Concerto Software, a leading provider of contact centre solutions, today announced it is extending voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) functionality in several of Concerto`s principal products with new releases scheduled to be launched in the next two quarters.
"The flexibility of IP allows contact centres to distribute the work to where it makes the most sense, regardless of geographic region, and allows them to quickly react and be proactive regarding changing business conditions, as well as meet regulatory and compliance requirements without compromising customer satisfaction or cost," said Ralph Breslauer, executive vice-president of global sales and marketing, Concerto.
"Our focus is to continue providing solutions that enable contact centres to take advantage of those IP capabilities, in an evolutionary fashion, thereby still allowing companies to achieve their strategic business objectives in collections, customer service or sales and telemarketing."
The new releases of the products will include support for the session initiation protocol (SIP) to connect the agent to the contact centre and the contact centre to the network. The products offering new IP capabilities that will enable customers to increase agent productivity and reduce costs without compromising existing technology investments, customer satisfaction and agent satisfaction, include:
* EnsemblePro - the platform for Concerto Unified Edition, it is the industry`s first complete solution offering unified inbound, outbound and blended multi-channel contact (voice, e-mail, Web and fax), while delivering queuing, routing, reporting and agent empowerment capabilities.
EnsemblePro currently includes agent VOIP connectivity via a soft phone or select third-party sets; new version will expand to include a SIP-based trunking integration, SIP phone support, and multi-site IP interconnectivity.
* Spectrum ACD - supports critical, high-volume customer interaction by integrating automatic call distributor (ACD) functionality with computer telephony integration (CTI) applications providing 99.999% availability. Spectrum currently integrates with the Cisco AVVID environment and the new version will offer both agent and network SIP connectivity for all standard SIP environments.
* Unison Predictive Dialler - an outbound customer contact product that integrates with existing voice and data systems and offers campaign development tools, predictive dialling, call blending, a browser-based agent desktop, real-time statistics and historical reporting. The new release will offer agent VOIP connectivity via SIP.
* Conversations Predictive Dialler - provides outbound call management capabilities to improve agent productivity, allows flexibility in managing operational costs and leverages existing technology investments. The upcoming release will offer agent VOIP connectivity via SIP.
Using SIP as the standard protocol in new versions of the Concerto products enhances the IP capabilities currently built into EnsemblePro and Spectrum ACD enabling users to initiate and receive communications and services from any location and for networks to identify the users regardless of their location.
SIP also provides companies with an easier and more efficient method for communicating with other third-party applications, such as PBXs, existing phone sets, or presence services, enabling them to achieve flexibility in the contact centre without compromising quality of service and customer service.
In addition to yielding greater connectivity options and agent productivity, the new IP capabilities in these Concerto products also provide strategic business benefits.
"When companies move to an IP infrastructure, it doesn`t mean they have to sacrifice features and functionality to gain the cost benefits associated with VOIP. This is one of the reasons we`ve chosen to integrate SIP, which has matured into the technology that we feel confident offering to our customers, while providing the same comprehensive routing, reporting and monitoring features that are synonymous with Concerto," said Roger Sumner, Concerto chief technology officer.
"With the opportunity to now fuse presence with customer-facing processes, SIP is also making it possible for companies to think about the way they operate their businesses in a completely different way," added Sumner.
"SIP is the enabler allowing companies to build a flexible architecture to bridge the gap between customer and company by extending connectivity outside the contact centre to "remote branch office or home agents to heighten the level of customer service".
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Concerto Software, the founder of the contact centre industry, is 100% focused on providing proven, innovative products and services that enable key business processes including customer service, collections, and sales and telemarketing for in-house and outsourced contact centres.
Each day, companies around the globe conduct more than 50 million customer interactions using Concerto`s flexible, reliable solutions for automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialling, workforce management, analytics, IVR and multi-channel contact. Headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts, Concerto has operations across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.
For more information, visit www.concerto.com.
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