The New Nation - Internet Edition

Use Call Centres for increased productivity

Md. Habib-ur-Rahman Mollah

A call centre is a physical place where customer and other telephone calls are handled by an organisation, usually with some amount of computer automation. Typically, a call center has the ability to handle a considerable volume of calls at the same time, to screen calls and forward them to someone qualified to handle them, and to log calls. Call centers are used by mail-order catalog organizations, telemarketing companies, computer product help desks, and any large organisation that uses the telephone to sell or service products and services.

A call centre can be seen from an operational point of view as a queueing network. The simplest call centre, consisting of a single type of customers and statistically-identical servers, can be viewed as a single-queue. Queueing theory is a branch of mathematics in which models of such queueing systems have been developed.

These models, in turn, are used to support work force planning and management, for example by helping answer the following common staffing-question: given a service-level, as determined by management, what is the least number of telephone agents that is required to achieve it. (Prevalent examples of service levels are: at least 80% of the callers are answered within 20 seconds; or, no more than 3% of the customer's hang-up due to impatience, before being served.)

Queueing models also provide qualitative insight, for example identifying the circumstances under which economies of scale prevail, namely that a single large call centre is more effective at answering calls than several (distributed) smaller ones; or that cross-selling is beneficial; or that a call centre should be quality-driven or efficiency-driven or, most likely, both Quality and Efficiency Driven (abbreviated to QED). Recently, queueing models have also been used for planning and operating skills-based-routing of calls within a call centre, which entails the analysis of systems with multi-type customers and multi-skilled agents.

Call centre operations have been supported by mathematical models beyond queueing, with operations research, which considers a wide range of optimization problems, being very relevant. For example, for forecasting of calls, for determining shift-structures, and even for analyzing customers' impatience while waiting to be served by an agent.

Administration of call centers

The centralization of call management aims to improve a company's operations and reduce costs, while providing a standardized, streamlined, uniform service for consumers. To accommodate large customer bases, large warehouses are often converted to office space to host all call centre operations under one roof.

Call centre staff can be monitored for quality control, level of proficiency, and customer service by computer technology that manages measures and monitors the performance and activities of the workers. Typical contact centre operations focus on the discipline areas of workforce management, queue management, quality monitoring, and reporting. Reporting in a call centre can be further broken down into real time reporting and historical reporting.

The types of information collected for a group of call centre agents can include: agents logged in, agents ready to take calls, agents available to take calls, agents in wrap up mode, average call duration, average call duration including wrap-up time, longest duration agent available, longest duration call in queue, number of calls in queue, number of calls offered, number of calls abandoned, average speed to answer, average speed to abandoned and service level, calculated by the percentage of calls answered in under a certain time period.

Many Call centers use workforce management software, which is software that uses historical information coupled with projected need to generate automated schedules to meet anticipated staffing level needs.

Varieties of call centers

Some variations of call centre models are listed below:

Remote Agents - An alternative to housing all agents in a central facility is to use remote agents. These agents work from home and use internet technologies to connect.

Temporary Agents - Temporary agents who are called upon if demand increases more rapidly than planned.

Incompetent or untrained operators incapable of processing customers' requests effectively.

Overseas location, with language and accent problems.

Automated queuing systems. This sometimes results in excessively long hold times

Complaints that departments of companies do not engage in communication with one another.

Deceit over location of call centre (such as allocating overseas workers false English names)

From Staff:

Close scrutiny by management (e.g. frequent random call monitoring).

Low compensation (pay and bonuses).

Restrictive working practices (some operators are required to follow a pre-written script).

High stress: a common problem associated with front-end jobs where employees deal directly with customers.

Repetitive job task.

Poor working conditions (e.g. poor facilities, poor maintenance and cleaning, cramped working conditions, management interference, lack of privacy and noisy).

Impaired vision and hearing problems

The net-net of these concerns is that call centers as a business process exhibit stratospheric levels of variability. The experience a customer gets and the results a company achieves on a given call are almost totally dependent on the quality of the agent answering that call. Call Centers are beginning to address this by using technology to standardize the process all agents use.

Call centre technology is subject to improvements and innovations, like most fields of free market commerce. Some of these technologies include speech recognition and speech synthesis software to allow computers to handle first level of customer support, text mining and natural language processing to allow better customer handling, agent training by automatic mining of best practices from past interactions, and many other technologies to improve agent productivity and customer satisfaction.

