The entire subject of Virtualization and all things “cloud” has become something that even none technical people talk about. You might say it has gone “viral” and captured the interest of geeks, business people, professional technology managers and entrepreneurs. Personally, I never did get the whole fascination with hardware. In my mind hardware was just something we had to put up with to get to play with the software. When you stop and think about it, aside from the IT folks, nobody wants a Windows 2012 Server! What they want is a Website, a CRM package, a blog or a phone system. Having to deal with hardware was always a chore and it always seemed to me that whatever we had was obsolete within a year or so. The software could be upgraded, but the hardware had to be “refreshed” an expression that generally means, purchase new stuff!
Virtualization made hardware a bit more interesting. Now we could at least run a half dozen servers on one huge hardware platform. Back up and Restore became almost fun! Now you start adding virtualized appliances like phone systems, gateways and firewalls to the mix and software professionals get almost giddy! I think VMware has caused more new business creations than any other single “stimulus” package. Now, even a guy working out of his garage could compete with the big guys! Capital requirements were significantly reduced and new cloud based business could launch at the drop of a hat and the signing of a sales agreement! Internet bandwidth, access, creativity and an Amazon account and you were in the revenue production business!
Unless you are in the business of refreshing hardware, why would you want to bother with any of that hardware stuff? How long does it take your IT team to spin up a new server? Even if you are a one man show and you can control everything without benefit of a working committee, it takes time to setup a server! Some organizations take weeks to provision a new server! Now if you happen to have an Amazon account, even your plain vanilla book buying Amazon account, you could spin up a new Linux or Microsoft Server in about 15 minutes! With your “Amazon machine instance” you get a security group (read firewall) for your public IP address, a DNS name and a local network all in less time than it takes to unbox and rack a new hardware based solution.The Amazon portal lets you change the configuration of your instance on the fly. This means you can increase disk size, RAM, change bandwidth and update your firewall without a screw driver! Think about it, fully operational on net with pubic IP access in less than 15 minutes.
Now that 3CX, ShoreTel, Mitel and so many others offer Gateways that are “virtual” machines, you could actually spin up a “hosted PBX” in just a few hours! We though we would try it just for kicks! Log into AWS spin up a new Windows Sever and deploy ShoreTel or 3CX completely virtualized, including SIP trunks, Border Controllers and Remote phones both Hard and Soft. Should be hilarious! (Thanks to winter storms back east, we just brought up a 169 users system, across three states and had the client fully operational in 12 hours from the emergency phone call to the DrVoIP hot line). This first video clip just deals with provisioning the server. In subsequent versions we will bring up an entire phone system and you can watch over our shoulders!
I am found of repeating that “product development is a process not an event”! Though the marketing folks need to package, position and promote products based on feature sets, generally products emerge over time. Building on previous releases, customer feed back and recommendations, products continue to emerge with new functionality. Most product development focuses on features that have market demand or differentiate one product from another. Occasionally, a new product feature is targeted at someone other than an end user. Engineers and Technicians are typically the last group of people to get a feature developed that makes their lives a bit more easy. Such is the case for ShoreTel Version 14 and the introduction of a “Diagnostic and Monitoring” tool!
The latest Version of ShoreTel has added a capability that we think is essential in iPBX technology as SIP becomes more of a standard. If you have ever attempted to trouble shoot SIP without the ability to do packet capture, you will know how valuable this feature set is. CISCO long ago had RMTM tools as a standard part of a Call Manager deployment. ShoreTel has now added that functionality to its standard product offering and it is dramatic! Now part of the ShoreWareDirector user interface, the Diagnostic Monitoring tool is a complete glass cockpit with a variety of monitoring tools. These tools include real time status updates of system areas including connections, trunk groups, bandwidth utilization, voice quality, switch status and service conditions. Combining “Quick View”, with other tools that previously required loading modules or a putty session, the Diagnostic Monitoring center is a self navigation center for trouble shooting.
We are particularly excited about the “remote packet capture” feature of the Diagnostic tools. This tool enables you to remotely capture packets and bring them to a local pcap file. You are offered the opportunity to capture everything or limit your capture to specific areas of interest. For example, if you want to capture only SIP packets related to the ShoreGear switch you are running your SIP Proxies on, the diagnostic tool set lets you select these options. The files are WireShark compatible and if you have that application on your server, a simple click will launch the application and bring up your capture for analysis. This is a very power capability and simplifies some of the issues associated with setting up WireShark for remote capture. We think this feature set was long over due, but we are just mere engineers, what do we know!
