We are pleased to share this very good article by John Stepp from InsideCTI about The Future of Video in the Contact Center. There’s very few contents about video contact centers but technology is ready for the next big thing for human communications and businesses.

By John Stepp, InsideCTI

When I was on the phone recently with my website provider, I really would have liked to have had a video connection. I am certain that I could have gotten more out of the call if it was video. At least it was a real time call and not through e-mail. The voice inflections gave me enough doubt to go ahead and pursue an alternate provider. Then again, video might have given my web site provider the ability to instill the confidence necessary for me not to pursue and alternative provider. And that is the point. Sometimes the best way to communicate is through video.

Someday our one on one communications will be mostly video. Pinpointing that exact time is difficult, but my proposition is that it will be sooner rather than later. Once the transition is in full swing, contact centers will already be fully video operable. Even today, there are some trends that will make video communications between callers and agents viable for many.

Some of the trends are:

• Inexpensive Video Services Available on any Computer
• Smartphones and Tablets with Front and Rear Cameras
• Push Technologies to Computers and Mobile devices
• A Growing Comfort Level with Video Communications
• The Greater Collaborative Experience with Video

Inexpensive Video Services Available on any Computer

With free, freemium and low cost access to video communications, more and more people are taking the plunge and communicating with friends and family over video. The new adoption of video within social media makes video calling extremely easy, eliminating the need for users to download and configure software. So just about anyone that wants to can join a service and start seeing the person on the other side. It might not be the “immersive” HD experience that expensive telepresence units have, but it sure beats voice only. And many of the “immersive” HD providers are beginning to offer extremely low cost personal clients for the home and office which could be expanded to handle video sessions for contact centers and important clients.

Smartphones with Front and Rear Cameras

Do you ever with you could just show someone your problem versus trying to describe it over the phone? This is where the smartphone can be your anytime, anywhere portal to your balky device, or stalled lawnmower or your impossible to understand assembly instructions. The shortage of strong reliable 3G and 4G/LTE signals plus the growing bandwidth charges and the throttling of bandwidth by mobility providers are potential roadblocks. But video from mobile devices is already happening and will grow to the point that it is as inexpensive as today’s voice only charges. If I can show you what is going on or what I want by pulling a smartphone out of my pocket, it just makes things easier for everybody. Customer satisfaction, first call resolution rates and speed of resolution will all be enhanced as mobile video integrates into the contact center.

Push Technologies to Computers and Mobile Devices

Mobile Push is already being used by contact centers for a variety of needs. Callers can download apps for specific contact center applications and the contact center agents can push interactive screens to the caller. Applications such as technical assistance for high end automotive mechanics and wholesale to retail product help are just two of the many applications that mobile push is doing right now. Interactive screens are easier for callers to deal with than traditional IVR’s and agents can provide greater interaction with the caller enabling them to solve issues quicker. Videos for a variety of purposes like instructional videos can be sent to mobile devices with or without agent interaction.
A video client compatible with the contact center could be utilized as a future offering for contact centers using mobile push technology. Video conference providers are beginning to offer low cost licenses for use by individuals beyond the enterprise network that are dynamic. These licenses can be used and reused repeatedly as long as you have enough to satisfy demand for them. In the future, agents may be able to send links to callers that integrate with video cloud providers to speed up the process of converting a voice only call to a collaborative video call.

A Growing Comfort Level with Video Communications

One of the factors slowing the adoption of video is the fact that many people are naturally camera shy. It is easy to meet with people and engage in a dialogue, but stick a camera in the mix and it gets to be daunting. This applies to contact center agents as well as the general public. With a little training, though, everyone can get over the first time video jitters and begin to work the camera like a pro. Plus, so many people are taking the plunge at home and in company conference rooms, that it is beginning to become second nature for a lot of people. As evidenced by the popularity of video sharing services, there is no shortage of people that are willing to use video to communicate. And the numbers are growing rapidly.
Evidence of video going mainstream is abundant in popular culture as well. Even Wendy’s encouraged people to shoot videos about Wendy’s sweet potato fries for their commercials. I must admit, I am more comfortable with video than with sweet potato fries. Then again, I have not tried sweet potato fries yet. Of course, product placements of desktop video and telepresence systems have been around for years. But, Lisa Kudrow’s hit Web Therapy takes it to a new level. Web Therapy is ninety percent shown as a computer screen video conference. And the show’s popularity as a web only offering prompted Showtime to pick it up and broadcast it with additional content. These are just a few examples of the growing acceptance of video communications.

