Cloud Telephony & Call Center Solution Terminology
Ajay y
Oct 16, 2023
While working in Cloud telecommunication domain, there are certain terms that one needs to be aware of viz., PRI, IVR, call server, softphone, MPLS, ILL, MPLS, DTMF, SIP, IDC. Let’s understand each term.
PRI
Types of Calling
VOIP
IP telephony (Internet Protocol telephony) uses the internet to deliver calls as packets of data on shared lines. Also known as VOIP it is the real-time transmission of voice signals over the internet or private data network
PSTN
PSTN (The Public Switched Telephone Network) is the network of the world’s public circuit-switched telephone networks. The PSTN is made up of fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, communications satellites, undersea telephone cables, telephone lines and cellular networks. All of this equipment is inter-connected by switching centers which subsequently allows any telephone in the world to communicate with another.
IDC
A integrated data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression) and various security devices.
Understand DID, SBN and TFN DID
DID stands for Direct Inward Dialing. When a PRI is procured from the telecom operator, it comes along with 100 DID numbers to which the callers can dial. First number of this set is called as a pilot number. So, all these numbers can be directly called or a caller can call the pilot number and get connected with other numbers in the form of extensions through a PBX.
SBN or SNS
Single board number or single number solution is a landline number which remains same throughout the country but the callers prefix their location STD code and dials out and is charged for a local call. Example: Dominos number
TFN
Toll free number in India typically starts with 1800. Callers will not be charged any amount for calling a TFN as the charges on behalf of caller are bore by the TFN subscriber. There is also a partial TFN in which callers from any location will be charged for a local call and other charges are bore by the subscriber.
Disaster Management
To achieve disaster recovery, maximum of 4 DIDs (a landline number) can be mapped to a TFN which acts as primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary numbers. By this, when call lands on a TFN it is first routed to the primary DID and if the DID is down due to various reasons then the call is routed to secondary DID and so on.
Basics Of Call Center Domain
Call center:
It’s place where calls from the customers and other entities are handled by the organization. Agent: Executive of the organization who front faces the calls to/from the customers.
ACW
After call work are the activities (like tagging the call) done by the agent after call is successfully completed.
Call conference
Provision given to an agent where he can open a conference and take other members into the current call
Barge in
It’s a call monitoring mechanism where supervisor can listen to a live call between the agent and the customer. There are various levels of achieving it viz., being only in listen only mode, being able to communicate only with the agent, being able to completely intrude into the call (like conference)
Blended agent
Agent who is in both states (inbound and outbound) of calling simultaneously
Latency
It’s the time taken to transfer the data packets from one point to another
Quality of Service
It’s the performance observed by the stakeholder considering error rate, uptime, latency, bandwidth and other performance metrics.
Inbound Call Center
It’s the call center which handles only the calls initiated by the customers.
Automatic call distribution
It’s the system that routes all inbound calls automatically to a particular department or agent.
Most idle agent
It’s the logic that’s followed by the system while routing the call to an agent. It calculates the idlest agent based on the talk time spoken by all other agents in that skill till that point in time.
Skill based routing
It’s the process of routing the calls, to the relevant skill where there is pool of appropriate agents, as per the navigation of the customer at IVR level.
Priority based routing
It’s the process of routing the calls to the agents based on the predefined priority set by the supervisor
Outbound Call Center
It’s a place where calls are initiated by the agents in the customer care center for various purposes like marketing campaigns, grievance handling etc.
Manual dialer
It’s the process of agent entering a number to be dialed and gets connected with the customer.
Progressive dialer:
It’s a dialer in which calls are automatically initiated by the system, giving the call making control to the supervisor and at the same time it saves the agent time by avoiding manual entry of customer’s phone number.
- Data has to be uploaded in excel sheet in a progressive campaign.
- System automatically initiates the calls to the data provided and connects to the available agents.
- You can choose either to dial customer first or dial by holding agent.
Preview dialer
- Data has to be uploaded in excel sheet and agent can see one contact at a time with the information uploaded in the excel sheet
- Agent can click on dial whenever he is ready.
Predictive dialer:
This works best when you have large volume of data where you are not sure about its freshness.
- Data has to be uploaded in excel sheet in a predictive campaign and set a pacing ratio. (eg.5:1)
- So for every one available agent, the system fires 5 calls simultaneously.
- Pacing ratio can be altered based on the call connectivity.
IVR Dialer
- Data has to be uploaded in excel sheet in a IVR campaiign.
- Similar to a progressive, system initiates the call and plays the IVR that is set up.
- This in turn can be connected to agents as per the customer navigation in the IVR
