Feedback: Questions? Enquiries? Comments? Views? Opinions? Let us know. Click Here
Welcome to February enews and our first issue for 2007. You could be mistaken for thinking it is the sporting edition with two articles in Bulletin Board showing our involvement in golf and yachting!
Be sure to read the Product Alert from Nortel and their current promotion for Nortel Contact Centre Solutions. Analysts Angle and Global Eye are also filled with interesting market trends and stats while Feeling Lucky? has a terrific 2GB USB Drive on offer for one lucky reader.
The 3D Networks Cisco Golf Day was held at Riversdale Golf Club on February 12th on a very hot summer's day in Melbourne. Despite the heat, customers, sponsors and staff were all in great spirits and challenged each other to win over $4000 in prizes. In its third big year, and with Major Sponsor Cisco, the day showcased some of the latest in technological golfing wizardry. CoachCam was placed on Hole 13 where each golfer was filmed from 2 angles as they took their tee shot. This video was then made available on a website for each player to review their style and compare and analyse it against professional PGA golfers.
The AdvatelSpeed Cop was on course tracking the speed of our golfers' drives, which could then be compared to speeds attained by professional golfers. And if players were not up to scratch they were "fined". These "fines" were in fact donations made to the Good Friday Appeal for the Royal Children's Hospital. Thanks to our players we managed to raise $670 in donations.
Finally the Virtual Golf Simulator allowed players to test their skill to see how far and accurate they could hit a ball and challenge for the prize of Longest Drive Champion. Let's just say that the pros have nothing to fear!
Thanks to sponsors Cisco, Advatel, Anixter, Century Yuasa, North Supply and CPS National everyone enjoyed a wonderful day of golfing, networking and fun! The day was a great success and helped to establish new relationships and reinforce current ones.
3D Networks and Nortel are happy to announce a 4 year sponsorship of racing yacht "Coromandel 4". Coromandel 4 is a modern, thoroughly competitive yacht racing regularly out of the prestigious Royal Yacht Club of Victoria. It is recognised as one of those yachts that “somehow always wind up in the top group of race results”.
The 3D Networks and Nortel brand is proudly displayed on the 30ft high spinnaker sail. The yacht competes in races every Saturday throughout the year, including major regattas like the Scandia Geelong Week as well as competing in the twilight race series run every Wednesday night during the daylight saving months. As race photos and results come to hand, enews will be sure to update readers with the yachts racing successes.
3D Networks Achieves Cisco Advanced Unified Communications Specialisation
3D Networks Australia has upgraded its Cisco credentials to include the newly-introduced Advanced Unified Communications Specialisation. “The Advanced Unified Communications Specialist Partner status recognises 3D Networks as being amongst a select group of partners who have demonstrated that they have the breadth and depth of skills and processes required to implement complex unified communications solutions in the real world,” said Chris Luxford, Chief Executive Officer of 3D Networks (Australia).
“Satisfying the requirements of the Advanced Unified Communications Specialisation is much more than just a paper exercise for a Cisco partner company. Yes, we have to demonstrate that our people have attended all the requisite training courses and passed their exams. But we have also had to pass a gruelling Cisco audit of the processes we use to discover customer needs, and then design, implement and support solutions to meet those needs. I’m pleased to see that our years of experience implementing telephony networks, contact centres and voice-enabled applications have given us a firm foundation upon which to build our growing Cisco business.”
Since launching its Cisco business in early 2006, 3D Networks Australia has quickly built a strong reputation for delivering complex unified communications solutions, working with demanding customers such as Dodo and Corporate Express.
As well as being a Cisco Advanced Unified Communications Specialist Partner, 3D Networks is a Cisco Authorised Technology Provider for the Unified Contact Centre Enterprise Portfolio, a Cisco Premier Certified Partner and is Nortel’s only pan-regional Platinum Partner.
