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The Boardroom Report with Nadji Tehrani
"The Boardroom Report" provides the CRM, customer interaction and call center industry's view from the top, featuring the sector's first in-depth, exclusive CEO-to-CEO interviews with leading executives regarding industry news, analysis, trends and the latest developments at their companies. As the industry's leading publication since 1982, it is our responsibility to recognize leaders with the best minds in the industry and share their vision and wisdom with our valued readers. Technology Marketing Corp. founder/chairman/CEO Nadji Tehrani will interview the CEOs and Customer Inter@ction Solutions executive editor Glenn J. Kalinoski will edit the interviews.

Michael Mitchell, president and co-founder of SCS , was interviewed for this installment of "The Boardroom Report."
Michael Mitchell - SCS
Michael Mitchell
Mitchell: VoIP Is Ready for Prime Time in Contact/CRM Centers

Solution Provides Access to Hosted Environments

Michael Mitchell is clearly very excited about VoIP.

"Up until very recently [VoIP] was something talked about, but not ready for prime time," Mitchell said. "VoIP has now become ready for prime time."

The president and co-founder of SCS then mentioned Intel's HMP product, which his company beta tested.

"We have taken HMP [Host Media Processing] and VoIP and taken it to the next level. We are confident that this is a solution that is very viable [and] is ready for prime time today. We have it installed in many locations. It allows for us to very easily get into the hosted environment. Because of HMP and because of VoIP you can adjust … the number of licenses, what is required for a call center. There's no more hardware that needs to be added or replaced. It's just a matter of calling in, connecting to their system and adding or removing licenses as they see fit."

"We [offer] a … blended solution, providing … agents the opportunity to be productive regardless of whether or not there are incoming calls coming in for them."

ASD Softswitch Combines Multiple Functions

SCS is a call center solution provider that produces ASD Softswitch. It is a telephony hardware alternative merging artificial intelligence, digital recording, IVR and call monitoring with inbound/outbound/blended telecommunications.

"We [offer] a … blended solution, providing … agents the opportunity to be productive regardless of whether or not there are incoming calls coming in for them." Mitchell was asked about concerns regarding VoIP's reliability and quality.

"We make sure that our customers are aware of the fact that you have to manage bandwidth, but as long as you manage bandwidth, you can use VoIP very reliably. And it provides for a much more economical way for you to get into hosted solutions [and] at-home agents. It opens up all kinds of opportunities."

Innovative Tools to Manage Home Agents

When asked about what the company expects to announce in the not-to-distant future, Mitchell said the company is "coming out right now with some innovative tools" designed to help companies solve the problem of managing home agents. He wants to make that a target market during the next 12 months.

"We have some customers that are using at-home agents [and] they're very happy with it. We're providing tools so that the management can monitor what the agent is doing, not only from a listening and quality control standpoint, but we're providing matrixes, so that we can, in real time, be notified when an agent isn’t making the appropriate contacts per hour, or the appropriate sales per hour or that they're not making the appropriate penetration."

A benefit that he mentioned was having multiple offices and locations supporting one campaign.

"We have some customers that are using at-home agents [and] they're very happy with it."Alternatives to Offshoring

Offshoring was another topic discussed.

"The reason that people went offshore, to India and the Dominican Republic and other places, was for cost savings. There are other ways [to] achieve cost savings without having to do that and still provide quality of service that’s far superior [compared to] what they're receiving offshore."

He then returned to the topic of at-home agents.

"They can benefit from a lot of the cost savings. It won't be equal to it, but it will be significant enough to justify it. And where it is not equal, they're making up for it in quality of service that they would be providing."

Viable Alternatives in North America

He also described as "very successful" the nearshore option, including Canada and Mexico.

"[It's] not providing the same cost savings, but it is providing a cost savings." He described the two solutions, nearshore and at-home agents, as being "much more palatable to our customers and their customers.

"You can stay here in the States and really pretty much get your cost savings by just doing business differently."

SCS began operating in 1987. The Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based company has 15 employees.

Lost Customers Not an Issue

Mitchell has a statistic that would make any chief executive envious.

"[We have] about 40 customers right now and we have never lost a customer yet. Nine years ago we got exclusively into the telemarketing arena and developed three products. Only in the last three-and-a-half to four years have we started to aggressively … market our product."

"[We have] about 40 customers right now and we have never lost a customer yet."

When asked about the firm's growth curve, he said it has improved significantly in recent years. It had only about 10 clients four years ago.

"It’s a result of starting to market."

50 Percent Growth

Mitchell also said his company is experiencing about 50 percent growth between 2004 and this year. He is looking for 100 percent growth in a comparison between 2005 and 2006 regarding revenue.<

When asked about the company's growth strategy, he listed marketing, branding, telemarketing and direct mail as being part of the effort.

An upfront approach regarding cost was another advantage he discussed.

"We have always …. [been] very upfront about what the cost of our product is and what you get for that cost. We sell our product as a suite, one price for all. We do not have, 'if you want to add this or you want to add that, you have to pay

"We have always …. [been] very upfront about what the cost of our product is and what you get for that cost."additional fees.' If you were to go to a convention … we would be the only ones on the sales floor that could tell you, 'your price is going to be X.' I think everybody else would say, 'well, we need to go back and re-engineer it and talk to our people and this and that and everything else before we can give you a price.' We're not trying to sell used cars!"

For more information about SCS, see www.strategicinc.com.

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