Instant Messaging
Datapoint provides instant messaging capabilities that can function with any SIP enabled communication device in the Avaya portfolio. These include certain hardware based phones and software based communication interfaces customised for call centre agents or laptop and desktop users.
These can be used at head office sites, within branch offices, at home or anywhere the user has suitable VPN type connectivity. When SIP trunking is used for network connectivity, presence management is enabled and therefore full IM capability becomes possible.
Presence enabled instant messaging is currently enabled within Avaya communication ecosystems, however as Avaya and other vendors bring full federated presence management(link) to market, this will extend to any authorised IM interface within the extended communication networks that an organisation builds between itself, its customers, suppliers and partners.
Using Instant Messaging Within Call Centres
When agents are using an Avaya SIP phone or suitable softphone (IP Agent), they can communicate amongst the call centre community and beyond to presence registered experts who are on stand by to help with customer enquiries.
The use of IM in call centres has to be carefully introduced and differentiated in its use from consumer based versions to avoid indiscriminate use. For instance it can be restricted to certain groups such as team leaders who need to collaborate or be used by supervisors as part of their adherence duties to track the availability of the agents. Please note for performance reasons, it is recommended that a supervisor track only 50 or fewer contacts. Exceeding this limit could result in delayed presence state changes.
The presence of an agent or user is indicated as follows:
Online - This state indicates that an agent is available and idle.
Busy - This state indicates that an agent is busy and may not be available to participate in other tasks such as an instant messaging session.
Away - This state indicates that an agent is not available at the agent desktop.
On the Phone - This state indicates that an agent is currently participating in a telephone conversation.
Appear Offline - This state provides the appearance that an agent is not registered. However this state does not prevent the agent from receiving instant messages.
Offline – This state indicates the user is not registered and cannot receive instant messages.
Using Instant Messaging Within Branch Sites
Instant messaging is a native capability within branch networks when they have installed Avaya’s Distributed Office. This provides point to point connectivity for IM users within the branch environment. When SIP trunking is added for network connectivity, organisational wide instant messaging becomes possible.
If a branch environment also provides ‘walk in’ customer services such as self help kiosks, these can be integrated with presence and instant messaging capability to offer live help located in a central call centre or another branch location.
Using Instant Messaging from Laptops & Desktops
Desktop and laptop users can send and receive instant messages amongst themselves using either a softphone* (IP Softphone) or unified desktop interface (one-x desktop/one-x communicator) operating on a Windows operating system. Users of other operating systems can opt for a browser based version.
Users can see contact availability via presence and have control over their IM use through a number of preferences they can exercise for audio/visual alerts, privacy settings, status, history settings and preset/user-defined responses. Messages can also be customised through font choice and the use of emoticons icons.
* IM is not available when softphones are used in a Citrix environment
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