Network World
Sunday, November 8, 2009
DNSstuff.com
Get information about your IP
IP Information
50+ On-demand DNS and network tools
Signup for this newsletter now!

About 90% of employees today work away from their company's headquarters, on average, and 40% work at a remote location, away from their supervisors. What technologies do you need to have in place to ensure that those employees are at their most productive? This weekly alert by Nemertes Research will explore answers to that question, covering collaboration technologies, WAN optimization strategies, network performance management and other issues vital to network managers and CIOs whose companies have branch offices and remote workers. The alert also includes the latest remote office news headlines on NetworkWorld.com.

Telework boosted by virtual call centers, Part 1

Lots of excitement at this year’s Call Center Demo/Western Telework Conference

What a difference a year makes. At last week’s Call Center Demo Show and Western Telework Conference in Dallas, the telework/virtual call center sessions were packed, and the CEOs of the companies that launched this niche, misunderstood market eight years ago - Willow CSN, Alpine Access, Working Solutions, ARO Outsourcing - walked around like rock stars.

Related links

Apple Store announces Reserve And Pick Up program
11/07/09
For you pre-Thanksgiving shoppers, the Apple retail store on Friday announced a way to get a jump on your holiday list. The Reserve And Pick Up option will let you choose hardware products online and swing by your local store to collect them between December 15 and 24. Currently, the line-up of offerings includes iPods, iPhones, MacBooks, Mac Minis, iMacs, and Mac Pros. To make a reservation, you sign in with your Apple ID and select a store location. Payment is due only at the time of pick-up.

Q&A: isoHunt founder says P2P can help create post-piracy world
11/07/09
isoHunt's Gary Fung talks about how isoHunt has evaded legal trouble so far, why he holds out hope of working together with Hollywood and the music industry, and how he's launched a new P2P site for just that purpose.

Update fixes iPhone sync problem with Windows 7 for some
11/07/09
Gigabyte Technology issued a BIOS update on Friday that fixes a problem for some Windows 7 users who have been unable to sync their iPhones.

Last year, the show was dead. Budget constraints hurt attendance, and businesses that did make the trip wanted to hear how they could pay Indian agents $2 an hour. But now most have since realized (with help from Lou Dobbs) that it’s a bad idea to have foreign agents care for U.S. customers, and they’re circling back to the states, and to home-based agents.    

It was like watching a light bulb go off in everybody’s head. Most organizations have a customer-care element of one kind or another, a bunch of employees who spend all or most of the day answering calls. On a good day the work is stressful and tedious. On a bad day, irate customers and long queues of on-hold calls can bring you to tears.

Bookend a phone-based job with a long commute and you’ve got some pretty miserable workers; workers who nearly always quit.  The typical turnover rate for brick-and-mortar call centers, (or “contact centers” that include e-mail and instant messaging), is around 60% or 70% - many report much higher, 100% or more.

And that’s not just with entry-level call center jobs, either. There’s this misperception that call centers by definition are powered by twenty-somethings with bad attitudes set to jump when something better comes along. In big traditional call center operations that’s true. But there are vast and growing segments of phone-based workers who are well-educated professionals - HR professionals, nurses and insurance agents. People you don’t want to lose over a miserable work environment or a long commute. 


Signup now for the Branch Office Best Practices Alert newsletter

Browse Newsletter categories: Branch Office Best Practices | Convergence | High Speed LANs | Identity Management | IT Careers and Training | IT Leadership | Linux | Messaging | Network Optimization | Network/Systems Management | New Data Center Strategies | Novell NetWare Tips | Optical Networking | Outsourcing | Security Strategies | Servers | Service Provider News Report | Small Business Technology | Storage in the Enterprise | Technology Executive | View from The Edge | Virus and Bug Patch Alert | VORTEX Digest | VPNs | Web Applications | Wide Area Networking | Windows Networking Strategies | Wireless in the Enterprise |


Free Newsletters

Sign up and receive the latest news, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics