Join us September 10-12 in Los Angeles and experience our invaluable
conference sessions yourself!
Track: Enterprise/Government (tp)
Benefits of an IP Enabled Contact Center (CC-01)
Monday - 09/10/07, 9:00-9:45am
Today’s call center is more than just how well you measure up on average time to answer, volume of calls an agent takes, etc… It’s about the whole of the customer experience – including providing the customer access to the right agent with the right skill set and making sure that agent has access to the necessary supporting skilled resources in the rest of the organization. IP technology enables you to cost effectively bring to bear — in one unified customer interaction center — the necessary skilled agents that may be dispersed across satellite offices. It empowers you with resource management options such as being able to offer perhaps a healthier, yet secure and managed work-at-home environment. It offers the ability to extend the reach of your core contact center staff back into the skills base in the rest of your organization with integrated presence, availability and collaboration. All this helps leverage skilled resources that can quickly and proficiently answer to your customer’s needs – bringing about a customer experience that is second to none.
Presented by:
Michael Gardner VP Engineering LiveOps, Inc.
Kevin McPartlan Vice President of Product Direction for Enterprise Products Intervoice Inc.
Moderator TBA
Moderator TBA
Edward Kus Senior Product Manager - Customer Interaction Solutions Mitel
The attractions for implementing VoIP-based call centers are many, not the least being tremendous cost savings to the organization running the call center. However, many believe VoIP quality is still not nearly as stable or dependable as traditional TDM-based offerings. Additionally, many incoming contact center calls begin on PSTN and jump to a VoIP network increasing the requirement to manage the end-to-end experience customers may by receiving at any time. Still the shift to IP-based contact center solutions is inexorable. This session will offer attendees a series of best practices and standards to leverage when delivering a superior quality of experience to your call center customers as you transition to VoIP.
Presented by:
Erik Linask (Moderator) Associate Editor TMC
Michael Freshwater Managing Consultant, Telephony Practice Astute Solutions
Brian A. Davidow Manager, Sales Support CosmoCom
Rajeev Kutty Product Manager Keynote Systems, Inc.
Over the next two years, it’s expected that 82 percent of contact centers will be running on IP telephony infrastructures. If you’re in the process of implementing, considering implementation, or want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your existing investment, how do you go about it?
This session will address the key features of IP technology, how it should be approached by businesses of all sizes, and the vast range of measurable benefits IP can generate in the contact center. The speakers will also address the added-value of the dynamic contact center and its capabilities that help companies manage fluctuating contact center variables and conditions, optimizes cost, quality and revenue goals.
Presented by:
Gustavo Garcia Director, Business Development Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories
Tim Passios Director of Product Solutions Interactive Intelligence
Thomas M. Chamberlain Director, Business Process Marketing Aspect Software
When companies calculate the acquisition costs and lifetime value of a customer, it quickly becomes clear that efforts to reduce churn and increase overall retention are key for maintaining consistent revenue from customers. Speech analytics has become an important tool in uncovering valuable business intelligence from customer service and support calls and identifying recurring customer issues before they become problems or potential revenue loss. The presentation will show how to calculate the quantifiable value of speech analytics, highlighting how some of the nation’s largest call centers have used the technology to reduce their churn, increase customer satisfaction leading to increased value from customers. Because understanding ROI of speech analytics is key to the decision process, the presentation will show attendees how they can calculate the value of speech analytics and realize a return on investment and long term revenue savings and cost reductions.
Presented by:
Cliff LaCoursiere SVP of Business Development & Co-Founder CallMiner
Mark W. Stallings Manager of Professional Services VoiceObjects
Although an overwhelming majority of large companies have invested significant sums of money into the customer service areas of their Web sites, the fact remains that most Web self-service solutions do not have the functionality and ease-of-use consumers require. As a result, most consumers become frustrated using these tools, and end up relying on already overburdened call center agents to resolve their problems.
