Why Invest In A CX Management Platform - Blackchair

 

As organizations continue to expand their customer experience (CX) infrastructure, the operating costs of maintaining and managing it also tend to increase. There are several reasons why this happens.

 

For instance, as traffic and call volume expand, organizations need to improve their CX capacity to handle additional volumes. However, with expanded capacity comes increased complexity and demands on maintenance and operations management.

 

If operations management and CX maintenance does not increase along with capacity, CX engineers will have a hard time keeping the platform working efficiently and making traffic flow smoothly through the CX infrastructure. This means CX agents cannot perform their tasks, leading to a decline in CX quality and increased operating costs.

 

How a CX management platform can rectify these issues

 

Given these drawbacks, organizations are constantly striving to improve their services and provide better experiences for customers. This often involves the deployment of new technology, such as a CX management platform, which can help in several ways, including:

 

Streamline auditing and troubleshooting

 

Unauthorized configuration changes can disrupt CX operations, compromising platform stability and leading to a poor customer experience and negative feedback. To mitigate this risk, businesses should have the ability to roll back CX configuration to a previous setting in seconds, which can provide a safety net to quickly undo any unauthorized changes and maintain the integrity of the CX, leading to better delivery of a top-notch customer experience.

 

Maintain a configuration record

 

To ensure a seamless and consistent CX, it's crucial to capture and record all activity in your CX domains from a single interface. This allows CX engineers to easily monitor and analyze customer interactions across various channels and touchpoints, allowing organizations to streamline troubleshooting and auditing, leading to a more stable platform.

 

Ensures that multiple CX domains are seamlessly working together

 

One of the primary challenges of managing CX infrastructure and ensuring that CX domains are up and running and are working seamlessly together. This involves monitoring the performance of each system in real-time, making it easier to identify issues that may arise and rectify them as needed. Having a CX management platform allows CX engineers to quickly find and resolve any issues that arise to ensure that the CX infrastructure remains up and running at all times.

 

Adapt CX infrastructure

 

Another challenge of managing CX infrastructure is ensuring that it is scalable to handle increasing traffic and call volume. As organizations expand, the traffic and call volume they receive can increase dramatically, and the CX infrastructure must be able to handle this increased load. This requires ongoing investment in the infrastructure to ensure that it can scale to meet the needs of the organization.

 

Reduce the cost of CX operations

 

The costs of maintaining and managing CX infrastructure can be significant, particularly for rapidly expanding organizations. However, there are ways to reduce these costs and optimize the performance of the infrastructure. One way is to leverage automation tools to streamline maintenance and operations management. Automation tools can help identify issues before they become major problems and they can also help resolve issues more quickly.

 

Enable a seamless shift to a cloud-based platform

 

Another way to reduce the costs of managing CX infrastructure is to adopt a cloud-based solution. Cloud-based solutions can offer significant cost savings compared to on-premise solutions. Not to mention, they offer greater flexibility and scalability when it comes to CX operations.

 

However, migrating to a new cloud-based solution is not an easy task because it requires identifying junk configurations that could weigh down the system. Failing to account for this junk configuration can prolong the migration project and increase operating costs. That said, a CX management platform can facilitate the process and make the migration project less risky.

 

Turning CX infrastructure into a cost-effective, agile platform

 

Managing and maintaining CX infrastructure can be complex and demanding, particularly for rapidly expanding organizations. However, by investing in the right tools and solutions, organizations can optimize the performance of their infrastructure and reduce the costs of maintaining and managing it.

 

Automation tools and cloud-based solutions, such as a CX management platform, are among the best tools to streamline CX management. 

 

Leveraging these solutions can offer significant benefits in terms of cost savings, scalability, and performance, making them ideal options for organizations looking to improve their CX infrastructure.

 

Bringing Efficiency And Transparency To Your Solution Using A CX Management Platform - Blackchair

 

As multinational organizations divide CX operations among different countries and grant CX agents around the world access to their CX platform, they find themselves dealing with a growing problem: regulating CX actions across the network and preventing unauthorized configuration changes.

 

With hundreds or even thousands of agents accessing the same platform, it is not unusual for at least one of them to make configuration changes not approved by engineers. Unauthorized modifications can undermine platform stability and productivity, undermining CX quality while raising operating costs. To prevent unauthorized changes, organizations need to improve transparency in the CX network so that unauthorized changes are harder to detect and prevent.

