Zeacom is a leading provider of contact centre and call management solutions for small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs). The company has 100 employees across New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, serving more than 1500 customers in 18 countries. Working with the latest developments in Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), Zeacom’s mission is to provide cost-effective customer contact solutions for SMEs that deliver the kind of high-end functionality that was previously only available to much larger organisations.

In addition to deploying Microsoft CRM to 100 PC users across its international offices, Zeacom’s director of software development Jo Clegg says the company was also in the perfect position to actually add value to the product. “Given our in-depth understanding of the CTI market,” she says, “we decided to develop a middleware ‘screen pop’ application on top of the Microsoft CRM platform to make it easier for businesses to deliver good customer service.”

‘Caller ID’ adds value
Clegg says Zeacom had already integrated its flagship Q-MasterEX product (which organises incoming calls, greets callers with customised announcements, advises them of their position-in-queue and estimates their time to answer) with other leading CRM applications available on the market – and knew the type of additional functionality customers found useful. Developed on the Microsoft .NET platform, Zeacom launched CRM ScreenPOP! in North America in July 2003 after three months of product development. The lowcost application enables Microsoft CRM to bring up customer information in a pop screen as soon as the phone rings and the caller’s number is confirmed, allowing a business to provide immediate personalised service and quicker telephone transactions.

“Everyone wants to be treated as a VIP caller,” says Zeacom CEO Miles Valentine. “Extending the value of Microsoft CRM to a telephone call is about knowing who your customers are when they call – and developing relationships with them – instead of always having to look them up. Financially speaking, CRM ScreenPOP! also helps businesses lower telephone transaction time, allowing more calls to be handled without additional staff.”

Expanded opportunities
Charlie Wood, Microsoft Business Solutions’ CRM specialist, says his company’s development strategy is designed to help partners and independent software vendors (ISVs) like Zeacom generate new revenue opportunities. “Microsoft CRM delivers a broad-based application platform creating the opportunity for partners to develop both horizontal and vertical solutions that service niche industries,” he says. “Globally, more than 500 ISVs are building applications on top of it.”

While designed as a simple-to-use CTI offering, Clegg says that CRM Screen-POP! is generating new revenue for the company in the US and has become “a real door opener to customers that we otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet”. She says that after seeing CRM ScreenPOP! in action, customers quickly understand the benefits to be had by linking a call centre solution with a CRM package. “Many then choose to invest in our fully featured call centre offering, Q-MasterEX.” She adds that Zeacom is currently in discussions with Microsoft in Redmond to add new functionality into CRM ScreenPOP!

Leading by example
In addition to developing CRM ScreenPOP!, Zeacom has deployed Microsoft CRM across the company’s offices worldwide. Its support department was the first to take advantage of the solution in December last year. At the time, the company deployed the North American product version but has since upgraded to CRM 1.2 (International English) following the New Zealand launch this January.

Zeacom support services manager Matt Hanrahan says that prior to implementing Microsoft CRM, the support team used a defect tracking application to manage day-to-day customer support. On average, support services handle up to 400 calls a week, dealing with a variety of enquiries ranging from product usage and upgrades through to training and installation. Many international queries from Zeacom’s 1500 customers are also fielded back to the New Zealand team.

According to Hanrahan, while it is still early days, Microsoft CRM has already enhanced the way his team are managing customer queries. “It has taken us from offering a basic fault resolution service to a true customer service programme,” he says. “The product speaks for itself – it’s given us the tools to deliver quality customer service and evolve that relationship, while from our customer’s point-of-view, it’s enabling us to demonstrate that we understand them.”

Using its new system, Zeacom has been able to consolidate customer information previously stored within a number of disparate applications across several departments.

The simplified access to data is helping the company resolve support queries more effectively and efficiently. “We now have a single centralised source of information,” says Hanrahan. “Previously, we had to go to multiple sources to resolve one customer query. For example, to get information about a customer site visit, I’d have to go to the sales and marketing department, which could be quite time consuming, whereas now I can find the information myself in Microsoft CRM.”

A transparent solution
In the long term, Hanrahan anticipates the system will significantly reduce call resolution time and provide the team with valuable analysis on the performance of the operation. With customer information now readily available at everyone’s fingertips, the support department can also make reports easily accessible to other parts of the organisation – while still retaining control of the information.

“The product is very secure in terms of setting who gets to view what information,” says Hanrahan – adding that the announcement page within Microsoft CRM has been useful as a means to knowledge share across departments. “We’re using it like a daily bulletin board to post information pertinent to the organisation,” he says. “It has an immediate benefit and ensures everyone stays informed on important issues.”

While many staff are still learning through discovery about Microsoft CRM, Hanrahan expects Zeacom will make full use of the product’s features and functionality once the implementation is completed and everyone appropriately trained. “While the Outlook integration makes it a fairly intuitive product, we’ve still got a way to go before we understand its true value. But we’re definitely gaining incremental benefits along the way.”

For more information
www.zeacom.com

Microsoft Business Solutions
David Guy
davidguy@microsoft.com
09 357 5827
www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions

June 2004

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"Everyone wants to be treated as a VIP caller" - Zeacom CEO Miles Valentine