This session will assist companies in understanding what customers hope to achieve when utilizing real-time self-service tools, and how a combination of Web site design, functionality, and user-friendly interfaces can play a part in help promote real-time self-service and problem resolution, thus enhancing customer service while reducing contact center congestion.
Presented by:
William J. (Duffy) Mich Chairman & CEO Aperio CI
Christina Nigro Product Marketing Manager Global IP Solutions
Proactive Support: A New Paradigm In Managing Customer Relationships (CC-06)
Monday - 09/10/07, 2:30-3:15pm
Consumer brand loyalty is declining across vertical industries such as healthcare, financial services and telecommunications. Accordingly, ensuring maximum customer satisfaction and effective management of customer relationships haven clearly become top organizations imperatives. One of today’s best-kept secrets is that service, support and maintenance revenues are the primary drivers of economic growth and customer relationship management. In fact, in enterprise software, it accounts for 70% of total corporate revenue growth and 60% of Earnings per Share (EPS). At the same time, however, they are looking to reduce the cost of support, which accounts for almost 50% of a company’s IT budget (on average). In addition, to meet the support needs of their clients without increasing the latter’s expenses, support providers are turning to automation technologies that enable such capabilities as proactive identification and resolution of problems, remote access systems and delivery of fixes.
In this presentation, the speakers will address leveraging a proactive support solution, in order to increase customer service levels, reduce SLA penalty payments, significantly reduce the number of customer complaint and support calls received, and service customer needs with a much higher response time.
Presented by:
Serge Forest CEO Paraxip Technologies
Robert L. Jones Vice President, Mass Markets Sales Support Operations Qwest
Sherry Harmon CEO NextNine Inc.
Erik Linask (Moderator) Associate Editor TMC
Mark Scott President and Founder The Utility Company
With the emergence of wireless conversational video phones, the long-awaited video call center is poised to take off in a big way. What video applications have early momentum in North America? How do you get your video enabled IVR, call center or portal tied into the North American cellular network? And what does the shift from traditional voice-based call centers to multimedia call centers mean in terms of an expanded customer experience and a new set of challenges to the enterprise and service provider? Come to this session and find out what the buzz is all about when it comes to Video in the call center.
Presented by:
Erik Linask (Moderator) Associate Editor TMC
Michael Remacle Sr. Director Segment Management Level 3 Communications
Call recording systems have become an essential component for managing call center performance. VoIP offers many benefits to the call center, however, it is crucial that the same high standards we have grown accustomed to when recording calls in a traditional telephony environment be maintained in the VoIP environment.
This session is designed to provide call center managers, operational personnel and decision makers with the level of understanding needed to ensure appropriate call recording capabilities are take into account during a VoIP migration or conversion. Among the critical issues to be discussed are:
• The differences between recording in traditional and VoIP telephony environments
• The pros and cons of ‘passive’ versus ‘active’ VoIP recording methods
• Aligning the choice of VoIP recording architecture with business needs
• Specifics of recording in leading VoIP vendor environments
Presented by:
Tom Milligan VP of inContact Operations UCN
Russell Shaw (Moderator) IP Telephony Blogger ZDNet
Brian Spraetz Senior Solutions Consultant NICE Systems
There are many misunderstandings surrounding VoIP and its deployment and daily use within the contact center. Come here the real story on VoIP in the contact center — the successes you can achieve and the common pitfalls to avoid.
Beyond Boundaries: Exploring the Virtual Call Center (CC-10)
Tuesday - 09/11/07, 2:30-3:15pm
A virtual contact center can help your business break down boundaries to offer exceptional versatility in building an agile business infrastructure that allows your company to employ and retain highly skilled individuals wherever they are, quickly respond to dynamic market conditions and lower operating costs through a converged architecture. Understand how you can build a virtual contact center that meets your specific business requirements to eliminate walls and geographic limitations. Your customers will receive enhanced service because their requests are handled more promptly and directly by the most appropriate available person. And, your representatives and managers gain more variety and flexibility in their work environments leading to higher morale and lower turnover. Come to this session and learn all about the virtual call center.
