The IP-Based Call Center

ISPs know the Internet and understand communications convergence, but even if you're already living and breathing this technology, the power of CosmoCom's IP-based call center will impress you.

by Alex Goldman
Associate Editor, ISP-Planet
[September 13, 2000]

CosmoCom is introducing the IP revolution to the call center business. I know that converged services are not new to our readers, but I was impressed by this technology.

Cosmic guide
One the CosmoCom site, click on the demo link, and try out the product. You will be connected to a person (although given the fact that the person has a pre-programmed script to follow, that person's behavior is very similar to the behavior of a script bot).

It's the browser that's cool. The demo opens up an agent-guided tool. In the left-hand window is an interactive chat tool, and in the right-hand window is a browser that is controlled by the agent.

I told her where I work and she pulled up the ISP Planet website.

The power of the guide
Other forms of interaction are also available. CosmoCom provides IVR (Interactive Voice Response), that preprogrammed list of "press 1 for foo, press 2 for bar. . ." that the industry loves.

The CosmoCom solution also translates voice calls into IP.

The call center agent has a computer but no phone. The computer has a "soft phone" that is software, with a dialpad that appears on the screen, allowing the agent to use the keypad or mouse to make a call.

A traditional call center requires expensive Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI) products.

Distribute the center
In an all-IP network, agents can work from home, and can be anywhere with reliable IP service, which should increase agents' work satisfaction and productivity.

An Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) server uses a database that contains agents' addresses and skills to route a call to an agent who can handle it. (In telecom jargon, an ACD is an actual switch, but since no physical switching is required in an IP universe, and IP-based ACD handles priorities and routing.)

The solution leverages off-the-shelf components, such as Microsoft components, making integration easier than a developed-from-scratch solution. Familiar components are also easier to maintain and troubleshoot.

Results
The product is powerful.

byebyenow.com is a network of travel agents and travel-related business that use CosmoCom's solution plus Onyx software to create a seamless service uniting 1400 travel agents across 350 different sites into a single web site.

@Network is a business ISP integrating pan-Asian businesses. Its contact center incorporates the CosmoCom solution into the @Network hosting package.

@Network call centers use a Windows NT-based IP solution from CosmoCom integrating interactive voice response (IVR), telephone, Web chat, live multimedia sessions, e-mail, voice mail, and fax, distributing up to 200 calls and messages per second to remote agents who provide support in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean, from Shan Zhen, China; Okinawa, Japan; and Seoul, Korea.

On the shoulders of giants
CosmoCom works with ISVs to add functionality to its solution. For example, it uses Onyx and similar software to provide event tracking and management, and Microsoft NetMeeting to provide video conferencing.

Dialogic contributes to the VoIP solution.

Price
The CosmoCom solution is priced for large enterprises, but if a small company approaches CosmoCom, CosmoCom can refer them to an ASP client that can serve the small company.

Pricing is according to "number of seats" which means that if there are 300 agents working in three shifts, the client pays for 100 seats.

—End