PegaCALL Introduction to PegaCALL

1998 Pegasystems Inc.

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This document and the software described herein are provided pursuant to a License Agreement containing restrictions on their use. This document and the software contain valuable trade secrets and proprietary information of Pegasystems Inc. and are protected by federal copyright law, international laws or applicable treaties. Neither this document nor the software may be copied, modified, translated or distributed in any form or medium, disclosed to third parties, or used in any manner not provided for in said agreement, except with written authorization from Pegasystems Inc. Refer to your written agreement with Pegasystems Inc. that outlines your rights and obligations in detail. This document is current as of the date of publication only. Changes in the code, and hence in the document, may be made from time to time at Pegasystems discretion. This document remains the property of Pegasystems and must be returned to it upon request. This document may include references to subsystems and functionality of the Pegasystems product, which have not been licensed by your company. If you have questions about whether a particular capability is included in your installation, please consult your Pegasystems client consultant. Pegasystems, PegaSYSTEM, PegaARCHIVE, PegaCALL, PegaCONNECT, PegaINDEX, PegaPRISM, PegaREACH, PegaREELAY, PegaSEARCH, PegaVIEWACE, PegaWEB, are trademarks of Pegasystems Inc. Other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. This document is the property of: Pegasystems Inc. 101 Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142-1590 (617) 374-9600, fax: (617) 374-9620 Document: Introduction to PegaCALL Release File: Order #:

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Table of Contents

WHAT IS PEGACALL?................................................................................................1 TYPICAL CALL CENTER ENVIRONMENT .........................................................................2 PEGACALL CALL CENTER ENVIRONMENT ...................................................................4 PEGACALL HIGH LEVEL ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ......................................................7 PEGACALL FUNCTIONALITY ........................................................................................9 Data Pre-fetching .....................................................................................................9 Enhanced Call Routing.............................................................................................9 Adaptive Screen Pop.................................................................................................9 Comprehensive Reporting Facilities.......................................................................10 Additional Functionality .........................................................................................10 PEGACALL STRATEGIC PARTNERS .......................ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.

What is PegaCALL?
PegaCALL provides Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) to improve call center operations. PegaCALL enhances telephone-based customer interactions such as service inquires, telemarketing, sales, and collection efforts by integrating Pegasystems workflow capabilities with telephony hardware, software, and industry-standard APIs. PegaCALL is a component of Pegasystems Customer Contact Call Center Solution. This document will review the functionality and high-level architecture of PegaCALL.

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Typical Call Center Environment

In a typical call center environment, calls come into the call center PBX and are immediately transferred to an IVR. The IVR plays voice menus that allow customers to choose from different selections and obtain information related to their account. Callers can subsequently transfer to a Customer Service Representative for further service and processing. The figure below shows a typical call center environment.

Legacy System

2.

IVR/VRU

Public Phone Network (PSTN)

1.

Customer

PBX/ACD/Switch
Queue
3.
May II have May have your account your account number? number?

4.

Figure 1: Traditional Call Center Environment The numbers on the diagram correspond to the steps outlined below. These steps give a high-level overview of a call as it moves through a typical call center environment. 1. A customer calls a Call Center. Mr. Jones is a high balance account holder at The Bank. He calls The Bank's customer service center because he wants to make an adjustment on his account. 2. When the call arrives in the IVR, Mr. Jones is prompted to enter his account number. He enters his account number, account verification information, and proceeds to move through the IVR voice menus. He then selects the option to make an adjustment on his account. Mr. Jones is unsure of how to update his

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account from the IVR and decides that he needs to speak with someone to help him make the adjustment. 3. Mr. Jones opts to speak with a Customer Service Representative (CSR) and the call is transferred out of the IVR to the PBX where it is routed to queue and waits for an available representative. 4. A CSR becomes available and answers the call. The CSR asks Mr. Jones for his account number again before servicing can begin. Mr. Jones must repeat the account information he has already entered into the VRU including his account number and personal identification code (PIN number) because the information is not available to the CSR. From this overview, it is apparent that the traditional call center is not servicing the customer as effectively and efficiently as possible. In this type of call center, all calls are sent to a single queue where they wait for the next available CSR. In doing so, the call center misses the opportunity to segment its calls by product and/or customer profile and route the calls to CSRs who are specifically trained for more specialized service. When a customer has to repeat information to a CSR that he already entered into a system, it wastes both the customer and the CSR's time. The result is increased talk time and a poor service experience for the customer. These inefficiencies of traditional call centers can cost a company valuable time, money, and opportunities for building customer relationships.

