1. Contact Center Fundamentals
A Non-Technical Introduction
By
King Julien & Fast Frank

2. What is a Contact Center?
A call centre or call center is a
centralised office used for
receiving or transmitting a large
volume of requests bytelephone.
An inbound call centre is
operated by a company to
administer incoming product
support or information inquiries
from consumers. Outbound call
centers are operated
for telemarketing, solicitation of
charitable or political donations,
debt collection and market
research. A contact centre is a
location for centralised handling
of individual communications,
including letters, faxes, live
support software, social
media, instant message, and e-
mail
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C
all_centre
A contact center system is a
computer-based system that
provides call and contact routing
for high-volume telephony
transactions, with specialist
answering “agent” stations and a
sophisticated real-time contact
management system. The
definition includes all contact
center systems that provide
inbound contact handling
capabilities and automatic
contact distribution, combined
with a high degree of
sophistication in terms of
dynamic contact traffic
management.
-http://www.gartner.com/it-
glossary/contact-center-
systems/
2

3. Overview of Contact Center Technologies
Core Components
• Phones
• PBX
• PSTN Trunks / Lines
• ACD
• CTI
• IVR
• Dialers
• Gateways (GW)
• Media Servers (MS)
• SBC
Adjunct Solutions
• CRM
• Databases(DB)
• Web Services(Web)
• Email Services(eMail)
• Workforce Management
(WFM)
• Quality Assurance (QA)
• Analytics Suite(AS)
• Big Data (BD)
• Middlewares (MW)
• Monitor of Monitors
(MoM)
3

4. Contact Center
Core Components
4

5. Phones
• Phones are the Primary Instrument used for Voice Communication
• There are three types of ‘Hard’ Phones – Analog, Digital & IP
• With Current Technology the Physical Phone has been made
obsolete and is getting replaced by Softphones
• Softphones are ‘Software’ residing on PC or Mobile Device enabling
the user to make or take the voice call
• With Technologies like WebRTC, Customer can call from the
Website and the Attending Agent can handle the call from the
Website
5
I like Softphone.. ’cause
I can do Office Phone
Call from my Tree
WebRTC also allows for
Customer Service to
handle Video Calls

6. PBX - Private Branch Exchange
• Brings a PSTN Switch inside the Enterprise to reduce load on
PSTN Infrastructure and lower Overall Communications Cost.
• The PBX is the key component on which the Phones
Terminate/Connect
• There are two types of On-Premise PBXs – Legacy TDM & IP
• The current Trend is to move from On-Premise to Cloud PBX
where the PBX is in the Cloud/Internet
• Microsoft Skype for Business Online Cloud PBX and Cisco
Spark are the Cloud PBX solutions
6
I moved to Cloud PBX
and now can receive
Office Calls from my
subjects whether I’m in
New-York or
Madagascar
Cloud based PBXs are
also sold in the name of
UCaaS

7. PSTN - Public Switched Telephone Network
• It is the ‘Internet’ of Traditional Phone Connections which
connects the Caller (the person who called) to the Receiver
(the Person who was called)
• All Phones on the PSTN are identified by the E.164 standard
which is also popularly known as the ‘International Phone
Number’ which has the following syntax +<Country
Code><Region/Statecode><Phone Number>
• There are three key types of PSTN Lines: Analog, Digital
(Tx/Ex/Jx) & IP (SIP/H.323)
• Enterprises are moving all their Traditional Analog/Digital
Trunks to IP Trunks
7
I have a Internet Trunk
that is way more useful
than my Tree Trunk
The Latest
development is Internet
Trunks, but with ‘Cloud
based PBX’ Trunks are
not required

8. ACD - Automatic Call Director
• The ACD adds Brains to the PBX and controls the PBX to
‘Control’ the Call as it moves between other call handling
components like IVR, Dialer, Phone etc.
• Each Vendor has a different and proprietary Logic to make
their ACD work and popular traditional Giants in this space
are Genesys, Cisco ICM/UCCE and Avaya.
• Cloud based contact centers are becoming popular with the
market being flooded by other popular vendors like EngHouse
Interactive, InContact and BT
• ACDs are also now maturing into ‘Multi-Channel’ Engines that
can simultaneously handle Video, Email, Web-chats & Social in
the same software
8
I have Omni-Channel
in my Forest. Now I
can see what my
subject emailed before I
pick the call
With Internet Based
Technologies, ACDs can
be built from scratch
and run on
Microservices!

