On Tuesday, May 19, 1998, representatives from the companies that were named as members of the exclusive C@LL CENTER Solutions™ "Top 50 Teleservices Agencies" met at the Omni Inner Harbor Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. This 13th Annual Top 50 Awards Meeting and Dinner was sponsored by Salomon Smith Barney and IMA, and hosted by Nadji Tehrani, president of TMC and publisher of C@LL CENTER Solutions™ (formerly Telemarketing�). During the afternoon session, the executives relaxed in a casual atmosphere, renewed old friendships and set competitive issues aside to discuss the challenges facing the industry as it prepares to head into the next millennium.

Some of the challenges addressed were:

• The vital importance of maintaining quality in an increasingly competitive market.
• The impact of high agent turnover on quality as well on the bottom line.
• The necessity of adopting a customer-centric business model, a twofold battle for service agencies which must satisfy their clients (the outsourcees) and their clients' customers.
• Leveraging technology to improve quality of service delivered, customer and employee satisfaction all with an eye toward obtaining a healthy return on investment.

During the afternoon session, the Top 50 executives were addressed by a series of industry experts, who added another, deeper dimension to the topics discussed early in the day:

• Rick Northrop, managing director, Salomon Smith Barney, provided his "Reflections on the Improvement in the Teleservices Market Thus Far in 1998."
• The topic addressed by Cathy Bradley, president, Call Center Services, Southern New England Telephone (SNET), was "Beyond Customer Service…Why Customer Retention is More Important Than Getting a New Customer for Your Call Center."
• Mike Sandifer, president, Sandifer & Company addressed important legal issues in "Privacy: Legislation, Telemarketing and Service Agencies."
• Closing out the afternoon session was Andrew Esposito, sales director, IMA, Inc., who spoke on "Innovation: The Key to Success in the Dynamic Teleservices Outsourcing Industry."
• Nadji Tehrani, president and CEO of Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC), the publisher of C@LL CENTER SolutionsTM, CTI� and INTERNET TELEPHONYTM magazines, provided his insight into "Some of Our Industry Challenges" and gave the Top 50 executives a first look at the latest industry growth statistics based on the 1998 Top 50 rankings.

Later in the evening, the Top 50 executives were treated to a cocktail reception, a perfect way to wind down after a full day of brainstorming, collaboration and learning. The reception was followed by a lavish dinner and the awards program, during which the executives were presented with plaques symbolizing their excellent achievement in teleservices outsourcing.