Increase first call resolution and deliver hands-on
support without costly on-site service visits using WebEx Support Center.

Gain real time visibility and control of every PC on
your network—anywhere, anytime. Maximize productivity and uptime for all your users with
click-to-connect web access. Accelerate diagnosis
and problem solving without costly in-house hardware
and software.

See for yourself how WebEx can maximize user
satisfaction with streamlined support.

Try it FREE

TechTarget acquires KnowledgeStorm for $58 Million
TechTarget today also announced the acquisition of KnowledgeStorm, Inc., a leading search resource for IT professionals that generates qualified leads for IT vendors, for approximately $58 million, consisting of approximately $52 million in cash and 359,820 shares of unregistered common stock of TechTarget. KnowledgeStorm generates approximately 3.5 million visits per month from IT professionals searching for information and has approximately 700 active advertisers, the majority of which are new to TechTarget.

Microsoft fires CIO for violating corporate policies
Microsoft Corp. disclosed that it has fired CIO Stuart Scott after an internal investigation determined that he had violated unspecified company policies. Microsoft, which details its "standards of business conduct" in a lengthy document posted on its Web site, declined to comment on when it expects to hire a permanent replacement for Scott. The company said that in the interim, his duties will be share by two people: Shahla Aly, general manager of worldwide services, strategy and planning, and Alain Crozier, corporate vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft's sales, marketing and services group.
Source: ComputerWorld

Dell to buy storage company for $1.4 billion
Dell announced plans to acquire EqualLogic in a $1.4 billion cash deal, as the computer maker seeks to broaden its reach by bolstering its data storage operations. EqualLogic develops storage area network (SAN) systems based on the iSCSI standard. The iSCSI standard is designed to operate on a company's existing Ethernet network, meaning businesses could lower costs by forgoing the need to install fiber networks.

Barnes & Noble Selects Accenture And Initiate Systems To Improve Customer Service
Barnes & Noble, Inc. has selected Accenture and Initiate Systems to develop a new customer database. The new system will be designed to improve customer recognition at all interaction points. Barnes & Noble is using Initiate Systems master data management software, which provides a record for each customer, household, company or other entity within and across all data sources. The retailer will deploy Initiate Consumer software as well as the Householding Hub software to recognize individual and household relationships and reduce the number of duplicate customer records. Accenture is leading the software implementation and working with Barnes & Noble to plan how the retailer can use data to gain better insight into customer behavior and improve the overall shopping experience.

InstantService Adds LiveLOOK's CoBrowsing Capabilities to Chat Solution
InstantService, Inc., a provider of chat and email management solutions, announced today that it has formed a technology partnership with LiveLOOK, a provider of next generation visual customer communication tools. As a result of the technology integration, customers of InstantService's chat solution can now use LiveLOOK's screen cobrowsing capabilities to answer consumer inquiries and facilitate sales transactions in real time online. Agents use LiveLOOK CoBrowse to securely see the consumer's screen, and help the consumer shop or find a solution to a question. LiveLOOK establishes a visual connection between agents and consumers instantly -- with no software to download for either agent or consumer.

3rd Annual Call Center Summit
Leveraging Measurements and Technology to Drive Performance and Improve the Customer Experience

January 28 - 31, 2008* Colonnade Hotel Coral Gables* Miami, FL
http://www.iqpc.com/us/callcentersummit/si

From the creators of the SOLD OUT Call Center Week - we bring you the 3rd Annual Call Center Summit. This year’s annual conference promises to be another exiting Call Center IQ event - with new speakers, new tracks, hot topics and new site tours this is a conference you can not miss!

Gartner advises CIOs to create two separate budgets; the first should reflect the guidance already provided by senior decision makers but this should be supplemented by a second ‘back-up’ budget that assumes the need to cut costs in response to the arrival of a business slowdown.

According to Gartner, CIOs need to have a ‘recession budget’ and business plan ready for immediate implementation long before being asked to reduce costs. To be meaningful, Gartner recommends that such plans should target a decrease in IT spending of at least 10 per cent below the highest annualized IT spending run rate levels attained in 2007.

