Tag Archives: Alston Tascom

Startel Announces Retirement of Wayne Scaggs

Startel contact center software that delivers happiness to your customers

Startel, Professional Teledata, and Alston Tascom, leading providers of contact center solutions, announced that Wayne Scaggs will retire as the company’s director of corporate strategy effective January 1, 2019.

Scaggs joined Alston Tascom (previously known as Conrac Alston) in 1979 after leaving Bell Helicopter. He began his career with the company as a field service engineer and progressed through the organization in a variety of roles until he had the opportunity to purchase the company in 1994. He served as the president of Alston Tascom until September 2017, when Startel, Professional Teledata, and Alston Tascom merged.

“As I reach forty years with Alston Tascom, I have given this decision a great deal of thought and concluded that the time is right for me to take this step,” said Scaggs. “I’m grateful to have had such a long and fulfilling career, and I’m confident that Startel has the right strategy and team to drive our business forward. I’m looking forward to retirement and spending time categorizing my world money collection from 153 different countries and traveling with my wife, Joanne.”

“On behalf of the company, we thank Wayne for his tremendous contributions and almost forty years of dedicated service to Alston Tascom,” said Brian Stewart, president and CEO of Startel. “Those of us who have had the privilege of working with Wayne know that Startel is a better company because of him. We will miss Wayne, but we wish him the very best in this well-earned retirement.”

Startel

For more information, call 949-863-8776 or visit www.startel.com.

Startel and Professional Teledata Successfully Complete HIPAA Assessment

Startel contact center software that delivers happiness to your customers

Irvine, CA—June 11, 2018—Startel and Professional Teledata, leading providers of contact center solutions, today announced that the companies successfully completed their Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) assessment. This marks Startel’s fourth and Professional Teledata’s first assessment for HIPAA compliance and reinforces the companies’ commitment to protecting consumer data and privacy.

SecurityMetrics, a global leader in data security and compliance, performed the third-party compliance assessment. Following an evaluation of Startel and Professional Teledata’s office locations, data centers and software solutions, it was determined that the companies implemented policies and procedures to fulfill its obligations under HIPAA and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). Both companies received scores of 100 percent for compliance posture of administrative, physical and technical safeguards as well as organizational requirements.

“We are thrilled with this year’s compliance achievements,” said Startel, Professional Teledata and Alston Tascom President and CEO, Brian Stewart. “HIPAA security and compliance are top priorities for us. We look forward to continuing to deliver contact center solutions and services that help our customers grow their business and safeguard electronic protected health information.”

“Startel and Professional Teledata successfully implemented policies, procedures and safeguards designed to comply with HIPAA,” said Brand Barney, Senior HIPAA Security Analyst at SecurityMetrics. “Throughout the audit, we took into account the size, capabilities, cost and probability of risk when evaluating the security measures implemented by Startel and Professional Teledata.”

The full HIPAA report is available to customers upon request. The companies will also sign Business Associate Agreements with clients who require HIPAA compliance. Next year’s audit will include an assessment of Alston Tascom’s operating environment, data center and solutions.

Startel

Startel, Professional Teledata and Alston Tascom are leading providers of unified communications, business process automation, and performance management solutions and services. With a combined ninety plus years of experience, the companies have established a loyal customer base in healthcare, contact centers and a dozen additional industries. Startel, Professional Teledata, and Alston Tascom leverage their unique solutions and industry knowledge to empower organizations to improve agent productivity, reduce operating costs and increase revenues. For more information, call 949.863.8776 or visit www.startel.com.

Startel Announces Unified Product Advisory Board

Startel contact center software that delivers happiness to your customers

Startel, Professional Teledata, and Alston Tascom announced the members of the company’s unified product advisory board (PAB). The twelve individuals selected represent each of the company’s three user groups: TeamSNUG, PINetwork, and TUG. Their primary responsibility is to provide input related to the company’s strategic product planning.

Startel, Professional Teledata, and Alston Tascom will work with the unified board to help set future product direction. Feedback generated from the PAB will assist the company in building the next generation of products. The following members will serve on the 2018–020 unified PAB:

  • Ryan Ambs, Ambs Call Center, Jackson, MI
  • Kevin Bachelder, Ansaphone Services, Quincy, MA
  • Luis Bedoya, Answering Service Care, Margate, FL
  • Matt Bogan, King’s Telemessaging, Shreveport, LA
  • Kristal Fye, Ace Answering Service, State College, PA
  • Ken Goldenberg, Direct Line Tele Response, Berkeley, CA
  • Jodi Gregory, Clementine, Harper Woods, MI
  • Peter Gross, Sunshine Communication Services, Inc, Coral Gables, FL
  • April Kasza, Allgood Communications, Inc., Pueblo, CO
  • Ray Shaw, Business & Professional Exchange, Beverly, MA
  • John Vaughn, Honest Answering, LLC, Houston, TX
  • Jeffrey Wood, Contact One Call Center, Tucson, AZ

“Our vision for the PAB is to have customers share how they are using our products in the real world and the three companies to share with PAB members our current plans and future directions,” said Brian Stewart, President and CEO of Startel, Professional Teledata, and Alston Tascom. “We are thrilled with the amount of interest we have had in this program and are very pleased with the members who have been selected to assist us in building our unified contact center platform.”

