Contact Center Solutions

Sitel UK Offers Equality Advisory and Support Service to Prevent Discrimination

Discrimination of any kind is illegal, but unfortunately it still exists. In order to help common public to deal with the issues of discrimination in all walks of life, Sitel UK, an expert in outsourced customer contact solutions, was commissioned in October 2012 to provide the new Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS). [ Read More ]
06/17/2013

Timely Customer Support and Real-Time Information Help Contact Centers Engage with Social Media Customers

For a long time, customers who needed to interact with the companies they buy products and services from felt largely powerless. They could call into a call center and wait in queue and hope to get a person who answered their questions or they could send an e-mail, knowing there was only a 50-50 chance they would get a response. [ Read More ]
06/17/2013

New Research Highlights Industry Best Practices for Social Media

With the concept of social shopping having taken center stage, brand marketers are putting in a good deal of effort to leverage the power of social media to enhance customer engagement, boost sales and retain customer loyalty through live interactions. [ Read More ]
06/17/2013

MAXIMUS, Hawai'i Health Connector Sign Multiyear Contract

Hawai'i Health Connector has chosen MAXIMUS, a worldwide provider of government services, for the development, deployment and administration of its Customer Service Contact Center and Support Service. The $12 million contract, comprised of a three-year base period and two one-year alternative periods, will commence on June 16, 2013. [ Read More ]
06/14/2013

Interactive Intelligence Conducts Middle East Survey on Customer Service Experience Strategies

The Middle East is a rapidly expanding market for contact center solutions, but as all multi-national companies know, being keenly attuned to local needs is critical. [ Read More ]
06/14/2013

'Gamification' an Important Part of Workforce Optimization Solutions

A constant challenge for contact centers is how to improve agent performance. Solutions range from better training to improving the dashboards and connectivity they have in order to increase the first time to resolution numbers to a host of KPIs that help administrators better understand how agent time is being optimized so they can then take corrective actions. [ Read More ]
06/14/2013

Interactive Intelligence's CaaS Small Center Solution Offers Small Call Centers Big Opportunities

When TMCnet's senior editor Peter Bernstein attended Interactive Intelligence's recent Interactions 2013 global conference held in Indianapolis, small call centers were one of the hot topics. Bernstein took a few moments to speak with Jason Alley, of Interactive Intelligence's Solutions Marketing, and Darren Gill, VP of sales for Cloud Small Center. The topic was Interactive Intelligence's recent launch of its Cloud Small Center communications-as-a service (CaaS) solution for small contact cente… [ Read More ]
06/14/2013

Interactive Intelligence Allows Call Center Supervisors to Roam with the Help of an iPad

It's no secret that the call center is on the move. Increasingly, call centers are distributed operations with components located all over the country or even the world. Call center supervisors and managers have more demands on them today as well, and many of them simply can't be at their desks all the time. So how do you manage a mobile call center? [ Read More ]
06/14/2013

Interactive Intelligence Honors Avtex with 2013 Vision Award

Interactive Intelligence has honored Avtex with the 2013 Vision Award. The Vision Award is awarded to the reseller who has showcased a ground-breaking application as well as the progressive utilization of Interactive Intelligence's comprehensive IP communications software portfolio. [ Read More ]
06/13/2013

FedEx Takes Home Two Awards from INSIGHTS Middle East Call Center Awards 2013

FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx and the biggest express parcel delivery company in the world, has just won two awards at the INSIGHTS Middle East Call Center Awards 2013. [ Read More ]
06/13/2013

Call Center Outsourcing Not Up to Snuff, Says Tanfeeth CEO

According to Suhail Bin Tarraf, the CEO of Tanfeeth, a shared services provider in the Middle East, outsourcing call center operations to providers that specialize in such a task has become something very common yet troublesome because of the disparity between what clients expect and what they actually get out of these services. [ Read More ]
06/13/2013

Multichannel Customer Service is Dominating the Call Center Space

As the first day of the exhibition hall at Call Center Week 2013 comes to an end, one trend is standing out among the others: the importance of delivering multichannel customer experiences. Customers today have options when it comes to getting in contact with companies, brands and organizations. [ Read More ]
06/13/2013

Do the Other Departments in your Firm Care About Customer Service?

