If dialers, ACDs and stand-alone products are taking up your valuable time, then Aspect has the most inventive solution for you. With globalisation and the increasing numbers of contact centres in the country, it is becoming imperative for strategic advantages, to get hold of the most viable and cost effective solution. Aspect has a wide range of products with unified solutions including automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing and speech-enabled voice portal on a single platform. The company also provides migration from traditional voice to session initiation protocol (SIP)-based voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) along with a wide range of other services .

As per Roger Sumner, senior vice president, Technology Office and Development, Aspect Software, "There is a shift towards unified solutions in the contact centre industry. Since our unified products are developed in-house, we provide complete product line and support." The unified IP solution gives freedom to the contact centre to grow as they want. Since the solution has the facility to be integrated with other solutions, it provides the best scalability options. "Apart from this," added Sumner, "the unified IP solution can be scaled up to 2000 seats while our other signature product line is scalable from 1500 to 2400 seats. It can be adjusted as per the requirement of the contact centre."

Sumner also believes that as per the current trend, organisations deploy the complete solution rather than going for bits and pieces. He believes that though Aspect faces competition from Avaya and Cisco in terms of products, these companies do not provide their own solutions. For example, the workforce management solution which is integrated in their products is supported by partners, whereas Aspect's complete PerformanceEdge product line comes with the option of combining workforce management, recording and quality management and implementing a complete solution. "Our products even integrate and extract relevant information on time."

Sumner believes, "After evaluating the specific requirements of the BPO industry through interactions with the stakeholders, Aspect has concluded that the contact centre industry in India requires multiple tenants on the same system." The Indian BPOs require multiple tenants and separation of data simultaneously. They also require separate safeguards for each client data. Keeping in view this necessity, Aspect offers multiple tenancy. Thus, with Aspect's unified IP solution, the BPOs do not need to use different applications separately for each client, but have a single solution with the ability to integrate and form an interface for managing all data at one point of time and in one place.

Sumner was a little critical of the Indian government, as sometimes regulations and approvals take too much time. But he was positive that the scenario was changing in favor of the Indian contact centre industry. He said, "Although in comparison with North America there is still a lot of difference, but the Indian market is progressing towards growth and maturity. The Indian market offers much greater potential than the already exploited markets elsewhere. Also the infrastructure here as compared to other developing countries gives it the competitive edge." The Indian contact centre industry recognises the importance and understands the requirements and has the knowhow and hence can benefit from the existing knowledge base and maximise it to advantage." He believes that customers and clients are now being very selective about the supplier of services from the outsourced partner.

Sumner also sees a lot of advantages for Indian companies. He believes that companies no longer compete on cost arbitrage. According to him, Indian BPO industry has the advantage of educated and intelligent manpower. India can leverage its positive aspects and overcome competition, he adds.

With development centres in Boston, Nashville, Chicago, Miami and Bangalore, Aspect has a large in-house technology development team and several patents are won every year. Sumner adds that, "The company has patented 700 solutions/products, while 350 patents are still pending." Aspect believes in innovating and that differentiates them from other solution providers." He adds, "Since the centres are located in different time zones and geographical locations, we have access to diverse cross-cultural knowledge base, and with wider assessment, better solutions, scalable and innovative are generated." He believes that the companies are moving towards simplification of the processes. They want to deploy one point solutions which are easy to manage. Predicting the future trend he said, "Analytics is going to be the key, whether its data or customer analytics."

As per Sumner, Aspect is continuously trying to provide better solutions by improving the already existing ones and integrating them according to the needs of the Indian market. There is a lot more to be done in this industry. "There is always some scope for improvement" and " for this industry to go forward, the need is to define the KPIs and provide better customer service in less time and with improved solutions. It calls for strategically developing ways to provide these services not just to contact centres but to customers of these as well. There has to be value addition."

Aspect has big clients in the BPO sector like GE, Citibank and HSBC, who have deployed its entire range of solutions and product lines. Fifty percent of Aspect's approximately 300 research and development (R&D) personnel are deployed in Bangalore centre. Aspect has its own captive contact centre in Bangalore. Sumner added, " A considerable part of our business comes from the Indian market and we plan to expand our base here."