Automatic lead selection or lead steering is also intended to improve efficiencies, both for inbound and outbound campaigns, whereby inbound calls are intended to quickly land with the appropriate agent to handle the task, whilst minimizing wait times and long lists of irrelevant options for people calling in, as well as for outbound calls, where lead selection allows management to designate what type of leads go to which agent based on factors including skill, socio-economic factors and past performance and percentage likelihood of closing a sale per lead.

Apple releases OS X Leopard 10.5.4 update

IT Desk Report

Apple has posted the update 10.5.4 for its Mac OS X Leopard operating system. The company promises that the update delivers security, reliability and performance enhancements, as well as the code to support the upcoming MobileMe online service that is set to debut on July 11.

The company also released security updates for Tiger client and server versions, as well as the Safari 3.1.2 update for Tiger.

According to Apple, the software "includes general operating system improvements that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac." The download is available through OS X's Software Update mechanism or as a free download from Apple's web site, weighing 88 MB for users who already run their Mac on the 10.5.3 update.

Besides 10.5.4 Leopard update, Apple has also released the Security Update 2008-004 for Mac OS X Tiger and Tiger Server (both Intel or PowerPC). These updates replicate the security fixes featured in 10.5.4 Leopard updates so that both systems are one level in terms of security.

The patch includes protection against vulnerabilities in major system components, such as CoreTypes, Dock, SMB File Server, Ruby on Rails interpreter and Webkit.

Additionally, the company has updated Safari on Tiger to version 3.1.2, fixing a serious issue in the open-source WebKit browser engine that powers Safari. The problem could allow malicious JavaScript programs to allow running potentially dangerous code through the browser or crash the browser. The Leopard 10.5.4 update also addresses the same WebKit issue under Leopard. Windows XP and Vista users already have access to Safari 3.1.2 for Windows since June 19.

By Christian Zibreg

UITS orientation programme held

Orientation Program of Summer 2008 of the University of Information Technology and Sciences (UITS) was held in Emmanuelle's Banquet Hall, Gulshan, Dhaka at 7pm on 29 June 2008. Internationally renowned political scientist Professor Gowher Rizvi of Harvard University, USA delivered speech on Role and Significance of Higher Education in Bangladesh. Vice Chancellor of UITS Professor Dr. M. A. Aziz gave the Welcome Address. Concluding speech was delivered by Al-Haj Sufi Mohamed Mizanur Rahman, founder Chairman of PHP Group and UITS. Many distinguished guests including Secretary of Home Affairs, Higher Ranking Government officials, Vice Chancellors of different universities, distinguished Educationists, Industrialists; Managing Directors and Directors of banks and insurance companies, family members of Professor Rizvi; and the students, officers and faculty members of the UITS attended the Orientation programme.

IT EXPO 2008 held

4th Indian Textile Exhibition ITEXPO 2008 ended successfully recently at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Center (BCFCC) Dhaka. The expo was organized by the Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Promotion Council, India (SRTEPC), in association with High Commission of India with support from BGMEA and BKMEA. Ratan Glitter Industry and Silk Mills, the pioneer in the Indian metallic yarn industry and the largest manufacturer of metallic fabric for the last 35 years took part in the expo drawing a huge attention from the local buyers and visitors on its diversified product lines.

Their product lines put on display included raw materials like polyester metallic pure silver and Aluminum grade yam of different color & size, glitter powder, sequins along with fabrics and embroidery items etc.

The company, exporting the raw materials all over the world, expects to find a good response in Bangladeshi market as well.

An exquisite piece of clothe made of pure metallized silver yam adorned with glitter powder and sequins displayed at the stall attracted many visitors alike.

Local buyers interested to be distributor or agent can contact company personnel for further info: (+9122)22853624/5 E-Mail: ratanglitter@gmail.com, website: www.glitterx.com

Windows XP's last hurrah

IT Desk Report

The mere fact that Microsoft will stop widespread sale of Windows XP at the end of the day has been a topic here and elsewhere for months.

So, rather than rehash things (though you can click here for a recap), I thought I would take a look at the Windows landscape.

