White Paper
Cisco Omnichannel
Reference Architecture
Overview
Authored by Hugo Smitter
Connected Experiences Center of Excellence – Advanced Services Bradenton, Florida, USA
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 1 of 18
Contents
Confidentiality .......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Overview ................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Background ........................................................................................................................................................... 3
Customer Centricity .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Omnichannel Strategies ........................................................................................................................................ 4
Key Trends and Developments .............................................................................................................................. 5
The Evolution of Traditional IT Systems of Record to Systems of Systems .......................................................... 5
Next-Best-Action Systems ................................................................................................................................ 8
Customer Journey Mapping .................................................................................................................................. 8
The API Economy ................................................................................................................................................. 9
Context-Aware Systems...................................................................................................................................... 10
Cisco Context Service .................................................................................................................................... 11
Omnichannel Reference Architecture .................................................................................................................. 12
Conceptual View ................................................................................................................................................. 12
Contact Center ............................................................................................................................................... 12
Context Repository ......................................................................................................................................... 12
Integration Layer ............................................................................................................................................ 13
Data Virtualization .......................................................................................................................................... 13
Logical Views ...................................................................................................................................................... 15
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................. 16
Why Cisco Services ............................................................................................................................................... 16
For More Information ............................................................................................................................................. 16
References ............................................................................................................................................................. 16
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 2 of 18
Confidentiality
This is a Cisco public document. It can be distributed within or outside of Cisco. Third parties are not permitted to
copy or redistribute without permission or proper licensing agreements.
Acknowledgments
I would like thank my colleagues Stephen Quatrano, Yuri Fedotov, Raj Kumar, and Rob Cain for reviewing this
document and for providing valuable feedback.
Overview
The purpose of this white paper is to present Cisco’s next-generation Omnichannel Reference Architecture. The
architecture presented here takes advantage of several product and solution developments taking place at Cisco.
The Omnichannel Reference Architecture is an evolution in Cisco’s successful offerings in this space. It responds
to current trends that are helping businesses transform themselves into digital businesses that take full
advantage of mobile and location-aware applications, social media, data, and the Internet of Everything across all
customer interactions.
Background
According to the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation [25], digital business transformation is a journey
to adopt and deploy digital technologies and business models to improve performance quantifiably. Digital
business transformation is taking place across all industries with such speed and depth that it’s threatening to
displace incumbents and redefine industries altogether. This phenomenon, also known as digital disruption, is
partly caused by empowered consumers who have adopted digital technologies in their daily lives and, in the
process, raised the bar regarding the customer experience they expect in their interactions with businesses. The
interactions customers expect today are often described with adjectives such as seamless, smooth, simple,
continuous, delightful, transparent, and so on. How did we get to this point, and how can an omnichannel strategy
and reference architecture contribute to a successful digital transformation?
For decades, particularly in the retail and consumer banking industries, the interaction with customers has been
conducted through storefronts and remote office branches. Those physical distribution assets, known as
“channels,” expanded to call and contact center channels in the 1980s. The expansion included virtual channels
with the advent of the World Wide Web and, more recently, mobile and social media, which have experienced an
explosive growth in adoption.
Most businesses adapted through organic growth, which took place as each new channel was added or layered
upon existing infrastructure, each with its own technology footprint, processes, and people. Usually, the
technology, processes, and organizations were optimized to handle customer interactions within the boundaries of
the new channel. As time went by, businesses evolved an IT and operational footprint that, when taken as a whole,
exhibited inefficiencies, redundancies, and inconsistencies. As a result, the individually optimized “islands” of
technology, processes, and organizations supporting each new channel made interactions less than satisfactory for
a consumer, particularly when customer interactions crossed the boundaries between islands.
