IAUG Converge2013 Avaya CEO Kevin Kennedy June 4 2013 Keynote

Editor's Notes

1. NPS, CSAT, Backlog , Sev. 1 ER time to recovery improvements, attrition, Esat, margin improvement, (don’t show actual numbers for margin…this may go to customers)…phone volume reduction, Chat adoption, KM postings, # hits of video articles, AVA hits, ASA professionalish results (taking out unprofessional) SR time improvement, etc.
2. BackgroundCustomer HQ in Bellevue, Washington. A national provider of wireless voice, messaging, and data services with possible reach to > 290 million Americans. Approximately 36,000 employees. Customer ChallengesIT resources tied up managing day to day needs of their base UC and CC solutionInability to enhance competitive advantage by quickly shifting resources to critical leading edge projectsUnstable IT costsAvaya SolutionUnified Communication & Contact Center Managed Services (3 Yr. Agreement)160K UC Ports47K CC Agents82 Servers4.5K Conference Bridge PortsAvaya provides a single point of contact solution for management of UC & CC infrastructure. Allows customer and their IT Management teams time to focus on critical projects to grow their businessCompetitive DifferentiationFull multi-vendor supportCustomer-defined SLAsGlobally consistent deliveryFully ITIL-compliant processes and methodologyCustomer ValueLower and stable TCO, better resource utilization & operational flexibilityThis customer has consistently acknowledged the excellent customer service provided by their local AOS Management Team. “We have established a strong partnership to promote potential growth opportunities within the existing [Customer] environment.”
3. BackgroundCustomer HQ in Bellevue, Washington. A national provider of wireless voice, messaging, and data services with possible reach to > 290 million Americans. Approximately 36,000 employees. Customer ChallengesIT resources tied up managing day to day needs of their base UC and CC solutionInability to enhance competitive advantage by quickly shifting resources to critical leading edge projectsUnstable IT costsAvaya SolutionUnified Communication & Contact Center Managed Services (3 Yr. Agreement)160K UC Ports47K CC Agents82 Servers4.5K Conference Bridge PortsAvaya provides a single point of contact solution for management of UC & CC infrastructure. Allows customer and their IT Management teams time to focus on critical projects to grow their businessCompetitive DifferentiationFull multi-vendor supportCustomer-defined SLAsGlobally consistent deliveryFully ITIL-compliant processes and methodologyCustomer ValueLower and stable TCO, better resource utilization & operational flexibilityThis customer has consistently acknowledged the excellent customer service provided by their local AOS Management Team. “We have established a strong partnership to promote potential growth opportunities within the existing [Customer] environment.”
4. Background:In Marysville, OHManufactures branded consumer products for lawn and garden careNationwide 9K+ employees busy season; 5K off seasonInternal vs. external calls - 3:1 Before:Started out at Scott’s using third party calls and paying as they went – $3K-$5K per callDecided to have their own bridge – Hired LifeSizeStruggled with LifeSize equipmentBroad room setupA LifeSize endpoint with some rear projection screensKey decisions takes 2+ weeks (very slow)Video collaboration:  3 times a quarter Avaya Solutions:Original plan was to trade in LifeSize bridge or upgrade firmwareEnded up buying a full MCU with desktop license – so 2 bridgesLifeSize – poor support, the features they were sold on didn’t existTo the point where they won’t help b/c they’d say, ‘oh that’s the Radvision bridge…’ that they OEMdEnded up moving to Radvision- many more features (Robin:  Do they still have 2 bridges?  Are everything is RAD now?)Equipment:Radvision endpoints:  ~10LifeSize endpoints:  32Polycom endpoints:  Some~ 200 virtual rooms administered in Scopia iVew.  Values & BenefitsVideo collaboration:  “Thru the roof” from 3/Qtr  (Do we have #s?)Set up “situational awareness room” (war room) – 1.5 years ago18 46” LCD monitors on the wallLarge video conferences (8-16 participants) a dozen times a weekMeetings:  Cross functional; executives; cross theaters (EMEA, Canada, APAC)Decision making time cut from 2 weeks to 5 minutesHuge successfulBuilding a second one to be used at lower intensity / level but as a secondarySame campus building.  