EBusiness Call Center Application

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E-Business Call Center Application

• February 2005

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What is a Call Center?

• A single location that people can contact to
  receive a service or product
• Service may involve many providers
• Call Center contacts the providers(s) for the
  caller
• Call center relays to the caller the results of
  the provider contact

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Why is it Named a Call Center

• Before the internet, you had to use the telephone
  to contact the center
• The name has stuck even though you can contact
  them via the WWW for most services
• The service goals are the same whether calling a
  human or interacting with a web site interface

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The Call Center Application for Pennsylvania One
Call

• Contractors and landowners dug up gas lines,
  electrical lines, telephone lines, cable TV
  lines, water lines, sewer lines and other buried
  facilities
• Cost to the facility owner to repair is high
• Cost to the contractor or landowner may be with
  their life in some cases (Gas Explosion)
• State Law Anyone who is going to dig anywhere in
  the State must contact the call center and they
  notify the facility owners

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Pennsylvania One Call Center

• Facility Owners mark the location of their
  facilities at the proposed dig site with flags
• Emergency calls for Smell of Gas, Electrical
  Line Down, Water Main Break, and Hazardous
  Material Spill are also handled by the center.
• Center knows who has facilities at all locations
  and who to contact at any time.

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What are the Parameters of the Application?

• 50,000 contractors
• 12,000,000 citizens
• 2,640 Communities
• 4,500 facility owners (Members)
• 46,058 square miles Geographical Area
• 600,000 digups per year
• 6,000,000 notifications per year
• 6,000,000 responses to notifications
• 600,000 responses to contractors

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One Call System
Deliver to Members
Responses Tickets
Avaya PBX Menu Ticket or Response
Contractor
Data Maintenance
Member Facilities
Audio Tape
CSR
Deliver Responses to Contractor
Take Ticket
DB of Members, Contractors, tickets, etc.
GIS Data
End of day Summary
Queue for Delivery
Billing
Reports
Deliver to Members
Member Response
Legal Data
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Platforms
Internet
Web Server 1
Web Server 2
Router
Firewall(s)
Server 2 Windows SQL Server Map Info
Server 1 Windows SQL Server Map Info
PBX Avaya IVR SQL Server
SAN
Telephone Lines
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Reliability Issues

• Liability issues require high reliability
• Database Replication
• Duplicate Systems
• Redundant Network (dual connections)
• Automatic Failover
• Queuing Ticket data to workstation files until
  database update complete
• Ensuring Delivery is successful
• Event Log

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Reliability Issues

• Delivery Reliability
• Fax (response tells the truth)
• Voice (Human verification)
• Computer to Computer (Protocol tells some of the
  truth)
• Computer to Computer (Verification application at
  member end tells the rest of the truth)
• End of Day Summary validation
• E-Mail (inherently unreliable but attempt several
  layers of checking)
• Does server exist and is it running
• Does user account exist
• Did we get any error after sending

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Availability Issues

• Creating a Ticket
• Call the Center
• Access the Center Web Page
• Fax in Ticket Information
• Getting Ticket and Response Information
• Delivery by Center for all Tickets
• Call the Center
• Access the Web Page
• Use the Avaya Interactive Voice Response
• Automatic Response Fax to Contractors

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Member and Contractor Data Correctness

• Correct Delivery Addresses
• Open Hours
• Closed Hours
• Holidays
• Correct Billing Address
• Correct Fax Protocol
• Correct Telephone numbers
• Correct E-Mail Address
• Correct IP Address

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Correct Facility and GIS Data

• Map data of areas of the state must be correct
• Street and Landmark data must be correct
• Facility Locations must be correct
• Map data Latitude and Longitude are at 5 second
  intervals for the entire state
• Thus, the state is represented as a grid of
  rectanges at 5 seconds of a degree
• 40 million GIS records

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Dig Location and Facility Intersections

• When a dig location is identified on a map as a
  rectangular area, it includes hundreds of the 5
  second rectanglar grid elements.
• These are used to search the member facilities
  GIS database for matches
• If a match is found, then that member must be
  notified
• If a member is notified, they must respond using
  a standard form with legal responses, Marked,
  Scheduled for Mark, No Facilities at Site, etc.
• Members who are notified are billed on a monthly
  basis

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Why do they want an e-business Approach?

