eGain Adds Intelligent Voice Self-Service Solution to Its Multichannel Customer Interaction Hub Suite
eGain Communications Corporation, a provider of multichannel customer service and knowledge management software, announced the availability of eGain IVR. eGain IVR enables superior phone self-service experiences by adding human-like intelligence to IVR and unifying it with other interaction channels, including web self-service. The solution is an integral part of eGain's suite for multichannel customer service, eGain Service, and reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) of multichannel self-service and customer service operational costs, while enabling end-customers to accomplish more through IVR.
NEI Chooses PowerHelp from Vertical Solutions
Vertical Solutions, Inc. (VSI), a developer of Service Management solutions, announces that Canton, MA-based NEI has purchased multiple modules of its PowerHelp service management system. NEI will use the solution to manage its customers' technical support requests; to help create, manage, and renew contracts and warranties associated with support agreements; and to track related revenue. In addition, NEI has purchased the Customer Self-Service Portal to enable it to streamline and enhance its customer self-service program.
Autonomy Interwoven Multichannel Optimization Solution
Autonomy Corporation plc, a provider of infrastructure software for the enterprise, announced Autonomy Interwoven Multichannel Optimization, a solution that combines market-leading web content management, contact center and advanced analytics capabilities into a single solution for understanding and optimizing customer interactions. The newest module in Autonomy's Meaning Based Marketing suite, the solution enables organizations to automatically listen, analyze, optimize, and act on all forms of customer interactions across multiple channels including social media, the web, contact center, email, and in-store.
Interactive Intelligence Introduces Interaction Process Automation
Interactive Intelligence, a provider of unified IP business communications solutions, is introducing a new communications-based process automation product called Interaction Process Automation (IPA). Interactive Intelligence developed IPA as an alternative to traditionally complex process management suites and tool-kits, which require extensive professional services, costly custom programming, and lengthy implementation cycles. The company has leveraged its IP-based unified communications platform to orchestrate the delivery of work, and give organizations everything they need to capture, prioritize, route, escalate and track each step of a business process.
Featured Webinar: First Contact Resolution - The Metric That Matters!
Thursday, July 30 at 10 AM PDT/ 1 PM EDT
In this live webinar, narrated with industry insight and analysis, Peter McGarahan, President of McGarahan and Associates, and Jeff Moloughney, Senior Product Marketing Manager, GoldMine Division, will share proven techniques and specific examples of how you can improve First Contact Resolution in your organization. Attendees will be able to benchmark their own organization against best practice levels and see how others in the industry are performing.
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Could U.S. IT Pros Be Losing a Seat at the Strategic Table?
While many information technology (IT) professionals are investing in specific areas of IT infrastructure, 55 percent say the economy has changed the role of IT and 51 percent say that budget constraints are the biggest barrier to their innovation, according to a new study commissioned by Microsoft Corp. and conducted by Harris Interactive(R) Inc. The study results indicate that IT professionals in the U.S. are devoting less budget to innovation than their counterparts in the U.K., Japan and Germany.
Of the four countries included in the study, the recession appears to make the biggest impact on IT innovation in the U.S. IT managers in Japan and the U.K. indicate they will devote 41 percent of their budgets toward innovation versus "keeping the lights on," or maintaining current systems. IT professionals in Germany plan to invest 35 percent, while their counterparts in the U.S. plan to spend only 29 percent on innovation. On average, IT professionals across all four countries say they will allocate 37 percent of their budgets to innovation in 2009. Only 22 percent of IT professionals cite giving the business a competitive edge as their current top priority.
The economy may also be diminishing investment in "green" IT innovation. Eighty-four percent of IT professionals consider green factors when making decisions about datacenters, but "green" plays into the final decision for only about half of those organizations (44 percent of the total).
Though the economy seems to be affecting IT's ability to innovate, more survey participants are focused on driving business efficiency (48 percent) than on simply reducing IT costs (30 percent). Nearly two-thirds will increase their planned investment in at least one infrastructure technology, including virtualization, security, systems management and cloud computing, all of which can help organizations streamline operations and deliver business value.
Customers cite security as the No. 1 challenge in managing their infrastructure, and report that protection of customer and company data is the top security priority for IT decision-makers over the next one to three years (73 percent).
A majority of IT professionals view security as an enabler of business. More than half think that IT security responsibilities include advancing overall business goals (52 percent) and increasing end-user productivity (51 percent).
More...
Recession Causes Rising IT Project Failure Rates
Recession-related IT budget slashing and layoffs are taking their toll on IT project success rates, according to the results of the latest CHAOS Summary 2009 report from The Standish Group. The Boston, Mass.-based IT project management research and consulting firm surveyed 400 organizations and found a decrease in IT project success rates and an increase in IT project failure rates during the past two years. Specifically, 32 percent of IT projects were considered successful, having been completed on time, on budget and with the required features and functions. Nearly one-in-four (24 percent) IT projects were considered failures, having been cancelled before they were completed, or having been delivered but never used. The rest (44 percent) were considered challenged: They were finished late, over budget, or with fewer than the required features and functions.
The last time The Standish Group released its CHAOS findings, in 2006, 35 percent of projects were successes, 19 percent were failures and 46 percent were challenged.
Staff reductions within and outside of IT departments are also adversely affecting project success rates. With project managers and business stakeholders taking on more work due to layoffs, they have less time to devote to each project, to go to meetings, to help with requirements planning and to do all the other activities that promote project success.
