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A

Abandoned Call - Also called a Lost Call. The caller hangs up before reaching an agent.

Actionable Strategies - Strategies formulated in such a way as to be able to construct action plans, consisting of concrete activities (e.g. call/interaction routing) which are shown to support and further the strategy.

Active Server Page (ASP) - A technology of automatic generation of customized web pages developed by Microsoft.

Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) - Carrier offering more than 'pipes' to users.

Agent - A general term for someone who handles telephone calls in a call or contact center. Also referred to as customer service representative (CSR), telephone sales or service representative (TSR), rep, associate, consultant, engineer, operator, technician, account executive, team member, customer service professional, staff member, attendant and specialist.

Agent Status (or State) - Type of telephone activity an agent either performed or is engaged in performing. The mode an agent is in (Ready, Not Ready, After-Call Work, Unavailable, Do Not Disturb, etc.).

Application Program Interface (API) - (1) Means of communication between programs to give one program transparent access to another. (2) Generic term for any language and format used by one program to help it communicate with another program.

Application Service Provider (ASP) - A company that offers individuals or enterprises access over the Internet to applications and related services that would otherwise have to be located and managed in their own personal or enterprise computer systems.

Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) - A new standard for transmitting at speeds up to 7 Mbps over a single copper pair often used to connect remote sites and agents.

Asynchronous - Form of communication where the sender of a message is not waiting for a response from the receiver in order to continue working. Email would be an example of an asynchronous form of communication.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) - A cell-based, fast-packet technology that provides a protocol for transmitting voice and data over high-speed networks. ATM is a connection-oriented technology used in both LAN and WAN environments. It is asynchronous in that the recurrence of cells depends on the required or instantaneous bit rate.

Average Speed of Answer (ASA) - The average amount of time a caller will wait in queue for an agent to become available. This unit of measure is influenced by the average length of each call, the number of agents and the total number of calls arriving.

Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) - A system, usually serving a large telemarketing center that automatically directs incoming calls to available sales or service representatives. With ISDN, ACDs can be programmed to read the incoming ANI, and direct the call to a specific agent while the host computer uses the ANI information to query a customer database in order to identify the caller to the agent.

Automatic Number Identification (ANI) - (1) A feature that passes a caller's telephone number over the network to the receiving location so the caller can be identified. In ISDN, this signal travels through the D channel. (2) A charge number parameter that is normally included in the Initial Address Message to the succeeding carrier for billing purposes. Caller ID is the local phone company version of ANI, and is delivered inband. ANI is a North American term, and Calling Line Identification (CLI) is an alternative term used elsewhere.

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) - Technology that recognizes spoken words and translates them into other forms. The translated content can then be converted to text, supplied as commands to a computing process or compared to saved segments of speech to verify the caller's identity. Often combined with IVRs, ASR allows callers to speak responses to questions rather than press buttons on their phones.

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B

Back-Office Operation - Software applications designed to aid typical business functions that occur at the end of a sales cycle--such as inventory, order fulfillment, and shipping.

Back-to-Back User Agent - A back-to-back user agent (B2BUA) is a logical entity that receives a request and processed it as a user agent server (UAS). In order to determine how the request should be answered, it acts as a user agent client (UAC) and generates requests. Unlike a proxy server, it maintains dialog state and must participate in all requests sent on the dialogs it has established. The SIP Server functions as a B2BUA.

Bouncing Customer - The call center problem of transferring callers from one Customer Service Representative (CSR) to another until the right one is reached who can appropriately handle the call.

Business Priority Routing - A set of Genesys Routing capabilities that prioritize interaction delivery based on achieving the target service level through prioritizing and selecting the interaction with the greatest risk to the service objective set for a particular customer segment. In Genesys 7, the business priority routing functions include Age of Interaction, What-If Wait Time Routing and Service Objective Routing.

Business Process Routing - A set of interfaces that extend the Genesys Interaction Workflow and Genesys Routing technologies to applications that electronically automate business processes. Such applications include document management, all types of forms processing, work-order processing and other business applications. Business Process Routing is one area of application for the Open Media Interface APIs.

Business Rules - A set of situational instructions that are determined by managers and converted into software code that allows computer applications to make decisions according to the specific business requirements of the company (for example, if..., then...). Usually, these are changed as needed.

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C

Call Blending - Combining traditionally separate inbound and outbound agent groups into one group of agents responsible for handling both inbound and outbound contacts. A system that is capable of call blending automatically puts agents who are making outbound calls into the inbound mode and vice versa, as necessitated by the incoming call load.

Call Center - (1) A company or department that handles sales and/or service calls. Call centers use automatic call distributors (ACDs) to route calls to the appropriate agents. (2) A physical location where calls are placed, or received, in high volume for the purpose of sales, marketing, customer service, telemarketing, technical support or other specialized business activities. (3) An umbrella term that generally refers to reservations centers, help desks, information lines or customer service centers, regardless of how they are organized or what types of transactions they handle. The term is being challenged by many, because calls are just one type of transaction and the word center doesn't accurately depict the many multi-site environments.

Call Detail Recording - A management function, which collects and records information about incoming and outgoing calls.

Call Forwarding - A service that allows an incoming call to be sent to another telephone or terminal.

