Solution Overview: Geomant Contact Expert for Microsoft Lync Server

Solution Overview: Geomant Contact Expert for Microsoft Lync Server Solution Summary Contact Expert is a fully-featured multi-media contact centre software solution for the Microsoft Unified Communications Platform. Leveraging Microsoft s latest Lync Server 2010, Contact Expert provides a managed customer interaction environment through the use of contact centre functionality and a consistent user experience. Moreover, Contact Expert provides a big-picture reporting tool to monitor how customers communicate with the organisation and report how the organisation manages the customer interactions. Contact Expert can be deployed as a simple voice channel contact centre solution. Alternatively Contact Expert can be optioned with support for multimedia channels such as email, SMS and web-chat (Q1 2012). Regardless of the media channel used, Contact Expert provides a richly feature contact centre solution and the sophisticated ACD optimises routing strategies to ensure customer interactions are always connected to the most appropriate agent. All telephony and UC functions within the contact centre are achieved through Lync so when the agent signs into Contact Expert, they are automatically signed in to Lync. Tight integration with Lync provides a consistent user experience and Contact Expert provides a dedicated operator application enabling agents to manage all customer interactions through a single desktop GUI. The desktop GUI provides access to all the rich Contact Expert features. It includes an embedded web browser so that agents can follow call scripts, access customer information and call history, and to input or update customer records. Once a call is completed it is either closed with business configurable wrapup (call closure) codes or the agent can schedule a call-back. Contact Expert also provides sophisticated contact centre management and actionable information through administrator and supervisor roles. Real time and historic reports can be accessed to monitor service levels, agent performance, queues, wait times etc or presented in real time via a virtual desktop wallboard. In addition Contact Expert provides full call recording capabilities for compliance, dispute resolution as well as Supervisor call observing for training and coaching purposes. Traditionally contact centre software offerings rely on the incumbent customer telephony platform or open SIP support and there is a history of complex CTI work that needs to be done for a successful deployment. The Geomant point of difference is that the Contact Expert solution is built as an application for Lync using the very latest Microsoft UC APIs (UCMA 3.0) so the telephony connector is in-built. This means our solution works seamlessly with the Lync platform and there is no custom CTI required. Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 1 of 13

Contact Expert Key Benefits 1. Simple and rapid to deploy, 2. Lower entry cost and highly cost effective for small to medium contact centres and helpdesks from 5 agents upwards. 3. Tightly integrated with Lync. 4. Synchronises Agent status with Lync presence. 5. Leverages Lync telephony platform. 6. Extends the Lync ROI. 7. Unifies agent/customer communications within the Microsoft Lync environment. Contact Expert extends Microsoft UC platform with UC enabled Customer Care: Contact Expert Features at a glance (refer product configurator for licence options) Uses Microsoft s Lync enterprise voice telephony platform. Supports multiple inbound queues and multiple outbound campaigns. Offers multiple resources: human agents, automated agents (SMS) and IVR. Multiple channels: voice, email and SMS. Note: Web Chat scheduled for Q1 2012. Unified agent desktop application (both full screen and toolbar). Self-managed contact centre through web based administration and supervisor roles. Comprehensive dialing rules preview and progressive. Definable agent soft skills and skill levels. Fixed or dynamic customer contact lists. Comprehensive reporting suite for real-time and historic reporting. Comprehensive queue performance and effectiveness measurement. Simple creation of call flows through graphical editor tools. Call flow simulation for pre go-live queue testing. Automated contact list import and export. Multiple ACD strategies including, skills, time and event based routing. Definable queuing. Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 2 of 13

Continued Comprehensive queue messaging including voice recordings and Microsoft s Text to Speech. Sophisticated rules based and on-demand call recording features. Call recording (Meta data) fully integrated with the customer interaction history. Embedded web browser for integrating online applications into the agent desktop. Single agent login (Contact Expert and LYNC). Embedded agent information wallboard. Multichannel/multimode IVR with call routing and database dipping (integration). Note: IVR selfmanaged design tool scheduled for Q1 2012. Simple integration with organisation systems. Contact Expert system architecture and network diagram Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 3 of 13

