They all worked independently, recalls Duncan. When the time came to upgrade, the LAMC went with Sonant, for their preexisting familiarity with the center's requirements and their previous award through competitive bid. They replaced agent dumb terminals with Windows PCs, and put a Norstar hybrid phone system for bare-bones switching behind their ACD and IVR servers. That also started a revenue gush, because the system so markedly increased LAMC's capacity to handle call volume. Just taking the friction out of ticket payment has lowered the number of arrest and bench warrants the court has had to issue for non-payers.
Callers enter citation numbers and birthdates.
The system also lets callers automatically set arraignment dates. Two voice servers with two incoming T-1s apiece currently run this NT system, for a total of 96 ports. Mirrored IVR runs in both VRUs using Sonant's ClientCall script, consulting business rules, back end databases, as well as the separate ACD and payment-processing server. Client Call also has the citation number to send over LAN to the host database. Our only requirement of the PBX is that it be programmed to give our ACD a dedicated line appearance at each agent's phone set, says Murray Judy, Sonant's VP, Engineering, so that the ACD knows who is logged on and available.