The new solution integrates two existing products: Siemens HiPath ProCenter Enterprise contact centre solution and Siemens HiPath 8000 SIP-based enterprise softswitch. The new blended solution supports environments from as few as two attendants to up to 5,000 concurrent agents and provides a platform to enhance customer interactions across every segment of an enterprise, on virtually any existing communication or network infrastructure.
Well-suited to hosting in a data centre, this solution provides centralised administration while delivering global enterprise-based or outsourced contact centre functionality as an on-demand service anywhere that secure IP network access is available, unconstrained by legacy PBX or Centrex infrastructure. It delivers scalable, strategic communications coordination and intelligent load sharing by linking multiple Siemens HiPath ProCenter systems on a single HiPath 8000. Furthermore, HiPath ProCenter CRM-Ready IT integration and Software Development Kit tools facilitate incorporation of contact centre capabilities directly into communications-enabled business processes and applications.
“Siemens’ large-scale virtualisation of the enterprise contact centre represents the next step in business extending its capability beyond traditional office-bound agents and effectively leveraging the knowledge of expert resources throughout the organisation,” said Joe Outlaw, Principal Analyst of Contact Center Solutions with Current Analysis. “It can be a much more effective way to deploy agents when and where they’re needed, with the potential to lower costs.”
The Open Virtualised Contact Center leverages the open SIP capabilities native to the HiPath 8000 and the presence-enabled multimedia application services in ProCenter. Going beyond Siemens’ industry-first presence and collaboration agent desktop capabilities, new presence services empower contact centre agents to confirm the presence and availability of the best support resources among all HiPath 8000 users in the enterprise. With one mouse click, agents can then initiate collaboration that enhances resolution of customer issues during the first contact. In addition, Siemens extends this presence and connectivity to mobile users with Voice over Wireless LAN solutions.
“The Open Virtualised Contact Center extends the Siemens Open Communications strategy to the large enterprise customer,” said Kathryn Evans, business manager customer interaction, Siemens Enterprise Communications. “It offers tremendous flexibility across almost any network, client, device or IT environment, along with business process integration and highly effective agent tools. It can help agents resolve many more customer issues the first time around, boosting overall contact centre performance and providing companies the opportunity to lower costs and enhance customer service.”