Right now the first one is always being used. HR interviews, marketing meetings, regular 1:1 and team meetingsHD is used for a lot of marketing artwork checks with agenciesOne IT director lives in Austin – they use his Marysville office with a TV so he’s there even when he’s not thereHe’s known as “Virtual Tom” in the companyOn screen 9-5 each dayHugh ROI on travel - they are more than paid for their investment (No data as they did not specific track opportunity cost on travel/video)Company-wide meetingsPresenting china team awards via video instead of flying them to HQ.SpeakersExternal Calls:Team with local Universities (Texas A&M) on product developmentVideo with outside counsel for drought issues, mitigation issues, interviews, marketing agenciesCEO has mentors with other CEOs by using video callsCEO meets with clients/customers via video calls (Harvard university, crystal group, ajlaughly, etc.)Usually not the same person twice Future:More desktop video usage + sites that don’t have room systems - More sites comingLarger rollout with international business.Mobile piece is huge on the horizon - Possibly in two years will add an Elite Bridge. Use mobile on iPads for demosNeed to rebuild VPN add servers to DMZ to do that before it can really be done Potentially move to new aura licensing model when current lease expiresScopia iView integrates with google hangouts, facetime, etc. Testimony:CEO – likes having technology as long as it works.  Sat in a meeting.  Commented loudly how well it worked.He loves the video technology.His term of endearment was “good job, assholes” – which is a huge compliment from him.
5. Background:In Marysville, OHManufactures branded consumer products for lawn and garden careNationwide 9K+ employees busy season; 5K off seasonInternal vs. external calls - 3:1 Before:Started out at Scott’s using third party calls and paying as they went – $3K-$5K per callDecided to have their own bridge – Hired LifeSizeStruggled with LifeSize equipmentBroad room setupA LifeSize endpoint with some rear projection screensKey decisions takes 2+ weeks (very slow)Video collaboration:  3 times a quarter Avaya Solutions:Original plan was to trade in LifeSize bridge or upgrade firmwareEnded up buying a full MCU with desktop license – so 2 bridgesLifeSize – poor support, the features they were sold on didn’t existTo the point where they won’t help b/c they’d say, ‘oh that’s the Radvision bridge…’ that they OEMdEnded up moving to Radvision- many more features (Robin:  Do they still have 2 bridges?  Are everything is RAD now?)Equipment:Radvision endpoints:  ~10LifeSize endpoints:  32Polycom endpoints:  Some~ 200 virtual rooms administered in Scopia iVew.  Values & BenefitsVideo collaboration:  “Thru the roof” from 3/Qtr  (Do we have #s?)Set up “situational awareness room” (war room) – 1.5 years ago18 46” LCD monitors on the wallLarge video conferences (8-16 participants) a dozen times a weekMeetings:  Cross functional; executives; cross theaters (EMEA, Canada, APAC)Decision making time cut from 2 weeks to 5 minutesHuge successfulBuilding a second one to be used at lower intensity / level but as a secondarySame campus building.  Right now the first one is always being used. HR interviews, marketing meetings, regular 1:1 and team meetingsHD is used for a lot of marketing artwork checks with agenciesOne IT director lives in Austin – they use his Marysville office with a TV so he’s there even when he’s not thereHe’s known as “Virtual Tom” in the companyOn screen 9-5 each dayHugh ROI on travel - they are more than paid for their investment (No data as they did not specific track opportunity cost on travel/video)Company-wide meetingsPresenting china team awards via video instead of flying them to HQ.SpeakersExternal Calls:Team with local Universities (Texas A&M) on product developmentVideo with outside counsel for drought issues, mitigation issues, interviews, marketing agenciesCEO has mentors with other CEOs by using video callsCEO meets with clients/customers via video calls (Harvard university, crystal group, ajlaughly, etc.)Usually not the same person twice Future:More desktop video usage + sites that don’t have room systems - More sites comingLarger rollout with international business.Mobile piece is huge on the horizon - Possibly in two years will add an Elite Bridge. Use mobile on iPads for demosNeed to rebuild VPN add servers to DMZ to do that before it can really be done Potentially move to new aura licensing model when current lease expiresScopia iView integrates with google hangouts, facetime, etc. Testimony:CEO – likes having technology as long as it works.  Sat in a meeting.  Commented loudly how well it worked.He loves the video technology.His term of endearment was “good job, assholes” – which is a huge compliment from him.
