Unofficially, “Universe” is actually CosmoCall 3.0.
The new version features multimedia-on-hold, Microsoft
NetMeeting 3.0x integration, audio, video and text chat,
MSMQ support, improved e-mail routing and more. This
release impressed us with its installation process and
well-designed administration and agent interfaces.
Installation
Installing the ACD
server portion of Universe requires careful planning.
Administrators need to make decisions about which
components to install or not to install, whether to have
multiple components on one server or whether to
distribute the components, and what degree of
customization they prefer. Also, configuring agents and
groups is largely based on Windows’ own profiles, which
is efficient, but requires care and patience. Adding the
“click here” button to your organization’s Web site also
requires meticulous attention to detail. Buttons can be
primitive links or elaborate images, and while the
actual behind-the-scenes coding doesn’t require an
expert Webmaster, the entire process should definitely
receive input from the managers of your call center, Web
site, MIS staff and telecom staff. We wouldn’t call any
part of the installation process difficult, though. It’s
just complicated, and should be handled by your more
experienced people. Meanwhile, installing the agent
software (and training the agents) is a task you can
delegate to any competent MIS technician. Once NT
Workstation is installed with NetMeeting, the service
pack, the option pack and Outlook 98, the actual
CosmoCall agent is a simple wizard installation. Add the
Exchange and CosmoCall account information, and the
agent machine is ready. (Note that every agent uses only
a headset, and not a telephone. This way, all voice
calls are handled the same.)
System requirements for installing Universe are
lengthy, but not excessive. Recommended for a basic
setup are Windows NT Server 4.0 for the ACD component,
running Microsoft IIS version 4 with .ASP support, a
Dialogic voice board (we used a D/41ESC) for the
Telephone Connection Server with 250 MB of disk space
available, and Microsoft Exchange Server with CosmoCom’s
Message/E-mail Connec-tion Server. The server components
can be combined or distributed; at a minimum, the main
ACD server requires 30 MB of disk space, 128 MB RAM, the
latest NT service pack and a 233 MHz Pentium or newer,
as well as SQL 7.0. Agents’ systems require Windows NT
Workstation 4.0, the latest service pack, a minimum of
166 MHz, 10 MB of disk space, Microsoft Internet
Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1 and NetMeeting 2.1 or
newer (although 3.0x is recommended), DirectX and
Outlook 98, and a full-duplex headset, sound card and
video camera. Minimum requirements for end users include
a 486/66 PC with 16 MB RAM, Windows 95 and Internet
Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1 or Netscape Navigator
3.x. However, we recommend installing the ACD and
related servers on more up-to-date systems, for example,
Pentium II 450s with at least 128 MB RAM. A nice touch
is that the system includes copies of the NT and 9x
option packs and service packs, as well as Internet
Explorer 5, NetMeeting 3.01, Outlook 98 and viewers for
Acrobat, PowerPoint and Word files.
Documentation
The documentation
for Universe was still in an early beta form when we
received it, but it provided a decent preview of what
the final version would be like. There are several
chapters, including administrator and agent
installation, administrator and agent guides,
configuration planning, reports, technical requirements,
third-party software and a “what’s new” section. From
what we saw, the manual still needs a lot of work in its
organization, but most major topics seem to be covered,
and the conceptual and technical explanations are clear,
making good use of screen captures. Another section uses
a flow chart to explain sample installations, which will
be a tremendous aid for both decision makers and
installers.
Features
There are several pieces
of Universe to examine. On the administration server(s),
there is the “configurator” for setting up file
locations, default call settings, etc. There is also the
administration interface, where you configure settings
for agents, groups, rules and messages, although this
interface does not need to be open for the product to
work because it’s all based on Windows NT services.
Also, there are the agent interface, the end user
interface and the Web integration issues.
The “Configurator” is used to set up file locations,
software parameters, etc. It is accessed through the
Start menu, or through a Windows shortcut, but we’d like
to see it also be accessible through the administration
interface, explained below. Other than this minor flaw,
we find this tool quite useful. Script options are set
through five menu choices. “Call Center Information”
sets the suite’s IP address and name, plus the path to
your script directory. “No Agents Action” sets the URL
and message for callers to receive when they enter a
hold queue. “Caller Information” configures the caller
telephone type, caller URL, Web caller initial URL,
caller message and name, caller queue, caller priority
and required skills. “Web Configuration” sets the script
directory, Web caller directory and window title, an
option to always push URLs in a new window, .ASP and
Java settings, the Java directory URL and the Java
window dimensions in pixels. Finally, the “Optional
Parameters” tab configures integration with other
applications; up to five additional parameters can be
set here. Parameter examples include customer
identifications, shopping cart identifications, trouble
tickets, order numbers, etc.
CosmoCall’s administration program is for configuring
groups, agent options and similar settings. It’s on the
simpler side, with smartly arranged menu choices,
colorful icons and an uncrowded feel. Across the top,
four menu choices include File, New, Delete and Help.
Below this is an 11-button toolbar, with button help,
that accesses features like log in/log out, as well as
“add new” buttons for agents, teams, skills,
wrap-up/release codes, etc. The main window offers 10
options, which include:
- Personnel — Configures new agents, their groups
and their skills,
- Groups — Agents grouped by topic of expertise or
any other category,
- Teams — Groups of agents grouped for
administrative purposes,
- Skills — For example, agents who help with
troubleshooting, ordering, foreign language customers,
etc.,
- Queues — For example, queues based on caller
locations, reason for calling, priority, etc.,
- Events — This menu specifies which scripts to
execute for particular events, and lists event
descriptions,
- Scripts — Specifies script names, descriptions and
locations,
- Release codes — Codes and descriptions for when
agents are on breaks,
- Wrap-up codes — Call results codes and
descriptions,
- Connection servers — Configures settings for
telephone, message and Internet chat servers.
