Off-Shoring Telesolutions Call Centers: A Huge Cost Savings or One of the Biggest Expenses Your Company Will Ever Face
Introduction
With today’s uncertain Telesolutions economic forecast and the constant pressure to reduce costs, many companies have outsourced their call center operations to off-shore or “near-shore” facilities. By off-shoring, these companies can save money and find a highly educated – and frequently, a highly technology-skilled – workforce. However, cultural differences, heavy accents, inadequate training and insufficient hiring practices can lead to poor customer satisfaction experiences, causing a loss of customer loyalty and ultimately, a loss in sales.
This best-practices article focuses on the issues faced by telesolutions companies who currently have international call center operations or are considering it in the near future – as well as what can be done to address those issues. It discusses how to improve the customer experience and thus customer loyalty through better hiring, management and especially, training practices.
When it comes to customer service, U.S.-based customers expect a certain level of customer experience. When they make a call to handle a denied credit card, dispute a discrepancy on a bill, solve a computer problem or make a change to an already-booked airline ticket, they are often frustrated before they even pick up the phone. So when they reach a customer service representative with an indecipherable accent who can’t even solve their problem — requiring them to speak to a supervisor or worse, call back a second, third or fourth time — these customers are justifiably angry at the entire corporation. And the next time they have to make a purchasing decision, it’s likely they won’t choose you.
If your organization has sent your telesolutions call centers abroad — or plan on doing so to contain costs — how can you ensure your call center operations maintain a level of service consistent with your brand and message?
Why Some International Call Centers Have Failed
To begin, it helps to understand why some off-shore call centers have failed. The most obvious issue is customer service reps with heavy accents and hard-to-understand names. Through accent neutralization training and by issuing easier-to-understand monikers, those challenges can be readily solved. Also, we’ve recently found that that customers are more forgiving of foreign accents when a rep is confident, competent and able to manage requests. Simply put, there is more to a successful Telesolutions international call center than just focusing on accents.
Frieda Barry, President and Chairman of the Board at the Call Center Industry Advisory Council (CIAC) concurs. “We’ve all heard complaints and remarks about the accents of offshore agents. Interestingly, it’s been our observation at the CIAC that when the agent creates a connection with a customer, the accent is irrelevant — it’s a total non-issue. Regardless of where they’re located in the world, most agents are smart and if properly trained and empowered, they can deliver a successful customer experience.”
The deeper challenge is cultural. Many of the behaviors that Americans intuitively expect from a customer service representative are literally and figuratively foreign to international reps. U.S.-based customers expect a rep to offer empathy, ask thoughtful questions, use strong word choices and take control of the situation. However, in other countries, some of those traits are deemed offensive, which means that you can’t expect an overseas rep to instinctively employ them.
In some countries, especially those in the Asia and Pacific regions, reps innately lean more towards sympathy, rather than empathy. While American customers want their situation to be acknowledged, they don’t want sympathy or an “I’m so sorry”, which is overused and can seem insincere. Instead, customers want to feel confident that the customer service rep understands their issues and is able to solve it. By giving your customer service reps different word choices and a roadmap of ways to move the conversation forward, they can continue to feel like they are providing sincere responses in a way that resonates with your customer base.
Barry added, “Customers want to interact with agents in a way that is consistent with their values and expectations — they want an interaction that goes according to what’s normal for them and having to deviate from their norm can be difficult and cause them to perceive quality issues. This means agents need to be able to empathize with customers and respond in a culture-appropriate manner. This is difficult to do if the agents don’t understand the customer’s culture and perspective; they may have the best of intentions but come across to the customer as inappropriate and disconnected — creating an instant negativity.”
At one International Telesolutions call center, a customer service rep was ending each call with “I love you.” When asked why he chose those words, he said that he wanted to show the customer that he cared — not realizing the inappropriateness of the phrase in a business setting. By showing this rep different ways to respond, he was able to provide empathetic service without shocking or putting-off the customers.
Or, you might find that the rep isn’t asking enough questions. Some cultures believe that asking questions is intrusive, which can lead to critical aspects of the customer’s problem remaining unsolved.
Also, the foreign representative might not understand why the caller has the problem in the first place. For example, in India, until recently only the poor bought items on credit — so representatives were baffled why an affluent American would be calling about a credit card issue in the first place. If reps lack a general understanding of the customer’s issue at hand, they are less likely to be able to solve it effectively.
“Near-Shoring” Alleviates Cultural and Telesolutions Management Hurdles
Some organizations have bridged the cultural divide by “near-shoring” — rather than off-shoring — call centers in locations such as Guatemala, Mexico and Canada. In general, countries that are in or closer to North America tend to be culturally more similar to us than those in Asia and the Pacific Rim, which means there is less of a cultural leap to overcome when training. Other advantages of “near-shoring” are shorter travel distances and smaller time zone differences, making it easier for U.S.-based executives to oversee and manage those call centers on a daily basis.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Telesolutions Around Winnipeg
Welcome to Premier Telesolutions
If you're looking for a patient bedside communication and multimedia solution for your hospital trust, then we believe we have the right solution for you.
Premier Telesolutions is a full Patient Power Licence holder and P.A.S.A. approved. We provide various telephony and multimedia systems to over 100 NHS hospitals throughout the UK, whose Trusts now benefit from:-
* Improved patient telesolutions services
* Freed up nursing time
* Reduced costs for the Trust
* Increased patient well-being
We are unique in having a broad range of solutions that can support all ward types, whether in large acute hospitals or smaller community hospitals. So, even if you already have bedside communications and multimedia services, we believe we may be able to help both your Trust and your patient community by providing solutions for all your patients.
* Solutions that can save your Telesolutions Trust money
* Low cost solutions for the patient
* Solutions that require no bed release
* Solutions that can build upon existing system Telesolutions
Premier Bedside delivers everything from TV, Radio, Telephone, Movies and Internet Access to Electronic Patient Records and Meal Ordering, all direct to the hospital bedside.
Premier Easitalk is a low cost, easy to use, full outgoing and incoming bedside phone service – with the least possible ward disruption on installation.
Premier Easiview is a combined, low cost, easy Telesolutions to use, 20 channel bedside TV system with a full outgoing and incoming phone service.
Premier Payphones provide telesolutionsa managed service, offering a high quality service with particular focus within the NHS.
Premier Tele-Call delivers TV, Radio, Telephone and Movies direct to the hospital bedside.
