AWS Connect - Call Center in a Cloud (CCaaS)

Amazon Web Services allows you to build your own communication center, the so-called Cloud Call Center (CCaaS), and is at the same time a typical cloud service - we do not need to have equipment, lease phone lines, etc. It is based only on the pay-per-use model, where we pay only for received/made calls, real resources used and for support services.

Implemented by Hostersi AWS Call Center or AWS Contact Center is based on the Amazon Connect service, which allows unlimited scaling of its use and line load without incurring leaps and bounds costs and eliminating the cost of entry and expensive licenses.

How does it work?

• Price list based on the actual use of resources,
• We use - we pay, we do not use - we do not pay,
• No cumbersome to scale and quickly start traditional telephony,
• No reservation agreements or specific use of resources,
• Automatic and unlimited scaling of the telephone service,
• No need to purchase hardware, storage space or licenses.

The service allows you to build a very advanced and scalable communication center.

Main features and capabilities of the AWS Call Center in the Cloud (CCaaS)

• Work of the whole in Polish, but also in one of many others,
• Polish the phone number that people call (hotline number),
• The ability to connect your own phone numbers (not standard, requires more time),
• Ability to convert written text, messages into speech and audio to reproduce voice notifications,
• No need to record announcements thanks to the above generator, which uses the Amazon Poly service - two female and male voices to choose from in Polish,
• Create "press 1" caller paths to... press 2 to..."
• The ability to download information from the caller, e.g. case number, which can be used to speed up service or eliminate the agent on the side of the communication center,
• The ability to download any data from the customer and check the status in an external database on this basis,
• Simple configuration of agents supporting connections, individual and secure login,
• Ability to define working hours and changes in the communication center,
• The ability to record conversations and listen to them,
• Compliance with THE GDPR,
• Possibility to make the waiting time more popular with music,
• The ability to redirect calls to landline and mobile numbers without restrictions,
• Integration of call handling with any system, e.g. ticket system, CRM, etc.

The whole allows you to create an unlimited number of communication centers and their separate settlement. Each of them can be individually scaled, have independent resources and users. What is very important - thanks to the generation of voice messages from text and full virtualization of services, any changes can be made at any time and apply immediately. In addition, the communication center can work through web and mobile chat.

The very configuration of the communication center's capabilities is basically unlimited due to the combination and use of all services available within the AWS platform, including Machine Learning services, or AI - artificial intelligence (sentiment analysis, communication language detection, or many other aspects). This, of course, is optional to perform the expansion.

The configuration also allows us to obtain the possibility of analysis, the number of connections, their distribution over time, length, as well as the behavior of Agents, the number of breaks, working time, handled requests along with their effectiveness, etc. Such an analysis allows you to make changes on an ongoing basis in the paths of the communication center, optimization in order to obtain the shortest possible waiting times, connections and minimize the use of Agents (only the human resource is limited here and everything is aimed at minimizing its use time). Call registration also allows you to analyze the effectiveness of Agents, the number of cases settled, the number of received calls, how often they take breaks, for how long they answer the phones, etc.

Additional possibilities are provided by the use of AWS LEX,i.e. the use of a chatbot for conversations - speech recognition, conversion to text, understanding natural language and recognition of intentions.

It should be borne in mind that while it may take hours to start and configure a simple communication center, further expansions and addition of functions are already days and weeks of work. However, this allows for meaningful optimization over time in combination with the rapid launch of the communication center.

The communication center may make its work dependent on hours and days, e.g. after working hours, it may only allow you to perform activities that do not require an Agent, e.g. check the status of the application and redirect to a message about working time.

You can also create different queues and types of tickets in one communication center and direct different cases to different people (Agents). In a wider expansion, you can also "teach" the system which Agents know better specific topics and specialize in them, and the system will automatically direct a given type of cases to them in the first place.

The Communication Center also allows you to create several types of users. Starting from Agents, through Contact Center Managers who can manage Agents, through users who can analyze data and reports, to the Main Administrator, who has power over the entire communication center, definition of flows, etc.

AWS Connect also gives there unlimited possibilities of connecting to other systems, downloading or saving data. In this way, you can individualize messages or collect survey data and the results of questions asked to the caller for further identification and processing or for statistical purposes.

Similarly, we have, for example, the possibility of sending an SMS to the caller with a summary of the conversation or with specific decisions or suggestions.

Thanks to the fact that the communication center is created in the cloud, you can easily create a test center that operates on a different number and is only used to test advanced flows, changes, etc. before they are implemented in a publicly accessible hotline. The cost of maintenance is minimal, only flat fees for the allocation of numbers and the costs incurred during the tests for the use itself.

The process of implementing a single communication center

The process of building the center itself begins with determining whether we use any phone number or whether we will transfer our own numbering. The second stage is used to determine the scale of processes to be handled by the communication center, the number of Agents, work rules and parameters. The consultants of the AWS Partner - Hostersi - are already participating in this process.

Depending on the size of the first version of the communication center, this can take from several hours to several days.

Similarly, implementation - the simplest implementations are implementable with tests in 2-3 days, however, projects may require many weeks of work if they are much larger.

Integration with the ticket system

In order for the Agency to be able to work efficiently, the contact center system should be integrated with the ticket handling system – for example, it is possible to integrate with the OTRS system offered under an Open Source license or other paid but offered in a reasonable price model. The integration allows you to automatically create requests after connecting, link them to previous ones by phone number or create accounts and logins for reporters and efficiently connect the caller's cases. As a typical ticket system, it has a number of other functions that allow you to supervise the time of ticket completion, automate responses, etc.

Pricing model

The works consist of two groups of costs: one-off and monthly.

One-off works are all arrangements and configurations that are valued in the time & material model, i.e. result from time commitment. The unit is a person-day (MD - man day). This element includes arrangements, configuration work, training of agents, tests. If changes are made in full, they require tests each time (these can be carried out on a test account).

A one-time cost is also the integration and parameterization of the ticket system, e.g. OTRS

Subscription costs are:

• AWS infrastructure costs - payable for use according to the AWS price list,
• costs of supervision of the center by the AWS Partner - Hostersi - a fixed monthly subscription, including the availability of 24/7 support, which includes a certain number of hours of work and being ready,
• costs of works, exceeding the above-mentioned time included, billed per hour of work or with major shifts in the communication center per working day,
• Maintenance of the ticket system infrastructure.

Hostersi take care of infrastructure management and have the ability to provide 24/7 support with response times to problems and failures of up to 30 minutes with a guaranteed response time.

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See also

Migrate to the cloud

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