Who's Afraid of VoIP?
The potential challenges VoIP is going to face:
1. Govt wants to tax, but there is no way they can figure out how to Tax this. At threat is their huge influx from taxes on Voice Calls.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Product Review Cisco IPCC Enterprise
Cisco IPCC Enterprise pricing starts at about US$1,000 per agent and increases depending upon options and configuration
Cisco sells IPCC worldwide, but to date has found its greatest success in North America and in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom. Although Cisco does not break out sales of individual products, it is estimated that about 20 percent of its approximately 1,700 installed IPCC systems are IPCC Enterprise -- the remainder being the more affordable small and mid-size contact center-focused IPCC Express
Cisco's IPCC Enterprise contact-center system is designed for contact centers with 150 or more agents
IPCC's outbound dialer supports preview, progressive or predictive dialing. IPCC's remote-agent functionality supports soft phone, screen-pop, and third-party call control. Cisco 7960, 7940, and 7910 IP phones are supported for use with IPCC Enterprise
Cisco sells IPCC worldwide, but to date has found its greatest success in North America and in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom. Although Cisco does not break out sales of individual products, it is estimated that about 20 percent of its approximately 1,700 installed IPCC systems are IPCC Enterprise -- the remainder being the more affordable small and mid-size contact center-focused IPCC Express
Cisco's IPCC Enterprise contact-center system is designed for contact centers with 150 or more agents
IPCC's outbound dialer supports preview, progressive or predictive dialing. IPCC's remote-agent functionality supports soft phone, screen-pop, and third-party call control. Cisco 7960, 7940, and 7910 IP phones are supported for use with IPCC Enterprise
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Friday, August 20, 2004
Are Your Customers Lost in Translation:: Making Localised Websites
Are Your Customers Lost in Translation%3F
Essentially map everything to a DB ID. so for example phone is mapped to ID 91...and now ID 91 is translated to the language of the user. So if the user searches on phone in his language, you convert it to your ID and then use that ID to search...
Essentially map everything to a DB ID. so for example phone is mapped to ID 91...and now ID 91 is translated to the language of the user. So if the user searches on phone in his language, you convert it to your ID and then use that ID to search...
Yahoo joins Google. Starts Official Blog
Blogging is changing the way Companies are communicating to the outside world. And it is catching up.
Official blogs are:
1. Not a(n official) PR exercise. Not owned by marketing.
2. Mostly unregulated regarding the content.
3. An effective channel of communication aimed at the Company Watchers, and the customers.
4. A very effective tool for customers to give feedback on the product.
The value proposition is that suddenly you have not just the PR folks, but potentially all the employees writing about the company.
Check out how Google, Microsoft and now Yahoo are harnessing the power of blogging.
http://www.google.com/googleblog/
http://ysearchblog.com/
http://channel9.msdn.com/
A news article on Google's Blogging http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3352181
A news article on Yahoo's blogging: http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3397261
Regards
HimS
Official blogs are:
1. Not a(n official) PR exercise. Not owned by marketing.
2. Mostly unregulated regarding the content.
3. An effective channel of communication aimed at the Company Watchers, and the customers.
4. A very effective tool for customers to give feedback on the product.
The value proposition is that suddenly you have not just the PR folks, but potentially all the employees writing about the company.
Check out how Google, Microsoft and now Yahoo are harnessing the power of blogging.
http://www.google.com/googleblog/
http://ysearchblog.com/
http://channel9.msdn.com/
A news article on Google's Blogging http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3352181
A news article on Yahoo's blogging: http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3397261
Regards
HimS
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Trend in hosted Contact Centers
destinationCRM.com%3A Salesforce.com Integrates with White Pajama
1. In March Sales force partnered with White Pajama to offer Contact Center on demand
2. In Jan, Sibel bought ineto to offer contact center on demand along with its upshot edition.
All the contact center on demand solution work over VoIP. So the idea is to offer conact center on demand using VoIP.
1. In March Sales force partnered with White Pajama to offer Contact Center on demand
2. In Jan, Sibel bought ineto to offer contact center on demand along with its upshot edition.
All the contact center on demand solution work over VoIP. So the idea is to offer conact center on demand using VoIP.
Hosted solutions will not cannibalise on-premise deployments, but will open new markets : Siebel
destinationCRM.com%3A Siebel Acquires a Hosted Call Center Company: "Rudin does not expect existing licensed customers to abandon their existing on-premise environments for the hosted model%3A %22If I look at what happened with Siebel OnDemand hosted space%2C then the answer is%2C it will affect things very little. We just haven%27t seen any cannibalism of on-premise solutions because of OnDemand solutions. This will open up new markets for Siebel.%22"
destinationCRM.com%3A Contact Centers Begin the Switch to IP
destinationCRM.com%3A Contact Centers Begin the Switch to IP
1. Corporate VoIP market is expanding.
overall corporate spending on VoIP technology to rise from an estimated $1 billion this year to $5.5 billion by 2008.
2. Datamonitor, the global market for contact center component technology will grow to $5.1 billion by 2008, up from $3.6 billion in 2003. The report, entitled "Contact Center Component Technology to 2008," notes that "over the next five years...IP will overtake [time-division multiplexing] in the contact center."
3. the expansion of the "virtual contact center" may be the new vanguard
4. Existing deployments are also in the way. "Five to seven years ago there was a huge investment in contact center and CTI technology," Barr says. "And most of that stuff's depreciated by now. People have a pretty big investment in those [systems]. We're just getting to the point where those are being amortized. The pain threshold is disappearing."
1. Corporate VoIP market is expanding.
overall corporate spending on VoIP technology to rise from an estimated $1 billion this year to $5.5 billion by 2008.
2. Datamonitor, the global market for contact center component technology will grow to $5.1 billion by 2008, up from $3.6 billion in 2003. The report, entitled "Contact Center Component Technology to 2008," notes that "over the next five years...IP will overtake [time-division multiplexing] in the contact center."
3. the expansion of the "virtual contact center" may be the new vanguard
4. Existing deployments are also in the way. "Five to seven years ago there was a huge investment in contact center and CTI technology," Barr says. "And most of that stuff's depreciated by now. People have a pretty big investment in those [systems]. We're just getting to the point where those are being amortized. The pain threshold is disappearing."
Three compelling reasons for moving to VoIP
destinationCRM.com%3A 2004%3A The Year of VoIP
1. Move agents from office to home
2. The CTI integration is very messy
3. Switches are expensive
1. Move agents from office to home
2. The CTI integration is very messy
3. Switches are expensive
Mobile Marketing%3A WHR R WE NOW%3F%2C Part 2
Mobile Marketing%3A WHR R WE NOW%3F%2C Part 2
By Zachary Rodgers | June 28, 2004
Read part one of this story.
If you've seen any mobile marketing case studies at industry conferences, chances are they were pretty flashy. The wireless medium still occupies a science fiction-like fascination in our imaginations, and agencies are exploiting that fascination for utmost PowerPoint impact.
Robert Greenberg, chairman and CEO of R/GA Digital Studios, recently presented a mobile campaign for client Yahoo! that let people use their phones to play a racing game on a billboard in Times Square. A recent campaign from Nike sent phone users on a text-enabled scavenger hunt through the streets of Manhattan.
But beneath the veneer of flashy wireless implementations is a growing body of mobile marketing campaigns that, while perhaps more mundane, are also more reliable in terms of reach and ROI than their übercool counterparts.
What's Black and White and Read All Over?
While the creative possibilities are certainly more limited with SMS than with picture messaging or branded multimedia content, it's often the best bet for marketers eager to tap the huge reach available through wireless.
"There's a lot that you can do [with rich content], but you're not going to get a very large market. The addressable market gets really small, particularly as you try to do anything fancy where you need to take advantage of specific handset features," said Avi Greengart, an analyst with Jupiter Research.
The audience for SMS, on the other hand, is vast, numbering approximately 38 million in the U.S., according to Enpocket's Mobile Media Monitor survey. Greengart encourages marketers to use it as their wireless reach channel of choice.