If you're looking for a patient bedside communication and multimedia solution for your hospital trust, then we believe we have the right solution for you.
Premier Telesolutions is a full Patient Power Licence holder and P.A.S.A. approved. We provide various telephony and multimedia systems to over 100 NHS hospitals throughout the UK, whose Trusts now benefit from:-
* Improved patient telesolutions services
* Freed up nursing time
* Reduced costs for the Trust
* Increased patient well-being
We are unique in having a broad range of solutions that can support all ward types, whether in large acute hospitals or smaller community hospitals. So, even if you already have bedside communications and multimedia services, we believe we may be able to help both your Trust and your patient community by providing solutions for all your patients.
* Solutions that can save your Telesolutions Trust money
* Low cost solutions for the patient
* Solutions that require no bed release
* Solutions that can build upon existing system Telesolutions
Premier Bedside delivers everything from TV, Radio, Telephone, Movies and Internet Access to Electronic Patient Records and Meal Ordering, all direct to the hospital bedside.
Premier Easitalk is a low cost, easy to use, full outgoing and incoming bedside phone service – with the least possible ward disruption on installation.
Premier Easiview is a combined, low cost, easy Telesolutions to use, 20 channel bedside TV system with a full outgoing and incoming phone service.
Premier Payphones provide telesolutionsa managed service, offering a high quality service with particular focus within the NHS.
Premier Tele-Call delivers TV, Radio, Telephone and Movies direct to the hospital bedside.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Telesolutions Jobs at Dell
EDMONTON - Computer retailer Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) is closing a Telesolutions call centre in Edmonton this spring less than four years after it opened, a move that will cost 900 employees their jobs.
The Texas-based company, which is the world's No. 2 personal computer maker, said Thursday the Edmonton closing is part of a global plan to increase its efficiency and performance.
"This has been a difficult decision. We have a good team of people and will do all we can to help them and our community partners through this transition," Dave Vanden Bosch, Dell's Edmonton site leader, said in a statement.
Edmonton landed the Telesolutions call centre after offering Dell a $6-million incentive package, including a dollar-per-year lease on city land and a five-year property tax break.
Employees were told of the closure Thursday morning. Some will lose their jobs immediately and others will be let go in the coming weeks and months.
The Telesolutionscall centre is to close permanently sometime between May and the end of July, Dell spokesman Blair Patacairk said.
"These people have really contributed to Dell, and it is not a reflection on the people who work here or their talents. They are absolutely outstanding. It is a very difficult decision for us to make," he said.
Reports suggested Dell was paying staff at the call centre salaries that ranged from $28,000 to more than $45,000 per year.
Dell officials would not comment on what will happen to the building or its lease.
"In terms of what will happen to the building and the land, we are exploring a number of options," he said.
Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel said he is disappointed by the closure but appreciates that Dell is facing financial challenges and had difficulty retaining staff because of Telesolutions Alberta's hot economy. He said the high Canadian dollar was probably a factor as well.
Mandel said the city didn't give the company any cash up front, but isn't sure if it will recoup any forgone property taxes. The city retains ownership of the land the building is on.
"We knew it was coming, but we didn't think it would be to the degree it is. But it is sad when it happens," Mandel said.
"A positive economy has negatives too. Dell did come here on a hope that they would stay here long term. That didn't happen."
The closure is one of the biggest job cuts in Alberta in recent years and a sign that things may be starting to slow down a bit in the energy-rich province.
An official at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton, which trained about 600 Dell employees, said rumours of the closure have been circulating for months.
NAIT Telesolutions stopped offering training for Dell employees in September, said Terry Drabiuk, NAIT's director of corporate and international training.
"We haven't been doing any training for them since before Christmas, and we knew that they were ramping down," Drabiuk said, who added the closure will not affect the school or its staff.
"We knew this was coming. There were hints of it coming for a while."
The closure comes on the heels of cuts at Dell's Ottawa call centre, which is cancelling Telesolutions plans for a 1,200-employee expansion and reducing its current workforce of 1,500 by an unspecified number.
The two Canadian call centres were built and expanded in recent years as part of a global push to improve Dell's customer relations following a series of problems with some of its products as well as slowing market growth, declining profit margins and intense competition.
Employees affected by the closure were being offered severance and career placement services, Patacairk said. Dell said it plans to move work that was done at the call centre to other facilities.
Last May, the company said it would slash as many as 8,800 workers over 12 months but said no cuts would be made in Ottawa. Since then, the rapid rise of the Canadian dollar has hurt its operations.
The company refused to say exactly how many of the approximately 1,500 Dell Canada employees in Ottawa, who provide technical support for Dell customers in Canada and the United States, will lose their jobs.
But a spokesman said the number is in line with the company's overall aim of cutting its workforce by 10 per cent, suggesting about 150 jobs were being lost.
Dell Canada, headquartered in Toronto, also has offices in Montreal.
The company, which has been pushing its computers into more retail stores after building its business originally as a direct-marketing company, also announced Wednesday it will close its 140 shopping mall kiosks in the United States.
Dell Telesolutions now sells computers and other devices in more than 10,000 stores around the world, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Best Buy Co. It opened the kiosks in 2002 to boost sales of notebook computers.
Dell's U.S. consumer revenue declined 26 per cent for the six months ended Aug. 3, compared with the same period in 2006.
Telesolutions Intternational Dell Issues
Thursday, January 31, 2008
International Telesolutions
When it's your call,
and your image is on the line,
XACT is your best outsourcing solutions partner.
XACT TeleSolutions provides specialized communications and call handling solutions for over 20,000 customers. For 35 years we have partnered with our clients to help them achieve their targeted business objectives, increase revenue, lower costs and improve customer relationships. Voice-Over-IP call center technology, our nationwide network, systems and direct integration and extraordinary people has established XACT as a premiere service provider to America's leading organizations.
We invite you to learn how XACT can create efficiencies, save you money and improve your organization's communication.
We gather the information you need.
We extract from the caller the information you need in assisting them. XACT can also interface with service and dispatch software you may already use internally to help provide drivers, technicians and engineers information they need on the fly.
Managing on-call personnel and their schedules.
Sophisticated XACT technology allows the easy, flexible management of call-personnel, whether you have 1 or 50,000. Internet driven technology allows this software to be accessed from any web browser at any place in the world, 24 hours a day. Our software then integrates seamlessly into your call processing application, completing the solution. In addition, you can interactively change and update schedules on the fly, never having to worry that the wrong on-call technician or engineer will be contacted.
