When contact center staff ask their managers the same question, they expect a more comprehensive explanation. This is especially true when their team leader has just told them that their calls are of poor quality.

To give a comprehensive answer, the contact center needs comprehensive quality standards. There are many contact centers which have questionnaires that rate product knowledge as “Good”, “Average” or “Poor”. Others give points scores out of 5 or 10. There is no explanation of what these grades mean.

In the education world, language examination boards have faced the same problem for many years. Their solution is to give their examiners precisely worded descriptions of the performance that would earn candidates a specific score.

A maximum score for product knowledge might be given when the agent’s performance matches the following description: “The agent gave the customer a complete and fully effective solution to his issue. The agent fully anticipated the customer’s additional needs and gave solutions to these as well.” The lowest score might be for the following: “The agent’s solution did not provide a solution to any part of the customer’s issue. The agent did not anticipate any further needs that the customer might have.” Various bands could be created in between these 2 extremes with scores given accordingly.

With such descriptions, the agents can then be told their score, shown the description and invited to listen to the recorded call themselves and in this way understand why the evaluation was made and what they need to do to improve.

That is quality management that works.

This release brings you more choice in database platform, enhanced Genesys Recording and a number of ScreenREC enhancements highlighting ZOOM’s continued focus on providing Enterprise support with Enterprise class product scalability and reliability.
In addition to the above, ZOOM ScoreCARD has undergone a number of UI/UX changes and the ZOOM PCI-DSS feature set has been enhanced. Last but not least, the products from the QM Suite are now available in Spanish and French.

Read a detailed description of this release below.

Oracle Support

Enjoy the freedom of choice between using the embedded PostgreSQL database or installing the connectivity option when using your own Oracle database. The choice between PostgresSQL or Oracle may depend on your sizing requirements or internal standards for database software.
Customers have the option to use a mixed deployment using for example PostgreSQL on distributed recorders and Oracle on the Replay Server.

Genesys Enhanced Passive Recording (EPR)

EPR combines active capturing of signaling and passive capturing of voice using the Voice Monitoring API, which is a part of the Genesys Platform SDK. This recording method provides a more stable and reliable method of call recording on the Genesys platform without any risk of data loss as all signaling events are reliably handled by the “active driver”.
EPR integrates two different recording components – the protocol driver and the integration module – into one single and easily manageable component ensuring that attached metadata is consistent and that delivery and completeness of recording data is guaranteed.

ScreenREC Features and Enhancements

A number of ScreenREC enhancements have been implemented to offer more configuration options and to improve stability and performance.

• Key frame rate configuration
  Select a higher or lower key frame rate in order to improve options to seek in recorded videos or for further processing.
• Support of MPEG4-2 codec
  Next to the existing support of the H.264 video codec, support for MPEG4-2 support has been added.  MP3 remains the available format for the audio part of recording.
• Mouse pointer in the encoded video
  ScreenREC can now capture the mouse position and the mouse cursor is rendered into the final processed video.
• Status indication for on-demand video files encoding
  The ScreenREC UI will now clearly indicate the status and progress of video file encoding.
• Enable / disable on demand encoding
  Depending on your hardware or storage utilization requirements, the administrator may now enable or disable the possibility to encode videos on demand.
• Media Encoder scalability over several instances
  In high-availability architectures the Media Recorder can now distribute the encoding process between itself and all of its slaves using a weighted round robin algorithm.

ScoreCARD Features and Enhancements

New Features

• Screen an interaction before adding it to an evaluation
  The media player  has been added to the call selection screen providing users a tool for screening interactions before assigning them. This will save time and reduce the possibility of assigning incorrect interactions.
• Allow or disallow agent view of evaluations scores
  The choice to display or hide scores from agents is now at the discretion of the management and supervisors may now  decide to discuss evaluation scores with the agents before they’d be able to view their scores.

UI/UX Enhancements

Based on user-feedback, the ScoreCARD UI is enhanced to provide better usability and an improved user experience. This release brings you:

• Enhanced user and group selection
  Select a whole family within a group by selecting the parent group or select a group without affecting the child groups. Groups will now be represented in a tree format and will be noticeable in charts, exports, and the evaluation planner.
• Added search capability by calling and called number
  Use these criteria in the “add specific interactions” search options and to search for calls using specific phone numbers.
• Audit log report provides tool tip text containing the entire audit log line.
• Addition of All/None selection to the agent skills list
  Speed up the selection by selecting all or none of the agent skills instead of manual selecting agent skills.
• A static colon in the evaluation planner sub-criteria
  Adding a minimum and maximum recording length to aid users when planning evaluations using sub criteria.

