FrontRange Voice Self Service, otherwise known as IPCM (IP Communication Management), is something many of you will wonder What is it and How can it benefit us? ... and this edition of our newsletter will endeavour to explain those questions.
The IPCM technology, is one of the pieces of the FrontRange technology puzzle, that many people don't understand and yet it can provide substantial improvements to customer service, automate many of the repetitive tasks performed by the ServiceDesk and in doing so substantially improve productivity. Hopefully through this article it will encourage more of you to evaluate how IPCM can benefit you!
The Voice Self Service (IPCM) Technology is a true contact centre solution including a PBX, ACD, IVR, CTI and more. This technology was initially designed, to target the small to medium size call centre and today has evolved to become a strategic part of the FrontRange product strategy.
So what?! Many say.."We have a Symposium ACD, Nortel, Avaya or Cisco Call Manager we are covered". This would be true if we were comparing the basic functionality or "like for like" but we are NOT. The FrontRange IPCM solution has all these components and it also has PRE-BUILT integrations to the FrontRange tools like HEAT, ITSM, CSM etc. that allow you to build workflow processes and functionality from within the IPCM IVR, that leverage your existing HEAT, ITSM and/or CSM datamodel, processe(es) and automation features like Auto-tasks and Quick-Actions, without complex programming. Additionally the IPCM tool comes pre-built with several IVR processes that you can leverage Out of the Box, configure just like you do with your HEAT or ITSM tools today and build new processes from scratch.
Some of the example processes are the following:
Password Reset: - Many organizations struggle with password resets and with the increasing pressure on security, compliance etc. many organizations have had to force password changes every 60 days or less,which has placed increased pressure on the ServiceDesk to perform the password reset for clients. While there are many password reset tools and technologies out there, many require you to be logged, connected to the network and/or are licensed by the total number of end users in the company.
The IPCM password reset IVR allows users who are locked out or have forgotten their password to call the service desk, authenticate themselves to the IVR, using internally developed security policies and reset password or unlock an account without speaking to an agent. In addition to doing the password reset an Incident is automatically created, associated to that particular user within HEAT or ITSM.
The system works natively with AD and can be configured to work with other technologies, to reset multiple passwords though a larger identity management solution or custom integration.
The benefit of the AD Password Reset IVR is you can do it from wherever you have a phone and it get's included with the IPCM and many can cost justify IPCM on the AD IVR alone.
Outage Notification: - when staff experiences an outage or a major problem occurs, call volumes spike and you have many staff calling regarding the same thing. Often the staff will wait on hold for a significant amount of time and support staff are stuck handing the repetitive calls instead of responding to new issues.
In order for many organizations to proactively deal with this issue, they will blast out via email, post an update on the IVR and/or on the web site a description of the nature of the problem and when they expected service will be restored. The problem with this approach is, when you do your analysis of issues reported you typically don't calculate how many people were affected by the outage.
IPCM allows you to automate the following scenarios:
- Prompt staff calling in, if they are calling regarding a specific problem i.e. Email systems are down in West region and "If this is the problem they are calling about?"
- If the answer is "Yes", they can press 1, then enter in their employee number or unique identifier and have an Incident automatically created for them.
- The incident that is created will automatically linked to parent Incident or Problem record.
- When a resolution is found and the problem has been resolved or closed, the IPCM system can call the customer(s) who were impacted by the issue and let them know the service has been restored.
- Additionally the system will close out the problem and all the related incidents.
- If this is not the issue they are calling about they can the press 2, be routed to the next agent, who is more available to handle their issue, because they are not having to log all the repetitive incidents.
Voice mail, web and Email call creation & blending: - For many organizations creating incidents via email, web, phone, and voice mail is a standard operating procedure. Many don't realize the time wasted and/or how often important Incidents take a back seat to other Incidents purely because someone logged it by something other than the phone. Also many organizations are now experimenting with chat as another form of communicating with the ServiceDesk.
IPCM will still allow you to offer many channels to create incidents email, phone, web, voice mail and chat(coming in a future release). This will enable great access to support while, eliminating the burden placed on the service desk to manually keep on top of all the incoming Incidents, Requests from all the various sources (email, phone, web, chat) etc.
The IPCM system can blend all those contact methods into one queue and route the to the appropriate agent. based on priority, caller, type etc. and not method of communication.
The IPCM technology is Standards Based, leverages SIP, VoIP, runs on a Windows Platform Operating System and database and typically integrates with most organizations existing phone infrastructure.
Please join us for our webinar on the benefits of a Voice Self Service, receive a demo on the IPCM technology and talk to an existing customer on the benefits of their implementation.