Product Positioning Contact Expert is tightly integrated with Microsoft s Unified Communications platform, Lync Server 2010. All communication functions are achieved through Lync. When the agent logs into Contact Expert, they are automatically logged in to Lync and all inbound and outbound calls are Lync voice calls. Tight integration with Lync allows all customer interactions to be handled through the dedicated unified agent desktop and means contact centre agents have access to all the rich Lync collaborative tools to help them achieve first call resolution. To synchronise agent activity with Lync presence, Contact Expert utilises four additional custom Lync Presence States ; Available, Conversation, On-Break and Admin. When the agent is in any phase of a customer interaction, these presence states are updated automatically. Data is maintained on agents historic presence states for subsequent analysis. Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 4 of 13

Contact Expert Unified Desktop Agent Contact Expert agents use a familiar Windows ribbon based application incorporating an embedded web browser, soft phone and dedicated controls for all agent accessible functions of the Contact Expert application. Contact Expert agent desktop includes: 1. Embedded web browser for application integration or running agent scripts. Scripts can guide agents through a sequence of web forms which can be used to deliver or collect data from the customer. 2. Customer Interaction History panel. Often referred to as a screen-pop, this area provides information about the calling party and a full history of all previous interactions with the customer. Contact Expert includes an integrated SQL database which is used to store contact information and maintain customer history in addition to recording all contact centre related activities and metrics which are accessed by the in-build reporting suite. 3. Call control soft-phone to make and receive calls as well as managing call transfers etc. Functions include: agent login and log out, call answer, call drop, hold party, transfer and conference and to change agent state to an auxiliary mode such as when agent goes on break. 4. Task related pop-up windows: close customer interactions with business specific call closure codes, display data and historical information about the customer (e.g. for successfully established calls: time stamp, agent, closure code; for unsuccessful call: number of unsuccessful attempts, timestamp of last attempt); 5. Embedded agent information wallboard. This board is used to display statistical information about the contact center state (e.g. number of calls in different directions, number of staffed agents). Messages sent to the agent are also displayed on this board. These messages can take the form of simple multicast messages which are not stored in database and not requiring Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 5 of 13

confirmation from agents. The other type of messages are similar to emails, they are stored in database, cached until agent logs into the system and require confirmation from agents. 6. Simple integration with 3rd party CRM applications. The agent application offers client side integration with customers existing third party CRM systems such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce.com etc. 7. Tabs to select business specific auxiliary codes so that agent time can be monitored against activity codes. 8. Tabs to access agent history and activity breakdown to enable agent to monitor their work levels and recent customer interactions etc. Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) Contact Expert s sophisticated software-based Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) capabilities ensure maximum productivity and enhanced customer service. There are a number of different routing strategies depending on whether the call flow is inbound or outbound: Skills-based routing Most idle agent routing Least occupied agent routing Preferred agent routing for call backs Priority queues (for VIPs etc.). ACD Strategies Contact Expert supports multiple routing strategies to automatically distribute requests to agents. The currently available ACD strategies are listed in the following table. Strategy Most idle Agent, least occupied Agent Most recent Agent Highest skilled Agent Preferred Agent Is used to distribute Outbound tasks inbound requests rescheduled requests Results in Evens out agent utilisation in outbound environments Delivering each customer to the agent who communicated with them most recently Delivering each customer to the agent who can provide the highest level of service Delivering each callback request to the agent who scheduled the callback Multi-media Contact Expert allows contact centres to define, implement and tune multiple inbound queues and outbound campaigns utilising a combination of voice, self-service, email and SMS. Email and SMS can be used to manually or automatically confirm details of a call using pre-configured Email and SMS templates to increase agent productivity. Inbound email can be queued and delivered to agents alongside voice calls. SMS can be used for proactive outbound campaigns. Unifying voice and multimedia channels within the contact centre provides a holistic view of how customers interact with the organisation and delivers rich actionable information. Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 6 of 13

