1. SAP provides the Business Communications Management (SAP BCM) software for the contact centers. What are some of applications included in the software? What do you consider the strengths of your software?
SAP Business Communications Management (SAP BCM) provides a flexible multi-channel, all-IP business communications platform for contact center and unified communications usage. With SAP Business Communications Management, customers can run an end-to-end contact center solution for inbound, outbound and blending. The key strengths of the platform are the benefits it brings to the customers. This includes improved customer service, increased internal performance, less complexity and lower total cost of ownership.
SAP Business Communications Management (SAP BCM) provides a flexible multi-channel, all-IP business communications platform for contact center and unified communications usage. With SAP Business Communications Management, customers can run an end-to-end contact center solution for inbound, outbound and blending. The key strengths of the platform are the benefits it brings to the customers. This includes improved customer service, increased internal performance, less complexity and lower total cost of ownership.
2. How do you differentiate SAP BCM from your competitors?
SAP Business Communications Management is more than just a communications solution. It allows increasing speed and efficiency in the contact center with end-to-end processes. In addition, our customers are able to optimize resource utilization by combining multiple sites into a virtual operation and significantly improve the insight with end-to-end analytics.
The all-IP platform reduces system complexity by delivering all contact center services centrally from one platform to all sites and users. In addition, integration complexity is removed with off-the-shelf integration between the contact center communications application and business applications such as CRM.
Another big advantage of our offering is that our customers are able to reduce risk with one-stop-shopping. SAP solution provides end-to-end SAP software development, interoperability testing, deployment, maintenance and life-cycle management.
3. The SAP BCM offering is a relatively new entry into the US market. What has been the level of acceptance for the product?
The acceptance has been very good. Companies have been positively surprised that SAP is now offering solutions also in communications space and thus bridging the gap between business processes and customer communications. We have SAP BCM users among both SAP customers and non-SAP customers, and the users are also from different industries.
4. What new products/services can we expect from SAP in the upcoming months?
We have just launched a new concept called Rapid Deployment for SAP Business Communications Management. It is a packaged solution containing both licenses and implementation services, and with it, customers can get the new contact center up and running in 5-8 weeks –at a fixed price. The new offering is an answer to market demand for a contact center solution with a prepackaged scope, quality and time to value. The customer acceptance has been very positive.
5. Please comment on the economic climate and its affect, if any, on your marketing efforts?
We tend to pin-point the hard-money returns that our customers can gain from deploying SAP Business Communications Management; savings in people and process, system, and connectivity costs and/or increasing the top line. However, companies should always consider what the long-term gains are for their own customers. Eventually that will determine how successful their business will be. The crisis that hit the global economy made it very clear that business which are flexible and provide first class customer service perform much better in difficult times than their competitors. This is maybe the most important message we have for our customers.
6. There has been much discussion about applying contact center applications to other areas within the enterprise such as the back office. Is SAP addressing such an initiative? If so, for what applications?
Yes we are. SAP Business Communications Management is a flexible all-in-one enterprise communications solution which allows both contact center agents and back-office employees to be connected into the same system. This makes it possible to leverage corporate knowledge efficiently. For example, when contact center agents need specialist help with an issue, they can use SAP BCM to search for a person who is available to assist and has the needed skills. After locating a suitable person, the agent can forward the call to the person and the customer issue can be solved faster.
7. Since SAP has an extensive product line, what other software are you integrating with SAP Business Communications Management?
SAP Business Communications Management is out-of-the box integrated with SAP CRM and SAP ERP. In addition, it is now also integrated with SAP ByDesign, the on-demand business management solution from SAP. In the integrated scenarios, SAP Business Communications Management provides communication tools, contact routing capabilities and comprehensive reporting, enabling companies to accelerate business processes, reduce human latency and improve customer communications.
8. SAP has touted the value of virtual contact centers where data bases, skill based routing, etc. can converge across multiple contact centers regardless of geographical locations in order to optimize resources. What has been the market reception to the virtual approach? What have been the implementation obstacles?
Actually, virtual contact center is not a new concept at all. The world’s first IP-based virtual contact center was launched 10 years ago and the customer is still working on that model. However, during the past few years the model has become more widely known and the market reception is very positive. Companies operating on multiple locations have realized the benefits a virtual contact center brings.
Combining all contact center resources into one virtual entity instead of handling each contact center separately opens up a totally new world. With this model, the organizations have a larger pool of resources to handle customer contacts fast and efficiently. Furthermore, companies can benefit from the daylight saving to provide 24/7 customer service. And last but not least –the virtual contact center is a good way to balance demand fluctuations and handle peak times efficiently.
From a technological point of view, the implementation obstacles are quite small. A software-based, all-IP solution allows the usage of the system from any location without having to implement the system separately in each location. Comprehensive monitoring and reporting tools allow call center managers to observe and manage the customer service operations even if all employees are not working in the same office. Online coaching makes it possible to support an agent who is sitting 500 miles away.