6. BackgroundMultiple mediums managed inefficiently – and manage an evolving space (moving to digital)Palm Coast Data handles over 500 publications with more than 45 million subscribersEach year they handle 4.5 million inbound phone calls 1.5 million e-mails and 250 million pieces of mail (invoices, renewals, gifts, and promotions)950 toll free numbers218 local numbers123 skill sets1117 email addresses250 CC agents45 remote agentsPain Points:Provide multimedia services and efficient contact performance for a wide range of clientsOperational inefficiencies to maintain competitive advantage as a contact center and fulfilment outsourcer - separate groups within the contact center to handle voice, e-mail, and other types of communicationsExpensive, Difficult to manage and report on, Multiple CCsSecurity issues with credit card compliance requirements (had to manually delete credit card info from emails – very labor intensive)Standalone email routing system that didn’t’ integrate with the call center.Huge amounts of paper mail that required manual sorting and handlingAvaya Solutions:Consolidation – moving from 4 CCs to one centralized location with extended services handled by home agents – driving significant cost efficienciesProductivity efficiency – having agents handle multiple contacts (Including voice, email, fax, web chat, SMS and scanned docs) with the ability to measure and manage through very detailed reporting – and offering complete service for their clientsAdded call back, remote overseas agents, and outbound dialing (all in a single system with a single agent desktop/reporting)Customer ValueConsolidation of call centers in Colorado, Illinois, and New York into one main contact center in FloridaExtended services now provided by numerous home agentsProductivity increased from 86% to almost 98% (a 12% increase) based on broad multimedia capabilities for blended agentsSavings of over $200,000 per year on additional staff to handle volume increases (absorb an increase of about 3,000 transactions per week during their busy holiday period without hiring additional staff)Reduction in support and management of multiple systems. Larger pool of agents to offer our clients. Greater features/functions/flexibility to offer our clients transactions. (Dollar support cost saving approx.. $ 80,000yr, system management reduction/savings approx. $110k yr)In-depth real-time reporting and analytics, with Remote Agent Observe functionality available to clients Competitive edge and customer satisfaction that results from offering a wide range of customized services made possible by Avaya Aura® Contact Center - provides comprehensive multimedia capabilities and major operational efficiencies E-mail, which arrives at a specific address or is initiated as a Web site transactionWeb chat, which is becoming a very important part of the contact center experience because of clients moving to digital content Scheduled call-back, which is a popular feature whereby Web site visitors can indicate when they will be available for an agent to call them Text messaging (SMS), which has also been tested and is ready to deploy for any client that may want to make it available to their customersScanning capabilities for the company’s heavy influx of “white mail” (traditional paper documentation) within the same contact center platform, which has become a very convenient and inexpensive way to support home workersWith multiplicity and blended agents, we see service levels increasing without adding additional staff for same number, or greater number, of transactions.With added agent tools like templates, suggestive response, for email and web chat transactions, our AHT has decreased between 20-30 seconds per transaction. Reducing overall transaction cost to us and providing uniform responses across the center no matter what agent handles.According to Jim Bradley, Director, Telecom/Network Services, it is essential for Palm Coast Data to remain on the leading edge of technology in order to supply its clients with features and services that support the challenges of their businesses. “For example, our clients in publishing face enormous challenges because everything is going digital,” Bradley stated. “Their businesses are changing, and we need to be ahead of the curve with multimedia technologies and the ability to develop custom applications so we can move with them and provide the services they need. For all of our clients, it’s also important to offer efficient, cost-effective approaches to interacting with customers who expect to be able to communicate in the mode that they prefer, be it voice, e-mail, fax, Web chat, or any other medium.” Operationally, Palm Coast Data needs the most efficient technologies available, in part because of their sheer volume. Each year they handle 4 1/2 million inbound phone calls, 1 1/2 million e-mails, and 250 million pieces of traditional mail (invoices, renewals, gifts, and promotions), and each day they sell about 150,000 transit fare cards. They manage over 900 toll-free numbers and about 1,200 various e-mail