Plus, Enpocket CEO Jonathan Linner says, the ROI on text can't be beat: "The ROI effectiveness of SMS is greater than any other [wireless channel]. You may pay .03 per message on SMS, while you need to pay considerably more to download a video, for example."
While campaigns with wild creative ideas, such as those trialed by Nike and Yahoo!, are often exciting for brands to try in the fetishized wireless space, they also tend to be complicated and lack a clear ROI.
"The results of these are very good, but the number of people who participate may be lower. Up to half of companies will choose a creative treatment in the U.S. which we will guarantee them will perform worse and be more expensive [than a tried and true campaign]," said Linner, who believes this predictable attitude is ultimately detrimental to mobile marketing, and to brands.
"People who do things that are more difficult are less likely to continue using the medium," he said. "If an agency says, 'We're going to do mobile, and we're going to do it for Coke,' they're going to want a very creative idea. They want the execs at Coke to be very excited, and they want to show the client that they're creative. When the results come back, they may not be so good. The agency will then be less likely to do something new, because Coke will want to see the previous results before signing off on something else."
Lars Becker, chairman and cofounder of Flytxt, is more accepting of the flashier campaigns.
"I think you need the fancy stuff to grab people's attention and push the envelope a little bit and consider experimenting," he said. "I think you need to keep on innovating and looking for new concepts. It's still quite a young and immature industry. Also, these campaigns help the industry from a PR perspective. They keep mobile marketing on the minds of the industry."
Specific Strategies
Whether marketers go with tried-and-true SMS or something fancier, engaging people in a conversation with a brand can be tricky. Most campaigns now are using many media to incentivize users to text in and start the relationship -- hence the proliferation of SMS sweepstakes, quizzes and voting on TV shows and product packaging.
"We're seeing a lot of cross-technology campaigns that use SMS to get in the door and from there urge people to download a graphic, ringtone or game," said Mobliss CEO Brian Levin. "We're finding the best success integrating mobile into an overall brand campaign." (Mobliss is a particularly strong presence on television, enabling voting on FOX's American Idol and The Jury.)
On-pack promos may be a familiar sight by year's end. AT&T Wireless has launched two major SMS short code promotions on Kellogg's cereal boxes and McDonald's to-go bags nationwide.
"After teaching America how to send text messages through our sponsorship of American Idol on FOX, we're turning our focus from prime time to meal time, and leading the evolution of mobile marketing in this country," an AT&T Wireless exec boldly claimed.
The emergence of five-digit short codes, which can now support cross-carrier campaigns, has also played an important part in streamlining SMS mobile campaigns. Wireless users find it easier to remember and text in to a short number that can be easily translated into word form. Universal Television, for example, launched a text-and-win promo using the number 94335 (WHEEL) during the airing of reality show "The Fifth Wheel." Mobliss and other marketers affirm short codes are getting easier to deploy, and more popular with advertisers.
List Rental and Privacy
Third party list rental is a somewhat dubious option for those desperate to advertise on phones. While it's becoming more commonplace -- mostly through user opt-ins from popular mobile communities such as Upoc -- experts say marketers are wise to doubt how well young consumers grasp what they've agreed to when they give consent to get offers from unknown vendors. Better to build an in-house list, or to build campaigns that are 100 percent user-initiated via calls-to-action in other media.
"In a lot of cases, the people who opt in to receive third party messages as part of a community service don't really understand what they're agreeing to," said Mobliss' Levin.
Indeed, privacy and permissions concerns will only grow from here.
Take the new SMS evidence in Kobe Bryant's trial: The judge last week asked AT&T Wireless to produce text messages four months after they were sent and deleted by the plaintiff in the case... and the company was able to do so. The remarkable thing here isn't that the outcome of a celebrity trial may be influenced by text messaging (though that is interesting), but rather that carriers keep data that long. If every SMS is similarly stored in a carrier database, the implications for consumer privacy are potentially huge (Though Sprint and Cingular have since said they don't keep deleted data). How is that data used? How is it protected? The answers have implications for marketers as well as basketball players.
Surprises like this one reflect how young mobile messaging is, despite recent steps forward in the marketing arena. We've only just begun to understand what works, what doesn't work, and the issues marketers may face as they look to take advantage of the medium.
By Zachary Rodgers | June 28, 2004
Read part one of this story.
If you've seen any mobile marketing case studies at industry conferences, chances are they were pretty flashy. The wireless medium still occupies a science fiction-like fascination in our imaginations, and agencies are exploiting that fascination for utmost PowerPoint impact.
Robert Greenberg, chairman and CEO of R/GA Digital Studios, recently presented a mobile campaign for client Yahoo! that let people use their phones to play a racing game on a billboard in Times Square. A recent campaign from Nike sent phone users on a text-enabled scavenger hunt through the streets of Manhattan.
But beneath the veneer of flashy wireless implementations is a growing body of mobile marketing campaigns that, while perhaps more mundane, are also more reliable in terms of reach and ROI than their übercool counterparts.
What's Black and White and Read All Over?
While the creative possibilities are certainly more limited with SMS than with picture messaging or branded multimedia content, it's often the best bet for marketers eager to tap the huge reach available through wireless.
"There's a lot that you can do [with rich content], but you're not going to get a very large market. The addressable market gets really small, particularly as you try to do anything fancy where you need to take advantage of specific handset features," said Avi Greengart, an analyst with Jupiter Research.
The audience for SMS, on the other hand, is vast, numbering approximately 38 million in the U.S., according to Enpocket's Mobile Media Monitor survey. Greengart encourages marketers to use it as their wireless reach channel of choice.
Plus, Enpocket CEO Jonathan Linner says, the ROI on text can't be beat: "The ROI effectiveness of SMS is greater than any other [wireless channel]. You may pay .03 per message on SMS, while you need to pay considerably more to download a video, for example."
While campaigns with wild creative ideas, such as those trialed by Nike and Yahoo!, are often exciting for brands to try in the fetishized wireless space, they also tend to be complicated and lack a clear ROI.
"The results of these are very good, but the number of people who participate may be lower. Up to half of companies will choose a creative treatment in the U.S. which we will guarantee them will perform worse and be more expensive [than a tried and true campaign]," said Linner, who believes this predictable attitude is ultimately detrimental to mobile marketing, and to brands.
"People who do things that are more difficult are less likely to continue using the medium," he said. "If an agency says, 'We're going to do mobile, and we're going to do it for Coke,' they're going to want a very creative idea. They want the execs at Coke to be very excited, and they want to show the client that they're creative. When the results come back, they may not be so good. The agency will then be less likely to do something new, because Coke will want to see the previous results before signing off on something else."
Lars Becker, chairman and cofounder of Flytxt, is more accepting of the flashier campaigns.
"I think you need the fancy stuff to grab people's attention and push the envelope a little bit and consider experimenting," he said. "I think you need to keep on innovating and looking for new concepts. It's still quite a young and immature industry. Also, these campaigns help the industry from a PR perspective. They keep mobile marketing on the minds of the industry."
Specific Strategies
Whether marketers go with tried-and-true SMS or something fancier, engaging people in a conversation with a brand can be tricky. Most campaigns now are using many media to incentivize users to text in and start the relationship -- hence the proliferation of SMS sweepstakes, quizzes and voting on TV shows and product packaging.
"We're seeing a lot of cross-technology campaigns that use SMS to get in the door and from there urge people to download a graphic, ringtone or game," said Mobliss CEO Brian Levin. "We're finding the best success integrating mobile into an overall brand campaign." (Mobliss is a particularly strong presence on television, enabling voting on FOX's American Idol and The Jury.)
On-pack promos may be a familiar sight by year's end. AT&T Wireless has launched two major SMS short code promotions on Kellogg's cereal boxes and McDonald's to-go bags nationwide.
"After teaching America how to send text messages through our sponsorship of American Idol on FOX, we're turning our focus from prime time to meal time, and leading the evolution of mobile marketing in this country," an AT&T Wireless exec boldly claimed.
