Zultys Opens Window Into Contact Center Efficiency

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Unified communications technology vendor Zultys introduced Tuesday the MXIE SuperView contact center management tool to measure the performance of a contact center operation in many ways. It tracks how many calls are being answered, how many are on hold, and how long the wait times are. SuperView gives a call center manager a one-dashboard view of operations including average call time and the number of agents available. It also provides a system of color-coded alerts if, for instance, a caller is on hold for an inordinate amount of time. SuperView is an add-on to Zultys' MX30 and MX250 contact center products.

"The common pain point for contact center supervisors is how do they ensure maximum agent efficiency while not detracting from the service level the organization provides to their clients," said Steve Francis, chief sales and marketing officer for Zultys, in an e-mail interview.

Metrics such as the number of calls in a queue, the number of agents available, or the number of times callers hung up without being served are updated in real time. The tool also tracks each agent's performance, noting the number of calls they handle, their average talk time, and how long an agent has been available to take calls or unavailable.

[ Learn how a company's move to a cloud-based contact center platform eased IT maintenance demands and slashed computing hardware capital expenses.Call Center In The Cloud: Cheaper And Simpler. ]

The system also issues "threshold alerts" to supervisors that are tied to various events, such as when a caller has been waiting too long or when an agent has being speaking with a caller for an excessive period of time, Francis said. "SuperView visually and audibly alerts the supervisor so they may review the situation in more detail and take corrective action if necessary," he said. Corrective actions might include adding more agents, monitoring a particular call, or even sending an instant message to the agent to see what's holding things up.

Zultys is competing in a crowded field for unified communications platforms in contact centers. Competitors include Cisco, Avaya, Mitel, and ShoreTel. Last month, Verizon announced a partnership with inContact to offer a platform for combining a contact center with a customer service offering. InContact entered into a similar partnership with Siemens Enterprise Communications in June.

Like the inContact offerings, MXIE Superview also includes automated call distribution, integrated voice recognition--so a caller can issue voice commands to navigate a call tree--and computer-telephony integration that queries a customer database to inform the operator of the identity of the caller and his account information.

Zultys' Francis makes the argument that its SuperView solution is more thorough and less complicated for customers to use than other offerings. "Our competitive advantage is to be able to deliver an incredibly flexible solution to our customers in a truly "all-in-one" package that does not take an army of IT staff to maintain," he said.

Verizon billed its inContact platform as a "one-stop-shop" solution. Other players in the contact center field include Voxbone, which in October introduced a service where contact center operators could pool together call minutes for inbound dialing and 800 service calls.

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