addresses for clients.Palm Coast Data updated their technology with Avaya Aura® Contact Center 6.2, which facilitates communication via voice and multimedia channels, to deliver a unified, efficient, and highly personalized customer contact experience. The solution includes Avaya Call Pilot (soon to be transitioned to Avaya Aura® Experience Portal) with an Avaya Communication Server 1000. Multimedia capabilities provide competitive advantage and strong customer satisfactionAccording to Bradley, “Being able to use skills-based routing and applying it across multiple types of contacts with Avaya Aura® Contact Center has been tremendously beneficial for us, both in terms of what we can offer our customers and in terms of our own operational efficiencies.” Bradley and his team have found there is vast flexibility to provide whatever services, either standard or custom, that a client wishes to utilize. Specific services offered include:• E-mail, which arrives at a specific address or is initiated as a Web site transaction• Web chat, which is becoming a very important part of the contact center experience because of clients moving to digital content • Scheduled call-back, which is a popular feature whereby Web site visitors can indicate when they will be available for an agent to call them • Text messaging (SMS), which has also been tested and is ready to deploy for any client that may want to make it available to their customers• Scanning capabilities for the company’s heavy influx of “white mail” (traditional paper documentation) within the same contact center platform, which has become a very convenient and inexpensive way to support home workers Bradley explained that to remain competitive, Palm Coast Data needs to demonstrate that they are able to provide clients with the latest technologies and services. He said, “It’s very meaningful to be able to offer them all of the services they might want to purchase, especially being able to open up all of the paths into the contact center that they want to give their customers.” Blended agents and home agents contribute to an efficient work flow strategyPreviously, Palm Coast Data had separate groups within the contact center to handle voice, e-mail, and other types of communications. Now they have the capability to use blended agents to handle voice, e-mail, Web chat, text messaging, faxes, and traditional mailed documents. This drives efficiency because when not on a voice call, an agent can be handling another modality such as e-mail. Then it’s possible to put an e-mail on hold to take a voice call, because voice takes priority.Similarly, the Web chat function helps to improve agent productivity because with Avaya Aura® Contact Center, an agent can manage up to five chat sessions at one time—although according to Bradley, typically not more than two are handled at a time. Bradley explained, “Chat sessions are facilitated by being able to see if the end user is typing and tabs that change color at the top of the agent’s desktop to indicate when a customer has responded. This is helpful because Web chats are often interrupted by customers being distracted temporarily, and during the down time, an agent can be occupied with another task.”Overall, the multiplicity that is achieved by blended agents has increased productivity from 86% to almost 98%. The blended agent scenario also increases employee satisfaction. “Agents who previously handled only telephone calls really enjoy being able to handle other types of transactions because it provides variety,” Bradley stated.Bradley has found that Avaya Aura® Contact Center also provides excellent supervisory functions. Supervisors run real-time displays in which they can see their own teams and the entire contact center. There are many filters for the display that provide broad customization capabilities. According to Bradley, “Some of the really huge benefits are being able to see if an agent is a blended agent that’s handling multiple transactions and being able to see an entry for each of the transactions that an agent is handling.”Cost savings through operational efficienciesPalm Coast Data has leveraged the capabilities of Avaya Aura® Contact Center to help reduce costs and deliver a significant short return on investment.For example, Bradley said that the contact center has found it has the flexibility to absorb an increase of about 3,000 transactions per week during their busy holiday period without hiring additional staff. “That,” he states, “represents a savings of about nine full-time salaries, which is over $200,000 annually.”Ease of management is one of the features of the Avaya Aura® platform that impresses Bradley the most. He was very surprised at how uncomplicated it was to deploy features such as Web chat and scheduled call-back. “The cost of managing this platform is very low because we don’t have to hire expensive programming talent to install new systems or perform moves, adds, and changes. Almost everything we need to do can be handled by our regular staff, quickly and easily.” Palm Coast Data has also