Jim Machi : Industry Insight
Jim Machi

December 2016

You are browsing the archive for December 2016.

Contact Centers - Where is it now, and what's next?

December 27, 2016

With IVRs, many of us understand that when we make a call, we may not even actually talk to a person. We may be talking to a computer.  And we totally accept it.  The computer voice will be the onramp to some database and find us the answer. 

Airlines Fly Over Contact Center Expectations

December 20, 2016



Last week, I talked about the different contact center channels. I mentioned that airline contact centers do a good job of keeping up with customers’ demands and expectations of communication.

Many of us travel quite frequently so just looking at how an airline operates is a great example of a modern contact center.  Right now as I write this, I am in the middle of an intercontinental trip. 

Comparing Contact Center Channels

December 13, 2016

The contact center has always been technically innovative.  The quest to both improve customer service while reducing expenses at the same time, while potentially oxymoronic, gets pulled off in this space because of technical innovation.  In fact, the contact center used to be called a call center, because, well, the only way to contact one, or to have one contact you, was to place a phone call.  Contact centers were one of the first industries to really embrace IP communications because of this very reason. 

Scoring My 2016 Predictions

December 6, 2016


This is the time of year I typically grade myself on the predictions I made this time last year.

NFV: I predicted that we’ll see someone claim that they have implemented an NFV network, but I also said that it will be hard to believe that it would all be able to happen in 2016 because of the MANO interop.  As far as I know, no one has made an NFV network claim, but MANO interop is still a mess.  So I get a B here, even though I’m going to appeal to the teacher to give me an A, because I was really right.

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