Innovations for the Avaya Contact Center Space

The Virtual Observer Workforce Optimization Solution offers many unique and affordable benefits for the Avaya Contact Center space.  Coordinated Systems, Inc. (CSI), is excited to announce the release of several Avaya-specific innovations which enhance the capabilities of the integrated Virtual Observer Workforce Optimization Solution. 

From Avaya-specific surveying to real-time Avaya CMS ACD statistics available in a dashboard view, to a SalesForce connector, Virtual Observer now offers a wide range of included and add-on features to enhance the workforce optimization experience.

CSI has also taken several steps forward to create a robust cloud-based solution which operates as a service and is integrated with Avaya-enabled cloud platforms. Workforce Optimization (WFO) as a service is also available for cloud providers and pure cloud contact centers.

CSI offers a range of methods to record Avaya platforms, including Concurrent DMCC recording.

Read more about the available enhancements on our website

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Computer Generated Solutions moves forward with Avaya call recording solution

We are pleased to announce that Computer Generated Solutions (CGS), headquartered in New York, NY, has selected CSI’s Virtual Observer Professional for call recording and quality monitoring. Virtual Observer was implemented to record calls off of CGS's Avaya phone system using the Avaya DMCC recording methodology.

"Virtual Observer (VO) will enable us to meet our agent development goals across multiple call centers as well as meet compliance demands. DMCC connectivity allows us to scale with a smaller footprint. We did our due diligence and compared vendors, and we discovered VO to deliver the best value with a low cost of ownership," said Julian Alviz, IT Director with CGS.

CGS was recently highlighted in the news as a "business solutions company on the move" in the world wide contact center market.

About CGS:
Computer Generated Solutions, Inc. is a leading global provider of end-to-end, technology-enabled business solutions, including ERP, SCM, PLM, WMS, CRM, portal, e-commerce, application development, project services, e-learning, training, staffing, call center, and global sourcing solutions.

Founded in New York City in 1984, CGS currently serves North America, Europe, and Asia with 20 global locations, and 2500 employees worldwide. CGS enables mid-market enterprises, Fortune 1000 companies, and government agencies to drive business transformation and improve operating performance by adapting and implementing advanced technologies—carried out by proven, cross-industry, multi-platform experts that are dedicated to customer satisfaction.

CGS delivers an integrated portfolio of solutions and services reflecting a broad range of technology and business practices that offer a single point of accountability, which reduces total cost of ownership and maximizes return on IT investments. The result is end-to-end delivery and support of a comprehensive set of solutions and services that enables clients to focus on driving competitive advantage in their core business. For more information on CGS, please visit http://www.cgsinc.com

Catholic Knights implements Virtual Observer to enhance agent training

We are pleased to announce that Catholic Knights, located in Milwaukee, WI, has selected CSI’s Virtual Observer Logger system for call recording and quality monitoring.

Joyce Brost , Facility Coordinator for Catholic Knights declared Virtual Observer a logical choice for their organization.

The system will be recording calls off of an Avaya switch in their contact center, providing the organization with the ability to evaluate calls, as well as provide agent feedback and training.

About Catholic Knights:
From 1885 to today, Catholic Knights has continued to grow and expand. Catholic Knights was formed as a fraternal benefit society, dedicated "to unite fraternally for social, benevolent and intellectual improvement of all practicing Roman Catholics of every profession, business and occupation."

Today, Catholic Knights is a vital Catholic membership organization. It attracts new members who want to be part of an organization that puts Catholic values into action and has significant benefits to offer its members. Catholic Knights is in a prominent position for significant growth as the organization takes on the challenges of the 21st century. Read more at http://www.catholicknights.org

Virtual Observer & Server Virtualization: Lean, Green & Mean

The engineers up in the labs are once again giving us excellent content to drop on our blog. This time, the topic of "virtualization" came up with an enterprise prospect who needed a zero-hardware call recording implementation.

Of course, since this prospect had Avaya and AES, we went down the path of CMAPI/DMCC for harvesting the calls. We are definitely able to avoid recording boards when we integrate directly with the phone system. There's one hardware requirement removed from the equation.

