Imagine the following: An executive leaving from work on a business trip wants to check on a pair of jeans he ordered earlier in the day. He clicks on the personal shopper icon in his browser and discovers that the jeans are out of stock. Another brand is suggested. Because his/family’s preferences have been stored, he is also asked if he might be interested in a new top selling thriller novel. In addition, there is a video message from his bank telling him about a new mutual fund product that links to his debit account. A side benefit of the offer is the donation that is made to the local UNICEF branch. Is he interested? Clicking on meeting maker, he sets up an appointment for the next week to learn about the offer. An e-mail explanation of the benefits of the account will arrive in his mailbox a day before the appointment. All this and much more is happening today, and the driving technology behind all this is – IP.

One of the primary benefits of a converged IP network is that it will support a new class of applications that take advantage of multiple media types, enhancing companies’ relationships with customers. Forward-looking companies see convergence as the model for the deployment of New World contact centers, which will improve customer’s experience with rich self-service options and synchronized service across different contact channels to increase customer loyalty. The New World contact center will accommodate individual preferences for contact options. Moreover, convergence allows a company to derive economies of scale through better utilization of corporate resources, improved employee productivity and lower operating costs.

In the above example, something fundamental has happened because of convergence, this executive is now a unique niche market. His preferences have been identified and elevated. The development of new applications has added value to his experience. In the New World contact center, the importance of mass market is diminished, as corporations work to deliver products and services that support deeper and more profitable relationships with each customer. Convergence brings together the informed consumer and the favored supplier, the problem and solution.

Every technology transition has to result in a business benefit for any organization. The transition of the traditional call center from a proprietary voice switching and call distribution technology to today’s New World contact center provides several benefits to customers. In a traditional call center, one of the key challenges is to maintain a functional relationship between an incoming customer call and information about the call throughout the business transaction. This very often leads to lower customer satisfaction levels. Using IP technology the customer’s telephone call and all information related to the call are linked. This information along with the call is presented to the agents who are able to provide quicker and better customer service. In the New world economy, companies deploying solutions that can enable them to listen to their
customers, will be better able to deliver the right product, at the right time, the right price and to the right customer.

Why IP?

Why is IP seen as the protocol of the future, especially when there exists other protocols, such as ATM, frame relay, etc, which are already in use in most data networks? The main reasons are clearly the high-level applications focus and inter-operability of IP (IP can be run over other technologies - e.g. IP over frame relay, IP over ATM, etc.). The key reasons for IP to be predominantly used viz a viz the other protocols are:

• It is an open standards protocol

• It is not vendor specific or network hardware dependent

• The addressing scheme of IP is unique and this allows an IP enabled device to address the entire network, regardless of size

• It is rapid and easy to deploy new applications

• Application integration costs are reduced

• There is a wide availability of skills on IP

It is the open standards of IP that has made inter-operability of networks possible and this is the prime reason for IP being the protocol of the Internet. The tens of thousands of networks that form the Internet all have different characteristics and had it not been for IP the communication between these varied systems would not have been possible.

Sudhir Narang, head, enterprise sales, Cisco India