9. CTI - Computer Telephony Interface
• CTI is a Client-Server Solution mediating between the ACD and
other dependent applications
• The ‘Server’ component Allows the ACD to send Information to
external components like Real-Time Reporting Server and also
allows CTI ‘Clients’ to get Send Instruction to PBX from Agent
Desktop
• The Standard Protocol used for CTI is ‘CSTA’(Computer-supported
telecommunications applications) but unfortunately is heavily
customised by each vendor independently impeding any possibility
of ‘Easy’ Interoperability
• CTI is most Popularly used for ‘Screen Pop’ where the ACD Sends
the Information collected from User from IVR/PSTN to the CRM via
CTI so that agent can see customer information before picking up
the call
9
I like REST. The CSTA
thingy doesn’t let me
take a Rest
Internet based CRMs
use REST based APIs
for CTI Integration
instead of CSTA…That’s
Easier and more
manageable

10. IVR - Interactive Voice Responder
• IVR automates the call handling using either boring recorded
‘Voice Prompts’ or cool Speech Recognition Applications.
• Network IVR is a solution that handles the call even before it
enters the Contact centre, but are very expensive
• On-Premise IVRs are also sold as ‘Voice Portals’ as they can be
customised heavily to offload ‘Automatable’ Tasks just like any
Web Portal
• Natural Language Engines allow the call to speak in a normal
language instead of specific ‘Prompts’
• Currently the Trend is to use ‘Speaker Recognition’ for security
purpose and also ‘Bots’ to make the conversation less robotic
10
When you call my
number you’ll never
know if you talked to
me or my Bot
Modern Internet
Service Providers allow
Developers to code IVR
in plain Java/JS/.Net
etc and charge per
minute with no
commitment

11. Dialers
• Dialers are like IVR but ‘Make’ Calls unlike IVR which ‘Receive’
Calls
• Dialers are of different types
• Predictive (Markets Love – Customers Hate) – Dials more calls than
Available Agents
• Progressive – Dials only if Agents available
• Preview – Lets Agents choose the Call
• Power & Others – Marketing Terms created to confuse everyone
• Like IVRs Dialers also can use advanced service features like
Natural Language, speaker Recognition and Bots
11
My Kingdom wakes up
early because of my
Predictive Dialer that
calls everyone at 5AM
except me
The Most useful
features of Dialers is
‘Callback’

12. GW - Gateways
• These Devices Connect PSTN Trunk Lines to the
PBX/IVR/Dialer
• Traditionally they have been Internal Part of the Legacy TDM
PBXs, but with IP PBXs they became a separate component
• They can terminate Analog, TDM and IP trunks
• While all the Traditional PBX vendors (Cisco, Avaya etc) have
their own portfolio of Gateways, Independent vendors (Acme,
Sonus, AudioCodes, Genband etc) are now a rage catering to
Software only Unified Communications Solutions
• Some of these can scale to over 10,000 Lines in one box!
12
The Gateways to my
Jungle are adorned
with my beautiful face
Many SIP Gateways
can Terminate Internet
Trunks as well and are
recommended for
Security Purpose

13. MS - Media Servers
• Media Servers Store and Provide the Recorded Prompts
needed by IVR and Dialers
• Traditionally these are Part of the IVR/Dialer
• Media Servers are used to scale the IVR/Dialer and Speed up
Media Propagation by consolidating the ‘Media’ into a central
location
• With Natural Language and Bots taking over, Media Servers
are slowly becoming unused but continue to be provisioned as
a fall-back
13
I put all the songs I
sang in our Media
server, now everyone
wakes up hearing my
Melodious Music
Even in Internet based
IVR Applications, Media
Servers can be buffered
over CDNs to improve
Application Latency

14. SBC - Session Border Controller
• SBC devices Protect the IP PBX from attacks via SIP Trunks
both from traditional MPLS Service providers and Internet
Trunks
• Typically they are an Internal part of SIP Gateways
• All the Independent Gateway Vendors have SBCs as part of
their SIP Gateways or separate products for very high volume
Requirements
• SBCs do increase latency slightly but should not in most cases
affect call quality
14
Whenever I party I let
Mort to be the Session’s
Border Controller…But
he does a bad job
Think of SBC as
Application level
Firewall and QoS
Device

