It is the first contact centre application developed in the UK to have gained this prestigious status. The certification validates the virtualised approach Azzurri has provided to its customers for a number of years, having implemented over 200 contact centre solutions based on Mitel, Avaya or Cisco systems, with Callmedia as the central application. Callmedia delivers, manages and blends calls, emails, faxes, SMS, webchat, call-back requests, social media interactions (such as Facebook and Twitter) and outbound dialler campaigns in order to maximise contact centre efficiency and enhance customer service.
To attain the VMware Ready certification, Azzurri tested the Callmedia 5.0 application with the following set up: 500 concurrent agent seats, 10 queues and multi-channel blending. The entire solution was virtualised on a VMware vSphere 5.0 host. Azzurri then simulated 40,000 inbound calls to the application over a period of 30 minutes. Callmedia 5.0 responded robustly; with VMware observing that the application “appears to be running normally and there were no significant bottlenecks observed.”
Luke Talbot, Product Manager for Azzurri Innovations, said: “We’re really proud to be the first company with a UK built contact centre to be awarded this accreditation. Our Azzurri Innovations division is named that for a reason: we’re always seeking to develop leading-edge technology in order to help customers achieve their objectives. The use of VMware in contact centres is becoming increasingly popular as organisations see the benefits of virtualising their whole IT estate, but if they go down this route, customers need to work with a supplier who can deliver the expected benefits. This VMware accreditation shows Azzurri has the products to do exactly that.”
Callmedia is built around the guiding principle of ‘Expert Contact’, which aims to match the right contact centre agent to the customers’ requirements, while blending tasks from different multi-media sources. Deploying Callmedia contact centre applications in virtual environments offers a number of advantages compared to standalone server deployments, saving on power and rack space whilst improving resilience.