Whiteboards, we all have them in our call center. I recently came across a product that i believe will be of interest to our customers.  Whiteboard Paint!

Tired of buying whiteboards and dealing with the cost and hassle when you decide you need a bigger whiteboard? Now you have a product that allows you to turn any smooth surface into a whiteboard. they even have color options. =)

check out the company’s site for more info:

http://www.ideapaint.com/work/ideapaint

Well, if you believe Gizmodo (i do) Apple has apparently lost a final prototype of the upcoming iPhone. and the features bode well for those of you managing your call center and team from your phone. Not only does the prototype have much higher resolution, a more solid feel, and a front facing camera, which could be used for skype / other video chat apps, It also has a larger battery. 16% larger according to the article.

Maybe this could actually prove useful enough to utilize the agent monitoring capabilities of our dialer.

If you want to see/read for yourself see the following link:

http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone

Good morning,

i was reading on slashdot.com this am and noticed a post regarding the upcoming DIY kit for the Pixel Qi screen.

Those of you who have followed the “Laptop for Every Child” initiative, may know about the specifics of this screen.

Here is the excerpt from Pixel

“Epaper Screens- with Color And VideoOur first screens are 10″ diagonal screens for netbooks and ebook readers.  These screens rival the best epaper displays on the market today but in addition have video refresh and fully saturated color.  The epaper mode has 3 times the resolution of the fully saturated color mode allowing for a high resolution reading experience without sacrifice to super color fidelity for graphics.  In addition these screens can be used in sunlight.”

You may be asking what this has to do with Call Center Tech. And rightfully so.. but imagine this, sitting on a beach monitoring your call center doesnt work very well in the following schenarios:

a. If the beach has direct sunlight and you are using your trusty Netbook.

b. If your laptop is out of power because your screen brightness had to be turned up to see it clearly in an outdoor setting.

Here is where i see a possible immediate use for these screens.

My Samsung “NC10″ netbook has the right screensize for this DIY kit from Pixel, and would extend my battery life dramatically, and at the same time allow me the flexability of working in low light / bright light settings. Even on the beach..

nuff said.

You may be asking yourself what virtualization has to do with call centers. Well, if you are looking to get the most from your hardware investment, you should consider virtualization.

Here are some benefits of server consolidation through virtualization.

* Less power consumption

* Less power used to cool the server room (or closet)

* The ability to separate servers in they’re own environment without buying new hardware.

* The ability to move the virtual server to new hardware during maint. windows or due to hardware failure.

* Easy to backup, and recover.

During my time as an IT Consultant i have deployed several Virtualization technologies. VMWare, Microsoft Virtual Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix XEN. The differences in functionality are there, but not enough to really provide a distinct advantage. Especially with systems that run the HyperVisor at the lowest level. such as XEN and Hyper-V. or the ESX server from VMware. Any of these may be a fit for your environment, and it comes down to what you are familiar in supporting. Being a Microsoft nut, i prefer Hyper-V. in its latest version, R2. many new features have been introduced that make it a hit with those looking to consolidate they aging farm of servers they have to support.

Here are some resources you may want to look into.

Consolidate & virtualize

http://www.microsoft.com/everybodysbusiness/en/us/projects/consolidate-virtualize.aspx

Move Over VMWare, Here Comes HyperV

http://www.sysmannews.com/(S(np33wjzv0vnhrvnyr5fyn0ay))/SearchResult/32460

http://www.perftuning.com/pdf/Oracle%2010g%20on%20Hyper-V%202008%20Paper.pdf

Citrix XenServer

Enterprise-class. Cloud-proven. Free

http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1686939

Citrix. Enabling the Journey to the Cloud!

http://www.vmware.com/

And for more fun, here is a project to get your hands wet with virtualization. Setup the FREE Vmware server and run MacOSX from your PC.

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Vmware_how_to

Here are some examples of how a typical call center would consolidate the farm.

Without Virtualization.

Servers:

* Domain Controller

* Terminal Server

* Database Server

* CRM/WebServer

With Virtualization:

* Single Dell Poweredge 2900 with 16gb ram, Raid 10, or Raid 50

– 4 Virtual Servers which were created with Citrix XenConvert ( a physical to Virtual tool to capture the existing environment and convert the server to a virtual hard disk.)

see: http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1857892&productId=683148 for more information on XenConvert.

I have used this tool with great success with VMWARE, XEN, and Hyper-V platforms.

Well, i hope you enjoyed this post. Have a Great new year!

Michael Crabtree

CTO – Genesis Communications

A common issue that many call center managers struggle with is Agent Productivity due to agents spending time sufing the Internet instead of focusing on taking calls.

Many operations have even had impacts to production due to the bandwidth used by sites like youtube.com and Pandora.com.

Genesis Communications highly recommends you look into using OpenDNS as a solution to this issue. We have successfully deployed this solution to several customers and they are very happy with the results.

I will create a WIKI page outlining the installation procedure for those interested in using this solution.

Michael Crabtree

CTO – Genesis Communications

For more information on the features and benefits of using OpenDNS, please visit the website:

http://www.opendns.com/solutions/overview/

Today i am writing this to give examples of script mods that our customers are using.

Last night, a customer had a need. He wanted to have his openers, fill out an application (intake form) and then transfer the calls to a closer, who would review the information, onscreen, and close the deal.

with simple dropdowns, multiple choice selections and some html, this need was fullfilled. I started thinking about what is possible with our script builder and realized that many of your are not aware of the power of the script builder.

In the coming week, i will build a few sample scripts and post the screen shots here for you to view.

one other thing i thought was nice, was the use of his company logo, to create a header to the script. making it look very professional.

Have a great week

Michael Crabtree

Well, as many of you have noticed, we have successfully rolled out our integrated WebPhone. This has been a long time coming, and i am excited at the new simplicity the phone brings to both the installation of the Dialer on your workstation, as well as the ease if beings to monitoring live calls the agents are on. Please take a moment to visit our Wiki, http://www.genesiscommunications.biz/kb

There you will find information on installing the webphone, using it to monitor calls, and more information relating to using the dialer.

If you prefer to use a VOIP hardphone or softphone, you may continue to do so.

There are definate reasons for using both, one example would be if you have limited bandwidth, and you have a trunking box installed.

again, thank you for your patience as we rolled out the new phone, We will be releasing the multi-browser support WebPhone in the coming weeks.

This will allow the use of Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

Michael Crabtree

CTO- Genesis Communications