Amidst the integration of the Nortel product line, Avaya is continuing to roll out updates to Call Center manager. The Nortel product will actually be the first, out of the entire portfolio, to make the leap to Avaya’s Next Generation Context Center.
Nortel’s Contact Center manager 7.1 is available now. The challenge with this release is that when an agent transfers a call outside of the call center itself, all tracking information regarding the call is lost… important information such as first-call-resolution, time-to-resolution etc.
Next month, Avaya will upgrade Call Center Manager to their Next Generation Cotext Center (NGCC) 1.0. The main architecture difference between the two is that all calls will be anchored on the MASS server (multimedia application server). Instead of physically transferring the call, the NGCC will actually anchor the call and then conference in resources such as other agents, applications, integrations etc… The call itself will never move. This architecture will bring Avaya a step closer to being able to provide a more context oriented call experience and will provide more comprehensive reporting capabilities.
Avaya will provide a link to the NGCC through AML or SIP. The AML provides the capability to connect to legacy systems.
The next NGCC release (2.0) is due out in Nov.
Note: Nortel heritage products have adopted the Avaya release schedule of May and November.
I know that for many call center software products, losing tracking information is a common issue with call transferring to a recipient outside of the call center. Although I am not entirely sure if the Call Center Manager upgrade is addressing this issue, I think that it is a very important for Nortel to come up with a solution for this in order to be successful. I do like the idea of anchoring and bringing resources to the call rather than physically transferring the call instead. I look forward to seeing how effective the upgrade was.
-Raaju J.