Nortel has announced that Multimedia Applications Products (Contact Centre, Self Service, and Messaging) now support Microsoft’s recently released Windows™ Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7.0). Nortel’s plan to support Microsoft Vista will be communicated in the coming month.
FREE Multimedia and Outbound Licences with the New Nortel Contact Centre Discovery Offer!
Nortel has created a new, streamlined suite of applications, designed to take contact centre interaction with customers onto the next level. Contact Centre Solutions feature a range of product enhancements which, increases the effectiveness of every contact centre and simplifies the way they can be managed.
DISCOVER how Multimedia can differentiate your business and lower operating costs.
DISCOVER how integrating Outbound can improve customer service.
DISCOVER how Nortel Contact Centre solutions can enable:
Better customer service through optimal allocation of agent resources and instant automated and multimedia contact options.
Increased flexibility and responsiveness through using virtual agents, outbound calling and use of technologies like IP and SIP.
Differentiation for customers with the latest functionality, such as web integration and natural-language speech recognition.
Reduced costs through improved productivity and lower overheads, plus simplified licensing.
Better reporting of customer and agent activity, enhancing overall business control and visibility.
For further details on Nortel's DISCOVERY Offer, please contact your local 3D Networks Account Manager today.
IDC: Australian VoIP Market to Continue to Build (Source: Callcentres.net, 8 February 2007)
The total market revenue for VoIP services in the Australia will increase to $462.12 million in 2010, according to new research. VoIP solutions are increasingly being introduced alongside vendors' IP PBX solutions as Australian organisations seek enhanced work efficiency and productivity, according to research company IDC. "As VoIP market penetration increases and the complexity of deploying applications decreases we expect to see wider use of open standards," said Landry Fevre of IDC. "In addition we predict the integration of voice functionality into critical business applications that can be deployed out of the box."
Managed convergence services such as managed VoIP security, network capacity/support, application management, hosted voice solutions and contact centres will become particularly sought after in the coming years, he added. IDC says IP hosted and IP Centrex are the most popular services for SMBs in the Australian market.
Futurestep: Telecommuters Likely to Stagnate (Source: Futurestep, 26 January 2007)
Telecommuters are less likely to advance in their careers than are employees working in traditional office settings, according to more than half (61 percent) of 1320 global executives surveyed for the latest Trends@Work Quiz from Korn/Ferry International's subsidiary Futurestep.
Despite this assertion, almost half (48 per cent) of respondents indicated that they would consider a job that involved telecommuting on a regular basis and the vast majority (a combined 78 per cent) stated that telecommuters are either equally or more productive than those who work in offices. When asked which type of flexible working arrangement they found most attractive, nearly half (46 per cent) of respondents preferred the option of working flexible hours.
"Smart employers know that flexible working conditions can be an effective means to creating a productive workforce," said Robert McNabb, chief executive officer of Futurestep. "Often when employers offer the option of flexible hours and telecommuting, they help employees maintain balance in other parts of their lives which, in turn, fosters loyalty, satisfaction and retention."
IDC: Large Enterprises are Leading the Mobility Charge (Source: IDC Asia, 13 February 2007)
IDC has released findings from its inaugural survey in its latest report – Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Enterprise Survey 2006 of Enterprise Mobility Usage.
"The findings from the survey show that the drive for mobility is stronger from large enterprises in the region where line of business is progressively asking for mobility solutions for productivity enhancement. Enterprises in certain industry verticals are also showing a growing commitment to deploy WLAN for on-premise coverage." says Shalini Verma, Senior Market Analyst for IDC's Asia/Pacific Enterprise Mobility Research.
Security remains a key challenge for enterprises as they extend mobility applications and devices to the growing mobile workforce. However, the bigger hurdle for enterprise mobility is to conclusively establish operational benefits for the end-user organizations. Furthermore, IT managers find it difficult to budget for mobility solutions because of the perceived high cost of implementation.
