by Michael Sauer, Vice President Operations, ASC
Have you ever thought of running your own power plant? Probably not. Instead, you buy electricity on a pay-per-use basis. This approach may soon become a reality for information technology.
Cost reduction and innovation are the two main challenges for any industry. To solve both at the same time seems like an impossible mission. The IT industry may need to develop alternative sourcing to satisfy the requirements of clients. On-Demand Services (ODS) such as Application Service Providing (ASP), Hosted and Managed Services, Software as a Service (SaaS) and Utility Computing are already available.
They decouple infrastructure from services provided, offering cost-savings, increased productivity and freedom for users to focus on core competencies. It also represents a shift for management relative to the need to keep infrastructure up-and-running.
Advantages include:
conversion of fixed into variable costs, with increased transparency of resource consumption and cost allocation.
increase in flexibility and scalability to cover extreme usage peaks and rapid growth.
cost-savings through economies-of-scale for provider and customer.
Since VoIP is already deployed in major segments of the IT and telecommunications industries, the time may be right for such an approach. It provides advantages not only for transmission and switching of any kind of communication (voice, data and video) but also for recording and analysis.
What does that mean for the contact center market, where it is critical to deliver quality and cost-effective service? Recording, monitoring business processes and making agent communications a valuable data resource are increasingly becoming major requirements. However, building up a sophisticated solution requires large investments of time and money which could be more effective in other areas, like improving agent skills. Also the attempt to keep up wit
h rapidly-changing technologies could distract operators from their key task, the provision of services.Providers and customers benefit from cost savings, low entry costs, a short set-up time and updates with next-generation technology. Especially for large centers, where capacity management is essential to respond to extreme usage peaks and rapid growth rates, ODS provides a good solution.
With layered platforms, software-based VoIP recording solutions and workforce optimization systems, companies can address the growing service-providing market. Solutions can be customized to meet the requirements of any organization and provide full ODS capabilities. All types and sizes of businesses can profit without separate systems and with the advantages of outsourced IT.
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