WorldCom preps all-in-one call center

WorldCom is developing a managed service that will let companies update traditional call centers by integrating a handful of communication platforms the company says will provide stronger customer service support.

WorldCom Web Center is a fully managed service that will integrate a user's customer relationship management (CRM) contact information with a transaction database server at one of the carrier's two data centers. This platform lets Web Center customers transform a telephone-only call center into an environment that can accept e-mail, text chat messages, telephone calls and faxes from consumers without adding new hardware or software at their site.

WorldCom isn't the first provider to come up with the all-in-one call center. Other service providers, such as Telera and Qwest Communications, are offering similar services today, says Mark Winther, group vice president of worldwide telecommunications at consulting firm IDC.

The smarts of the WorldCom service are hosted in centers in Ohio and Nebraska. At these sites the carrier is setting up Web Center servers and databases that will have direct connectivity to the company's ATM, frame relay, Internet and public switched telephone networks.

This lets large call centers with 50 to 1,000 agents and a frame relay or ATM connection use their existing network infrastructure. If a consumer is surfing a Web Center customer's Web site and they initiate a text chat with a service agent, that information is routed through the Internet to WorldCom's data center. The transaction database sends the information request to the contact manager server that knows where an agent is available and if they specialize in the products the consumer is inquiring about. The text chat is then sent via the call center's ATM network to the appropriate agent.

Web Center customers can set up call center agents in home or small offices across the U.S. Agents in this setup will likely have a broadband connection to the 'Net, but the service can also be supported via a dial-up connection, says Frank Nigro, director of e-application product management at WorldCom.

In this scenario, the transaction database will route consumer telephone calls, faxes and text chats to individual agents just as if they were in a large call center. The contact manager tracks how long agents are online helping customers and logged on to accept customer inquiries, which lets management easily track employee performance.

WorldCom is supporting a click-to-call feature, which lets a consumer click a button on a Web site to receive a call back from an agent. The carrier is not supporting voice-over-IP calls where a customer can initiate a voice call from their PC over the Internet to an agent. "In the future we'll be able to support a complete IP-to-IP call," Nigro says. It's a quality-of-service issue today, he adds.

The carrier did not reveal any of the software or hardware partners it is working to develop the service. But this is an important piece of information for potential customers, IDC's Winther says.

"This is a powerful proposition that WorldCom is offering, but it has to work," Winther says. "There are a lot of pieces needed to make this work well together from speech recognition to CRM software, and a customer should know what they are getting."

WorldCom says beta customers have been selected, but they do not have the service up and running.

WorldCom says the service should be introduced this spring. Pricing has not been set.