Now that I have your attention, this was a statement made at the recent Avaya Contact Center Analyst day in San Jose. What it referred to was that the Avaya Aura Contact Center from launch to booking, was the most successful new contact center product in Avaya history. Why is this important for Avaya? It is important because, today’s announcements should add even more fuel to the bookings fire.

Today’s announcements were anything but ho hum. Avaya tackled and delivered upon all the current trends that are evolving in the contact center; trends that are taking the traditional self-service (IVR) and agent handling of calls, to a new level of customer care.  In the past several years, Avaya has been part of this industry evolution already, but continues to add onto these trends, including social media integration, UC and the contact center, and elevating the customer experience across multiple channels. 

In their announcement material Avaya makes numerous points about how they  commissioned a study (Avaya Contact Center Customer Preference Study) that showed that 40% of consumers prefer alternate methods of contact (i.e., chat, text or email) for customer service, compared to the phone. Studies like this are ok, but they really just back up what the industry has been trying to do for a decade in creating multiple “customer touch points” or channels as alternatives or addendums to the contact center. We have been saying for years that we want to be able to provide customer service in the manner in which customers want to receive it, and we all are witness to the growing use of the Internet and mobile devices to access customer care. So it’s not revolutionary that Avaya is saying this, it is the way these announcements deliver on this that is important.  

Avaya Aura Contact Center (AACC) 6.2

At the core with this release Avaya is making it easier for the content/context of any interaction on any channel to be seamlessly transferred to another. So whether someone prefers chat, text, or the IVR, for example, when they want a live agent, their initial “customer service investment” is not lost in transition. This integration makes the experience consistent for the customer.

With the 6.2 release, Avaya added the ability for agents to easily bring in experts to assist in any call with a customer, in a collaborative fashion, along with additional integration with social media. Here is the difference. AACC takes the call, gathers all pertinent customer context, including the requisite customer account number, history, and anything else pertinent to that customer, and matches it to the most appropriate agent.  This is not just plain skills-based routing, but a far more fine-tuned version of that, plus, the agent simultaneously has the right resources, including any potential experts, displayed along with the call, so that they can seamlessly bring in additional resources if needed into the call. 

Collaboration is done through the combination of AACC and Avaya Aura which displays, using presence, experts that are appropriate and available for the particular call that came in.  This means that the agent doesn’t have to go and search for an expert, as one or more are populated on the agent desktop at the time the call is received. This is all configurable by the contact center manager based on skills, or time of day, or particular need. 

In addition to the experts being shown on the agent desktop, Avaya has also has provided for the integration of social media as well, so that agents can respond to social media postings such as tweets and Facebook updates, but in a single consistent view, making it easier for the agent to get the full picture without having to go to a separate screen or application. This is facilitated through the addition of Avaya Social Media Manager.

Along with the integration of Social Media Manager is the addition of a new Social Media Consulting Services practice, which really is critical for companies to provide to their customers as those customers start to navigate through the development of social media strategy. In the case of Avaya, this new consulting practice follows a consistent methodology to lead the customer through the creation of their own strategy, including a “social assessment”, creation of a roadmap, and a social media adoption plan.

Avaya Aura Experience Portal

Next, Avaya didn’t just strengthen the agent side of the contact center experience, but the self-service side as well, across multiple channels as mentioned above with the introduction of Avaya Aura Experience Portal.  The most significant capability of the portal is a more seamless hand-off of customer data, as well as context, from any self-service session to AACC agents.

On the deployment side, Avaya added new development tools to help develop applications that seamlessly hand off the data to the contact center, making it faster and easier to deploy self-service applications that improve the customer experience. This is done by the new Avaya Aura Orchestration Designer.

As for the nuts and bolts part of the announcement, AACC will now support up to 90,000 agents in a single virtual network, due to new integration with Avaya Aura.  Experience Portal can also be deployed in a virtualized environment, which converts a single server into multiple virtual servers too, reducing TCO.  In addition, AACC 6.2 is now unified with Avaya’s automatic call distribution application, Avaya Aura Call Center Elite, enabling unified desktop, reporting and administration.  To protect the investment of existing self-service customers, Avaya Experience Portal software and tools unify migration of standards-based applications from Avaya Interactive Response, Avaya Media Processing Server and prior releases of Avaya Voice Portal. 

In all, this is a well thought out and solid announcement, and should continue to help make those bookings numbers look good.

Tags: Collaboration, Contact Center, Mobile UC by Nancy Jamison
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Like AT&T Mobility’s earlier move, Verizon Wireless introduced tiered 3G/4G prices, and is discontinuing a flat fee for “unlimited” data. While the majority of current Verizon Wireless 3G/4G subscribers will only feel the effects of the new usage-based data contracts at subscription renewal, Verizon Wireless appropriately introduced some new free tools for usage-based subscribers to track their monthly data usage now. They include:

• #DATA - Customers can check data usage by dialing #DATA and pressing send from Verizon Wireless phones to receive a free text message with the information.
• My Verizon and My Verizon Mobile - Customers can monitor data usage directly from their handsets via My Verizon Mobile or online through My Verizon.
• Data Usage Calculator - At verizonwireless.com, customers can learn about common features and activities that utilize data and determine estimated total monthly data usage using the Data Usage Calculator. It can be found by simply searching for “data usage calculator” on the Verizon Wireless website.
• Data Usage Widget - Customers with data plans also can download a Data Usage Widget to most Android^TM smartphones, BlackBerry® devices and tablets. The widget tracks usage with a quick glance at the phone screen and with one click connects to the customer’s My Verizon Mobile account.

