Symposium

[Saramencia]

Hi everyone:
We are starting a brand new financial call center and my tech department is seriously thinking to buy a symposium sistem (Nortel i think).

I have not had experience with this brand and have a few questions for you:

1. Is is symposium an ACD or a CTI
2. What's the prime difference betwen CTI and ACD?
3. Cand you share any experience with symposium?

I really appreciate your insights!

Thanks in advance!

[Arlan]

ACD.
Here's Nortel's web address. Take a look http://www.nortelnetworks.com/products/04/sym/

I've worked with this system in the past. Very powerful system.
depending on your requiremetns, Nortel also has a smaller ACD
platform. BCM running Call Pilot Professional can provide some strong ACD capabilities for a small to medium center.

Hope this helps a little.

[mdbabb]

I also have experience with Symposium and found that as an ACD and reporting tool, Symposium rivals Avaya in functionality.

This is a great ACD system.

CTI (computer telephony interface) is a separate system that works with the ACD to provide the answering agents with screen pops of the caller's information. It is very expensive to implement, but for larger centers can provide a good ROI since CTI generally reduces your AHT by 30 seconds. CTI also assists for centers that use IVR technology by passing on information gathered through the IVR about the caller to the answering agent. This prevents the caller from repeating information twice.

Several vendors offer CTI products. I have worked with both Genesys and Avaya CTI solutions. Genesys does have a great CTI product, but be aware that you must be VERY specific about your requirements with Genesys and manage them closely. While this is true with all vendors, in some cases, it is truer than others (if you get my drift.)

Please email me if I can be of additional assistance at michelle.d.babb@kp.org.

[bmatheson]

Symposium is a great ACD application that does have adjunct CTI capability modules that you can leverage. The ACD is good application but may I ask what you are using this for? If you are looking for a comprehensive contact center/CTI application along with front-end Telephony capabilities, my organization may be able to assist. You can still leverage a Nortel front end if you have made any capital investments to date and our applications can provide robust ACD functionality and call blending. I would be interested in understanding some of the details and exploring any synergies.

My company is Concerto Software and as an organization we have been working with over 1200 valued customers worldwide. We have had many recent accilades and have been named product of the year in the CIM space for 2003 from Frost and Sullivan. Please drop me a line if you are interested in understanding more.

Regards.

Brent Matheson
bmatheson@concerto.com
978-952-0476

[mdbabb]

Brent,

This is a forum for users to discuss their experiences and knowledge - not a venue to sell products.

I guess you did not have the opportunity to read the note that posts on the left side of your screen when posting a message that says:

Note: Do not post
sales-oriented material to this Forum.
It will be deleted without notice.
Sales-oriented material can be posted
on CallCenterOps MarketPlace. Job
related postings can be placed on the
Jobs Board.

Please follow the Forum Rules.

[bmatheson]

Thanks for imparting that knowledge to me. I didn't intentionally mean to use this as a plug for services. Merely offering additional suggestions for ACD applications. If looking at pure switching, PBX, ACD capabilities, in my opinion, Avaya is second to none in that area.

I don't seem to recall that a comparison to Avaya was posed in the question just experiences with Nortel.

I have noticed a few posting for pt. solution capabilities and was in hopes to offer a consultative approach to his process. I am not incented to close business but if I can also impart some knowledge, I will try to assist.

At this point I was in hopes to get a general understanding for their business environment to offer suggestions for practical applications.

Moving forward I will be cognizant on posting unsolicited information.

Cheers!

[Speed Demon]

Hi Saramencia,

I think the question that first needs to be asked is, what version of Symposium are you running. Each version has different updates, strengths and weaknesses. As an ACD format, it is not too bad, but running reports from the desktop, can be a problem.

Real-Time is quite good, again dependant on the version, I believe it updates at different, certain reports being instantanious other updating every 15 seconds.
Reports run in 15 minute intervals, as a minimum.

You also need to look at the PABX capabilities, as we ran with Symposium for two years, before realising that we had a limited number of ports (350), which basically means that calls amount over 350 at any one time, were not going through to IVR, but were simply being cut off, as the PABX could not handle more.

As I said earlier, running reports can be a problem, as their are limited options, and changing those options to fit your needs can be time consuming and difficult. How difficult is all dependant on the type of technical support you recieve from Nortell.

Hope this helps...

[Speed Demon]

Hi Saramencia,

I think the question that first needs to be asked is, what version of Symposium are you running. Each version has different updates, strengths and weaknesses. As an ACD format, it is not too bad, but running reports from the desktop, can be a problem.

Real-Time is quite good, again dependant on the version, I believe it updates at different, certain reports being instantanious other updating every 15 seconds.
Reports run in 15 minute intervals, as a minimum.

You also need to look at the PABX capabilities, as we ran with Symposium for two years, before realising that we had a limited number of ports (350), which basically means that calls amount over 350 at any one time, were not going through to IVR, but were simply being cut off, as the PABX could not handle more.

As I said earlier, running reports can be a problem, as their are limited options, and changing those options to fit your needs can be time consuming and difficult. How difficult is all dependant on the type of technical support you recieve from Nortell.

Hope this helps...