Transforming Customer Service through Cloud Computing

Session Date and Time: Day 1, March 23, 9:00am EST (6.00AM West Coast)- (45min)
Keywords: Cloud Marketing, New Marketing Trends.
Authors: Richard Snow, VP & Global Research Director, Ventana Research.
Abstract: Building a contact center has traditionally been a complex task. After all, it involves the integration of voice and data networks, application servers to handle emails, faxes, white mail and a customer portal, software to ensure interactions reach the right customer service agent, applications to manage the agent workforce, and business applications and analytics software to make it all perform well. In recent years this model has become even more complex as companies add into the mix employees in back-office functions and branch offices and agents working at home. Vendors have responded to this challenge by moving contact center systems into the cloud, enabling companies to create and operate a virtual contact center. Richard Snow, VP and Global Research Director of the Customer Management research practice at business research and advisory services firm Ventana Research, explains how the cloud changes everything, eliminating many of the constraints that have made contact center deployment and management challenging, and also offers some cautions about important best practices to embrace and pitfalls to avoid.

Richard Snow, VP & Research Director – Customer and Contact Center Research Richard leads Ventana Research’s Customer and Contact Center Management research practice, which is dedicated to helping organizations improve the efficiency and effectiveness of managing their customers, throughout their lifetime and across all touch points. He conducts research exploring the people, process, information and technology issues behind customer operations and management with multi-channel contact centers including analytics and interactions and role of customer experience management and agent performance management along with the of social media. Richard has been leading the way with in-depth research and analysis on Unified Communications and role of Cloud Computing to the industry. Richard has specialized in delivering customer care and billing solutions for telecommunications operators, and several multi-channel contact centers for organizations in both the public and private sectors. As an industry veteran with more than 25 years experience, Richard can be found on Twitter at @rjsnowvr and on LinkedIn.