We have previously argued that ShoreTel should shed the hardware business and focus on software development only. Just our opinion and personal hangup! We believe that unless you have the Market Capitalization of an Apple, it is hard to walk both sides of the street and do both Hardware and Software! Even Microsoft, does only Software! Well ShoreTel may in fact be moving to Software only through the introduction of a family of “virtual” machine offerings. Though versions prior to Version 14.1 offered some level of Server virtualization, ShoreTel deployments would still require lots of those “Orange” ShoreGear switches.
On January 28th ShoreTel will begin to ship the first release of Version 14.2 and all components of the ShoreTel architecture will be virtualized! This means that you don’t need those “Orange” boxes unless you are connecting to analog or digital trunk lines! ShoreTel Switches including Conferencing servers will be available as OVA files for VMware deployments. ShoreTel will begin to offer a virtual phone switch, a virtual service appliance and a new family of virtual SIP Switches with complete PRI parity. The ShoreTel compatible Ingate SIParator will also be available as a Virtual Session Border Controller. Licensing can be significantly reduced to a phone or trunk license, now how kool is that?
The ShoreTel virtual phone switch will support between 250 and 1000 phones based on calculated VM resources. The virtual phone switch will will support all ShoreTel features including backup automated attendant, make-me-conferences, hunt groups, bridged call appearances and extension monitoring. Pricing is estimated at 8-15% below the cost of another “Orange” box and you can mix and match virtual and real boxes! The virtual SIP trunk switch is estimated to be some 50% below “Orange” box costs! The virtual service appliance will offer IM and Web conferencing from 50-200 simultaneous sessions. Instant Messaging is now without charge from ShoreTel when implemented on a virtual server, just your usual VMware hardware costs!
We consider this the strongest move that ShoreTel has made in its product line, since it moved from analog phones to SIP handsets! Though ShoreTel is following the examples of others like CISCO Version10, we see this a the right next step in the process for ShoreTel product development. With the enterprise world solidly focused on virtualization and the rapid but steady migration from TDM to SIP, a Virtualized ShoreTel is an essential element of a successful business continuity and disaster recovery program. ShoreTel is starting to look an awful lot like a pure software company and we think that is not only “brilliantly simple”, but very smart.
Back in the summer we did a blog on ShoreTel from a Shareholders perceptive. There were a number of issues troubling us which did not seem to make sense and for which we, as outsiders, could not fully appreciate. Having purchased ShoreTel (NASDAQ: SHOR) at the IPO price of $10 a share, the stock was trading at about $3 this summer and had not yet found its bottom. We questioned why Management was in such as shambles with key players jumping ship, many for competitor Mitel. They were again in the process of doing yet another CEO search and had lost their VP of Marketing and several key sales executives had also migrated over to competitor Mitel (MITL) Corporation. We were also frustrated at the acquisition of a “hosted” PBX company that could not even make use of ShoreTel phones. These were very mixed messages and we were as you might suspect very bearish on the stock!
Less then six months later many of our concerns were addressed and the stock price at $8.45 seems to have rebounded, but still trades below the IPO price. ShoreTel now has a new CEO, Donald Joos, promoted from within the ranks, and with considerable credential. Today they announced that they had filled their long vacant VP of Marketing role with that of Mark Roberts, a former Mitel Executive, no less! (Mitel responded by announcing that it had hired 15 year ShoreTel Vertical Sales Executive Chuck Grogman as it’s new VP of Contact Center Sales). Aside from the obvious revolving door relationship between the executive suits of both companies, we believe these were smart moves for ShoreTel to make. ShoreTel has achieved new 52 week highs with a stock price of $3.25 – $8.45 and a Market Capitalization of $490M. By Comparison, Mitel has had a stock price of $2.80 – $9.85 and a Market capitalization of $528M. Both companies operate in the same space, use the same distribution channel and both offer hosted alternatives to their CPE product lines.