We're right on top of that.
We're not only reactive to your customers needs, but we are also proactive. We'll not only take the originating call and dispatch it to your employees, but we will also follow up with the customer to ensure their satisfaction was achieved. This valuable information can help you gauge your customers level of satisfaction and give you feedback that can help improve your business or offer rewarding feedback to your employees.
and your image is on the line,
XACT is your best outsourcing solutions partner.
XACT TeleSolutions provides specialized communications and call handling solutions for over 20,000 customers. For 35 years we have partnered with our clients to help them achieve their targeted business objectives, increase revenue, lower costs and improve customer relationships. Voice-Over-IP call center technology, our nationwide network, systems and direct integration and extraordinary people has established XACT as a premiere service provider to America's leading organizations.
We invite you to learn how XACT can create efficiencies, save you money and improve your organization's communication.
We gather the information you need.
We extract from the caller the information you need in assisting them. XACT can also interface with service and dispatch software you may already use internally to help provide drivers, technicians and engineers information they need on the fly.
Managing on-call personnel and their schedules.
Sophisticated XACT technology allows the easy, flexible management of call-personnel, whether you have 1 or 50,000. Internet driven technology allows this software to be accessed from any web browser at any place in the world, 24 hours a day. Our software then integrates seamlessly into your call processing application, completing the solution. In addition, you can interactively change and update schedules on the fly, never having to worry that the wrong on-call technician or engineer will be contacted.
We're right on top of that.
We're not only reactive to your customers needs, but we are also proactive. We'll not only take the originating call and dispatch it to your employees, but we will also follow up with the customer to ensure their satisfaction was achieved. This valuable information can help you gauge your customers level of satisfaction and give you feedback that can help improve your business or offer rewarding feedback to your employees.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Telesolutions International
TELESOLUTIONS
When executives at Corporate Express began looking at ways to improve efficiency, they expected to find at least a few redundant servers or applications. What they discovered were more than two dozen separate customer data systems running throughout the company.
A subsidiary of Corporate Express NV in the Netherlands, the Broomfield, Colo.-based company had staked its claim as one of the top business-to-business office supplies vendors in the market thanks in part to numerous acquisitions over the last decade. But each acquisition brought with it not just revenue but customer data and databases as well. It didn't take long for the company to realize it needed to streamline operations.
"We started looking at our overall enterprise architecture, and one of the things we began to document was the amount of customer data replication we were doing," said Doug LaVelle, head of the company's business relationship management team. To make matters worse, customer data often needed to be entered into separate systems manually, LaVelle said, almost guaranteeing inconsistencies.
To start the streamlining process, the company decided to consolidate its 28 call centers -- distributed throughout the country -- into one main call center with a secondary, back-up location. LaVelle and his team began identifying the processes used in those call centers to conduct customer transactions and discovered no fewer than 26 systems containing customer data. "[Not surprisingly] we saw a lot inefficiencies with how [call center representatives] went in and found customers in the different systems," LaVelle said.
Call center efficiency is measured by handle time -- the amount of time it takes call center representatives to successfully complete a customer transaction. In a large call center, reducing handle times by just 15 seconds can have a major impact on the bottom line. Corporate Express call center reps were clearly spending more time than they should searching for customer information, thereby increasing handle times and losing money for the company.
After evaluating several solutions, LaVelle and his team settled on customer data integration (CDI) vendor Purisma -- since acquired by Dun & Bradstreet -- to help solve the problem. The goal was to use Purisma's CDI tool to access customer data from the company's various data sources via "fuzzy search." A fuzzy search can reconcile various data entries for the same customer or product. If a customer is entered into various data sources by various names – say "John Smith" in one database, and "Mr. J. Smith" in another – a fuzzy search can identify the two as the same customer and present the correct data to the call center rep.
The project began beta testing with between 10 and 20 call center reps in September and went live across the company in December. While he does not have exact figures, LaVelle said handle times were indeed down thanks to Purisma's fuzzy search capabilities.
The biggest challenge in the call center project, he said, was actually not technology-related at all. It was convincing management to spend the money on a back-end software system that was less visible than, say, Corporate Express's e-commerce engine. The solution? LaVelle and his team sold the call center-CDI initiative as an add-on to a separate project aimed at consolidating the company's various order-capture engines.
"The struggle for us with that was when you look at the costs of these software packages in the CDM [customer data management] space, it's hard to justify the spend," he said. "So what we ended up doing was to go [to management] and say we have this other initiative, this order-capture initiative, and what we did was we tacked it on."
LaVelle said communicating the expected benefits of the call center project to the various business units involved, and managing the many stakeholders' expectations, were also key steps.
"When we looked at this project, we had benefit cases that were marketing-specific, merchandizing-specific and customer care-specific. We … had an IT benefit case as well," he said. "We were responsible for communicating that to the business and to the executive group that does the funding approval."
Once the order-capture engine project goes live, probably sometime in March, both Corporate Express's call center representatives and e-commerce users will be able to access customer data from the same Purisma application. Finally, everyone will be on the same page.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Tactical TeleSolutions
Tactical TeleSolutions Inc.
Private Company, Headquarters Location
550 Kearny St., Ste. 210, San Francisco, CA, United States
, http://www.tts-sf.com
Primary SIC: Surveying Services, Primary NAICS: Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services
Description: Services: Telemarketing.
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Private Company, Headquarters Location
550 Kearny St., Ste. 210, San Francisco, CA, United States
, http://www.tts-sf.com
Primary SIC: Surveying Services, Primary NAICS: Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services
Description: Services: Telemarketing.
Ads by Google
At Home Telemarketing? Easy Work At Home Telemarketing Work At Home Jobs $50 - $75 hr.
Telemarketing Scripts Telemarketing script ideas to help you create scripts that sell.
Telemarketing Calls Solutions for Your Small Business. Business Begins Here.
The ads are not affiliated with Tactical TeleSolutions Inc.
View this company profile - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Company Profiles
Free for 7 Days!
* 430,000 premium company profiles
* One of the largest collections of private companies you'll find anywhere
* Thousands of international businesses
* Unlimited Access
View the Tactical TeleSolutions Inc. Company Profile for FREE!
Add Executive Profiles - Get the names, titles, board memberships, education, and employment history for key professionals at thousands of companies.
