Recently in VoIP Category

Now that some $7 billion+ will be spent on rural broadband expansion, thanks to President Obama's just signed $787 billion economic stimulus package, the interesting question becomes which broadband technologies, wired or wireless should be supported i.e. subsidized to deliver it.

To get at the answers let's look at the two key benefits of this program:

1. It opens the door to truly effective e-commerce to residents and businesses, thereby increasing the availability of competitively priced products and services, and enhancing the economy, and to more information and services like distance learning and telemedicine. That means less gas, vehicle wear, and time in the long drives to the nearest urban centers

2. It enables job creation in rural areas such as from telework

Many rural communities have missed out on the recent economic boom. Unemployment and underemployment have been high and is getting worse. A recent story in The Daily Yonder reports double-digit rates in many communities. The recent economic downturn has for example decreased demand for resources such as forestry products. Fewer new homes means less need for local loggers, sawmill workers, and truckers.

Telework--via broadband--enables organizations that have forward-enough management i.e. supervision-by-performance rather than by-pointing-to-heads into this excellent supply of hard working individuals. It can also save them money: $10,000 to $20,000 per agent per year and improve customer satisfaction and retention, and revenues.

Not surprisingly telework through home-based agents is emerging as a viable alternative to offshoring. The cost savings and productivity benefits through home agents have made U.S. and Canada viable competitors to other countries for call handling.

There is a wide range of existing and developing broadband technologies available. TMC Group Publisher Rich Tehrani has in a recent blog pointed to broadband over power line (BPL), along with satellite, 3G, 4G (WiMAX/LTE), and perhaps white space technology. He correctly points out that the 'jury is still out' on these choices, and for good reason.

While with the exception of satellite, whose setup can be problematic (ask a rural resident who has tried to get it going) most of these methods appear to be fine for Internet access and e-mail.

Where the issue lies, however, is with VoIP. VoIP can and has for many firms made teleworking/home-based agents possible by dramatically reducing communications costs. No more LD charges from the switch to remote workers 50+ miles away.

Yet according to conversations with firms such as inContact and MegaPath there are quality of service (QoS) issues with wireless: cellular and satellite transmission. These methods have apparently not delivered consistent high enough QoS that callers, and companies expect. There are also other obstacles to VoIP ranging from old copper and data networks to home networks, depending on who you talk to.

There has been sufficient concern with VoIP to prompt three prominent pure-play telework outsourcers: Alpine Access, Arise, and Working Solutions to prohibit VoIP by their agents. Meanwhile 'blended' teleservices firms like Convergys that permit their home agents to have VoIP can route calls to bricks-and-mortar agents.

Yet in another strike against wireless, for Internet access to work at home applications, Convergys also clearly states that "Wireless or satellite broadband does not work effectively with our desktop configuration, and therefore does not meet our requirements".

Even with the good QoS on the network there can be inconsistency. You can have two VoIP 'lines' at home, one for work and one for personal, being fed from the same source, yet the quality can be different for each.

The alternative to integrated high QoS VoIP+ data: broadband for Internet--assuming that it can support work-at-home hosted solutions--and PSTN for calls would become just as unwieldy for rural residents and businesses as it is becoming for those in more urban areas, many of whom are opting for voice/data through the same pipe.

The future of voice communication according to many experts is VoIP rather than old-fashioned PSTN. If that is the case the VoIP issue, along with the need to support intensive web-based solutions, needs to be explored and resolved before any tax dollars are handed over to companies to install rural broadband.

Contact centers have always to do more with less, and not surprisingly they have been on the practical edge of technology solutions and practices including e-learning, IP telephony, IVR/speech rec, monitoring, telework, and workforce management. Tools and techniques spearheaded by contact centers, such as the shift to home-based workers, are according to the Telework Coalition being watched and adopted by other sectors.

It is a welcome sign that the Obama Administration is tech savvy, which will encourage development of new technologies and methods that will help contact centers, and all other business functions and sectors, become even more productive and efficient. As noted in Rich Tehrani's recent blog "you begin to realize there could be a massive shot in the arm for the tech sector next year."

