Green Technologies in the contact center come of age

Green Technologies in the contact center come of age published by Ovum, Ltd. in December, 2009. This report consists of 19 pages and the price starts from US $ 1495.

Introduction

Abstract

Consumers and enterprises alike suffer from ‘green fatigue’ - an ennui born from too much hype and too little substance around green technology. But as green technology becomes more synonymous with cost-saving technology, enterprises have begun to warm to the idea. Contact centers, in particular, have begun to explore the homeshoring or work-at-home agent model, a model with many green benefits. Longer term, new technologies and new uses for existing technologies including application and call routing virtualization will gain traction in the contact center arena. The economic recession has forced many contact centers into cost-cutting mode; contact center and IT decision-makers should therefore be closely examining green technologies and processes that help trim costs.

Table of Contents

• Executive summary
• In a nutshell
• Ovum view
• Recommendations
• Green contact center investment is timely
• Green contact centers mean cost-effective contact centers
• Market opportunity
• Green fatigue breeds skepticism
• Contact centers have seen a great deal of green marketing
• Most enterprises expect green to cut costs, not enhance reputation
• Cost-effective may not be truly green
• Separating efficiency from ecology
• Enterprises and technology vendors both face increased legislative pressure to adopt green IT
• Customer impact
• Homeshoring already on the rise
• Reducing commute reduces resource use
• Calculating the benefit in fuel and CO2 emissions
• Work-at-home agents reduce power consumption - at least by companies
• Technology evolution
• New technologies with green applications
• Turn off, tune out...
• Erlang saves agents which save power
• The cloud is theoretically green
• Data center-style virtualization could bring green benefits
• A virtual softphone without voice quality loss
• Definitions
• Cloud computing
• CSR
• Green IT
• Homeshoring
• Virtualization

List of Tables

• Table 1: Non-green benefits of homeshoring

List of Figures

• Figure 1: How do current economic conditions change your perception of the value of green IT?
• Figure 2: Power reduction mandates by US state
• Figure 3: Software-based virtualization: a ‘greener’ deployment model

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