(Powered by ZoomInfo)
Tell Me More Terms and Conditions
Purchase this company profile - Only $29.95!
Immediate online access. View Sample Profile
What's Included?
Contacts & Officers
News & Information
Company Financials
Divisions & Subsidiaries
and much more...*
Comparable Companies
Business Ranking
Add Executive Profiles - Just $15.00 more!
Add Executive Profiles to get the names, titles, employment history, board memberships, education, and more for key professionals who work at this company. (Powered by ZoomInfo)
* Information is provided when available. Some company profiles may not include all sections.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Telesolutions Calls
Telesolutions Calls
By Patrick Barnard
It often seems that the predictive dialer is the “unsung hero” of all the pieces of equipment that make up the contact center hardware ecosystem. The dialer just sits back there, in the server room, doing its thing, and no one ever seems to really pay much attention to it -- that is until it comes time to load it up with a new set of numbers for another outbound campaign.
A lot of people don’t realize it, but the efficacy with which a predictive dialer is used can actually make or break a telesolutions business – especially one which is reliant on outbound campaigns to stay alive. A dialer which is “overloaded” can end up connecting too many calls and overwhelm a call center, leading to high abandonment rates – while a dialer which is used too conservatively might not connect enough calls to keep all agents in the center busy (and there’s nothing worse for a company than having a bunch of agents sitting around, on the clock, doing nothing). If a company has a direct competitor which is making better use of its dialer system for automating outbound campaigns, chances are it will only be a matter of time before the difference in approach shows up on the bottom line. So, it is not only a matter of reaching your target customers faster, and more accurately, than your competitor, but also how effectively the dialer is used within the framework of your organization
These powerful dialing systems save call centers tons of labor, as agents no longer need to manually dial numbers on the telephone keypad or computer keyboard. The advantage, in terms of sheer volume, is self-evident: a predictive dialer telesolution can dial thousands of numbers in literally minutes, whereas this could potentially take all day with a contact center with a few dozen agents.
This also equates to an inherent advantage in terms of simple attrition: Out of all the calls made, typically about 25-35 percent connect to a live person. Of the rest, a large percentage (roughly 40-60 percent) won't be answered at all, around 10 percent might be answering machines, faxes, modems or other electronic devices; another 5 percent would be busy; and the rest would fall under the “other” category. For call centers that need to make large numbers of outbound calls, the advantage is obvious: It enables the agents to spend the majority of their time talking to customers, as opposed to dialing and dialing. In fact, in most manual dialing environments, a given agent will spend around 80 percent of his or her time dialing, and about 20 percent of the time talking to customers. Using advanced algorithms, these workhorses are used to predict both the availability of agents and called party answers, adjusting the calling telesolutions process to the number of agents it anticipates (or predicts) will be available when the calls it places are expected to be answered. In this sense, the predictive dialer serves as the “load balancer” for the call center.
Today’s predictive dialers have become sophisticated to the point where they can actually detect how each call is answered. If the line is busy, the dialer moves on to the next call, but it keeps a record of that busy signal so that it can call that number back in a specified period of time. Similarly, if an answering machine or fax machine picks up the line, the dialer detects this, makes a record of it, and tries connecting the call again later. Interestingly, some of today’s dialers include a speech recognition component which can detect whether the person answering the call is male or female. If the campaign involved specifies targeting only females, then the dialer will disconnect if a male voice answers the call and move on to the next number (some will argue that this is unethical, because it creates an annoyance for the called parties -- and for the most part it is undocumented how many organizations engage in this questionable practice).
Today’s predictive dialers “balance” the load for the call center through the use of dialing algorithms. The key is to find the perfect balance between the number of attempts and calls connected with the number of available agents. Today’s dialers base the number of attempts on how many agents are “on line” at any given time and take into account the average time it takes for an agent to complete a call. The telesolutions dialer dials ahead of the agent, so that another call is waiting for the agent each time they wrap up their current interaction. That way, as soon as the agent becomes available, there is another call waiting for them. In essence, the dialer works to maximize agent productivity. Considering the labor is the biggest piece of any contact center budget pie, it’s easy to see how dialers have assumed an important role in keep call centers “profitable.”
By Patrick Barnard
It often seems that the predictive dialer is the “unsung hero” of all the pieces of equipment that make up the contact center hardware ecosystem. The dialer just sits back there, in the server room, doing its thing, and no one ever seems to really pay much attention to it -- that is until it comes time to load it up with a new set of numbers for another outbound campaign.
A lot of people don’t realize it, but the efficacy with which a predictive dialer is used can actually make or break a telesolutions business – especially one which is reliant on outbound campaigns to stay alive. A dialer which is “overloaded” can end up connecting too many calls and overwhelm a call center, leading to high abandonment rates – while a dialer which is used too conservatively might not connect enough calls to keep all agents in the center busy (and there’s nothing worse for a company than having a bunch of agents sitting around, on the clock, doing nothing). If a company has a direct competitor which is making better use of its dialer system for automating outbound campaigns, chances are it will only be a matter of time before the difference in approach shows up on the bottom line. So, it is not only a matter of reaching your target customers faster, and more accurately, than your competitor, but also how effectively the dialer is used within the framework of your organization
These powerful dialing systems save call centers tons of labor, as agents no longer need to manually dial numbers on the telephone keypad or computer keyboard. The advantage, in terms of sheer volume, is self-evident: a predictive dialer telesolution can dial thousands of numbers in literally minutes, whereas this could potentially take all day with a contact center with a few dozen agents.
This also equates to an inherent advantage in terms of simple attrition: Out of all the calls made, typically about 25-35 percent connect to a live person. Of the rest, a large percentage (roughly 40-60 percent) won't be answered at all, around 10 percent might be answering machines, faxes, modems or other electronic devices; another 5 percent would be busy; and the rest would fall under the “other” category. For call centers that need to make large numbers of outbound calls, the advantage is obvious: It enables the agents to spend the majority of their time talking to customers, as opposed to dialing and dialing. In fact, in most manual dialing environments, a given agent will spend around 80 percent of his or her time dialing, and about 20 percent of the time talking to customers. Using advanced algorithms, these workhorses are used to predict both the availability of agents and called party answers, adjusting the calling telesolutions process to the number of agents it anticipates (or predicts) will be available when the calls it places are expected to be answered. In this sense, the predictive dialer serves as the “load balancer” for the call center.
