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8/4/2005 - Outsourcing Strategies - Best Practices
Sometimes it is best to share word-for-word the advice from our very smart readers. Today, I am doing just that.
One reader suggests, "Outsourcing makes excellent sense for a number of reasons - primarily technology (better, cheaper and less hassle than buy/implement/support) and elasticity (again one of the hidden cost drivers). Outsourcing is less and less an "all or nothing" proposition. Technology and savvy vendors have extremely adaptable solutions to fill-in a company's service and resource gaps while reporting and performance based fee arrangements provide unprecedented control and insight."
He goes on to offer this tip: sign the shortest time contract available and have thoughtful exit strategy... "Think Like a Customer."
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
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TODAY'S NEWS (more)
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Verint Systems announced that John Hancock's Annuity Division has enhanced its customer-centric programs with ULTRA Analytics. ULTRA Analytics is designed to enable John Hancock to identify and understand important issues that impact the effectiveness of their customer service operations. John Hancock's Annuity Division was awarded the 2004 DALBAR Financial Intermediary Service Award Quality Evaluation for outstanding customer service in the insurance industry.
Audiovox has realized a return of more than 1,989 percent on its investment in RightNow's CRM solutions over the last three years. The company's savings, which amount to more than $2.7 million, resulted from the redirection of significant phone call and email volume through the optimized use of the web as a self-service channel -- as well as increased efficiency in customer service operations.
SupportSoft announced that the majority of the world's largest IT outsourcers including ACS, CompuCom, CSC, HP Managed Services, and IBM Global Services, among others, have selected SupportSoft service automation software to assist in managing service level agreements (SLAs) for a number of their clients. These same IT outsourcers are also positioned in the leaders' quadrant in the Gartner Magic Quadrant analysis for North American Desktop Outsourcing.
Nextel Communications and ServicePower announced the availability of SERVICEMobility, a wireless scheduling solution that electronically dispatches jobs to technicians, thereby saving contractors time and eliminating the need to travel back to the office to pick up paperwork or to place lengthy phone calls to the dispatcher. The service, which works on GPS-enabled handsets, replaces manual or semi-automated scheduling solutions used by most companies.
Park Hyatt Hotels and Resorts is now offering hotel guests a limited edition of exquisite sculptures and paintings - fine works of art by nationally and internationally known artists. Fine Art by Hyatt has chosen Cincom Systems' Synchrony customer experience management software to facilitate the communication between guests and the Fine Art by Hyatt curators who are located in Sedona, Arizona and Naples, Florida.
A new report by Datamonitor reveals that analytical customer relationship management (aCRM) technology, considered the logical evolution of the CRM lifecycle, is being adopted by enterprises on a broader global scale. The report, "Analytical CRM," forecasts global enterprise investment in aCRM will grow from an estimated $2.3bn today to over $3bn in 2009.
TeleBermuda International (TBI) chose Siebel CRM OnDemand over Salesforce.com for its hosted CRM solution. Siebel CRM OnDemand has enabled TBI to increase the visibility of each customer with real-time analytics and historical tracking. In addition to a rapid deployment with limited IT resources, TBI wanted the flexibility to migrate to Siebel enterprise solutions in the future.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company affiliate, Goodyear Dunlop Tires Germany GmbH, selected the Envision Click2Coach solution to improve customer support in the German tire market. The company will use the German-language version of Click2Coach, now available directly through the company or its partner, almato GmbH in Germany.
According to a new study from IDC, the CRM applications market returned to positive growth in 2004 and made $8.8 billion overall. Implementations are expected to stay strong this year. Siebel remained the top CRM vendor with a 10.7 percent market share, followed by Oracle and SAP. Also, CRM deployments tend to be more customized now than in the past, IDC found.
Aspect launched Aspect Customer Self-Service (CSS) v7.1, which offers a platform prepackaged with contact center speech self-service and enterprise-wide VoiceXML-based auto attendant functionality. Aspect CSS supports ScanSoft OpenSpeech Attendant to enable businesses to provide flexible speech-driven access to people and information via phone virtually anywhere, anytime.
Empirix unveiled Hammer CallMaster 5.0, an automated testing solution designed to support both voice self-service applications and VoIP networks. Hammer CallMaster automates the testing of voice and speech applications as well as VoIP environments, enabling organizations to launch applications faster.
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 FEATURE WEBCAST (more) |
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"Business Value in VoIP Recording"
Greg Sherry, Director, Marketing and Business Development, Witness Systems
With the emergence of new technologies, companies are interacting with their customers in new and different ways. It's now inevitable that VoIP will be deployed in call centers of all sizes - and businesses of all types. Recording VoIP interactions is less expensive than recording interactions via traditional phone switches. More importantly, the business value of recording VoIP interactions can also be more substantial since business and workforce optimization efforts can impact customer service groups, but also sales, marketing, back office operations, services groups and other related business areas. Listen to understand the business drivers that make recording VoIP interactions a compelling proposition and discover how companies have discovered real value in VoIP interaction recording.
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| CRMAdvocate Stock Index |
| CRMSI | 39.79 |  | 0.11% |
| Dow Jones | 10,697.59 | | 0.13% |
| Nasdaq | 2,216.81 |  | -0.06% |
| S&P 500 | 1,245.04 | | 0.07% |
| Top Gainers |
| SPSS | 21.47 | | 1.13 |
| ICT Group | 12.4 | | 0.50 |
| SAP | 43.74 | | 0.49 |
| Top Losers |
| Witness | 18.54 | | -0.74 |
| Interv Brite | 8.75 | | -0.34 |
| NICE | 44.25 | | -0.33 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 08/03/05 | |
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 Case Studies (more)
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Stellar Call Centres Improves Operational Effeciency - With Verint' ULTRA suite of Contact Center Actionable Intelligence Solutions, Stellar Call Centers increased the effectiveness of its quality management program, improved operational efficiency and enhanced the value of its offerings. This has translated into better service for customers and a sharper competitive advantage.(Verint Systems)
|  | | Barrie Hydro Adds Energy to its Help Desk with LiveTime - The implementation of LiveTime Help Desk has allowed Barrie Hydro to benefit from built-in reporting.(LiveTime)
| | | Bank of America with IEX - Customer satisfaction scores have exceeded the bank associates goals as a result of using adherence scores as an incentive for identifying behavior that exceed team goals.(IEX Corporation, a Tekelec Company)
| | | Witness Helps 4 Wheel Parts - By deploying eQuality ContactStore for IP within its Cisco converged voice and data environment, 4 Wheel Parts has been able to achieve the following results * Increased agent monitoring efficiency by 30 percent * Increased sales and order volume by eight percent * Enhanced training and development program.(Witness Systems)
| | | Prophet 2004, a Sales Opportunity Management Solution - After looking at sales management software including Prophet 2004, ACT! and custom development, Brandrud selected Prophet to help their sales organization establish a sales process for the first time in company history.(Avidian Technologies)
| | | Carlson Hospitality Worldwide with IEX - In the first year, CHW said it eliminated 1,000 hours of shrinkage per month and reduced labor costs by 8 percent. Manual processes were automated and cycle time was reduced.(IEX Corporation, a Tekelec Company)
| | | MEDEX Global Group With Epicor - MEDEX needed a CRM system with integration capabilities to enable sharing of information across the organization. They found their solution in Epicor Clientele CRM.NET and can now share detailed contract and service information, have improved flexibility in adapting to growth and changing business processes through Web services architecture, and the ability to create HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant reporting.(Epicor Software Corporation)
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