The new Operata release 'Buffa' is here. Cloud Contact Center Assurance 🤖 and more!

At Operata our focus is on real-time monitoring of end-to-end voice performance and it's impact on customer experience.

But there are some limitations to what real-time monitoring can achieve, that's where great testing tools can be invaluable to extend the envelope of performance data.

In working closely with our Customers, we have consistently been asked a range of questions that are unique to CCaaS (Contact Center-as-a-Service):

• What performance can I expect from the CCaaS provider?
• What are the normal operating conditions and key metrics for my specific use case?
• How do I know if my service is rightsized, over or under performing?
• How do I measure CX and AX objectively and consistently?
• How do I measure the key end-to-end components of the service?
• Can I rely on the public internet, company network or VPN to meet my performance objectives?
• Do I need to invest in Direct Cloud Interconnects (i.e. DirectConnect)?
• Will my environment meet my load and performance requirements?
• Is my service available?
• Is my service performing as well as it could be? If not, where can it be improved?

With the unique nature of distributed cloud communications, we looked at what tools were available to address these challenges. Those that we found addressed specific areas, such as load testing, WebRTC, Network testing, IVRs, customer number testing, but found nothing available that brings together the full picture required to measure and provide insights on end-to-end performance.

That's why we pleased to introduce all new Operata Assurance.

Operata Assurance measures the real-life Customer and Agent experience of cloud native contact centers, it supports truly end-to-end testing: from the carrier providing the customer contact numbers, all the way to an agent desktop - no matter how they connect.

Key features include:

CX Baseline
Access global and regional performance scores to inform architecture and baseline expected performance.

CX Heartbeat
Score your agents’ and customers’ experience and view audio quality shifts at each step of a call.

Performance Testing
Manage change and transform with confidence using real calls, on demand, at scale.

ALL NEW ASSURANCE FEATURES

CX Baseline

CX Baseline enables customers to measure baseline performance of Amazon Connect specific to your use case, considerate to CCaaS regions, customer geography, and agent locations.

CX Baseline gives you the ability to run tests, and establish baseline data in every CCaaS region, using Operata virtual agents 🤖 in any location and a global network of (virtual) customer call origination. It provides baseline data to compare your CX Heartbeat tests against to understand expected performance and troubleshoot and optimize variances.

Global performance baselines
Assess global CCaaS performance on a per-region basis to predict and set your service baselines.

Understand regional impacts
Test global scenarios - what is expected performance if your customer is in Australia, Connect region is in Singapore and the Agent in Mumbai?

Inform your architecture
Make data driven architectural decisions for optimal Amazon Connect region and connectivity.

Compare carriers
Compare global and regional Telco carriers and number providers into each Amazon Connect region.

Find out more about CX Baseline.

CX Heartbeat

CX Heartbeat provides continuous assurance of your contact center service, measuring real-life Customer and Agent experience.

Report on your environment
End-to-end roundtrips test PSTN audio quality, true audio latency, CX & AX, WebRTC and IVR performance. Pinpoint quality degradation at every step of the journey.

Isolate issues quickly
Know at a glance if your CX & AX issues are internal or external to your environment.

Troubleshoot and resolve faster
Rapidly analyze and isolate which components are impacted by an issue immediately - PSTN, CCaaS, Network, webRTC or Agent.

Test continuously & efficiently
Build a picture from continuous periodic testing and run on-demand end-to-end tests without disturbing your agents.

Compare overall performance
View your heartbeat alongside baseline data to explore and explain variances Vs global norms.

CX Heartbeat tests are conducted truly end-to-end: from the carrier providing the customer contact numbers, all the way to an agent desktop - no matter how they connect.

Each CX Heartbeat test measures:

• Customer number provider
• CCaaS Telco service availability & performance
• CCaaS platform availability & performance
• Network performance regardless of deployment models (VPN, Home Worker, VDI)
• Agent Device & Softphone performance (inc WebRTC & Audio quality).

Find out more about CX Heartbeat.

Performance Testing

Simulate load & test real-world scenarios - with real calls, at global scale.

Operata's performance testing tools enable you to create load tests and scheduled round trip tests to prove end-to-end environment capacity, availability and production readiness.

Real calls
Generate one or thousands of actual calls to exercise your platform before your customers do.

Test end to end
Deliver from carrier to virtual agents to assure end to end performance.

Measure at scale
Ramp up real call traffic to load end-to-end and assure your CCaaS performance.

For all common performance test cases:

• Release verification
• Post change tests
• Incident investigation
• Issue resolution checks
• Performance/load tests
  (with AWS approval flow)
• DR testing

Find out more about Performance Testing.

"Operata's Assurance toolset has enabled us to understand the end-to-end performance of our Contact Center, focus investments where direct CX improvements are possible. It takes the guesswork out of performance optimisation."

— Service Manager, Energy Company

KEY ASSURANCE BENEFITS

True end-to-end performance
Roundtrips test PSTN audio quality, true audio latency, CX & AX, WebRTC and IVR performance. Pinpoint quality degradation at every step of the journey.

CX at a glance
Know at a glance if your CX & AX issues are internal or external to your environment.

Rapidly isolate issues
Rapidly analyze and isolate which components are impacted by an issue immediately - PSTN, CCaaS, Network, webRTC or Agent.

Compare performance in context
View your heartbeat alongside baseline data to explore and explain variances Vs global norms.

KEY USE CASES

Operata Assurance provides continuous, non-subjective measurement of the actual CX and AX delivered unlocking a broad range of use cases:

• Independently measure and record the SLA of Service provides, measuring and excluding individual agents as required.
• Measure the achievable CX/AX for your environment as part of transition planning, for example choice of AWS carrier, network options, call delivery, agent placement and third party BPO’s.
• Compare the CX/AX for redundancy/BCP/DR planning.
• Build CX/AX measurements over time across the environment (production baseline) and capture deviations when they happen.
• Use the Assurance baselines as thresholds for Operata Monitoring.
• Know which elements are causing CX/AX to fall below this baseline or cause the service to fail completely (availability) and have the data needed to focus impact reduction/resolution and SLA management.
• Measure the impact of change as part of post change validation and/or first business day.
• Satisfy regulatory and internal processes requiring ongoing service assurance.
• Load test your end-to-end environment.
• Run pulse tests to monitor end-to-end availability and uptime.

HOW IT WORKS

Operata utilizes global Tier 1 & 2 telecommunications providers to generate real calls in-country using the same delivery method as regular customer calls.

Calls are delivered to a customers Amazon Connect instance, via Toll Free services and/or Direct In-dial.

For CX Heartbeat and CX Baseline, calls are answered by an Operata supplied CX Heartbeat contact flow, before being transferred to the target Agent. Optionally, a software based Virtual Agents can be hosted in a customer's AWS instance to answer the calls at regular intervals, providing reliable performance baseline measures.  

Once the call is answered our proprietary orchestration service takes control of the agent softphone and simulates a customer & agent interaction (CX & AX). Audio quality and true end-to-end audio latency are analysed at multiple points in the call path, and are available in near real-time on the Operata platform alongside the associated network, webRTC and environmental metrics.

CX Heartbeat, CX Baseline and Performance Tests can be triggered via schedule, events, API, or on-demand.

SIMPLE TO DEPLOY

Assurance features are included with Operata Advanced and Enterprise Editions, to get started you simply need:

1. Operata Collector for Chrome (available from the Chrome Store)
2. Operata Cloud Collector (available as a Cloud Formation template)
3. Check out the New Release FAQ for configuration steps

HOW TO GET IT

To find out more about Operata and how to configure our latest features, please book a demo.

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