Contact Center Industry News

December 2011

Startel Now Employee-Owned

William Lane, CEO and president of Startel Corporation, announced that Bill Robertshaw has sold the company, which now will be an employee-owned entity backed by private investor, Brian W. Stewart. Bill Lane and the Startel team will remain in place, and the day-to-day operations of the company will not be affected.

“It was in the best interest of Startel Corporation, its employees, and especially its customers to sell the company at this time. Bill Lane has done a superb job of leading Startel out of its post-Comverse years, and I am confident that Startel, with the support of Mr. Stewart, will be able to progress to the next phase in its corporate evolution,” said Robertshaw.

“Mr. Robertshaw, a financial genius, was the perfect advisor during the season of Startel where he helped guide us in focusing on becoming an ever more profitable company. He has always had the best interest of Startel and its customers at heart, and selling the company is no exception,” said Lane.

Brian Stewart is a serial entrepreneur and has founded and built over eighteen start-up businesses during his career. 

For more information, contact Sheryl Denny at 949-863-8774 or sheryl.denny@startel.com. 

Telescan Unveils New Products

Telescan unveiled several new products at this year’s TUNe meeting to a record-setting attendance. Two new programs are Telescan’s Spectrum Messenger IPhone App and Telescan’s Business Continuity program. The latter is a disaster-hosted program available to all Telescan Platform users. Information was also shared on Telescan’s latest two non-platform specific programs: Appointment Scheduler and Virtual Observer, a screen-logging software.

Roger Young, Telescan president, said, “Telescan always looks forward to this conference. Our interaction with TUNe makes us a better company.” One of the main objectives of the conference was to provide technical updates, stat reviews, and marketing ideas from Telescan.

Robbie Parnell, TUNe president, added that the meeting “was a good, productive, and festive conference for all who attended. We’re already looking forward to the next TUNe meeting in St. Louis.”

“This year’s TUNe meeting was a great success,” concluded Patty Anderson, Telescan’s director of sales and marketing. “I’m looking forward to 2012. The future of Telescan is very exciting.”

For more information contact Patty at patty@telescan.net or 800-770-7662.

Barbara Bradbury Inducted into the CAM-X Hall of Fame

Barbara Bradbury of Answer Plus in Hamilton, Ontario, has been inducted into the 2011 CAM-X Hall of Fame. This presentation took place during the Gala banquet at CAM-X’s recent Convention and Trade Show held in Montreal, Quebec.

Barbara Bradbury was unanimously nominated for this esteemed honor by the CAM-X board of directors in appreciation of the passion she has shown for the association and the countless hours she has dedicated to mentoring others in the industry. Barbara has been in the call center business for almost twenty-six years. Her background is in sales and customer service, and the enthusiasm she brings to everything she does has made her a much sought-after speaker at conventions and trade shows. She is always willing to share what she has learned in the trenches about managing people, running a profitable business, and providing a level of customer service that goes beyond the expectations of her clients. Congratulations, Barbara!

Pat Vos Is 2011 Tom Ryan Award Recipient

Congratulations go out to Pat Vos of Intercon Messaging Inc. for winning the 2011 Tom Ryan Award for Ethics, Integrity, and Quality Above All. This honor was accepted at the 47th Annual CAM-X Convention and Trade Show held recently at the Hyatt Regency in Montreal, Quebec.

The Tom Ryan Award is presented annually in memory of one of the contact management field’s most ardent advocates, Tom Ryan. This industry-specific award pays homage to companies that exhibit quality service while adhering to a mandate based on commitment to ethics and integrity above all else. Also taken into consideration is the company’s overall dedication to maintaining a cohesive working environment, practicing ongoing internal and external customer service initiatives and continuous involvement in industry and community programs.

Based in Grimsby, Ontario, CAM-X (Canadian Call Management Association) is an industry trade association for the call management.

