We are a new Asterisk partner and we are working in a solution for a Call Center for one of our client.
Their main request are:
1.1 System Architecture
• Client/server architecture in virtualized environment
• Redundant System
• Server based on the Linux/Unix/Win operating system
• Use TCP/IP as the communications protocol to the PC Workstations
• Use open system standards
• System should have open interfaces for the client and server-side customization
• Provide Universal line ports that act as a ACD port and IVR port
• IVR functionality that is integrated to the ACD
1.2 Call Center Features
• The solution should be designed for 30 simultaneous agents and 3 simultaneous supervisors
• Ability to expand to solution with up to 100 agents with proposed hardware
• Call Center software should have possibility to be expended up to 400 agents
• Automatic Answering (IVR) for supporting minimum of 60 incoming calls from PSTN
• Blended preview outbound dialling for every agent
• Outbound IVR capabilities to deliver outbound communications to customers with support for minimum 10 simultaneous outbound IVR sessions
• Ability to capture Customer Data or Information with Pop up of existing or already registered customers with their PIN or Calling ID
• Ability to listen to recording whilst on hold
• Ability for Full Featured Automatic Call distribution (with skill based call distribution)
• Ability for Extensive Call Distribution Algorithm that will allow Calls to be evenly distributed among Agents, and to allow Agents to be on more than one Queue at the same time
• Ability to manage the Call distribution according to pre-defined skill sets
• Contact Service Queue Service Level configuration
• Call Centre Management software with comprehensive and extensive reporting with as many metrics as possible.
• Ability to records every calls (In & out) of the Call Centre.
• Ability to easy do Call monitoring (Silent listening, Whispering & Call Barging)
• Ability to do Quality Assurance/Assessment (QA)
• Ability to display in Real-time the activities of the Call Centre (with a Big Screen Wall-Board)
• Agent analysis – which shows State Summary per agent , currently reports cannot be ran on specific agent
• Web interface for Agents, Supervisors and Admin to manage and monitor calls in Real-Time
• Ability to assign usage privileges to users.
• Ability to monitor and listen or barge in to Agents calls by Supervisors or anyone with required privilege at any time.
• Ability to run detailed call reports at anytime. Reports are stored forever on the server in a database. The database can be backup periodically.
• Agents can see in realtime the customers number, and how long the customer waited before connecting to the centre. Agent can also assign a reason code (Pre-Configured) to the call.
• Ability to design comprehensive, detailed and adjustable Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menu that will enable customers to make a choice depending on the information they require.
• Ability to Integrate with a CRM Software.
1.3 User Interface
• In the proposed offer, application agent desktop must support voice and email integration for every agent
• For possible use in future, the application agent desktop must be media blended and able to provide agents to handle voice, email, text, web chat and social media integration
• Agent desktop must support availability status and wrap up reasons for agents, which can be reported
• The application must have read/write access to external databases
• Possibility to integrate browser-based application into agent desktop application
1.4 Computer Telephony Integration
• The system should have a CRM Integration port/capability to allow for CTI
• The system must be able to identify incoming callers effectively with either systematic assistance (e.g. CTI screen pop) or through flexible search and to equip agent representatives with customer and context-based information prior to speaking with the customer
• The application must support features for contact escalation and transfer of both voice and data
• Application must have Integrated IVR
• Auto-attendant and call menu prompting
• Caller input digital collections
• Application must have telephony controls (soft phone), click-to-dial speed dial with option for hard pick on IP Phone.
• Delay announcements to callers in queue
• Simultaneous caller listening to the same announcement
• Allow Supervisors perform real-time changes/adds/deletes to announcements
• The application should allow for live interaction/coaching between agent and Supervisor while on call.
• Application should be able to do conditional routing based on real time metrics like: average wait time, after hours routing, most skilled agent and longest idle time.
• The System must be capable of showing both Real time, Cumulative and Historical Service Levels.
