Call Recording Featured Article

“Workforce Optimization” is something that generally everyone in the business world agrees is a good thing. How to go about implementing it successfully, however, is something else altogether. That’s why it takes a company like Coordinated Systems Inc., and its Virtual Observer call recording and workforce optimization solution, to help make the job easier.

We were fortunate enough to catch up with Rich Marcia, CSI’s Marketing Director, at the recent ITEXPO (News - Alert) held in Ft. Lauderdale. He shared his take on the industry today, based on CSI’s mission statement: "Building agile solutions which create powerful customer experiences at a high value to price throughout our customer and partner ecosystems.”

TMCnet: What’s the news about CSI (News - Alert) and Microsoft Skype for Business?

Rich Marcia: We're excited to announce we've entered into a strategic alliance which brings workforce optimization (WFO) to the Skype (News - Alert) for Business contact center market. We've integrated our Virtual Observer WFO suite with the best-of-breed contact center applications of Clarity Connect. This allows us to deliver a complete and robust overall contact center solution to new and existing customers with full WFO functionality. CSI shares strong “customer experience” priorities with Clarity Connect, creating a powerful force in the Skype for Business Contact Center landscape.

TMC (News - Alert): How else is CSI advancing the WFO concept?

RM: We’re adding innovative enhancements to our Workforce Optimization suite such as our webcam recording and monitoring, the first WFO vendor to offer such a groundbreaking feature. In this age of smartphone abuse, crisis management and fraud, it can have a huge impact. As far as other ideas go, we get some great feedback from customers during our annual customer interviews, and it helps to fuel the roadmap.

TMC: How do you see analytics impacting the WFO arena?

RM: I think we'll all agree the analytics and workforce management markets are stronger than ever. 2016 may be a record year for the WFO space, and the larger enterprises are starting to realize they can flatten their cost of ownership by considering agile solutions like Virtual Observer. Also, speech analytics has really taken hold and seems to top everyone's wish list. It's a great time saver, and being able to search backwards in time for critical calls has been of incredible use for some centers. It's cool seeing this feature bleed over to marketing departments, where trends in product citing and interest can be visually identified. For financial markets, it’s essential to verify key phrases.

TMC: What’s coming up next for Workforce Optimization where CSI will make an impact?

RM: In terms of interest, Google (News - Alert) Trends shows "Omni-channel" searches to be overtaking "Multi-channel" in terms of buzz-worthiness. This translates to the WFO marketplace making adjustments to give equal time to chats, email, SMS and social, just as they have always done for calls. Also, I think video interactions will also emerge as a fun trend in the contact center. Lastly, many enterprises will be looking to make a move toward SIPREC recording to simplify, scale and also flatten costs.

TMC: It’s been a tough marketplace for everyone in recent years. How has CSI weathered the storm?

RM: We were able to overcome a growing number of competitors in the WFO space in the last few years. We've been able to differentiate ourselves with innovative features such as webcam recording and monitoring, and an incredibly robust amount of included features in our suite which helps translate to a lower cost of ownership. It's also been important to maintain high levels of customer support, especially as today's B2B customers expect better, faster, smarter service levels. We've built an incredible customer experience.