The latest study shows that nearly 32% of the total respondents polled said that their organisations engage SIs for enterprise mobility, while 29.9% and 20.6% of the total respondents said that their organisations engage carriers and hardware vendors, respectively. With a fragmented market on the supplier side, vendors and service providers are increasingly looking at aligning with each other to draw on each other's strengths, although only one entity tends to prime the contract for ease of customer expectation management.
Chinese Continue To Go Online (Source: Rust Report, 9 February 2007)
According to a semi-annual survey conducted by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), as of the end of 2006 the number of Internet users in China was estimated to be 137 million, a 10.5 per cent penetration rate. While that penetration rate is small compared with many other countries around the globe, China ranks second only to the US in the overall number of users online. In fact, many analysts feel that the number of Internet users in China will surpass the number of US users within two years. At the current rate of growth it is forecast that Chinese Internet users will exceed the 210 million US users by 2009.
Importantly, more than 90 million of those users are already connected by broadband — on some 35 million computers. Therein lies an important distinction. As findings from Vital Wave Consulting indicate, not all Internet users are potential customers. While the Chinese government figures show nearly 140 million Chinese users, there are less than half that many connected computers. Vital Wave estimated that 50 per cent or more of the users in China connected on shared-access points, such as Internet cafes and school labs, or by hand-held mobile devises. Until the gap between Internet usage and computer ownership in China narrows, the market opportunities for hardware and software providers will not be as prevalent as the usage numbers would normally indicate.
Asian Customer Service Relies Heavily on Contact Centres (Source: callcentres.net, 31 January 2007)
Asian organisations rely heavily on contact centres for their customer service, with some 73% of customer interactions handled by contact centres, according to new callcentres.net research. The newly released 2006 Asian Contact Centre Industry Benchmarking Report which studied 747 contact centres across India, Philippines, China, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore found that 62% of contact centre interactions in Asia are handled by phone and 11% handled by email or the web. Only 26% of all an organisation's contacts are handled by the branch/retail network or salesforce.
The study found the major expense in operating contact centres in Asia is labour costs, comprising 46% of the total budget. Technology represents 23% of the budget, and telecommunications 19%. "Adding to these labour costs are expenses related to the relatively high levels of agent turnover in Asia," said callcentres.net President Dr Catriona Wallace. "The average level of agent turnover in Asia is 21% per year, with India reporting the highest rate of churn at 38%, while the lowest was 15% in Thailand." Of all the agents who left Asian contact centres in 2006, only 38% moved to work in another contact centre. Disturbingly, 62% of agents left the contact centre industry altogether.
Verint and Witness Systems Combine to Deliver New Vision for the Customer-Centric Enterprise (Source: Verint Press Release, 15 February 2007)
Verint Systems Inc. a leading provider of analytic software-based solutions for security and business intelligence, and Witness Systems, Inc., a leading provider of workforce optimization software and services, announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Verint will acquire Witness for $27.50 per share in cash. The convergence of Witness’ workforce optimization and Verint’s actionable intelligence will create a broad portfolio of contact centre and enterprise performance solutions, delivering a compelling new vision for the customer-centric enterprise.
The combined Verint/Witness portfolio includes solutions for quality monitoring, IP recording, multimedia interaction capture, speech and data analytics, performance management, contact centre and enterprise workforce management, eLearning and eCoaching, customer feedback management, and a full range of strategic professional and consulting services. This powerful combination will enable small- to mid-sized companies and large organizations to leverage customer intelligence for better business decisions and optimize workforce, contact centre and enterprise performance to deliver a compelling customer service advantage.
“Verint and Witness share a similar culture with a passion for growth, results-driven execution and a laser focus on customer success,” said Dan Bodner, President and CEO of Verint Systems Inc. “This strategic move will create a platform for rapid organizational growth and provide a wealth of opportunity for our global employee population.”
