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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Overview on Oracle Advanced Inbound

Posted by at 3:38 AM Read our previous post
Oracle Advanced Inbound is designed to do the following:
•     Consistently and effectively handle customer interactions by intelligently routing, queuing and distributing media items
•     Offer CTI support for market-leading traditional ACD/PBX and IP Telephony platforms
•     Provide enhanced screen pops on customer data into the Oracle e-Business suite application
•     Fully integrate with Oracle TeleSales, Oracle TeleService and Oracle Collections, thereby minimizing integration time and deployment costs.

Acronyms used in Oracle Inbound

Private branch exchange (PBX):  Also called Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX). A telephone system located at a customer’s site that handles incoming and outgoing calls. A PBX routes calls between the public telephone network and specific telephones within the private system. PBXs use proprietary phones. ACD software can provide PBXs with ACD functionality.

Automatic call distributor (ACD):  An ACD is a specialized telephone switching system used in incoming call centers. It is a programmable device that automatically answers calls, queues calls, distributes calls to agents, plays delay announcements to callers, and provides real-time and historical reports on these activities. It may be a stand-alone system, or ACD capability can be built into PBX. Agents log in to an ACD queue.

Computer telephony integration (CTI):  A technology that combines computers with telephone systems to enhance telephone services. CTI can be defined as connecting computer equipment to telephone and network equipment so that the two technologies can share information. It also describes the linking of analog voice information to information systems and databases.

Interactive voice response (IVR) unit:  Also called voice response unit (VRU). IVR offers the ability to receive or dispense information. The IVR may play a message prompting a caller for data entered using telephone touch tones and then attach the data to a call for use in intelligent routing by a telephony application. For example, an IVR can prompt a caller for a customer number, account number, trouble ticket number, or information on the nature of the call. A telephony application can then route the call to the appropriate ACD queue or perform a screen pop on the desktop of the agent handling that specific type of call. An IVR can also dispense information, taking values from a database or table containing strings, converting them to synthesized speech, and playing the information for the customer.

Automatic Number Identification (ANI):  ANI is used to open the appropriate customer record for an incoming call based on the number from which the call was dialed. When a customer calls into a call center, the computer looks up the caller’s telephone number in its database and identifies the caller or the region from which the customer is calling. It can also be used to route calls intelligently.

Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) : DNIS shows the call center agent which number a prospect or customer has called; for example, in organizations that maintain multiple 800 numbers, DNIS helps identify what the caller wants to discuss.

Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP):  A standard specification for transporting sound as data packets through the Internet. The process involves converting an analog signal at the source (your voice through a microphone) into a digital format with an ADC (analog-to-digital converter), transmitting the data as a series of packets and then converting it back to analog with a DAC (digital-to-analog converter) at the destination.

Local Area Network (LAN):  A group of computers and other devices dispersed over a relatively limited area and connected by a communications link that enables any device to interact with another on the network.

Distributed Computing Environment (DCE):  The Distributed Computing Environment is a protocol that allows programs running on multiple computers to communicate with one another via a common protocol. DCE operates over TCP/IP or other network protocols; TCP/IP typically is used.

Terminologies used by Oracle Inbound

Agent:  Interaction center employees who perform standard phone and e-mail operations, such as support, sales, and other similar tasks. The agent is the person who interacts at the basic operating level of software.

Business application: An application that is used in conjunction with Advanced Inbound. These applications store customer information and are the central point for an interaction. Examples of business applications include TeleSales, TeleService, and Collections.

Call and data transfer:  The ability to transfer the customer record with the voice to another individual.

IP address: An identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network.

Middleware:  Software that mediates between different types of hardware and software on a network, so that they can function together.

Route Point:  A point from which inbound calls are queued and routed. Route point refers to Avaya VDN, Nortel CDN/ACDN, Aspect DID DNIS, and so on.

Routing:  Moving a call from an ACD to an agent. Intelligent routing is the ability to move a call to an appropriate agent or location based on user-defined criteria.

Screen pop:  A customer record that appears (or “pops”) on the agent desktop after when the agent is connected to a call.

Server: A program that receives requests from another program to perform activities that allow the requesting program to accomplish certain tasks.

Server group: A server group is a logical grouping of servers that constitutes an interaction center.

Softphone : Graphical representation of a telephone on the desktop with the same function as a teleset.

Web callback: A transaction in which an agent calls back a customer who requested the call from an iStore or iSupport web page.

Advanced Inbound Features

CTI : Out-of-the-box computer telephony integration to third-party telephony platforms.

IVR Integration: Collect data from interactive voice response (IVR) units for call classification, routing and screen pop.

Interaction Queuing and Distribution: Queue and route inbound calls for distribution to appropriate agents.

Screen Pops: Collect and send customer data for screen pops into Oracle eBusiness Suite applications.

Call and Data Transfer: Transfer or conference a call and its application data from one agent to another agent.

Web Callbacks: Integrate Oracle Advanced Inbound with Oracle iStore and Oracle iSupport to support Web callbacks.

Oracle Enterprise Routing: Route and queue calls arriving at any site to agents at any site in a multi-site configuration. This feature is available only in active mode.

Enterprise Call and Data Transfer: Transfer or conference a call and its application data to an agent who is at another site in a multi-site configuration. Transferred internal calls do not generate a screen pop at the target agent.

Middleware-Based Multi-Site Functionality: CTI middleware such as Aspect Enterprise Contact Server and Cisco ICM may provide multi-site functionality through their software suite. In these cases, the CTI middleware vendor directly provides enterprise routing and call and data transfer functionality. Oracle Advanced Inbound is typically only available in passive or enhanced passive modes, due to middleware vendor limitations and middleware controlled routing. For Oracle Advanced Inbound integrations to these CTI middlewares (Aspect, Cisco), customers should directly contact their CTI middleware vendor for PBX/ACD-specific configurations and requirements for supporting multi-site. Oracle Advanced Inbound requires the use of an Oracle certified or supported switch that interfaces to an Oracle certified or supported CTI middleware.

Advanced Inbound Components
The Oracle Advanced Inbound solution consists of the following three-layer server architecture:

1. Telephony platform layer:
•    ACD/PBX switches
•    CTI middleware provided by third-party vendors

2. Oracle Advanced Inbound server processes:

•     Oracle Telephony Adapter Server normalizes telephony platform-specific messages and events.
•     Inbound Telephony Server monitors inbound calls arriving at ACD queues and route points.
•     Oracle Telephony Manager manages agent state information.
•     Interaction Queuing and Distribution queues and distributes calls.
•     Oracle Routing Server classifies and routes calls to an agent group based on user-defined rules or workflow responsibilities.
•     Universal Work Queue displays call queues to the agent and launches business applications when a call is delivered to an agent.
•     Interaction Blending provides service-level management of calls and can blend inbound and outbound calls.
•     Switch Simulator simulates a switch for verification of an Oracle Advanced Inbound implementation.

3. Business and agent desktop applications

•     Oracle Universal Work Queue desktop (agent desktop work queue)
•     Oracle TeleService, Oracle TeleSales and Oracle Collections
•     Media Desktop (soft phone)


You may also like to read           Overview on Oracle Service Contract


                                                  Overview on Install Base


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