Collaboration is a concept that needs to be given importance in any field, including organizations. Often, an organization structure lays out the way the firm is divided into different departments. Each department seems to be a separate entity from the other departments, since there is the head of department, or manager, and the various subordinates right underneath him/her. [ Read More ]
06/12/2013

IP Contact Center Solutions with UC Capabilities Display Strong Adoption Rates

Many contact centers are discovering the benefits of moving to an IP-based contact center platform. They allow companies to operate distributed and remote facilities, hire home agents, build a more complete contact center with subject matter experts on tap, build disaster recovery into the enterprise and take advantage of unified communications features. [ Read More ]
06/11/2013

Interactive Intelligence Bags CUSTOMER Magazine's 2013 IP Contact Center Technology Award

CUSTOMER Magazine, published by global integrated media company TMC, has recently announced IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Awards. Interactive Intelligence Group is one among the winners taking away Pioneer Award for its CaaS Small Center(SM) solution. [ Read More ]
06/11/2013

Windstream Adds Avaya Aura to its Offerings

Windstream has provided advanced network communications to businesses everywhere, and now its Unified Communications offering is getting a boost from Avaya. The offering is being expanded with Avaya's Aura suite of communications solutions, all available as a cloud-based solution, providing new features and functionality as a scalable, subscription-based service. [ Read More ]
06/11/2013

InfoTrends Gives Tips to Tap the Transactional Communications Market

About 8.6 billion consumer bills and statements will be paperless in 2017, according to a newly released InfoTrends U.S. study. [ Read More ]
06/10/2013

Adapt Telephony Recognized by Interactive Intelligence

Adapt Telephony Services recently announced that Interactive Intelligence has recognized the company with the 2013 Conquest Award. Adapt, a reseller and systems integrator of unified IP business communications solutions, has won this award now for the ninth time to count. Recently, it was also presented with the vendor's Pace Setter North America Award for generating the most North American sales revenue from Interactive Intelligence software and services. [ Read More ]
06/10/2013

TMCnet Contact Center Solutions Week in Review

The Contact Center Solutions Community is something I tend to view as a leading indicator of ICT trends. While there is plenty of news to report on things as varied as new products and services, industry recognition, insights and customer wins, a big area that is emerging to take note of is the increased use of big data and analytics to improve operational performance, as well as gain customer insights. [ Read More ]
06/08/2013

WebRTC Finds a Real-World Debut in FreeCRM Solution

If you've been hearing about WebRTC (Real Time Communications) and what it can do for your business, you may have an easy to way to begin using it soon. WebRTC is the standard behind a free, open project designed to allow high-quality, real-time communication applications to be developed right in the browser via simple Java APIs and HTML5. What it essentially means is that you can easily engage in video or audio communications with people all over the world as easily as clicking on a link. [ Read More ]
06/06/2013

Interactive Intelligence Group's CaaS Contact Center Solution Wins Pioneer Award

CUSTOMER Magazine has recognized Interactive Intelligence Group Inc.'s CaaS Small Center solution with its 2013 IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award. Interactive Intelligence Group has been a leading provider of call center software and technology solutions since 1994 and deploys its CaaS Center solution to over 5,000 customers. [ Read More ]
06/06/2013

AnswerNow's ScheduleNow and MessageNow Comes with Text and Email Messaging Feature

The automated messaging function conveniently reminds an organization's clients, patients and customers of important scheduled events and appointments. Adding text and e-mail messaging to the existing automated appointment reminder capability helps service providers and businesses reduce costs associated to missed appointments and no-shows. [ Read More ]
06/06/2013

Dexplora Enhances CRM Systems with $1.2 Million Financing

Dexplora, based in Sweden, has received an investment worth $1.2 million from popular VCs Creandum and DN Capital and twelve individuals. The financing will assist Dexplora's drive to enhance enterprise tools and give power to sales companies. [ Read More ]
06/06/2013

Google Partners With STELLAservice On Customer Service Ratings For Online Retailers

Google has long been trying to find a way to take better advantage of its online retail outlets. The company has taken steps to better monitor customer service ratings thanks to a new partnership deal with online service ratings vendor STELLAservice. That company will be taking in all kinds of information from online customers who shop with and buy items from one of the myriad of Google's Trusted Stores and partner merchants. [ Read More ]
06/05/2013

Achieving True Customer Engagement through Contact Center Analytics

"Customer engagement" is the name of the game in contact centers today, but the concept means different things to different people. In a nutshell, it means understanding your customers' needs and being able to predict their wants, and reaching out to them proactively to offer resources to them before they even know they need them. [ Read More ]
06/05/2013

