SmartLogger II

Smart Logger II - designed for recording telephone conversations, searching and analyzing information, assessing the quality of operation of contact center operators and customer satisfaction.

2023: Introducing the latest generation of speech synthesis

The CST group has developed the next generation of speech synthesis using artificial intelligence for contact centers of large business - banks, telecom, state services, where the technology is used in dialogue assistants. Speech synthesis is already embedded in the CST products for creating dialog assistants and is available for installation on-prem - on client servers, which allows them to adapt the application of synthesis to business growth and improve customer experience as much as possible. Including clients have the opportunity to regulate emotions and manner of speech depending on the case. This was announced on November 8, 2023 by the general director of the CST group Dmitry Dyrmovsky.

This generation of synthesis ensures the smoothness and expressiveness of reading any text, while we managed to achieve the maximum realism of synthesized speech. The breakthrough lies not only in realism, but also in speed - now it takes about one hour of speaker speech and two weeks of development to create speech synthesis for industrial use, while there was a need for tens of hours and three months of development. Our solution can also be used in various systems for helping visually impaired people and in other scenarios. In addition, R&D we use all the achievements of our -centre in this area to protect voice biometrics against deepfakes - including attempts to fake voice using pre-recording or speech synthesis, which is especially in demand in projects of national biometric platforms and contact centers to exclude the attempt of fraudsters to pass off their voice for the voice of the client. So we invest not only in speech technologies, biometrics, but also in protection technologies, said Dmitry Dyrmovsky, CEO of the CST group of companies.

In order to achieve high accuracy, stability and quality of speech generation, it is important to properly train the neural network on a certain amount of data. CST experts reduced the required amount of data from tens of hours to an hour, and the release time of the finished voice model was reduced from several months to two weeks. This saves both financial resources and time, faster and cheaper to bring products to market. This generation of synthesis is already available in Russian, work is underway to adapt English and Kazakh.

In automated scenarios of contact centers, when a unique text of answers is formed right during a call, the technology allows you to personalize communication with each client, performing real-time synthesis, vividly, intonationally and emotionally correctly. The technology also has a stress prediction module in words that automatically corrects common spelling errors. Thanks to deep linguistic analysis of the text, pronunciation will comply with the norms of the language even in difficult cases.

2016: Integration with Siemens HiPath 4000

On February 15, 2016, the CST company introduced a version of the Smart Logger II multichannel recording system integrated with the SiemensHiPath 4000 PBX.

Screenshot of the program window (2015)

The solution supports recording of all types of telephony:

• analog,
• digital,
• DECT,
• calls from VoIP phones,
• trunk calls
• Calls from HiPath Trading control consoles.

Recording is carried out in stereo format, so subscribers' speech is recorded in separate channels within one phonogram. This allows you to search keywords or use other speech analytics tools in relation to a specific speaker.

Changes for Siemens HiPath 4000 PBX Users

• There is no need for additional costs for the purchase of an external CAP server as a result of integration over the CSTA interface.
• All the backup modes provided by the HiPath 4000 V6/V7 Duplex are supported, including the hot backup scheme of the recording system (up to and including the failure of the router or failure of the network connection of one of the nodes).

The recording system operability is maintained in case of failures:

• Active CCA/CCB Switching Processor Switch/Failure
• Network Connection Break from CCA/CCB Switch Processor to Router
• Failure of one HG3500 (main or standby)
• Break the network connection between HG3500 and routers
• Router failure
• Failure of recording stations
• Break the network connection between the recording station and the routers.

Background information

• Siemens HiPath 4000 V6R1/ V6R2/ V7R1 PBXs are recorded
• Supported protocols:
  • STMI2/4 (SIP subscribers and SIP trunks),
  • SLMT (HiPath Trading)
  • analog TMSFP trunks
  • DECT
  • ISDN PRI

• ​Rezervirovaniye network connections and routers (link aggregation)
• Connection of the recording system Forget-me-not II is carried out through the HG-3500 IP gateway, in one of the following modes:
  • SIP-subscriber
  • SIP-trunk

SIP-trunk is simpler and more convenient in terms of PBX configuration, while providing more flexibility in SIP-subscriber mode.