• Put the members and Contractors (Customers) in
  more control
• Reduce Human Labor Cost
• Reduce contractor wait time (Queues)
• Reduce Liability
• Add Flexibility
• Add Reliability (Multiple entry points)
• Create a We Are With It image

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What is an e-business?

• A way of conducting business electronically,
  leveraging technology initiatives such as
  e-commerce, electronic data interchange (EDI),
  electronic funds transfer (EFT), POSA, database
  servers, etc..
• Electronic storefronts, self-service Web
  applications, and Web-based supply chain
  integration are a few examples of new e-business
  opportunities.

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E-business How does it work?

• An e-business combines the resources of
  traditional information systems with the reach of
  an electronic medium such as the Internet
  (including the World Wide Web, intranets, and
  extranets)
• It connects critical business systems directly to
  critical business constituencies--customers,
  employees, and suppliers.
• The key to becoming an e-business is building a
  transaction-based Web site in which all core
  business processes (especially all processes that
  require a dynamic and interactive flow of
  information) are put online to improve service,
  cut costs, and sell products or services.

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How did e-business get started?

• E-business was preceded by the growth of the
  Internet in two phases the Communication Phase
  and the Information Phase.
• The Communication Phase (1993 to 1997) can be
  defined by the rapid adoption of e-mail. This
  marked a period where e-mail and Internet
  awareness spread rapidly, revolutionizing how
  people and business communicated.
• The Information Phase. "Brochureware" websites
  that provided primarily organization and contact
  information was the hallmark of the Information
  Phase.
• To help us navigate through the rapid growth of
  websites came the search engines. Yahoo!,
  Infoseek, Lycos, Hotbot, etc.
• Brochureware gave way to Web tools and software
  solutions that made information sharing two-way.
• From surveys to shopping carts, e-mail lists and
  chat services, websites became a way to interact
  with site visitors.

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B2C Lessons

• E-business solutions ultimately succeed when they
  relieve pain points for the customer.
• Channel integration was a hard lesson to learn.
  Bottom line To succeed on line, you must
  integrate the website fully into the business.
• Among the successful integration tales are online
  banking, online travel booking, much improved
  holiday retail sales support, and bill paying
  services.
• Traditionally these services were a chore and
  inconvenience for the customer
• Customers now have control, while companies are
  able to cut costs and concentrate on process
  improvement and service enhancement.
• The lesson here is put the customer in the driver
  seat, remove a pain point, make some money.

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B2B Lessons

• B2C lessons carry over into B2B applications.
• Programmers began developing workarounds in the
  form of robust open source code.
• The introduction of Apache Web servers and Linux
  Operating Systems, made industry stalwarts take
  notice. These solutions now offer affordable,
  reliable options for budget-conscious
  entrepreneurs, businesses, governments and
  non-profits.
• EDI , formerly reserved for proprietary
  solutions, can now be tied to Web interfaces via
  XML and Web Services, connecting back-office
  systems to front-end Web applications. The goal
  is to integrate systems and deploy solutions that
  can respond rapidly to changing market
  conditions.
• The combination of robust open source code,
  skilled personnel and affordable,
  transaction-based models that Application Service
  Providers (ASPs) are adopting, allow companies to
  better serve their customers.

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E-business a disruptive business model

• By its nature, e-business is a disruptive
  business model. It cannot be fully embraced
  without altering business as we know it.
• Organizations that develop flexible, adaptable
  resources, both physical and human, will succeed.
  
• Process development does not go away, but in fact
  becomes the critical factor of successful system
  implementations and adaptations.
• The new e-business organization, which includes
  its partners, must be globally aware,
  system-oriented, and customer sensitive.
• To succeed, the organization has to become a
  moving target constantly differentiating itself
  by absorbing customer feedback and developing
  products and services that create loyalty.

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E-business Security

• Visa unveiled its "Digital Dozen," a list of
  security requirements calling for firewalls,
  encryption, testing and access policies that its
  service providers and merchants must have as a
  condition of doing business with Visa.
• That's rightif a bank or merchant can't play by
  these rules, they don't play with Visa.