Call Load - Also referred to as Work Load. Call Load is the product of (Average Talk Time + Average After-Call Work) x call volume, for a given period.

Call Management System (CMS) - Software used to track customer and employee calls coming into the call center or help desk.

Call Progress Detection - Technology used in outbound dialing situations in which the person or object that answers an outbound call is determined by a computer device. Call Progress Detection (CPD) equipment analyzes the sounds on the receiving end of the phone call and determines what has answered the call, if answered. Result codes reflecting the outcome of the outbound dialing are handed off to the outbound calling software for determination of the next step In the outbound calling process.

Call Routing - An application that is comprised of a class of programmed telephony solutions that automate the routing of inbound telephone calls.

Call Transaction Record (CTR) - CTR is a record of the entire history of each phone call as it progresses through the call center. It contains standard and application-specific information. The standard information includes time stamps, ANI, DNIS, and Agent Directory numbers. The application specific information is transparent to the Callflow Management System. This can be used to send customer records that are associated with a phone call to another CSR to perform another Procedure in the servicing process. The term Call Detail Record refers to the same type of call reporting.

Call Waiting - A service that, during a call in progress, alerts you that another call is waiting to be answered.

Campaign Management - The business process that is put in place to manage the lifecycle of a marketing campaign. Campaign management measures the yield or return from an effort to reach a set of customers through "Outbound" telephone calls from a call center or Email through a contact center. A marketing campaign is a set of promotions which are directed at a specific set of customers to get them to buy specific products and/or services. Managing the campaign involves coordinating the activities such as market segmentation and telemarketing with the collateral information required for each step.

Central Office (CO) - (1) A local telephone company office which connects to all local loops in a given area and where circuit switching of customer lines occurs. (2) A local Telephone Company switching system, where Telephone Exchange Service customer station loops are terminated for purposes of interconnection to each other and to trunks. In the case of a Remote Switching Module (RSM), the term Central Office designates the combination of the Remote Switching Unit and its Host.

Centralized Exchange (Centrex) - (1) A type of business telephone service located on the telephone company's central office in which incoming calls are routed directly to end-user telephone sets without involving the company's PBX and outgoing calls are aggregated. (2) PBX features delivered by a central office switch, including, voicemail, transfer, forward, and local extension dialing. (3) A service provided by central offices that provides a virtual PBX to a set of extensions. It offers features such as transfer, conference, and forward within that set of extensions.

Chat - Real-time text communication exchanged between two users via their computers.

Circuit Switching - (1) Switching system in which a dedicated physical circuit path must exist between sender and receiver for the duration of the 'call'. Used heavily in the phone company network, circuit switching often is contrasted with contention and token passing as a channel access method, and with message switching and packet switching as a switching technique. (2) Basic switching process whereby a circuit between two users is opened on demand and maintained for their exclusive use for the duration of the transmission.

Circuit-Switched Network - Network that establishes a physical circuit temporarily, until it receives a disconnect signal.

Class of Service (CoS) - A way of managing traffic in a network by grouping similar types of traffic (e.g., email, streaming video, voice, large document file transfer) together and treating each type as a class with its own level of service priority.

Click Stream Analysis - Analyzing a viewer's movements through a web site by monitoring browser 'clicks'.

Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) - (1) A company that builds and operates communication networks in metropolitan areas and provides its customers with an alternative to the local telephone company. (2) A company that files with the state public utility commission to be a competitive carrier. The company then negotiates an interconnection agreement with the Incumbent Local Exchange (ILEC).

Computer Supported Telephony Applications (CSTA) - Launched by European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA), Computer Supported Telephony Applications is a Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) standard that defines a standard for connecting computers and telephone switches in an effort to foster the development of third-party applications, such as call center software. The specification has been adopted by the International Standards Organization as well as being incorporated in switching platforms from a number of vendors.

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) - (1) The name given to the merger of traditional telecommunications (PBX) equipment with computers and computer applications. The use of Caller ID to automatically retrieve customer information from a database is an example of a CTI application. (2) The connection between a computer and a telephone switch, which allows recording and using information obtained by telephone access. For example, CTI enables activities such as dial-up registration and fax-back.

Contact Center - Evolving from the "Call Center", a system that handles and manages customer contacts regardless of the form of contact; i.e., voice, Web, email, fax, etc.

Converged Private Branch Exchange (CBX) - CBXs are positioned as traditional PBX replacements and are part of an accelerating trend toward merging voice and data networks. CBXs differ from existing proprietary PBXs and key systems by being closely linked to data applications and Internet access through LANs. Some CBX products offer relatively high functionality for office telephone systems plus a basic LAN interface at prices far lower than that of similar-sized PBXs. Other CBXs offer moderate telephone system functionality plus the ability to reconfigure voice systems to run across corporate LANs and IP backbones.

Convergence - The industry trend towards sharing network infrastructure and resources among disparate applications and traffic types.

Cross Selling - The business techniques of associating like products to customer purchases. For example, if a customer buys letterhead there is an opportunity to sell envelopes in the same transaction.

Custom Local Area Signaling Services (CLASS) - Services such as caller ID and ring back provided by a telephone company. Devices in the telephone central office that provide such services are called CLASS switches.

