Week 5 (3-7 MAY 2010)

For this week, I was given the R&D task where I was supposed to research on three topics that would be Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) , Call Queue System and a little research in the product that uses this system such as AVAYA, GENESYS, CISCO and so on.

Call Queue System

Queues consist of :

• Incoming calls being placed in the queue.

• Members that answer the queue (extensions or users that login as agents).

• A strategy for how to handle the queue and divide calls between members.

• Music played while waiting in the queue.

• Announcements for members and callers.

In Asterisk, queues are defined in queues.conf or in dynamic real-time. The latter allow storing queue configuration in a database so that changes are immediately available for new callers without the need for an explicit reload.

• Agents are the people (or person) that answers call(s) that have been placed into a specific Queue. An agent logs in indicating that s/he is now ready to take calls. Asterisk transfers an inbound call to a queue, which is then in turn transferred to an available agent.
• Members are those channels that are active answering the Queue. It can be agents or normal channels, like "sip/snom23"

Figure : Call Queue System

Usually, a call queue works as below:

§ Calls are queued

§ Agents answer the queue (logged in agents)

§ A queuing strategy to distribute the calls is used.

§ Music on hold is played while the caller waits.

§ Announcements can be made to callers, warning about waiting time.

What are Advanced Call Queue and Group Functions?

Traditional telephone systems either return a busy tone or direct the call to a voice mailbox when the intended recipient does not pick up. Advanced call queue and group functions in VoIP PBX systems will receive the call and put it on queue until the intended recipient is able to take the call. While waiting, the caller is told the queue status of their call, how many callers there are ahead of them or an estimated number of minutes before their call can be answered.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)

• Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), also known as Automated Call Distribution, is a deviceor system that distributes incoming calls to a specific group of terminals that agents use. It is often part of a computer telephony integration (CTI) system.

• Automatic Call Distributor: A computerized phone system that responds to the caller with a voice menu and connects the call to the appropriate agent. It can also distribute calls equally to agents. ACDs are the heart of call centers, or contact centers, which are widely used in the telephone sales and service departments of all organizations.

How It Works?

The system consists of hardware for the terminals and switches, phone lines, and software for the routing strategy. The routing strategy is a rule-based set of instructions that tells the ACD how calls are handled inside the system. Typically this is an algorithm that determines the best available employee or employees to respond to a given incoming call. To help make this match, additional data are solicited and reviewed to find out why the customer is calling. Sometimes the caller'scaller Id or ANI is used; more often a simple Interactive Voice Response is used to ascertain the reason for the call.

There are several stages to consider with an ACD system :

1. The system architecture and how calls are handled by the system and controlling software.

2. The decision processes of the controlling software

3. The real time management of the system

4. The management reporting system.

5. Making the system failsafe.

GENESYS

Genesys Interactive Insights is a Web-based query and reporting application that provides a complete business-oriented view, based on role, for contact center managers, business users, supervisors, and agents. These users can measure past interactions in their own terms and collaborate to improve performance using common reports. Interactive Insights draws on the data stored in Genesys Info Mart, which contains complete customer interaction and contact center agent details across all media types. This contact center reporting tool can also capture data outside the contact center, for visibility into previously “untrackable” business activities and processes.

AVAYA

Avaya Contact Centre Express is a multi-channel, high-volume software solution designed specifically for the Intelligent Routing and Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) needs of medium-sized Contact Centres.

CISCO

Cisco Unified CME B-ACD provides automatic answering and call distribution for calls through the use of interactive menus and local hunt groups. Each Cisco Unified CME B-ACD application consists of one or more auto-attendant (AA) services and one call-queue service.