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PegaCALL Call Center Environment

To better understand the PegaCALL Call Center Environment, it is important to understand CTI. CTI in call centers typically involves connecting a computer system to an IVR and a telephone switch. The IVR (also referred to as a VRU) passes information about calls it is servicing to the PegaSYSTEM and provides critical information if and when the caller decides to speak to a CSR. This information typically includes the callers account number as punched into the touch-tone phone and other information about the IVR interaction. A telephone switch (commonly referred to as a PBX or an ACD) provides the Pegasystem information about the call and allows the Pegasystem to make an intelligent decision as to how the call should be routed. The call is then placed in the appropriate queue. The call waits in queue and ultimately gets answered at a CSR phone. The PBX provides information at this time which drives screen pop processing at the CSRs workstation to display the caller information as the call arrives. (see below). The connection between the PBX and the Pegasystems also allows the CSR to issue telephone switch commands from the workflow for controlling the call. Examples of such commands are hang-up on a call, transfer a call, and making the CSR phone not ready for calls. The figure below provides an overview of the PegaCALL Call Center Environment.

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Legacy System IVR/VRU

2.

Public Phone Network (PSTN)

1. Customer

PBX/ACD
Queue A Queue B
3.

Queue C
Hello Mr. Jones Hello Mr. Jones How may II help How may help you? you?

SCREEN POP! SCREEN POP!

PegaCALL PegaCALL

4.

Figure 2. PegaCALL Call Center Environment The numbers on the diagram correspond to the steps outlined below. These steps give a high-level overview of a call as it moves through the PegaCALL call center environment. 1. A customer, Mr. Jones, calls a PegaCALL enabled Call Center. Mr. Jones, a high balance account holder at The Bank, calls The Bank's customer service center because he wants to make an adjustment on his account. 2. When the call arrives in the IVR, Mr. Jones is prompted to enter his account number. He enters his account number, account verification information, and proceeds to move through the IVR voice menus. He then selects the option to make an adjustment on his account. Mr. Jones is unsure of how to update his account and decides that he needs to speak with someone to help him make the adjustment. 3. Mr. Jones opts to speak with a Customer Service Representative (CSR). The information gathered in IVR, including Mr. Jones account number, is now passed to PegaCALL. PegaCALL now fetches all the available information on this customer from the legacy systems. PegaCALL evaluates this information and determines that Mr. Jones is a high balance customer

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attempting an adjustment on his account. Mr. Jones high balance makes him a particularly valuable customer and PegaCALL routes the call to a queue serviced by highly trained CSRs. 4. As soon as a CSR is available, the call is transferred to the CSR and all the information pertaining to the customer is transferred to the CSRs workstation. This is known as a screen pop. The CSR immediately knows that Mr. Jones is on the line. There is no need to ask Mr. Jones to repeat any account information because it is now on the CSRs screen. In addition, the CSR is able to see other information such as what Mr. Jones was attempting to do within the IVR and can proceed to assist him further. With a PegaCALL call center, customer service representatives are armed with tools to help them service a call more efficiently and effectively than they could in a traditional call center. The screen pop information is presented in a concise window that highlights the key information required to begin servicing the call. Additional account information is available at the CSRs workstation as the user proceeds with the call by clicking on a button from the screen pop window. A sample screen pop window is shown here:

Figure 3: Sample Screen Pop Window Note that the screen pop window will not replace the contents of the main window and wont destroy work in progress. The context of the workflow that the CSR is executing is preserved until such time as the CSR takes an action from the screen pop window and runs a GDOO.

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PegaCALL High Level Architectural Design

To support a broad range of functionality, PegaCALL utilizes an open architectural design that incorporates the PegaSYSTEM workflow engine, telephony hardware and software, and industry standard APIs. The figure below illustrates PegaCALLs architectural design.

IVR PegaSYSTEM Workflow Objects Telephony Objects Workflow Engine Telephony Objects ACE/ REACH REACH Industry Standards
TAPI 2 TSAPI CT-CONNECT

PBX

Figure 4. Overview of PegaCALLs Architectural Design By linking hardware with telephony objects, PegaCALL can control calls and execute workflows required to service a call at key points as the call moves through the call center environment. These interfaces allow the hardware to pass tag-data information to the PegaSYSTEM and execute telephony objects, or GDOOs, within the PegaSYSTEM to deal with key events.

Example: When a call arrives as a CSR phone, the PBX provides the
Pegasystem with key information such as the fact that the call has been delivered to a CSR, and the phone extension. This information is passed to the Pegasystem as tag-data pairs. A GDOO in the system called CTIOFFERING executes which uses this tag-data to send a screen pop with customer information to the CSR who answered the call.

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PegaCALL utilizes industry standard APIs to interface with the PBX and proprietary interfaces to connect to the IVR, where there are no industry standards available. The type of PBX determines which industry standard is used. See PegaCALL Hardware Interfacing Options for more information. For detailed information on the architectural components and step-by-step call flow information, refer to PegaCALL technical documentation.

