Voice of the Customer

TMCnet - The World's Largest Communications and Technology Community
New Coverage :  Asterisk  |  Call Center Outsourcing  |  Call Recording  |  SIP Trunking  |  Hosted Exchange  |  PBX
Webinars
Channels by Topic
Share
 
| More
RSS-XML alerts
Print this page
E-mail this page to a friend
Voice of the Customer Featured Article Archive

TMCNet: www.grahamoakes.co.uk: Charities, Don't Get Left Behind

[July 31, 2008]

www.grahamoakes.co.uk: Charities, Don't Get Left Behind

(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
RDATE:31072008

With IT fast becoming a vital part of today's society, it is no
surprise that charities are beginning to become IT savvy too. Graham
Oakes, a leading IT consultant (www.grahamoakes.co.uk) discusses the
top five IT developments that charities cannot afford to ignore

Charities cover a very broad spectrum -- they range from very small
organisations to large multinationals; they have a huge range of
different missions; they have varying degrees of technical
sophistication. Here are five trends which I think might be applicable
across that broad range of needs andinterests.

In each case, the trend isn't especially "new". You could trace each
of them back over several years of developments in technology and the
marketplace. But many of them have only become relevant to most
organisations very recently -- until now, they've been limited to
technically sophisticated users or other niche positions. Now they're
entering the mainstream.

1) Cloud computing. This includes facilities likeGoogle Apps that
allow people to run applications on a centrally managed data centre
rather than in local servers or PCs. The range of applications
available is growing rapidly. Cloud computing will enable charities to
focus on their mission, rather than having to employ a large number of
IT specialists simply to keep the basic systems going.

2) Social networking. The Obama campaign in the US has been the best
funded campaign in history, largely due to its use of social networking
to mobilise supporters. Few charities can afford to neglect the use of
social networking technologies to engage with their supporters, raise
funds, and coordinate action.

Facebook groups and causes can be a good way to engage with people,
especially younger ones. For example, people are more likely to support
causes when they're approached by their friends than when they receive
a fairly anonymous mailing from an organisation. This is partly down to
peer pressure, but it's also because friends will communicate their
enthusiasm in a way that's much more personally relevant. Social
networks give a natural mechanism to support this type of communication.

3) Green computing. We all have to be aware of our environmental
impact. Beyond that, green computing offers plenty of scope to reduce
costs. There are two aspects to this -- reducing the costs of IT
operations (e.g. through making better use of servers etc) and reducing
general costs of business (e.g. through more efficient logistics,
through greater use of electronic communication rather than travel). I
think the latter is more important.

4) Semantic web. The web is currently pretty much a jumble of text,
images & files. It's hard enough for people to navigate; almost
impossible for systems to recognise trends and make meaningful
connections across sites. Semantic web standards will make it easier
to make connections. These standards have been talked about for a long
time, but they're starting to become more established now. This could
change the way we share knowledge dramatically.

5) Mobile devices. Devices like the iPhone and the Asus Eee are
finally realising the potential for mobile, networked devices -- they
are easy to carry around, easy to use, cheap enough to be affordable.
They will be the way we make use of many of the above trends.

CONTACT: Danielle Newman, Pazang PR
Tel: +44 (0)845 090 0171
e-mail: danielle.newman@pazang.co.uk
WWW: http://: www.pazang.co.uk

((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information
provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties.
Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at
http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to
info@m2.com)).

Copyright ? 2008 M2 Communications Ltd.

[ Back To Voice of the Customer Community's Homepage ]
› Return to Voice of the Customer Home

FOLLOW US

FREE Voice of the Customer eNewsletter

Subscribe Now

Featured White Papers

  • Seven Best Practices for Speech Analytics: Speech analytics is valuable for identifying issues in the contact center. However, limiting its use to the contact center only considers a portion of all customer interactions and subsequently only reveals a small part of the voice of the customer. This paper discusses how organizations can optimize their Speech Analytics implementation strategy to realize the promise of this exciting technology.
  • Understanding the Voice of the Customer: Today's contact centers involve a sea of information that must be captured, processed, and distributed on a daily basis. Effective use of this information enables companies to remain competitive in an increasingly aggressive and customer centric marketplace. An overwhelming percentage of the information that circulates in a contact center's audio recordings, documents, web pages, and emails is unstructured in that it resides outside of a normal structured database and cannot be managed efficiently. These unstructured items contain valuable information, yet this information historically has been difficult to organize, categorize, and access.
View All ›

Case Studies

  • Aflac: Aflac, the leading provider of guaranteed-renewable insurance turned to Autonomy to help them automate the process of monitoring their contact center agent for quality and compliance. The company now has a system that can offer continued improvement in agent quality and productivity while enhancing the customer experience. ...
  • Avaya: Avaya, a global leader in business communications, inherited 880 websites as well as numerous intranets and extranets when it was spun off from Lucent Technologies. The sheer volume and diversity of the sites and the over 500 content creators resulted in inefficient content distribution rife with divergent branding, messaging, and product information. ...
View All ›

Video Showcase

    Interview with Autonomy: Rich Tehrani interviews Simon Hayhurst, SVP of Autonomy

Featured Events

  • Multichannel Analytics with Autonomy Explore: In today's world of constant connectivity there are a variety of direct and indirect channels of communication between an enterprise (or a brand) and its customers. 80% of these valuable interactions are generated in a human-friendly, unstructured format across multiple touchpoints and channels. With this ever growing mountain of information how do you extract the emerging trends and topics of interest to the enterprise? ...
  • SES Chicago 2011: Marketers and SEO professionals attend SES Chicago each year to network and learn about topics such as PPC management, keyword research, SEO, social media, local, mobile, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization, site optimization, usability and more. The conference offers 70+ sessions, intensive training workshops, and an expo floor packed with companies that can help you grow your business. While you're at it, network with peers and leading industry vendors. Programmed by the SES advisory board, you can be assured - SES content really is king! ...
View All ›
 
Share
 
| More
RSS-XML alerts
Print this page
E-mail this page to a friend