 

A CX management platform can be an invaluable tool when bringing efficiency and transparency to a CX solution. This article explains how a management platform can turn a vast, complex network into a transparent, efficient environment.

 

How a CX management platform optimizes the network

 

Improve monitoring and transparency

 

Organizations need to improve monitoring and transparency to manage a CX network with multiple users. A CX management platform can provide insight into the configuration changes made to the solution. The management platform features a generic interface, which engineers can use to monitor for updates in real-time and issue commands to better regulate configuration behavior.

 

For example, engineers can set strict parameters for configuration changes in the CX network. If a CX agent, regardless of their location, makes a change that goes beyond these parameters, it will be flagged and brought to engineers' attention. Since the management platform maintains an audit record, engineers can identify configuration changes quickly instead of wasting time sifting through configuration code.

 

This effectively improves transparency and monitoring in the CX network, making it easier to find and block configuration changes that undermine system stability. Furthermore, engineers can understand who has access to the system and what changes they made, and prevent anyone from making unauthorized changes.

 

Undo unauthorized configuration changes

Of course, there are instances where configuration changes can undermine platform stability. When a problem occurs, engineers have to go through a convoluted process of searching through configuration code (which is not user-friendly) to find the cause and then take remedial action. This is a time-consuming process that can undermine system and agent productivity. To prevent such volatility and create a more stable CX platform, organizations require a more efficient way of troubleshooting CX issues.

 

A CX management platform can optimize this process, turning it into a more timely and efficient one. Since the management platform maintains an audit record, it would be easy for engineers to refer to it, track changes, and discover what triggered the destabilizing change. Maintaining a constant audit record would help engineers optimize their troubleshooting process, reducing the time and energy spent finding these errors.

 

Furthermore, more advanced automated CX management platforms can further optimize troubleshooting thanks to automated rollback. Automated rollback is a helpful feature where engineers can quickly and rapidly undo any unnecessary configuration changes in a few clicks. This feature is possible because management platforms allow engineers to rapidly resolve configuration errors by rolling back the system to a state before the change. Having such a feature would improve mean-time-to-repair (MTTR) and create a more stable platform.

 

Set templates for business users

 

When working within a large organization, it is not unusual for several stakeholders to access the CX platform. Some of these stakeholders could be business users who might have incredible insight into CX or the industry but lack the technical knowledge to operate the platform. Hence, any changes they made were likely to destabilize it. In the past, this would have led to unstable changes that undermined platform stability.

 

However, this can now be avoided thanks to management platforms. These platforms allow organizations to templatize specific functions for business users. This means if business users need to perform a specific task, they can go through the management platform instead of tampering with the CX solution.

 

This not only provides an additional layer of security when using the solution, but it also ensures that specific functions can be done without destabilizing the platform. Business users would be executing a template instead of making configuration changes to the platform. With these templates, business users can complete specific tasks without disrupting platform stability, improving productivity while cutting costs.

Bringing efficiency and transparency to the CX solution

Having an efficient, transparent, and productive CX solution is critical for organizations looking to deliver high-quality CX at an affordable cost. 

This is a task that can be difficult to maintain given the number of CX agents that can access the system. Hence, why it is important to invest in an automated CX management platform. This would allow you to optimize configuration management and turn it into a more productive and efficient platform that is critical for delivering high-quality CX. It can even generate several other benefits, such as reducing the contact center's total cost of ownership (TCO).

How To Create Greater CX System Visibility With A CX Management Solution

 

When running an expansive CX network with hundreds of CX agents worldwide, there is one thing engineers and managers have a hard time maintaining: transparency.

 

With so many users having access to the platform, anyone could make configuration changes without authorization. Unauthorized changes could undermine the CX network as they could violate compliance and security guidelines, leading to severe fines.

 

Moreover, it can undermine productivity by destabilizing the platform and increasing operating costs by forcing engineers to troubleshoot and repair these problems.

 

The solution to rectifying these errors is to improve CX system visibility. In this article, we explore how you can improve transparency in your CX network.

 

Creating CX system visibility with the right tech and process

 

When it comes to improving the visibility of your CX system, engineers use a lot of different techniques. That said, only leveraging a single process or technique doesn’t always improve visibility significantly.

 

You need to leverage multiple techniques in conjunction with each other to get noticeable results that will improve system visibility as well as stability and performance.

 

Here are the best techniques that can enable this.

 

Establish a persistent configuration record

 

A persistent configuration record can track all configuration activity across your network and relay the status to a central location.