Voice media For voice based media, Contact Expert uses a telephony connector to Microsoft s Lync enterprise voice platform. Voice calls can be received and initiated within the contact centres various queues and campaigns. Calls are distributed based on the routing strategy of the inbound queue called. If calls can t be completed or resolved at first point of contact then the agent can schedule a callback request. Contact Expert will then automatically serve this callback to the agent at the scheduled time and date. Agents can also choose to keep a recording of the customer voice call when the call is wrapped as well as reporting on call quality for future analysis. Email media Routing strategies are also setup for the email channels. Emails are distributed based on the routing strategy of the inbound email queue (email address) and automatically delivered to the appropriate agents. In a multimedia contact centre, inbound voice calls always take priority over inbound email tasks. Emails are downloaded and sent through standard POP3 and SMTP protocols (generally over TLS). An email router service is available to perform content analysis on incoming emails. The router service offers the possibility to distribute incoming emails between inbound queues based on the outcome of content analysis. Auto replies can be sent to customers either in plain text of html format. Emails initiated by the contact centre automatically, or by agents during an email interaction or voice call, can contain attachments to enable the contact centre to send out forms and documents. Administrators can design and assign email templates to suit queues. Contact Expert can even automatically fill the template with queue related data before displaying to the agent. Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 7 of 13

SMS media SMS media is supported through virtual (automated) agents. Human operators are not used on SMS campaigns. Workflows of SMS campaigns can easily be created by using a well-designed graphical user interface. This editor tool enables administrators; 1. To define SMS campaigns as request-response interactions between the Contact Expert software and the customer. After sending an outbound SMS to the customer, Contact Expert is waiting for an answer. When an inbound SMS is received by Contact Expert, the next outbound SMS can be sent; 2. To define outbound SMS templates which include references to database columns. These references are replaced with the exact values in real time (when the SMS is sent); 3. To define content analysis for the inbound SMS. The next SMS sent to the customer can be defined based on the result of this content analysis; 4. To define timeouts (as absolute time values) for inbound SMS. This enables to provide the latest time instant of accepting an answer for each outbound SMS. Scalable Contact Expert provides an ideal solution for organisations with Microsoft Lync Server deployed, requiring dedicated contact centre functionality or similar functionality for a subset of users; IT Support, Finance, sales etc. Contact Expert can be cost-effectively deployed for as few as five users, whilst offering full contact centre functionality, and scalability to hundreds of users. Queue Management Contact Expert allows organisations to define, implement and tune multiple queues, utilising multiple media; voice, email and SMS. Queues can be inbound such as customer service centres and IT support and outbound such as telemarketing queues and collections. Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 8 of 13

Queue Design A sophisticated queue design and scripting tool readily allows specific script scenarios to be created for the various queues. This offers: A sophisticated graphical user-interface to define the data, words and pictures that guide the agent through a call. Script definition for each media type. Requires no programming skills; allows queues to be managed by contact centre managers and supervisors, and enables fast and reactive script amendment. Script simulation facility allows scripts to be tested before they are implemented. Inbound Queues Inbound queues are usually associated with fixed customer service numbers and can be fronted by IVR to direct calls. Inbound customer service centres usually encompass multiple disciplines and Contact Expert supports multiple inbound queue scenarios. Outbound Campaigns With Contact Expert, outbound campaigns can be rapidly created and run against campaign defined parameters such as duration, time of day, day of week etc. Two types of dialling algorithm are supported: 1. Preview Dialling: Contact Expert presents the agent with customer details before a call is initiated. This allows agents to be aware of call and customer details before the call is initiated. 2. Progressive Dialling: Contact Expert initiates calls, and checks for a successful connection before transferring to agent. Call classification detects busy, answering machine etc., and automatically reschedules unsuccessful calls. In a large campaign this greatly improves agent productivity. Call Recording and Call Observing-Coaching Contact Expert provides Inbound and Outbound call recording for compliance, training and quality assurance. It performs both rules based and on-demand recording. Different recording rules can be specified for different queues and individual agents. Call recording metadata is fully integrated with the contact history so supervisors can readily see which conversations were recorded and can play or download the recorded audio file directly through their web based supervisor role. Supervisors also have the opportunity to listen in to ongoing customer/agent interactions for call observing purposes. Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 9 of 13