achieved cost efficiencies by consolidating physical contact centers located in Colorado, New York, Illinois, and Florida into a single physical contact center in Florida. Extended services are now handled by home agents. Many of the home agents work part time on a flexible schedule, so they can be called upon to fill in when there is a sudden spike in volume, such as when a client runs a special promotion. Bradley explained, “This gives the managers in the center a lot more flexibility. Even if a promotion takes us by surprise, we can easily contact these people, ask them to jump on, and they can be working within minutes.”Some home agents handle e-mail and scanned materials such as standard “white mail.” Bradley commented that when school is in session, the company employs a number of students who are so efficient and tech-savvy they can do up to 65 or 70 e-mails or scanned documents per hour. In this way, the company is able to tap into a valuable, low-cost workforce.More accurate, real-time reporting Reporting that is built into the Avaya Aura® Contact Center solution is highly accurate because it adjusts to the agility inherent in a work flow that incorporates blended agents. For example, if a blended agent stops work on an e-mail to take a voice call, he or she puts the e-mail on hold and it is not “on the clock” until the agent returns to it and places it off hold.“The beauty of our reporting now is that it includes all of the functions that the contact center performs,” Bradley said. “It measures not only our inbound voice and Web chat functions, but the e-mail, scanned ‘white mail,’ and outgoing scheduled call-backs as well. As a result, we get an extremely accurate picture of everything in the contact center and can offer very detailed reporting to our clients.”One of the special features that Palm Coast Data can offer to clients is instant, real-time reporting to clients. “We have clients who appreciate being able to use their smartphones or other devices to follow the exact number of transactions that are taking place for their customers on a real-time basis,” Bradley explained. “For some of them, this is a very significant benefit.” Some clients also use the Remote Agents Observe feature, which enables them to dial in and listen to agents handling calls for their customer. There is built-in functionality to keep one client from hearing another client’s call.Customization and future readiness are critical to success Bradley stated that in many ways, his company is as much a technology development company as it is an outsourcer of contact center and fulfilment services. Bradley described the company’s approach to technology offerings:“From the telephone perspective, we ask our clients to take a look at the total phone calls and determine how they want it to be handled. Do they want a message at the front end of the call, a mid-queue message, specialized messages? Should an account number be inputted at the beginning of the call? Will there be a lot of customized auto responses? What level of self-service do they want to provide? What type of call routing will meet their needs? And so forth. Similarly with e-mail and Web chat, there are many variations that can be supplied. “We run a help desk and when something needs to be done, our client services group deals directly at the front end with our clients. They’ll receive a request to change an auto response or change messages or whatever they want to do. If they want to build an application to collect some specific information on a customer, we’ll build the application to ask the question, collect the data, store the data, and so forth. Ninety-nine percent of what we build we do ourselves. All the tools are available through the same access that you run the rest of the contact center with.”Currently, Palm Coast Data uses Avaya Call Pilot for front-end IVR functions and for messaging. However, Bradley is now in the process of preparing for the deployment of Avaya Aura® Experience Portal, which provides a single point of orchestration of all automated voice and multimedia applications across inbound phone or video, as well as outbound phone, e-mail, or SMS applications. He feels this will drive further efficiencies for Palm Coast Data’s clients through more sophisticated self-service functions, especially in the areas of e-commerce.Bradley concluded, “The Avaya Aura® Contact Center experience has been extremely valuable for Palm Coast Data because it provides everything we need to improve the capabilities and efficiencies that we can offer to our clients. We feel that we never have to say ‘no’ to anything that is needed by our clients or our staff. We have the equipment, applications, and support to maintain our competitive advantage for many years to come.”“The cost of managing this platform is very low because we don’t have to hire expensive programming talent to install new systems or perform moves, adds, and changes. Almost everything we need to do can be handled by our regular staff, quickly and easily.”—Jim Bradley, Director, Telecom/Network Services
