Written by : Hani Masgidi
http://www.contactcenterhelp.com
http://www.crm2crm.com
The outputs of CRM are well-known: by a lining all processes and enriches the sales, the marketing, and the customer service personnel with more solid and better understanding, and more complete customer information, CRM allows companies to gain more profitable customer relationships and decrease operating expanses.
Sales values and benefits
¨      Increase the number of potential customers under the company’s umbrella.
¨      Having automated dynamic sales processes in place.
¨      Increase the number of leads through different channels, and new opportunities.
¨      Ensure all the sales leads to be attended.
¨      Cross sell and up sell features.
Marketing Values and benefits
¨      Track all kind of marketing campaigns response and measure their efficiency.
¨      Generate focused campaigns based on the CRM inputs.
¨      Get full and updated information about the company’s customers and the positional customers.
¨      Allow long term plans.
Customer Service Values and benefits
¨      Meet all operational commitments of the company and to fulfill the intrinsic requirements of existing customers
¨      Ensure  an approved predefined procures for all the operational processes to be followed
¨      Build world class customer services that caters to unique requirements of demanding customers
¨      Better understanding for customers’ needs

Call Centers generally refer to centers where agents handle more than voice-centric, public switched telephony network-based call center types of customer, partner and/or associate contacts. Those contacts could come through email, public switched calls, VoIP calls, fax, Web chat or any other channel of communication.

A Call Center could handle one, all or any combination of those channels.
Call center Inbound Services:

Incoming Call Center deals with answering customer questions, (information hotline, technical support, customer service etc.), to receive customer orders, to redirect customers to pertinent help etc.
Call center Outbound Services:

Outgoing Call Centers mainly deals with outbound calls. These Call Centers can be used directly to advertise and sell goods or services, to solicit information, (surveys, political poles, customer satisfaction etc.), to campaign or otherwise inform the public.

Companies of all types and sizes have leveraged CRM to dramatically improve sales,
marketing, and service. Yet a major decision underlies the CRM selection process, and
that is whether to choose an on-premise application or an on-demand service.
Certain vendors preach the softwaredeployment model du jour as the only surefire path to CRM success before understanding your business requirements.However, embarking on this ready-fire-aim strategy increases the risk you’ll end up with a CRM deployment model that isn’t synchronized with your company’s business processes, cost structure, or IT resources.
Selecting the right deployment model must first and foremost address your key business problems and challenges, enabling you to meet your strategic business goals.And the more you know the pros and cons of each deployment model, the more certain it is that you will embark on a path to CRM success. Today’s CRM deployment options include:
ON-PREMISE CRM
These applications offer the deepest sales, marketing, and service functionality of any deployment option. They also offer highly specialized business-process support for a wide range of vertical markets.
Organizations selecting on-premise CRM purchase a software license and internally support the application. Although deployment can be longer for on-premise CRM than for shared on-demand CRM, companies with industrial-strength CRM requirements should consider on-premise CRM. For example, organizations that need to support tens of thousands of global users, provide the strongest levels of competitive differentiation through CRM, and ensure the most stringent behind-thefirewall data security are ideal candidates for on-premise CRM. Read the rest of this entry »

FedEx Express Demonstrates Exceptional Commitment to Customers

    MISSISSAUGA, ON, July 3 /CNW/ - Federal Express Canada Ltd. (”FedEx
Express Canada”), a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX), today won “The Best
of the Best Americas” award from Contact Center World in Orlando, Fla.
    The international panel of judges awarded the prize to FedEx Express
Canada for its ability to deliver an outstanding customer experience through
focusing on the performance culture of its employees, as proven by its receipt
earlier this year of the “Contact Center Employer of Choice” award. FedEx
Express Canada will now go on to compete for the title of Best in the World
for 2007 later this year in Las Vegas.
    FedEx Express Canada has been serving Canadian customers from its
domestic contact centers since its launch into the Canadian market in 1987.
Even then, the company recognized the importance of having centers based
locally to serve the particular needs of Canadian customers. Over the years,
the contact center has expanded from providing service in English and French
to providing service in as many as 33 other languages today. Another important
component of its evolution to best-in-class status was the provision of a
“first contact resolution” for customers.
    “Our brand is founded on reliability, and the contact centre is, in most
cases, the customer’s first interaction with our company. If we do everything
right at the front end and provide our customers with the correct information
so they can access the global marketplace, they will become loyal customers,”
said Patsy Bertoia, managing director, Customer Service at FedEx Express
Canada. “The customer experience is our key competitive advantage and we are
the customer experience. Research shows that our customers agree.”
    The 2nd Annual Contact Center World Awards and Conferences are supported
by 16 industry associations around the world. Commenting on the award, Raj
Wadhwani, president of ContactCenterWorld.com said, “To be chosen as The Best
of the Best is an amazing achievement. FedEx Express Canada’s commitment to
the customer, their focus on employees and their ability to demonstrate
(incredible) performance has been recognized today and rightfully earned.”
    For more information regarding FedEx Express Canada please visit
www.fedex.ca.