The most immediate question is, with Windows XP moving off the stage, just where is Windows Vista? On the plus side, the newer operating system has sold 140 million copies, according to Microsoft. But, as I've been saying for some time, that is largely a factor of how many people have wanted a new PC in the past 18 months, as opposed to an indicator of pure demand.

However, businesses, which get to choose which operating system they run, have overwhelmingly stuck with XP. Just a tiny fraction of corporate machines are running Vista, with some companies not planning any companywide Vista deployment at all. Windows XP remains popular with consumers as well. So, if businesses and consumers all like XP, why on earth would Microsoft stop selling it?

There are a couple of reasons. For one, XP is now seven years old. Even with a major security enhancement (XP Service Pack 2), the company benefits from shifting things to the more secure Windows Vista. It is also critical for Microsoft to build the install base of Vista as quickly as it can. That's because developers won't really start building applications that are Vista-dependent until it occupies a large percentage of machines in active use. Even with 140 million Vista copies sold, there are still extremely few programs that really harness the features of Vista.

After waiting as long as it could, Microsoft has also started talking about what comes after Vista. In an exclusive interview with CNET News.com last month, development head Steven Sinofsky said Windows 7 will use the same drivers as Vista and largely aim to preserve compatibility rather than introduce major changes, as Vista did.

At the "D: All Things Digital" conference, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer showed off one aspect of Windows 7: its ability to use multitouch input to enable the same kinds of gestures found in Apple's iPhone or Microsoft's Surface computer.

Some argue, though, that it is time to stop slapping new paint on top of Windows, instead rebuilding it from the ground up. Although there is an enormous and unmatched number of programs written for the operating system, preserving all those decades of compatibility is a crutch that has made it harder and harder to innovate, or even update the software.

The New York Times posted an interesting piece on this subject over the weekend. It points to a number of projects inside Microsoft suggesting that it, too, is thinking about other operating-system approaches.

They are things that News.com has covered in the past, ranging from Microsoft Research's Singularity project to the slimmed-down MinWin kernel that the Windows team developed but apparently is not using in Windows 7.

The point raised in the Times piece is an important one, though. With Linux-based computers starting to make inroads at the low end, and Apple continuing to gain share at the high end, can Microsoft really afford to do business as usual?

Steve Ballmer has vowed that it will never again be five years between Windows releases. I think it is important to note, though, that even assuming no delays in Windows 7, it will be three years between its release and that of Vista--and that's for a release that doesn't make significant changes under the hood.

It appears to me, anyway, that making major changes to Windows has become an increasingly difficult proposition. Perhaps, at some point, Microsoft will have to consider what Apple has done three times with the Macintosh--make major changes under the hood, and use some sort of compatibility layer to maintain its ties to the past.

Oracle introduces Q4FY08 GAAP

IT Desk Report

The Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) has announced FY08 Q4 GAAP Earnings Per Share (EPS) up by 27pc to $0.39, compared to the same period last year.

It has also announced that the Q4 Non-GAAP earnings per share was also up by 27 per cent to US$0.47 and non-GAAP net income was up 27pc to US$2.4b.

According to the quarterly announcement, Q4 GAAP revenues of the world's largest enterprise software company were up by 24pc to US$7.2b, while quarterly GAAP net income was up by 27pc to US$2.0b. Total GAAP software revenues were up by 26pc to US$6.0b.

More over, GAAP new software license revenues were up by 27pc with database and middleware new license revenues up by 23pc. Besides, applications new license revenues up by 36pc. GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up by 25pc to US$2.8b. GAAP service revenues were also up by 18pc to US$1.3b.

"Oracle's application new software license revenues grew by 38pc in FY08, while SAP's new software license revenues grew only 13pc in their most recent fiscal year," said President Charles Phillips.

This is the third consecutive year we have taken applications market share from SAP, the President of Oracle Corporation added.

Four years ago, we publicly announced a five year plan to deliver non-GAAP EPS at a compound annual growth rate of 20pc. During the past four years we exceeded our plan and delivered a non-GAAP EPS CAGR of over 26pc," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

For FY08, GAAP earnings per share were up 30pc to US$1.06, while non-GAAP earnings per share were up 29pc year over year to $1.30.

