StubHub Selects eGain OnDemand
eGain Communications Corporation, a provider of contact center software for in-house or on-demand deployment, announced that StubHub, an open marketplace for tickets, has selected eGain OnDemand(TM), the hosted version of applications in eGain's customer service software suite, eGain Service(TM), to rapidly build a multichannel customer interaction hub. StubHub will implement eGain's software for web self-service, email management, and chat to provide an array of high-quality interaction options to its customers.

3am Labs Releases First Complete Off-LAN Remote Support Package
3am Labs announced the addition of configuration management and advanced customizable alerts to its LogMeIn IT Reach, making it the only remote management package that provides corporate IT managers with an easy-to-use, proactive and cost-effective way to track, diagnose and fix IT issues for remote systems and traveling workers - from deployment to performance monitoring to incident resolution. The latest upgrades make LogMeIn IT Reach the only "off-LAN" remote management and support tool with enhanced functionality for managing multiple computers, including the ability to group and configure computers and monitor their performance based on criteria that best meets organizational needs.

Jacada Announces New Contact Center Agent Portal to Drive Process Optimization
Jacada Ltd., a software provider of contact center productivity solutions, announced the general availability of Jacada® Fusion Agent Portal, an innovative desktop solution that optimizes workflow processes across business systems within a contact center, providing a single point of access to systems and resources to improve agent satisfaction and the customer experience. Jacada Fusion Agent Portal provides advanced tools that simplify tasks for the customer service representative (CSR), reduce new hire training time, reduce keystroke errors, automate workflows and automate redundant processes. A dynamic scripting environment provides guided navigation for agents, and innovative ‘in-call intelligence' technology helps automate tasks such as call disposition and wrap-up.

Gartner attributed the labor shortage to the growing demand for offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) resources. The shortage has caught offshore call center service providers by surprise, particularly in India. Many large multinational organizations that located their shared service centers in India did so anticipating an unlimited supply of skilled labor. This expectation has not been met, specifically for educated recruits with good English-language skills, even though India graduates more than 2.5 million college students each year.

Gartner predicts that high staff attrition will occur as professionals switch companies to advance their careers or improve their salaries. Although high employee attrition by itself is a manageable issue, a shortfall in qualified personnel has the following implications for service providers:

Gartner advised organizations to investigate carefully before engaging with a call centre provider. Organizations should inquire about attrition rates and security measures, and ensure that adequate mechanisms — such as service level agreements and resulting penalties, call monitoring and customer satisfaction surveys — are built into contracts.
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Study Shows Most Organizations Ignorant To Risk Of Poor Content Management
In the most recent market study from Delphi Group, 458 companies revealed how on-line content is being secured (or inadequately secured) against potential threats. The survey discovered that 41 percent of the organizations surveyed had already experienced unauthorized access to content. Further, the affected organizations had no idea of the dollar value risk of having unsecured content.

Forty-one percent of respondents believed that internal, external or both (internal and external) parties had accessed content without authorization. Further, these companies recognized the "threat from within" (14%) as greater than external threats (7%) - such as hackers or crackers. These results support the findings of other classic surveys (such as the oft-cited CSI/FBI surveys) over the years. In total, 81% of respondents to this survey had issues around information leakage/exposure.

Even greater than the lack of awareness over whether content has been accessed inappropriately is the fact that the vast majority of respondents (63%) had no appreciation of the dollar value risk associated with unsecured content. Most of these organizations have no compliance mandate or other externally required spending to address this area of risk. The tendency on the part of budget holders for these organizations is typically to minimize the risk, and not spend a single dime on securing content – as it is difficult to balance Return on Investment (ROI) against the range of possibilities of zero risk to infinite risk.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that there is no magic bullet or single source solution to this issue from a technology standpoint. Indeed, when asked to identify the technologies they have targeted for securing content, survey respondents provided a laundry list of options, from User Authentication to Enterprise Rights Management.
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According to AMR Research, for the most part, IT is not a distinguishing factor in a company’s overall performance. The bulk of IT investment is in status quo technologies that are a cost of doing business. However, a small percentage of these investments is allocated to innovation—and has the potential to truly set a company apart. These investments define how a company uses IT to enhance business processes that are already a source of competitive advantage. In every industry, the winners are those firms that maximize the value of this innovation portion of IT investment to extend their leadership positions, and minimize their non-value-adding investment. In today’s technology economy, the opportunity to do this is better than ever.
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Contract Sadness
Today, the reality is that too many CIOs cut enterprise deals that may look absolutely fabulous to the CEO, CFO and all the other C-creatures, but commit the people who do the real work to a nightmare of unrealistic expectations and milestones. The contract undermines the ability, ingenuity, creativity and initiative of people to do good work. The contract focuses on ultimate results at the expense of the healthy and coherent processes necessary to achieve them.

In short, too many CIOs and CFOs negotiate IT contracts with vendors as if the process of implementation is completely disconnected from the quality of the system that is actually deployed. Who cares if the negotiated contract gets in the way of clever innovations that can slash time from schedules or money from budgets? If you're a professional, you should.
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Putting Information Back in IT
It is readily understood that IT stands for information technology. In my experience, however, IT organizations are primarily focused on technology and give very little attention to information. Companies spend millions of dollars and resources on technology in IT and by comparison spend virtually nothing on managing information effectively. As we move into the information age, IT organizations must be prepared to support the information requirements of the business and not simply their technology needs.
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Sticking it to spyware
Whether you call it adware, malware, or spyware, these malicious programs are not only capable of tracking where a user goes on the Internet, but they’re capturing sensitive information such as user names, passwords, and customer data, such as credit card information. Fortunately, vendors are working to provide smarter and better antispyware tools to help protect against these digital sneak attacks. This InfoWorld article assesses the readiness of 10 anti-spyware operatives for active enterprise duty.’
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Bad Payers – the Scourge of Offshore Call Centers
Five years ago, if you had asked the CEO’s of offshore outsourcing call center companies for their biggest problem, the most common answers I would have had would have been finding good projects and getting high quality, low cost telecommunications. If the same question was asked today, the answers would be finding and keeping enough good agents and eliminating bad debts. There are plenty of articles on about recruitment and retention but not about getting clients to pay their bills. Many call centers have not wanted to address the issue publicly but as offshoring has grown, the problem has grown exponentially.
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2005 Trends and Directions in Web-Based Support White Paper
While there’s a wealth of rich, increasingly comprehensive technologies available enabling businesses to drive toward true service and support optimization, the decision to deploy and across what channels should depend on a strategy based on clearly defined goals. Learn more. Read the full white paper!
http://www.supportindustry.com/whitepaper/index.htm