Outbound Call Center Featured Article

Outbound Call Center Week in Review

By David Sims
TMCnet Contributing Editor

Here’s something you might want to pay attention to, especially if you have trouble paying your debts: TMC (News - Alert) Special Guest Jeff Stalnaker, CEO of First Orion, wrote that since landline usage is dropping by over 10 percent per year as more and more individuals are moving to the exclusive use of their mobile phones as their primary means of communication, your email signature, your business cards, your orders and other places you use your contact information can potentially fall into the hands of a telemarketer or other data providers, which will lead to potential telemarketing calls.  

Since its inception in 2004, over 200 million numbers have been registered with the National Do Not Call Registry, Stalnaker notes, explaining that this means that the individuals associated with these numbers have an expectation of privacy. Yet, despite the registry, an estimated 150 million telemarketing calls are made each day in the United States, an estimated 20 percent, or 30 million, of which are potential violations of federal regulations.

Stalnaker also details many ways debt collection agencies try to skirt the law to find out information about you, and what you can do about it.

And hurricane season is upon us, so Anuradha Shukla reported that Incident notification systems provider Everbridge said Monday that numerous clients are proactively testing their notification service and preparing for the upcoming hurricane season with Everbridge's SmartGIS application.

Everbridge notes that AccuWeather is predicting that there will be an above average hurricane season in 2011. Communities are bracing for the forecasted 15 named tropical storms, out of which eight will attain hurricane status and three will attain major hurricane status.

Also this past week, Carolyn J. Dawson wrote that Nucleus Research, a provider of investigative, case-based technology research and advisory services, released the 1H2011 Technology Value Matrix for CRM.

The Value Matrix from Nucleus Research makes an evaluation on CRM apps based on their ability to deliver value to customers based on functionality and usability. Both these factors have been determined by Nucleus to be the core factors that determine an application’s ability to push both initial time to value and ongoing return on investment.

Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research at Nucleus Research, said that, “As CRM competition continues to heat up, organizations are looking for a vendor’s ability to quickly deliver value, as well as an application’s potential ROI over time. The Matrix identifies the vendors that are best positioned today to provide both initial and ongoing value for their clients.”

And finally TMC’s  Tracey Schelmetic reported that Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider Telefonica (News - Alert) SA is looking to raise money. The Madrid-based company, which is Europe's second largest phone company and a provider in both Europe and Latin America, hopes to raise 745 million euros ($1.1 billion) by making an initial public offering of its call center division, called Atento Inversiones y Teleservicios SAU.

Telefonica says it will be selling 33.7 million Atento shares, including the so-called over-allotment option, for a range of 19.25 euros to 25 euros each. At the middle point, Telefonica will raise 745 million euros, writes Bloomberg (News - Alert).

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Cesar Alierta, who had tried to sell Atento as early as in 2007, is seeking to reduce debt and focus on Latin America to offset declining domestic market share. About 56.1 percent of Atento will be publicly tradable after the IPO, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News.