Our sector has to do our part, instead of relying totally on government. Fortunately the business cases for adopting IP, telework and speech rec especially are powerful, and if deployed on a widespread basis could lower costs across the board while improving productivity sufficiently to pull us out of the doldrums.

An excellent TMC webinar sponsored by IEX, a NICE systems company last week revealed that the potential US employer annual savings through telework from reduced absenteeism, recruiting costs, and from increased productivity could be as high as $441 billion. A webinar earlier this year by Aumtech, Microsoft, and JetBlue demonstrated that you can successfully deploy speech rec at the fraction of typical costs.

There are open-source, hosted, and outsourced solutions for these applications that can enable their adoption with low up-front outlays. The individual and nationwide ROI is there.

So what are we waiting for?

When I saw the press release from the American Teleservices Association and DialAmerica reporting that most major teleservices clients would leave their outsourcer vendors because they were dissatisfied with them i.e. the service they were getting, I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or curse or all three at the same time. Naturally I turned this into an article that I put on our site.

After all, what are teleservices firms in the business for, except to deliver services? If they can't deliver them to their clients' satisfaction then why should they exist?

The underlying issue is quality. Teleservices companies have historically been the 'teleprofessionals': the experts with the expertise to deliver high quality customer care and acquisition at low costs.

Yet too many teleservices outfits have dropped the ball for reasons both preventable i.e. greed, incompetence, lack of attention to detail, underpricing, and understandable: limited resources, overly demanding clients, costly new technologies with long-burn ROIs, and offshore and onshore competition.

In fairness, and to the last set of points, clients too must share part of the blame, including for the low service quality their customers get. Stressing cost over price, which too many outfits still do results in poor results for cheap: you get what you pay for. Lousy metrics and lists generate lousy returns: garbage in/garbage out.

This leads to another key question: is the teleservices industry sustainable? The hard reality is that outsourcing is a more expensive solution than in-house centers because the outsourcers' profits have to calculated into the total costs. The only savings--and rationale--for outsourcing, is avoiding staffing and facilities costs for short-term programs. That is why organizations typically have a core in-house group to handle the steady calls and outsource the rest.

Yet advancements in speech rec, and increasing comfort levels with employee home agents are making these options viable to handle outsourced calls. Outsourcers like Working Solutions are wisely also marketing their platforms to serve in-house operations.

The only choices available for teleservices firms seem to be:

* Get back to the quality roots. Make the people and processes outperform the best in-house centers. Clear out the management and supervisory deadwood. Lead, follow or get the (H) out of the way. Do whatever it takes. Teleservices can be better than 'DIY'

* Go innovative techwise. There are a wide range of hosted solutions on the marketplace for everything from CRM to routing to WFO. Go SIP ASAP

* Board up traditional contact centers--they are a waste of money and those jobs tend too often attract low-performing 'gumsmacker' young slackers--and instead go home where one can recruit higher quality, mature, and responsible adults

* Focus on the clients. Treat them like gold, because they are.

The firms that do the above will survive this economy and prosper, and may find themselves at the top of our Top 50 Teleservices Agencies, where they belong.

Imagine being able to take and make calls, receive e-mails, IMs, and SMS, and at the same time manage web-enabled applications like hosted CRM and workforce management in a convenient, go-anywhere, user-friendly wireless appliance.

Imagine no more being tangled up in cords, or fiddling with multiple (and expensive) gadgets.

Imagine having at last a truly usable phone for home workers, including contact center agents and supervisors.

The hard reality is that when you are working from home you do get interrupted, like for deliveries, plumbers, other contractors, family responsibilities: which beats productivity and cost-wise having to leave early/arrive late to handle when working in a traditional office. Such a device would enable you to stay in touch and keep on the go while signing documents, giving instructions, etc.

The reality of having such a tool may be closer than you may think: in the form of an IP-enabled iPhone that acts like a mutant cordless handset.

Give the credit and kudos to Group Publisher Rich Tehrani who revealed in his blog just before ITEXPO West how the iPhone can become the ultimate (and universal) handset via IP by using the extra wire connected to the headphone jack.