The emergence of five-digit short codes, which can now support cross-carrier campaigns, has also played an important part in streamlining SMS mobile campaigns. Wireless users find it easier to remember and text in to a short number that can be easily translated into word form. Universal Television, for example, launched a text-and-win promo using the number 94335 (WHEEL) during the airing of reality show "The Fifth Wheel." Mobliss and other marketers affirm short codes are getting easier to deploy, and more popular with advertisers.
List Rental and Privacy
Third party list rental is a somewhat dubious option for those desperate to advertise on phones. While it's becoming more commonplace -- mostly through user opt-ins from popular mobile communities such as Upoc -- experts say marketers are wise to doubt how well young consumers grasp what they've agreed to when they give consent to get offers from unknown vendors. Better to build an in-house list, or to build campaigns that are 100 percent user-initiated via calls-to-action in other media.
"In a lot of cases, the people who opt in to receive third party messages as part of a community service don't really understand what they're agreeing to," said Mobliss' Levin.
Indeed, privacy and permissions concerns will only grow from here.
Take the new SMS evidence in Kobe Bryant's trial: The judge last week asked AT&T Wireless to produce text messages four months after they were sent and deleted by the plaintiff in the case... and the company was able to do so. The remarkable thing here isn't that the outcome of a celebrity trial may be influenced by text messaging (though that is interesting), but rather that carriers keep data that long. If every SMS is similarly stored in a carrier database, the implications for consumer privacy are potentially huge (Though Sprint and Cingular have since said they don't keep deleted data). How is that data used? How is it protected? The answers have implications for marketers as well as basketball players.
Surprises like this one reflect how young mobile messaging is, despite recent steps forward in the marketing arena. We've only just begun to understand what works, what doesn't work, and the issues marketers may face as they look to take advantage of the medium.
Mobile Marketing%3A WHR is US NOW%3F%2C Part 1
Mobile Marketing%3A WHR is US NOW%3F%2C Part 1Mobile Marketing: WHR R WE NOW?, Part 1
› › › Insights
By Zachary Rodgers | June 21, 2004
You know a nascent medium has gone mainstream when it's introduced as evidence in a celebrity trial, as has just happened to SMS in the United States. Kobe Bryant's defense team recently introduced "highly relevant" text messages sent by the plaintiff shortly after the athlete allegedly assaulted her. It's the first time in memory SMS has made the U.S. tabloids.
This interesting twist is unlikely to do much to advance the cause of mobile marketing, but it does suggest the U.S. wireless market is catching up to its elders in Europe and Asia, where SMS has long made headlines.
Mobile messaging is now commonplace in the States, and it's not going away. That marketers have started to recognize this is reflected in the new SMS and branded entertainment campaigns that are launching every day. Just today, AT&T Wireless, fresh from its success in the "American Idol" arena, announced marketing deals with Kellogg's and McDonald's.
The growing momentum of the medium makes this a good time for a primer on the devices, the companies and the strategies that are powering today's mobile campaigns.
Phones Usurp the Data Crown
That mobile marketing means reaching people on their phones wasn't always obvious. Not long ago, it was all about PDAs.
Marketers have for several years successfully targeted PDA-owners with interactive campaigns resembling traditional banner deployments more than anything else. Not long ago, these campaigns were held up as the shining examples of "mobile" marketing, whereas marketing to phones was considered a dubious venture at best -- in part because of small, black-and-white screens and phones with limited computing ability. Now, the fate of pure-data devices (and the campaigns run in them) is questionable in an age when voice and data can easily coexist in one handset -- a handset with a bigger color screen and enhanced computing abilities.
As smarter phones proliferate, the market is experiencing a weakened adoption of handsets that lack voice capability. IDC and Gartner both predict worldwide sales of PDAs will remain flat at about 10 or 11 million devices a year for the next few years. Sony recently said it's scaling back its Clie line of handhelds in the U.S., and will ultimately phase it out entirely. Last year saw the shuttering of Mazingo, a company that designed video for PDAs. And formerly PDA-focused content provider AvantGo has realigned its strategy around the ubiquitous mobile phone.
It's understandable things should shift in the direction of phones. Jupiter Research numbers PDAs in the U.S. at 14 million, versus approximately 160 million wireless phones, according to Enpocket. That means 53 percent of the country's adult population is carrying around one of these devices.
The growth of smarter phones, in the U.S. and the world over, has naturally drawn marketers to the mobile medium. In certain countries, such as Japan and the U.K., wireless marketing has become commonplace. As Jupiter Research analyst Avi Greengart puts it, "You can't pick up a U.K. magazine targeted at anyone under 50 without seeing [ads inviting readers to text]."
Advertiser pick-up has been slower in the U.S.
"I think the general consensus of people in the U.S. a year ago was that mobile marketing is Europe, and we're not Europe," said Jonathan Linner, CEO of mobile marketing firm Enpocket. "The attitude was that it wouldn't catch on here, that the U.S. was very different from the rest of the world."
Yet after the abortive attempts to jumpstart the American mobile marketing scene, wireless evangelists are finally reporting successes here. Enpocket says it is running approximately 30 wireless campaigns a month in the U.S. -- some national and some international. ClickZ obtained similar numbers from marketing firm Mobliss.
Enpocket's recent Mobile Media Monitor survey backs up these reports with convincing usage numbers. It found that 2 percent of U.S. cell phone users have texted to a number on product packaging, 1.3 percent to an advertisement, 1.6 percent to a TV show, 1.1 percent to a magazine and .7 percent to a radio show.
"In Europe we're seeing a lot of great campaigns, the results of which are constantly making their way over here," said Brian Levin, CEO of wireless entertainment and marketing firm Mobliss. "Brands now feel they have to get into wireless."
Major advertisers to invest in wireless include Coke, Levi's, the U.S. Air Force, McDonald's, Doritos, Volvo, Fox, Universal Pictures, Expedia and, it would seem, half a dozen beer brewers. The list is getting longer all the time.
The British Invasion
U.S. mobile campaigns are frequently run by British companies that have set up operations here: companies like Acotel; Flytxt, now officially operating out of an office in Seattle; and Enpocket, a U.K.-founded firm with a hand in regional markets ranging from Japan to Finland. Homegrown players M-Qube and Mobliss are two exceptions to the "outsiders rule" rule. (But then, Mobliss was just acquired by a Japanese firm focused on branded wireless content.)
The British and Japanese bring a deep knowledge of what has worked and what hasn't in more advanced mobile markets. Conventional logic says the U.S. is two years behind Europe and four years behind Asia, and therefore experienced multinational marketing firms are better positioned to lead the U.S. market than are American startups, which lack the benefits of experience. These companies are also very hungry to start selling in the U.S., which represents a much larger pie than their native markets, in terms of marketing dollars.
Yet the influx of British and Japanese brainpower is a somewhat bitter pill for American agencies, which have tended to lead innovation within emerging media channels. According to some, this has created occasional problems for the pushers of mobile marketing services, since interactive and traditional agency heads at times almost seem upset not to have pioneered the medium.
"Traditionally, the U.S. leads most media. In this medium, because it didn't lead it, you almost felt a pushback from agencies. When you'd go and talk to them, they were almost unhappy at the advances in Europe and Asia," said Linner.
That reticence has been steadily overcome, however, as marketers let their media strategies (and budgets) give way to the reality of vast SMS and mobile data use. So what sorts of campaigns are marketers trying, and what's working best? Part two of this story will address these questions.
› › › Insights
By Zachary Rodgers | June 21, 2004
You know a nascent medium has gone mainstream when it's introduced as evidence in a celebrity trial, as has just happened to SMS in the United States. Kobe Bryant's defense team recently introduced "highly relevant" text messages sent by the plaintiff shortly after the athlete allegedly assaulted her. It's the first time in memory SMS has made the U.S. tabloids.
This interesting twist is unlikely to do much to advance the cause of mobile marketing, but it does suggest the U.S. wireless market is catching up to its elders in Europe and Asia, where SMS has long made headlines.