Startel

Overseeing the board is Wayne Scaggs, director of corporate strategy. The unified PAB will meet three times during the next twelve months.

Call Center Vendors Launch Marketing Resources Center

Startel contact center software that delivers happiness to your customers

Startel, Professional Teledata, and Alston Tascom launched their new marketing resources center, making custom-branded promotional materials available to their customers. The marketing resources center is a web-based repository housing a variety of promotional videos, flyers, infographics, and user guides that can be branded for use by the companies’ clients to promote the solutions and services provided by their telephone answering service, call center, or contact center.

The digital collateral is designed to assist with promoting the key features and benefits of stand-alone solutions such as Secure Messaging Plus, Secure Messaging Gateway, IntelliSite Web Portal, The Payment Portal, and more. “We are excited to offer this needed and value-added service to our customers,” said Startel, Professional Teledata, and Alston Tascom president and CEO, Brian Stewart. “One of the requests that I have personally heard from our customers is for us to help them sell their services and to provide them with tools to assist them in doing so.”

Startel

For more information, call 949-863-8776 or visit www.startel.com

Startel, Professional Teledata, & Alston Tascom Unify Brand; Revamp Website

Startel contact center software that delivers happiness to your customers

Startel, Professional Teledata, and Alston Tascom revealed their new unified brand to users of all three of the companies’ software platforms at their first combined user group conference in Denver, Colorado.

The new branding follows the 2015 merger of Startel and Professional Teledata and the subsequent September 2017 merger with Alston Tascom. These moves further expand the companies’ product offerings, broaden markets, and enhance technical resources and expertise.

The new brand is visually represented by uniting all three company logos and includes the addition of “Powered by Startel” to the Professional Teledata and Alston Tascom logos.

In conjunction with the new visual branding, content previously found on the three separate company websites is now located on a revamped and unified site, startel.com. The website includes all company product information, a timeline of the combined company history, an overview of the three user groups, and a newsroom of compiled press releases and news features.

The website also includes access to a new self-service customer portal called The Customer Spot, allowing clients of all three companies to open and track cases, access a knowledge base of product information, and order co-branded marketing resources.

Startel

“We were thrilled to reveal the new branding to our clients at our first ever combined user group conference,” said Startel, Professional Teledata, and Alston Tascom President and CEO, Brian Stewart. “We have been making great strides working together as a unified company to enhance the user experience and improve our product offerings and services. This new look will go a long way to reinforce and communicate our efforts.”

Choices and Consequences



By Wayne Scaggs

Events in our lives seldom just happen to us, regardless of what we tell ourselves or our friends. Somewhere along the way, we made a decision that caused certain events to happen. We make choices every day that put us on the path that leads to the events that occur in our lives. We go to school, get a diploma, and find a job or start a business. Somewhere along the way, we have a family.

Believe it or not, we made all the choices that guided us along the way; things did not just happen to us. Some of our choices were excellent (sheer genius), and we stick our chest out for a while. And then some of our other choices . . . well, let’s just say they did not make us, or anyone else, proud, and we won’t say any more about that.

Some may say we are lucky, although in most cases luck is a by-product of desire, choice, and continual productive efforts that pave the way for opportunity to cruise by. If we are aware, we can latch on and ride opportunity (luck) as far as it will take us. 

My choices along the way have given me the opportunity to write this column and express the delight in knowing I have made a positive difference in the lives of many people. Some I know, and others I don’t.

Being part of this industry, which is people-oriented and service-driven, has allowed me to fulfill a childhood and adult desire. Deep within myself I know that through the choices I’ve made, I have helped more people than I will ever know in more ways than I can imagine. One of the ways came from someone who told me I was the reason they could start their own business, feed their family and, on top of all that, provide employment to others who were also able to feed their families. There is no substitute for the feeling we get when we help someone fulfill their dreams.

Few times in our lives do we get to make such monumental choices that affect not only us but others in the process, so the choice should be the very best one. Choices of this magnitude take time, forethought, and many restless nights weighing the pros and cons. In the end, when we are offered an opportunity that only comes along once in a long while and it is all that we wanted it to be, we take it. We jump at the opportunity and make it better than we thought it could ever be.

The recent merger between Alston Tascom and Startel Corporation is the very best possible next step for Alston Tascom, Tascom Systems, and the industry. This merger has answered questions most wouldn’t ask, such as “How long will Wayne be around?” “Is he getting up there in age?” “What is going to happen to Tascom?” Or more specifically for some people, “What is going to happen to my Tascom System and my business?”

Startel and Alston Tascom share the same technology. The biggest challenge ahead is not the competition. The elephant in the room is the speed of changing technology. The company’s road map is to bring the best minds in our industry together, sit down at the same table, and combine our talents to evolve what we have into the best-in-class system needed to stay in front of our customers and the competition. Staying ahead of what your clients need to be competitive in their market is the target. We are all in this together, and my desire is that we will be better than we were yesterday.

