moving from ird to genesys orchestration in less than 90 days · the current version of the...

September 2016

Moving from IRD to Genesys Orchestration in Less than 90 Days

WHITE PAPER

http://www.ariasolutions.com/

http://www.ariasolutions.com/solutions/swift/routing/ 01

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02

A Brief History of IRD and Composer Routing Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03

The Decision to Move to Genesys Orchestration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03

The Typical Transition Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04

Transitioning with SWIFT Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05

Benefits of SWIFT Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09

Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

white paper | Moving from IRD to Genesys Orchestration in Less than 90 Days

http://www.ariasolutions.com/solutions/swift/routing/



Introduction

Much current consumer behavior — such as being mobile-obsessed and the need for instant gratification — could lead you to believe that customers expect to be able to do everything from their smart phones, and they always demand immediate answers. And it’s true that over 35 percent of contact center interactions are now digital, not voice-based1. But, the fact is that customers are now using a variety of communication channels — such as email and voice, in addition to mobile options — to get their problems solved, and they are as interested in consistency as they are in speed.

To keep up with these customer trends, you must develop an awareness of each customer journey. Often, a voice call isn’t the first communication avenue the customer has tried. In fact, research shows that 74 percent of customers are using three or more channels to access customer service2. Speed and convenience are still important to providing quality customer service, but now consistency across channels is also key. One industry expert recently noted, “Taking an orchestrated and contextually aware approach to routing is necessary to make this happen3.”

Yet, many companies are still operating with outdated systems or older versions of the Genesys CX Platform that do not have the modern capabilities and functionality the new Genesys Orchestration platform provides. Budgets, lack of resources, and limited knowledge about new solutions are all reasons why this might be happening. But smart companies are looking ahead and realizing they can’t afford not to upgrade if they want to retain loyal customers. Based on one study, companies focused on providing a superior experience across customer journeys realized a 10 to 15 percent increase in revenue and a 20 percent increase in customer satisfaction4.

Still, the transition process to a new platform can be onerous, especially the routing component. This paper examines the standard approach to routing within the new Genesys CX Platform, and introduces SWIFT™ Routing, Aria Solutions’ answer to the pressing routing problem.


Legacy Contact Center Environment





A Brief History of IRD and Composer Routing Solution

An earlier version of the Genesys CX Platform included an interaction routing designer (IRD) to enable administrators to build routing solutions for their call center’s specific needs. Using IRD is considered closed source development where users developed routing based on Genesys specific knowledge and almost exclusively via the user interface.

The current version of the platform, Orchestration Routing, uses Composer, which Genesys introduced in late 2013. It supports the same core functionality that was developed and implemented in IRD (including Genesys List Objects), as well as new features, such as Genesys Administrator Extension (GAX), for parameter driven routing changes and integration with Genesys Rules Engine. The use of Composer along with Java or VB Script results in Orchestration routing projects requiring programming skills. With development projects other needs such as source control of the routing code must also be considered.

Orchestration enables modern call center functionality including customer journeys, mobile channels, and virtual assistants. However, the development environment used by the Genesys Orchestration platform differs from that used by IRD, so it takes time for experienced resources to learn the new tools and approaches before being able to use it effectively.

The Decision to Move to Genesys Orchestration

The decision to upgrade your Genesys platform isn’t always easy or straightforward. It may not even happen all at once, but gradually, over time, as you struggle with your existing system or recognize the need for different functionality. Here are some situations that may indicate it’s the right time to move:

ӹ You and your team find it increasingly hard to alter the existing solution in a timely, effective manner. Implementing business changes presents risk, or the current solution is fundamentally unable to support needed changes. Perhaps, it’s even gotten to a point at which you believe the current system is no longer maintainable.

