Optimizing Your Voice Quality with Session Experience Manager (SEM)

November 13, 2017

AudioCodes Session Experience Manager (SEM), now known as One Voice Operations Center, is a complete suite of tools that give IT admins end-to-end control over the quality of their enterprise voice communications in a unified communications (UC) environment. SEM enables quality and performance monitoring and performs root cause analysis from one very intuitive central user interface.

Using this interface, IT admins can monitor the quality of every single voice call in the entire enterprise from a centralized location. If a problem is detected, it can be instantly isolated down to the exact network location. This eliminates many hours of troubleshooting as well as the need for complex root cause analysis – handy when your network includes thousands of devices, such as might be the case with call centers or contact centers.

AudoCodes SEM allows you to easily locate problems, investigate specific calls, and will notify you if and when a quality issue occurs. It will also identify VoIP trends on your network over time, helping you optimize your efforts to yield quantifiable results.

Other features include a comprehensive series of reports, allowing admins to identify VoIP trends and pinpoint the exact source of any specific call complaints. By being able to quickly zero in on the root cause of any issues, network issues are minimized or eliminated and the organization can be spared thousands of dollars in downtime, not to mention IT hours.

SEM provides you with the following benefits and capabilities:

  • Network mapping
  • Real-time snapshot view of your entire network
  • Intuitive and easy-to-understand interface for fast isolation of problems
  • View all devices and the range of links between them
  • Multiple view screens: graphical or tabular overviews
  • Comprehensive call quality reports
  • Receive alarms and notifications of problems as they happen
  • Available as a hardware appliance or software solution
  • Software versions run on VMWare or HyperV

Each time a threshold is crossed, a report that includes all call local and remote parameters is issued. A complete report can be accessed directly following the call that contains all media stats and signaling data. Monitored data can include MOS, delay, packet loss rate, jitter, or any combination of these issues.

Graphical trend statistics over time report on user call quality, user call satisfaction, network performance, utilization, and more. Reports can be viewed per device or per user, giving you an up-to-the-minute view of your entire network and its operations.  

SEM supported products

The SEM receives information from a variety of gateways, including AudioCodes Routing Manager (ARM) and SBC Border Controllers, each of which sends its own reports to the SEM.

Supported devices include:

Scale to the max

Bulk updates, adding new devices – those tasks that would normally be incredibly time, resource, and energy consuming – can now be accomplished with a fraction of the time and effort. As an optimization tool for the enterprise, SEM is indispensable in its efficiency, its agility, and its adaptability.

For companies with global locations, call centers, or who are experiencing scale to a large degree, SEM can carry a heavy load. You will be able to provision, manage and support thousands of devices, even when you are dealing with multiple vendors in multiple countries. Working in tandem with SEM to enable this level of scale is ARM, the AudioCodes Routing Manager.

SEM is especially useful for the Skype for Business (S4B) CloudBound 365 voice elements, offering centralized monitoring and management of your business voice calls.

Zero-touch deployment

It also allows for easy provisioning of your VoIP device fleet, taking the pain out of onboarding a new location with zero-touch deployment – meaning you can deliver devices into the hands of your end users without IT even having to even handle the hardware. The user receives the device, opens the box and sets it up as usual.

Since the device is already registered with its IP address, once the user activates it, all the necessary software and application support will be pushed out automatically, making it a truly personalized and efficient process as well as a nifty user experience.

Users can be contacted directly through the SEM to address and more closely monitor satisfaction issues.

Enhanced security

Updates to software or firmware can be pushed out globally according to your needs and policies. Single sign-on technologies can be deployed, allowing you the ability to fully and remotely control the user device environment.

In addition, user activity can be monitored and restricted, if necessary, to avoid security breaches. Network interfaces can also be fully secured and managed from the SEM.

CCG Telecom is an AudioCodes Elite Channel/Systems Integration partner. If you are interested in simplifying your enterprise VoIP ecosystem, call CCG today. One of our technicians will be happy to speak to you about how you can get started with AudioCodes SEM.