Brendan Read
TMC
CloudTC and N-Able Acquired
"Australian-owned IP PBX systems company, Vixtel, has completed the acquisition of Silicon Valley based glass phone developer, CloudTC, for an undisclosed figure,"...
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ProfitBricks: Where InfiniBand Meets Cloud 2.0
In a recent meeting with William Toll and Pete Johnson of ProfitBricks, the pair were ecstatic to explain how their company has...
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Proactive Care Puts Operators One Step Ahead
By Thomas Fuerst, Senior Director, Multimedia Solutions MarketingAlcatel-Lucent
Monitoring and analyzing network data proactively saves operators time, money, and customers.
When a network service fails, it makes headlines, ticks off customers, and costs that network operator money. When a failure is headed off in advance, on the other hand, there might not be praise-laden headlines, but it's newsworthy nonetheless.
The traditional approach to customer care has typically been: a disgruntled customer calls customer service and complains of a service interruption or problem; the rep, learning of it for the first time, sends out a technician the next day, and eventually finds a resolution. Often, customers are left feeling put out, and the operator has spent significant time and money resolving the problem. Even worse is the customer who doesn’t call and just feels this is ‘typical’ of their network experience. That is a customer at risk of leaving.
Proactive care flips this dynamic on its head by using predictive analytics to identify potential outages or errors in the network and stop them before they occur. It consists of three main parts: one, constantly monitoring and measuring data on the network; two, real-time analysis of the data; and three, the most important, acting on that analysis to fix the problem.
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10 Lessons from Volleyball
I've played volleyball for over 25 years. I have traveled around the US to watch the pros live - both indoor...
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Emerging Threats Combats a Million Plus Pieces of New Malware a Week
There are 250,000 plus new pieces of malware being produced each day equating to one piece per person in the US in...
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NFV-Based Software Telcos Need OSS/BSS Interoperability
One of the goals of ETSI NFV is to allow new entrants to provide solutions to carriers based on software instead of...
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SysAid's Lifshitz: The Cloud Will Dominate ITSM Market
Cloud computing has really become a household word with mainstream media outlets running stories on television about the growth in the space...
Full Story »Rx For Downturn: Better Marketing, Better Customer Service
January 29, 2009One would think that in a marketplace that is being buffeted by the nastiest economic downturn in years and by a shift in customers' attitudes from passive respondents to becoming active, empowered, participants that companies would step up their marketing and backed by strong customer service.
Yet there is unfortunately evidence to the contrary. And companies that fail to get the word out, and deliver effective service risk failing, period.
"The most amazing statement I have heard in my career - and I am hearing it frequently these days is - we are waiting for sales to pick up so we can start marketing, " wrote TMC Group Publisher Rich Tehrani in his blog. "This is the equivalent of going to the fireplace and telling it you are waiting for it to produce heat before you put a log in.
Attention Microsoft: Focus on Quality, Core Competencies Or Go The Way of GM
January 26, 2009
If there is any hopeful upside in Microsoft's recent announcement that it is laying off 5,000 people is that the harsh economic and marketplace realities correctly identified by TMC Group Publisher Rich Tehrani in his recent blog will at last force this software behemoth: the 'General Motors of Tech' to focus on delivering quality products that customers want than have to buy. For the risk that Microsoft may find itself in similar straits as GM is today is all too real.
Empires collapse because they fail to deliver the goods: prosperity, reasonable order, and security that those who buy into them expect. Microsoft has had too many adventures away from its core business and consumer applications, and it has failed to make too many of them, such as the atrocious Windows ME as well as the much-maligned Vista perform right.
Genesys' Timely Deals: Consernos and SDE
January 22, 2009One of the signature features of Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, owned by Alcatel-Lucent, and why it is highly respected is its ability to execute thoroughly: whether in devising and enhancing new software or buying other industry firms.
A case in point is Genesys' announcements today of two acquisitions: Conseros, which provides software that enables dynamically prioritizing work task distribution, and SDE the creators of the Genesys Customer Interaction Portal (GCIP). The two moves are very timely because these firms bring to Genesys, and to its customers and prospects solutions that can help them increase their productivity and reduce costs.
