The True Meaning of the Voice- Enabled Web. Keith R. McFarlane

Transcription

1 The True Meaning of the Voice- Enabled Web Keith R. McFarlane

2 Agenda Introduc8on WebRTC in the Contact Center LiveOps Browser VoIP Implementa8on Looking Ahead

3 Remember Convergence? The evolution and convergence of technologies have blurred the lines that once separated telecoms players from the world of information technology, and the two sectors are on a collision course. From McKinsey s B2B 2015: The future role of telcos in ICT markets by Diehl, Fagan, Langen and Loebel

4 Voice Technologies Have Evolved Telecom convergence has been forced forward by Internet technologies The telecom group was once a walled garden within or apart from IT Walls have ben coming down in over the last 20 years PSTN PBX- based Call Center Private TDM or VoIP Call Center SoMware TaaS / Public Internet VoIP CCaaS Premise PBX Premise IP- PBX Hosted IP- PBX Desk Phone So+phone Browser- based Voice

5 Why is the voice- enabled web valuable? Reduces costs Price of public Internet will always be lower than PSTN. Increases deployment reach Everyone has a browser, and all browsers will eventually support full- duplex voice. Enables new applica?ons Web standards have a history of enabling new applica8ons, and voice innova8ons within the browser are no different. In short: the voice- enabled web has the poten2al to accomplish everything we thought convergence would accomplish when we started talking about it in the 90s

6 WebRTC in the Contact Center

7 Barriers to Large- Scale Desktop VoIP Deployment and Maintenance complexity Upgrades dependent upon implementa8on Quality and consistency problems Codecs varied by implementa8on Lack of standards for developers No standard desktop integra8on API Behaviors and capabili8es varied widely Infrastructure elements costly and/or difficult to manage Adobe Media Server Adobe Cirrus Service (Hosted, P2P only) openrtmfp/cumulus open source RTMFP Server

8 Why WebRTC? Built into the browser No other installa8on needed No components (e.g. Java applets) to download JavaScript API is natural and accessible for web developers Mobile browser support (phones, tablets) Based on open standards Unlike Flash, not under one company s control Standard specifies codecs, reducing uncertainty Voice - G.711, G.722, ilbc, and isac Video VP8 (+ H.264? IETF vote results?) Supports both peer- to- peer and intermediated communica8on Everyone is gehng into the WebRTC business Vendors: Avaya, Cisco, GENBAND Open Source: FreeSWITCH, Asterisk

9 WebRTC P2P Connec8on Web Server Signaling Signaling Voice/Video/Data This is the WebRTC Triangle Signaling managed by Ajax/Comet or WebSockets Poten8al problems for the contact center No access to voice path can t record

10 WebRTC Intermediated Connec8on Caller Signaling Web Server Web Server Agent Signaling Voice/Video/Data Media Gateway Voice/Video/Data WebRTC Trapezoid Signaling s8ll managed by Ajax/Comet or WebSockets Two triangles with media gateway, one for each party Voice/video passed through, recorded, etc. Poten8al problems for the contact center Latency must closely manage any audio processing delays

11 Implica8ons No phone required Expensive desktop phones can be removed from the agent desktop Reduced telephony charges Fewer calls to toll- free numbers; replaced by direct connect from the browser No more extra line for home agents Applica8on convergence Fewer somware race condi8ons when both media and data paths are managed by the browser Faster development of custom agent applica8ons

12 Challenges Standard is s8ll seoling API becoming firm, but uncertainty s8ll exists in some areas (e.g. video codec) Browser support incomplete Internet Explorer not yet supported IE is s8ll a factor in the enterprise MicrosoM proposing alterna8ve to WebRTC (CU- WebRTC) Safari not supported Call center agent desktops might need to be upgraded Agent worksta8ons are not changed omen Bare- minimum configura8ons might have audio quality issues

13 LiveOps Browser VoIP Implementa8on

14 Capabili8es Two lines of business Cloud based contact center plaporm and applica8ons Bring your own agents Business Process Outsourcer (BPO) for call center agent services Independent contractor agents Features Mul8ple inbound/outbound media channels: PSTN or VoIP voice, , web chat, SMS, Twioer, Facebook Interac8on flow processing Cradle- to- grave repor8ng Voice and screen recording Agent, Admin, Supervisor applica8ons Constraints 24/7 availability; no planned down8me Must support large, unpredictable bursts of ac8vity Some stats: >300 Customers >40,000 registered agents >100,000,000 interac8ons processed per year

