And Now, C2K

The dawn of January 1, 2000 was uneventful. The IT industry

skipped many a heart beat until the clock crossed midnight in New Zealand and

the power stations and telephone exchanges were still working. The IBM

mainframes housing tons of financial data were intact. The world was well

prepared for addressing the Y2K phenomenon. US consulates the world over were

busy stamping H1 visas so that programmers could code the last of Y2K compliance

issues.

But barely a decade since the Y2K fever, the world is ready

to brace the next wave of compliance drives. Billions of dollars, sweat, agony

and pain is going to be unleashed this time around. We are talking about

Convergence Cross over Compliance (C2K). The multiple complexities arise from

the fact that we are talking not data alone but voice circuits that need to be

C2K compliant. The phone call is at the threshold of a compliance change.

This is a serious appeal to consumers, enterprises and law

makers alike to be aware and ready to field dynamic policies, compliance drives

and investments to take full advantage of the C2K phenomena, currently underway.

This compliance is not about keeping businesses and enterprises intact, but to

enable them to ride the convergence wave, acquire and retain customers, enhance

responsiveness and drive efficiencies high while spending less.

Voice & Data Over the Years



The first forms of voice coupled with data happened when Telcos integrated

with-in premise EPABX systems. They had a digital or analog connection that

passed relevant data, caller ID being one of them. But this was integration with

two devices identified as telecom devices. The enterprise then saw transmission

of data internally-digital instruments with display information.

The real revolution commenced when an adjunct was connected

to the telecom equipment. It was used to toggle a message-waiting lamp, collect

call detail records, and perform simple telephony functions like call transfers

in an automated attendant besides niche applications.

In the mid 90s, serious applications like CTI engines, call

routing logic besides adjuncts like voice mail were kept outside of the PABX.

With the Internet era, free ware that helped record voice on one client,

transported it over the World Wide Web and replayed on the sound card of the

recipient which meant the advent of Internet Telephony.

The advent of router technology capable of carrying tons of

information with acceptable time delays, a prerequisite for carrying voice real

time, is perhaps the proverbial last straw in this race for convergence. This

means that traditional telecom players better reinvent themselves and be

convergence centric! The 99.999 dial tone availability needs to be built into

convergence.

What Constitutes C2K



The convergence phenomenon impacts many-be it a bank or telco or a small

and medium enterprise besides the consumer. But the contact center, the fulcrum

of customer contact, will be the most impacted. Before we look at what

constituted the C2K phenomena, let me tell you why there is reason to be

prepared.

• Did you know that a leading telecom player shipped more
  
  IP systems than the traditional TDM phone system in the year 2005? What will
  
  happen five years from now, when your custom digital phone goes out of
  
  service? It is like trying to repair your first PC.

• Heard of Skype? Skype has had more than 53 mn downloads
  
  as per last count.

• Today, the mobile subscriber base has overtaken global
  
  quantum of fixed line subscribers. The mobile subscriber has access to
  
  voice, data, video and live television.

• Google now is GoogleTalk-a confluence of serious
  
  voice and data requirements of which are unheard of bandwidths, computing
  
  power and convergence.

• Market research guru Da Gartner believes that by 2007
  
  all convergence systems will be shipped on IP.

Relevance of C2K

The changing paradigms simply mean an opportunity to

address the customer contact center very differently from now. Faster the

adoption of convergence, better the chances of survival. The result of

non-compliance will simply mean spending more money to keep pace with growing

demands of customer interaction as a result of changing expectations, thanks to

convergence. Convergence helps multi-modal communication, it uses service

oriented architectures and means communication enabled business processes.

Thanks to pure IP convergence, the unified agent experience (ability to handle

voice call, email and web chat), hitherto good on a power point presentation, is

actually feasible.

Service-oriented architecture simply means the constituents

of this converged network, be it a voice or data, can easily talk to each

other-thanks to XML. A typical communication enabled process could well mean

the difference between life and death. Imagine, a doctor in a city hospital on a

voice communication with a patient and doctor at a remote location can toggle to

look at the patient history (data) while in conversation and prescribe the way

forward!

C2K is Real



C2K can help in an exercise christened as “flatten, consolidate and

expand”. Net result would mean collapsing 13 call centers into a primary one

with a disaster recovery back up. Any additional requirements for call center

seats nationally or globally would mean merely adding IP extensions over a

simple data network.

Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) incorporates elements of

two widely used Internet protocols-Hyper Text Transport Protocol (HTTP) used

for web browsing and Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) used for e-mail. From

HTTP, SIP borrows a client-server design and the use of URLs and URIs, and from

SMTP, SIP borrows a text-encoding scheme and header style. This open mechanism

helps various devices communicate with each other, as long as they are SIP

compliant.

The Impact



C2K impact on the contact centre industry will be multi-fold. Enterprises

will be keen on consolidating call centres. A primary one and a secondary one

for purposes of disaster recovery or load management is an eventuality. Business

demands may warrant having a set of agents in a specific location, in which case

these agents will hang off the primary call centre as mere IP tenants.

Coupled with the rationalizing of the national long

distance tariffs, convergence cross-over will help organizations implement cost

effective and scalable customer interaction centres. While traditional investors

in this technology have been banking and telecom service providers, C2K will

enable verticals like pharma and retail adopt customer interaction centres.

Convergence technologies mean easy implementation of adjunct systems.

Self-service via DTMF will pave way for speech enabled interactive speech

response systems.

Given consolidation of infrastructure, the emphasis will

move to a host of productivity led solutions across the contact centre.

Specifically a single digit improvement of agent efficiency will mean

significant contributions to bottom line. Value added applications will enable

re-engineering business processes like in the healthcare example mentioned

earlier.

C2K will enhance call centre outsourcing to India and other

countries from the western world. The reason being, convergence provides the

outsourcer greater control over the agents who are mere tenants of his core in

his country. C2K will also mean greater accountability on the part of the

vendors in India in an outsourced environment. In the C2K era, skill sets can be

easily duplicated to deal with attrition rates. Skill sets will be far more open

and defined. Communications enabled business applications is not fiction anymore

because SIP is now abstracted as a web service. The application benefit this

unleashes on a SIP end device is phenomenal. Lastly, C2K enables enterprises

consolidating their IT and telecom buying decisions under a single banner.

Planning for C2K



What does C2K compliance mean? C2K is about getting prepared for an

impending but sane transition. It is about a well planned and executed embracing

of convergence, the resultant beneficiary being the enterprise and the customer

as well.

I recommend an active engagement with a vendor agnostic

practice specialist to start with. Stock taking, business demands, global

trends, commercial impact and end of life for specific technologies are the real

inputs, read data. The resultant planning exercise would yield a set of

challenges and key parameters. A techno-commercial-business direction and blue

print for C2K compliance will be the resultant knowledge that can be put in

front of the CEO.

Baskar Subramanian



The author is founder and executive vice-chairman, Servion Global

Solutions



mail@dqindia.com