Business Value Reporting and Analytics

Transcription

1 IP Telephony Contact Centers Mobility Services WHITE PAPER Business Value Reporting and Analytics Avaya Operational Analyst April 2005

2 avaya.com Table of Contents Section 1: Introduction... 1 Section 2: Data Collection and Reporting Architecture... 1 Section 3: Additional Configurations... 4 Section 4: Pre-Built Reporting Packages... 6 Section 5: Operational Performance Reporting Package... 6 Section 6: Operational Reporting: Tabular Reports Wizard... 8 Section 7: Analytical Reporting Package... 9 Section 8: Analytical Reporting: Business Value Reporting Section 9: Conclusion... 11

3 avaya.com 1 Section 1: Introduction Customer service is a key differentiator in any competitive business climate. To make the most of every customer interaction, businesses must have a firm understanding of their customer s service and support experience as well as their contact center agent s performance. Only by consolidating data collection, reporting, and analysis enterprise wide will a business achieve a definitive 360-degree view of customer interaction and operational performance. Avaya Operational Analyst speeds managerial decision-making through comprehensive data collection and reporting capabilities that simplify analysis of multi-site and multichannel performance data. It complements and extends your existing service monitoring and management capabilities by enabling smooth expansion from voice calls to include more detailed contact center activity monitoring that spans , web, voice, and selfservice contact management. This white paper describes Operational Analyst reporting and analytics architecture, reporting capabilities, and example configurations for new or existing Avaya contact center customers. Prepackaged reporting packages, tabular reporting wizards, and business value reporting capabilities helps managers turn data into actionable information. Section 2: Data Collection and Reporting Architecture Operational Analyst serves as the data management and operational reporting system for Avaya Interaction Center, collecting and reporting on both real-time and historical customer interaction and business data. Figure 1 shows a high level view of the system architecture for a typical multichannel Avaya contact center. Operational Analyst can also act as a common collection and reporting environment for voice data from Avaya Communication Manager based contact centers as well as self service applications deployed to Avaya Interactive Response. Major components of Operational Analyst include data management software, a common historical Customer Interaction Repository, and a web based reporting framework. Figure 1: Operational Analyst serves as the common data collection and reporting environment for distributed multichannel contact management operations.

4 COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS 2 Operational Analyst was designed to optimize real-time data collection and reporting of contact activity from Interaction Center and other Avaya Customer Interaction Suite elements, providing business managers and contact center supervisors real-time updates of operational and business performance metrics. A key strength of the multichannel Avaya contact center solution is that all communications data is collected and stored to a single common Customer Interaction Repository. Historical data from Interaction Center workflows, Call Center software vectors, Call Management System call history, and Interactive Response are archived to the Customer Interaction Repository. The Customer Interaction Repository allows Operational Analyst to provide an integrated, consistent view of a customer and contact center activities across all communication medium and across all contact center sites and locations. Figure 2 shows a configuration where Operational Analyst components are used to collect data from several Avaya Customer Interaction Suite elements; Interaction Center, Call Management Systems, and Interactive Response. Interaction Center and Operational Analyst components are used to collect real-time events, process these events to create actionable information, and manage that information into actionable reports. In environments where Avaya Communication Manager and Call Center software are used to route voice calls, the rich voice-centric data provided by CMS can be exported to Avaya Operational Analyst to supplement multimedia and IVR data provided by Avaya Interaction Center and Avaya Interactive Response. All data in the repository, including any custom specific transactional or contact data stored within Avaya Interaction Center, are available for reporting. Example data includes: Half hour interval data for Agent, Queue, and Service Class data from Interaction Center Detailed voice, , and web collaboration data from Interaction Center EDUs Detailed speech and voice self service interaction data from Interactive Response Half hour interval data for Agents, Splits/Skills, VDNs, and Call Work Codes from CMS Detailed cradle to grave Call History data from CMS Through a publishing Data API, 3rd party business analytics environments can be used to report on data in the shared repository. Operational Analyst data reported to the Customer Interaction Repository is fully accessible via an open standards based interface in order that tools and interfaces providing by most all database vendors may be used to access contact center and call information. This allows enterprises to use the reporting packages of their choice to view customer and operational performance data. These same industry standard tools and interfaces can also be used to export the data to other systems.