Today’s predictive dialers have become sophisticated to the point where they can actually detect how each call is answered. If the line is busy, the dialer moves on to the next call, but it keeps a record of that busy signal so that it can call that number back in a specified period of time. Similarly, if an answering machine or fax machine picks up the line, the dialer detects this, makes a record of it, and tries connecting the call again later. Interestingly, some of today’s dialers include a speech recognition component which can detect whether the person answering the call is male or female. If the campaign involved specifies targeting only females, then the dialer will disconnect if a male voice answers the call and move on to the next number (some will argue that this is unethical, because it creates an annoyance for the called parties -- and for the most part it is undocumented how many organizations engage in this questionable practice).
Today’s predictive dialers “balance” the load for the call center through the use of dialing algorithms. The key is to find the perfect balance between the number of attempts and calls connected with the number of available agents. Today’s dialers base the number of attempts on how many agents are “on line” at any given time and take into account the average time it takes for an agent to complete a call. The telesolutions dialer dials ahead of the agent, so that another call is waiting for the agent each time they wrap up their current interaction. That way, as soon as the agent becomes available, there is another call waiting for them. In essence, the dialer works to maximize agent productivity. Considering the labor is the biggest piece of any contact center budget pie, it’s easy to see how dialers have assumed an important role in keep call centers “profitable.”
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Telesolutions Software Solutions
Five9 is the leading global telesolutions provider of on-demand telemarketing, customer service, and call center solutions for customer interaction management. The award-winning telesolutions Five9 Virtual Call Center targets call centers, contact center operations of large enterprises, and companies that provide outsourced telemarketing, customer service, and call center services. Companies on five continents profit from Five9's reliable, robust Telesolutions functionality that is fast, easy, and affordable to deploy for any call center.
Company: Five9, Inc.
Headquarters Address: 7901 Stoneridge Dr
Ste 200
Pleasanton, CA 94588
Main Telephone: 925-201-2000
Type of Organization: Private
Industry: Software
Key Executives: CEO: Brian Silverman
CFO: Bob Murphy
CTO: Jim Dvorkin
Public Relations
Contact: David Van Everen
Phone: 925-201-2014
Source: Five9, Inc.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Secret to Call-Center Telesolutions Productivity
By Cindy Waxer
If there’s one thing today’s call-center Telesolutions managers are likely to lose sleep over, it’s how to boost agent productivity. After all, you can save money by using technologies like VoIP, but the majority of contact-center costs lie in recruiting and retaining employees. As a result, any increase in their productivity can greatly enhance the return on investment.
But while much-ballyhooed bonuses and exorbitant incentive packages can increase productivity, they can also cause agent burnout. Here are four ways to get the most out of your contact-center agents — without driving them into early retirement.
Reassess your metrics. Just because you’ve reduced your average call-handle time doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve increased agent productivity, especially if call volume increases as a corollary result.
“Companies should re-examine how it is they’re measuring productivity and what that means,” said Colin Taylor, CEO of The Taylor Reach Group, a contact-center Telesolutions consultancy. “Most centers use the wrong metrics, and part of it is the fault of the center management, and part of it is center management not being willing or able to educate senior management."
Taylor said that although “the vast majority of centers are running almost exclusively on quantitative measures” — like handle time and available time — a more accurate indication of productivity rests in qualitative metrics, like first-call resolution and customer satisfaction.
Apply technology properly. So you’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the hottest contact-center technology. But don’t expect to get your money’s worth unless your agents are schooled in the tools' most effective applications. For example, “A big inhibitor to agent productivity is multiple desktops," said Taylor. "It is not uncommon in a number of centers for agents to have six different windows open at any given point in time.” The result is the constant rekeying of the same information into several disparate systems — a huge waste of time and money.
“Putting an incentive on reducing average Tele Solutions handle time is going to be nowhere near as effective as eliminating one or two of those windows,” Taylor advised, adding that comprehensive product knowledge can also help mitigate widespread misuse of call-center tools.
Educate your work force. Many of today’s contact centers train an Telesolutions agent just once; the remainder of his or her employment education comes from co-workers over the next six months — not exactly a reliable source of information, Taylor said. For this reason, “Training agents to better utilize the tools they have goes a long way,” he said. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of cost-effective, Web-based training solutions that promise to get agents up to speed in a timely and reliable fashion.
Empower your agents. “Agent empowerment can be a huge productivity booster,” said Taylor. If trained properly and armed with the right job skills, International telesolutions, there’s no reason for agents to constantly seek assistance from their superiors. Encouraging top-notch agents to take matters into their own hands, directly address customer concerns and take ownership of their job responsibilities is a surefire way to bolster work force morale, as well as productivity levels.
If there’s one thing today’s call-center Telesolutions managers are likely to lose sleep over, it’s how to boost agent productivity. After all, you can save money by using technologies like VoIP, but the majority of contact-center costs lie in recruiting and retaining employees. As a result, any increase in their productivity can greatly enhance the return on investment.
But while much-ballyhooed bonuses and exorbitant incentive packages can increase productivity, they can also cause agent burnout. Here are four ways to get the most out of your contact-center agents — without driving them into early retirement.
Reassess your metrics. Just because you’ve reduced your average call-handle time doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve increased agent productivity, especially if call volume increases as a corollary result.
“Companies should re-examine how it is they’re measuring productivity and what that means,” said Colin Taylor, CEO of The Taylor Reach Group, a contact-center Telesolutions consultancy. “Most centers use the wrong metrics, and part of it is the fault of the center management, and part of it is center management not being willing or able to educate senior management."
Taylor said that although “the vast majority of centers are running almost exclusively on quantitative measures” — like handle time and available time — a more accurate indication of productivity rests in qualitative metrics, like first-call resolution and customer satisfaction.
Apply technology properly. So you’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the hottest contact-center technology. But don’t expect to get your money’s worth unless your agents are schooled in the tools' most effective applications. For example, “A big inhibitor to agent productivity is multiple desktops," said Taylor. "It is not uncommon in a number of centers for agents to have six different windows open at any given point in time.” The result is the constant rekeying of the same information into several disparate systems — a huge waste of time and money.
“Putting an incentive on reducing average Tele Solutions handle time is going to be nowhere near as effective as eliminating one or two of those windows,” Taylor advised, adding that comprehensive product knowledge can also help mitigate widespread misuse of call-center tools.
