Multichannel Service & Support Survey
of Executives: Report of Findings
Supportindustry.com and eGain Communications Corp. recently conducted a survey of contact center, helpdesk and customer service managers and executives, focusing on multichannel customer service and support -- its importance, the current state of their multichannel capabilities and challenges in implementing and managing it.
To get a complimentary copy of the report, click here.
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H-P Agrees to Acquire Opsware for $1.65 Billion
Hewlett-Packard Inc. agreed to acquire software company Opsware Inc. for $1.65 billion as the computer and printer giant looks to bolster its offerings for corporate customers. Opsware sells software that help companies automate functions in their massive corporate-data centers. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company was founded by Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen in 1999 and was previously known as Loudcloud. It has struggled to turn a profit even as sales reached $101 million in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31. H-P will pay $14.25 for each share of Opsware, a 39% premium to Friday's closing price of $10.28 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The deal is valued at about $1.65 billion, based on 116 million shares outstanding.
Source: WSJ
Autonomy etalk Leads the way in Protecting
Customer Data in Contact Center Recordings
Autonomy Corporation plc, a provider of infrastructure software for the
enterprise, announced the expansion of its advanced call and computer
screen recording security features that enable enterprise customer contact
centers recording strategies to comply with the Payment Card Industry
(PCI) Data Security Standards. The PCI standards were created to protect
the personal and financial data customers entrust to retailers, banks,
service providers, and credit card companies. An increasing number of
organizations record calls in the contact center for purposes of compliance
with industry regulations, customer dispute management, or quality assurance.
These organizations must consider the security implications of these recordings,
particularly when they contain customers' sensitive financial data such
as credit card and bank account information. Call centers that do not
comply with the PCI standards risk unauthorized access that could result
in financial loss or damage the valuable relationships businesses have
worked to establish with their customers.
Five9 Announces New Release with Real-Time
Call Center Analytics Using Microsoft Excel
Five9, Inc., a provider of on-demand call center solutions, announced
the immediate availability of the Five9 Virtual Call Center 6.0. The new
release features real-time call center dashboards within Microsoft Excel
and provides call center supervisors with the ability to analyze call
center performance metrics and make decisions based on real-time information.
By using Microsoft Excel call center managers can set-up customizable
alerts to make sure they are notified in real-time when any performance
indicators exceed allowed thresholds, and Microsoft Excel can be used
to create completely customizable dashboards. The new real-time analytics
available in 6.0 are critical to helping supervisors identify areas for
improvement, isolate those activities lagging in performance, and boost
the success of the entire call center.
IdeaForest to Enhance E-Commerce Sales and
Customer Service with eStara Click to Call
eStara, a provider of proactive conversion solutions for enhancing online
sales and support initiatives, announced that IdeaForest, which owns and
operates Joann.com, has selected eStara Click to Call to round out its
online customer service offerings. Joann.com will leverage eStara’s
rules-based click to call capability to proactively engage consumers interested
in high-value purchases. This allows customers to access an expert over
the phone to handle complex sales without burdening IdeaForest’s
contact center with calls about lower ticket items.
White Paper: Using
Web-based Support Tools to Improve Customer Service
Many service-centric organizations have already integrated their in-house
service and support applications with Web interfaces, or deployed systems
designed for the Web from the ground up. They’re better integrating
channels through customer interaction platforms, greatly expanding self-service
functionality, undertaking knowledge management initiatives, and extending
their reach through remote support and maintenance tools.
This informative white paper from supportindustry.com and sponsored by LogMeInRescue and Parature, examines the latest trends and technologies in using Web-based support tools to improve customer service.
New Poll Confirms Customer Service Is Key Differentiator
Verint Systems Inc., a provider of analytic software-based solutions for workforce-enterprise optimization and security, announced the findings of a recent customer service survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Verint Systems. Results confirmed that consumers overwhelmingly prefer good customer service over the hottest, most innovative product offerings and that most consumers tell others about their customer experiences, bad or good.
The results revealed that of those surveyed:
- 88 percent reported they find a company with good customer service more enticing than one with the hottest, most innovative product offerings. Only 12 percent preferred a company with the hot, innovative product.
- 90 percent report that, on average, they tell at least one person about a bad customer service experience, and 85 percent tell multiple people.
- 88 percent of customers tell at least one person – and 81 percent tell multiple people – about a good customer service experience.
AMR Research Releases Enterprise Applications Market Sizing Reports
AMR Research released its enterprise resource planning (ERP), human capital
management (HCM), customer relationship management (CRM), product lifecycle
management (PLM), and procurement and sourcing market sizing reports.
Highlights from each of the reports include:
Enterprise Resource Planning: ERP vendor revenue across all segments is expected to grow from $28.8B in 2006 to $47.7B by 2011. Core ERP license revenue grew to $9.2B in 2006, an 18% increase over 2005.
