Avaya's Ahmed Helmy signs the word “communicate.” Avaya is enabling greater interaction between those customers with communication challenges and call centers utilizing Avaya technologies. Molouk Y. Ba-Isa Saudi Gazette
Individuals with communication challenges are often confined to the fringes of society. However, within their own communities they function well and are active contributors, engaging productively with each other. Technology is increasingly providing avenues for collaboration to enable all individuals in a society to interact with each other. Avaya has completed the development of an application that enables individuals with hearing and speech challenges to access call center agents using any fixed or mobile computing device, and communicate with them through sign language. Using Avaya's customer engagement solutions and video-conferencing technology, the company built the application that is ready for deployment anywhere an Avaya Call Center solution is installed. With a web-browser application, or an app downloaded on any mobile operating system, customers can initiate a video-enabled session with a contact center agent specialized in sign language. The application, according to Avaya, is easy to integrate into existing customer engagement solutions. “Building engaged organizations and societies is the number one challenge for 21st century business. For more than two decades, Avaya has pioneered business communications, and as the world ushers in a new era of engagement, our solution portfolio is again a step ahead, addressing all modern user preferences with the proven reliability, performance and manageability global Fortune 500 companies depend on for success,” said Nidal Abou Ltaif, President, Global Growth Markets, Avaya. “It is with great pleasure that we extend all the modern capabilities to those individuals in society who most need them and play a role in truly enabling businesses and governments to engage with every customer and citizen.” Ahmed Helmy, Advanced Solution Architect Team, Avaya Global Growth Markets explained that the Avaya SmartEngage app works on smart devices and web-browsers. It is part of the Avaya SmartEngage portfolio that enables virtual and video communications through multiple devices such as smartphones, PCs, tablet computers – even ATM machines and video kiosks. With visual communication and video offered through Avaya's technology, customers and citizens who have issues with hearing, listening and speaking are able to communicate with the call center. First, the call center must bring onboard agents who are proficient in the required sign language. This provides new employment opportunities for the disabled. Once the call center agents have been trained in customer care protocols, a special icon is added to the online call center menus enabling the sign language interaction. The customer “clicks” or selects the sign language service and the call is routed and queued to the agents specialized in sign language communication. The agent appears in a video conference window and the interaction begins. “In the beginning we wanted to do an interpretation of the signs and build a sign language dictionary that could be used by our technology to interpret the signs to English and Arabic words, but we found it was impossible,” Helmy said. “Then it was decided that video communication would be the best approach.” There are many different sign languages including British Sign Language, American Sign Language and Saudi Sign Language. If they are available, it is easy to give language options in the online video menu. While deaf or mute individuals may already be able to communicate with call center agents through text chat, Helmy explained that Avaya's research showed that they wanted more options. “For all customers, sometimes they just want to talk to an agent,” he remarked. “There is the impression that voice communication will create better understanding and if there is a problem, it will be solved. Over the last couple of years as we have been working with physically challenged communities, they have advised us that they want to ‘talk' with their own language to call center agents. When they see a video image of an agent and communicate in sign language, they too, feel that the issue will be resolved.” While Avaya's technology enables video communication, this is one area where avatars or automated responses won't be coming soon. With email communication, analytic software can push out predefined answers based on keywords in the email. For video chat, Helmy noted that a live agent is still required. Based on certain words that might come up in the conversation, supplementary written documents or other written information can be sent out, but it still isn't possible to hold a detailed conversation with an avatar. In the near future, banks and government organizations will most likely be the first to adopt Avaya's SmartEngage application to communicate with deaf or mute individuals. “The financial sector has been looking for new ways to reach out to customers with communication impairments,” Helmy advised. “Banks have been depending on branch visits and face to face meetings to try to engage with such customers. That is really no solution because not every bank branch has customer service agents who are fluent in sign language. Some governments are also discussing the use of Avaya's solution particularly for engagement with emergency services.”