Our engineers asked if there were any servers in the data center running VMware. The prospect said yes -- we explained we have several customers running the Virtual Observer recording, database and application services on VMware, creating a smaller footprint and a much greener environment.

Our engineers informed us we've actually had VO deployed in virtualized environments since 2001. More and more enterprises are going green, and virtualization is one of the processes helping them meet that goal.

VO is 100% compatible with VMWare and Microsoft Virtual Server, an excellent option for a lean and green Call Recording and Quality Monitoring implementation.

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News, RSS Feeds and Social Networks for our supported phone systems

Virtual Observer connects to most popular phone systems, and I've tried to round up some of the latest news from each of them. After perusing the excerpts and links, you will find a list of RSS feeds for each phone system vendor so you add them to your RSS feed readers. If that's not enough, I've also compiled a list of the various social networks where these companies have presence.

LATEST NEWS EXCERPTS:
ShoreTel: Nortel Demise Marks the Beginning of a Huge Category Shift
An excerpt: "As you've no doubt read, Nortel Networks has filed for bankruptcy, marking the demise of a once leading company in the communications industry. Is Nortel just another unfortunate victim of the recession? Does it indicate major problems for all providers of telephony solutions? No and no....click here to read the full article on ShoreTel's Blog.

Avaya: Avaya Unified Communications and Contact Center Solutions "Certified Green" by Independent Test Labs
An excerpt: "Avaya, a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, today announced that its Unified Communications and Contact Center solutions have been "Certified Green" by Miercom, an independent testing organization. The designation verifies that Avaya Communication Manager-based networks are environmentally-friendly designs that can save companies money and boost efficiency....click here to read the entire news release.

Cisco: 1-800 CONTACTS is deploying Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise to help it manage growth and increase uptime. An excerpt: "By integrating contact center, web support and administration on the same platform, 1-800 CONTACTS is now able to expand capabilities of its at-home agents by blending inbound and outbound calls into a single queue, allowing contact center associates to answer calls faster. In addition, the entire system is more stable and uptime has been increased by eliminating technical issues inherent in a patchwork system...click here to read the entire article

PHONE SYSTEM VENDORS' RSS FEEDS:
- Avaya Contact Center News RSS Feed
- Cisco Unified Communications RSS Feed
- ShoreTel news feed
- Mitel RSS Feed
- Alcatel-Lucent RSS Feed
- Nortel RSS Feed

FIND PHONE SYSTEM VENDORS ON THE SOCIAL NETWORKS:
- Avaya DevConnect on LinkedIn
- Avaya DevConnect on Facebook

- ShoreTel on LinkedIn
- ShoreTel on Facebook

- Cisco Ecosystem on Facebook

- Mitel Solutions Alliance on LinkedIn

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How the Results Group automated their quality monitoring with CSI-Avaya solution

Avaya just published a success story detailing Virtual Observer's impact on the ever-scaling Results Group's quality initiatives.

Some highlights:

* Results Group expanded their operation by opening 23 new contact centers across North America and Europe.

* Results Group needed a scalable call recording and quality monitoring solution that could accommodate their aggressive expansion and still provide excellent value to price.

• The number of successfully recorded calls has risen to more than one million calls per month

• Staffing levels have increased to more than 4,000 agents

• New agent training is completed in a fraction of the time

• Quality levels have risen dramatically

Please read the full Avaya success story here.

CSI Partner NACR celebrates 15 years of Success

North American Communications Resource, Inc. marks 15 years in the communications business with a yearlong celebration including special events for employees, customers, and partners.

NACR is a leading provider of comprehensive communications solutions including Voice over IP (VoIP), convergence, mobility, collaboration, unified messaging, and contact centers; network readiness, design, implementation, and testing services; and ongoing consultative, maintenance, repair, and technical support.

NACR partners with CSI to bundle Virtual Observer for call recording and quality monitoring on Avaya platforms. Virtual Observer's versatile and robust recording methodologies make it a great fit for NACR's customer base.

Click here to read the entire news article on NACR's 15 year celebration.

