April 1999

Editor's Note: This month we've rounded up products that enable your call center to automate outbound calls. Since customer relationship management issues are hot nowadays as well, we've also included a few outbound e-mail products that can help you stay in touch with customers in the medium of their choice.

As an added bonus, be sure to read the "buying tips" introduction authored by Ovum's David Bradshaw. Ovum is an independent telecommunications, new media and information technology analyst group that provides information and advice on key market, technical and regulatory developments. Ovum funds its own research and accepts no sponsorship from vendors or other interest groups.

LEGEND
A = Auto Dialers     B = Predictive Dialers     C = Preview Dialers
D = Outbound E-Mail Products

COMPANY

CONTACT

PHONE

WEB/E-MAIL ADDRESS

PRODUCT TYPE

ACCESS!

Scott McCollum

310-574-4526

www.access-corp.com

B

Advertech, Ltd.

John Robinson

770-416-9502

www.advertech-ltd.com

B

ALB Assocs., Inc.

Lee Bullman

215-750-9530

A, B, C

American Computer and Telephone, Inc.

Ron W. Pate

405-842-7744

www.amcat.com

B

Buffalo International, Inc.

David Friedman

914-747-8500

www.opencti.com

B

Call Center Technologies

Dean Vlahos

203-740-3530

www.callcentertech.com

B

CallPro Canada, Inc.

Bob Morgan

416-718-3449

www.callpro.com

B

Castel

Robert McDermott

781-324-0140

www.castelhq.com

B

CellIT, Inc.

Joe Velasco

305-639-2259

www.cellit.com

B

CenterForce Technologies, Inc.

Marlene Rosati

301-272-2246

www.cforcetech.com

B

Composit Communications International

David Borts

760-918-2601

www.composit.net

C

CyberVoice, Inc.

Roger Moody

817-293-0344, X 2255

www.flash.net/~cyberv

A, C

Data-Tel Info Solutions

April Young

602-844-5154

www.datatel-info.com

B

Davis Software Engineering

Dawn M. Smith

214-758-3642

www.davis-
software.com

B

Davox Corp.

Barbara Kennedy

888-864-7664

www.davox.com

B, C

Decisif Software Solutions

Danielle Larose

514-362-7117

www.decisif.com

B

Decisive Technology Corp.

Julia Rodriguez

650-237-4489

www.decisive.com

D

Diagenix Corp.

781-871-6624

www.diagenix.com

B

Dialtech Solutions

Fred Cote

954-929-2426

www.dial-tech.com

A, B

Digisoft Computers, Inc.

Andrew Davidson

212-687-1810

www.digisoft.com

B, C

Double Talk Software

Denise Nadeau

713-881-7900

www.doubletalk.net

C

eGain

Sales

888-603-4246

www.egain.com

D

EIS International, Inc.

Sales

800-274-5676

www.sersolutions.com

A, B, C

ETS

Paul Sloan

800-761-8099

www.ets-pds.com

A, B, C

EXECUTONE Information

Tricia Dell Aquila

203-876-7600

www.executone.com

B

Genesys Telecommunications

Linda Hein

888-GENESYS

www.genesyslab.com

B

Info Zero Un

Sol Tanguay

514-861-9255

www.izusoft.com

A, B

InterVoice, Inc.

John Cannon

972-454-8862

www.intervoice.com

B

Kana Communications

Trevor Dean

650-325-9850

www.kana.com

D

Know IT, Inc.

Robert Belger

800-592-9349

www.knowit.com

B

Kolker Systems, Inc.

Ray or Larry Kolker

760-431-9633

www.kolkersystems.com

A, B, C

Line 4 (formerly Aristacom International)

Susan Howard

510-748-1500

www.line-4.com

B

Melita International

Angela McMahon

770-239-4000

www.melita.com

B

Mosaix, Inc.

Joe White

425-881-7544

www.mosaix.com

B

Noble Systems Corp.

888-8-NOBLE-8

www.noblesys.com

B

Nova CTI, Inc.

Dick Callahan

800-NOVACTI

www.novacti.com

B

Omega Systems

Mitch Radpour

800-556-6342

www.omega2010.com

B

On Target Marketing, Inc.

Jim Brennan

314-842-4150

www.ontarg.com

B

Ontario Systems Corp.

Stacey C. Chambers

765-751-7000

www.ontario.com

B

Oracle Corp.

Kathy O'Leary

650-506-2209

www.oracle.com

C

Parwan Electronics Corp.

Suraj Tschand

732-290-1900

www.voicesaver.com

A

Predictive Software, Inc.

Ron Tomasch

703-750-9755

B

ProCom, Inc.

Leanna Martin

800-433-9893

www.procom-inc.com

B

Pulse Software & Consulting, Inc.

Mohan Markandaier

905-415-0010

www.pulsesc.com

A

smallwonder! softworks, inc.

Bill Maynard

800-258-5828

www.smallwonder-
softworks.com

B

SoundLogic CTI Inc.

Elham Ahmadzadeh

604-291-9989

www.soundlogic.net

B

Spectral Predictive Systems, Inc.

Dr. Kenneth N. Davis

215-793-4300

A, B, C

Stonehouse Communications

Sales Manager

201-505-9647

www.stone-
housecom.com

A, B, C

StrataSoft, Inc.

