CALL CENTERS (CENTRES) - Faculty of Industrial Engineering and ...

Abstract. Information-intensive services are being globally disaggregated as corporations respond
to the pressures of increasing global competition, and take advantage of the opportunities
made available by the progress of information technology and the emerging global work force. In
order to globally disaggregate services, corporations must decide whether or not to carry out a
service activity within the organization, and where to locate it, within or outside the geographic
boundary of the home-base country. This paper analyzes the opportunities and challenges of
global disaggregation of information-intensive services. Specifically, the paper proposes a taxonomy
of disaggregation, and develops a theoretical framework that identifies the criteria and
guidelines for successfully selecting service activities to be globally disaggregated.
Keywords: Services, Globalization, Disaggregation, Information intensity, Customer contact, Insourcing,
Outsourcing
7. Burns, John. Developing and implementing a customer contact strategy, Managing Service
Quality, 5 (4), 1995, 44–48.
Abstract. Describes how telephone-based account management and service can be an excellent
way of improving perceived quality, highlighting the effectiveness of a customer contact centre
(sometimes called a “call centre”). As a case study, describes how the Rover Group integrated
new customer support software with existing sources of information and automated the production
of letters and faxes. Management can now rapidly access trend, product and market
information to allow timely decision making and utilize this information in product planning
and marketing.
Keywords: Customer service, Motor industry, Telecommunications
8. Hassler, K.W., C.C. Jones, J.E. Kohler and R.D. Nalbone. Revolutionizing DEFINITY(R) call
centers in the 1990s, AT&T Technical Journal, 1995, 64–73.
Abstract. The award-winning AT&T DEFINITY(R) G3 Expert Agent Selection (EAS) feature
has fundamentally changed the way in which call centers provide services for a variety of business
applications. The skills-matching concept of EAS simplifies the problem of meeting incoming
caller needs with trained call center agents. The Logical Agent part of EAS provides call center
agents with an incentive for advancement while also providing new-found flexibility in how they
perform their jobs. Both these EAS innovations are patented, with the skills-matching patent
winning the 1995 AT&T Patent Recognition Award. This paper describes how EAS improves
the efficiency of call centers, and discusses the implementation approach used to realize this
important new call center feature.
Keywords: DEFINITY call centers, AT&T, G3 expert agent selection, Business applications,
Logical agent, Skills-matching patent, PBX, Automatic call distribution
(Appears also in Section VI.)
9. Rathnam, S., V. Mahajan and A.B. Whinston. Facilitating coordination in customer support
teams: A framework and its implications for the design of information technology, Management
Science, 41 (12), 1995, 1900–1921.
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