst ensuring quality of service?
iceł comes with a graphical real time monitoring environment that can show a snapshot of all the activity in the contact center or company. You can drill down to specific queues, teams, agents or contacts and see their statistics and performance compared to their peers or the company as a whole. Out-of-the-ordinary situations can be highlighted and dealt with either automatically or manually as desired. Historical reporting can analyse trends and performance to ensure the contact center is operating at peak efficiency. iceł has all of the features required to monitor your contact center.
What is call recording? Call recording, as its name suggests, records, stores, and indexes calls for later retrieval. Storing the details of the call means you can search by date, time, queue dialled number, or agent. Calls can be recorded randomly, in bulk (all calls), or chosen by queue, dialled number, CLI or any combination.
How do I implement a home working solution for my business?
iceł is designed to be as easy to use as a home worker as an office based worker. Whether using IP connectivity or PSTN phone lines, a simple configuration change allows users the flexibility of signing onto the system from home, alternate office or mobile. When logged on, they will take calls as normal. The end customer sees no difference. Some iceł customers operate their entire call center this way.
How do I manage my team if they are working from home?
The real time monitoring tools give visibility of everyone's current state and activity, as well as their performance compared to the other workers in their team. Using iceł means it makes no difference if a worker is in the next room, at home or on the other side of the world.
What are the benefits of home working?
Reducing the overheads of an office environment can deliver huge cost savings. Whether simply for skeleton staff working the overnight shift, disabled workers, or overcoming staff shortages due to travel restrictions, entire companies can benefit from working in a distributed environment from home. iceł gives staff more flexibility and shorter hours; therefore companies have happier, more productive staff freed from the stressful commute.
Protocol used to carry information over the Internet
IP Centrex
Internet Protocol Central Exchange
centralized telephony system providing PBX features from the telephone exchange using VoIP.
ACD
Automatic Call Distribution
Intelligent call handling system which distributes calls automatically. Basic queuing uses first in first out routing logic.
VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol
Protocol used to carry voice traffic over a network or the Internet
TDM
Time-division multiplexing
The method used to transmit multiple streams or calls simultaneously down a single communication channel. ISDN is one example of a TDM telephone transmission type.
Intelligent Call Routing
Using a telephone system to route calls based upon criteria such as time of day, staff availability or menu options
Whisper prompts
Short voice clips played to an agent just as a call is received to provide information about the call.
DTMF
Dual tone multiple frequency
Also known as touch tones – represented by the numbers on a telephone key pad.
QOS
Quality of Service
Ensures VoIP traffic has priority over other network traffic to maintain speech quality
IVR
Interactive Voice Response
Automated system to take information from or provide service to the caller
CTI
Computer Telephony Integration
Technology that allows interactions on a telephone and a computer to be integrated or co-ordinated. For example information can be gathered from a caller and their details “popped” to the agent
SMS
Short message service
Text message sent to or form a mobile phone
PBX
Private Branch Exchange
Premises based telephone exchange
CLI/ CNID/ CLID
Caller Line Identification/ Call Display
Details of the telephone number of the person calling you.
PSTN
Public switch telephone network
The network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the network of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks.
Screen Pop
A telephony feature that displays information about a call that has just been sent to a call center agent or member of staff