Reporting Enhancements

An HTML version of the Evaluation Detail report in the evaluation list has been created providing more insight into evaluation data.

This latest enhancement completes the removal of Crystal Reports from ScoreCARD. All reports are now available as Flash or HTML pages with an Excel export option.

Fixes and improvements of PCI-DSS related features

A number of minor improvements in various PCI-DSS related features have been realized. These enhancements mostly concern the Key Manager and include:

• Enhancements to the PCI-DSS setup and configuration GUI
• Possibility to create a self-signed certificate and keys during setup
• Increased number of options for the re-encryption process
• Possibility to force a CRC check before sending files to the user
• Provisioning of a web service for Pause and Resume functionality

Read more about the ZOOM QM Suite PCI-DSS feature set on the ZOOM website.

Now 13 languages supported !

The following new languages have been added:  Spanish and French which sets the total number of supported languages on 13 !

All available languages are now consistently implemented across the whole product suite to make all product UIs available with the same language options.

This release and supporting documentation has been made available via the ZOOM Partner Portal and a 30 day trial version using a VMware Virtual Appliance can be requested via the ZOOM website.

In addition to delivering a broad range of product enhancements, this release is mainly focused on security (for PCI-DSS compliance), the release of a completely redesigned version of ScreenREC and a set of valuable ScoreCARD features such as agent self-evaluation.
In line with ZOOM’s strategy to stay up-to-date with the Cisco and Genesys platforms and latest developments in Unified Communications, this release will also bring you enhanced support for new Cisco phones, improvements in SPANless & SIP recording and improved JTAPI support.

In future blog posts we’ll deep-dive into what this release brings to your business and we’ll be discussing topics such as:

• The need for contact centers to be PCI-DSS compliant and how your quality management solution should support you in adherence
• The value of performing 360 degree agent evaluations and the involvement of your agents using agent self-evaluation
• The power of the next generation of ScreenREC, your solution for agent desktop recording

Now, what does this 4.7 release bring you?

PCI-DSS Compliance Features

ZOOM PCI-DSS Compliance Support is a set of enhancements which allows customers using ZOOM QM Suite products to meet their PCI-DSS requirements.

“PCI-DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, it’s a set of requirements developed by PCI Security Standards Council, organization established by American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc. International. These requirements are mandatory for companies in credit card payment processing industry.”
Read more about PCI-DSS via  http://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/

A subset of the PCI-DSS requirements have an impact on your contact centers’ compliance recording and quality management solution. ZOOM QM Suite fulfills all PCI-DSS requirements with the ZOOM PCI-DSS Compliance Support feature set.

PCI-DSS Status

PCI-DSS Status
ZOOM CallREC now provides an informative page indicating which ZOOM PCI-DSS features have been enabled and if all the required policies have been set.

Pause/resume support
To prevent recording of cardholder data such as CVV codes, ZOOM call and screen recording now offer pause and resume support. This feature is supported in SPAN and SPANless recording and in screen recording using ScreenREC via the CallREC API.

Enhanced password management

Password Management

The new password management features now support:

• Minimum required password complexity.
• Password expiration
• User access lockout

Call encryption support with integrated key manager
The new key manager supports:

• Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS12, JKS, JCEKS)
• Industry standard encryption algorithms (AES, DES, Blowfish)
• Encryption of recorded calls and captured screens
• Support for multiple keys and random usage
• Re-encryption support

Enhanced logging of user actions in audit log
The audit log will now capture all user log-in attempts together with an IP address identification of the user’s workstation.

Read more about ZOOM QM Suite and PCI-DSS Compliance on the ZOOM website.

ScreenREC Setup

New Generation ScreenREC
ZOOM’s solution for screen capture was completely redesigned and rewritten to better serve the current needs of the ZOOM QM Suite.

ScreenREC now better supports hosted environments thanks to the highly efficient method for uploading captured content and is better prepared for recording additional related interactions such as email and chat.
The new ScreenREC capture client is easy to install and uses limited resources on the agents’ workstation.

