The weather here in La Jolla today is gorgeous and the UC Summit conference sessions were all very active and interesting. Opportunities for Consultants, VARs and SIs seem abundant for moving their business clients into UC-enabled applications, especially with end user mobility and cloud-based applications.

I will be speaking tomorrow on my view of the “UC  Contact Center” as being a great target for the channels to aim at, and this was confirmed at lunch today, when the President/CEO of a New York City-based channel sat down next to me. I asked him about the direction he was seeing from his clients in terms of UC implementation and he indicated the same growing impact of mobility and cloud implementations on traditional telephone usage.

I described to him how the “UC enabled Contact Center” view can cover a lot of functional needs for any business operation, and his reaction was both surprised and very positive. His comment was, ” I never thought about that before and it is very interesting!”

In my discussion with some of the major vendors sponsoring the UC Summit, I also saw similar agreement with that perspective. So, bottom line, expect to see the “UC Contact Center” concept becoming a familiar label for UC implementation planning.

Tags: Unified Communications Information by Art Rosenberg
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I have constantly been looking for a term that would be understandable to consumers and end users who don’t really understand or care about technology and infrastructures, just what it does for them (UC-U). So, while it is the “user experience” and user interfaces that come into play here, that doesn’t explain anything about the flexibility that UC-enabled applications gain from the technology.

As I have mentioned in the past, the “smart phone” became the flagship for UC in many ways. Not only did it bring greater convenience and contact accessibility to end users, but because it was multi-media, it also supported UC-enabled integrations for both communications and automated business applications (including “mobile apps”).  I thought that if consumers already understand what a smartphone does, they could then readily identify  that with UC capabilities. So, if we use terms like “smart communications” or “smart applications,” users would immediately recognize them as something that smartphones enabled and identify the benefits they get from UC-enablement.

So, I started Googling the Web for the term “smart communications” and found that most of the announcements came from a leading wireless services in the Philippines that calls itself “Smart Communications.” Needless to say, they sell a lot of smartphones and associated mobile services.

We can use the “smart” adjective at the application levels that UC-enablement can be applied to, e.g., CEBP and “mobile apps.” In particular, we can describe contact centers as being “smart”  when they handle any form of contact, inbound and outbound, and use contextual information to simplify the end user interface and minimize manual effort. For self-service online applications, voice commands can be used when desired, rather than error-prone keyed inputs, and application outputs can be visual rather than speech. Addresses for messaging or call initiation can come from online directory look ups or contextually from any document or message being viewed, rather than the contact initiator having to know this information beforehand.

I guess the bottom line for “smart” applications is that it lets end users do things easier, faster, and in any mode of user interface that a multi-modal mobile device provides. It lets applications be more responsive to the end users “on the go” who can’t spend much time doing things interactively. The desktop user interfaces for the same applications don’t really have to change much to meet the new demands of mobility, they just need mobile UI front ends for the different mobile devices being used.

However you look at UC flexibility, it is most useful for “smart” users who are getting more mobile all the time!

Tags: Contact Center, Mobile UC, Mobility, Speech Technologies, Unified Communications by Art Rosenberg
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Analysts talk all the time about drinking from the fire hose when we attend vendor analyst briefings, but I think that Cisco had that fire hose on stun this week. They claimed they were announcing 61 or more (I lost count) products this week, and I’m sure they weren’t kidding. Granted many were perhaps features, sub products or new releases, but the overall feeling was more of I get the big picture, but I’m confused as to the dividing lines.

Of course, it was video, video, video, across every product line, with several new products being announced. These included the Cisco Enterprise Collaboration Platform (ECP) that Blair spoke of in her Cisco blog, Medianet, which is a platform for delivering any media, anywhere, Intercompany Cisco TelePresence Directory, which is a hosted directory of TelePresence people and endpoints between companies, and Cisco TelePresence WebEx Exchange, which is a one-button initiation and scheduling solution with video integration between Cisco TelePresence and Cisco WebEx conferencing (the demos were pretty slick on this one).