Mark Meyer

713-795-2670

www.stratasoft.com

A, B, C

SunDial Technologies

Ana Dumengo Lopez

954-463-6499

www.sundialer.com

B

Syntellect Inc.

Susan Harmon

800-347-9907

www.syntellect.com

B

Sytel Limited

Michael McKinlay

+44-1494-793200

www.sytel.com

B, C

T.D.M. Telefon-Direkt-Marketing

Carola Klug

+49-5066-6060-0

www.tdm-gmbh.de/
dasunt.htm

A

TelAthena Systems LLC

Deirdre Boyle

888-777-7565

www.telathena.com

B

Telemarket Resources International

George Idelman

800-793-1213

www.tmkt-resources.com

B

Telemarketing Services

Greg Knochel

517-496-3200

www.telemarketing-
services.com

B

Telephone Communicators Canada Ltd.

Nadine Lucki

416-367-5255

B

TeleQuery, Inc.

Steven Chervets

888-618-8344

www.telequery.com

A, B, C

Telox

Michael Neri

954-351-2215

www.telox.com

B

TMA/Tele Serv, Inc.

John Mazalewski

603-647-7800

www.tma-tel.com

B

TMSI Inc.

Scott Winn

561-347-8324

www.tmsi.net

B, C

Total Call Center Solutions, Inc.

Mark G. Thorne

800-777-7741

www.total-
callcenter.com

A, B, C

TRIPLE P USA, Inc.

Shawn Parandeh

800-333-8353

www.tsminc.com

B

US Infotel Corp.

Steve Davidson

405-634-3200

www.usinfotel.com

A, B, C

Viking Electronics

Joanne Minke

715-386-8861

www.viking-
electronics.com

A

Buying Tips For Outbound Technologies

BY DAVID BRADSHAW, OVUM, INC.

If you do more than a trivial amount of outbound calling, you are making your life difficult if you have not automated it. Predictive dialing provides you with the ultimate in efficiency savings (up to three times more agent minutes on calls per hour), but it is effective only if outbound calls are not agent-specific. Preview and progressive dialing increase effectiveness less dramatically (up to 50 percent more call minutes per hour), but these technologies are still very worthwhile.

You no longer need hardware to do predictive dialing, though you do need a heavy-duty switch. Dedicated predictive hardware locks up your options. For example, it makes switching agents between outbound and inbound more difficult. As predictive dialing becomes more software-based, it is also becoming more sophisticated.

Here are a series of tips to consider when purchasing outbound technologies.

• Consider call blending. It means you can increase the use of your inbound agents by "swinging" them across to outbound calls during quiet periods you cannot schedule around.
  
  
• Keep focused on what it is your agents are supposed to be doing as their core tasks. You need to give them (and your team managers on the call center floor) clear priorities.
  
  
• When switching normally inbound agents to outbound calling, choose work that is closely associated with the normal inbound calls. Having skilled customer service reps do cold calling can send morale plummeting.
  
  
• Make automated Web callback a priority. It is completely unacceptable to take days, let alone minutes, to call back Web site visitors who give you their number and request an instant callback. Calling back customers promptly increases revenue, particularly if you catch them while they are still on your Web site.
  
  
• Consider that, as with any Web phenomenon, there is often a lot of hype and little content from vendors -- so for Web callback vendors, request customer references and check on them.
  
  
• Automate your IVR callback. You can use anything from touch-tone digit capture to natural language speech recognition to induce callers to leave their numbers in a way that does not require human intervention to place the call.
  
  
• Make sure your call center software systems can keep up with your "swing" agents' status.
  
  
• Don't hang up when you detect answering machines -- have the agent leave a personal message, or use some of the new devices that will automatically leave a message.
  
  
• Always ask if dialing products on your short-list offer ready-made integration with your existing technology.
  
  
• Check with your existing vendors to see what they can offer -- alone or through partnerships.
  
  
• Bargain hunt! Many companies would like to sell you outbound technology, and the choices are widening.

Trends
Is outbound dying? Reports from two quarters might make you think that it shortly will be. First, if you believe the Web hype, outbound calling will be irrelevant -- customers will flock to you if you have a smart enough Web site. Second, if you believe the privacy lobby, by the year 2000, no one will answer the phone at all!

So is it time to throw away your predictive dialer? Certainly not! Outbound calling allows you to be proactive with your existing customers, calling them when you have something you want to tell them and not waiting for them to contact you. It also allows you to actively recruit new customers.

However, you must still address the implicit criticisms of the privacy lobby. Respect your customers, existing and potential, by minimizing hangups. On paper, it may look as though you are missing some call minutes, but in practice, upping the number of spurious calls is bad practice and will rebound on you.

You should also avoid missing invitations from customers to call them. In particular, many companies are throwing good business away by not getting back to customers who visit their Web sites.

On the technology level, there will be a great deal of convergence in the future between predictive dialers, preview and progressive dialing technology, ACDs and Web callback. Why have three or four separate items when one would do a better job? Watch for ACD vendors buying predictive dialer vendors, or vice-versa, using the Web hype (while it lasts) to secure the necessary funds.

David Bradshaw is a senior analyst with independent analyst group Ovum Inc. (www.ovum.com) and lead author on Ovum Evaluates: Call Center Software.