Avaya Communication Manager- ACD & Call Centres
Contact Center Express
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.
Agent
Agent is a Windows-based Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) application
for optimising call Centres. It displays information about a customer
call on a user’s computer screen in a coordinated manner. This exchange
of information between computer and telephone system increases productivity
and customer satisfaction. All stages of an agent’s telephone activity
are automated with Agent, including logging into queues, identifying
and answering calls and managing connected calls. The application provides
all the necessary call functions – make call, answer, hold, transfer,
conference etc through an intuitive, graphical user interfaces. Screen-based
Telephony Telephone functions normally achieved by pressing buttons on
the telephone are accessed through keystrokes or mouse clicks on the
computer, with feedback provided on the computer screen. Agent monitors
the user's own extension, VDN's, splits and skills to ensure the contact
center capabilities are enhanced and not restricted.
Customisable button function allows for greater flexibility and usage by
agents and call Centres.
Agent Rules and Rules Wizard
The Rules Plug-in allows you to create a simple set of rules that automatically
perform actions on call events that meet certain criteria. Without changing
an application's code, you can use the Rules Plug-in to enhance desktop
functionality. This rule functionality is similar to the email rules capability
in Microsoft Outlook. Wallboard
Wallboard is a Windows-based application that displays real-time statistical
information on VDN's, skills or splits and agents in a marquee window. Installed
on agent PCs, the scroll bar of information allows agents to closely track
their personal work performance and the performance of their work group
(skill or split). Statistical information is sent to Wallboard from the
Interaction Data Server, which monitors VDN's, splits, skills and agent
extensions and then calculates statistics about all facets of a call. Supervisor
Desktop
Supervisor Desktop is a tool for contact center supervisors to allow them
to manage their team of agents. Supervisors can maintain real time performance
oversight on their team. Further, they can provide instant messages to
agents for critical messages. Media Client Desktop
Media Client is the .Net Windows client application that displays work
items delivered from Contact Center Express media stores. Media Client
displays campaign information contained in media store work items, displays
customer information contained in media store work items, logs the result
of the media store connection to a series of log files, returns customer
information entered by the agent to media store databases and allows the
agent to suspend the delivery of a work item to a later date. In the case
of the Preview Contact Media Store, Media Client makes outbound customer
calls. It also gives you the option of using an enhanced Contact Center
Express dialling feature called Smart Dial. In the case of the Email Media
Store, Media Client receives and sends emails. In the case of the Simple
Messaging Media Store, Media Client provides an "I Say/You Say" interaction
window. Email channel
The email channel allows agents to receive and respond to customer emails.
Filtering and prioritisation capabilities ensure agents receive the appropriately
routed email.
Agents are able to perform spell check (in German, English, Spanish, French
and Italian), utilise an address book, block HTML scripts and ActiveX controls
and resend/re-forward emails.
The contact center can blend customer email inquiries with inbound telephone
calls, essentially using this work to fill in the gaps between peaks in
inbound call traffic. Agent efficiency is gained through the Filtering
function that removes emails that should not be worked on by an agent,
while the prioritisation function improves customer experience by addressing
the most important emails first. Agents will also be able to suspend work
on an email, forward an email to another agent (who may be more qualified
to answer it) and automatically send an acknowledgement back to the customer.
Webchat channel
The webchat channel allows agents to receive and respond to chats initiated
by customers on a website. The contact centre can blend customer webchats
with inbound telephone calls, essentially using this work to fill in the
gaps between peaks in inbound call traffic.
Customers do not need to download an applet onto their desktops - a key
concern many people are expressing. Customers can also request and receive
a copy of the chat transcript for the references.
Preview contact channel
The preview contact channel allows the contact centre to initiate an outbound
call campaign.
The contact centre can schedule a campaign to occur when there is low
call volume in the centre, thereby filling in gaps between peaks in inbound
call traffic. The centre can schedule the campaign to begin and end at
particular times as well as to recur on a regular basis.
Agents are able to select an appropriate completion status to allow the
campaign manager to determine the effectiveness of the campaign.
Media Directory
The Media Director distributes non-voice work items to contact centre agents.
This item could be an email, a web chat session or an outbound call request.
The distribution of the work item is achieved using the queuing algorithms
built into your Avaya Solution. Non-voice work items originate from plug-in
modules called media stores. Media stores connect to disparate sources
such as email servers or web servers and interact with the Media Director
and clients using a well-defined protocol. The Media Director uses the
phantom call capabilities of the switch to generate a call and place it
into a specified queue. This allows enterprises to completely leverage
their existing investments in Avaya call processing solutions in handling
the routing of non-voice communication requests placed to the contact centre. Interactive
Voice Response (IVR) Server
The IVR Server acts as a programming conduit between an IVR and a client
application. Running on a Windows NT 4.0 or higher server, it monitors
the VDN's used to distribute calls to IVR ports and monitors the individual
IVR ports. The IVR Server uses Avaya Computer Telephony software on the
Telephony Server to give IVR scripts immediate access to call-related data
and to invoke CTI-based call transfers. The IVR Server Data Interface Process
(DIP) acts as a bridge between the IVR Server and the Avaya IVR (formerly
Conversant IVR). It retrieves data from the server, runs scripts, implements
requests and returns events and messages to the server making for an immediate,
efficient exchange of information without agent intervention. Interaction
Data Server
This key component of Contact Centre Express is an application that monitors
VDN's, splits/skills, trunk groups and agent extensions to gather detailed
statistical information about all facts of a call and makes them available
to other servers running in the configuration. It stores transaction records
of all calls in progress at any time and include with the records a cradle
to grave transaction history of any call. The server receives real-time
information and based on the regularity specified, calculates statistics
such as talk and wait-time averages. The information is managed locally
in memory and recorded to a SQL database.
The Interaction Data Server is designed to receive information from one
or more switches. Applications connected to the Interaction Data Server
can request information for a specific device on a specific switch. When
there are multiple Interaction Data Servers (typically in multiple sites)
application requests for information received by an Interaction Data Server
can be passed to another Interaction Data Server to be serviced and information
can be shared.
With full cradle to grave contact data, the Interaction Data Server
provides a means to allow for detailed reporting and analysis. Because
the Interaction Data Server will also allow applications to store multiple
tag/data values to the transaction database against a call, it allows calls
to be easily matched to customers or to agent activities.