Contact Centers Turn to Technology to Improve Customer Service

Press Release -- Dimension Data, a $2.7 billion IT solutions and services provider, today announced results from its eighth annual Contact Center Benchmarking Report. More than 75% of contact centers reported a strategic focus aimed at increasing customer satisfaction and value.

The 2006 Dimension Data report points to changes in contact center priorities. Last year, technology was among the top three priorities (along with budgeting and managing headcount) and played a role in helping contact centers meet their strategic goals.

In 2006, technology remains among the top priorities, but is now joined by customer satisfaction and quality/process improvement. In reviewing the 2006 findings, it is evident that technology will play an important role in improving customer satisfaction.

"An increasing number of organizations are developing strategies to better utilize Voice-over-IP (VoIP), Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) and other productivity-enhancing technologies to meet increasing customer expectations," said Grant Sainsbury, practice manager of customer interactive solutions at Dimension Data and co-author of the technology chapter of the Contact Center Benchmarking Report. "Many organizations are already turning to companies like Dimension Data to fast-track the implementation of these changes in order to service the customer more effectively and efficiently."

Key technology findings from the 2006 Contact Center Benchmarking Report include:

* Top industry trends: Two of the top three industry trends affecting
contact centers are technology-driven. These include self-service (the
top trend, cited by 39% of respondents) and voice and data convergence
(the third most popular trend, cited by 19% of respondents). The other
trend is process optimization (cited by 37% of respondents).

* Voice-over-IP: Almost half of the responding contact centers indicated
that they have hybrid or pure IP PBX and ACD switches. All the centers
that are planning to install an ACD (10%) indicated that it would be a
pure IP solution.

* Transferring customer data to agents: 42% of contact centers use Caller-
Entered Digits (touchtone) in their Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
system to collect information about their callers, and an even lower
proportion of IVR applications (24%) are integrated to Computer
Telephony Integration (CTI), which explains why customers often have to
repeat information, such as account numbers, once they are connected
with an agent. This is a known frustration and contributes to low
customer satisfaction ratings. Although CTI has become a relatively
straightforward technology to implement and drive value from, the
report demonstrates that many contact centers are not aware of the
business functions that can be enabled by CTI.

* Speech recognition: Nearly a third of contact centers (31%) use speech
recognition technology and a further 17% plan to install it in the next
year. If contact centers implement these plans, almost a half will be
using speech recognition within a year. North America and Asia-Pacific
are currently the highest users of touchtone/PIN and speech recognition
systems for customer authentication at 19%.

* Customer Relationship Management: Over two-thirds (68%) of centers have some means of identifying their customer during an interaction using a
customer database. Additionally, a large proportion (46%) of the
respondents use some sort of CRM application. Nearly 40% of North
American contact centers reported use of a CRM application.

* Hosted technology: There has been a significant increase in the renting
and hosting of contact center infrastructure. A quarter of centers
chose to rent technology (compared to 4% last year), 15% buy hosted
technology (5% last year) and 31% purchase hosted technology from their
telecom provider (3% last year).

Since 1997, Dimension Data has published its annual benchmarking study to provide contact center decision-makers with a comprehensive review of operational practices and performance levels achieved in contact centers throughout the world.

The study is researched in conjunction with Synovate, a global market research company, and represents data collected from 363 various-sized contact centers in every industry in 38 countries. On average, the contact centers included in this study employ nearly 10,000 workers, have annual revenue of approximately $500 million, and serve nearly 10 million customers. The primary industry sectors surveyed were financial services (29%), service providers and telecommunications (11%), technology (11%), and travel and transportation (11%).

For additional findings released today, see "2006 Dubbed 'Year of the Customer' for Contact Centers According to Dimension Data Study."

About Dimension Data
Dimension Data plc (LSE: DDT - News), a specialist IT services and solution provider, helps clients plan, build and support their IT infrastructures. Dimension Data applies its expertise in networking, security, operating environments, storage and contact center technologies and its unique skills in consulting, integration and managed services to create customized client solutions. Please visit http://www.dimensiondata.com or call 866-DIDATA US for more information.

About the Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report
First published in the UK in 1997 by Merchants, Dimension Data's specialist contact center outsourcing and operations division, this year's edition is the eighth in a series of the industry-renowned benchmarking reports. The report has balanced global and industry representation from 363 contact centers located across 38 countries and five continents, and is an invaluable reference for all contact center professionals. It provides managers with a set of best practice standards and benchmarks, including staffing and training, performance metrics, technology usage, budgets and development plans. The report is published by Dimension Data and researched in conjunction with Synovate, a global research company. For more information about the Report, please go to http://www.ccbenchmarking.com.