Today, in Melbourne, Genesys hosted the third consecutive day of the 2008 G-Force APAC conference. The event attracted over 800 attendees, a similar number of registrations to last year. In a press conference yesterday Genesys' Mike McBrien, APAC Senior VP, Jason Stirling, VP Australia, India and NZ, and US based Paul Lang, VP Product Management and David Radoff, Director of PR and Analyst Relations discussed Genesys' market positioning going into this period of potential business uncertainty. Stirling spoke about Genesys' position being not as a technology company or even a solutions vendor, rather a business partner that is focused on solving business issues and improving the customer experience. Reflective of this, McBrien stated that the company is currently increasing its professional consulting services team across the region.
Genesys' market focus will be on the virtualisation of the enterprise and the contact centre achieved through integrating back office and front office business processes and enabling home-based agents, experts and other organisation members outside the contact centre to handle calls. Genesys stated that unlike competitors, Aspect, Cisco and Avaya, they will not actively market a Unified Communications (UC) position. They believe UC is a component of a virtualisation strategy, but not the strategy itself.
The Genesys executives stated that they are committed to "closing the gaps in businesses", including the gap between what C-level executives promise their client base and what customer service organisations deliver. This gap is detailed in a Whitepaper released today titled "The Executive Disconnect: The Strategic Alignment of Customer Service in APAC".
Lang spoke about an increasing need for contact centres to move to flexible work conditions for contact centre workers, which is currently the most effective agent retention strategy in Australia. He spoke about workforce planning becoming far more dynamic than it currently is with organisations potentially using net community sites to facilitate staff members "shift bidding, shift trading, vacation bidding and even car pooling".
A further initiative Genesys has announced in order to support organisations improve the customer experience, is the partnership with SalesForce founder, Kevin Panozza and the promotion of his online training programme, Quality Conversations, which has been developed by e-learning experts, AFrame in company with specialist educator, Frank Romano. Genesys will deliver the online programme internationally via the Genesys University.
callcentres.net's current area of interest as a research topic is the contact centre industry's contribution to reducing the carbon footprint of business. The question posed to the Genesys executives was simple: will increasing fuel costs and environmental concerns drive increased consumer usage of contact centres and the internet and is this a conversation Genesys is having with executives in the workplace? Stirling commented that two of the keynote speakers at G-Force, the ATO's Jane King and NAB's Steve Collier "both used the word green in their presentations," however, as yet it is not an explicit conversation that companies are having. Radoff suggested that the green impact is a positive by-product of companies moving to a virtualised platform, and that the increase in home-based work, the integration of contact centre and back-end processes will all have a positive effect on reducing carbon footprints.
Dr Catriona Wallace Director, callcentres.net
NZ Govt looks for overflow contact centre outsourcer
New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) is reportedly seeking registrations of interest to supply a full-time overflow telephone answering service for its 0800 DOCHOT public call system.
The contact centre will be expected to handle between 25,000 and 30,000 call minutes per year. DOC is looking for a contractor that will be able to provide 24-hour telephone answering services without sub-contracting. It also wants a contractor that can use a DOC provided script to transfer callers to the appropriate duty officer after hours or the appropriate DOC office.
DOC reportedly requires a contact centre contractor that can answer 60% of calls within 10 seconds, 80% within 20 seconds and 95% answered within 60 seconds. It also aims for the number of unanswered calls to be in the region of 3% of all calls. DOC expects the work to be tendered on 15 September with a tender period of four weeks. The service is expected to begin November 10 for a 12-month period.
Telstra defends worker agreement plan
Telstra has defended its plan of its contact centre staff non-union enterprise agreements, a move condemned by the unions.
Leaked confidential documents reported in the media show the company is set in coming weeks to offer Work Choices-style agreements in areas with low unionisation rates, including contact centre workers and technicians. Telstra media spokesman Martin Barr told reporters the documents sounded like the same model Telstra put on the table in talks with unions.
That model "aims to secure significant incentive-based productivity gains over time while offering guaranteed pay increases to our employees and preserving their terms and conditions," Barr said. ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence said the documents show Telstra management has an agenda to use the former government's Work Choices to sideline unions and cut workers' pay and conditions.
People Telecom outsourced contact centre
British-based EuroConnXion has announced a contact centre outsourcing deal with Australian telco People Telecommunications.
The deal, signed by EuroConnXion's wholly-owned Australian unit Sonnet Enterprise Services is reported to be worth $5.7 million over five years. Sonnet will take full responsibility for the fully managed, outsourced contact centre service no later than Oct. 1.
Established in 2000, People Telecom offers mobile, landline phone and data services to residential and business customers.
NAB to introduce speech rec
The National Australia Bank (NAB) is planning to add speech recognition capabilities to its contact centres.
NAB's natural language speech portal, SmartTalk, is expected to be launched later this year to replace current IVR technology. SmartTalk combines speech recognition software and intelligent routing solutions.
"That's going to be a big improvement on where we are," said NAB's Steve Collier. By routing all incoming calls via one telephone number using SmartTalk, the technology also is expected to strengthen the bank's brand. SmartTalk joins a range of technologies that Collier has introduced since taking the reins of NAB's contact centre operations.
'your call' Blog ...
G-Force - The morning after
Again, another huge turnout at Genesys' G-Force held at the Crown in Melbourne. I am told 850-900 guests this year, limited by the capacity of the venue. The mood is upbeat and clearly the APAC contact centre industry has not yet felt the sting of the tightening global economy. Presentations were conducted by the ATO, NAB, Siam Commercial Bank, AXA, iiNet, Telstra, Inland Revenue, NZ, Westnet, Medibank Private, and by vendors, Nuance, IBM, Cyara, Gen-I and then truck loads of Genesys presentations. My initial take on the agenda for the 3 days was that it was heavily Genesys laden, and there could have been more case or end user organisation presentations. So I did ask around to gauge the audience's views and although there were a few sponsors who would like to have seen their client case studies get an airing... most other delegates said that they enjoyed the keynotes and think of the Genesys sessions almost as technical training.
The theme of the Gala Dinner was a Carnival, and although Jules and I were disappointed there were no muscle men or bearded ladies, there were plenty of young females in can-can and Moulin Rouge outfits.
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G-Force - The morning after