Wayne Scaggs is the president of Alston Tascom, provider of call center database information and network telephony systems.

Startel Announces Merger with Alston Tascom

Startel contact center software that delivers happiness to your customers

Startel Corporation announced its merger with Alston Tascom, a provider of premise-based and hosted TAS solutions for call centers. Effective September 1, 2017, Alston Tascom is now a wholly owned business unit of Startel.

With this merger, the combined organization further expands its product offerings, broadens its markets, and enhances technical resources and expertise. In September 2015, Startel acquired Professional Teledata, a pioneer in order entry, billing management, and hosted and premise-based solutions for call centers.

“We are thrilled to combine three top providers to form the industry’s premier choice for on-premise and cloud contact center solutions and services,” said Brian Stewart, chairman and CEO of Startel and Professional Teledata. “We are looking forward to merging teams and leveraging our combined technical resources, capabilities and expertise to provide our customers with greater product offerings and greater support.”

“The synergies the combined company will generate will be of tremendous benefit to current and future customers,” said Wayne Scaggs, president of Alston Tascom. “I am excited for the opportunities the merger will bring and to the enhanced service our clients will enjoy.”

Startel

The companies’ offices will remain open in Chino, California, Irvine, California and Manchester, New Hampshire. The principal of Alston Tascom, Wayne Scaggs, will join the senior management team of Startel and Professional Teledata to lead the combined company.

Alston Tascom Announces Two Easy-to-Use Revenue Enhancing Products

Alston Tascom announced two new products, with an eye toward providing more tools for their customers to use to enhance their call center revenue: ADAM Outbound and Reply and Deliver.

Alston Tascom’s ADAM Outbound is an excellent tool for taking on outbound campaigns to offset the inherent idle times by offering outbound campaign calls to designated agents when they are not taking incoming calls. The built-in scheduler blends calls, adding the ability to keep agents busy during slow times.

Additionally, Alston Tascom’s Reply and Deliver is a feature that allows call center customers to send a reply to the message sent to them via SMS or email with an option for them to close out the message. For example, when a repair call comes in and the message is sent to the person on call, once the job is finished the on call person can send a reply and close the message. Their reply is inserted into the message ticket so the next morning the office will have a complete record of the incident.

Alston Tascom Hits Ten Year Milestone of Providing Hosted Solutions

Alston Tascom, in its thirty-sixth year of serving the industry, has hit another milestone by celebrating ten years of providing hosted systems for the answering service industry. March 22, 2016 marked the tenth anniversary date for the Tascom hosted system.

Alston Tascom’s hosted system companies range in size from one position to over forty. Together they process over 1.7 million calls per month. No company is too large or too small for the Tascom hosted system.

Some of the key features of the Tascom system include:

  • Tascom’s client web interface allows management to offer their clients the ability to pick up their messages through a secure message portal. The selectable options are messages, if-messages, add and edit their locates, add and edit their on-call schedule, and retrieve voicemail messages.
  • Tascom’s ADAM web interface allows management to have quality control by listening to operators during a call, view calls waiting in queue, and logged-on operators.

Learn more about Alston Tascom and the Tascom hosted system at www.alstontascom.com.

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Alston Tascom releases Adam 1.2 & Tascom SQL 4.0

Alston Tascom announced the release of Adam version 1.2 and Tascom SQL 4.0.

Notable feature updates in Adam 1.2 include:

Wallboard: Using a web browser users can sign on to the site’s wallboard from anywhere, via computer, tablet, or cell phone with Internet access, to see what’s happening in real time. Wallboard displays who is logged in, who is on a call, who is ready, how many calls are waiting, length of the longest call in queue, which accounts have calls in queue, which agents are connected to calls for which accounts, how many electronic delivery jobs (SMS, email, alpha, or fax) are in process or failed, and how many recalls, reminders, alerts, and dispatches are waiting.

Listen In: This tool is great for training and quality assurance. Use a web browser from anywhere to listen to agents and their calls live.

Dynamic Remote Operator: With dynamic remote operator an agent is not locked into a specific position. The system will assign each agent to an available position, resulting in a more efficient use of system resources.

Coupled with Alston Tascom’s release of Adam 1.2 is Tascom SQL 4.0. Key enhancements to Tascom SQL include:

Operator Companion: The operator companion feature allows managers to have assurance that the agent on duty is responding to items in the queue in a timely manner. When a preset threshold is reached an SMS message will automatically be sent to one or more cell phone.

Reply and Deliver: If you email or SMS messages to clients, they can mark the messages as delivered when they reply. Their reply will be saved in the message itself.

Client Web Access: Using any web browser clients can view their messages, if-messages, locates, and on-call messages. They can also deliver messages as well as put in new locates, new if-messages, and new on-call messages. System administrators control which of these things each client is able to do.

Secure messaging on Auto Deliver: On the client configuration tab of the client manager, the option for “auto deliver” now include secure messaging.