January 23-26, 2007 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida What You Need to Know BEFORE Making the Move to VoIP Sanjeev Sawai Vice President, Research and Development

January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

What You Need to Know BEFORE Making the Move to VoIP

Sanjeev SawaiVice President, Research and DevelopmentEnvox Worldwide

Every day, millions of people experience Envox Voice Solutions

When Completing Transactions

When Communicating

at Work

When Providing

Information By Phone

When Calling Customer Service

When Calling for Directory Assistance

When Scheduling Appointments

IP Mobility & Contact Center SolutionsPlatform & Development Software

Professional Services


The Impact of VoIP

• On the call center– Easily enable virtual call center and home-based agent solutions– Seamless routing between call centers maximizes agent

utilization and lowers overall staffing requirements– New capabilities resulting from integration of enterprise

applications– Softphone/PC configurations reduce move, add and change work

• On IVR & self-service solutions– Server consolidation– Centralized applications reduce administration and upgrade

issues– In many cases, out-of-date proprietary solutions can be replaced

for the maintenance costs


The Impact of VoIP

• For the enterprise– Reduced call charges: intra-company long distance, tariffs

in some regulated markets, fewer leased lines– Reduced equipment charges: one network, consolidated

servers– Agility: application control, rapid application changes,

improved integration/use of corporate data

• For IT– More uniform application development – Simplified administration and upgrading of voice

applications


Key Standards and Technologies


Key VoIP Standards

• H.323– Standard that bridges IP and PSTN networks to enable

interoperability– Gives priority to voice traffic over a LAN to ensure QoS

through bandwidth management– Not well suited for large user groups or multimedia

applications• SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)

– Lighter weight - based on HTTP and SMTP– Easier to implement than H.323– Faster call set-up– More “familiar” to IT and Web developers


Architecture: Migrating from TDM to VoIP

TDM Call Center


EnvoxIVR

PSTN

ISDN (E1)

PBX

CTI Link/CSTA Link

EnvoxCT Connect

Agent Stationsw/TDM Phones

Customer Database

CTIApplication

ISDN/analog


Hybrid IP Call Center: IP Phones


PSTN

ISDN (E1)

PBX

CTI Link/CSTA Link

Agent Stationsw/IP Phones

Customer Database

Cost Savings• Internal Toll Charges• Moves/Adds/Changes

VoIP Gateway

LAN/WAN

TCP/IP

VoIP Gateway

EnvoxIVR

EnvoxCT Connect

CTIApplication


Hybrid IP Call Center: Softphones, IP IVR


PSTN

ISDN (E1)

PBX

CTI Link/CSTA Link

Agent Stationsw/Soft Phones

Customer Database

CTIApplication

Cost Savings• Internal Toll Charges• Moves/Adds/Changes• Phones

VoIP Gateway

LAN/WAN

VoIP Gateway

EnvoxIP

IVR

EnvoxCT Connect


Pure IP Call Center: Softphones, IP IVR, SoftPBX


PSTN

ISDN (E1)

CTI Link/CSTA Link

EnvoxCT Connect


Customer Database

CTIApplication

Cost Savings• Internal Toll Charges• Moves/Adds/Changes• Phones• PBX Maintenance

IP PBX,VoIP

Gateway

LAN/WAN

TCP/IP

EnvoxIP

IVR


Pure IP Call Center: Soft Phones, IP IVR, Soft PBX


PSTN

ISDN (E1)

CTI Link/CSTA Link

EnvoxCT Connect


Customer Database

IP PBX,IP IVR,VoIP

Gateway

LAN/WAN

TCP/IP

Cost Savings• Internal Toll Charges• Moves/Adds/Changes• Phones• PBX Maintenance• Server Costs/Maint.

CTIApplication


Customer Care in the Distributed Enterprise

PSTN

VoIPGateway

Envox IVR w/Routing App.

EnvoxACD

EnvoxCall Info. Mgr.

EnvoxCT Connect

Central Office

Remote Office

At Home Agents

VoIPGateway

Agent withStd. Phone

VoIPGateway

IP Agent with Soft Phone

Agent withIP Phone

Agent withIP Phone

PBX

Cost Savings•Int./Ext. Toll Charges•Moves/Adds/Changes•Agent Costs•Phones•PBX Maintenance•Server Costs/Maint.


Approaching a VoIP Project


Common Problems to Avoid

• What do you mean I can’t do that?– VoIP is a new and changing technology– Misinformation/lack of knowledge in vendors

• IT vs. telephony• Evolving standards

– Vendors support different standards or parts of standards• Voice quality/recognition quality vs. bandwidth• Centralized operations = increased impact of

system failures• Duplicate functionality, but don’t plan for future• Security issues – need a plan that fits IT policies


Recipe for Success: Preparation

• The team: involve IT, telephony, business reps.– IT: bandwidth, firewalls, security, devices– Telephony: hardware/software, phones

• Gather feedback on current telephony system– What features need to be carried forward?– What are drawbacks and what is lacking?

• Identify business and technical needs of system in the future– Infrastructure that will remain (IVR, phones, etc.)– Changes needed to IP network to support voice– Quantity and quality of business applications


Recipe for Success: RFP & First Steps

• Input from multiple vendors (RFP)– Architecture plan (routing, firewalls, telephony, data flow)– Redundancy plan– Security plan– Can you provide all features? How?– Quality of service guarantees– Implementation plan

• References – been there before? • Prove it in a pilot

– Effects on infrastructure, IP network?– Do I still have all the functionality I need?– Special monitoring for transmission over the public internet


Special Considerations for ASR/TTS

• Compression of voice signal in VoIP network– Selection affects quality of audio/recognition and

bandwidth– Conventional wisdom – stick with telco-quality

(uncompressed, G.711) audio– Latest engines support other codecs (Nuance supports

G.711, G.723 and G.729)

• Platform must support required codec• Affects both TTS and ASR• Advice - check with your speech vendor for

compression/bandwidth requirements


Case Studies


Retail Chain Reduces Infrastructure Costs with VoIP


Why VoIP?

Consolidated network Fewer internal resources required to

manage and upgrade solutions

Fewer deployed systems

Less hardware

Easier to roll out upgrades

Reduce the number of vendors

Eliminate phone charges

1,000+ stores

Separate PSTN, IT networks

Satellite transmission for data consolidation

Corporate goals Cost savings

Upgrade obsolete technologies

Customer Description


Collections Agency Uses VoIP to Reduce Call Wait Time


Why VoIP?

Centralized system reduce administration and development

SoftPBX, IVR, Predictive Dialer, Agent Screen Pop, etc.

Enabled virtual call center Reduced wait time - call transferred to

next agent regardless of location

Centralized switching maximizes coverage AND streamlines staffing requirements

6,000+ calls per day

Inbound/Outbound

Multiple call centers, each with IP PBX

Must respond IMMEDIATELY to inquiries or lose revenue



Software Company Improves Operations at Nursing Homes and Hospitals


Why VoIP?

Lowered overall cost of integrating information sources

Rapid introduction of service enhancements

Next-gen technology provides important marketing advantage

Simplified integration with database and web-based systems

AccuNurse Speech-enabled access

to patient care plans

Point of care reporting via wireless headset

Silent paging

Speech-to-text database input



Resources

• Download Envox development software at http://www.envox.com/getting-started/index.asp

www.envox.com

508-898-2600

[email protected]

Documents

January 23-26, 2007 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida What You Need to Know BEFORE Making the Move to VoIP Sanjeev Sawai Vice President, Research and Development