A Product to Measure CSR and Social Leadership, Now from Cone Communications

Cone Communications, a division of Omnicom Group and a public relations and marketing agency has revealed a social media and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) product, CSR SocialScore, a tool to measure how brands are using social media in their CSR efforts. [ Read More ]
06/05/2013

PWP Partners with Milsoft on Outage Management System, IVR Call Center

Milsoft Utility Solutions has been selected by Pasadena Water and Power to handle PWP's outage management system and call center. This is just one more in what is becoming a long line of services that PWP has utilized from Milsoft Utility. [ Read More ]
06/04/2013

Altivon gets Chairman's Award from Interactive Intelligence

Altivon, a company that provides services and solutions that enhance contact center effectiveness, elevate the customer experience and evolve to meet customer interaction requirements, recently announced that Interactive Intelligence, a provider of unified IP business communications software and services, has recognized the company with its annual Chairman's Award. [ Read More ]
06/04/2013

ESET Warns Against Increasing Cold Call Support Scam

The scammers attempt to influence the customers by claiming to have identified viruses or other malware on their system via cold calling or by representing themselves as agents of popular organizations. The scammers then request remote access to systems in order to resolve the issues. [ Read More ]
06/04/2013

MarketsandMarkets: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Market worth $ 24.22 Billion by 2018

MarketsandMarkets, a market research and consulting company, has released detailed report on Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) market. This report is titled "Customer Relationship Management (CRM) & Social CRM Market (2013-2018)." [ Read More ]
06/04/2013

Mississippi to Open New Call Center to Support Enrollees in Federal Health Insurance Marketplace

While it's no secret that many state governors are less than enthusiastic about the soon-to-be-law Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, or "Obamacare"), many of them are nonetheless preparing for it. For the states choosing to administer the health care exchanges themselves, this means setting up call centers to help with enrollments. Even for states that are choosing not to administer their own exchanges, instead leaving it up to the federal government, there are preparations to b… [ Read More ]
06/04/2013

Xerox Executive Predicts a Future of Automated Customer Service

The face of customer support is changing radically. In his guest piece for Forbes, James O'Brien of Xerox related the insight that managing director for Xerox, Christina Morris, had to offer on the topic. In "The Future of Online Customer Support," Morris proposes three categories that make the customer support "shortlist": app-based customer support, interactive voice response and virtual device interventions. [ Read More ]
06/03/2013

Altitude Software uCI Suite Supports Growth of Al Hamra's Master-Planned Community

Altitude Software, a provider of customer interaction solutions, recently revealed Al Hamra Village has deployed the Altitude uCI suite to power its multimedia contact center to deliver improved customer service and handle the fast-paced growth of Al Hamra's master-planned community across Ras al Khaimah (RAK). [ Read More ]
06/03/2013

LiveOps, Drumbi Release Visual IVR Solution for Cloud Contact Centers

LiveOps and Drumbi are teaming up, creating a new IVR solution for cloud contact centers. The Drumbi SmartIVR is designed to complement the multichannel cloud contact center platform from LiveOps, allowing users to start calls from virtually anywhere. [ Read More ]
06/03/2013

Malaysia BPO, Contact Centers to Improve Performance Using CCAM-COPC

The Customer Relationship Management and Contact Centre Association of Malaysia (CCAM) will implement a performance management system in order to stay competitive with other business process outsourcing (BPO) destinations, according to an article in Bernama. [ Read More ]
06/03/2013

Interactive Intelligence Names AudioCodes as Infrastructure Partner of the Year

AudioCodes, a provider of VoIP technologies, products and services, was recently named Interactive Intelligence's 2013 Infrastructure Partner of the Year. The Infrastructure Partner of the Year award recognizes the alliance partner whose network equipment or other infrastructure most contributed to the success of Interactive Intelligence contact center and enterprise deployments. [ Read More ]
06/03/2013

LiveOps, Drumbi Announce Availability of Drumbi SmartIVR

LiveOps, a provider of cloud contact center and customer service solutions, and Drumbi, a provider of visual IVR and mobile customer experience technology, stated that the newly launched Drumbi SmartIVR is loaded with all the necessary features to complement the LiveOps multichannel, cloud contact center platform. [ Read More ]
06/03/2013