Customer Information Systems - Systems which are geared to providing companies information about the purchasing preferences of their customers. These systems are used to identify potential customers and to retain existing customers, as well as to find out what products and services should be promoted to which segment of the customer population.

Customer Interaction - Contact between a customer and a vendor organization. Each contact provides an opportunity to make a positive impact, better understand the customer's needs, and build a long-term relationship with the customer.

Customer Interaction Management Platform (CIM Platform) - A packaged set of contact center core services upon which various media connections, reporting connections and desktop connections can be built. CIM Platform is very much like the Genesys Framework concept with the added functionality of a real-time interaction routing server.

Customer Interaction Points - The interaction channels (e.g. telephone, email, chat, etc.) between the company and its customers where customer value and behavior can be effected.

Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) - (1) Telephone terminal devices, such as handsets and private branch exchanges (PBXs), located on the customer's premises rather than on the provider's premises or in between. (2) Terminating equipment, such as terminals, phones, routers and modems, supplied by the phone company, installed at customer sites, and connected to the phone company network.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - An approach a company takes towards its customers, backed by a thoughtful investment in people, technology and business processes."

Customer Retention - (1) The goal of marketing programs that seeks to maintain high levels of customer continuance. The cost of retaining customers is significantly less than the cost associated with acquiring a customer (2) A measure of the success of customer service organizations, customer retention is ensuring your customers continue to buy from you in the future.

Customer Service Representative (CSR) - The contact center agent who deals with the customers.

Customer-Centric View - An approach to business that puts the needs and desires of a customer as a principal criterion in any decision that impacts the customer.

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D

Data-Directed Routing - The process of automatically accessing information in enterprise databases and using it to determine how incoming customer contacts are routed.

DB Server - DB Server is a Genesys server process that provides a single database interface for Genesys servers to use while connecting to a variety of proprietary database engines such as Oracle, MS-SQL, DB2 and Sybase.

Dial/Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) - (1) The set of standardized, superimposed tones used in telephony signaling - as generated by a touch tone pad. (2) A signaling system that sends pairs of audio frequencies to represent digits on a telephone keypad. It is often used interchangeably with the term Touchtone (an AT&T trademark).

Dialed Number (DN) - The number assigned to a destination point on a switch which can be reached by dialing. Dialed numbers are often assigned to agent phones and are sometimes referred to as extension numbers though extension numbers are not the only numbers on a switch that can be dialed.

Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) - ((2) A string of digits that the telephone network passes to the ACD, VRU or other devise, to indicate which number the caller dialed. The ACD can then process and report on that type of call according to user-defined criteria.

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) - A technology that allows twisted pair copper local loops to be configured for higher bandwidth to transmit data and video along with the voice signal.

Dynamic CSR Scripting - The creation and modification of agent scripts based on timely input from managers.

Dynamic Media Exchange (DMX) - A Genesys software component that connects to a VoIP Gateway and provides the telephony event messaging in conjunction with IP telephony calls passing through the VoIP gateway. Normally, a PBX will provide call events such as "Event ringing" and "Event disconnect" for the local T-Server. VoIP Gateways do not provide these messages so the DMX coordinates the creation and delivery of such messages as calls move through the VoIP Gateway.

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E

ECMA - Founded in 1961, the European Computer Manufacturers Association is an international industry association that has focused on the development of standard interfaces between computer and communications systems, with CSTA being its main contribution.

Electronic Mail (Email) - (1) Private messages sent by one user electronically to another via computer. Electronic mail users typically have a 'mailbox' on a network or a videotext systems where other users can send messages that can be retrieved at a later time by the recipient. (2) Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another via computer. E-mail can also be sent to large numbers of addresses automatically.

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) - Class of software products that are used for linking applications together.

Enterprise Routing Solution (ERS) - Genesys solution package offering premise-level routing for both single site and multiple site configurations. ERS includes both the routing "engine" as well as the routing development tool, Interaction Routing Designer.

Erlang - A.K. A Danish engineer who worked for the Copenhagen Telephone Company in the early 1900s and developed a series of telephone traffic engineering formulas.

Erlang - Sixty minutes of telephone traffic carried in a 60 minutes of time. For example, if circuits carry 120 minutes of traffic in one hour, that's two Erlangs.

Erlang B - A formula developed by A.K. Erlang, widely used to determine the number of trunks required to handle a known calling load during a one hour period. The formula assumes that if callers get busy signals, they go away forever, never to retry ("lost calls cleared"). Since some callers retry, Erlang B can underestimate trunks required. However, Erlang B is generally accurate in situations with few busy signals.

Erlang C - A formula developed by A.K. Erlang, calculates predicted waiting times (delay) based on three things: the number of servers (reps); the number of people waiting to be served (callers); and the average amount of time it takes to serve each person. It can also predict the resources required to keep waiting times within targeted limits. Erlang C assumes no lost calls or busy signals, so it has a tendency to overestimate staff required.

Expected Wait Time (EWT) - An estimate of how long a caller will have to wait to be served by a call center while in queue. EWT is based on current and past traffic, handling time, and staffing conditions. Also referred to as Estimated Wait Time.