We have all experienced situations in which we interact with different people or self-service channels in the same
company and it seems that nobody knows what happened during any of our prior interactions. In other words, not
only is the overall experience likely different as we move from one channel to another, but the context of our
interactions is lost as we transition from one device or channel to the next. Businesses focused primarily on
integrating and optimizing their processes, from supply-chain management to sales to merchandising and inventory
management, while improvements to the customer experience took a back seat.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 3 of 18
When outsourcing and globalization accelerated in the mid-1990s, businesses saw an opportunity to reduce costs
while optimizing the individually outsourced islands of processes, technologies, and organizations. Unfortunately,
the unintended consequence was further fragmentation of the overall customer experience.
Customer Centricity
In the early 2000s, as consumers began using the Internet as a powerful weapon to shop online based on the best
price, lowest fees, and optimal delivery conditions, some retailers began to look for a competitive edge to attract
customers and strengthen relationships. They found it in a concept taking hold in several industries called
customer centricity. In simple terms, customer centricity is about creating a delightful and seamless customer
experience on every touch point of the company. It’s easier said than done, as the notion of placing the customer
at the center of any and all interactions with the company requires significant changes in the company’s operating
model. Some of these changes include creating business processes that address the needs of different customer
segments, promoting a constant dialogue with the customer, acting on feedback, anticipating customer needs, and
nurturing a culture throughout the organization that puts the interest of the customer first.
Omnichannel Strategies
Initially, given the organic growth of channels and the corresponding proliferation of IT systems, people, and
processes mentioned earlier, retailers and banks looked for effective ways to make rational use of their assets and
rein in costs. They found their answer in emerging multichannel strategies. A multichannel strategy aims at
directing customers to transact with their favorite retail store or bank using multiple touch points. The main goal of a
multichannel strategy is, typically, to lower transaction costs by routing the customer to the least expensive
channel. These strategies provide a tactical value to the retailer, but they don’t go deep enough in addressing the
inefficiencies and redundancies in disconnected processes, technology, and organizations. The multichannel
strategies also fell short in providing insights on the customer journey—that is, the full lifecycle view of a
customer’s interactions with a particular brand from the customer’s perspective. For these reasons, multichannel
strategies didn’t succeed in providing a seamless customer experience, which is at the heart of a customer-centric
operating model.
The omnichannel strategies came to acknowledge the shortcomings of the multichannel strategy by embracing
the customer journey point of view as the starting point for analysis. This approach includes information about
customer preferences in terms of channel and content. It also includes the level of activity and timing of interactions
on each touch point. With that data in hand, companies can gain a better understanding of customers’ behavioral
patterns through the full lifecycle of purchases, and they can begin to predict behavior and take action accordingly.
One definition of an omnichannel strategy is as follows:
A customer relationship strategy in which the customer is the ultimate center of all interaction channels;
decides how, when, and where to communicate with a business and other businesses in a value chain; and
expects a simple, continuous, and transparent experience.
However, omnichannel strategies are not exempt from controversy and skepticism, particularly in the financial
services industry, as the toughest challenge for established enterprises is to address the underlying inefficiencies
and redundancies in processes, technology, and organizational structures resulting from organic and acquisitionbased growth. Omnichannel strategies are, therefore, sometimes seen as a veneer to mask the real inefficiencies
and avoid embarking on true business transformation efforts. Nevertheless, established enterprises have no choice
but to continually reinvent themselves in creative ways by reducing the size and complexity of their application
portfolio, standardizing interfaces, decoupling systems, outsourcing non-core functions, etc.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 4 of 18
New entrants in their respective markets are threatening the incumbents with new business models built from the
ground up, with new value propositions that combine new products, new services, and lower cost structures. The
new entrants take ample advantage of mobile, social media, and big data, and they are laser-focused on being
customer-centric. In every industry, including the most conservative and/or regulated ones, such as healthcare and
financial services, incumbent companies are being compelled to reinvent themselves as “digital enterprises”—in
other words, businesses that have embraced customer centricity, make savvier use of digital channels, and use
streamlined operating models to remain competitive. With the race toward building new digital enterprises,
omnichannel strategies continue to evolve and remain relevant in helping established organizations achieve the
goal of a delightful and seamless customer experience.