 

This creates a historical "breadcrumb trail" of change activity, which evolves into a detailed log that includes records of all configuration changes across your entire CX network, making it easier to track change.

 

Tracking configuration changes would improve troubleshooting and auditing efforts, bolstering network stability and helping with compliance efforts. Improving stability and compliance efforts could also improve productivity while reducing operational costs in the long run.

 

Restricting administrative access to a handful of users

 

If your configuration record reveals that several users are making massive changes to your platform, then you should have the ability to restrict the number of users.

 

Restricting editing and configuration access can streamline configuration management because it reduces the volume of changes made, leading to a more stable and productive network. Moreover, keeping configuration changes to a few personnel can improve data security and reduce the risk of security breaches.

 

Furthermore, with the right technology, you can create templates that autonomously execute specific functions.

 

CX engineers must grant business users administrative access to the network due to legal obligations, creating concerns about network security and stability. Creating templates allows engineers to work around this problem by giving business users the option to perform specific functions without risking platform stability and improving CX system visibility.

 

In addition, having templates not only improves productivity but also reduces the burden on CX engineers because they will not be asked to perform every task in question.

 

Compare new variables with old ones to identify changes

 

Administrating and auditing can be significantly improved if there is an option to compare new variables with old ones. Unauthorized configuration changes can disrupt platform stability and productivity, and a significant component of troubleshooting these issues is tracking changes and comparing old variables to new ones.

 

Most of the time, engineers perform this technique using manual means which are quite extensive, for engineers must dive into configuration code to assess variables for changes. This takes a significant amount of time and can prolong troubleshooting, creating an unstable platform.

 

However, with the option to compare new and old variables, engineers would have an easier time auditing the CX network for issues. Instead of assessing each line of configuration code, engineers can refer to that window for compare/contrast analysis to better determine configuration changes and undo them.

 

Adopting this method would allow engineers to improve CX system visibility, be more efficient in troubleshooting and problem-solving, and improve platform stability and performance.

 

The secret to a more transparent network

 

The best way to create greater system visibility in your CX network is to invest in a CX management solution.

 

A management solution can rectify most of the errors that come with managing a complex network. Engineers can leverage these solutions to automate critical tasks, audit your network, and optimize the troubleshooting process, all of which are critical for creating better transparency with CX system visibility solutions within your network.

 

 

 

 

How To Optimize CX Testing And Turn It Into An Efficient, Productive Process

 

With the CX industry constantly evolving, organizations need to ensure that their CX testing process is agile and efficient because it ensures that they are getting maximum value out of the process. However, CX engineers are struggling to draw meaningful value from platform testing because conventional testing methods are difficult to do effectively. While these tests might be reliable, they are also time-consuming and costly to complete. This could deny organizations the benefits of testing while also making the process more risky and costly than before.

 

However, there is a way to make the testing process more efficient and productive than before by automating the process. Automating the testing procedure can help organizations achieve the benefits of testing and experimentation while reducing the cost and risk of testing. Hence, in this article, we will explore how CX platform testing can be converted into an efficient, productive process using an automated CX management platform.

 

Resolving CX testing woes with a CX management solution 

 

Tracking configuration changes in real-time

 

An issue with CX testing is a lack of transparency. CX engineers do not have real-time insight into the flow of configuration data in the system. Without proper insight, engineers don't get the proper context of test results, denying them opportunities to critically analyze them and make further improvements to CX workflows. Moreover, if unauthorized configuration changes were made it becomes impossible to rectify the error, destabilizing the testing process.

 

A CX management solution can rectify this issue by giving CX engineers real-time insight into how configuration flows throughout the ecosystem. This gives engineers real-time data on configuration flows, so they get the latest information on recent developments within the ecosystem. Having this information would give organizations far better insight into testing, making the process more effective and valuable, while reducing its risks.

 

Shifting configuration code between different environments

 

Turning the results from initial tests into insight that can improve CX processes in the future is a risky proposition. The risk arises because CX engineers have to shift configuration code from development to production, which can be difficult to do without disrupting platform functions, an obstruction that makes configuration adjustments risky and denies organizations the chance to quickly implement the benefits of testing.

 

However, management solutions come with development, testing, and production environments that are completely separate from each other. Having separate environments allows engineers to develop new code and test it without worrying about how it would affect production environments. This gives engineers the freedom to update configuration code and test changes before migrating to the production environment. The new method would give engineers the freedom they need to make repairs and upgrades as indicated, test them to determine if they would augment performance and migrate them into the production environment if tests were successful. This makes the testing process more efficient and makes the platform more stable and less volatile.

