Call Centers

Genesys has updated its contact center and workforce management software suites. The former adds intelligent contact center routing functionality in a software-only application. The latter update includes the ability to dynamically reschedule agents in the middle of the day in response to call volum...

Indian call centers are being purchased by U.S. and Canadian companies seeking to quickly gain access to call center services offshore, particularly outbound services. Although media attention focuses more on the sale of U.S. assets to Asian and Middle Eastern firms, this trend in the other directi...

The global outbound dialing market -- dominated by equipment vendors including Aspect, Avaya, Genesys, Nortel and Cisco -- not only is saturated in many regions, especially North America, but also is facing stiff headwinds, according to a new study by Frost & Sullivan. These challenges include a...

Genesys has announced plans to acquire VoiceGenie, a provider of self-service voice applications -- a move that is expected to solidify the drive to determine which standard will dominate the industry. The acquisition of the privately held firm, which is expected to close in a few weeks, will also a...

Microsoft and Alcatel expect to deliver a product next month that will target mid-sized companies with contact centers around the world. The two companies announced their intentions on Wednesday. The new product will be based upon Alcatel's OmniTouch Contact Center Premium Edition and Microsoft Dyna...

The hosted contact center subsector is the fastest growing in the hosted CRM space, suggest new statistics compiled by Frost & Sullivan. It is increasing at a rate that is at least as fast as the rate of expansion seen in the hosted CRM industry during the early 2000s, Frost & Sullivan Progr...

Kana has updated Response, its e-mail response management application, and Response Live, its live chat and Web collaboration module. The new versions provide better integration across customer touch points, along with additional functionality that allows desktop agents to answer customer questions ...

The contact center and software and service market continues to remain fragmented, according to Gartner's latest report on the industry, with various applications in the space addressing only a portion of users' needs. In large part, that is because the leading functions users want from such applica...

I was doing research for a white paper not long ago and it gave me reason to speak with people who operate call centers. The call center operators I spoke with had one thing in common; they used on-demand call center services. If you are not familiar with on-demand call center services, it's much ...

Enterprises that have already invested in contact center equipment may think managed services have nothing to offer them, but much of the managed services functionality offered today works in tandem with the Customer Premise Equipment already in place, enhancing features already in use. Advances in ...

Verizon Business is targeting the small to mid-sized market with the introduction this month of IP Web Center, a hosted contact center application. It is providing this functionality by adding Internet protocol capability to its Verizon Web Center service. This means that Verizon Web Center and Veri...

Cisco Systems has introduced its Unified Communications system -- a new suite of voice, data and video products and applications based on the Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP standard. Cisco is no stranger to this open standard. Last year, for instance, it acquired Dynamicsoft, the company that o...

Avtex, a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner that offers contact center, IP telephony and unified messaging applications, will be moving into the hosted contact center VoIP space once its acquisition of Interactive Solutions International is completely absorbed. The company announced on Friday that it ...

Talisma has released a new version of its Customer Interaction Management suite, Talisma CIM 7.0. The software integrates multiple communication channels, including e-mail, chat, Web self-service and phone. Able to handle million of interactions, Talisma 7.0 can be deployed on-site or on-demand. Thi...

FrontRange Solutions is expected to introduce GoldMine IP Voice in the United States within the next few weeks. The application, which combines contact management and VoIP telephony in one package, is integrated in the GoldMine Corporate Edition CRM suite. Linking the telephony layer to the CRM appl...