VOIP In the contact centre

There's been so much hype lately about the benefits of voice over IP (VOIP) in the contact centre space that it makes for a very confusing time for businesses considering it. What are the tangible benefits, rather that the hyped up marketing vapour-ware that is so rife in our industry? More importantly, what is right for some businesses might not be right for yours. So how do you navigate through the decision making minefield without getting blown up in the process?

Why VOIP?

VOIP has been around for nearly 10 years now in many different guises. Only in the last five to seven years has there been a concerted effort to implement it in the workplace. This has been driven mainly by the drop in data bandwidth prices as well as an increase in a concept called quality of service (QoS), which guarantees a certain speed of data for certain services, in this case, voice services. Gone are the days of broken voices, jitter and lost calls. On a VOIP circuit with QoS, the sound is crystal clear and indiscernible from a regular analogue call.

In addition, the major carriers across Europe have been building massive internal networks to support VOIP, investing huge amounts of money. Therefore, they, in turn, have been promoting and encouraging companies to jump on the VOIP bandwagon.

The Benefits of VOIP

I've come across some vendors touting VOIP as something tantamount to a miracle cure. Let's face it, any solution will need to be compared to your specific needs. However, there are some fundamental differences to VOIP which translate into strong enablers and therefore, significant benefits to contact centres, regardless of their size and operation. Three of the most popular reasons to invest in VOIP are listed below.

The "Martini" effect - A company which deploys VOIP will no longer have geographical constraints around where to site the phone. Basically, wherever you can connect to your network, you can connect VOIP agent. For companies with multiple offices and/or locations, this radically transforms the way they can do business. Furthermore, it allows contact centres to recruit for agents from anywhere in the UK, or even the world. As long as they have a broadband connection, they can connect to your network and take phone calls, as well as having access to all of your applications, along with full security. It also has considerable benefits to your company's disaster recovery policies. Your business will have access to staff anytime, anyplace anywhere! This is, by far, the strongest reason to deploy VOIP into your operation.

Cost Savings - A lot of carriers may tell you that by using VOIP it will save you loads of money on call costs. This may be true, but do the analysis carefully. My experience is that the costs of providing the bandwidth increase to allow VOIP into your network could offset the savings you will receive around call charges (as some carriers now charge less than a penny a minute). This is one of the smoke and mirror benefits I mentioned earlier. Do the analysis carefully, and examine truly how much you are spending on call costs.

Cheaper to deploy - The major telephony manufacturers like Avaya or Cisco, have been pricing their IP products cheaper than their traditional products. This is no mistake. they want you to move into the VOIP market too. Their motive is the ease at which they can provide future services. But be careful. Some deployments have hidden costs (such as new router costs and/or power over Ethernet) and this can vary depending on the site.

How to buy?

Even if you have a traditional system, there will likely be upgrade options which will allow you to take advantage of VOIP without significant investment. Many carriers these days will also be promoting a Centrex type VOIP service. If your company has a small IT team and your contact centre won't be needing any significant integration into your systems, then Centrex might be a good bet. Just make sure you're not committed to a lengthy contract, as this industry is moving very quickly, and new companies and opportunities are sprouting up all the time.

In short, VOIP in the contact centre has the potential to deliver huge benefits in terms of geographical constraints, recruitment issues and reduction of bottom line costs, with no impact to voice quality. However, as with any major initiative, spend time conducting the analysis before taking the leap!