The Greater Collaborative Experience with Video

A video call to the contact center can make a dramatic difference in customer and agent satisfaction. For the caller, you can see who you are talking to and get a better sense that your need is being addressed properly. If a caller is video enabled they can show a video enabled agent the reason they are calling and give an indication of what might need to be done for call resolution. The agent can benefit by quickly resolving issues and could gauge the possibility of up selling their caller. Plus, it is harder to yell at someone that you are looking at than it is on a voice only call. Instances of rudeness would be dramatically cut using video.

The millennial generation and upscale consumers of all generations have been using video for years now. These same demographics are also demanding quick resolution to their questions and issues. Many, perhaps most will change their buying habits after one poor experience with a contact center. So if you are company “A” and you have the capability to upgrade your contact center to include video to gain a competitive advantage against company “B”, it makes sense to do so before company “B” does it.

Final Thoughts

Some might argue that contact centers are not equipped to handle video because there is no current way to queue video callers and that there are few people that really want to communicate through video. This is much the same positioning used relative to social media integration into the contact center just a short time ago. Now that more and more contact center providers have the capability to effectively integrate social media into the contact center, the tune has changed. Now, social media integration is a “must have” for any company wanting to protect their image and effectively communicate with the public. Amazing how that perception has changed almost overnight, isn’t it?

So if you hear from contact center manufacturers or their pundits that video is not that important or too expensive or impractical or technologically unfeasible, rest assured that the R&D labs are currently working on it with breakneck speed. And when someone is ready to introduce video integration for the contact center, it will be important, inexpensive, practical, technologically feasible and a “must have” for any company wanting to effectively communicate with the public. And they will be right. After all, except for face to face contact, there is no better way to communicate than with video.

Source: http://insidecti.com/wordpress/implementation/the-future-of-video-in-the-contact-center/

June 30th, 2011, Madrid, Spain. We are please to announce new french voices from our partner IVONA Text-to-Speech. Céline and Mathieux voices are designed for the french market now available from the Ivona website at www.ivona.com and can be purchased for your VXI*/Asterisk platforms deployments. IVONA technology uses artificial intelligence algorithms, which with computer precision reflects the expression and any individual characteristics of the human voice.

Remember, an excellent and natural Text-to-Speech engine will provide you the best IVR experience for your projects based on phone services.

Press Release (PDF):

• IVONA-PR-English.pdf - 221 hits
• IVONA-PR-French.pdf - 231 hits

About IVONA Text-to-Speech

IVONA is widely recognized and awarded as the highest-quality, most natural-sounding TTS system in the world. IVONA TTS technology can be delivered as “on premise” solution, Software as a Service or embedded into personal devices. In support of its long-standing commitment to accessibility, the Company works closely with the largest organizations supporting blind and visually impaired people in the world, including Royal National Institute for Blind People and DAISY Consortium.

Other Posts:

• I6NET and IVONA Text-To-Speech Partner…

June 9th, 2011, Madrid, Spain. Valdepeñas is well known to produce one of the most famous spanish red vines from Castilla-La Mancha. This city has deployed a large innovative auto-attendant service for all its citizen to improve information and many public administration processes. Citizens can now get faster information 24×7, real time feedback, and manage better all their requirements to the Valdepeñas City Government just using their phone. Some key features are:

• Get information status for citizen’s requests
• Claims and suggestions management
• Sports facilities booking
• Appointment management
• Information Listing
• City news
• Emergency calls
• Polls management

Ambiser has implemented SACVoz a set of VoiceXML applications integrated with the city government backoffice systems. SACVoz is running over Asterisk servers powered by VXI* VoiceXML browser from I6NET.

