iLink– Fall, 2006

Anticipating growth in the Southwest and opening a distribution center in Greenville, South Carolina, Dietz & Watson needed to update their customer service order system. With a nationwide clientele of many well-known supermarkets and restaurants selling both their branded and private label gourmet deli products, Dietz & Watson, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based manufacturer, was expanding their sales and wanted their order system to be a reflection of the top-quality meats and cheeses they sell.

Rich Piasecki, a member of Dietz & Watson's IT department, clearly saw the need for a more productive, organized, efficient outbound call order process. After extensive research, he narrowed it down to either a PC-based system, or iMessaging's System i-based iNspire Call Center Suite with the added capability of agent outbound dialing. He found iMessaging through Barb Neels at Machines & Media, a trusted consultant and IBM business partner. As an RPG programmer, and overseeing an IT group dedicated to the System i, Piasecki preferred iMessaging's product, as it would more easily integrate with their environment.  As well, the iMessaging team was upfront regarding their solutions capabilities and took the time to understand Dietz & Watson's requirements.

After making the decision to go with iMessaging, Piasecki and the iMessaging staff met to compose the programming plan. Piasecki was pleased with iMessaging's ability to "completely understand the process as well as all the exceptions to the rules. That made the implementation and testing go very smoothly." iMessaging's project management and installation services were very helpful and, according to Dietz & Watson staff, the timetable that iMessaging laid out for the project was spot on. "iMessaging is the only vendor we've worked with that completed what they said they would, on time," states Piasecki. "We're not used to that type of promptness!"

CSR's Daily Call Status Screen. (Click on image for larger view)

Call History Inquiry Prompt Screen. (Click on image for larger view)

CSR History Inquiry by Agent and Date. (Click on image for larger view)

Prior to the iNspire system, Dietz & Watson's CSRs relied on daily printouts from the system to determine the CSRs call list for the day. This way of contacting customers was problematic for a number of reasons. First, manually making the outgoing calls sometimes resulted in misdialed phone numbers, wasted time and additional phone costs. The CSRs had to make handwritten notes on whom they needed to call back, what the customer wanted to order, etc. They didn't have the capability of knowing what the customer previously ordered, nor did they have the ability to make suggestions on alternative products or to alert the customer of upcoming specials. Finally, orders had to be hand-entered into the computer, taking time and leaving room for keyboarding errors.

According to Linda Lewis, Dietz & Watson's Call Center Associate, the iNspire system allows the agents to use headsets rather than handsets, and all they need to do to dial a phone number is push a button on their computer screen. "Now, we just put our headset on and dial. No more misdials or redials and all our systems are integrated with easy access." Today, all calls are prioritized so the CSRs simply follow the System i-generated screen and dial.  If a customer isn't available and they leave a voicemail or if they prefer to be called back at a certain time, CSRs can indicate that in the system along with specific notes and they'll be automatically prompted to call back at a convenient time. Lewis and her fellow CSRs then get a System i-based screen pop with all the applicable information needed when it is time to call back.

With iNspire's Directed Dialer function, all CSRs have control over the priority screen. When a call is connected, a screen pops to a new order entry screen showing past orders, featured products, specials available, etc. Having this information at the agent's fingertips allows them to better service the customer and increase sales and upsells. Every call scheduled is serviced because the system tracks all complete and incomplete calls - there is no concern about a missed order. If a customer has called back and leaves a voicemail, CSRs are notified with an iNspire popup box to ensure that they receive the message in a timely fashion and return the calls promptly.

Currently, Dietz & Watson has 4 CSRs that each complete about 80 calls per day. Previously, these 4 CSRs completed a total of 53 calls per day. The increase is attributed to more efficient CSRs and more stores/chains serviced. Overall, the iNspire Call Center Suite with Directed Dialer has been a wonderful addition to the Dietz & Watson customer service center. Call center productivity can be monitored by management, and the CSR's jobs are easier because they have everything they need at their fingertips. "Because of iNspire, we are able to give our CSRs more responsibilities because they are much more efficient. In turn, the CSR's efficiency allows us to grow our business and bring on more customers," Piasecki enthuses.

To contact Dietz & Watson directly, please call 800-333-1974 or visit their website at www.dietzandwatson.com.

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It's an exciting time to be a telephony vendor in the System i space! With IBM's March 2006 announcement of the availability of 3Com's VoIP platform on the System i, there is lots of interest in the capabilities and benefits of telephony, especially as it relates to the System i.

