VoIP (voice over IP)

VoIP (voice over IP) is the transmission of voice and multimedia content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. VoIP is enabled by a group of technologies and methodologies used to deliver voice communications over the internet, enterprise local area networks or wide area networks.

How does VoIP work?

VoIP encapsulates audio via a codec into data packets, transmits them across an IP network and unencapsulates them back into audio at the other end of the connection. VoIP endpoints include dedicated desktop VoIP phones, softphone applications running on PCs and mobile devices, and WebRTC-enabled browsers.

By eliminating the use of circuit-switched networks for voice, VoIP reduces network infrastructure costs, enables providers to deliver voice services over their broadband and private networks, and allows enterprises to operate a single voice and data network. VoIP also piggy-backs on the resiliency of IP-based networks by enabling fast failover around outages and redundant communications between endpoints and networks.

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Eight Benefits of VoIP

The reason for the prevalence of VoIP is that it gives significant benefits compared to legacy phone systems. The key benefits are as follows:

Cost savings. The most attractive feature of VoIP is its cost-saving potential. When we move away from public switched telephone networks, long-distance phone calls become inexpensive. Instead of being processed across conventional commercial telecommunications line configurations, voice traffic travels on the Internet or over private data network lines.

Rich media service. The legacy phone system mainly provides voice and fax service even though limited video service is possible. However, the demand of users is much higher than that, as shown in today's rich media communications through the Internet. People check out friends' presence (such as online, offline, busy), send instant messages, make voice or video calls, transfer images, and so on. VoIP technology makes rich media service possible, integrating with other protocols and applications. Rich media service not only provides multiple options of media to users, but also creates new markets in the communications industry, such as VoIP service in mobile phones.

Phone portability. The legacy phone system assigns a phone number with a dedicated line, so you generally cannot move your home phone to another place if you want to use the same phone number. It is a common hassle to call the phone company and ask for a phone number update when moving to a new house. However, VoIP provides number mobility: The phone device can use the same number virtually everywhere as long as it has proper IP connectivity. Many businesspeople today bring their IP phones or softphones when traveling, and use the same numbers everywhere.

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What are best practices for managing WebRTC services?

Managing WebRTC voice and video services is slightly different than managing other Voice over IP services. WebRTC and VoIP differ in two key ways: WebRTC integrates with websites and web apps, while VoIP is usually a standalone service. Additionally, WebRTC services can be developed in-house or by developers in specific verticals, as opposed to being developed by vendors specializing in VoIP.

As such, keep these best practices in mind when managing WebRTC voice and video services:

Maintain browser compatibility. Browser updates will affect how your WebRTC services operate. These updates can disrupt services due to changes in the browser's behavior or its APIs. Make sure you test your server against beta versions of browsers and be prepared to upgrade your WebRTC deployment whenever problems occur. Browser vendors won't stall their upgrade cycles to avoid disruptions to your service.

Monitor your service end to end. Test the CPU load, memory, storage and network use of your servers. WebRTC services for voice and video usually contain several moving parts. Validating that each part works independently is nice, but if you aren't running real sessions through your service as a monitoring measure, then you aren't monitoring your service end to end. This may cause extended downtimes for your users.

Ensure your network's quality. WebRTC services can be deployed on premises, but they are usually deployed and consumed from the cloud. As a result, connectivity and geographic location of your users will affect the quality of the media experienced. Make sure to test and validate the quality of your service at your users' location and at the level of load you expect from them.

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Boost contact center service without adding agents

Contact center service is critical to customer experience, so companies need to ensure their call center agents have the right tools and techniques for the job. Here's how.

There are numerous ways to improve contact center service without hiring additional agents. The key is a multifaceted approach that supports a strong customer experience and allows companies to optimize their cost structure.

High costs of contact centers create a large obstacle to optimization. Additionally, there is the challenge of finding call center -- or contact center -- agents who have the right skills and characteristics for this role.

Three ways to reduce the need for more agents include reducing call center volume, increasing the use of call center agents and boosting productivity.

How to reduce customer requests

There are a number of tactics to reduce the number of requests that contact center agents must be able to handle, including ensuring that customers are interacting because they want new services, not because they have problems with existing ones; ensuring that customer issues are resolved during the initial contact; and giving customers a way to serve themselves.

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