Conceptually, I personally liked two products in this new line up; Show and Share and Pulse. Show and Share is a social video system that allows users to generate their own video content quickly and easily and share it with others in video communities. What I found most appealing about the product was the ability to not just edit and share, but also that the system can create speech-to-text transcriptions of the videos that are searchable and taggable. This means that you can search for something in the text, click on it and go to the portion of the video where it is at. Video can also be commented on, both publicly, or portions tagged with private comments as well.

Pulse is search platform that dynamically tags content as it crosses the network, such as blog and Wiki postings, or other content. Pulse essentially looks at real-time information “chatter”, across and entire organization, and “takes a pulse”, on what types of things are being discussed, researched, looked at, and who those people are that are creating or looking at that content. The resulting intelligence from Pulse can be used to accurately locate those people that are subject matter experts on things, and then lets the user easily connect with them.

One of the thoughts put out by Cisco is that tools such as Show and Share and Pulse, combined with ECP could eventually be used as a way to get real-time information as to which agent to route a call to in a contact center, instead of relying on static skills-based routing tables based on infrequently updated information on individual agents. The idea would be that information on which agent has which skill or attribute could be updated automatically, rather than waiting for an agents profile to be updated by an agent or supervisor. It would also eliminate “yellow stickyville”, that agents use to track which other expert in or out f the contact center can help them with a particular problem. That is an interesting concept.

However, this does lead me to some of the things that I felt were sort of unresolved, and therefore put out there for future observation. For example, just as there is a virtual world Second Life, using some of these tools, such as Pulse, seems like Naked Life because unless proper policies and procedures are in place, the user really is naked because everyone can see what they are up to. Along with this is the question of how do you change the culture to something so collaborative in the first place.

Lastly,there is the overhead associated with some of the products. As one of the presenters pointed out, “Cisco does a good job of content creation, but not content management”. They aren’t alone. Business is rife with email users that don’t ever delete, let alone video and all manner of documentation and information. In this case creation and aggregation of mass amounts of information leads to issues of storage, security, privacy, entitlement, and lots of other issues.

In all, it was a very interesting summit with products that are very appealing. The key for Cisco is in how to make those cool ideas and products have broad appeal, as it will involve both culture change, and sorting out how to position a lot of products that appear to have overlapping components. We have already seen this issue occur with the feature set of UC, but with Cisco’s announcement of more video and collaboration features, this issue is has become a magnitude more complex.

Tags: Unified Communications Information by Nancy Jamison
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One of the more appealing concepts embraced by executives in recent years is delivering first contact resolution through the use of experts on demand. Could there be anything more obvious than using existing resources to resolve customer issues quickly? The employees are already paid for – seems like a great way to leverage existing investments, doesn’t it? Not to mention that applications exist to enable these “experts” with access to relevant information and manage the communications flow. Let’s put a bow on this one and wait for the oohs and ahs.

Not so fast, this could be that present from your Great Aunt Myrtle – the one you open with trepidation. Is it just what you’ve always wanted?  Or, have you been re-gifted with some old solution polished up to look new?  Is it that free trip to Florida that ends up costing a fortune because of the hidden fees and the extras? Is it that gift encased in plastic that you just know would be perfect if only you could get to it? Does it come with instructions and some assembly required?

Now, I don’t want to leave the impression that you should avoid this type of solution. With the right planning and the right folks involved, it can create a competitive advantage. But, some assembly is required. As with other UC projects this one requires buy-in and participation from multiple organizations within the company. People, process and technology continue to be the three areas to be addressed. And, in my opinion, technology is the easy part. A few questions to consider as you move forward:

