Adapting to the new economy: How Asterisk contact centers fit the bill Matthew Nickasch IP Communications Consultant & Industry Analyst CONSIDERING CONVERGENCE

Presentation Outcomes Identify and illustrate the modern contact center Discuss the major obstacles affecting enterprise and corporate telecommunications –Economic Focus –Cost / Feature Concerns –Apply to Contact-Center Environments Advocate why Asterisk is a revolutionary driver and platform for contact center environments

A “Telephony Revolution” Growth, peak, and decline of traditional PBX design & implementations Convergence, UC, Cloud Telephony Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) Intelligent Contact Centers Standards-Based Interoperability Overall Integration

Contact Centers... Re-defined! Not a “boxed” solution… always changing –Many uses, implementations, strategies –Integration, flow of information, and mobility! -Tie to Business Processes & Logic Business Process Improvement Core Contact Center Functionality External Information Integration INFLUENCE

Contact Centers... Re-defined! Unconfined “Global” Resources –Geographically distributed workforce and agents –Maintaining Customer / End User Experience Customer ExperienceEnd User ExperienceGeographic Transparency

Contact Centers... Re-defined! Organizational Benefit / Automation Customer Experience Agent/User Experience Overall Focus? –Advances in technology and effectiveness are demanded –Obstacles are presented in traditional contact center implementations –A balancing act!

Modern Contact Ctr Obstacles Cost –Per user / feature / trunk ratio –Custom integration: ERP, CRM, critical systems “Critical” Hardware (Core to Client) Information Integration (Custom) Support, Staffing, and Training Licensing (Per Seat, Trunk, Feature, etc.) TCO Legacy?

Modern Contact Ctr Obstacles Solution / provider “lock-in” –Proprietary systems -> core to client –Standards-based interconnectivity –Contact Centers no longer limited to geography Same solution at each site? = $ (legacy hardware) Inter-system connections = $ (licensing) Remote users / telework = $ (licensing)

Modern Contact Ctr Obstacles End user / customer experience Bad experience? –Frustrated employees –Frustrated customers Technology complements not supplements –Important in contact center environments –Invisibility

IP Communications & The Economy Limited capital budgeting –Proprietary Hardware (core to client) –Licensing (per site, seat, feature, port) –Single-solution & single-vendor centralization concerns –Costly support contracts, training

IP Communications & The Economy (2) Staffing / Development –System Management –New, ongoing training (on traditional systems) Proprietary protocol support Closed-loop development

IP Communications & The Economy (3) Interoperability –Core-level Multi-site interop External trunking and dialtone –Client-level Cost per endpoint / user / feature Proprietary vs. Standards-based

Welcome Asterisk! Endless Possibilities Open Development –Q&A: Frustrations with closed logic? –Community-Powered –3 rd Party Solutions & Integration Blurring PBX vs. Contact Center lines –One environment, many solutions

Asterisk – “Circle of Strengths” Strategic Alignment InteroperabilityScalability External Integration CommunityCost Benefit

Interoperability Core / Carrier / ITSP –Historically proprietary –Asterisk: Modular use of channels “Talks” to many networks and environments –Ex. SS7 Open development encourages diverse technology Adaptability and Future-Proof

Interoperability Client –Standards-based SIP, IAX… Open development encouraged –Even support for closed technologies! UNISTIM, SCCP drivers in development –Presence Busy/free status, “global presence” across systems and geographic barriers

Scalability Large to small…Asterisk does it all! Switchvox Leading integration and scalability –(10 users to 100s) Contact center features built in! Similarity Very similar foundation, code, fundamentals from SMB to Large Enterprise Simple to deploy and maintain

External Integration Lots of important enterprise applications ERP, CRM, Order Management, etc… Business Intelligence –Asterisk prevents data silos! Accomplishing Integration –Availability of the Asterisk Community –“Ideas… to Implementation” Focus on Modularity

Asterisk Community Wide-reaching support network Forums Digium Support Independent Consultants, Developers Community-driven development

Asterisk – TCO Comparison “Critical” Hardware (Core to Client) Information Integration (Custom) Support, Staffing, and Training Licensing (Per Seat, Trunk, Feature, etc.) TCO Legacy “Critical” Hardware (Core to Client) Information Integration (Custom) Support, Staffing, and Training Licensing (Per Seat, Trunk, Feature, etc.) TCO Standards Asterisk Traditional Simplicity

Revisit: IP Communications & The Economy Limited capital budgeting –Proprietary Hardware (core to client) –Licensing (per site, seat, feature, port) –Single-solution & single-vendor centralization concerns –Costly support contracts, training

IP Communications & The Economy (2) Staffing / Development –System Management –New, ongoing training (on traditional systems) Proprietary protocol support Closed-loop development

IP Communications & The Economy (3) Interoperability –Core-level Multi-site interop External trunking and dialtone –Client-level Cost per endpoint / user / feature Proprietary vs. Standards-based

Strategic Enterprise Alignment Legacy Systems Dictating Overall Communications Strategy –Technology as a tool Asterisk – Conforms / Revolutionizes –Molds, shapes, enhances strategic plans –Goal of revolutionizing traditional communications solutions

Q/A