August 2001
 

BY RICH TEHRANI

REPOSITIONING
You've probably noticed, however, that the same items that are now positioned as cost-containment enablers were, not very long ago, positioned as growth enablers. Not that the new spin denotes insincerity. On the contrary, you may rely on the same resources to pursue containment or expansion, much as you might use lumber to board your windows, in preparation for a hurricane, or to construct an additional wing to your house. I must admit, however, I do grow weary when the "spin" changes so predictably. When I hear messages conforming to the new spin repeated dutifully and mechanically, they do begin to seem, well, meaningless.

Basically, I object to having my prejudices flattered. Were I at risk of relying on prejudice rather than rational thought, I would just as soon have my prejudices challenged. I can only hope that I would be reasonable enough to listen to a sensible argument, and that anybody who might present me with a different perspective would respect me enough to count on my capacity for reason. That way, I'd be more likely to act by choice, and not by unthinking reflex.

If that sounds too idealistic, I should note that I'm not one to ignore reality, even when what passes for reality is in fact the tyranny of conventional wisdom, of received perception. I acknowledge that during an economic downturn, it is only sensible and perhaps even unavoidably necessary to assume a defensive posture. But I also suspect that a general withdrawal can be accomplished with too little thought and too little discrimination. No doubt some activities and expenditures should be contained, but all of them? And if not all, which ones? And to what extent?

These questions, I'm afraid, are too often answered while prejudice rules, instead of reason. During a market downturn, the prejudice is to ignore any appeal to strategic priorities, to deride as impractical any investment justified in terms of building sustainable competitive advantage. But, for those who can resist unthinking prejudice, and exercise their own judgment, a market downturn can be a time of opportunity.

COME OUT OF YOUR SHELL
While the general run of companies may withdraw into their shells, the few with vision may venture, if tentatively, to reinforce their competitive standing. You may even regroup intelligently, as opposed to constricting thoughtlessly and indiscriminately, and even make selective offensive mores, positioning yourself for an eventual market upturn.

One thing you can avoid sacrificing is the quality of your customer relations. Such shortsighted cost-containment might actually become an investment in customer resentment. And customer resentment could very well last longer than a market downturn. This is, if anything, the time to improve your customer relationship capabilities. If you can manage to sustain and even enhance your customer relationships, you may so distinguish yourself that you could secure customer loyalty and increase your market share.

For years, customer relationship specialists have been citing market research indicating that keeping existing customers is far less expensive that finding new customers. The cost differential is on the order of one to ten. More recently, specialists in customer relationship management have advocated segmenting your customer base, to identify your most profitable customers, the ones you would most likely go out of your way to accommodate. At the same time, you could identify your least profitable customers, or even customers that actually represented a net loss. These customers might be candidates for self-service options -- provided you had such options available.

Managing your customer relations provides opportunities for both cost-containment and growth. By segmenting your customer base, you can devote resources to where they are most productive. By learning more about your customers, and refining your operations accordingly, you can identify your own strengths and weaknesses, suggesting where investment in self-improvement or new initiatives would be most appropriate.

EXPLORING POSSIBILITIES
Instead of confining yourself to a shell, you might be on the lookout for opportunities. And by opportunities, I mean initiatives that break down the false dichotomy between cost containment and growth potential. Enhancing customer relationships is just one possibility. Another possibility is LAN telephony or IP telephony.

IP telephony may be justified most simply and directly as a means of cost containment. Yes, if you were to switch to an IP telephony infrastructure, you could save yourself toll charges, if you had gateways or access to gateways at multiple locations. Or you could, at the least, save time and money on ordinary maintenance, though simplifying adds, moves, and changes. And IP telephony could be attractive from a cost perspective were you to open a new office, since an IP telephony system could allow you to string just one wire to each desktop, instead of two.

But IP telephony is about more than cost containment. It also presents interesting options. For example, an IP telephony system could be a more flexible applications platform, and you could deploy new applications at your pleasure, when you decided the applications themselves could be justified on their own productivity or cost-containment terms. Emerging IP voice applications include room-to-room text messaging, time-of-day routing, conference room scheduling, user-administered routing, and self-training, as well as applications that exploit the larger, more flexible displays now available on many IP phone sets.

Yet another possibility for joining cost-consciousness with strategic priorities is the idea of the extended enterprise. Once the enterprise has justified IP telephony infrastructure on cost-containment grounds, that infrastructure may be leveraged for its inherently distributed capabilities, in terms of linking disparate offices, in terms of including remote workers in the overall corporate culture, working towards corporate goals. The flexible IP infrastructure, by being an attractive applications platform, could more easily and quickly take advantage of emerging technologies, such as the rise of alternative computing and communications devices, including PDAs (please see the sidebar).

Finally, we can briefly cite one more possibility for building on IP infrastructure. While IP infrastructure in both the contact center and also the enterprise proper may be justified in terms of cost advantages, there remains the potential for relying on IP as a kind of solvent that would dissolve the artificial, arbitrary boundary between the contact center and the rest of the enterprise. Why should contact center agents alone have access to the most advanced communications capabilities? Why not all enterprise employees? And, if all employees may access the same applications and data resources, might it be possible to scale employees in terms of the functions they fulfilled, within and beyond the contact center? Might any employee, at the opportune time, become a customer-facing asset?

If the idea of a greater enterprise seems too ambitious, especially during these discouraging times, I would say such possibilities are but a short reach beyond initiatives that may be justified according to the most stringent economic logic. Something to keep in mind, so long as one's imagination isn't unduly contained, provided one isn't too comfortable within one's shell.

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In keeping with the TMC tradition of constantly evolving and creating new events where there is a market need, I am proud to announce our newest event: Planet PDA. Officially titled, "Planet PDA: The Global Summit on Handheld Productivity Solutions," the event will be held December 4-6, 2001 at the Sands Convention and Expo Center in Las Vegas.

This new conference and exhibition is focused on educating businesses about the productivity increases they can realize by implementing a handheld computing strategy in their organization. While you may not realize it, the next explosion in communications technology is taking place right now in the form of handheld computing. Corporate executives and MIS management need a focused forum to learn about and compare new products -- and to gather research to make intelligent decisions about incorporating handheld devices into their computing infrastructure.

The mobile workforce -- those employees requiring some form of remote access to corporate information -- is growing every day. Industry research firms predict that by the end of 2005, nearly one billion handheld devices will have been sold. The increased productivity these employees can achieve extends beyond simple scheduling and e-mail access.

The conference sessions have been designed to educate corporate executives and MIS management on how to increase productivity by utilizing handheld devices for managing staff, field force automation, and generally increasing employee productivity. Attendees will discover how to integrate applications, maintain security, develop wireless connectivity solutions, and hear case studies of how companies have successfully implemented handheld devices into their enterprise.

For complete conference information, please call Hilary Inman at 203-852-6800, ext. 146. Or, if you're interested in speaking opportunities at Planet PDA please contact John Gatens at 203-852-6800, ext. 271. 

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