April 1998

BY Tom Keating

GO DIRECTLY TO SIDEBARS:
[What's HOT!]  [When E-mail Is Appropriate]  [Creative Connections]

I do not understand why so many Web sites are so backward when it comes to handling e-mail. These sites actually invite visitors to direct their e-mail to the Webmaster. Why, I wonder, would anyone build a Web site, and load it with all the usual bells and whistles, only to let it front-end a latter day mailroom, maintained by a latter day mailroom clerk?

I don’t know about you, but if I have to rely on a Webmaster to handle one of my messages, I wonder if it will ever reach the appropriate contact. I wonder if my message will be ignored or misdirected — whether it will, in effect, be relegated to oblivion. The Dead Letter Office, I fear, has innumerable branches along the Information Superhighway.

And just how do Webmasters feel about all this? Basically, we ask them to assume the role of mailroom clerk, and to sort letters that may never be read. Were we to listen to them, I imagine they would echo Bartleby, fictional alumnus of the Dead Letter Office. They would tell us, "I prefer not to." Fortunately, they don’t have to. Today, we all have the option of e-mail sorting and routing software, the e-mail equivalent of automatic call distribution (ACD)

DOES MISERY LOVE COMPANY, OR DO COMPANIES LOVE MISERY?
By tradition, e-mail is sent by either HTML forms routed directly to the Webmaster, or by SMTP to the Webmaster. It is then the Webmaster’s responsibility to forward these e-mails to the appropriate contact.

This arrangement works fine so long as the Webmaster receives but a trickle of e-mail requests. However, with the Internet’s incredible success, that trickle, at any given Web site, may become a deluge. The Webmaster may be hard-pressed to keep up.

And how do companies respond to the Webmaster’s plight? Perversely, they multiply the number of people who will share it. They call upon Webmasters to publish departmental email addresses, such as sales@, info@, techsupport@, etc. (More mailroom clerks.)

Of course, Webmasters have other expedients at their disposal. They can route email based on information pro-vided by the person visiting the Web site. Such information can be extracted by scripts prepared by Webmasters. Also, Webmasters can keep track of the pages accessed by the visitors. Finally, Webmasters can supply coded HTML bullets, check boxes, or drop down lists. Each of these methods can collect information that can inform the Webmaster’s routing decision.

Still, these methods are mere workarounds. With any of them, it is easy for e-mail to be incorrectly routed, routed to someone on vacation, or (even worse) routed to someone who has left the company and whose e-mail address has not yet been removed. Also, with these methods, the e-mail can easily enter limbo, a gray region where no one person is held responsible for answering it.

A MORE HUMANE (AND MORE EFFICIENT) E-MAIL DISTRIBUTION MECHANISM
Companies should question the practice of publishing e-mail directories on their Web sites. These directories just oblige more employees to act as mailroom clerks. Why consign more and more people to pointless drudgery? A better solution would be to break out of the mailroom paradigm altogether. Specifically, companies could consider the e-mail ACD paradigm.

Many people resist the idea of applying a technique from voice communications to e-mail communications. After all, voice is special. It’s real-time. E-mail isn’t. However, on another (more general) level, voice calls and e-mail are alike. Whether we place a call or post an e-mail, we’re sensitive to the treatment we receive. In the case of e-mail, a quick response reflects favorably on the company we’re dealing with. If a company takes a week or two to respond, we feel slighted.

If it is easy to alienate people by clinging to outdated e-mail distribution techniques; that’s all the more reason to explore alternatives. Let’s do better by e-mail. If we don’t, people won’t use it, even in those situations where e-mail is the most appropriate communications medium. (See the sidebar entitled When E-mail Is Appropriate.)

TEST GROUND FOR THE NEW E-MAIL PARADIGM: THE CALL CENTER
The call center, as a high-volume, high-stakes environment, has ample incentive to recognize helpful technologies, even if recognizing these technologies requires an imaginative leap. In the case of e-mail ACD, the imaginative leap involves accepting that a technique from real-time communications can be applied to e-mail, which would seem the antithesis of real-time communications.

