phyllostachys 56: Minute Tech 41 show notes

41 - What is a Call Center?

Good afternoon, this is Alex Landefeld with episode 41 of the Minute Tech podcast -

coming to you for Friday, November 30th , 2007

On this tech podcast about the broader meanings of technology, we'll mention:

- E*Trade and Morgan Stanley suffer Subprime issues;
- Why use a Call Center?
- TechBurgh, Pittsburgh's tech video podcast.

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Minute Tech podcast is brought to you in part by:

Larry Tolbert's Sunday Morning Taiji - learning tai chi and qi gong 9:30 am every Sunday morning at the Dunamis Baptist Church, in Wilkinsburg, PA.
"Move with the motion of the planet - move with Taiji" - e-mail leonardtolbert-[at]-hotmail-[dot]-com for more info.

And:

Ravelings, by Carol. Pittsburgh-region classes in needle-craft - encompassing crochet, embroidery, knitting, & tatting, as well as an associated lace collection. For more information, contact Carol at carolb207@alltel.net.


Tech News:

In the ongoing subprime mortgage saga, which has affected banks which have sold the mortgages as well as hedge funds and other investment vehicles which have purchased the securitized mortgages, now the investment houses which helped build and distribute the securitized debt instruments are feeling the pinch. Last week, E*Trade Financial Corporation announced that they had some 3 B in subprime exposure...and this week Citadel Investment Group, a hedge fund with lots of E*Trade equity already, stepped up to buy that 3B portfolio for some 800 Million, as well as a 1.75 million cash infusion for E*Trade in exchange for a 20% holding in E*Trade and 10-yr 12.5% notes. Separately, veteran investment house Morgan Stanley, with 3.7B in exposure which is to be written down against it's books in the fourth quarter, has chosen to remove current co-presidents Zoe Cruz and Robert Scully. CEO John Mack has now finally removed a last vestige of his predecessor's team: Zoe Crus was a lieutenant to former MS CEO Phil Purcell, who was ousted back in 2005.

Just to give a size comparison between E*Trade and Morgan Stanley:
ETFC - 2.1B s, 1.9B c, 21B d, 420 m sh
Morgan Stanley - 40B s, 930B c, 640B d, 1 B sh


Tech Question:

The tech question for today, related to the Help Desk call theme this week, is: "Why Use a Call Center?".

What is a call center? If you've ever called a catalog merchandizer such as Cold Water Creek, Lands End or Victorias Secret, you've probably experienced a call center, where a specialized phone system puts your call into a hold queue designed to route your call to the next available operator. In these instances, a roomful of men and women are standing by in a 24x7 shift rotation awaiting to service the calls that come in to place orders, determine the status of a purchase or delivery, or lodge a complaint.

Similarly, if you have an organization that uses technology, and you are the technology support department, people will be calling you left and right to let you know that their keyboard doesn't work after pouring Sprite into it, or that MS Word has stopped spellchecking as the client hovers over the salesperson's shoulder, or that the printer has stopped printing. At some point, these calls get overwhelming for people to handle on a willy-nilly basis, and a team of specialized people must be created to field these calls, weed out the over-the-phone solutions from the on-site repairs, and make some sense of the number of calls coming in.

In show number 40 we reviewed how to track those calls that are coming in - today, I just want to touch on the fact that telephone systems are available that will help to not only manage the inbound calls, but also to provide additional information to callers. As much as we all want to talk to a human, you must admit that ATM's have made banking world's easier. In the same sense, menu's on phone systems can both help resolve some issues, provide information to callers and help log information about the caller as they're waiting for a customer support representative. My favorite example of this is a bank or brokerage house, where you provide your name, your government registration number, in America that's the Social Security Number, and details about your problem...all of this is handled by the voice analysis software that's part of the phone system.

One piece of software you might have never heard of, but which you may hear of more in the future is Asterisk. Asterisk is an Open Source telephone management software system. Go to www.asterisknow.org for more information and a free download of their software. With this type of system, you can use essentially a PC to manage inbound calls for which even 5 years ago you'd pay $100,000 to a telephone provider for a PBX, or private branch exchange. Interestingly, at digium.com, the commercial side of Asterisk has been implemented in a simple VOIP appliance, which can be purchased for as little as 1,900 dollars.

Podcasting - Blogging News:

On TechBurgh, Kaylynn and Andy interview many interesting tech people on this Pittsburgh video podcast. In episode 15, the two hosts discusses Lifecasting with veteran lifecaster Lisa Batey of New York. What is lifecasting? Why, using video to show much of your life to others. Why would you do that? Watch the show! ...and by the way, Lisa calls it a "live cast".

On episode 16, Kaylynn interviews Jennie Roth about her 37roses.com blog and blogging in general. Jennie tries to post almost every day about things Pittsburgh, Hockey and parts of her life in general. She's a member of the Pgh Women's blog community. Jennie says: "don't be afraid"about blogging. "Don't thrive on feedback."

Jennie doesn't track those who connect to her blog. Is this a good thing? I think you have to review what your goals are before you criticize...but tracking hits can be educational if you don't go overboard. :-)

Shoot on over to Techburgh.tv for the blog and most recent show, and over to techburgh.blip.tv for all 16 episodes. Kaylynn and Andy like to have prize give aways...is that for every show? Cool!

Lisa Batey: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Batey & NekomimiLisa.com

blog of Jennie Roth http://www.37roses.com/

Thats all for today on Minute Tech podcast.
you can reach me at minutetech@gmail.com -
and my blog is at minutetech.blogspot.com

"Move with the motion of the planet - move with Taiji"

- E*Trade and Morgan Stanley suffer Subprime issues;
- Why use a Call Center?
- TechBurgh, Pittsburgh's tech video podcast.

Go to the Minute Tech iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.