Click here to read the latest CSI-NACR success story.

Boston Scientific chooses Virtual Observer for Avaya Call Recording & Quality Monitoring

We are pleased to announce that Boston Scientific, Inc., located in Natick, MA, has selected CSI’s Virtual Observer call recording and quality monitoring solution for recording calls off of their Avaya phone system in their Valenica, CA location (Neuromodulation division). "We are very excited about the opportunities that Virtual Observer will give us to bring our Customer Service Staff to the next level. Over the past several years we have focused on skills training, product knowledge as well as phone skills. VO will give us an opportunity to evaluate our individual representatives in this area and help them to improve their skills through real life interactions. We chose VO (and CSI) by features, price as well as meetings with the professional staff during our evaluation process."
- Gary Peyser, Director of Customer Service, Boston Scientific

Boston Scientifics’ pain management business is the innovation leader in less invasive microelectronic implantable technologies used to treat chronic neuropathic pain. The use of minute pulses of electricity delivered directly to nerves, known as Spinal Cord Stimulation, has been in use for more than 30 years.

Without the unwanted side effects and long term costs associated with pain medications, and less invasive than surgical procedures such as spinal fusion, Spinal Cord Stimulation is a reversible therapy that has helped thousands of people find relief from chronic pain.

For more information on pain management, please visit http://www.controlyourpain.com from Boston Scientific.

Please visit our website for more information on call recording solutions for the Avaya platform.

Virtual Observer call recording system becomes even more flexible

What's all that ruckus up in the CSI and Virtual Observer labs?

Must be the engineering team banging out more new features for Virtual Observer.

Among the highlights:

* The Virtual Observer screen capture module now captures and makes note of all screen activity from log in to log out. These screen frames can be used for any combination of capture rates, from a simple percentage to 100% screens. Of course this can be tuned by audio calls, chats, emails, campaigns, DNIS, Queue, Skill, you name it. Consider setting a filter for “Filler”, i.e., screen only events, to see what your agents are doing when they are not on calls, emails, web, or chats.

* DMCC (Device Media Call Control) is a method of recording via the Avaya API. This is a pure software-based call recording solution using softphones, service observe and single step conferences to capture audio without the need for packet sniffing or expensive telephony recording boards.

* Dual Screen VO Live - Virtual Observer now has the ability to view dual screens from within the VO Live suite of features (in VO Live, supervisors can view all agent screen activity, chat with them, or take control of their desktops if they need assistance.)

* Microsoft Vista Compliance – The Virtual Observer Agent Client and Supervisor Clients are now both fully compatible with Microsoft Vista Operating systems (Both32-bit and 64-bit).

* Email, Chat, & Web Interactions – The Virtual Observer AES data connector now supports email, web and chat call types and coupled with our screen capture component, ensuring these events are captured and accounted for.

If you'd like any additional information on any of these new features, or to find out what else you can accomplish with Virtual Observer, please contact your account representative today.

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Avaya News: Avaya Appoints new GM and VP of Contact Center Division

Avaya announced it has appointed Bob Lyons to lead the company’s global contact center organization.

The move adds focus on helping companies turn customer service into a competitive asset.

As general manager and vice president of Avaya’s customer service applications division, Lyons will oversee a business that plays a central role in driving customer service for thousands of companies around the world.

Lyons joins Avaya from Convergys, a global leader in relationship management that provides customer service outsourcing, where he first served as CIO and then increased his responsibilities to oversee operations for the company.

Prior to joining Convergys, he was the vice president of enterprise operations and technology at United Health Group, a managed healthcare company.

Lyons was also executive vice president and CIO at Telespectrum, a call center customer services organization, and has been a software entrepreneur and consultant.

Lyons believes that customer satisfaction is a profit-driving asset that can help differentiate companies in a highly competitive business environment. To help companies tap the full potential of customer service, he will focus on leading Avaya to deliver a new generation of contact center solutions that integrate advanced communications technologies, including the ‘always on’ capabilities of Avaya’s unified communications portfolio. Click here to read the full article...

