From the TMCnet Blogs

Learn From IBM: Add Services
In his Communications and Technology Blog, Rich Tehrani writes:

IBM has shown us that services are a great way to keep your revenue stable or even growing in a slowdown. When companies slash jobs they still need to get work done and this is where companies with strong service arms come in. Those with services revenue will outperform those without it.

Here is an excerpt from an article on IBM’s earnings in a Hudson Valley newspaper:

In 2008, 40 percent of IBM’s profit came from software, 42 percent from services and just 9 percent from hardware.

In the fourth quarter, IBM’s consulting arms reported new services signings of $17.2 billion, with 24 deals greater than $100 million. IBM’s services backlog at Dec. 31 was $117 billion.

Revenue in Global Technology Services was down 3.7 percent to $9.6 billion from $9.9 billion a year ago. Global Business Services revenue was down 4.5 percent to $4.7 billion from $4.9 billion a year ago.

The $117 billion shows tech and tech services are somewhat resistant to the current economic environment.

Visit Rich’s blog at http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/

Must The Media Get Involved To Ensure Quality Customer Service?
In his Readerboard blog, Customer Interaction Solutions’ Brendan B (News - Alert). Read writes:

Canada’s Toronto Star newspaper ran an excellent article by its consumer affairs columnist, Ellen Roseman, on several firms that have responded well when faced with consumer complaints or incidents. These companies are Molson, Staples, GM, and Future Shop.

“’I’m not looking for thanks when I send consumer complaints to large companies,’ “she wrote.” ‘But I’m always impressed when they respond with gratitude. Smart companies know it’s cheaper to retain customers than to find new ones. Each complaint I send gives them a chance to head off defectors and turn their anger into applause. “
It is commendable that these outfits acted promptly and effectively. Yet the cases she cited was where people were treated with respect ‘”once the media got involved.’ “ The question that lingers is that why does it have to take the media to get involved for companies to do the right thing? Why can’t otherwise intelligent firms put in place solid procedures to resolve the issues in the first place that is far cheaper and less image-damaging than getting the press involved, and forking over cash in PR expenses?

Visit Brendan’s blog at http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/

ContactQ Enhances Asterisk's Call Center Functionality
In his VoIP & Gadgets” blog TMC (News - Alert) CTO Tom Keating writes:

ContactQ is a new call center application server created by Braxtel Communications that brings advanced call center functionality to the Asterisk (News - Alert) platform. Their aim is to handle any sort of contact method and put it into their advanced multi-media queue. For instance, they plan on queuing video calls, text messages, web callbacks, and of course regular calls.

ContactQ is a fully featured multi-media skills-based routing ACD. They use their own front-end interface for configuration as well as monitoring of call center queues and call center statistics. Importantly, ContactQ sports the ability for call center supervisors to listen in on agents using DTMF/touch tones on their phone. Features include a powerful IVR with drag and drop programming tool and historical reporting delivered via the web browser and powerful dialing capabilities critical to call centers, including Outbound Preview, Progressive and Predictive dialing modes.

Visit Tom’s blog at http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/

DataForceCRM Guarantee
In his “First Coffee” blog, TMCnet’s David Sims writes:

DataForceCRM, which makes sales lead management software and CRM software, is coming out with a promotion guaranteeing results or “customers get money back, no questions asked,” company officials say.

“CRM users have struggled with low return on high per user costs,” according to DataForceCRM officials, who add that in their view, “a great product, offered for a fair price, will add value and win market share.”

Hard to argue with that logic. Company officials say most online CRM is priced at $65 per user per month or higher these days - “and the buyer of CRM often needs other modules that jack the cost even higher.” DataForceCRM is offering Enterprise CRM for ten bucks per user per month, guaranteeing results “or your money back.”

Each client is set up a dedicated server for flexibility, security and performance, company officials say, adding that campaign creation and tracking are provided “to make sure marketing spend is invested wisely. Rich e-mail and mail merge features are provided” as well.

There are Lead and Opportunity Management modules, and the Customer Support feature includes trouble ticket tracking and a customer portal in the user pricing. There’s also order management.

Visit David’s blog at http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/