Brendan Read : The Readerboard
Brendan Read
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| Contact Center/CRM Views and Analysis

Longview IoT Boosts Energy and Wireless Efficiency

Some of the biggest challenges slowing down the adoption of IoT are security, efficient battery usage and optimized wireless communications.One company has...

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Hallmark's Simple, Inexpensive Way to Boost Customer Satisfaction

In an effort to boost margins, companies often push more users to automated solutions such as FAQs, chatbots, voice bots and anything...

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Huawei Places the World's First 5G VoNR Video Call

Huawei recently completed the world's first voice over NR (VoNR) call. The voice and video call service was made using two Huawei...

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IGEL Advances Future of Work

IGEL is a provider of a next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s software products include IGEL OS, IGEL UD Pocket (UDP) and Universal...

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Tata Communications and Cisco Collaborate on SD-WAN

Tata Communications and Cisco have extended their partnership to enable enterprises to transform their legacy network to a customized and secure multi-cloud...

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How to Win the 50-Year-Old China Trade War

Today and this week in-fact is historic - the left and right in the U.S. agree that we have a major trade...

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Extreme Elements Enables The Autonomous Enterprise

Extreme Networks just announced Extreme Elements which in-turn enables the autonomous network and subsequently the autonomous enterprise. In a dynamic webinar, Dan...

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Lest We Forget...

November 11, 2009

Take a moment today, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, to think about and honor those who sacrificed, and who are willing to sacrifice their lives for our freedoms, for our nations.

The most moving words that have written about those who fought and died in war, and who continue to do so is arguably the poem 'In Flanders Fields'. It was written, reports Wikipedia by a Canadian military physician, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae on May 3, 1915 during the infamous 'War to End All Wars' i.e. the First World War, after he had watched his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, only 22 years old, die in battle the day before in Belgium.

Automation Dooming Indian Outsourced Contact Center Jobs?

November 9, 2009

Well thanks to technologies such as electronic order entry, improved IVR, speech recognition but more importantly web self-service and more recently outbound notifications there is a growing realization that automation could doom many jobs, such as in contact centers, even in India, long the land of low-cost offshore outsourcing.Does this mean that offshoring will end? Well...no. As India's companies and employees become more expert and proficient with technology, expect them to develop and refine automated solutions...at less cost than their North American counterparts.

Why Treat Contact Center (and Other Service) Employees Well In Tough Times

November 3, 2009

Ask anyone who works in the service sector: contact centers, hospitality, retail, and transportation especially, the one thing besides lousy supervisors and managers that drives them up the wall and that is wild scheduling--days, times, even locations worked changed on a moment's notice--resulting in fewer hours and less income. Having said that, and on the positive said there are a good many companies, including contact centers that do treat their people well. They get the message that in the service business your employees are your principal investment because it is they that interfaces with the end-customers i.e. the one who give you money. And, not surprisingly, these outfits have strong balance sheets, enabled by productivity-and-revenue enhancing loyalty.

Do We Need Contact Centers?

October 28, 2009

Are contact center agents, which are still known as 'operators' in the answering service world going the way of elevator operators? For every contact center opening and expansion heralded there have been the understandably less trumpeted closures and cutbacks thanks to automation.

The Environment, Climate Change, and Contact Centers

October 23, 2009

How do environment and climate change issues impact business functions like contact centers? Easily and painfully. For if harmful substances are pumped and dumped into the environment: air, on the ground, and in the water your health and finances, that of your family, your employees and their families, and your customers will suffer. These impacts also includes higher healthcare costs that shift spending away from other items (like yours), decreased productivity via absenteeism hikes and resulting increased staffing/training expenses, growing disaster risks, and losses.

'Cowardly Callers' in U.S., Canada?

October 21, 2009

came across this excellent, insightful study of what I term 'cowardly callers' conducted by solutions firm Corizon and YouGov of abusive U.K. callers--the press release says " Contact Centre Rage: Corizon Survey Finds Scots, Men and the under-30s to Be the Worst Offenders" and it got me to thinking: has there been /can there be a similar study in the U.S. and Canada?

Another Social Networking Landmine: 'Kind' Reviews

October 14, 2009

My black journalist's heart loves contrarian stuff. And what is darker and more contrarian than this quite correct observation/report from Christopher Null's The Working Guy blog 'Why user reviews are worthless'. This is one more IED in the social networking field that could blow customer service/marketing/ strategies up in enterprises' faces. It joins firms using social networking (including reviews) to plump their products and diss their competitors.

Save Lives, Reduce Injuries, Cut Health Costs, Don't Drive and 'Telecommunicate'

October 7, 2009

So I ask this industry: when are you going to wise up and take a leadership role and get with it on ending driver distraction by technology i.e. to ban and punish harshly those who 'telecommunicate' (phone, text, video, etc.) when operating a motor vehicle? Like the Province of Ontario's new law (yes I used to be an Ontario resident and motorist with a clean driving record and I supported its legislation) that comes into effect Oct.26.

Creating the Ultimate Tablet PC

September 30, 2009

So Apple is going to re-invent the Newton to create the ultimate tablet with the return Michael Tchao? That's the big rumor... I hope so. None of the current devices really cut it for serious to use the rock band Tubes song title: "keyboard kids." Take it from this longtime (yeah 20+ years) heavy duty portable computing device user: Apple should borrow/swipe/steal as much as it could from Kyocera i.e. Radio Shack, the makers of the TRS-80 T100s and T200s.

Avaya 's Act To Keep The Nortel Deal?

September 25, 2009

Unless there has been backroom assurances and promises that haven't yet seen the light of day, seeking the review is a gutsy move by Avaya to quell the negative press over rumored layoffs--and the reports of Nortel customers going to competitors--aimed at stanching what the cynical would regard the rapidly bleeding value of its costly purchase.
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