Oak joint CEO Phillip Reynolds believes there is a lot of life left in traditional telephone systems but he's no Luddite when it comes to the Internet and believes his latest web-based call management solution could be Oak's best innovation yet.
Reynolds' Poole-based software company has dominated the call management sector for over 20 years and Oak wall boards and call management solutions are ubiquitous in call centres and sales and support operations across the length and breadth of the UK. For some time customers have been asking Oak for a faster, more flexible web-based call management offering and Reynolds believes Oak's response, the new EVOLVE solution for Avaya's IP Office system, is a 'game changer' as it works on any communications device, including tablets, and on any browser, including those for the Apple Mac. "EVOLVE is one of the first products of its kind and we believe it will revolutionise the way businesses are run," said Reynolds.
A bold statement indeed, so what's under the skin of EVOLVE and why does Oak believe it will revolutionise call management for reseller customers? "EVOLVE brings together the most cutting edge telephone, Internet, database and mobile technologies in a single solution that does everything through the web," explains Reynolds. "This means that managers can view what's happening at that very moment in their business or call centre, using any communications device, anywhere in the world. It not only does all of the above, it operates much faster. This is largely due to incorporating a NoSQL backend database which can quickly process huge amounts of data."
Reynolds says EVOLVE addresses the limitations of traditional call logging solutions which have left businesses unable to immediately see missed calls or pursue customers who have left call queues. "EVOLVE addresses these frustrations head-on to dramatically improve effective call handling," he added. "Supervisors can now see how many calls are in a queue, which important customers are waiting to be answered, prioritise calls, and even move live calls between queues. A supervisor may also choose to speak to a customer themselves which is simple to execute. Also, all missed calls are logged in an organised list incorporating a dial back feature, so sales people can phone these customers straight away. This means businesses never lose sales or the opportunity to deliver exceptional customer service."
Reynolds is confident channel partners will find EVOLVE easy to sell, not just because it is easy to install and operate, but because it offers business improvement across the board. "The intuitive browser interface can be configured in exactly the way you want it to best monitor quality and performance," explained Reynolds. "Not only can calls be recorded for training purposes, but supervisors can participate in live calls passively to see how well they are handled, or actively intervening with support staff when they need it.
"Supervisors can manually manage agents' current statuses, making sure they are available when a large number of calls are coming in or a particularly important customer is waiting. Agents can also use the internal messaging system called 'chat' to confer with their supervisors on the best and fastest course of action with a current caller. The combination of faster response times, the emphasis on prioritising customers and the improvement of team customer service and sales skills could see a significant increase in the closing rate of calls."
And he stresses that EVOLVE, like all Oak products, is fully compliant with legal requirements with regards to the storage of calls and personal information. "All recordings are encrypted, so they are legally admissible in a court of law and take up minimum space compared to WAV or MP3 files," said Reynolds. "500GB stores around a year's worth of calls on a Primary Rate Interface or PRI. You can simply click on a call record to hear it, without any need for expensive voicemail ports. Reports can be run showing the details of each and every call, where it came into, how long it was on hold, how many times it was transferred, and who was involved in the call. This is often referred to as 'cradle to grave' reporting."
Avaya IP Office resellers can add EVOLVE to their portfolio immediately, but it won't be long before partners of other leading manufacturers can reap the benefits too as Reynolds confirmed. "To achieve such high level control over a telephone system requires complex real-time integration where multiple connections to the switch are managed in parallel," he added. "We are currently looking at the other leading manufacturers where we can achieve similar technically advanced results and where EVOLVE can add real value to the switch sale and further enhance our dealer relationships."•