​On a call with Avaya a few weeks ago, they told us that in order to empower developers to turn up and turn down applications using their CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) product quickly, they had purchased and integrated a SIP carrier into the platform. 

​The most interesting aspect of this carrier SIP service was that they sell it on a metered, per-minute basis. Meaning, you don't have to contract for fixed, standby SIP trunks to connect your communications application to the outside world. You pay for SIP channels and minutes only as you need and use them. 

​We then learned that this dynamic SIP service was available as a stand-alone offering (you didn’t have to be a developer to have a dynamic SIP account). Which begs the question; could our clients leverage Avaya's burstable (dynamic) SIP to gain greater bandwidth, network redundancy, and cost savings for their communications networks? 

Dynamic SIP could cut your network costs. ​

​SIP trunks (channels) are a critical piece of communications infrastructure. You cannot make or take voice calls on your business phone or contact center system without them. A correctly-engineered communications system will contain a ratio of SIP channels to system users so employees and customers will not encounter the dreaded fast-busy signal. Maybe that ratio is 8:1 (1 SIP channel for every eight system end-points). Or maybe it’s 10:1. Whatever. The art of communications-network design is getting that ratio right.

​Most systems are overbuilt and have too many SIP channels available. You pay for all those trunks regardless of whether you use them or not. You’re burning money when these resources are idle or unused. So if you need SIP, and the two ways SIP is currently sold favors the carrier, Avaya’s new pay-as-you-go pricing be a more efficient way to manage the phone calling demands of your business. It’s worth doing some analysis to find out.

​Some companies have a drastically changing need for carrier services throughout the year. Operate a seasonal business, and the resources you need at peak could be a huge factor greater than the network you need off-season (we even have customers who completely shut down for periods of time every year). Launch a big marketing or advertising effort, and your call volume jumps significantly (for a while). So how do you manage a communications system for a business that may need a hundred lines of SIP access in July, but only one in January?

​Most of our seasonal clients contract for all the lines they need for the peak, and simply leave them idle for the off-peak need (and amortize the cost across their annual budget). Others constantly turn up and turn down services trying to capture those savings; navigating the logistical minefield of contracts, minimums, and fluctuating pricing. Dynamic SIP solves for both problems.

​With a dynamic SIP connection in place, your system can open channels for calls up to an almost unlimited quantity (bandwidth and provisioning permitting), anytime you need them. And if the service sits idle, the nominal costs are negligible. 

Avaya’s dynamic SIP comes with access to a powerful development sandbox.

​Clients bring us challenges all the time that no existing cloud-based phone or contact-center system can solve. They may want a unique call-flow, need multiple systems to integrate with each other, or want contact center data managed in a very specific way. In most cases, to get the job done, we either contract with the professional services group from one of the major companies to modify or integrate their products to give the customer what they’re after, or work with a developer to design an application in a development environment like Twilio. Both approaches can be costly and tricky to execute well. 

​Avaya’s dynamic SIP sits inside a development environment. Because it’s designed as a service to help developers create new applications for communications systems, you get access to powerful new carrier-level features and services beyond traditional SIP. These services – carrier-level metadata and text capability at the trunk level, for example - means if your phones and underlying phone system are capable, you could add powerful new dimensions to your call-routing and system management. 

​It depends on your specific application and will take educated analysis, but yes, we believe that dynamic SIP is a vital new tool to help customers optimize their carrier networks. For customers paying for SIP channels that sit idle much of the time, or who buy channel/minutes bundles and have standard business usage, there is likely a cost saving. High-volume contact centers and clients with technical needs can gain access to rich carrier metadata and build amazing new workflows and applications. And clients with seasonal, or widely-varying SIP needs, can leverage the service to scale their voice networks up and down dynamically. Do any of these scenarios fit you?

