ALAMEDA, CA--(Marketwire - December 6, 2007) - MetaSwitch, a leading vendor of softswitch and
application solutions, has enhanced its Automated Call Distribution (ACD)
features to help small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) handle inbound telephony
traffic more productively. Part of the MetaSwitch Hosted VoIP Solution, ACD
provides carriers with advanced "call center"-like features that their
business customers can manage themselves over the Web via CommPortal,
MetaSwitch's new web portal for self-service.
CommuniGroup, a Mississippi-based telecommunications provider, has been
building out its telephony program throughout the Southeast U.S. for more
than two years. Based on MetaSwitch's core switching and application
platforms, CommuniGroup's solutions are designed for business customers
looking for reliable telephone service with call center functionality. The
stability and service agility provided by MetaSwitch's core technology
enables CommuniGroup to respond quickly and effectively to its customers'
needs.
"Our business customers rely on CommuniGroup for products and services that
enhance their efficiency and ease of operations," said Rob McKnight, Vice
President of Operations for CommuniGroup. "The ease and functionality of
Metaswitch's advanced telephony features provide our users with the
industry's most advanced tools to ensure a consistent and professional
customer experience."
The ACD features in MetaSwitch's hosted VoIP solution enable businesses to
direct inbound calls to groups of users based on the nature of the
call. With this service installed, a caller can be prompted to identify the
purpose of their call via the MetaSphere Auto-Attendant application, that
would then re-direct the call to the appropriate group -- for example,
"sales" or "support." If all users in that group are busy, calls are held
in a queue, and callers are played music or commercial messages using the
MetaSphere Media-On-Hold application, which allows customers to upload
files from the Web or record them on-site. When an agent becomes free, the
next call from the queue is presented to that phone. Users can login to and
logout from ACD groups by dialing codes on their phones.
Service providers can also easily provide regular usage statistics to the
customer's network administrators, providing detail on the activity of each
ACD group and each of the agents that belongs to the group. Statistics
include number of calls handled, average duration of calls, total time
spent on the phone, average queuing time for calls as well as other data.
The range of statistics available has been significantly increased in
MetaSwitch's latest software release, providing business customers with
much greater visibility into their agents' activity.
The ACD features complement MetaSwitch's advanced telephony functionality
for SMBs, including support for SIP attendant consoles, shared line
appearance for key system emulation, one-touch call park and retrieve, and
group features such as call pickup and multiple appearance directory
numbers. This powerful combination of MetaSwitch's ACD features, together
with MetaSphere Auto-Attendant and Media-On-Hold applications, enables SMBs
to provide a slick and professional customer experience to callers, while
making the most efficient use of their own resources.
"In today's continuously evolving communications market, service providers
need reliable and customizable technologies designed to streamline business
processes," explained Andrew Randall, vice president of marketing for
MetaSwitch. "The combination of advanced calling features and the
MetaSphere application suite provides carriers with a compelling and cost
effective service to offer SMBs. Adding in the customer profiling
capabilities of the MarketVisions program, MetaSwitch is helping service
providers market these features to make hosted VoIP solutions even more
attractive to SMBs."
About MetaSwitch
MetaSwitch is an industry-leading vendor of switching and applications
solutions for both packet and circuit-switched networks. Its widely
deployed core session control and media/signaling gateway products support
a full range of Class 4/5 capabilities, while its MetaSphere service
delivery platform and applications suite enables a broad set of hosted IP
communications services. Customers include many of the world's leading
operators of wireline, wireless and cable networks, with deployments that
scale to millions of subscribers. For more information, please visit
www.metaswitch.com.
Data Connection and MetaSwitch are trademarks of Data Connection Limited
and Data Connection Corporation. Brands and products referenced herein are
the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Copyright © 2007 Data Connection Limited
Contact Information: Contact:
Carol Daniels
MetaSwitch
+1 (510) 589-5074
chd@metaswitch.com
Erin Grohs
Connect2 Communications for MetaSwitch
+1 (919) 554 3532 x5
egrohs@connect2comm.com