April 2001
The following letter refers to Tom
Keating's Cc:
column in the February issue:
I was delighted to read Tom Keating's suggestions for evaluating
workforce management products. It was a comprehensive list. What impressed
me most was that forecasting capability was not listed!
Over the past 10 years I have had the opportunity to work with a number
of workforce management products. Nearly all of them touted their ability
to forecast. Many of our clients have come to us because they relied on
that capability and didn't understand why they were not making service
level agreements or budgets.
Forecasting needs to be conducted as an information gathering process
and even the most spectacular workforce management software cannot
accurately forecast without input from all of the departments who have the
ability to impact call center operations.
It is the astute understanding of call center operations that keeps
Communications Solutions on my reading list.
Thank You!
Laura Grimes
The following letter refers to Kevin
Mayer's Editor's
Outlook in the December issue:
I enjoyed your recent article "The Art of Telephony." I would
submit to you that in their efforts to revolutionize traditional forms of
voice and data, crossing genres, many in the packet telephony space have
skipped an important step. Many artists when contemplating a new work,
especially when changing genres, often do studies first. Their studies are
those sketches and middle steps that help them fully formulate their idea
without wasting expensive art supplies, especially when funds from the
patrons are dwindling.
In much the same way, CLECs and ISPs in the face of dwindling venture
capitalists need to find middle steps to help them realize their ultimate
goals for providing voice services. I propose to you that applications
switches and application servers are the middle step for the artists
creating the next generation network.
Thanks,
Christine Dawson
The following letter refers to Kevin
Mayer's Editor's
Outlook in the January issue.
Dear Mr. Mayer,
I read with great interest your recent Editor's Outlook story on the
extended enterprise in general, and co-sourcing and gradual selection in
particular. You wisely stated, "Some [businesses] may resort to
'co-sourcing'... outsourcing selectively, delegating some communications
functions while retaining others," explaining that enterprises and
small to medium businesses "... will be in a position to let their
business processes determine the nature of the communications systems, and
not the other way around."
I don't know if you are familiar with a company called OpenReach, or
with the founder, Mark Tuomenoksa, but I am confident that you'll find he
shares much of your vision and perspective about communications systems,
the pent-up demand on the part of customers wanting to get on building
their future, and the rate of technologic change. OpenReach is a provider
of communications solutions for companies who just want to go about
building their business models and futures, and need to be able to
securely, cost effectively, and confidently "co-source" the
technology to build VPNs, extranet communications systems, and e-business
communications platforms.
Anne Desautels
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