The reference architecture in this white paper describes Cisco’s point of view on the technologies necessary to
implement an omnichannel strategy in the era of digital enterprises.
Key Trends and Developments
®
Recent Cisco product developments, industry trends, and directions are transforming how we approach
implementing an omnichannel strategy. To mention a few: techniques focused on mapping customer journeys,
advanced analytics applied to monitoring and predicting behaviors for improved customer experience and
marketing, and systems and data integration technologies. New communications, collaboration, and cloud-based
capabilities from Cisco are also helping businesses transform into digital enterprises. This paper explores four
trends influencing Cisco’s next generation Omnichannel Reference Architecture:
●
The evolution of traditional IT systems of record to systems of systems
●
Customer journey mapping
●
The API economy
●
Context-aware systems
The Evolution of Traditional IT Systems of Record to Systems of Systems
In his 2010 white paper, Systems of Engagement and the Future of Enterprise IT [13], Geoffrey Moore points
out that one of the sources of the sea change affecting enterprise IT comes from the innovation flowing from
consumers to the enterprise, not the other way around, as had happened until then. Consumers, and in particular
the digital natives, with their affection for social media and mobile devices, are dictating how they want to engage
with businesses, and businesses are responding accordingly. The next generation of communications and
collaboration tools is in the hands of consumers, while most businesses are stuck with old transactional systems
tied to one or more channels.
A second source of change for enterprise IT, Moore explains, comes from what he calls the outsourcing-driven
global economy. In this environment, companies have been forced to focus on strengthening their competitive
advantage or suffer commoditization of the goods and services they sell. As a result, businesses are shedding
functions and concentrating their resources into their core business capabilities, growing organically or through
mergers and acquisitions. In such an environment, business transactions are likely to involve a value chain of
businesses, each with a particular focus. Businesses aim at optimizing their investments in core capabilities at the
expense of a fragmented customer experience.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 5 of 18
A third source of change is what Moore calls the consumerization of IT. That is, the adoption for business use of
next-generation communications and collaboration applications and IT infrastructure, originally intended for the
consumer space. This trend empowers the middle ranks in businesses to communicate and collaborate across
business boundaries. These customer-facing systems, with communications and collaboration capabilities at their
core, are what Moore refers to as systems of engagement.
The existing systems of record, the traditional transactional systems that continue to support businesses, are still
in place, but they are being complemented or overlaid with systems of engagement that redefine the business
touch points with consumers, as well as the touch points of the workforce within a business and in other
businesses in the value chain. The term systems of systems has been widely adopted and extended since Moore
explored the idea. Figure 1, from Forrester Research, provides a high-level view of how systems of systems
complement and intersect with each other.
Figure 1.
From Systems of Record and Channels to Systems of Systems
Moore’s paper has two key takeaway points. First, customer interactions are now more complex than individual
transactions against systems of record for an individual business. They may involve interactions in social media
related to the business, or they may involve interactions with other businesses in the value chain. Second, the type
of device, the geographic location of the consumer, the time of day, and even other related interactions with the
business and related contextual information are now relevant in the quest to provide a seamless customer
experience along a customer journey. Moore’s paper succeeded in bringing awareness to these trends.
How is this ongoing transformation of enterprise IT toward a web of systems of systems related to an omnichannel
strategy? The introduction of what Moore calls systems of engagement allowed businesses to improve their
communications and collaboration capabilities, not only across the emerging value chains, but also with customers.
