Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Remote Control Solution?

Today’s decentralized work force requires IT to provide end user support beyond their own walls. This requires an even greater need for a remote control capability that is reliable, intuitive and most importantly secure. But what if your remote control solution can also offer the ability to automatically capture advanced diagnostics and a set of tools to resolve problems faster as a part of your remote control offering?

Join our informative webinar on June 25 and learn how you can get the most out of your remote control solution.

Register Today!

Another city considers suing Time Warner Cable over service
The city of Los Angeles' lawsuit against Time Warner Cable has prompted a neighboring community to look at suing the cable provider. Now the city of Costa Mesa, Calif., is also considering suing Time Warner. The suit is linked to problems Time Warner experienced after it took over cable systems from bankrupt cable operator Adelphia. Time Warner increased its subscribers in the Los Angeles region from 350,000 to 1.9 million literally overnight. The company was overwhelmed as it migrated e-mail accounts, resolved billing issues, and transitioned other video and broadband systems to its own systems. The result was allegedly poor service and a doubling in complaints. Specifically, the suit alleges the company failed to live up to its part of the franchise cable agreement, which requires the company to answer subscribers' calls within 30 seconds and begin repairs of service interruptions within 24 hours of notification in 90 percent of its service calls. Time Warner says that it's working to improve customer service in the region, but it disagrees with the suit's allegations.

Apple Introduces the New iPhone 3G
Apple has introduced the new iPhone 3G, combining all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK. The new iPhone 3G also makes it easier to multi-task with simultaneous voice and data communications, so with iPhone 3G you can browse the web, get map directions, or check your email while you are on a call. In the US the new iPhone 3G is priced at a stunning $199 for the 8GB model, and just $299 for the 16GB model.

Parature Announces Integration Partnership with Crisp Thinking
Parature, a provider of on-demand customer service software, announced an integration partnership with Crisp Thinking, the online child specialists and provider of NetModerator and IMSafer.  Crisp Thinking’s NetModerator software is fully integrated with Parature Customer Service software, providing organizations with the ability to track online gaming and social networking interactions to prevent online abuse, inappropriate activity and child related bullying. The integration of these world-class technologies provides interactive media, online gaming, and virtual worlds with the most effective software applications in the industry to keep children safe. 

LivePerson Debuts Third-Generation Chat Solution for Online Retail and E-Commerce
LivePerson, Inc., a provider of online engagement solutions that facilitate real-time assistance and expert advice, announced the availability of LivePerson Enterprise for Retail, a new product offering designed specifically for online retailers. LivePerson Enterprise for Retail leverages the company’s proprietary third-generation engagement platform enabling retailers to proactively engage website visitors who are most likely to benefit from live assistance. Analyzing a visitor’s propensity to buy based on browsing behavior (such as click-through paths, time on page and previous visits or purchases), the hosted, rules-based platform automatically invites targeted visitors to chat with a sales representative.

White Paper: Measuring the Return on Knowledge

Read this insightful report "Measuring the Return on Knowledge" to learn the potential impact of knowledge management to yield cost efficiencies as well as provide the catalyst for meaningful transformation of service into a high-performance, customer-focused organization.

This report is based on recent studies by ServiceXRG including: Knowledge Management, an in-depth study of Knowledge Management strategies and best practices; Strategic Account Management, a focus on strategies for managing high-value accounts; and a recent study of User Perceptions of service based on interviews with 350 enterprise technology users and IT professionals.

Click here to get your complimentary copy, courtesy of KNOVA.

Turn Your Contact Center into a Profit Center
Contact centers are becoming heavily involved in sales activities, according to a recent research report by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company. Best-in-Class organizations have an average cross/up-sell of thirty-four percent (34%) in the contact center. This fact was unearthed after an April and May survey of over 140 companies and revealed in the benchmark report “Cross-selling and Up-selling in the Contact Center” (May, 2008). 

