What Is The Unified Desktop

Within the contact center world, there is a lot of talk/discussion and numerous white papers on the unified desktop.

But what exactly is the unified desktop?  Is it just a grouping of programs that can be easily accessed?  Is there more to the unified desktop?

Lets start by providing an example of what unified desktop is by making an analogy to something we use everyday – the (lowly) cell phone.

In the old days, you had a cell phone.  It kept basic information, but you also had your desktop PC or notebook that held your contact list and other information that would be pretty useful if you were someone that was always on the road and travelling.

Maybe you had a PDA (personal digital assistant).  They were the rage, weren’t they?

You needed something – you started up your laptop and retrieved the information.

What a pain.

In comes the first of the smartphones – the BlackBerry.  Now you could get your corporate e-mail routed to your BB, you could even carry your documents with you.  Unified communications.

Out comes the Apple iPhone and now not only can you get your e-mail, but you could VPN into the corporate network and work as-if you’re in front of your PC.  Unified communications.

The unified desktop is very similar.  The unified desktop takes all your applications and converges – or integrates – them into one “super application”.  Think about it like this, depending on the industry you are in your customer service agents may need access to 5 or 10 application in order to fulfill certain requirements.  You could have the following:

• Accounting applications (billing and accounts receivable)
• Order placement
• CRM (Client Relationship Management) tools
• Inventory
• E-mail
• IM
• Softphone
• Knowlegebase

Though this presents a high-level overview, it is entirely possible that each item above is composed of one or more applications.

Trying to train and then have your agents navigate through dozens of applications is not an easy task.  You will build process upon process to handle simple enquiries – your agents may spend more time learning the process than mastering the tasks that are required to fulfill the job requirements.

The unified desktop integrates everything into one application, so that a look-up or change in one automatically makes updates in related applications.  It simplifies logins as well, the user doesn’t need to remember a dozen passwords but only one.  If they forget one, IT can reset one password.  If they forget 3 passwords, IT is working with multiple applications and resetting passwords.  Mulitply that by the number of customer service agents you have in your group.

There is a very good article on Contact Professionals’ website – http://www.contactprofessional.com/issues/article.asp?ID=375 that will give you more information about the unified desktop as it relates to the contact center.

So why would anyone want to spend the money on a unified desktop for their contact center?  Simple…

• Improves first call resolution
• Improved customer experience – they are not constantly on hold, or transferred from one department to another
• Improved agent satisfaction – agents don’t need to struggle to learn multiple applications or memorize dozens of logins
• Reduce call handling times – everything is in one place, you don’t need to keep 20 windows open on your desktop
• Reduced training costs – focus on building product knowledge, not application knowledge; spend less on building detailed and intricate processes to handle every issue the arises
• Reduce agent churn – a happy agent will stay with your organization; this will reduce costs overall with hiring and training new staff

The key in any contact center is to reduce costs.  It’s not always efficient to reduce staff as there will always be a need to retain staff to a certain level – so you need to look for operational efficiencies by looking at those items that are within your control that you can make changes to.

I would love to hear your take on the unified desktop, whether you use it in your organization and what types of results you’ve had with a unified desktop.