The People Factor
Kodiak considers its agents a big part of its success and wants to make sure they can provide industry-leading customer service. The company lists two must-haves: First is the ability to take advantage of CTI (computer-telephony integration). All the setups proposed could display basic caller information, wait time and any information returned from database queries, but we were excited about Telephony@Work's CTI. Its interface includes support for opening and loading agent scripts and FAQs. In this context, script refers to a standard greeting or procedure the agent reads to the caller.
With telecommuting options as our second must-have, we gave bonus points to Avaya for being the only vendor to offer built-in VPN capabilities. All the other responses require separate VPNs and can't encrypt all the way from the end client to the VoIP (voice over IP) gateway. Overall, we were disappointed that the companies gave short shrift to security: When asked how the products would provide for secure telecommuting, we got passing references to using a VPN. No vendor mentioned anything about advanced authentication, token support or ensuring the integrity of the agent's PC.
The products from Genesys and Nuasis work strictly by VoIP for remote agents, though they do support TDM for home-office use. Kodiak would prefer PSTN support for remote agents because not everyone has access to reliable broadband. The other vendors offer this capability. Interactive Intelligence and CosmoCom support clientless PSTN agents, where agents don't need an IP connection to the contact center, though they'd lose out on CTI functionality.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
