Snapsflow

Distribution Solutions

Implementing Fax into a “Call Blending” Application for Global Distribution Company

This large maintenance supply distribution company receives orders via telephone, Internet and fax. Fax orders are received via a set of 6 fax machines centrally located in the call center and were manually sorted and tracked by region. Orders were manually transcribed into the Client's Oracle Forms system. One fax could contain multiple orders or be an amendment to a previous fax. Response time was an issue, since fax orders received had to be entered as orders in Oracle Forms, before the cut off time, for the region in order to make the delivery dates. Faxes were sorted and processed by region as part of the Local Value Proposition, a business process introduced to better know and serve their customer base.  The client needed a solution that would assist with the retrieval, tracking and processing of faxes. This need was driven by the emergence of the second call center which was currently being built. The new call center is being located several time zones away.  The client needed an electronic method of delivering faxed orders when resource allocation rules routed work from one call center to the other.

The project goals were to:

• automate the process related to faxed sales orders
• Implement an electronic document archive so that fulfilled orders could be quickly located should a regulatory or compliance issue arise
• Replace the current legacy fax solution connected to their Oracle Forms system for outbound faxes – e.g. faxes for order verification
• Develop robust solution to meet both immediate and long term needs

At the time of implementation, about 10% of their orders were received by fax, 7% via the Internet and the balance by phone in orders. They expect this ratio to remain consistent due to the nature of their business.  

On average 1,000 faxes are received each day. Volume is fairly evenly distributed across the weekdays. Fax volumes increase significantly with promotions – which are generally run monthly. Fax orders are typically not received on weekends and if they are they are not processed. Each fax order is one or two pages. The business is growing at a rate of about 20% per year and so is the fax volume. They use the Avaya Interaction Center to manage telephone calls and web orders, but needed to integrate inbound fax orders into their order process to be able to take advantage of the work load balancing capabilities of their call distribution system. Snapsflow was implemented in conjunction with a RightFax Enterprise Server to solve these problems. The system was configured to process inbound faxes and push them into the Avaya IC via web services. The major objectives of client for this project were as follows:

• To store an electronic image of each fax
• To identify the customer account and profile by the ANI of the fax
• To route faxs according to business rules in a manner similar to the current Intelligent Call Routing (ICR) system (Avaya IC) , where the outcome is skill (e.g. military, west, etc.) and priority (e.g. high, medium and low)
• To provide a thin client solution to locate and display a fax order by customer account, by sales order number, by ANI, by DNIS, by time range of fax received
• To provide a solution that would allow a fax processing agent to perform the following:

• identify themselves
• modify the list of skills they belong to
• request the next fax to be processed in queue based on skill and priority, and render the fax image for viewing and/or printing
• review a set of faxes based on the criteria outlined above
• selects a fax for a detailed review with the option to view and/or print the fax
• specify processing of a selected fax
• enter the sales order number and update the account number associated with a fax
• automatically associate an ANI with a customer account – with parameters to manage this process
• provide a thin client solution to administrate and monitor the fax solution:
• change the skill or priority assigned to a fax that has not been processed
• mark a fax as processed
• provide a thin client solution that tracks faxes in queue with the following information for each fax skill and priority
• manage the number of faxes in queue and enable sorting by oldest fax in queue and faxes processed in last hour
• archive faxes

 

Benefit/ROI

Our client was able to achieve significant ROI from this project by automating their paper processes. In doing so, they eliminated the need for a separate group of agents to process paper based faxes. These agents were repurposed to handle phone and web orders allowing them to grow their business with minimal additional staffing.

Solution Summary

The client had in place a majority of the infrastructure required for this solution. This includes an Avaya Definity G3 PBX, the Avaya Interaction Center ACD and the Oracle Forms Sales Order System. In order to complete the objectives of the project, they implemented a RightFax server and the Snapsflow EAI engine were implemented in their environment and the following process was implemented:

1. Definity G3 receives fax calls and relays them to the RightFax server along with the ANI data.
2. The  RightFax system receives the fax, stores fax image and creates and stores a new record with metadata
3. Received faxes are sent to Snapsflow which performs the following:

 

1. ensure all fax pages are right-side up
2. put a PDF wrapper around the fax image
3. create a Snapsflow table entry for fax
4. submit an HTTP Post to the Avaya IC system with the fax metadata

4. The HTTP Post is received by Avaya IC which then performs the following steps:
1. ICR to qualify fax (using the ANI) and determine the skill that will process the fax and its priority
2. creates a CTI table entry in the Fax table with the above parameters and set the status to “queue”
3. responds to HTTP Post with the account number and order ID

 

5. Snapsflow updates the RightFax database with the account number and order ID and archives the fax order with information returned from Avaya IC
6. The fax order is then available to be processed by a Fax Processing Agent.
7. The fax Processing Agent or Administrator has the option of setting the fax status to Deferred, or altering the Skill and Priority
8. The fax Processing Agent or Administrator has the option of setting the Fax Status to Cancel and when it is canceled the Sales Order Number is automatically set to “CANCELLED”
9. The fax Processing Agent (with corresponding skill) selects the fax for processing.  This action automatically changes its status from “queue” to “processing” and then displays the fax image
10. The fax Processing Agent completes the record for fax processing by confirming/updating the Account Number and entering the Sales Order number.
11. Avaya IC then updates ANI learning table with ANI / Account Number match
12. Avaya IC submits an HTTP Post to Snapsflow to update the Account Number and Sales Order Number associated with the Fax
13. After a preset time period (e.g. 3 months) the fax is moved from the current fax directory to an archive directory (by year and month)
14. After a preset time period (e.g. 15 months) the fax archived directory is copied to a removable media and the archive directory is deleted

The workflow described above was implemented in a matter of weeks with a minimum of custom programming. Archiving was accomplished using the Alchemy Document Management system from OpentText.

Collaboration Improves Lives

This simple axiom drives everything we do. It shapes how we approach problems, execute solutions and measure results. It’s not enough to be a real-time organization; you need to facilitate real-time collaboration. We do this using the Adaptive Exchange Methodology.

The Adaptive Exchange Methodology uses a stack of technologies called the Snapsflow Framework. Each technology is focused on overcoming specific challenges in achieving Real Time Collaboration. The Holon Framework was built, from the ground up, to be configured into combinations that lower the technical and human hurdles to collaboration while optimizing strategic agility and operational efficiency.