A list of the most bizarre British contact centre interactions has become a cult hit on the email circuit. The exchanges, which are rapidly flying around the web in a chain email, include a man who rang the Royal Automobile Club contact centre to ask if he needed to move the steering wheel to the left side of his car to drive in France.
A baffled computer user who, when IT support asked: "Can you see the OK button in the left hand bottom of the screen?" replied: "Wow. How can you see my screen from there?" Others include a would be traveller who called 0700 2300 for two days after seeing the number on a travel agency's door, only to be told it was the opening hours,
Finally, a baffled fax machine user asking for the number for "Jack", because "In the user guide it clearly states I need to unplug the fax machine from the wall socket and telephone jack before cleaning. Can you give me his number?"
Weird, Wonderful & Wacky Websites
Changing Clothes: David Maas and Dania Kaseeva are the ultimate masters of changing clothes quickly. If you think you can get dressed quickly in the mornings, then watch these two do it with style! For more on these quick change artists visit their website.
Cybermen Call Centre: Is this what we can expect from our future call centres? Will the frustration ever end? Can Doctor Who save us from this peril?
Now you can store and transport pictures, music and information in style. The LG 2GB USB Drive, with its ultra-sleek design and thin profile lets you take it anywhere with ease and style. Plus its password protected data security function will keep your valuable data safe.
To win the LG 2GB USB Drive, answer this easy question: What is the name of the yacht sponsored by 3D Networks & Nortel? (Hint: The answer can be found here)
The 20th correct entry received into the inbox at enews.3dnetworks@planet1world.com will be declared the winner. Entries close March 2nd at 5pm (Australian EST).
December Answer: February 23, 2007 December Winner: Gerard Norman, ANZ Mortgage Group, Melbourne
(*Note: Only one entry per person will be accepted. Employees of 3D Networks and employees of associated Planet One companies are not eligible to enter. The decision on the winner, made by a representative of 3D Networks will be final and binding)
The 
Nortel has created a new, streamlined suite of applications, designed to take contact centre interaction with customers onto the next level. 
The total market revenue for VoIP services in the Australia will increase to $462.12 million in 2010, according to new research. VoIP solutions are increasingly being introduced alongside vendors' IP PBX solutions as Australian organisations seek enhanced work efficiency and productivity, according to research company IDC. "As VoIP market penetration increases and the complexity of deploying applications decreases we expect to see wider use of open standards," said Landry Fevre of IDC. "In addition we predict the integration of voice functionality into critical business applications that can be deployed out of the box."
Telecommuters are less likely to advance in their careers than are employees working in traditional office settings, according to more than half (61 percent) of 1320 global executives surveyed for the latest Trends@Work Quiz from Korn/Ferry International's subsidiary Futurestep.
IDC has released findings from its inaugural survey in its latest report – Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Enterprise Survey 2006 of Enterprise Mobility Usage.
According to a semi-annual survey conducted by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), as of the end of 2006 the number of Internet users in China was estimated to be 137 million, a 10.5 per cent penetration rate. While that penetration rate is small compared with many other countries around the globe, China ranks second only to the US in the overall number of users online. In fact, many analysts feel that the number of Internet users in China will surpass the number of US users within two years. At the current rate of growth it is forecast that Chinese Internet users will exceed the 210 million US users by 2009.
Asian organisations rely heavily on contact centres for their customer service, with some 73% of customer interactions handled by contact centres, according to new callcentres.net research. The newly released 2006 Asian Contact Centre Industry Benchmarking Report which studied 747 contact centres across India, Philippines, China, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore found that 62% of contact centre interactions in Asia are handled by phone and 11% handled by email or the web. Only 26% of all an organisation's contacts are handled by the branch/retail network or salesforce.
A list of the most bizarre British contact centre interactions has become a cult hit on the email circuit. The exchanges, which are rapidly flying around the web in a chain email, include a man who rang the Royal Automobile Club contact centre to ask if he needed to move the steering wheel to the left side of his car to drive in France.
