Why improved functionality leads to flexibility when considering a cloud based customer contact centre solution

w h i t epa p er

—

Why improved functionality leads to flexibility

when considering a cloud based customer contact

centre solution

1

Overview

2

The issues with existing systems

3

A blueprint for the future

4

The business case for change

– next steps

5

Who are Unity4…?

Overview

The arrival of cloud computing solutions for the contact centre industry mean the days of massive capital investments and costly, ongoing, maintenance contracts are a thing of the past. It also means that things happen faster, allowing you to keep pace with the rapidly changing face of your everyday business and the ever changing needs of your customers.

Moving from costly capital expenditure/investment to an easy-to-manage monthly operating model is the first benefit when moving your customer contact centre operation to the cloud. When this is compared to the other benefits that organisations which have already made this move are experiencing, you will see that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Focussing only on your pressing ‘need of the moment’, rather than looking for the most feature rich and function deep solution available can lead to those all too familiar conversations.

This approach not only adds to the complexity of the overall solution (your IT team managing the integration and maintenance of multiple applications and providers) but also the to the cost, with multiple licenses, maintenance renewal dates and release schedules to keep in check.

It is increasingly important to ensure that when you are looking at your ’perceived’ requirement that you also use this time think ahead to what you might need as your business continues to evolve.

For years, when the need for additional functionality arises, the standard industry responses have always been:

...“We have a module for that”…….

...“We can integrate a partner’s application to address that”...

...“We can help you run the two systems in parallel”...

...“You need a specialist provider for that”...

Longer Implementations Expensive Customisation IT Resource Dependent

Expensive Upgrades Added Hardware Costs Large Upfront Investment

ON-PREMISE SOLUTION

CLOUD-BASED SOLUTION

This whitepaper sets out to outline the functionality you should be considering from the outset in an all-encompassing solution effectively ‘future-proofing’ your ability to communicate with your customers and their ability to communicate with you.

In this sense a true cloud based contact centre solution should be equally adept at addressing what happens before “Hello” as to what happens after.

If your current customer interaction is driven by inbound enquiries – plan for a future

where it is easy for the same agent to make pro-active outbound calls to follow up...

If your current customer interaction is focussed on complaint handling– plan for a

future where it is easy to follow up on those complaints and ensure that the customer

is kept informed of improvements.

If your current customer interaction is around the upsell & cross-sell of additional products –

plan for a future where it is easy to truly see a single view of a customer and their spending

If your current customer interaction is purely via the phone – plan for a future where it easy

to open up all available channels of communication – web chat, email, social media

Just as importantly it can hamper your ability to manage future customer interactions and creates a reporting ‘black hole’ where you find yourself spending all of your time trying to pull together the five or so reports from different systems, just to produce what should be a very simple ‘single view’.

BEFORE MOMENT AFTER

OF TRUTH

HELL

O

Assurance Historical Reports Payroll

Rapid

Reports TransferData Training Rooms Outbound Predictive ACD Scheduling Outbound Preview Scripting Social Media Call Recording Recruitment Intelligent Routing IVR Interaction Management Web Chat Email Dashboard

The issues with existing systems

Point Solutions

Most vendors in the contact centre technology space have created what are known as ‘point solutions’. These solutions are great at doing one particular task within your contact centre. For example if you require an IVR then there are plenty on offer. We all know what an IVR is and what an IVR does and typically the functionality is the same across the board (how it does it and how it is maintained tend to be the differentiators here…). Once acquired it is then integrated into the rest of the technology you use to run your operation.

The same can be said of an outbound dialler or your call recording platform – these are separate systems that when ‘stitched’ together create an end-to-end solution.

The problem here is that each of these systems comes with its own provider, its own licensing model, its own maintenance scheme, its own software update releases etc. – requiring someone to manage these and the relationships with different vendors that provide them.

Modular

Many vendors in the contact centre technology space work on the basis of ‘bundling’ functionality into modules – meaning that you can start off using an inbound module and add specific modules as your business needs change. You would think that each module should contain everything that is required to make your operation work, but in fact this is rarely the case. Most modular solutions still require an underlying technology platform and hardware to sit on along with the additional complimentary products that are required to deliver the full solution.

Building up an end-to-end capability using these modular systems can be expensive, with each module being purchased separately. The modules typically run in isolation from each other, meaning that as a business you still have to combine the reporting outputs from both inbound and outbound modules to get a true view of your operation’s efficiencies.