Exchange - A unit generally smaller than a Local Access and Transport Area that is established by the Telephone Company for the administration of communications service in a specified area which usually embraces a city, town, or village and its environs. It consists of one or more central offices together with the associated facilities used in furnishing communications service within that area. One or more designated exchanges comprise a given local access and transport area.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) - A set of coding standards for designing web pages that involve the use of tags and values. The tags are standardized names used to identify specific pieces of data which have an associated value. Just as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a standard coding scheme for the displaying of web pages on a computer screen, XML is a standardized coding scheme that allows applications to exchange data. There are a variety of implementations of XML that provide standard tag names for specific industries.

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F

Fiber Channel (FC) - Fiber Channel is a high performance serial link supporting its own, as well as higher level protocols such as the FDDI, SCSI, HIPPI, and IPI. The fast (up to 1 Gbps) technology can be converted for Local Area Network technology by adding a switch specified in the Fiber Channel standard, that handles multipoint addressing.

Fiber Optic Cable - A transmission medium that uses glass or plastic fibers, rather than copper wire, to transport data or voice signals. The signal is imposed on the fiber via pulses (modulation) of light from a laser or a light-emitting diode (LED). Because of its high bandwidth and lack of susceptibility to interference, fiber-optic cable is used in long-haul and electrically " noisy" applications.

Foreign Exchange Office (FXO) - A remote Telephone Company Central Office used to provide local telephone service over dedicated circuits from that office to the user's local central office and premises.

Front-Office Application - Software applications designed to aid typical business functions such as sales, service, and marketing.

Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) - A staffing term that generally refers to an individual that works 8 hours per day, 5 days per week. Normally used on conjunction with questions regarding staffing costs, an FTE can be fulfilled by multiple persons each working a portion of the 8 hr / 5 day schedule. Sometimes referred to as Full Time Employee though this usage does not take into account the contribution from part-time employees.

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G

Genesys Agent Desktop (GAD) - An agent desktop application designed for Genesys 7.

Genesys Contact Navigator (GCN) - An agent desktop application designed for Genesys 6.

Genesys Interface Server (GIS) - The Genesys Interface Server (GIS) provides developers with interfaces to the Genesys Framework and Customer Interaction Management (CIM) Platform. It presents four APIs: Statistics Service, Configuration Service, Interaction Services and Session Service.

Genesys Voice Portal (GVP) - An interactive Voice response system that utilizes Voice XML(vXML) as a programming language and web servers as access points to customer information. Through GVP, callers are provided a means of highly personalized self-service as well as a means of entering digits from their phone. GVP provides greater functionality than traditional IVRs through its extension of existing web-personalization and industry-standard programming language, vXML.

Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) - A digital cellular system that allows a single wireless telephone number to be reachable in over 50 countries. GSM uses narrowband Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology which allows eight simultaneous calls on the same radio frequency.

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H

Handling Time - The time an agent spends in Talk Time and After-Call Work, handling a transaction. Handling Time can also refer to the time it takes for a machine to process a transaction.

Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) - (1) The language used throughout the World Wide Web to create web pages with links to other documents, rich text enhancements (bold, italic, etc.) and so on. The 'source' file for what you see on a web page is written in HTML. (2) The language with which World Wide Web documents are formatted. It defines fonts, graphics, hypertext links, and other details. HTML is an implementation of Standard Graphics Markup Language, SGML, which is a standard in the publishing industry.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) - (1) The protocol most commonly used in the World Wide Web to transfer information from Web servers to Web browsers. (2) The protocol that negotiates document delivery to a Web browser from a Web server.

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I

Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) - A local exchange carrier (LEC) or local telephone company, such as Bell Atlantic or US West that operate a telephony exchange.

Independent Software Vendor (ISV) - A software vendor that has developed its own application and connects to the software applications of other companies in order to add additional value to its own application. For Genesys, our ISVs include Siebel, Oracle and SAP.

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) - (1) The recommendation published by CCITT for private or public digital telephone networks where binary data, such as graphics, digitized voice, and data transmission, pass over the same digital network that carries most telephone transmissions. (2) An overall application of the technology to provide for both newer digital and more traditional telephone services in an integrated network that incorporates the new network and interfacing standards which are being adopted worldwide.

Intelligent (Call) Routing - The routing of calls/interactions to task-appropriate agents or CSRs based on the attributes of the call/interaction.

Interaction Workflow Designer (IWD) - The Interaction Workflow Designer is the GUI used to create the workflow scripts which are executed by the Interaction Server. Workflow scripts are applied to non-voice interactions and detail the steps by which each interaction is processed. Workflow scripts call Interaction Routing scripts when a real-time decision regarding the interaction needs to be made.

Interactive Routing Designer (IRD) - The Genesys-supplied design tool for creating the routing scripts that are executed by Genesys' Interaction Router. The tool provides a graphical user interface that serves as both a design environment as well as the tool for loading individual scripts to routing points. Finally, IRD provides a screen through which the real-time operation of individual routing scripts can be monitored.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) - (1) Term used to describe systems that provide information in the form of recorded messages over telephone lines in response to user-supplied input in the form of spoken words or more commonly DTMF signaling. Examples include banks that allow you to check your balance from any telephone and automated stock quote systems. For example "For checking account information, press '1'. If you want a stock quote, press '2'". (2) Computer technology that allows the user to connect to a computer system and obtain information via voice, instead of a keypad, keyboard, or touch-tone telephone device. An IVR system responds to human voice, looks up information, presents alternatives, and interacts with the caller.

