To start off, provide us with an overview of the contact center business and the current situation.

What are the advantages of "CTstage" compared to competing products?

In addition, we have been highly praised for the easy to understand and use operation management tools. The ability for customers to make changes during daily operation through a simple GUI screen without vendor intervention has been favorably accepted.

NakayamaIn all past "CTstage" deliveries, our system engineers have been involved in system construction, and maintenance is also undertaken by our company. Accordingly, OKI has the industry's most accumulated knowledge on contact center construction, operation and maintenance. We have utilized that strength to respond to a variety of customer's demands and provide performance and functionality enhancement in product upgrades and "service packs (SPs)."
For example, the need for multi-channeling including chat has been very high at contact centers in recent years. To respond, our latest "CTstage 6Mi^® SP3" released in October 2018 is equipped with a "multi-channel ACD(*5) function" that integrates telephone with chat and automatically directs calls to the appropriate operators. The API for the function to enable easy linkage with various chat systems is also available.

What is your approach to "co-creation" with customers and business partners?

OshimaRegarding linkage with other vendor systems such as chat and contact center-related CRM(*6) and WFM(*7), we have numerous achievements and cases on record thanks to the open architecture of "CTstage." Going forward, we will continue strengthening the functions of our products to respond to customers' requests and at the same time expand solutions that link with other vendors. In doing so, we are planning to develop solutions in the form of alliances that are close to co-creation.

NakayamaFrom the viewpoint of co-creation with customers, we established the "CTstage User Association" in December 2015 to promote interaction between customers operating contact centers. Through this association, information and opinion are shared on such topics as system utilization, operation know-how and issues with contact center operation. With cooperation of customers, several center tours were also held, and both proved to be very popular.

What are the key points for future business development?

OshimaThe biggest challenge now in the contact center industry is labor shortage. The job tends to be avoided since directly receiving complaints from unseen people is very stressful. As a result, hiring is difficult, and job turnover rate is higher than in other industries. Moreover, recent customers tend to "investigate on the Web and make phone inquiries when answers cannot be found" instead of making sudden phone calls. Thus, there are more high-level questions and correspondingly, higher skills are required on the contact center side.
For these reasons, the contact center system requires a mechanism to improve efficiency and labor savings as well as advanced routing function to minimize the waiting time and connect an operator appropriate for the inquiry. Furthermore, there is rising demand for "contact center digital transformation (DX)" that will enable such tasks as automatically inputting phone response history and increasing efficiency of aggregation and analysis through voice digitization, and automating chat support using AI.

NakayamaLooking at "CTstage" from the technical standpoint, routing technology typified by "multi-channel ACD," and aggregation and accumulation technology for information including the contact history are two advantages. With these, we believe we can provide various added value to the contact center DX. For instance, I think that it will be possible in the future to develop a mechanism to assist operator tasks by analyzing the caller's emotions based on the tone of voice or biological information from the hand holding the smartphone.
Moreover, there is actually an increasing opportunity for customers that are not "contact center" operators to utilize the functions of "CTstage."

That means you see new needs.

NakayamaYes, there have been cases of "CTstage" being implemented in general offices to solve tasks that use phones. In one case, when a representative in the real estate industry makes a sales call and the called customer replies "sales calls are unnecessary," the system will automatically control future calls to prevent recalling the same customer. Another case involves a retailer with chain of stores. Primary responses to calls are handled centrally by the head office. This way, information such as complaints can be shared to improve store operations.

OshimaSuch customers are not conscious to building a "contact center," so our past product appeals failed to draw their attention. Therefore, one key point is to determine how to deliver our messages in the future. "CTstage" is a well-established name in the contact center market, but I think that it is better to neglect the "CTstage" name and appeal the system as a "CTI option" for PBXs and business phones. In approaching the customers, we would like our regional communication system sales partners who have been engaged in sales, operation and maintenance of PBXs and business phones for many years to propose "CTstage" as a new added value merchandise.

With market expansion in mind, how do you plan to evolve the product?

NakayamaIt has been four years since the current version of "CTstage" was released, so a major upgrade is under consideration. The routing technology and information aggregation and accumulation technology that we have cultivated up to now will be at the core of the new system. We are also looking five to ten years ahead in deciding the architecture and interface. In doing so, we need to think outside the contact center box and consider function, performance and scalability. We would also like to develop the system in such a way that we can firmly incorporate the mechanism of the cloud and IoT.

- CTstage^® is a Registered Trademark of Oki Electric Industry Corporation.
- CTstage 6Mi^® is a Registered Trademark of Oki Electric Industry Corporation.
- The names of the companies and products mentioned in this document are the trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies and organizations.