By Susan J. Campbell
ShoreTel, an IP PBX company, has announced the availability of ShoreTel Contact Center 4.6. This significant release launches a universal queue, auto answer for inbound calls, release with reason codes and several other productivity enhancing features.
This integrated suite of contact center applications runs on the ShoreTel distributed IP communications platform. This platform enables agents to avoid geographic limitations and allows administrators to manage the contact center from a single user interface.
The design of the distributed network architecture inherently provides contact centers with the flexibility to hire agents based on expertise, not location. The organization can also realize a savings on operational costs while maintaining a centralized contact center.
By using an enterprise resource matching function, ShoreTel Contact Center selects the right agent for each individual call by comparing customer and agent profiles and then directing the call to the best agent anywhere on the network. Contact Center 4.6 enhances this enterprise resource matching function by allowing any contact, whether it is voice, e-mail or chat, to be efficiently routed to an agent with the appropriate skills based on configurable business rules.
Beyond these features, ShoreTel’s redundant server also provides increased network uptime through continuous monitoring, further improving the reliability and performance of contact center operations.
“The latest version of ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Center has been a big success with our customers, and it has helped us improve the productivity of our agents,” said Maria Kahl, customer contact administrator for Summit Credit Union, in a statement on Monday. “Our customers can contact us the way they choose, and we can route contacts to the right agent based on the service the customer requires.”
Kahl went on to add, “in addition, auto-answer and release with reason codes have helped supervisors increase productivity and improve customer service, because calls are automatically connected to available agents and supervisors better understand each agent’s status in real time.”
Customers will be able to immediately enjoy a universal queue to route all contacts based on an enterprise’s standard business rules. As such, customer identity and/or intent can be used to efficiently route contacts to an agent with the appropriate skills. Auto answer for agents will also be available which will automatically connect inbound calls to available agents, providing supervisors more control over the customer’s experience and agent productivity.
The contact center can also utilize release with reason code which will provide the ability to create customized release codes. Managers will have access to real-time agent status to determine information on the availability of the agent and if and when that availability will change.
The ShoreTel Contact Center relies on the ShoreTel phone system. Contact Center 4.6 improves this reliability with an optional backup server with a resilient agent feature. In the event of a primary server failure, the backup server automatically takes over control, ensuring calls stay connected.
“Contact Center 4.6 extends ShoreTel’s leadership in providing the lowest total cost of ownership systems in the industry,” said Steve Timmerman, vice president of marketing, ShoreTel, in a statement. “ShoreTel’s approach makes it possible to efficiently manage distributed call centers to deliver the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Our Contact Center solutions allow customers to contact enterprises using the customer’s media of choice and to enable intelligentrouting of contacts to agents regardless of location.”
ShoreTel is doing well to recognize the challenges facing contact centers today and providing them with tools to overcome obstacles to realize better efficiency. Organizations can benefit from the features provided by the Contact Center 4.6 by implementing such programs as homeshoring as an employment practice to reduce overhead costs or establishing branch locations around the country.
In addition, contact center managers will be better positioned to drive customer loyalty by managing a better customer experience while interacting with the contact center. As these interactions are often the only contact a customer has with a company, they are essential for ensuring that the customer is happy, satisfied and will return.
