The Global Association for Contact Center Best Practices & Networking

August 4, 2010 -- Setting up a contact centre with all the bells and whistles – even a small one with 10 seats – can cost millions of Rands; and so many smaller organisations have had to compromise on functionality due to affordability.

Presence OpenGate, the switching component of the Presence Suite is now available through Spescom Data Fusion, and provides a means for such organisations to access advanced contact center services – without the massive investment typically required.

Explains Paul Fick, MD of Spescom Data Fusion: "With customer expectations increasing, compromising with second-best technology is no longer good enough. Contact centres are a crucial customer touch point and have a considerable impact on customer relationship management and customer loyalty. To help companies win additional customers and market share, contact centres must provide superior service while delivering measurable business value at low cost. Optimising operational processes helps them meet these goals.

"The Presence Suite, distributed in South Africa by Spescom Data Fusion, provides a full set of tools for contact centres. Previously only compatible with the Avaya and Nortel platforms, the Presence OpenGate solution offers support of virtually any existing infrastructure (PBX or multiple PBXx-es).

This puts cutting edge contact centre functionality at the fingertips of virtually any size contact centre, up to about 800 seats — regardless of their existing infrastructure."

Explains Alfredo González, Presence Product Marketing Director: "Presence OpenGate allows for direct connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network, or for integration with any Voice Switch on the market, whether it is via TDM (E1 / T1) or VoIP (SIP, IAX, H.323) connections, expanding its functionality without the need for expensive upgrades.

"It increases the functionality of switches offering VoIP support to the extension of an agent, via either SoftPhone or a physical SIP terminal.

Moreover, it offers all the functionality embedded in the Presence Suite, including progressive and predictive dialling, multichannel management, blending, intelligent routing, IVR with ASR and TTS engines, scripting engine for the rapid development of applications, recording conversations and screens of an agent, complete SDK with third-party application integration, management system, monitoring, unified reporting, and more."

Notes Fick: "Presence OpenGate essentially allows companies to extend an existing PBX/ACD system to include ACD and CTI capabilities even if the existing switch does not have an ACD or CTI package in place.

"Since OpenGate is server based, there are no telephony specific hardware requirements," he emphasizes. "Built on open systems and based on a common OS (Windows), it is designed to meet CTI requirements, regardless of previous telephony ownership or out-of-date systems. A key characteristic is that it will deploy on commodity servers, such as Dell and HP servers, and has the ability to provide seamless VoIP services. It also easily integrates with any CRM, ERP, CMI and other systems used in most companies."

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, EMEA correspondent

Source: http://companies.mybroadband.co.za

About Spescom:
Spescom DataFusion is in the ICT solutions portfolio of the Jasco Group. The portfolio’s core focus is to deliver integrated business communication solutions that enhance the way businesses communicate with their customers, and leverages voice, video and data technologies through its four companies - DataFusion, DataVoice, Media IT and NewTelco South Africa. The deep technical expertise and considerable industry know-how housed in these divisions combine to deliver world-class solutions including integrated contact centre platforms and applications, a range of voice application technologies, as well as telecommunications and broadcast solutions. ‘Smart People. Clever Solutions’ reflects who we are and why we are positioned to leverage current and future technology trends and developments to meet the dynamically shifting requirements of our customers and ensure their continued competitiveness.

About Presence Technology:
Presence Technology is a software company specializing in advanced productivity solutions for the Contact Center. Since 2000, its software solutions have been helping clients to optimize their processes while increasing the efficiency of the interactions between companies and their customers. Featuring a highly-qualified team of subject matter experts, along with its network of strategic partners, the company has assisted its clients across Europe, South America, Africa and the U.S.