Human Capital Management: The human capital management software market, expected to reach $10B in the next five years, is growing twice as fast as the enterprise application market as a whole.
Customer Relationship Management: The CRM market is now dominated by five big vendors -- SAP, Oracle, salesforce.com, Aspect and amdocs. Together, they make up 40% of the market (nearly $3.4B in total revenue for 2005).
Product Lifecycle Management: Despite consolidation, the product lifecycle management market continues to grow at a healthy 9.7% as companies look to streamline new product development and launch (NPDL) processes.
Procurement and Sourcing: The procurement
and sourcing market grew 10% in 2005-2006, and is expected to grow 8%
each year through 2011. 12 vendors, including Oracle, SAP, Accruent, American
Express S2S, and Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) have established themselves
as clear leaders, reporting revenue growth of more than 10%.
More...
New Findings Reveal that Data Governance Projects are Highly Prone to
Delays and Failure
According to a new study released by Exeros(R), Inc., a provider of automated
data relationship discovery software, two-thirds of IT executives have
delayed or abandoned data governance initiatives, revealing an alarmingly
high failure rate for projects managing a company's most critical asset
-- its data. The survey, conducted by First Market Research, sought to
understand the experiences of IT executives implementing and managing
data governance projects.
Enterprises are expending enormous resources today on centralized data governance and integration projects like master (or reference) data management, metadata repositories or enterprise data warehouses. In fact, most Fortune 1000 companies have projects underway to better integrate their sprawling data empires, so they can implement enterprise-wide data governance.
According to survey results, delayed and abandoned projects have less to do with the change management or political pitfalls common to many large enterprise projects, and more to do with the sheer complexity of understanding the existing business rules and relationships that direct how data is interpreted and mapped throughout enterprise systems. Both of these processes remain largely manual and require enormous staff-hours, which is compounded by the fact that more than 40 percent of respondents said the lack of skilled personnel was a key contributing factor to delayed and cancelled integration projects.
Support Center Metrics: What’s the Story Behind the Numbers?
At a recent Business Case seminar Pete McGarahan was teaching, a lively discussion arose regarding the use of industry benchmarks for measuring First Contact Resolution (FCR), Help Desk Professional Utilization, and Average Wait in Queue. Participants expressed concern that traditional metrics such as these were not adjusted for new support models, access points, and self-service systems. They further pointed out that selecting certain statistics and presenting them to senior management was dangerous, especially if you didn’t know the “whole” story -- what types of help desks or support models were included in the comparison. They wanted more than just the numbers; they wanted the story behind the numbers -- the business goals driving the figures.
Full Article...
Customer Support Trends Too Important to Ignore
The processes that you rely on to document and track customers' requests
for support are so straightforward that it may be tempting to think of
them as trivial. But when you consider these processes from a customer's
perspective, it's clear how essential it is for your organization to reassure
customers that it does all it can to assist them. This article provides
an overview of trends in how support centers keep track of customers'
requests for assistance.
Full
Article...
Seven Ways Technology Vendors Blow the Sales Pitch
The relationship between IT managers and vendors has always been fraught
with conflict. Each party's divergent interests and motivations make it
hard to find common ground. Despite the effort IT vendors and buyers put
into patching their seemingly irreconcilable differences, the relationship
still doesn't always work out. Sometimes, it's the little things vendors
do-the things they're least aware of, such as bickering with their own
tech support people during pitches-that make IT leaders lose confidence.
Here's a list of common mistakes vendors make when pitching to CIOs.
Full Article...
At Their Service
Your company is nothing without customers. This article by Guy Kawasaki
outlines 10 steps to help you keep them.
Full
Article...
Luring Customers with Local Call Centers
It's no secret that there's something of a consumer backlash against offshore
call centers. Some companies, including Dell and US Airways Group, have
even pulled some of their call center work back to the U.S. after complaints
from customers about everything from foreign accents to the quality of
support. Now some British companies are taking it even further. To woo
consumers frustrated with overseas customer service, companies such as
energy supplier Powergen and Royal Bank of Scotland subsidiary NatWest
are running advertisements highlighting the fact that they use only call
centers based in Britain. Does the strategy make sense?
Full
Article...
Truth:
The New Rules for Marketing in a Skeptical World
by Lynn Upshaw
Consumers today are better informed, better armed to resist marketers, and more skeptical than ever. With thousands of messages bombarding them every day, buyers just want brands they can believe in from companies they can trust. In Truth, marketing expert Lynn Upshaw offers a systematic approach for building customer loyalty and increasing market share. Using real-world examples and engaging stories, he shows companies how they can capitalize on a new kind of competitive advantage and learn to:
- promote more persuasively
- achieve greater returns through integrity in marketing
- replace their pricing strategy with a more convincing value promise
- build stronger customer partnerships
- seize the lead share of credibility in a hypercompetive
marketplace
More Info...
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Editorial
suggestions, feedback & comments:
Carolyn Healey, Editor - chealey@supportindustry.com
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