Voice of the Customer

A Peek at the Playbook

Moderated by: Anne Keefer, Vanguard Communications

There have been more than one or two posts about the importance of metrics and why they matter.  I would like to share three of my own real life experiences.   My experiences may give you insight that will lead to improvements in your own call center environment or help you find a new way of looking at an old problem.

Contact Center Sessions @ VoiceCon Orlando

VoiceCon, a key industry event, will be held next week in Orlando.  Allan Sulkin provides a useful historical perspectiveof the event in a recent NoJitter posting.  As Allan mentions, the focus of the show has morphed with the market.  Unified Communications is the main focus these days, with Cisco, IBM and Microsoft dueling it out with traditional telephony vendors for thought leadership.  It looks like Tuesday will be the day of the Contact Center, with the following two focused sessions listed on the program:

Then there were…?

Moderated by: David Powis, Vanguard Communications

The latest telecom news hit the online Wall Street Journal on March 12th; "Nortel Is in Talks to Sell Key Units to Rivals."  What nearly made me spill my breakfast tea was that one of the units being discussed “builds telecom systems for offices.”  Wow.  Then to top that, the entities reported to be in talks with Nortel are Siemens and Avaya. (The article reports that Cisco was not interested in the unit).

From a sheer market grabbing move, this would be big for the winner. Could Siemens catch up or overtake Avaya worldwide in marketshare?  If Avaya wins, they will have a huge number of large enterprise customers.

What do Open Source, Microsoft and On Demand Communications Have in Common?

Moderated by:  Jason Alley, Vanguard Communications

For years, often to the dismay of my family, my Dad (Bob Alley - former HP contact center visionary) and I have enjoyed rich conversations about the contact center and the greater communications market.  These lively conversations take place late at night on the phone, at family gatherings (yes, even at the Thanksgiving table - I know, what geeks!), while driving in the car, or via email - not our favorite channel, but every now and then something important gets printed that we have to share.  Well, this morning Dad emailed me a link to an Information Week article titled, “Open Source PBX’s Gain Momentum.”  Could it be true that Open Source PBXs account for 18% of the private branch market?  According to market research firm Eastern Management Group, that is indeed the case.  In a recent report posted on NoJitter, “Open Source PBX is 18% of North America Market,” John Malone of Eastern Management Group states, “Open Source PBXs are typically 40% or more below the cost of a conventional telephone system…Cost changes everything.  Competition, and the importance of cost as the buyers' key decision variable is mostly why PBX prices have and continue to drop 5-10 percent annually. And if nothing can touch the cost of an Open Source PBX, there's a big market people have just not been counting.”