Infor Software Helps Companies Green Their Supply Chain
Infor announced general availability of the latest version of Infor SCM Network Design, a supply chain modeling solution used by some of the world’s most recognizable manufacturers, distributors, transporters, and retailers. Infor SCM Network Design provides advanced modeling capabilities that incorporate relevant costs, facilities and transport modes to help companies make strategic decisions that maximize efficiencies based on criteria most important to the organization. In the latest release, Infor SCM Network Design incorporates sustainability criteria, enabling companies to factor carbon emissions related to nodes, such as plants, warehouses and stores, and transport modes, including rail, air, trucking, and ocean freight.

Health Net Selects IBM for IT Infrastructure Services
IBM announced that it has entered into a five-year information technology (IT) infrastructure services agreement, in excess of $300 million, with Health Net, Inc.. As part of the agreement, IBM will manage Health Net's entire IT infrastructure for substantial cost savings and increased data center reliability. IBM will provide full IT infrastructure management services including: data center services, IT security management, help desk and desk side support. AT&T (NYSE: T), an IBM partner, will provide network, voice and data management services.

Circuit City Enhances Customer Experience With Customized Microsoft Software-Based Tablet PCs
Microsoft Corp. and Circuit City Stores Inc. announced that select Circuit City stores are empowering their sales associates with Tablet PCs running a custom Windows-based application to help them offer a more knowledgeable, consistent experience that builds consumer confidence and loyalty. Called the Enhanced Digital Guide Experience (EDGE), Circuit City's new mobile devices can speed the sales process by providing associates with immediate access to product recommendations, demos, usage questions, competitive pricing and more for thousands of items across hundreds of categories.

Five strategies for quickly and effectively implementing a virtual support center

Join us for a live, interactive Webinar on August 27 and learn how your organization can leverage the virtual support model to improve your support center's performance, reduce operational costs and retain top technical talent.

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• Discover 5 strategies for quickly and effectively implementing a virtual support center
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Worldwide IT Spending On Pace to Surpass $3.4 Trillion in 2008
Despite current economic concerns, worldwide IT spending will exceed $3.4 trillion in 2008, an increase of 8 percent from 2007 spending, according to Gartner, Inc. Analysts said much of this growth is based on the decline in the U.S. dollar. The estimated worldwide IT spending growth expressed in constant currency is forecast to be approximately 4.5 percent.

Worldwide software spending is on pace for the strongest growth rate in 2008 at more than 10 percent. IT services spending ranks a close second with more than 9.4 percent growth. Analysts said the IT services sector benefits from the continued innovation in software technology. New software solutions often require labor-based services to implement them.

IT spending is dominated by services rather than products. Together, IT services and telecom services account for 70 percent of total IT market spending. Gartner analyst said the telecom sector has a major effect on overall IT market performance, accounting for almost $2 trillion in 2008.

The main area of hardware growth activity is PCs, which represents 60 percent of total hardware spending. Growth in PCs is stronger than previously expected, with no signs of a slowdown. The U.S. forecast has increased marginally while forecasts elsewhere, particularly Asia/Pacific and Western Europe, have increased significantly.

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North American market for hosted outbound IVR services to more than double by 2013
A new report by independent market analyst Datamonitor reveals the North American market for hosted outbound integrated voice response (IVR) services is set to more than double from an estimated $213 million in 2008 to $524 million by 2013. Outbound IVR is the next generation contact center technology used for automated, phone-based outbound communications. The report, “Hosted Speech and Outbound IVR Services”, explains that the global market is shifting towards a more personalized, directed method of enterprise communication with customers. At the same time, enterprises are looking for ways to maintain an increased level of communication with customers while controlling costs.

Outbound IVR originates and executes outbound calls with customers. Today, outbound IVR is used primarily for proactive communications, allowing enterprises to reach out to customers through outbound call campaigns that use a combination of pre-recorded messages or text-to-speech (TTS) and interactive DTMF (dual tone multiple-frequency, i.e. touch-tone) and / or speech recognition applications. Speech recognition and DTMF are used as the primary interfaces and can verify customer details, complete transactions and help route calls to a live customer services agent.