Educate your work force. Many of today’s contact centers train an Telesolutions agent just once; the remainder of his or her employment education comes from co-workers over the next six months — not exactly a reliable source of information, Taylor said. For this reason, “Training agents to better utilize the tools they have goes a long way,” he said. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of cost-effective, Web-based training solutions that promise to get agents up to speed in a timely and reliable fashion.
Empower your agents. “Agent empowerment can be a huge productivity booster,” said Taylor. If trained properly and armed with the right job skills, International telesolutions, there’s no reason for agents to constantly seek assistance from their superiors. Encouraging top-notch agents to take matters into their own hands, directly address customer concerns and take ownership of their job responsibilities is a surefire way to bolster work force morale, as well as productivity levels.
Monday, January 7, 2008
TeleSolutions- Beyond Screen Pop and Automated Telemarketing Calls
Telesolutions
Think of Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) and you probably think about screen popping IT systems and automated dialling. And you might also think CTI is a complex system development. Rostrvm TeleSolutions' new Java toolbar provides easily-deployable standard CTI functions and more.
The rostrvm Java Toolbar provides screen based call and data control via a graphical user interface embedded in another Java application, or in a web page as a Java applet.
The Java toolbar goes beyond standard CTI functions such as proactively presenting call centre agents with information from IT systems and automatically dialling numbers. The application also:
o Controls telephone activity such as answering, holding and transferring calls delivering easy call management for the agent
o Allows data to be transferred with calls via rostrvm's patented CLIPboard mechanism ensuring that callers don't need to repeat information
o Links to rostrvm's Directory telesolutions Services to support easy dialling
o Records agent activity allowing the call centre manager to monitor individual and team performance
o Captures business-based call outcome information for reporting through rostrvm Supervisor management information. Managers can easily and instantly see the call centre's business benefit.
Lindsay Brown, Technical Director, Rostrvm tele solutions commented "We have been enhancing call centre productivity with Computer Telephone Integration for over 21 years. This Java toolbar is the latest in a long line of developments to make CTI easy to deploy so that all call centres can achieve optimum operational performance"
Rostrvm Solutions designs, manufactures and supports call centre software. Rostrvm was established in 1986 as a division of Royalblue, the financial trading applications company. Today Rostrvm Solutions is privately owned and based in the UK in Woking, Surrey.
The rostrvm product suite is used in call centres of all sizes enhancing existing call centre technology investments and supporting new contact methods such as Voice over IP, email and SMS text messaging.
For 21 years, rostrvmtelesolutions has been inspiring its blue-chip customers and meeting their technical, functional and business needs. As a privately held company Rostrvm Solutions regard independence as a major benefit to customers and partners - it guarantees the openness of their technology and the objectiveness of their approach and advice.
Think of Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) and you probably think about screen popping IT systems and automated dialling. And you might also think CTI is a complex system development. Rostrvm TeleSolutions' new Java toolbar provides easily-deployable standard CTI functions and more.
The rostrvm Java Toolbar provides screen based call and data control via a graphical user interface embedded in another Java application, or in a web page as a Java applet.
The Java toolbar goes beyond standard CTI functions such as proactively presenting call centre agents with information from IT systems and automatically dialling numbers. The application also:
o Controls telephone activity such as answering, holding and transferring calls delivering easy call management for the agent
o Allows data to be transferred with calls via rostrvm's patented CLIPboard mechanism ensuring that callers don't need to repeat information
o Links to rostrvm's Directory telesolutions Services to support easy dialling
o Records agent activity allowing the call centre manager to monitor individual and team performance
o Captures business-based call outcome information for reporting through rostrvm Supervisor management information. Managers can easily and instantly see the call centre's business benefit.
Lindsay Brown, Technical Director, Rostrvm tele solutions commented "We have been enhancing call centre productivity with Computer Telephone Integration for over 21 years. This Java toolbar is the latest in a long line of developments to make CTI easy to deploy so that all call centres can achieve optimum operational performance"
Rostrvm Solutions designs, manufactures and supports call centre software. Rostrvm was established in 1986 as a division of Royalblue, the financial trading applications company. Today Rostrvm Solutions is privately owned and based in the UK in Woking, Surrey.
The rostrvm product suite is used in call centres of all sizes enhancing existing call centre technology investments and supporting new contact methods such as Voice over IP, email and SMS text messaging.
For 21 years, rostrvmtelesolutions has been inspiring its blue-chip customers and meeting their technical, functional and business needs. As a privately held company Rostrvm Solutions regard independence as a major benefit to customers and partners - it guarantees the openness of their technology and the objectiveness of their approach and advice.
Friday, January 4, 2008
New Telesolutions Jobs Created
100 new Telesolutions call-centre jobs created
A 100 new jobs are being created at a call centre in South Shields, it has been announced.
The positions will be based at the new Garlands Call Centres site at Market Dock North. "It gives us enormous pleasure to announce the first phase of our recruitment activities in South Shields," said the firm's chief executive Chey Garland.
"We will be bringing opportunities for local people to work for blue chip organisations and develop their careers in the customer service industry."
Construction of the 47,000 sq ft telesolutions call centre in South Shields is expected to be completed in April - with around a thousand people eventually working there.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
A Stronger Focus On Telesolutions Call Center Software
by Christopher Musico
Jacada, provider of unified desktop and process optimization solutions for customer service operations, checked off the top of their 2008 New Year's Resolution list Tuesday with its sale of its application modernization business to Software AG, a Europe-based business infrastructure software company, for $26 million.
This deal finally allows the company to fully devote itself to its call center telesolutions business--a long-term goal of the company due to the fact the call center solutions business has grown more than 60 percent per year in the past three years, according to statistics released by the company. "About four years ago we began focusing on the customer service/call center market because we saw a tremendous opportunity to help call centers by simplifying the desktops within the call centers," says David Holmes, Jacada's executive vice president of global marketing. "We delivered new telesolutions technology on top of existing technology, and [the call center solutions business] really has become the sole focus of the company over the past two to three years. With this deal, we are now 100 percent focused on the call center space." Click here to learn more!
Streaming Media East 2008 in NYC
Jacada and Software AG entered into the agreement on December 19, 2007, in which Software AG agreed to pay $26 million in cash to acquire Jacada products and related customer contracts.