• The parameters of the gateway are selected based on the required number of simultaneously recorded channels, the capacity of which, per IP gateway card, up to 120 B- kanalov:​
  • up to 120 simultaneous calls in mono mode,
  • up to 60 simultaneous stereo calls

2014

Smart Logger II voice analytics and Cisco MediaSense recording system are officially compatible

SmartLoggerII is a system for voice analytics and automatic assessment of the quality of operation of contact center operators. Customers using Cisco? Unified? Contact Center Enterprise and Cisco? Unified? Contact Center Express, which use Cisco? Media? Sense as a recording system, now have new opportunities to reduce costs and improve customer experience.

SmartLoggerII constantly scans the archive of conversation records created by Cisco MediaSense, and automatically determines the topic of calls, identifies non-core calls ("extra calls," that is, those that can be avoided) and cause-making conversations. The results of the automatic analysis are instantly available to the Contact Center Manager. This data enables a structured and evidence-based analysis of customer expectations and behavior and, as a result, develops a program for long-term optimization of the contact center as a whole.

Without the use of a new automation tool, obtaining similar information requires many human hours to manually listen to thousands of recorded conversations. The joint use of Cisco MediaSense and SmartLoggerII allows contact centers to continuously implement processes of low-level semantic analysis of appeals and quickly identify issues that are actually of interest to customers, as well as what they like in service and what needs to be improved. Daily use of these products will help Contact Center Managers take service quality and key performance indicators (KPIs) to the next level.

The SmartLogger II pilot project in the contact center of OJSC Rostelecom"," where Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise is used, allowed contact center managers at one of the most loaded lines to identify the causes of long-term conversations and promptly implement a set of measures that made it possible to reduce the average call time by 20%, eliminate "extra calls" by 40% and increase customer satisfaction by 90% (CSAT).

"Today, in conditions of great competition and variety of offers, it is very difficult to attract and even more so to retain the client. To remain interesting to the consumer, you need to clearly understand his needs. To do this, it must be "heard," that is, brought together, analyzed and structured all the data that contact center operators receive. It is very costly to do this without automation, no one allocates budgets for this. That is why we expect high interest from contact centers in our joint decision, "comments Ivan Veresov, executive director of the CST.

"The Russian company CST is always on the crest of the development of technologies demanded by customers around the world. The official certificate of compatibility between SmartLoggerII and Cisco MediaSense products once again confirms the high professionalism of the company's specialists, "comments Teplov Pavel, Cisco Business Development Manager .

Smart Logger II Voice Analytics Available to Cisco Contact Centers

The Smart Logger II Contact Center Operator Quality Assessment and Voice Analytics System from the CST received a certificate in October 2014 officially confirming its compatibility with the Cisco * platform. Contact centers based on Cisco communication platforms now have new opportunities to optimize the operation and automation of business processes.

The Smart Logger II voice analytics system allows you to better understand customers and reduce CC costs by solving such problems as: automatic determination of case topics, identification of non-core load and the main reasons for delayed service.

Using one of the speech analytics modules of the CST Analytics Lab, contact centers can conduct in-depth analysis of calls. The results of such an analysis show what questions people are really interested in, what their concerns are and what does not suit them.

The data provided by Smart Logger II helps contact centers significantly increase their. KPI According to the experience of implementing CST, including a pilot project in the contact center of OJSC Rostelecom"," as a result of the use of Smart Logger II, the average talk time is reduced by 20%, non-core load is reduced by 40%, and the total customer satisfaction reaches 90%.

SmartLogger II 8.4: functionality extension for all customer groups

In October 2014, CST introduced version 8.4 of the Smart Logger II multi-channel recording and analytics system. Improvements mainly affected the integration of the CST product with various services on Cisco and Avaya communication platforms.

