Remember VoIP? It’s the fundamental technology behind many of the interesting contact center applications we’ve been writing about. An analyst report confirms a trend we all knew was happening in theory - digital connections from VoIP service providers are rapidly replacing consumer phone lines. Since 2005, cable and Internet providers added almost 15 million new subscribers. What does this mean for contact centers?

Most obviously, more VoIP lines will increase the number of available home agents. Higher bandwidth cable and fiber links will support improved voice quality and better QoS, which was lacking in low-bandwidth dial-up and sub-optimal DSL.

Interestingly, even with IP connections subject to voice gotchas (but not data killers) such as packet latency, there are dual-mode techniques to get home agents connected to the remote contact center. The idea is to use the Internet for data messaging and the public phone system or a mobile carrier’s network for the voice path.

My hunch is that the longer term trend towards VoIP abundance will bring greater adoption of some aspects of in-house crowd sourcing in the contact center.

It’s easy to imagine an informal pool of company experts that’s available to initially handle low priority queries from customers. Experts can indicate their availability using next-generation SIP presence. Agents then tap into this human knowledgebase by publishing non-urgent customer questions to the crowd.

Expanded VoIP coverage— through home-based Internet, ubiquitous WiFi, and up and coming cellular 3G— gives the in-house crowd more opportunities to plug into this online to-do list.

Experts from any area in the company can respond with answers while at the corporate cafeteria, the airport gate, or perhaps after taking a break from writing a blog post!