Rockwell is a name that has been associated with call
centers going back to 1973, when it developed the first ACD, and it has been
working on innovations ever since, such as the first implementation of CTI
in 1983, the first direct digital connection for a client in 1985, the
introduction of Web callback services in 1995 and the introduction of an
open-standards-based contact management platform in 1997. In February,
Rockwell Automation Inc. announced it has changed the name of its
subsidiary, Rockwell Electronic Commerce Corp., to Rockwell FirstPoint
Contact Corp., and that Rockwell FirstPoint Contact's first release is
FirstPoint Enterprise 2002, an interaction infrastructure designed to
support multiple contact channels while tying together business and customer
data.
Integration has been a major stumbling block to successfully
implementing CRM programs, and FirstPoint Contact aims to alleviate the
problems of combining diverse IT and telephony infrastructures required by
CRM initiatives by allowing IT and contact center administrators to adopt
and integrate the technologies and applications they need to meet business
requirements while adding functional, operational and integration
intelligence.
FirstPoint Enterprise 2002's open interaction
infrastructure provides a single entity view, extending FirstPoint
Enterprise 2002's contact center data environment model to third-party
platforms. So, irrespective of the device it came from, FirstPoint
Enterprise 2002 facilitates the flow of customer data from the enterprise to
the point of contact.
Integration intelligence unifies data from disparate
business systems, consolidates it and uses it to contribute to routing
decisions. Data generated by the contact itself and/or applications used to
service it become a common resource available to create consolidated
reports. Data from billing or other transactions can be delivered to the
point of contact to facilitate customer interactions. Through centralized
management and consolidated reporting, managers can use FirstPoint
Enterprise 2002's operational intelligence to decipher important trends
and business metrics that were previously unobtainable as they were locked
in corporate data. FirstPoint Enterprise 2002 also provides a predictive
simulation tool that can be used to work out strategic scenario simulations
to identify potential problems or opportunities.
Rockwell FirstPoint also offers a series of enhancements
including Virtual Contact Center, Outbound Contact, Service Provider, VoIP
Branch Office and Connectors for IVR.
As Siebel has been building CRM software for nearly a
decade, one would expect they have observed trends in CRM over that time.
According to Matt Malden, senior director of product marketing for Siebel's
Call Center Web Services products, they have seen a 'trend in
consolidation of information and consistency of information across all
channels.' Drawing on its vast customer base, Siebel worked with more than
70 data customers on the Web/client application, the Siebel Smart Web
Client, which in Siebel 7 uses Dynamic HTML (a combination of HTML,
JavaScript and Document Object Model [DOM]). The DOM allows individual
elements on an HTML page to be programmatically manipulated without
refreshing the entire page from the server, thus speeding up the rate at
which information is delivered to the user, helping to alleviate what Malden
called 'the challenge to keep CRSs productive,' and also reducing the
amount of bandwidth needed for each transaction.
The Siebel Smart Web Client also provides the ability to
drag-and-drop elements on the page, to select rows and fields within an
element, to selectively update portions of the page based on data changes,
to have smart controls that support auto-complete, and to automatically save
information.
Siebel Call Center 7 includes service capabilities for
service request management, problem resolution, quality management and
contract management. Sales capabilities include opportunity and pipeline
management, campaign management, account management, contact management,
order entry, time management, marketing collateral, product configuration,
quote generation, proposals and presentations, and sales forecasting. Among
the management tools included are Siebel Smart Reports and the Siebel
Executive Information System, Siebel Data Quality and Siebel Service
Analysis, which provide means to measure and analyze performance. Siebel
Remote provides tools for the exchange and synchronization of data for
remote workers through laptops, PDAs and other mobile devices.
Also included with Siebel Call Center 7 are CTI integration,
e-mail response management integration, VoIP, Web browser and application
sharing, fax and paging integration, global support (Siebel 7 ships in 20
languages), and universal queuing. The Persistent Agent Dashboard keeps key
customer information in front of the agent throughout a transaction and a
consolidated search center allows agents to search for information no matter
where it resides in the system.
Another company with a long history in telecommunications
that is expanding the boundaries of IP communications and the contact center
environment is Siemens, which, through its enterprise network division, has
released more than a dozen new products in its HiPath line. HiPath provides
communications platforms, telephones and applications options that range
from circuit-switched to packet-switched to a mixture of circuit- and
packet-switched. The HiPath line is designed to help companies move to the
next generation of contact center solutions, allowing companies to choose
circuit-switched solutions but maintain an upgrade path to an IP-switched
environment.
The HiPath 3000 line of IP communication platforms is
designed for small to medium-sized enterprises, but when used with the
HiPath AllServe networking solution, can scale to 1,000 users. It supports
circuit-switched, packet-switched or mixed system configurations and all
Siemens optiset E and optiPoint telephones.
The HiPath 4000 line is designed for large enterprises and
scales to 100,000 users. The HiPath 4000 line also supports
circuit-switched, packet-switched or mixed system configurations and all
Siemens optiset E and optiPoint telephones. The 4000 line also provides
Web-based centralized system management and capitalizes on open interfaces
and industry standards. Both the 3000 and 4000 series provide an integrated
IP gateway for IP networking and deployment of IP workpoints and clients.
