Industry News

September 2007

Professional Teledata Initiates Credit Card Security Compliance

Professional Teledata announced revised data handling routines to make PInnacle Telemessaging and PI-2000 Inbound Call Processing Systems compliant with revised standards and requirements as established by the payment card industry.  "The security surrounding credit card data has been made prominent in the news by several high-profile failures involving national retailers," said Jim Graham, vice president of software development.  "The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard was established to improve security of all aspects of collecting, handling, storing, and transferring credit and debit card information.  Since our PInnacle and PI-2000 products have the ability to collect, validate, and optionally authorize credit card charges, Professional Teledata responded quickly."

"We are committed to ensuring top-level security with any and all data that is stored through any of our products," said Allen Kalik, president, "so becoming compliant with these standards was an initiative that we immediately embraced."

The PCI compliance enhancements are available to all PInnacle and PI-2000 users at no charge as part of their standard maintenance agreement.

Professional Teledata (www.professionalteledata.com) provides systems and software products for the telemessaging and call center industries.  Contact Karen Black at 800-344-9944 x112.  Information regarding the PCI DDS compliance is available at www.pcicomplianceguide.org.

Amtelco Launches Amtelco University

Amtelco announced the formal naming of its ongoing educational programs: Amtelco University.  For over thirty years, Amtelco system users have benefited from many opportunities to learn about how to use the latest call center technology to increase their profits and reduce labor expenses.  Amtelco customers enjoy access to an online Resource Library and Tech Helper, trainers/teachers, seminars, and large research and support staffs. 

Amtelco University Classes will be held at the fall meetings of WSTA, GLTSA, STA and CAM-X.  Topics include: Telephony and Your Call Center, Order Entry and Help Desk Applications, and Marketing Advanced Messaging.

Amtelco University Seminars and Webinars are hands-on, interactive sessions are geared towards supervisors, client account programmers, managers, and owners.  They are held on a regular basis throughout the year.

Amtelco University Resource Library provides many tools to simplify account set-up, reduce training time, and get great programming ideas.  The Resource Library includes a Training Library, a Webinar Library and Script Libraries for the Infinity Intelligent Series and eCreator. 

Amtelco University TechHelper provides seminar schedules, the Google search engine, Tips and Tricks, software downloads, and reference guides.

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

Customers Want to Speak with American-Based Call Centers

A study on call center satisfaction suggests that a shift to onshore call centers will benefit companies like DialAmerica, Inc., which exclusively operate from domestic facilities with U.S. employees.  According to a June 2007 study by CFI Group, customers who thought a call center was located outside the U.S. rated their satisfaction level twenty-six points lower and were almost twice as likely to defect than those who assumed that the call center was in the U.S.

"Our philosophy is to have Americans talking to Americans," said Art Conway, DialAmerica's president and CEO. "By operating onshore we have a higher first call resolution, which leads to higher customer satisfaction and customer retention."

The study, entitled "Customer Satisfaction with Call Centers Drives Loyalty, Word of Mouth, Retention, and ROI," reported that the two biggest factors in customer satisfaction are issue resolution and a caller's feeling that the reps are easy to understand and willing to help.

"Customer service reps located outside the U.S. are rated lower on communication skills," said Sheri Teodoru, program director at CFI Group.  "When communication is poor, customers' issues remain unsolved in the majority of cases."

Baird Predicts Further Consolidation in Outsourced Customer Care

Investor interest in outsourced customer care is at an all-time high, with mergers and acquisitions hitting record levels in 2006 both in terms of the number of transactions and dollar value, according to a report by Baird, entitled, "M & A Market Analysis: Outsourced Customer Care Industry."

"Growth in outsourcing of services, including customer care, is being driven by competitive pressures forcing corporate clients to improve their organizational focus and structure," said Brian Doyal, a managing director at Baird and head of the firm's business and technology services investment banking group.  "Specific benefits of outsourced customer care include higher quality service at reduced costs, access to best practices, and specialized expertise which would be difficult and costly for an in-house staff to replicate."

