Fortunately, there are also call center and contact center providers that have not shifted their focus and are dedicated to serving the enterprise premise-based contact center market with leading edge products and services.

One of the prominent premise-based contact center solutions providers in this category is Zeacom (News - Alert), which is known for its unified communications and contact center solutions that integrate real-time communication tools (contact routing, presence information, conferencing, speech recognition, chat and social media) with conventional tools (e-mail, fax and voice mail).

The driving principle behind its ZCC (Zeacom Communications Center) suite is that agents should have at their disposal the tools that give them the ability to optimize communications across all media. That kind of optimized communication happens, Zeacom believes, when the delivery of every contact, regardless of media type (web, phone, fax, chat, etc.), is handled with the highest, most appropriate level of care.

Its solution creates what equates to a “multimedia highway” that, among other things, blends inbound and outbound call handling and routes contacts to backup agents when peak periods dictate that calls have been waiting longer than the contact center deems conducive to providing high-level service.

This premise-based ZCC solution has a myriad of features that not only work to improve the enterprise’s bottom line, but also help agents provide better service – which by the way, reduces their personal stress levels, too. This includes screen-pop, which provides information about the caller (account and personal information, sales campaign to which they are responding, etc.) before the agent interacts with a contact, shaving minutes off of each call and reducing network usage (less time spent waiting in queue).

Of note, is that since the ZCC Multimedia Queuing gives agents the ability to view all queues on their screen, they can manage their own workload, take any needed actions and monitor what their colleagues are doing in case they need to instant message one of them or consult with one of them or forward a call better suited for their specific skill set. In addition, agents and customer care reps don’t have to switch to other applications to manage e-mail, web chat or SMS messages; the spectrum of functionality is sourced from a single platform.

Taking advantage of ZCC’s various routing functionalities also improves contact center operating efficiencies. For example, skills-based routing ensures customers are connected with the appropriate agent “expert” for their call; value-based routing connects customers who are considered “high-value” are to the most skilled agents; and callers can be routed to a “preferred” agent or the last agent with whom they interacted, which ensures smoother, less time-consuming transactions.     

Rolled together, all of this functionality saves agents time and frustration, keeps the customers happy and saves the enterprise money. Best of all – it’s all leading edge and premise-based.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.