Global Contact Center Expansion
To support growth in the Asia‑Pacific region, I spearheaded the rollout of new contact‑center infrastructure in Australia and Japan. By provisioning cloud‑based points of presence and localizing telephony functions such as IVR prompts, text‑to‑speech, and call recording, the team delivered low‑latency service that met regional data‑residency rules. Infrastructure‑as‑code templates allowed us to replicate the North American architecture while making necessary regional adaptations. The expansion reduced latency for local users and enabled new channel partnerships in the APAC market.

Highlights

  • Regional Coverage: Established fully operational contact center points-of-presence in Sydney and Tokyo, extending service capabilities across the entire APAC region
  • Latency Reduction: Achieved 85% reduction in voice and data latency for APAC users by moving from North American infrastructure to local deployments
  • Compliance Adherence: Successfully implemented data residency controls meeting both Australian Privacy Act and Japanese APPI regulatory requirements
  • Scalability: Designed infrastructure to handle 300% projected growth over three years without significant architectural changes
  • Time-to-Market: Completed full deployment within 4 months, 2 weeks ahead of schedule, enabling accelerated market entry

How It Works

The APAC contact center infrastructure operates on a distributed cloud architecture with regional redundancy. Each regional deployment consists of:

  • Media Processing Nodes: Deployed in AWS availability zones within the region to handle real-time voice processing, call recording, and transcription services
  • Localized Telephony Stack: Regional telecom integrations with major carriers in Australia and Japan providing local telephone numbers and toll-free services
  • Regional Data Storage: Dedicated storage solutions ensuring customer data remains within the appropriate geographic boundaries to satisfy data sovereignty requirements
  • Failover Systems: Cross-AZ backup capabilities ensuring business continuity with automatic failover inside APAC region with short recovery time
  • Monitoring & Analytics: Comprehensive observability stack with region-specific dashboards tracking system health, call quality metrics, and usage patterns

The system maintains seamless integration with the global platform while preserving regional autonomy, allowing for both centralized management and localized operations where needed.

Implementation

The implementation followed a phased approach to minimize risk and validate the design at each stage:

  1. Discovery & Design (4 weeks)

    • Conducted requirements gathering sessions with regional stakeholders
    • Performed regulatory analysis for data residency compliance
    • Designed regional architecture adaptations based on local connectivity conditions

  2. Infrastructure Provisioning (6 weeks)

    • Deployed core AWS infrastructure using Terraform
    • Established network connectivity between regions with appropriate security controls
    • Set up monitoring and alerting systems with 24/7 coverage

  3. Telecom Integration (3 weeks)

    • Procured and provisioned local telephone numbers across target markets
    • Established SIP trunking connections with regional carriers
    • Tested fail-safe routing across multiple providers

  4. Localization & Testing (3 weeks)

    • Adapted IVR flows for regional language and cultural considerations
    • Implemented text-to-speech engines for Japanese and Australian English
    • Conducted comprehensive load testing to validate performance under peak conditions

Lessons Learned

The APAC expansion provided valuable insights that informed subsequent global deployments:

  • Regulatory Complexity: Data residency requirements varied significantly between countries, requiring more granular storage and processing controls than initially anticipated
  • Carrier Relationships: Building relationships with local telecom providers proved critical for resolving issues quickly during initial deployment challenges
  • Follow-the-sun Operations: Implementing truly global operations required restructuring support teams to provide 24/7 coverage without relying on off-hours escalations
  • Infrastructure Templates: While infrastructure-as-code accelerated deployment, approximately 30% of templates required regional adaptation due to service availability differences in AWS regions
  • Performance Metrics: Standard North American QoS benchmarks weren’t always appropriate for APAC environments, necessitating region-specific baseline adjustments

This expansion project established a repeatable blueprint for future regional deployments while significantly enhancing our service capabilities across the APAC market.