TMCnet Contact Center Solutions Week in Review

The Contact Center Solutions Community once again this week showed the breadth and depth of why contact centers continue to grow in importance to enterprises and service providers around the world.

It seems an appropriate place to start with what I would characterize as host appreciation. Interactive Intelligence (News - Alert), as promised a few weeks ago when it released preliminary financial results, had not just a good quarter, but a good year, and is a trend setter in terms of how its business is shifting to the cloud.

The shift is giving the company significant market lift. Cloud-based orders for the fourth quarter were up 311 percent year-over-year, and 2012 cloud-based orders were up 123 percent year-over-year. The company also announced that it has recently named Avtex (News - Alert) as its 2013 Platinum Elite Partner. 

 News

There are a few interesting categories for the rest of the industry news. In the first, two items regarding adding mobility to the mix for multichannel contact centers is not just about improving the customer experience by having them reach you, but as SoundBite’s use of the technology in the collections business, it is also about you getting better engagement and responses with out-reach programs. Plus, a study done for Amdocs by research firm Coleman Parkes, aimed at finding out more about the link between proactive care tools, customer satisfaction and call center traffic, found that customers do like well-designed mobile apps that facilitate self-service and let you talk with an agent when you desire.

 In the area of customer interest and product announcements there was a flurry of activity. First the customer interest:  

• Public stock company Consip S.p.A. announced its framework agreement for contact center services of public administrations.  
• HomeValue.us.org refurbished its website with contact center services.
• In a twist on looking at the future, Premium Technologies has enabled Norah Guides, a renowned astrologist, to interact better with her customers via social media, and the old standby talk.

On the product side of things:

• ShoreTel (News - Alert) updated its contact center solution with Release 8, which improves various e-mail and chat features and improved reporting.
• Amdocs believes it has improved the customer experience with it CES (News - Alert) 9 platform release.
• MyReportPlan.com is continuing to evolve the way customers interact with its Web services that help people find public records, and receive customer support. The latest addition to its capabilities is a blog.
• And not a product but a deal was announced that saw Spectrio, a provider of audio- and video-based marketing solutions, acquire Hold It Systems/Ad On Hold, an Ohio-based messaging on-hold company.

As has been the case for several weeks, the community also was not short of insights and advice. The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority contracted with Veolia Water North America to take over its management for one year. One aspect of the agency's business that has seen significant improvement has been customer service, and there are lessons to be learned here. 

Also, you should pay attention to the latest research from Oracle (News - Alert) conducted in conjunction with research company O'Keeffe & Company. It found that brands today may be losing up to 20 percent of revenue due to poor customer experiences. The study, "Global Insights on Succeeding in the Customer Experience Era," interviewed 1,342 senior-level executives from 18 countries in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

Weekend and snow storm reading suggestions 

If you missed it, there’s no need to worry; you can download the archived version of the webinar, Key Contact Center Trends and Priorities for the Upcoming Year – How you can be ready. Please also avail yourself of all of the rich resources on the community which include a variety of extremely valuable white papers, demos, videos, etc., and review our affiliated channels — Accounts Receivable Management, Business Process Automation, CaaS, Cloud-based Contact Centers and Insurance Technology.