5 avaya.com 3 Figure 2 Data Management and Summarization Real-time event processing makes it easier to monitor contact center status and to quickly identify system bottlenecks or to determine whether there are issues with achieving service level objectives. Avaya Operational Analyst consists of a set of specialized software subsystems that are deployed to a single server or across multiple servers as needed to meet contact center scalability requirements. These components include the following: Collection Includes a Forwarder component used to send data from Avaya Call Management System servers and an Event Collector component used to send real-time data from Avaya Interaction Center servers. Real-time Includes the Data Manager and Report Data Server components to process events and provide access to real-time data. Reporting Includes the Reporting Framework and Operational Reporting components. They can be deployed co-resident with other components or installed on separate servers depending on the number of real-time reports that will be simultaneously running. Advanced Reporting Includes multi dimensional cubes and analytical reporting components. Historical Includes Recorder, Aggregation, and Purge components. These elements are used to summarize and manage historical data in the Customer Interaction Repository. Administration Client Contains the administration client installed on a Windows client PC. The following components are used to collect events and historical data: The Event Collector (EC) receives real-time events about agent, channel, queue, and Service Class activities from Avaya Interaction Center and sends them to an event-processing engine called the Data Manager (DM). The Data Manager converts these events into actionable data that is consistent across all channels (e.g., average time spent on a contact, average contacts in queue). This data is stored in an in-memory, real-time database where it is available for reporting in 30 minute intervals as well as up to four user defined 24- hour intervals. At the end of each interval, the data is archived to the Customer Interaction Repository. The Report Server receives multi-channel contact data from Avaya Interaction Center. As contacts complete, detailed cradle to grave information about each contact is archived to the Customer Interaction Repository. A set of customer-extensible mapping rules specify what contact data is persisted and how it is archived.

6 COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS 4 The Forwarder is installed on each CMS server that provides data to Avaya Operational Analyst. It extracts historical data from the CMS. The ODBC Interface to the CMS database is used to extract interval based Agent, Split/Skill, VDN, and Call Work Code data. This data is sent to the Recorder after the CMS interval completes. The External Call History Interface to CMS is used to extract detailed cradle to grave call record data. This data is sent to the Recorder as calls complete. The Recorder receives this data and deposits it into the Customer Interaction Repository. The Forwarder, Recorder, and Report Server use database transactions to maintain the integrity of the data as it is inserted into the database. When network outages or other errors prevent access to the database, data is buffered to prevent loss of data. The event processing and real-time reporting components are engineered to provide scalable, high-performance, real-time reporting. Multiple Event Collectors and Data Managers can be deployed as needed to support different groups of agents at the same or different geographic sites. These components can be deployed at multiple local sites to provide efficient, real-time event processing and to minimize traffic over the WAN. The following components are used to manage the data in the Customer Interaction Repository. The Aggregation component runs at the end of each interval and summarizes the data into user-defined groupings/containers (e.g., agent work groups). Data in containers is summarized into 30-minute interval, daily, weekly, and monthly summaries to optimize reporting. These data are used to manage operations through Operational Reports. The Transformer component runs on a scheduled basis (typically daily or weekly). The Transformer component applies a sophisticated set of queries and summarization rules to the detailed contact/call history data and generates a set of multi-dimensional cubes. The data in these cubes is used for more indepth analysis of activities available through Analytical Reports. The Purge component runs on a nightly basis and removes data that is older than the administered storage retention period. The storage retention periods are customer definable and may be adjusted as needed to meet business requirements. The summarization of data into predefined containers and multi-dimensional cubes enables Avaya Operational Analyst to efficiently and effectively support historical reporting needs of the contact center. Reports do not need to join and sum large amounts of data from very large database tables. Instead, requests are executed in a simpler, less resource intensive way against the summarized containers or cubes. This approach significantly reduces load on the database and allows report queries to return in seconds, rather than minutes or hours. Section 3: Additional Configurations The following additional sample configurations describe how Operational Analyst can be deployed to enhance and extend voice call reporting from one or more Call Management Systems. Figure 3 shows an example configuration where Operational Analyst is used to collect and report on data from multiple CMS systems at different sites. In this configuration, Operational Analyst collection is executed through a Forwarder component installed on each CMS server. Operational Analyst historical data management and reporting software are installed on a separate server. The Customer Interaction Repository may be installed coresident with the Operational Analyst components or on a separate server. The reporting desktops access data for both sites from the single Operational Analyst reporting subsystem at site 1.

7 avaya.com 5 Figure 3: Avaya Operational Analyst consolidates historical voice ECH data from multiple CMS distributed across multiple sites simplifying reporting and analysis of virtual contact centers. Figure 4 shows an example configuration where Operational Analyst is used to collect and report on data from multiple CMS systems, Interaction Center, and Interactive Response platforms deployed across different sites. In this configuration the Operational Analyst collection software (i.e., the Forwarder) is installed on each CMS server. The Operational Analyst collection software, real-time event processing, and reporting software are installed on a separate server at each site. Historical data management is installed on a separate server at one of the sites. The Customer Interaction Repository may be installed co-resident with Operational Analyst components or on a separate server. The reporting desktops access data for both sites from the local Operational Analyst reporting subsystem at each site. Figure 4: Operational Analyst consolidates and simplifies reporting of voice, , web and self service data from multiple CMS, Interaction Center, CMS, and Interactive Response platforms.

