We have been asked to talk about how we manage our software development. What reassurance can we offer to our own customers that we are getting things right and what lessons can we offer to others?
It is a tall order. Development strategy is a function of many things and no one formula fits. For example, if we were an industry behemoth, we might well be busy paying lip-service to software standards, but working furiously to create our own as well, so as to lock users in. We are in fact the opposite of this. We provide a core platform for managing call center sessions. On top of this we empower, if not actively encourage our partners to integrate all manner of third party applications. Of course, we have many applications of our own, but if they want to do their own reporting for example, then we will happily cooperate by supplying data feeds. This means that a significant part of our development process is focussed on all the technical stuff to do with integration, so that it is as easy as possible.
What about our core platform? A key challenge for any established software house is how to combine “the new” with its legacy systems. One solution is to build a wall around your legacy systems and provide some basic interfaces. This can work for a while but is usually self-defeating in the medium term. Some new kid on the block is going to come along and eat your lunch with better-engineered systems. So legacy systems are usually a lingering death. Instead, we do continuous refactoring of our code, meaning that we are able to deliver new functionality to customers in an incremental way, preserving their investment in our software. A good example of this might mean the move from say client server to web services.
But of course, refactoring alone isn’t the answer. The real key to our development efforts is to have a very strong innovation mindset. This allows us to do two things. Firstly, to constantly extend the product to meet changing customer requirements. And secondly, it allows us to intercept new technologies, such as WebRTC and build solutions around them, sometimes before our customers have even thought about it.
Perhaps the most exciting challenge for us is the move from Static Service Configurations to Service Orchestration. This brings major advantages to our customers and we will touch on these in a forthcoming blog.
Staying relevant and competitive in this way costs time and money but if you want to survive and offer great solutions to your customers, there is no alternative. No amount of marketing will compensate for software development which gets caught in a time warp. If you are not sure about this take a close look at some of the giants in our industry who have been failing over recent years. The main reason lies in product and the failure to understand that constant improvement and innovation is a necessary way of life in our industry.
What We Offer
Sytel Limited develops and supplies Softdial Contact Center® (SCC) – multimedia, multichannel, fully blended cloud contact center solutions.
Available by subscription as CCaaS, fully managed and supported by Sytel, or for quick and easy deployment by partners and enterprise users.
All Sytel cloud components are secure, resilient and scale seamlessly from 10 agents to 10,000+, whether local, mobile or remote.
Flexible Contact Center Software
Softdial Contact Center™ – rich functionality, all-in-one, designed to deliver at scale
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Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)
CCaaS for subscribers – global service, with no upfront costs
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Contact Center Platform – CCaaS Partners
Build your own CCaaS business using the power and flexibility of Sytel software
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Contact Center Platform – Enterprise
High performance platform to drive contact center productivity – cloud, on-premise or hybrid
Blended Media Desktop
Fully customisable, multi-channel, multi-session workspace
Work Anywhere
Browser-based tools, no software installation required
Customise, Localise, White Label
Design all user interfaces to individual requirements
Integration via APIs
‘Swap out’ components and integrate with 3rd party apps
World Class Development
Continuous evolution pushing technical boundaries
Capabilities
Softdial Contact Center™ (SCC) is designed to be flexible, extensible and scalable, integrating with any legacy equipment, and meeting the most complex of requirements.
All Media Channels
Voice, chat, email, social, etc – fully integrated and blended
Agent Multi-Tasking
Work with multiple live contact sessions of any media channel
Dynamic Workforce Management
Optimise agent usage and balance workloads in real-time without human intervention, across all media channels
Predictive Dialing
Best-of-breed performance under compliance
Optimised Inbound Routing
Smart rules and ‘best-available’ decisions to drive great customer service
Agent Scripts
Help agents achieve and maintain excellence
Voice and Screen Recording
See and hear exactly how agents are interacting
Analytics and Data Feeds
Measure and evaluate performance at every level
IVR, Bots & Conversational AI
Design effective automated flows or integrate with 3rd party providers
Customer Journey Tracking
Stored customer contact history, to aid routing and add context to conversations
Modules
Drive operational efficiency, increase customer satisfaction & improve agent performance
Softdial One™
Highly flexible unified web UI for agents, supervisors and administrators
Softdial Scripter™
Create complex process flow scripts for agents, IVR, chatbots and other applications
Sytel AI Dialer™
Maximum predictive dialing performance, under any compliance rules
Softdial Pathfinder™
Precise routing rules for ‘best available’ connection
Softdial Media Server™
Core telephony functions to manage all inbound/outbound SIP calls
Softdial Reporter™ 5
Fully customisable performance stats, charts and reports, across all channels
Softdial Publisher™
Comprehensive data output to build your own reports
Softdial Recording Monitor™
Audio and screen recording of agent activity to ensure the highest standards
Softdial Campaign Manager™
Automation to optimise any outreach strategy
Softdial Repository™
Central storage and configuration of common resources
Sytel Global Compliance™
Flexible ‘no contact’ rules to protect contact center and consumer
Solutions
Performance and efficiency for a wide range of business applications
By Business Type
Enterprise
A full featured contact center software solution, designed for optimum performance at scale
Small/ Medium Business
Options for SMBs to subscribe to our full-featured cloud service managed and hosted by either one of our partners or by Sytel themselves
By Industry
Customer Service
Connect quickly to well equipped agents
Market Research
Best-of-breed predictive dialing with CATI integration
Debt Collection
Automated inbound/ outbound blending integrated with any debt management app
Sales & Telemarketing
Maximise agent productivity with best-of-breed predictive dialing
Healthcare
Secure, highly-configurable multichannel communications for excellence in patient care