The Revival of Enterprise Call Routing
1 Mar, 2004
By: Mark StanleySeveral years ago, when times were really good, call centers that were early adopters of technology embraced the notion of enterprise call routing (ECR) as a viable means of controlling telecommunications costs. When the economy started to go south, investment in this type of technology almost completely dried up. Recently we’ve noticed a renewed interest in a variety of call center technologies, including ECR. What’s behind the ECR revival, and is this something your center should now be giving a second look?
Background
A decade ago, it was not unusual to see toll-free services billed at rates of 12 cents to 15 cents per minute. For a center with 125 agents, monthly telephone bills around $135,000 per month were common. Companies that operated multiple call centers, particularly in different time zones, recognized that if they could find a way to reduce queue time by routing calls to centers that had agents available they could save a substantial amount of money. A reduction in queue time of 15 seconds in a 125-agent center could easily be worth $500 per day.
The ECR solutions deployed then were of the post-call routing variety. In post-call routing, the call must first be accepted into a call center before it can be answered there or routed to another center in the network using a tie-line. The downside to post-call routing is that while the call load can be balanced between multiple sites, there is still the cost of transport on queued calls and the cost of the tie-line between sites.
Fast forward to a couple of years ago to newer technology that utilizes pre-call routing technology. In the pre-call routing environment, the solution is in communication with the PTSN (public switched telephone network) and all of the call centers in the network. This allows the pre-call router to “look ahead” to all potential agents and tell the PSTN where to route the call, eliminating the need for a tie-line. In addition, transport costs are mainly for the part of the call that occurs when the call is connected to an agent, since a significant portion of the queuing is done in the PTSN.
What Changed?
Today, transport costs are no longer in the double-digits. In fact, it is not uncommon to see toll-free services billed near 3 cents per minute. So if transport costs are no longer a factor, why the renewed interest in ECR?
Four major factors have emerged:
1. Post 9/11, many companies have taken a serious look at business continuity issues. If one center goes off-line for whatever reason, what is the risk and cost to the business for the inability to provide service? Having an ECR solution in place allows calls to be automatically re-routed to alternate locations, and customer service continues.
2. Workforce management represents the single largest cost to a call center, and nothing drives a call center manager mad faster than knowing the center is not staffed properly. Linking multiple centers together allows for leveling of the spikes in call volume that happen across the enterprise. In addition, the law of large numbers suggests that the effect of spikes in volume diminishes as the combined volume grows across the enterprise.
3. Customer segmentation, in concert with skills-based routing, enables ECR to find the best match between caller needs and agent resources regardless of location, resulting in higher customer satisfaction.
4. Finally, the move away from ECR solutions that were proprietary and hardware-based to those that are open and software-based facilitates greater flexibility at lower overall cost for deployment.
Pull quote: In short, ECR is ready for prime time.
In short, ECR is ready for prime time. So who plays in the ECR space, and how do their solutions compare? Let’s take a closer look.
Choices
In the pure pre-call routing world, Cisco Systems and Genesys Telecommunications dominate the field. Cisco took on pre-call routing in a big way when they acquired GeoTel in 1999. GeoTel was a pioneer in the pre-call routing world and complemented Cisco’s vision to move data, voice and video over a single network based on Internet protocol. Their latest offering is the Cisco Intelligent Contact Management System.
Genesys started out in 1990 as a provider of CTI solutions and later introduced intelligent call routing to complement the CTI offering. Because Genesys only offers software, their solutions must work well on a variety of common platforms. The Genesys Network Routing Solution will advance to version 7 this summer.
Key selling points of the Cisco and Genesys solutions are their high levels of integration with APIs (application programming interface) necessary to hook into every ACD and database imaginable native to the platform, which by design makes them modular and highly scalable.
Another call center equipment vendor, Avaya, uses a modified approach to ECR. For example, if all of the call centers operated by a company use Avaya call switches, they have the ability to do pre- and post-call routing. If the call switching is done with equipment manufactured by other companies, Avaya’s Interaction Center is currently limited to post-call routing only. The company anticipates supporting pre-call routing to non-Avaya switches by 2005.
Deciding Factors
So when should you consider an ECR solution for your call centers? Here are some key questions to think about:
1. Do you operate multiple call centers that have some overlap in call type and agent skills?
2. Do you operate in multiple time zones?
3. Do you have a need for business continuity if one location is down?
4. Do you observe spikes in volume at different times of the day by location?
5. Do you have a need to offer a specialized skill set to your customers on a limited basis?
6. Is your ability to evaluate the effectiveness of one center to another limited?
If you answered “yes” to at least two of these questions then your center is probably a good candidate for ECR. The solutions currently offered by leading vendors can easily address these types of issues.
Case Study: Removing Silos
Recently a client in the insurance industry with several call centers asked for help in creating a long-term call center strategy. The existing environment consisted of multiple lines of business being handled at call centers that operated as autonomous silos, each with their own methods and procedures for call handling.
After an in-depth discovery process, it became clear that each center had a substantial amount in common. So, the first need was to convince key stakeholders that, even though each center viewed itself as unique, the customer viewed it differently. The next step involved designing a call center environment from the customer’s point of view to ensure that the experience would be the same no matter where the call was handled.
After the process and people issues had been addressed, the technology plan could be developed and implemented to enable the new vision. The technology plan had to have an ability to connect several ACDs of various types and degrees of functionality, along with IVRs and more than a half-dozen types of customer databases. In addition, the solution had to work for any future acquisitions the company might make.
The strategic technology plan created for the client had several key objectives:
• Ensure business continuity
• Enhance management analytics
• Improve productivity
• Be able to audit quality performance
• Create a foundation for Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Standardize operations across the interstate network
• Utilize technology to increase first call resolution and automate routine activities
The goals of the plan came down to two priorities:
1. Improving overall customer satisfaction
2. Reducing overall costs by facilitating gains in productivity
Based on this information, a pre-call routing solution was implemented. The centralized routing engine had the ability to see all network end-points and use this information to advise the PSTN to route each call based on perceived caller need and agent skill set. Because it was tightly integrated with the workforce management platform, the solution also factored in impending staff changes.
Further, it changed the customer experience by identifying incoming calls which were given call routing priority based on important information such as; membership status or an open issue pending resolution. So when the call landed at the desktop the agent was able to see who was calling, the purpose of their call, and any recent activity. The result was a significantly reduced agent handle time, because the caller was not required repeat available information and a satisfied caller who felt that their situation was well understood.
The solution identified was able to pay for itself in several months through productivity gains achieved by offloading portions of the call to automation. . Although it will take longer to fully evaluate the effect on customer satisfaction, it stands to reason that faster access and higher first call resolution rates will be appreciated by customers. From the company’s point of view, the ability to provide business continuity and have real-time performance reporting justified the cost. And with happy customers and improved productivity, what’s not to like?
