At a Glance
Work at home, remote, mobile, on-premise
Rich tools and services in a standard web browser
Connection via secure, encrypted HTTPS or VPN
No software installation on remote PCs
Full access to database backend and business applications
Work anywhere – home, mobile, office
Softdial Contact Center™ (SCC) allows agents, supervisors and system administrators the freedom to work anywhere – home, mobile or on-premises – presenting rich tools and services in a standard web browser, including:
- Agent desktop – WebRTC phone, scripts, customer history, backend integration
- Supervisor functions
- Performance reports
- System configuration
SCC enables employees to be efficient and productive working at home or remotely, which gives organisations the agility and flexibility:
- to hire talented staff, no matter where they are
- to locate staff where they are most productive and happy, increasing staff satisfaction and retention rates
- for a rapid and effective response to any eventuality, even Covid-19
And fewer staff physically present in the contact center can mean a reduction in running costs, too.
Hire the most talented staff
Remote working opens the door to untapped potential. It provides the opportunity to hire talented staff with specialist skills and expertise who were previously unavailable. For example:
- those with physical disabilities or limited mobility
- those with limited availability due to other commitments, e.g. parents with young children, or those looking after elderly relatives
- those simply further away who would find it impractical to travel.
A fast migration path to home working
SCC offers the same rich facilities for home working whether deployed in a data center or in the cloud, using a VPN or over the Internet via HTTPS.
For those using legacy systems with a need to rapidly relocate agents to work at home, cloud deployment offers the fastest migration path.
With Sytel’s extensive experience of implementations in all major cloud platforms, including Amazon AWS/ Microsoft Azure, the essentials for home working can be up and running in days. Users can start simply and extend quickly, to deliver a rich user experience, properly integrated with the back office.
We were expecting some challenges as part of the transition but by the end of the second week everything was running pretty much as normal with 100% of our interviewers working from home. We will never need as much physical space as we have in the past – likely a higher percentage of homeworkers is the way of the future.
Lisa Mancini – US – Director of Call Center Operations – Global Data Collection Company (GDCC)
Work-at-home agents
For agents, all functionality is delivered via SCC‘s browser-based Agent Desktop, requiring no software installation on the agent’s PC, and as it can use secure, encrypted connections, no VPN.
The phone keypad is embedded in the desktop, with phone audio native to the browser via WebRTC, requiring only a headset. Agents control calls in the usual way – hold, mute, transfer, disposition, etc – all within the browser.
Agents can work on multiple live contact sessions at a time, of any media channel, switching between them within the same intuitive UI.
For each, the Desktop displays:
- guides for the agent conversation, from simple prompts to complex forms applications, customised using a no-code designer and fully integrated with any data source or business system
- customer contact history, for at-a-glance context for the current conversation
- 3rd party web apps/ pages, for a unified agent experience.
Remote supervisors
Using the same desktop, supervisors have access to a wide range of productivity tools, including:
- coaching and conferencing facilities
- rich and flexible reporting
- recordings of agent screen and voice sessions.
Mobile administrators
An array of configuration items are available via the browser, including set up and control of campaigns and queues, with intelligent routing capability.
Sytel built a working solution ahead of schedule and it worked great. Our interviewers love working from home and we feel more secure in our ability to quickly pivot between in-office interviewing and at-home interviewing as circumstances change in the future, as we now have the infrastructure to do both.
John Lafrance – US – VP Research Methods and Sampling – Escalent
Roy Morgan was able to implement “work from home” CATI operations quickly and efficiently to maintain its data collection efforts at a business critical time. Productivity levels have been maintained with CATI operators and supervisors welcoming the convenience of working shifts from home, and conversely of not having to commute to and from the city, often late in the evening. This win:win and more flexible arrangement will no doubt present a strong case for continuation into the future once COVID-19 operating constraints are removed, so we are pleased to have taken a step in this direction and to have that option.
Stephen Harvy – Australia – Head of Operations – Roy Morgan Research
Rapid response from Sytel
To learn more about how we can help you enable home working, contact us at homeworking@sytel.com and we will reply within the day.
Find out more about what Sytel offers:
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