However, information related to customer journeys remains, in most cases, fragmented across islands of
systems. Therefore, businesses still require comprehensive approaches to capturing contextual customer journey
information as customers progress from one touch point to another during the lifecycle of their interactions with a
business or brand.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 6 of 18
The next group of systems to explore are the systems of insight. The systems of insight are the latest step in the
evolution of tools, techniques, and processes for transforming raw data into information, information into meaning,
and meaning into insights [see 2]. In this age of digital businesses, it’s not enough to deliver insights the following
business day to business analysts removed from the day-to-day operation. Systems of insight take the next step by
delivering actionable insights at the point and time of a business operation, when the insights matter most. The
insights are quickly delivered to agent-assisted systems of engagement or realized automatically as recommended
actions for customer self-service systems of engagement. The business outcomes based on those insights must
be measured to assess the quality of the insights and to further fine-tune the systems of insight for a continuous
improvement loop (Figure 2). [Source: see 3, 4].
Figure 2.
Systems of Insight as Closed-Loop Systems
How is the evolution toward systems of insight related to an omnichannel strategy? As stated earlier, an
omnichannel strategy focuses on delivering the right information, with the right context, at the right time throughout
the customer journey. As businesses gain a better understanding of customers’ behavioral patterns through the full
lifecycle of purchases, they can begin to predict behavior and take action accordingly. This is where systems of
insight come into play, by combining information from systems of engagement and systems of record to deliver
actionable insights. With this goal in mind, a new class of custom-developed and commercially available solutions
has emerged in the past few years, known as next-best-action or next-best-option.
It’s important to point out that the systems terminology Moore introduced in his important paper does not do away
with the need to apply best practices that integrate the various types of old and new systems. The drive for
businesses to be agile in adapting to rapid change is very much alive. In fact, it takes on even more importance. In
software development, this need translates into building cohesive and granular software components, with loose
coupling of components for added flexibility and well-defined interfaces between components for interoperability.
This topic will be discussed further in “The API Economy,” later in this paper.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 7 of 18
Next-Best-Action Systems
Next-best-action (or NBA) systems are a special case of complex systems of insight that use a combination of
various analytic techniques, such as machine learning and multivariate statistical analysis, to build predictive
models applied to customer data from multiple internal and external sources. The models are used in combination
with decision-making techniques from the field of operations research to construct closed-loop systems. To
operationalize NBA systems, a significant amount of systems integration work is necessary to retrofit existing
systems. An NBA system is a reusable component that can, for instance, inject a recommendation for an action
into several systems of engagement (such as a contact center or web-based or mobile applications). NBA systems
seek to optimize something across the complete customer journey, not just the individual customer interactions.
This something can be, for example, a goal to maximize the lifetime value of a customer or to minimize customer
churn, to name two possibilities. This type of optimization requires a holistic view of a customer journey. For this
reason, systems of insight and, in particular, NBA systems are becoming an ideal complement to an omnichannel
strategy.
Customer Journey Mapping
Customer journey mapping is commonly defined as a technique to construct a visual or graphic interpretation of
the overall story, “from cradle to grave,” from a consumer’s perspective, of their relationship with an organization,
service, product, or brand, over time and across channels. This mapping assists in creating the customer
experience strategy for a business. There are multiple techniques and styles to build these journey maps. The
journeys are often nonlinear, as not all consumers follow the same path in identifying their needs, researching
alternatives, purchasing, delivery, servicing, etc. (Figure 3).
Not surprisingly, customer journey mapping has become increasingly popular as the notion of systems of
engagement has taken hold. The idea of mapping customer journeys is rather simple. It would appear at first look
that most businesses built their systems of engagement around an intimate understanding of the journeys their
customers and prospective customers follow. In reality, few businesses actually conduct in-depth analysis of their
customers’ journeys. Even fewer businesses have built their systems of engagement with this outside-in
perspective of the customer journey.
Figure 3.
Example of a Customer Journey Map
Source: http://www.heartofthecustomer.com/
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 8 of 18
New businesses unencumbered by legacy systems, processes, and organizations tend to think from the outside in,
with the customer experience in mind. These businesses tend to use customer journey mapping effectively to build
modern processes, with supporting systems and organizations that focus on the goal of providing a superb
customer experience. New businesses tend to have an innate understanding of customer centricity.