Updates for contact centers, banks and large corporate clients of the CST received a certificate confirming the compatibility of the Smart Logger II voice analytics system with the Cisco MediaSense platform. The ability to analyze the quality of contact center operation in automatic mode is now available to customers using Cisco CC, where Cisco MediaSense is used as a recording system.

Also, the multi-channel recording system from the CST has been successfully tested for compatibility with the new version of the Avaya Aura platform. In addition, the latest release of Smart Logger II includes an add-on that allows owners of CCs on Avaya platforms to save 15 to 50% on additional licensing. First, it became possible to receive CTI information about calls directly from the Avaya System Management Service (SMS) component. And secondly, thanks to the integration of Smart Logger II with the Vector Directory Number (VDN) service, it is now possible to record calls selectively.

The most significant improvement in this area is a new algorithm for determining the emotional background of a conversation, which allows you to automatically identify contact centers that express dissatisfaction with customers, work with which requires additional efforts to keep them from operators and supervisors. A timely response from the CC Quality Service allows you to quickly solve the problem and avoid the client's transition to a competitor.

Screen analytics has also taken a major step forward. Added the ability to record screens not only during call processing, but also during the entire time the user works at the computer, regardless of whether he has a phone. You can now automatically compare employees' performance and analyze their performance. The CST on-screen analytics allows you to track at what time the employee took up his duties, how effectively he solved his work tasks and when he ended the working day.

Tasks to be solved. Composition. Functionality. Specifications

Smart Logger II (September 2014):

• Recording Telephone Conversations
• Control and evaluation of operators "performance
• Customer Satisfaction Analysis.

Operators Quality Control Systems

As part of the Smart Logger II system:

QM Analyzer Auto-Analysis Module

Automatic comprehensive assessment of operator performance and customer satisfaction can be carried out in 4 groups of parameters:

• quantitative-time parameters of the call;
• voice activity parameters of announcers;
• lexical-semantic analysis of conversations;
• assessment of voice and speech parameters characterizing the emotional and psychophysical state of announcers.

The analysis is carried out in accordance with the tasks that are formed using standard templates with a list of monitored parameters and their threshold values.

Monitoring of quantitative and time parameters of call and parameters of voice activity of announcers is carried out relative to normal, permissible and critical deviation from the established threshold value.

Analysis of the lexical-semantic composition of telephone conversations is carried out separately for operators and clients on the basis of pre-formed tasks for searching for keywords and expressions of interest.

The emotional state of the announcers is monitored according to the parameters of pace, rhythm and intonation of speech. To analyze the emotional state, the duration of the speech signal of one announcer must be at least 10 s.

Advantages of automatic call analysis:

• 100% of calls are monitored
• the subjectivity of expert assessment is excluded - the assessment is carried out by a computer according to objectively measured parameters
• possibility of solving additional search and analytical problems on the contact center phonogram array

Traditional scorecards

The operator performance assessment map is divided into logical blocks of quantitative and qualitative parameters of quality assessment. The evaluation blocks and the parameters included in them are determined by the quality manager in accordance with the rules and regulations adopted in the contact center. Scorecards are filled by supervisors manually, based on the results of listening to phonograms selected according to the rules of random sampling.

Smart Logger II scorecards provide a mechanism for feedback with operators: the supervisor can specify a comment on the scorecard and discuss the scorecard with the operator while maintaining the entire discussion history directly in the scorecard.

Advantages:

• flexible adjustment of the rating map: generating blocks and parameters, defining the rating scale and parameter weights

generating scorecard templates for typical evaluation cases

• Maintain a history of templates and scorecards
• supervisor management: assigning assessment tasks to a given template, selecting operators and workers

groups to evaluate, determine the timing of the task and control over the amount of work performed

• construction of graphical and tabular reports on any blocks and evaluation parameters

Functionality

Data Recording and Storage

• Total recording of conversations or management of recording from the workplace
• Data lifecycle management, special symbols, and labels
• Automatic creation of ordered archives of phonograms on CD and DVD