Mobile messaging is now commonplace in the States, and it's not going away. That marketers have started to recognize this is reflected in the new SMS and branded entertainment campaigns that are launching every day. Just today, AT&T Wireless, fresh from its success in the "American Idol" arena, announced marketing deals with Kellogg's and McDonald's.
The growing momentum of the medium makes this a good time for a primer on the devices, the companies and the strategies that are powering today's mobile campaigns.
Phones Usurp the Data Crown
That mobile marketing means reaching people on their phones wasn't always obvious. Not long ago, it was all about PDAs.
Marketers have for several years successfully targeted PDA-owners with interactive campaigns resembling traditional banner deployments more than anything else. Not long ago, these campaigns were held up as the shining examples of "mobile" marketing, whereas marketing to phones was considered a dubious venture at best -- in part because of small, black-and-white screens and phones with limited computing ability. Now, the fate of pure-data devices (and the campaigns run in them) is questionable in an age when voice and data can easily coexist in one handset -- a handset with a bigger color screen and enhanced computing abilities.
As smarter phones proliferate, the market is experiencing a weakened adoption of handsets that lack voice capability. IDC and Gartner both predict worldwide sales of PDAs will remain flat at about 10 or 11 million devices a year for the next few years. Sony recently said it's scaling back its Clie line of handhelds in the U.S., and will ultimately phase it out entirely. Last year saw the shuttering of Mazingo, a company that designed video for PDAs. And formerly PDA-focused content provider AvantGo has realigned its strategy around the ubiquitous mobile phone.
It's understandable things should shift in the direction of phones. Jupiter Research numbers PDAs in the U.S. at 14 million, versus approximately 160 million wireless phones, according to Enpocket. That means 53 percent of the country's adult population is carrying around one of these devices.
The growth of smarter phones, in the U.S. and the world over, has naturally drawn marketers to the mobile medium. In certain countries, such as Japan and the U.K., wireless marketing has become commonplace. As Jupiter Research analyst Avi Greengart puts it, "You can't pick up a U.K. magazine targeted at anyone under 50 without seeing [ads inviting readers to text]."
Advertiser pick-up has been slower in the U.S.
"I think the general consensus of people in the U.S. a year ago was that mobile marketing is Europe, and we're not Europe," said Jonathan Linner, CEO of mobile marketing firm Enpocket. "The attitude was that it wouldn't catch on here, that the U.S. was very different from the rest of the world."
Yet after the abortive attempts to jumpstart the American mobile marketing scene, wireless evangelists are finally reporting successes here. Enpocket says it is running approximately 30 wireless campaigns a month in the U.S. -- some national and some international. ClickZ obtained similar numbers from marketing firm Mobliss.
Enpocket's recent Mobile Media Monitor survey backs up these reports with convincing usage numbers. It found that 2 percent of U.S. cell phone users have texted to a number on product packaging, 1.3 percent to an advertisement, 1.6 percent to a TV show, 1.1 percent to a magazine and .7 percent to a radio show.
"In Europe we're seeing a lot of great campaigns, the results of which are constantly making their way over here," said Brian Levin, CEO of wireless entertainment and marketing firm Mobliss. "Brands now feel they have to get into wireless."
Major advertisers to invest in wireless include Coke, Levi's, the U.S. Air Force, McDonald's, Doritos, Volvo, Fox, Universal Pictures, Expedia and, it would seem, half a dozen beer brewers. The list is getting longer all the time.
The British Invasion
U.S. mobile campaigns are frequently run by British companies that have set up operations here: companies like Acotel; Flytxt, now officially operating out of an office in Seattle; and Enpocket, a U.K.-founded firm with a hand in regional markets ranging from Japan to Finland. Homegrown players M-Qube and Mobliss are two exceptions to the "outsiders rule" rule. (But then, Mobliss was just acquired by a Japanese firm focused on branded wireless content.)
The British and Japanese bring a deep knowledge of what has worked and what hasn't in more advanced mobile markets. Conventional logic says the U.S. is two years behind Europe and four years behind Asia, and therefore experienced multinational marketing firms are better positioned to lead the U.S. market than are American startups, which lack the benefits of experience. These companies are also very hungry to start selling in the U.S., which represents a much larger pie than their native markets, in terms of marketing dollars.
Yet the influx of British and Japanese brainpower is a somewhat bitter pill for American agencies, which have tended to lead innovation within emerging media channels. According to some, this has created occasional problems for the pushers of mobile marketing services, since interactive and traditional agency heads at times almost seem upset not to have pioneered the medium.
"Traditionally, the U.S. leads most media. In this medium, because it didn't lead it, you almost felt a pushback from agencies. When you'd go and talk to them, they were almost unhappy at the advances in Europe and Asia," said Linner.
That reticence has been steadily overcome, however, as marketers let their media strategies (and budgets) give way to the reality of vast SMS and mobile data use. So what sorts of campaigns are marketers trying, and what's working best? Part two of this story will address these questions.
This Week%27s Agenda%3A SMS SOS%3F
This Week%27s Agenda%3A SMS SOS%3F: "There are still hurdles. Though European carriers share SMS messages seamlessly%2C U.S. carriers don%27t work and play well together. Some SMS messages can take days to reach their destinations."
Study%3A SMS Marketing to Take Off
Study%3A SMS Marketing to Take Off: "Mobile marketing might be a relative non-entity in the U.S.%2C but it%27s posed to rival the present businesses in Europe and Asia within four years%2C according to a recent study by Jupiter Research.
However, by 2006, wireless marketing in the U.S. will match both Europe and Asia, with the growth driven primarily by campaigns launched by consumer packaged goods producers and fast food restaurants"
However, by 2006, wireless marketing in the U.S. will match both Europe and Asia, with the growth driven primarily by campaigns launched by consumer packaged goods producers and fast food restaurants"
SMS research
Enpocket - Mobile media%2C technology and consulting services %28SMS%2C MMS%2C 3G and WAP%29
A potential partner/competitor in US
A potential partner/competitor in US
Mobile Phones Move Beyond Voice
Mobile Phones Move Beyond Voice: "Enpocket currently estimates mobile phone penetration at 53 percent of the U.S. adult population."
Mobile Phones Move Beyond Voice
Mobile Phones Move Beyond Voice: "Enpocket currently estimates mobile phone penetration at 53 percent of the U.S. adult population."
SMS research
Enpocket - Mobile media%2C technology and consulting services %28SMS%2C MMS%2C 3G and WAP%29
A potential partner/competitor in US
A potential partner/competitor in US
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
CastBridge - About CastBridge
CastBridge - About CastBridge: "CastBridge solution is based on %22instant data messaging%22 and gives the creators and managers of data simple and direct control over the sharing of that data with others. Regardless of whether data is in a cell in Microsoft Excel%2C a field in a Siebel%AE database%2C or even a URL from a distant web site%2C that data can be easily shared using familiar desktop applications such as Microsoft Office.%0D%0ABased on a peer-to-peer%2C instant messaging architecture CastBridge allows any user within an enterprise or organization to use a simple %27publish and subscribe%27 model to share desktop or enterprise data. Without IT support%2C users are able to dynamically and securely share any type of data at any level of granularity. Data sharing is persistent%2C real-time and secure and can be accomplished with a simple point and click action"
Thursday, August 12, 2004
What Is An RSS Feed?
Nice description for starters
1. Whats the difference between Atom and rss?
2. Can you pack a pic in the XML blob?
HimS
1. Whats the difference between Atom and rss?
2. Can you pack a pic in the XML blob?
HimS
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
More on Speechvantage
Speechless over revenue - 2003-08-25 - Philadelphia Business Journal
Of course, speechvantage is not the only player in the game. Other national entities such as Phonetic Systems and InterVoice Bright also are vying for shares of the speech-recognition business. As Hellhake sees it, his firm has the opportunity to set itself apart not just through the quality of its service, but also the frequency.
"We have a level of maintenance and support that a lot of these companies don't," he said. Rather than just setting up a system and leaving, "we continually manage and monitor these applications through ongoing maintenance and service arrangements."