• Who are the experts and where do they reside in the organization? Is expertise self-declared? Or, is there a formalized process for declaring and communicating expertise?
• How and when will experts be accessible? Do experts really have available time to respond? What happens if experts don’t reply?
• How or will experts interact with the call center? What are the handoffs? Will customers have direct access to experts?
• Do you want to track what your experts are doing? What metrics or KPIs are relevant for experts? How are experts evaluated and tied to customer satisfaction?
• Where does ownership for the results of “experts on demand” fall?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can identify who needs to be involved in the project (HR, Division Heads, IT, Call Center, etc.). Once the implications of the answers are evaluated, you can move forward with rolling out a customer service and support solution delivering first call resolution through the maximization of your human assets irrespective of where they sit. If done correctly, customers will receive better answers faster and customer satisfaction (and, hopefully customer loyalty) will increase. Employee satisfaction should also increase and, as a result, employee retention. Done incorrectly, it could be that gift from Great Aunt Myrtle – employees feel over-worked and underappreciated, customer calls go into the black hole, there’s lot of finger pointing as to who is responsible, and so on.

Tags: Unified Communications by Laura DiSciullo
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Is it possible to deliver exceptional customer service anymore? Was it ever possible? With each advance in the options for – purchasing services – finding information – rectifying problems – resolving complaints, the end-state moves further away. Consumers are not just demanding more, they are expecting more. Once, access to a toll free number was considered good service. Today, round the clock entree via phone, web, email, etc. (foundation of the customer service hierarchy of needs) is expected. But, that does nothing to distinguish a company. Which leads us to the second level in the pyramid – each application must be easy to use. Sounds obvious, but so few companies do it. It truly is a change of focus from how a company wants to manage the interaction to how consumers want to communicate. One has only to experience any of the myriad of voice/speech response applications out there today and compare to a real conversation to understand the difference. Which brings us to the next level – customers want informed resources. This is where the impact of unified communications is felt. True unified communications is not just telephony mixed with some messaging with a dash of collaboration and a sprinkle of video. It is the combination of all conversations (regardless of type) with context. How well is the consumer known?  What have they done recently? Do they have to repeat the same information over and over? Easy enough.  All you have to do is get all the departments within your organization to share information in a timely and consistent manner. Ok, who am I kidding? Now, we get to the top of the hierarchy – awareness, or, anticipating what customers want and meeting their expectations holistically rather than satisfying discrete events. Experience creates loyalty; not individual events. Realize that many of those conversations are happening outside your control.

 While this appears to be a “no win” situation; it is also a “must play” situation. Technology advances are both a blessing and a curse. It is easier to support these consumer expectations. Yet, consumers expect more because they have access to applications powered by this technology. Was it ever possible to reach the top? Probably not. The challenge is making the conscious decision to own all the communications or to let your customers speak without you. Now more than ever, it is critical to balance the costs and the benefits of retaining and growing an increasingly precious customer base.

Tags: Unified Communications by Laura DiSciullo
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On December 8^th of last year I posted an article in which I discussed the contact center and unified communications markets relative to the state of the U.S. economy titled “Unified Communications and the Economy: Quit Wringing Your Hands and Get Back to Work. In that article I cited cases of companies that have faced past recessions head-on rather than retreating into a panic of fear-induced cost cutting and irrational management decisions.  I wrote about Proctor and Gamble, which has emerged from every recession over the last 100 years stronger than they were when each recession began.  Companies like Hewlett Packard and Microsoft were started in the middle of recessions, as were General Electric and Disney.  Compared to companies that have failed during recessionary periods, these companies maintained a positive business attitude and continued to operate with confidence in their products and with confidence in the buyer’s ability to recognize the quality of those products.

Apparently those lessons from the past have not been lost on Aspect Software which, on January 7^th, announced the acquisition of Applied Information Management Limited and its wholly owned subsidiary, AIM Technology Inc., commonly known as AIM in the contact center industry.  AIM was one of the original contact center analytics companies and had a previous relationship with Aspect about five years ago.  That relationship was dropped in favor of an OEM agreement with Merced Systems last year but Aspect must have felt the timing was right to take control of their performance management analytics solution.  Although I don’t know what Aspect’s internal rationale was that led them back to their original performance management partner, I have a feeling it might have had something to do with the common Microsoft technology platform that both Aspect and AIM share. 