​On a call with Avaya about their Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) product, we learned that to empower developers to turn up and turn down applications using their platform quickly, Avaya purchased and integrated a SIP carrier. Which means Avaya, and developers on their platform, have immediate access to provision local, mobile, and toll-free telephone numbers, as well as have SIP trunking and long-distance phone services ready to make and receive calls to and from the public network.

Interested in learning more about how you can leverage Avaya’s Dynamic SIP to improve the efficiency of your voice network? Contact us for a free consultation. 

Scottsdale, Arizona, February 2019 – City Communications, a boutique telecommunications management firm with a nationwide client base, has hired leading contact center technology expert Darren Prine to lead its business outreach and consulting initiatives.

Prine brings with him a wealth of contact center experience. Well known as a cloud solutions expert, Prine has successfully sold cloud-based contact center solutions for three different companies. Operating from his home base in Southern California, he’s the current President of the Southwest Regional Chapter of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals (SOCAP), which hosts multiple customer-care events annually in four states. Prine has been listed multiple times in the Fonolo Top 10 Call Center Tweeters to Follow list, and has also been listed on International Customer Management Institute’s Top 50 Thought Leaders.

"In the past, I only represented one company and one solution,” Prine says about the move. “When you only represent one company, your solution to everyone's problem is the one you sell, not always the one that is best for the customer. With City Communications, I represent over 100 different providers. Now I can help companies source the best possible solution, whether for their contact-center technology, the underlying network, or of the other technologies that intertwine in the modern enterprise, without bias."

“We are thrilled to have Darren on our team,” says City founder and partner John Casas. “As cloud-based communications services and networking technologies evolve and expand, customers need a team working for them that can provide the most comprehensive set of option from the open market. As one of the leading subject matter experts in this area, Darren adds significant value to our client advocate practice.”

Prine joins a tenured team of industry veteran project managers, consultants, and communications-services leaders at City.
 
City Communications is a leading boutique telecommunications management firm that works with clients nationwide on a wide range of voice and data projects, selling and managing solutions from over 100 providers. Founded in 2001, City specializes in Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), Avaya IP Office cloud migrations, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), SD-WAN, and Wide Area Network planning, procurement, and management.
 
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For more information about this press release, please contact Steve Medcroft at (602) 515-0320 or by email at steve@citycommunications.com.

If you've already made the decision to upgrade your contact center, discover the five vital questions to ask before deploying new contact center software. Doing so will help you make the most of the deployment and ensure that you've made the right decision for your business. Questions ranging from integration to tools to upgrades and more will help you start the process of integrating a successful contact center with a clear goal in mind. And once you're ready to begin, reach out to us at City Communications for assistance. We have the contact center and UC tools you need to reach your objectives.

Now that you're aware of the questions you should be asking before deploying new contact center software, it's time to get started. At City Communications, we can give you the guidance you need to help make your contact center the best it can be. Our range of options and UC tools will equip you with the services you need for successful integration. If you're ready to start the process, contact us today. No matter where you find yourself in the journey, we can meet you there and ensure you get the resources that best fit your unique business needs.

​The best contact centers aren’t just focused on technology — they’re putting a lot of effort into making sure management knows what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and how to support their workers in the most productive manner possible. It’s not easy to manage a contact center, but with the right approach and the best tools, yours can be highly productive.

Targeted coaching techniques can be a big advantage to employees who need that extra bit of personalized training. However, the best management environments are those where communication across the entire department is a priority. Good communication leads to faster conflict resolution. Furthermore, a lower level of conflict also improves workplace morale, which leads to better engagement and retention.

Despite adopting top-notch management techniques, there are still many disadvantages to taking on an on-site approach to managing a contact center. In fact, many organizations are leaving it up to a third party, and this approach is catching on.

Stop Wasting Time

The prospect of having outside project management assistance for better outcomes is fast becoming a go-to decision for companies small and large. When you manage a contact center with professional assistance, you can get customized solutions without having to carry all the extra baggage that’s involved with an on-site management scenario.