Looking ahead, speechvantage executives aim to grow the business in a number of ways. They plan, for example, to pitch their wares at the departmental level, using small-scale deployments to leverage a larger entry into an enterprise. They also plan to bundle together some of the most commonly requested applications, such as the automated attendant and the e-mail read-back capability.
Finally, they want to strengthen their standing in certain vertical markets, such as financial services, health care and hospitals. By working in a specific vertical, said Hellhake, "it allows us to focus the applications on a specific need and a specific solution that we can then deploy and customize relatively quickly."
Of course, speechvantage is not the only player in the game. Other national entities such as Phonetic Systems and InterVoice Bright also are vying for shares of the speech-recognition business. As Hellhake sees it, his firm has the opportunity to set itself apart not just through the quality of its service, but also the frequency.
"We have a level of maintenance and support that a lot of these companies don't," he said. Rather than just setting up a system and leaving, "we continually manage and monitor these applications through ongoing maintenance and service arrangements."
Looking ahead, speechvantage executives aim to grow the business in a number of ways. They plan, for example, to pitch their wares at the departmental level, using small-scale deployments to leverage a larger entry into an enterprise. They also plan to bundle together some of the most commonly requested applications, such as the automated attendant and the e-mail read-back capability.
Finally, they want to strengthen their standing in certain vertical markets, such as financial services, health care and hospitals. By working in a specific vertical, said Hellhake, "it allows us to focus the applications on a specific need and a specific solution that we can then deploy and customize relatively quickly."
Welcome to speechvantage
Welcome to speechvantage
companies around the world are employing speech to automate a range of tasks in five key areas: customer care, information delivery, communications, transactions and productivity.
companies around the world are employing speech to automate a range of tasks in five key areas: customer care, information delivery, communications, transactions and productivity.
Speech Recognition for Buisnesses
Welcome to speechvantage
Impressive technology for self service. Need to evaluate...
Impressive technology for self service. Need to evaluate...
Who succeeds?
Historically, solutions that succeed in the price sensitive lower end of the market eventually displace products in the high end.
Source: Gartner
Source: Gartner
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Integrated eService Suites to Usher a Dramatic Change in Multimedia Contact Center Operations
Integrated eService Suites to Usher a Dramatic Change in Multimedia Contact Center OperationsPalo Alto, Calif. – October 21, 2003 – Vendors offering multimedia contact center solutions in North America are increasingly offering integrated eService suites by bundling E-mail management and online web collaboration tools. This is likely to revive their sagging business fortunes.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (www.commapps.frost.com), North American Multimedia Contact Center Markets, reveals that these markets are likely to reach $151.6 million in 2009.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (www.commapps.frost.com), North American Multimedia Contact Center Markets, reveals that these markets are likely to reach $151.6 million in 2009.
Will help in building contact Center Story
Press ReleaseDo-Not-Call Restrictions and Spam Filters Require Changes in Marketing Strategy, Says META Group
Inbound Marketing and Contextually Relevant Web Advertising to Take Center Stage
STAMFORD, Conn. (September 24, 2003) — Do-not-call telemarketing restrictions and e-mail spam filters will shift marketing tactics to more effective means of customer engagement: capturing mind share during inbound interactions (e.g., service request or order placement) and placing online advertising on contextually relevant Web locations, according to META Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: METG).
1. Does increased Spam protection means death of email marketing?
2. How can KB/OLAP/allied technology/partnership be used for creating targeted ads for Customer portal/corp website depending upon the user profile.
Inbound Marketing and Contextually Relevant Web Advertising to Take Center Stage
STAMFORD, Conn. (September 24, 2003) — Do-not-call telemarketing restrictions and e-mail spam filters will shift marketing tactics to more effective means of customer engagement: capturing mind share during inbound interactions (e.g., service request or order placement) and placing online advertising on contextually relevant Web locations, according to META Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: METG).
1. Does increased Spam protection means death of email marketing?
2. How can KB/OLAP/allied technology/partnership be used for creating targeted ads for Customer portal/corp website depending upon the user profile.
Monday, August 09, 2004
Dell Selects Microsoft Collaboration Technologies To Enhance Real-Time Communications
Dell Selects Microsoft Collaboration Technologies To Enhance Real-Time Communications: "Dell has implemented Microsoft� Office Live Meeting and MSN� Messenger Connect for Enterprises, enhancing its real-time communications and collaboration capabilities."
Technology News: Enterprise: Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo Collaborate on Messaging
Technology News: Enterprise: Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo Collaborate on Messaging: "Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) , America Online and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) today announced they will collaborate to enable connectivity between Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and the AOL (NYSE: AOL) , MSN and Yahoo instant messaging (IM) networks."
Technology News: Personal Tech: Yahoo Updates Messenger, Expands Services Integration
Technology News: Personal Tech: Yahoo Updates Messenger, Expands Services Integration: "The company cites a study by the Radicati Group that forecasts 305 million IM users worldwide by the end of the year. Most of those are young adults. A Pew Internet & American Life Project study found that college students are twice as likely to send instant messages in a day than other Internet users, and that 74 percent of online teens use IM.
Yahoo notes that Gartner researchers expect instant messaging as a communication technology will surpass e-mail as the primary online communications tool by 2005. "
Yahoo notes that Gartner researchers expect instant messaging as a communication technology will surpass e-mail as the primary online communications tool by 2005. "
Friday, August 06, 2004
Call Center Spending by Western European Banks and Insurers to Reach $3.2 Billion by 2007, Says IDC
19 Dec 2003
MILAN, December 19, 2003 — Western European banks and insurers will invest a combined $3.2 billion in call center solutions by the end of 2007. According to a new study by IDC's European Vertical Markets group, banks will invest $2.8 billion and insurance companies will invest $351 million, resulting in a 2002–2007 CAGR of 6% and 3.9%, respectively.
The increase in financial companies' IT investments reflects ongoing growth in the call center market, with major initiatives aimed at enhancing customer relationships in the channel and lowering distribution costs. "IT players offer a wide range of solutions for call center operations and their strategies are increasingly aggressive," said Mirko Corbetta, research analyst for IDC's Financial Services group.
The study reveals that:
The call center is the third most used channel in the European financial services market and will emerge as a strategic channel as it has shown it can support a range of business processes, including marketing, customer support, and sales.
IT solutions to integrate data and workflows across channels will be a priority over the next three years because the level of integration among distribution channels is still limited.
Performance management solutions are increasingly critical as financial companies need to evaluate the real value-add that call centers offer compared to other channels.
Outsourcing is increasingly used to drive down costs. This, however, requires strong integration with the entire organization to maintain a high level of service for customers and to offer them multichannel access. This is particularly true for U.K. banks, which are increasingly leveraging offshore outsourcing to cut call center costs.
It would be a mistake for companies in the increasingly competitive financial industry to underestimate the importance of call centers, even though some companies still do not consider them a strategic part of their distribution strategy.
Source:IDC - Press Release
MILAN, December 19, 2003 — Western European banks and insurers will invest a combined $3.2 billion in call center solutions by the end of 2007. According to a new study by IDC's European Vertical Markets group, banks will invest $2.8 billion and insurance companies will invest $351 million, resulting in a 2002–2007 CAGR of 6% and 3.9%, respectively.
The increase in financial companies' IT investments reflects ongoing growth in the call center market, with major initiatives aimed at enhancing customer relationships in the channel and lowering distribution costs. "IT players offer a wide range of solutions for call center operations and their strategies are increasingly aggressive," said Mirko Corbetta, research analyst for IDC's Financial Services group.
The study reveals that:
The call center is the third most used channel in the European financial services market and will emerge as a strategic channel as it has shown it can support a range of business processes, including marketing, customer support, and sales.
IT solutions to integrate data and workflows across channels will be a priority over the next three years because the level of integration among distribution channels is still limited.
Performance management solutions are increasingly critical as financial companies need to evaluate the real value-add that call centers offer compared to other channels.
