Customer Interaction Solutions articles from April 2007

Customer Interaction Solutions archives from April 2007

CRM in a digital world: in the worldwide madness of going digital, the tendency is doing everything digitally; However, there is no substitute for the personal touch!(Publisher's Outlook)
April 1, 2007... In many of these editorials, I have often stressed that companies live or die from repeat business. Repeat business, naturally, comes from customer care, customer satisfaction and overall customer relationship management (CRM). For one...

FrontRange makes a strong showing in the SMB marketplace.(High Priority)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... FrontRange Solutions (www.frontrange.com) has a reputation for being a dynamic organization. The company is a market leader in IT service management, customer relationship management (CRM) and voice applications for the mid-market and...

Symon debuts Symon Enterprise Server 9.2.(NEWS BRIEFS)
April 1, 2007... Symon Communications, Inc., a provider of real-time digital communication solutions, operational performance and productivity tools, recently announced the release of Symon Enterprise Server (SES) 9.2 software. SES 9.2 is billed as a...

NICE launches NICE Inform.(NICE Systems Ltd. launched information management software)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... NICE Systems Ltd. has announced the launch of NICE Inform, a solution the company says "revolutionizes information management in the security market." NICE Inform provides capabilities for effectively managing multimedia incident information...

Verint updates performance management solution.(NEWS BRIEFS)
April 1, 2007... Verint Systems Inc. recently announced a new version of its Verint Performance Management, which combines speech analytics with performance analytics to enhance performance across contact centers, back-office and enterprise departments....

VoiceLog and First Marketing partner to create e-Kit.(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... VoiceLog, a provider of third-party verification services, and direct marketing services provider First Marketing have announced the availability of the e-Kit, an electronic welcome program designed to give communications service providers,...

Altitude Software launches Altitude Voice Portal.(NEWS BRIEFS)
April 1, 2007... Contact center solutions provider Altitude Software has announced the availability of the Altitude Voice Portal, the company's new voice platform designed to deliver an improved self-service experience, increase agent, productivity and help...

Richardson launches self-diagnostic tool.(NEWS BRIEFS)
April 1, 2007... Richardson, a sales training and consulting firm, has announced the launch of a new online negotiations self-diagnostic tool to support its portfolio of Richardson SkillGauge diagnostics. The new negotiations diagnostic is a tool to help...

TouchStar releases IP-PBX product for VoIP.(Customer Inter@ction NEWS)
April 1, 2007... In an effort to provide its clients with additional functionality that can also cut costs, TouchStar Software Corporation has announced the beta release of its new TouchStar IP-PBX product. Businesses are realizing the benefits of...

Aspect Software intros Aspect Performance Management.(Customer Inter@ction NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Merced Systems and Aspect Software have announced the availability of a new product offering from Aspect Software to provide performance improvements that are timely and relevant for the contact center. The new offering, Aspect Performance...

Envox 7 launches for IP voice and video.(Customer Inter@ction NEWS)
April 1, 2007... It's clear that as we move forward at breakneck speed toward the next era of personal and enterprise communications, there is one thing that is getting consumers very, very excited: IP voice and, in particular, video. It's also clear that...

Gartner finds SaaS market to hit $19.3 billion by 2011.(Customer Inter@ction NEWS)
April 1, 2007... The worldwide software-as-a-service (SaaS) market reached $6.3 billion in 2006 and is forecast to grow to $19.3 billion by year-end 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. SaaS is hosted software based on a single set of common code and data...

Nortel outlines its vision for unified communications.(Customer Inter@ction NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Nortel recently announced its vision for unified communications and outlined upcoming solutions to provide enterprises with simple and reliable methods of delivering voice, video and data over IP. Nortel's unified communications solutions...

Aastra launches free hosted call center service for SMBs.(Customer Inter@ction NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Aastra USA Inc., a recognized player in the IP communications space, has unveiled a new hosted call center service tailored for small to medium-sized businesses. The Web-based product, CVCC Express, encompasses key incoming call center features...

Automated voice response over predictive dialers.(Customer Inter@ction NEWS)
April 1, 2007... The time spent on outbound calling for the call center is one of the biggest drains on efficiency and resources. While predictive dialers have been used for years to help promote operational efficiency, more call centers are starting to abandon...

CallCenterComics.com.(Cartoon)
April 1, 2007... ACCORDING TO OUR RECORDS YOU CALL EVERY 3 MONTHS THREATENING TO CANCEL, BUT WE MANAGE TO SAVE YOU. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SO FAR WE HAVE GIVEN YOU $20 IN RETENTION INCENTIVES FOR EVERY DOLLAR YOU HAVE SPENT WITH US.... I THINK YOU KNOW...

The Nine Circles of the IVR Inferno.(interactive voice response system)
April 1, 2007... There are lots of reasons to make your IVR (interactive voice response) system as efficient and customer-friendly as possible. You can rattle off most of them: "Yeah, yeah, improved customer satisfaction, better efficiency, blah, blah, costs...

Outbound technologies roundup.(workforce optimization)
April 1, 2007... Call centers are ever on the alert for new ways to increase efficiency, keep costs down and at the same time improve the customer experience. Outbound technologies, once thought of as merely random dialers programmed to interrupt family...

First call resolution: good for you, good for your customers.(MANAGEMENT SCOPE)(Cover story)
April 1, 2007... It's a generally accepted piece of conventional wisdom that in the call center, what's good for you--lowering call handle times, offloading more live calls into indifferent, inexpensive and generic self-service, replacing skilled agents with...

Twenty-second annual: Top 50 inbound Teleservices Agency Ranking.
April 1, 2007... This is the twenty-second year Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine brings you its "Top 50" Teleservices Agency Ranking. In this issue, we're presenting the "Top 50" inbound portion of the ranking. (The outbound portion of the ranking was...

Routing: the foundation for contact center optimization.(CONTACT CENTER TECHNOLOGY)
April 1, 2007... Increasingly, contact centers are shifting focus from cost-containment to strategic goals such as improved customer loyalty, superior quality and revenue generation. To realize these objectives, contact centers must first gain greater...

Building a distributed call center: three things to look for in a virtual phone solution.(IP CONTACT CENTER)
April 1, 2007... It's no secret nowadays that one of the greatest challenges to running a contact center is complying with demands from executive company management, which usually involve trying to find a way to increase call center efficiencies and reduce...

Speech self-service encroaches on carbon-based life forms.
April 1, 2007... When I first heard someone mention that someday, self-service would replace humans in the call center, I think I snorted coffee out my nose. It was almost a decade ago, and my skepticism on the topic was high. After all... what was there for...

Ask the expert.(call centers can benefits from remote agents strategy and technology)
April 1, 2007... With Tim Passios, Director of Product Management, Interactive Intelligence [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Q: There seems to be a lot of talk about the benefits of using at-home or remote agents as additions to the physical contact center. Are...