Control of work processes and work of personnel

• The ability to track the progress of negotiations and screens of monitors of operators online
• Presentation of Call Diagram with Customer Transfers and Line Holds
• Assessment of operators' performance in the course of conversation
• Flexible multi-level access rights system
• Notification of technical personnel about system events by email and sms
• Automatic documentation of events and user actions in special logs
• Translation of phonograms into text format using the built-in transcriber

Data Search and Analysis

• Quick and advanced search filters. Search Keywords and Speech Fragments with VoiceDigger Technology
• Create your own parameters for evaluating the performance of operators, generate advanced analytical reports on the quality of personnel work
• Mixing phonograms of different operators to compare their skills on typical calls
• Visual graphical representation of analytical information
• Forms of quality control of agents related to phonograms of negotiations

Speech and Emotional Analysis

• Identification of parasite words and pauses of hesitation in operator speech
• Determination of the level of stress resistance and psychophysical state of operators
• Search for "quiet" and critical complaints in customer speech
• Analyze Customer Reallocation Reasons
• Determine customer loyalty and satisfaction

Specifications

• Number of channels per recording station - up to 300
• Audio data format - wav uncompressed or 16x compressed
• DBMS SQL Express - database size up to 5 million phonograms
• DBMS SQL Standard - database size up to 100 million phonograms

Smart Logger II for Microsoft Lync platform

The Smart Logger II voice analytics and automatic quality assessment system for contact center operators was integrated in the fall of 2014 with the Microsoft Lync unified communications platform. Now companies using MS Lync have the opportunity to automate the solution of such problems as: identifying non-core load, analyzing references to marketing actions, identifying the reasons for repeated calls, ensuring information security.

Smart Logger II logs the voice traffic of external and internal connections of MS Lync servers and stores them in the database. Built-in algorithms for full-text speech recognition and semantic analysis of negotiation content allow you to automatically distribute fixed calls by customer call topics.

Also, audio files are processed by client-operator interaction quality assessment tools, which automatically provide the results of the assessment and significantly facilitate the work of supervisors. Text transcripts of negotiation records allow the user to quickly and efficiently search for keywords in large arrays of phonograms when solving problems related to quality assessment or information security problems.

Smart Logger II is based on speech analytics technologies unique to the Russian language. The system allows you to automate business processes, optimizing the work of contact centers and companies of other industries. With the help of Smart Logger II, contact centers can improve such indicators as: average call duration, solution of the issue in the framework of one telephone call, conversion to sales, level of self-service.

SmartLogger II - Employee Action Assessment Tool

According to February 2014, SmartLogger II is a tool for assessing employee actions using continuous screen recording

The operation mode of the SmartLogger II multichannel recording system allows you to objectively assess the actions of employees of any organization, and not just contact center operators. Added the ability to record screens not only during call processing, but also during the entire time the user works at the computer, regardless of whether he has a phone.

Convenient new visual means of working with video recordings have also been added, which facilitate the work of supervisors, quality control specialists and employees of information security services. Using a visual chronological diagram of video recordings with the synchronization of a telephone conversation record located in a separate tab, you can compare the parameters of employees' work and analyze the effectiveness of their actions. The fact that video and audio recordings will be on the timeline will clearly demonstrate at what time the employee took up his duties, how effectively he solved his work tasks and when he ended the working day.

It is possible to assign screen recording conditions to users' computers through Active Directory - the new synchronization component includes permanent recording mode for users in a specific group. Viewing the operator screen is available to the supervisor in one click.

"The complete SmartLogger II recording solution, coupled with voice analytics tools, is a perfect and powerful tool that gives businesses the answer to modern challenges. The system allows you to quickly navigate information flows, identify flaws in business processes of interaction with customers, ensure the development of corrective actions and measure the effectiveness of their application. We continuously develop our products, and for each market requirement we find the optimal solution. Most recently, the CST company announced the release of SL II, which included many significant new products, one of which is automatic decoding of phonograms based on the technology of recognition of speech. And here is another important service that allows you to optimize the work and increase the security of the company - continuous recording of screens, "- comments the executive director of the CST, Veresov Ivan