Outsourcing is increasingly used to drive down costs. This, however, requires strong integration with the entire organization to maintain a high level of service for customers and to offer them multichannel access. This is particularly true for U.K. banks, which are increasingly leveraging offshore outsourcing to cut call center costs.
It would be a mistake for companies in the increasingly competitive financial industry to underestimate the importance of call centers, even though some companies still do not consider them a strategic part of their distribution strategy.
Source:IDC - Press Release
Enterprises Should Revisit Voice Self-Service Applications, the Yankee Group Says
NEWS RELEASE - 17 FEB 2004
Interface design is key to a successful and cost-effective solution
BOSTON - Voice self-service applications based on touch-tone, speech recognition, and text-to-speech technologies serve customers far more cost-effectively than using live agents, the Yankee Group says in a new report, Hosted Speech Applications are Poised for Growth, Increasing Competition and Volatility.
In the last 3 years, competition in the voice self-service market has accelerated, and that benefits enterprise buyers, says Art Schoeller, Yankee Group Customer Relationship Management Strategies senior analyst. "Competition is increasing, so enterprises have an advantage in negotiating service-level agreements with prospective hosting providers," Schoeller says.
Providers in this market range from traditional interactive voice response (IVR) outsourcing firms such as West and First Data, to small startups such as beVocal and TellMe, to IVR platform providers such as Intervoice. In addition, network service providers such as AT&T, Qwest, and others see an opportunity to market voice self-service as an extension of their enhanced 800 services.
The Yankee Group report contains a compelling business case for voice self-service applications. The cost of deploying these applications is an order of magnitude less than the cost of using live agents, Schoeller says. However, without proper design and maintenance, callers find using these applications frustrating, thus mitigating their value to the enterprise. Better interface design is key to successfully deploying a cost-effective solution, he adds.
Programmers skilled in the design and implementation of voice self-service applications continue to be the critical element in this market, despite industry hype about advances in development tools. Enterprises should negotiate hosting service level agreements with terms and conditions that tie the hosting provider's revenue with effective application design, deployment, and monitoring.
Providing voice self-service via a hosted model is not new, but the approach has undergone fundamental shifts in the last 3 years, Schoeller says. Some of the new developments in the last few years including standards such as VoiceXML are now accelerating and will help this market expand.
Yankee Group - News Releases
Interface design is key to a successful and cost-effective solution
BOSTON - Voice self-service applications based on touch-tone, speech recognition, and text-to-speech technologies serve customers far more cost-effectively than using live agents, the Yankee Group says in a new report, Hosted Speech Applications are Poised for Growth, Increasing Competition and Volatility.
In the last 3 years, competition in the voice self-service market has accelerated, and that benefits enterprise buyers, says Art Schoeller, Yankee Group Customer Relationship Management Strategies senior analyst. "Competition is increasing, so enterprises have an advantage in negotiating service-level agreements with prospective hosting providers," Schoeller says.
Providers in this market range from traditional interactive voice response (IVR) outsourcing firms such as West and First Data, to small startups such as beVocal and TellMe, to IVR platform providers such as Intervoice. In addition, network service providers such as AT&T, Qwest, and others see an opportunity to market voice self-service as an extension of their enhanced 800 services.
The Yankee Group report contains a compelling business case for voice self-service applications. The cost of deploying these applications is an order of magnitude less than the cost of using live agents, Schoeller says. However, without proper design and maintenance, callers find using these applications frustrating, thus mitigating their value to the enterprise. Better interface design is key to successfully deploying a cost-effective solution, he adds.
Programmers skilled in the design and implementation of voice self-service applications continue to be the critical element in this market, despite industry hype about advances in development tools. Enterprises should negotiate hosting service level agreements with terms and conditions that tie the hosting provider's revenue with effective application design, deployment, and monitoring.
Providing voice self-service via a hosted model is not new, but the approach has undergone fundamental shifts in the last 3 years, Schoeller says. Some of the new developments in the last few years including standards such as VoiceXML are now accelerating and will help this market expand.
Yankee Group - News Releases
For Co-browse Collatrel
Kefta - Press Release - Kefta Reports Major Findings On Online Order Abandonment: "The objective of the study was to better understand the extent and underlying reasons of online order abandonment to help online marketers better serve their customers," said Philippe Suchet, CEO of Kefta.
The survey results can be summarized in four key findings:
Online order abandonment remains a key issue for marketers. Between 50% and 90% of prospects who start an order (shopping cart or financial application) leave the website before completing it.
Most prospects that do not complete the order do have an interest in becoming customers. At least two-thirds of the prospects surveyed said that they are serious about making a purchase.
Usability is not the primary source of abandonment. Less than 10% of prospects left the site because the ordering process was too complicated.
There are usually 4-5 major reasons why people are dropping. The major reason is never mentioned by more than 25% of the people dropping. The most often mentioned reasons for abandonment are: not a good time, price, uncomfortable buying online, need more information or help.
The survey results can be summarized in four key findings:
Online order abandonment remains a key issue for marketers. Between 50% and 90% of prospects who start an order (shopping cart or financial application) leave the website before completing it.
Most prospects that do not complete the order do have an interest in becoming customers. At least two-thirds of the prospects surveyed said that they are serious about making a purchase.
Usability is not the primary source of abandonment. Less than 10% of prospects left the site because the ordering process was too complicated.
There are usually 4-5 major reasons why people are dropping. The major reason is never mentioned by more than 25% of the people dropping. The most often mentioned reasons for abandonment are: not a good time, price, uncomfortable buying online, need more information or help.
IBM Survey Shows Companies Gaining Strategic Value From CRM Initiatives
Once A Buzzword of the 1990s, CRM Programs Proving Successful When Backed By Solid Processes and Corporate Mandate
IBM Press room - Press releases
IBM Press room - Press releases
Why BLOG? Websites never go out of date
Is Your Web Site Out of Date? by Phil Windley:
This morning I was talking to a company about what they did and told them I'd looked at their Web site. They said "Oh, that's out of date. We're working on an update." Think about the implications of that statement. It means that your treat your Web site as just an online brochure. That's like using a BMW as a dolly for hauling boxes. Blogs are an example of a way to use the Web that never is out of date. Everyday, my blog represents my interests, even as they evolve over time. So, if you ever catch yourself telling someone "Oh, my Web site's out of date", ask yourself what that implies about your use of the Web.
Discuss this :: Email this :: Blog this :: Print this :: Technorati Trackback
SPAM Statistics Reveal Newest Threats to Enterprise
Email Statistics Reveal Newest Threats to Enterprise
New analysis from Frontbridge Technologies reveals how the increase in spam is not only clogging enterprise messaging infrastructures, but also causing additional employee disruption resulting in higher costs. Among the statistics:
Global spam volumes have reached 85 percent, the highest percentage recorded in 2004.
False positives, emails incorrectly identified as spam by filtering devices or services, are posing an even greater threat than spam. When a spam filter cannot be trusted to weed out illegitimate from legitimate mail, the user has no recourse but to check quarantine folders, when possible, for business critical email, effectively forcing them to manage two distinct mailboxes. In instances where no quarantine folder is accessible, essential emails can be lost forever, potentially causing significant revenue loss if the email contains potential sales inquiries or requests for information.
Spam continues to take a toll on enterprise productivity with up to 90 minutes a day lost dealing with spam, according to a report published by Nucleus Research. 2004's peak levels show that attempts to legislate spam away are proving ineffective.
:
http://www.crmindustry.com/
New analysis from Frontbridge Technologies reveals how the increase in spam is not only clogging enterprise messaging infrastructures, but also causing additional employee disruption resulting in higher costs. Among the statistics:
Global spam volumes have reached 85 percent, the highest percentage recorded in 2004.
False positives, emails incorrectly identified as spam by filtering devices or services, are posing an even greater threat than spam. When a spam filter cannot be trusted to weed out illegitimate from legitimate mail, the user has no recourse but to check quarantine folders, when possible, for business critical email, effectively forcing them to manage two distinct mailboxes. In instances where no quarantine folder is accessible, essential emails can be lost forever, potentially causing significant revenue loss if the email contains potential sales inquiries or requests for information.
