In-Call Updates Enable IT to Access Real-Time Call Quality Monitoring Data

The ‘poor call quality’ dilemma has become something of a Comedy Bit – think Verizon Wireless’s commercial Can you hear me now? …or telling someone you’re going through a tunnel and losing connection (while crinkling a bag of chips), or even starting a game of conference call bingo when someone on the call chimes in with “sorry, I was on mute.” While it may be funny as a comedy bit, IT teams managing large user bases know that it is a major pain point for both the end-user and the IT team that receives the complaint.

Call quality monitoring reveals that calls can be affected by a myriad of factors such as network connection or bandwidth, ambient noise (especially in group calls and meetings), and uncertified devices (like headsets). Even if you have a perfectly architected and deployed unified communications (UC) or workstream collaboration (WSC) system, the reality is it still requires 24×7 monitoring and management.

IT teams normally only receive complaints from dissatisfied users after the call has been completed. The complaint timing is fortuitous since only after a call has been completed can an IT team usually start to look at and identify the metrics of a call. Then the IT team must resolve the problem – resulting in a serious time delay.

But what good is this post-mortem action, if the call is already over? Sure, the IT team has hopefully identified the error leading to end-user dissatisfaction, but how does IT know if this is really a big picture issue, or how this issue affected others?

Solving for User Satisfaction with PowerSuite

Using Powersuite by Unify Square, the PowerSuite Help Desk solution can now view information for in-flight calls to see historical information during the life of the call. This powerful feature surfaces issues that occur in real-time which may not have otherwise caused the call to be marked poor (based on standard QoE metrics).

With the In-Call Update feature enabled, detailed call quality monitoring information can be sent as often as every 15-30 seconds. PowerSuite will tag and then send an alert when conditions have changed in an impactful way, enabling PowerSuite users (such as an internal organizational HelpDesk team) to see those issues while they are occurring.

Because of the data supplied by In-Call Update, IT personnel using PowerSuite can advise end-users how their actions may be affecting call quality – such as wandering too far away from their desks or utilizing an uncertified headset. PowerSuite data can also catalyze a discussion between the UC and networking IT teams to troubleshoot and ensure that particular users’ PC’s are switching wireless access points during calls where the user is ‘mobile’ within a site.

Bottom Line: In Call Update allows IT teams to find and resolve call issues for end users in a way that would not be possible by relying on normal CDR/QoE information.

Learn more about how PowerSuite can help you monitor and manage your UC and WSC environments.

The post Stop Waiting for Calls to Be Over Before Taking Action appeared first on Unify Square.