ӹ Your team has been tasked with implementing a mobile customer service initiative. Tying customer service more closely to mobile use — whether through a mobile app, a mobile




The Typical Transition Approach

The transition from IRD to Orchestration Server is a platform change, which requires the new solution to be designed and developed from the ground up. This transition presents several challenges related to existing routing:

ӹ Documentation on your current IRD routing is often limited or non-existent ӹ Features in place for years may just work but not be well-understood ӹ As enhancements are added over the years, the code becomes more complex ӹ Reverse engineering existing strategies is time-consuming

A routing solution requires a number of features that all have to be programmed — hours of operation, closed messages or voicemail, holiday hours, special day closures like weather events, in-queue music and messages, and many more. Also, key to successful routing is ensuring that a wide variety of situations — such as when no agents are logged in, call center emergencies, or when callers have to wait more than a minute for service — are well-covered. The complexity of managing real-time interactions that have been handled by the previous system must now be transferred to the new one.

The typical transition approach involves upgrading the system, then spending considerable time, effort, and money to design and develop Orchestration routing from scratch. This process appears to enable high flexibility and the ability to customize, but in reality it introduces the risk of failing to meet timelines and budgets. Just the process of testing all the newer developed code based on capabilities that have been used for years can be highly time-consuming. Further, even experienced Genesys users must learn the new development tool (Composer) to even begin.

Given all these factors, the process of requirements analysis, design, development, and testing can take many months to implement, diverting time away from other critical tasks.

All of this effort is required to replace existing functionality on a new platform; and, the more time it takes, the longer you end up putting off critical customer experience improvements.


platform, or visual IVR — is a smart strategy for companies that want to build trust and loyalty. However, older platforms may not support it; they may also not support other modern functions many companies now want to deploy.

ӹ You want to integrate self- and assisted-service interactions. To do this, you need the convenience of a common development platform, which is not available in IRD.

Orchestration routing provides improvements in all of these areas. An upgrade can resolve issues resulting from an older system bogged down with years’ worth of adaptations and enhancements. It can enable users to more tightly integrate self-service with assisted service processes to offer more personalized service to customers. Plus, it enables you to take advantage of modern capabilities that can contribute to an elevated customer experience.




Transitioning with SWIFT Routing

Hiring an outside vendor to implement routing on Orchestration is one alternative, and this option may enable internal resources to focus on other tasks. But the process can still take months, since the vendor is also starting from scratch and must go through all the same steps.

Aria Solutions offers an alternative that can cut implementation time from months to weeks, and reduce costs by 25 to 75 percent. The SWIFT Routing solution enables quick deployment on the Orchestration Server. Aria has taken over 15 years of experience in developing hundreds of routing solutions for companies of all sizes and incorporated what we’ve learned into a single routing solution.

A Truly Flexible Solution

SWIFT Routing is designed to route interactions for all contact centers within your organization. Each group — such as sales, customer service, and technical support — can pick and choose which features they want to deploy based on the experience they want to provide to their customers. This asset is designed to be set up within 90 days, without coding. Instead, simply configure and test the configured features you need. No requirements analysis, design, or development are involved with SWIFT Routing.

Testing of the code has already been completed, so the only testing required is to ensure the configured solution is working the way it should for your contact center needs. Cutting out the substantial amount of time and effort normally required for the transition process enables the transition of existing voice, email, or chat routing quickly, so you can move on to customer experience differentiators, such as journey management, mobile, and Visual IVR (see Table 1).

Table 1: Comparison of the Typical Approach Versus SWIFT Routing






Naming conventions are key to the effective use of most systems. With SWIFT Routing, naming each interaction is required so the configuration specific to it can be applied. Each group or interaction may have different hours of operation, agent skill requirements, and many other parameters. You define the properties of all interactions that are meaningful to your business, and name them accordingly. Even within your organization you may have larger and smaller groups with varying needs; in this case, you can limit your use to only the properties required for each group.

The flexibility of SWIFT Routing alleviates the need for customers to fit into an interaction naming convention paradigm. A global contact center organization with regions, countries, multiple languages, products, and lines of business (US_CustomerService_Laptops_Lenovo_Email_English) can name all interactions just as easily as a single site customer service call center for a local business (CustomerSevice_English).

The Right Balance

Suitable for routing within enterprises of all sizes, SWIFT Routing includes configurable features that range from the expected to the advanced. Basic functions, such as playing a quality assurance message, music for customers in queue, and setting holiday hours are included.

Advanced capabilities such as enabling an emergency; moving existing calls out of queue; and overflowing calls to various groups the longer a call waits (with statistical checks) are also available if needed. With all these options, you can configure the solution to meet your business objectives.

