Call centres migrate to VOIP

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 22 Nov 2006

Call centres are moving to voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and Web technology, say Sean Straus and Brian Bischoff of Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories.

This technology is just beginning to be adopted in SA, says Bischoff, Genesys global VP for voice platform sales and solutions, "but in five years will be the de facto standard and 80% of customers will use it".

Straus, the senior technical manager for Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, says the trend can be seen in the change in terminology, with call centres gradually becoming reborn as contact centres.

"It happened quite a while ago to add things like chat, e-mail, fax and Web forms. Call centres," he adds, "imply single channel communication with customers, usually voice, while contact centres are multi-channel."

Bischoff says the motivation is that customers are beginning to select how they want to interact with businesses and perform transactions.

"Depending on where they are from a physical and lifestyle perspective, they may, at different points in time, use different ways of communicating with businesses," he says. "So, someone may choose to use a mobile phone because they are travelling, they may choose to send a fax from an office, they may choose to use traditional voice, or they may want to submit an e-mail or a Web form. Consumers are voting on how they want to do business and transact with companies," Bischoff says.

He also thinks the window for small technology companies is wide open. "I think you'll see a lot more diversity in the market. You get a lot of small players that have really creative solutions that use things in ways not thought about before [as a result of greater] standardisation and collaboration on projects. In the next five years, Bischoff says, it will be "really small players, creative players that have a big impact on the market".

Straus says deregulation is starting to shake up the South African market. "The regulatory environment has made the industry more advanced than some countries, but less proliferated in options and technology than some other areas, like the US, UK or Germany," he says.

Bischoff adds that the local market is now going through growing pains akin to those seen in Eastern Europe three to five years ago.

"SA can take full advantage of what other countries have started and can learn from their mistakes and exploit what's worked well, whether that is in fixed-line or mobile networks, and the applications they provide."