Evaluating the ROI of Informal Call Centers

Transcription

1 IMAGE White Paper: Evaluating the ROI of Informal Call Centers JayLassman UC Analyst

2 Summary AVST s TeamQ, an innovative informal call center solution, delivers traditional call center functionality at a fraction of the cost when compared to formal ACD solutions. Analysis reveals TeamQ reduces software and maintenance costs by as much as 77 percent. Introduction There is general acceptance by organizations of all sizes that deploying call center technology is essential for streamlining everyday business processes and improving customer satisfaction. Additionally, the increasing popularity of unified communications has fostered and facilitated the use of collaboration tools that improve employee productivity. As a result, it s become apparent that workgroup members and subject matter experts can benefit from, and are now starting to demand, technology previously available only to formal call center personnel. What is an informal call center? The informal call center is a simplified version or subgroup of a full-blown contact center solution. Informal call centers typically consist of workers who manage their own time, work flows and processes. Business areas that benefit most include sales, service or technical support functions, particularly when requirements tend to be well delineated, recurring or cyclical. Goals of informal call centers include: Improve customer access to company subject matter experts Enhance internal help desk and HR services with efficient call handling and shortened wait times Route calls to groups of people rather than individuals Improve call completion rates Eliminate need to hunt for the right resource What are drivers for informal call center technology? Preserve essential call center features and functions at a reduced cost Deliver call center solutions to underserved departments Provide employees with control over their time and calls Increase employee productivity and enhance customer satisfaction What are barriers for informal call centers? Historically high cost to buy, deploy and maintain Limited functionality

3 Why TeamQ? TeamQ capitalizes on call handling, call routing and other functionality inherent in AVST s CX-E platform, which is a full-feature enterprise-class unified communications solution that has substantial global penetration in virtually every vertical market. TeamQ s capabilities include: Group call queuing such as ACD and UCD capabilities desktop control Screen pops Push and pull modes Supervisor interface Reports TeamQ is designed to give agents control of their call workflow. s decide which call to pull first, indicate when the call is complete, reserve a call if they are already on another call and redirect a call to someone else. The solution can be cost-effectively deployed as part of an enterprise-wide messaging infrastructure, or it can supplement an existing formal contact center. It s also important to point out that, because it runs on the CX-E platform, TeamQ is compatible with virtually all telephony and UC core platforms from vendors such as Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft, Mitel, ShoreTel, Alcatel-Lucent, Unify, Genband, Broadsoft and more. s control workflow pull calls, reserve calls, redirect calls and decide when available. No CTI PBX

4 Call center software cost comparison The table below compares software component and maintenance costs for informal and formal call centers. Cost estimates are based on a 50 agent call center. AVST s TeamQ software license is calculated at $50 MSLP per agent and $5,720 MSLP - 8 port CX-E license. Formal call center software pricing is based on $750 MSLP per agent. It excludes hardware, professional services and installation because even if assumed equal to costs for a formal call center, TeamQ would have a decided price advantage. And organizations will find an even more compelling reason for deployment when TeamQ shares the same CX-E infrastructure that supports messaging requirements. Monthly Estimated Cost Per $30.00 $25.00 $27.60 $20.00 $15.00 $10.00 $5.00 $0.00 $6.42 Formal Call Center AVST TeamQ Formal Call Center Total % Savings* Software License $4.57 $20.83 Support/Maintenance $1.85 $6.09 Upgrade $0.00 $0.68 Total $6.42 $ % *amortized over 36 months/based on MSLP

5 Conclusion The previous table indicates that the annual savings for TeamQ (per agent) compared to a formal call center solution represents 77 percent. The savings give organizations the option to provision more TeamQ licenses or significantly reduce call center expenditures. Either way, TeamQ yields significant cost advantage for agent staffing requirements versus a formal call center. Just as important, TeamQ includes a CTI capability, which eliminates the expense associated with provisioning a separate link that is usually required to support integration with most telephony About Jay Lassman Jay Lassman provides strategic guidance to end user organizations on selecting and deploying Unified Communications (UC). He also supports vendor initiatives that focus on improving marketing and sales effectiveness. Mr. Lassman has more than 25 years experience in business communications product marketing, supported by a distinguished record of accomplishment selling technology-based systems to Fortune 500 companies. Before becoming an independent consultant he was a Research Director with Gartner Inc., where he spent more than 14 years developing deep awareness and insights on UC and Contact Center technologies and the product portfolios of the major global vendors. Leveraging this industry knowledge, Mr. Lassman has developed significant expertise in providing planning, design, adoption and migration guidance to end users on IP-based communications solutions for premises, cloud and hybrid environments particularly for businesses in the government, health care and education market segments. Prior to joining Gartner, Mr. Lassman was with AT&T and Verizon (Bell Atlantic) where he had responsibilities that included product management, competitive sales and marketing strategies and providing field personnel with sales and technical support. Mr. Lassman is a graduate of the Cooper Union in New York City, and received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering.