Contact centre applications often require the same real-time and historical information to function successfully. QPC's Integration Layer (QIL) applications make it easy to share information and integrate solutions. This will enable you to quickly integrate new systems, make the most of legacy IT assets, create processes that leverage additional value from technology investments and reduce cost of operation by removing duplicated manual data entry. Within the contact centre QIL applications typically allow systems such as workforce management, quality monitoring, learning management, skills management, ACDs, contact routing frameworks, CRM, ERP and HCM to work together and share data.

QIL applications are built using Mule®, the world's most widely used open source Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). Designed to support high performance, multi-protocol transactions between heterogeneous systems and services, Mule provides the basis for service oriented architecture (SOA). With a standards based, zero intrusion approach to existing infrastructure and a simplified development model, Mule adapts to your environment and prevents vendor dependence.

QIL solutions are platform independent and can run on any operating system that supports Java. Using reusable libraries of message handlers and processes, integration applications are quick to create and very flexible, so that virtually any database or application can be connected. Because of their flexibility QIL applications have many uses within the contact centre, two typical examples are illustrated below:

Example application - human resource and performance management data synchronisation
Using QIL applications data like human resource (agent names and IDs), quality, skill, productivity and sales can be kept consistent through all systems reducing errors and removing the re-keying cost associated with keeping multiple systems up to date. The table below shows some of the data commonalities that typically exist between solutions within a contact centre:

Quality Monitoring
Learning Management
Workforce Management
ACD / Skills Routing
Agent Analytics
Skills Management
Payroll / HCM
CRM / Sales

Typical data source

Using a QIL application, data within any of these applications can be shared with other solutions automatically as required. For this type of synchronisation QIL applications typically work by taking data from single or multiple sources - comparing, organising and manipulating this - and then making it available for use by other systems. The comparison, organisational and manipulative processes can be either automatic or have manual input. The QIL can also provide exceptions to highlight the need for manual intervention when automatic processes cannot not complete successfully. Using exceptions minimises the amount of manual intervention necessary to process information whilst ensuring that the data passed is accurate.

Example application - ACD to workforce management system integration with real-time and historical data
QIL applications can also handle transient data and have been used to connect ACD's with workforce management systems requiring real-time information and 30 minute historical reports that need to be modified to take account of customer specific contact routing architectures.

With QIL applications third party integrations between solutions can quickly be created so that you are free to choose the applications that best meet your needs and continue to get return from your previous solution investments, without the need for replacement or expensive major upgrades. Using the QIL also means that you are less constrained by what integrations exist currently for your chosen solutions, high development cost of integration or potentially long integration development times.

• Standards based applications using Mule® open source Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
• Deployment on any server that has a Java compatible OS
• Integrate most existing applications and data sources
• Fast development through using reusable libraries

• enables the adoption of solutions that may have better functionality but have limited interoperability by providing a cheap and flexible third party integration path
• prolongs the life of applications by affording interoperability rather than changing or upgrading
• reduces cost of existing and new system operation by sharing commonly used data to remove the need for duplicate manual data input
• reduces errors introduced by duplicate manual data input and increases consistency by sharing commonly used data
• can integrate most existing applications and data sources
• cost effective through use of reusable libraries that speed the development of integration applications
• low cost of deployment as can run on any operating system that supports Java and can be co-deployed with other applications on existing server hardware
• reduces cost of application operation and leverages solution investments by allowing the development of automatic processes e.g. using skills data held within a skills management or learning management system for workforce management and skills based routing systems.