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