Are you familiar with the latest Unified Communications (UC)industry jargon? Here is a guide for the most commonly used UC terms.
UC Terms and Acronyms to Know
Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) - ACD is a phone system that handles all the incoming calls, identifies the numbers, matches them with the existing database,
and routes/queues the call to the right department or agent.
Abandonment Rate -Also known as Call Abandonment Rate; it is the percentage of callers who hang-up before being answered by a customer service representative.
Average Talk Time - This is a measure of the time an agent takes while actually talking to the customer. This excludes call hold time and the after-call work time.
Call Accounting - A software program that records and reports on telephone calls,
particularly telecom expenses and bill back for calls.
Call Routing - It is important that the caller gets connected to the agent who can solve the issue as fast as possible. Call routing ensures that the calls are
transferred to the correct agents based on their skills and expertise.
Chat Bot - Virtual chat applications that interact digitally with the customers and answer simple queries automatically through the chat tool.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) -An IP-based system from Cisco that allows users to make and receive voice calls. CUCM manages all
the call processing and phone registration for Cisco IP Phones, VoIP gateways, etc.
Customer Experience (CX) - Customer experience is a measure of how the customer liked interacting with the company's call center. It involves
studying the waiting time, average call handling time, hold time, agent skills, how fast the queries were resolved, actions taken, and much more. Customers might be asked to
give feedback on the call as well.
Denial of Service (DoS) – A type of cyber attack in which a network is overwhelmed by traffic, rendering the service unavailable for users.
Direct Inward Dialing (DID) - Customers wishing to contact individual agents directly, can get a DID number so that they do not have to go through the IVR process.
E911 - Enhanced Nine One One: The system used in North America to link wireless emergency caller locations to emergency services.
Endpoint - In a communication network, an endpoint is a modem, router, switch, or host computers that connect to the TCP/IP network.
Within UC, it can also be an app or user device.
Hosted PBX - Hosted Private Branch Exchange: A telephone system that is built, maintained, and managed by a service provider.
Hunt Group - A call routing tool used for sending incoming calls to a specific group of people in an order.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) - IVR is an automated system that allows the caller to press numbers and chose the options that suit them in
order to quickly reach the information or the department they are looking for.
Jitter - A metric of voice quality, jitter is caused when data packets do not arrive in an event interval, causing an uneven,
disrupted call. Latency, jitter and packet loss all impact voice quality.
Kari's Law - A law in the United States that mandates all multi-line telephone systems allow users to dial 911 directly,
without any pre-dialing requirements.
Latency - When packets of data are received later or not in sequence to their designed source, call quality is affected.
Latency, jitter and packet loss all impact voice quality.
Least-Cost Routing – Used in voice communication to select the outbound communications path based on lowest cost.
Longest Call Waiting (LCW) - The longest amount of time that a caller had to wait before the call was answered by a representative.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) - IVR is an automated system that allows the caller to press numbers and chose the options that suit them in
order to quickly reach the information or the department they are looking for.
Packet Loss - Packets of data that do not arrive at their destined location causing connection issues and voice call stuttering.
Latency, jitter and packet loss all impact voice quality.
Predictive Dialer - An automated dialer that calls a series of phone numbers to check if they are operational, if
they go to answering machines, they are busy, or if there are no answers.
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) - The PSTN refers to the traditional analog telephone system that uses copper wiring to transmit calls and originated in the late 1800s.
Quality of Service (QoS) - Manages network resources by setting priorities for different types of data.
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) -Enables Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Skill-Based Routing (SBR) - Calls are mostly routed to the next available agent in a team, but in skill-based routing, the calls are
transferred based on the agent's capabilities and experience of handling similar calls in the past. Skill-based routing can also be used to transfer the calls of high-value
clients to the most qualified agents.
Station Messaging Detail Record (SMDR) - See Call Detail Record (CDR).
Toll Fraud – When a phone system is compromised for the purpose making high-volume fraudulent calls,
usually to premium international phone numbers. This term is also used when an employee abuses their access to a phone system to make unauthorized calls.
Unified Communications (UC) - Integrated system of business tools, devices and apps for internal and external
communication (e.g. voice, chat, presence, email, audio conferencing).
Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C / UCC) - Unified Communications (and) Collaboration: Integrated system of business tools,
devices and apps for internal and external communication and collaboration (e.g. voice, chat, presence, email, file sharing, screen sharing, video conferencing,
web conferencing, scheduling integration, CRM integration).
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) - Cloud-based delivery of an integrated platform of hosted, managed business communications and
collaboration tools.
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) - A technology that enables users to make and receive phone calls and videos over the internet.
Wrap Time - Usually, after the agent has disconnected the call with the customer, there are some tasks and activities that he or she must perform
before closing that case. The time taken to perform those after-call tasks is known as wrap time.
Zero Duration Calls - Calls that are zero (0) seconds in duration either because the call was not answered, was rejected,
or terminated before it could be answered.
