Brendan Read
TMC
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...
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Avaya Takes Networking Lead in SPB
At Interop Las Vegas 2013 Avaya was demonstrating their real-world Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) solutions and while interoperating with Spirent, HP and...
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Alianza Wants to Host Your Software Telco
The software telco(r)evolution representing the move from hardware to software is perhaps the biggest trend in the world of carrier telecom this...
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WebRTC Screen Sharing Using Openfire
I've written about WebRTC screen sharing, but today I came across another WebRTC screen sharing solution leveraging Openfire and using WebSockets and...
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LTE Network Interactions
According to a recently released GSMA Wireless Intelligence infographic, there are 163 live LTE networks today, and that figure is expected...
Full Story »Will United + Continental = Fewer Contact Center Jobs?
May 7, 2010When companies merge the impetus is to immediately cut costs to achieve the hoped-of financial benefits. And all too often that means consolidation and cutbacks in the back offices i.e. contact centers.
So when United Airlines and Continental Airlines announced their merger earlier this week my radar went on to see if that is going to happen in this instance.
Can Outsourcers Bring Social Media Home?
April 21, 2010Outsourcing firms, especially those in the contact center space have to be that one-half-step ahead of their clientele, which tends to be fairly conservative, but which expects their suppliers to be on top of trends.
Yet this is a tail-perched-on-the-picket-fence situation because outsourcing is a notoriously highly-competitive thin-margin business and outsourcers have little spare cash. This means technology investments must have strong and immediate ROIs, yet these suppliers must find the money to have the tools to meet clients' needs.
And that sharp point is about to become even more uncomfortable with the rise of social media.
Peter Ryan, Lead Analyst - BPO and Contact Center Outsourcing & Services, Ovum says that means they need to be on top of social media for their clients. In a recent Ovum Straight Talk Daily he points out, and correctly, that social media has "has gone beyond the point of fad, with more users than ever signing up for membership on one or more platforms supporting these activities."
Ryan says Twitter now accounts for more than 100 million people as subscribers, and claims to be adding over 300,000 per day.
Don't Start Bulldozers Yet On Contact Center Expansion
April 12, 2010
Last month Noble Systems came out with a survey that it had commissioned which revealed that 97 percent of respondents expect their businesses to grow or remain stable in 2010, a sign, it says "of strong confidence in the industry." According to the survey, 48 percent expected that their business would grow in 2010 while 49 percent believed it would remain consistent. Only three percent anticipated a revenue reduction for the year.
"The survey confirms something we've known for years: the contact center industry is one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing sectors in the U.S. economy," said James K. Noble, President and CEO of Noble Systems.
Cracking Down On Dumb Telemarketing Tricks
March 31, 2010If one thinks that the rise of e-mail and the ease of spam has drawn all the mutts, skels and bottom-feeding marketers and clients from telemarketing, think again.
The trick du jour is spoofing phone numbers to make CallerID-savvy consumers and businesses think the callers are not telemarketers or are from other and reputable companies so that they will pick up the lines. Only to get a nasty surprise.
These lowlifes' strategies are to push their trickery, profiting from them until the inevitable crackdown.
CorpComm/PR Not Contact Centers For Managing Social Media
March 18, 2010One of the key issues that are emerging with the rise of social media as a customer interaction tool is who should track, analyze and respond to what is being said on these sites.
A strong argument can be made for social media being placed under the aegis of corporate communications/public relations (corpcomm/PR) either in-house or outside agencies rather than contact centers.
Here's why: social media is media. No different than print, radio, TV and blogs like this one.
How To Get Buy-In For Telework? Offer It To Managers
March 11, 2010One of the biggest obstacles in setting up and sustaining telework programs--including work-at-home-agents (WAHAs) ---is obtaining supervisor and manager buy-in.
Too many of these individuals still practice oversight in the same way that the Greeks and Romans ensured performance of their galleys: only with virtual monetary whips for in reality a comparable scale of earnings and benefits.
Oh well so much for all the tens of thousands of dollars spent in performance management and QA tools, and lesser sums in IM, e-mail, 'whisper' features and audio and web conferencing tools.
At the same time too many organizations try and practice corporate togetherness and collegiality--amidst layoffs, closure, hours cutbacks, benefit cuts, wage freezes (and rumors of such), lousy supervision, high turnover, not to mention the crazed callers--and their managers fear that by hiring and sending agents home these poor souls will feel somehow left out....
Canadians Are The Real Story of the 2010 Olympics
March 1, 2010
As a Canadian, whose home is in that now-familiar backdrop mountains, sea and urban environs of Metro Vancouver, I first want to thank all of you who have either visited here for the 2010 Winter Olympics or who are or who will be coming for the Paralympic Games and/or have been watching or plan to watch the events on TV and online via fixed or mobile devices.
It has been an honour (no misprint) to allow us to share with you what is the biggest story of the 2010 Olympics and that is the coming together and the coming out of Canada, and Canadians permitting us to show for the first time how proud and united we have become as a nation, one that is truly a 'true north, strong and free'.
In 1978 I was working as a security guard in Edmonton, Alberta, which that year hosted the Commonwealth Games, whose athletes come from countries that had made up the British Empire. I was assigned to a Games cultural pavilion in asset protection and crowd management roles.
More Reasons Why Traditional Contact Centers Are Doomed
February 23, 2010
I've been covering and working in this industry for over 14 years yet I've always thought the notion of contact centers, especially inbound first level ones kind of strange, as if they were a transitional means until the technologies and practices caught up with consumer and business demands for sales and service.
This is beginning to happen, which will doom traditional contact centers. If I were in the business of making contact center decisions I'd not approve any money to expand existing sites, or buy outsourcing services located in on-premises locations. Instead I would put the money into automated voice and web solutions, home agents and presence.
Not Serving Obnoxious Customers
February 10, 2010At the risk of disloyalty to my 'home and native land' i.e. Canada; I tolerate Tim Horton's coffee. I'll drink it if I'm on the road, need a jolt and there isn't anything else i.e. Starbucks reasonably available.
Hope For Haiti Telethon Results
January 26, 2010The Hope for Haiti telethon was a success. The Los Angeles Times reported that more than 83 million people tuned in Friday night with an average audience of more than 24 million viewers, leading to at least $61 million in to help survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake.
Those viewers generated massive call volumes. TeleTech was one of several companies assisting in taking donor calls.
