Call-center options to grow at Expo
March 2, 1999
InfoWorld via NewsEdge Corporation : Lucent
Technologies and Genesys
Telecommunications Laboratories this week
will introduce solutions that can handle a
variety of call-center communications
beyond traditional phone calls.
Lucent will demonstrate at the Computer
Telephony Expo, in Los Angeles, its CentreVu
Internet Solutions, which allows businesses
to communicate with customers via multiple
channels such as Internet text chat, voice
over IP, and e-mail.
The company has added enhancements such
as forms-sharing, which lets agents and
customers simultaneously view and complete
online forms; and a multisite capability, which
lets enterprises with multiple call centers
route calls to the best site based on the
available resources. Also new are interface
APIs, which let businesses integrate their
agents' CentreVu Internet Solution user
interfaces with desktop applications,
according to company officials.
CentreVu Internet Solutions is available now,
priced starting at $1,500 per simultaneous
agent session.
Meanwhile, Genesys at the show will
announce Internet Suite, a bundled solution
that combines e-mail routing and Web
call-back with Web call-through via
voice-over-IP and chat capabilities.
Mark Orttung, senior director of product
management at Genesys, added that Web
co-browsing is also available, which lets an
agent push Web pages to a customer while
simultaneously viewing Web pages.
The Internet Suite will ship in early spring.
Pricing is unavailable.
Blair Pleasant, an analyst at the Pelorus
Group, in Raritan, N.J., said she sees a
growing trend in the call center toward
customer interactions via multiple means.
"There's a need to know what's going on in
different touch points and to have a
repository mechanism so you know what's
going on with all customer interactions
regardless of the communication used,"
Pleasant said.
Lucent Technologies Inc., in Murray Hill, N.J.,
is at www.lucent.com. Genesys
Telecommunications Laboratories Inc., in San
Francisco, is at www.genesyslabs.com.
[Copyright 1999, InfoWorld] |
