Background

The client came to Eckoh with a time-sensitive need to de-scope its contact center, including its agents and telephony systems.

The organization used several telephony carriers to achieve redundancy and manage costs. These carriers delivered telephone calls through private trunks connected directly to the client's data centers

Challenge

Calls are typically delivered to Eckoh's cloud platform through a publicly accessible IP endpoint terminating on its Cloud SBC. The client's carriers, Lumen and MetTel, instead delivered calls through private trunks, so the standard implementation was not an option.

Private and physical circuits create a challenge for cloud providers because cloud environments are not designed or architected for these connections.

The client needed to achieve as much de-scoping from PCI DSS auditing as possible across its contact center, agents and telephony systems.

Solution

To help the client achieve as much de-scoping from PCI DSS auditing as possible, Eckoh provided its patented CallGuard solution.

CallGuard enabled SAQ-A compliance and full PCI DSS de-scoping. As a vendor-agnostic solution, it worked seamlessly with the client's complex environment and other technologies.

Because the standard implementation was not possible, Eckoh created an alternative method to deliver calls to its cloud platform. Working with strategic cloud partners, Eckoh provided a Direct Connect setup in which the client terminated carrier circuits into the cloud provider's point of presence.

Call traffic could then be routed through the cloud provider to Eckoh's cloud SBC.

Value

The solution enabled the client to achieve SAQ-A compliance and fully de-scope the contact center for PCI DSS.

CallGuard's vendor-agnostic design enabled the solution to work seamlessly with the client's complex environment and other technologies.

Looking Forward

The case reflects a challenge many enterprise organizations face when tackling payment security within contact centers: choosing between on-premise hardware that may disrupt long-term cloud transformation strategies or only achieving partial PCI DSS de-scoping.

The methodology developed for the client is now part of the Eckoh architecture.

Multiple other clients have taken advantage of the solution, allowing them to maintain their existing telephony architecture while maintaining the strictest possible standard for payment security.

Key Outcomes