Inter-Exchange Carrier (IXC) or Inter-Exchange Common Carrier - (1) Any individual, partnership, association, joint-stock company, trust, governmental entity, or corporation engaged for hire in interstate or foreign communication by wire or radio, between two or more exchanges. (2) A long-distance telephone company/carrier offering circuit-switched, leased-line or packetswitched long distance service or some combination of the above.

Internet Contact Solution (ICS) - A packaged Genesys solution that is comprised of software tools to connect the contact center to Internet-related communication mediums including e-mail, text chat, co-browse, web forms and point-to-point Voice over IP. Each supported media operates independently of the other media types yet are fully integrated to the Genesys framework.

Internet Service Provider (ISP) - (1) Any of a number of companies that sell Internet access to individuals or organizations at speeds ranging from 300 Bps to OC-3. (2) A business that enables individuals and companies to connect to the Internet by providing the interface to the Internet backbone.

Internet Telephony - Generic term used to describe various approaches to running voice telephony over IP networks.

Internetwork - A collection of networks interconnected by routers that function (generally) as a single network. Sometimes called an intranet, which is not to be confused with the Internet.

Internetworking - General term used to refer to the industry that has arisen around the problem of connecting networks together. The term can refer to products, procedures, and technologies.

Interoperability - The ability of equipment from different manufacturers (or different implementations) to operate together.

Inter-Server Call Control (ISCC) - The Genesys-protocol used to enable communication between individual T-Servers. This protocol is necessary for the transfer of calls between multiple sites. ISCC was formerly called External Routing.

IP Contact Center (IPCC) - A Genesys software package that combines multi-site routing, reporting along with the Genesys Framework including the appropriate IP T-Server (Alcatel or Cisco). This package is an IP Telephony version of the standard ERS software package.

IP Media Exchange (IPMX) - A Genesys software package that combines the Stream Manager and the DMX. IPMX is needed in IP Telephony environments in which a VoIP Gateway is deployed instead of an IP PBX. Currently, the IPMX is an additional option for the IPCC package.

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J

Java Server Pages (JSP) - A technology for automatically generating web page content and its display that relies on java script commands. Most web server today can support JSP technology as a means of collecting and displaying information on a web page.

Java Telephony API (JTAPI) - a set of extensions to the Java programming language that provide telephony functions such as call control.

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K

Key Value Pair (KVPair) - A data structure used to communicate or store a piece of information. A KVPair consists of a Key, whose value is an S.100 Symbol, and a value, which may be any of a variety of data types, including a KVSet (thus making the structure recursive). The Key is used to identify the meaning of the data contained in the value.

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L

Local Control Agent (LCA) - A Genesys-supplied software module that is loaded to each server platform which hosts 1 or more Genesys server modules. The job of the LCA is to monitor the operating status of all locally running Genesys software modules, reports errors and restart modules should they stop operating.

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M

Media Blending - Technology that allows contact center applications and related systems to both send and receive contacts from a variety of media channels, such as telephone, email, chat and Web.

Multi-point Control Unit - A device used to bridge multiple calls together in a conference format. An MCU is often needed in an IP Telephony installation as IP Routers do not natively support voice functions such a conferencing.

Message Server - A Genesys-supplied software module that receives error messages from all installed Genesys applications and logs these messages into a common database for later analysis. Message Server can also be set up to produce outbound messages triggered on the receipt of specific error messages.

Middleware - Class of software product that enables communication between two or more applications in a distributed computing environment.

Multi-channel Contact Center - An enterprise contact center where various types of contacts--telephone, email, Web, fax--are made and received by customers and agents using computer software designed to handle these activities. Supported activities run the gamut of business operations from front office to back office.

Multi-channel Contact Server - Computer software that automatically receives and routes incoming contacts from a variety of communications channels (telephone, Web, email) and from a variety of wired and wireless devices.

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N

Network Convergence - The industry trend building singular network infrastructures that support voice, video, and data communications traffic.

Network Operations Center (NOC) - Any center tasked with the operational aspects of a production network. These tasks include monitoring and control, trouble-shooting, user assistance, and so on.

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O

Off-Hook - (1) The active condition of Switched Access or a Telephone Exchange Service line. (2) Activated (in regard to a telephone set). A telephone in use is said to be off-hook when it is actively transmitting and receiving sound. Contrast with On-Hook.

On-Hook - (1) The idle condition of Switched Access or a Telephone Exchange Service line. (2) Deactivated (in regard to a telephone set). A telephone that is not in use is said to be On-hook and it is not actively transmitting and receiving sound. Contrast with Off-Hook.

On-Line Transaction Processing - Database processing that supports the daily business operations. Also known as operational processing and OLTP.

Operations Support System (OSS) - The computerized platform and related software used to support the operations of a network.

Outbound Call - A telephone call that was originated by a device and is directed toward a device in the same switching domain or a remote device in another switching domain.

Outbound Contact Solution (OCS) - The Genesys solution package that provides outbound dialing capabilities including campaign development, campaign list management, dialing management and reporting templates. OCS supports preview, progressive and predictive dialing modes.

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P

Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) - What we consider to be the ?normal? phone system, typically used with single-line residential telephones and modems. Does not include leased lines or digital lines.