7. BackgroundMultiple mediums managed inefficiently – and manage an evolving space (moving to digital)Palm Coast Data handles over 500 publications with more than 45 million subscribersEach year they handle 4.5 million inbound phone calls 1.5 million e-mails and 250 million pieces of mail (invoices, renewals, gifts, and promotions)950 toll free numbers218 local numbers123 skill sets1117 email addresses250 CC agents45 remote agentsPain Points:Provide multimedia services and efficient contact performance for a wide range of clientsOperational inefficiencies to maintain competitive advantage as a contact center and fulfilment outsourcer - separate groups within the contact center to handle voice, e-mail, and other types of communicationsExpensive, Difficult to manage and report on, Multiple CCsSecurity issues with credit card compliance requirements (had to manually delete credit card info from emails – very labor intensive)Standalone email routing system that didn’t’ integrate with the call center.Huge amounts of paper mail that required manual sorting and handlingAvaya Solutions:Consolidation – moving from 4 CCs to one centralized location with extended services handled by home agents – driving significant cost efficienciesProductivity efficiency – having agents handle multiple contacts (Including voice, email, fax, web chat, SMS and scanned docs) with the ability to measure and manage through very detailed reporting – and offering complete service for their clientsAdded call back, remote overseas agents, and outbound dialing (all in a single system with a single agent desktop/reporting)Customer ValueConsolidation of call centers in Colorado, Illinois, and New York into one main contact center in FloridaExtended services now provided by numerous home agentsProductivity increased from 86% to almost 98% (a 12% increase) based on broad multimedia capabilities for blended agentsSavings of over $200,000 per year on additional staff to handle volume increases (absorb an increase of about 3,000 transactions per week during their busy holiday period without hiring additional staff)Reduction in support and management of multiple systems. Larger pool of agents to offer our clients. Greater features/functions/flexibility to offer our clients transactions. (Dollar support cost saving approx.. $ 80,000yr, system management reduction/savings approx. $110k yr)In-depth real-time reporting and analytics, with Remote Agent Observe functionality available to clients Competitive edge and customer satisfaction that results from offering a wide range of customized services made possible by Avaya Aura® Contact Center - provides comprehensive multimedia capabilities and major operational efficiencies E-mail, which arrives at a specific address or is initiated as a Web site transactionWeb chat, which is becoming a very important part of the contact center experience because of clients moving to digital content Scheduled call-back, which is a popular feature whereby Web site visitors can indicate when they will be available for an agent to call them Text messaging (SMS), which has also been tested and is ready to deploy for any client that may want to make it available to their customersScanning capabilities for the company’s heavy influx of “white mail” (traditional paper documentation) within the same contact center platform, which has become a very convenient and inexpensive way to support home workersWith multiplicity and blended agents, we see service levels increasing without adding additional staff for same number, or greater number, of transactions.With added agent tools like templates, suggestive response, for email and web chat transactions, our AHT has decreased between 20-30 seconds per transaction. Reducing overall transaction cost to us and providing uniform responses across the center no matter what agent handles.According to Jim Bradley, Director, Telecom/Network Services, it is essential for Palm Coast Data to remain on the leading edge of technology in order to supply its clients with features and services that support the challenges of their businesses. “For example, our clients in publishing face enormous challenges because everything is going digital,” Bradley stated. “Their businesses are changing, and we need to be ahead of the curve with multimedia technologies and the ability to develop custom applications so we can move with them and provide the services they need. For all of our clients, it’s also important to offer efficient, cost-effective approaches to interacting with customers who expect to be able to communicate in the mode that they prefer, be it voice, e-mail, fax, Web chat, or any other medium.” Operationally, Palm Coast Data needs the most efficient technologies available, in part because of their sheer volume. Each year they handle 4 1/2 million inbound phone calls, 1 1/2 million e-mails, and 250 million pieces of traditional mail (invoices, renewals, gifts, and promotions), and each day they sell about 150,000 transit fare cards. They manage over 900 toll-free numbers and about 1,200 various e-mail