Spam continues to take a toll on enterprise productivity with up to 90 minutes a day lost dealing with spam, according to a report published by Nucleus Research. 2004's peak levels show that attempts to legislate spam away are proving ineffective.
:
http://www.crmindustry.com/
Building the Customer Interaction Hub: It�s About Time
There is little doubt left that an integrated approach to the delivery of financial products and services benefits both the customer and the bank. Technology solution providers have recently begun to offer front-office systems that could be extended to multiple delivery channels. Other technology vendors offer middleware solutions that could be used to integrate the front-office systems onto a common message backbone, a common base of business process and operational data stores (ODS) that can provide data consistency. But with few exceptions, retail bank organizations simply have no incentive to see beyond tomorrow’s stock price and next year’s bonuses to make the long-term commitment that is necessary to create such a delivery infrastructure.
TowerGroup believes this inertia is starting to change. Many banks are implementing tactical changes to their delivery channels, but with a strategic view toward an integrated architecture. This TowerGroup Research Note describes the characteristics of a customer interaction management (CIM) hub, an idealized multichannel architecture, that will aid the bank’s business and IT managers not only in developing the technical requirements for such an architecture, but also in beginning to plan a deployment strategy that reduces the risk of implementing through a “big bang” approach.
Building the Customer Interaction Hub: It�s About Time
TowerGroup believes this inertia is starting to change. Many banks are implementing tactical changes to their delivery channels, but with a strategic view toward an integrated architecture. This TowerGroup Research Note describes the characteristics of a customer interaction management (CIM) hub, an idealized multichannel architecture, that will aid the bank’s business and IT managers not only in developing the technical requirements for such an architecture, but also in beginning to plan a deployment strategy that reduces the risk of implementing through a “big bang” approach.
Building the Customer Interaction Hub: It�s About Time
The CRMXchange Forum Rooms Great Debate
Opening Statements
Opening Statements
Concerto Software Opening Statement
With the demand for multichannel customer interaction increasing, more and more companies are implementing new or add-on systems to meet the need. As a result, many contact center managers have to deal with the challenges of point solutions on a daily basis – such as complex integrations, cumbersome maintenance, having to implement business rules in numerous different systems and the silo-type view that agents have of customers in this environment.
As contact center managers implement multichannel centers, there are a number of things to consider:
• Strategy: Managers must secure the support of top executives and demonstrate that the move to multichannel supports the company’s larger customer service strategy and key business objectives.
• Agent training: Managers must prepare agents for life in the multichannel world, as phone, email and Web chat interactions all involve very different skill sets. Managers must provide guidance in each discipline to ensure that customers are receiving consistent service across channels. You can have the best tools in the world, but if you don’t have the people in place to properly use them, those tools don’t amount to much.
• Scheduling: Managers must ensure that the agents with the right skills and knowledge are available to help the corresponding customers at the right time.
• Technology: Flexibility is critical in the multichannel environment. Managers must choose technology that enables them to switch agents easily from one channel to another automatically as traffic volume or business needs demand, and allows them to change a business rule once and have it automatically proliferate throughout the system, ensuring consistent service.
We believe that a unified solution best tackles the challenges associated with implementing and operating a true multichannel contact center -- reducing the need for integration, simplifying the maintenance and upgrade process, enabling users to create and change business rules in a single place and then automatically apply those across channels, and providing agents with a unified view of the customer and his or her interactions with the business so that they can be sure to deliver the highest quality, personalized service possible. The overall result is saved time and money, as well as enhanced customer satisfaction and increased revenue opportunities.
Concerto Software, Inc. is a proven and reliable provider of contact center solutions that help companies better manage customer interactions via voice, email, the Web and fax. With multiple strengths – including financial stability, talented people, innovative technology, more than 20 years of industry expertise and a singular focus on the contact center – Concerto Software is a trusted partner to companies across the globe. Concerto Software was selected by leading industry analyst firm, Frost & Sullivan, as the sole recipient of its Contact Center Company of the Year Award in 2003 and 2004, and is also the only company to earn this distinction two years running. Concerto Software is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts, with operations across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, visit www.concerto.com.
EADS Telecom Opening Statement
Although technology plays a major role in the marketplace, EADS TELECOM believes that customer care is the real competitive battleground. Organizations that grow quickly and disrupt their competitors are frequently buoyed by passionate customers. EADS knows that continued growth of your business, comes one excellent customer interaction at a time. Service is a significant differentiator because it is difficult to duplicate, however a modern multi-media contact center is more affordable and capable that ever before. Customers select the communication mode most convenient or best able to carry the transaction. Voice for quick exchanges that do not require large amounts of fine detail; email for less pressing transactions or those requiring transmission of large amounts of detail (lengthy orders, procedures, complex specifications, etc.); and Web for 24-hour, enhanced self-service. In creating your contact center, a firm understanding of its business processes and objectives is necessary to identify the essential and non- essential communications modes. The purpose of the technology is to make customer interactions more efficient and accurate for the participants. If the technology becomes apparent, it is very likely getting in the way (Agent says, “The computer is slow today.”). In planning and operation, measurement is the overarching activity. Measure the human effort expended per transaction—contact minutes per revenue dollar, for example. Pay attention to agent and customer effort. If you make the process efficient for yourself but not for your customer, you still lose. To gain the business advantages of a multi-media contact center it is essential to examine the customer interaction holistically, in itself technology is a means to an end. Have a valuable end in sight before you begin. EADS TELECOM delivers innovative, integrated telecommunications solutions that enables customers to reach people and places around the world whenever, wherever and however they need to. Founded in 1979, EADS TELECOM has played a pivotal role in every communications revolution—from analog to digital, ISDN, ATM and IP—designing the systems that helped make these transitions possible. Today, EADS’s solutions include voice infrastructure, contact center solutions, secure digital radio communications and secure networks. Based in Dallas, EADS TELECOM is part of the EADS, the second largest aerospace and defense group in the world and a leading provider of dynamic, large-scale defense, security and communications solutions worldwide.
Interactive Intelligence Opening Statement
Successfully managing multi-channel communications while maintaining high service levels and consistent reporting is an ongoing challenge due to both changes in business objectives and customer trends.
There are, however, certain technology selection guidelines that organizations can use to help them most quickly, flexibly and cost-effectively adjust to these changing business models and customer requirements. These include:
• An open, software-based architecture that maximizes interoperability with back-office systems, increases ease-of-customization, and ensures investment protection • A single communications platform capable of processing multiple interaction types for faster installation, simplified maintenance and administration, and true end-to-end reporting • A comprehensive, converged applications suite, which includes a wide range of both contact center and enterprise features that can be quickly and cost-effectively added as needed - in a TDM, IP, or hybrid configuration - without a forklift upgrade
With this in mind, Interactive Intelligence offers a complete bundled communications application software suite based on open standards and offering a host of multi-channel features ideal for both contact centers and customer-driven enterprises.
With its industry-leading speech recognition, SIP, predictive dialing and campaign management capabilities; multimedia queuing enhanced with .NET-based Web collaboration; knowledge management; cradle-to-grave reporting; comprehensive quality monitoring and recording; and large-scale, multi-tenant unified communications for distributed environments, Interactive Intelligence's Customer Interaction Center® (CIC) gives organizations everything they need to easily and cost-effectively deploy and manage a multi-channel interaction system.
Nortel Opening Statement
What have we learned from the last several years of multimedia contact center implementations? Most importantly, identify your business objectives first. Why are you doing this? What will differentiate your products and services? What are the benefits to be gained from creating a multimedia contact center? Leverage the years of experience your business and call center have providing customer support to extend what you're already doing successfully today. Then you'll be able to combine your people, your processes and your technology most effectively to create the best multimedia contact center for your business.