TMCnet Contact Center Solutions Week in Review

Despite the short Memorial Day holiday here in the U.S., the Contact Center Solutions Community was not short on news. [ Read More ]
06/01/2013

IQ Services Provides Virtual Evaluation of Contact Centers

A contact center often functions as the the face of a business, so it should provide customer service solutions that support and defend the company's advertised brand promise. [ Read More ]
05/31/2013

Interactive Intelligence Releases Findings of Global Customer Service Experience Survey

A few weeks ago, I wrote a story about the research on customer service experiences done by Interactive Intelligence, from both the IT professional and customer perspective, that was first revealed at its Interactions 13 event. I observed that it was to say the least enlightening. I also promised that when the full report was made available, I would provide all of you the link. [ Read More ]
05/31/2013

T-Mobile Netherlands Picks the Interactive Intelligence Cloud-based IP Business Communications Solution

As those of you who follow Interactive Intelligence closely know, it has had significant success in capturing mind and market share in medium and larger enterprises, and now with its Small Center offer has a full portfolio of solutions to fit the needs of organizations of any size as well as give customers the option of a premises solution, cloud-based or hybrid one depending on their unique requirements. [ Read More ]
05/31/2013

D-Link Launches Call Center and Testing Lab in India

Networking solution provider D-Link will discontinue their style of outsourcing services and will be establishing a call center in India that will be in-house. It will also be as setting up a testing lab in July in Goa, India. D-Link's chairman AP Chen believes that the testing lab wil ensure better localization. [ Read More ]
05/31/2013

Ontario Call Center Apprentice Training Program at Risk Due to Low Completion Rates

Call center companies in the U.S. have some reasons to be envious of Ontario call center companies. One of those reasons is the tax incentive that Ontario call centers receive to hire and train apprentice call center agents. [ Read More ]
05/31/2013

India Updates Its Unwanted Telemarketing Regulations

While the U.S. fights the scourge of fraudulent telemarketing and unwanted robocalls that violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), consumers and regulatory bodies in India are doing the same. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently issued changes to its "Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations," creating the Twelfth Amendment to the document. [ Read More ]
05/31/2013

Fonality Website Highlights Enhanced Communications Systems

Fonality has unveiled a redesigned website, which will emphasize the advantages of enhanced business communications systems. Visitors to the website will be provided comprehensive insight into the features available, along with the implementation options for Fonality's business phone systems and contact center solutions. The website also details the manner in which Fonality solutions have made considerable impact on other organizations. [ Read More ]
05/30/2013

Poor Customer Service Pushes Away Customers

Good customers make businesses thrive, but only good customer service will woo customers, so it's imperative that the customer is always kept satisfied and happy. It's not as if companies are unaware of this, but lamentably the zeal to deliver outstanding service is absent, causing customers to switch their loyalties. [ Read More ]
05/30/2013

The Drawbacks of Third-Party Benchmarking Certain Call-Center Metrics

While contact centers today keep track of a lot of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), there is evidence they are not always tracking the right ones. Average handle time (AHT) used to be an important metric in the contact center: it measured how long a call took from start to finish. In recent years, however, many companies have dropped AHT as a yardstick because it does not indicate whether a call was completed successfully (unlike, for example, first-call resolution), and efforts to… [ Read More ]
05/30/2013

Fusion NBS Business Services Integrated with Gryphon Core Phone App

Fusion's NBS business services division has integrated its cloud communications services platform to the Gryphon Core Phone Do Not Call application. Fusion provides cloud communications, cloud computing and managed applications solutions to businesses of all sizes. [ Read More ]
05/30/2013

ININ Announces Participation at Middle East Call Center '13 Conference

Interactive Intelligence Group, a provider of unified IP business communications software and services, stated that it will be demonstrating its latest contact center technologies and trends at the upcoming Middle East Call Center '13 (MECC '13) conference to be held from June 4-5, 2013, in Dubai. [ Read More ]
05/30/2013

Indosoft Enhances Overseer Watchdog System for Q-Suite

Indosoft Inc. has unveiled an improved version of its Overseer Watchdog System. Call centers with very important tasks are able to go beyond high availability (HA) with the autonomous monitoring and decision making system, thereby providing call endurance. The latest release strengthens computerized error detection and enhances the autonomous overseer mechanism, resulting in improved durability. [ Read More ]
05/28/2013