In the past in the U.S., the outsourced customer care industry was affected by a number of challenges, including overcapacity, Do Not Call legislation, the initial effects of offshore outsourcing, and overall economic weakness.  In 2003, however, the industry began to rebound and profitability returned, driving renewed industry consolidation by both strategic and financial buyers. 

Baird is an international wealth management, capital markets, private equity, and asset management firm.  For more information, visit www.rwbaird.com.

Professional Teledata Announces New PInnacle On-Call Scheduling Capabilities

Professional Teledata announced new on-call scheduling procedures and capabilities.  "Maintaining accurate on-call schedules has always been a time-consuming but absolutely necessary task required for accurate dispatching to occur, said Pat Kalik, vice president of operations.  "PInnacle now has additional automated input and maintenance features to eliminate tedious, error-prone, repetitious tasks when entering on-call schedules."

Unlimited future scheduling is made easy by entering date ranges, using screen-displayable calendars, or using find-and-replace capabilities.  Administrative personnel can enter reoccurring on-call cycles or delete old schedules with only a few keystrokes.

Clients can access their password-protected schedules via the Internet in a view-only or edit mode and be able to maintain their own schedules.  Informational displays for agents regarding clients' on-call schedules have been improved and expanded.  Schedule descriptions and instructions and are now imbedded and associated with each schedule for quick, single stroke access by operators.

These enhancements will be included in the latest release of the PInnacle telemessaging system and will be available to all users under their standard maintenance agreements.

Professional Teledata (www.professionalteledata.com) provides systems and software products for the telemessaging and call center industries.  Contact Karen Black at 800-344-9944 x112 for more information.

IBT Solutions Call Center Recognized by J.D. Power and Associates

IBT Solutions has been recognized for call center operation customer satisfaction excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Certified Call Center Program^SM.  This distinction acknowledges a strong commitment to providing "an outstanding customer service experience."  IBT Solutions is among a select few energy companies in the nation to receive this certification.

IBT Solutions handles one million inbound transactions annually, including calls, emails, and Web transactions for over twenty-five energy companies nationally.  The call center passed a detailed audit of their recruiting, training, employee incentives, management roles and responsibilities, and quality assurance capabilities.

A random survey of recent call center customers was conducted.  A call center must perform within the top 20 percent of customer service, based on benchmarks established in J.D. Power and Associates cross-industry customer satisfaction research.  The evaluation criteria includes courtesy, knowledge, concern for the customer, usefulness of the information provided, convenience of operating hours, ease of reaching a representative, and timely resolution.

"The environment at IBT reflects an equal emphasis on the employee and the customer – a commitment to their mutual satisfaction," said Barbara Porter, general manager of IBT.

For more information, visit www.ibtsolutionsllc.com.

Call Centers Earn ATSI Gold Certification

The Association of Teleservices International (ATSI) announced that Alert Communications and Executive Services have both received the Gold 24/7 Call Center Certification Award.   Additionally, A Better Connection has requalified for the Gold 24/7 Call Center Certification Award.

Alert Communications (www.alertcommunications.com) is based in Ventura, California; Executive Services is based in Pueblo, Colorado; and A Better Connection (www.abetterconnection.net), which was first certified Gold in 2004, is located in Gilbert, Arizona.

The certification indicates that these call centers have met or exceeded high standards in the areas of business practices, life safety, operations (including normal and emergency procedures), personnel hiring, training, and ongoing evaluations through a peer review program focusing on a 99.9 percent annual run time. 

ATSI (www.atsi.org) is an international trade association for the teleservices industry.

ATA Turns Its Focus on Delivering the "ICE"

The American Teleservices Association (ATA) has made it their mission to spread the message and tools for creating the "ideal customer experience" (ICE) for teleservices companies.  At this year's ATA Convention and Expo, September 30–October 3, attendees will learn best practices on hiring, training and workforce management, as well as strategies to balance performance with compliance, evaluate service delivery systems, and investigate technology – all of the tools they need to create "ICEmakers" in their organization.

