E-SALES -- E-SERVICE.COM
Decentering The Contact Center
By Erik Lounsbury, Editorial Director, Customer [email protected] Solutions
The author recounts his discussion with Cisco Systems Inc.'s Brett Shockley about trends in the contact center.

Dialog Marketing Elevates E-mail Effectiveness
By Janet Logan, Revenio, Inc.
The golden goose of e-mail marketing could look more like a dead duck if things don't change rapidly. Overuse and improper use of e-mail are causing response rates to fall, and today's e-mail marketing risks sliding down a slippery slope.

Put Your Customers'Questions To Work
By Claudio Pinkus, Jeeves Solutions, A Division Of Ask Jeeves, Inc.
As companies have been investing money in CRM, many have overlooked the value that can be derived from analyzing the incoming question stream to gain actionable insight that can improve overall business practices.

OUTSOURCING
Losing Customer Care Business To A Manufacturer?
By Mike Rowland, Pack Fancher and Bryan Johnson, Matrix Capital Markets Group
The emergence of global, diversified outsourcing companies and their entry into the customer contact marketplace could have far-reaching implications for traditional CRM and teleservices firms, not the least of which is an entirely new competitive dynamic.

INNOVATIVE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
Still Leaving It To Fate? Optimizing Workforce Management
By William Durr Jr. and Ofer Matan, Blue Pumpkin Software
The contact center industry has used the term 'workforce management' to describe systems that enable people to deal effectively with the complexities of demand forecasting and staff scheduling. While these systems can increase efficiency dramatically, they are only one part of a more comprehensive solution that increases the productivity and performance of customer-facing employees.

Out With The New, In With The Old: A Look At Scheduling Alternatives
By Brian Spraetz, IEX Corporation
Modern schedule bidding systems replace the use of paper-based forms and reports with electronic versions, speeding up the bidding process, reducing the potential for human error and making it all more convenient for supervisors as well as agents.

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RE: LOCATIONS
Busting Site Selection Paradigms
By Kathie Lehner For Economic Development For New Mexico
Site selection experts can tell you the demographics needed to place a new grocery store in the neighborhood or whether the traffic passing the gas station meets minimum traffic requirements, but what happens in call center site selection when the same old formulas are used by consultants nationally?