 

Managing multiple environments from a single interface

 

Testing a multi-vendor ecosystem can be difficult; CX engineers have to consider different technical requirements and different formats, meaning that engineers must use different techniques to test these different vendors, which makes the testing process convoluted and time-consuming. Moreover, engineers cannot see how configuration data flow throughout the ecosystem, making it impossible to conduct any comprehensive testing or use the insights in any meaningful way.

 

However, a management solution can address some of these issues, thanks to a generic interface that can host different vendors in a single location. This allows engineers to monitor configuration flows between all CX vendors on a single screen, streamlining the testing process and creating a more transparent environment. With a more transparent environment, engineers can better monitor any testing process and see how the vendors react to CX testing in real-time, which allows them to monitor multiple environments at once to save time and resources normally invested in CX platform testing, making it more cost-efficient than before.

 

Getting detailed results on testing while reducing costs 

 

As the standards for CX evolve, organizations need to ensure that their testing process remains as agile and productive as possible. Investing in an automated CX management platform can help alleviate many of the problems that have been traditionally associated with testing while doubling down on the benefits.

 

With the recent events leading to a spike in call volumes, many organizations are turning to more cost-efficient channels to better serve customers and keep business partners happy.  Optimizing CX testing can help organizations meet their goals while also reducing the risk of testing.

 

The benefits of ISO 27001 Information Security Management - Blackchair

 

Since it was first published in October 2005, the ISO 27001 certification has been a critical indicator of how reliable an organization’s information security standards are, with regulatory organizations, such as the British Assessment Bureau, assigning this accreditation only after a thorough review of data security procedures.

 

With the CX industry adopting omnichannel CCaaS platforms, obtaining an ISO27001 certificate will be critical for their success in the future.

 

Read on to explore what ISO 27001 certification brings to the organization and why it is essential.

 

Benefits of ISO 27001 Information Security Management

 

Reduces incidences of data breaches

 

The obvious benefit behind ISO 27001 certification is preventing data breaches. A few years ago, data breaches would not have been an issue because CX centers were using on-premise solutions; however, migrating to cloud-based channels raises cyber security concerns.

 

Having an ISO27001 certification ensures that your day-to-day protocols, frameworks, and platforms contribute to security. While cyber-attacks cannot be avoided 100%, ISO27001 indicates that your processes meet rigorous security standards and reduce the chance of a cyber breach occurring.

 

Improve customer trust and business partners

 

Partnerships are becoming an integral part of the CX industry. Whether it is a prominent CCaaS vendor, like Avaya, deciding to deepen their relationship with Microsoft to access Azure infrastructure or CCaaS firms signing contracts with support solutions, organizations are improving their service offering to customers by partnering with other firms.

 

With the CX industry making this shift for better collaboration, getting ISO certified is critical because it is proof of trustworthiness and professionalism.

 

Business and technology partners are more willing to trust their valuable data to an organization if they have proof that their security processes remain safe and secure. Hence, obtaining ISO certification is evidence that you are a trustworthy business partner.

 

Avoid fines, breaches, and legal problems

 

As governing blocs, like the EU, take a greater interest in information security, data security is rapidly transforming from a "nice-to-do" option into an integral process that must be followed.

 

Failure to meet data security requirements could lead to compliance violations, which could lead to severe fines and penalties. This not only leads to a monetary cost but also a loss in business reputation.

 

In this environment of tightening data security, an ISO 27001 certification could help you with regulations and other legal requirements, helping you avoid legal penalties and compliance violations, while also improving CX compliance enforcement.  This would help you build a reputation for being a trustworthy, compliant organization.

 

Create a secure information infrastructure

 

A large percentage of breaches occur due to the mishandling of information by unauthorized employees. Considering that several CX agents, business users, and engineers could access data at any time, it places information at severe risk.

 

An ISO 27001 information security management system encourages organizations to set up rules and functions on internal/external communication along with the handling of communication data.

 

What sets apart ISO 27001 from other security certificates is the focus on company-wide security measures where employees are forced to work together to create a suitable information security management framework, which leads to a more comprehensive security framework.

 

Evaluates the impact of possible and realized security breaches

 

Ascertaining the impact of risk that your organization faces can be difficult to measure. Internal and external factors could affect your company, and the way information is communicated could contribute to risk.

 

Moreover, it can be difficult to determine how a data breach could affect an organization's performance. However, one of the advantages of the ISO27001 certificate encourages organizations to measure the potential for a breach and the likelihood of it happening.

