Forrester Research has issued its new Forrester Wave report on Customer Service Management

eGain receives #1 rating in "strategy" and top scores in "customer service" product capabilities, "architecture and platform," "product strategy," "corporate strategy," and "customer base" in the Forrester report.

Download your free copy of the Forrester Wave report on Customer Service Management today!

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Voxify Empowers the Contact Center With Its Call Steering Self-Service Speech Application
Voxify, the company that enables contact centers to offer self-service for customer phone calls, announced that it is empowering contact centers to make changes to Voxify speech applications themselves. The new Call Steering Agent, which is an automated speech recognition solution that provides highly accurate and intelligent call routing, is the first Voxify speech application to include the "web console" capability. The Call Steering Agent is offered as a Managed Service where Voxify takes the responsibility for deploying, tuning, and supporting the speech application. Contact centers receive a high quality, high performance speech application in an accelerated deployment time.

ClickFox, Inc Connects the Retail Point of Sale Experiences to the Contact Center
ClickFox, Inc, a provider of Customer Behavior Intelligence software, announced successful delivery of the Retail Cross Channel Customer Experience view. The ClickFox Behavioral Analytics Engine analyzes and identifies customer experiences originating in the retail storefront point-of-sale (POS) and kiosk following the experience through the self-service and contact center channels, capturing each customer touchpoint along the way. ClickFox integrates core POS, service, sales and financial data elements directly from corporate databases and application transaction logs into event-driven behavioral data models. Customer activities that occur within retail locations such as products purchased, upgrades, cancellations and service requests are integrated into the overall Customer Behavior Intelligence model. This model is then able to determine the impacts of costs and/or savings to the contact center.

Convergys and Avaya Offer New Assessment Services for Customer Care Operations
Convergys Corporation, a provider of customer care, human resources and billing services, and Avaya, a provider of business communications applications, systems, and services announced they will sell and jointly deliver new "Customer Care Diagnostic" services designed by Convergys to help businesses evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of their customer interactions. The Customer Care Diagnostic spans the breadth of a customer care operation – from business process alignment and talent management to customer interaction and infrastructure. Companies receive a specific assessment of their care operations and how they compare to those of other businesses in their vertical market. Opportunities for improvement are prioritized based on complexity and the return potential on investment.

Supportindustry.com Resource: Analyst and Research Group Listing

If you are looking for a complete listing of analyst and research groups in the service and support industry, Supportindustry.com has the resource you are looking for!

Check out the recently updated analyst/research section of supportindustry.com and get the latest information you are looking for.

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The research reveals that e-mail and telephony is most widely offered by organizations, and just as popular among users. 100% of the end-users surveyed use e-mail, followed by fixed-line telephony (80%), mobile telephony (76%) and instant messaging (66%).

Interestingly, the research points out, the three most ubiquitous technologies increase productivity the most. Over 70% of the end-users surveyed say e-mail impacts positively on their productivity, followed by conventional fixed-line telephony (53%) and mobile telephony (52%).
From a productivity point-of-view, the research shows that instant messaging, blogs and softphones are considered most disruptive, and could negatively impact productivity if not managed properly.
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Gartner warns Web 2.0 will force business to re-examine approach to IT security
The adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in the enterprise is driving unprecedented collaboration throughout business, but brings with it significant security risks, according to Gartner. These risks are manageable, but only if enterprises engage security early in the process and build a solid foundation to support Web 2.0, whilst limiting the risks.

According to Gartner, the security challenges created by Web 2.0 could be divided into two categories: protecting internal users and the enterprise, and protecting external applications.

The internal challenge is characterised by inbound risks, such as malicious code in RSS feeds, and outbound risks, such as information leakage through inappropriate blogging or use of collaboration tools. The external challenge is threats generated by enterprise usage and participation in Web 2.0 technologies, such as use of third-party content (mashups) and engaging in open user communities.