• Application should be able to calculate and show in real time displays: the length of time the caller will wait before being answered by an agent, “maximum wait time” and “longest wait time since last call”, abandoned calls
• Call Wrap Up - system must be able to efficiently close the calls by capturing all the key points and classify the call into various categories such as Inquiry, Suggestion, Promotion etc.
• The system must be capable of showing the status of the agents, which agents are logged on, etc.
• The system should allow for the automatic refresh of the logged on agent display.
• The solution must provide real-time agent monitoring
1.5 Voice Recording
• Voice recording option should be provided to 50 agents
• The solution should allow for voice recording based on specific event triggers
• The solution should provide an optional desktop application to allow agents to initiate and /or terminate recording (Record on Demand) and allow the addition of data fields to the call record that would be available as search criteria for call retrieval.
• The solution should be capable of retrieving call audio using a search criteria
• The solution voice recordings should be capable of playback from any Windows Workstation
1.6 Email Management
• Contact centers should have possibility to queue and route email messages to staff and skilled agents
• All agents should have possibility to respond to incoming email into contact center
• The application must support the ability to escalate emails based on business rules
• The application must be able to automate workflows for handling incoming emails based on different criteria (e.g. agent skill set)
• The application must be able to add various file types while responding to a customer query
• The application must be able to support auto text for repeated insertion of standardized information
• The application must be able to search email repository. E.g. by subject, customer names, full search of all text, limited by category, customer email address, Agent’s name.
• The application must be able to support links and attachments
1.7 IP PBX Features
• Ability to use IP Phones & Softphones
• Ability to do Call forwarding, Number Black-Listing, Music on Hold, Personal extension DID, extensive time based routing (Incoming & Outgoing Calls inclusive), Trunk and Extensions restrictions (by time of the day and other means), and other flexible and valuable features.
• Ability to connect to an E1 line with failover lines
• High Availability Fail-over solution.
1.8 Agent and Supervisor Interface
• Software phone interface that supports Make call, Drop call, Hold and Retrieve call, Blind transfer (an agent can transfer a call to another agent without consulting with the agent) , warm transfer(with reconnect option): the agent can transfer a call to another agent after consulting with the agent. Optionally, the agent can reconnect to the call after the consultation, conference(with reconnect option): an agent can conduct o conference with another agent
• Software phone interface for supervisors to select real-time status of agents, listen to and monitor calls, and move calls from queue to queue
• Agent should be able to real time transfer calls to any branch
• Agent should choose to record particular conversations, i.e. for emergencies
• Inbound/Outbound calling should support; "Caller music-on-hold, Agent music-on idle, Agent call recording, Agent to caller recording playback, Call monitor/assist, Custom caller IDs, Real –time agent state: Ready,
DO NOT Disturb, Logged Off, Inbound Call, Outbound Call, Ringing and Disconnect”
• Agents and supervisors should have possibility to achieve IM&Presence communications with subject matter experts who are outside of contact center and who are using Collaboration Softclient application
1.9 Reporting
• Open reporting architecture
• Real-time reporting
• The system application should allow definition & production of graphical and tabular reports for all media. It should perform all agent related reports and team reports
• The system application reporting should have both real time and cumulative reporting on: agent utilization, service levels including streaming real-time statistics and personal performance data, contact statistics such as abandon rates, average handling time for voice and email interactions.
