In order to improve agent efficiency and productivity, call centers can use multi-skill and multi-channel routing solutions to increase the number of contacts and agents, which leads to a greater chance of an agent completing communication with a contact just as another comes in.

“This is a desirable position as it creates economies of scale and leads to increases in occupancy, which is the amount of time individual agents are working. The greater productivity lowers the overall number of agents required,” Pommie Lutchmann, CEO at specialist contact center solutions and services provider Ocular Technologies, told ITWeb.

Although cross-training the complement of agents is unrealistic, multi-skill configuration enables contact centers to experience the benefits of cross-training some agents without having to train everyone.

There are specific differences between an ACD dialer/media server and workforce planning tools, according to Lutchmann. The goal of the ACD is to route contacts to agents that day, while workforce management tools analyze current routing and how contacts are routed to agents in the future to model current and future environments.

However, the way to model the optimal multi-skill staff plan is an area of debate. Lutchman said that the ideal workforce management tool must give companies the ability to carry out long-term planning, implement plans and make daily staffing adjustments. In order to do so, the workforce management tool must pinpoint current daily staffing needs and identify the amount and types of agents required to meet goals.

High agent turnover is common and aligned to improving agent proficiency in existing work types and developing additional skills. The key, however, is not to model individual agents, but rather types of agents and contacts, said Lutchmann.

“In time, levels of experience and aptitude in a particular type of agent will remain consistent even as agents are added or removed from the group. Modeling the type of agents rather than the individuals enables a workforce management tool to identify the types of agent required to meet future workloads,” he explained.

Modeling the workforce as it changes is vital to incorporate an abstraction between actual and types of agents since its useful for making daily staffing decisions and enabling planning ahead for the skills required to meet next month’s service objectives.

The multi-skilled staffing problem can be solved by dividing types of contacts into forecast groups and types of agents into staff groups, Lutchmann commented. The multi-skill routing logic relating forecast groups to staff groups should be captured within a third layer called a routing set. With staff groups, analysts can track the contribution of agents with skills sets so that the economies of scale achievable through cross-training and utilization of skills-based routing can be calculated.

“Less analytical approaches merely simulate the routing of contacts to individual agents without applying group abstraction,” Lutchmann concluded. “The service level anticipated for the contacts is sufficient, but the staffing information falls way short of helping analysts determine what needs to be done in terms of planning.”

Source: 2012, http://www.callcentersolutionsreport.com/articles/301144-call-center-efficiency-improved-with-multi-skilling-multi.htm

InfoWorld’s 2016 Technology of the Year Award winners recognize the best tools and technologies for developers, IT pros, and businesses

InfoWorld’s Technology of the Year Awards have celebrated the most important technology trends and the best IT products for 15 years now. Our awards have marked the rise of everything from 64-bit hardware to hardware virtualization, from Java servers to JavaScript servers, from XML Web services to REST APIs, and from Microsoft Word for Windows to Microsoft Word for iOS. We’ve seen a lot of changes.

And the changes keep coming. Among this year’s winners, handpicked by InfoWorld editors and product reviewers, you’ll find a number of “traditional” names: Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat. But you’ll also find the names of more open source projects than we’ve ever seen in the Technology of the Year winner’s circle, thanks to the huge role open source has come to play in software development, data center (and cloud) infrastructure, and big data analytics.

Docker, Kubernetes, Mesos, Spark — these are only a few of this year’s winners from the open source camp. In one way or another, each brings something new to the enterprise. Docker’s clever take on Linux containers was so popular with developers, it became a standard even Microsoft sought fit to adopt. Kubernetes brings Google’s cloud-tested technology for container management to the rest of us, while Mesos — the U.C. Berkeley AMPLab project that gave birth to Spark — offers an elegant solution to cluster resource management.

Meanwhile, Spark, the fast-rising framework for doing distributed data processing in memory, has begun to usurp the role of Hadoop even among Hadoop vendors. That’s one of the superpowers of open source — it makes it easy for everyone to rally around something new and better.

Our winning products from Cisco and IBM may not have emerged from the open source “engine of innovation,” but they’re no less groundbreaking for that. IBM’s Watson Analytics — a cloud-based machine learning service and everyone’s favorite “Jeopardy” contestant — may set the bar for all predictive analytics tools. Cisco’s ACI, which takes an entirely new “policy model” approach to software-defined networking, can be driven entirely through an open API, using a Python SDK you can find on GitHub.