Comprehensive Real Time & Historic reporting Contact Expert features comprehensive real time and historic reporting to ensure contact centre service levels and agent productivity are both measured and optimised. Real time reporting and alerting are available to both agents and supervisors and can be queue specific or agent specific. There is an embedded agent information wallboard ( Ticker style). This board is used to display statistical information about the contact center state (e.g. number of call in different directions, number of staffed operator). Messages sent to the operator are also displayed on this board. These messages can take the form of simple multicast messages which are not stored in database and not requiring confirmation from operators. The other type of messages are similar to emails, they are stored in database, cached until operator logs into the system and require confirmation from operators. Supervisors can generate a vast number of pre-configured or configurable reports through the web GUI interface such as; snapshots from the currently running queues; Agent related reports to display different performance measures, effectiveness measures, login-logout history and history of state changes; SMS related reports to display different performance measures related to SMS media; IVR related reports to display different performance measures related to automated agent in voice media. In addition to these simple Contact Expert reports, supervisors can create custom reports without any need for SQL programming by using the Contact Expert web based administration pages to create numerical or graphical custom reports. Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 10 of 13

The following reports are standard with Contact Expert. Note: reports can be filtered through parameter selection: 1. Campaign (outbound) and Queue (inbound) reports a. Campaign/Queue status report b. Real-Time Queue report c. Service level report d. Business Tag report (Call Summary Codes) 2. Agent reports a. Agent status time report b. Real-time agent report c. Agent history report d. Agent login history report e. Agent performance report f. Agent utilisation report g. Agent complex report (Detailed report) h. Report Document (Full team - all agents - report output as a PDF 3. Voice reports a. Response level report b. Answer ratio report c. Daily interval report d. Call outcome report e. Real-time call report f. First call resolution report g. Call detail records report h. Queuing time report i. Abandoned call report 4. Email reports a. Email report b. Detailed email report c. Email history search 5. SMS reports a. SMS report b. Detailed SMS report c. SMS history search 6. IVR reports* a. IVR report b. Detailed IVR report 7. Contact History a. Contact records details search b. Call Recordings c. Customer Interaction Evaluation Forms 8. Quality Summary reports a. Call quality report b. Recording quality report c. Service quality report *Geomant provides a Microsoft UCMA 3.0 IVR to complement its Contact Expert on Lync solution offering. The IVR functionality is deployable now but bringing the IVR reporting into the reporting suite of Contact Expert is scheduled for release Q1 (jan-mar) 2012. Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 11 of 13

Contact Expert Administration Contact Expert is designed so that organisations can have full control over the day to day running of their contact centre. A web based administration interface provides access to all the system parameters. The web based administration enables the specification of: 1. Resources such as human agents, IVRs, IVR channels, automated agents, voice, email and SMS gateways; 2. Inbound queues and/or outbound campaigns with all of their specific configuration parameters. 3. Dial rules determining the valid queue access times and how calls are handled for default and failover scenarios. 4. Skills to group agents into different sets and assign skills to queues. It is important to emphasise that Contact Expert implements its own soft skills. This means that Contact Expert does not require the existence of PBX level skills or ACD; 5. Fixed or dynamic contact lists. Dynamic contact lists allows starting inbound queues even with empty contact list and append customers to the list dynamically during operation. Fixed contact lists can be used to specify which customers have permission to reach the service provided by the given queues. Contact Management Supervisors can append evaluation forms to contact interactions to do post contact surveys. Measurable parameters include Call Quality, Recording Quality and Service Quality and there is a section for notes: Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 12 of 13

Architecture Overview Contact Expert extends Microsoft UC platform with UC enabled Customer Care. The application Integrates with Microsoft Lync Server using the following system architecture: Component integration: Contact Expert Agent (Windows Application): extended to use the COM based Microsoft OC Automation API. A thick client for the agent desktop. Telephony Connector Server: Implemented using Microsoft LYNC UCMA 3.0 API Telephony Recorder: Implemented using Microsoft LYNC UCMA 3.0 API IVR Server: Implemented using Microsoft LYNC UCMA 3.0 API Component roles: Lync provides call control and VoIP signaling. Connector offers ACD ingress and dialer egress. Recorders sink media streams after conferencing themselves to ongoing conversations. IVR provides full self service operations. Copyright 2011 Geomant Australia Pty Limited Page 13 of 13