Spanish press release:

Portal de Voz de Atención Ciudadana del Ayuntamiento de Valdepeñas

El Ayuntamiento de Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real) ha confiando en la solución SACVoz de Ambiser para la realización de gestiones con el Ayuntamiento a través del teléfono, facilitando la comunicación entre los ciudadanos de Valdepeñas y su Ayuntamiento. El proyecto ha implantado una serie de servicios telefónicos automatizados que permiten agilizar las gestiones telefónicas que se realizan con el Ayuntamiento. Los servicios que se incluyen en el portal de voz de Atención Ciudadana, son los siguientes:

Cómo va lo mío

Mediante este servicio los ciudadanos y empresas pueden consultar el estado de sus trámites realizados a través de la Plataforma de Administración Electrónica del Ayuntamiento.

Quejas y sugerencias

Este servicio permite a los ciudadanos dejar constancia de sus quejas y sugerencias al Ayuntamiento y que estas se traten con igual agilidad que si estas se depositaran a través de la web o mediante un buzón de quejas y sugerencias.

Información y reservas de instalaciones deportivas

Los ciudadanos de Valdepeñas pueden acceder a toda la información de las instalaciones deportivas municipales (dirección, horario, disponibilidad de recursos, precios,… Igualmente pueden realizar la reserva del recurso elegido de forma ágil y sencilla.

Reserva de citas

Este servicio permite establecer citas con cualquier servicio del Ayuntamiento disponible, en el horario pre-establecido por cada uno de los servicios el Ayuntamiento.

Realización de inscripciones

La inscripción en las actividades municipales se podrá realizar de forma sencilla mediante llamadas telefónicas al Ayuntamiento.

Consulta de listas

Igualmente, aquellos ciudadanos que hayan realizado inscripciones en actividades municipales podrán consultar la correspondiente lista de inscripción.

Información municipal

En esta sección los ciudadanos pueden acceder a la información disponible en el portal web sin necesidad de tener que acceder a Internet, lo que incluye en las nuevas tecnologías a los ciudadanos que no hacen uso de Internet.

Emisión de llamadas salientes

El Ayuntamiento informará telefónicamente a los ciudadanos que así lo deseen, de la información solicitada, p.e. Avance en los trámites municipales, planes de emergencia, apertura de plazos, etc.

Realización de encuestas

por último, el Ayuntamiento dispone de una sencilla herramienta para realizar encuestas a los ciudadanos, bien acerca de la satisfacción sobre un servicio prestado, bien para conocer de primera mano las opiniones de los ciudadanos acerca de los temas de interés para el municipio.

La solución implantada por Ambiser aumentará la disponibilidad de los operadores municipales para atender las llamadas de los ciudadanos que requieran ser atendidas por los ciudadanos, amplía el horario de atención del municipio a las 24 horas del día, homogeneiza la calidad de la atención prestada telefónicamente y permite la evaluación de la misma.

Ambiser es una compañía que dispone de soluciones tecnológica que permiten modernizar las Administraciones Públicas, como es el caso de la solución de SACVoz.

“Nuestra solución permite optimizar la Atención Telefónica al ciudadano así como conocer de forma cuantitativa las necesidades solicitadas por los ciudadanos cuando se relacionan con el Ayuntamiento a través del teléfono”, dice el CEO de Ambiser D. José Manuel Hinojosa.

La solución tecnológica, de bajo coste, está basada en una aplicación VoiceXML desarrollada por Ambiser, e instalada en una central telefónica Asterisk haciendo uso del navegador VXI* VoiceXML de I6NET.

Ambiser es una compañía que dispone de soluciones tecnológica que permiten automatizar los servicios de atención telefónica, como es el caso de SACVoz. “El navegador VMXL (VXI*) de I6NET nos permite centrarnos en el desarrollo de los servicios telefónicos automatizados, abstrayéndonos de la infraestructura telefónica de la que disponen nuestros clientes”, dice el CEO de Ambiser D. José Manuel Hinojosa.

About AMBISER

AMBISER was founded by a group of engineers with deep experience developing solutions and services for Public Administrations. 3G, streaming web portals, document management, BPM, web portals, are only some of the solutions that AMBISER offers to its customers. AMBISER solutions are the result of a strong innovation policy.

