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What's Going On III: Older People
One can't avoid talking about the prospects of a
labor shortage. Immigration policies alone accounted for a shortfall of
250,000 workers in the fields this past fall. No one tracks it as a National
Story so you have to see it in the local news.
Colorado was hardest hit due to their punitive legislation. continue...
Read John Sumser's complete article in the Electronic Recruiting News.
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Reveille and Hyperbole:
Leading Learning Solutions Provider Now a Preferred Provider for LearnShare Members: LearnShare, LLC, the consortium of Fortune 1000 companies organized to research, design, purchase, package and share best practices in training and development, announced that it has partnered with Dublin, Ohio-based MindLeaders, a leading edge learning services provider. LearnShare members will now have access to learning methodologies from a wide variety of subject matter. Members of the consortium will also receive preferred pricing through the partnership.
Deck Chairs:
The WorkPlace Group, Inc (WPG), the foremost company in Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), named Christine Holmberg its Director of Strategic Partnership Development. Holmberg was previously employed by Ross University where she served as Vice President of Human Resources. Holmberg has a Master's in Management from of North Park University with a concentration in organizational development and marketing. She is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management.
Survey Says:
Most Financial Executives Critical of Marketing Effectiveness Measures: Only 7% Say They are Satisfied with their Company's Ability to Measure Marketing ROI
Despite marketing's drive toward financial accountability, only 7% of senior-level financial executives surveyed report being satisfied with their company's ability to measure marketing ROI, according to new survey findings released today by Marketing Management Analytics (MMA) and Financial Executives International (FEI). MMA (http://www.mma.com), an innovator in marketing mix modeling, is an independent operating unit of Carat, one of the world's leading media services companies.
The nationwide survey, conducted in November 2006, also found that only one in 10 senior-level financial executives report confidence in marketing's ability to forecast its impact on sales. The study surveyed 150 members of FEI, a worldwide association of senior corporate financial executives.
"Marketing needs to stop fostering 'rock star' behavior, and focus on rock-steady results," said Ed See, Chief Operating Officer of MMA. "Our survey shows that marketing accountability falls short of the expectations of the C suite, and most financial executives can't get visibility into how well marketing is driving sales."
In contrast to the low level of satisfaction among financial executives, an April 2006 survey of senior-level marketers by MMA and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) found that nearly one-fourth (23%) of the marketers surveyed were satisfied with their company's ability to measure ROI. It also showed that a quarter of the marketers surveyed felt confident that they could forecast marketing's impact on sales.
"While marketing has made progress in measurement, many marketers are still not focusing on ROI," said See. "The fiduciary responsibility of marketers must match that of the rest of the executive suite. They need to be able to express their impact in dollars returned for dollars invested."
The FEI survey also showed that less than 20% of financial executives surveyed indicated they have full cooperation and an open dialogue with marketing in order to establish metrics. Additionally, less than 10% indicated their company had a separate budget allocated for measuring marketing effectiveness.
"Many organizations treat marketing measurement as an expense, rather than a control, and that's the root of the problem," said See. "However, given the ever growing amount of marketing spend, that is beginning to change. As CMOs with operational (rather than advertising backgrounds) take charge, they are bringing accountability into the marketing organization."
Attitudes of financial executives also lagged behind marketing executives when it comes to forecasting. While one-third of marketers in the MMA-ANA survey agreed they could forecast the impact on sales of a 10% budget cut, only 16% of financial service executives agreed with the same statement.
"While we saw gaps between the financial executives and marketing executives in many areas, there were also some areas that everyone seemed to struggle with," said See, who noted that gaining agreement of a definition on ROI and having a separate budget allocated for marketing measurement received similarly low scores in both studies. "For many companies, marketing and marketing measurement are the least-managed areas in corporate spending."
About Marketing Management Analytics
MMA pioneered the use of marketing mix modeling to help companies plan, measure, validate, and optimize their marketing performance. Since that time, MMA has conducted more than 1,000 studies on hundreds of brands and businesses in more than 20 countries. MMA's clients include many of the most recognized marketers in the world. MMA has been a unit of Aegis Group, PLC, London (AGS.L) since 1997. For more information about other MMA services, visit http://www.mma.com.