    About FedEx Express Canada

    Federal Express Canada Ltd. is a global logistics and transportation
company offering domestic and international shipping and electronic commerce
solutions. The company uses real-time package status tracking systems,
automated customs clearance services and a dedicated air and ground
transportation network to serve Canadian and global markets. FedEx Express
Canada is dedicated to being the nation’s “employer, neighbour and shipper of
choice”. FedEx employs approximately 5,000 people in over 60 facilities
coast-to-coast. For free B-roll/video content about FedEx Express Canada
please log onto www.thenewsmarket.com/fedex to preview and request video. You
can receive broadcast-standard video digitally or by tape from this site.
Registration and video is free to the media.

    About ContactCenterWorld.com

    ContactCenterWorld.com is the World’s leading on-line resource for
contact center and customer service professionals. With a membership of 99,000
strong, the ContactCenterWorld.com brand is synonymous with innovation,
leadership, creativity and support.

Open Source Voice Communications Technology Works with Unified Solution to Yield Cost-Savings, Reduce Complexity and Increase Flexibility

 Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on the contact center, announced today it has successfully deployed the Digium® Asterisk Business Edition™ Internet Protocol (IP) private branch exchange (PBX) at its new corporate headquarters and is now benefiting from the cost-savings and flexibility of an open source deployment. It is being used to support 500 Aspect Software business employees, as well as technical service support personnel in its mission-critical contact center environment. The industry-leading open source IP PBX is interoperating with Aspect® Unified IP™, the unified solution from Aspect Software that streamlines routing, reporting and administration by handling voice, email, and web interactions on a single, scalable and highly reliable platform.

As a reseller of Digium’s Asterisk Business Edition, Aspect Software recognizes the value that an open source IP PBX can bring to the organization, particularly when interoperating with its session initiation protocol (SIP)-based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) contact center solution, Aspect Unified IP.

“We needed a reliable and flexible PBX platform that offered high-quality voice interactions for both our general business and contact center employees and have found that the Asterisk solution has delivered,” said Jamie Ryan, chief information officer at Aspect Software. ”The implementation was incredibly easy, the quality of the calls has been great and most importantly, Asterisk coupled with our unified contact center solution is the first step in our goal of creating a full fledged unified communications offering.”

Because of its SIP-based VoIP capabilities, the Asterisk Business Edition can readily interoperate with the company’s leading unified contact center solution, Aspect Unified IP, which provides the ACD, voice portal, recording and quality management capabilities to help the Aspect Technical Services organization manage its critical customer service interactions.

Mark Spencer, founder and chief technology officer at Digium, the original creator and primary developer of Asterisk®, said: ”Asterisk implementations within organizations of every size are rapidly growing because of the openness and flexibility that it brings, as validated by Aspect Software. Aspect Software, a Digium partner, brings a unique perspective based on its extensive knowledge of open and closed source voice communications technology and unified communications. Aspect Software’s choice of Digium Asterisk for their corporate headquarters further demonstrates the quality of the open source solution and shows that businesses and their contact centers can easily leverage a VoIP infrastructure and experience the benefits of SIP-based solutions.”

Aspect Software is also planning on expanding the deployment of Asterisk Business Edition to other offices in the near future.

Aspect Software provides support for the Digium open source internet protocol (IP) PBX, the Asterisk Business Edition – a professional-grade version of the industry’s first open source IP PBX – for customers of its Unified and Signature product lines. The Aspect Software packaged offering includes licenses, optional SIP phones, optional application servers and IP gateways, interoperability with Aspect contact centers products, as well as installation, deployment and post-deployment support.

CRM Today