General
Siemens software deployed to virtualize multiple call centers

Apr 23, 2008, 12:22

New approach means call centers can switch to available agents anywhere globally

Siemens Communications Inc. yesterday announced a software-based contact center product that's designed to work with any call center switching platform.

The OpenScape Contact Center, which serves about 60 contact center agents, costs about $177,500, said Al Baker, vice president of global customer relations management products at Boca Raton, Fla.-based Siemens Communications, a subsidiary of Siemens AG. The contact center product runs on the OpenScape Unified Communications Server, which is designed to unify voice, video and other communications systems.

A smaller system for 10 agents starts at $42,500. The system scales to 7,500 active agents.

Part of the Siemens approach is to use Session Initiation Protocol technology to support each agent, enabling the agent to work in any location, including a home, equipped with just a headset and a desktop computer, Baker said.

Siemens also announced an IP-based application called Voice Portal that's designed to complement the Unified Communications Server, giving customers self-service options when they call a contact center. Both products ship globally June 30, Baker said.

A London-based company that outsources call center functions with 500 agents has begun using the Siemens software for five European locations, according to a company official who asked not to be named, citing company policies. The principal benefit has been that the company can virtualize its contact centers across the globe, so that all act as a single system. That way, calls can be easily shifted from one contact center to another, to find the most qualified agent.

The company considered systems from Nortel Networks Ltd., Avaya Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc., but found that the Siemens software would easily upgrade an older Siemens system already in place and would provide richer call distribution capabilities, the official said.

The overall cost of the Siemens software was about $1.7 million to the company, but the system has already helped improve productivity, the official said. He added that another two or more call centers will be added to the system in coming months, and that customers who want to outsource call center functions to the company will be able to use their own agents on their own premises while using the Siemens software.