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10/10/05 - Benchmarking - An Issue of Definitions?
As we continue to receive comments and feedback on the question of benchmarking, it is becoming clear that different people have different perceptions about benchmarking means. Most of the confusion seems to revolve around comparisons to internal operational metrics versus comparisons to external operational metrics. Today, I'll offer definitions for baselining versus benchmarking.
A baseline measurement is used as a basis for comparing your own operations (internal) over time. For instance, you might create baseline metrics that characterize your call center operations and subsequently use such baseline metrics to quantify change over time. Hopefully that change shows improvement. On the other hand, a benchmark allows you to compare your operational metrics with external measures (other call centers).
So baseline comparisons demonstrate change in performance while benchmark comparisons allow you to see how your metrics compare to others. Both have their place in terms of utility but the two terms are not interchangeable. Baseline comparisons are "apples to apples" because the comparisons are made directly to your operations while benchmarking comparisons can be "apples to apples" if you understand how other call centers create their metrics and only if you know that the benchmarks include like operations.
Gary Lemke, Publisher
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TODAY'S NEWS (more)
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SER Solutions announced it will unveil CPS Enterprise Edition, the latest version of its next-generation outbound call management solution. Its open architecture supports Microsoft platforms (Windows, SQL, and .NET) and XML standards making it easy to interface with existing applications and ACDs.
Courion announced an integrated user provisioning and enterprise single sign-on offering that will give customers using Citrix Password Manager an end-user access experience, fast time-to-value, strengthened security and a reduced administrative burden.
NetSuite updated its sales-force tools with the release of a new Incentive Compensation add-on module for its CRM+ application. Company officials said the module's capabilities will sound the death knell for Excel-based forecasting.
FrontRange Solutions has announced that Open Text has purchased FrontRange's latest IT service management solution to support an enterprise-wide customer support operation. Open Text is to implement the Incident and Problem Management modules of the FrontRange ITSM suite across six countries (UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Singapore and the USA) in order to enhance its management processes.
Westbury recently announced the appointment of Frank aan de Stegge as Business Development Manager EMEA. Over the last 6 years Aan de Stegge worked at HP where he was Solution Manager for HP OpenView Service Desk.
Small and mid-sized businesses in the United States plan to increase their usage of converged voice and data communications solutions over the next 18 months, new research commissioned by the CompTIA reveals. The survey of some 300 U.S. businesses with 20-500 employees found that 40 percent are currently evaluating new communications solutions that deliver voice and data applications over a common network, or intend to do so within the next 18 months. Another 18 percent of these businesses are currently deploying a converged solution, or will do so in the next 18 months.
Motive announced that Telefonica Brazil is using Motive software to build intelligent automation into its "Speedy" broadband services so that subscribers can solve problems more quickly and easily. This management technology establishes an operational foundation that will ease Telefonica Brazil's future rollout of new triple play services.
Citect announced that it has become the first Australian-owned company to achieve certification under the Support Center Practices (SCP) Certification program.
Infomill announced that its flagship technical content solution, PartsArena, will be deployed by Illinois-based GBC, a leading manufacturer of binding and laminating equipment. It will be used to display exploded parts diagrams for the company's equipment so that technicians will have access to the technical data they need for servicing.
DHL announced an additional US$110 million investment to expand its DHL Central Asia Hub, its dedicated and purpose-built air express cargo facility at the Hong Kong International Airport. The centerpiece of DHL's network infrastructure in the region, the expanded Hub - to be called the DHL Central Asia SuperHub (CAS) - is being built six years ahead of schedule to meet the huge growth that DHL is experiencing in the region.
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 FEATURE WEBCAST (more) |
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"CRM's Secret Sauce - Everything You Need to Know About CRM"
Gary Lemke, Founder and Publisher, CRMAdvocate
Ah CRM . . . So much investment, so little return. Even today, a great divide exists between the promise and the benefit of CRM. Why? The answer is a paradox of simplicity and complexity - that is, the straightforward desire for customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention against an unyielding realization that not all customers act the same. Nor are all customers valued equally. This webcast is the first in a series on a single strategic focus and metric that can catapult your organization to the next level of revenue growth and profitability. Listen now to learn more.
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| CRMAdvocate Stock Index |
| CRMSI | 41.44 |  | 0.01% |
| Dow Jones | 10,292.31 | | 0.05% |
| Nasdaq | 2,090.35 | | 0.30% |
| S&P 500 | 1,195.90 | | 0.37% |
| Top Gainers |
| SAP | 42.95 | | 0.47 |
| NICE | 46.22 | | 0.41 |
| AVAYA | 11.2 | | 0.33 |
| Top Losers |
| Sykes | 13.55 |  | -0.56 |
| salesforce.com | 22.81 | | -0.24 |
| Astea | 7.95 | | -0.24 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 10/07/05 | |
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 White Papers (more)
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CEM Panel Discussion - Customer experience management (CEM) is garnering a great deal of attention in the CRM industry. A panel of industry experts discuss the importance of CEM to the enterprise and shed light on what it will take to successfully implement a winning strategy.(CRM Association)
| | | When Customers and Agents Make "Noise" from Surveying and How to Fix It - We have learned not to take things at face value. Naturally, we seem to question everything we see, read, observe and hear. How unnatural is it then that the management team does not question enough about its CUSTOMER Metrics? The inherent problem lies in the types of figures we are looking at without questioning.(Customer Relationship Metrics, L.C.)
| | | Quality and Value with Home-Based Call Center Services - Remember when "outsourcing" just meant sending your call center services to an off-site facility? Then, as costs began to rise and labor markets became saturated, off-shore outsourcing to countries like India and the Philippines became popular. While some calls will continue to be sent offshore for cost-cutting purposes, transactions that involve a premium customer, a sale or involved customer service issue are returning to U.S.-based call centers in droves.(Alpine Access)
| | | 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)
| | | 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)
| | | 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)
| | | 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)
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"OUR TAKE"