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Contactual’s (News - Alert) hosted call center suites have helped many SMBs become more effective in handling customer communications. With the multichannel connectivity of Contactual’s platform, even amateur call handling operations have the ability to take email, chat and SMS interactions from customers. As part of its ongoing support for SMBs, Contactual is making strides to incorporate deep CRM integration in its products.

This week, the company is at the Salesforce.com’s (News - Alert) Dreamforce 2011 event, where it will be showing SMBs how they can leverage call center solutions with deeper CRM integration and support.

According to Kim Odom, Contactual’s senior director of marketing, “If having your agents work in native Salesforce is important, our CTI Connect solution gives you the advanced routing you need for phone-based interactions along with screen pops and automated activity logging. “ Odom continued, “If your contact center is already using multiple media types, such as phone and chat, our award-winning Multichannel Connect solution allows you to employ skills-based and skill-level routing to all types of media. In addition, this option provides both agent and queue visibility along with presence; plus custom logging based on any data element.”

Both options can enhance a CRM solution by providing agents with the information they need to make the critical decisions that drive service levels and profit. Using Dreamforce as a platform to showcase these solutions makes sense, as Salesforce, provides CRM solutions for many of the world’s largest companies.  

Hosted CRM and hosted call center adoption is currently being driven by the obsolescence of premised based technology. Replacing a premise solution at that point is easily a 6 figure investment, so even on a large scale the hosted option is much cheaper. The time to switch to a hosted solution is now, and the benefits are easy to see for anyone willing to look.

“Stop by booth #1526 and we’ll be happy to hear about the challenges you face, talk to you about potential solutions, and demonstrate these approaches,” Odom said.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

Chris DiMarco is a Managing Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.

Edited by Carrie Schmelkin