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Posted on 18 September 2012 by Jennifer WilsonLast week I spent some time at an event on ‘big data’ in the insurance industry. The one-day seminar featured speakers from Gartner, IBM, and panelists from insurance technology providers and carriers. Throughout the sessions, interesting and innovative ideas were presented around the concept of making the most of the data and the business intelligence we have. With that said, I saw three main themes:
How to use this data for predictive insight How to assess risk and fraudulent activity How to remain competitive and profitable
What I found interesting was that of all these concepts, very few presenters spoke [...]
Posted on 6 May 2012 by Abi ChandraOne of the few perks that I have always enjoyed from this travel-intensive job is to wake up at the crack of dawn, open my hotel room door, and find a freshly delivered newspaper within arm’s reach. I know what you are thinking, but yes, this technology evangelist still enjoys catching up with world events the old fashioned way, with a cup of chai tea and the feel of soft newspaper in my hands. During one recent trip, I read an article in USA Today by Adam Sylvain titled “State laws let telephone companies end land-line services,” [...]
Posted on 26 April 2012 by Jennifer WilsonI recently ran across an article in Insurance Networking News highlighting a report by J.D. Power and Associates entitled the ‘2012 U.S. Auto Claims Satisfaction Study.’ The report reflected the lowest customer satisfaction scores related to auto claims in 3 quarters. The reason behind this drop…a delay in policyholder reports of claims as a result of the holiday season, causing a longer processing time. So, who is actually at fault for this decline?
My guess is there are various opinions and reasons as to why reports of claims were delayed…busy schedules for policyholders, lack of resources from the carrier side, [...]
Posted on 24 February 2012 by Jennifer WilsonThey are the hot topics for every industry this year…social media, mobile apps, and cloud-based offerings. So, what’s driving this interest and feeding the buzz in the insurance industry? Sure, social media and mobile users are steadily increasing, and cloud-based solutions are both attractive and affordable, but it is the opportunity to improve overall customer service that is really enticing.
Insurance carriers must expand their traditional contact center and customer service operations to offer information through multiple communication channels and manage it effectively, streamlining both policy and claim processes. Given the breadth of these three trending [...]
Posted on 17 January 2012 by Joe StaplesStarts and stops…more starts…more stops. That is what multi-named hosted, on-demand, or cloud-based computing and communications has seen since the early 90′s when the ASP (application service provider) was touted as a model to change technology forever. Well, here’s a new flash for you…this time it stuck!
Adoption rates of cloud-based communication services are growing fast. Some vendors of those services are posting order growth rates of more than 100% year/year. And the well-respected analyst firm Ovum shows premise-based contact center growth for the next five years of less than 3%, but growth of the cloud-based contact center market to be 17%-20% for that same period of time.
The [...]
Posted on 13 January 2012 by Brad HerringtonThis week saw the 2012 installment of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Most of the buzz is obviously around consumer facing products, but there is some crossover into the unified communications and/or contact center space.
At CES big players in the tech space try to grab daily headlines. Sometimes good buzz around innovative products, other times hilarious buzz around certain speeches. Anyone remember Ballmer as Mr. Monkey Boy? If not there’s a nice blog post to refresh your memory.
Anyway, there were a few interesting UC and contact center items I found in all the [...]
Posted on 24 October 2011 by Abi ChandraI begin by thanking all of you for the tremendous response to my previous video blog titled Hear Me Out. Based on your feedback I decided to follow up with a sequel picture blog which will introduce us to a variety of tools used to help identify and mitigate VoIP audio issues. As before, in keeping with the brief nature of this picture blog I will let the pictures do the talking and I will provide short explanations where necessary. Please note that the screen shots of the tools I have used are one of many ways [...]
Posted on 12 September 2011 by Joe StaplesI went to Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce event a few days ago. It was a repeat for me as I also attended in 2010. What an event! Since I left I’ve been asking myself two questions. How did Salesforce pull this off? And, more importantly for you and me, why isn’t there a communications event like this?
So for the first question, let me start by pointing you to Nancy Jamison’s write up on the event, "Plenty for the Contact Center at Dreamforce ’11." A great summary. Thanks, Nancy. So how did they pull it off? Is it the San Francisco venue (they outgrew [...]
Posted on 6 September 2011 by Abi ChandraEven though I work primarily on the Pre-Sales side designing and architecting customer solutions, it is not uncommon for me to help with Post-Sales support. I will usually become involved at that juncture when a customer voices concerns about poor audio quality, and I need to troubleshoot. However, there is frequently a communication barrier when the end user generically summarizes the symptomotology as “crappy audio” or a similar unscientific description of the actual problem. A medical doctor has to run multiple diagnostic tests when a patient has a broad or ambiguous set of symptoms in order to narrow down [...]
Posted on 19 August 2011 by Jason AlleyYou have an existing customer that, even though the relationship is fairly new, is getting ready to place a monster order for add-on business that would blow your number out, secure your spot as the company’s top performer, and put you in a position to consider taking the next 2-3 years off.
Not to pour vinegar on your Cheerios, but… Just before the order is signed, there is a technical issue that causes this customer’s business to come to a screeching halt, including a significant loss in revenue. Needless to say, they are in an absolute uproar. The CEO [...]
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