This is roughly similar in concept to the Hutchison Telecom Telepoint hybrid cordless/microcellular units marketed in the UK in the early 1990s which if you were in range of one of these base stations you could make calls. I used to live and work near Manchester, England where this was launched and saw these 'points' but I never witnessed anyone using them. You could also use the devices at home as cordless sets.

What I'd like to see is someone to bring back the Tandy TRS80-T100--the first truly functional portable computer: the ultimate tablet--with 21st centry functionality.

The T100 combined word processing, BASIC, a small but readable screen, a built-in modem, and a a rugged keyboard: features that made it the journalist's best friend. You could, using an acoustic coupler, zap files over a pay phone. I used the clamshell model, the T200, when I wrote for the Manchester (N.H.) Union-Leader over 20 years ago, and it far beat most laptops I've relied on since.

I and other journalists, programmers, and other keyboard-intensive users have been reluctant to switch over to BlackBerries, etc. because the keys and pads are too small and unforgiving for us two-fingered demons, and the screens are way too small. The tablets that have come on the market in recent years lacked usability.

What are firms like Apple, and they and other practical geniuses who can box and package proven technologies waiting for?

While managing the SIP in the Contact Center Certification track at ITEXPO West yesterday I came across two excellent insights courtesy of the speakers and the attendees.

In a discussion following TDI CTO Mark Moore's session on enabling home-based agents arose the issue of how to manage bandwidth at home agents' premises, what with everyone else in the household tapping into wireless networks unbeknownst to the agents.

The concern is to make sure the demand on the pipe at home is not constricted to the point where agents cannot access applications they need. This can be an issue in many households, especially with teenagers...one that I will be looking into...and reporting back on.

I don't have that problem in my household as the cable feed, base set phones (we have IP for residential too as well as for my work) the wireless hub are in my office, and I know exactly how many devices are on it. It helps that my peak usage times (daytime) are not the same as other users: my wife and a tenant, both of whom are full-time students at a local college.

Bandwidth may be a major issue in whether the cable companies in particular, are keeping up their investments in the pipes with demand. That's the issue I have where I live. That too I'll be reviewing...

The second insight is from Brian Spencer, president of Oaisys. He made a very good point in that you don't have to be live with customers to give excellent customer service. That it is OK to look into matters and get back to them, and in doing so reviewing call recordings to make sure that every issue customers raised and the importance they have given to them by language and tone of voice are followed up on.

This too will be followed up on in future articles.

Today is the 'last run' for the toll-free number connecting New Jersey Transit, the third largest transit agency in the US, with its customers.

Could this be the beginning of the end for toll-free numbers in North America?

NJ Transit has since June been switching callers from 800-772-2222 to 973-275-5555. When you call the toll free number today you will get a recorded message asking you to call the 973 number And according to an opinion piece in the July 22 Cherry Hill (NJ) Courier-Post, after July 31, there will no longer be any message at the 1-800 number.

NJ Transit abandoned toll-free to cut costs. The high gas prices have attracted more riders but have also increased the costs of diesel fuel used on its buses and many of its commuter trains: the agency also has an electrified commuter rail and light rail network.

The technology environment is finally right for ending toll-free service. NJ Transit, like many public agencies along with private companies, has been diverting calls away from live agents through the Internet, including a mobile-enabled site, and with proactive means such as automated outbound text alerts.

New Jersey residents, like many others across North America, have been switching from TDM to IP, which makes long distance charges irrelevant. My son, who lives in the central part of the state, bought IP with a package from his cable company. Also, North Americans are becoming used to paying per contact, as their counterparts in other parts of the world have long done, through their text messaging rates.

By dropping toll-free, NJ Transit could be blazing a trail for other companies and organizations to follow. The move saves money without cutting customer care, allowing scarce resources to be more efficiently deployed elsewhere.

