Interview with the director of information technology Telecom Express Victor Matakov

Director of information technology Telecom Express Victor Matakov

TAdviser: Victor, tell, please, how IT infrastructure of your company is arranged?

Victor Matakov: At the moment we have five platforms where contact centers with a general capacity about 2100 jobs are located. We have five DPCs – on one small DPC scale in five-six racks with the different equipment on each platform.

Generally we use a HP server, but in Moscow there is also IBM. All network infrastructure is based on Cisco –switches,routers, voice gateways, etc. All server framework works at Windows 2003, 2008 OS, we consider transition to Windows 2012. We have no UNIX-SYSTEMS. Databases work for Oracle and MS SQL, in the main Oracle.

At the heart of our business - call center and the congress center for which organization of work Genesys software is used. The installation diagram following – in Moscow at us costs the central configuration base, and on each platform SIP servers are independently installed. All SIP servers and all infrastructure on platforms it is duplicated: if platforms among themselves for any reason lose touch, then each of them can independently receive calls by local phones.

Genesys allows to work with all types of contacts, including social networks, E-Mail, SMS. All jobs of operators are equipped with softphones of our own development, i.e. - in workplaces in their normal type we have no phones.

Also we have a CRM systemof Siebel which is used on some projects. Long time we had it the main, but then we began to use also other, own applications, depending on the project. If it is more convenient to create the application on the project, then we do the. We have a group of the web developer who create a binding for the project, reports, applications of web operators, setup of routing of calls and there is a lot of everything. And Siebel is integrated with Genesys too: in it there is a control panel too phone in which it is possible to dial number too, to receive a call, to translate it, etc.

We also have stations of record of calls. They stand on each platform, everything is duplicated, and all calls register from two flows: if one fails – record is conducted by the second. Moreover, except simple record at us and more advanced which is called SmartLogger (the Forget-me-not of II). It is development from "Center of Speech Technologies" (CST) with which we closely work. One of interesting things which software is able to do this is an analysis of a call by a number of indicators - both temporary, and more difficult things, such as emotional background which can even be predicted. Such analysis allows to estimate work of the operator on the configured templates and allows to give points for his work, saves operating time of checking and allows to cover bigger quantity of calls for examination.

From solutions of CST we have one more system too integrated into Genesys under the name VoiceNavigator is the system of synthesis and speech recognition, for the organization of voice self-service of clients.

It is important to note that infrastructure of contact centers is built at us in such a way that at us any operator can sit down on any workplace, on any of their platforms, enter the login with the password in Windows – and he receives the workplace on the platform at once. It is convenient, at breakdown of the equipment he can just change on other workplace.

TAdviser: You mentioned own developments: softphone, in particular. Why you decided to develop it, but not to use any ready-made solution?

Victor Matakov: When everything was developed when all complex in 2010 formed, we had a question - that we will use as software for call center. We selected Genesys because of customizability, scalability and integrability of a system. Further the speech went about softphones because it is more convenient to manage them and to easily configure software under specific objectives. We studied softphones and from Genesys, and third-party developers and came to a conclusion that it is better to make own which would allow us to do that it is necessary for us. As a result from this softphone regenerated in a certain program which can practically all necessary for us.

It has a number of functions which are not done not possessed by the normal softphone. For example, can take the screenshot at receipt of a call: it for convenience that we understood what occurs at the operator at present. One more "counter" – in our softphone opens the web application which allows to manage functions of a call, to make a transfer of a call from other application. This application contains the address directory with hyperlinks to specific employees of the client on which the call is transferred to the right place in one click.

Siebel CRM can open in the browser, and sometimes there are such cases sometimes that when updating the page touch can be lost. Our softphone allows to block updates of the page of the browser. Also it allows to bind the hot key for immediate opening that regarding the processing speed of calls. There is also a function of logging of all actions of the operator, we see each his step that is very convenient at accidents and also it is a lot of other functions not inherent to the standard softphone, but very useful to call center.