With a managed service provider, you can stop wasting your staff’s time waiting on hold with carriers and trying to figure out what issues are negatively impacting productivity. It’s “dirty work” that can be handled by someone else, preferably a team of experts that make it their full-time job.

When you land on the right provider, you’ll get a veteran staff that has all the telecom experience necessary to track your issues and handle all of your trouble tickets, billing issues, adds, changes, moves and more.

Finding the Right Carrier

The right telecom management service will coordinate and record your services and issues with all your data and voice carriers. The best managers will serve as a one-stop portal where all the information you need is only a click away.

Rather than pay for a suite of services you don’t need, find a telecom management provider that offers low monthly fees, yet can still keep an accurate inventory of vital information, including phone numbers, circuit IDs, account numbers and contract expiration dates. 

At City Communications, we are a the experts at getting our clients started faster with a variety of hosted options, and that means our clients aren’t burdened with depreciating capital equipment. We have access to the latest technology, and we handle all the upgrades and maintenance. Contact us today, and let’s talk about how we can help you manage a contact center.

Your contact center agents face a challenge that is difficult for you, as their leader, to relieve. It’s boredom. While every manager wants a team that’s engaged and excited to be at work every day, there’s an inherent difficulty with contact center agents because what they do much of the time is routine and tedious.

From answering simple questions to assisting with the payment of invoices and reordering, the calls that contact center agents field all begin to sound alike. It’s no wonder that across every industry turnover is high in contact centers with about a third of agents turning over constantly.

Not surprisingly, the answer to boredom comes with new technology. While an automated telephone system can sometimes serve to only turn the boredom back on the customer, automation equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) can improve customer satisfaction and relieve contact center agents of their boredom.

Cloud-based AI agents are able to handle an increasingly complex set of tasks, relieving live agents of a variety of mundane calls. AI agents can navigate items like bill payments, order status, confirmation of appointments, account updates and credit checks. All they need to complete these tasks is the ability to access your customer data and instructions on how to respond to a variety of circumstances. They need to be taught which calls to handle and which to transfer to a contact center agent.

Cloud AI agents allow you to segment rudimentary calls to these automated bots while freeing up your contact center agents to handle the more interesting and complex cases. There are a couple of important benefits to this practice:

·         You’ll optimize your contact center, reducing the cost of each call and speeding up resolution on more complex cases. Each agent can now be trained for skills in handling complex customer service issues, allowing you to run your contact center more effectively and efficiently.
·         During high-volume periods, AI agents can lighten the load for contact center agents.
·         When you do experience turnover, you are able to reduce the number of agents you need to replace, allowing your best, loyal talent to deliver excellent service.
·         With additional professional training, your contact center agents are better-prepared to handle the most important issues and ensure your valued customers remain committed to your brand.

If you’ve been contemplating the implementation of AI technology into your contact center, contact us at City Communications. We can help you make the right decisions to maximize your return on investment and explore new technologies for your contact center.

It's easy, in this day and age, to go at it alone when implementing new communications technology in your business. But the landscape is filled with companies shouting about how they all have the greatest solution to every challenge. And you don't always have the time to become a world-class expert in order to make the best decision.

When your technology challenge is important and your priorities are pulled in several directions, it can actually make more sense to call in outside help than it does to try and function without it. 

When Should I Turn to Outsourced Technology Help?

You want to save time. If your current IT department is stretched to the limit and hiring more staff is out of the question, outsourced technology help can be just what the doctor ordered. Since it's more of an operational expense than a capital expense—depending on how you record these expenses—hiring a service provider to solve a technology problem can be easier to get past budgeting issues than hiring employees or *buying* new systems. 

You want a specialist. Your IT department takes care of all the usual issues, but what if you want to ramp up your IT security? Detailing the IT department to also handle security may not only spread them thin, but they may be a bit too generalist to take care of something with so many subtle internal issues. Hiring help can allow for focus on one specific part of the operation.