Professional Teledata Adds “Secure Messaging”

Professional Teledata added a “secure message” delivery method to its PInnacle Platform in response to HIPAA/HITECH regulations requiring that sensitive information be secure during transmission from the call center to the recipient. Secure message functionality is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android smart phones and iPad and Android tablets.

Agents submit secure messages for delivery and then are notified when the message has been delivered to the device and again when it is read. Recipients of these messages can “reply” directly back to the call center. The history for each message is updated with all activity to provide a detailed audit trail. As with all PInnacle delivery methods, secure message can be automatically sent to recipients without any agent interaction, streamlining the message taking and dispatch processes.

Pat Kalik, president of Professional Teledata said, “We are proud to make state-of-the-art technologies available to our users. These new features will allow PInnacle users to provide additional cutting-edge services to their customers, further strengthening the customer relationship.”

Professional Teledata provides systems and software products for the telemessaging and call center industries. Contact Karen Black 800-344-9944 x112 for pricing information.

OnviSource Rolls Out OnviCloud

OnviSource announced the rollout of OnviCloud, a tiered on-demand and cloud-based service for telecommunication, hosted PBX, and contact center solutions. Cloud services are provided through company’s newly established Texas data centers in Dallas and Plano. OnviSource has successfully deployed OnviCloud services for its own offices and contact centers in Texas and Oklahoma.

With a decade of experience, OnviSource is positioned to offer a suite of on-demand and cloud-based services. OnviCloud opens the door for companies to rapidly deploy business telephony services, workforce optimization, and automation applications while preserving cash, lowering the total cost of ownership and mitigating the initial risks and challenges of owning and operating new technologies.

OnviCloud is supported by OnviCare Customer Lifecycle Assistance Services, a complete package of customer support solutions to initiate and manage customers’ operations that include trials, professional services, customizations, customer relation management, and hands-on training.

OnviSource Named Top Partner by CenturyLink

OnviSource’s business process outsourcing services division was named 2010 Top Partner by CenturyLink, a major provider of telecommunications services. OnviSource earned the top honor by outperforming nearly 250 other partners and consistently exceeding its goals throughout last year. “We are honored by this award and are proud to achieve top ranking for our exceptional services and proven value as a strategic partner to CenturyLink,” said Ray S. Naeini, chairman and CEO of OnviSource.

OnviSource’s outsourcing division offers OnviServ, a suite of performance-based and technology-enabled outsourcing services in sales, marketing, campaign management, order processing-fulfillment, and customer support. OnviServ outsourcing services offers sales, marketing, customer retention, and customer transaction management services to telecom, cable, utility, and manufacturing enterprises. These services equip companies with greater flexibility and speed in cost-effectively outsourcing various business functions, responding to changing market trends, and deploying new sales, services, and support to their customers. OnviSource ensures reliability and redundancy through multiple outsourcing locations in Texas and Oklahoma.

OnviSource, Inc., is headquartered in Plano, Texas, with an operations center in Oklahoma. OnviSource provides customer interaction solutions for contact centers.

CenturiSoft Announces Email Encryption

CenturiSoft now meets HIPAA/High Tech requirements on voice and fax delivery via email. Using 256-bit AES encryption technology, CenturiSoft has been able to encrypt these messages before they leave the Centuri Messenger system. Having the actual file encrypted allows delivery to an unsecured device such as a smartphone. When a user accesses the file, they are prompted for a “password key” and are allowed access only if they have the proper credentials. This allows users to receive fax and voice messages the same way and satisfies the security and confidentiality of the message or fax to the end user. Password keys can be set or changed for individual subscribers as often as needed for compliance requirements.

“Combined with our ‘Colia’ compliance earlier this year, [this] signals yet another reason to have CenturiSoft in your customer requirements,” said John Pope, president of CenturiSoft. CenturiSoft is able to offer these capabilities to current contracted customers at no charge and requires no off-line time to update.

ATA “Call for Speakers” for 2012 Convention & Expo

The American Teleservices Association (ATA) has requested presentation/panel proposals for its 2012 Convention & Expo, April 29-May 2, 2012, at the Westin Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. The sessions proposed should complement the convention’s theme of “Managing Customer Experience in a Digital World,” which will be highlighted by nationally recognized keynote speakers. A national marketing campaign will begin shortly.