Create a cross functional team of shareholders who will plan your contact flow (telephone calls, e-mails, Web chats and so on) based upon your business requirements and the new capabilities you'll have available in your contact center. Ensure that all business and technical critical success factors are managed to deliver your solution quickly. Implement, test and revise your plans as necessary. Remember this...your customers' needs and expectations are dynamic and ever changing, and so should your multimedia contact center strategy. Having established more than 40,,000 customer contact centers worldwide, Nortel Networks has the business and technological expertise to help you create the right contact center for your organization. Our extensive customer contact portfolio includes contact center, self-service, and advanced speech recognition solutions that provide the means for your customers to do business with you consistently and seamlessly - anywhere, anyway, and anytime. We provide you with the tools to manage and understand customer relationships more effectively, and to maximize your return on those relationships
Opening Statements
Concerto Software Opening Statement
With the demand for multichannel customer interaction increasing, more and more companies are implementing new or add-on systems to meet the need. As a result, many contact center managers have to deal with the challenges of point solutions on a daily basis – such as complex integrations, cumbersome maintenance, having to implement business rules in numerous different systems and the silo-type view that agents have of customers in this environment.
As contact center managers implement multichannel centers, there are a number of things to consider:
• Strategy: Managers must secure the support of top executives and demonstrate that the move to multichannel supports the company’s larger customer service strategy and key business objectives.
• Agent training: Managers must prepare agents for life in the multichannel world, as phone, email and Web chat interactions all involve very different skill sets. Managers must provide guidance in each discipline to ensure that customers are receiving consistent service across channels. You can have the best tools in the world, but if you don’t have the people in place to properly use them, those tools don’t amount to much.
• Scheduling: Managers must ensure that the agents with the right skills and knowledge are available to help the corresponding customers at the right time.
• Technology: Flexibility is critical in the multichannel environment. Managers must choose technology that enables them to switch agents easily from one channel to another automatically as traffic volume or business needs demand, and allows them to change a business rule once and have it automatically proliferate throughout the system, ensuring consistent service.
We believe that a unified solution best tackles the challenges associated with implementing and operating a true multichannel contact center -- reducing the need for integration, simplifying the maintenance and upgrade process, enabling users to create and change business rules in a single place and then automatically apply those across channels, and providing agents with a unified view of the customer and his or her interactions with the business so that they can be sure to deliver the highest quality, personalized service possible. The overall result is saved time and money, as well as enhanced customer satisfaction and increased revenue opportunities.
Concerto Software, Inc. is a proven and reliable provider of contact center solutions that help companies better manage customer interactions via voice, email, the Web and fax. With multiple strengths – including financial stability, talented people, innovative technology, more than 20 years of industry expertise and a singular focus on the contact center – Concerto Software is a trusted partner to companies across the globe. Concerto Software was selected by leading industry analyst firm, Frost & Sullivan, as the sole recipient of its Contact Center Company of the Year Award in 2003 and 2004, and is also the only company to earn this distinction two years running. Concerto Software is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts, with operations across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, visit www.concerto.com.
EADS Telecom Opening Statement
Although technology plays a major role in the marketplace, EADS TELECOM believes that customer care is the real competitive battleground. Organizations that grow quickly and disrupt their competitors are frequently buoyed by passionate customers. EADS knows that continued growth of your business, comes one excellent customer interaction at a time. Service is a significant differentiator because it is difficult to duplicate, however a modern multi-media contact center is more affordable and capable that ever before. Customers select the communication mode most convenient or best able to carry the transaction. Voice for quick exchanges that do not require large amounts of fine detail; email for less pressing transactions or those requiring transmission of large amounts of detail (lengthy orders, procedures, complex specifications, etc.); and Web for 24-hour, enhanced self-service. In creating your contact center, a firm understanding of its business processes and objectives is necessary to identify the essential and non- essential communications modes. The purpose of the technology is to make customer interactions more efficient and accurate for the participants. If the technology becomes apparent, it is very likely getting in the way (Agent says, “The computer is slow today.”). In planning and operation, measurement is the overarching activity. Measure the human effort expended per transaction—contact minutes per revenue dollar, for example. Pay attention to agent and customer effort. If you make the process efficient for yourself but not for your customer, you still lose. To gain the business advantages of a multi-media contact center it is essential to examine the customer interaction holistically, in itself technology is a means to an end. Have a valuable end in sight before you begin. EADS TELECOM delivers innovative, integrated telecommunications solutions that enables customers to reach people and places around the world whenever, wherever and however they need to. Founded in 1979, EADS TELECOM has played a pivotal role in every communications revolution—from analog to digital, ISDN, ATM and IP—designing the systems that helped make these transitions possible. Today, EADS’s solutions include voice infrastructure, contact center solutions, secure digital radio communications and secure networks. Based in Dallas, EADS TELECOM is part of the EADS, the second largest aerospace and defense group in the world and a leading provider of dynamic, large-scale defense, security and communications solutions worldwide.
Interactive Intelligence Opening Statement
Successfully managing multi-channel communications while maintaining high service levels and consistent reporting is an ongoing challenge due to both changes in business objectives and customer trends.
There are, however, certain technology selection guidelines that organizations can use to help them most quickly, flexibly and cost-effectively adjust to these changing business models and customer requirements. These include:
• An open, software-based architecture that maximizes interoperability with back-office systems, increases ease-of-customization, and ensures investment protection • A single communications platform capable of processing multiple interaction types for faster installation, simplified maintenance and administration, and true end-to-end reporting • A comprehensive, converged applications suite, which includes a wide range of both contact center and enterprise features that can be quickly and cost-effectively added as needed - in a TDM, IP, or hybrid configuration - without a forklift upgrade
With this in mind, Interactive Intelligence offers a complete bundled communications application software suite based on open standards and offering a host of multi-channel features ideal for both contact centers and customer-driven enterprises.
With its industry-leading speech recognition, SIP, predictive dialing and campaign management capabilities; multimedia queuing enhanced with .NET-based Web collaboration; knowledge management; cradle-to-grave reporting; comprehensive quality monitoring and recording; and large-scale, multi-tenant unified communications for distributed environments, Interactive Intelligence's Customer Interaction Center® (CIC) gives organizations everything they need to easily and cost-effectively deploy and manage a multi-channel interaction system.
Nortel Opening Statement
What have we learned from the last several years of multimedia contact center implementations? Most importantly, identify your business objectives first. Why are you doing this? What will differentiate your products and services? What are the benefits to be gained from creating a multimedia contact center? Leverage the years of experience your business and call center have providing customer support to extend what you're already doing successfully today. Then you'll be able to combine your people, your processes and your technology most effectively to create the best multimedia contact center for your business.
Create a cross functional team of shareholders who will plan your contact flow (telephone calls, e-mails, Web chats and so on) based upon your business requirements and the new capabilities you'll have available in your contact center. Ensure that all business and technical critical success factors are managed to deliver your solution quickly. Implement, test and revise your plans as necessary. Remember this...your customers' needs and expectations are dynamic and ever changing, and so should your multimedia contact center strategy. Having established more than 40,,000 customer contact centers worldwide, Nortel Networks has the business and technological expertise to help you create the right contact center for your organization. Our extensive customer contact portfolio includes contact center, self-service, and advanced speech recognition solutions that provide the means for your customers to do business with you consistently and seamlessly - anywhere, anyway, and anytime. We provide you with the tools to manage and understand customer relationships more effectively, and to maximize your return on those relationships
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Livejournal Stats & Analysis over time
Its not as big as I thought. Its bigger. Was wondering whats the size of junta blogging these days when landed on this interesting analysis. Its dated however. Do check out the Live Journal's published stats.
Livejournal Stats & Analysis over time
Livejournal Stats & Analysis over time
Comparision between Win XP Home and Pro editions
To test on Pro or Home. We always tested on Pro.
Dont think anything will break on one and work on another. So lets test on Pro as usual.
Also mostly ppl use Pro.
Windows XP Comparison Guide
Dont think anything will break on one and work on another. So lets test on Pro as usual.
Also mostly ppl use Pro.
Windows XP Comparison Guide
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