CRM

Unified Communications Helps Improve Both CRM and CEM

Companies have focused for years now on CRM- customer relationship management. They want to make sure they have the right tools in place and measure the right metrics to maximize the value of each customer relationship. Makes sense…for the company.

Now, companies are starting to understand and embrace CEM- customer experience management. CEM looks at the interaction from the perspective of the customer. Rather than just managing the relationship, CEM seeks to ensure the best possible experience for the customer each time they interact with the company.

The good news is that focusing on CEM is almost guaranteed to lead to improved CRM as well. Even more good news is that unified communications can play an instrumental role in both sides of that equation.

Whether it is providing employees with the tools to efficiently and effectively manage customer relationships, or integrating and simplifying customer interactions to improve the customer experience, unified communications has cost effective tools to make it happen.

Check out Enhancing Customer Experience to learn more about CEM and how to achieve it with unified communications.

Aspect Unified IP 6.6 Introduces Microsoft UC Integration

Back in June I wrote a post about the newly formed partnership between Aspect Software and Microsoft. Aspect was already an established leader in providing IP-based solutions for call centers, and Microsoft is an established leader in providing unified communications solutions. The obvious goal of their union was to bring the features and benefits of unified communications into the IP-based call center, and provide a new market for Microsoft unified communications by expanding the capabilities of their UC offering to address the call center.

Aspect recently announced that this December they will roll out Unified IP v6.6. According to the article “Aspect Unified IP 6.6 is designed to offer an ask-an-expert capability using the instant messaging and presence technology available in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. This newest feature enables Aspect Unified IP to seamlessly integrate to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 to specifically request real-time presence information.”

Aspect Dives Into UC Services Delivery

Aspect, a leader in providing IP communications solutions for call centers, partnered with Microsoft earlier this year and is hard at work in collaboration with Microsoft to integrate what they offer for call centers with what Microsoft offers for unified communications. Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, projected for release in February of 2009, includes a variety of new features that will provide additional capabilities for call center environments. As the partnership evolves and the tools offered by Aspect and Microsoft are integrated, Aspect has now announced a new professional services and systems integration arm to help customers with architecting, implementing, and administering a Microsoft Unified Communications infrastructure.

Aspect Names Head of Global Professional Services

Aspect Software, a major player in unified communications and the largest company focused solely on providing unified communications for the call center, named Kevin Schwarz Executive Vice President of Global Professional Services. Aspect has been providing IP-based solutions in the call center for some time, and they joined forces with Microsoft earlier this year. The Microsoft partnership is based on a joint-effort to take Aspect’s dominant position in call center IP solutions and integrate it with Microsoft’s unified communications platform. The resulting combination opens a number of new possibilities and it will be Schwarz’s responsibility to identify and exploit new markets and opportunities. Check out this Marketwatch.com article to learn more about Aspect’s new addition.

Report: Unified Communications in the Call Center

The Aberdeen Group conducted a survey earlier this year regarding the use of unified communications technologies in the call center. According to this Marketwatch.com article, one of the authors of the report said “Unified communications is as much about the business, finding the right business process to UC-enable, and finding the right return on investment for the right departments. A small number — 23% — have some form of unified communications implemented, but an astounding 50% of customers surveyed are or will be evaluating unified communications in the next eighteen months.” Aberdeen reports usually cost money, but Aspect Software and Avaya have sponsored this report so that you can download it for free (until September 26).

Nortel Delivers “Green” UC for Call Center

What’s better than delivering an IP-enabled solution that can handle up to 850 concurrent users and allow a call-center to efficiently manage and route calls to agents regardless of their physical location? Delivering that solution using technology that is both economically and ecologically frugal. One aspect of Nortel’s offerings which is fairly unique in the marketplace is the fact that they provide a product line designed to run with a minimal carbon footprint and help companies be more environmentally responsible. For more about Nortel’s project to deliver the Melbourne call center for PCI, read this article from Green.TMCNet.com.

Unified Communications in the Call Center

Microsoft has a unified communications offering for small and medium businesses (SMB) with Response Point. They also have a more robust solution for enterprises providing even more features, functionality, and power for unified communications with Microsoft UC. What they do’t have, or at least didn’t have, is a unified communications solution for call centers, or other businesses that rely on communications more than standard businesses at an almost exponential level. The have formed a partnership with Aspect, a company that focuses on delivering innovative solutions for customer service and call centers. Combining the power and flexibility of Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007 with Aspect Unified IP delivers next-generation communications for call centers. There are still some hurdles to cross. Aside from delivering unified communications capabilities to the call center, the solution also has to offer high availability and resiliency to ensure communications are not disrupted even in the event of a server, or complete site catastrophe.

BroadSoft Adds VoIP to Salesforce.com

Broadsoft, a VoIP provider, has developed the Unified Connector for Salesforce, bringing unified communications functionality to Salesforce.com, a pioneer in SaaS (software as a service) and CRM (customer relationship manager). The Unified Connector for Salesforce is the premier Web 2.0 mashup from the Broadsoft Xtended program, an initiative by Broadsoft to explore ways to to combine their VoIP solutions with Web 2.0 applications. The Unified Connector for Salesforce enables customers to use their Broadsoft VoIP functionality, such as dialing with the click of a mouse, and the ability to transfer calls or place them on hold, to the powerful CRM capabilities of Salesforce.com. The Unified Connector for Salesforce has earned accolades for Broadsoft from Unified Communications Magazine, and from VON Magazine.