 FEATURE WEBCAST (more) |
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"Business Value in VoIP Recording"
Greg Sherry, Director, Marketing and Business Development, Witness Systems
With the emergence of new technologies, companies are interacting with their customers in new and different ways. It's now inevitable that VoIP will be deployed in call centers of all sizes - and businesses of all types. Recording VoIP interactions is less expensive than recording interactions via traditional phone switches. More importantly, the business value of recording VoIP interactions can also be more substantial since business and workforce optimization efforts can impact customer service groups, but also sales, marketing, back office operations, services groups and other related business areas. Listen to understand the business drivers that make recording VoIP interactions a compelling proposition and discover how companies have discovered real value in VoIP interaction recording.
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TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK (more)
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SSA Global Technologies, a provider of enterprise solutions and services announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which SSA Global will acquire Epiphany. The transaction has a gross value of $329 million or $4.20 per share for the shareholders of Epiphany.
Unica Corporation announced the pricing of its initial public offering of common stock at $10.00 per share and started trading on August 3, 2005. Shares of Unica are trading on the Nasdaq National Market on August 3, 2005 under the symbol "UNCA."
RightNow announced the release of RightNow CRM 7.5 with a range of new and enhanced features across marketing, sales and service processes. RightNow CRM's three constituent applications -- RightNow Marketing(TM), RightNow Sales(TM) and RightNow Service(TM) share a common database, common business rules management, and a common workflow engine.
With the latest release, Citrix GoToMeeting offers convenient online meeting and collaboration capabilities. Version 2.0 includes ease of use features, flat-fee All You Can Meet(tm) pricing, built-in security and reliable performance. In addition, the product now offers simple meeting recording and playback and specific application sharing and drawing tools.
KANA Software announced its new solution set for the mid-market, and a new partnership with Enterico, an IBM value-added solution reseller division of Continental Resources Inc, in the Midwest and Northeast United States. KANA additionally announced its new Express Suite of SRM Solutions which offers mid-market companies the power to dramatically improve customer service and satisfaction rates while reducing costs.
Avaya announced the next generation of its Internet protocol (IP)-based speech self service solutions that deliver enhanced levels of customer service using the power of voice. The new Avaya Voice Portal software platform integrates within a service-oriented architecture (SOA), providing an easier way to speech-enable Web services across highly-distributed enterprises.
Sento has realized operational improvements as a result of implementing the IEX TotalView Workforce Management system. Improvements include reduced time and resources required for scheduling. improved forecasting accuracy, enhanced scheduling flexibility, and payroll efficiencies of 15 to 20 percent.
CashCall, a consumer lending company, selected Concerto EnsemblePro for implementation in its fast-growing Irvine, Calif. contact center. Concerto EnsemblePro provides CashCall, a new Concerto customer, with a unified inbound and outbound multi-channel solution that can be integrated with other contact center products. Call blending will reduce CashCall's agent idle time by handling a mix of inbound and outbound interactions based on demand and traffic.
HDI has appointed long-time HDI executive Peggy Libbey to the position of president and chief operating officer. HDI founder Ron Muns will remain in his post as chief executive officer. In the newly created executive role, Libbey will oversee HDI's membership operations, world-renowned training and certification programs, publications, research and conferences.
Xantrex Technology is using Salesforce to manage global sales leads and Customforce to tailor its deployment to Xantrex's unique business requirements. Xantrex is also using the Sforce on-demand integration platform to link Salesforce to Xantrex's intranet in order to auto-populate the intranet with customer profile information and serial number tracking data. In addition, the company is using Salesforce to provide mobile sales managers in the field with wireless access to key customer information.
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8/12/2005 - Outsourcing and SLAs
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are good business tools to make sure the experience meets or exceeds minimum standards. They are an essential part of any service organization, especially call centers.
If you are considering an outsourcing arrangement for some or all of your customer interactions, can you transfer your current SLAs to the outsourcer? It's a loaded question. Let me explain. Transferring the SLAs makes the assumption that you already have SLAs in place. It also assumes that your organization has the processes and knowledge in place to achieve the aforementioned SLAs.
Now if you don't have SLAs in place, how realistic or fair is it to create them for an outsourcer when you haven't been able to utilize them yourself?