Presented by:
Greg Pisano Director of Market Development BlueNote Networks
Paul Lutz Multimedia Applications - Product Marketing Nortel
Leveraging Hosted PBX Services in the Contact Center (CC-11)
Tuesday - 09/11/07, 3:30-4:15pm
As small to medium sized businesses continue to adopted hosted IP PBX services, challenges still remain in the area of feature equivalency with traditional premise based solutions. This feature equivalency challenge introduces a barrier to market adoption and potentially increases customer churn and creates satisfaction issues. One area of specific concern is the ability for the hosted PBX to support the needs of small call centers. Businesses require call center functions (ACD queues and overflow facilities) that are well integrated with traditional IP PBX functions (find-me/follow-me, remote office). The call center functions of IP PBXs are limited. Applications such as recording, auto-dialing, web-based monitoring, and call center statistics are lacking. In this session, we will explore not only methodologies to resolve this equivalency challenge but also investigate mechanisms to truly enhance the hosted experience with integration with complimentary third party hosted services, such as hosted CRM, automatic dialers, and follow the sun customer service facilities.
Presented by:
Bill Miller COO CTI Group
Mike Ross President & CEO Acredo Technologies, Inc.
The call center today is a very different entity than it was in years past. Traditionally, needs were adjusted to fit with the physical call center’s rigid structure — size and physical location restrictions meant business was conducted in one way and one way only. Today, call centers are being built to easily alter to not only meet, but anticipate, organizations’ needs. Via call center solutions capabilities being delivered via software-as-a-service, companies with flexible contact center needs can scale up and down as needed, can locate resources anywhere in the world but conduct contact center business as a unified whole, can add capabilities and capacity in minutes, and can even design and customize their own solutions according to their very unique methods and needs. Not only can companies with flexible contact center requirements build their perfect call centers via software-as-a-service, they can do it with little or no upfront capital expenditures. Come learn how software-as-a-service for the call center benefits customer service organizations of all sizes: from large enterprises down to just a few agents.
Presented by:
Mike Zirngibl President and CEO Angel.com
Sherry Harmon CEO NextNine Inc.
Russ Maney VP of Marketing Smoothstone
Mansour Salame President and Chief Executive Officer Contactual, Inc.
Prem Uppaluru President & CEO (Co-Founder) Transera Communications, Inc.
Tom Keating (Moderator) VP of TMC/CTO/Executive Technology Editor TMC
Come hear several industry leaders explain and debate the relative merits of their IP Contact Center solutions. Fashioned after ITEXPO’s successful long-running IP PBX Shootout, this double session promises to be a lively, engaging session where industry leaders candidly discuss their products and their competition. This unique opportunity enables you to get live information directly from the “horses’ mouths” as you will be given a the chance to ask the panel your own insightful questions. Truly a can’t-miss session.
Presented by:
Tom Keating (Moderator) VP of TMC/CTO/Executive Technology Editor TMC
Thomas M. Chamberlain Director, Business Process Marketing Aspect Software
Do Advancements in Mobile CRM Make the Laptop Obsolete? (CC-14)
Wednesday - 09/12/07, 10:15-11:00am
Imagine a world where field-based employees are given a wireless device instead of a laptop computer. That day may be closer than you think. These employees will still need the same easy access to their CRM system from their mobile device, as they enjoyed from their laptop computers. How then will field-based staff adjust to a new way of accessing their customer information? For these employees, the rate at which they adopt CRM software technologies will depend on the experience they have using it with their device. In other words, the mobile device will impact their adoption rate of the CRM solution. In this session, we will explore the business impact that advancements in mobile technologies have had on how end users adopt CRM solutions. In addition, learn how the employee adoption rate of a CRM solution can affect an SMB’s top business objectives – namely to increase revenue, sales effectiveness, market share and ultimately create a better customer experience.
Presented by:
William Anderson Executive Vice President, Technology Maximizer Software Inc.