Tim Searcy, ATA chief executive officer, explained the association's motivation to focus on the customer experience.  "Our goal was to assemble a roster of speakers with expertise at various stages of a customer's experience within teleservices to speak on what works – and what doesn't work – in creating the ideal customer experience."

"Consider the current state of teleservices – specifically, customer service and telesales," Searcy added.  "A lack of positive customer experience has spawned consumer complaints leading to new laws regulating the industry and the promise of even more unwanted government attention in the future." 

ATA represents more than 4,000 contact centers that account for over 1.8 million professionals worldwide.  For more information, contact ATA at 317-816-9336 or visit www.ataconnect.org.

SER Receives 2007 Members' Choice Award

SER Solutions, Inc., a provider of call management and speech analytics solutions has received a 2007 Members' Choice Award from ContactCenterWorld.com for First Class Customer Service in Americas in the Outbound Solution category. 

The Members' Choice Awards have been presented for five years running to recognize industry solution providers who sell products or services to contact centers.  The Members' Choice Awards are based entirely on customer feedback, and the winners were those organizations that received the highest average scores as voted for by their customers.  The First Class Customer Service Award was given to those companies who scored an average eight out of ten or higher.

Additional information is available at www.ser.com and www.contactcenterworld.com.

A Better Connection Honored by SBA

A Better Connection has been selected by the Arizona Small Business Association as one of the top Arizona Companies to Watch.

Owned and managed by Marcy Hewlett, president, and Gail Gamertsfelder, vice president since 2001, A Better Connection (and Arizona Physicians' Exchange, its medical division) is a privately held, Phoenix-based answering service and teleservices company with clients around the US.  

A Better Connection was recognized by the SBA, in collaboration with the Edward Lowe Foundation, after judges evaluated nominees for their "demonstrated intent and capacity to grow" based on one or more of the following: employee or sales growth; exceptional entrepreneurial leadership; sustainable competitive advantage; and other notable factors that showcase the company's success.  To qualify, companies must be "second stage" with ten to one hundred full-time-equivalent employees and $750,000-$100 million in revenue. 

Contact Marcy Hewlett, president/CEO of A Better Connection/Arizona Physicians' Exchange at 480-635-8500 or marcyh@abetterconnection.net.  Their Web site is www.abetterconnection.net.

eTelecare Breaks Ground on Call Center in Makati City 

eTelecare Global Solutions, a provider of business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions, announced the construction of a new service delivery center in Makati City, Philippines.  With a total floor area of 18,000 square meters, the center will be one of the largest facilities in the Philippines dedicated solely to business process outsourcing.

eTelecare expects to employ at least 3,000 employees at the new facility.  When the new facility is fully operational, its total headcount in the Philippines will be 13,000.  The company also has over 2,600 employees in the United States, spread among seven call centers in Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota.  eTelecare provides call center services to several vertical markets, including consumer electronics, wireless communications, telecommunications, financial services, travel and hospitality, media, and healthcare. 

Additional information is available at www.etelecare.com.

Brandywine Expands Telecom Practice

Brandywine Technology announced the addition of Brian Fertig, RHCE, DCSE, dCAP, CCAN, MCSE to its telecom practice.  Before joining Brandywine Technology, Brian served in roles of increasing responsibility with EZZI Telecom, Planet Telecom, and Molten.

Chuck Boyce, practice director, said, "Brian brings a substantial amount of experience in VoIP engineering and deployments.  Brian has worked with multinational clients as part of several ITSPs.  He shares our vision of delivering solutions and looks forward to bringing his expertise to the telemessaging industry.

"We will be focusing on adding Asterisk-based solutions to our remote agent and interoffice solutions that were previously based on the Quintum platform. By incorporating the Asterisk open source platform, we can lower the cost of entry for even the smallest sites to take advantage of VoIP."

Contact Chuck Boyce at 866-656-6100 or cboyce@btpartners.net, or visit www.btpartners.net.