It’s not unusual for Microsoft to lead the field in wins, and it happened again this year. You won’t find Windows 10 on our list (reasons here and here), but Microsoft Office is there, along with Visual Studio and Azure App Services. It really is a new Microsoft: Office is now available in solid, capable versions of Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android, while Visual Studio and Azure App Services support all manner of cross-platform development. It’s not only a Windows and .Net world anymore.

As the 31 winners of the 2016 Technology of the Year Awards illustrate, it’s the world exploding with technology options for everyone: developers, IT pros, and the businesses and users they serve. For a close look at the best platforms, tools, apps, and cloud services on the business computing landscape, dive into our slideshow.

Credit:

Author: Doug Dineley

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/3024228/cloud-computing/technology-of-the-year-2016-the-best-hardware-software-and-cloud-services.html

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Phone calls to different telecom networks will soon become cheaper, as rivals Globe Telecom, Inc. and Smart Communications, Inc. agreed on Monday to cut their interconnection charges.

The interconnection charges will be cut to ₱2.50 per minute starting January 1, 2017. Previously, they charged ₱4.00 per minute for mobile-to-mobile and ₱3.00 per minute for mobile-to-landline voice calls.

Globe and Smart officials signed a memorandum of understanding, witnessed by regulators from the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the National Telecommunications Commission.

Globe Chief Technology and Information Officer Gil Genio said the lower interconnection rates would translate to lower charges for voice calls, giving customers a more affordable and accessible way to communicate.

Ray Espinosa, the regulatory head of Smart’s parent firm, PLDT, Inc., added: “We are supporting government’s efforts to bring down the cost of telecom services in the country.”

The telecom giants have come under intense pressure to improve the quality of their services and bring down costs for consumers, with no less than President Rodrigo Duterte as one of their fiercest critics.

The President last week repeated his threats during the presidential campaign to bring in foreign competition, in a bid to force Globe and Smart to shape up.

Read: Duterte warns telcos: Shape up or face foreign competition

Duopoly allegations have flared in recent months after Globe and Smart bought out San Miguel Corp.’s telelcoms business. San Miguel was hoping to enter as a third player in the industry, partnering up with Australia-based Telstra Corp., Ltd.

Globe and Smart contend they are ready to compete with new players, both local or foreign. They also point to the intense price competition between them as a sign they have not been colluding to cheat consumers.

However, the two players’ move to bring down charges comes at a time when voice call usage has already dropped drastically.

Voice revenues dropped 15 percent for Smart and nine percent for Globe as of the third quarter this year compared to a year ago.

Consumers have been shifting to calls via mobile data, using Voice over Internet Protocol apps instead.

Still, Genio said, this was still an important concession as only half of subscribers in the country have smartphones and access to apps.

PLDT Executive Vice President Ernesto Alberto agreed, saying, “Most of our subscribers who still use conventional voice calls tend to be in the lower strata, so cost is an important consideration for them.”

Globe and Smart officials said the lower interconnection charges would allow them to be “more aggressive” in pricing their calls, texts and data bundles, which mainly offer unlimited promos just for intra-network calls.

Meanwhile, Information and Communications Technology Secretary Rodolfo Salalima was hopeful the agreement would be the first step to bring down costs for otherservices, especially mobile and broadband internet.

He said the complaints of subscribers have been “loud and clear.”

PLDT’s Alberto assured the companies are already working together to improve internet services, sharing infrastructure, and and moving towards internet peering.

Author: Claire Jiao, CNN Philippines

Source: http://cnnphilippines.com/business/2016/11/28/globe-smart-telecom-cut-charges-internetwork-calls.html

While it is always important to reach out to and attract new customers, it is likewise imperative that you work to maintain your existing customers. Customer loyalty is essential to any successful business enterprise, even more so when you are first starting out with your business. All it takes is one customer who is unsatisfied with your business or product to scare away a dozen others.

In this social media age, bad reviews can quickly and easily reach hundreds if not thousands of prospective customers. As review sites such as Yelp have become increasingly popular and powerful, it has become even more important to make certain that you respond appropriately to bad customer reviews. While you cannot always prevent bad reviews, if you respond correctly, you can help to mitigate their damage and even convert a customer with a bad experience into a loyal customer.

Innovation is the great way to success in this digital age. The path of innovation in business means doing something different, smarter or better that will make a positive difference in terms of value, quality or productivity by using emerging or proved technologies of the world. The technology which has already proved itself in last two decades is of course the information technology (IT). It has dramatically changed the lives of the individuals and organisations. Currently online shopping, digital marketing, social networking, digital communication and cloud computing etc are the best examples of change which came through the wave of information technology. Now accurate business planning, effective marketing, global sales, systematic management, real time monitoring, instant customer support and long term business growth cannot be achieved at the optimum level without IT.

The importance of IT in Business

The success of every business depends on certain factors. Some of which are accurate analysis, choosing the right technology and the future vision. Research from the last two decade has proved that those organisations that do invest in technology and choose the path of innovation increase their market share, financial figures and overall competitiveness. Information technology is the only technology which provides you the opportunity to analyse specific data and plan your business journey accordingly. It also provides you many tools which can solve complex problems and plan the scalability (future growth) of your business. In the modern age, it is proved that digital marketing is a great tool which let you promote your products or services to the global market while sitting in the comfort of your remote office or home. And thanks to the cloud computing and modern communication which enable you to form a global organisation, manage and monitor its virtual offices all over the world. Now I will briefly explain how information technology plays a vital role in different phases of business.

Decision Making

Speed and accuracy are at the heart of making right decision for your business. Every successful organisation has to go through a comprehensive market research process which enables management to make the right decision.  Market research can be done in many ways through online surveys, forums, blogs, group discussions using World Wide Web and of course through in-person interviews as well. Currently Big data, Google Analytics and Microsoft CRM Dynamics are also great tools to extract useful information which can impact on decision making. These online tools not only provide real time responses from the potential audience but also ensure the accuracy of data by minimising the risk of human errors.

Marketing and Business Growth

The heart of the business success lies in its marketing which enables the management to identify its target audience first and then observe their trends and needs. The overall marketing covers public relation, advertising, promotion and sales which subsequently impact on business growth. Many types of marketing can help you reach your potential customers. But I will briefly explain digital marketing here which was the dream in the past without Internet technology. Digital Marketing is a modern phenomenon which let you promote your products or services all over the world. It is a broad term which includes many concepts like search engine optimisation (SEO), pay per click (PPC), blogging, discussion forum, email shot, SMS, MMS, social media marketing and Smartphone app advertisement etc. Currently web market is booming at a very fast pace because most of the entrepreneurs have understood that the long term success in business is not possible without digital presence on the internet. Millions of new websites are being added on the internet every year.

Customer Support and Satisfaction

Higher level of customer satisfaction is the key to success which cannot be achieved without a real time customer support process. Business success depends on knowing its customers needs, trends, behaviours and satisfaction level. Effective communication is the best tool to understand the customer demands, problems and their solutions. Thanks to the Internet Technology that has enabled us to communicate with millions of potential or existing customer in the real time. IT provides many channels to communicate with the customer without going out in snow or rain. Some of these channels are email, webinar, social media, member portals, online newsletters and text or multimedia messaging through the smart phone.  Enterprise organisations normally use customer relationship management systems (CRM) to hold valuable data for understanding customer behaviours and future needs.

Resource Management and Globalisation

Resource management plays a crucial role in business success. When it comes to medium or large organisation, it is very hard for the top management to manage all the resources manually. These resources may include tangible, financial or human resources etc. Information technology has played a vital role in automating such complex problems by introducing user friendly solutions. A decade ago, most of the resource management solutions were desktop based. Thanks to the internet and cloud technology which enables software engineers to introduce cloud based ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions. Now, the managers can manage or monitor their organisational resources virtually anywhere in the world by using their personal computer, laptops, tablets or Smartphone. This concept has introduced the idea of globalisation. Most of multinational companies (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, McDonalds etc) in the world use these cloud based solutions to manage their virtual or physical offices and staff worldwide.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/role-information-technology-business-success-abid-afzal-butt