ShoreTel has introduced a new family of end points, or telephone sets that are sip enabled. This should make it possible for their hosted subsidiary to stop offering CISCO handsets! We expect a future ShoreTel iPBX software version to further blur the distinction between CPE and Hosted products, with ShoreTel able to offer both. Look for the new ShoreTel Version to be 1.0 not Version 15! We suspect that the dealer channel is a bit confused, having bitterly fought “hosted” with a CPE offering. Now with an entire new distribution channel opening through the former hosted companies sales partners, ShoreTel branded solutions are being offered by other than the traditional VAR channel. We also track Ring Central (RNG) and 8X8 (EGHT), both publicly reporting companies in the pure hosted space, to cross reference both ShoreTel and Mitel performance.
Over all, the prospects at ShoreTel from a Shareholder perspective are looking much better at the end of the year than they did at the start of the year. The CPE market will undergo continual pressure from the growing homogenization of technology through the adoption of SIP based technology. Even giant CISCO seems to be positioning SIP ahead of SCCP as the protocol of choice thanks to Jabber! The adoption of SIP will continue to drive down component hardware parts like Gateways and Handsets and is the primary reason we would like to see ShoreTel get out of the hardware business all together! ShoreTel should focus on building a scalable software technology that integrates with as much hardware in the market as can be standardized! At this point, we recommend ShoreTel as a hold with vigilant monitoring. You should keep a close watch on both Mitel and ShoreTel as well as monitoring Ring Central (RNG) and 8X8 for hedges and comparison in the hosted space. The entire sector will be undergoing an upheaval over the next year, so look for more mergers and spin offs to rule the market!
We welcome your comments and remind you that this is just our opinion!
Last month we wrote that we believed that webRTC had the potential to change the business communications landscape forever especially as it related to contact centers! Little did we know that in less than a month, Amazon would do just that with the introduction of the “Mayday” Button. The Mayday button does just what webRTC is destined to do, embedding a real time, text audio and visual communications channel within a web browser! Technical support will never be the same and as we previously proposed, neither will the Contact Center be the same! Customer Service is about to be redefined and Amazon seems to be leading the way with the absolute first mass implementation of a webRTC application.
The button, a LifeSavior Icon, appears on Amazon’s new Kindle Fire. Push this button and a dialog box opens with a real time video image of your technical support consultant. You can see him, but he can not see you. He can hear you and remotely operate your device, trouble shooting your issue and “show you how” to do a troublesome operation. If you can not “see” the impact of this game changing technology, you most likely did not see the internet or the tablet market developing either!
What is so amazing about the technology is that the core elements for implementation are readily available. This is not and R&D project, but more of an integration of currently available technologies. WebRTC requires a modern browser but does not require any plug-ins, usernames, passwords or downloads. This technology will make peer to peer video pervasive and make establishing real time video teleconferences as easy as clicking a link! One can only hope that Microsoft will for once, just embrace the technology and skip the always painful promotion of some other “not invented” here model like CU-RTC.
Historically, Call Centers were places that you “called” from your home phone. Now we understand the immediacy of Contact Centers which treat email, chat and sms as readily as phone calls. Contact Centers understand that the “home phone” is now a mobile device and there is an entire generation of customers who have never had a “land line”. It does not take a market visionary to see the “high touch” ramifications of a video interaction and the inevitable impact it will have on the “customer service” paradigm. Adopting video on demand or “click for support” options in the call center is not an option, it is an imperative and will quickly impact the market by segmenting customer service as quickly as new technologies buried the Polaroid!
We are now integrating webRTC Call Center applications either as an appliance or as a cloud in the form of InstaVoice, FACEmeeting, TokBox and Tawk. Clearly, some customer service applications are more visual and can benefit more immediately than others by adding a video component. Clearly, technical support or instructional applications are at the top of the list. Can American Express be far behind. Are you more likely to interact with a credit card company representative you can see in addition to hear? (We can only guess at what the HR impact will be on Contact Centers that adopt webRTC, but that is another topic and also worthy of discussion).
We would welcome the opportunity to discuss the concept of webRTC within the context of a real contact center application, so call click or email! You will be “seeing” a lot more of this from DrVoIP and others, so stay tuned!
I very seldom comment, in this technology blog, on company policy and just try to stay focused on VoIP. This time I am speaking out as a ShoreTel Shareholder.You know, one of the people who bought into the $10 a share IPO (at about the time they were suddenly sued by Mitel for patent infringement)? ShoreTel stock (SHOR) is now trading at $3.50 or so? The company has been through at least three CEOs post start up. They are now scouting for yet another. Every key executive in the non-Engineering side of the house has jumped ship. What do you do when your key sales people go to work for a competitor, like Mitel? What signal does that send to the market?
