OUTSOURCING OF CALL CENTER AND CRM FUNCTIONS
Using E-learning To Educate Call Center Agents
By Arjun Raman, eWebUniversity
E-learning helps companies extend the breadth of training subjects that can be offered to employees, as the old-fashioned classroom method of training was by its very nature limiting in terms of time and space. The improvements inherent in e-learning are due to the economies of scale gained by offering training modules over the Internet and the lower prices of self-paced and instructor-led content that are offered by e-learning.

CIAC Certification: A Benchmark For Performance Excellence In Call Center Management (Sidebar)
By Fredia Barry, Call Center Industry Advisory Council
The Call Center Industry Advisory Council (CIAC) is an industry-elected group of call center practitioners, educators, consultants, vendors and media representatives that worked with the industry to identify the knowledge, skills and behaviors (competencies) required for professionals in strategic and operational call center management roles to perform their jobs at a superior level of performance.

CALL CENTER/CRM MANAGEMENT SCOPE
Plagued By Scheduling Woes? Boost The Accuracy Of Call Volume Predictions
By Bob Webb, Pipkins Inc.
The usefulness of the staff schedule created by workforce management software will rise or fall on the reliability of the predictions it makes about the expected volume of incoming work. Without the right assumptions about the workload to be handled, the softwares ability to accurately calculate staffing needs is doomed.

E-SALES -- E-SERVICE.COM
Ask For Permission And Keep Your Customers
By Duane Lyons and Web Fletcher, Braun Consulting
On its surface, permission-based marketing does appear simple. Its marketing to those customers who have given consent to be marketed to, either online, offline or both. Its about contacting individuals with targeted offers or messages in an agreed-upon format at agreed-upon intervals. Beneath that veneer of ease, however, it can also be quite tricky, because permission marketing requires a two-way, give-and-take relationship which can end abruptly.

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TMC LABS
For your monthly TMC Labs fix, we offer the results of test-runs on offerings from Salesforce.com and LumenVox.

COMMUNICATIONS SOLUTIONS
CIM Delivers On The Promise Of Unified Messaging
By Melissa Prusher, TOPCALL Corporation
While many analysts say unified messaging isnt at the top of most users shrinking shopping list, businesses are still looking to technology to enhance their customer relations, maximize productivity and reap the promises of convergence.

HOW TO BUY PRODUCTS & SERVICES
A Collection Of Headsets
To aid you in the purchase of the most basic but very necessary item in your call center the humble headset the editors of Customer Inter@ction Solutions have compiled a comprehensive list of companies that manufacture and resell headsets and headset products.

Ten Talking Points For Headset
Purchasing (Sidebar)
By Plantronics