Contact Center On-Demand Platform and Technology Security and Compliance Services FAQs

FAQs

High Level SaaS (Hosting) Questions

How would Echopass deliver its service to me?

The Echopass solution is delivered to our customers' Local Area Network through high-speed communication channels such as T1-T3 broadband connections. These are used to transport and secure service delivery to the client site.

Service is delivered to the agent desktop via an IP/SIP phone and the Echopass soft phone via an Internet connected computer. Echopass provides end-to-end network connectivity from its data centers to the client sites.

If a customer's contact center staff includes work at home agents, the service is delivered to the agent home via high speed cable or DSL. (If the chatter asks: Redundant circuitry is available depending on the customer’s requirements.)

How reliable is the Echopass service?

Echopass has 3 datacenters that are built for complete reliability with the latest tech-nology to resist fire, electrical outages, and natural disasters.

Design requirements extend well beyond those of most enterprise class businesses.

All Echopass infrastructure system components are selected from high-availability and high-reliability products with proven track records.

What type of service level does Echopass provide?

Echopass provides a Service Level Agreement of 99.9%, and we consistently meet or exceed that level.

How secure is the Echopass service?

Completely secure. Echopass is fully SAS70 certified, with validated advanced measures to provide security in our facilities. Our extensive physical security measures include electronic ID badges and camera monitoring accessible only by authorized personnel. Logical data is similarly data-tight, with an advanced firewall system and 24 x 365 monitoring by network engineers.

How does Echopass provide Software as a Service?

We provide a software delivery model in which the contact center agents, wherever they may be located, access the Echopass contact center applications through the In-ternet or dedicated access and the applications are running in the Echopass datacen-ter and managed by Echopass.

Does Echopass support IP or SIP?

Yes. The Echopass contact center technology was developed with a comprehensive IP services integration and delivery architecture to support inbound/outbound voice over TDM, IP/SIP, or hybrid.

What about services other than voice?

In addition to voice calls, Echopass’ comprehensive IP services integration and deli-very architecture also supports email, fax and chat functions.

Is the Echopass architecture open?

Our contact center platform is a standards-based and open services integration architecture developed on Microsoft .Net, SQL and Visual Studio and Web services.

How many locations can Echopass serve for any single customer?

Unlimited. Many large enterprise customers have multiple physical contact center locations plus remote and at home agents. Supervisors can view and manage all agents as one distributed contact center.

What open standards does Echopass support?

The Echopass contact center platform supports the following industry standards (in alphabetical order):

CCXML
HTTP
JAVA (in the form of Java scripts and APIs)
Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP)
Microsoft .Net framework
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP RFC3261)
SNMP
TCP/IP
TXML
VXML 2.1 (VoiceXML)

What is Echopass' basic Software as a Service architecture?

Echopass developed a proprietary multi-tenant multilayer distributed software architecture where each layer manages specific tasks to ensure maximum performance and security.

The architecture is comprised of both Echopass proprietary software stacks as well as best-in-class applications from our technology partners which we have integrated. Examples include partner applications from Genesys, IBM, Verint, eTalk and Micro-soft.

Can you explain multi-tenancy to me?

Multi-tenancy is the ability to serve multiple customers and sites from a single plat-form instance. The application allows for logical separation of tenants. The Echopass multi-tenant structure creates unique records with IDs for each individual client. Each client’s data is secure, separate, and accessible only by that individual client. Each client's software can be upgraded and configured independently of other clients. Multi-tenant software enables Echopass to deploy rapidly and make sub-sequent adds/changes on demand.

What hardware would I need to use Echopass?

Echopass customers typically reduce the contact center infrastructure and hardware footprint in their datacenters to a basic set of routers and T1-T3 broadband connections that are used to enable the service. This helps further improve ROI by eliminating existing infrastructure that isn't required. Additionally they need a LAN, phone, and PCs.

Does Echopass integrate with my existing contact center hardware?

Yes. Echopass integrates our solution with on-premise call processing systems (including Cisco UCM, Nortel and Avaya), and complex back office systems including billing, ticketing management, and other applications.

What specific contact center services do Echopass provides on-demand?

Everything an enterprise-class contact center would expect and need including:

Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
Multi-site Routing
Blended Queuing
Intelligent Skills Based Routing
Conditional Data or Rules-Based Routing
On-hold Music and/or Messaging
DTMF Interactive Voice Response (GVP/IVR) for Call Routing
Web-based Reporting
Real-time Dashboards
Historical and Trend Reporting
Custom Report Creation Tools
On-screen, Multi-media Soft Phone/User Interface
Self-administration Tools
Standard Customer Support including Echopass Help Desk
IP Phone
Voicemail Queuing and Routing
Agent Voicemail, Email & Chat Queuing and Routing
Agent Knowledgebase Library
Web Callback
Fax Queuing and Routing
CRM Integration
Queue Callback
QueueView
Call Recording
Quality Management
Speech Analytics
Workforce Management

Who are the Echopass partners and what do they do?

Echopass partners with best of breed technology providers and integrates their technologies and applications. For example:

Echopass partners with Genesys for the underlying contact center multimedia routing software and IVR/voice platform infrastructure.
Echopass partners with Verint Systems and Autonomy e-talk for call recording, quality management, and speech analytics applications.
Echopass partners with IBM and Nuance Communications for speech recog-nition and text-to-speech engines
Echopass partners with Voxify for development of integrated speech solu-tions using natural language IVR.
Echopass partners with Salesforce.com, RightNow Technologies, and Micro-soft for CRM solutions.
Echopass partners with Sprint, Verizon, XO, AT&T, and other service pro-viders for network transport services.

What is Echopass Pricing Model?

A monthly per-agent fee plus per minute prices for applications like IVR.

How much time is required for Echopass service deployment?

Echopass deploys solutions very rapidly. Customers typically "go live" as fast as 45 - 60 days from executing the service agreement.

The benefit of the service going live quickly, even in the most complex environ-ments, is that Echopass helps customers generate faster time to value for productivity gains and cost savings.

What is the agent interface like with Echopass?

The Echopass Agent Environment typically consists of an IP or SIP enabled phone and EchoContact, our easy to use soft phone which is a small desktop application.

What does EchoContact do?

EchoContact provides on screen agent controls for call handling including hold, conference, transfer, state change, initiate a call (including a speed dial feature), access voice mail access, call disposition and log out.

EchoContact also enables a screen-pop of caller information to be presented to the agent just prior to the call being connected to the agent.

What is the supervisor interface like with Echopass?

The supervisor interface is browser-based and used to see all agents at all times from an Internet connected PC or laptop, from anywhere in the world. Echopass developed a tool called EchoPulse just for supervisors. EchoPulse is a real-time reporting environment where supervisors can view or even create custom graphical views of complete contact center, team or agent performance.

For reporting, the Echopass reporting tools EchoReports includes a tool called Report Builder with a wide range of pre-defined reports, plus capabilities to create vir-tually unlimited custom reports. Report Builder is based on familiar Microsoft Re-porting Services. It is very easy to use because supervisors create custom reports by dragging and dropping the desired data elements into a report template.

For provisioning and administering the Echopass applications, Echopass developed a tool called EchoSystem Manager In a single EchoSystem Manager dashboard, users can define agents and skill groups, establish workgroups, make configuration changes, modify routing strategies, view real-time and historical reports, and access the Echopass support portal.