According to Datamonitor, spending on hosted outbound IVR services in North America will increase at a compounded annual growth rate of 20% over the next five years as more firms leverage outbound communications to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction. Some of the early adopters for outbound IVR services include financial services organizations - for debt collections and billing, and travel & tourism companies, to provide information about flights and gain a competitive advantage. Outbound IVR is also being deployed in the healthcare industry to send prescription refill, medication dose or appointment reminders to patients. Proactive communications help to reduce administrative costs as the number of missed appointments is lowered.

Customers are becoming more mobile and more demanding about the level of customer service they receive. Outbound services can be used to help reduce pressure on customer service agents and provide a service that would not be economically viable otherwise. An example of this is when alerting customers of flight delays, which are time sensitive and require many calls to be made in a short time period. Transactions can be carried out entirely via an IVR system which reduces the need for customer service personnel; this could include checking a bank balance, flight details or paying a bill. The call is routed back to a customer service agent only when the customer needs further assistance therefore enabling agents to spend their time speaking with customers that need their help or have more complex inquiries.

Although outbound speech applications are being developed and deployed today, the majority of deployments in outbound use simple DTMF applications such as identity confirmation, prescription reminders and overdraft notifications. However, the number of outbound speech applications is set to grow through 2013 as enterprises demand greater sophistication and intuitive design from their outbound IVR solution.

As the outbound IVR market grows and solutions mature, a greater number of enterprises will begin to use the technology to proactively reach out to customers. Vendors are beginning to offer outbound IVR alongside inbound IVR solutions and the market is changing to include email and SMS as part of multi-channel customer service solutions. Using this approach, communications can be made according to their time dependency and customer preferences.

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Unified Communications: Lifeblood of the Contact Center
In a new study exploring unified communications in the contact center, Aberdeen Group examines the business reasons for adoption of unified communications, the relationship between unified communications and customer satisfaction, customer retention and year-over-year change in customer satisfaction, and how Best-in-Class usage of unified communications have provided business, business process benefits and operational efficiencies.

Unified communications must revolve around the needs of the business -- finding the right business process to UC-enable, and finding the right return on investment for the right departments. A small number -- 23% -- have some form of unified communications implemented but an astounding 50% of customers surveyed are or will be evaluating unified communications in the next eighteen months.

The report demonstrates a direct correlation between implementation of unified communications by Best-in-Class customers and the performance in three critical customer-facing performance measures: customer satisfaction, customer retention and year-over-year change in customer satisfaction.

End-user customer feedback has indicated that customers have already invested millions in existing telephony and VoIP technologies to support the contact center, and intelligent unified communications investment needs to complement and extend this existing investment. These same customers also demonstrate the high level of confusion as to exactly what unified communications is and what each of the software vendors label their collection of technologies.

The required actions for companies seeking to gain the most benefit from their implementation of unified communications include a commitment to identify the right business processes to UC-enable, implement policies and procedures designed to maximize effectiveness and efficiency of these cross-departmental business processes, establish a contact center unified communications strategy and approach, and implement metrics to monitor and measure contact center performance.

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Gartner Highlights New Technologies in the 2008 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies
Gartner, Inc. has identified emerging technologies and predicts that eight of these will have a transformational business impact and should be strongly considered for adoption by technology planners in the next 10 years, according to the report "Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2008."
Technologies and trends at or around the peak of the Hype Cycle in 2008 that will reach the plateau in two to five years are:

Green IT — Along with broader societal pressure for environmentally sustainable solutions, IT has the opportunity — and in many cases, a requirement — to improve the "greenness" of its own activities, as well as to contribute to broader company and industry environmental initiatives.