Interested speakers should apply by January 31, 2012. Download the presentation/panel info sheet from http://ataconnect.org/convention/docs/2012conventionspeakerinfo.pdf and apply at http://ataconnect.org/convention/callforspeakers.

For questions about speaking, contact Lisa Nye Ford at 317-816-9336 x102.

Amtelco miOnCall Offers Calendar Sync

Amtelco’s subscription-based on-call scheduler, miOnCall, is a secure cloud-based on-call scheduling application used to assign schedule coverage, view schedule coverage, and dispatch messages. It syncs with any calendar app that supports the iCalendar specification (RFC 5545), which includes Microsoft^® Outlook^® 2010 and 2007, Apple^®, Google^®, Hotmail^®, and Yahoo^® calendars. Many of these calendars are accessible using a computer, as well as from smartphones and mobile devices.

Amtelco President Tom Curtin stated, “The power, flexibility, and convenience of miOnCall is making it a popular and vital tool with a wide variety of uses. The easy accessibility with all the various calendar apps is helping keep even more people informed.”

For more information, contact Amtelco at 800-356-9148 or info@amtelco.com.

Amtelco miSecureMessages Reporting

Amtelco’s miSecureMessages, a subscription-based smartphone paging and messaging application, reports all miSecureMessages traffic, including messages sent from Amtelco Infinity, Intelligent Series (IS), or miSecureMessages solutions, messages sent from devices back to Amtelco solutions, and messages sent from device-to-device. Reports can be exported to Excel or PDF, imported into billing software, or sent to clients.

The miSecureMessages log includes the message subject, content, the contact that message was sent from and to, the message sent, delivered, and read timestamps, and replies with timestamps within the message thread. Records can be filtered by date range, individual, or group. The billing report lists the numbers of messages sent and received by contacts or groups, and to or from which type of device, as well as total number of messages sent and received for any given individual and group.

For more information, contact Amtelco at 800-356-9148 or info@amtelco.com.

Inference Solutions North America Announces CEO and COO

Inference Solutions, a voice automation and speech recognition company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, announced the appointment of Paul Edmondson as CEO of its North America operations. The company expanded to the U.S. market in late 2010, establishing regional offices in San Diego, California.

 “Growth in the U.S. market facilitated our appointment of Edmondson. He brings a unique set of skills to our North America expansion plans,” said Kirsty McCarthy, CEO of Inference Communications. “Paul has a proven track record in successfully building and leading high performance teams, and his focus and expertise in the alignment of technical solutions with business outcomes is core to Inference values. We are excited to have him leading our North America operations and believe he is vital to growing our brand globally.”

Additionally, Wendell Keuneman was announced as chief operating officer (COO) of its global operations. As COO of Inference Communications, Keuneman will drive the development of products for commercialization by Inference’s global alliance partners. McCarthy noted, “Wendell has a proven track record and considerable product design, development, and management experience.”

Answer Midwest Named Business of the Month

The RiverBend Growth Association named Answer Midwest, Inc., of Alton, Illinois, its Small Business of the Month. The RiverBend Growth Association selects a small business to honor based on number of years in business, number of employees, overcoming adversity, and community service.

Answer Midwest, Inc. is a 24/7 call center that provides improved customer service and response, emergency dispatching, order taking, and appointment and reservation scheduling. Answer Midwest can gather, encrypt, and transmit data, messages, and any information required as well as serve as a level-one help desk. Gary Tedrick, president and CEO of Answer Midwest, notes that their slogan is “Our Only Limitation Is Your Imagination.”

The RiverBend Growth Association is both the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Organization for southwestern Illinois, including Alton, Bethalto, East Alton, Elsah, Foster Township, Godfrey, Grafton, Hartford, Roxana, South Roxana, Wood River, and Wood River Township.