Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

The subject of “green” has gotten a lot of attention lately as organizations throughout the world are attempting to improve their global perception through environmental initiatives. While some have been merely an attempt to increase visibility, others have made a real difference.

The concept of “going green” is catching on as businesses across all industries are beginning to understand the benefits that are associated with such a strategy. One of the main focuses has been in the contact center. Many organizations are putting strategies in place to improve their environmental performance.

This influx has been captured and documented in an ‘On the Conference Floor’ survey of senior managers and executives attending this year’s CCA Annual Convention. This survey was conducted on behalf of customer management consultancy and solutions provider, Softlab.

"Going green' for green's sake is not a current business goal," said Softlab senior consultant, Lisa Olafsdottir, in a statement. "With productivity and revenue gains seen as the most important drivers for implementing a green policy - by 26%and 24%of respondents respectively - companies do want to be seen to be taking steps to reduce their impact on the environment, but only if it makes commercial and financial business sense.”

Key findings from the survey revealed that 53 percent of respondents already have a green policy in place. Many, without prompting, expressed concerns regarding the quality of the current policy. Nearly one quarter, or 22 percent, did not know their company’s current policy.

Only 41 percent of respondents have a specific employee in place responsible for green issues. For 26 percent of respondents, no such position existed within their company and another 33 percent were uncertain as to the existence of such a role within the business.

The most frequently used contact center applications  by survey participants included workforce optimization tools, which were adopted by 72 percent of respondents; Voice over IP (VoIP) used by 71 percent of respondents; and multi-channel solutions used by 62 percent of participants. Other technologies such as speech-activation, self-service and instant messaging appeared to be in place in less than 50 percent of organizations.

The future looks somewhat brighter. According to the study, there is a significant increase in anticipated adoption of workforce optimization tools at 84 percent, VoIP at 82 percent and instant messaging at 75 percent. Only speech-activation technologies appear to lag behind in terms of planned adoption, at 51 percent.

Overall, the Softlab survey indicates that green issues are increasingly likely to have an impact on purchasing decisions looking ahead, with 44 percent planning to go green in their contact center within the next 12 months and a further 20 percent in the next three years.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.