On the other hand, given their size, complexity, and the need to support their current business model, established
businesses have difficulty exploring and designing for a fresh, end-to-end view of customer journeys. These
businesses tend to look only at the portions of the journey that touch a subset of processes, systems, and
organizations. More importantly, they tend to look at the journey from the inside out. In other words, they tend to
add functions and features to parts of the infrastructure that touch portions of the customer journey, aiming to
partially optimize the customer experience. When asked about the customer journey, they tend to think in terms of
the web user interface or the call flow in their contact center or voice-response unit. This fragmented approach,
rooted in a compartmentalized view of the actual customer journey, makes it much more difficult to develop a
seamless and delightful end-to-end experience for the customer.
The key takeaway from the customer journey mapping trend is the need to adopt an outside-in, end-to-end view of
the customer journey, with the goal of creating an exceptional customer experience. The Omnichannel Reference
Architecture described in this paper is most effective when coupled with customer journey mapping techniques.
The outcomes of the customer journey mapping should provide input to sound enterprise architecture practices
that update or derive key business architecture artifacts, such as process models, business rules, service models,
domain models, and business events, to name a few. These architecture artifacts and associated architecture
governance mechanisms will significantly improve the business-IT alignment required to design a new end-to-end
customer experience from the ground up.
The API Economy
The application programming interface (API) economy is a catchphrase coined to describe the economic force
of APIs in today’s economy. APIs are a response to businesses’ demand for increased agility and flexibility to
transform their existing business models or build new business models so that they can address increasing
globalization and competition. Here, the same factors involving mobility, social media, and globalization that Moore
addressed in his paper on systems of engagement are affecting businesses from a different vantage point.
Although there is a technical perspective to APIs, the force behind the API economy is not driven by technology.
Businesses embracing an API strategy are seeking an architectural approach to building interfaces between
system components (Figure 4).
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 9 of 18
Figure 4.
The API Economy as a Collection of Hyper-Distributed Processes and Infrastructure
Source: Cisco Automation and Integration Platform
Why is the API economy important for building an Omnichannel Reference Architecture? The broad adoption of
APIs is important for two reasons:
●
APIs are instrumental in the transformation of internal business systems to expose their functionality in
ways that facilitate integration and combination with other business systems, including the omnichannel
components, thus improving flexibility and time to market. Exposing system functionality via APIs helps
break the application silos that have held businesses back from delivering a seamless customer experience.
This approach is not only technically feasible and attractive, it also helps keep application maintenance
costs down.
●
With APIs, business system functionality can be exposed securely and with greater granularity to external
parties and customers. This opens a new realm of possibilities to accelerate the building of next-generation
systems that connect customer journeys across value chains. These are precisely the type of systems that
can benefit from the Omnichannel Reference Architecture presented in this paper.
Context-Aware Systems
Context: “The circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can
be fully understood and assed.” – Oxford Dictionaries
For an omnichannel strategy to be successful in providing a seamless experience to a customer, it must collect,
persist, and deliver context and related information across all systems of engagement throughout the customer
journey. This capability allows an agent in the contact center, for instance, to have a holistic view of the activities a
customer performs, irrespective of when, where, and how the customer interacts with the business. Furthermore,
thanks to the API economy, context can be shared with various systems of engagement along all touch points of a
customer journey.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 10 of 18
Hence, omnichannel is not limited to a customer’s multimodal access (that is, web, chat, email, video, brick-andmortar storefront, etc.) to a contact center’s agent; it stretches across location, device, and mode of
communication. By enabling a business to securely share context information, the Omnichannel Reference
Architecture addresses the need to provide a consistent and seamless interaction with the customer.
Finally, the customer journey information is also of great value to other systems (such as systems of insight)
located at any point along the value chain of a business, enabling it to respond to and/or enrich the customer
journey information along the way, as mentioned earlier in the discussion of systems of insight.