Source: CIO Magazine
More...
Many Large Enterprises Underestimate Risk from Terminated Employees
Courion(R) Corporation, has released survey results revealing that while a vast majority (93%) of organizations are confident that terminated employees pose no security risk to their systems by virtue of legacy access, many have limited or no knowledge of the systems to which their active and terminated employees have access. This unwarranted confidence in system security leaves companies vulnerable to attacks that could cost millions.
Conducted through May 2009, a global survey of 236 business managers from large enterprises -- more than half from companies with at least 10,000 employees -- reveals that 53% of IT managers are largely unaware of employee access rights to systems. This causes a proliferation of zombie accounts -- accounts that remain active after employees have left the company. However, these same administrators say they have a high level of confidence that zombie accounts cannot trigger a malicious attack or perpetrate a data leak, despite high-profile evidence to the contrary.
Other key survey results include:
--Nearly one in three companies (30%) still manually provision user accounts, increasing the likelihood of human error or delays when de-provisioning departing employees – and ultimately the risk of data theft via zombie accounts.
--Almost half (48%) of organizations currently take more than one business day to alert IT departments of employee terminations.
--Close to one quarter (23%) of companies surveyed also take another day or more to switch off employee access to their systems, creating a substantial window of opportunity for malicious former employees.
--Almost 1 in 10 companies (9%) said they could never be completely certain that terminated employees no longer have access to IT systems.
--More than one third (34%) of business managers reported that it can take up to a week or longer to be completely certain that terminated employees do not have access to systems.
More...
The 10 Worst Things to Say in Tech Support
I have one of the coolest jobs in the world. I go around the country teaching customer support centers what to say in their most difficult customer situations. People learn that you can defuse these situations with procedural skills, and once they "get" the mechanics of acknowledging, validating, asking good questions, and framing positive alternatives, they invariably wonder why they didn't always talk to customers this way. So, in the spirit of teaching people the right things to say, I'd like to share some of the worst phrases I normally hear people say in my workshops. Not rude things, or even the ubiquitous "read the manual," but rather phrases that nice people like you and me might say if we aren't careful. Phrases that are all but guaranteed to get a negative response from your customers. Here goes, with my tongue somewhat in cheek.
Full Article...
What IT Needs To Give Up
Today, we have to recognize resources are thin. In many cases the rest of the business and IT have had staffing cutbacks and budget reductions. The hard reality is that there is only so much we can do effectively. Try to do too many things and you end up doing nothing well and failing at them all. It isn't a question of saying no to requests; it is a matter of prioritizing.
Full Article...
Five Reasons Why Contact Centers Need To Prepare for Growth in Smartphone Use
Smartphones are taking business into uncharted territory. And the contact centers supporting mobile workers and their smartphones are stepping into a void where few have ventured. A recent Gartner report found, "Worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 269.1 million units in the first quarter of 2009. Smartphone sales surpassed 36.4 million units, a 12.7 percent increase from the same period last year." The prevalence of smartphones brings both benefits and challenges to contact centers.
Full Article...
Busting the Myths of Cloud Computing
Wherever you turn, someone's ready to tell (or sell) you something related to cloud computing. Cutting through the myths is essential to deciding whether, when, and how the cloud is right for you. This article presents InfoWorld's top list of myths.
Full Article...
The 10 Dumbest Tech Products So Far
The tech world is full of ungainly monstrosities, from wireless displays that cost more than entire computers, to nausea-inducing game systems, and on to singing deer heads. We've dived into the Dumpster of tech history and returned to the surface clutching the worst of the worst--so far. Join Network World as we count down 10 pieces of benighted technology that should never have seen the light of day.
Full Article...
Service Management For Dummies
by Judith Hurwitz, Robin Bloor, Marcia Kaufman, Fern Halper
What if technology was designed to serve the business -- every time? That's service management! Done properly, it can make everybody happy -- the customer, the service provider, and the business owner. Understand the value of managing your physical environments and IT systems with an integrated approach. Learn how real companies improve business performance by streamlining business processes and applying service management standards and best practices.
Click here for more information on this book.
2009 Service & Support Metrics Survey: The Results
Supportindustry.com conducts an annual survey designed to explore the state of enterprise service and support -- technology adoption rates and deployment plans, financial challenges, workforce issues, performance metrics and other industry trends. This year's survey highlights support organizations' continued adoption of better-integrated and responsive technologies, efforts to improve processes, and growing recognition of the strategic role of service delivery in corporate growth. At the same time, however, these organizations continue to battle the ongoing challenges that have come to characterize the service function. Key metrics to benchmark your support operation were also captured and discussed.
Get your copy of the results today!
2009 Service and Support Technology Showcase Now Available
SupportIndustry.com has released the 2009 version of our Service & Support Technology Showcase. This in-depth buyer's guide features the latest tools and technologies in the support services industry that enable support operations to deliver superior customer service.
To view the listings, click here.
White Paper: Using Web-based Support Tools to Improve Customer Service
Each web visit presents the business with the opportunity to impress and influence existing and potential customers. This new white paper from SupportIndustry.com examines the latest trends and technologies in using Web-based support tools to improve customer service.
Get the full white paper here!
Visit the SupportIndustry.com Blog
The SupportIndustry.com Blog is another way stay on top of the service and support industry. Our blog, updated at least once a week, is dedicated to covering the latest topics related to service and support, call center management, customer experience management, web-based support, help desks, workforce optimization and more.
Check it out today
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