RightNow Proves Hosted Customer Service Applications Can Easily Integrate to External Systems

John Ragsdale

Catalyst

Analyst research

Question

If we select a hosted application for customer service, does that make it difficult to integrate with in-house systems, like an existing CTI switch or a legacy customer database?

Answer

Companies shopping for customer service software with requirements for tight integrations to internal systems should not eliminate hosted options from the short list. Hosted products such as RightNow's eService Center are increasingly built as Web services with XML interfaces that facilitate integrations between remote hosted applications and local internal systems with no response time problems or complex maintenance required.

Belgacom, a Belgium telecommunications company, has implemented RightNow in the 300-agent call center of their Internet service provider (ISP) division, Skynet. The hosted RightNow implementation is integrated with a Cisco CTI system as well as a customer database in a legacy system. Belgacom Skynet had originally planned to implement an enterprise CRM product integrated with another CTI system, with a projected time of 18 months to implement and integrate both systems. After a technical investigation Belgacom determined that both RightNow and Cisco were architecturally open and easy to integrate, and ultimately chose RightNow/Cisco for the project. The systems were fully implemented and live in four weeks, with the integration between RightNow, Cisco and legacy customer database completed in seven days.

Cisco provided a proof of concept (POC) integration (sometimes called a 'boardroom demo') to prove that the integration to both RightNow and the legacy customer database was feasible in the short time frame quoted for the project. Three days of the 10-day POC schedule were used to build the Web-based agent desktop soft phone controls (screen pop, warm transfers, etc.) three variations: one using Active/X, one with Java, and the third with Visual Basic. Belgacom IT chose Active/X for the project as they felt it was the easiest to develop and maintain.

The Cisco CTI control engine has the lead in the integration flow for incoming phone calls, performing customer lookup in the legacy customer database, creating an incident in RightNow, using Cisco's skill based routing to route to an available agent and screen popping for the agent using the Active/X soft phone controls, presenting the RightNow incident and customer history. For inbound e-mails, RightNow receives and routes and the e-mail incident for the agent. A universal queue project is planned for later in 2003 that will route both e-mails and phone calls through the Cisco CTI engine. Belgacom currently tracks interaction volume by reports in both Cisco and RightNow, but these will be combined into a single set of reports when the universal queue project is completed.

Belgacom is pleased with the results of the project. They have more than 7,000 content items in the RightNow knowledge base for agents, customer self-service and for e-mail auto-response (some content batch loaded from a previous homegrown knowledge base), and report that they have had a 78 percent reduction in e-mail volume to agents due to self-service and auto-response. Voice interactions are down as well, but with less dramatic results.

The projected return of investment (ROI) for the project due to increased agent productivity and deflected agent interactions was five months. Belgacom says it received full ROI for the project in six weeks, due to the low acquisition cost of the RightNow hosted application (as compared to a licensed software implementation from the enterprise CRM vendor) as well as the short implementation and integration time.

Recommendations

Vendors dislike boardroom demos as these POCs tie up sales and sales engineering resources with no guaranteed associated revenue. But seeing a product implemented and working on a certain platform, or integrated with key systems (including legacy systems) can significantly reduce the risk for a new project. If the vendor is unwilling to provide a POC implementation consider paying for part of the project as a vendor consulting effort. The upfront cost should be deductible from the final sales contract for the selected vendor.

As always, check customer references carefully, and ask for customers that have integrated the hosted application with the same CTI system you are using, or have an integration to a legacy system if this is a requirement for you. Other than a POC implementation, customer references are the only way to determine if a vendor can actually deliver what they claim. Don't overlook this step.

Choosing a hosted application doesn't let you off the hook for fully understanding the vendor's architecture. Ability to easily integrate with external systems and pass data in real time is critical, so be certain that Web-hosted applications have the necessary architectural pedigree to support this.