Quality Trumps Quantity By Andy Green, Communications Convergence Dec 5, 2001 (11:06 AM) URL: http://www.cconvergence.com/article/ The call/transaction-recording universe falls into two camps: those who record everything, and those who ... don't. The "record everything" crowd (E911 and emergency, banking and trading, air traffic control, and other industries concerned with life-and-limb, big dollars, and/or auditability and regulatory compliance) has historically accounted for about 15% of the market. Predictably, since September 11, that market sector is showing increased activity. Law enforcement, emergency services, and similar operations are suddenly motivated to upgrade aging infrastructure or to expand investments in modern, computer telephony-based call recording systems. Says David Lezak, president of Wygant Scientific: "In the traditional 911 centers, a lot of the recording technology is out of date. We've seen an enormous number of 911 centers converting over to digital technologies - technologies that do better envelope-capture, ANI and DNIS. What we're hearing is that people in the 911 space want to have instant access and recall and the ability to do sorts and searches on these recordings, so [call recording] becomes a useful tool." There is also some crossover business, reports Lezak, from companies and institutions that already use on-demand and selective call recording for training, call center quality-control, or legal purposes (e.g., customer agreement verification), but are now electing to expand capacity and/or explore bulk call recording for security purposes. Examples include utility companies, hotels and resorts, travel agencies, and some schools and colleges. As time goes on, other "newly strategic" industries will likely feel compelled to follow: Think sellers of chemicals, heavy equipment, radio equipment, and pharmaceutical and laboratory products. The "digital technologies" Lezak mentions - made by companies like Wygant, CVDS, Thales and others (see roundup) - are CT-based products: typically fault-resilient servers containing T1/PRI interfaced DSP boards; significant onboard disk space (usually RAID 5) for short-term storage of voice recordings; and removable media drives (today, mostly optical) for archiving. Software running on the box may be controlled through a Windows or Unix/Linux GUI on the host, or accessed from a network-linked workstation running a client or (increasingly) a browser. An increasing number of high-end products are engineered to support a distributed model, where chassis can be linked into a single "virtual call recording engine" over a LAN or WAN. Such architectures can support very high-density applications - a single large switch or multiple switches in one location, or switches in several remote locations. In bulk recording applications, the device (or system) is always on. It decodes T1 (or analog) signaling to determine when calls are initiated; grabs ANI, DNIS, or caller ID, captures and buffers PCM content (or digitizes, converts to PCM, and records analog content); and writes it to hard disk along with indexing tags and time-stamps. The archiving stage may be managed several different ways, but is frequently automatic - information on hard disk is reformatted and copied to archive media intermittently, in real time; its content and structure certified error-free. Every few days, a technician removes, labels, and stores the archive medium and replaces it with a blank. Only after the archive is certified (in some cases, only on media change or manual authorization) is short-term hard disk storage tagged for reuse. These days, most products employ standard database engines (SQL, Oracle, Btree, etc.) for short- and long-term storage, so records can be accessed conveniently by a wide range of applications beyond those supplied by the manufacturer of the apparatus. Like other audio-media applications, call recording tends to produce a large volume of data, so fast disk controllers and drives, efficient buffering, caching, indexing, storage and retrieval schemes are important. In a true bulk-recording application, operation is essentially "hands off" - folks answering the phone don't activate recording, and aren't required to supply additional information used to tag the record made of each call (e.g., their own name, full caller name and number, etc.). The recording device, meanwhile - attached to the trunk side of the phone system - is commonly unaware of which staffer or agent is handling each caller (or called party), so cannot use this relation for indexing. Search and retrieval - normally prompted by an agent and driven from physical or electronic desk-records made during each call - entails handing rudimentary keys such as approximate time and trunk group to the system, then sifting through the call-records returned. FLEXIBLE INDEXING Clearly, it's desirable to make this process more efficient and flexible; to store more meaningfully searchable data or indices with each call - ideally, agent ID and a full ID of the caller, including some pointer to an online transaction database - so that records can be located conveniently, and reviewed in context. There are several ways this can be managed, depending on phone equipment and transaction processing systems in use. An OAI interface with the PBX or ACD lets the call recording box relate agents to trunks, and perhaps retrieve codes or commands punched in on the agent's phone. Several manufacturers, such as NICE Systems, offer a procedure library that lets makers of agent-facing call center software (transaction systems, CRM, etc.) pass agent- or database-supplied information to the recording device across the LAN (for use in indexing), send commands, and weave the