It’s critical that emerging IP phone vendors, such as Cisco (News - Alert) and Avaya, are developing devices that are compatible with call monitoring systems, as a way to improve operations and enlist quality control over products for contact centers and companies in the customer relationship management, or “CRM,” industry, said one official from a Basking Ridge, N.J.-based enterprise communications giant.

 

Rob Bowers, product manager of agent performance for the contact center division at Avaya (News - Alert), told TMCnet in an interview that any contact center not using call monitoring or quality management solutions is lacking a primary means of obtaining customer information.

 

“A contact center that is not using call monitoring or quality management solutions is missing opportunities to efficiently learn what customers are telling their agents, the skill gaps their agents have, and a critical performance management tool,” Bowers told TMCnet. “Avaya partners with leading workforce optimization vendors to ensure that our contact center customers have access to solutions that integrate optimally to their platforms.”

 

By listening to customer interactions and providing feedback to an agent on how he or she can improve a sales approach, call monitoring is a way to consistently improve operations.

 

For Avaya, call monitoring systems offer flexibility, an attractive quality in a competitive market.

 

“Avaya customers are in the midst of a transition from TDM to VoIP and ultimately to SIP technologies,” Bowers told TMCnet. “Investing in solutions that evolve with the transition is a critical value proposition that supports the investments they are making in all Avaya solutions.”

 

And as IP phones control over more of the market, companies worldwide are leveraging new devices as a way to break the mold and expand business opportunities.

 

According to a report from Infonetics Research (News - Alert), VoIP services, including IP phone systems, brought in $21 billion for service providers in the first half of 2009. And, the trend is expected to rise.

 

At the same time, the future looks grim for PSTNs. According to the report, the number of residential and SOHO VoIP subscribers is forecast to top 225 million by 2013. In other words, with about 310 million Americans that means 75 percent of all residential subscribers will be VoIP by 2013.

 

While beneficial in many markets, call monitoring has made its professional mark in the CRM industry, along with the call and contact center segments.

 

For Bowers, call monitoring technologies are important supplements to reporting and analytics capabilities that Avaya already offers to contact center operators.

 

“These solutions extend the understanding that contact center managers have into their operations and performance,” Bowers said.