If there is a downside to this acquisition, I can’t find it.  Aspect customers with the Merced Systems OEM solution installed will continue to be supported without change.  Customers with Merced-based Aspect Performance Management solutions currently on order but not in production will have the option of implementing those systems or moving on to the new system, which will be called PerformanceEdge Performance Management.  Also important to consider is the unified communications partnership Aspect has with Microsoft.  Given the common Microsoft technology base that Aspect’s PerformanceEdge performance optimization suite now has and the company’s commitment to unified communications, I think there is a good possibility that there will be some new product surprises on the horizon.    

Beyond Aspect’s move to bring their performance optimization solution entirely in-house, I applaud the confidence and character the company has shown in making this acquisition when so much of the contact center industry stands paralyzed in fear of what may or may not happen this year.  Aspect has given notice to the industry that it does not intend to back down regardless of the stories of economic doom-and-gloom so gleefully delivered to us each day by the news media.  Aspect continues to position itself for long-term success and I believe that when this recession ends, as every recession in U.S. history has, lots of Aspect’s competitors will look at Aspect’s achievements, will look at how Aspect faced-down this recession and will wish they had that kind of sand.

Tags: Unified Communications Information by Paul Stockford
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During this election season, I try to do what I can to help the candidates I’d like to see win, and the propositions I’d like to see pass or not pass (I live in California where we have about a dozen propositions to vote on). I decided to make phone calls to undecided voters for my presidential candidate and one of the propositions, and I got to experience what outbound call center agents/telemarketers get to experience every working day. And they have my deepest respect!

My two experiences were very different, as are various call centers, depending on their level of technological adoption. The phone calling system for the presidential candidate was pretty sophisticated, and via the Internet, it provided me with a list of key voters to contact in battleground states, a script to use in my conversations, and an easy interface to report back my contacts. Because it was web based, I was able to make calls from the comfort of my home. The script was simple to follow, and I clicked on the various options to report on the contact (eg, not home, refused to talk, non-English speaker, etc.), as well as which candidate they were voting for or leaning toward. It was a well-run operation that made it simple to make calls. There were links to sites providing background information, FAQs, etc. in case I wanted to read up on the candidate’s platform and policies before making calls. The system automatically kept track of how many calls I made, the outcome of the call, and any additional notes or comments I added.

My experience with the phone calls for one of the propositions was totally different. It was not computerized, and I had to go to the phone bank to make the calls instead of calling from my home. The script was printed on several sheets of paper, and was very complex to follow (eg, if the person answers yes to question 1, go to question 3, which was 2 pages away). The names and numbers of people to call were provided to us on paper, and we had to keep track of the calls and responses on two different pieces of paper, which made it very confusing. At the end of the night we had to manually add up how many calls we made, how many wrong numbers we reached, how many people refused to talk to us, didn’t speak English, etc.

Making calls for the proposition was a very manual process, and not at all easy to navigate through, while calling on behalf of the candidate was all computerized and online, making it much simpler and more user friendly. It was much easier to stick to the script using the computerized process rather than the manual process, so I assume I was more effective while speaking to voters since I didn’t have to shuffle through different pages to follow the script. And because I had to manually record my progress and the results of the calls on two different forms, it was more likely I made mistakes and left out information.

While I didn’t come in contact with overtly hostile voters, not everyone was willing to talk or listen to my spiel (not that I blame them - like everyone else, I don’t like it when I get these kinds of calls). For the most part the people I contacted were cordial, but there were certainly a few who were pretty rude - even when they supported the candidate on whose behalf I was calling. Again, I hate receiving these calls, and I can’t blame anyone who is less than overwhelmed to chat about their political leanings.

What are the lessons learned from this experience? First, provide the right tools for your contact center agents (inbound or outbound). We’ve had CTI for years, but how many contact center actually have CTI implemented? Way too few.  Good tools can make all the difference. Also, make the process as simple and easy to use as possible for the agents - it will make them more effective and productive. A good user interface is important for both agent efficiency and accuracy in terms of reporting and tracking results.

And lastly, respect and value your contact center agents - they have a very difficult job that requires interfacing with people who aren’t always friendly or courteous. Give your agents a big pat on the back - they deserve it.