There has been so far some cries against the move, such as the aforementioned newspaper editorial (see below), because it does increase the costs and hassle of information access from especially poorer customers. Yet the screams have not been loud enough at this point to get the agency to change its mind.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080722/OPINION/807220303/1046

Who will be the next to follow in NJT's path? Do I hear any roar from the airlines?

Communications giant Bell Canada does not get often get much praise by consumers, telco professionals, and the media in its "home and native land".

This traditional of the traditional telcos has plodded behind the cable companies and others in offering competitive pricing and new services like residential IP and sometimes indifferent service. Not surprisingly, more consumers have let the old TDM-carrying copper wires go dead and instead are plugging into coaxial cable or go wireless altogether--including with firms other than Bell.

Bell, and some of its other communications counterparts have been ripped into by consumer advocates for their decision to charge for inbound text messages, including spam. Two Quebec residents, one a Bell customer, and the other a Telus subscriber, have just launched a lawsuit against the two carriers.

Yet Bell deserves some applause for its decision to let go old-line executives and managers rather line staff as part of its reorganization and cost cutting as part of its recent and record-breaking $35 billion+ leveraged buyout.

More surprisingly for jaded observers it is reportedly increasing its customer-facing staff: who are usually but shortsightedly canned when such deals take place.

Could this mean that Bell will emerge as a truly competitive, dynamic carrier, one that will provide leading-edge price-savvy services to back its customer care, to contact centers, other businesses, and to consumers, and win back those it has been attriting to other companies?

Bell has the network, and the resources to win, and not just by default. The service and pricing of some of its competitors is not exactly great, in absolute terms. It could also probably show the equally 'loved' US carriers a few things too.

Forget about the economic cooldown: the IP solutions market is hot!

As proof, Rich Tehrani reports in his blog that over 90 percent of booth space at Internet Telephony Conference and Expo West (IT Expo) http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/, which is being held Sept.16-18 in Los Angeles is sold out.

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/apple/itexpo-90-sold-out.html

Few other technologies have the ability to deliver both cost savings and quality service as the IP-enabled applications and tools, which now support nearly every facet of contact center operations: from routing to recording, to CRM, and to linking home-based agents.

If you are a contact center executive you will find a strong ROI from attending IT Expo even with higher airfares and gas costs, You will pick up insights from a great roster of speakers and from finding out firsthand about IP-enabled products and services from exhibitors.

What you will discover will help your operations grow customer bases and revenues and lower costs. For there is nothing like being at an event and a show to learn, network, and try out new ideas, make contacts, check out the latest solutions, and to find the answers that you are seeking.

If you are a solutions firm and have not yet made up your mind whether to exhibit I invite you to check out the value prop ASAP and sign up before the space is all sold out.

I've been covering and attending shows in this industry for nearly 13 years and it is rare that I've come across an event like this with such buzz. It goes to show that the future lies in developing and applying practical technologies like IP that can be profitably used throughout an entire organization.

IP is becoming part of our everyday existence. For example more and more people like myself have switched from TDM/PSTN to IP for our household wireline phones. The cable pipe that transmitted this blog entry is supporting one other computer, two phone lines and several e-mail, web, and SMS applications.

And as IP becomes the norm so will the need for solutions to run off it, thereby generating increasing demand for them from the best and brightest of our developers and entrepreneurs--whose products and services will be at IT Expo.

TMCnet's Susan Campbell wrote an article today called, "Study: Customer Satisfaction with VoIP Higher than Traditional and Mobile Services" about a survey conducted by Level 3 Communications. The article states that, "In fact, the study reveals that 86 percent of VoIP customers are very satisfied with their service, compared to 74 percent satisfaction among traditional landline customers and 66 percent satisfaction among wireless customers."

I can happily report that I am one of those people who are happier with their VoIP service than other telecom services. But I've got an easy reason:

Former bill from SBC for the privilege of keeping a (practically unused) landline: $42.

Current cell phone bill, for the privilege of using my phone maybe 60 minutes per month: $40.

Vonage bill: $14.99 plus tax.

Whoever said "money doesn't buy happiness" never considered that saving money on telecom bills can bring something close to it, at least in a small measure.

TES