- +
Ticked Off at Tick the Box Mentality 04/02/2008 13:01:15
Does your executive search firm know the difference between an MIS manager and a CIO, and if it does, can it explain that difference to its corporate clients?Does your executive search firm know its MIS managers from its elbow? Does it even know the difference between an MIS manager and a CIO, and if it does, can it explain that difference to its corporate clients? - +
Strategies for Dealing With IT Complexity 24/12/2007 10:30:47
Every innovation, every business process improvement, comes with an IT complexity tax that must be paid by CIOs in time, money and sweat. Here are strategies to mitigate the increasing complexity of IT as it enables new business.Every innovation, every business process improvement, comes with an IT complexity tax that must be paid by CIOs in time, money and sweat. Here are strategies to mitigate the increasing complexity of IT as it enables new business. - +
Pressure Points 03/09/2007 13:56:39
While CIOs all have different ways of tackling pressure, they all point to its single source: everywhereCIOs juggle tighter and tighter budgets, longer and longer to-do lists and rapid-fire technology updates that can shift the entire IT landscape overnight. They have to manage the expectations of tech savvy employees who want at work what they cobble together for themselves on the cheap at home; they have to find and retain IT staff and manage their Gen X/Y expectations while engaging intimately with the business; and they have to support 24x7 service demands - +
Doing Your Sums on . . . Build, Buy or Rent 05/11/2007 13:32:30
You’re trying to build a world-class IT team, but everyone’s going after the same talent pool. What mix works best? Should you grow your own, draft your players or barter your way to the line-up you want to field?CIOs should never forget that while new technologies have a maturity cycle, the maturity cycle for human beings in IT is even longer - +
It Is Easy Being Green 03/09/2007 11:28:04
In last month’s issue we looked at why CIOs should be at the fore of an organization’s sustainability effortsWhen it comes to cleaning up their act, many CIOs are recognizing data centres as among the lowest hanging fruit. IDC estimates companies spent $US26.1 billion to power and cool servers worldwide in 2005, with a monstrous $14 billion of that being spent in the US alone. In fact, data centres account for between 1.5 and 3 percent of all electricity consumed in the US. Should current trends persist, the research organization projects, that bill will soar to $US50 billion by the end of the decade
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Zones provide focussed content from Computerworld and leading technology partners.Newsletter Subscription
Telecom New Zealand has implemented new-generation speech recognition IVR technology with a $40,000 pilot project aimed at streamlining call centre operations.
Overlaid speech recognition technology replaces touchtone IVR, enabling call routing based on identification of predefined phrases extracted from freely spoken requests. It aims to minimize zero-outs (callers leaving the system to talk to an agent) and reduce incoming call centre requests.
The company's channel strategy manager, Hamish Stewart, said the system has handled about 75,000 calls since going online, used skills-based routing to reduce transfer calls by half, and improve stability in the contact centre rather than lower headcounts.
"The back-end information in the old IVR was good, but the customer still had find their own way around a complex IVR and this created routing issues" Stewart said. "This is typical of many traditional IVRs and is the motivation behind speech recognition."
To ensure "grandparents could use the system", thousands of pre-recorded phrases recognizing linguistic request variations were built in, while the option to speak to an agent at any time was maintained.
The system, implemented by Genesys, Gen-i and Tuvox has since reduced agent-bound calls by 10 percent, is delivering the expected ROI, and increased self service by about 20 percent.
"If transfers were to drop by 50 percent [the system] would pay for itself," Stewart said, adding departments have stopped receiving misdirected calls. IVR technology is becoming mainstream as telecommunications providers, government agencies and pizza franchises begin to pilot speech recognition software in the call centre.
With some 50 local enterprises embracing speech-enhanced IVR, including Telstra, Centrelink, the Australian Tax Office and Dominos Pizza, Stewart said a notable exception is the banks which have been slow to adopt speech recognition even though the sector pioneered basic touchtone IVR.
"They have been slow to adopt speech [overlaid] IVR because they are confident they have self-service nailed," Stewart said, adding that IVR needs meet constantly rising consumer expectations.
Genesys Asia Pacific senior vice president James Brooks agreed, saying while speech technology adoption is three times that of recent years, he "has not seen any banks in Australia embrace speech overlaid IVR".
Stewart said the technology could see local call centres agents migrate to technical positions, with general zero-out agents offshored.
Computerworld Member Login
Prioritizing Services with IT Service Management (ITSM)
Computerworld Live Webinar
Wednesday 20th, August 2008
11:00am EST (Sydney, Australia)
To be repeated on:
Thursday 4th, September 2008
11:00am EST (Sydney Australia)
Sign up and receive a free copy of The Forrester WaveTM Service Desk Management Tools, Q2 2008 at the conclusion of the Webinar.
Attend and discover:
- How to deliver value to your business through ITSM
- Best practice ITSM implementation
- Why emphasis is changing from optimizing IT management processes to better servicing customers and demonstrating real dollar value
- If service-oriented ITSM is best for your business
- +
Computerworld Live Podcast #97: The Future of Enterprise Networking 25/07/2008 09:45:36
This week CW Live chats with Mark Thompson, global sales and marketing manager for HP ProCurve, on the future of the enterprise networking. Mark discusses the trends we can expect to see in the near future and how the right infrastructure can ensure your enterprise network is secure. - +
Computerworld Live Podcast #96: Security at the Edge 11/06/2008 09:22:22
CW Live speaks with Amol Mitra, HP ProCurve Director of Marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan. Today's topic: how enterprises are starting to shift away from simply controlling security via server logins, firewalls and moving to more adaptive security frameworks. - +
Data Management Edition #10: Multi-Petascale Systems 02/05/2008 09:12:33
This week we look at sustainability and the development of multicore technologies to build multi-petascale systems. - +
IT Security Edition #11: How to poison the Storm botnet 01/05/2008 08:51:55
This week CW Live presents a case study on how to poison the notorious Storm botnet . Plus we take a look at Cisco's plans for Ironport. - +
IT Security Edition #10: Cyber-battles fought and won 24/04/2008 11:09:47
Vendors bow to end user pressure to improve product security, and we take a look at the latest concepts shaping the cyber-battlefield of the future.
Tumbleweed appoints O2 Networks to its Australian Channel Partner Program 2008-08-29 12:31:00+10
HP ProCurve Brings Big Business Gigabit Switching Features to Small Businesses 2008-08-29 12:00:00+10
Nortel and LG Electronics are First in World to Demonstrate Mobile LTE Handover 2008-08-29 11:30:00+10
GlobalConnect Provides Treatment for Healthcare Provider’s Contact Support Requirements 2008-08-29 09:59:00+10
Sybase and Logica Partner To Mobilise The Supply Chain 2008-08-29 09:47:00+10
Market Trends: Multienterprise/B2B Infrastructure Market | Worldwide | 2008
Garner says global 2000 companies will double their multi-enterprise traffic in the next 5 years. Discover the key technology and business drivers that will enable this.