Tags: Unified Communications, Unified Communications Information by Blair Pleasant
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This week I went to Toronto in order to attend the ICCM Canada trade show.  This is the third year in a row I’ve gone to that particular show and have provided the keynote session as well as the final session of the event, which is an executive overview of the North American contact center industry.

ICCM Canada is one of the few trade shows I go to anymore.  It’s not a particularly large show and there isn’t a lot of flash and hype like you find at so many American shows.  Instead it is an event that attracts attendees who are genuinely interested in the information provided, who will look you directly in the eye, who aren’t looking for something for nothing and who will generally do what they say they will do without first determining what’s in it for them.  In other words, Canadians.

Like many other contact center trade shows, ICCM Canada was top-heavy with operationally-oriented sessions.  Although conference session topics based upon things like determining the appropriate number of pizza parties to have for agents each month or establishing cake baking as a team building exercise are lost on me, there must be people who get value out of it.  That’s probably why so many contact center conferences have these same old tired conference session topics time after time.  There is typically very little discussion of the industry’s trends, issues or opportunities.   Conferences today tend to be dominated by topics of interest to first line supervisors and below.

At ICCM Canada I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who made an effort to seek me out to talk about UC and Web 2.0 in the contact center and who stayed right to the bitter end to join me in my locknote address.  The final session of the final day had to be moved to the main auditorium to accommodate the number of attendees.  That tells me something about the dedication of the people who make up the Canadian contact center industry.  Feedback from those people dictated that I spend the majority of the locknote presentation discussing UC and Web 2.0, which also tells me that ICCM Canada probably attracts more strategic and higher level managers.

Over the two days of the conference I had the opportunity to attend or audit several other conference sessions.  I noticed that there was very little audience participation even during the Q & A part of the sessions.  I know part of this can be chalked up to politeness.  Remember, this was Canada where even the radio shock jocks are polite.  But things were very different when the topic turned to UC and Web 2.0 in my session.

As my presentation turned first to UC, then to Web 2.0 and its impact on the contact center, the audience became very engaged.  The several questions I received during the presentation turned into a lively discussion during which I could tell I’d hit a hot button with this otherwise stoic audience.  The session actually went beyond its scheduled finish time.  Remember, this was the last session of the last day.  I didn’t even lose the people who had to face that Toronto commute traffic in order to get home.  I was pleased and impressed.

If you’re not paying attention to the Canadian market due to size, buying power or any other reason, it’s time to reconsider that position.  Historically the Canadian telecommunications market has been an early adopter of new technologies and an innovative user of new communications solutions.  If my experience at ICCM Canada in Toronto is any indication of the potential adoption of UC and other new communications strategies in the Canadian market, my advice is to make a run for the border, eh!

Tags: Mobile UC, Unified Communications Information, Unified Communications Information by Paul Stockford
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On August 18, 2008, Cisco Systems introduced the Cisco Unified Intelligence Suite, a state-of-the-art business intelligence solution for the contact center. Built on a Web 2.0 framework, Cisco Unified Intelligence Suite can draw information from virtually any source and represents a new direction in pulling together information for contact center performance management and analytics.

This product announcement is the culmination of Cisco’s acquisition of Latigent that occurred in September of last year. Latigent was a contact center business intelligence platform that was clearly ahead of its time - so much so that the two company founders had a hard time getting their message out to a user community that was, by and large, used to looking at fairly similar performance management products. A few customers “got it” and bought the Latigent product but I think it was when Cisco took a look at it that the light bulbs went on.

Latigent provided Cisco with a way to get at data that was meaningful to their customers and offered a flexible platform upon which to build future applications in line with the companies internet protocol (IP)-based product strategy. It wasn’t a surprise to see Cisco acquire Latigent, it was a surprise to see how long it took Cisco to acquire Latigent.

