Having started out in the days before call management solutions went digital, Oak Innovation has certainly seen some changes in the industry. Riding the waves of technological progress for more than 30 years now, Oak has earned its position as an SME market leader in call reporting, analytics and recording.
The company which first brought Windows-based call management platforms to the UK has kept on setting the pace for innovation, picking up awards for its flagship "X Range" of products. And in recent years it has been on the development path again, bringing two next generation platforms to market - the Evolve integrated call analytics and management application, and Clarify, a call and data recording solution.
Just as Evolve was developed to introduce more call management capabilities into an analytics suite, providing customers with greater control from a single pane of glass, Clarify offers to do something similar with call recording. In doing so, Oak claims that Clarify fully serves what it sees as the three main reasons people buy call recording:
- Dispute resolution
- Compliance
- Monitoring and training
It is in the latter category that Oak promises additional value above and beyond what other recording platforms provide. With its Quality Measurement module, a ‘must have tool for any contact centre’, Oak has equipped Clarify with powerful performance analytics tools which links actionable insight directly to recording capabilities.
In the following review, we will analyse how well Clarify balances the different purposes call recording software can be put to and unpick exactly what it offers in terms of analysis and insight. As always, please remember that UC Today is an entirely independent service for the UC industry and that we do not endorse, market or have any role in the sale of any product.
How Does It Look?
Clarify provides a very simple, uncluttered interface which is designed primarily to make it as easy as possible to create, find and playback recordings. Once completed, recordings are listed in a table format listed by date, direction of call (inbound/outbound), the number called/calling and the agents who participated in the call.
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Clarify is built around a clean, easy-to-use interface which brings all call recording functions into one place.[/caption]
There is a straightforward annotation system which allows agents and supervisors to add tags, flags, marks and notes to each call. These are displayed as icons in the recorded call list. They are also useful for searching for calls, which can be done via filter tabs and a search bar at the top of the page.
What Can It Do?
Clarify is a software recording solution built on top of the award-winning Oak Communication Platform (OCP). It can be hosted on-site, in a data centre or in a virtual environment, with a modular, subscription-based licensing system meaning customers pay for the features they want and can scale up or down at any time.
The web-based interface means Clarify is accessible on any device. It also integrates recording of calls from fixed lines, extensions and mobile devices all in one place, including SIP trunks. Being built on the OCP means it can handle large call volumes and multi-site operations.
As well as recording audio from a call, Clarify also records what the agent does on screen, providing a holistic overview of the customer interaction. This is useful for training purposes, but also for dispute resolution, as there is a record of what the agent and customer say, what the agent logs and what actions the agent takes. So if a customer complains that an agreed action was not taken, there is documentary evidence to refer to.
With tamper-proof protection, Clarify recordings meet the standards required to be used as evidence in legal disputes. This includes stereo recording, which means both sides of a conversation can be reviewed in isolation, a requirement in some legal scenarios.
Clarify is also designed to support easy compliance with data protection regulations, such as the PCI-DSS rules on recording and storing cardholder details during transactions. Agents can pause recordings either on their handset or in the Clarify client before account details are given, but Clarify can also integrate with payment processing applications so recording automatically stops at the right point.
In addition, masking can be used to protect sensitive information captured in recordings, and privacy settings allow access to recordings to be restricted.