ShoreTel had a real lead on VoIP technology. They make excellent products. They have had, and still have, some really great people! Leadership, at this point, is lacking.There have been some clear mistakes! Acquiring a “hosted PBX company” that cannot even use ShoreTel phones? Come on, I know I am a bit dense but really? (Note: “Follow the Money”.) The acquisition of the Mobility Router company, Agito Networks, made some strategic sense, but there has been no real follow through. (The secret weapon that was acquired from Agito was the SIP over TLS, which should have replaced the OEM VPN strategy ages ago, and built into ShoreTel phones and Gateways.) Just like their OEM acquisitions of previous products like the conference server, this will end up being yet another boat anchor!
I was hopeful that someone would buy ShoreTel before it becomes another Altigen (ATGN)! When I see Directors and the company’s own counsel filing Form 4s with the SEC, that does not sound very likely either. ShoreTel was the iPhone/iPad but like those products, it has fallen behind. The competitors are moving in with updated solutions and it has lost its luster. The adopted cloud strategy was a poorly placed wager on what could have been a winning strategy. They have missed the Virtualization market completely. Actually, very sad indeed! Maybe Mitel (MITL) does have it right? Maybe these two companies will merge? Why not, most of their executives have?
Anyone who has been deploying telephone systems for any length of time has run into the “language” issue. Though I am personally tired of having to “Press one” for English, the fact remains that we market on a global basis even if we are a small local business. It is rare to encounter an Automated Attendant or Call Tree that does not offer us the option of selecting another language. In the States, Spanish tends to dominate the motivation to change language and it is invariably offered to all callers.
Setting up a basic automated attendant to handle a language change is relatively straight forward. You end up recording your prompts in at least two languages and then you navigate a different tree based on the selection. Providing a language option in an IVR Script for a ShoreTel ECC or CISCO UCCX, for example, is an entirely more complex process. Yes, you end up having to record your prompts for each language offered, but do you really want to write to sets of call flow? Contact Center Scripts can get relatively complex very quickly. If you apply the same solution to a Contact Center Script as you do an Automated Attendant Call Tree, you will end up having to create at least two scripts: one in English and one in the other offered language.
You will really want to focus on a single call flow and a single set of prompts. Do you want to have the complexity of writing a script that says play “WelcomePromptEnglish.WAV” and then have to write the same call flow again, but this time the script says play “WelcomePromptSpanish.wav”. As my Grandson says, “REALLY”? Would it not be more economical to write and to maintain a script that simply said play “WelcomePrompt.wav”? At some point you are going to have to ask the caller to press or say something to change their language choice. How about we run the same script and the only thing that changes is the subdirectory that the prompts are retrieved from? In this way we only have one call flow script to maintain and scripting writing is significantly relived of the duplication of effort that language options often require.
ShoreTel and CISCO both manipulate the language option in their respective script editors differently. Here we take a look at how the Java based Script Library in the CISCO UCCX would implement a language option using a single call flow script.
It is almost expected that a modern call or contact center be able to offer a “call back from Queue” option to your callers. In fact some call centers are now offering a Call Back with no phone call required from your caller at all! The caller can text a message to the call center and receive a text back with an approximate wait time until the next agent is ready! Take the time to develop a custom “smartphone” application and the incoming text message can also contain business appropriate CRM information like a client ID or policy number.
While you are waiting for your contact center to be updated with this advanced SMS text caller option, most modern contact centers can offer a “Call Back From Queue” option.
Generally, we want to capture the inbound call, route it to an available agent and if the agent is not available, we will play a customer care message to the caller and keep them in Queue. Should an agent not become available in the next programmable period of time, we will play yet another customer care message, but this time we might invite them to “press 1” to arrange a call back without losing their place in queue.
Should the caller elect to activate this option, they might then be asked to enter the number that they can be reached at when an agent becomes ready.
Optionally you can offer to call the customer back at a scheduled time in the future and also prompt them to enter a date and time for call back. How this is accomplished is dictated to by the system that you are planing to use for your call center. Generally, some kind of IVR functionality that can “prompt and collect digits”. The ShoreTel ECC and the CISCO UCCX both enable this option though they do it quite differently.