You want the very latest. One of the key advantages of hiring a specialist is that they have to keep up with the latest developments in a field. It's a key competitive advantage, after all, and you can take advantage of that for yourself.

You want flexibility. Outsourcing technology help is not a one-size-fits-all operation. Sometimes you need someone in the office full-time. Sometimes you only need a few questions answered. Some providers, like managed service providers (MSPs), can offer more consultative technology assistance when you just need some insight help.

Where to Go to Get the Best in Outsourced Technology Help

When you're ready for the best in outsourced technology help, reach out to us at City Communications. As an MSP ourselves, we can provide both experience and expertise on a wide range of topics. We'll help keep you in the game, no matter what your reason for calling in help may be. So just drop us a line when you're ready for that little extra help in keeping your operations up and running.

As your business grows, you are likely to encounter a point where it’s necessary to upgrade your communications technology. A contact center with 100 agents needs a different set of features and infrastructure than one with 1,000 or more agents. From access to reporting functions to offering high-performance call quality, many contact centers are finding that a cloud phone system meets the needs of a growing enterprise.

Why not simply upgrade the legacy system? If you’re considering an upgrade, you might begin with talking with your current phone branch exchange (PBX) provider about adding features and users to make your legacy system fit your growing needs. You might want to add the routing of digital channels (like email, chat, or text messages) or add a workforce management system that helps you better manage agents.

The cost of upgrading your legacy PBX system may surprise you. For a contact center with only 100 agents, the cost could be more than $300,000. What seems like a simple upgrade is not just tacking on a few hardware elements, it can actually require a complete replacement of your system; new hardware, software, handsets, features, peripheral systems, and service agreements. It’s not a simple upgrade.

In addition to the cost of the upgrade, you’ll also need to factor in time to train your staff on new features and account for the cost of some disruption to your operations.

Consider migrating to a cloud phone system. The cost of upgrading your legacy system will quickly expand your consideration to a cloud phone system. There are several reasons why a cloud phone system may prove a preferable option for your contact center:

Minimal implementation cost: The cost of migrating to a cloud phone system is minimal. Your provider may be able to integrate your current desk phones into the new system, and the provider also handles all upgrades and maintenance. You then pay for service as a monthly subscription, so you can expect consistency in your communications cost.

Easy scalability: As your enterprise grows, a cloud phone system allows you to add users in a manner of seconds. You’ll always use exactly the number of users you need, and a cloud phone system allows you to spin up more users due to seasonality or a promotion.

In addition, there’s great value in being able to count on a cloud phone system meeting your needs in the future. Even if you’re a 100-agent contact center planning to become a 500-agent contact center, you can look ahead and plan for doubling that goal without any concern related to investing in new hardware, needing to train employees on a new system, or disruption in your business processes during an implementation. A cloud phone system grows with you.

Supporting mobility: When you use a cloud phone system, your employees are able to access communications tools no matter where they are, as long as they have a valid log-in and internet connectivity. There’s no need to run wires to an employee’s home or arrange for equipment to be delivered. It’s all available through the cloud.

To learn more about what a switch to a cloud phone system could do for your contact center, contact us at City Communications. We help you leverage the best technology for your needs without busting your IT budget. We look forward to talking with you.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) sometimes suffers from a bad rap. Fear mongers will have you believe that the technology will take jobs from human workers or, at worst, further isolate human beings from each other. Yet, AI also offers some of the exciting new possibilities in the ways we communicate and offer service to our customers. The combination of AI in contact centers, along with cloud-based delivery of the technology, is producing new value for businesses trying to understand how AI can help them evolve.

What Value is AI in Contact Centers Bringing Its Users?

Artificial Intelligence (the ability for a computer system to *think* for itself, to interact with a human being more naturally (for us), and learn from its experience to become, well, more intelligent) is moving out of the conceptual phase and into the real world. In contact centers, we're seeing several new options that offer real-world benefits.

