Contact center technology selection done right

The crisis gave the state of Washington, which had been working to establish its own health and human services hotline, a sense of urgency as it began a comprehensive evaluation of call center technology. Washington Information Network 2-1-1, or WIN 211, connects eight independently operated call centers that will provide health and human service information in the event of an emergency. Designated by the Federal Communications Commission, 211 is an easy-to-remember telephone number that connects local callers to physical and mental health resources, employment support, health insurance programs for children and seniors, and information about shelters and food banks, among other things.

Washington kicked its 211 efforts into high gear about three years ago, when WIN 211 incorporated a group made up primarily of United Ways, state agencies and other service organizations, such as those that provide assistance to seniors, and domestic-violence hotlines.

"We identified eight call centers providing the service," said Tom Page, director of WIN 211. "WIN 211 connects together existing agencies who present referral service in their communities through a shared database of programs and services."

Cost is a secondary criteri[on] -- are any of those other things negotiable? Lori Bocklund PresidentStrategic Contact Inc.

Page estimates that when the full system is up and running in February 2007, the statewide comprehensive database will have 25,000 programs and services available, and the 75-seat team will handle 720,000 calls per year.

After a detailed evaluation process, the WIN 211 team selected inContact, a hosted call center application from Bluffdale, Utah.-based UCN Inc. The organization had already been using inContact as an interim solution because they had needed something affordable that could get them up and running quickly. But the decision to select inContact as a permanent provider was not a simple one.

"We began using UCN in February [2006]," Page said. "That was a bit of a risk both for us and UCN. If it had not worked, they [UCN] would have gone into the permanent process with a real sword hanging over their head."

Anatomy of a contact center vendor selection process

Selecting a technology vendor can be a long, tedious and complicated process, but WIN 211 was determined to be thorough. A dozen vendors inquired, and ultimately five submitted bids to WIN 211's request for proposals (RFP). Initially, cost and finances were taken out of the equation, Page said, and the team focused instead on fit and functionality.

Indeed, the cost need not be the primary factor when evaluating contact center technology. Companies should also consider a vendor's experience in a particular industry or with a particular size of contact center and support offerings, according to Lori Bocklund, president of Strategic Contact Inc., a Beaverton, Ore.-based contact center consultancy.

"Cost is a secondary criteri[on] -- are any of those other things negotiable?" Bocklund said during a presentation at a recent industry conference. "From what we've seen in the industry, some vendors will discount the heck out of things to get your business."

Bocklund also warns against putting too much information into the RFP. Some vendors use special software to fill in forms or simply cut and paste responses. She's seen 100-page RFPs that return 500 to 1,000-page responses.

For more on call center technology See how open source was used to power La. call centers Check out our call center VoIP guide

"Who on your team is going to read every page of that?" Bocklund asked.

WIN 211 assembled six people with call center IT experience to evaluate the responses and how they met each of the organization's 18 technical criteria, including reporting, call recording, call transferring and voicemail capability.

"At the same time, a separate team was weighting various criteria," Page said. "When each was finished, I worked with a consultant to develop a final score that was a combination of scoring and weighting."

Not done yet

The vendors with the top three scores then underwent further review.

A team of three people -- a call center director who would oversee WIN 211, a call center supervisor who would be working with the technology daily, and an IT director from one of the eight call centers then conducted three on-site customer visits and interviewed a sampling of customer references.

Creating a short list, conducting reference checks, and making site visits are all important steps in the selection process, according to Bocklund.

"Even if they're good references, you will learn something," she said. "You've got to somehow net out what matters."

Bocklund also recommends leaving ample time for the vendors' final presentations -- half a day to a day -- and then conducting a risk analysis. There's no such thing as a perfect application, she said, and companies should closely examine the functional and financial risks.

After WIN 211 brought in the short-listed vendors for final presentations, all of the information from the site visits, interviews, and RFPs was compiled so a group of 10 could review it. Only after that process was complete did Page bring in the financial information.

"The RFP we developed was structured for both hosted and premise-based solutions," Page said. "The other finalist was a premise-based vendor."

The WIN 211 system allows callers to connect first with the local agencies that can handle the call and then be rolled over to support systems if no one is available. For example, a caller in the Seattle area dials 211 and is routed to a central office in his neighborhood. The call is then translated to an 800 number and sent to the UCN center, where an analysis is run to determine which call center to send it to, based on proximity, so the caller gets someone from his area. If there are no local agents available, the call is then sent to the next available agent on the network.

"One feature we were really looking for was remote placement of agents, either at home or at another agency," Page said. That allows some of the centers with small or part-time staff to contribute. "It increases that sense of a local presence, but it also allows the agents to be working in home communities and situations where [the] county or city is providing funding. It's appealing for government agencies to have that money stay within their own community."

In addition, the system had to be fast and flexible enough to scale up during an emergency and scale back during normal times.