Call Center Software Featured Article

TMCnet Call Center Software Week in Review

By Linda Dobel
TMCnet Contributor

As we anticipated last week, the call center soft ware market continued its hot streak with product announcements  and  product deployments, in some cases, with a twist. To begin our weekly recap, we ask, who doesn’t like free? Our TMCnet Contributor Mandira Srivastava  let us in on the news that BusinessOpportunity.com advertisers can now have their leads automatically uploaded quickly and easily directly to their SalesForce.com CRM account, saving them countless hours of input-computing time and allowing them to manage their leads more effectively—for  free. She wrote that this is a value-added service  and  just one of many the company anticipates rolling out over the course of the coming year.

BusinessOpportunity.com isn’t the only one in the call center software industry offering something for nothing. WorkEtc of Australia announced that it will be offering a free trial of its Web-based customer relationship management (CRM) software. According to TMCnet Contributor Rajani Baburajan’s article, business owners and IT decision makers can benefit as the free trial offer can be utilized to evaluate how their CRM implementation can reduce installation costs and improve productivity. The implementation is done in one location and clients can access the data through a standard browser interface. The IT department and managers can maintain full control of the rights and capabilities of every CRM user, the article said.

Speaking of CRM and keeping finance top of mind, ApexTwo, a SugarCRM (News - Alert) implementation and marketing automation company, has announced the release CRM Implementation ROI Calculator, which TMCnet Contributor Calvin Azuri reported is available on  the ApexTwo company website and has been developed to provide small and medium-sized businesses with the potential return on investment of a customer relationship management system. The new offering from ApexTwo can also provide information on how long it will take to recoup the upfront costs.

While not free, BMC Software announced that its application performance management (APM (News - Alert)) product portfolio is now available and creates an easy solution for the management of enterprise, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud applications within a single operations management framework to anticipate and proactively address application performance management requirements. In her report on the announcement, TMCnet contributor Sujata Garud explained, that this new Application Performance Management helps to achieve a 360-degree view of performance and end-user experience, including the application, middleware and infrastructure layers inside the data center.

Of course, the ultimate goal of any new product is to have it deployed. This week, TMCnet Contributing Editor Rajani Baburajan learned that Matrix Solutions, a provider of media sales management software, not only announced the launch of  a Web-based customer relationship management (CRM) and sales analytics solution, but Griffin Communications, an Oklahoma owned and operated multi-media company, is the first client to deploy this solution. Baburajan’s report explained that Matrix's CRM and sales analytics solution instantly integrates and normalizes data across traffic and billing systems.. The analytics tool also reportedly gives accurate forecasts, helps in closing more deals and improving the entire sales functions of a business.

Finally, yet another call center software solution has been put into action, as reported by TMCnet Contributing Editor Carolyn J. Dawson. She wrote that Raleigh, North Carolina, builder Homes by Dickerson has chosen Lasso Homebuilder CRM as its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution for its new home developments in neighborhoods across North Carolina. The Lasso cloud based “on-demand” CRM real estate software is designed to manage prospective homebuyers online from interest list to possession including marketing, sales, inventory and contract management.    

While there is a good chance next week’s news of the latest developments in call center software won’t include anything offered by vendors for free (but you never know), you can be certain TMCnet will cover the most pertinent happenings to help you keep your call centers ticking at peak performance.  

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.