ACD

Remote Problems

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Tuesday I had to deal with problems while I was 2000+ miles and 3 time zones away. First we are having lingering issues with a mail server. No one can log into it locally but the email services are running. so for now we are in a wait and see state with it. we are making sure we have good backups of everything on the box before we mess with it more. Also Kai and I being away isn’t helping.

A reporting function of Zeacom failed again. The only solution is to reboot the system. This is what the brain trust at Zeacom support tells us. Rebooting that system is not without its own risks. Kai and I are the only ones who have rebooted it before. Brian will do it tonight, but it will be his first time. He has seen Kai do it so hopefully we have no issues.

We also had performance issues with Jabber and some other minor crap. I had to juggle this, Dan complaining of site performance issues and 4 lectures. it was a busy day. The problem with the site performance issues is we see nothing wrong on our end. Dan is just frustrated. Not sure what else we can do (from my end) right now. it is not like the local director is acting up again (thank goodness), that I can make a change and magically it is all better. that is what he is hoping for.

IPCC Is a Go

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After months of negotiating (and years of thinking and talking about it) my company finally decided to purchase Cisco’s IPCC software. Gus and I started looking into this stuff way back in December of 2002. It didn’t pan out. We ended up going to Cisco Call Manager 3.3.2 with our incumbent ACD Zeacom Smartconnect. Call Manager was a vast improvement over our Avaya Magix system we were using so we were sort of happy. Unfortunately Smartconnect has major problems integrating with Call Manager. We have uncovered several issues that have taken us months to overcome. Other issues are not correctable.

As we grow the need for a new contact center software became apparent. We looked at the major players, Cisco, Genisys, & Aspect. We were slightly limited with our options because we were already on Cisco’s Call Manager IP phone IP-PBX. That made us need to look at Genisys’s and Aspect’s IP based products. The problem with them was that either very few or no one was using them on Cisco’s Call Manager (CCM). To me that was one of the two killer problems for our situation. The other problem was integration. As we saw with Smartconnect the “hooks” that tied the Software to our IP-PBX was critical. Cisco was great at selling the integration between CCM and IPCC. Of course you assume there will be tight integration between the two, they are both Cisco products. The other two companies (in my opinion) had problems proving the tightness of their software to CCM. And for a major purchase such as this, I needed to be totally comfortable with the software we were buying. Because even if no one said it, if this integration fails peoples heads will be looking at me as to why.

There is allot to be said by having “one throat to choke” when dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars of phone gear. The up hill battle for IPCC was proving to our business people that the ease of use and functionality of IPCC was on par with Genisys.

So my multiple trips to Boston, Philly, Kingston, etc, and endless conversations with sales guys and pre sales engineers have finally paid off. And if you know me, dealing with sales guys a fate worse than death (sometimes).

The next step is scheduling this massive upgrade to not interfere with our other major projects going on. Such as expanding into our new Call Center space downstairs, new Fulfillment system, and upgrades to our data center infrastructure.

As part of this upgrade we will also be upgrading our voice mail from smartconnect’s voice mail system to Cisco’s unity. We will also need/want to upgrade call manager to 4.x after we are done with the IPCC upgrade. This is because Smartconnect as of now does not support CCM 4.x, so that upgrade has to come after we move to IPCC.

This will be exciting but stressful.

Extension Mobility

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With Cisco Call Manager we can do something called extension mobility. it allows you to goto any phone in the office and log in with your phone extension. Our call center software Zeacom Smartconnect has always had problems with extension mobility. Once we use it the extension would not work with the software until the system was rebooted. We put a patch on the system last Tuesday that was supposed to fix the problem. Turns out that it didn’t. Some extensions work, and others do not. it is driving Kai and I crazy.

It turns out that Cisco uses the MAC address of the device you are logging into to track the profiles for extension mobility. That doesn’t work with how Zeacom does things. They like netbios. We have had issues with Smartconnect and netbios before when we wanted to put devices on networks other than the network where the smartconnect server resides. Zeacom is working on yet another patch to get the two system to gel and work together. I am still eagerly awaiting extension mobility. I have been waiting since September 2003. Granted EM will work with the cisco phones, but I just cannot use the call center software once I use it. it becomes a real pain in the ass.