• Historical reporting: The application should produce comprehensive graphical and tabular historical reports that can be quickly created
• Reports Outputs: The application reports must be scheduled or viewed on demand, printed or exported to formats like Excel, HTML, PDF, Text
1.10 Security
• The application shall provide role-based security controls access to specific functions for internal users
• The application shall provide role-based security controls access to specific data for internal users
• The system should provide complex passwords – accounts should require complex passwords, which are generally 8 or more characters with three of the four character types (upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and symbols)
• The application must generate Audit Log File(s) for reporting purposes which record: all Successful & Unsuccessful attempts to log on to the system, all events carried out and all access to the system environment and database outside the application
2.0 IP PBX
2.1 General Requirements
• IP PBX should provide effective voice and video communication
• In order to provide highly available solution, IP PBX should be provided on redundant servers
• Each server should have software and hardware support for registration of Collaboration Softclient used by agents, supervisors and subject matter experts
• Each server should have possibility to expand solution to minimum of 1000 Collaboration Softclients and IP Phones
• IP PBX servers should be possible to work in Active/Standby model
• IP PBX servers should be possible to work in Active/Active model, where there is an option to achieve load balancing of registration of IP Phones or Collaboration Softclients to IP PBX
• All configuration changes made on Primary IP PBX server should be automatically delivered to Secondary IP PBX server without any need for manual intervention
• SIP protocol should be used to register IP endpoints to IP PBX
• Integration with media gateways should be achieved using SIP protocol
• 33 professional handset
2.2 User Features
• Abbreviated dial
• Answer and answer release
• Auto answer and intercom
• Callback busy and no reply to station
• Call forward: All (off net and on net), busy, no answer, no bandwidth, and not registered
• Call hold and retrieve
• Call join
• Call park and pickup
• Call pickup group: Universal
• Call pickup notification (audible or visual)
• Call status per line (state, duration, and number)
• Call waiting and retrieve (with configurable audible alerting)
• Calling line identification (CLID) and calling party name identification (CNID)
• Calling line identification restriction (CLIR) call by call
• Conference barge
• Conference chaining
• Conference list and drop any party (impromptu conference)
• Dialed-number display
• Direct inward dialing (DID) and direct outward dialing (DOD)
• Directed call park with busy lamp field (BLF)
• Directory dial from phone: Corporate and personal
• Directories: Missed, placed, and received calls list stored on selected IP phones
• Distinctive ring for on- and off-net status, per-line appearance, and per phone
• Do not disturb (do not ring and call reject)
• Drop last conference party (impromptu conferences)
• Hands-free, full-duplex speakerphone
• HTML help access from phone
• HTTPS for phone services; for example, Extension Mobility
• Hold reversion
• Immediate divert to voicemail
• Intercom with whisper
• Join across lines
• Last-number redial (on and off net)
• Log in and log out of hunt groups
• Malicious-caller ID and trace
• Manager features: Immediate divert or transfer, do not disturb, divert all calls, call intercept, call filtering on CLID, intercom, and speed dials
• Assistant features: Intercom, immediate divert or transfer, divert all calls, and manager call handling through assistant console application
• Manager features: Immediate divert or transfer, do not disturb, intercom, speed dials, barge, direct transfer, and join
• Assistant features: Handle calls for managers; view manager status and calls; create speed dials for frequently used numbers; search for people in directory; handle calls on their own lines; immediate divert or transfer, intercom, barge, privacy, multiple calls per line, direct transfer, and join; send DTMF digits from console; and determine MWI status of manager phone
• Message Waiting Indicator (visual and audio)
• Multiparty conference: Impromptu with add-on meet-me features
• Multiple calls per line appearance
• Multiple line appearances per phone
• Music on Hold
• Mute capability from speakerphone and handset
• On-hook dialing
• Original calling party information on transfer from voicemail
• Privacy
• Real-time QoS statistics through HTTP browser to phone
• Recent dial list: Calls to phone, calls from phone, autodial, and edit dial
• Service URL: Single-button access to IP phone service
• Single-button barge
• Single-directory number and multiple phones: Bridged line appearances
• Speed dial: Multiple speed dials per phone
• Station volume controls (audio and ringer)
• Transfer: Blind, consultative, and direct transfer of two parties on a line
• User-configured speed dial and call forward through web access
• Video (H.323 and SIP)
• VPN client on IP Phone
• Web services access from phone
• Wideband audio codec support
What do you think ? Is the asterisk good solution to fulfill these features ?
Looking forward to your comments and suggestions.