Building a software component with the characteristics described here is a complex endeavor. Businesses have
typically resorted to remediating existing systems to capture a fragmented view of customer journey information
that’s represented in many systems of engagement. That approach makes customer-centric experiences very
difficult to develop and maintain, as businesses must adapt to rapid change across the total value chain. What’s
needed is a specialized service that easily, securely, and effectively, brings together customer journey information
and makes it available to the systems of engagement, insight, and others that participate in the customer journey.
This type of service, consistent with the best practices mentioned earlier, is required to fulfill the omnichannel
strategy.
Cisco Context Service
The Cisco Context Service for Contact Center provides cloud-based storage, tagging, and management of the data
from interactions between businesses and their customers. The context information provided by the service helps
transform traditional, isolated multichannel interactions from separate channels, such as voice, chat, and email,
into seamless omnichannel journeys that help businesses better understand and respond to the needs of their
customers (Figure 5).
Figure 5.
Cisco Context Service
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 11 of 18
Cisco is removing the technical barriers to adoption and integration with any system of engagement, operation, or
™
record a business may have. The Cisco Context Service, based on the Cisco Intercloud , will allow for the storage
of a virtually unlimited amount of contextual data.
The service represents a major breakthrough in providing a secure, platform-agnostic, API-enabled, end-to-end
repository for storing customer journey information. With open APIs, Cisco partners can develop on top of this
platform and take advantage of the contextual data coming over every channel. New encryption technology
secures each interaction and enables a business to control access to its customer data. The Cisco Context Service
is a key component of the Omnichannel Reference Architecture described in this white paper.
Omnichannel Reference Architecture
Conceptual View
The conceptual view of the Omnichannel Reference Architecture consists of core components, supporting
components, and corresponding interfaces:
●
Core components:
◦ Contact center
◦ Context repository
◦ Integration layer
●
Supporting components:
◦ Data virtualization
●
Interfaces:
◦ Integration layer to/from systems of engagement
◦ Integration layer to/from systems of record
◦ Integration layer to/from context repository
◦ Integration layer to/from data virtualization
Contact Center
The contact center core component is vital to the Cisco Omnichannel Reference Architecture. The contact center,
in conjunction with the context repository component, helps ensure a personalized and consistent customer
experience across multiple systems of engagement (or channels) and devices as touch points in the customer
journey. The contact center, enabled by a context repository, provides contact center agents with visibility into
historical business events captured during past interactions with the customer. This is a key capability of an
omnichannel [see 19]. The contact center in the Cisco Omnichannel Reference Architecture is also capable of
“contextual routing” based on different criteria associated with a particular customer and state in their journey. For
example, routing could be based on customer sentiment from a previous call to the contact center.
Context Repository
The context repository core component is responsible for providing persistent storage, retrieval, and search
mechanisms for relevant business events related to customer journeys. The context repository is independent of
the systems of record and the systems of engagement. It is also process-independent.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 12 of 18
For a context repository component to be effective, it must comply with, but not be limited to, the following
functional and nonfunctional requirements:
●
Platform-agnostic: Support interfaces to any system (engagement, record, or operation) from Cisco or any
partner.
●
Open interfaces: Support multiple types of web services interfaces for consumption inside and outside the
firewall.
●
Open and extensible data model: Provide a foundation data model for metadata and an open model for
partner extensions.
●
Secure: Provide a comprehensive security model for authentication, use authorization, user entitlements,
and cryptography. Given its close relation in the architecture to systems of engagement, the context
repository must be able to handle sensitive information (for example, personally identifiable information, or
PII) at rest and in motion.
●
Flexible deployment models: Support a highly secure hybrid cloud deployment model providing access to
a wide range of systems of engagement provided by Cisco and its partners.
●
Predictable response time and low latency.
●
Persistent storage.
●
High availability.
Integration Layer
The integration layer is a core component of the Omnichannel Reference Architecture. It provides key functions
that allow for business agility, reuse, and scalability. Its main function is to decouple systems from each other while
allowing them to communicate effectively. Positioned as a layer between systems, the integration layer allows
businesses to implement practices for systems integration, including:
●
Mediation
●
Orchestration
●
Adaptation and transformation
●
Management and monitoring
●
Nonfunctional features: scalability, high availability, failover for disaster recovery, etc.
