Altigen Communications Inc. this week is unveiling an IP-based contact center platform for small and medium-sized businesses with up to 500 agents. The voice-over-IP system is aimed particularly at small manufacturers and other sales-oriented companies that cant afford traditional call center integration but want the same features, including advanced customer relations management functions.
Craft Diston Inc., a Wichita, Kan., shower door manufacturer, installed Altigens core IP telephony technology throughout its 11 locations coast-to-coast over the last year, according to Mike Gayeski, chief financial officer at Craft Diston. The system is saving the company $24,000 a month in IT and telecom expenses, in addition to other cost-savings, he said.
“We no longer need to have someone manning the phone at each call center location,” Gayeski said. “Its 10 times easier than the old system. This implementation brought us 10 years into the future.”
The new product, AltiContact Manager, is a hardware/software system that combines many of the multichannel features of high-end contact center systems, such as skills-based routing, interactive voice response, PBX functionality, voice mail, unified messaging and Web interaction, among others. For a 50-agent call center, the cost of implementation would be approximately one-third the cost of a legacy system, according to Richard De Soto, senior vice president at Altigen, in Scottsdale, Ariz.
AltiContact Manager also comes with built-in integration with CRM systems, including Microsoft CRM, ACT! and Goldmine.
“Small and medium businesses dont necessarily have systems integration functions in their business,” De Soto said. “Were bringing these companies something that would normally be out of their budget.”
For even smaller, less formal call center environments—those with up to 50 agents —Altigen updated its integrated contact center software, which is deployed on the companys PBX systems. The new version of AltiServe Contact Center software offers improved call reporting and call distribution options, the company said.