Scientists and innovators

Madhur Singh

Abul Hussam calls the poisoning of drinking water with arsenic "one of the worst natural disasters on earth," and he is not the sort to stand idly by in the face of it. After decades of research, this Associate Professor of Chemistry at George Mason University in Virginia has come up with a deceptively simple device to address the problem.

It could save countless lives among the estimated 137 million people around the world whose water supply is contaminated with high levels of the colorless, odorless and tasteless metal, which accumulates in the body to cause sores, nerve damage, cancer and, too often, death.

Arsenic poisoning was no abstract issue for Hussam. As a graduate student in the US, his work on electro-analytical chemistry led him to discover dangerous levels of arsenic in the groundwater in his home district of Kushtia in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, other researchers were finding similar results elsewhere in the vast Ganges-Brahmaputra delta region of Bangladesh and in the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal.

Hussam set about working on an affordable, effective and environmentally sustainable way to make water arsenic-free. The result: his SONO filter, which uses a "composite iron matrix" that can be manufactured locally from cast-iron turnings, along with readily available river sand, wood charcoal and wet brick chips. The filter's humble housing in a stack of three buckets belies its power to change lives. It removes 98% of arsenic content as well as other mineral impurities that make water hard. A $35 unit serves two families and lasts at least five years.

Hussam's device won this year's inaugural Grainger Challenge Prize from the US National Academy of Engineering, and most of the $1 million prize has gone to a Bangladeshi nonprofit organisation that produces and distributes the SONO filter. Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis are benefiting already, and there are plans to take the SONO filter to India and Nepal and even further to South Mrica. "People tell me how their symptoms of arsenic poisoning have been eased or even reversed with use of the SONO filter," says Hussam. "I even hear that women now

prefer to wash their hair with filtered water as it makes it softer." No wonder Hussam gets a hero's welcome whenever he returns to Kushtia.

Google adds link to privacy policy on its home page

Internet

Privacy groups are glad that Google Inc. has finally placed a link to its privacy policy on its home page, but they said it was something the search engine company was legally obligated to do anyway.

"We're pleased," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington. "We wrote to Google on June 3 and pointed out that this was required by California law, and Google is a California corporation. We're not asking them to comply with the laws of Singapore."

Rotenberg said posting a link to its privacy policy on its home page is basically what every commercial Web site does. He said EPIC couldn't understand why Google was so reluctant to do the same.

"But it was interesting that they did it on the 30th day after we sent the letter, which is just under the wire in terms of when they would have been in actual violation of the law and could have been subject to civil lawsuits," he said. "I think they understood that this was something they needed to do."

A Google spokeswoman said that the time was right for Google to add the privacy policy link to its home page.

"We've built clear, consumer-friendly privacy materials, and felt that it could be useful to provide users with an easy link to our Privacy Center," a Google spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

"Some users, bloggers, and regulatory bodies have asked us why we didn't have a link, and, after evaluating their feedback, we decided it was the right time to add one," the spokeswoman said. "While many users were searching for our privacy policy before, or clicking through to it, this provides an easier path to learning about our privacy approach. We've also added the same link on the results page."

Under the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003, a company has 30 days to add the privacy policy once it receives notice of noncompliance.

Although the law doesn't call for specific penalties for noncompliance, jurisdiction would most likely fall to California's Unfair Competition Law, which says that the California attorney general, district attorneys, some city and county attorneys, and private plaintiffs can file lawsuits against businesses for acts of "unfair competition," which are considered to be any act involving a business that violates California law.

"We're pleased that they did that," said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum in San Diego. "It's California law, and it's an important law. I know that privacy policies are not a perfect way to communicate privacy to consumers, but they're still important for consumers. I think the ability to find a privacy policy easily and quickly right from the home page is something that consumers have come to expect."

Dixon said the fact that it took so long for Google to post a link to its privacy policy on its home page set a negative example for other companies and put Google in a league of its own in terms of large search engines, which all had links to their privacy policies before Google.

Neither Rotenberg nor Dixon knew of any other companies that did not provide links to their privacy policies on their home pages.

"We're glad they took our comments to heart and have done something they should have done a long time ago," said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy for the San Diego-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

"We thought that their position - that they wanted to have an uncluttered look and that the addition of seven letters would somehow clutter the look - was somewhat absurd," he said. "But it's what they needed to do."

By Linda Rosencrance