Technology Helps Cut Contact Center Fraud

Contact centers, while they seldom handle cash or expensive merchandise, are often the scenes of crimes. While they may not handle the kinds of things thieves traditionally like to steal, they have far more valuable merchandise: private customer information, including social security numbers, passwords and banking details. [ Read More ]
05/28/2013

O2 and Capita Announce Ten-Year Partnership

O2 and Capita recently announced a partnership, worth approximately $1.5 billion, hat will see U.K.-based Capita run and manage O2's customer service centers as well as supporting and enhancing O2's digital offering to its customers for the next decade. [ Read More ]
05/28/2013

Frost & Sullivan Report Focuses on Contact Center Customer Security, Service

Frost & Sullivan has just released a couple of new studies that take a look at what companies can do in order to address online credit card payment security and social media customer service. The report focuses on the potential security breaches that can occur when those payments are going through a customer contact center and is geared towards helping the managers of those centers understand what actions need to be taken to protect the data. [ Read More ]
05/28/2013

Contact Center Solutions Week in Review

The Contact Center Solutions community certainly had a variety of news on several different fronts this week regarding new solutions, customer implementations, recognition, etc. However, before getting to the news this week, I actually would like to start by pointing everyone to two articles I authored. [ Read More ]
05/25/2013

Indosoft Boosts Q-Suite ACD's Ability to Retain Calls in the Event of Server Faults

If you run a mission-critical call center and one of your servers goes down, so you risk dropping that very important call? Given the number of serious storms that have battered the U.S. in recent years, more and more call centers might be said to be mission-critical: emergency services call centers, utility customer support, 411 information call centers and insurance companies are just some of the organizations that get busy under high-pressure circumstances. [ Read More ]
05/23/2013

How to Really Improve Customer Experiences, REALLY!

In the last several weeks as a result of the Interactive Intelligence Interactions 13 event, and a variety of industry developments, I have been exposed to not just to the latest and greatest in contact center solutions. It has also been my good fortune to interact with some very knowledgeable people from across the broad spectrum of community stakeholders-customers, resellers, channel partners, industry analysts-literally from all over the world. What they all have in common is an intense focus… [ Read More ]
05/23/2013

iPhonik to Open Sri Lanka Contact Center for Asian Alliance Insurance

iPhonik has signed a deal to open a contact center in Sri Lanka for Asian Alliance Insurance (AAI), which will now employ local Sri Lankan agents. [ Read More ]
05/23/2013

LiveOps selected in AlwaysOn OnDemand Top 100 list

LiveOps, Inc announced it has selected AlwaysOn, a business media brand connecting and informing the entrepreneurial community, in its list of AlwaysOn OnDemand Top 100 Private Companies for the third year in a row. [ Read More ]
05/23/2013

Avaya is Now a Member of Open Visual Communications Consortium

Avaya, a provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, joined the Open Visual Communications Consortium (OVCC), a non-profit organization of worldwide communications technology companies working together to enable video collaboration across any network, vendor platform and device. [ Read More ]
05/23/2013

Are You Using Key Performance Indicators of the Past in a Next-Gen Contact Center?

As the economy continues to lag (along with consumer confidence), many companies are finding it more important than ever before to retain the customers they have. In a commoditized world, smart companies understand that the best way to differentiate themselves from competitors is by offering top-notch multichannel customer service. [ Read More ]
05/23/2013

Contact Solutions Deploys AnyPresence to Develop Mobile Customer Service Apps

In an effort to create next generation mobile customer service applications (apps), Contact Solutions, a provider of on-demand contact automation solutions and hosted interactive voice response (IVR) in North America, has deployed an enterprise mobile development platform - AnyPresence. [ Read More ]
05/23/2013

SYNETY Announces Integration of CloudCall with GoldMine CRM

Users of GoldMine CRM will now be able to access telephony functions directly from within GoldMine. To provide this capability, Synety has announced integration of its on-demand business telephony application, CloudCall with GoldMine CRM, which will allow GoldMine users to use CloudCall by doing a regular upgrade of the CRM software. [ Read More ]
05/22/2013

SpeechStorm Unveils Personas in Latest Release of IVR

SpeechStorm's most recent version of its Interactive Voice Response or IVR application is now available. Code-named 'Hitchcock', the latest version unveils SpeechStorm Personas, which allows customers to have varied experiences of call centre IVR and self-service, as per their selected profile, behavior, or liking. [ Read More ]
05/22/2013

