Call center ACD

It is well understood that ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) represents much more than what a typical PBX offers. It is generally used when the purpose of incoming calls is more than trying to reach a specific phone extension. Contact centers require highly evolved ACD to bring efficiency to their operations. Let us look at what we can expect an ACD do:

• ACD should be able to group calls by DID/DNIS/ANI or other unique incoming identifiers.
• ACD will provide Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
• ACD call handling will vary based on time of the day scheduling as well as holidays and special occasions.
• Ability to register agents who will be allowed to take incoming calls.
• Provide call information (referred to as call pop-up) to agents before handing over the call.
• Skills-based routing to route calls to the most appropriate agent available.
• Queue Prioritization based on business factors for the same type of calls.
• Ability to log agents into all the queues for which they have required skills.
• Provide required telephony functions like transfers, conferences etc.

These ACD functions do not necessarily require any data screen. With Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), every call center agent has computer screen which will be capable of providing relevant information about the call. Let us look the typical information that a call center ACD can provide to the agent screen:

• Create session for the agent (the duration between every login and logout).
• Provide a screen pop with identifiers for every call.
• Translate DID/DNIS/ANI to the Inbound Service they represent.
• Match DID/DNIS and filter based on ANI.
• Provide database look-up to pre-populate the screen with customer information.
• Present scripts which will govern the agent-customer interaction.
• Present any other useful information like FAQ, Maps, Directions.
• Have custom dispositions.
• Have custom DND when agent take breaks within a session.

These are some of the basic functionality inherent to a call center ACD. CTI has evolved over the last 10 years and the ACD requirements have become very sophisticated. The push to IP telephony has created more requirements for ACD integration. One of the main contributors is the growth and proliferation of Asterisk world-wide. This has dramatically altered the CTI landscape with Asterisk making it possible to have both IP telephony and TDM (PRI T1/E1) work seamlessly. With migration to IP telephony and VoIP becoming a compelling case, Asterisk presents itself as one of the most efficient and cost effective option due of its enormous functionality and feature-set.

Your vertical application may require a call center ACD to be integrated as a part of the CTI. Indosoft Q-Suite offers a fully functional ACD with an elaborate API both in socket and .NET libraries. This ACD for Asterisk comes with skills based routing, queue prioritization, on-hook, off-hook agents, detailed universal identifier based Call Detail Record (CDR), trunk tracking and cradle to grave reporting. You can find more details about Q-Suite in the Asterisk Exchange.

Agent telephone state is an important part of how call center ACD is setup. If an agent is on-hook, it is like a phone extension with the system mapping it as belonging to the particular agent. This may be done by the agent logging in through the phone with a specific code. On-hook agents have to be "woken up" before every call. A typical no-answer is 3 rings, roughly 18 seconds. With Indosoft Q-Suite ACD, you can concurrently hand out calls to on-hook agents but the ring-time is still an overhead for the call center. With an off-hook agent, the system sends a beep before handing out the call. It is possible to provide a screen-pop with a time-out within set seconds (like 5 seconds) before handing over the call. This is useful if you have remote and at home agents.

CDR is critical to getting granular reports for your contact center. The UUID keeps track of the call as it progresses from cradle to grave. This allows detailed reporting for any call center ACD.