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Rounding up latest news from our supported phone systems

Virtual Observer supports many popular connectivities, and occasionally we like to move the spotlight to shine on some of the news those companies are making. The communications world is evolving fast. We also have a news feed on the sidebar which displays real time news for phone system vendors as well, so you can keep up on a daily basis.

Avaya Communications announced the release of an update to desktop solutions from Cicero benefitting users of ACS (Avaya Communication Manager) and Avaya Agent IP solutions. The updated solution will help to increase the workflow of those using the software, resulting in a better contact center desktop environment. Cicero is a member of Avaya DevConnect. Click here to read the full article...

Cisco Systems has purchased Nuova Systems, a California-based telecommunications business. Click here to read the full article...

Siemens will be providing 550 mail sorting systems for the USPS, replacing an outdated product which has been utilized for over 20 years. Click here to read the full article...

ShoreTel recently announced changes designed to increase simplicity and ease of use. With new features like message tabs for conversation and message history, updated client interfaces, and easier to use personal interfaces, ShoreTel is providing more efficient work methods for customers. Changes in the Professional Call Manager range from basic voice communications to automatic and on-demand video communications. Upgrades in instant messaging and phone operations have given ShoreTel the ability serve call center with up to 300 agents. New voice switches, titled ShoreGear24A and ShoreGear 3.0, will increase flexibility and assist customer branch locations. Click here to read the full article...

While these stories highlighted above stem from Avaya, Shoretel, Cisco, and Siemens, we also support Nortel, Mitel, 3com, as well as other popular phone systems.

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Latest from Avaya: New App Unifies Channel Partners, Road Warriors, At Home Workers & Corporate Employees

From CRMBUYER: New Avaya App Unifies Presence Info Across Multiple Channels

An excerpt from the article:
"The immediate use of Avaya's latest addition to its product line is likely to be corporate. For example, a company with many reps on the road would know how to best to reach each of its staff members at any particular moment -- by cell, instant message or e-mail.

Avaya has introduced Intelligence Presence, a new software application that gives users -- both in corporate environments and call centers -- the ability to view so-called presence information across multiple sources.

For example, it would allow a contact center rep engaged with a caller to see if a partner company had a rep available to provide answers about shipping schedules or rates."

CSI is an Avaya DevConnect Gold Partner.

Virtual Observer phone systems compatibility

Virtual Observer (VO) connects to most popular phone systems. The following constitutes a partial list. Please feel free to contact us about other phone systems VO may connect to. VO also connects with any t1 line, any analog line, and many more.

Avaya - VO offers recording connectivity to all Avaya systems.

Cisco - VO offers VoIP connectivity with Cisco.

3com - VO offers VoIP connectivity with 3com systems.

Nortel - VoIP, digital, analog/tdm

Siemens - digital, analog/tdm

Mitel - VoIP, digital, analog/tdm

NEC

VoIP telephony options for startup call centers

One of my LinkedIn connections posed a question of which I thought the groups' answers may appeal to this blog's audience:

Question:
"What are the top sites to get information on VoIP telephony for a startup call center?"

Submitted Answers from the group:


"I have found this site as a good reasource for all my VOIP needs."
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/

"I've found Skype hard to setup and use, MSN easy to setup and good quality. Yahoo easy to use but prone to losing a call. The easiest to use by far has been the Cisco Soft Phone we use at work, the sound quality is great but it's very unreliable. This may be due to some configuration or operations issue, but I have yet to make it through an entire call without a problem (buzzing, lost calls, loosing one or the other parties sound for extended periods). Others have had the same problem to the extent that we are considering rolling back the soft phones. In the office, we are using the Cisco 7940 IP phones with no problems. "



Update: earlier this week, Skype experienced a massive outage, challenging reliability as business solution. Apparently the outage was the result of a wide ranging PC restart when Windows sent out its' automatic patch.