Let’s take a look at the key reason for automatic call distribution in the call center: It improves customer service. Since better customer service can translate into repeat business, and hence, more income, corporations eagerly implement ACD in their call centers. Indeed, corporations often spend lavishly on their call centers, by upgrading the telephone equipment and the LAN, as well as putting CTI software on every desktop. This spending can amount to $3,000 per seat or more.

While many corporations embraced voice communications technology, spending handsome sums so their call centers can retrieve and answer phone calls efficiently and effectively, they frequently overlooked e-mail. No one anticipated the explosive growth of the Internet, or the ramifications that global e-mail would have on the corporate world. The call center wasn’t designed to handle the deluge of questions sent through e-mail by potential customers.

All that is starting to change, however. Corporations are starting to see the light. They’re starting to implement other means for customers to reach their call centers. We’ve all heard the hype about call centers implementing Web "call me back" buttons. Now, call centers are implementing e-mail routing software. Indeed, call centers seem prepared to further develop the parallel between call handling and e-mail, from straight e-mail ACD all the way to skills-based e-mail routing.

We all know that call centers have implemented ACDs to identify callers that are most likely to make the company the most money, and to route these callers to the most appropriate agents. Call centers go out of their way to make sure these callers get first-class treatment. So, it shouldn’t surprise us that call centers would target e-mail communications for improvement. Call centers wouldn’t invest so much in cultivating customer relationships if they were willing to ignore an important customer’s e-mail.

AVAILABILITY OF E-MAIL ROUTING SOFTWARE
Until recently, no one offered products capable of automating the tracking, monitoring, and reporting of e-mail requests and replies. But now that several vendors are releasing e-mail routing products, a range of products should be available. We list a few vendors and products below:

• Mustang Software — Internet Message Center.
• Lucent Technologies — Message Care (will be available mid-year).
• Kana Communications — Customer Messaging System.
• Aptex Software — SelectResponse.
• Brightware — Brightware 1.0 Inbound Marketing Agent.
• Distributed Bits — ResponseNow.
• ErgoTech — WebLeader E-Mailroom (a Windows NT-based solution).

On a side note, I can remember when Mustang Software introduced one of the best BBS (bulletin board system) software packages. That was about 10 years ago. Back then, about 50 percent of the BBSs I logged onto used the software, which became Mustang’s flagship product.

BBSs were a place where computer enthusiasts could post messages, play online games, chat, and download files. Many have stated, including myself, that BBSs were the precursor to the Internet. In any event, I must say that I am impressed that Mustang Software has taken their communications expertise in BBS software and applied it to the BBS replacement, namely the Internet, with their Internet e-mail routing software.

BACK TO BARTLEBY
While Bartleby now sleeps with kings and counselors, his spirit lives on, wherever people are called upon to perform repetitive, dispiriting tasks. Sad to say, many Webmasters are latter day Bartlebys, owing to their e-mail distribution responsibilities. But why should we care if Webmasters are bored? Well, many people now recognize that if anyone is bored at work, you may well have an opportunity to automate. And if you automate successfully, you can accomplish a given task more efficiently, and perhaps give a sensitive soul more engaging (and profitable) work to do. Certainly, automated e-mail routing stands to liberate Webmasters from a lot of pointless drudgery. Ah, Bartleby! Ah, industry!

Virtual PBX
StarVox, Inc.
With the introduction of its StarGate IVG (Integrated Voice Gateway), StarVox aims to provide corporate users a server capable of delivering a set of virtual PBX (VPBX) functions, as well as the benefits of transmitting voice and data over the network.

What is unique and exciting about this product is that it will utilize Internet telephony to transmit voice until the network reaches a critical saturation point.   In other words, if to much traffic is traveling across the network, or if latency has reached a certain threshold, the StarGate IVG will automatically call the other party over the PSTN and then connect the two parties.  This is all done transparently.   The tow parties will not even notice they have been switched from an Internet telephony phone call to a regular PSTN call.