In addition, this report delves into the factors pressuring companies to implement cross-selling and up-selling in the contact center as well as the strategies that they take to overcome those pressures. The study points out that the top two pressures are the need to establish customer service as a competitive differentiator (62%), and revenue and profit (60%). According to Aberdeen, the contact center is the hub of customer interaction and traditionally its role was to solve customer problems. Yet with the need to establish customer service as a competitive differentiator, cross-selling and up-selling provides the opportunity to not only solve this problem, but also enable the contact center to generate revenue.
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Contracted IT Spending By The U.S. Federal Government Will Reach $88 Billion By 2013
Information Technology (IT) contract spending by the U.S. federal government will grow 4.1% annually, from $71.9 billion in 2008 to $87.8 billion by 2013, according to INPUT’s five-year Federal IT Market Forecast. Growth is slowing due to uncertainty about new administration priorities, the current economic downturn, the rapid growth in mandatory spending, and the crowding-out effect of war spending on overall discretionary spending.

These factors, combined with increasing Congressional scrutiny on budgets and performance, create an environment of ‘tempered momentum.’ “Although the anticipated growth rates are below the historical average, government’s increasing reliance on technology sustains momentum in IT spending, especially as it relates to increasing efficiency and reducing operational costs,” said Richard Colven, vice president of industry analysis at INPUT.

Information sharing, the need for better IT management techniques, and relatively flat employment levels are major drivers impacting federal IT spending. For cost savings, agencies will move forward with IT infrastructure optimization and virtualization, as well as consolidation.
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Asia-Pacific Represents Exciting Growth for All Contact Center Vendors
Dynamic growth is being predicted for both the number of contact centers and customer service agent positions in Asia Pacific. Independent market analysis firm Datamonitor puts this down to a combination of a growing middle class in China and India, the expansion in demand for products and services and the increase in offshoring.  According to the report, 'Asia-Pacific -- a framework for contact center growth', which covers India, China, Australia, Japan and South Korea, this will lead to the creation of four times as many new contact center agent positions (APs) in developing markets over the next four years as in developed markets.
 
India and China currently represent over one third of the world's population. India has traditionally been perceived as an underdeveloped nation, yet all market projections indicate its middle class, and its income, are set to increase substantially. The same is true of China; recent reforms have put China back on the global trade map. The consequence of the reforms is an exploding Chinese middle class, leading to an increase in income and an increase in the consumption of goods and services.
 
But this poses a challenge for enterprises. Enterprises need to not only tap into this emerging demographic but to retain their loyalty. In India, for example, APs are set to increase significantly from 370,000 in 2006 to 567,000 in 2012 -  a compounded growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6%.
 
Meanwhile, developed nations, like Japan, South Korea and Australia, present challenges to the contact center vendor. When you operate in a developed nation you can sometimes reach a plateau -- how do you continue to generate new revenue from a saturated market? This is of key concern for many vendors that have operations in developed APAC nations. A second key concern is culture; when North American enterprises move into Japan and South Korea there are often cultural confusions.
 
The developed countries in the Asia-Pacific region have strong economies, a strong technological infrastructure and a growing need to service a sophisticated consumer base. Despite deflation issues and intense competition amongst contact center vendors, Australia's kangaroo economy keeps bouncing along. In contrast Japan's once frail economy has strengthened in recent years. Despite falling wages, Japan's economic expansion of the past few years has dramatically increased the demand for labor. This has increased the demand for consumer goods and services. And in South Korea we see cutting-edge communications technologies being used in everyday business, in the corporate world and among consumers. This is a very promising economic climate for contact center vendors, according to Datamonitor.
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Worldwide Application Infrastructure and Middleware Market Revenue Increased 13 Percent in 2007
The worldwide application infrastructure and middleware (AIM) software market revenue totaled $14.1 billion in 2007, a 12.9 percent increase from 2006 revenue of $12.5 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. The market was primarily driven by strong growth in emerging market segments, such as enterprise service buses (ESBs) and business process management suites (BPMS).

The AIM market can be primarily characterized by three overall market forces. The market is demonstrating resilience with several mature segments still evolving and growing. In addition, vendors are shifting their traditional application infrastructure and middleware products mix toward ESBs and BPMS in response to the strong demand for products that support service-oriented architecture (SOA) and process-centric applications. Thirdly, the globalization and internationalization of companies are driving B2B integration requirements and sophistication. 

In 2007, the top five vendors held more than 50 percent of the overall AIM market and are slowly eroding market shares from the smaller vendors primarily through acquisitions and expansion of their middleware suites offerings. IBM maintained its leading position and accounted for 28.9 percent of the total software revenue.

Integration Appliances, one of the 11 segments in which Gartner divides the AIM market was the fastest growing segment which saw an increase of 64 percent in 2007, although growing from a small installed base. ESBs held the No.2 position with a solid 39 percent growth continuing to benefit from the increasing demand for SOA.