Most contact centers are trying to find the balance between differentiated customer experience and efficiency; SWIFT Routing supports both:

Routing Configuration for Customer Experience

ӹ Segment your customers and define the skills of agents to handle each customer type

ӹ Prioritize specific types of interactions to have them accepted before others

ӹ Define how long an interaction should wait for ideal skilled agents

Routing Configuration for Efficiency

ӹ Route calls first to trainees if needed to drive volume to them for learning, or first to best agent

ӹ Set specific time thresholds to overflow calls (right before the service level threshold)

ӹ Overflow calls to other skills or skill levels of agents the longer an interaction awaits




Efficient Flow Design

The SWIFT Routing solution supports statistics and formulas that determine what happens within the system given various scenarios. For example, you may want to program the system to only send calls to the Overflow Group if the agents available exceed a certain performance level, or if their performance level matches the service level of callers. You can create your own formulas based on various factors, such as number of calls waiting versus agents logged in. You can also customize the formulas based on your company’s unique processes.

The routing feature evaluates overflow options periodically to determine if the Overflow Group is available to target. For example, if a call waits 30 seconds but the group in the overflow check does not meet the threshold “X agents available,” the system will not target them.

The following example helps illustrate how the system works:

A sales call from an English speaker is in the queue, with a service level goal of 20 seconds. Target 1 consists of agents with Sales and English Level 10 skills. They are primary skilled and scheduled agents, and are considered the best agents.

At 15 seconds, before the service level threshold is exceeded, the search expands to include Target 2, which is composed of sales agents who primarily take Spanish calls, but can also speak English; these agents are targeted first for Spanish calls, then for English. (The way language skills are assigned is different for each business, and can be customized according to your standards.)

The system can also assign any number of additions to be used if an interaction continues to wait for an available agent. This target could be another department, agents that used to work in this group, or any combination of skills acceptable to your business.





Support for Various Business Conditions

Managing interactions in real-time requires features for both standard and unplanned business conditions. Standard conditions such as normal hours, holiday closures, in-queue messages and music are supported by SWIFT Routing. For example, messages for a named holiday (such as Thanksgiving) can be programmed to activate annually on that holiday, even if it falls on a different day each year. Some configurations (such as holiday music) can be scheduled in advance.

Features that support unplanned business conditions provide a safeguard or additional information to customers to provide better service. For example, SWIFT Routing is programmed to recognize if no appropriately skilled agents are logged in within your hours of operation. If no agents are logged in, the system can play a message and terminate the call, send the call to another group, let callers wait in the queue, or offer voice mail or a callback. Another business condition option is to play a message to callers based on a statistic check, such as the expected wait time. Also, administrators can enable emergencies in which callers hear a message that terminates the call to avoid unnecessary wait times.

A Holistic Solution

SWIFT Routing also supports the needs of other Genesys applications by providing the appropriate data to agent desktops, workforce management, and historical and real-time reporting solutions.

Reporting uses the data from routing to provide accurate reports and more in-depth analytics. It provides flexibility to support not only the experience you want to provide to customers, but also the information you need for agents, supervisors, and workforce management to effectively manage each interaction in your contact center.





Benefits of SWIFT Routing

In short, users of SWIFT Routing realize the following benefits:

Reduced Implementation Costs

Aria’s experience using SWIFT Routing is that it achieves a 25 to 75 percent cost reduction for common to more sophisticated routing projects. By deploying SWIFT Routing, you save time, because there is little to no routing development and are fewer defects than would occur with a custom developed solution.

User Empowerment

The SWIFT Routing solution includes common features customers have requested across hundreds of routing projects. Any group within an organization can start using any feature at any time. All features can be enabled or disabled through configuration for a business unit or down to a specific type of interaction.

Easier Maintenance

With SWIFT Routing, all groups leverage a single routing solution and enable the features required. Deploying a single solution versus many customized solutions – based on the unique needs of each group – makes SWIFT Routing easier to maintain, support, and change.

Easier Transition from IRD

The approach and skill sets required to develop an IRD-equivalent routing solution in Composer differ greatly from those needed to program within IRD.