Their IP distributed architecture uses CorNet IP multisite networking to
connect multiple locations over the IP network.
The HiPath 5000 is a native IP enterprise softswitch that
provides multimedia communication capabilities that support applications
such as the HiPath Xpressions unified messaging product (which has been
enhanced to support integration with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes) and
the HiPath ProCenter suites. It allows internetworking with PBXs and IP
convergence platforms through H.323, H.450, Qsig, CorNet and, shortly, SIP.
The HiPath ProCenter suites have been enhanced to provide
R'sum'Routing call distribution to contact centers of all sizes, as well
as provide multisite routing, mobile CRM features and a consistent user
interface.
Siemens is also introducing the optiPoint 500 and optiPoint
400 families of telephones. The optiPoint 500 family offers additional
functions via snap-in modules and enable easy integration with peripherals
and applications via a built-in TAPI interface and dual USB ports. OptiPoint
500 features include the OptiGuide context-sensitive user interface,
full-duplex speakerphones and standard USB connection to simplify TAPI
development, as well as module options that include an optiPoint IP adapter,
signature module (card read/write unit), key module, acoustic adapter, phone
adapter, analog adapter and ISDN adapter. The optiPoint 400 family supports
multiple protocols, including H.323, H.450 and SIP, and CorNet IP TS, and
provides a full-duplex speakerphone, integrated 10/100 Ethernet switch, 2x24
LCD display, optiGuide menu navigation and the ability to download software
upgrades and protocol changes.
E-commerce has certainly been a boon to the way business is
conducted, but it has also led to a vast proliferation of customer data
collected from around an enterprise, but which has been essentially locked
up to all but a few. Oracle's E-Business Suite is aiming to put an end to
this unobtainable information in that it is built upon Oracle Information
Architecture, which is an open, standards-based architecture that
consolidates data from Oracle and non-Oracle applications, which allows the
consistent definition of customers, suppliers, partners and employees, no
matter where in the enterprise the data resides. This gives all E-Business
Suite applications access to a single, unified database, and allows access
through any device, anywhere in the world.
Oracle recently introduced a new application of the
E-Business Suite, Oracle Customers Online. Oracle Customers Online is
designed to enhance the gathering, cleansing and enhancing of customer data,
no matter where in the enterprise it entered the system. Oracle Customers
Online provides a configurable tool to import and load customer data from
legacy systems and other third-party applications, as well as tools to
identify and merge duplicate records and prevent the creation of further
duplicates. Oracle Customers Online can also integrate with third-party data
providers, compare that data with existing customer records, and amend or
enhance records in real-time without leaving the Oracle Customers Online
application.
Oracle also recently added the Oracle Partners Online
application, which is designed to give companies a portal through which they
can offer their partners sales opportunities, sales and technical content,
and support. Companies can define criteria for qualifying, rating, channel
selection and opportunity matching, allowing them to pass opportunities to
the proper sales channel or partner, manage and track joint marketing funds
and budgets, as well as giving partners added visibility.
Also new to Oracle is the Daily Business Close, which
capitalizes on the Oracle E-Business Suite's information architecture to
provide consolidated, up-to-date business information such as daily sales,
satisfaction, monitoring, etc. According to Lisa Arthur, vice president of
CRM Product Marketing Strategy at Oracle, the Daily Business Close 'tells
you everything you need to know about your leads, sales, inventory and
revenue,' all summarized and available when it is needed.
With multichannel integration of contact center systems,
enormous quantities of data are flowing into enterprise databases at amazing
speed, yet the problem remains that it often takes someone with a PhD. in
statistical mathematics to turn that data into meaningful information that
can be acted upon by the enterprise. According to Marcel Holsheimer, founder
and president of DataDistilleries, in the current economic climate, 'companies
now want to see short-term results, not long-term, for CRM,' and that 'knowing
when and what to offer customers is one of the main goals of CRM.' To help
provide companies with information they can act upon is the goal of
Holsheimer's company, DataDistilleries, which recently released version
3.0 of its real-time predictive analysis product, DD Series.
DD Series 3.0 ships with APIs for Siebel 7, provides SDKs
for multichannel integration and, according to Holsheimer, can connect to
any CRM package. DD Series 3.0 is designed to provide users with a unified
view of each customer across all channels, identify high-risk and
potentially fraudulent customers, and predict the most relevant and
profitable offer to be presented to customers during relevant interactions.
Through multichannel and back-end integration layers, the
Unified Customer View gives a consistent view of each customer based on data
combined from all enterprise data sources. This view supports bulk access,
high-performance, real-time access, and the deployment of analytical models
in a real-time environment.
Real-time customer assessment enables companies to detect
potential fraud or credit risk, and automatically block offers to these
customers. DD Series 3.0 bases its assessment on external credit data (if
available), historical customer data and the current customer situation. The
Advanced Offer Qualification provides credit scoring integrated into the
marketing process, allowing companies to take advantage of existing systems
to better identify and target profitable customers, as well as avoid
high-risk customers.
The system can dynamically prioritize different objectives,
such as cross-selling and customer retention. Value-Based Interaction
Optimization enables companies to get the most value from each customer
interaction and provide targeted and personalized service to minimize
customer churn.