addresses for clients.Palm Coast Data updated their technology with Avaya Aura® Contact Center 6.2, which facilitates communication via voice and multimedia channels, to deliver a unified, efficient, and highly personalized customer contact experience. The solution includes Avaya Call Pilot (soon to be transitioned to Avaya Aura® Experience Portal) with an Avaya Communication Server 1000. Multimedia capabilities provide competitive advantage and strong customer satisfactionAccording to Bradley, “Being able to use skills-based routing and applying it across multiple types of contacts with Avaya Aura® Contact Center has been tremendously beneficial for us, both in terms of what we can offer our customers and in terms of our own operational efficiencies.” Bradley and his team have found there is vast flexibility to provide whatever services, either standard or custom, that a client wishes to utilize. Specific services offered include:• E-mail, which arrives at a specific address or is initiated as a Web site transaction• Web chat, which is becoming a very important part of the contact center experience because of clients moving to digital content • Scheduled call-back, which is a popular feature whereby Web site visitors can indicate when they will be available for an agent to call them • Text messaging (SMS), which has also been tested and is ready to deploy for any client that may want to make it available to their customers• Scanning capabilities for the company’s heavy influx of “white mail” (traditional paper documentation) within the same contact center platform, which has become a very convenient and inexpensive way to support home workers Bradley explained that to remain competitive, Palm Coast Data needs to demonstrate that they are able to provide clients with the latest technologies and services. He said, “It’s very meaningful to be able to offer them all of the services they might want to purchase, especially being able to open up all of the paths into the contact center that they want to give their customers.” Blended agents and home agents contribute to an efficient work flow strategyPreviously, Palm Coast Data had separate groups within the contact center to handle voice, e-mail, and other types of communications. Now they have the capability to use blended agents to handle voice, e-mail, Web chat, text messaging, faxes, and traditional mailed documents. This drives efficiency because when not on a voice call, an agent can be handling another modality such as e-mail. Then it’s possible to put an e-mail on hold to take a voice call, because voice takes priority.Similarly, the Web chat function helps to improve agent productivity because with Avaya Aura® Contact Center, an agent can manage up to five chat sessions at one time—although according to Bradley, typically not more than two are handled at a time. Bradley explained, “Chat sessions are facilitated by being able to see if the end user is typing and tabs that change color at the top of the agent’s desktop to indicate when a customer has responded. This is helpful because Web chats are often interrupted by customers being distracted temporarily, and during the down time, an agent can be occupied with another task.”Overall, the multiplicity that is achieved by blended agents has increased productivity from 86% to almost 98%. The blended agent scenario also increases employee satisfaction. “Agents who previously handled only telephone calls really enjoy being able to handle other types of transactions because it provides variety,” Bradley stated.Bradley has found that Avaya Aura® Contact Center also provides excellent supervisory functions. Supervisors run real-time displays in which they can see their own teams and the entire contact center. There are many filters for the display that provide broad customization capabilities. According to Bradley, “Some of the really huge benefits are being able to see if an agent is a blended agent that’s handling multiple transactions and being able to see an entry for each of the transactions that an agent is handling.”Cost savings through operational efficienciesPalm Coast Data has leveraged the capabilities of Avaya Aura® Contact Center to help reduce costs and deliver a significant short return on investment.For example, Bradley said that the contact center has found it has the flexibility to absorb an increase of about 3,000 transactions per week during their busy holiday period without hiring additional staff. “That,” he states, “represents a savings of about nine full-time salaries, which is over $200,000 annually.”Ease of management is one of the features of the Avaya Aura® platform that impresses Bradley the most. He was very surprised at how uncomplicated it was to deploy features such as Web chat and scheduled call-back. “The cost of managing this platform is very low because we don’t have to hire expensive programming talent to install new systems or perform moves, adds, and changes. Almost everything we need to do can be handled by our regular staff, quickly and easily.” Palm Coast Data has also