Points of Presence (POP) - A term used by Internet service providers to indicate the number of geographical locations from which they provide access to the Internet.

Predictive Dialing - (1) A system that automatically places outbound calls and delivers answered calls to agents. When the dialer detects busy signals, answering machines or ring no answer, it puts the number back in queue. (2) An automatic dialing system which places outbound calls and uses statistical modeling to start dialing the next call before an agent is free to handle it, according to the calculated probability that by the time the call has been answered, an agent will be available.

Preview Dialer - An automated system which shows the details of the next person to be called on an agent's screen. The agent can then allow the preview dialer to automatically place the call, or can skip these details and view the next contact's details.

Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) - See Private Branch Exchange.

Private Branch Exchange (PBX) - A small telephone network for customer premises for intracampus and outside telephone calls. Provides local connectivity, switching and connections to the wide area voice network.

Progressive Dialer - An automated dialing system which places outbound calls when there is an available agent. A progressive dialer does not anticipate when an agent will become available, like a predictive dialer, but waits for an agent to be available before initiating the automated dialing process.

Proxy Server- An intermediary entity that acts as both a server and a client for the purpose of making requests on behalf of other clients. A proxy server primarily plays the role of routing, which means its job is to ensure that a request is sent to another entity 'closer' to the targeted user. Proxies are also useful for enforcing policy (for example, making sure a user is allowed to make a call). A proxy interprets, and, if necessary, rewrites specific parts of a request message before forwarding it.

Public Switched Network - The combined transmission facilities of the world's telephone companies and administrations, including all those circuits available to subscribers on an unrestricted basis.

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) - (1) General term referring to the variety of telephone networks and services in place worldwide. (2) Refers to the international telephone system based on copper wires carrying analog voice data. This is in contrast to newer telephone networks base on digital technologies, such as ISDN and FDDI. Telephone service carried by the PSTN is often called plain old telephone service (POTS). Designed in the 1960s, this network is increasingly coming under pressure from the Internet and new IP technologies, which are better equipped to carry multimedia communications.

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Q

Quality of Service (QoS) - Term for the set of parameters and their values which determine the performance of a connection. QoS specifies a guaranteed throughput level. For example, a QoSenabled network would automatically prioritize the use of bandwidth so that two parties can exchange video or voice information without disruption.

Queue - A queue is the holding point for a number of calls or interactions that are waiting to be answered by an agent. The calls or interactions are usually assigned to available agents in a first-arrived, first-answered basis, but may also be assigned based on a company's routing strategies.

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R

Readerboards - Also called wallboard, display boards or wall displays. A visual display, usually mounted on a wall or ceiling in the contact center, that provides real-time and historical information on contact center queue conditions, agent status and performance.

Real-Time Adherence - (1) Process that tracks how closely agents conform to their schedules. See Adherence to Schedule. (2) A general term that refers to how well agents adhere to their schedules. Can include both a) how much time they were available to take calls during their shifts, including the time spent handling calls and the time spent waiting for calls to arrive (also called Availability), and b) when they were available to take calls (also called Compliance or Adherence).

Real-time Transfer Protocol (RTP) - The real-time transport protocol (RTP) provides end-to-end delivery services for data with real-time characteristics, such as interactive audio and video or simulation data.

Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) - The acronym for the local telephone companies created in 1984 as part of the break-up of AT&T. The original seven RBOCs are Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, Bell South, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis Group, Southwestern Bell, and U.S. West. Since 1984, mergers have reduced the number.

Registrar - A service as defined by the SIP specification in which a mapping is maintained of SIP end-points. Each time a SIP end point connects to an IP network, it contacts the configured registrar and provides the necessary mapping info. The registrar extracts information about the end point's location (IP address, port and username in this case) and stores the information into a location database. The purpose of the location database is to map sip:bob@b.com to something like sip:bob@1.2.3.4:5060 thus allowing end points to connect without having to maintain a separate listing of all other end points.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) - (1) Executing what looks like a normal programming procedure call (or method invocation) by sending network packets to some remote host. (2) Style of API where a function call invokes a function of an application on a remote computer. Often used to describe the ?sockets? API which was the first de facto standard for implementing distributed applications on the Unix operating system.

Return on Investment (ROI) - The amount of income produced plus the amount of expense avoided through the investing of monies in a particular project. The success of business efforts are often measured on the amount of money that is earned for every dollar spent. The "earnings" can be in direct revenue increases as well as expenses avoided all of which lead to improving the overall financial position of the company.

Ring No Answer (RNA) - A result code supplied by an automatic dialer that indicates a call was placed but was never answered; the phone just rang and was not answered.

Route - A path through an internetwork.

Routing - The intelligent determination of what to do next with a given interaction. Routing is not limited to traditional interactions like voice calls and e-mails but can also be utilized to decide what to do with workflow items, scheduling items and any other type of business activity that involves a decision process.

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S

Sales Force Automation (SFA) - Used in references to application programs used for managing sales activities such as capturing customer contact information, generating contracts, and generating order forms.

Screen Pop (Screen Population) - The process of automatically accessing specific information from enterprise databases and bringing it to a CSR's desktop computer screen. Screen pops are typically used to bring customer information to agent desktops as calls or Web contacts arrive, for customer service purposes. A screen pop can also be a separate window that is opened while a customer is on a Web page. In this case, it can contain live agent contact, graphics, video, flash animations, or other information that assists the person browsing that location on the Web site. The agent can control the screen pop.

