And Now, C2K

The dawn of January 1, 2000 was uneventful. The IT industry
skipped many a heart beat until the clock crossed midnight in New Zealand and
the power stations and telephone exchanges were still working. The IBM
mainframes housing tons of financial data were intact. The world was well
prepared for addressing the Y2K phenomenon. US consulates the world over were
busy stamping H1 visas so that programmers could code the last of Y2K compliance
issues.

But barely a decade since the Y2K fever, the world is ready
to brace the next wave of compliance drives. Billions of dollars, sweat, agony
and pain is going to be unleashed this time around. We are talking about
Convergence Cross over Compliance (C2K). The multiple complexities arise from
the fact that we are talking not data alone but voice circuits that need to be
C2K compliant. The phone call is at the threshold of a compliance change.

This is a serious appeal to consumers, enterprises and law
makers alike to be aware and ready to field dynamic policies, compliance drives
and investments to take full advantage of the C2K phenomena, currently underway.
This compliance is not about keeping businesses and enterprises intact, but to
enable them to ride the convergence wave, acquire and retain customers, enhance
responsiveness and drive efficiencies high while spending less.

Voice & Data Over the Years

The first forms of voice coupled with data happened when Telcos integrated
with-in premise EPABX systems. They had a digital or analog connection that
passed relevant data, caller ID being one of them. But this was integration with
two devices identified as telecom devices. The enterprise then saw transmission
of data internally-digital instruments with display information.

The real revolution commenced when an adjunct was connected
to the telecom equipment. It was used to toggle a message-waiting lamp, collect
call detail records, and perform simple telephony functions like call transfers
in an automated attendant besides niche applications.

In the mid 90s, serious applications like CTI engines, call
routing logic besides adjuncts like voice mail were kept outside of the PABX.
With the Internet era, free ware that helped record voice on one client,
transported it over the World Wide Web and replayed on the sound card of the
recipient which meant the advent of Internet Telephony.

The advent of router technology capable of carrying tons of
information with acceptable time delays, a prerequisite for carrying voice real
time, is perhaps the proverbial last straw in this race for convergence. This
means that traditional telecom players better reinvent themselves and be
convergence centric! The 99.999 dial tone availability needs to be built into
convergence.

What Constitutes C2K

The convergence phenomenon impacts many-be it a bank or telco or a small
and medium enterprise besides the consumer. But the contact center, the fulcrum
of customer contact, will be the most impacted. Before we look at what
constituted the C2K phenomena, let me tell you why there is reason to be
prepared.

• Did you know that a leading telecom player shipped more
  IP systems than the traditional TDM phone system in the year 2005? What will
  happen five years from now, when your custom digital phone goes out of
  service? It is like trying to repair your first PC.

• Heard of Skype? Skype has had more than 53 mn downloads
  as per last count.

• Today, the mobile subscriber base has overtaken global
  quantum of fixed line subscribers. The mobile subscriber has access to
  voice, data, video and live television.

• Google now is GoogleTalk-a confluence of serious
  voice and data requirements of which are unheard of bandwidths, computing
  power and convergence.

• Market research guru Da Gartner believes that by 2007
  all convergence systems will be shipped on IP.

Relevance of C2K

The changing paradigms simply mean an opportunity to
address the customer contact center very differently from now. Faster the
adoption of convergence, better the chances of survival. The result of
non-compliance will simply mean spending more money to keep pace with growing
demands of customer interaction as a result of changing expectations, thanks to
convergence. Convergence helps multi-modal communication, it uses service
oriented architectures and means communication enabled business processes.
Thanks to pure IP convergence, the unified agent experience (ability to handle
voice call, email and web chat), hitherto good on a power point presentation, is
actually feasible.

Service-oriented architecture simply means the constituents
of this converged network, be it a voice or data, can easily talk to each
other-thanks to XML. A typical communication enabled process could well mean
the difference between life and death. Imagine, a doctor in a city hospital on a
voice communication with a patient and doctor at a remote location can toggle to
look at the patient history (data) while in conversation and prescribe the way
forward!

C2K is Real

C2K can help in an exercise christened as “flatten, consolidate and
expand”. Net result would mean collapsing 13 call centers into a primary one
with a disaster recovery back up. Any additional requirements for call center
seats nationally or globally would mean merely adding IP extensions over a
simple data network.

Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) incorporates elements of
two widely used Internet protocols-Hyper Text Transport Protocol (HTTP) used
for web browsing and Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) used for e-mail. From
HTTP, SIP borrows a client-server design and the use of URLs and URIs, and from
SMTP, SIP borrows a text-encoding scheme and header style. This open mechanism
helps various devices communicate with each other, as long as they are SIP
compliant.

The Impact

C2K impact on the contact centre industry will be multi-fold. Enterprises
will be keen on consolidating call centres. A primary one and a secondary one
for purposes of disaster recovery or load management is an eventuality. Business
demands may warrant having a set of agents in a specific location, in which case
these agents will hang off the primary call centre as mere IP tenants.

Coupled with the rationalizing of the national long
distance tariffs, convergence cross-over will help organizations implement cost
effective and scalable customer interaction centres. While traditional investors
in this technology have been banking and telecom service providers, C2K will
enable verticals like pharma and retail adopt customer interaction centres.
Convergence technologies mean easy implementation of adjunct systems.
Self-service via DTMF will pave way for speech enabled interactive speech
response systems.

Given consolidation of infrastructure, the emphasis will
move to a host of productivity led solutions across the contact centre.
Specifically a single digit improvement of agent efficiency will mean
significant contributions to bottom line. Value added applications will enable
re-engineering business processes like in the healthcare example mentioned
earlier.

C2K will enhance call centre outsourcing to India and other
countries from the western world. The reason being, convergence provides the
outsourcer greater control over the agents who are mere tenants of his core in
his country. C2K will also mean greater accountability on the part of the
vendors in India in an outsourced environment. In the C2K era, skill sets can be
easily duplicated to deal with attrition rates. Skill sets will be far more open
and defined. Communications enabled business applications is not fiction anymore
because SIP is now abstracted as a web service. The application benefit this
unleashes on a SIP end device is phenomenal. Lastly, C2K enables enterprises
consolidating their IT and telecom buying decisions under a single banner.

Planning for C2K

What does C2K compliance mean? C2K is about getting prepared for an
impending but sane transition. It is about a well planned and executed embracing
of convergence, the resultant beneficiary being the enterprise and the customer
as well.

I recommend an active engagement with a vendor agnostic
practice specialist to start with. Stock taking, business demands, global
trends, commercial impact and end of life for specific technologies are the real
inputs, read data. The resultant planning exercise would yield a set of
challenges and key parameters. A techno-commercial-business direction and blue
print for C2K compliance will be the resultant knowledge that can be put in
front of the CEO.

Baskar Subramanian

The author is founder and executive vice-chairman, Servion Global
Solutions

mail@dqindia.com