Gartner said that rather than viewing the possibility of a significant business slowdown or recession with trepidation, organizations should use it as an opportunity to create a solution that will enable the enterprise to react with speed and certainty if the worst economic concerns come to pass.

More...

Survey Reveals Optimized Customer Service is Becoming a Key Priority to Improve the Customer Experience
Nearly three quarters of customer service organizations have begun adopting strategies to optimize the value of every customer interaction, but less than twenty five percent have fully implemented them in key areas, according to a new survey of customer service organizations. The business goals of creating and operating contact centers at maximum efficiency remain a top priority for a large number of businesses, especially in highly dynamic environments, but the goals of complete optimization remain largely unmet. The most critical areas for improvement are in such areas as the ability to effectively cross sell, prioritizing customers according to their status, and matching customers with the best agent.

The global survey, sponsored by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, included 1,390 contact center managers and customer service executives from 19 different industries and 76 different countries. Key findings include:

• An increasing number of organizations implement contact center management strategies that simultaneously address effectiveness and efficiency of customer interaction
• 28 percent of contact centers manage Average Handle Time by actively directing agents to spend longer on interactions during troughs and the reverse during peaks
• Only 11 percent of contact centers actively manage cross-selling opportunities
• 17 percent of contact centers use voice call-back
• 26 percent expand the agents' roles to include managing interactions through other channels such as e-mail and SMS
• Contact center management are integrating all available technology and business process to manage agent productivity, prioritize business objectives and respond to changes in customer demand
• The most effective and successful contact centers seek to identify the customers at the first available opportunity - 78% of call centers are identifying customers before connecting them to agents
• Contact centers are also assessing the value of the customer interaction, determining the level of service to provide and how to match the customer with the right agent
• 22 percent of contact centers still do not identify customers before matching them with the appropriate resource
• Only 21 percent of contact centers use advanced analytics to prioritize incoming calls based on the value of the customer
• Only 35% match their top-value customers to their best agents-instead using an isolated group of high-performing agents

More...

Survey Shows Call Centers Are Not Ready For The New Consumer
According to new research from Rostrvm Solutions, customers are beginning to demand multimedia contact but most call centers are far from ready to meet expectations. The research shows that call center adoption of new media is under way, customer
contact mechanisms are changing, but not at the same pace as consumers.

The survey revealed strong investment in both ‘traditional’ call center technology and new media communication. But it also identified that the different media effectively operate as customer interaction islands, not as an integrated customer experience.

The overwhelming majority (98%) of call centers have an associated web presence. Despite general growth in internet activity it is still rare for businesses to complete the majority of transactions on the internet. Capturing customers and prospects with active links to the call center, such as call-me buttons, is not seen as a priority. Under 15% of call centers have a ‘Call Me’ presence on the web site growing to less than 25% over 3 years.

The vast majority of call centers have already embraced the email revolution. 97% of call centers already use email to communicate with customers (rising to 98% over the next 3 years). The newer, more immediate media have significantly less penetration; text messaging has been recognized as an important medium in some areas and already used in around 30% of call centers but this figure is not expected to rise above 50% over the coming years.

PC based communication - instant messaging such as Messenger and PC Telephony such as Skype – are not widely adopted or planned to have a large impact. Around 11% of call centers currently use Instant Messaging growing to around 24% in three years; less than 8% support PC Telephony building to around 20% over the next three years.

More...

Customer Relationship Management Applications Set to Double in Value
As the increasing number or organizations understand the importance of positive customer experiences and strong customer relationships, the market for customer relationship management (CRM) applications continues to expand. In 2006, the global CRM software market was worth just under US$3.6bn in license revenue alone. In a new report, independent market analyst Datamonitor predicts this will reach US$6.6bn by year end 2012, growing by a compound annual growth rate of 10.5%. The report, “Economic Outlook: Customer Relationship Management”, attributes growth to increasing deployment of CRM in new vertical segments as well as new flexibility in modes of deployment. Nevertheless, within the next 18 months Datamonitor expects on-demand CRM specialists to come under pressure as the CRM arena becomes substantially more competitive.

