MARKETS IN FOCUS
www.comms-dealer.com
IP in the contact centre
IP contact centre applications have become
top technology trends and now is a great for
resellers to help traditional call centres make the
transition to IP, according to Gordon Loader, Senior
Manager of EMEA Solutions Marketing, Avaya.
T
he first companies Video. Finally, they want to He added that dealers could
that moved to an IPT- ensure the technology is flexible add value by benchmarking their
based contact centre enough to cater for unforeseen customers’ operations against
environment found events, such as M&A activity, best practice examples in their
it to be both a complex and new legislation and so on.” own and other industry sectors.
daunting transition, says Loader,
Gordon Loader
“By providing such precious insight
but nowadays the move to IPT This evolution provides a ‘massive dealers can create the opportunity
is a straightforward proposition opportunity’ for dealers, according full range of advanced services, to sell improved services and
with the technology and to Loader. “End user organisations from inbound/outbound live solutions. Such knowledge often
implementation methodologies are having to navigate entirely agent, self service and proactive comes, of course, through
having moved on ‘leaps and uncharted water. They know they outreach capabilities, to workforce dealings with numerous customer
bounds’. “There’s nothing to be need to tack off of their current optimisation,” commented Loader. organisations,” commented
nervous about. Dealers need to course, but they’re not sure how Loader. “But simple tactics such as
ensure that a solid project plan, or when to do so,” he added. “Customers should also look calling the customer’s call centre
which adheres to relevant industry “Dealers need to arm themselves to vendors and dealers for yourself and being able to speak
standard approaches, is in place with the metaphorical compass, an illustration of the solutions’ firsthand of your experience can
before they start work. And when the necessary knowledge and impact on the bottom line. Will be quite an eye-opener. Never
integrating software applications know-how, both regarding the discretionary investments deliver forget that communications must
they need to leverage any specific latest technological offerings, tangible RoI? Is this deployment enhance business process. So by
talents held by the relevant and also about their customers’ likely to reduce the organisation’s understanding the customers’
vendors. Remember, the dealer’s businesses and pain points. TCO? I’d be reluctant to invest if processes and whether there are
success is to their advantage too.” Customers will then be reliant on my dealer couldn’t discuss these any gaps, omissions or inefficiencies
dealers to help them use IP to measurable outcomes with me.” resellers get off to a good start.”
In the contact centre environment meet their businesses’ needs.”
there are four demands that The availability of new This move to IP is not a one-off event
come up time and time again Of utmost importance to customers technologies, such as Avaya but the start of a journey, from
in customer discussions, says is the ability to leverage their Aura, is enabling the migration contact centre to enterprise-wide
Loader, each of which can be current investments and the of communication systems customer service. “Technology is
solved through IP and is therefore facilitation of a smooth migration to new application-driven enabling a new age of innovation.
driving adoption. “Firstly, increased process. Experience shows that architectures, which in turn are Companies are having to innovate
flexibility to deploy resources where a phased approach is often allowing businesses to match and think outside of the box in order
it makes most sense, both from a best, believes Loader, starting their operational deployments to continue competing in the current
resource availability perspective with the transition of the network and communications systems to climate,” said Loader. “By the time
and from a security and business and its endpoints (which helps their customers’ needs in a way the recession has passed, they will
continuity perspective,” Loader to simplify operations and bring that would never have perceived all be operating quite differently.
said. “Customers also want to immediate cost-savings), and possible just a short while ago.
automate services and processes only then should resellers move But how does a sales person “With this in mind, dealers should
where possible: As well as onto application integration, identify the needs of a particular encourage their customers to
traditional self service there’s a bringing multimedia, presence customer and their callers and consider deploying solutions
need for automated outbound and self-service in to play. “The relate this to new technology? which demonstrate front-of-
service. Thirdly, they want to best contact centre solutions pack innovation, while delivering
provide a future-proof platform provide a unified communications “First of all, engage with the tangible business benefit and
that can integrate innovative platform, which acts as a customer, not just with the IT team, eliminating current pain points.
technology like Presence and framework for the delivery of a but at multiple levels across all For example, business analytics,
segments of the business,” advises proactive outreach (automated
For the first time comms
Loader. “Each company has its event-based customer comms),
nuances and successful sales video, speech enabled
services can now be tailored
people make the effort to fully applications and presence
understand their customers’ pain enabled applications are all
to specific business processes points, which they can then match interesting add-ons for businesses
to the appropriate solution.” wanting to differentiate.”
n
24 COMMS DEALER MAY 2009 www.comms-dealer.com
24 PG Avaya.indd 1 24/4/09 11:54:00
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