Hi Jack - let's hope we were reading the same article <g>. To begin with, CRM and SFA are hot items. CLFY ranks 2nd. And I have nothing to do with it <sg>, i.e., is there a great ROI? I don't know. But Corporate America is buying this stuff. My guess is that people outside of N America will follow suit after seeing the US GDP, productivity gain and low inflation are kicking some serious ashes <g>!
AFA the article is concerned, my take is that Mr Roth's theory is precisely a response to address the myth of total automation. He seems to believe that the front end system will provide the main bulk of information customer needs to solve his/her problem(s). However, the final frontier [my words] is still a human agent. There is where the call center comes in. Again, my take is that the human agent will try not to repeat the 80% of the information which the customer has processed from the web but will try to resolve the 20% of the uncertainty.
This is not just a labour saving device. Instead, I think the aim is to provide a 100% satisfaction seamlessly w/o boring the customer and the rep to tear. It is amazing on paper, does it work in real life? I don't know.
However, considering the amount of money involved, it is definitely a good risk reward project. And NT has become a lab rat itself before mass marketing the product. So, maybe it is a worthwhile thing.
Finally, I don't know if this is doing all things for all people, but I am actually happy that NT is breaking ground. Even if Fiber Optics is hot, and it is likely to be a great driver for NT for the next few years, a truly great company should be able to have some five and ten years plans [difficult it may be with the technological shift occurring so rapidly these days.] Why, has NT not gone whole hog on OC192 last year or so, despite there was not necessarily a demand at the time, she would not have enjoyed the current buzz. And shareholders, you and I included, would not be cheering as loud
Just my 2c
best, Bosco |