Reliance on subscription revenues and service capabilities will mean that the Telecommunications industry will continue to be the heaviest investor in CRM technologies along with Energy and Utilities and Financial Services. However, Datamonitor expects CRM investment by the Healthcare, Public Sector and Life Sciences to exceed the rate of growth in the Telecommunications sector, fuelled by the adoption of a customer-oriented approach to public sector services and the relative success of applications supporting a relational, not transactional, approach to customers.

The composition of the CRM market is also changing in terms of the typical size of enterprise deploying CRM. Once a preserve of the very large organizations, Datamonitor estimates that in 2006 CRM application spending by enterprises with less than 1000 employees accounted for one third of all licenses sold. By 2012, however, the sector will account for over 42% of the market.

On-demand relieves businesses of the maintenance and daily technical operations of software, offering companies the choice to let someone else host their applications for them. Datamonitor considers on-demand as an important element of CRM strategy since subscription-based licensing and hosted architecture can address many inhibitors to CRM adoption.

Recent success of on-demand CRM providers, as well as the fact that most of the major vendors are having some on-demand strategy means that this innovative paradigm is clearly here to stay. Datamonitor estimates that by year end 2007, the global on-demand CRM market will be worth US$1bn, and such applications will drive CRM adoption, particularly within SMEs.

Nevertheless, within the next 18 months the market will be substantially more competitive. Established on-demand CRM specialists will find themselves under increased pressure both from smaller hosted solution providers and established on-premise vendors offering on-demand versions. The implications are that subscription prices could decrease, particularly among the less differentiated entry-level solutions.

More...

What Does It Mean to Have Market Knowledge?
The C-level competency of market knowledge is about understanding the market context in which a business operates. Competence in market knowledge is usually a requirement of the leadership competencies of strategic orientation, commercial orientation and customer impact. At basic levels of performance, leaders understand obvious industry trends, the company's products and its customers. Middle-level performers see emerging trends. At high levels, leaders understand relationships among the various elements of the market and see how trends could create new customers, affect dealings with competitors and cause potentially profitable changes. CEOs are better at tracking competitors and industry trends than are CFOs. Both perform better than CIOs, who are just beginning to know their markets well.
Full Article...

Why Business Executives Need to Be Involved in the Technology Game
Renowned author Jim Champy makes the case for business executives being involved in strategic IT projects.
Full Article...

The Steady Evolution of Online Customer Service
It's incredible how quickly technology, and the accessibility of the Internet and Web-enabled devices, have evolved. With these rapid advancements, both society and insurers are forced to adapt. Now that anyone can check claims status on their iPod, laptop or PDA from anywhere in the world, there's no excuse for carriers not to ramp up their online customer service offerings in an effort to better serve their Web-savvy client base.
Full Article...

Checking the Pulse of the Contact Center
We're all aware that the contact center typically collects and houses more information than any other department within an enterprise. But no contact center has ever optimized its performance -- and subsequently the performance of the overall business--by just reporting on captured data. The real shift in performance from mediocrity to excellence comes when that data is leveraged to drive behavioral changes that will ultimately elevate an organization's ability to meet and surpass defined objectives.
Full Article...

Who Owns the Data? Using Internal Customer Relationship Management to Improve Business and IT Integration
by Frank L. Eichorn

Information management has become entrenched in every facet of business operations and is a key source of competitive advantage. Recent research results, along with related studies and models on customer service, provide the foundation for a holistic capabilities assessment model for measuring Internal Customer Relationship Management (IntCRM) - a model created and developed by Dr. Eichorn and presented herein - serves as a comprehensive tool for examining an organization's business and IT integration capabilities and provides quantitative and visual evaluation of the key criteria to determine how an organization is measuring up.

More Info...

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.

White Paper: Using Web-based Support Tools to Improve Customer Service
This informative white paper examines the latest trends and technologies in using Web-based support tools to improve customer service. Get your copy today!

Multichannel Service & Support Survey of Executives: Report of Findings
To get a complimentary copy of the report, click here.

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

Advertising Information:
adinfo@supportindustry.com

Thank you for reading Supportindustry.com's weekly newsletter!
Copyright © 2007, supportindustry.com