Service Level - The percentage of incoming calls that are answered within a specified threshold: 'X% of calls answered in Y seconds.' See Response Time.

Service Level Agreement - Performance objectives reached by consensus between the user and the provider of a service, or between an outsourcer and an organization. A service level agreement specifies a variety of performance standards that may or may not include 'service level.' See Service Level.

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) - A signaling protocol for Internet conferencing, telephony, presence, events notification and instant messaging. SIP is more efficient than H.323 in establishing point-to-point connections and supporting multi-point connections. There are various extensions to SIP to make SIP easier to use in a variety of contexts. For example, SIP-CPL (Call Processing Language) is an XML tagging system for scripting call flows.

Shared Queue - A Work Queue containing Forms whose access is shared with other members of a Group.

Short Message Service (SMS) - SMS is the transmission of short text messages to and from a mobile phone, fax machine and/or IP address. Messages must be no longer than 160 alphanumeric characters and contain no images or graphics. Once a message is sent, it is received by a Short Message Service Center (SMSC), which must then get it to the appropriate mobile device.

Simple Message Control Protocol T-Server (SMCP T-Server) - A unique design of T-Server that connects to the Dynamic Media Exchange server(DMX) as part of an IP telephony environment. SMCP refers to the unique event message set provided by the DMX. In the same way that an Avaya PBX has a unique CTI link and message set, so to does the DMX have a unique CTI link and message set.

SIP Proxy - SIP Proxy servers perform routing of a session invitation according to an invitee's current location, authentication, accounting and many other important functions. Proxies utilize the designated registrar to learn the actual destination of the callee. When the designated registrar does not have the needed mapping info, the proxy will usually traverse a set of proxies until it finds one which knows the actual location of the callee. Such a proxy will forward the session invitation directly to the callee and the callee will then accept or decline the session invitation. This process of traversing multiple proxy servers is similar to the process traversing multiple DNS servers to locate the IP address of computer.

Skills-based Routing - The ability to handle contacts so that each customer is routed to the first available agent who has the skills to meet that customer's needs based on the attributes of the interaction and (or) customer.

Softswitch - (1) A programmable network switch that can process various packet protocols. The switching technology is in software rather than in hardware, as is the case with traditional switching products. (2) A softswitch is software that resides in either a server or another network element and is designed to separate the call control functions of a phone call from the media gateways that carry it. Some vendors include the media gateway or signaling gateway, too, as part of the softswitch itself. Essentially, a softswitch is designed to let carriers provide traditional voice services while introducing new services at a lower cost.

Software Developer's Kit (SDK) - A collection of software and associated documentation designed to assist a software developer in the creation of applications that connect to and extend the functionality of a vendor's products. Sometimes referred to as a Software Development Kit, an SDK is an essential tool for encouraging support for various software products. The various Genesys SDK's are designed to assist the development of applications that connect to various Genesys products.

Solution Control Interface (SCI) - The Genesys-supplied graphical user interface used to start and stop Genesys solutions such as Enterprise Routing Solution (ERS), Outbound Contact Solution (OCS), WorkForce Management (WFM) and Internet Contact Solution (ICS). SCI is also the interface for managing Genesys application log settings and for setting application-event triggered alarms. SCI also provides real-time status of all Genesys applications.

Solution Control Server (SCS) - The Genesys-supplied server process that serves as the control point for which Solution Control Interface (SCI) is the interface. SCS together with SCI provide the services described in the definition of SCI.

Stat Server - The Genesys-supplied server process that provides both contact center statistics as well as agent state information. Stat Server is a programmable, statistical engine that can calculate telephony metrics, interaction metrics and business metrics. Recalculation of the statistics occurs on a continuous basis.

Stream Manager (SM) - A Genesys software component that sets up and tears down call legs for an IP telephony environment. The Stream Manager serves as the "PBX intelligence" for the VoIP gateway so that calls can be connected, held, transferred and conferenced.

Supervisor - The person who has front-line responsibility for a group of agents. Typical ratios are one supervisor to every 10-15 agents. However, help desks often have one supervisor for every 5 people, and some reservations centers have one supervisor for every 30 or 40 agents. Generally, supervisors are equipped with special telephones and computer terminals that enable them to monitor agent activities.

Switched-Circuit Network (SCN) - Also referred to as the public switched telephone network (PSTN), a carrier network that provides circuit switching among public users. Switched circuit or circuit switching is a method of routing communications traffic through a switching center, from local users or from other switching centers. A circuit connection session is established between the calling and called stations until the called or calling station releases the connection.

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S

Synchronous - Form of communication where sender of message waits for the receiver to reply before continuing to process data.

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T

Telephony - The communications environment that deals with voice communications: voice circuits, PBX, Centrex, call centers, etc.

Telephony Application Programmer Interface (TAPI) - (1) A Microsoft standard, co-developed with Intel, for developing telephony applications that run on servers with Microsoft operating systems software. (2) an API for connecting a PC running Windows to telephony-oriented services. TAPI was introduced in 1993 as the result of joint development by Microsoft and Intel. The standard supports connections by individual computers as well as LAN connections serving many computers. Within each connection type, TAPI defines standards for simple call control and for manipulating call content.

