- Extend hundreds of voice circuits from US-based PBX or Automatic Call Distributors (ACDs) to offshore contact centers in Argentina and the Philippines, while minimizing costs associated with expensive international E1 connections.

Solution

- RAD's Vmux family of voice compression gateways provides up to a 16:1 compression ratio, delivers high voice quality and supports multiple failover and redundancy options for maximum uptime.

Benefits

- Minimizes costs associated with expensive E1/T1 leased lines between distant locations

- 100% compatible with existing and functional PBX/ACD equipment: No need for “fork-lift” upgrades or business disruptions

- Features transparency between locations

Teleperformance USA provides contact center solutions that enable their clients to acquire and manage customers more effectively. In the 11 years since it was founded, Teleperformance USA has grown to become one of the largest contact center outsourcers in the US market while maintaining its reputation as a quality-driven, client-focused outsourcing partner.

Due to it’s rapid growth, Teleperformance USA needed to expand its offshore operations in Buenos Aires and Manila. Plans called for setting up contact centers with capacity for handling hundreds of simultaneous calls serving the U.S. market. However, as the price of international E1 circuits can easily run in excess of $10,000 per month, Teleperformance USA planners needed a solution specifically designed to minimize these expenses.

Teleperformance USA had previously used voice compression equipment and was familiar with its benefits. However, the available voice compression ratio of only 7:1, coupled with equipment reliability issues, caused them to survey the market for better solutions. Working with Advanced Datacomm Solutions, a RAD channel partner, Teleperformance USA selected RAD’s Vmux-2100 voice compression gateways as the critical components of their rapidly expanding network.

“RAD’s Vmux is ideal for customers like Teleperformance USA,” explained Michael Schmidlen, President of Advanced Datacom Solutions, based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.“ RAD is leading the industry with 16:1 compression without sacrificing voice quality. The Vmux also provides a robust set of backup and failover options to ensure critical network uptime,” he continued.

Highly Efficient Network

Teleperformance USA operations centers in Salt Lake City and Seattle host Avaya G3R and Communications Manager switches to provide the centralized call processing for their offshore locations. In order to minimize international E1 voice trunking costs, RAD's Vmux-2100 gateways were installed at each end of the E1 circuits. For example, one of the locations in Argentina is served by 360 voice ports, all delivered via a single E1 after the traffic from 12 E1s in Salt Lake City is compressed by the Vmux-2100. The 360 voice ports are then “broken out” to individual voice circuits using RAD’s Megaplex™ family of Multiservice Access Concentrators.

“RAD’s solution has proven to be highly reliable and effective for our remote contact center application,” said Kelly Howard, Director of Telecommunications at Teleperformance USA. “We were able to quickly turn up hundreds of seats in Argentina and the Philippines while keeping a tight lid on international E1 costs. We have also found the Vmux to be very stable,” he continued.

Evolutionary Path to a Converged IP Network

Currently, Teleperformance USA uses traditional TDM E1 circuits to transport their voice traffic between international locations. However, the company is in the process of migrating to an MPLS-based core network. The RAD Vmux makes this transition easy. With both TDM and IP uplinks built into the Vmux, a simple software-based configuration change is all that is needed to use the MPLS uplink.

“I really like the flexibility you have with the Vmux to use either the TDM or IP uplink. With our plans to move to a core MPLS network, we will be able to easily converge all of our voice and data traffic,” said Mr. Howard.

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