According to Gartner, the open nature of Web 2.0 also presents significant challenges to the traditional enterprise approach to controlling intellectual property and proprietary content. In the outbound sense information leakage can occur in a range of ways such as blogging, instant messaging, collaboration tools and even online calendars. Similarly any content served by a Web 2.0 application can be re-formed, reused and redistributed by third parties, making it practically impossible to control content. This can include press releases, price lists, video and audio, all of which can be rapidly propagated across the Internet.

Gartner makes the following recommendations for enterprises adopting Web 2.0 technologies:

• Secure coding is your best defence
• Use web vulnerability scanners
• Validate all input on the server-side
• Assume any public content will be reused in unexpected ways
• Protect internal users and corporate assets with technology tools and education
• Consider using application firewalls, content monitoring and filtering and data loss protection (CMF/DLP) and database activity monitoring.

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U.K.'s tech-savvy young lack basic literacy skills
Secondary-school graduates might be tech-savvy but they are increasingly entering the workplace without basic numerical and literacy skills, employers have warned.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Pertemps Employment Trends Survey found 92 percent of employers are happy with the IT skills of students taking General Certificate of Secondary Education qualification exams, which typically are administered to students aged 14 to 16.

The CBI chalks this up to the familiarity of "generation text" with Web and mobile-based technologies and a 47 percent increase in the number of pupils taking the information and communications technology GCSE exam over the last decade. About 110,000 students took the exam last year.

But the report found that those leaving secondary-school programs increasingly lack basic abilities in English and math. More than half (52 percent) of the employers questioned in the survey said they are dissatisfied with the basic literacy of those who have completed secondary school, and half said the same about numerical skills.

Just 47 percent of pupils sitting GCSE English and math last year achieved a grade C or above, and employers warn this often leaves teenagers unable to function in the workplace because they can't do simple calculations in their heads or speak in an articulate manner.
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Users Outwit IT When Deploying Consumer Apps
No doubt you're not as clueless as your organization's employees think you are, but the truth is, they're deliberately leaving IT out of the loop when deploying new applications at work. In fact, end users are so confident in their ability (and authority) to bring whatever Web-based applications and consumer devices they want into the workplace, 31% of them claim to circumvent IT altogether, according to a recent survey from Boston-based Yankee Group Research Inc. Only 13% said IT had complete control over their PCs. However, although many employees believe these applications make them more productive, the unwieldy deployment of unsanctioned apps does create serious bandwidth and security issues for IT departments.
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Optimizing Agent Automation
Call center managers, no matter if they are inbound or outbound, are always challenged to provide better services for their clients that can lead to customer satisfaction, as well as increasing revenues, while performing these activities more efficiently and at lower costs. Highly successful call center managers attack these challenges with relentless focus and never-ending efforts to improve their performance in three key areas.
Full Article...

IT Staff: Divide and Conquer
IT is splitting up. It’s not petty squabbling that’s causing the breakup. No, this is a sign of maturity. CIOs in larger organizations are dividing their staffs into two major groups: one that negotiates with the business on IT strategy and IT project choices and manages the delivery of those projects (among other management consulting-type duties), and a second group that manages the infrastructure and delivers new applications (among other traditional tactical IT duties). This trend of materially distinguishing demand from supply in IT is a grassroots phenomenon, rather than a coordinated response to consultants or guru-propagated wisdom.
Full Article...

Web 2.0: Profiting from the Threat
Fresh trends in consumer behavior driven by social media pose significant challenges to companies stuck in a traditional market-to-the-masses mind-set. Here’s how to thrive on Web 2.0 -- the second generation of Web-based services and communities that emphasize online collaboration, networking, and user-created content.
Full Article...

Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (Paperback)
by Jennifer Grappone (Author), Gradiva Couzin

Influence search engine results and bring targeted traffic to your Web site with an hour a day of search engine optimization (SEO). Drawing on years of experience as successful SEO consultants, Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin provide detailed, practical, and often surprisingly simple techniques for improving results. Their simple strategies include setting SEO goals, site optimization, developing and implementing a strategy that might include both free and paid efforts, and tools for monitoring trends, measuring the competition, and tracking results.

More Info...

This informative white paper examines the latest trends and technologies in using Web-based support tools to improve customer service. Get your copy today!

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