Charlie Isaacs

I have Picasso on my mind. On the way to a business meeting in downtown Barcelona, I stumbled upon an amazingly beautiful Picasso frieze across the street from the Barcelona Cathedral. It reminded me of Picasso’s famous commentary on technology: Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. In Picasso’s day, computers only gave answers. That was their only job, and Picasso couldn’t comprehend a time when computers would fulfill an emotional need in the way art does. But, today, computers do help meet this need by making connections between people. To me, every customer inquiry is not only a question that your computers must answer, but also an opportunity to fulfill a customer’s needs on a very emotional, as well as practical level. Technology must go beyond just answering questions to understanding all facets of the experience and helping agents meet custo... (more)

That’s a Lotta Data

Ok, so I am a Software guy but I am posting about hardware devices. Maybe when it comes to hardware I am easily impressed? I promised to post information about interesting products and as someone who owned one of the first 5MB hard drives attached to a personal computer I guess I am in awe of large data storage devices? There was a huge amount of energy on the Oracle OpenWorld floor being generated by the people working the booth and the visitors to the booth containing the SUN StorageTek SL8500 Modular Library System is truly impressive, or as my son would say, “A Beast!” The ... (more)

Mike Rowe From Dirty Jobs Could Use This Technology

I think it will take me a year to get through all of the companies I visited and interviewed at Oracle OpenWorld. Voice technology has always been one of my “hobbies”, especially when it comes to the connection into knowledge management or any other Contact Center functionality.  Voice, after all, can be a service just like any other set of functionality within a Services Oriented Architecture. Voice should also be connected to all of the other services available in the enterprise. Voice-Insight (http://www.voice-insight.com ) was at the show and was demonstrating and talking abo... (more)

Don't Curb Spending on the Customer Experience

Yes, the economy is poor and everyone in the Global 1000 are reducing or eliminating “nice to have” activities and expenditures. This is not the time to curb spending on the customer experience. This is not the time to think about cutting back investments in your customers. Yes, I am saying that you need to INVEST in your customers, not just take their money. If you truly want to grow your business and provide an exceptional customer experience you must spend the money NOW so you can thrive when the economy rebounds. Your most loyal customers are the ones that need your time and ... (more)

Sometimes the Best Man for the Job is a Woman!

Women in Services began with a special panel session that was held at Technology Services World 2009 Santa Clara. The session was so successful that the Women in Services forum was developed, with the following women services leaders as members of the steering committee: Krista Anderson, Senior Vice President of Global Support, salesforce.com Erna Arnesen, Vice President of Global Services Channels & Alliances, Cisco Systems Onagh Ash, CEO of Exigen ELITE Charlotte Baker, CEO, Digital Hands Ruth Fornell, Vice President of Professional Services, NCR Catherine Jensen, Vice Preside... (more)