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
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 Research Notes (more)
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Microsoft Enters the Contact Center Market - One of the biggest challenges in creating a Contact Center has been the diversity of components needed to build a center.(Ventana Research)
|  | | Witness Completes Acquisition of Blue Pumpkin - Witness Systems finalized their takeover of Blue Pumpkin Software. This event is part of a consolidation and expansion trend withing the Contact Center marketplace which enables focused vendors to increase the footprint of their solutions.(Ventana Research)
| | | Performance Management in Contact Centers - There are many factors which have been holding back the maturity level of Performanace Management in Contact Centers; lack of focus, lack of understanding, lack of supporting technilogies, etc.(Ventana Research)
| | | Market Share Growth Through Location and Business Intelligence - Addressing a strategic priority such as revenue growth through new customer acquisition and market expansion can be part of any organization's Performance Management offerings. To achieve this in an efficient and effective mnnner requires a combination of innovations, process, and information technology.(Ventana Research)
| | | Operational Business Intelligence - The Ventana Research study on BI for Operational Performance indicated widespread use of business intellignece for operational use across the organization including finance. Research found that deployments varied in size from very small to over 10,000 users.(Ventana Research)
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 White Papers (more)
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Montgomery Research White Paper - Defying the Limits: CRM: The Key to Superior Business Performance - In a daily ritual known to thousands of service professionals, in a wide range of industries, corporations lock themselves into a time warp by using traditional solutions - all in the hope of providing superior customer service - and while facing a tidal wave of requests. The lack of solutions that provide access and visibility into customer all interactions and integrate pre- and post-sales customer interactions - Web self-service, email, chat, telephony integration and knowledge management - for cross channel support services makes achieving superior customer service, loyalty, and retention virtually impossible.(Talisma)
| | | Application Management: Optimizing Your Contact Center Technology Investment - In the aftermath of heavy technology spending, contact center managers are no longer looking to expand their portfolio of technology investments but rather explore methods for exploiting those in which they have already invested.(DataMonitor)
| | | Hammering the Siebel Communications Server - To a Call Center agent, "Siebel" really means a desktop and everything that supports it (application servers, databases), a phone and everything that supports it (switches, routing, IVRs and telephony infrastructure), and the link between the two worlds - Computer-Telephony Interface, or CTI. CTI is not manufactured by Siebel but the perceived health of your "Siebel" application is intimately related to the health of the CTI integration.(Empirix)
| | | CRM Integration Across Marketing, Sales and Service - Many companies fail to appreciate the importance of developing specific, well-defined, and integrated business processes focused on the customer. This paper covers eleven key customer-focused processes and success factors associated with implementing process change.(Siebel)
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CRM Wake-Up Call - How to transform your call center from a budget drain into a source of competitive advantage. (CIO Magazine)
| | | Anatomy of a Successful CRM Implementation - With CRM gaining in popularity once again, heeding a few crucial steps should lead to a successful deployment (this time around), writes CIO Update guest columnist Bill Donlan of Adjoined.(CIO Magazine)
| | | Knowledge-Centered Support Best Practices May Drive KM Software Adoption in Customer Service - Customer service and support have provided some of the clearest and simplest value propositions for Knowledge Management. Resolution of service incidents is a process that leverages the knowledge of the agents who provide the service, and the successful adoption of knowledge sharing has a direct impact on performance metrics already maintained by customer support organizations.()
| | | Can Strategy Save CRM? - Well-conceived strategies for Customer Relationship Management solutions may not be so mysterious, elusive, or expensive after all. (ITToolbox)
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 Case Studies (more)
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Stellar Call Centres Improves Operational Effeciency - With Verint' ULTRA suite of Contact Center Actionable Intelligence Solutions, Stellar Call Centers increased the effectiveness of its quality management program, improved operational efficiency and enhanced the value of its offerings. This has translated into better service for customers and a sharper competitive advantage.(Verint Systems)
| | | MEDEX Global Group With Epicor - MEDEX needed a CRM system with integration capabilities to enable sharing of information across the organization. They found their solution in Epicor Clientele CRM.NET and can now share detailed contract and service information, have improved flexibility in adapting to growth and changing business processes through Web services architecture, and the ability to create HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant reporting.(Epicor Software Corporation)
| | | Carlson Hospitality Worldwide with IEX - In the first year, CHW said it eliminated 1,000 hours of shrinkage per month and reduced labor costs by 8 percent. Manual processes were automated and cycle time was reduced.(IEX Corporation, a Tekelec Company)
| | | EDS-Saturn Can Grow with Witness - The most critical factor in EDS-Saturn's decision to implement eQuality was the software's ability to grow with the organization and meet ever-changing industry demands. While EDS-Saturn currently uses eQuality to record interactions from both a voice and data perspective, the software can evolve with EDS-Saturn as the organization adopts other mediums for interacting with customers, including e-mail and Web chat.(Witness Systems)
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Oct 26-28, 2005: Help Desk Professionals - This event is dedicated to the advancement of the Technical Support Professional. The program will feature the industry's top speakers who will share with you current trends, templates and hands-on experiences.
| | | September 7, 2005: MPM Forum Series - The CMO Council's worldwide MPM Forum Series brings together top marketing executives in a unique, open exchange of views and opinions on how to introduce Marketing Performance Measurement disciplines, processes and solutions to enterprise organizations.
| | | Sept 26-29, 2005: Loyalty World - Inspiring loyalty is more than building a rewards programme. It's about providing customers with a truly unique and interactive experience that will develop an emotional connection with your brand.
| | | Oct 26-28, 2005: Help Desk Professionals - This event is dedicated to the advancement of the Technical Support Professional. The program will feature the industry's top speakers who will share with you current trends, templates and hands-on experiences.
| | | Oct 9-12, 2005: SSPA Conference - The Service & Support Professionals Association is leading the way in identifying and promoting innovative business and delivery models to help you shape the future of your service and support organization during the SSPA Conference in New Orleans. At this content-rich conference you'll find the new ideas and strategies you need to improve operational efficiency and maximize revenue. Keynotes presented by Cisco Systems, IBM and HP offer insider's view of the service and support models of these industry leading companies. The breakout session speakers include service and support executives from McAfee, ADP, Cognos, Computer Associates, EMC, SpikeSource, Xerox who also share innovative approaches to meeting customer needs in this ever changing industry.
| | Nov 7-9, 2005: The Customer Contact Conference - Join the Customer Care & Services Forum (CCSF) and DCI at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort in Scottsdale, AZ, November 7-9, 2005, for the premiere of the Customer Contact Conference: Turning Strategy into Action.
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| CRMAdvocate Stock Index |
| CRMSI | 39.64 |  | -0.07% |
| Dow Jones | 10,685.89 |  | 0.86% |
| Nasdaq | 2,174.55 | | 0.77% |
| S&P 500 | 1,237.81 | | 0.70% |
| Top Gainers |
| NCR | 36.09 | | 0.59 |
| SPSS | 21.57 | | 0.37 |
| Interact Intell | 5.4 | | 0.26 |
| Top Losers |
| salesforce.com | 23.95 | | -0.57 |
| Astea | 7.51 | | -0.49 |
| NICE | 45.48 | | -0.27 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 08/11/05 | |
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