Use new ScreenREC and benefit from:

• Pause and Resume functionality for PCI-DSS compliance
• Captured content directly uploaded via http(s)
• An optimized intermediate format for uploading captured content that may be stored as is and transcoded for review on demand
• Encryption of recorded voice and video
• Transcoding on demand and streaming capability
• Target format after transcoding and mixing is MPEG 4 (H.264) with MP3 audio

ZOOM ScoreCARD Enhancements and New Features
ZOOM is proud to present a wide range of new features in ScoreCARD that make ScoreCARD the ideal, powerful and flexible solution for your contact center to manage the quality management process; easy, fair and informative.

Agent Self-evaluation
This new feature will greatly improve the agents’ involvement in the contact center Quality Management process.

Agent self-evaluation

By default agents will now have the permission to plan and complete self evaluations but of course will only be able to complete evaluations based upon their specific interactions.

The self-scoring agents will use the Evaluation Planner to plan evaluations similar to the way supervisors plan their evaluations. To prevent skewed data, agents will not be able to change any settings or influence how their self evaluations will contribute to the final 360 degrees view.

New graphs and export data to MS Excel
Use ZOOM ScoreCARD data the way you prefer. All ScoreCARD graph, chart and audit log data is now exportable as an Excel spreadsheet. Back office users can use Excel to process and analyze ScoreCARD data or create their own custom graphs.

The “League Table” and “Compare Scores” have been made available as graphs and will provide additional functionality for the end user in data management. The league graph and data exports will now contain the agent login name to provide additional information in reporting and data management.

Hidden group and question weighting in the evaluation reports
To protect the evaluation process and objectivity from potential influence by agents, the weightings are now hidden so the final scoring results can not be skewed based on any knowledge of weightings applied.

Additional ScoreCARD improvements
ZOOM partners and customers continuously push the ZOOM products forward and ZOOM takes their requirements serious. The following additional enhancements have been implemented in this release:

• Parent and child evaluations are now accessible via links in the tool bar of the evaluator form to link parent evaluations to evaluations that have been re-evaluated. This functionality is valuable during the re-evaluation process.
• Copy (cut and paste) from evaluation forms providing additional functionality for the user to copy and paste values between evaluation forms.
• An option to allow evaluators to re-open their evaluations. The status will change from the “Finished” to the “In-Progress” state.
• Show answer name in the evaluation report providing additional detail to the “Evaluation Report” when showing the specific answer name along with the scored result. The report will for example show “Yes 100%” instead of just the score of 100%. Fail all, fail group, etc. information will be shown along with the scores.
• Read only access to finished evaluations so that agents will be able to listen to call and gain understanding how the evaluation was completed. This feature gives agents the opportunity to review interactions and better understand the companies evaluation process.

The 4.7 release also brings a number of enhancements in recording methods and changes in the offered support for phones and contact center platforms.

SPANless and SIP Recording
Various improvements have been made to the Cisco SPANless recording interface such as:

• Improved performance
• The recording of barged calls
• Improved SIP session timeout implementation (RFC-4028)

SIP enhancements
The following SIP enhancements have been implemented:

• Implementation of IP fragmentation support for SIP sniffer (RFC-791)
• Implementation of a port number of zero in the SIP offer in SIP driver (RFC-3264)
• The identification of calling/called parties only from first INVITE

Support for New Phones

The following series of phones have been tested for compatibility: 6900, 8900 and 9900. In addition IP phones from the 7900 series are fully supported. These phones have passed the testing scenarios for: basic call, hold, blind and consultative transfer, Ad hoc conference with and without consultation. Additional testing for Barge, cBarge, join, swap/cancel and other scenario‘s is planned.

Enhanced Display of Call Information

ZOOM CallREC now displays additional call related information which allows for better selection, analysis and troubleshooting. The following data is shown:

• Call description
• Call / Couple IDs
• Call Status
• MLM Tools flags
• Synchronization ID
• Media information
• Attached data

Genesys Compatibility and Integration

• The versions 7.5, 7.6 and 8.0 are tested compatible and both SIP server and Cisco UCM/Genesys CIM deployments are fully supported.
• This release supports the T-server and Configuration server integration in Genesys CIM.

Cisco UCM Support and JTAPI Changes

ZOOM is dedicated to supporting the latest and even no longer supported versions of Cisco UCM. To provide full transparency, ZOOM CallREC will now indicate when an unsupported or not yet fully tested version is used. ZOOM always recommends to migrate to newer versions of Cisco UCM and to ease the upgrade effort we have improved the migration process.