TAdviser: And what else own developments you use?

Victor Matakov: Now we, for example, have large-scale works on creation of an own system of billing which began quite recently. We already began its operation and already we see how it can be improved.

For this system ourselves prepared technical specifications, having described it up to algorithms, and selected the contractor who wrote the code. In interaction with the companies clients we make out them bills for the services depending on the agreement. With a new system it will be automatic: the operator should not open reports and to hammer into them data, the account will automatically be going and to go to the customer.

In outsourcing contact center to make such system of billing rather difficult. For example, telecom operators consider the services constantly, and multiply by a rate. We have everything not so: there is no such concept as one call as it can be broken into many components - who exactly serviced a call what rank the specialist, conferences, consolidation of several operators, several subscribers, or transfer of a call somewhere, etc. Respectively, all this should be calculated not just linearly. Quite difficult detailing under which there is no more or less unified solution in the market turns out.

It is possible to tell that many contact centers in the market go a similar way in billing. Of course, all consider, and make out bills based on reports of the same Genesys or other specially developed reports. Someone does the systems, take statistics from software of the call center. We in the same way at first did the report which by contractual criteria calculated statistical data. But actually there are a lot of different conditions, each client is shorthanded differently, agreements all different.

TAdviser: What new perspective technologies you are going to develop in your contact centers in the near future?

Victor Matakov: In nearby perspective there are two main trends for call centers to which follows also we: it is a video call - click-to-call technology when the person, having visited the website, can click and call with video to the operator. We already began implementation of such function for the clients.

And the second main trend is a distribution of work of contact center and on social networks: so, we can perform monitoring of set of a key word on social networks. We carried out work and made a certain complex which allows to monitor the most part of social media, a huge number of open sources. Now we do so that all these contacts at us passed through Genesys and the operator at the same time could work also with social network, both with e-mail, and by phone. We have several clients who already work with this system. Now all contact centers anyway already work with it, but so far the market did not develop.

TAdviser: What your plans for IT projects this year?

Victor Matakov: It as I already mentioned, development of a billing system. Also we in the long term are going to implement a project management system. It is clear, that we in some type have it, generally we use the MS Project system. However we want to make a centralized system because many specialists of different levels participate in the project: programmers, IT managers, technologists, financiers, and work all of them on projects should be controlled.

Also we want to implement a centralized system on monitoring of all IT infrastructure. It is also now, but is a little separate: one system performs monitoring of servers, another - applications, the third - networks. We want, that all this was done by a single system, allowing our engineers to see where a specific problem. At us now just there passes the tender, we consider suppliers and directly the solution. There is a lot of like those, this market already developed. It is just the plan for the end of this year - the beginning of the following.

Besides, now we develop the plan of replacement of the operating system on servers and computers because Microsoft stopped support of Windows XP recently, and at us quite big park of computers works at this OS, and programs are expected this OS. It is not so simple make replacement of OS by newer in this case as a huge number of products - the same Siebel CRM, for example – "are ground" under a certain browser, even under its certain version, there is a lot of nuances.

TAdviser: And why you do not use Open Source, an UNIX-SYSTEM?

Victor Matakov: First, because Windows OS is delivered with the computer most often, and secondly - our softphone, for example, is made only under Windows. There is an opportunity to rewrite it under Open Source, but besides - why again to go to costs. Thirdly, it is much more difficult to find the specialist accompanying the station under Linux, than under Windows. The same with programmers.

TAdviser: What number of your IT department?

Victor Matakov: The general staff of IT department - about 40 specialists, and developers about 10 people, taking into account the management. Periodically we broaden the state if there is such requirement. At us constantly something changes, improved. It is possible to tell that the IT complex changes almost daily: applications are improved and change, the systems of routing of calls change, routing in IP networks changes, everything is very dynamic. When the new project comes, at us at once huge completions go to a complex.