recording operation into the fabric of call handling in sophisticated and intimate ways. NICE, Witness Systems, and others have taken integration to an even higher level: Their systems can record and index not just phone calls, but screen actions taken by agents during a call. MATTERS OF QUALITY While these more sophisticated integrations aren't (yet) commonly pursued by historic bulk-call-recording customers, they're increasingly important to the other 85% of the call recording market: folks who use call and transaction-recording for a combination of purposes under the heading "call center quality management" or "customer experience management." Even after September 11, this is where the market is growing fastest and spending most. The goals of QM-oriented call recording are manyfold. At the lowest level, you need to evaluate agent performance: Sampling a single agent's work at different times or on different days creates a broad picture of competence. You need to evaluate the customer experience; either in general or as associated with different campaigns, scripts, or reason-for-call contexts. Here, time-triggered, random sampling may usefully be enhanced by integration with the PBX, campaign software, CRM software and transaction/wrap-up systems. A full-scale integration can be set up to capture data in interesting and useful ways - for example, you can elect to record only calls from your top 20% of customers; only calls relating to a particular campaign (perhaps triggered by DNIS); only calls containing long periods of silence; or calls from customers judged "at risk" by the CRM system. Business rules can be stacked and logical operations performed on them, so that multiple contexts can be monitored, results segregated and reviewed conveniently. Integration flexibility is one indication of quality in call/transaction-recording products. User-interface design is the other touchstone: If managers can't manage the interface, find and manipulate the records they need, and listen to recordings comfortably, all the "under the hood" mechanics make little difference. Here, several trends are evident. Web-based user interfaces are beginning to appear, allowing managers a degree of remote access and device independence. Makers like NICE are even experimenting with limited, executive-level interfaces from the recording apparatus to wireless devices and cell phones, letting execs dial in for a random sample of how customers are responding to the latest campaign. In general, client interfaces are becoming more flexible, powerful, and purpose-dedicated - displaying a significant amount of information about retrieved calls, and permitting retrieved samples to be manipulated conveniently into new forms. Depending on product, a call center manager may, for example, be able to search out a sequence of call records, sort them, then paste them into a training presentation or document, as .WAV files. Management front-ends are also evolving to present information in sophisticated tabular and useful graphic forms. Eyretel, for example, lets you see graphic representations of audio waveform data alongside other parameters, such as keyboard activity. You can search out, for example, periods of silence in tandem with rapid typing (Is the agent confused? Having trouble with the user interface?), and make useful inferences about agent competence, campaign success, or the design of knowledge base, transaction management, or other agent tools. QUALITY MANAGEMENT CosmoCom (Melville,NY - 631-940-4200,www.cosmocom.com): One of the benefits of CosmoCom's CosmoCall Universe, its pure IP standards-based ACD, is that call recording is just a software upgrade. In the phoneless Universe, the CosmoCom Recorder resides on a networked NT server, scarfing up IP packets containing voice, chat, email, and web traffic that are headed for agent's softphones. Managers review the customer interaction from a browser, without first installing special client software. Searches can be performed on all the usual identifiers (agent ID, caller ID, DNIS), and chat and web interactions can be textually scanned. In the works, CosmoCom is looking to apply speech-rec technology to trigger recordings based on word spotting. CVDS (Dollard Des Ormeaux, Quebec, Canada - 514-421-7404, www.cvdsinc.com): The ComLog is designed for man-sized recording applications that one finds in public safety and air traffic control. A single model DLS 2420 can monitor144 channels, on either trunk of station side. Digital interfaces are available for all the usual PBXs (Definity, Norstar, Meridian, NEC, etc.). The ComLog is crammed with mass storage capabilities. A maximum 144 Gig of RAID-5 instant retrieval storage (around 20,000 hours) can be recalled from any Windows client on the LAN. Four built-in DVD RAM drives provide longer-term storage. Interactive Intelligence Inc. (Indianapolis, IN - 317-872-3000, www.inin.com): It's just one-wire integration of the Interaction Recorder with either Interactive's CIC and EIC comm-server based ACD. No messy trunk or CO lines taps, since the PC-based IR communicates over the LAN to the II call server. Speech compression makes possible the logging of all calls onto standard hard disks. Interactive says it can store 8,000 two-minute conversations in 1 Gig of disk space. For quick searching of voice logs, the Recorder's Supervisor Interface lets you create rules to automatically categorize calls, placing them in special folders, based on call identifiers (agent id, ANI, DNIS) and external attributes, such as time of day, day of week, and length of call. Calls can be archived onto DAT, DVD or other media, but long-term archiving is not part of the product, though it does create a searchable index of offline logs. Mercom (Lyndhurst, NJ - 201-507-8800,www.mercom.com): Users navigate though a Windows Explorer-like interface to retrieve conversations recorded by the rack-mounted Audio-log digital recorders. Both online and offline storage (up to 4,200 hours) can be searched. Supervisors use IRIS, a client-server application, to log calls based on a fixed percentage, inbound or outbound call types, or CT (ANI, DNIS). Different criteria may be applied to each agent grouping. IRIS's new CEE (Customer Experience Evaluation) upgrade enables the Audiolog to capture initial IVR inputs and callers' interactions with each agent they are transferred to. Audiolog is available in a 48-channel Mini chassis, a 96-channel Maxi, and 144-channel Ultra. Omnicron (Putnam, CT - 860-928-0377, www.omnicronelectronics.com): The stand-alone TotalRecall can tap into analog trunks and extensions (includes handset adapters). Internal hard drive can hold up 1,600 hours of conversations collected from Total-Recall's 16 channels. Using its built-in LCD screen and navigation buttons, you can search for conversations and then replay them over the box's internal speaker. Or, link TotalRecall's serial interface to a PC and replay voice logs using the Remote Recall software. The system's built-in CD recorder archives 160 hours of conversation. A new release of software speeds up searches and archiving. Redbox Recorder (Nottingham, UK - 44 (0) 115 937 7100, www.redboxrecorder.com): With the rack-mounted RBR 2620, owners of IP-centric phone systems now have a matching IP-based logger. The 2620 reassembles a voice channel by sniffing for data packets on the LAN. It works with 3Com's NBX 100 or SuperStack 3, but has the capability to record voice channels from other IP PBXs, since it understands both H.323 and SIP-based protocols. The number of simultaneous channels monitored depends on packet size: around 120 for the weightier NBX packets, higher numbers can be achieved with others. 60 Gigs of online storage. Archive media options include DVD-RAM, VXA tape, and DAT. Thales (Herndon, VA - 703-709-7114, www.thales-cs.com). With its dual-deck option the Mirra Series 2 can record up to 2,400 voice channels. Built in DVD RAM optical disks hold 1,300 hours of conversation per side, reusable over 1,000 times. Voice logs can be searched for and replayed on any networked PC on which the Mirra software has been loaded. Built for public safety applications, the beefier Worldnet 2 can keep up to 20,000 hours of conversation. Like the Mirra, it can tap into analog and digital trunk lines (BRI and PRI ISDN), but with its telephony interfaces it has direct access to switches from Nortel, Ericsson, and Alcatel. Wygant Scientific (Portland, OR - 800-688-6423, www.wygant.com): Makes Encore, a 240-channel, PC-based logger featuring Free Agent Seating. Multiple modules can be networked together to grow it into a 1,920-channel system. Proprietary cards tap into T1 and ISDN, and digital stations from Avaya, Siemens, Nortel, NEC, and others. A record on demand GUI displays on desktops. With its CT interface, Encore also captures agents' screens. Optional Encore Explorer streams voice logs to a web browser, making Encore suitable for call center service bureaus. VoiceLogger (Enid, OK -800-311-3025, www.voicelogger.com): DigiVoice 2.6 can tap into over either digital or analog lines, recording up to 128 conversations simultaneously. Besides voice, DigiVoice captures caller ID, extension, date and time, as well as DTMF digits input into an IVR menu. Attribute fields let agents annotate calls with additional searchable text information (for example, result codes). Agents can also flag calls for later review by supervisors. A record-on-demand feature lets an agent initiate a recording (useful for customer verification). DigiPlayer, a Windows-based client app, refreshes in real-time to show the latest recordings. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT Comverse Infosys (Woodbury, NY - 516-677-7300, www.cominfosys.com): The latest version of its Ultra architecture adds several new components. Customer Xperience Management integrates with CRM software to initiate recording based on application events. But, instead of segregating voice logs to a separate database, its vCRM feature embeds it within the CRM customer database. Even more significant is the Customer Xperience Analyzer component, which analyzes audio content. It includes a word spotter to search for brand names or other key words and a stress analyzer. Use both to learn what customers are really thinking. Envision Telephony (Seattle, WA - 206-261-9384, www.click2coach.com): Click2Coach focuses on the agent coaching part of the Quality Management equation. Using Click2Coach Trainer, supervisors author training videos, which can then be viewed from agents' screens. Click2Coach Agent application lets agents view these videos and other eLearning material. From their desks, agents can also listen to an audio playback of their customer interactions while examining supervisor comments. Rules-based recording criteria is configured through the Click2Coach Supervisor, which captures agent screen activity, voice, email, and chat. Agents can record-on-demand. Eyretel (Calverton, MD - 301-586-1900, www.eyretel.com): Visual representations of voice waveforms and data activity provide more useful information than tables and charts. Replay Studio lets supervisors quickly find interesting interactions, like silence gaps, agent-customer overlaps, or bursts of keyboard activity. While Eyretel's MediaStore digital recorder can capture every customer contact (voice and agent screenshots), insights gained from the Replay Studio should help call center managers develop criteria to capture only the valuable