The integration layer gains particular importance in an API economy, where, in addition to the internal exposure of
APIs (services), businesses are exposing and consuming APIs (services) directly in the systems of engagement in
the form of “web APIs.” The growing number of public web APIs, provided and consumed by multiple businesses
belonging to a value chain, demand more sophisticated mechanisms to manage security, access control, and
usage monitoring for performance and/or monetization. The integration layer is in the right place, architecturally
speaking, to support the growing demands for system integration.
Data Virtualization
During the last decade, many medium-sized and large businesses have invested in the implementation of
commercially available or custom-developed master data management (MDM) systems. These systems, with the
surrounding governance processes, contain a “single source of truth” or point of reference to a relatively small but
critical amount of business data and relationships called master data. The data and corresponding relationships
typically include customer identification data, customer-related relationships, vendor/supplier data, and product
data. Businesses are in different stages of maturity in building their master data management capabilities. At one
end of the spectrum, businesses may have such single, standardized sources of customer data and relationships
through well-defined APIs.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 13 of 18
The data virtualization component in the Omnichannel Reference Architecture is primarily responsible for providing
logical views into customer-related master data necessary to uniquely identify, store, and retrieve high-quality
context-related information for a given customer. This capability is becoming increasingly important in providing a
seamless customer experience, given the growth in the number of systems in a value chain participating
throughout a customer journey. The importance is compounded by the proliferation of customer-related master
data, such as customer names, addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, relationships to other customers,
and even relationships to “things,” such as beacons, wearable devices, sensors, homes, vehicles, etc.
A supporting role for the data virtualization component in the Omnichannel Reference Architecture is to provide an
integrated view of the master data from multiple sources. This view is necessary to create and access data related
to the customer journey used by all systems necessary to deliver an exceptional customer experience.
Figure 6 depicts the omnichannel conceptual view, including the core components, supporting components, and
related interfaces.
Figure 6.
Omnichannel Conceptual View
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 14 of 18
Logical Views
Figures 7 and 8 highlight different aspects of the Omnichannel Reference Architecture.
Figure 7.
Omnichannel Systems of Engagement Components
Figure 8.
Omnichannel Component Realization with Cisco Products and Solutions
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 15 of 18
Conclusion
The Omnichannel Reference Architecture is an evolution in Cisco’s successful offerings in this space. It responds
to current trends driving businesses to become digital businesses that take full advantage of mobile and locationaware applications, social media, data, and the Internet of Everything across all customer interactions and
modalities. This document provides an overview of the Cisco Omnichannel Reference Architecture and is a
companion to other materials that describe the architecture in further detail. Cisco is committed to helping
customers define and implement an Omnichannel architecture and deploy the associated Cisco offerings in their
infrastructure. To help guide you through an initial Omnichannel deployment, Cisco recommends that you take
advantage of services available through Cisco Services or our partner community. We invite you to discuss your
strategy with your Cisco account manager, channel partners, and other IT advisors.
Why Cisco Services
Realize the full business value of your technology investments with smart, personalized services from Cisco
together with our partners. Backed by deep networking expertise and a broad ecosystem of partners, Cisco
Services enable you to successfully plan, build, and manage your network as a powerful business platform.
Whether you are looking to quickly seize new opportunities to meet rising customer expectations, improve
operational efficiency to lower costs, mitigate risk, or accelerate growth, we have a service that can help you.
For More Information
To learn how you can engage Cisco Collaboration Services to help achieve your vision for a more collaborative
contact center environment, contact your Cisco sales representative or certified partner or visit
http://www.cisco.com/go/collaborationservices
References
1.
“The Move from Systems-of-Record to Systems-of-Engagement.” Forbes (2012).