AMBISER | calle Puerto de la Morcuera, 13 – 280919 Leganés (Madrid) – Spain

info @ ambiser.com | www.ambiser.es

About I6NET

I6NET Solutions and Technologies Limited is a pan European company specializing in the development of new applications and advanced communication solutions. Its innovative VoiceXML browser and applications technology enables the creation of interactive voice and video IP/3G services to access multi-lingual and dynamic contents.

I6NET | calle Magallanes 13 – 28015 Madrid – Spain

info @ i6net.com | www.i6net.com

May 27th 2011, Madrid (Spain). Past May 22th 2011, 34 Millions of spanish voters went to the polls in local and regional Sunday to elect mayors in 8,000 cities and towns as well as presidents in 13 of 17 regional governments. To get information about their poll stations, different cities have selected Ambiser able to provide a smart phone service for online information retrieval from citizen databases.

I6NET was selected to provide the IVR technology based on VXI* VoiceXML server farms in partnership with Ambiser provider of advanced voice portal solutions and consultancy services. This Auto-attendant Phone Service was developed in several local spanish languages according to each city and region.

Spanish Press Release:

El pasado 22 de mayo de 2011 se celebraron en España elecciones municipales y autonómicas. Una vez más, Ambiser pone al servicio de la ciudadanía su experiencia profesional en el desarrollo de telefónicas automatizadas ofreciendo a los Ayuntamientos un servicio telefónico de consulta de censo electoral.

El Servicio de Consulta de Censo Electoral , de uso sencillo por parte del ciudadano, facilita la consulta de los datos del censo electoral (dirección del colegio electoral, distrito, mesa y sección, simplemente introduciendo en el teclado de su teléfono su número de DNI. Siguiendo la diversidad cultural de la diferentes comunidades españolas, el servicio ha facilitado la comunicación en todos los idiomas co-oficiales del Estado Español.

El servicio ha estado disponible un mes antes del día de las elecciones, multiplicándose su uso el día de las elecciones, bien por el propio uso interno por parte de los funcionarios que han asistido a los ciudadanos el propio día de las elecciones, bien por los propios ciudadanos que han disfrutado de la comodidad y rapidez de consulta de los datos censales.

El servicio se comercializa en dos modalidades, instalado en la propia infraestructura telefónica de los Ayuntamientos que cuentan con soluciones telefónicas automatizadas de Ambiser, como puede ser el caso del Ayuntamiento de Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real) o Arroyo de la Encomienda (Valladolid) o alojado en modo SaaS en el Datacenter de Ambiser.

“Un servicio eficiente, demandado y cómodo para los ciudadanos”,dice el Director de Informática del Ayuntamiento de Mollet del Vallés (Barcelona), D. Celestino Martín. “Ante el éxito en demanda del servicio telefónico de consulta de censo, continuaremos contratando el servicio en las próximas elecciones que se produzcan”, dice el Secretario del Consejo Económico Administrativo de Murcia y Jefe de Servicio de Estadística y Notificaciones del Ayuntamiento de Murcia.

La solución tecnológica, de bajo coste, está basada en una aplicación VXML desarrollada por Ambiser, e instalada en una central telefónica Asterisk y haciendo uso del navegador VXML de I6NET.

Ambiser es una compañía que dispone de soluciones tecnológica que permiten automatizar los servicios de atención telefónica, como el citado servicio de consulta de censo electoral. “El navegador VMXL (VXI*) de I6NET nos permite centrarnos en el desarrollo de los servicios telefónicos automatizados, abstrayéndonos de la infraestructura telefónica de la que disponen nuestros clientes”, dice el CEO de Ambiser D. José Manuel Hinojosa.

About AMBISER

AMBISER was founded by a group of engineers with deep experience developing solutions and services for Public Administrations. 3G, streaming web portals, document management, BPM, web portals, are only some of the solutions that AMBISER offers to its customers. AMBISER solutions are the result of a strong innovation policy.

AMBISER | calle Puerto de la Morcuera, 13 – 280919 Leganés (Madrid) – Spain
info @ ambiser  . com | www.ambiser.es

About I6NET

I6NET Solutions and Technologies Limited is a pan European company specializing in the development of new applications and advanced communication solutions. Its innovative VoiceXML browser and applications technology enables the creation of interactive voice and video IP/3G services to access multi-lingual and dynamic contents.