 

This will encourage organizations to adopt a more holistic approach to information security. Furthermore, it can help you better quantify the impact of a potential cyber breach, which is critical for winning over business holders.

 

Taking the CX industry into a new era

 

With the shift towards omnichannel CX platforms and the expansion to cloud infrastructure, we are seeing the CX industry making a tectonic shift toward cloud-based technology.

 

While this will lead to more advanced, sophisticated operations that could empower agents to handle agent call volume, it also prompts concern about data security.

 

To ensure that organizations do not suffer from data breaches that could hurt them in the future, we need to adopt complete, sophisticated information security systems.

 

Hence why ISO 27001 information security management becomes invaluable, for it is a sign that an organization is trustworthy and reliable to work with.

 

In the future, organizations will have to pay special attention to their security policies and procedures to successfully pursue their business goals.

 

 

How to optimize Genesys cloud services to maximize ROI throughout its lifecycle

 

Contact centers adopt omnichannel CX solutions, such as Genesys, to give consumers a seamless experience, the type that 9 out of 10 customers want.

 

However, this raises concerns over how to maximize ROI on investment.

 

Migrating infrastructure from existing platforms to new destination platforms is a significant risk for most organizations and, if not handled properly, could lead to poor ROI on their new platform.

 

To maximize returns on Genesys cloud services, you need to devise a plan for the platform’s lifecycle to improve outcomes and reduce costs.

 

A CX solution's lifecycle has multiple stages, which are technically complex and easy to get wrong. However, if left unaddressed, they could even hamper an organization’s goals.

 

In subsequent sections, we will explore what challenges occur throughout the project’s lifecycle and how to mitigate them with a CX management platform.

 

Acknowledging the challenges of CX lifecycle management

 

CX engineers encounter complex technical challenges throughout the lifecycle of the Genesys platform, which could hamper business and technical operations if left unaddressed.

 

For example, CX engineers have the challenging task of analysing legacy data during pre-migration.

 

They must decide which is valuable and translate it into a format relevant to the Genesys platform and then inject said data into the platform.

 

Migrating and translating data is a complex, multi-layered step that can go wrong at various stages because these processes are time-consuming and require a lot of precise work.

 

An error at these points could undermine pre-migration analysis and turn CX migration into a process plagued by delays and inefficiency.

 

Moreover, there is also the post-migration experience to consider.

 

However, at this stage, business users may have to use the platform to complete different objectives but may not have the technical expertise they need to execute these configuration operations, leading to a massive disruption of platform operations.

 

There are also compliance issues to consider, where users could be violating compliance, leading to severe fines and penalties.

 

Fortunately, you can avoid these problems by investing in the right solution: a CX management platform.

 

Optimizing lifecycle management with the right tools

 

While it is tempting to ignore other platforms and give full focus on the Genesys cloud solution, investing in an automated CX management platform can help the organization make a seamless transition to the new platform while optimizing the new solution for better efficiency.

 

Automating operations to streamline operations

 

Automated management platforms can streamline several operations across the platform’s lifecycle using automaton.

 

During pre-migration, instead of having a team of engineers identify and translate legacy data, a management platform can perform the task without human intervention, reducing errors, saving time, and doubling productivity because your engineers could move on to high-level work.

 

To improve migration, automated CX management platforms can translate the legacy data into the format for the Genesys platform without engineers having to work on every line of code.

 

Easing the transition from source to Genesys platforms

 

The platform allows for greater synchronization between source and destination platforms because they can monitor both platforms continuously for configuration changes.

 

Continuous configuration monitoring allows for a seamless transition from source to Genesys cloud services while minimizing system disruptions that normally catch users and engineers off guard.

 

Reducing system disruptions often improve lifecycle management because it can improve productivity and reduce operating costs.

 

The platform can automate several critical procedures; for example, engineers can templatize configuration activities, giving business users the freedom to complete specific operations without disrupting system operations.

 

Maximizing ROI on Genesys cloud services

 

To make the most out of Genesys cloud services, organizations will need to invest in the right platforms that make the transition to the new platform as seamless and cost-efficient as possible.

 

This would allow them to maximize ROI and reduce the rough transitory period that usually comes with a change in platform, which could prove critical in the long run.

 

As CX becomes more important, success would be determined not by the quality of service but by the length of time it took to upgrade to a new omnichannel platform. An agile and efficient CX management platform could make all the difference in the long run.