The product's ability to fall back on the PSTN should make Internet telephony enormously attractive to the corporate world.  Another important feature is a browser-based applet for configuring the telephony, pager , and follow-me services.   Also, the product includes software that allows the mobile and telecommuting user to virtually logon to their "phone extension." This feature lets remote users receive and make phone calls using an H.323-compatible IP-phone, such as Microsoft NetMeeting.

High-Speed Data Access
Brooktrout Interspeed, Inc.
Traditionally, companies have either used dedicated leased line (56k or 64 k) or an expensive T1 connection (typical cost: $1,300 per month). Interpseed,  a Brooktrout Technology subsidiary, has just released their high-density DSL product line targeted toward ISPs and businesses looking to have increased interoffice connectivity through bigger pipes at a much lower overall cost.

Interspeeds' high-end model includes the following features:  a multi-gigabit high-speed backplane, 14 slots, dual active switch or redundant switch capabilities, single-pair HDSL, and levels 1,2, and 3 NEBS compliance.  Interspeed provides the complete solution including switching, routing, protocol, conversions, virtual private networks (VPNs), security, and network management from a single chassis.

With this system, your "power users" can remotely connect to the office using HDSL technology, which features over 1 megabit/sec throughput.  The system supports both 10BaseT and 100BasedT protocols over the DSL line to the remote nodes, and supports gigabit standards at the LEC (local exchange carrier). The system also supports the ATM protocol.

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E-mail is the medium of choice when there is no need to:

• Look up the phone number.
• Look for an alternative number, in the event of a service outage, area code change, or number change.
• Dial, wait for a ring/connect, or wait for an answer.
• Traverse an IVR/auto attendant
• Suffer being on hold. (Not only is being on hold frustraing, it can cost you a lot unless you can dial an 800 number)
• Engage in small talk.*

*In general, when you call a business contact with whom you've become familiar, you pratically feel obligated to strike up a brief conversation, just to avoid seeming rude.  You could all this the "I must talk to this person for a while so they don't think I dislike them" protocol.  While observing this protocol can be pleasant, it can also waste time—and money. Indeed, several studies have donfirmed that sending e-mail messages, as opposed to placing phone calls, can result in significant savings.

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creativity—Ability to establish connectionsbetween seemingly unrelated elements, therby generating fruitful analogies.

This definition of creativity is well illustrated in our e-mail ACD story. Whereas the definition refers to seemingly unrelated elements, our story juxtaposes ACD (a real-time voice communications technology) and e-mail (apparently the antithesis of real-time communications). Whereas the definition refers to establishing connections, our story mentions how people appreciate attention, regardless of whether they ask for it by phone or by e-mail. Whereas the definition refers to the generation of fruitful analogies, our story shows how customer service techniques, of th sort developed in the call center, can be applied to e-mail communications. Once this last paralled was developed, we were ready for the master stroke: e-mail ACD.

Of course, our definition of creativity doesn't manifest itself only in e-mail ACD. It suggests how we can generate all sorts of fruitful analogies. The key is to put ourselves in a space where we can establish connections, where we can draw out parallels between seeminlgy disparate elements. Imagine the power of such thing at a trade show, where so many personalities, products, technologies, and vendors are represented.

Well, that's what was on our mind when we decided to launch CTI EXPO™, our catalyst for creative connections.   AT CTI EXPO™, whcih will take place May 19-22 in Baltimore, MD, we will have all the elements in place:  a comprehensive conference program, learning centers on the exhibit floor, networking opportunities, and a wide assortment of vendor exhibits.

At CTI EXPO™, opportunities for creative connections will present themselves at several levels—between individuals, between companies, between technologioes, between industries. Thus, CTI EXPO™ is what convergence is all about. That is, by facilitating convergence, of computer techonology on the one hand, and of telecommunications technology on the other , CTI EXPO™ will yield results far greater than the sum of its individual parts.

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