I6NET | calle Magallanes 13 – 28015 Madrid – Spain
info @ i6net . com | www.i6net.com

Today, most customers or consumers are aware about bad phone technology usage. Telephony is like every other technology, neither good nor bad, it’s how we use it. Think about it, otherwise you may be damaging your brand image instead of increasing customer’s satisfaction.

To build a well designed phone service checks these 8 lessons and ideas:

1. Speech Recognition Failure
2. Limited Menus’ Options
3. Takeover Option
4. Music On Hold
5. Long Hold Time
6. Avoid Repetitions
7. Information Privacy
8. Quality Surveys

Click here to see…

1. Speech Recognition Failure

Malfunctioning speech recognition software is once of the top way to irritate a loyal customer.
Don’t implement complex grammars; never believe your speech recognition engine would run on perfect conditions.

Be sensible, add always a DTMF skip option in your phone service. No speech recognition engine is 100% reliable. There’s different way to implement a good alternative option like “press a key to select an option”.

2. Limited Menu’s Options

Take care about IVR menus option, keep always an open door to your users.
Remember, it’s impossible to code a menu with all options that your customer will need.

Don’t put more than 5 options per voice menus, one of them must be keep option “Others”.
Never create more than 3 menus levels, always design thinking about a 3 or 4 steps process.

3. Takeover Option

Never start an phone service saying “press 0 to call an agent” before anything else.
An phone self-service must be designed to be a stand-alone system.

Separate clearly what is going to be done by a robot.
Tell first your customer what your phone self-service can do in a short introduction.

4. Music On Hold

A phone service is not designed to listen music like an iPod.
Make sure to keep away your customers from an irritating pop or classical music.

Add phone self-services options instead of a music on hold.
Be creative, add productivity and innovation to your phone service; IVR technology is ready for it.

5. Long Hold Time

Never put on hold a customer for long time.
At phone, long time means more than at 1 minute without any interaction.

Add a Callback IVR service and improve your phone self-services.
Customers’ time is as important as your own call center production times.

6. Avoid Repetitions

Never ask several times for the same thing.
Unfortunately, it’s very common to use the IVR to ask first for an account or number and after an agent ask it again.

Improve your systems integration and data collection processes.
Don’t forget to connect your IVR system with your business processes through the CTI and PBX.

7. Information Privacy

Speak to an agent is not the best way to keep information privacy.
Most business transactions require to manage passwords, credit cards numbers or personal data.

Avoid to use humans in processes like identification, account access, money transfers, personal data… Try to implement a self-service for it, to keep privacy of your customers. They will be appreciate it.

8. Quality Surveys

Do you really trust that a customer can tell an agent his opinion about your phone service?
Forget it, try another quality survey method.

Add an IVR inbound or outbound phone survey for this.
Results reported are much better than a surveys done by agents. Try it!

Over the past 12 months, expands use of open source telephony software to 170 countries, releases major upgrade and launches new community project

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., January 10, 2011 – Digium® Inc., creator and primary sponsor of the highly successful Asterisk telephony project, caps off a year marked by strong growth in the use of Asterisk and substantial technical advances in the product. Contributions from the open source community matched Digium’s investment in Asterisk over the past year. To date, more than 9,800 people have contributed code to Asterisk, including more than 200 who worked on Asterisk 1.8. After releasing version 1.8 in October, the momentum continued later that month when the company also announced a new open source project, Asterisk SCFTM. Enthusiasm for Asterisk among users, including developers, resellers, integrators and systems administrators, also increased as they downloaded the software more than two million times in 2010.

Source:
Digium – Media Center

Other posts:
http://www.i6net.com/2008/12/18/asterisk-reaches-15-million-download-milstone-in-2008/

I6NET is pleased to announce the availability of a comprehensive end-to-end video solution based on I6NET’s innovative VXI* video software components and InnoMedia’s intelligent VSB2000 video endpoint. The solution enables service providers the ability to deploy new video services over Flash/RTMP, 3G-324m, Video-over-IPeasily. I6Net’s VXI* system provides an advanced IVVR media server for customers’ Video Contact Center, Video Conferencing, Video IVR or for the management of any video call transcoding required to connect to non-SIP CPE devices.

