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Contactual, which offers an easy-to-deploy, simple-to-use, full-featured, cloud-based call center platform geared for small- to medium-sized businesses, has launched a new blog on its Web site.

“One of the main reasons we launched the blog was to be a thought leader in the virtual call center domain, especially in the mid-sized market,” said Meghdutt Brahmachari, marketing manager for Contactual (News - Alert). “We feel that increasing awareness about cloud computing in the call center space will help us explain our value proposition to the end user better. In addition, blog enables us to serve both of our customer segments better (1 - existing call center users who are looking to optimize spending and 2 - new users who never had the potential to afford a traditional call center).”

 

The new blog can be accessed at http://blog.contactual.com/.

 

“Whether you're a seasoned veteran who wants to explore the value of virtual call centers or someone new to the brave, new world of Web-based call centers, we'd like our blog to become a resource for you; someplace to explore the latest trends in call center technology, somewhere to turn for insightful thought-leadership, a place where people gather to share tips and tricks you can use every day to improve your call center's performance,” an entry on the blog landing page states.

In this age of Web 2.0 and social networking, the rationale for launching a corporate blog has never been stronger: Research shows that more people are reading corporate blogs – in fact, most people today expect the companies they do business with to have a social media presence. Research also shows that blogs do influence purchasing decisions.

A 2008 report from Forrester (News - Alert) Research found that one in three Americans read blogs at least once a month -- and 18 percent commented on them. The report found that blog readers are growing at a rate of nearly 50 percent per year. Not only do blogs bring news and other information to readers, they help companies boost the rank of their Web sites.

Contactual’s new blog features an RSS button allowing readers to get RSS feeds that alert them each time there is a new entry.

Contactual made big news in November when it announced it had increased its presence in Europe thanks to a new reseller partnership with Holland-based telephony and call center software provider HTSE. Contactual has other partners reselling its cloud-based call center solutions in the UK, Japan and Australia. The company reports that it is seeing increased adoption of its call center solutions among businesses across Europe. Earlier last year the company opened an office in Guildford, UK, and established a new data center in England. The company has reportedly been building out its data center network in the region in order to meet increased demand.

Also in November Contactual announced that its call center software is available on the Salesforce.com (News - Alert) AppExchange. The salesforce integrated solution combines one of the leading cloud-based CRM software platforms with one of the leading software-as-a-service-based call center software platforms. Through this integration, call center agents can have detailed customer information, such as customer contact history and past purchases, screen-popped onto their desktops, thus enabling them to improve customer service, as well as to capitalize on up-sell and cross sell opportunities.