Call center architecture evolution

Feb 2, 2001
Gartner
© 2001 TechRepublic, Inc.

By B. Elliot

As call center infrastructure evolves toward software-based applications and to multichannel interactions, managers must develop a model that both preserves investments and integrates the new channel servers.

Call and contact center managers face a dilemma. On one hand, they are being asked by management to support and integrate their telephony and Internet contacts with one another, as well as with their front- and back-office applications. On the other hand, these managers are being asked to preserve investments in infrastructure and applications.

To address these competing requests, and to avoid "scope-and-scale" paralyses, call center managers and architects must develop a plan and blueprint for how they will evolve their installations.

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Two common problems that can bog down contact center projects are "scope creep" and "scale creep." To address emerging e-business requirements, preserve investments, and remain productive throughout the change, three complementary design guidelines should be kept in mind as the plan is developed.

Set goals
The initial, and often most difficult, problem is organizational. To develop plans, managers and architects must work closely with both the enterprise strategy planners and the business-marketing units. This task is difficult because each group has its own perspective and priorities.

Although often stated, this wisdom is also often ignored: To succeed, clear, high-level business strategies, priorities, and objectives must be articulated and backed by senior management.

Contact center managers must discuss and develop an approach in conjunction with the business units. The high-level strategic directives and goals can then be combined with the more tactical business objectives in order to be successfully translated into architecture planning guidelines and detailed contact center plans.
Define layers
Defining functional layers of a contact center's infrastructure and applications greatly simplifies the task of integration and migration; in most cases, it is not possible to develop an effective architecture without defining layers of functionality.

Each new technology typically starts with its own approach to integration. For instance, in a first release of a new type of application, vendors may bundle Web or telephony functions within the application. This is to be expected, as the initial goal is often evaluation, pilots, and time to market. As the technology matures, use increases, and the functionality can be modularized in subsequent revisions.

Interoperation of technologies becomes critical; otherwise incompatible "silos" of application-specific functionality result. Figure 1 shows the three layers of functionality in contact centers: applications, middleware, and networks.

Figure 1


The middleware layer has always been composed of channel-specific servers; increasingly functional services are used to allow shared multichannel functions. Keeping these layers distinct, and having well-defined interfaces between them, allows each level to evolve at its own pace. For instance, one would not want to replace an ACD or a LAN simply because a new back-office application is added to the call center.

Deploy middleware
To both preserve investments and allow evolution of infrastructure, managers should consider two important middleware directions. First is the movement to "service-oriented middleware architecture." This is made up of building blocks or modules of contact center capabilities (to encapsulate and isolate the service logic).

Middleware Modules
Contact center middleware modules can include:
  • Universal queuing and contact routing that provides contact prioritization, scheduling, and routing.
  • Agent skills and status that provide information about agent availability and skills.
  • Desktop screen pop and softphone functions. (Screen pop allows information about incoming calls to be "popped" onto an agent's screen at the same time the call is transferred to the agent; softphone functions allow access to telephone functions via the agent's screen.)
  • Common reporting in order to allow a single view of all contacts across all channels.

These are sometimes called n-tiered services, because they are able to call upon each other, as well as to interact with the layer above and below. Second is the role of message-oriented middleware. Increasingly, companies are looking at more flexible, loosely coupled, message-passing systems using widely available protocols like HTTP and interface definition tools, such as XML, operating over an IP environment.

Contact center change is a continuous process. Managers should expect continuous evolution of their environments because the needs of businesses will change as they adopt new technologies, applications, and strategies to better compete in the marketplace. To achieve this evolution, by 2003, half of all large contact centers will have adopted new enterprise IT standards, enabling enhanced interoperability and cross-application integration via greater componentization and call center middleware (0.8 probability).

Acronym key
ACD—Automatic call distributor
HTTP—Hypertext Transport Protocol
IP—Internet Protocol
LAN—Local-area network
XML—Extensible Markup Language

Bottom line
To avoid expensive "forklift" upgrades and incompatible silos of channel-specific infrastructure, contact center managers should evolve their architecture toward middleware. Similarly, enforcing a well-defined layer between applications and common contact center services will reduce dependencies between applications and increase interoperability.

Gartner originally published this report on Sept. 19, 2000.

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