CosmoCall Universe’s agent interface is concise and
efficient. However, we urge system installers to provide
agents with more powerful computers than are required,
because there are several instances where the software
refreshes the screen, and you don’t want to make
customers wait while agents stare at an hourglass.
There are numerous customization options for the
agents to configure as they like. Half of these options
are accessed through the File/Preferences menu, where
agents will find four tabs. In the General tab, there is
a pointer to a dictionary/spell checker file, which can
work as agents type, as well as a feature to choose
their own .WAV file for telephony rings. Under the Chat
Dialogue tab, agents can set their preferences for the
fonts, sizes, styles and colors of the text chat
interface. The Agent tab holds the settings for canned
phrases (a library of commonly used phrases that the
agent can push to the caller without having to retype
every time), including a path field to select your
organization’s own phrase file. Last, the Call Flow
section includes settings for “On Ring” (auto-answer,
bring agent to front, show received URL), “On Call
Termination” (hide chat, ask for chat save, auto-save)
and “On Pick-Up” (send customizable hello message).
Other options in this tab include a toggle for “Ask
before hang-up” and “Synchronize sent URL with caller.”
There is also a “reset to default” button, which works
for all four tabs.
The second half of the
customization options is under the View/Customize menu.
The actual method of customization follows the Microsoft
Office convention, where the Toolbars tab is for
creating and editing, and the Tools tab is for
controlling the individual toolbar items. There is also
an Options tab here, with choices for displaying larger
icons, “ScreenTips” (button help), ScreenTips with
shortcut keys and three kinds of menu animations.
Beside the normal agent options, like dial, get
caller info, auto-answer, clear screen, availability
toggle, etc.; the Universe agent interface gives
advanced features as well. These include NetMeeting and
URL pushing, customizable unavailable and wrap-up codes
and an excellent agent/group reporting feature that
updates statistics in real-time. (Refresh rates are
adjustable in one-second intervals from 15 to 60
seconds, and reports are provided for specific queues,
groups, agents and the call center as a whole.)
Operational Testing
The
experience a caller receives is a positive one. Callers
using POTS enter a traditional-sounding IVR system,
which purposely does not give the caller any indication
that their call will be received in packet-form in a
call center where agents don’t even have telephones.
Callers from the Web deal with a normal online ordering
and product information site, except that the site will
also have a “Talk To Us” button. New callers may need to
register — a step determined by the organization being
called — and customers may be presented with system
requirements. Once the actual call is initiated and the
caller is queued, the traditional concepts of “audio on
hold” can be replaced with anything from a simple
“please hold” graphic to an extremely detailed
audio/video file — essentially a commercial.
For a product designed with enterprise-scale
intentions, we found that CosmoCall Universe is almost
as easy to use as any standard Windows application, from
its look and feel to its menu setup to its
administration and reporting features. In fact, CosmoCom
engineers have made their intentions clear, by
incorporating the Windows NT user manager, the
NetMeeting 3 client and many standard Windows-like
methods of task accomplishment.
Because of this tight integration, organizations
using Universe will be able to support the product among
lower-level MIS personnel, which is a testament to its
usability — in the administration interface (and
especially in the agent interface), the learning curve
is virtually nonexistent. The most tedious part of
maintaining Universe will be keeping its agent groups
and databases up-to-date, and linking it with the
ordering, tracking or other back-end software that may
already be resident at your business. Another useful
feature for an administrator is the Agent State
interface, where call center directors can see every
agent’s current status and initiate NetMeeting calls to
them.
For the agent, the most critical transitions for a
product like Universe will be adapting to a
telephoneless workstation and, for the text calls,
mastering the techniques of writing a conversation
instead of speaking one. Many of today’s call centers
already have agents who are trained to compose e-mail
replies, but there are many techniques and issues
relevant to the back-and-forth of text chat that may
seem unnatural to agents who are used to speaking
instead. (Speech recognition technology, if it were fast
enough and accurate enough, could ease this transition
by allowing the agents to speak the caller’s answers —
instead of typing them — and inputting the translated
speech directly into the text chat window.) Agents will
find it easy to use features like URL and phrase
pushing, call wrap-ups and outbound dialing and
transferring. Agents will also need to be trained on
NetMeeting, which is the more difficult tool to
learn.
Room For Improvement
CosmoCom
seems to have designed most of the Universe features for
the appropriate user levels, but additional features
could be helpful. For example, we’d like to see tighter
integration with Microsoft Outlook. We also feel that
the administration interface, the Configurator and the
Agent States menu could be combined in a single
location, to make it easier for administrators to get a
total picture of their system at any time. Finally,
although the documentation we reviewed was only in its
beta form, there was no indication that there might be
an agent’s cheat-sheet of sorts, which would be quite
useful. A cheat-sheet in the form of an on-screen
taskbar would be even more helpful. Also, even though
the user’s manual includes a chapter about integrating
Universe with other applications, there are enough
issues raised for the chapter to be an entire book of
its own — for now, we’d settle for more extensive
discussions of the integration possibilities.
Conclusion
We really liked
Universe. It’s clear that the designers put a fair
amount of effort into the interfaces and functionality.
Because of the tight Microsoft integration of this
product, it’s a good solution for organizations that
want the simplest possible answer without having to hire
a consultant and an interconnect. CosmoCom also provided
us with exceptional technical support when we needed it.
All of these things combined to make the product a
worthwhile solution, and we’re confident that most of
our “Room For Improvement” issues can be fixed. Overall,
this new version deserves our Editor’s Choice award.
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