IP technology has, and is continuing to impact on the contact centre. Before the Internet boom (and therefore the mass use of web and email) these communications solutions were referred to as 'call centres' as they only dealt with voice. It was during the Dot-Com boom that email and web contact became important in terms of mass customer contact and the term 'contact centre' was coined to reflect the fact that these centres were now dealing with multimedia contacts.

The IP 'boom' has clearly made an impact on the industry by broadening the contact market. However, voice is still the primary contact method for most centres due to customer needs.

Another IP trend in the sector is the evolution of the underlying telephony platforms. These traditionally proprietary systems are increasingly becoming IP based - shaking up the market in terms of vendor positioning. However, the adoption of such platforms has been slow to-date as the industry has a fundamental requirement for proven reliability and proof comes with time.

This evolution of the technology base is of course happening for a reason and it's these reasons that are of increasing interest to the contact centre market. Core concerns for a contact centre are maintaining and improving on service levels and quality, and where possible reducing the cost per contact. If a new technology can address any of these then it's of interest, as this will result in improved market position or a positive impact on the bottom line.

The Benefits of Open Standards

IP opens the door to open systems and therefore, all the advantages of choice and competition. In the past once a centre had made a supplier choice they were, to an extent, locked into that vendors product offerings. IP is breaking this single vendor hold, and delivering the benefits of choice and the effects of competition. IP in itself is not complete compliance with open standards but it does provide openness in the communications of systems and devices across networks - a significant improvement.

In a nutshell, the advantage of IP and open systems in the contact centre is the reduction in cost per contact. This cost reduction comes from reduced equipment costs due to competition and improved choice in peripheral solutions. These peripheral solutions are not only cheaper but also offer new and innovative applications and solutions to the contact centre market.

It is fair to say, some of these are soft benefits or about the future, but this is still very relevant in an aggressive market when strategy and planning are key factors to continued success. It is therefore in the peripheral space that the most dramatic changes are to be seen, at least in the short term.

Infrastructure and Topology

IP is the standard protocol for data communications and contact centres can now deploy a single IP network infrastructure to connect all devices and locations. Some vendors have a modular approach to the component parts of their voice platform allowing for diversity in locations with built-in redundancy. These modular components are treated and administered as a single platform therefore removing the overhead and risk of running multiple platforms.

This diversity of location can be taken to the extreme of a single IP phone for a home worker or the connection of remote agents as far out as India. Any location can consist of simply a group of IP phones, or IP phones with a local gateway function providing in and outbound telephony connections to the outside world. It is therefore possible to leverage these diverse locations to provide local breakout, reducing toll charges. In addition as all locations are operating as a single platform, calls can be handled by any available agent regardless of location as long as the skill is relevant. This modularity is a very neat and compelling solution for the distributed contact centre.  (Sabio)