Contact Center Industry News

January/February 2012

ATA Announces 2012 Board of Directors

The American Teleservices Association (ATA) announced its national board of directors for 2012 following their meetings at the Washington Summit. The ATA is excited to announce that Mike Rauscher, CMO of HomeServe USA, has been elected as the new chairman of the board. Mike brings six years of experience as an ATA board member and twenty years of consumer marketing and contact center experience. The ATA 2012 board of directors includes:

Executive Committee

• Michael Rauscher, CMO of HomeServe USA, Chair

• Mark Boehmer, Senior VP of 360CRM, Vice-Chair

• Dean Garfinkel, president of Quality Voice and Data – a QSC Company, Treasurer

• John Nelson, senior VP of Bank of America, Secretary

• Lisa DeFalco, CEO of TPG TeleManagement Inc., Chair Emeritus

Board of Directors:

• Jane Bulman, VP, Telesales of COMCAST

• James Danz, managing partner of Trident Business Management

• Michael Eubanks, senior VP and Counsel of Stonebridge Life Insurance Company

• Lori Fentem, president of Synergy Solutions, Inc

• James Maratea, former senior VP of the Allant Group, Inc

• Derek Martin, director, Relationship Care of American Express

• Barb Merwin, global head of Protection Insurance of HSBC

• Tim Searcy, CEO of Accent Marketing Services

• Robert Simmonds, VP, Travel Operations of Disney Destinations

Novo 1 Celebrates New Contact Center

Civic and business leaders celebrated Novo 1’s expansion to Denison, Texas, at a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new contact center in the Eisenhower Business Center. About 120 people attended the event, including representatives from the Denison Development Alliance, Denison Development Foundation, and Denison Chamber of Commerce, as well as Denison Mayor Robert Brady and District 62 Texas State Representative Larry Phillips.

The contact center is a 30,000 square foot facility that can accommodate more than 500 employees. “Just three months ago our company announced plans to expand into Denison,” said Leila Lassetter, director of Novo 1’s Denison Contact Center. “We have hired 150 customer service advisors and have commitments from another 275 people ready to begin customer service training.” The company is seeking an additional 200 customer service advisors over the next thirty days.

OnviSource Introduces Automated QA

OnviSource announced Excella Plus, automated Quality Assurance (QA) and call analytics. Excella Plus integrates with OnviSource’s Explora speech analytics to deliver automated mass monitoring and analysis of recorded interactions. This allows automated monitoring and analysis of every call without having to add QA personnel. Analytics-based QA uses the automation of speech analytics to analyze 100 percent of recordings in order to identify those recordings that require a more in-depth analysis for compliance, discovery, and quality management.

Excella Plus uses call recording intelligence to capitalize on hidden opportunities and insights, identify liabilities, and target training efforts. It can provide a comprehensive QA program and share business intelligence, making it economical as a value-added service. Excella Plus products are integrated with the OnviCenter suite of workforce optimization and automation software products.

OnviSource offers a special service program to assist customers with implementation, deployment, and ROI recognition, including ROI analysis, application analysis, project planning, customization, pilot programs, and hands-on training, as well as business continuity and assurance measures.

Spanlink Communications Names Scott Vincent as Executive VP Sales

Spanlink Communications, a Cisco partner focused on designing, implementing, and supporting contact center and customer collaboration solutions, announced that Scott Vincent has joined the company as executive vice president of sales. Vincent will report to president and CEO Eric LeBow.

“Spanlink is thrilled to welcome Scott Vincent as our new executive vice president of sales,” said LeBow. “He stands out as a remarkable sales leader with extraordinary expertise in designing, developing, and implementing sales programs that consistently meet and exceed annual sales and growth objectives.”

Vincent has twenty-six years of sales management experience in the telecommunications and contact center industry and is based in Laguna Beach, California.

ThinOps Communications Rebrands as S4 Communications

S4 Communications of Houston unveiled its new corporate name, tagline, and logo this month. Formerly ThinOps Communications, S4 Communications moved to rebrand itself in the midst of recent growth. Providing more than 500 Houston-area jobs coupled with annual revenue of more than $12 million, the company’s success was its key motivator to undertake a rebranding campaign at this time. 

“The time was right for our firm to officially label itself with the key tenants that have driven us to such successes. If it’s what we do every day and what we’re proven experts at providing, then why not make it our name and tagline?” stated Sean Collins, principal and cofounder of S4 Communications.

S4 Communications provides a full spectrum of telecommunications services, including inbound and outbound sales, back office provisioning, customer retention programs, and survey execution and processing.

