Call Center Software Featured Article

TMCnet Call Center Software Week in Review

By Linda Dobel
TMCnet Contributor

While the celebration of Memorial Day on Monday treated most of us to a shortened workweek, significant developments occurred nevertheless this week for businesses that rely on call center software.

Apparently acting on its commitment to providing its customers with “the best solutions using the best technology,” TMCnet Community Development Editor John Lahtinen reported that “Telefonix Voice & Data, a rapidly-growing small business phone systems solutions provider based in Surrey, England, recently became the first telecoms consultancy to sign up to the new Zeacom Channel Partner (News - Alert) Program for IP Office in the UK.” Lahtinen quoted Mike Kirby, managing director at Telefonix Voice & Data, as saying in a press release, “With Zeacom and Avaya (News - Alert) partnerships, we believe that Telefonix solutions are the most complete contact center package in the small and medium business telephony space. As one of Zeacom's exclusive partners, Telefonix Voice & Data continues to ensure that its client needs are supported by the best-possible extra layer of end-to-end service, from sales to delivery, training and support.” According to Lahtinen, the release further stated “Telefonix felt that the Zeacom IP Office contact center suite offered companies the most comprehensive single point solution, needing only a single server platform to provide comprehensive functionality.”

There was more news coming from Avaya and Zeacom that John Lahtinen reported on TMCnet.com this week. Lahtinen learned that Avaya’s Managing Director of Strategic Consulting Services Natalie Romano has authored a whitepaper called “Five trends making news and driving change in contact centers.” He quoted the report as saying, “Contact centers can play a pivotal role in this process of building long and successful relationships with customers.” Based on the whitepaper, he noted, “Some of the ways contact centers and their employees can facilitate this process include being open to discussion, listening carefully, being personable, apologizing if necessary and always staying current on trends and innovations.”

In addition to learning of Avaya’s contact center trends whitepaper, Lahtinen reported that Zeacom, a Gold level member in the Avaya DevConnect (News - Alert) (News - Alert) program, “just returned from spending the week at the International Avaya Users Group (IAUG) Global Conference 2011 in Las Vegas.” He wrote that the conference “combined the previous Avaya and heritage Nortel (News - Alert) user groups into one of the world's largest international organizations for communications technology professionals.”

Chris DiMarco, TMCnet Web editor, also scouted out some interesting call center software news this week. He reported, “In a recent blog post, hosted call center software provider Contactual (News - Alert) (News - Alert) pointed out ‘With cloud-based contact centers, SMBs get integrated e-mail and chat, skill-based routing and deployment in days, not weeks. The savings and ROI are enough to make your finance folks weep with joy. With the implementation of CTI (News - Alert) (News - Alert) along, an average 40-seat contact center taking 40,000 calls per month will recognize a reduction in cost per call from $1.75 to $0.77, which translates to $468,000 savings per year.’”

Speaking of cost reduction, many traditional contact centers have learned that establishing teleworking helps in the savings department. Of interest to them is the announcement TMCnet reported this week from Red River, a national provider of IT products and services to government and healthcare sectors, regarding the availability of its Red River Telework Kits (RTKs). According to the announcement, “The customizable hardware, software and services solution removes the technical and support obstacles to enabling the many benefits of teleworking for organizations of any size.”

Whether your call center is confined within four walls or has expanded out with teleworkers, one of the best ways to continue your success is to stay current on what is happening in the ever-evolving world of call center software, so be sure to check in on TMCnet.com in the coming week to learn of all the breaking news.