Transcript Introduction to Telecommunication Equipment

Introduction to Telecommunication
Equipment: PBX, ACD, IVR, CMS,
CAS and Workforce Management
or
How to Select Telephone Systems &
Services to Fit Your Needs
Bill Brackin
Program Director, North Sound 2-1-1
And Telephone Systems Manager
Volunteers of America Western Washington
•Telephone Services
•Dial Tone
•Long Distance
•Networking
•Telephone Systems
•Centrex with Single Line Phones
•Software as a Service with Single Line Phones
•Switches
•Digital Switch
•VoIP Switch
•PBX
•Optional Special Features
Telephone Services
– Dial Tone - POTS Lines
POTS = “Plain old telephone line”
POTS lines are the simplest telephone line you can buy.
They are often referred to as “business lines”. Even in complex
applications POTS lines have their place. They provide backup
lines, fax lines, and other simple applications. They are usually
delivered as analog lines.
Telephone Services
– Dial Tone – T Carrier Lines
T1 means any data circuit (including voice packets) that runs
at the 1.544 Mb/second line rate. T-1’s are point-to-point
digital lines that can have multiple unique numbers (DIDs)
assigned. Each T-1 is a dedicated leased digital line that is
connected to a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) from the
central office (CO). Features are provided by your
telephone system.
T2 and T3 circuit channels carry multiple T1 channels
multiplexed, resulting in transmission rates of 6.312 and
44.736 Mbit/sec, respectively.
• Telephone Services
– Dial Tone – T Carrier Lines
• T1s come in a couple of versions
– T1, which has 24 paths for incoming and/or outgoing
traffic.
– T1 PRI, which in North American includes 23 voice
channels + 1 data channel. The D channel carries control
and signaling information, including caller ID.
– Fractional T1 - 256, 348, 512, 768 Kbps services providing
less than 23 voice channels.
• Telephone Services
– Long Distance Services – 3 Classes
In the United States, long distance can refer to three different classes of
calls that are not local toll-free calls. The most common class of longdistance is often called interstate long-distance, though the more
accurate term is inter-LATA interstate long distance.
Another form of long-distance, increasingly relevant to more U.S. states,
is known as inter-LATA intrastate long distance. This refers to a
calling area outside of the customer’s LATA but within the customer's
state.
Often, in large LATAs, there is also a class known by the oxymoronic
name local long distance, which refers to calls within the customer's
LATA but outside of their local calling area. This is sometimes also
referred to as intra-LATA long distance.
• Telephone Services
– Long Distance Services – Purchasing
Before buying any long distance services make sure you know what rate
will be charged for each of these three categories. Intra-LATA calls can
legally be billed at a much higher rate than are Inter-LATA calls, and
often are. This may be a point of negotiation.
It is also very important to know the approximate minutes of each of these
categories of calls that your agency makes, so that you can evaluate the
financial impact of a long distance proposal on your agency
specifically.
You can buy long distance services from your dial tone provider, or
anyone else you want to do business with. You will need to tell your
dial tone provider which long distance carrier you are going with,
because they need to program that into their systems.
• Telephone Services
– Long Distance Services – Slamming and PIC Freezes
“Slamming” is the illegal practice of changing a consumer's telephone
service—local (intra-LATA), toll (inter-LATA intrastate), long distance
(inter-LATA inter-state), or international—without permission.
To prevent slamming you can arrange in advance with the local exchange
carrier (local telephone company) to initiate a “PIC Freeze” to prevent
unauthorized changing of the long distance telephone carrier. It
stipulates that your carrier may not be changed without your written
consent. This feature is free of charge. If in the future you want to
change carriers, remember to submit a written request to remove the
PIC Freeze before placing your change order.
• Telephone Services
– Networking
If you plan on tying together multiple locations into a common telephone
and/or data system, you will need to design a networking system.
Your specific telephone system may dictate the options that you have
available to you. Some systems won’t work well with DSL networks,
for example. Some work very well with them.
Networking is a very technical area, and your IT staff or consultant should
help you make this choice. Don’t be afraid to ask lots of “dumb”
questions. This is complicated stuff, and each option comes with good
and bad features, security considerations, installation and operational
costs, maintenance and support issues, and more.
• Telephone Services
– Networking
• Here are some, but not all, of the many items to consider:
– Is your telephone system VoIP capable or not?
– Size of the data packets that your VoIP telephone system sends across the
network.
– The reliability of each type of networking service.
– Is the proposed network “point-to-point”, “cloud”, or some other design?
– Who manages the maintenance, security, and upgrades?
– Do you need to purchase the routers, or are they provided as part of the
service?
– Does your telephone system have the capacity to add the networking service,
and if not, what will it cost to add that capacity?
– How long of a contract must you sign in order to get a reasonable price?
– Is the provider using “compression”, and if so, how much?
– Can the vendor give you access to existing customers who are using the
proposed system in a similar way to what you are proposing?