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2012/08/16/the-move-from-systems-of-record-to-systems-ofengagement/
2.
Morrow, Charley. Comparison, Context, and Connotation: Turning Data into Insight.
http://sageassessments.blogspot.com/2012/04/comparison-context-and-connotation.html
3.
Forrester Research. Systems of Insight Will Power Digital Business.
http://blogs.forrester.com/brian_hopkins/15-04-27-systems_of_insight_will_power_digital_business
4.
Forrester Research. How Do New “Systems of Insight” Power Great Mobile Moments and Customer
Experiences?
http://blogs.forrester.com/brian_hopkins/14-10-31how_do_new_systems_of_insight_power_great_mobile_moments_and_customer_experiences
5.
The History of Omnichannel, Part One.
https://www.rsrresearch.com/2015/01/27/the-history-of-Omnichannel-part-one/
6.
The Journey Towards Greater Customer Centricity.
http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/The_journey_toward_greater_customer_centricity/$FILE/Cust
omer_Centricity_Paper_29_April_Final.pdf
7.
Retailers Turn to Omnichannel Strategies to Remain Competitive.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/samsungbusiness/2015/02/09/retailers-turn-to-omnichannel-strategies-toremain-competitive/
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 16 of 18
8.
Inspiring Examples of Omnichannel User Experiences.
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/Omnichannel-user-experience-examples
9.
Omnichannel: The New Normal for Retail Banks.
http://www.bankingtech.com/156062/omnichannel-the-new-normal-for-retail-banks/
10. Three Steps in Defining and Mapping the Customer Journey.
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/three-steps-to-defining-and-mapping-the-customerjourney-020724.php
11. Skinner, Chris. Digital Bank: Strategies to Launch or Become a Digital Bank (2014). ISBN-10:
9814516465.
12. The Digital Enterprise.
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/the_digital_enterprise
13. Moore, Geoffrey. Systems of Engagement and the Future of Enterprise IT.
http://www.aiim.org/futurehistory
14. Grocki, Megan. How to Create a Customer Journey Map.
http://uxmastery.com/how-to-create-a-customer-journey-map/#comments
15. Boag, Paul. All You Need To Know About Customer Journey Mapping (2015).
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/01/all-about-customer-journey-mapping/
16. Morris, Anthony. BAI: Customer Journey Management for Added Value.
https://www.bai.org/bankingstrategies/Marketing-and-Sales/Sales/Customer-Journey-Management-forAdded-Value
17. Omnichannel: A Buzzword IT Leaders Shouldn’t Dismiss.
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/omnichannel-represents-a-new-way-to-think-about-it-applications/
18. Omnichannel: Bad Word, Critical Concept.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/omnichannel-bad-word-critical-concept/
19. Minkara, Omer, Aberdeen Group. Omnichannel Contact Center: The Smarter Way to Engage
Customers. http://v1.aberdeen.com/launch/report/research_report/9981-RR-Omnichannel-center.asp
20. Cisco Systems Inc. Context Matters: Announcing Context Service for Better Customer Care.
http://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/cisco-context-services-announcement
21. Medrano, Roberto. “Welcome to the API Economy.” Forbes (2012).
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/08/29/welcome-to-the-api-economy/
22. IBM Redguides for Business Leaders. The Power of the API Economy.
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/pdfs/redp5096.pdf
23. Clark, Kim, IBM. Integration Architecture: Comparing Web APIs with Service-Oriented Architecture
and Enterprise Application Integration.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/1503_clark/1305_clark.html
24. Mauny, Isabelle, WSO2. Best Practices for API Management.
http://www.slideshare.net/wso2.org/best-practices-for-api-management
25. Global Center for Digital Business Transformation. Digital Vortex: How Digital Disruption Is Redefining
Industries.
http://www.imd.org/uupload/IMD.WebSite/DBT/Digital_Vortex_06182015.pdf
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 17 of 18
Printed in USA
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
C11-736427-00
01/16
Page 18 of 18