Ip Media Servers for Next-Generation Contact Centers

Next-generation contact centers deliver services across multiple modes of communication: voice, fax, e-mail, instant messaging, web, images, and video. Combining all these communication channels over a ubiquitous, cost-efficient IP network provides rich new features, while simultaneously lowering telecommunication costs. The enabler is Voice over Internet Protocol, a technology that converts voice into IP packets that are transmitted, alongside traditional data packets, on the IP network. This paper explains how moving from circuit-based voice networks to VoIP technology significantly improves customer service and productivity by exploiting open computing systems, standards-based interfaces, and decomposed functional architectures. A fundamental element in the infrastructure of next generation contact centers is the IP media server, which processes and integrates real-time audio, video, and fax media streams hundreds of call agents.