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Software
publisher, telemarketer connects phones to Web
Vizacom offers
clients Internet sales, service, support
By Bernie
Monegain
NASHUA, N.H.
- Computer software publisher Vizacom Inc. is connecting its
three call centers to the Web.
The Web
connection is nearly complete at the Nashua center and rollout is
under way at the company's centers in Nottingham, England and
Aachen, Germany.
With its
implementation of technology developed by CosmoCom, based in Long
Island, N.Y., Vizacom is offering multinational, multilingual online
customer sales and support services.
Besides
publishing and marketing its own software-Harvard Graphics and
Serif, Vizacom provides marketing, warehousing and fulfillment
services for other companies. Now it is also
offering Web-enabled
call center services. The Nashua center has 25 customer service
representatives, ramping up to about 40. The center in Germany is
ramping up from 30 agents to 50, and the England center has 50
customer service representatives.
Key features
of the CosmoCom technology CosmoCall Universe include text-based
"chat," voice and video over IP (Internet Protocol) and email. It
also provides real-time reporting and online, collaborative
browsing.
"We're trying
to transition our company to be an ecommerce service provider," says
Vizacom spokeswoman Wendy Bost. The changeover could not occur until
the centers were connected to the Internet, she says.
Jim Tsonas,
vice president of business development for Vizacom agrees. Moreover,
he says, the Web technology is key to the company's plans for growth
in western Europe. It has prompted Vizacom to hire more skilled,
more knowledgeable customer service representatives in Germany. The
company needs them to offer top sales and support services and the
technology attracts them, says Tsonas. "They want to be with a front
runner," he says.
"From a
strategic standpoint, having Web-enabled our call centers gives us
first-mover advantage in Europe," Tsonas says. "Without this, we'd
just be another call center. We recognize this is a growing
market."
International
Data Corp., a research and consulting firm, based in Framingham,
Mass., estimates Web commerce will grow to more than $1 trillion by
2003.
Vizacom was
drawn to CosmoCom's technology, says Tsonas, because the CosmoCom
founders come from a telecommunications background, and the software
was written specifically for call center support. "We believe others
are just adding those capabilities now," Tsonas says. Tsonas is
pleased with the technology's reporting capabilities, which he
called "accurate and in-depth," built on call center
criteria.
Tsonas won't
disclose the investment Vizacom made to connect its centers to the
Web, but he estimates return on investment within a year.
"The
investment was well worth what it was," says Tsonas, who adds that
Vizacom also saved half a million dollars in avoided upgrade of its
phone services worldwide. "Based on other solutions, we would have
had to add routers and hardware," he says. |
