Call Center Industry News

May 2010

Alston Tascom's Universal Communicator FR-500

Alston Tascom will unveil the Tascom FR-500 communicator system at the upcoming ATSI 2010 convention in May.  When triggered, the system will phone a call center's customer base to inform them of new features, a system upgrade, a progress report on system issues, a change in available services, or any other condition or relevant information.  Customers are notified in a timely, efficient, and cost-effective manner.  This autonomous service works on any call center platform or on stand-alone basis.

The service can also be sold to clients, such as political groups calling voters for a local election.  Another application is facilitating communication within small teams (such as first responders) or multiple teams.  The system uses multiple lines, and once the initial contact persons have been reached in each team, it moves on to call other teams until the response unit is completely manned.  The FR-500 communicates over SIP trunks, PRI, or analog lines; pricing is extremely affordable.

For more information, call Alston Tascom 866-282-7266 or email info@alstontascom.com.

Professional Teledata Announces PInnacle Dashboard Accessory Program

Professional Teledata announced the availability of the Pinnacle Dashboard Accessory Program for all Pinnacle customers.  The dashboard provides a real-time visual display of key system metrics, including ACD-queue status, agent status, message-delivery status, and call traffic.  It provides an overall image of the key elements of call center load and performance.  Custom color-coding allows managers to set graduated warning parameters for real-time performance issues such as long hold times, excessive calls on hold, long calls, etc.  Further detailed screens may be displayed by clicking or "drilling down" on various components of the master screen as desired by the supervisor or when warning signs appear.

Another powerful tool of Dashboard is the real-time traffic screen, which provides a graphic display of call activity, including calls offered, abandoned, ASA, and abandonment rate.  Dashboard is designed with multiple monitor support in mind, so it can easily be run on a second monitor attached to a supervisory PC.  When used with a large-screen monitor, Dashboard easily serves as a sophisticated reader board.   

CenturiSoft Receives 2009 Best of Business Award

CenturiSoft Inc. has been selected for the 2009 Best of Business Award in the telecommunications category by the Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA).  The SBCA 2009 Award Program recognizes the top 5 percent of small businesses throughout the country. 

Using statistical research and consumer feedback, the SBCA identifies companies that it believes have demonstrated what makes small businesses a vital part of the American economy.  The selection committee chooses the award winners from nominees based on statistical research and information taken from monthly surveys administered by the SBCA, a review of consumer rankings, and other consumer reports.

Etech Expands Bilingual Contact Center in Pasadena, TX

Etech, Inc., a global business process outsourcer, announced plans to continue expansion of their dedicated bilingual contact center in the Houston suburb of Pasadena, Texas.

In 2007, recognizing an opportunity to service Hispanic customers, Etech established a bilingual contact center, starting with twenty team members doing outbound sales.  Today, the center has grown to over a hundred team members doing outbound and inbound sales, customer service, and Web chat for clients in a variety of verticals.  It is expected that by the end of 2010 the center will grow to over 250 team members.

"The city of Pasadena has been wonderful to work with, and they continue to demonstrate that they can provide the labor market to meet the demands of our customers," stated Matt Rocco, chief operating officer.  "The fastest growing demographic group in the U.S. is Hispanic.  Presently, they spend about $700 billion dollars annually and that number is expected to surge to over $1 trillion per year by the end of the decade.  The team members we continue to recruit in Pasadena are highly talented, fluent in both English and Spanish, and have great attitudes."

Spanlink Appoints Roxann Swanson as VP of Sales

Spanlink Communications announced that Roxann Swanson has joined the company as vice president of sales.  Swanson will oversee the sales organization of Spanlink's Cisco practice.  She will report to Spanlink president and CEO Scott Christian and will be based in Dallas.

Swanson has more than twenty-five years of experience in the telecommunications and contact center industry.  She formerly served as vice president of contact center sales for Cisco.  During her time there, Swanson grew overall contact center sales by 20 percent year after year.  In addition, she played an integral role in driving Cisco's contact center market share from fourth to second.

"Roxann stands out as an exceptional leader in the enterprise contact center space," said Christian.  "Her strengths include organizational development and leadership, strategic thinking, strong relationships, outstanding sales skills, and a burning passion for this business.  Roxann has a proven track record of success, and we're thrilled to have her join our team."

Professional Teledata User Group Has "Great Meeting"

Users of Professional Teledata products, PINetwork, held their annual Professional Inbound Network (PIN) meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona on March 14 to 17.  "The PIN group planned a great meeting.  The sessions were interesting, and the social events were over the top," said Pat Kalik, vice president of Professional Teledata, a provider of call center systems and software.

In addition to company and product updates, sessions included:

• Real-time traffic reporting

• Agent training

• SMS features

• Disaster recovery

• Pinnacle Dashboard

• Previews of new features

Tuesday night the group visited Contact One Call Center in Tucson and then enjoyed a real western barbecue hosted by member Judy Wood and her family.

The new PIN board of directors for 2010-2011 was announced:

• Susan Liggett, CallNet  --  president

• Charlie Crown, Towne Answering  --  vice president/president elect

• Larry Bear, Port Answer  --  treasurer

• Michael Shaw, Business & Professional Exchange  --  secretary

• Royce Mitchell, Westpark Communications  --  board member

• Rose Nigro, Professionally Speaking  --  board member

• Peter Gross, Sunshine Communications --  board member

• Phyllis Shaw, Business & Professional Exchange  --  past president

CenturiSoft Releases CenturiMessenger 5.0

CenturiSoft announced the debut of CenturiMessenger 5.0.  Its features include a "survey" box and multiple holiday scheduling.  The emphasis of the release was mostly on enhancements and improvements to delivery and notification through various mediums.  Interconnection to new services such as Skype is also included. 

Various additional features and improved scalability to 600 ports has been added to the update (up from the prior limit of 400).  "Our larger customers have needed larger system scalability, and we have been able to deliver on that need," remarked John Pope, president of CenturiSoft.

"Still in the works for later this year are having HD (high definition) audio and video voicemail.  Windows 7 certification should be completed by mid-May, and we will be shipping Windows 7 with Centuri Messenger in the June/July time frame," Pope added.