from the TMC net(TM) BLOGS

Customer Inter@ction Solutions, Apr 2008

What's Plantronlcs up To?

In his VoIP blog, Rich Tehrani writes:

Plantronics is planning something big. I have discussed this before and they are staying pretty quiet about what they are working on. Moreover whatever they are doing has been in development for over a year and they aren't close enough to a launch to even drop serious hints.

Two things I do know: they want to be big in CEBP (communications-enabled business processes) space, and they are also looking to extend the headset paradigm.

It is tough to know what they have up their sleeves, but the only hint I have is that when I asked if they are looking to add a headsup display to the headset, they say they did consider this idea but decided against it.

So I can only conclude they will be getting more deeply into the mobile device market. I suppose there is room for the company in the space occupied by Polycom. Remember that last year they denied this was the case. They could make desk sets and handsets, but they could go one step further and add speech recognition and a layer of middleware allowing the merging of mobile and fixed line phones.

Visit Rich's blog at http'.llblog. tmcnet.com/ blog/rich-tehrani/

Cable Company Customer Service: An improbable Phrase

In her "Call Center/CRM" blog, Tracey Schelmetic writes:

I got my online version oftheASRNews and was interested to read about two cable giants: Chaner and Comcast, and the fact that ASRNews tested their IVRs and found that the data customers feed in to the system is not used for CTI screen-pop purposes. Basically, Charter and Comcast are using their IVRS merely to annoy customers at the front end.

Said the newsletter, "This month we tested Charter Communications. No CTL They gather ID information from the caller and then throw it away. Comcast does the same thing. These folks should either implement CTI or get rid of their WR that is doing nothing other than irritating callers. "

More high-quality customer service from the cable companies. How could it get any worse? They play a eardrum-shattering screech tone into customers' ears as payback for daring to try and get in touch with customer service?

You can find ASRNews' online newsletter at www.tmcnet.com/1830.1

Visit Tracey s blog athttp://blog.tmcnet.com/ call-center-crml

A Debut in The IP-PBX Game

In his VoIP & Gadgets blog, TMC CTO Tom Keating writes:

Aastra Telecom has entered the IP-PBX game with the AastraLink Pro 160. This is a very interesting move since Aastra Telecom is known for their IP phones used by various IP-PBXs, including many of the Asteriskbased solutions: trixbox, AsteriskNOW, Druid, PBX in a Flash, etc. With the AastraLink Pro 160 Aastra is now competing with IP-PBX vendors that purchase their phones. It will be interesting to see if some IP-PBX vendors, especially the Asterisk-based ones, move towards other IP phones such as PoIycom. I suppose in the SMB space you're still more likely to go up against Avaya, Nortei Toshiba, etc. than another Asterisk competitor. In any event, the AastraLink Pro Model 160 IP PBX is based on open standards (SIP) and is designed for the small business market targeting 25 users and under.

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

Social Networking Needs More Socialization

In his "First Coffee" blog, TMCnet's David Sims writes:

First Coffee likes Louis Columbia's "very scientific approach" (see www.tmcnet. com/1831.1) to defining his own CRM predictions: "Putting Post-It notes of all predictions on the dartboard in the garage and sharing dart throws with my daughter at each. " Seriously, Columbus has lots of good stuff here's his #1:

"Trusted social networking on steroids begins an ascent to credibility. There's so much being written about social networking yet so little on quantifying trust and validating person's identities on these sites that 2008 will most likely be a year there will most likely be an intense focus on validating identities and affiliations. The Beacon fiasco scared the wits out of even progressive-thinking chief information officers; before social networking goes prime time the issue of trust and authenticity will have to be addressed."

Visit David's blog at http://blog.tmcnet.com/ telecom-crml

Canadian call center woes

In his "Making Contact" blog, TMCnet's Patrick Barnard writes:

Government officials in the various provinces of Canada which are highly reliant on the call center industry to keep the economy afloat are no doubt scrambling to try to come up with additional incentives and new strategies to keep U.S. companies from pulling their centers out.

A recent report from Datamonitor shows that many U.S. firms are now starting to pack up and relocate their Canada-based call center operations due to the increasing value of the U.S. dollar and the increasingly unfavorable exchange rate. Even call center outsourcing behemoth Convergys recently announced that it will be closing some of its facilities in Canada in the coming months. This is bad news for New Brunswick, which relies heavily on the call center industry for jobs and economic growth and is in the process of trying to become independent.