With all the fervor, we've noticed a subtle yet important transition occurring in the System i marketplace. The change has transitioned telephony from being simply a utility external to the AS/400 to a set of integrated services within the System i. In place of terminology related to functions such as IVR and inbound/outbound, we now hear buzzwords like "Telephony-enabled" and "Telephony integration" as commonplace. So, what does it all mean to iMessaging Systems' clients, and how might it affect you in the near or long term?

The fact of the matter is that iMessaging has been helping our clients "telephony enable" their AS/400 applications for years. Consider the customer testimonial featured in this issue of iLINK for Dietz & Watson, A Call To Action! 

Dietz & Watson, a maker of gourmet deli products, has embedded telephony within their call center's AS/400-based Daily Call List application.  Each day, call center representatives access their Daily Call List and are directed by the application to make contact with customers and service orders for Dietz & Watson product.  iMessaging "dialing" capabilities have been embedded directly into Dietz & Watson's Daily Call List application to allow call center agents to place calls by simply pressing a single key within the application screen.  The system dials the customer, connects the call and provides a "screen-pop," reducing dialing errors and improving agent dialing efficiency.

This is an example of telephony integrated with a customer application, but consider that the application could be order entry, CRM, collections, or any other AS/400-based application.  With iMessaging solutions, telephony services may be provided by a traditional PBX such as Avaya or Nortel, direct lines from the telco, or via VoIP systems such as 3Com on the System i.  With iMessaging products, our clients are already positioned to "Telephony Enable" AS/400-based applications by leveraging either traditional telephone environments or taking advantage of the exciting world of VoIP!

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iNspire Call Center Suite™ Adds myView™ for Managers — A Web-based View of Call Center Activity — In August, 2006, iMessaging Systems announced the release of myView™ for the iNspire Call Center Suite™, a tool for call center managers that provides an up-to-the-minute, web-based graphical snapshot of call center activity.  The iNspire Call Center Suite leverages the integration, scalability and reliability of the System i to deliver a powerful yet cost-effective call center solution that is entirely managed and controlled from a single stable platform, System i.  iNspire brings you self-service applications via the full-function iVoice™ IVR (interactive voice response) call management system, while full-service call center operations are managed by our iAgent™ agent (CSR) integration modules. With the addition of myView, call center managers now have direct access from their Internet Explorer browser (version 6.0 or higher) to a host of System i-based call center data for daily activities, such as: Number of total calls in the center’s call queue Average hold time of those calls Service level Number of inbound calls received for the day Average inbound call time for that day Number of inbound calls abandoned by callers Agents logged in to the system and their current status myView version 1.00.0 was derived from a variety of customer inputs and field experience and features color-coding for easy reference, a drop-down box to select a specific campaign or all campaigns, a dynamic pie chart displaying how center agents are using their time throughout the day and a listing of calls currently in the queue waiting for an agent. myView also displays detailed information by call center campaign, including the number of calls in queue for that campaign, as well as the availability of agents to assist those specific callers.  myView data is pulled real-time from the iNspire Call Center Suite database on the System I, ensuring that the information presented in myView is current and accurate. Additionally, myView data is refreshed automatically at pre-determined intervals.      Karen Sedlar of iMessaging Systems notes, "Our team has been working diligently to expand the reporting and monitoring capabilities of the iNspire Call Center Suite and myView is yet another example of the advances we have made. Most importantly, myView provides rich content and a graphical view to call center activity while maintaining iNspire’s commitment to our System i- centered design." The screen shot above shows myView for iNspire in action with up-to-the-minute, detailed information available to call center managers from any web browser. For more information on iNspire, click here or email to info@iMessagingSystems.com.

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iLINK Definition: Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

SIP is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard protocol for initiating an interactive user session that involves multimedia elements such as voice, video, chat, gaming, and virtual reality.

Like HTTP or SMTP, SIP works in the Application layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) communications model. The Application layer is the level responsible for ensuring that communication is possible. SIP can establish multimedia sessions or Internet telephony calls, and modify, or terminate them. The protocol can also invite participants to unicast or multicast sessions that do not necessarily involve the initiator. Because the SIP supports name mapping and redirection services, it makes it possible for users to initiate and receive communications and services from any location, and for networks to identify the users wherever they are.

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