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10/3/05 - Benchmarking is Out - Part II
Last week, I shared one major trend I found at recent call center conferences. That is, operations are figuring out that benchmarking is not going to make them better. I suggested that benchmarking is operational in nature and often ignores the quality of the customer experience (not outcome based).
One of the fallacies of benchmarking is that you are comparing apples to apples. Competitors that really matter to your business work hard to protect their operational details. Even if you have access to their numbers, do you know with confidence that they measure things the same way you do? Do you understand the conditions under which those numbers were produced? The philosophy of benchmarking is good but the reality is elusive resulting in low to non-existent confidence in benchmark data.
The one benchmark you can confidently use to compare your operation is YOU. You can always do better and today's results should always be compared to how you did yesterday. If you make that comparison on a regular basis and continually improve, I guarantee you will become world class. Of course, that assumes you are measuring the right things. More on that tomorrow.
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
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TODAY'S NEWS (more)
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Siebel announced the availability of Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8. The newest release of Siebel's on premise offerings for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) delivers CRM capabilities designed to support the unique business requirements of SMBs.
Venue Solutions has launched VenueCast, an enterprise-wide venue management system based on Pivotal Corporation's customer relationship management (CRM) engine. The solution gives management a centralised view of the entire business and helps to identify areas where operational costs can be reduced, revenues increased and customer satisfaction and loyalty improved.
Verint announced that Friends Provident is deploying Verint's ULTRA solution to enhance the service it provides across 14 customer service locations in the UK. The Verint solution is being delivered in conjunction with BT, who is implementing ULTRA as part of a converged services voice and data IP solution for Friends Provident.
Salesforce.com announced that Magma Design Automation has enhanced its Salesforce deployment by leveraging the Appforce platform to create, deploy and manage five new business-critical applications. Appforce has enabled Magma to extend its Salesforce.com deployment beyond CRM.
During the week of October 3-7, Witness recognizes the 13th Annual "National Customer Service Week." The weeklong event is devoted to acknowledging the importance of customer service and honoring the people on the frontlines of the service revolution.
Motive and Thomson announced an alliance to help broadband providers speed deployment and improve the management of advanced services in the digital home. This new relationship between Thomson and Motive allows providers to enhance the usability of digital services like IPTV, VoIP, and home networking at a much lower cost than traditional methods.
SPSS announced that the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center (CRC) has purchased SPSS predictive analytics software to enhance risk analysis. By implementing SPSS technology, the CRC will be able to identify trends within risk-related data, improving the Center's ability to predict, control and prevent hazards threatening U.S. troops.
Holidaybreak plc has selected the smartFOCUS Intelligent Marketing solutions for its Camping Division. Growth in the Camping Division has been achieved through the acquisition of Keycamp in 1998 and the organic development of new products including Perfect Places, Easycamp and Ugogo. All Camping Division brands will benefit from the smartFOCUS Intelligent Marketing solutions.
SPL WorldGroup announced that the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) has selected SPL to deliver an integrated software solution comprised of SPL Outage Management System (SPL OMS) and SPL Mobile Workforce Management. These pre-integrated solutions will help HECO more efficiently manage outage and restoration activities as well as improve the accuracy and timeliness of outage information communicated to customers.
Adexa announced that Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation (VIS) has selected Adexa's "Enterprise Global Planning System" (eGPS) solutions to increase its operational efficiencies and achieve a higher level of customer 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. Register now to receive your complimentary copy of Witness' latest white papers: "Reinvention of Workforce Management" and "Reinvention of Quality Monitoring."
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| CRMAdvocate Stock Index |
| CRMSI | 42.53 |  | 0.37% |
| Dow Jones | 10,537.40 |  | -0.30% |
| Nasdaq | 2,156.19 | | 0.21% |
| S&P 500 | 1,226.35 | | -0.20% |
| Top Gainers |
| salesforce.com | 24.54 | | 1.42 |
| NICE | 45.8 | | 0.60 |
| NCR | 32.44 | | 0.53 |
| Top Losers |
| Unica | 10.34 | | -0.64 |
| Verint | 40.45 | | -0.49 |
| Teletech | 9.7 | | -0.32 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 10/03/05 | |
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EAgency Bolsters Wireless CRM Offering - In a two-month pilot, insurance company Aflac has replaced paper day planners and cell phone calling lists with the RIM BlackBerry 7520 PDA and access to eAgency's Nice Office service. Aflac gets the usual BlackBerry instant e-mails, but also can access Aflac customer forms and a variety of company reports in the field as they work with clients and prospects, without having to return to their offices. (CRMDaily)
|  | | Customer Disservice? - Critics say the promised savings from offshoring come at too steep a price, while companies say very little at all.(CFO)
| | | Building Relationships Beyond the Hand-off - A recent post on CRMAdvocate notes that with help-desk outsourcing contracts, an improper hand-off is what kills a lot of deals. It's true that any problems with a deal become apparent during the handoff, but it's not the handoff itself that's the problem. There are any number of issues that can sour a relationship, including poor expectation setting and lack of trust. Following are three examples of issues that we've encountered in our 20-plus years of delivering outsourced technical support to companies around the globe. The good news is, for each issue addressed, we have lessons learned - expertise in dealing with these types of situations has helped us turn many difficult situations into spectacular results.(TechTeam Global)
| | | Going Rural: An Alternative to Offshoring - More large companies are considering a range of options because offshoring is such a complex process, says Frances Karamouzis, research director at Gartner. Outsourcing labor to towns in rural parts of the country is particularly attractive given that many state governments are giving tax breaks to employers who move jobs there, she says.(Contact Center Today)
| | | Siebel Insists CRM OnDemand Will Continue - "If Oracle got rid of CRM OnDemand, it would be really foolish," said Yankee Group analyst Sheryl Kingstone. She pointed out that during every acquisition involving a rollup strategy, rumors begin flying about which products will be axed. But in this case, Oracle has stated that one of the reasons it wanted to buy Siebel was because of OnDemand. (CRMDaily)
| | | Goofing up Global CRM - The biggest threat to global business is the Income Statement. Think of the top line entry: Revenue. And if you're a company doing business globally, that means global revenue. You want it. And your markets are bursting with possibility. Look at China, India, South Africa, Australia, the EU (hey, no constitution yet, but still they're consuming frantically).(CRMToday)
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"OUR TAKE"
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