interactions. e-talk (Irving, TX - 972-819-3100, www.e-talkcorp.com): The digital logger piece of its Performance Management product, the Recorder, logs both voice and agent screen activity. It has recently been enhanced to integrate with CRM software. Improvements have also been recently made to the Survey component, which collects customer responses (DTMF and voice) to pre-recorded questions. Nice Systems (Secaucus, NJ - 201-617-8800, www.nice.com): With the NICEUniverse suite of applications, this company has moved beyond its NICELog digital recording roots. The Evaluator let supervisors search for, replay, and score agent sessions (voice and agent screen activity). For greater accuracy, agent evaluations can be compared against customer ratings collected by NICEFeedback, an IVR application that automatically surveys customers. While NICEUniverse offers a wide range of monitoring criteria (random or sequential sampling, day and time, or CTI data), for more selective logging, its NICELink middleware hooks into CRM applications to initiate recordings based on customer data or CRM application events. Using its Executive Connects, executives with the proper authorization access both in-progress calls or saved voice sessions from a phone. Telecorp Products (Walled Lake, MI - 248-960-1000, www.telecorpproducts.com): E-Play is the QM part of its CentrEE Solutions call center software. It is both a recording and evaluation tool. Supervisors define monitoring criteria based on all the usual parameters or else they can initiate a recording by just clicking on an agent's name. Sessions can be scored and then replayed by agents at their desktops. TPG Technologies (Yardley, PA - 215-369-1200, www.tpgtechnologies): SEL (Strategic Enhancement Listening) is an agent-coaching tool. Supervisors score agent interactions with detailed comments. Scores along with digital voice files are delivered to agents' desktop computers. Witness Systems (Roswell, GA - 770-754-1900, www.witness.com): Witness has evolved its eQuality digital recording system into QM software. eQuality Response saves email correspondence (integrates with BrightWare and eGain), eQuality Interactive does the same for chat sessions. Supervisors define business rules to target which interactions are logged. With eQuality Connect middleware, voice and screen activity captures can also be triggered from within CRM applications based on customer-centric data. eQuality Analysis closes the QM loop by comparing agent scores (collected from eQuality Evaluator) with call center metrics (like average handling time) to help managers learn why performance goals are not being met. Witness's new Enterprise Collaboration Architecture lets anyone in the organization review agent interactions, which are delivered as multimedia files, playable from a web browser. The War On Terrorism What about surveillance? In the wake of September 11, there'll clearly be more snooping going on - on phone calls, email, and network connections. The federal government has released a comprehensive RFP for products and research that will assist in the war on terrorism (www.bids.tswg.gov/TSWG/bids.nsf/DownloadBAAs/02-Q-4655). Desiderata include acquisition of call recording and content-scanning applications, including gear and content-scanning automata: software that will, for example, identify the language being spoken by callers, or find phone calls in which a particular person's voice is present. Telcos, meanwhile, are said to be approaching compliance with the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) guidelines. To do so, they're installing products like ADC's CALEAserver: a box which interoperates with SS7 to identify calls to and from parties under surveillance, grab relevant call-context information from the network, and hand this off - along with a content-tap - to law enforcement. Converged Call Logging Conventional loggers hook physically to a phone system. A PC-based communications server, such as provided by CosmoCom or Interactive Intelligence, can copy and hand off call content to a logging application running on the same box, or on another server on the same LAN. In a full, standards-based IP environment (e.g., SIP or H.323), gatekeepers, proxy servers, and user agents can conspire to copy and forward the necessary packet-streams (plus ancillary info), with ease. The result: Call logging goes "virtual." For example, by simply loading a networked NT-server with Interactive Intelligence's Interaction Recorder, call centers based around Interactive's soft ACDs add voice-logging capability. A PC-based call server temporarily saves uncompressed voice logs on its internal disks, transfers them over the LAN to the Interaction Recorder, where they are compressed and saved permanently. Another IP-logger vendor, Redbox Recorder, offers a "packet tap" for IP-centric PBXs like 3COM's NBX 100 and SuperStack. Red's 2620 voice recorder picks off packets in real-time from the LAN and reassembles them as a voice log stored on its hard disks. EMPIRIX Empirix (Waltham, MA - 781-993-8500, www.empirix.com): The Hammer Quality Monitoring System navigates through your call center's IVR menu to discover problems callers may experience before they talk to an agent. Improperly programmed prompts, timeouts (caused by overworked database servers), and busy trunk lines are logged and flagged for review. Technical support staff can be immediately paged if necessary. The product combines Empirix's NT-based call generator hardware and a GUI-based test script developer. A scheduler can be configured to run tests continuously. The same tests are available from Empirix as a hosted service. In this case, customers view both current and historical test results from their browsers.