VoIP Day is over! (or almost)

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Sorry about the military lingo in the post, but it gets difficult coming up with snappy yet topical slogans for the title.

I will be the first to admit I have limited business dealing experience. Today was my first time negotiating on a big business deal. Our Data Center deal was big, but not close to this hardware purchase.

We did it. We signed the contracts. We are now the proud owners of a Cisco Voice Over IP hardware solution running a call center package called Zeacom Smart-connect. It is light years ahead of what we are running now, but it is also sort of a compromise. It is an advancement because we are currently using an old phone switch that is near its capacity. The switch also was never designed as a call center switch. It is a trade off because we are keeping our current software. The users like it, but it has been difficult to manage so far. We are told it is easier when using VOIP.

You would think I am happy. I am, but I can’t relax just yet. We still have voice and data circuits to order and install. Telecom companies have no idea about deadlines. I gave 2 of them deadlines of today and both of them blew them. One lost the deal because of it, the other I am willing to wait till monday.

Now that we bought all this stuff I need to actually have it built. And all sorts of other hardware needs to be purchased. For example we need desktop computers, server and other crap. I need to work on those quotes also. I also need to measure our server room for space, and figure out our cable plans. Tons to do, and about a month to do it in. I really don’t think we can keep this target date, but the boss wants it so I will do all I can to meet it. That translates into no life for about 4-8 weeks. Not that I had a big social life in the past 4-8 weeks.

I am physically and emotionally exhausted from todays activities. Who would have thought sitting and talking in a conference room would be so tiring?

I am on the train going home friday night. I am tired. That means I will stop writing. More over the weekend after I rest some.

VoIP Day T-Minus 0.5

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Completed work today without a stroke. This deal making is stressful. Up until now I have been very vague at what sort of hardware deal I am talking about. My company runs a call center. We are opening a new call center in upstate New York since our current office is at capacity. We have been shopping around since like January for a solution that will work for us. We needed a phone system, network gear (switches, routers, firewalls) and a software solution that will run the call flow for the call center. We wanted to do this with as few vendors as possible. In addition to the above listed items we also need server, desktops, laptops, cabling for the floor (that is not done by itself:), setup and testing of the gear, etc.

Because there was so much stuff we looked at no fewer than 6 vendors to do this for us. Each offered a variety of options. We narrowed down the call center software package that we will use to 2 products. this we did early on. we had a new product produced by Cisco, and the current one we use by a company called zeacom. We built our configuration around either of these products. Now months later we are almost at the final choice. We have narrowed down the playing field from Avaya magix or difinidy PBX switches. We looked at NEC VoIP switches, and also a few lower end systems that we didn’t like. Now we are down to the wire. We have 2 vendors we like, one more than the other. I can’t say specifics because things are not done yet.

In a nutshell that is what has been going on as far back as december 2002. I have a background in data networks. That being said I am a fan of the Cisco hardware. It is Cisco, support is good. They make (or buy companies that make) good hardware. I work for people that are VERY cost aware. Being the best does not fly with these people. We have to justify what we spend. At first it drove me crazy. It still does, but I appreciate it, and it is now a challenge to do everything we want and spend small amounts doing it. As much as working a deal sucks in my opinion (i hate sales people), it is nice to shave off $17,000 off a quote in 20 minutes of a phone conversation.

We meet tomorrow to finalize and hopefully sign contracts. I await final paperwork tonight. I just hope all we asked for is in writing for tomorrow. This is the biggest decision I have ever made for a company. Yes, I am nervous. I think we thought it through and are making the correct decision. It was a collaborative effort. Keith, Gus, & I reading up on the technology. Gus working the deal. I hammered out the design and worked the deal a bit. But even after that, you still are nervous until you take that first call, and that 100,000 call…

Once this is done I can focus on actually building what up until now has only been a concept written on my white board in my office. That and quotes piled 3 feet high on my desk.

The big remaining obstacle is lease terms. We don’t want to pay tons of money cash to pay for all this equipment now. Being a relatively new company we need to work on getting good terms. That is ongoing but I don’t want it to affect our deal.

OK, stressing still. I just want this to be over. As I write this I got emails with some revised numbers that I don’t like. Working on correcting. Dam sales guys…