Under the terms of the transaction, Jacada retains the right to develop, market, sell, and support Jacada Interface Server and Jacada HostFuse in support of its call center solutions business as well as the intellectual property rights for Jacada WorkSpace and Jacada WinFuse. Holmes stresses the beauty of the deal is Jacada still has everything it needs for its call center solutions business. "We saw this as an opportunity to sell off old business, monetize and capitalize on that investment," he says. "However, we continue to have all the technology we need to go forward."
Sheryl Kingstone, director of enterprise applications at Yankee Group, says Jacada's deal is the right move for the company at this time. "They get $26 million and use of assets, technology, and money to focus more on contact center, where all their new deals are anyway," she explains. "The only thing is if all of a sudden [the] market changes and they want to shift focus away from contact center market, they've lost maintenance strength. But if you're living off maintenance base you're eventually going to die anyway."
Sheila McGee-Smith, president and principal analyst of McGee-Smith Analytics, also believes Jacada made the right call. "Twenty-six million dollars is a nice infusion of cash," she says. "With that, Jacada can now do marketing or build [a] sales force that allows them to expand its footprint dramatically in a more focused way."
Holmes also described this deal as a "true win-win" for Software AG. Software AG already has a very large focus on application modernization and application development in large systems or enterprise applications; they now have a large integration, Web services, and SOA practice. Holmes says the Jacada Telesolutions International software will be easy for Software AG to incorporate into its arsenal and support customers. "This is a good match in terms of organization and the type of customers they serve," he explains.
Now that Jacada is exclusively focused on its call center solutions business, it can show its investors and customers worldwide just how important that market has become to the company. It can also offer them a preview of what Jacada has to offer in the coming year, including new innovations and partnerships beyond the global reseller agreements Holmes says Jacada signed with Accenture and IBM Global Services. "There will be a lot more strategic wins for us in this area [call center solutions]," Holmes says. "You'll see us to continue to innovate in this area." McGee-Smith agrees with Holmes' belief of continued strategic partnerships. "Without the unrelated businesses, it is an easier acquisition candidate for a company like Avaya or Cisco."
While the deal may make some believe contact center providers are moving away from offering a "one-stop shop" of CRM solutions, Kingstone says the contact center market never behaved that way. "The CRM application market has consolidated, but the contact center itself is usually using multiple applications--there's never the ability to go to one vendor," she says. "All the different applications that agents use, like CRM, has turned out to become what I call a silo on the agent desktop. People are now realizing this and that's where these solutions are focused.
Jacada, provider of unified desktop and process optimization solutions for customer service operations, checked off the top of their 2008 New Year's Resolution list Tuesday with its sale of its application modernization business to Software AG, a Europe-based business infrastructure software company, for $26 million.
This deal finally allows the company to fully devote itself to its call center telesolutions business--a long-term goal of the company due to the fact the call center solutions business has grown more than 60 percent per year in the past three years, according to statistics released by the company. "About four years ago we began focusing on the customer service/call center market because we saw a tremendous opportunity to help call centers by simplifying the desktops within the call centers," says David Holmes, Jacada's executive vice president of global marketing. "We delivered new telesolutions technology on top of existing technology, and [the call center solutions business] really has become the sole focus of the company over the past two to three years. With this deal, we are now 100 percent focused on the call center space." Click here to learn more!
Streaming Media East 2008 in NYC
Jacada and Software AG entered into the agreement on December 19, 2007, in which Software AG agreed to pay $26 million in cash to acquire Jacada products and related customer contracts.
Under the terms of the transaction, Jacada retains the right to develop, market, sell, and support Jacada Interface Server and Jacada HostFuse in support of its call center solutions business as well as the intellectual property rights for Jacada WorkSpace and Jacada WinFuse. Holmes stresses the beauty of the deal is Jacada still has everything it needs for its call center solutions business. "We saw this as an opportunity to sell off old business, monetize and capitalize on that investment," he says. "However, we continue to have all the technology we need to go forward."
Sheryl Kingstone, director of enterprise applications at Yankee Group, says Jacada's deal is the right move for the company at this time. "They get $26 million and use of assets, technology, and money to focus more on contact center, where all their new deals are anyway," she explains. "The only thing is if all of a sudden [the] market changes and they want to shift focus away from contact center market, they've lost maintenance strength. But if you're living off maintenance base you're eventually going to die anyway."
Sheila McGee-Smith, president and principal analyst of McGee-Smith Analytics, also believes Jacada made the right call. "Twenty-six million dollars is a nice infusion of cash," she says. "With that, Jacada can now do marketing or build [a] sales force that allows them to expand its footprint dramatically in a more focused way."
Holmes also described this deal as a "true win-win" for Software AG. Software AG already has a very large focus on application modernization and application development in large systems or enterprise applications; they now have a large integration, Web services, and SOA practice. Holmes says the Jacada Telesolutions International software will be easy for Software AG to incorporate into its arsenal and support customers. "This is a good match in terms of organization and the type of customers they serve," he explains.
Now that Jacada is exclusively focused on its call center solutions business, it can show its investors and customers worldwide just how important that market has become to the company. It can also offer them a preview of what Jacada has to offer in the coming year, including new innovations and partnerships beyond the global reseller agreements Holmes says Jacada signed with Accenture and IBM Global Services. "There will be a lot more strategic wins for us in this area [call center solutions]," Holmes says. "You'll see us to continue to innovate in this area." McGee-Smith agrees with Holmes' belief of continued strategic partnerships. "Without the unrelated businesses, it is an easier acquisition candidate for a company like Avaya or Cisco."
While the deal may make some believe contact center providers are moving away from offering a "one-stop shop" of CRM solutions, Kingstone says the contact center market never behaved that way. "The CRM application market has consolidated, but the contact center itself is usually using multiple applications--there's never the ability to go to one vendor," she says. "All the different applications that agents use, like CRM, has turned out to become what I call a silo on the agent desktop. People are now realizing this and that's where these solutions are focused.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Telesolutions and Call Compliance
GLEN COVE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Compliance Systems Corporation (OTCBB: COPI), a telecom service company focused on providing compliance technologies, methodologies, has completed a $2.5 million financing. In addition, debt holders exchanged $3.1 million in of Company debt into equity, resulting in a total increase in stockholders’ equity of 5.6 million.
The Company raised $2.5 million by issuing Serial Preferred A shares at $1.00 each, and debt holders exchanged approximately $3.1 million of Company debt into shares of the Company’s Serial Preferred B and C Stock at $1.00 per share. Each preferred share is convertible into 100 restricted shares of the Company’s common stock.