Text-to-Speech (TTS) - Technology that "reads" text to the caller. TTS involves extensive libraries of spoken words, phrases and ordinals that are combined according to the analysis of the selected text. This technology allows callers to access text content by having it read to them rather than having to see the text in order to receive the information. TTS, by design, is language specific thus not all vendors support all possible languages.

Thin Client - A 'thin storage' client in a network application environment. The client downloads the program (java applets, for example) from the server and performs processing just like a PC, but does not store applications or data locally. All programs and data are on the server, minimizing management costs on the client side.

Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) - A digital data transmission method that takes signals from multiple sources, divides them into pieces which are then placed periodically into time slots, transmits them down a single path and reassembles the time slots back into multiple signals on the remote end of the transmission.

Total Cost of Operation (TCO) - The sum of all costs associated with a operating a given portion of a business. These costs include human resource costs, facilities, equipment maintenance, financing costs, upgrade costs, training costs and any other costs that can be directly linked to a specific business activity.

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U

Universal Queue - Technology that allows any form of interaction to be held, managed, routed and delivered to a destination point regardless of the nature of the interaction. The Universal Queue is not an application but a capability delivered by Genesys through the deployment of the Enterprise Routing Solution (ERS) or Network Routing Solution (NRS).

Unique Selling Point - Features of a product that provide capabilities and value not found in competing products.

Universal Routing Server (URS) - A Genesys-supplied server process also referred to as the Interaction Router

V

Value Added Network (VAN) - A national (or international) enhanced network that is designed expressly to carry data communications. VANs also provide billing and other special services to their customers.

Virtual Call Center - A geographically distributed call center that acts as a single site for call handling and reporting purposes.

Virtual Hold Technology (VHT) - The name of the company for whom Genesys is the exclusive distributor of their callback capabilities. VHT products provide the capability to offer callers the means of holding their place in line awaiting an available agent without staying on the phone. Rather than stay on hold, VHT allows callers to either hang up and receive a return call from an agent when they would have reached an agent through waiting on hold or hang up and receive a call at a future date and time of the caller's choosing. The net is callers no longer need to stay on hold awaiting an agent.

Virtual Phone Console - A telephone system capability that allows individual telephone sets to be configured to act as a primary call-handling system.

Voice Callback - A Genesys product that provides the capability of allowing a caller to hang up without losing their place in the queue and when it is their turn to speak with an agent, the agent calls the customer back. Voice callback also allows the caller to request a date and time in the future when they would prefer to receive a call back from an agent should the estimated waiting time be longer than is convenient.

Voice Communication Server (VCS) - The service delivery platform of the Genesys Voice which contains the VoiceXML gateway, TDM media, ISDN signaling and Genesys XML for call control. The Voice Communications Server also receives real time transport protocol media using SIP signaling and uses the same TXML for call control.

Voice eXtensible Markup Language (vXML) - A version or unique form of extensible markup language (XML) made up of standardized tags which provide voice service-related information to applications accessing a web page.

Voice Over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) - The developing standard for transmitting voice signals over the Internet. (2) the ability to make telephone calls and send faxes over IP-based data networks with a suitable quality of service (QoS) and superior cost/benefit.

Voice Processing Manager (VPM) - The service management system with LDAP-based provisioning system, event collection, reporting and billing interfaces into the operation support systems of the service provider or the enterprise. The Voice Portal Manager also enables centralized management of multiple applications from multiple customers within the network.

Voice Response Unit (VRU) - Automated way to deliver information and accept DTMF inputs.

Voice Treatment Option - A Genesys product that uses Dialogic cards in an Intel platform to provide digit collection and call treatment services. Voice Treatment Option (VTO) works like a traditional IVR but only provides 2 basic services: playing prompts and collecting digits. Prompts can be "music on hold" thus calls can be held on VTO ports in a similar fashion to being held in an ACD queue. The Genesys router provides instructions about which script to play for a given call along with the delivery of the call itself. In this way, VTO ports are dynamically allocated instead of dedicated to specific scripts as found in traditional IVRs.

VoiceLAN - The synergy amid a group of technologies which together allow for the convergence of voice, computing, and other types of communications to coexist on a Local Area Network.

W

Wide Area Network (WAN) - A network that encompasses interconnectivity between devices over a wide geographic area. Such networks require public rights-of-way and operate over long distances.

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) - A specification that provides a means for users to access information from handheld wireless devices such as mobile phones, pagers, two-way radios, 'smartphones' and 'communicators.' WAP supports most wireless networks and operating systems, including those specifically engineered for handheld devices including PalmOS, EPOC, Windows CE, FLEXOS, OS/9, and JavaOS. WAP is specifically devised for small screens and one-hand navigation devices that don't use a keyboard. WAP is a fairly new standard put forward by companies including Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson, but is not yet formally approved.

Workforce Management Software (WFM) - Software systems that, depending on available modules, forecast call load, calculate staff requirements, organize schedules and track real-time performance of individuals and groups.

Wallboard - See Readerboards.

Workgroup - A group of workstations and servers that commonly exchange data. This term is also used to describe a group of people who work together.

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