Cloud computing — As companies seek to consume their IT services in the most cost-effective way, interest is growing in drawing a broad range of services (for example, computational power, storage and business applications) from the "cloud," rather than from on-premises equipment. Many types of technology providers are aligning themselves with this trend, with the result that confusion and hype will continue for at least another year before distinct submarkets and market leaders emerge.

Social computing platforms — Following the phenomenal success of consumer-oriented social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, companies are examining the role that these sites, or their enterprise-grade equivalents, will play in future collaboration environments. The scope is also expanding to incorporate the notion of social "platforms," or environments for a broad range of developers to build on the basic application.

Video telepresence — High-end videoconferencing systems (for example, from HP, Cisco, Teliris and others) that utilize large, high-definition (HD) displays and components to show life-size images of participants in meeting rooms or suites have proven significantly more effective than earlier generations of videoconferencing technology in providing a strong sense of in-room presence between remote participants. High cost is currently the barrier to broader adoption.

Microblogging — Pioneered by Twitter (although other services such as FriendFeed or Plurk are also available), microblogging is a relatively new addition to the world of social networking, in which contributors post a stream of very short messages (fewer than 140 characters) providing information about their current activity or thoughts, which can then be subscribed to by others. The phenomenon has caught on among certain online communities, and leading-edge companies are investigating its role in enhancing other social media and channels.

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Which Hotel Chain Does Customer Service E-Mail Best?
By Leslie O'Flahavan and Marilynne Rudick, E-WRITE

It's the height of travel season, so e-Write decided to conduct a (non-scientific) experiment to find out which hotel chain does customer service e-mail best. Here's what they did. Using the clever pseudonym "Jane Doe," they sent an e-mail query to hotel chains with properties near Chicago's Midway Airport. Within two days of sending the query, they received responses from five hotel chains: Best Western, Marriott, La Quinta, Hyatt, and Hilton. The quality of the responses was uneven, to put it politely. To see which hotels provided excellent service and which bombed, read this article.
Full Article...

16 hot IT positions CIOs need to fill in the short term
IT professionals who want to become irreplaceable to their organizations should cultivate existing skills and pick up a few new ones, according to Forrester Research, which recently identified 16 IT roles that CIOs will need to fill in the near term. The trend toward IT workers taking on multiple responsibilities and filling hybrid positions is in full swing this year. Forrester Research polled its analysts to narrow down the numerous demands on IT departments to 16 roles that are critical to an organization's success in the coming months.
Full Article...

Where Customers Go to Praise (or Bash) You
If you run a consumer business, chances are pretty good a few of your customers are posting their opinions about it on the dozen or so Web sites that review local businesses across the country. These sites attract tens of thousands of daily posts and position themselves as online destinations for consumers to offer or get an unvarnished take on a business -- to be both the critics and lobbyists.
Full Article...

 
How Unified Communications Benefits the Call Center
Unified communications, when utilized in the contact center, leads to better and faster customer service; a more satisfying and seamless customer experience; better utilization of business processes; a greater likelihood of first-call resolution and more efficient usage of a company's human capital (no more wasted hours of "phone tag," for starters).
Full Article...

Embarking on an Environmental Path: Keys to a Successful Strategy
Organizations around the world are seeking ways to reduce their environmental impact - be that by reducing energy consumption, eliminating harmful emissions or ensuring supply chain partners meet a predefined green standard. The question has moved from “Should my company move forward with a green plan?” to “How can I execute and measure my green plan’s effectiveness?” This article focuses on linking business strategy to green goals and measurement, and examining the tools available to successfully plan a program.
Full Article...

Quick Meeting Openers for Busy Managers
by Brian Cole Miller

How effective a meeting will be depends on the tone set in the first few minutes...and it's up to the person running it to set that tone. Quick Meeting Openers for Busy Managers gives readers the tools, activities, and advice they need to create the kind of open, energetic, and relaxed atmosphere that lead to effective meetings and serious results. Designed to take the anxiety out of meetings and encourage creative and practical discussion, the book contains meeting starters that will help managers, team leaders, and facilitators.

More info...

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!

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.
Click Here to Download...

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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