AnswerNet Opens New Facility in Allentown

AnswerNet has relocated its Allentown call center to 1729 W. Tilghman Street, Allentown, Pennsylvania, after thirty years in the waterfront district. The city of Allentown announced plans to develop a new arena for the American Hockey League’s Adirondack Phantoms, setting the move in motion. AnswerNet’s former location will now be part of the waterfront reformation.

“The decision to relocate within Allentown represents our commitment to this community, this city, and people of Allentown,” said AnswerNet CEO and president, Gary Pudles. “We owe the city our thanks for making the move a positive and smooth transition, and we look forward to providing better service to our customers from our new, modern center on Tilghman.” AnswerNet celebrated the move by hosting an open house on December 7, 2011.

Empirix Provides End-to-End Network Visibility

Empirix Inc. announced the availability of new data correlation and analytics capabilities delivered through Empirix xCentrix, which gives organizations a complete, unified view of network performance across all technologies. By correlating data from Empirix testing and monitoring solutions with third-party network monitoring systems and external sources, Empirix xCentrix provides a full analysis of how customers experience voice, video, and data applications from end-to-end. The result is a solution that empowers service providers and enterprises to better understand their business, make more informed decisions, and provide a higher quality customer experience.

Network testing and monitoring solutions produce vast amounts of data, and analysis can be a highly manual, time-intensive, and frequently inefficient process. Empirix xCentrix automates information analysis and delivers the final piece of Empirix’s three-pronged “preempt, perform, and predict” methodology to assure high-quality network performance. “Preempt” speaks to the company’s testing solutions that validate performance before networks or applications go live. “Perform” embodies monitoring solutions for ongoing assurance of a great customer experience. “Predict” helps organizations accurately forecast ways to delight customers and drive new levels of profitability.

Call Center Analytics eBook Released

An ebook from Customer Relationship Metrics, L.C., has identified a growing skill gap in the U.S. workforce that presents a major opportunity for job seekers. While companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of business intelligence, there is a lack of properly trained managers and analysts who can take data, break it down, and transform it into actionable plans for businesses. A study published by the McKinsey Global Institute in 2011 spotlighted “a need for 1.5 million additional managers and analysts,” but this need will largely go unfulfilled because there is a severe and widening skill gap in the knowledge needed to analyze data.

According to Call Center Analytics Revealed: Why Technology Is Not Your Actionable Business Intelligence Panacea, an ebook written by Carmit DiAndrea, vice president of analytics and client services for Customer Relationship Metrics, the U.S. education system is currently failing to fill the need for skilled workers. “I like to say that business intelligence isn’t really intelligent until you add the human element,” said DiAndrea.

“High-performing business analysts are few and far between,” Jim Rembach, Customer Relationship Metrics spokesman added. “This talent gap is only projected to increase rapidly.”

VPI Launches Empower Suite 5.3

VPI, a provider of contact center performance optimization solutions, announced the availability of VPI Empower Suite 5.3, which provides multichannel interaction recording, quality monitoring, performance management, and e-learning, thus offering enhanced workforce automation.

“We are helping our customers confidently face the many challenges associated with legacy contact center quality and performance management practices and technologies that can no longer embrace the latest customer mindset and often contribute to customer dissatisfaction, organizational turmoil, and reduced employee morale,” said Mike Mercadante, chief technology officer at VPI.

The new VPI Empower suite includes:

• Ad-hoc reporting tool

• Dashboard widget library to personalize dashboards using a library of real-time reporting and task list widgets

• Automated report distribution to schedule the periodic execution and delivery of critical information

• Track coaching and e-learning results

• Integrated redaction tool for editing, masking, and muting sensitive portions of copies of audio and screen video recordings – while protecting the authenticity of original records – so they can be used for training and public communications

• Unified access to live and recently recorded calls

• Faster access of captured single or multi-monitor screen video

• Expanded configuration options

ATA Names Christine Haerich as VP of Membership Services

The American Teleservices Association (ATA), the nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the customer contact industry, has named Christine Haerich as VP of Membership Services. Chris brings nearly twenty years of executive level experience in the contact industry and has held leadership roles in companies such as Protocol, Aegis, and DialAmerica.

Throughout her career, Chris has been a strong proponent for the ATA and its membership and has a history of volunteerism for the association. She currently serves as the ATA’s Midwest Chapter president and has chaired the chapter president’s committee for three years. “I am thrilled at the prospect of continuing to help grow our community of contact industry professionals,” said Chris, “My new role will allow me to spend more time helping ATA members achieve their membership goals.”

Chris has received two ATA Chapter awards, the ATA Spirit of Philanthropy Award, and the ATA Fulcrum Award. “Chris’s expertise in critical areas such as contact center compliance and quality, along with years of leadership at the chapter level, makes her perfectly suited for this role,” said ATA’s CEO, Phil Grudzinski. “We are truly excited to have her join the national team.”