Contact Center Performance Optimization Offered

Dan Boehm knows that his company, Spectrum Corp. of Houston, has long been viewed as a wallboard provider.

"We've been known for that for many years," Boehm said. "But we also provide real-time software solutions that collect data … and push that information out to plasma screens, desktops, HTML pages, wireless technology and a lot more. Our products enable a contact center to optimize the performance of its employees. This is one of the areas that we struggle with the most—trying to get our customers to understand that we are so much more than wallboards, and for them to understand that you can do so much more to optimize the performance of your contact center by doing just a little bit more."

"We provide real-time software solutions that collect data … and push that information out to plasma screens, desktops, HTML pages, wireless technology and a lot more. Our products enable a contact center to optimize the performance of its employees."

Products Added to ACD Packages

Boehm added that, during the past six or seven years, some of the products the company has offered feature real-time information and have been added to ACD packages from different companies as an add-on.

"People have started to understand the value of getting real-time information out to the agents and the managers.

"However, they're stopping short, and that's where we come in. Contact centers are not just about the ACD stats, which [are] the calls waiting and the oldest call waiting and the service level. That’s not what it's all about. It's part of it, certainly. But contact centers today are answering e-mails [and] taking inbound and making outbound calls as part of a campaign. They have internal and external help desks. They have workforce schedules that they have to adhere to."

"Contact centers are not just about the ACD stats, which [are] the calls waiting and the oldest call waiting and the service level. That’s not what it's all about. It's part of it, certainly. But contact centers today are answering e-mails [and] taking inbound and making outbound calls as part of a campaign."

He said Spectrum offers value when a customer requires blended or converged information from across multiple platforms, including IVR, ACD, workforce management, predictive dialer or CRM.

"We can collect that information [and] give a customer an enterprise view of what's going on," Boehm said. "In a contact center, you want to know how many calls are waiting, but you also want to know, as part of your predictive dialing campaign, how many calls you've made. Or you want to know that you’ve got trouble tickets that have been open and have remained open. Or as a manager, I look at an agent and I see that agent has only answered 10 calls today. But I dig into that and I find out … they've also done 25 e-mails."

Offering Enterprise Information Key to Contact Center Evolution

When characterizing the evolution of the contact center during the past six to eight years, he said the key development has been providing complete enterprise information to managers and agents so they can make quality business decisions.

"They can get off those phone calls that are [not producing] and they can do a faster job on their e-mails by recognizing that they've got 25 more e-mails they've got to go through and 10 more calls. If I've got a corporate directive that says that I need to close 75 percent of my trouble tickets on a daily basis, why not display that information to those people that have to do that?"

"If I've got a corporate directive that says that I need to close 75 percent of my trouble tickets on a daily basis, why not display that information to those people that have to do that?"

He added that by aligning corporate goals with contact centers, they can increase their profitability, or at least contribute to an organization's bottom line.

"They're no longer this cash drain. We have to have true ROI that we can go back to and show them … this isn't soft ROI where we tell them, 'hey, you're going to have better customer service.'  We can go back and show them true ROI where you can get through the calls faster [and] you can generate more revenue if you're making outbound calls."

Results Generated for Spectrum's Customers

Boehm said Spectrum's products provide between a 9 percent and 15 percent increase in revenue for organizations that use the solutions properly. He is forecasting 25 percent revenue growth for the company this year. Boehm added that he will meet, and possibly exceed, that projection.

Recent developments at the company include opening an office in the UK along with adding a sales rep in India and a sales rep in the U.S. Product development is ongoing. The firm was founded in 1971 and has been involved in the telecom business since the late '80s. The percentage of revenue generated by the company from the contact center/telecom/call center/CRM sector is 40 percent. Headcount is 110.

"Costs are now starting to rise in India for running these contact centers. They're not as inexpensive as they were four or five years ago. They are still inexpensive, but costs have gone up [and will continue to go up]."

A Warning Regarding India

When asked about India, Boehm offered something of a warning.

"Costs are now starting to rise in India for running these contact centers. They're not as inexpensive as they were four or five years ago. They are still inexpensive, but costs have gone up [and will continue to go up]."

A flexible workforce is not an option in many offshore locations, he added.

"What you cannot do in many of these countries is you cannot have a flexible workforce where today you have 500 employees and tomorrow business is down and I want to cut 400 employees, so you have a challenge with your workforce. In India, as costs have gone up, they're looking at ways of becoming more effective and more efficient. That’s where our products come in."

Growth Opportunities in Europe

He sees growth opportunities in Europe, primarily due to the favorable exchange rates.

"As that continues to be favorable, we're going to do more business there. There are contact centers opening in Ireland and Scotland and other areas in the European community."

Another challenge comes from changing European directives.

"We can no longer have certain chemicals used in the product. The product must be recycled. All of these things cost money."

South America was another topic discussed by Boehm, including the time zone advantage compared with India. However, different rules and regulations regarding the importation of products exist within various South American nations

"[This makes] it costly to bring electronic equipment into the country and different countries have different rules, "said Boehm, who cited one example in which obtaining certification for a wallboard costs $45,000. "They want to keep the business in country [and] they effectively block us from being able to sell product in their country. [But] we sell a lot of software, so we just go around it by selling software, and that doesn't have the [same] rules to follow."

When asked about an opportunity to go public, Boehm said the company decided against it.

"What do you end up doing?" he asked. "You answer to the Wall Street analysts [and] shareholders. You answer to everybody except who counts the most, your customers."