Voice and Technology Solutions for Call Centers

By definition, a call center is a major concentration within a company or other location in which telephone activity takes place including technical and support calls and customer service support calls. Inbound and outbound calling are the major venues for communications and managing who is called, who should call them, and why calling them is a job that usually involves entire rooms full of computers, networking hardware, and telephone systems interfaces. Now, imagine if somebody came in and announced that a single voice technology running on less electricity than a household light bulb would replace this entire process. Well, this is the impact that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has on enterprise-based call centers, in addition to the small to mid-sized call center operations.

In a major science fiction movie, an artificially intelligent computer named ‘HAL 9000′ addresses an astronaut by name. In call centers of the 21st century style, as many as 100 to 250 Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) can operate the center using only a single technology. Imagine having an outbound call script that includes the ability to instruct the CSR to offer to send an informational fax to their business headquarters for their boss to review. That is the current state of the art in unified information systems.

Unified communications are powerful as a standalone, but when you integrate features such as video conferencing, you create a true united information system. Any company that drags its feet investing in these communications technologies will lag behind those who do invest readily. ‘Green is the new Green’ and it is the hot new quote in the investment world. Wind power is growing by leaps and bounds and going green is how money is made in business these days. When a business combines unified information with green technology the door opens to making call centers act as profit centers, not customer service expenses.

In the future, an entire multi-billion dollar corporation will be operated out of the same office space as a modern dentist. That future is now. In the future, people will also have screens that they carry around with them to access anyone on the planet at any time, or even access any piece of information any time, and from anywhere. That future is available at your local technology retailer. There is no good reason for any communications and technology based company to not be adopting these amazing technologies.

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Technology Solutions: Cloud Computing

Economic uncertainty has created the need for swift, responsive and highly secured IT infrastructures that are also environmentally friendly and more business focused. Organizations are struggling to find the competitive edge, turning to the bounty of opportunities technology provides. Cautious to jump at the latest buzz phrases and hyped solutions, many have cautiously investigated recent technology breakthroughs, many of which have one thing in common:redistribution of IT roles. There is no better time than the present to revamp technology strategy focused on hosted solutions. Clouds are gathering…

Cloud computing has emerged as one of the major ways to secure an upper hand in today’s highly competitive market. Minutes of downtime means the loss of vital sales as businesses with prolonged data loss find themselves in a real position of collapsing. Cloud computing changes the traditional corporate data center structure that resides on company premises. Instead, systems are moved to secure outsourced data centers, either in a private or public configuration. Private clouds are dedicated servers used exclusively for a single company, whereas public clouds have multiple companies sharing the same resources. Additional research is therefore essential in deciding which cloud configuration best meets your needs, most importantly regarding legal and privacy requirements.

Technology departments across all industries are met with similar issues including budget cuts, personnel downsize and mounting pressure for technology to prove its worth in answering key business issues. A great deal of IT departments run with a vague, or possibly blind, vision into the future, focusing on day-to-day network upkeep and expending great amounts of money keeping core systems operational. This approach leaves no time for innovation, process improvements or meeting business strategic objectives. Competitive advantage can be gained by moving day-to-day operations out, allowing execution of strategic initiatives.

The diverse and seemingly endless potential of cloud computing make it a very attractive solution to some of today’s most important business issues. Whether it’s upgrading data entry applications, launching new collaboration portals or overhauling demanding e-mail systems, all is possible and occurring today within the cloud. Historically, engineers of all sorts, including database, security, applications and integrations were needed on staff in order to begin new initiatives. Hosted solutions provide all that information without the heavy staffing costs. Building a partnership with a reliable IT solutions provider will deeply impact the success of your initiatives. A good hosting provider will act as a direct extension of your IT department, offering solutions to the business issues you discover in the renewed IT strategic approach. Your success has a direct effect on their success.

E-mail is the number one communication medium used in the 21st century workplace, and it grows more complex on a daily basis. It is an integral workflow component and is an excellent means for automating communication, increasing information flow to customers and employees, without the need to drain employee time sending reports and updates. An increased number of applications have been developed specifically to integrate with the company messaging system, some of which automatically generate bills, and others send out vital project warnings and notifications. Without expertise for each one of its many parts, integration opportunities may be lost, leaving businesses in danger of lost internal and external communication, which translates into poor customer service and decreased profit.

