Week 2 / Individual Assignment

Week 2 / Individual Assignment
The system used for this paper is one from a previous employer. The system is a ROLM 9751 private branch exchange (PBX) with automatic call distribution (ACD). A major bank uses this system for the Mortgage Banking. Approximately 200 - 500 employees used the system at each site. One aspect of the system is the automatic call distribution group (ACD). An ACD creates a system for the customer service group to take incoming calls. The system also had some unique phone features not available in other systems. The Rolm system also had two T1 trunks, and a tie line trunk group for internal calls from site to site. This system is state of the art, at the time of installation. The downside is the telecommunications group prefers Nortel, so support is not easy. Even though the system is not well supported by telecommunications, the system is a good system because redundancy and integrated ACD.
Automatic Call Distribution System
An ACD is defined as a computerized phone system that can evenly distribute call to agents [ (ACD Definition from PC Magazine Encyclopedia, 2010) ]. The calls come into the center and hear music until a representative is available or go directly to an available representative. At the time, most ACD systems were not a part of the PBX. They were separate units that are attached to the PBX system. This process worked well most of the time, but the ongoing success rate was not as high as a fully integrated system. The issues that did arise were larger because it was two vendors. The vendors did not always work well together. For example, if one did an update that did to work well with the other system or the vendors did not test updates with the other vendor there was a large potential for issues. When a site is in use 24 hours a day, this did not work. The Rolm ACD was a part of the ROLM 9751 PBX so the updates were always tested and there was only one vendor.
They ACD system worked well for the customer service group. The calls are evenly distributed all the customer service representatives (CSR’s). The calls did not go in a daisy chain in which it goes from phone one to phone two to find the first available phone. Instead, the calls went to the next available CSR that was next to receive a call allowing the calls to be more evenly distributed. The CSRs could also see if there were calls waiting, how long the longest call was waiting, and how long they had been on the current call both on the phone and the alert boards hanging from walls. This gave instant feedback to the CSR and helped the center maintain the standard wait and call time per call. This also helped the CSR maintain the goals set for them individually.
The standard reports showed all the calls, if they were answered, the call duration, which CSR answered the calls, and much more. This allowed management to see how well the site was doing. It also allowed the customer service center to set and achieve goals for the site. The reports were also a tool for staffing. It became easy to see staffing needs based on hours of the day, day of the week, and day of the month. Because of this system, the customer service group could view the statistics of the call volumes. This also would show how well the individual CSR did. This reporting tool tracks calls and gives feedback to CSRs and management.
Phone Features
The ROLM 9751 PBX is a computer controlled phone system designed by Rolm that has some unique phone features. A few of the unique features according to the website for the phones used [ (Rolm Phone User Guide - Online ROLM Telephone Feature Guide / Reference / Handbook, (n.d.)) ] are do not disturb (DND) this allowed the user to stop all incoming calls and have incoming calls follow forwarding instructions as set for the feature. Another unique feature is camp in which a user is on the phone line and another user can camp on the line in use. When the user hangs up the system will call the user who has camped on the line and the call will have a different ring. When the user hears the ring and picks up the phone, the other user’s phone rings. Park is a similar feature in which the user can park a call into a hold state on another phone. These features are good tools used by some users to include secretaries and managers. These features were a time saver to secretaries because they could park a call on a managers line if it was important and managers could use DND to obtain uninterrupted work time. The other Rolm features were similar to what other systems could do, for example as call forward, call waiting, and call transfer.
Trunking
The trunking consisted of two T1 trunks, and 24 tie line trunks. Glossary of ISDN and Telephone Terminology (2001) defines a tie line as “A Trunk between two PBXs. Note, a tie line is a dedicated circuit, not a switched circuit.” The tie lines went to the San Francisco PBX and out to different locations from there. The PBX had connections to many of the sites. This allowed users to use a four-digit number to contact other users within the company. The T1 trunks included the toll free calls, local calls, and some long distance calls. Other sites also use the T1 trunks [ (Glossary of ISDN and Telephone Terminology, 2001) ]. If they were calling the local area the call would travel through the tie line and drop off as a local call from the local site. To ensure the best solution for trunking, engineering is preformed. Several methods for engineering a switch are employed the first time out. The local phone company tracks all incoming calls and calls using the 800 number(s). Call tracking is done at the local site through the existing phone system. The call volume data accrues for a month. Then the information is then plotted to see the peaks and valleys of the incoming and outgoing calls. This information provides input to the trunking needed. Usually because of the type of center it is, the highest numbers are used. However, when there is a customer service group, collections group, and loan group it is the best way to handle the peaks that may occur. Because there are similar groups in other locations, the trunking used by those groups are also taken into consideration. By engineering the trunking in this manner, customers can reach the center without encountering busy signals. Engineering continues usually on a semiannual basis to ensure there is proper trunking for the site.
The ROLM 9751 system is a very good system for the use of a site with different users. An integrated ACD system is preferred. This creates one vendor to work on any issues that may happen. The system provides reports for both the CSRs and management to use. The ACD system allows CSRs to have an equal distribution of calls to ensure all CSRs have an equal number of opportunities. Some of the features used by ROLM are very unique to the system and helped increase productivity by allowing managers to use DND to stop incoming calls. Secretaries also saw the benefit of not trying to obtain the managers attention to let them know the call they expected is on hold. The ability to engineer the trunking allowed the site to ensure customer satisfaction because the customer could reach someone. Review of the trunking also ensured customer satisfaction and was reviewed semiannually. The Rolm 9751 was a system that worked well for the Mortgage banking, and Consumer Credit group of the bank.
References
ACD Definition from PC Magazine Encyclopedia. (2010). Retrieved June 29, 2010, from PCMAG.COM Encyclopedia: http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=ACD&i=37415,00.asp
Glossary of ISDN and Telephone Terminology. (2001). Retrieved June 28, 2010, from Telos-systems: http://www.telos-systems.com/techtalk/gldefs.htm
Rolm Phone User Guide - Online ROLM Telephone Feature Guide / Reference / Handbook. ((n.d.)). Retrieved 6 27, 20101, from Rolm Phone User Guide: http://www.9751.com/