Here is the main agent screen showing a screen pop on the basis of a DID. We can pop on the basis of CID which pops directly to a customer page or a doctor page rather than an account page. We capture the CID automatically in the message pad on the right. We can pop someone's message pad on the basis of time of day. A specific contact can be set as the default pop for an account. If a caller wants to speak to someone else in that account the agent merely clicks on on the message button and that contact then appears in the message pad. Contacts that are "on call" are viewable at a glance depending on the time of day, without tabbing. "On call" schedules can be set months in advance or can be done "onesy twosy" on an ad hoc basis. There is a click2dial icon by each fone number, allowing for "one touch" dial patch. There is also "one click" transfer to voicemail (not shown in the screen below).

In the previous screen, when the agent clicks save, the message is saved as a paper message, AND it goes out automatically to the contact's email addresses, faxes, pagers, and SMS's (cell fones); however, even the faxes, pages, and SMS messages begin life as an email. If a fax machine is off, or out of paper, the error comes back as an email. Retransmission is as easy as clicking "send again".

Scheduling a callback for minutes or hours - notice how MIN and HOURS appears on the top left in red with yellow highlight . Any agent anywhere can access and process a pending callback by clicking there. An agent clicks on MIN and the list of pending callbacks appears along with timer countdown status. The callback comes back to the agent and he can reschedule as many times as he wants - each time dispositioning the message .... notice the disposition drop down. The final saved message will have the disposition history and time stamps.

In the first screen below, when we set up a contact, we define how calls will be handled: "eat" (i.e. email, alphanumeric page, text message) and also fax, voicemail, or patch. A client can have multiple email addresses separated by commas, or multiple faxes separated by commas. Message templates can be defined on a contact by contact basis, and/or set on the fly. All messages are kept as paper messages and archived. "Rem" does not delete the messages, agents usually keep messages handy for a week or so even after being flagged as "read" in case the doctor calls back and wants it re-read. All the contact's messages can be read and flagged at once by clicking on "view summary". Messages can be searched system wide by read/not-read, account or contact.

Appointment taking .... the client's office and your agents are looking at the same web screen which is updated in real time. Each contact has their own calendar and each calendar will pop when the contact pops, because each calendar/user has a unique url. A contact's vacation calendar appears below.

Survey scripts with conditional branching can appear in a tab, using hide/show as needed to make agent scripts appear or disappear based on the callers's responses.

Order entry ... the client may have a web based order entry system or you can create one for him - either way the order entry screen will appear in a tab.

All calls can be recorded, or recorded on demand during a call for a specific question (e.g. "Do you agree"?) or series of questions. They can be searched by agent, customer, DID, CID, and time of day. They can be stored externally for 10 years as per HIPAA requirements. The screen below is from Globalfone internal IPPBX and some contacts are not recorded.

When a doctor needs to contact a patient directly, he can call into the system and call out again, and the caller ID that is shown is the caller ID of his OFFICE....regardless of where he is calling from or time of day ("DISA" feature).

IVR setup is as easy as pie.

The ACD is extremely powerful. Skills based routing, various routing strategies, multiple queues, and many other features. There are systems up with 600 agents in one room off this ACD.

Administrators can spy (listen in), steal (take over the call if the agent is really messing up), and coach (give instructions to the agent's ear and the caller cannot hear).

For agent monitoring and wall board we use the (non-free) Queuemetrics product. It is more powerful than any other monitoring solution on any other platform, that we have seen. http://www.queuemetrics.com.