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9/26/05 - Punctuated Equilibrium
I recently had the opportunity to talk with a contact center specialist by the name of Bill Durr. He is the featured expert this week on CRMAdvocate Live, our webcast program (listen now). Bill did a "bang up" job talking about workforce optimization in a way that goes beyond the typical stuff we associate with workforce management.
Is change in a contact center an evolution or revolution? His answer was punctuated equilibrium. Borrowed from the origin of life discussions, the term talks about how things remain somewhat constant and then, all of a sudden, change in a flurry. Isn't that so true? Operations keep going along with minimal change and then, finding the surroundings around them changing quickly, need to adapt quickly to external forces.
It's sort of like a revolution within the continuum of evolution. So if your operation is operating the status quo, get ready for punctuated equilibrium. It just may be time to reinvent again.
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
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TODAY'S NEWS (more)
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Despite growing pressure on support prices, software maintenance "continues to be a 'must-have' service that customers are extremely reluctant to give up," according to a new research report from the Association of Support Professionals (ASP). The report, based on data from 187 software companies, shows that the median renewal rate for support contracts is currently 89%.
Meritage Homes Corporation has constructed more than 20,000 high-quality homes across the South and West in its 19-year history. When rapid growth and an expanding employee base left its IT department looking for a more centralized and automated system for managing help desk issues, Meritage turned to FrontRange Professional Services Organization (PSO) and HEAT Service & Support from FrontRange.
UniPress announced that its second annual FootPrints User Conference is being held from September 25 through October 1 at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.
Witness announced that Asurion will deploy its Advanced Quality Monitoring Solution to capture customer intelligence, improve customer experiences and increase customer retention. The solution includes pre-packaged software and services for voice and data recording, contact editing, evaluations, lesson management, advanced scorecards and advanced business rules.
Concerto Software and Aspect Communications announced completion of their merger. The transaction was approved by a majority of Aspect Communications' shareholders on 21 September 2005 . The new entity, privately held by Golden Gate Capital, Oak Investment Partners, company management and others, will now operate as Aspect Software.
SITEL announced that its Australia business unit, SITEL Australia, has acquired two new clients. SITEL Australia has been awarded CRM, BPO and technology hosting business from Acreis, an Australian financial services company. SITEL will manage inbound sales and customer service calls as well as back-office support, including application processing, correspondence, email and fulfillment for Acreis.
Astea announced that it acquired FieldCentrix, a mobile field force automation company. FieldCentrix's major customers include Honeywell, Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited, Praxair, SourceOne Healthcare Technologies, Atlas Copco, The Linc Group and others.
GMI (Global Market Insite) announced that it has acquired three companies - Seattle-based NetReflector, Insight in Shanghai, China, and MI Pro AS in Drøbak, Norway - which will operate as wholly owned subsidiaries of GMI. GMI has also formed a new strategic alliance with ARO Sistemas in São Paolo, Brazil.
The Satsop Development Park has received a top honor for economic development by the U.S. Department of Commerce, garnering the "Excellence in Rural Economic Development" award.
e-Glue Business Technologies announced the release of e-Glue Focus. Focus is a new software platform that helps supervisors improve performance at their contact centers. With Focus, companies can increase revenues, maximize efficiency, and improve quality of service.
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 FEATURE WEBCAST (more) |
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"From Tactical to Strategic: The Workforce Optimization Maturity Model"
Bill Durr, Principal Solutions Consultant, Witness Systems
Asking about the maturity of a contact center is certainly a delicate matter. But it is a question that has to be asked. In this webcast, we explore a maturity model that gives you new insights into your own organization and explores how you can make your contact center a change agent for the entire business. What you will hear will help you move from a tactical to strategic way of thinking, especially in the area of workforce optimization. So if you are dealing with the unprecedented pressures brought on by the Internet, hyper-competition, and voice over IP along with the familiar demands of cost-cutting and employee retention, this webcast is for you.
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| CRMAdvocate Stock Index |
| CRMSI | 41.29 |  | -1.91% |
| Dow Jones | 10,419.59 | | -0.02% |
| Nasdaq | 2,116.84 |  | 0.29% |
| S&P 500 | 1,215.29 | | 0.06% |
| Top Gainers |
| SPSS | 23.03 | | 0.72 |
| Unica | 11.94 | | 0.60 |
| salesforce.com | 23.13 | | 0.59 |
| Top Losers |
| Oracle | 12.45 | | -1.07 |
| SAP | 41.9 | | -0.39 |
| West Tel | 38.03 | | -0.38 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 09/23/05 | |
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 White Papers (more)
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Montgomery Research White Paper - Defying the Limits: CRM: The Key to Superior Business Performance - In a daily ritual known to thousands of service professionals, in a wide range of industries, corporations lock themselves into a time warp by using traditional solutions - all in the hope of providing superior customer service - and while facing a tidal wave of requests. The lack of solutions that provide access and visibility into customer all interactions and integrate pre- and post-sales customer interactions - Web self-service, email, chat, telephony integration and knowledge management - for cross channel support services makes achieving superior customer service, loyalty, and retention virtually impossible.(Talisma)
| | | Application Management: Optimizing Your Contact Center Technology Investment - In the aftermath of heavy technology spending, contact center managers are no longer looking to expand their portfolio of technology investments but rather explore methods for exploiting those in which they have already invested.(DataMonitor)
| | | Hammering the Siebel Communications Server - To a Call Center agent, "Siebel" really means a desktop and everything that supports it (application servers, databases), a phone and everything that supports it (switches, routing, IVRs and telephony infrastructure), and the link between the two worlds - Computer-Telephony Interface, or CTI. CTI is not manufactured by Siebel but the perceived health of your "Siebel" application is intimately related to the health of the CTI integration.(Empirix)
| | | CRM Integration Across Marketing, Sales and Service - Many companies fail to appreciate the importance of developing specific, well-defined, and integrated business processes focused on the customer. This paper covers eleven key customer-focused processes and success factors associated with implementing process change.(Siebel)
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"OUR TAKE"