TMCnet Contact Center Solutions Week in Review

Let me open with a big TMCnet welcome to our newly designed company website launched this week. We know a site as big and rich in content as ours can be daunting at times; our new page looks to make it as simple as possible for our readers. We have been delighted with the positive feedback about our re-design, and as always look forward to your comments about on how we can improve the value of our website.  

Now for this week’s news. As usual, the Contact Center Solutions community news covered a variety of subjects. That said, as you will see below, improving the performance of agents and the workflow within contact centers was also prominent. 

I’d like to start with two items involving our host Interactive Intelligence and an upcoming event I hope you will be attending. First, with the daily barrage of all things cloud, you should read the Editor’s Choice article, “The Cloud and You: Interactive Intelligence CaaS Quick Spin Makes Seeing Believing,” and hopefully take the cloud out for a spin if you have not done so. You will be delighted you did.

Second, TMC’s (News - Alert) ITEXPO West event is fast upon us. Being held at the Austin, Texas Convention Center and running from October 2 – 5, this is a premier event for the industry. It is a great place to see the latest and best along with gain insights on industry trends and network with colleagues, partners and customers. In fact, Interactive Intelligence CMO Joe Staples has great take on where we are, where we are headed and the value of attending ITEXPO that are more than worth a read.                                                                   

News

As noted above, improving agent capabilities and workflow is hot. This week’s activities included:

• Permanent General Companies (PGC), a specialty auto insurance provider, deployment of Knowlagent's RightTime Intraday Management Technology. It will be used to enhance contact center productivity by converting unproductive idle time into a resource used for delivering training and improving the operational efficiencies. 
• Frost & Sullivan singled out Xora for its mobile workforce management award. 
• Virtual Hold Technology (VHT) showed off its new Conversation Bridge that enables customers to request a callback from customer service through an Internet-connected smartphones, television, kiosk, gaming consoles or other devices which includes management of QR codes.
• Changing the way companies distribute internal rewards, critical to morale and employee retention is what Cole Systems has come up with using game-like features. 
• Making life easier for service providers to plan and monitor new marketing campaigns is part of the power of a new SAS (News - Alert) analytics solution.
• In a call processing/workflow related item,  Nokia announced it is supplying modified pan-European reference data to the Ford Motor Company (News - Alert) to enable their Emergency Assistance technology to identify the location of the driver in need of help and the appropriate language needed to alert local emergency service operators. 

In other industry news the focus was on trends and opportunities. It was a real smorgasbord with amny interesting developments that included:

• A Crimson and Hexagon study, “Showrooming and Consumer Migration,” used big data to provide insights on how social media analytics can empower brick and mortar retailers to manage and capitalize on prevailing consumer expectations and motivations. It is a fascinating look at why consumers migrate to the competition.  
• A lot has been written about Apple’s (News - Alert) voice assistant Siri, but you may not fully appreciate how it has the potential to change the future of customer support.
• TMCnet Contributor Tracey Schelmetic has a nice feature on Avaya’s new Contact Center Control Manager a web-based and personalized thin client API for centralized management of Avaya’s contact center applications.
• Tracey also reported on the fact that the Philippines' call center outsourcing business is booming.

As is the custom, below are some of the deals and wins making the news:

• CRM and customer experience management solutions provider Vertical Solutions landed R Systems Europe, B.V., a fully owned subsidiary of R Systems International Limited, for its Vertical Solutions' CRM and contact center solution, VContactCenter. 
• Teleflora, world's largest florist network, selected ICMI's Professional Certification program, powered by the CIAC (Call Center Industry Advisory Council), to ensure a standardized approach to contact center management.
• Zendesk recently announced the new Zendesk cloud-based customer service platform as well as the completion of new financing of $60 million. 
• Asterisk call center company Indosoft (News - Alert) reported record growth. 
• Sitel got the nod to help implement a county government call center in Glasgow, Kentucky.

Weekend browsing  

As always for your weekend reading pleasure check out all of the valuable resources available to you on the community including videos, whitepapers and podcasts of a variety of subjects. In addition, for more focused click over to the affiliated channels — Accounts Receivable Management, Business Process Automation, CaaS, Cloud-based Contact Centers and Insurance Technology. 

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.