Sentiment and keyword detection. Word choice, tone of voice, and more can help determine a caller's emotional state. AI can spot these points well, listening specifically for keywords and changes in tone that indicate emotional states. Having a second pair of ears—even artificial ones—can better help spot an opportunity when it emerges. Additionally, the keyword detection can make sure the agent is presenting the right matter to the caller.

Improved IVR. Improved interactive voice response (IVR) systems, thanks to AI in contact centers, are handling interactions that satisfy customers without the need for human agents. They are also connecting callers to the best possible person in your company to serve the customer's needs. With calls getting routed to the right place the first time, callers are happier that they have fewer hoops to jump through, while contact center staff can take care of problems directly. First-call resolution becomes par for the course rather than a major achievement.

AI as staff. The growth of chatbots—AI-driven systems that can interact with customers via a chat window without the need for a human agent—augment the contact center by allowing you to provide two levels of interaction: the AI handles simple questions like hours of operation, and humans handle the complex issues. This keeps the human staff out of the easy stuff to ensure they're able to focus on what they're better at (handling complex interactions).

Internal analytics. With AI, it's easier to put the data coming from your contact center system to work. By combining those data sets with data from other systems across your enterprise, AI can be used to deliver answers to questions we were once only able to imagine. For example, want to be able to predict whether or not a customer is more or less likely to purchase after talking to your agents? AI can combine call data with eCommerce data to get your answer.

How to Get Help Bringing AI in Contact Centers

AI in contact centers can be a big help, especially when paired with cloud-based solutions. Get help putting this combination to work in your business by reaching out to us at City Communications. 

Companies are increasingly adopting cloud solutions as a way to improve the customer experience, and the contact center is no exception. When it’s time to upgrade your technology, you might be ready to consider Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) – a cloud-based solution that provides customers with a consistent experience. It offers a variety of benefits:

Scalability: As you add seats or bring on a new dedicated team to support a big client, you need to be able to quickly add phone numbers and users. CCaaS is easy to scale up and down as needed. If your call volume has a seasonal element, you can count on CCaaS to help you meet call volume demand during holidays, promotions, or when there’s an unexpected surge in calls.

Reduced costs: From maintenance to upgrades and troubleshooting, your CCaaS solution is completely handled by the provider, freeing up IT professionals to work in strategic roles and help direct a superior customer experience. In addition, there’s little initial investment, and you can expect a consistent monthly invoice.

Enhanced customer experience: One of the biggest motivations for implementing CCaaS is the opportunity to outpace competitors with an excellent customer experience. If you work in an industry that cannot have an interruption in phone service at the risk of losing customers, CCaaS is a solution that guarantees customers can access the service they require at all times.

There are several reasons why companies decide to migrate to a cloud solution and away from traditional contact center systems. Legacy telecom carriers are notorious for poor customer service, and they may lack the ability to allow a contact center to scale as needed to meet call volume demand. Contact centers are also increasingly seeing the value of agility in a fast-paced market. They need a solution that allows them to make quick decisions to meet business objectives.

When it’s time to evaluate a CCaaS provider, it’s important to know what challenges you’re trying to solve or performance goals you have. In addition, keep these three items in mind:

• CCaaS systems can only realize their full potential when the underlying network is properly designed and engineered. Make sure your vendor knows how to help you prepare for, manage, and prioritize contact-center traffic. 
• Learn the porting and configuration process if you add customer service lines, which should not affect your line capacity. Choose a service provider that will activate numbers seamlessly with your contact center platform.
• Find out what your options are for tracking call data. It’s important to have access to statistics related to the location and time of your incoming calls.

If you’re considering a move to CCaaS, you can count on City Communications to aid you in a seamless cloud migration. Contact us for more information about starting the evaluation process for the right CCaaS solution for your contact center.