ProtoCall One identifies Business Issues as key drivers for contact centres in 2007

• Business Issues - not technology - basis for developing customer service
• Need to address combination of cross-industry and vertical market Business Issues

London, U.K. - 30 January 2007 - According to ProtoCall One, one of the UK's premier systems integration consultancy for the contact centre industry, it is business issues - and not technology - that are going to be key drivers for contact centres in 2007. Faraz Khan, the company's Director of Business Development, believes that: "the technology obsession of contact centres is distracting them from core business issues. There needs to be a sea change in the way that contact centre managers address their priorities for change - often spending less money to obtain more value for their organisations."

Having been quick to invest in contact centre technology over the last decade - often with cumbersome and unwieldy solutions to show for it - organisations are now realising that technology is not the solution - simply an enabler. "A good example is voice over IP. A key business issue for contact centres has been to leverage resources across sites, countries & continents. VOIP came along and enabled it, but it didn't in itself drive the business need," continued Faraz Khan. "Organisations need to look inwards at their particular business and market challenges, as well as their people and processes to identify how to best use and benefit from the technology in question."

ProtoCall One has identified a set of Business Issues it believes will play a critical role in technology investment sign-offs.

The key business challenges for contact centres in 2007:

• Number one is to leverage the vast amount of customer information and interaction history to serve and sell to the customer better, enabled in particular by new developments in speech analytics, customer segmentation and the unified desktop
• Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, for example through intelligent call routing and real multi-channel integration - big gaps still exist particularly in integrating email into the contact centre
• In order to serve customers more effectively, organisations need to support agent development, motivation and empowerment by adopting advances in Workforce Optimisation
• Make better use of existing resources, knowledge and capabilities within the organisation, for example through the virtualisation of contact centre staff

ProtoCall One has also identified a number of industry-specific business issues:

• Retail and Travel sectors - need to address full multi-channel communication that is now widely expected by customers due to the growth of the online channel
• Gambling and Gaming industry - probably has the most demanding customers in any market - speed of response is therefore vital to customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Financial Services - security is a major concern for customers, with a surge in online fraud and highly publicised incidents of theft of sensitive customer data from call centres
• Local Authorities - have  particular challenges because of the diversity of the services they deliver and the variety of information required by citizens
• Utilities - customer service is largely affected by regulatory changes and legislative pressures - compliance being a major headache for these companies

These views are strongly supported by ProtoCall One's customers, business partners and associates. 

For example, Mike McGowan, Head of Customer Services at Bristol and Wessex Billing Services states: "The increasingly stringent rules on how certain service level indicators are measured have made it even more challenging for water companies that are already suffering from a negative image on the customer service front. I believe the biggest challenge for utilities companies in 2007 will be to ensure their processes and procedures meet this changing regulatory environment - and not to mention customers' needs."

"We are pleasantly surprised to see that Contact centre operators are now moving away from the industry's obsession with agent productivity. I believe we will see a clear shift in 2007 towards re-defining productivity in a more complete quality environment that looks to ensure lasting customer loyalty. Focusing on both the cross industry and vertical-specific business issues will provide contact centres with a real service differentiator and deliver tangible benefits to those organisations committed to this shift in focus," concluded ProtoCall One's Faraz Khan.

<sub>About ProtoCall One
ProtoCall One is UK's premier systems integration consultancy for the contact centre industry. It is the leading independent advisor to the country's top telecommunications service providers, helping them develop advanced network-based solutions for large contact centres. It is also widely recognised as the 'Number One' professional services and support organisation for the industry-leading Genesys Call Centre Solutions. ProtoCall One helps organisations to identify and resolve the technical and business issues involved in integrating contact centres into mainstream business processes, with a strong focus on financial services, telecommunications, travel and public sector markets. Additional information is available at www.pc-1.co.uk or for more information please contact:

Faraz Khan
Director of Business Development
ProtoCall One
Tel: 0870 204 2613
fkhan@pc-1.co.uk</sub>

_{Manuela Whittaker
IBA, PR for ProtoCall One
Tel: 01780 721433
mwhittaker@iba-europe.com}

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