Posted by admin October - 12 - 2011 Comments Off

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) systems are widely used in telephony applications to efficiently route calls among a number of contact agents. ACD systems can be thought of as the telephone switchboard operators of yesteryear who were in charge of answering every call and connecting callers with their desired call recipients.

In the past, ACD systems consisted of hardware devices that interacted with analog switches and phone lines to efficiently route callers of 411 and 911 systems. ACD systems these days are part of advanced hosted call center software solutions like Telax ACD.

The use of ACD systems in modern contact centers has become an intrinsic part of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) business process. Advances in technology have customers nowadays expecting maximum efficiency from contact centers. Each communication that takes place between the customer and the provider of goods or services is vital to the CRM process. Thanks to ACD systems, business managers can easily boost the efficiency of their contact center processes, thereby improving the customer experience.

Telax acd, for example, is part of a low-cost hosted software solution for contact centers that harnesses the power of cloud computing. With this ACD system, a call center manager can input a variety of parameters that will influence how calls are routed. These variable parameters are analyzed by an ACD algorithm that determines who is the best agent available to take a call. As calls are routed by the ACD, the system constantly monitors certain factors such as idle time, shrinkage and after-call work before routing the next call.

For busy contact centers that are focused on keeping both average call and hold times low, ACD systems are the perfect solution. A simple Interactive Voice Response (IVR) procedure can gather enough information from the caller to immediately route the call to the appropriate agent. But not all calls have to be answered by an IVR; thanks to predictive dialing technology, ACD systems can properly route calls by looking at the caller ID information or the number dialed. For example, customers who need to be helped in different languages can be given a separate phone number, and the ACD system will route their calls when an agent who is skilled in that language is available. Or, more intuitively, an agent can make a note of the customer’s language preference in the CRM system and the ACD feature can “magically” route the call the next time that customer calls.

ACD systems also help call center managers in their decision-making process with powerful measurement features for time accounting. ACD reporting provides useful benchmarks such as average handle time, after call work, break time, and others to provide a realistic view of agents’ performance.

Tags : , Internet Security
Posted by admin April - 28 - 2011 Comments Off

Web site security is a complex and perhaps even controversial subject. On one side there are individuals whom regard themselves as the freedom fighters of the technology and information era; on the other side there are those who view this as a form of modern terrorism. Whatever the case, breaking into a computer system without consent is, without question, a crime.

It is convention to use a protected connection when gathering sensitive data such as the personal information of a visitor of a Web site. The security levels of those protected connections currently in popular use are “none”, 40-bit, 56-bit, and 128-bit listed from lowest to highest level of page security.

Encryption is a very effective tool in protecting information from unauthorized access. Data is scrambled before transmission, making it illegible until the recipient for whom the information is intended unscrambles the contents, restoring them to their original condition. While this tool is useful for safeguarding the information during transmission, it cannot guarantee privacy after the data has been deciphered on the other end.

Encryption is an algorithmic process that converts plain text into scrambled and illegible appearance known as “cyphertext” as a means to provide privacy. The recipient of the encoded or encrypted message decodes it with the use of a “key”, much like the simpler substitution codes played with by children.

Modern Web browsers can automatically encrypt text once connected or linked to a secure server, identifiable by a Web address starting with “https”. The Web server then decrypts or decodes the data when it arrives. Thus, as the data passes between computers anybody attempting to spy on the information will gather only encrypted data, useless without the key.

Encryption systems are defined as either asymmetric or symmetric. Examples of symmetric key algorithms would be AES, Blowfish and DES. They work with a single key that is distributed ahead of time and is shared by both the sender and the receiver. This “key” is used both to encrypt and decrypt the data.

Asymmetric encryption systems, such Diffie-Hellman and RSA, make use of a pair of keys. The public key is widely distributed and used by many users to encrypt information. The private key is different for each online user and is used for decrypting information.

When a browser is connected to a protected domain or Web site a secure layer of sockets holds and validates the server and confirms a method of encryption and a unique session key. This creates a session that is secured and which helps to guarantee privacy and integrity of information exchange.

It is important to remember that strong encryption only makes the data exchange private and cannot actually secure it over the long term. In order to ensure that it will remain secure, steps must be taken to make certain the receiver of the information is a legitimate and responsible entity, which is generally achieved online through the use of digital certificates or signatures. After all, the best way to keep something secret is not to share it at all.

As more become aware of the generally unsecured nature of the Internet, encryption will undoubtedly become increasingly popular. Without encryption browsing, email and also instant messaging is available for potentially everyone to read, perhaps even end up stored for many years.

The best security functions invisibly, since a professional site strives to be open and inviting in appearance. Nevertheless a nice-looking site can boast the best security. It should be a primary concern of all online users. The savvy Internet user is demanding no less than the best protection from Web site owners.

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Posted by admin April - 28 - 2011 Comments Off

The internet is a wonderful place; many of us use it on a regular basis for a multitude of functions. Email helps us to keep in touch with family, and friends all over the world and most people have at least one email account. The growing use of digital cameras and camera phones means that we can send pictures at the click of a mouse. MP3 players have become increasingly popular, and we can download songs to play on them with extreme ease. All of this is great, and the internet is becoming a big part of our everyday lives.

Unfortunately, there is a downside to all of this increased use of the internet. That is the growth of the spread of viruses and other so-called ‘malware’. Originally, internet hackers were satisfied keeping their attentions focussed on government and business websites, and their viruses were intended to attack corporations. Most hackers saw this as a challenge. However, there is now an increasing trend towards home computer users being targeted by these attacks. The amount of damage that can be caused by a virus varies, but there are a number of easy steps that a person can take to help increase their internet security.

The first step to keeping your computer free from viruses is to have up-to-date antivirus software running on your computer. You need to make regular checks to ensure that your software is updated, and to scan your entire computer for viruses. There are a number of cheap, and free antivirus software programs available that provide excellent protection. You can find these by searching through your search engine for antivirus software.

The next step to maintain your internet security is to be extremely cautious about the type of files that you open, or download. The majority of viruses are actually spread through email attachments. Having these on your computer, in your inbox, is not the danger; the real danger is when you open the attachment. It may not be obvious that anything has happened when you first open the attachment containing the virus, quite often they appear blank. The damage is caused by the program that is activated within the attachment. If you do not know, and trust, the person who has sent you the attachment then delete the email.

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