Ventana Research's Provides Education for Clarity in the Contact Center Cloud Haze

SAN RAMON, CA, August 31, 2011 (Press-News.org) Contact Centers are facing a wave of new challenges. With social media and self-service channels becoming a common method of interacting with customers, the need to support a multi-channel customer contact center is now greater than ever. With that need has come a proliferation of new multi-channel contact center technology choices. Many companies are opting for cloud based computing models. Cloud-based contact centers have advantages to be sure. They can cut costs, create flexibility with anywhere, anytime access for agents and customers alike to interact without the cumbersome legacy technology impeding the best customer experience.

At Salesforce Dreamforce (http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF11/) in San Francisco, Ventana Research is gathering information on the latest in cloud computing advancements to add to its newly launched contact center research educational programs (http://www.ventanaresearch.com/contactcenter), which help them improve their operations covering cloud computing, customer experience management including role of feedback management, agent desktop and interactions, agent performance management, and the span of analytics from speech and text. The early findings on the firm's new Contact Center in the Cloud Benchmark Research program indicates that implementing new cloud computing applications and technology requires careful assessment and planning. In addition our latest benchmark research into contact center analytics finds that innovative organizations are measuring effectiveness in customer experience across traditional channels like telephone, interactive voice response (IVR) systems and e-mail but also the online channels of chat, forums, social media and VOIP. This advancement enables contact center in the cloud to more easily operate and integrate new customer interaction channels to effectively support innovation in their call center.

"The market advancements in cloud computing are significant but our research finds that organizations are unaware of the steps to make the multi-channel contact center in the cloud to become a reality. The right selection of applications and technology is essential and getting through the vendor hype and marketing is essential to focus on what is best to meet the levels of customer satisfaction to ensure the best customer experience," said Richard Snow, VP of Ventana Research and head of its Customer and Contact Center Research practice. "That's where we come in. We provide in-depth research and assessment services to help organizations advance and use contact center in the cloud with a span of applications and technology that improve the operations and performance of customer service."

Ventana Research's On-Demand advisory services and comprehensive education services provide organizations with actionable recommendations for multi-channel operations and contact center move the contact center to the cloud. Additional information can be found at http://www.ventanaresearch.com/contactcenter. For a limited time you can, sign up to receive a free 30 minute tune up session, and get a state of the contact center benchmark report at no cost. Qualified organizations and those serious about change are eligible for incentive.

About Ventana Research
Ventana Research is the most authoritative and respected benchmark business technology research and advisory services firm. We provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream and disruptive technologies through a unique set of research-based offerings including benchmark research and technology evaluation assessments, education workshops and our research and advisory services, Ventana OnDemand. Our unparalleled understanding of the role of technology in optimizing business processes and performance and our best practices guidance are rooted in our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions in every industry. This benchmark research plus our market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver education and expertise to our clients to increase the value they derive from technology investments while reducing time, cost and risk. Our views and analyses are distributed daily through blogs and social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Business Week's Business Exchange. Follow Ventana Research on Twitter @ventanaresearch and join in on collaboration on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Ventana-Research-1625427.