8 COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS 6 Section 4: Pre-Built Reporting Packages Operational Analyst includes two pre-built reporting packages designed to get both contact center supervisors and business analysts up to speed quickly. The Operational Reporting package is designed for contact center supervisors with performance and task-level priorities. The Analytical Reporting package is designed for business analysts who need to track more sophisticated performance indicators and trends for operational improvement. The Operational Reporting package includes a browser-based interface that provides integrated reporting across all channels, with data presented in clear, compelling three-dimensional graphics for rapid recognition of trends, patterns, and anomalies. Available reports include predefined historical reports across Interaction Center and CMS including External Call History and 30-minute summary interval data, and historical performance analysis for both agents and skills. With the ability to refine reports down to contact detail, supervisors can perform true cradle-to-grave analysis. The Analytical Reports package includes the same browser-based interface that provides data in analytical cubes multi-dimensional graphic representations of data. Cubes may be manipulated with a straightforward graphical tool to produce various perspectives on the data, and on-screen performance metrics illustrate the business value of each interaction. Reports include predefined business value OLAP (online analytical processing) reports and ad hoc querying. With the ability to click on graphic elements and drill down to supporting transaction detail, the user can perform all levels of sophisticated business analysis. Section 5: Operational Performance Reporting Package Operational Analyst Operational Reports are accessed through an industry standard web browser and are used to view both real-time (up to the moment) and historical information for single or multi-location contact center environments. Operational Reports can view hourly contact center activities as well as data from earlier in the last day, week, month, etc, eliminating the need to learn or manage multiple tools for both day-to-day performance monitoring and longer-term trends analysis. The 30 minute interval and up to four user defined 24 hour intervals can be viewed in real-time reports. Previous 30-minute intervals as well as daily, weekly, and monthly summaries can be viewed in historical reports. Several real-time monitoring and historical reporting components are engineered to provide a highly scalable and efficient reporting solution. The real-time components in particular use a variety of techniques such as pooling related queries or sending only changed data, to maximize the scalability and efficiency of the system. For each real-time database there is a corresponding Report Data Server. Just as multiple Data Managers and real-time databases are used to provide scalable event processing, multiple Report Data Servers are used to provide scalable real-time reporting. A Centralized Report Data Server (Central RDS) provides simpler and more efficient access to data across all multi-location data. When real-time reports require data from multiple real-time databases the Report Data Servers collaborate to transparently retrieve the requested data. Unlike other solutions that require each individual report to directly query the database, the Centralized Report Data Server combines common requests to minimize queries against the real-time database. A single set of queries can provide the data needed by multiple real-time reports (e.g., four real-time reports looking at data for the same group of agents would result in one set of queries to the real-time database, not four sets of queries). Updates to the real-time data are periodically pushed to the real-time reports as specified by the user requested refresh rate. Refresh rates as frequent as every 5 seconds may be requested. The Report Framework provides a set of services that are used by Operational Reports to access real-time data from the Report Data Server and historical data from the Customer Interaction Repository. The Report Framework

9 avaya.com 7 is implemented as a set of Java Servlets that are deployed in a web server environment. Multiple web servers and their corresponding reporting frameworks are used to provide scalable real-time reporting. In addition to providing services for reports, the reporting framework also provides access to real-time and historical data through an open Data API. The Data API may be used to export the data to other programs or systems. Each Operational Report consists of a Java Servlet and a Java Applet. The Servlet retrieves the data needed for the report and performs some early calculations on the data. This data is then sent to the Applet using the industry standard HTTP protocol. The Applet performs additional calculations on the data and then displays it in tabular or graphical templates that reside on the reporting desktop. Figure 5 shows an Operational Reports menu on the left and a Service Class and Queue Performance Report on the right. Each report can be customized in terms of the colors that are used, the types of charts that are used (e.g., bar charts versus pie charts), and the statistics that are displayed. Graphical 3-D visualization can be utilized to maximize display of contact center statistics, offering a more comprehensively of display operations performance on a single screen. In addition, detailed data for a specific element displayed on the screen is available via screen tips. This enables managers to easily navigate and drill down to more detailed information. Figure 5: Operational Reports on agent and service measures such as the Service Class and Queue Performance report above are available via standard browser interface. Figure 6 shows an Agent Performance report and illustrates the use of a water plane to identify data items that are above or below a particular threshold. A variety of mechanisms allow exploration of the data within the report. The water plane may be adjusted to help identify individual items of interest. These items may be selected and the other items may be temporarily hidden. Screen tips may be enabled to provide more details. The detail data on the floor can be hidden, allowing the user to concentrate on the averages shown on either wall. The report may also be rotated to allow the data to be viewed from different perspectives.