15. Contact Center
Adjunct Solutions
15

16. CRM – Customer Relationship Management
• A suite of Applications that maintain the ‘Relationship’ related
Information about the customer and used for Customer Service
Purpose
• Typically this solution is integrated with CTI and IVR to perform
‘Screen-Pop’ where the agent is shown a quick overview of the
customer, purpose and other details collected from IVR
• As part of current Trend of Omni-Channel Services, the CRM is of
prime importance to keep records of Customer Interaction across
both Contact Center and Non-Contact Center ‘Channels’
• Salesforce is probably the most often heard New-Age CRM but
actually there are other strong players like Siebel, SAP, MS
Dynamics in the market
16
Thanks to screen-pop I
address my subjects by
name when I respond
to their call…They
think I can recognise
them by their voice
CRM Solutions are also
now available on Cloud
Platform on SaaS
Operating Model

17. Web Services
• This Solution enables the Contact Center to provide Internet
based Services like Web-Chat and Social Interactions
• Web-chat is very popular in most customer web sites
• The Social Services ensure monitoring comments from users
on Social Sites like Facebook, Twitter etc and enable direct
response officially
• Technologies like machine learning and AI now enable
sentiment analysis on Social feeds to measure customer
Sentiment Index
17
My Sentiment Analysis
engine always says my
subjects are
‘bewildered’…
Something is wrong…
must be Mort &
Maurice
Web services are an
essential part of Omni-
Channel Strategy

18. Email Services
• These solutions allows the Contact Center to handle Email
Requests and also perform email Marketing
• Contact Center Email solution may in turn integrate with the
corporate Email Solutions
18
Maurice is my Email
Service Provider, Mort
is my Mail Service
Provider
Bots can be built to
automate email
handling but success
has been limited
unfortunately

19. DB - Database
• Database Infrastructure used to Store Data and Retrieve on
demand
• Older ACD/IVR Solutions used to use their own proprietary
Database systems isolated from other database instances
• Mature vendors however support common Database
Infrastructure that can be shared with other Applications. The
Databases themselves will still remain dedicated.
19
I love my Base Guitar,
I’ve no idea what Data
it has
With Cloud based
ACD/IVR/CRM,
Investment on On-
Premise DB can be
avoided

20. Big Data
• This is usually used by customers who like to have a common
repository of customer information as part of their Omni
Channel Initiatives
• This may be part of an Enterprise wide Big Data Solution as
well
20
Sonya takes care of my
Big Data, I wonder
where she keeps them
Traditionally Contact
center solutions had
bad data export
capabilities to Big Data
but times are changing

21. Analytics Suite
• Analytics solutions get their feed from the ACD, IVR, Dialers,
Gateways and other components and present then to
supervisors
• Solution can be simple with just Out-Of-the-Box (OOB)
Reports or complex Analytics based solutions as well
• As part of Omni-Channel Strategy the reports are pooled in a
centralised Big-Data platform and then analysed to get
complete view of the customer
21
Maurice makes all my
reports and Mort eats
them all
Analytics Suite
connects the Contact
Center with the
Enterprise’s Wider
Omni-Channel
Strategies

22. WFM - Workforce Management
• WFM solutions are used to Roster the Agent’s Shifts based on
various considerations like Call volume Forecast, Agent skill
set, agent shift preference, agent & company Holiday plan etc
• The WFM relies heavily on ACD Historical Reporting for
generating call volume forecast
• The WFM also relies on CTI for Real-time Agent Adherence
(RTAA) details to check if Agent to monitor compliance with
generated roster
22
I don’t use WFM, My
Parties are 24x7
WFM Reports are of
prime importance as
sometime agent
performance measure
could be directly linked

23. QA - Quality Assurance
• Quality Assurance are a suite of products that handle agent
performance monitoring, training and Customer Service
Metrics Management
• The Products in this segment are essential for Continuous
Improvement to be achieved in the Contact Center
23
According to my QA
Reports, my subjects
have a satisfaction
index of ‘Oozy’… Must
be my Parties
Even Bots are
measured for
performance using QA
Reports

24. Middleware
• Middleware Solutions allow the Contact Center to Interact
with Business Solutions to get Real-Time Customer
Transaction related information like account balance in
banking, loyalty points in retail and eligible mobile scheme in
Telecom
• IVR make maximum use of Middleware and so do CRMs
24
Maurice is my
Middleware between
me and my subjects
Stateful Middleware
are great solution to
automate Workflow
Automation over phone

25. Monitor of Monitors
• Solution that provides single pane of glass view across the
Real-time Performance and Availability of all the Contact
Center Components
• These are typically common across IT but when Contact centre
is extremely mission critical as in 911 services, the MoM is
dedicated
25
I love my Mom
Some Vendors use AI to
automate Incident
resolution and
proactively inform
agents of outage before
ticket is raised

26. That’s it Folks
Version 1.0 / 16April2016
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