While technology in isolation can`t turn an organisation into a customer-centric company, it is vital to implement the right technologies to ensure top-class customer relationship management.
Rumours of European telecoms tie-ups, the take-over of Verio by NT&T and yet another acquisition by Cisco dominated the international world of information technology last week.
Vendors have hijacked the ideals of business intelligence (BI) to promote their own particular technologies and users are being taken in by the deception.
The enterprise resource planning (ERP) market is in turmoil again, with SAP`s original challengers either falling by the wayside or in deep financial trouble.
While it was mostly quiet on the local IT front during the past two weeks thanks to all the holidays, it was business as usual overseas, with Microsoft`s anti-trust woes still percolating.
It is imperative that management focuses on the development and empowerment of the people in the call centre environment.
Last week saw massive technology share price drops internationally, while Datatec, as well as the general weakness of IT and telecommunications stocks, made waves locally.
The anti-trust judgement against Microsoft, the $2.1 billion merger of Peregrine Systems and Harbinger, as well as AT&T`s action against Telkom made for an exciting IT week.
Top local news last week was Dimension Data`s official status as the top growth company over the last five years.
When considering outsourcing your company`s call centre, you need to ask tough questions to establish a prospective service provider`s experience, approach and standard of service.
People are starting to see how a wired world will change everything, and if you`re not yet a convert, First Tuesday may just turn out to be the mind-blowing testament you need.
In a week filled with further consolidations, 3Com`s major restructuring still managed to hog most of the international and local IT headlines.
When considering outsourcing your call centre requirements, each and every aspect of the relationship between the organisation and the outsourcing provider must be carefully analysed.