From a regional perspective, North America and Western Europe remained the largest regions worldwide followed by Japan and Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific was the fastest-growing region with 25.4 percent growth in 2007. The performance was fostered by the rapid modernization of IT infrastructure and emerging small medium business markets in China and India.
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Managing Daily Staffing and Service in the Support Center
The pieces are in place. You gathered and analyzed mounds of historical information to arrive at a call forecast. Then you calculated the number of staff needed by half-hour to meet your center's speed of answer goals. Finally, you juggled schedules until you arrived at a reasonable mix of efficiency and acceptability. All this planning means that you should have the "just right" staff in place every half-hour to match the workforce to the workload. But you know what they say about the best laid plans. This article will outline the steps of tracking support center performance within the day to ensure that the plan is actually working based on the realities of the day.
Full Article...

Time to Give Enterprise Software the Boot?
The debate around software as a service usually focuses on whether it's better or worse than conventional licensed software. The answer is neither--businesses that have adopted SaaS will tell you its good for some things and not for others. But that's only one lesson gleaned from this bigger truth: You can't use the same metrics to assess SaaS as you use for conventional software. To understand SaaS requires a new mind-set.
Ful Article...

Five Ways CIOs Can Impress Their CEOs
Much of the CIO traditional role is now merely table stakes. Technology itself will not set you apart; you need far more business expertise than CIOs of yesteryear did. Indeed, CEOs will increasingly demand that IT leaders excel in leadership, strategic thinking, marketing IT, business and communication. Prepare for the change.
Full Article...

Customer-Service E-Mails: Getting It Right
We know you want to provide good customer service via e-mail, so you tell customers when they can expect a response -- and you keep to that schedule. You actually respond when you say you will. This is because you know that response time depends a great deal on how quickly your automated routing gets the appropriate e-mail to the appropriate respondent in your organization.
Full Article...

Translating Performance Metrics into Frontline Knowledge
Successful contact centers use the right tools -- such as performance optimization applications or unified solutions that have all applications on a single software platform -- and determine the right metrics to drastically improve their operations. By aligning performance metrics and business intelligence data with strategic initiatives, such as deploying unified communications strategies or launching new customer service campaigns, contact centers can easily measure the success of these initiatives and positively impact the company’s bottom line.
Full Article...

The Accidental Entrepreneur: The 50 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Starting Business
by Susan Urquhart-Brown

Like many business owners, Susan-Urquhart Brown never expected to end up as an entrepreneur. Launching her own business spoke to her passions, but she soon realized there was much more to being a successful owner than she ever expected. In The Accidental Entrepreneur, she takes all the mystery out of going solo. For those who are just beginning to consider starting a venture as well as those who want to take their organization to the next level, she offers ad­vice on what works and what doesn't.

With hard-won wisdom and empathy, she shows readers: the 8 questions everyone should ask up front * the top 10 traits of the successful entrepreneur * how to obtain a license and sellers permit * the best way to create a business plan * 10 simple ways to get referrals * the 6 secrets of marketing a business * smart tips for investing and finance * ways to avoid burnout * how to avoid the 7 biggest pitfalls in business Starting one's own business should be exciting, not scary. This is the one book that will show readers how to create a successful and fulfilling venture they can be proud of.

More info on this book....

2008 Service & Support Metrics Survey Results
Supportindustry.com has announced the release of a free white paper outlining the results of the 2008 Service & Support Metrics Survey. This annual survey explores the state of enterprise service and support -- current industry trends, future plans, technology adoption, workforce issues, benchmarking strategies, metrics and other areas.

Get your free copy of the survey results today!

http://www.supportindustry.com/2008supportmetrics.htm

White Paper: Improving Customer Service Using Web-based Support Tools
In the realm of service and support, the Web has made its mark.

Since a business's Web site is the first place many customers go today when they're in need of service, it's imperative that what they find there -- the search tools, the breadth and depth of content, easy escalation paths, the tools that aid in speedy resolution -- meets their needs. Each visit presents the business with the opportunity to impress and influence existing and potential customers.

Find out more! This informative white paper from SupportIndustry.com examines the latest trends and technologies in using Web-based support tools to improve customer service.

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

Editorial suggestions, feedback & comments:
Carolyn Healey, Editor - chealey@supportindustry.com

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