President’s Corner
TelCoa thanks U.S. Representatives Jim Himes, Rosa DeLauro, and Elizabeth Esty for introducing the Multi-State Worker Tax Fairness Act, H.R. 4085, 113th Congress. We strongly support this crucial legislation. The bill would finally eliminate the telecommuter tax, a steep penalty often resulting in double taxation of income that interstate telecommuters earn at home. The telecommuter tax unfairly burdens telecommuters and their employers and limits telework adoption. Congress must make the Multi-State Worker Tax Fairness Act law! TelCoa and other advocates are working to secure the bill’s enactment, but we need your help! >>> Read More...
Guest Columnist
4 Great Examples of Telework’s Impact by: Brie Weiler Reynolds As champions of telecommuting and flexible work options for all, we certainly don’t have to tell TelCoa readers about the benefits of telework--we all know and love them. But as organizations like ours work to spread awareness of, and support for, flexible ways of working, it’s really important to remember the individuals for whom we work--the millions of professionals whose lives would be positively impacted by more access to telework and flexible jobs. At 1 Million for Work Flexibility, we hear daily from supporters about why they support the expansion of flexible work options for all. Here are four great examples of why work flexibility, including telework, is vitally important to individuals, to companies, and to society. >>> Read the entire blog at...
Hot Topics & Links
"Working from home not for everyone, but it can still be a 'win-win' for many workers and employers" is an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer featuring TelCoa President Chuck Wilsker and Advisory Board member Diane Stegmeier. For the complete article, > click-here... -------------------------

Virtual Call Centers

 

Verizon Teams with inContact to Deliver New Cloud-Based

Customer Care Solutions To Serve Business Customers

More Effectively

Advanced ‘Virtual Contact Center’ Services Aim to Increase

Customer Satisfaction by Providing Communications Options

and Faster Responses to Inquiries.

 

November 17, 2011, NEW YORK – To help multinational businesses and government agencies communicate more effectively with their customers and  provide better service,  Verizon has teamed with inContact, the leading provider of cloud contact center solutions, to offer an advanced suite of cloud-based Virtual Contact Center services.

Click here to read the entire press release.

 

 

 

Hosted Power: How Four Call Centers Work Smarter in the Cloud (Part 2 of 2)

 

June 2, 2011, By: Mariann McDonagh

When hosted call center technology debuted in the early 2000s, the primary selling point was the same one that has turned salesforce.com into the poster child for hosted enterprise software: a money-saving, pay-as-you-go pricing model with no in-house hardware investment or related IT infrastructure, maintenance and upgrade expenses.

That savings has proven to be significant. One Yankee Group study estimated that cloud-based call centers can lower the total cost of ownership as much as 45%. The cost advantage has helped fuel rapid growth in the space, with DMG Consulting estimating a 26% increase in seat numbers and a 50% increase in overall deployments between 2008 and 2009 alone.

Click here to read the entire article.

 

 

Goodbye to the Box: The Rise of Hosted Call Center Infrastructure (Part 1 of 2)

 

March 23, 2011, By: Mariann McDonagh

In late 2010, a DMG Consulting report on the hosted contact center infrastructure market(1) proclaimed a “significant paradigm shift” away from installing ACDs and related equipment on company premises. Instead, the report noted, companies are increasingly electing to have call
routing and related functions delivered over a broadband connection.

While stopping short of writing an obituary for the on-premise giants of the industry, DMG said the momentum is clearly on the side of moving call center infrastructure into the cloud. The analyst estimated a 26% increase in hosted seats and a 50% surge in hosted deployments between 2008 and 2009, with growth rates of up to 35% forecast over the next few years.

In this regard, contact center technology is following in the footsteps of Salesforce CRM and other Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings that are transforming the way that businesses acquire the various tools they need to operate.

Click here to read the entire article.

 

PCI Council Issues Advice for Securing Card Data in Call Centers
Rule #1: If you don’t need it, don’t store it.
March 18, 2011 By Penny Crosman, Bank Systems & Technology

The PCI Security Standards Council has come out with recommendations for how to protect credit card information given over the phone in a call center.
Click here to read the entire article.

 
 

inContact Announces Two New Fortune Global 500 Customers
Cloud-Based Platform Continues to gain Momentum with Enterprise-Level Customers

SALT LAKE CITY (March 3, 2011) – inContact (NASDAQ: SAAS), the leading provider of on-demand call center software and call center agent optimization tools, announced today that two Fortune Global 500 companies have selected the company’s cloud-based call routing solutions to power their call centers. 
Click here to read the entire press release.

 
 

Home Work
By Carol Patton, Human Resource Executive Online

As the new breed of telecommuters, home-based agents may become the norm for companies operating call centers. To boost productivity, call centers need to offer quick and easy electronic access to information about policies and procedures, keyword searches and answers to most frequently asked questions.
Click here to read the entire article.

 
 

There’s No Workforce Like Home
By Mary A. Naylor, Bloomberg Businessweek Viewpoint

Want to help keep jobs in this country, serve customers better, and lower your costs? Telework lets companies tap an accomplished but underutilized talent pool.
Click here to read the entire article.
 
 

Keeping Balance in the Center
By Coreen Bailor, Destination CRM.com
Organizations no longer have to choose between efficiency and effectiveness as contact center technology evolves. Here, five approaches to service and efficiency equilibrium.
Click here to read the entire article.

 
 

There’s no place like (an office at) home

Work@Home™ opportunities for disabled workers
Featured on the Today Show
By Jean Chatzky, “Today Show” Financial Editor

Although this piece is several years old, it is as pertinent today as it was then.
Click here to see the Today Show segment.

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