"Try VoiceGenie.com or Avaya.com. They offer scalable entry-level VOIP systems... but look to spend at least $65k to initially deploy."
http://www.avaya.com/

"Rockport Technology Group is a leading IT solution provider in the area. One of our core specialties is developing scalable long term enterprise class VOIP solutions. Our free consultation can provide you with an unbiased solution that will fit your needs and budget. There are many VOIP solutions out there, and I would need some more information before making a solid recommendation on online material. I also find that online material is sometimes outdated and even worse other times it is found to be just misinformation. Should you be determined to researching online, I suggest you take a look at Cisco and Nortel. Nortel is the current market leader however my recent experience with Cisco is that they are offering a much higher quality system."
http://www.rockporttech.com/

"It sounds like your solution must be multi-tenant. Skype is too unreliable for important business calls. You shold consider a hosted solution as well."
http://www.allworx.com/

"Are you planning to have one location or will you have multiple small call centers spread across geographic areas? How many people do you expect to start as well as how many people do you expect to grow to? I apologize for answering a question with questions, but there are many things to take into consideration. As Andrew mentioned already, you should really check out a hosted system. (When I say hosted, I mean a true hosted business class system...not Skype or Packet8, etc.) Going hosted will give you the flexibility to change as the business grows and transforms, as well as offering you the features you need without a large capital outlay. It's hard to give you one place to learn about the systems. 'Google' search is tough, because you may not necessarily see results including some great companies. Most of the information out there unfortunatley is created by a specific company and used as a marketing tool. The best way to find the solution that fits you best is to put in the time and effort to screen possible vendors. Keep in mind that low cost is NEVER the best option when dealing with your voice system. With something so critical to your business, check out how long the company has been around (especially with VoIP offerings), REFERENCES (and not just the CEOs cousin), and customer service (call the customer service line and see what kind of response you get)."
http://www.ipiphany.com/

"In addition to the answers you have received, I would suggest looking at Cisco's offerings. In terms of all-around scalability, not just call center, but your entire network infrastructure, they are obviously front runners. Although it has been 2-3 years since I last used their product, however, its current equivalent, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express worked great for me both in terms of options, administration, features and reporting. And it obviously scales up very well."
http://www.cisco.com/

"No real recommendation, however we are about to implement at the end of next week, and I can post you info on our expereince if you would like. We are going with IPCC Express premium, and so far, it looks like a well featured product, however, we have to build everything out of the box. Reporting is pretty limited, and splitting call reports across teams and skills is a bit tricky... but this is just todays experience."

What phone systems do most of our call recording prospects have?

In the last few months, we've been getting a lot of Nortel inquiries. We're not sure why we're seeing this more frequently - but we are compatible with many different models of Nortel, so it's a good fit.

Our bread and butter compatibility has always been with Avaya phone systems - analog, digital and VoIP. We've got some tremendous success stories recently:

- Harry & David Avaya Success Story
- Results-Tel Avaya Success Story
- Crutchfield Electronics Avaya Success Story
- DayTimers Avaya Success Story

We're developing a good reputable customer base of Cisco and 3com as well. We've published a 3com success story you can check out.

We also have a good history working with Siemens and Mitel.

There are a ton of good references for each model phone systems, which our sales team will be glad to share within our sales process.

As many companies are moving to VoIP or considering switching to VoIP in the near future, in most scenarios, the transition to VoIP call recording can be a seamless one. As demands for specific models of newer phone systems increase, our labs will be sure to be testing and adding them to the ranks of our compatibility list.

Quality Monitoring Case Studies: Start Small and Think Big

We've got two distinct case studies that show the value and diveristy in what we can deliver to different customers. It's all relative to our "Start Small Think Big" philosophy of providing the right solution at the right time. Some of our competitors seem to force feature-overload on new customers to justify the high price tags. We'd prefer to sell our solution at a fair price, and keep the customer for life. This is also reflected in our pro-customer upgrade pricing: regular updates AND full version upgrades are provided at no charge for supported customers. Again, some of our competition will force their vulnerable customer base into what is basically a complete re-buy of the system at a price close to the original purchase price. Sound familiar?

The first case study. "Start Small" tells the tale of a convenience store chain who leverages the value of VoIP with call recording and quality assurance at an affordable price.

The second case study, "Think Big" examines how a large enterprise with 1000 agents are getting amazing value out of call monitoring with Virtual Observer.