ComDesign: A Purpose-driven Approach to CTI Functions

Kenji Terao, President & CEO

The call center is not only a primary customer touchpoint; it is where first impressions are made. Creating a lasting impact on customers is the top priority for every company, especially in Japan, where a strong sense of hospitality is at the heart of every business. As call center agents are key to delivering a superior experience, organizations are looking to arm them with tools to enable significant improvements in how they cater to clients.

To realize the ideal call center, ComDesign equips organizations with its one-of-a-kind CTI platform to help them deliver a superior customer experience. The architecture of ComDesign’s cloud based CTI platform–CT-e1/SaaS–differs from that of traditional PBXs, which consist of an external line (trunk) and an extension.

CT-e1/SaaS” covers the general functions related to telephony communication and its management required by CTI. Such an approach ensures that users who are accustomed to on-premise CTI, such as AVAYA, will not be dissatisfied with the utility of this platform. ComDesign’s unique architecture does not require extensions, enabling mobile phones and other devices to connect via PSTN, as well as real-time communication through WebRTC. Highly flexible, the platform architecture is designed to work seamlessly and integrate with other systems, such as IoT products.

Architectural Simplicity-driven by Purposeful Functionalities

“Not only in its architectural differentiation, our high performance CTI platform stands out in terms of service delivery as well. In the traditional IT industry, if a user needs a unique function that is not included in the package, it requires paid development work by the provider,” adds Mr.Terao. In contrast, ComDesign leverages a service concept called CXaaS (Customer Experience as a Service) to meet the development needs of each user and provide them with superior functionality with simplicity at no additional cost.

ComDesign’s flexible platform and “CXaaS” service concept are geared toward matching the evolving needs of call center agents, resulting in a quantum leap in performance.

The company customizes each development for our customers and works closely with our engineers to provide any necessary technological modules for their venture.“Easy trial and error services are the most important factors to realize ideal communication,” explains Kenji Terao, President and CEO of ComDesign.

“For this reason, we have established an environment where engineers who are familiar with our system can actively communicate with customers and provide necessary functions when necessary without worrying about the cost.” Upholding such a necessity-based development approach, ComDesign enables its clients to improve the ease of integrating various cloud services, thereby helping them address all of their system requirements and realize a more profound customer experience.

ComDesign’s CTI platform offers distinct advantages that have been instrumental in driving the success of many renowned Japanese companies. In one instance, ComDesign collaborated with a well-known Internet content distribution service in Japan to help them deliver an enhanced service to their customers. With traditional phone systems, it was difficult to integrate and manage on-hold customers, as well as those promised callbacks, resulting in customer dissatisfaction. For instance, the company provisions IVR and ACD for better customer experience and more efficient phone distribution; it offers a dashboard for real-time representation of call center agent status.

ComDesign also solves a very critical but often neglected issue within the contact center space; it resolves the inadequacy to integrate and manage customers on hold and those promised callbacks through CT-e1/SaaS platform. It provides a mechanism to automatically handle incoming requests, as well as callbacks without the agent having to be involved. The benefit of procuring such features and functionalities is offered to clients at zero additional cost but rather at the immediate request of its clients. Interesting to note, the company designs telephony functions that are unique to call centers, such as a monitoring function to allow SVs to oversee the contents of calls. Clients are also provided historical reports and logs of all interactions as a standard prerequisite, helping them analyze the quality of interactions and improve upon them progressively.

“The functionality of each tool reflects the opinions of users who requested them, based on the service philosophy explained in ‘CXaaS.’ It’s not an approach where we force the user to do what we think they can do; it’s an approach where the user’s idea is reflected in the application,” explains Mr.Terao. By virtue of this philosophy, the company has managed to develop the highest number of features and functionalities within the on-premises CTI.

Achieving Definitive Objectives for Clients

The leadership at ComDesign firmly upholds the idea that the solutions offered by the company are not magical tools but rather a use-case-specific suite of functions that help clients achieve their business goals. Each and every company within this value chain is somewhat forced to make a ‘real choice,’ in procuring the most relevant solution or bringing together highly competent IT engineers while achieving those aforementioned outcomes.

Adding to the woes, the call center system market in Japan is very conservative, and visibility inevitably remains one of the essential factors in selecting telephony systems.

When judicious utilization of monetary and time-bound resources is concerned, businesses tend to compromise on the quality of services under the pretext of obtaining a multitude of functionalities. Evidently, the cost of procurement is one of the primary aspects for consideration for clients on the lookout for such contact center solutions.

ComDesign is well positioned in this juncture to offer clients an acceptable but resourceful alternative, which essentially sets the foundation for prospective integrations in the future. Such a scalable architecture proves exceptionally beneficial to businesses that cannot necessarily invest a substantial amount of money. This approach also allows businesses to determine the balance between cost and function rationally.

“From the perspective of our competitors, we have steadily accomplished difficult projects that are not profitable, and we have made our achievements,” says Mr.Terao. These collective efforts, bolstered by its client centric development approach to CTI functions, nurture prosperous and mutually-beneficial relationships with clients.

Not Only In Its Architectural Differentiation, Our High Performance CTI Platform Stands Out In Terms Of Service Delivery

In one such collaboration, ComDesign enabled the largest used car company in Japan to enhance their customer experience. Prior to collaborating with ComDesign, the company obtained information about customer requests through email or information posted on various websites. Following this, the call center operator would contact customers who wanted to purchase by placing a call. This practice of manually calling customers based on referrals did not give them a leg up on the competition and resulted in many missed opportunities.

CT-e1/SaaS addressed this challenge by automatically receiving emails from various information sites and browsing information sites via RPA. In addition, by developing a system that links purchased information with the automatic call system, ComDesign helped the client dramatically increase the success rate of first contact with customers from 5- to 90-percent.

Scripting similar success stories, ComDesign is striding ahead to make extensive connections with products that have been evaluated in the APAC region and expand new functionalities for users. These innovations, as detailed above, build the pedestal for a utility and use-case-driven CTI ecosystem, which is crafted to help clients enhance their contact center operations while ensuring the highest scores of customer satisfaction.