This transaction enabled Compliance Systems to use approximately $1.1 million dollars to buy out from Cornell Capital-affiliated entities convertible debentures that has been previously detailed in regulatory financings. The remaining funds will be used for ongoing and future business development. Further agreement details can be found in the Form 8-K Compliance Systems filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 31, 2007.
“This transaction marks a significant step for Compliance Systems as it evidences management’s commitment to improving the Company’s capital structure. While we acknowledge Cornell provided us initial funding assistance, this restructuring should greatly improve our balance sheet, while providing working capital to allow for the continued advancement of business strategy over the next few quarters,” stated Dean Garfinkel, President and CEO of Compliance Systems Corporation, Inc.
Compliance Systems Corporation Completes $2.5M Financing
About Compliance Systems Corporation
Compliance Systems Corporation, located in Glen Cove, NY, is a developer of technology-based compliance solutions for the teleservices industry. The company’s primary proprietary product, TeleBlock Call Blocking System, automatically screens and blocks outbound calls against federal, state, and in-house do-not-call lists. Compliance Systems also offers a Regulatory Guide, an up-to-date, online compilation of state and federal telemarketing laws, as well as ongoing compliance auditing services.
For further information on TeleBlock®,; for more information on the Regulatory Guide, Call Compliance Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Compliance Systems Corporation (COPI.BB).
Forward-Looking Statements
The forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management’s analysis only as of the date hereof. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date thereof.
The Company raised $2.5 million by issuing Serial Preferred A shares at $1.00 each, and debt holders exchanged approximately $3.1 million of Company debt into shares of the Company’s Serial Preferred B and C Stock at $1.00 per share. Each preferred share is convertible into 100 restricted shares of the Company’s common stock.
This transaction enabled Compliance Systems to use approximately $1.1 million dollars to buy out from Cornell Capital-affiliated entities convertible debentures that has been previously detailed in regulatory financings. The remaining funds will be used for ongoing and future business development. Further agreement details can be found in the Form 8-K Compliance Systems filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 31, 2007.
“This transaction marks a significant step for Compliance Systems as it evidences management’s commitment to improving the Company’s capital structure. While we acknowledge Cornell provided us initial funding assistance, this restructuring should greatly improve our balance sheet, while providing working capital to allow for the continued advancement of business strategy over the next few quarters,” stated Dean Garfinkel, President and CEO of Compliance Systems Corporation, Inc.
Compliance Systems Corporation Completes $2.5M Financing
About Compliance Systems Corporation
Compliance Systems Corporation, located in Glen Cove, NY, is a developer of technology-based compliance solutions for the teleservices industry. The company’s primary proprietary product, TeleBlock Call Blocking System, automatically screens and blocks outbound calls against federal, state, and in-house do-not-call lists. Compliance Systems also offers a Regulatory Guide, an up-to-date, online compilation of state and federal telemarketing laws, as well as ongoing compliance auditing services.
For further information on TeleBlock®,; for more information on the Regulatory Guide, Call Compliance Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Compliance Systems Corporation (COPI.BB).
Forward-Looking Statements
The forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management’s analysis only as of the date hereof. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date thereof.
Telesolutions Developed Call Center Solution For China
By Rick Whiting, CMP Channel
IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories are expanding their presence in the market for call center systems in China using a jointly developed "Call Center in a Box" solution, according to the two companies. If successful the vendors may tailor the solution for other markets.
IBM and Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, have been developing, marketing and deploying call center telesolutions together for eight years and have more than 300 joint customers around the world, including in China, said Brig Serman, IBM vice president of strategic alliances. But the new Contact Center in a Box solution is designed to expand both companies' presence in China, Serman said.
Contact center application sales in China grew 15.5 percent in 2006 and are expected to grow more than 18 percent this year and 20 percent in 2008, according to a May 2007 report from market researcher Frost & Sullivan. "Customer service and customer satisfaction are becoming increasingly important in that market," Serman said.
IBM has been increasing its telesolutions sales efforts in emerging markets such as China, India and Russia in recent years. The new contact center solution, which can be deployed in as little as 90 days, is targeted at both SMBs and large companies and organizations in China in banking, insurance, telecommunications and government.
The Call Center in a Box combines Genesys' suite of customer interaction management applications that provide call routing, computer telephony integration and customer self-service capabilities with Oracle (NSDQ:ORCL)'s Siebel sales and after-sales support applications. The applications are pre-configured with IBM BladeCenter servers and IBM's DB2, WebSphere and Tivoli software.
IBM and Genesys jointly sell and service the Call Center telesolutions in a Box solution. In China IBM will provide consultants and technical experts on Genesys software for localized customer support, according to the companies.
IBM and Genesys may configure the call center solution for other markets and could work with other channel partners to sell and service it in other countries, said Bruce Acheson, Genesys senior director of channel sales.
IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories are expanding their presence in the market for call center systems in China using a jointly developed "Call Center in a Box" solution, according to the two companies. If successful the vendors may tailor the solution for other markets.
IBM and Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, have been developing, marketing and deploying call center telesolutions together for eight years and have more than 300 joint customers around the world, including in China, said Brig Serman, IBM vice president of strategic alliances. But the new Contact Center in a Box solution is designed to expand both companies' presence in China, Serman said.
Contact center application sales in China grew 15.5 percent in 2006 and are expected to grow more than 18 percent this year and 20 percent in 2008, according to a May 2007 report from market researcher Frost & Sullivan. "Customer service and customer satisfaction are becoming increasingly important in that market," Serman said.
IBM has been increasing its telesolutions sales efforts in emerging markets such as China, India and Russia in recent years. The new contact center solution, which can be deployed in as little as 90 days, is targeted at both SMBs and large companies and organizations in China in banking, insurance, telecommunications and government.
The Call Center in a Box combines Genesys' suite of customer interaction management applications that provide call routing, computer telephony integration and customer self-service capabilities with Oracle (NSDQ:ORCL)'s Siebel sales and after-sales support applications. The applications are pre-configured with IBM BladeCenter servers and IBM's DB2, WebSphere and Tivoli software.
IBM and Genesys jointly sell and service the Call Center telesolutions in a Box solution. In China IBM will provide consultants and technical experts on Genesys software for localized customer support, according to the companies.
IBM and Genesys may configure the call center solution for other markets and could work with other channel partners to sell and service it in other countries, said Bruce Acheson, Genesys senior director of channel sales.
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