Customer Analytics: Strategies for Success (CC-15)
Wednesday - 09/12/07, 12:45-1:30pm
Companies gather customer data from a range of touchpoints, including purchase history, Web browsing, customer support records, and of course the call center. Yet effectively analyzing this data in ways that can improve future customer interactions is the key. What is best call center strategy for a given customer, in light of his or her preferences, behaviors, purchases, and online activity? What product package should be offered, and how should it be presented? Most importantly, how does this customer data fit into — and inform on a continuing, dynamic basis — the company’s overall marketing program?
This presentation will discuss the very latest strategies, techniques, and technologies for analyzing customer data and how companies use it to drive new levels of call center success. We will look at how customer analytics and enterprise marketing management can complement existing customer relationship management practices to deliver more personal and compelling offers throughout the customer lifecycle and across all customer touchpoints.
Presented by:
John Keyes Director of Product Management SoundBite Communications
Jay Henderson Director - Segment Management Unica Corporation
This presentation will go over the effects of using open source VoIP technologies in the contact center, including the reduction in overall costs and dependence on outside firms as well as the increase in control and customization with existing internal systems.
Topics covered will include a comparison of open source and proprietary options at several levels from agent telephones and computers to servers and telephony systems. Also, several real-world examples of how enterprise-level contact centers are using open source to varying degrees to improve their business.
Presented by:
Tara Spalding Vice President Corporate Marketing SugarCRM
Care 2.0 is about optimizing interactions in an emerging and even staggeringly different “care” environment. Yesterday’s standards in serving a company’s “customers” are quickly being eclipsed by the demands of a population of consumers, partners and employees who are increasingly influenced by communities, who are increasingly mobile, and who are seeking goods and services in an environment where the time between innovation and commoditization is ever shorter. Retaining, satisfying and efficiently servicing “customers” in the era of Care 2.0 requires new capabilities to support, communicate with and understand “customers.” This presentation will address what is needed to realize Care 2.0 success.
Presented by:
Mike Roy VP of Client Development & Solutions StarTek
Lynda Kate Smith Vice president and general manager, Care Business Unit Nuance Communications
As enterprises increasingly consider VoIP it becomes apparent that among the considerations they need to be aware of is preparing their network to carry converged voice and data traffic. The speakers will educate the audience on why and how to do a network assessment. Subjects covered will include:
• Common misconceptions about voice quality
• Types of problems that lurk in the network
• The practical steps involved in performing a preliminary network assessment before VoIP is installed
• How to perform a post-installation assessment
• How to verify that VoIP is working effectively over the data network
• The value of the network assessment — and risks of not doing it; and more.
Presented by:
Phil Edholm Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Network Architecture Nortel Networks, Enterprise Networks
Sanjay Kalra Director of Product Management Juniper Networks
David Fridley Senior Product Manager, IP Telephony Solutions Toshiba Telecommunication Systems Division
Establishing a plan to transition voice communications to the data network is a complex process with many uncertainties. Without the right information, IT directors are forced to make poorly informed decisions that can directly affect the future of corporate communications. This session is all about making the transition to VoIP, from analyzing and preparing the network to providing a bridge between the VoIP equipment and legacy TDM equipment, to considering hybrid TDM/IP solutions on the way to a full VoIP deployment.
Presented by:
Erik Linask (Moderator) Associate Editor TMC
Tim Moynihan Vice President, Global Marketing and Sales Support Envox Worldwide
Decisions Decisions… Hosted Versus Premise based VoIP Deployment (E-03)
Wednesday - 09/12/07, 10:15-11:00am
Every enterprise that has already chosen to deploy VoIP still has another decision to make. “Should we bring the solution in-house and manage it on premises, or should we opt for a hosted solution?” Both options offer certain benefits and certain drawbacks in terms of cost, management, flexibility, and so on. If you’re already sold on the benefits of moving your phone system to IP, but you still have questions over how to deploy, then this session is right for you. Don’t miss out!