Deep Release:
Contact Centre Outsourcing Black Hole Costs UK Companies £55 Million Every Year
Improved forecasting, reporting and control key to unlocking potential efficiencies, argues Exony
Better management of outsourcing providers would save UK companies £55 million a year in improved contact centre performance as well as enhancing service for customers. This is according to research and analysis by interaction management software provider Exony, which believes that there are ten key areas where UK organisations could be targeting improvements when outsourcing contact centre operations, leading to contract savings of 4.5 per cent per annum. These include resource administration, more accurate forecasting and using management information to ensure that service level agreements (SLAs) are met and optimum billing methods are in place.
Industry statistics show that 14 per cent of the UK's 5,935 contact centres and 581,000 agent positions are outsourced [1]. Exony calculates that improving organisations' ability to measure and manage their outsourcing providers would save £675 per annum for each of these 81,340 outsourced agents, making an annual total saving of £54.9 million in the UK alone. This would pay for an additional 3,660 customer service agents [2], dramatically improving efficiency and cutting call waiting times.
"In an increasingly competitive global marketplace efficiently delivering the finest customer service is a key business goal for organisations of all sizes," said Ian Ashby, CEO, Exony. "Managed correctly, outsourcing provides the agility and skills to achieve this. However, our analysis shows that a lack of control is fuelling a £55 million black hole that is costing UK companies dear. Already, around 50 per cent of companies that outsource are dissatisfied because expectations are not being met [3] and our research demonstrates that UK firms are spending too much on their outsource contracts. Improved ability to measure and manage is needed to plug these gaps and deliver on the outsourcing promise."
By outsourcing, companies aim to benefit from a fast and effective solution to their customer service needs, either by working through a single outsourcer or in combination with internal and external resources in a Virtual Contact Centre (VCC) environment.
Advances in IP technology mean that the outsourcing and VCC markets are expanding rapidly. The number of outsourced agents is forecast to increase by 31 per cent between 2006 and 2011 [4]. However, the complexity of managing outsourcing relationships and gaining an accurate picture of operations spread across multiple sites and providers is dramatically reducing the benefits organisations are able to achieve. Issues such as increased management and reporting costs, lack of a single view of all operations and an inability to move resources in real-time are all holding back adoption.
Exony's Top 10 areas for action, taken from its outsourcing white paper, are:
Better routing and reporting on calls savings through better integration and reporting on telecoms links with outsourced providers.
Improved management of extended networks lower administration costs when managing resource changes, such as adding agents.
Enhanced contractual terms with outsourcers through a more detailed view of outsourcer performance, organisations can measure performance and decide whether to continue, amend or terminate contracts.
Picking the most effective outsourcer billing method better management information enables organisations to choose the optimum billing method for their needs, such as per minute or per transaction.
Ensuring contractual compliance - through a more detailed view of outsourcer performance organisations can measure and pay against SLAs
More accurate forecasting of current and future needs detailed forecasting to ensure that the right resources are in place to deliver customer service levels without wastage.
Better visibility of agent churn more granular reporting enables organisations to pinpoint newer or less productive agents and negotiate lower rates with outsourcers.
Cost savings by not relying on outsourcer-produced reports if organisations produce their own custom reports without dealing with outsourcers it enables faster, more cost-effective service.
Single version of the truth avoid inconsistencies by creating and measuring agreed metrics across the whole contact centre infrastructure.
Data partitioning be able to easily provide access to specific data for outsourcers and particular managers rather than allowing full view of potentially sensitive information.
Exony's Virtualized Interaction Manager (VIM) is designed to provide a full view and complete control of a Virtual Contact Centre and its resources. Exony VIM empowers business managers to utilise resources from multiple sources, such as home and back office workers, in a seamless and integrated manner, removing both expense and complexity when managing contact centre networks.
Further details
Virtual Contact Centres and Outsourcer Management, Exony's latest business white paper, outlines the advantages of VCCs in both customer service and efficiency terms, and how to improve the way organisations measure, manage and contract with their outsourcer suppliers. The paper demonstrates how an improved ability to measure and manage a VCC can deliver major savings, irrespective of contact centre size. Based on more than 20 years work in the contact centre marketplace, it is available to download for free from http://www.exony.com/solutions/white-papers.
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