ShoreTel offers a scripting tool that enables calling options through per-programmed routines encapsulated in high level Icons. These Icons are interconnected on a pallet that graphically mirrors your call flow. This is “brilliantly simple” and is often all that is required to establish control and options over your call center. CISCO uses a scripting option based on Java and you will be more comfortable with this option if you have a background in software development. CISCO is a bit more demanding then the ShoreTel scripting tools, but along with its complexity comes greater flexibility in feature definition. In the hands of a talented programmer, you will be able to create features that could not easily be encoded in a higher level graphical scripting tool. The UCCX Scripts enable you to not only “prompt and collect” but also to “prompt and record” the callers voice message for playback to the agent prior to placing the out bound return call.
Call Back from Queue is a useful customer service option in those business centers that care about customer satisfaction. I would not expect to see this on the IRS toll free line, but rest assured that Charles Schwab will have it! As the cost of keeping callers on the line continues to escalate with the cost of wireline facilities, you can expect other options to become more available. The SMS option, being one, offers higher customer satisfaction potential while reducing the infrastructure costs associated with paying for more telephone lines than you have agents to handle the calls! Keep your eye on this option as it is sure to change the nature and value of existing call center strategies!
Do you run a business in which the day shift and the night shift share the same telephone instrument? This is a very common feature requirement in call centers, help desks and order lines. In the Health Care Profession, a very common staffing requirement is to rotate the “front office” staff, with the “back office”e staff from time to time. If your business or organizational requirements demand that you match a telephone extensions with specific named individuals for voice mail or activity tracking, you need “Extension Mobility”. If you want to travel between your geographically distributed office locations and you do not want to be tied down to a single telephone instrument at a specific desk location, you need “Office Anywhere”. The ability to “log in” and make any phone in your business organizations VoIP deployment your phone is a very powerful and useful feature.
Both ShoreTel and CISCO offer this advanced functionality but they implement it in very different ways. This is, in our humble opinion, the result of the “cultural” difference in their system architecture. We have written on this subject before and it is one way in which the two systems distinguish themselves. ShoreTel does not allow an extension to exist without an associated user. Such a phone is “anonymous” and, though registered and available as a system resource, it can not be “called “as it does not have an extension number! Until it is associated with a specific User, it has very limited capability. It is the User that associates a “class of service” or set of permissions and an extension number to the phone. CISCO separates the concept of a phone device from that of a User profile. CISCO phones can in fact exist without being assigned to a User. They can have an extension number, be called and make calls. It is the Line Number or Extension number that determines the “class of service” or permissions available to that device. Users are defined separately. This is a subtle but very significant difference in these two systems.
“Extension Mobility”, on the other hand, is an optional feature in a CISCO deployment and it requires configuration by a systems administrator. Given the logical separation between a “device” and a “user” in CISCO, it is necessary that both entities must be configured for this feature to work properly. Extension Mobility is an XML service in a CISCO deployment, that both the user and the device that a user might log into, must both subscribe. An “Extension Mobility” profile must be created for any CISCO user who desires this licensed feature. It might be possible to have a situation in which a User with an “Extension Mobility” profile, can not log into a different phone because that phone has not subscribed to the service. Given that this is a licensed feature, it is not generally deployed on all phones during the installation.
“Office Anywhere” and “Extension Mobility” are excellent solutions for “hoteling” employees, and “hot desk” environments where the staff moves between desks and do not have assigned seating.
As Contact Center implementation consultants we get to work with both ShoreTel ECC and CISCO UCCX. The fact of the matter is they are both really excellent solutions and very similar in many respects. Historically, ShoreTel has had a single administration portal for the deployment of their iPBX solution. You go to one portal to define your Users, Gateways, Call Flow, Automated Attendants, Workgroups and Voice Mail. Add a User in ShorewareDirector and that user has a voice mail box, is instantly in the online Directory and it is “brilliantly simple”. CISCO has always been bit more challenging to configure. You have multiple Administration portals, the Call Manager Users are not necessarily in the Unity Voice Mail and you most definitely go to different portals to administer these systems. Gateways are programmed in addition to being created and registered with the Call Manager and multiple servers are the rule regardless of the number of sites.
When it gets down to the Contact Center, both companies have very similar implementations. For example, both companies use a separate server to run the Contact Center run time engine, manage agent states, store configuration data, usage data, scripts and prompts. The system use the CTI strategy of Route Points to logically interconnect the host PBX to the Contact Center and they both have separate administration interfaces. Both Systems require you to define your Agents twice, once in the iPBX and then again in the Contact Center, though CISCO has an import capability. ShoreTel is clearly migrating toward a single browser interface for the entire product line, but currently, you open one portal for the PBX and another for the Contact Center. CISCO does the same thing and clearly does not think that multiple administration portals is a market requirement.
