Days of large contact centers with huge setups are ending by the minute as customers are lining up for Internet Protocol (IP) hosted contact centers. Large players like Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, and 3Com are investing heavily in virtual contact centers based on Voice over IP technology (VoIP). IP hosted technology is beneficial for a call center to reduce maintenance cost, improve call traffic efficiency and minimize integration losses.

The majority of call centers set up in India to serve global clients are premise-based. An IP hosted contact center is a more lucrative business proposition than a premise-based call center as they outsource networking functionality from a network provider.

IP hosting deployed by a service provider directs the call traffic. V Chandrasekaran, co-founder and Vice President of Technology and Infrastructure, Secova eServices, an HR outsourcing firm in India, lists some key benefits of using IP for call routing. Secova uses AT&T for its IP service. Currently, when any call is made to Secova, it is first routed to IP host and then to the office. If a caller needs to talk in Spanish and if that skill is not available in Secova, he can easily reroute the call to a person outside Secova and assist the customer in Spanish. Thus, it is simple to manage traffic without a time delay. It also provides mobility for operators to serve calls independently. A person can now sit at home while serving the customer.

IP hosted call centers can now lease a line from service providers to become connected.

There are no upfront costs of setting up network architecture in office, or hiring people for network maintenance. Thus, it reduces manpower required at the call center and is cost effective. According to Chadrashekhar, “IP host technology makes very good business sense. We have saved approximately 30 percent on the investment cost”.

It also reduces the cost required to install network architecture, as it is leased from network providers, which reduces the number of telephone connections as well. When a call center introduces IP host deployment, it must hire services, which service providers bill per minute without additional maintenance cost. All these service providers sell their services for fixed monthly charges based on call center agent seats.

In other words, the buyer must make fixed monthly payments during the contract term for committed seats, regardless of infrastructure usage. This is a better solution than the CAPEX (Capital Expenditures) solution and the buyer pays solely for OPEX (Operating Expenses). The number of people required for network maintenance and investment on servers is also lesser.

In a premise-based call center, once contact center technology is implemented, the next step is integrating all required applications, and to train users (call center managers, administrators and agents) on all of the products like Phone Box exchange (PBX), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Automatic Call Dialer (ACD), integrated into call center. This is a challenging task for anyone because this process is often longer and more complex than creating, compiling and executing the training sessions. Whenever an upgrade occurs to one of the components in the contact center, training manuals must be updated and new training to representatives must be delivered.

One of the largest hidden costs of deploying a premise-based contact center is maintenance cost. It is essential to employ a telecom, networking and IT expert to stay abreast of training, updates and additions associated with the different applications in the contact center. The technical people have to constantly implement projects to improve the contact center’s functionality and reliability. Whenever an application goes haywire, the technical team must determine if the issue is an outcome of the integration of various applications or an issue with that particular application. This huge investment is expensive and inefficient.

The challenge for call center operators is to select the call routing applications that best meet the company’s specific needs. A company with a single, telephony only contact center must apply different routing techniques and technologies than a company that has multisite, multiskill, multichannel operations. To compare, the host IP charges around $250 per phone whereas TDM-based PBX bills $1,800 for the same. For heavy call traffic, TDM-based PBX is exceptional, as it offers better compression rates than IP.

Businesses require a communications system that intelligently routes calls via the most cost effective path without impacting business processes. This requires the voice services platform to utilize any medium of media and technology available to route business calls based on priorities related to user profile, tariff, network availability, and line quality. IP hosted call centers typically require a 12 Kbps line. IP hosted lines are beneficial for medium- sized traffic call centers, which is about 100 calls per person per shift, where compression is not essential.

Basically, IP technology is only used for serving medium traffic and Time division multiplex (TDM) is still used in heavy traffic. Buyers can also have the choice of selecting services to suit their budgetary constraints, as networks are standardized. A buyer has an option to purchase Cisco’s router and lease services from AT&T.

Once business and customer needs are determined, a buyer must understand and select the right set of products and features to integrate to provide the required functionality. The call center is required to provide system features by using state-of-the-art IP and telecom technology, including Predictive Dialer, Reporting, Monitoring, Conferencing, Email, and Web chat. High reliability is expected through layers of backup servers, backup electrical generators, and backup voice and data networks. It is not unusual to have ten different products integrated together.

This technical complexity of the contact center requires experts from every technical domain to collaborate to build a solution. But no matter what company’s businesses requirements are, contemporary routing applications offer ways to increase a company’s bottom line. The lack of this feature means that calls will not automatically be routed over the most economical facility, leading to increased transmission costs.

The virtual IP hosted contact center model, offered by service providers like Wilmington, DL-based EagleACD, is a valuable instrument for enabling small and medium businesses the functional equivalent of a premise-based call center. This includes full operational and administrative control as well as access to all real-time and historical reports, without the implementation lead time, system integration cost, and the capital expense of an in-house system. These centers offer call treatment control with monitoring and recording of all media for effective call center management and quality assurance.

This approach reduces the stress, cost, time and resources of the vendor and eliminates the need to plan or budget for an integration project. Additionally, the tracking, maintaining and implementation of product updates from different vendors is not required. It provides a complete solution and ensures that the contact center is implemented quickly with all of the personalization needs. Basically, the operators do not need to invest or maintain the communication infrastructure. This product adoption strategy allows one to be operative much faster and at a lower cost.

Call centers are transitioning from cost centers to profit centers with better service, improved mobility and lesser investment. According to Kent Charugundla, CEO, Eagle.net, “It’s the era of transformational outsourcing and we are a part of it.”