Call Center 2.0: If You’re Not There, You Will Be Left Behind!

As it is the beginning of a new year, it's time for this magazine, which laid the foundation for the multibillion dollar call/contact center and CRM industries, to focus on what's ahead for the coming year and beyond and share this critical insight with our valued and faithful readers.

Do You Have The Knowledge You Need To Make Decisions?
There are many important issues facing contact centers today. Older solutions need replacing, not with newer models of old solutions, but in some cases, entirely new technologies and delivery methods. These new technologies, delivery methods, services and business processes are collectively known as "Call Center 2.0," and TMC is on the forefront of it.

Call Center 2.0, which is collocated with our blockbuster show Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO, will take place January 23rd to 25th, 2008, at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Florida.

A Can't-Miss Event!
Why do you need to be there? You may not be feeling confident about your knowledge and ability to make the kind of business-impacting decisions that need to be addressed in order to ride the wave of Call Center 2.0. (And if you don't, you will certainly be left behind!)

As you face making new technolo-gy and services purchases, consider the following:
• You've heard a lot about software-as-a-service, but do you really know whether it will benefit your business as opposed to the older premise-based model? How does SaaS differ from the hosted model? What applications does it make sense for?

• What small steps can I take to make big impact on service levels, KPIs, schedule adherence, customer satisfaction, employee turnover and the bottom line?

• Where has CRM gone in the last few years? It's a great deal different from what it used to be. Do you know how and why?

What makes up the umbrella term "workforce optimization," and why and how does it improve contact center operations as dramatically as it does? How can you take advantage of it?

• How can analytics help you to improve your business dramatically?
• How can you make sure your contact center is protected against serious security threats? How can you make sure you have a good disaster recovery plan in place?

• What are the benefits of going all-IP in the contact center besides the obvious savings on long-distance costs?

• How can I set up a virtual or distributed contact center?

• Can I take advantage of the array of benefits offered by home agents? If so, how?

Over 1,000 attendees are expected to come to the Miami Beach Convention Center specifically for Call Center 2.0. (More than 7,000 total attendees are expected to Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO.) The majority of these attendees are top-level executives, coming to the show to learn more about the latest technological and service innovations and to make final purchasing decisions on the technical products they need. We hope you'll be among them!

Typically, 48 percent of attendees are company executives — CEOs, company presidents and owners, and other CXOs. Twenty eight percent are IT management: the people responsible for implementing and using the technologies. The remaining portion of attendees are call center management: those people determining the needs for the technologies.

What You Will Learn
Having pioneered this industry for the last 26 years, since 1982, and trained countless contact center executives, it's only reasonable to say that no other event addresses this critical horizon for the contact center -- or is even qualified to do so. Call Center 2.0 is exclusively the place to come to learn about the issues.

Attendees can come away with the following valuable information:

• Learn how IP communications solutions can improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase the level of service provided to their customers;
• Use IP communications to equip home agents with ubiquitous network access;
• Develop a plan to main-
tain business operations when
disaster strikes;
• Learn strategies to seamlessly integrate home agents and remote workers into their operation;
• Gather research to choose between a premise-based system or
hosted solution;
• Learn how to improve customer experiences using an "on-demand" services model;
• Improve the success of overseas operations using IP technology;
• See how advanced work-
force optimization solutions can improve productivity;
• Plan their migration strategy to IP, ensuring complete business continuity with zero downtime; and
• Design the perfect distributed contact center.

As always, I welcome your comments. Please e-mail them to me at [email protected]. CIS