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PegaCALL Functionality
Some examples of PegaCALL functionality are reviewed in the following sections:

Data Pre-fetching
Data pre-fetching capabilities allow the system to gather customer information before the call reaches a CSR. By utilizing the interfacing capabilities of the PegaSYSTEM, data can be gathered from external systems based on information collected in the IVR. As a caller moves through the IVR menus, information such as the account number is collected. This information can be used when performing a GEXT or other command to collect additional information on the caller. This information can be used to make call routing decisions, provide screen pop window information and other data to service the call when it reaches a CSR and could include full name and address information, account type and status, balance, etc.

Enhanced Call Routing

PegaCALLs intelligent call routing is facilitated by Pegasystems workflow capabilities. Workflow rules provide for highly flexible routing capabilities. Configurable rules determine the appropriate call routing based on data from the IVR, PBX, and customer information systems. The data used for routing decisions may include ANI (Automatic Number Identification), DNIS (Dialed Number Identification Service), caller entered data from the IVR, legacy system data, and customer profile data and service history.

Example: A call comes into the call center from a customer who has a Gold
VIP account, requiring high minimum balances. Once the account number is entered, information on the caller is retrieved, indicating the account type. This call can be routed to a queue staffed by highly skilled CSRs. Another Example: A call comes into the call center from a caller whose account is in collections. By evaluating this information, the caller can immediately be transferred to the collections department. Another Example: A customers profile information indicates that they prefer to speak French instead of English. The call can be routed to a bilingual operator.

Adaptive Screen Pop

PegaCALLs screen pop functionality coordinates the arrival of an incoming call with the display of caller information at the CSR workstation. This eliminates the need to have the CSR collect the caller number or other identification information to retrieve customer information manually.

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The type of screen pop window and the information it displays is determined by evaluating the information gathered on the caller. Examples of this functionality include indications of product type, language preference (so that bi-lingual operators can greet the caller in their native language), and qualification for promotion and/or cross selling opportunities. The screen pop window displays fields of information about the caller and includes buttons and messages that can lead the CSR into specific call center workflows. All information about the call is then passed to the workflows so servicing can begin. Information on the caller can also indicate that the caller was attempting certain functions in the IVR when the caller opted to speak with a CSR.

Example: A caller provides an account number to the IVR to check their

account balance, but fails to provide the PIN number. After that person opts out to speak to a CSR, a customized screen pop window can be presented that prompts the CSR to verify the caller by requesting security information. Another example: A caller enters information in the IVR and attempts to transfer money between two accounts. The caller has difficulty with the IVR and opts out to speak with a CSR. A customized screen pop window can display the account information collected in the IVR and display buttons that will lead the CSR into the Balance Transfer workflow.

Comprehensive Reporting Facilities

PegaCALL offers comprehensive reporting abilities to track Call Center activities. Reports are available for a variety of real time overviews including reports on operator productivity, total number of operator statuses. PegaCALL also keeps a variety of statistical elements on calls and the call center agents. Reports are also available to analyze the statistical information collected on a call and the call center.

Example: An Operator Status Report can be executed to view real time

statistics on all the CSRs logged into the system at that moment. Information including the operator name, status, extension number, number of calls, and time of last call are available through this report. Also, from this report, additional information is available on an individual CSR that includes information on the different statuses and times that the operator was in each status throughout the day.

Additional Functionality
Additional functionality includes preview dialing (point and click dialing), Predictive Dialer integration, software phone features, and integration with PegaWEB. Consult the marketing literature for further information.

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PegaCALL Strategic Partners

There are a number of other CTI vendors that are prevalent within our vertical markets. The two most successful vendors are Genesys Labs and GeoTel Communications. A prospect may wish to use one of these vendors for their CTI infrastructure and the PegaSYSTEM for workflow processing. Because the market demands that we offer open systems and a choice to our prospects to work with other vendors, we have developed working relationships and interfaces with Genesys and GeoTel and are able to offer an integrated solution to our clients. We refer to these vendors as PegaCall CTI Solution Partners. The primary difference between a PegaCALL implementation and a PegaCALL CTI Solution Partner implementation is how our system is connected to the PBX and the VRU. In a CTI Solution Partner implementation, PegaCALL interfaces with Genesys or GeoTel and that vendor interfaces with the telephony hardware as illustrated below:

IVR

Workflow Objects

Workflow Engine Telephony Objects

Genesys/ GeoTel

PBX

ACE/ REACH
Figure 5: PegaCALL installation with CTI Solution Partner PegaCALL CTI Solution Partner implementations offer essentially equivalent Pegasystems functionality as native implementations and pricing for PegaCALL is the same in either case. In a CTI Solution Partner implementation, we sell PegaCALL with a Genesys or GeoTel interface, as opposed to PegaCALL with a TAPI, or other industry standard interface, in addition to an interface to the IVR. Note that for the client however, the purchasing of Genesys and GeoTel

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technology in place of the industry standard interfaces may represent a significantly higher additional cost.

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