achieved cost efficiencies by consolidating physical contact centers located in Colorado, New York, Illinois, and Florida into a single physical contact center in Florida. Extended services are now handled by home agents. Many of the home agents work part time on a flexible schedule, so they can be called upon to fill in when there is a sudden spike in volume, such as when a client runs a special promotion. Bradley explained, “This gives the managers in the center a lot more flexibility. Even if a promotion takes us by surprise, we can easily contact these people, ask them to jump on, and they can be working within minutes.”Some home agents handle e-mail and scanned materials such as standard “white mail.” Bradley commented that when school is in session, the company employs a number of students who are so efficient and tech-savvy they can do up to 65 or 70 e-mails or scanned documents per hour. In this way, the company is able to tap into a valuable, low-cost workforce.More accurate, real-time reporting Reporting that is built into the Avaya Aura® Contact Center solution is highly accurate because it adjusts to the agility inherent in a work flow that incorporates blended agents. For example, if a blended agent stops work on an e-mail to take a voice call, he or she puts the e-mail on hold and it is not “on the clock” until the agent returns to it and places it off hold.“The beauty of our reporting now is that it includes all of the functions that the contact center performs,” Bradley said. “It measures not only our inbound voice and Web chat functions, but the e-mail, scanned ‘white mail,’ and outgoing scheduled call-backs as well. As a result, we get an extremely accurate picture of everything in the contact center and can offer very detailed reporting to our clients.”One of the special features that Palm Coast Data can offer to clients is instant, real-time reporting to clients. “We have clients who appreciate being able to use their smartphones or other devices to follow the exact number of transactions that are taking place for their customers on a real-time basis,” Bradley explained. “For some of them, this is a very significant benefit.” Some clients also use the Remote Agents Observe feature, which enables them to dial in and listen to agents handling calls for their customer. There is built-in functionality to keep one client from hearing another client’s call.Customization and future readiness are critical to success Bradley stated that in many ways, his company is as much a technology development company as it is an outsourcer of contact center and fulfilment services. Bradley described the company’s approach to technology offerings:“From the telephone perspective, we ask our clients to take a look at the total phone calls and determine how they want it to be handled. Do they want a message at the front end of the call, a mid-queue message, specialized messages? Should an account number be inputted at the beginning of the call? Will there be a lot of customized auto responses? What level of self-service do they want to provide? What type of call routing will meet their needs? And so forth. Similarly with e-mail and Web chat, there are many variations that can be supplied. “We run a help desk and when something needs to be done, our client services group deals directly at the front end with our clients. They’ll receive a request to change an auto response or change messages or whatever they want to do. If they want to build an application to collect some specific information on a customer, we’ll build the application to ask the question, collect the data, store the data, and so forth. Ninety-nine percent of what we build we do ourselves. All the tools are available through the same access that you run the rest of the contact center with.”Currently, Palm Coast Data uses Avaya Call Pilot for front-end IVR functions and for messaging. However, Bradley is now in the process of preparing for the deployment of Avaya Aura® Experience Portal, which provides a single point of orchestration of all automated voice and multimedia applications across inbound phone or video, as well as outbound phone, e-mail, or SMS applications. He feels this will drive further efficiencies for Palm Coast Data’s clients through more sophisticated self-service functions, especially in the areas of e-commerce.Bradley concluded, “The Avaya Aura® Contact Center experience has been extremely valuable for Palm Coast Data because it provides everything we need to improve the capabilities and efficiencies that we can offer to our clients. We feel that we never have to say ‘no’ to anything that is needed by our clients or our staff. We have the equipment, applications, and support to maintain our competitive advantage for many years to come.”“The cost of managing this platform is very low because we don’t have to hire expensive programming talent to install new systems or perform moves, adds, and changes. Almost everything we need to do can be handled by our regular staff, quickly and easily.”—Jim Bradley, Director, Telecom/Network Services