Overwhelmingly, the cloud has been a proven success for replacing traditional business e-mail environments. Software costs, server replacements and constant applications training make it an expensive system to maintain. Again, time spent tending to IT infrastructure takes away from valuable time streamlining old and costly systems. If you don’t become more efficient, your competition will.

One mid-sized organization was faced with a difficult situation. Operating on an aging Microsoft Exchange platform, the mailbox database had grown to its maximum size without the possibility of adding additional message stores. Three servers that were the backbone of the Exchange system were approaching 10 years old and experiencing hardware malfunctions. An expensive investment in hardware and software seemed like the only answer. However, IT management realized the benefits of a Microsoft Exchange hosting solution, and therefore sought out a reputable hosting provider to address their growth issues. After careful planning and execution, local servers were migrated to the outsourced data center, and the results were nothing short of impressive.

Within the first month of the transition, help desk calls dropped by more than 10 percent, and e-mail availability became higher than ever, greatly attributed to the team of systems experts at their disposal. Critical systems updates and maintenance were performed regularly by the new Exchange hosting team, and key performance indicators were actively monitored. Discrepancies were resolved immediately. Such dedication and proactive response time would have been impossible to do with the previous e-mail infrastructure and company IT staff.

Transitioning to the Microsoft Exchange hosted service eliminated the need to purchase brand new servers or invest in the latest software upgrades. No longer will the company be faced with huge, unexpected hardware replacement costs. Instead, the fixed monthly hosting costs help keep the IT budget balanced and funds spent more wisely. Packaged with the Microsoft Exchange hosted solution was an e-compliant archiving system and a leading anti-spam solution; one more way the company saved money.

All the technology endeavors translated into better service for the customer. Now, the business stands strong with a robust, adaptive e-mail system and comprehensive electronic audit trail. The tier four data center where the e-mail service resides has been a welcome addition to the company disaster recovery plan. Capping out the many benefits is the approximately $50,000 saved annually along with lower carbon emissions through retirement of old servers.

As technology leaders and innovators, we must avoid the trap of judging success on traditional measurements, such as network uptime and backup reliability. Instead, creating an IT strategic plan with input from company executives opens our eyes to new possibilities. Technology can be a true business enabler, and cloud computing is one way to yield measurable business results, molding information technology into business technology.

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Advanced Technology Solutions For Accelerated Value-Creation

An ever-increasing range of leading-edge technologies emerging into the manufacturing, more so in the automotive & semi-conductor sectors, make them two of the most exciting and dynamic manufacturing sectors in the world.

Automotive & Semi-conductor industries are facing an extremely challenging business environment today with increase in product heterogeneousness, higher dependence on outsourcing, and a growing need to collaborate with an unending list of business partners. Moreover, with the automotive electronics market exploding and semiconductor consumption booming worldwide, the tremendous opportunity for semiconductor companies brings with it the increasing pressure to keep pace with the shortening development cycles and the need for newer and more innovative products. However not all the products that hit the market are successful since the consumer today is extremely particular about price and performance, leaving semiconductor companies to grapple with the triple challenges of increasing complexity, shorter timelines and increasing risk. In fact the need to excel by improving quality, creating product differentiation while meeting safety and other regulations has kept both the industries on their toes.

This kind of situation has given impetus to Advanced Technology Solutions, solutions that enable the automotive as well as semi-conductor industries to attain performance advancements and improved efficiency. Partnering with an organization offering industry specific advanced technology solutions in the focused areas of Automotive Electronics, Engineering Design, Product Engineering, Auto Infotainment & Telematics, Instrument clusters, Industrial automation, Powertrain, Chip design, Embedded software, Analog mixed signal design, Electronic design, Physical design, Semiconductor design outsourcing, ASIC/SoC development, Vlsi design, FPGA design solutions, and support services such as Verification & Validation, Offshore testing and Automotive embedded software, is a viable option that can leverage the technology expertise in automotive electronics & semi-conductor solutions. It further helps in accelerating product development cycles and push the envelope of innovation.

Utilizing these Advanced Technology Solutions, the automotive & semi-conductor industries can collaborate with a vast array of business partners and suppliers working in tandem to design and manufacture vehicles and focus on providing innovative silicon chip design and embedded software support.

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