The VSB 2000 Video Set-Top Box (from InnoMedia) is designed to bring affordable video telephony to the living rooms of the masses. Using a standard TV in every household, VSB 2000 delivers clear and sharp images on the TV Screen with advanced H.264 compression capability. Designed to work with any standard telephone set, VSB 2000 reproduces sound through the handset or the TV speakers. Innovative features, enhances the user’s experience in a face-to-face video call. With its user-friendly design, VSB 2000 is an ideal end-user device for any VXI*/Asterisk Video Services.

For more information about InnoMedia, visit www.innomedia.com

This report by The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) surveys the adoption of self-service technologies delivered via kiosks, the Internet, mobile devices and the telephone and the many benefits to consumers, businesses and the economy. It also explores how advancements in technology such as Telephony (IVR), Internet,  Wireless networks and the availability of broadband Internet access, are leading to a growing number of self-service options and opportunities for companies to boost productivity. The report also helps makes the case for the government to embrace self-service technology to deliver services more efficiently and more conveniently to citizens.

A very good document for summer reading!

Executive Summary:

The past decade has witnessed a rapid growth in self service that allows consumers to take on the traditional role of a service worker in the provision of a service. Self service has long existed—think of placing a call by dialing a telephone instead of using a telephone operator or pressing a button in an elevator instead of using an elevator operator—but its importance has grown as advances in information technology (IT) have created many opportunities to leverage self-service technology for large gains in efficiency and convenience. Using computer kiosks, airline travelers check in to their fligths; on the Internet, consumers purchase products without speaking to a sales agent; and using a mobile phone customers check their bank balances and transfer funds. Self-service technology continues to become more efficient and more convenient, and, as a result, increasingly organizations, including businesses, non-profits and governments, are using self-service technology to operate more productively and to better serve their customers.

Download (from the source):

• Embracing the Self-Service Economy.pdf - 258 hits

Source: http://www.itif.org

Madrid, Spain – June 25th, 2010: I6NET is pleased to announce it has been chosen by voice communications innovator, HulloMail™ (www.hullomail.com), to be the VoiceXML interpreter of their open source media server to support the continued expansion of their services.

HulloMail, which launched a year ago, is revolutionising the way people use voicemail by developing the most innovative and user-friendly way to send, manage and share day-to-day voice communications.

Andy Munarriz, founder and CEO, HulloMail said: “I6NET’s VoiceXML technologies are an ideal fit for HulloMail. We are committed to an open source, standards based approach to delivering voice services, and working with I6NET allows us to honour this commitment. I6NET has a great reputation in the telephony industry for its research and product development and we are pleased to partner with them so we can integrate new speech recognition functionalities into our HulloMail offering. Resulting new feature updates will be sent to our users in due course.”

Ivan Sixto, founder and CEO, I6NET said: “HulloMail is a impressive service providing advanced added value to millions of subscribers worldwide. We are very pleased to provide Hullomail with our VoiceXML engines to add new features to the HulloMail smart voicemail service, whilst also making it easier for them to focus on their business operations and global expansion plans.”

The HulloMail technology, used daily by over 35 million subscribers worldwide, has been developed with an emphasis on extensive product research and consumer-led innovation.

About I6NET

I6NET Solutions and Technologies Limited is a pan European company specializing in the development of new applications and advanced communication solutions. Its innovative VoiceXML browser and applications technology enables the creation of interactive voice and video IP/3G services to access multi-lingual and dynamic contents.

For more information, visit www.i6net.com

As of today, both companies are now delivering integration between the Altitude uCI suite and I6NET VXI* video over IP/3G components for Asterisk. The combined solution offers a set of tools that include advanced Video Interaction features which allows contact centers to ensure continued innovation and customer satisfaction at the lowest cost possible. Contact Center Market trends are increasing demand for new and more customer care channels; Video is one of the top features required to improve new services for short to medium time.

Sources: Press Releases – Alianza entre Altitude Software e I6NET