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Voicecon: Going Forward, Vision Matters: Page 2 of 2

First, you go through first-level support. Click this, push that. If you are lucky and get through the menu of actions, you might get kicked to second-level support. You will probably have to repeat everything you just did, but if you are lucky, you might get some help. If the problem is more difficult, then the second-level support has to consult an expert. Can you hold please? We have some music to amuse you. How much time do you waste on support? How much time does your support staff waste with customers? If the customer's problem gets fixed, their happiness has as much to do with being finished with your support as much as they have a fixed problem.

So let's cut through that red tape. In your ERP system you have employee information, like their expertise, recent product training, etc. In your UC system, you know the modes of how to reach them, voice, video, IM, etc, as well as their availability. In your support system, you might know if a particular person has interacted with the customer already and might have something of a relationship with them. You also have customer data in the CRM. Can you see a way to combine those sources of information in order to quickly bring together the right set of people to deal with a customer problem quickly and efficiently the first time they call? You'd save time and money and customers will be much happier. Now that's cool.

Implementing an integrated system to deal with customer support goes well beyond voice and video conferencing. It's using unified communications a component of a larger business process to be more effective and efficient. What if you could create a similar integrated process on the pre-sales and sales side by matching up your employees skills, location, availability and context with the potential customer with a new sales opportunity? What if you could marshal the employees and resources for a project without having to identify individuals, identify availability, schedule meetings, etc. Would you?

Of course, you have to be able to implement that vision at some point, and there are plenty of vendors that offer the products and services to do that. You have to be willing to spend the time to perform the business analysis to find where you can optimize your processes, and you have to be able to show demonstrable results. But big vision that meets your company's needs is going to get your executives-the people who ultimately have to  commit the resources to these projects-excited.