Bolt-on or partner products

Both of the models described above typically require support from ‘bolt-on’ products or partner products – for example this may take the form of a separate reporting application that sits behind everything else and takes data from all of your systems and creates reports. It could be a specific call recording application where the application can be switched on during a call and stores that call recording somewhere for later verification or QA purposes. Again, these are typically from different providers and are then ‘stitched’ into your environment.

All of these are ultimately a compromise – a solution that was purchased for a particular need that has probably changed dramatically whilst the system tries to keep up.

With the arrival of ‘the cloud’ many of the vendors in the Call Centre space have worked hard to take their existing offerings and somehow make them available through the cloud. You can imagine that where there are 2, 3, or even more different pieces of technology running your operation it becomes almost impossible to integrate them all into a single solution delivered via the cloud – especially when they were designed to run on their own hardware and have differing infrastructure requirements. This effectively becomes a battle where different pieces of the solution are owned by different parts of the same business – creating an internal tug-o-war.

Regardless of whether your current environment is inbound, outbound or a blend of the two – there is always a solution that can be tailored to meet your current needs. These have evolved over the history of the call centre industry and generally fall into the following categories:

3

A blueprint for the future

History has shown that there are a myriad of reasons as to why additional functionality, not initially considered, might be required:

• Business Growth – the need to administer more and more agents or teams

• Adding either an inbound or outbound campaign/ queue

• Legislation changes that require call recording • New brands to manage = new customers to service • Acquisition – means new and unknown customers

and the blending of more than one call centre • Spike or Seasonal management – certain

functionality is only required for a short time

Selecting a solution that was created specifically for the cloud and that is delivered via the cloud is now commonly accepted as the most efficient way to run a call centre environment. By choosing a solution that has been built containing ALL of the functionality from across the industry you can also future-proof your operation and be confident that whatever happens you will be well placed to deal with it.

Given this potential for change, the list of functionality that should be delivered spans the following areas and covers the technology, people and feature aspects of a future-proof solution: • IVR + ACD

• Intelligent Routing

• Outbound Dialling capabilities • Web chat & Email Management • Social Media capabilities

• In-solution agent recruitment platform

• Training rooms – for both in-house and remote staff • Scheduling and Workforce Management • Interaction management

• Scripting

• Multi-channel rules engine

• Payroll capabilities to link agent activity to payroll • Queue monitor

• Dashboard and real time reporting (both telephony and data)

• Instant and Historical snapshot reporting • Call recording

• Quality Assurance

The business case for change

– next steps

Fully understand the existing (and hidden) costs of your existing operation

To make a true comparison with your existing operation it is vital to understand the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) as simply comparing license costs does not always paint the entire picture. • A full feature comparison and understanding of

what you currently have will highlight whether it was a standard implementation or something that has evolved over time. Often you will find that additional modules have been purchased and bolted on to the initial solution, such as – call recording, QA modules, Reporting suites, and payment gateways and so on. A cloud based contact centre solution should provide all of these as part of a standard suite of functionality • Cost of internal IT resources and external vendors

to maintain the environment and make ongoing changes to keep pace with your business. • Ongoing maintenance and license fees. These

are typically annual and lock in the user to an additional contracted period. A cloud based contact centre solution should be charged on a ‘pay as you use’ basis with no on-going contract, so you are only charged for what you use and when you use it. • Hardware costs – legacy systems rely on expensive hardware to run. This needs to be purchased and maintained. Using a cloud based contact centre solution; your chosen vendor runs and manages everything in a hosted environment removing these costs completely.

• Telecommunications costs – a cloud based contact centre provider will deliver these as part of the solution and will be in a position to obtain and maintain highly competitive rates for your usage. • The cost of time – business can be lost and

competitive advantage minimised whilst waiting for changes to be made and for ramp up/down to be managed to meet your direction.

• Cost of Disaster Recovery or a Business Continuity Plan. With a cloud based contact centre solution this is part of its functionality by default. This potentially removes the need for a redundant set up or additional facilities purely for this eventuality.

Understand the risks of remaining on your existing platform

Again, on the surface these may not be glaringly obvious, but scratch the surface and you will find that these risks may be issues to varying degrees – identifying them early in the process will assist you in getting sign off for your business case down the track.

• As discussed earlier – understand the full future cost of maintaining your existing platform • What is your business going to look like in 1,3 and

5 years and is it likely that your existing platform can keep up, or will it hinder your ability to deliver against ever changing objectives

• What are your competitors doing – how are they managing to stay ahead?

• What reliance do other areas of the business have on IT support – Does this mean less availability for you?

