Composite apps

Traditional CRM  applications are fine for simple customer queries, but when a complex problem requires pulling several people into a collaborative session, most CRM applications come up short. Customer service representatives might turn to instant messaging or e-mail to resolve the problem, but then they need to enter that information back into the CRM reporting system.

OpSource, a Santa Clara managed service provider, was looking for a way around that problem. "We were considering building software in-house because we were convinced that none of the off-the-shelf CRM applications adequately met our collaborative support and account management needs,'' says Kevin Howard, director of operations.

In November, OpSource deployed ePeople's  TeamWork 4.5, which lets customer service representatives set up ad hoc teams that can collaborate in a Web-based workspace. One scenario could be where an account representative realizes that a query requires the expertise of an engineer or a finance person. He quickly searches a database to determine which engineer could best help the customer and whether that engineer is currently available. The representative, via e-mail, invites the engineer or whoever else is needed to solve the problem to join the Web-based workspace.

Once the team is assembled, the team members store and access all interactions, e-mails and documents in real time. If a document is added or any new interaction between team members takes place, the rest of the team automatically is notified. Using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP ) framework within ePeople, OpSource integrates the software with its in-house monitoring applications.

"[With TeamWork], our account managers are automatically in the loop on all activities pertaining to their account and can proactively engage the right resources within OpSource to ensure the highest level of service," Howard says. Since implementing ePeople, OpSource has resolved sensitive customer issues within its contractual service levels.

TeamWork 4.5 is part of a new class of enterprise application that uses Web services technologies such as SOAP and XML  to add on-the-fly collaboration features to structured, workflow-based business processes.

These so-called composite applications are especially useful when it comes to complex customer service problems or corporate mergers and acquisitions that require collaborative work across company boundaries and across different vendor products.

Software vendors such as ePeople, Kintana, Niku, SAP and TightLink  have launched composite applications.

TightLink has two products:

•  Compliance & Investigation System (CIS 3) is a collaborative application designed specifically to assist compliance with the USA Patriot Act of 2001, which requires financial institutions suspect activity from all customer interactions. CIS 3, built on the Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE)-based TightLink 3 platform, lets compliance officers, account managers, fraud departments and fund transfer personnel collaborate over the Web.

•  TightLink Service 3 is a Web-based sales and support application in which agents, customers, partners, suppliers and employees view and participate collaboratively.

Bill Verdi, vice president of headquarters sales at Cypress Semiconductor in San Jose, deployed TightLink Service 3 in July. The company has outsourced the first tier of customer support, but issues that outsourcers cannot address come back into the internal support organization. Typically these issues might require more than one expert to resolve.