There’s nothing wrong with these tools per-se, except:

1. Each requires that subscribers perform new behaviors, which people typically do not like to do.
2. All mobile providers tell us that a small number (less than 5%) of subscribers exceed the standard limits on “unlimited” data plans. If a comparably small number of users are the “problem,” why not ask them to take on new behaviors like those above? Why require everyone to change?
3. In the future when Verizon Wireless introduces its anticipated family shared data plans, tools like these must track usage across multiple devices. But just like yesterday’s new price structure and tools, it’s a virtual certainty that the company will introduce both concurrently.

But more importantly, what Verizon Wireless is doing reminds me of the TSA’s approach to airline security, which nobody likes but everyone must endure. But unlike the TSA, mobile customers:

(1) Have other provider choices, which at least some will prefer. I don’t see Sprint dropping its unlimited plans anytime soon.

(2) Will loudly complain to the media, consumer protection groups, government bureaucrats and elected officials, which they will do. The last thing mobile providers want is any incremental regulatory scrutiny or oversight. Given the increased scrutiny the industry is already receiving from AT&T’s earlier introduction of tiered data prices and its planned merger with TMo, it’s a mystery why Verizon Wireless would go ahead now (vs. wait) on any major (unwelcome) change.

If the country’s largest providers introduced usage based billing along side of “unlimited” data plans, it would expand, not contract, subscriber choice. Billing systems are flexible enough to offer both unlimited and tiered plans simultaneously. Maybe it’s part of a plan to reintroduce “unlimited” plans  at a higher rate (once LTE is more geographically ubiquitous).

But one thing that’s a no-brainer: these recent provider moves, combined with the prevailing mood throughout the country, signal the beginning of the usage-based mobile data saga. We are far, far from the end of it.

Tags: Mobile UC, Mobility, Unified Communications Information by Lisa Pierce
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In a time when severe reductions in public sector spending are near the top of the news, it is refreshing to hear that a municipality found it important to invest in a new UC system to improve its communications and operations. So is the case of The City of Riverside, Missouri, outside of Kansas City. Riverside installed a new Mitel UC system late in 2010 after undergoing a competitive procurement. How Mitel and American Telephone, a Mitel Exclusive Business Partner, became Riverside’s provider of choice and how the system is being used (both things known before the procurement and things learned since it was installed) is the subject of this article.

As in most full system change-outs (rip-and-replace), there was a compelling event. In this case, Riverside needed a new telephone system because their old system could no longer be supported. The new system would be designed to support the administrative departments, Public Safety (Police and Fire) and Public Works - a total of about 150 users with about 120 of them, mobile. The municipal phone system is separate from the schools and, while it connects to and supports 9-1-1, the PSAP is a different system. In addition, the users felt they were not trained to effectively use the old system, and its voice-mail did not support always-mobile employees (those without a physical desk-phone). These became two requirements in the RFP.

Feeling that they were not personally qualified to make this important procurement on their own, Riverside hired a consultant with prior experience with municipal projects to provide the essential expertise of developing and managing the RFP process. Complete telephony capabilities and overall system reliability and support were the most important considerations, although a fair price was also a requirement. 24X7 reliability and operations was critical since both Public Safety and Public Works, which are around-the-clock critical operations, use the system. The system supports multiple buildings in one system, previously separate.

In all, four bidders responded with systems from Avaya, Cisco and Mitel being submitted. The Cisco solution was eliminated as the city felt that the channel partner bidding its system was too new and might not provide the reliable and essential support Riverside requires. The pricing among the contenders was not significantly different. American Telephone and Mitel really won the day because of the quality of the demonstration they presented, with the support of a Mitel representative. Key was the range of the cordless phones and the ease of use of the twinning of desk and cell phones - both very important with the largely mobile workforce of Riverside. With the cordless handsets, admin employees aren’t fixed to their desks.

While the Mitel UC Advanced Mobile Client for BlackBerry integration wasn’t discussed until the demo, this capability, including updated presence, has proven critical. The called-party and location information (of the officer on patrol) are available whenever the caller, oftentimes a witness with critical and timely information, chooses to call and talk “now” - a voice message would never work.

Since the installation, Public Safety has setup a “situation Room” where it can collaborate effectively with other safety departments to manage emergencies. Also, hot-desking has become another capability supporting workforce mobility.

American Telephone indicated that their proposal to Riverside was a change in their philosophy to give the customer the opportunity to see what is possible (with a broad demonstration) and allowed Riverside to choose from the full menu.

Although not considered as part of the initial project, there are several areas for future investigation and possible implementation. For example, and surprising to me, given my significant exposure to government projects, there didn’t seem to be a recognized need to integrate the phone system with the private radios that are ubiquitous in both public safety and public works departments. Even when probed, the city felt that the mobile integration with cell phones was sufficient. Also, the overall focus on voice - both fixed and mobile - was surprising, given the broad and growing acceptance of integrating multi-modal communications (IM/presence, e-mail, conferencing, etc.). Also, there was no discussion about linking administrative municipal processes such as citizen outreach or collections with the UC system.

Overall, a good success story for the 30,000-plus residents and many visitors to Riverside, that demonstrates the power of good cooperation between the customer, the consultant, the channel partner and the vendor all focusing on meeting the critical customer needs and learning from the conversations, the RFP and demonstrations. Something the entire UC space needs to keep in mind - cooperation and focus on customer needs, not just pushing all the things in the product catalog.

Tags: Unified Communications, Unified Communications Information by David Yedwab
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