"These announcements underscore Nortel's focus on delivering superior customer care solutions that not only simplify business process and application integration but also highlight Nortel's continued commitment to bring leading edge capabilities to our customers," said Ravi Chauhan, general manager, Communications Enabled Business Solutions, Nortel.
Key features of Contact Center 7.0 include:
• Open Interfaces -- In addition to the openness delivered by SIP, Contact Center 7.0 provides open Application Programming Interfaces using a Services Oriented Architecture (SOA), which enables integration of the contact center into a company's business applications and processes. With web service interfaces for queuing, Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), and database integration, a business can automate workflow between front and back office applications to remove tedious manual processes.
• UC in the Contact Center -- With Contact Center 7.0 and Microsoft OCS integration, it is easy for customers to interact with a business using various modes of communication. This unique integration provides a single, unified agent desktop interface for inbound/outbound voice, email, web chat, and instant messaging. For example, Contact Center 7.0 can intelligently route customer contacts to available agents using SIP-based presence. Agents can also use presence to quickly determine which of their experts is available to help with a customer request, enabling first contact resolution.
• Predictive Outbound Dialing -- Typically provided as a separate application, Nortel has fully integrated this technology within Contact Center 7.0 to improve the efficiency of agents by allowing the system to intelligently predict when an agent will become available and place an outbound call to coincide with their availability. And, because it is integrated with Contact Center 7.0, reporting and management are seamless.
• Service Creation Environment (SCE) -- Contact Center 7.0 also features a graphical 'drag and drop' tool that takes the work out of contact center and self-service workflow creation. With SCE, the workflow orchestration between different applications is simplified using open, web services interfaces, which reduces the cost and speed of deployment. Nortel estimates use of this tool to be five times faster than traditional workflow creation methods.
• Services -- Contact Center 7.0 solution is complemented by an enhanced set of new services spanning all aspects of contact center operations. These include: Consulting and Design; Development and Customization; Implementation and Integration; Manage and Maintenance; and Optimization services.
With Nortel contact centers handling more than 200 million calls a day, the company reportedly offers the broadest application portfolio, including contact center, self-service, advanced speech, and workforce optimization solutions. It also adheres to an open, vendor-agnostic approach that allows for simple integration of the UC experience across applications and devices complemented by a rich services practice that can customize solutions based on a customer's unique business needs.