Find below the list of supported and unsupported Cisco versions:

• UCM versions (with respective JTAPI interfaces) older than 4.0 are not supported. RTS JTAPI will refuse connections and will display an error message.
• UCM 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 5.0 are no longer supported, however the system will function. RTS JTAPI will accept connections and will display warning message.
• UCM versions 4.3, 5.1, 6.0, 6.1, 7.0, 7.1, 8.0 are fully supported.
• UCM versions newer than 8.0 (including 8.5) are partially supported. RTS JTAPI will accept connections with a warning message.

Well… That’s all folks !

This release has been made available for download on the ZOOM Partner Portal and soon we’ll be offering a VMware appliance for your evaluation purposes.

As said, stay tuned for future blog posts that will discuss some of these new ZOOM QM Suite features in more detail.

ScoreCARD Dashboard

Just before easter ZOOM has launched the latest version of ScoreCARD, ZOOM’s Contact Center Quality and Performance Solution.

Next to software enhancements, some major performance improvements plus the addition of Russian language support, this release provides a number of great new features:

• Contact Center Dashboard; a real-time overview of your contact center performance.
• Role Manager; create your custom role and permissions structure.
  

  ScoreCARD Role Manager

The release plus all documentation is available for download via the ZOOM Partner Portal.

Read more about the value of Quality and Performance Management for your contact center in the ZOOM ScoreCARD Solution Sheet.

We are celebrating:

• the birthdays of our CEO Simon Vostry and President of North America, Brian Shore
• ZOOM XMAS with a cooking workshop
• and last but not least… we have just released the completely redesigned and rebuilt version of ZOOM ScoreCARD !

The whole company has worked hard and long on achieving this and with a great result as the new version of ScoreCARD now offers:

• full integration with ZOOM CallREC
• a browser-based, fast and user-friendly user interface
• and a range of functional enhancements

Read more about ZOOM ScoreCARD in the previous post and on our website. In the meantime, we’ll have a glass of champagne.

Every contact center should have defined goals and  is expected to operate according to their defined goals.

Examples of these goals are usually found in the following categories:

• To provide the best customer experience possible
• To increase the company’s revenue
• To minimize operational costs
• To provide valuable business insights and are prioritized depending on the type of contact center you operate.

Priorities set to achieve these goals will vary according to the contact center’s focus:

• Cost-oriented contact centers focus on efficiency
• Service-oriented contact centers focus on delivering the best customer experience possible
• Sales-oriented contact centers focus on bringing in leads or sales
• Market-oriented contact centers focus on understanding the customer and gathering valuable information

For most contact centers, the need to define and prioritize these goals and measure the company’s performance is understood as fundamental to their business.

If this need is clear and defined, ZOOM truly wonders why only half of the existing contact centers have the right tools in place for evaluating call handling and assessing the customer interaction skills of agents.  Call handling and interaction quality determine the success or failure of a contact center to achieve their business goals.

The most common response we hear is: measuring quality and using scorecards to measure our performance is “overly complex” or “we don’t have time to do so”.

To break down these perceived barriers and to convince a contact center manager of the value a quality management solution can bring, an offered solution has to satisfy a number of criteria:

• Simplicity – make the usage barriers as low as possible
• Speed – not wasting time and therefore money!
• Complete – allowing for a combination of objective and subjective measures
• Purpose – providing options to define and use weightings in line with the company’s goals
• Applicable – providing detailed and applicable information to improve operations immediately

ZOOM ScoreCARD together with ZOOM CallREC forms the heart of the new ZOOM QM Suite and has been developed with these criteria in mind.
The new and completely rebuilt version of ZOOM ScoreCARD, released today, provides you with a tool that is easy to use and makes your contact center quality management as simple as A-B-C:

A. Create custom questionnaires with weighted scoring criteria which match your defined business goals and priorities for targeted levels of efficiency, customer service and/or sales
B. Schedule and execute the evaluations using a system-generated set of calls based on your criteria
C. Extensive reporting and graphs show exactly where you can improve your agents’ and business performance, starting today

New ZOOM ScoreCARD offers a simple, fast and powerful web-based solution that is seamlessly integrated with ZOOM CallREC and is in the new version enhanced with:

• An improved evaluation planner supporting multiple sub-criteria
• Enhanced permissions and roles
• Questionnaires with enhanced parameters and call selection criteria
• User management supporting synchronization and authentication between CallREC and Cisco UCC Enterprise
• Trend reports and graphs
• Full audit log

Start achieving your goals: measure and pro-actively improve your business today with ZOOM ScoreCARD!

For more information about the features available in ZOOM ScoreCARD, please check our website.