15 Engineering Philosophy We are always available for customer contact on any channel Highly distributed system with limited scope of failure of independent components Releases and changes happen with systems online no scheduled down8me Mul8- tenancy with shared infrastructure Agile somware development Ship early and refine Open Source preferred over proprietary/commercial Legal review of all open source projects used 2009 LiveOps, Inc. 15

16 Global Deployment

17 Agent VoIP Requirements Provide a no- install voice op8on Connect via Public Internet or direct connec8vity infrastructure Public Internet will be adequate for most use cases Large customers may demand QoS assurances that public Internet cannot provide Maintain voice path quality Callers have low tolerance for audio quality degrada8on, jioer, echo, etc. Support older browsers to the extent possible Call centers are slow to upgrade; some contact centers s8ll run IE7 Provide for easy move to newer technology Upgrade of browser should provide improvements without changes to our app

18 Endpoint Op8ons Considered SoMphone Examples: X- Lite, SJPhone, BroadsoM Business Communicator Our partners provide various SIP endpoint op8ons Didn t want to introduce installable somware to our plaporm Non- Flash browser plug- ins Examples: N- SIP, Voipfone, Gtalk, SureVoIP No real advantage over separate somphone installer - - requires just as much installa8on and maintenance work Generally paired with a VoIP subscrip8on service Flash- based APIs Examples: Ribbit, Gizmo Flash is deployed broadly Version differences cause some clients to behave unpredictably Can be difficult for IT to manage Na8ve WebRTC Preferable, but requires investment Third- party voice API providers Examples: Twilio, Plivo, Phono Provide mul8ple op8ons (Flash or WebRTC), abstrac8ng the differences with their client APIs

19 LiveOps Browser VoIP Timeline 2000 LiveOps founded in Florida as a BPO POTS Phones 2001 Callcast founded in California as a contact center tech service 2003 LiveOps/Callcast companies technologies merge 2005 SaaS/PaaS business launched, larger customers added SIP Phones 2007 Fortune 500 customers added 2008 PCI Compliance 2009 Enterprise Agent product launched, con8nued growth So+phones 2010 REST API and Salesforce.com integra8on launched Ribbit Prototype 2011 Integrated mul8channel tech stack, Data Exchange product launched 2012 LiveOps Applica8on Server project started and launched 2013 LiveOps Browser- based VoIP Support Released Twilio Hack

20 Our choice: Twilio Twilio Client API abstracts differences between non- standard WebRTC implementa8ons in Chrome and Firefox For IE and other non- WebRTC browsers, Twilio Client API provides fallback to Flash- based VoIP Per- minute telephony prices compe88ve with other services / approaches Twilio has great market momentum Brand is well known for telephony innova8on High probability that they will keep up with and influence evolving WebRTC standard

21 Applica8on Integra8on for Browser VoIP LiveOps Engage Applica8on LiveOps Desktop API (DAPI) DAPI Twilio Connector Twilio JS API Other 3 rd Party Conn. Na8ve WebRTC Conn. WebRTC API or Flash Plugin Browser

22 LiveOps/Twilio Integra8on for Agent VoIP Inbound call is received by LiveOps 800 or DID inbound call terminates at LiveOps (PSTN) Applica8on data is sent to desktop via LiveOps proprietary data channel Call Data is sent via Desktop API to LiveOps integrated agent desktop via Public Internet LiveOps selects agent and sends Call to Twilio Extension (PSTN) LiveOps extends a PSTN call to Twilio to connect with agent Twilio finds agent s registered Twilio Client instance and opens voice path Caller is conferenced with agent by LiveOps plaporm Twilio sends VoIP call (WebRTC or Flash) to LiveOps Engage desktop client via Public Internet Legend SIP Data PSTN In October 2013, we enabled WebRTC for a 500- agent call center

23 Costs at 10M minutes/mo. $0.02/min. PSTN Toll- free $300,000 / mo. $0.01/min. Local DID Caller Agent $0.02/min. PSTN Toll- free $0.01/min. $325,000 / mo. Local DID $0.0025/min. WebRTC Caller Agent $0.02/min. PSTN Toll- free $275,000 $0.005/min. / mo. SIP $0.0025/min. WebRTC Caller Agent $0.0025/min. $0.0025/min. Caller WebRTC $150,000 $0.005/ SIP / $0.005/ mo. min. min. WebRTC Agent

24 Looking Ahead

25 Future Use Cases WebRTC Call me now buoon Agent on mobile device Firefox and Chrome both support WebRTC on mobile browser ABI Research: 4.7 billion mobile WebRTC devices will be sold by 2018 Collabora8on/Co- browsing Exploring use of TogetherJS Video support