Radianta is one of only 25 CTDP Unified Communication partners to be invited to this event to highlight its advanced communications applications.

“Enterprise customers are searching for applications that can leverage the investment they have made in their Cisco Unified Communications infrastructure,” says Erick Lee, President and CEO of Radianta. “By bundling the Beacon Office suite with the CUAE, customers are able to derive value right out of the box.” 

Beacon Office combines important communication applications that simplify and enhance the way we interact.  Built on Cisco’s powerful Unified Application Environment platform, Radianta’s Beacon Office provides a robust suite of communications applications that can be accessed by both phone and desktop interfaces, including Call Back, Call Note, Call Recorder, Phone Lock, Dialer, Paging, Time Card, Web Enabled Extension Mobility, and Personal Queues.

“Signing the OEM agreement to package Beacon Office with the Cisco Unified Application Environment strengthens our relationship with Cisco and further demonstrates our commitment to developing on the CUAE,” says Lee.  “We look forward to continuing to expand our Cisco relationship as we develop new solutions to maximize the power of Cisco’s technology.”

Radianta solutions encompass a broad spectrum of business elements ranging from Enterprise Intelligence and Application Integration to Customer Relationship Management and Unified Communications applications.  Organizations taking advantage of Radianta products and solutions span many industry segments including Finance, Healthcare, Legal, Government and Education. 

About Radianta

Radianta, Inc. is an applications development and integration company.  Headquartered in Irvine, California, Radianta is committed to providing its customers with business-driven solutions designed to increase revenues, streamline operations, lower costs and improve the productivity of their most valuable resources.

For more information about Radianta, please contact our corporate offices at 866.467.9695 or by email at info@radianta.com. You may also visit Radianta on the web at http://www.radianta.com.

Together, the organizations formed an exclusive partnership to distribute the application to the Middle East market. Using the local expertise of IST to adapt Beacon Office to the regions requirements, the symbiotic partnership provides mutual benefits.

Making the announcement, Dr Mahmoud Fahmy, IST’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, said that the company saw an increasing role for applications to increase the value of existing and new investments in office communication products. “Organizations are looking to increase the productivity of their workers and provide them with tools that will enhance their work environments,” Dr Fahmy said. ”We believe that Beacon Office will aid in streamlining work practices and activities, using technology to make communication simpler”.

The agreement is the culmination of recent negotiations and ensures that the entry of Radianta into the Middle East market will be successful for all parties, including customers. “We are very excited about the partnership that we have formed with IST”, said Erick Lee, Chief Executive Officer of Radianta. “The rapidly growing Middle East market has been compelling for us as we expand globally. We know that we have formed a strong alliance that will develop and nurture opportunities in this region”.

The partnership calls for IST and Radianta to continue the innovation of Beacon Office, collaborating to develop and integrate additional, regionally-specific applications within the suite. Says Lee, “Understanding local needs and delivering quality solutions is critical to our success. The strong partnership between our two companies will provide tremendous innovation in the Middle East.”

About IST
Integration, Services and Technologies (IST) is a leading system integrator of sophisticated communication technology for contact centers. IST implements and integrates innovative, world-class call center services that are emerging thanks to the convergence of voice, video and data media. By providing innovative solutions and services, IST clears the way so that its customers can achieve their business goals.

IST is one of the first Cisco Advanced Technology Partners (ATP) for next-generation contact centers in the Middle East. It has established local branches in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. IST’s highly qualified technical team has successfully implemented and supported more than 10,000 contact center agents and automated voice response systems in more than 15 countries.

For more information contact:

Therese Hearne, Marketing Director, IST International Group
Phone: +202 266 9200
Email: info@istnetworks.com
Web: www.istnetworks.com

About Radianta

Radianta, Inc. is an applications development and integration company. Headquartered in Irvine, California, Radianta is committed to providing its customers with business-driven solutions designed to increase revenues, streamline operations, lower costs and improve the productivity of their most valuable resources.

For more information contact:

Adam Chaney, Vice President of Product Management, Radianta
Phone: +1 866 467 9695
Email: info@radianta.com
Web: www.radianta.com

No. Beacon Office is only supported on Cisco Unified Communications Manager 5 and above. We are in process of creating a version for Communications Manager 4.2, but it will be a separate product.

Q: Why does my call go into a personal queue when it was only intended to be recorded?

A: There is an inherent conflict between the recording application and Personal Queue. This stems from the fact that both of these apps trigger on calls placed from many phones, some of which may even want to use both applications concurrently. The way to get these two to play nice is to create an additional route point for the recording application. This is entered into both the CUAE and Communications Manager. Then, on Communications Manager only, create a line on that route point which represents all possible dialed numbers (”*”). Assign that route point to a new partition, such as “Recording”. Then add a new calling search space, such as “Recording CSS”, which only contains the Recording partition. All phones wishing to participate in recording should then be assigned the “Recording CSS” calling search space. Now, whatever the phones dial will result in a call to the route point which is registered by CUAE. This call triggers the Recording application which in turn makes a call out to that same number. Because the outbound call is H.323, it routes normally to the intended destination.

Q: I ran the Beacon Office installer, but none of the applications seem to work.

A: After installation, the applications may show as disabled in the CUAE. You may have to manually enable each of them.

Q: After locking my phone, some line appearances are still able to place calls.

A: Phone lock will not work completely if individual phone lines are configured with a calling search space. In order for phone lock to work most effectively, the phone device should have a calling search space and all the lines will default to that if left unconfigured.

Q: I cannot unlock my phone after locking it.

A: Phone Lock does not unlock the phone properly if no calling search space is defined for the phone. This is considered an edge scenario since best practice dictates that all phones should be assigned a CSS.

Q: Web Extension Mobility fails to log me in and I know the credentials are correct.

