CRM For Call Centers Heralds Profits

If CRM (customer relationship management) hasn't already become part of your vocabulary, it will be soon. In the same way acronyms like ATM and LCD have become commonplace, so will CRM. Find out what systems integrator and VAR Datapoint (UK) (London) has known about CRM for a long time.

We've been involved with CRM since before it was called CRM," said Jill Watkins, manager of consultancy services for the Datapoint (UK) London office. Watkins has been with Datapoint for 18 years, quite a feat in this age of high-tech career transience. "We've been providing solutions to call centers for 20 years. Call centers are effectively a CRM market," she said. CRM is a technology that helps enterprises manage customer relationships.

"Our services commence from consultancy, where we can act in an independent capacity identifying key operational problems or strategic plans," explained Watkins. "From consultancy, we will help the customer identify the best solution to meet those needs. The solutions include CRM strategy development, technology selection, project management, systems integration and user training, and support of integrated e-CRM systems."

Datapoint was founded in 1968 in San Antonio as a manufacturer of mid-range computer systems. In 1977, it introduced the world's first commercially available LAN (local area network) called ARCNET. Today, ARCNET is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard with millions of nodes (computers) presently installed around the world.

Datapoint now has headquarters in both San Antonio and Paris. The 700-employee company has offices in 13 countries, worldwide. Datapoint's customer base represents approximately 40,000 installed computer systems for more than 200 types of business, industrial, and government organizations. This article focuses on the London office, with £22 million in 1999 sales.

In the early 1980s, Datapoint recognized the need for businesses to manage inbound and outbound telephone traffic. By doing this, businesses could optimize the use of personnel, capital equipment, and global telephone networks. Through providing these solutions, Datapoint introduced itself to CRM.

The vertical markets Datapoint serves now are predominantly major telcos and finance companies. "That's because those markets were early adopters of CRM technology," said Watkins. "Our typical customer is a large corporation with complex contact and customer relationship interaction needs." Some of Datapoint's customers are Atlantic Telecom, Bank of Ireland, and British Telecom. "Our customers' needs include delivery of a contact to the right person at the right time."

What Is CRM?
CRM is an industry term. It's an organized way for enterprises to manage their customer relationships. CRM includes methodologies, software, and Internet capabilities. Enterprises can build customer databases that describe relationships in detail. This way, management, salespeople, service personnel, and even the customer can access information. The information can be used to match customer needs. Product plans and offerings, service requirement reminders, and customer's buying habits analyses are some CRM tools.

With CRM, enterprises can target their best customers - or their worst, for that matter. They can improve customer satisfaction. Part of CRM is the ACD (automatic call distributor). ACD is a telephone facility that manages incoming calls. The facility handles the calls based on the telephone number called and the database that's associated with that number. Many companies use ACDs to validate callers, make telephone calls, and forward telephone calls to the right party. ACDs can also allow callers to record messages. Plus, ACDs can gather usage statistics and even balance loads on telephone lines. ACDs provide ACIS (automatic customer/caller identification service). This is offered by DID (direct inward dialing), DNIS (dialed number identification service), or ANI (automatic number identification).

Convergence Of Voice And Data Leads To CRM
"Voice and data are no longer separate classes," stated Watkins. "People used to talk telephony and talk data. But the different disciplines are merging." This merger leads to CRM technology.

"At one point, we had two streams: telephony and traditional data processing. As the technologies have converged, so has our business," noted Watkins.

Watkins said the onset of CTI (computer telephony integration) was the catalyst for the merging of voice and data. Datapoint has been part of CTI since the mid-1980s, the earliest days of ACDs. This was primarily through point-to-point connections of telephone equipment to terminals (first-party integration). In the 1990s, CTI became popular as a server-based function. It included more information with the introduction of data from the telephony network.

So, how did this lead to CRM? "CTI was driven by the need to become more productive," said Watkins. "Using CTI cut time off of phone calls, which meant a significant increase in productivity and associated cost benefits."

Watkins said that CTI then expanded. "It no longer just concentrated on productivity elements, but incorporated better use of information," she explained. "This was driven by the need to identify and maximize the value associated with a contact."

Associated with CTI, CLI (calling line identify) and IVS (interactive voice system) made it easier to differentiate high-value customers and treat them well. You can guess what it did to low-value or debting customers. Voila! CRM.

Datapoint Provides Contact Delivery Tools
"We are now providing the mechanisms for delivery of contacts. This includes ACDs, dialers, UMS (unified messaging system), intelligent routing of contacts to the right person, and even desktop support," said Watkins. (UMS handles voice, fax, and regular text messages as objects in a single mailbox. This way, a user can access the messages with either a regular e-mail client or by telephone. PC users can open and play back voice messages, assuming their PCs have multimedia capabilities. Fax images can be saved or printed.)

Datapoint grew its business on its early experience with ACDs and then looked for complementary product sets. In the early days, it obtained marketing rights for the Davox product suite. This was a predictive dialing technology. Datapoint then sourced a tool for building call center and telebusiness applications. This tool was called EDGE, an IMA (Shelton, CT) CRM software product.

Over the past 32 years, Datapoint evolved from a manufacturer of mid-range computer systems into a CRM provider. The services it provided changed with the needs of its customers.

"We want to know our customers' business needs," said Watkins. "We want to know their strategies for the future. We try to provide solutions to a business need rather than just upgrading hardware to the newest version." This strategy has helped Datapoint survive in a market that has seen many companies come and go since the late 1960s. Datapoint continues to focus on providing solutions to business needs, enabling customers to support processes, and helping them get the right information to the right person. That means CRM.