Choose a Cloud Partner who built their solution to be delivered via the cloud

Many providers of contact centre platforms developed their solutions before the concept of the cloud existed. What that means is that they are now trying to redevelop their solutions to allow them to be delivered in the cloud. Typically this is a laborious process and one that is done in a drawn out and phased approach. On top of that, the existing technology tends to be very bandwidth intensive and therefore slow to run and still hard to maintain.

• No reliance on legacy systems

• No additional modules or bolt-ons – solution should contain all capabilities and functions in one • Find a solution provider who has built their

capabilities based on the needs of clients rather than perception – this allows you to benefit from previous investment and a wide range of capabilities at hand.

• Where possible find a provider whose staff is made up of ex Contact Centre professionals, rather than purely software developers. This way you benefit from the collective experience that becomes embedded in the solution.

Overcoming the perception of ‘it’s hard to change’ or ‘better the devil you know’ can prove difficult. Organisations that wish to make a change to a cloud based solution should first take a number of steps to truly evaluate its potential and create impetus within the organisation.

5

Who are Unity4…?

Facts at a Glance • The business was established 2000, the RapportCMS technology was released to market as a standalone offering in 2006.

• Unity4 is Privately Held by the original shareholders.

• Unity4 is Debt Free and has not taken external  venture funding, private equity or market capital • The group has an Compound Annual Growth rate

of 44.28 precent

• Unity4 employs in excess of 650 people worldwide  (excluding independent agents on the platform) • Over 11,000 active users on the RapportCMS

platform worldwide

• Unity4 maintains its internal quality assurance program (U4RMS) and is OFCOM, ACMA, ATA. • ADMA and DMA compliant

Unity4

is the leading provider of @home agents who make

and take calls on behalf of client in Australia, New Zealand,

the UK and the US. In order to create this unique model it was

necessary to develop a cloud based contact centre solution

to both be able to deliver the call and the functionality at the

desktop to people wherever they were based as long as they

had access to the internet and a phone line...

...that was back in 2000 and as the solution evolved into an

all-encompassing set of features and capabilities the decision

was made in 2006 to release it as a standalone product called

Rapport CMS. This solution is now used over 11,000 active

users worldwide and is the most feature rich cloud based

contact centre solution available today.

Extensive real time and historical reporting across

the entire platform.

Pay as you use: No Capex, no software licence fees and no ongoing

maintenance charges. comprehensive

training and systems

support for operational and support staff.

Human Resources management. Full recruitment timesheet

and gross payroll systems. Rapid deployment so you are

up and running quickly.

‘On the fly’ modifications

to campaigns so you can optimise as and when required.

Interaction management,

powerful scripting, CTI integration support. Accessible, anywhere

globally. True virtual contact centre.

Unity4 on demand

technology

‘Simply put, we have been doing this for 14 years, have more customers

‘in the cloud’ than any other provider in Australia and we’re proud of it...’

Why improved functionality leads to flexibility when considering a cloud based customer contact centre solution

Unity4 in Europe 0800 011 2534

The Old Grammar School St Leonards Close Bridgnorth Shropshire WV16 4EJ United Kingdom Phone: +44 800 011 2534 Fax: +44 1952 457 890  Email: [email protected]

Unity4 in New Zealand 0800 003 039

Level 2B, 118 Queen Street Auckland Central Auckland 1010 New Zealand Phone: +64 9 972 1796 Fax: +64 9 353 1563  Email: [email protected] Unity4 in Australia 1300 886 489

Level 2 410 Crown Street Surry Hills NSW 2010 Australia

Phone: +61 2 9699 8279 Fax: +61 2 9475 0813  Email: [email protected]

Contact us, at any time, for a more in-depth conversation as to what a cloud based contact centre solution could mean for your business:

Unity4 can help you navigate the journey towards a cloud based contact centre environment.

Our experienced consultants can assist in working out your current Cost of Ownership and plan a seamless transition to a solution with all the functionality to future-proof your ability to communicate with your customers.

Fax: +61 2 9475 0813  Email: [email protected]

Unity4 in Europe 0800 011 2534

The Old Grammar School St Leonards Close Bridgnorth Shropshire WV16 4EJ United Kingdom Phone: +44 800 011 2534 Fax: +44 1952 457 890  Email: [email protected]

Unity4 in New Zealand 0800 003 039

Level 2B, 118 Queen Street Auckland Central Auckland 1010 New Zealand Phone: +64 9 972 1796 Fax: +64 9 353 1563  Email: [email protected]