The Cisco Unified Intelligence Suite is based upon the Latigent platform and characterizes Cisco’s commitment to fully embrace Web 2.0 and the business intelligence power that it brings to the customer service function. The Unified Intelligence Suite brings non-traditional information to the contact center, encompassing the personalization of the desktop workspace and enterprise collaboration through the sharing of dashboard information and reports.

As a comprehensive reporting package, Unified Intelligence Suite comes with standard Cisco report templates enhanced by the former Latigent’s report wizard that made it among the most user-friendly platforms in the business intelligence market. Users can also customize reports as desired.

Users can design dashboard information mashups that incorporate data that is most useful to them, including data from nontraditional sources. As with all performance management products, access to dashboard performance data is limited as appropriate.

Among the smart things Cisco has done with the introduction of Unified Intelligence Suite is design it so it can be used with non-Cisco products. This allows Cisco the flexibility to compete with niche vendors as well as the other major infrastructure solutions providers. Unified Intelligence Suite can be implemented as a standalone solution even if the customer has no other Cisco equipment in the contact center.

The introduction of the Unified Intelligence Suite underscores Cisco’s commitment to the contact center market, and to workforce optimization. It is tangible evidence of Cisco’s ability to understand and respond to the changing needs of the contact center environment.

Tags: Unified Communications Information, Unified Communications Information by Paul Stockford
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I have been following Siemens and their unified communications strategy even before we called it UC. Their strategy has evolved but their direction has been surprisingly consistent. Siemens worked with Microsoft on solutions we now call UC. They were ahead of the market but it looks like they now have an opportunity to become a market leader in the UC space.

My colleagues have posted several blogs and articles on UCStrategies.com discussing Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEC) joint venture (JV) with The Gores Group (TGG).

• Marty Parker - “SEN has arguably the best software stack for UC solutions in the entire industry in their OpenScape Communications Suite.”
• Don Van Doren - “My suggestion is that Gores and SEN strive to become the systems integrator of choice for integrating voice communications into business processes.”
• Paul Stockford - “Siemens in unquestionably a power to be reckoned with in the emerging UC market, but they’re a non-entity in the well-established contact center market.”
• Michael Finneran - “In the near-term, mobility could be the joint venture’s ace-in-the-hole.”
• David Yedwab - “the US focus of The Gores Group and its contribution of Enterasys and SER Solutions to the JV is logically designed to have significant positive impact”

The JV will be well positioned from the start with $350M Euros for investment to shore up any product or distribution deficiencies and $500M Euros in working capital (and no debt) to cover any losses - which are unlikely with SEC’s recent cost cutting initiatives and TGG’s practice of turning acquired companies profitable within months of acquisition (JV in this case).

The challenge - will the new joint venture be able to take advantage of this opportunity. I have always felt - Siemens has a great UC story but nobody is buying it - why? I have already mentioned they were early to market and, they have a great marketing executive in Mark Straton - so why haven’t they been more successful? A simple explanation - Siemens is too large to easily evolve with the changing market and technology. The market is changing but Siemens corporate was not agile enough to change quickly to leverage the opportunity (you can read - challenges at Avaya and Alcatel Lucent into this).

To become a market leader they need to change the way enterprise customers look at communications. This is something we at UCStrategies.com are passionate about. We believe the vendors needs to support what they already know - the PBX is changing from the center of communications to a part of an enterprises communications solution. UC is communications integrated to optimize business processes and is not about buying a new PBX.

SEC appears to be the only vendor positioned for the changes UC brings. Most vendors have not been able to change their business model and still require the revenue and profits associated with sales of new IP-PBX’s. SEC is position to be successful by selling UC solutions - no matter whose PBX is part of the solution.

Too many enterprise customers are stuck in the same old model that is slowly killing past industry communications giants. The first thing they think about is replacing their current PBX with an IP PBX that will migrate to UC. They should be thinking - how can I communications enable a business process. If we need a new PBX great but that is not the core decisions process.

The SEC and the JV has an incredible opportunity. In not too many years we could look back and say Alec Gores was a genius. He leveraged an opportunity and his company became a market leader. Time will tell.

Tags: Unified Communications, Unified Communications Information by Jim Burton
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