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B2B Security

• In most B2B relationships, partners grant limited
  authority to pass into each other's systems and
  access critical information.
• If your partner is using proprietary applications
  that touch your system, security must be built
  into that application.
• Make sure the application doesn't turn off or
  ignore other security controls, like encryption,
  associated with the B2B system

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B2B Access Control

• To avoid tampering, companies should require
  partners to maintain strong, active password
  programs.
• Measures should include requirements to change
  passwords frequently, monitoring and logging of
  password usage, tools to detect easily guessed
  passwords and a central authority to set access
  policies.
• You should forbid your partner to set up
  departmental passwords if the partner accesses
  your systems through its network..

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Encryption

• Experts and practitioners say companies should
  require their partners to use encryption for any
  sensitive information.
• Staples CIO Paul Gaffney requires B2B partners to
  encrypt all Internet transmissions but not
  transmissions sent over private networks. "That
  would be overkill," he says.
• Included are Information such as customer data,
  marketing strategy, labor relations and
  unreleased financialstransmitted over the
  Internet.

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Segmentation of Networks

• Security analysts advocate "segmenting"
  enterprise architectures into smaller networks,
  all behind separate firewalls.
• That way, if one part of the network is
  compromised, the rest remains safe.
• Bethesda, Md.-based defense contractor
  Lockheed-Martin does thatand looks for it in its
  partners too.

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Call Center Requirements

• 24 x 7 operations
• High degree of Accuracy of input data about the
  dig or emergency site
• Location
• Description
• Dates and Times
• High degree of reliability never down
• High degree of security
• Speed of notification
• Speed of responses
• Liability issues verification of delivery

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Why use the e-business Approach?

• Reduce the human capital involved
• Fewer CSRs to cover 7x24
• Transfer some liability to the contractor
• Responsible for accurate data
• Reduce Voice communication costs
• Multiple T1 lines are costly
• Improve Response Time to Contractors
• Add Flexibility and Reliability

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Authentication

• WEB interface must authenticate that the user is
  a legitimate user
• WEB interface must provide a tutorial for the
  user on how to use the system
• WEB interface must treat a first time user
  differently by not updating the database for
  delivery until ticket data entered has been
  approved by a CSR.

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Web Interface

• Interface must replace the CSRs knowledge about
  dig sites, locations, map reading, member data
  requirements, spelling, etc.
• Interface must check the integrity of the data
• Interface must guide the user through the right
  set of questions for a specific type of ticket
  (Design, Emergency, Dig up, Normal, etc.)

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In-take of Ticket Data

• CSRs are highly trained in how to get the
  information from a contractor
• CSRs are trained in providing responses to
  contractors
• CSRs are trained in dealing with members who
  have a problem with a ticket
• Can a WEB based system get the same results?

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The Business Side of the Service

• Call Center Billing
• Create an invoice each month
• Based on a complex algorithm of ins and outs of a
  dig site area
• Lots of billing questions

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How do we make it an e-business Application?

• Create the WEB interface(s) look and feel
• Create the interfaces for a first time user
• Create the interfaces for an experienced user
• Create user authentication methods and encrypted
  database tables on outside of Firewall
• Create intermediate database tables for web
  entered tickets on the outside of the firewall

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The WEB Application

• Create a demon to process and validate WEB
  entered tickets and add them to the production
  database, queue them for delivery, or alert a CSR
  of a QA failure
• Create Ticket Response Entry Interfaces,
  procedures and database tables on outside of
  Firewall
• Create demon to synchronize response data between
  web database and production database
• Create search interfaces to search ticket and
  response archives in WEB database
• Create alert system for tickets that have
  exceeded delivery time constraints

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The WEB Application

• Create Invoice building interface and procedures
• Create contacts and discussion interfaces
• Create Reports Generation Interfaces and
  procedures
• Create Data Maintenance Interfaces for Members
  and Contractors

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WEB Application
Contractor
Member
Authenticate
Response Entry
Update
Update
Search/Reports
Ticket Entry
Response Demon
Ticket Demon
Database of Tickets, Member Data, Contractor
Data, Responses, Archives, etc.
Database of GIS entities, facilities, etc.
QA Alert
Production Database
Delivery
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Benefits

• 25 of Tickets now entered by contractors
• 30 of member data updates now done by members
• Reduced billing questions by 40
• 20 of Contractor data now done by the contractor
• Calls reduced for all reasons by 28