Change is happening in how voice and data communications are structured, delivered and used by businesses. Here is what Avaya expects to see in 2010:
#1 Regulatory mandated proactive communications. In an era of increasing regulation, proactive communications applications will automatically initiate contact with customers and guide interactions, in compliance with regulatory requirements.
#2 Communications monitoring of employees across devices. Businesses, while still respecting privacy standards, will increasingly track phone calls, instant messages and emails of their employees to better predict work needs and behaviors.
#3 Social media and contact centers. Customers will initiate more company interactions via social media tools like Facebook. Basically any consumer with a laptop, desktop or Web-phone will have richer multimedia experiences with contact center reps. Conversely, more businesses will embrace mining of the social network, capturing new opportunities to provide service, address issues and promote sales.
#4 Taming mobile phone spend. SIP-enabled environments will control mobile phone expenses by consolidating trunk lines and using the corporate IP network to route long-distance and international cell calls at the cost of local calls.
#5 Analytics and contact center process reengineering. Contact centers will track customer interactions across a range of media, both to analyze the interaction and then make real-time decisions in adapting solutions to trends.
#6 CEBP will no longer be a four-letter word. The Communication Enabled Business Process concept will finally come into its own as a workflow tool that’s easy to deploy. Imagine an insurance company responding to hundreds of agents in the field who are working with insured victims of a hurricane. Similar examples of CEBP will emerge in financial services, health care and retail.
#7 Unified Communications and the 3-click experience. Using SIP and session management, companies will build, deploy and support UC applications more easily. Workers will operate under a three-click paradigm — in three seconds, with three clicks, they’ll have access to more resources and applications regardless of the device they’re using.
#8 The rise of true multivendor networks. SIP-enabled environments will help companies blend disparate products — increasingly complex communications infrastructures and applications from a wide variety of vendors — so they work together and become brand-agnostic.
#9 Overcoming communications overload. New technologies will help companies reign-in the volume and breadth of communications systems to bring greater levels of operational and cost control.
#10 Making every on-hold second count. Businesses will aggressively find ways to make every aspect of their clients’ interaction more productive in the call center environment. Richer on-hold experiences will become the norm, where customers have multiple options for how they use on-hold time. The result will be greater call center productivity and improved customer satisfaction.
Have a Happy New Year!