Avaya’s vision for the ‘Future of Next Generation Customer Contact’ takes to the stage at this dramatic venue
CCT recently held their 3rd Annual Avaya Contact Centre User Conference, with the prestigious Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London providing a wonderful venue that was a hit with both delegates and speakers alike.
The event attracted over 220 end user registrations, despite the (former) Prime Minister deciding to call an election on the same date!
Late last year, Avaya completed the acquisition of Nortel Enterprise Solutions to create the global market leader in Contact Centre and Unified Communications solutions. Delegates, both Avaya and Nortel users, were keen to understand the details of the combined product roadmaps in order to consider the effect of these changes on their own investments.
Contact Centre Operations-oriented delegates were able to learn about Avaya’s vision for the next generation contact centre. All delegates, both operational and technical, were able to select from a number of workshops and forums to build a bespoke conference programme suited to their own specific needs and interests.
In a rousing keynote speech, Don Hales, founder of the National Customer Service Awards and author of “WOW! Now that’s what I call service”, championed the ‘voice of the customer’.
“Your customers may have selected you because of your brand name and reputation, but they’ll stay with you because of the work of your employees, individuals in the front line led by individuals like you. Become agents of change within your company, absorb the information presented at today’s conference to help transform the experience for your customers when they interact with you.”
Avaya technology-oriented workshop sessions included detailed product roadmaps for Avaya Communications Manager and Avaya Contact Centre, and an equivalent session for Nortel Meridian/CS1000 users.
The conference programme for contact centre operations professionals included a masterclass on Workforce Optimisation led by Verint and included demonstrations on Speech Analytics. Gregg Widdowson, Avaya Contact Centre Systems Consultant and a significant contributor to the success of the day, led a discussion on implementing a multi-media contact centre and presented Avaya’s roadmap in this area.
In a workshop led by Syntellect, delegates heard about the types of contact centre processes that are being automated through the implementation of speech IVR applications. Finally, a specialist group discussed the opportunity to implement more proactive contact with customers and discussed the regulatory considerations when conducting outbound dialling.
Jan Lawford, Senior Director for EMEA Channels at Avaya, who presented the update on the “new Avaya” said: “It’s been a pleasure to be able to deliver our message directly to so many Avaya customers. CCT should be congratulated for staging a first class conference.“
Simon Furber, MD and Director of Customer Services for CCT said: “This is the 3rd of our Avaya User Conferences and the attendance today shows how well regarded they have become. We appreciate that our delegates have made a significant investment in time to attend and I’m delighted that the feedback suggests that our conference programme has hit the mark.”
The final word goes to Alan Mitchell of Thames Valley Police: “I just wanted say thank you to everybody at CCT for hosting an amazing event. The location was superb and, all in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative day."
View photos from the day itself at Flickr