Noble Systems Integrates Web Services with Customer Contact Programs

Noble Systems Corporation has unveiled the Noble Web Interfacing Service or WISE, offering versatility to multichannel customer contact programs. Noble facilitates data exchange between applications with the help of web services. Apart from enhancing customer experience, the use of Web services accelerates response times to customer contacts. Online sales organizations will also experience enhanced "Speed to Lead". [ Read More ]
05/22/2013

Interactive Intelligence Collaborates With Kuwait-based FutureTech

Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. has further extended its presence in the Middle East market after it entered into a strategic association with FutureTech, a provider of smart IT infrastructure and IT outsourcing offerings located in Kuwait. [ Read More ]
05/22/2013

Ixia Improves Call Center Reliability with New Contact Center Solution

Ixia has added a new solution to its product line called Ixia Chariot Contact Center. The solution is designed to help contact centers offer an increase in network reliability during peak times when they see a spike in demand. Additionally, the solution will also offer higher security capabilities to keep the call center and data safer against a TDoS attack. [ Read More ]
05/22/2013

RAC Deploys SSP Select Contact Center to Streamline Motorist Services

The RAC, a motoring association in the U.K., roughly equivalent to the AAA stateside, has announced that it has deployed SSP Select Contact Center. [ Read More ]
05/21/2013

LiveLeadPros.com Offers Comprehensive Call Center Management Services

LiveLeadPros.com has said that it now offers comprehensive call center management services at reasonable prices. The company offers a wide range of services, including real-time reports and regulating the number of call center contacts made per minute. Additional services include assisting in changing scheduled broadcasting hours and more. [ Read More ]
05/21/2013

ACSI Report Says Customer Service is Slowly Getting Better

While we like to bemoan the dismal state of customer service in the U.S., there is evidence that companies are finally getting the message, albeit slowly: bad customer service risks the entire business. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), often cited as the national customer satisfaction benchmark, says things are getting better. [ Read More ]
05/21/2013

Telvista to Handle Virgin America's Unique Customer Services Program

For those of us who fly around the U.S., Virgin America is likely a favorite. Not only do they have a modern fleet with all of the amenities-wide seats, personal video, power adapters, etc., and reasonable prices-but they also happen to provide great customer service. [ Read More ]
05/20/2013

Will Visa Reforms be Catastrophic for Offshore Outsourcing?

It is safe to say that the tech industry in the United States has more than a passing interest the immigration reform bill now working its way through the U.S. congress. While immigration reform has been a hot topic for several years, it has become a priority of both the Obama administration and Congress, driven in no small measure by the presidential election results. [ Read More ]
05/20/2013

Uncovering the Roadblocks to First-Call Resolution

When call centers began pursuing "first-call resolution" in the last decade, it wasn't just a buzzword. The idea of ensuring that all calls into a contact center are resolved on the very first call, eliminating the need for the customer to call back, has a whole host of benefits. [ Read More ]
05/20/2013

Bad Customer Service Costs UK Businesses Billions Each Year

While it's become something of a hobby in the U.S. to complain about the quality of customer service, it has become something of a national pastime in the U.K., where by all reports, customer service is in even more dismal shape than it is on this side of the Atlantic. [ Read More ]
05/20/2013

TMCnet Contact Center Solutions Week in Review

For those of you who check the home page of the Contact Center Solutions Community on a regular basis, you know that I spent the past week in Indianapolis at Interactive Intelligence's Interactions 13 event. As a result, it is my hope that you read not only the articles that were written during the event, but also will continue to read next week about more interesting information I gleaned from the company, its resellers, customers and industry analysts. [ Read More ]
05/18/2013

Kohl's Moves Platform to Cloud with ININ's CaaS

Kohl's Department Stores just signed a multi-year deal with Interactive Intelligence to move its contact center solutions to the Interactive Intelligence Communications-as-a-Service solution. The deal will allow Kohl's to increase its level of business, meet seasonal demands, and enhance its business practices. [ Read More ]
05/17/2013

Customer Experience Research: ININ Reveals What Enquiring Minds Want to Know

As a prelude to the closing session of the Interactive Intelligence Interactions 13 event, the company's CMO Joe Staples informed me that some "interesting and surprising" research was going to be revealed. Was he ever correct! [ Read More ]
05/17/2013

The Stockade Group and the Call Center Corporation Merge to Dedicate Resources to Customer Service