The Conseros acquisition adds to the Genesys intelligent Workload Distribution (iWD) solution the ability to extend and route calls to outside of contact centers, such as bank tellers, field techs, retail clerks, and back office staff based on skills-based routing and availability.
The Blending of The Retail Channels
January 21, 2009Avaya's new In-Store Connect and Video Assist solutions are the latest tools that are incrementally enabling the long-promised but slowly being delivered integration of the retail channels: in-person, contact center, and the web.
This movement promises to deliver high quality customer-retaining/attracting service, better knowledge of customers to provide services in accordance with their value while lowering costs i.e. true retail CRM: which is what the retail sector desperately needs in this tough economy.
Just as customers switch between communications channels, choosing the ones that meets their needs at the time, they flip between sales channels for that reason.
Must The Media Get Involved To Ensure Quality Customer Service?
January 20, 2009Canada's Toronto Star newspaper recently ran an excellent article by its consumer affairs columnist, Ellen Roseman, on several firms that have responded well when faced with consumer complaints or incidents. These companies are Molson, Staples, GM, and Future Shop.
"'I'm not looking for thanks when I send consumer complaints to large companies,' "she wrote. " 'But I'm always impressed when they respond with gratitude.
Contact Centers and Economic Development
January 19, 2009Contact center services are providing one of the few bright employment spots in a dismal economic climate, what with retail bankruptcies and closures and manufacturing shutdowns.
Firms are opening new facilities, such as IBM in Iowa that is reported that will employ 1,300 people, plus a delivery center in Michigan that will employ about 100. There are the home agent additions that seldom get reported but which are spreading across the U.S. and in Canada, and which will be the future of contact centers because they provide maximum performance and productivity at least costs with optimal flexibility and business continuity.
Why $40B in Broadband Availability Is Worth While
January 16, 2009President-Elect Barack Obama is likely to direct up to $40 billion in grants and loans toward improving broadband availability and speeds as part of broader economic stimulus efforts, according to UBS analysts.
And that's great news, because the nation needs a countrywide and affordable broadband network to connect in the 21st century just as it needed roads in the 20th and railroads in the 19th.
Only broadband can provide access to work (e.g. work at home contact center agents) and services from anywhere; only broadband can make a sufficient and realizable dent in harmful commuting.
Congrats, Interactive Intelligence, For Becoming #1 in Unified Communications
January 13, 2009It couldn't happen to a nicer, more deserving, and innovative firm.
Interactive Intelligence has been rated, according to Datamonitor, the top unified communications (UC) vendor by North American contact centers who chose it as the one "they most trust to deliver a UC solution."
Datamonitor's "Business Trends: Contact Center Investments in Developed Markets (Customer Focus)" report, which released the finding, also showed Interactive Intelligence as the favored UC vendor by larger enterprises worldwide and as the highest rated UC vendor for delivering solutions to the communications vertical. The study cited among the top characteristics enterprises look for in a UC vendor are an 'all-in-one' contact center solution, a strong combination of technology and services, and "best-in-class" IM.
Information for the Datamonitor "Business Trends" report was collected via phone surveys of 150 contact center managers from companies throughout North America and Western Europe.
The Key Obstacle to Telework Is In The Mirror
January 12, 2009
There is no longer any sound reason to open and keep formal contact centers; the same also goes for most office-type work from administration to finance, marketing/sales and yes to media/PR that no longer requires face-to-face interactions to perform. Instead these functions should be sent home.
There are no benefits to be gained from expending scarce capital and operating dollars on such overhead that does not contribute to and one can argue detracts from production, and profits. Overhead which is also responsible for causing transportation demand leading to traffic congestion, air pollution, and harm from emissions and accidents, and high individual and corporate taxes.
The 4-1-1 on Cell/IP 9-1-1
January 8, 2009
The Canadian communications regulator acted finally right if tragically late by requiring technology to be put in place enabling 9-1-1 dispatchers to trace calls from cellphones by 2010. Had Canada followed the U.S. lead of a few years ago several lives, including that of a British Columbia man who froze to death last week, could have been saved. Yet the U.S.