• Telephone Systems
–Centrex with Single Line
Phones
Switching Software is
Located Here
Call Center or Agency
Agent at Home
Local Central Office
(CO)
Centrex lines are analog lines provided by the local telephone service provider
that provide
programmable features on the line. The cost is based on usage and features programmed for
each line and monthly service fee. Hardware and software maintenance is included in the
monthly costs. No technical staff is required to operate such a system. Agents can easily be
set up to work from home.
• Telephone Systems
–Software as a Service with Single
Line Phones or Telephone Systems
Switching Software is
Located Here
Call Center or Agency
Local Central Office
(CO)
Agent at Home
SAAS Provider Switch
“Software as a Service” rides on analog or digital lines provided
(s)by the local telephone service provider.
It includes additional routing, call center management, voice mail, etc. provided by a different provider
than your local telephone company. The cost is based on usage and features programmed for each line
and a monthly or per-call service fee. Hardware and software maintenance and upgrades are included
in the monthly costs. There may be an initial setup fee. No technical staff is required to operate such a
system. Agents can easily work from home, and center can easily be relocated during emergencies and
disasters.
•Telephone Systems
–Switches
A telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects
telephone calls. It is hardware that is controlled by software in modern
telephone systems. In the past switching was often done manually.
A switch can be located in a local or long distance telephone company’s office
or on your premises. Telephone switches are a small part of the large
telephone network. When a switch is in-house, it is often referred to as the
telephone system or PBX (Private Branch Exchange). In-house switches
require you to pay for maintenance and hardware and software upgrades as
needed. They are more challenging to set up for at-home agents, and are not
as easily relocated during emergencies or disasters. They usually need you to
hire technical staff or to contract with a maintenance provider to make
changes, upgrades, or maintenance. In large agencies, where IT staff is
already available, they may provide a lower cost solution.
• Telephone Systems
– Digital Switch
A digital switch is a type of switch that connects two or more
digital circuits together. It is a type of switch that has been
used by telephone companies, agencies, and businesses for a
long time. They operate on time tested and reliable telephone
engineering. If you have a switch that is five or more years
old, you probably have a digital switch.
• Telephone Systems
– VoIP Switch
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) refers to communications
services—voice, facsimile, and/or voice-messaging
applications—that are transported via the Internet, rather
than the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The
basic steps involved in originating an Internet telephone
call are conversion of the analog voice signal to digital
format and compression/translation of the signal into
Internet protocol (IP) packets for transmission over the
Internet; the process is reversed at the receiving end.
• Telephone Systems
– VoIP Switch
Other terms frequently encountered and synonymous with
VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over
broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, and broadband
phone.
Because these systems connect telephones and switches by
way of the Internet, they are typically easier for IT staff to
deal with than digital switches. They do require firewall
security systems, as do computer networks.
• Telephone Systems
– VoIP Switch – Quality of Service Considerations
The underlying IP network is inherently unreliable, in
contrast to the circuit-switched public telephone network.
It does not inherently provide a mechanism to ensure that
data packets are delivered in sequential order or provide
Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. Because of this VoIP
implementations face problems mitigating latency and
jitter.
The receiving node must restructure IP packets that may be
out of order, delayed or missing, while ensuring that the
audio stream maintains a proper time consistency. Variation
in delay is called jitter.
• Telephone Systems
– VoIP Switch – Power Considerations
Traditional residential and business analog POTS line
services are usually connected directly to telephone
company phone lines. They provide direct current to
power most the basic analog handsets independently
of locally available power.
In a VoIP installation you must plan for power and
power backups, since the phones, servers, and
switches will not work without local power being
supplied.
• Telephone Systems
– VoIP Switch – 911 Considerations
A fixed line phone has a direct relationship between a telephone number
and a physical location. If an emergency call comes to 911 from that
number, then the physical location is known.
In the IP world it is not so simple. A broadband provider may know the
location where the wires terminate, but this does not necessarily allow
the mapping of an IP address to that location.
• IP addresses are often dynamically assigned, so the ISP may allocate an
address for online access, or at the time a broadband router is engaged. The
ISP recognizes individual IP addresses, but does not necessarily know what
physical location to which it corresponds.
• The broadband service provider knows the physical location, but is not
necessarily tracking the IP addresses in use.
• Since IP is portable, the location may be a moving target. 911 calls will
often mis-locate the caller. This has resulted in known deaths because of
responders being directed to an old or incorrect address. It is critical that
you maintain tables in your VoIP phone system to locate all extensions.
• Telephone Systems
– VoIP Switch
With all of these considerations VoIP has still become the
standard. Why?
– Low cost, especially when combined with Internet, cable
TV, and computer data networking.
– Easily transportable. Software can be placed on a laptop to
mimic a telephone set. This is called a softphone.
– VoIP service is nearly indistinguishable from the PSTN.
– VoIP phones allow VoIP calls without the use of a
computer. Of course, Internet connectivity is still required.
– VoIP allows for more flexibility and interchangeability of
software and hardware in many cases.
