Cloud-computing revolutionises contact centre outsourcing and telecommunications

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KUALA LUMPUR: SUPERCEED (M) Sdn Bhd, (Superceed) a company jointly funded by the Malaysian government via the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation, Kumpulan Modal Perdana and Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd yesterday launched a novel information technology-based service concept – the Unified Virtual Contact Centre, at the Gardens Hotel and Residences.

The event was officiated by Deputy Minister of Finance I, Senator Datuk Donald Lim.

“Technology is revolutionising contact centre solutions,” said Jeffrey Tan, chief executive officer (CEO) of Superceed.

“The virtual contact centre model eliminates the need for premise-based contact centre hardware and software, replacing them with on demand internet-based contact centre facilities,” he said.

“This means that companies no longer have to be saddled with high set-up and maintenance costs should they require contact centre services. They can simply sign up for online facilities and pay as they go.”

According to Tan, companies pay monthly subscription fees for the required number of agents or the capacity the business needs and have the flexibility to increase or decrease capacity of interaction volume, which is cost effective for businesses.

“This concept of ‘elasticity’ is attractive for multinational corporations and small to medium enterprises alike,” he said.

He added, “We can deduce the cost savings of VCC easily. The CAPEX for VCC is virtually zero. The typical CAPEX for premise-based contact center hardware and software of RM15,000 per agent. The OPEX for VCC over a 12-month campaign is about 25 per cent of CAPEX for premise-based contact center solutions (based on VCC entry level pricing). Considering additional OPEX for premise-based contact center solutions, VCC wins hands down.”

The Virtual Contact Centre model is also capable of harnessing the power of a Virtual Workforce for Direct Response, Sales and Marketing, Customer Service as well as IT and Operations projects.

“Campaigns are managed using logical groupings of agents,” said Tan. “We are able to unify and mobilise pools of agents from different geographical regions to serve a campaign which requires deep and diverse skill sets or language requirements.”

“Interaction handling, monitoring and quality assurance is managed via various forecasting and campaign management
tools and technologies,” he added.

The unified virtual contact centre also has the potential to grow business models within its current concept.

“Every business is an interaction centre. Telcos’ value propositions propogate downwards across existing subscriber base, from corporate, outsourcing companies to SMEs and individual subcribers. The virtual contact centre allows telcos to give birth to secondary business models and utilise them as profit centres,” Tan explained.

“An example is telcos offering SMEs and individual subcribers new products or services via creative bundling of internet contact centre solutions, bandwidth and mobility offerings (3G, 4G, WiMAX),” he added.

To date, Superceed has established points of presence in four MSC Cybercentres namely SunTech, Cyberjaya, Mid Valley and Menara MSC Cyberport. The company is in the midst of expanding its points-of–presence to Singapore, the Philippines, India, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.