The Stockade Group, a provider of telephone and Web-based client outreach services, and the Call Center Corporation, a provider of call center software and technology, have merged to combine their resources and focus on delivering quality customer service. In a time when up brands can lose up to 20 percent of revenue due to poor customer experience, this move is crucial in ensuring customer satisfaction and business success. [ Read More ]
05/17/2013

Commissioner Robert M. McDowell to Join Hudson Institute as Visiting Fellow

Hudson Institute, a nonpartisan policy research organization announced on Thursday that Commissioner Robert M. McDowell will serve as a Visiting Fellow at the organization once he leaves the Federal Communications Commission later this week, the Sacramento Bee reports. [ Read More ]
05/16/2013

Experts: 'One Size Does Not Fit All' When it Comes to Social Media and the Contact Center

One of the many great things about being at a multi-faceted gathering such as Interactive Intelligence's Interactions 13 is not only do you get to interact with solutions providers, resellers, channel partners, and customers from all over the world, but you also get to hear the views on top of mind subjects by true industry experts. A featured panel discussion on social media and its impact on contact centers was, to say the least, enlightening. [ Read More ]
05/16/2013

Centrify Unveils Centrify for NetSuite

Centrify Corporation has unveiled Centrify for NetSuite at NetSuite SuiteWorld 2013. Users of NetSuite are now offered Active Directory-based NetSuite single sign-on, user provisioning and mobile administration for no extra cost with the all-inclusiveCentrify for NetSuite. [ Read More ]
05/16/2013

MDS Announces MDS Accelerate

Offering an improved version of its integrated revenue and customer management platform, MDS has announced the launch of MDS Accelerate. According to the company, this improved version helps service providers bring their products and services markets quickly, saving them time and money. [ Read More ]
05/16/2013

Clarabridge Picked to Strengthen Thomson Reuters' Voice-of-the-Customer Program

Clarabridge, Inc. recently confirmed that it has entered into collaboration with Thomson Reuters in order to upgrade Thomson Reuters' Voice-of-the-Customer (VOC) program that spans across its Intellectual Property and Science business. Thomson Reuters is a global source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, while Clarabridge is a premier provider of intelligent Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions for some of the leading international brands. [ Read More ]
05/16/2013

The Cloud: The Great Equalizer for the Small Contact Center

Good news. This is changing. Market leaders are now offering powerful, simple and cost-effective cloud solutions designed specifically for small contact centers. And not surprisingly, these offerings are inherently more mature and scalable. Small centers no longer have to settle. They now have access to the same cloud platforms as the big boys. The cloud is the great equalizer. [ Read More ]
05/16/2013

Contact Centers Swallowing Up SIP, Ignoring Trunking Critics

Contact centers used to be places where sales and support folks went and used hardwired phones to talk to customers. Both of those elements have changed. The phones no longer have to be traditional landlines thanks to IP telephony and session initiation protocol (SIP). And VoIP frees employees and employers to place contact center workers nearly anywhere. [ Read More ]
05/16/2013

Ixia Enhances Network Reliability for Contact Centers

Ixia debuts a new solution that can validate and strengthen critical infrastructures for enterprise contact centers in order to meet the demands of the social media and an always-on environment. [ Read More ]
05/15/2013

Aspect selects Promero as Authorized Reseller and Services Provider

Promero, a reseller and hosting provider of call center and CRM software, recently announced that Aspect, provider of integrated contact center and workforce optimization solutions, has selected the company as an authorized reseller and professional services provider. Aspect provides solutions to over 1. 5 million agents across 70 countries, handles more than 100 million daily transactions, 77 percemt of the Fortune 100 and 64 percent of the Global Fortune 100. [ Read More ]
05/14/2013

SafeSoft Solutions Helps Pub Club Leads to Triple Revenue and Call Center Staffing

Within a year of rolling out SafeSoft Solution's cloud-based sales and marketing productivity software, Pub Club Leads was able to triple its revenue and ramp up its call center staff. Adam Sthay's Pub Club Leads is compliance based marketing firm that controls the advertising message to the mortgage and loan sector clients from end-to-end and helps them to find high quality leads. Pub Club services the mortgage, student loan, credit repair, debt settlement, and other financial sectors. [ Read More ]
05/14/2013

Smart Solutions from Live Lead Pros for Better Call Center Management

Whether a business has a one-man operation or a call center with hundreds of agents, business leads can help companies to skyrocket sales. Live Lead Pros, a company known for generating leads for businesses with its services, introduced smart solutions for call center management. [ Read More ]
05/13/2013

Evolve IP Completes Acquisition of iPiphany, Semperon UC Customers

Evolve IP, an Inc. 500 company providing organizations with a unified platform for cloud services, has completed the purchase and integrated the customers and employees of two recently acquired companies: iPiphany of Chicago, Ill., and Semperon of West Chester, Pa. [ Read More ]
05/13/2013

Jacada Extends Service Agreement with Telefonica UK

Jacada, Inc., a provider of customer service technology designed to simplify the interaction between businesses and their customers, recently announced that Telefonica UK has extended the service agreement for Jacada's unified desktop, agent scripting and process optimization solutions. [ Read More ]
05/13/2013

OpenSpan Among Finalists for Top 100 North America Award

OpenSpan Inc., a provider of innovative worker optimization, activity management and automation solutions, was recently selected as a finalist for Red Herring's Top 100 North America award, a prestigious list honoring the year's most promising private technology ventures from the North American business region. [ Read More ]
05/13/2013

Interactive Intelligence Gives You the Chance to Interact with Thought Leaders

While the eyes of the basketball world may be on the Indiana Pacers, another Hoosier State-based company is in the spotlight this week as well: Interactive Intelligence. Interaction is right there in the name, of course, and over the next several days, partners, customers and celebrity guests will have a chance to Interact with Interactive Intelligence. [ Read More ]
05/13/2013

TMCnet Contact Center Solutions Week in Review

It was a big week for Contact Center Communications Community host Interactive Intelligence, and there were several other interesting developments as well. [ Read More ]
05/11/2013

Cisco Grants Master Unified Communications (UC) Specialization to Tympani

Tympani, an IT consulting and engineering firm, attained Cisco' Master Unified Communications (UC) Specialization after satisfying rigorous training requirements and program criteria set by Cisco for selling, deploying and supporting highly sophisticated applications-based Cisco Unified Communications solutions. [ Read More ]
05/09/2013

MetricNet Releases Results of Its 2013 Canada Benchmarks for Customer Service Contact Centers

MetricNet, a provider of IT service and support benchmarking, published its 2013 Canada Benchmarks for Customer Service Contact Center, Service Desk and Desktop Support. The publication is available for purchase and immediate download via the MetricNet website and includes benchmarks for insourced and outsourced Canada based Call Centers, Service Desks, and Desktop Support functions. [ Read More ]
05/09/2013

Latitude Software Releases Major Upgrade to Its Debt Collection Software

Latitude Software released a major upgrade to its software suite, Latitude Center. Some of the new features include a new dashboard tool, an online data center, and access to a service request gateway. [ Read More ]
05/09/2013

An 'Omnichannel' Approach is Critical for Success in the Online Travel Industry

When business sat up and began noticing the potential of the Web on customer service in the 1990s, a new phrase was coined: the multichannel contact center. While it's not a new term, and it's not a new concept, technology keeps reinventing what it means to be multichannel. The latest two channels to be added to the concept of the multichannel contact center are social media, which customers are increasingly relying on to contact companies, and mobile apps, as more and more consumers carry table… [ Read More ]
05/08/2013

Customer Satisfaction Can Bring More Benefits to Businesses

ForeSee, a provider of technology-driven customer experience analytics, recently releases its annual Contact Center benchmark study which revealed that customer satisfaction can pave the way to increased recommendations and likelihood to purchase. [ Read More ]
05/08/2013

Malaysian BPO Sector on the Path toward Upgrade and Modernization

In the face of rising competition from neighboring Asian countries, especially Philippines, the Malaysian BPO industry has identified a need for adopting an improvement-focused strategy. Accordingly, The Customer Relationship Management and Contact Centre Association of Malaysia (CCAM) has brought on COPC Inc, a Texas-based international customer service consulting firm for consultations. The COPC recommendations are expected to equip the country with an improved BPO structure and framework and … [ Read More ]
05/08/2013

In an Ongoing Tsunami of Regulations, a New and Better Way to Improve Compliance

Failure to adhere to rules and regulations can be very expensive; thus, you invest lots of time and money training and refreshing your agents. Whether it's the TCPA, state and local licensing, FDCPA or the new CFPB, call centers and collection departments face an ever-increasing daily compliance challenge as rules and regulations pile up, with no end in sight. [ Read More ]
05/08/2013