ShoreTel has a straight forward license model for the ECC. You get a fully feature contact center to which you just add agents and IVR ports. Email, Chat and Campaign dialing are options, but everything else, at least with Version 7, is included. Pricing is simple and easy to understand. Real time reporting, historical reporting and the ability to do custom reporting are standard platform features. Integration options include DDE, Triggers and Active X. CISCO is a bit more complex in its packaging offering Standard, Enhanced and Premium packages. The Standard package, however, provides all that is required for a fully functioning Contact Center. The Standard package does not provide CAD or CISCO Agent Desktop. CISCO has the ability for phones to subscribe to XML based services and Agents use that option to log in, log out and generate wrap codes. CISCO provides all IVR ports in the base system, where ShoreTel has ten packs to grow IVR ports as required.
From a sizing perspective, the CISCO UCCX supports 400 Agents and 400 IVR ports, while ShoreTel boasts 1000 agents and 250 IVR ports. I used to operate with the understanding that I could have a maximum of 150 IVR ports on a single server and would required a three server solution for 300 IVR ports and Agents. I was not able, thought I did try diligently to get ShoreTel product management to confirm the server requirements and specify Busy Hour Call Handling, but could not get anyone at ShoreTel to respond ( DrVoIP is not a ShoreTel partner, so why bother? Then again, we are not a CISCO partner either and they sent us truck load of documentation, lab licenses, Virtual Machine Templates and answered all questions). If you do the arithmetic with 1000 agents and a maximum of 250-300 IVR ports, something does not add up? IVR ports are used to prompt and collect as well as source media streams for music on hold. Clearly if you have 1000 agents, nobody is holding and 250 IVR ports may be more than appropriate. Why the large disparity in Agent and Supervisor sizing for these two solutions?
The ShoreTel ECC Script Editor is a powerful little box of goodies and just gets the job done! Clearly, there are always ways to improve capabilities, but I have yet to encounter a client requirement that we could not resolve with the ECC tool kit. I would like to see the ability to import and export scripts; run the editor when not connected to the server and a simple record to file capability. XML document processing and HTTP triggers could be improved, but again, we have always been able to meet the client requirements and at the end of the day that is what it is all about. CISCO has a script editor that is also very powerful and offers options for XML document processing and configurable HTTP triggers. We particularly like the ability to run the editor while disconnected from the Server. Makes travel time more productive for us consultants!
CISCO has a number of desktop applications to support both Agent, Supervisors and Administrators. We value the fact that the applications are downloaded from the UCCX server via a web page. CISCO phones have a native ability to subscribe to XML services and a display large enough to make this a viable option. In many UCCX deployments not Agent Desktop application is necessary. ShoreTel provides an Agent and a Supervisor desktop application. The desktop Agent application is currently a two EXE solution, one for the ECC application and one for the ShoreTel Communicator. Again, ShoreTel has done an excellent job of integrating the two desktop applications, but there are in fact, two applications running on your desktop. Some end users like the smaller Agent toolbar anyway, so I vote to keep it as a desktop option! CISCO has a powerful tool named the WorkFlow Administrator which enables the creation of Agent buttons, work flow processing, web page push that enable a range of optional agent capabilities without the need to grant administrator rights.
Both systems have a long history and have undergone many changes in packaging and functionality. ShoreTel is about to release Version 8 and CISCO is at about the same level. The ShoreTel engine is running on a Windows server, where CISCO has migrated away from Microsoft to a Linux platform. ShoreTel uses MySQL and CISCO uses Informix for the configuration, activity and repository database functions. There is no reason that you could not have multiple ECC or UCCX servers on a single PBX. In fact, why not? They would not share the same Agent database or inbound trunk groups, but that may not be necessary in a large multi-site enterprise spanning the country or globe in which there are multiple business units.
We find both Contact Center solutions to be powerful, fully feature and very capable of handling blended activities at very aggressive price points. Though it may be such that you choose a PBX based on the Call Center, it is more likely that you will select your Call Center based on which vendor PBX you select! In either case DrVoIP can help develop your Contact Center call flow and scripting!