As a result, building, testing, and deploying a new routing solution from the ground up can take months or longer. SWIFT Routing offers a viable, feature-rich alternative to help transition Genesys customers to Orchestration.





Case Studies

Cloud Software Provider

With time running out on a hosted platform delivery contract, a cloud software provider needed to deploy a Genesys solution, including routing, in less than 90 days. In the past, there was no way for this to happen, as the routing development cycle involving requirements analysis, design, coding, configuration, and testing would have taken many months. The configuration-driven, no-coding SWIFT Routing approach supported the speed required for this implementation by mapping the varying needs for each department right to the end solution.

Aria Solutions was able to help this customer meet its deadline, and save money by (1) avoiding the need to extend the costly service contract, and (2) considerably reducing the cost of the routing implementation.

Financial Services Firm

A financial services firm was upgrading its systems, including data center and call center solutions. At the time, Orchestration had only been available for two years, so the firm had to choose between an emerging solution (Composer) and a legacy solution (IRD) for routing. It chose Composer because of the availability of SWIFT Routing. This solution eliminated most of the routing development, provided a high level of flexibility, and enabled administrators to focus on routing configuration rather than code.

Administrators took ownership of the routing configuration during the upgrade project, which reduced project costs and helped them get familiar with the system, making the transition to support and use easier. Administrators are now able to add new business units on their own through configuration.





Summary

Customers are increasingly reaching out to call centers through a variety of channels, including voice, email, text, and mobile. This means that, not only must companies be prepared to activate all of these channels, they must also be prepared to ensure a smooth customer journey among them. Older call center platforms may not have the capacity to enable this functionality, so many companies are upgrading to new systems, such as Genesys Orchestration, which uses Composer as its routing development platform.

Composer requires a different set of skills than IRD, the routing development solution used by the previous Genesys platform. While Composer offers a high degree of flexibility, it also requires a different skill set from that required by IRD, meaning that even highly skilled Genesys users must take the time to learn a solution in order to use it. Aside from that, the time to develop needed functionality can take months, considering the requirements analysis, design, coding, configuration, testing, and implementation phases of the process.

Aria Solutions has developed an asset, called SWIFT Routing, to help companies implement a routing solution in weeks rather than months, without losing the ability to add further functionality later on. No requirements analysis, design, or development are involved with SWIFT Routing. Testing is completed to ensure the solution is working the way it should for your needs, but testing of the code has already been completed.

The solution offers the needed features, enabling a smooth experience for customers, and also delivers critical information to agents and managers. SWIFT Routing routes for efficiency, considering various factors — such as customer location, product, language, and customer status — and using appropriate formulas to determine which agents should receive which calls, and when. It also supports various business conditions, such as no agents logged in, holidays, and emergencies. SWIFT Routing can decrease the cost of the transition by 25 to 75 percent, and enables easier maintenance, and an easier transition from IRD.

Software and financial services are just two examples of the almost endless number of industries that can take advantage of SWIFT Routing as a great fit to enhance their Genesys solution.

Notes

1Elias Parker, ICMI, “8 Reasons Why Contact Centers Should Offer Texting”

2ICMI, “Optimizing Voice in the Global Contact Center”

3Chris Horne, Genesys, “Is Your Routing Approach Hindering Customer Journeys?”

4Alfonso Pulido, Dorian Stone, and John Strevel, McKinsey & Company, “The three Cs of customer satisfaction: Consistency, consistency, consistency”



http://www.icmi.com/Resources/Mobile/2015/12/8-Reasons-Why-Contact-Centers-Should-Offer-Texting

http://www.icmi.com/~/media/Files/Resources/Whitepapers/ICMI_Optimizing-Voice-in-the-Global-Contact-Center.ashx

http://blog.genesys.com/is-your-routing-approach-hindering-customer-journeys/


Copyright © 2016 Aria Solutions Inc.

The information contained herein is proprietary to Aria Solutions Inc. No part of this white paper may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of Aria Solutions Inc. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where permission is specifically granted by the publisher or author.

Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of information contained within.

For more information, visit www.ariasolutions.com

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