• Telephone Systems
– VoIP Switch
Remote
Agent
Fractional T1
512k
Internet Cloud
256k committed rate
Central
Office
Call
Center
Full T1
1.544m
384k committed rate
Central
Office
Call
Center
VoIP – Hardware and software that
allows people to use Internet protocols to
make telephone calls.
Central
Office
Call
Center
• Telephone Systems
– PBX
A private branch exchange (PBX) is a telephone switch that serves a
particular business or office, as opposed to one that a telephone
company operates for many businesses or for the general public.
PBXs make connections among the internal telephones of a private
organization and also connect them to the public switched telephone
network (PSTN) via trunk lines like T1s.
PBXs are differentiated from “key systems" in that users of key systems
manually select their own outgoing lines, while PBXs select the
outgoing line automatically. Hybrid systems combine features of both.
• Telephone Systems
– Optional Special Features
• Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
– Skills Based Routing
– Voice, Email, Fax, Chat
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
– Speech recognition
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Call Center Software
Call Recording
Call Accounting
Voice Mail
Workforce Management (WFM)
Online Hiring Software
Integrated Training Tools
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
Work at Home or Remote Agents
Contact Management System (CMS)
And more….
• Telephone Systems
– Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
Routing incoming calls is the task of the ACD system. ACD
systems are often found in call centers or offices that
handle large volumes of incoming phone calls from callers
who have no need to talk to a specific person but who
require assistance from any of multiple persons (e.g.,
customer service representatives) at the earliest
opportunity. The routing strategy is a rule-based set of
instructions that tells the ACD how calls are handled inside
the system. This capability may include e-mail, fax,
and/or chat as well as voice.
Many switches already include an ACD in their software.
• Telephone Systems
– Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
• Skills Based Routing
Call routing can send calls to the agent best suited to handle
that call. For example, Spanish speaking callers can be
routed to agents who speak Spanish if they are available. A
person with disabilities can be routed to an agent who
specializes in services and resources for persons with
diabilities.
Call routing can also be based on other factors such as the
caller ID of the caller, the number that was dialed by the
caller, a database that establishes priority of certain callers,
• Telephone Systems
– Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
IVR is an interactive technology that allows a computer to detect voice
(speech recognition) and keypad inputs.
IVR allows customers to access a company’s database via a telephone
touchtone keypad or by speech recognition, after which they can
service their own inquiries by following the instructions.
IVR systems can respond with pre-recorded or dynamically generated
audio to further direct users on how to proceed. IVR systems can be
used to control almost any function where the interface can be broken
down into a series of simple menu choices.
• Telephone Systems
– Call Center Software
Many telephones systems come with ACD built in, but if you want more
than just call distribution, you will need to add call center software, and
possibly a server, to your telephone system. These usually provide a
better agent interface through their computer screen, a customizable
real-time supervisor screen, statistical reports, and more.
– Call Recording
Call recording software or call logging software allows a party to record a
telephone conversation to a digital file, usually in .wav or mp3 format.
• Telephone Systems
– Call Accounting
A Call Accounting System is a software or hardware
application that captures, records, and costs telephone
usage events. Call accounting systems detect outbound and
inbound calls, call ring outs, call routings, abandoned calls,
and other activities.
– Voice Mail
Voice Mail is a centralized system of managing telephone
messages for a large group of people.
• Telephone Systems
– Workforce Management (WFM)
Workforce management software provides a tool to manage scheduling
needs for the agency. WFM collects information on the number,
length and time of day of calls and calculates the number staff needed
for each shift. It also provides trends from historical data with a variety
of reports. Managers use Workforce software for planning meetings,
time off or vacation time for staffing based on service levels.
– Online Hiring Software
– Some systems offer optional hiring management software that prescreens candidates, introduces the applicants to your company, gives
online tests, and introduces the candidates to the position that is being
offered.
• Telephone Systems
– Integrated Training Tools
Call centers often have slow times. Integrated Training Tools can observe slow
periods and feed short training modules to idle agents to make the best use of
the time. These trainings can be linked to assessment tools in some systems so
that the training modules are the ones that will be most helpful to that specific
agent.
– Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
CTI enriches your caller’s experience by retrieving caller-specific information and
matching it with the best agent to help them. Also, the screen pop feature saves
both the caller’s and the agent’s time by automatically opening the right screen
directly to the agent's desktop. Finally, CTI lets a caller utilize self-service by
getting or setting his own account information over the phone without talking
to a live agent.
• Telephone Systems
– Work at Home or remote Agents
Functionality in your telephone system or services that allow agents to work from
home, relocate to another location, or to work in a mobile environment. Check
with your vendors to see what you need to do to add this functionality.
– Contact Management System (CMS)
A Contact Management System (CMS) is an integrated solution that
allows organizations to record relationships and interactions with their
callers. This information includes all emails, documents, jobs, faxes,
calendar and more.
• And more…..
If you can think of it, a telephone systems
manufacturer has probably already developed
a system to handle it. Ask your vendors.
Questions???
More Information
Bill Brackin, Program Director
North Sound 2-1-1
(425) 609-2213
[email protected]