10 COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS 8 Figure 6: Agent Performance Report with an active water plane to help quickly isolate and target problem solving and analysis. Figure 7 shows a tabular Agent Time in State Report. Tabular reports of this type are used to provide drillthrough to the individual data items used in the 3-D reports. This particular report illustrates the type of agent state data that would be available as a drill-through from an Agent State pie chart. Figure 7: Agent Time in State Report. Section 6: Operational Reporting: Tabular Reports Wizard Operational Analyst includes a Tabular Report Wizard which allows managers to create their own tabular real-time reports through a simple 4 step process. Users can create, edit, and manage reports all from a single browser based interface that provide detail on agent status, service levels, and queues. No additional programming is required for managers or report writers to create, edit, or distribute.

11 avaya.com 9 Figure 8: The Tabular Reports Wizard allows users to generate customer reports via a simple 4 step process. Section 7: Analytical Reporting Package A number of advanced contact center and business reports have been designed specifically for contact center managers and business analysts. Managers and analysts can customize and extend these pre-built reports as needed to meet business needs. Contact center measures (e.g., total number of work items, average wait time) are summarized across a number of dimensions (e.g., time, region) and stored in multi dimensional cubes. These cubes are typically updated on a nightly or weekly basis. Cubes contain detailed data about the contacts that have been processed in the contact center and the activities performed by the contact center agents. Analytical Reports are used to perform in-depth analysis of the data in the multi dimensional cubes as well as to conduct ad hoc queries against the Customer Interaction Repository and drill though. Either web based or Windows client versions of the reporting tools may be used. Figure 9: Example Analytical Report for high level problem identification from a contact cube. Graphical cubes speed examination and analysis of contact data across multiple time dimensions.

12 COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS 10 Figure 10: Example analytical report shows both consolidated tabular and graphical contact center volumes across services and voice, , web, and self service channels. Figure 11: Operational Analyst report showing consolidated agent contact volume across customer service and media channels. Analysts and supervisors are able to drill through to specific agent history for purposes of performance management and service quality audits. Section 8: Analytical Reporting: Business Value Reporting Business Value Reporting enables managers and supervisors to see the customer s experience and priority to the business more comprehensively and make better decisions on adjustments to customer segmentation and contact management strategies. With the release of Operational Analyst 7.0, contact centers have the ability to capture external enterprise data within the Interaction Center Electronic Data Unit (EDU), allowing managers to track and report on a customer s business value through a newly added Business Value measure. The actual Business Value measure is determined from the numeric field RevenueGain in the TaskPerformed table (i.e., TaskPerformed.RevenueGain) of the EDU. Contact center integrators can design their contact management system to populate the TaskPerformed.RevenueGain field with any numeric value believed by the customer to be representative of Business Value. Once populated, the value is summed across all tasks for each routing event and presented in the MMA cube as a measure called Business Value. This business value measure can be populated with virtually any relevant business data such as an account value, units ordered, credit report score, promotions code, or bill due date. The Operational Analyst 7.0

13 avaya.com 11 Multi-Media and Advocate (MMA) cube supports Business Value reporting by extracting information from the Customer Interaction Repository database populated via the Interaction Center EDU. Four new reports are included with the Analytical Reports package to allow managers to track Business Value by queue, service class, media types, and by agent. These reports allow drill down using its queue, service class, media, or agent measures for more in depth analysis. Business Value data can also be extracted to other 3rd party business intelligence and workforce management tools. Section 9: Conclusion Operational Analyst provides the profitability impacting insight into multimedia customer service and contact center operations performance. With real-time and historical reporting across all channels, integrated customer information repository, prepackaged reports, and summary views across multiple systems and communication channels, Operational Analyst gives you the knowledge you need to enhance your business, delivering the consolidated multichannel reporting environment for your multichannel Customer Interaction Suite solution. To learn more, visit

14 About Avaya Avaya enables businesses to achieve superior results by designing, building and managing their communications infrastructure and solutions. For over one million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500, Avaya s embedded solutions help businesses enhance value, improve productivity and create competitive advantage by allowing people to be more productive and create more intelligent processes that satisfy customers. For businesses large and small, Avaya is a world leader in secure, reliable IP telephony systems, communications applications and full life-cycle services. Driving the convergence of embedded voice and data communications with business applications, Avaya is distinguished by its combination of comprehensive, world-class products and services. Avaya helps customers across the globe leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results. COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS avaya.com 2005 Avaya Inc. All Rights Reserved. Avaya and the Avaya Logo are trademarks of Avaya Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All trademarks identified by the, SM or TM are registered trademarks, service marks or trademarks, respectively, of Avaya Inc., with the exception of FORTUNE 500 which is a registered trademark of Time Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Printed in the U.S.A. 04/05 EF-GCC2705