A: The Communications Manager application interface for Extension Mobility is case-sensitive. Both the administrative and user credentials are required for the application to work. For example, if the administrator user is entered in Communications Manager as “administrator” but is in Beacon Office as “Administrator”, the extension mobility request will fail even though “Administrator” may work successfully to log into the Communications Manager Administrative console.

Q: Why doesn’t Personal Queue show a call which was transferred to me by another person or auto-attendant?

This is a known issue which is currently being worked with Cisco. Check back here for a link to the patch when it is available.

Q: Can I use the Call Recording app for incoming calls or record randomly or force all calls to be recorded, etc?

The Call Recording application is only intended to be used to record outbound calls. The person making the call makes the decision whether or not to record the call. It does not provide any additional recording features.

Q: I’m happy with how the Call Recording feature works, but can I deploy it to my entire organization of 5,000 phones?

You could, but it is not recommended as the cost in Cisco gear would be enormous. The Call Recording application uses two RTP ports on the media engine for each call from each enabled phone. As such, a fully-licensed CUAE media engine will only support 120 Call Recording users. Increasing beyond that number would require an additional physical media engine.

Q: Isn’t there any other way to do call recording without using so many resources?

Yes there is, but you must have Communications Manager 6.x and  TNP phones (i.e. the model number ends in “1″ or “5″). If you meet these requirements and would like to investigate a more scalable call recording solution, please contact Radianta at sales@radianta.com.

Advantix Lending was founded in 2004 in Irvine, California to serve as a premier lending institution. In the few years since its launch, Advantix has grown substantially. Today it has 115 employees and has built up teams to make outbound and inbound calls for loans for new home purchases, existing mortgage refinancing, and debt consolidation.

To operate successfully in the fast-paced, highly competitive loan industry, Advantix Lending’s vice president of information technology, Tony Lacson, is constantly seeking ways to make the company’s operations more efficient. In late 2005, he deployed a Cisco® Unified Contact Center Express solution to provide more efficient sales calls and customer service. He used custom distribution so that calls were pushed not to just the next available agent, but to the agent with the best knowledge set to handle the call. Next, he wanted to add an outbound dialing solution to the system that was very proactive, helping to keep outbound call representatives aggressive in their follow-up calls.

“The loan industry is extremely competitive, and we need to be constantly following up on every lead,” says Lacson. “It can be tough for our busy mortgage sales people to keep reaching out proactively to make their follow-up calls, but it is absolutely vital to our business. I wanted something more proactive than just a list of follow-up calls that need to be made.” He also wanted the solution to work transparently with the company’s Cisco Unified Contact Center Express system. In his search, Lacson found what he was looking for in a premier application provider called Radianta, and one of their leading products Campaign Express.

Network Solution

Cisco Silver Partner Metronome, also located in Irvine, recently spun out its award-winning Application Services Group and formed Radianta, an organization focused on the development and delivery of value-added applications that further leverage a company’s technology investment. In addition to custom application development, Radianta products are designed to help its clients increase revenue, manage operational cost, and provide business intelligence. Its premier product, Campaign Express, met Marx’s needs perfectly. And because it was designed specifically for Cisco CallManager and Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, it would maximize the return-on-investment in his Cisco solutions. By deploying Campaign Express on top of his Cisco Unified Contact Center Express system, Marx would have a powerful outbound dialing solution that would simplify campaign development, call routing, contact management, and reporting.

He contacted Radianta and found that Campaign Express could be deployed quickly and easily.

“Campaign Express was ready to use,” says Marx. “We were up and running in a couple of days.” With his penchant for squeezing efficiency and sales out of every process, Marx soon wanted even more power out of the outbound call lists.

“Our telemarketers work off a list of calls to be made,” he says. “I wanted the ability to do more than remind telemarketers that they needed to make a call.” That is when Jeff Fildey, Chief Technology Officer of Radianta, Inc., suggested a solution. By marrying its own in-house application, called Profit, with Campaign Express, Advantix Lending could increase the efficiency of its outbound calling campaigns. When Profit determines, via a schedule, that a certain call needs to be made, it immediately prompts the telemarketing agent. When agents indicate that they are available and ready to make the call, that call is then moved to the top of the calling queue and is automatically dialed. The system recognizes when the phone call has been answered by a person and quickly bridges the call over to the agent.

Business Results

“I like the Campaign Express and Profit solution because it pushes the agents to make those critical follow-up calls,” says Marx. “It can be tough to keep reaching out and making those calls, and some agents may sit back a bit because it is easier to wait for incoming calls. The increased phone activity creates energy on the floor that is vital to a dynamic sales environment.”

The Cisco Unified Contact Center Express and Radianta solution is doing more than creating energy. It is increasing call volume, which is creating more loan applications, which in turn create more business for Advantix Lending.

“On the telemarketing side, we are making close to four times as many outgoing calls, and our overall loan origination has doubled,” says Marx. The success of the solution is prompting us to increase our available outbound ports, so we are expecting even more of an impact as soon as all ports are in and all of our sales people are on the system.”

Next Steps

But Marx, as is his nature, is already planning the next step. He wants to deploy the immediate callback feature among the company’s customer service staff. Increased activity with the customer service group will increase the number of completed applications for the company’s sales people. The application will then go to the loan processing department, where they will be prompted to make an introductory call and a follow-up call to rate the customer’s satisfaction in working with Advantix Lending.

“Leveraging Cisco Unified Contact Center Express with Radianta applications will have a high impact across our entire operation,” says Marx.

This kind of success is exactly what prompted Metronome to create Radianta.

“We really want people to do more with their infrastructure investment than they first conceived,” says Fildey. “When I see a company like Advantix Lending positively affecting their business by having a vision and finding the right solutions to leverage their infrastructure, it really validates the creation of Radianta.”