Predictive Dialer Seamless Integration With CRM

Functionality and feature content vary between predictive dialer vendors. It's typically their ability to provide real-time and historical management information, and the flexibility allowed the user in controlling and monitoring system activities. Beyond user features, however, is the ability of thepredicative dialer to integrate and work seamlessly in the environment in which it's used.

Here the difference in predictive dialing systems can be more dramatic. The fundamental design principles of the underlying architecture should be open systems standards. This allows access to diverse information sources over local and wide area networks, and seamless integration with legacy mainframe, enterprise-wide contact management, telemarketing and order entry applications. The benefits are protection of existing and future investments, plus, faster access to information improves the service level offered to customers and differentiates the company in competitive situations.

The predictive dialer is one piece of an integrated telemarketing solution--a solution that can help get the job done faster, with fewer people at a lower cost.

Oracle ranked second among the agent facing/universal desktop suite leaders. Although the company declined to provide specific figures for service revenue for publication, it did note that overall revenue for the past four completed quarters was $9.5 billion. Applications revenue was $2.47 billion of the total.

New applications revenue for the past four completed quarters was $630 million. Oracle officials say that over the past year it had more than 125 field

service deals, more than 50 call center deals, and 100 service deals. The company also experienced service revenue growth of nearly 11 percent and its reputation for customer satisfaction was at its highest levels.

Over the past year the company delivered version 5.9 of its Oracle E-Business Suite 11i. The new version sported enhancements to Oracle Service, Sales, and Marketing Solutions. Call center--specific enhancements focused on improved ability for customers to fulfill service requests online: Oracle iSupport, a self-service, Web-based application, now offers enhanced configuration and branding capabilities, allowing organizations to more seamlessly integrate Web self-service capabilities into existing Web sites.

Oracle officials claim the company has differentiated itself and its customers by focusing on contact center and service operations as an organizational opportunity for profit. Oracle executives say that too many organizations have defined contact center success by customer satisfaction increases; this is a limited view and ultimately the goal of any business is to increase revenue. Oracle sees customer satisfaction as a leading indicator of increased revenue, but not a goal in and of itself.

CRM can provide companies of all types and sizes with significant benefits, but only if users adopt it. Therefore, winning over users and obtaining buy-in at all management levels are crucial to the success of any CRM initiative. Front-line salespeople are often the major source of resistance. The newest solutions from leading software providers such as Oracle incorporate many innovations to change this trend. For example, new features let salespeople work the way they want to, reduce their administrative burden and genuinely support personal success in every aspect of the sales process. This white paper discusses user adoption problems in general, followed by an overview of the newest CRM features designed to drive ease of use and high rates of user adoption.