[November 15, 2005]

Transera Offers Option for Decentralizing Call Centers

By Susan J. Campbell

Call center operators may now have an alternative to large upfront investments for call center solutions. Transera Communications has introduced Seratel, collaborative call management software. The software is designed to enable call centers to operate across organizational, geographical and technological boundaries.

There has been an increasing move to outsource call center agents in the quest for decentralization. Art Schoeller, senior analyst for CRM Strategies, Yankee Group was quoted as saying that with the availability of next-generation networks and Web-based software applications, systems can be utilized at a lower cost and offer more flexibility and access.

The call center environment today consists of outsourced contact centers, branch offices, knowledge workers and home agents. According to Prem Uppaluru, CEO and co-founder of Transera, multi-sourcing of agents is a fast growing market.

Transera has positioned itself with the debut of Seratel as the only on-demand global IP call center platform. It is hoping to help call centers globalize, diversify and grow their operations to increase customer service deliverables without the significant infrastructure investment.

Seratel is powered by Open Midpoint Call Management. This enables call center operators to have a centralized point of visibility and control in order to manage and monitor calls across global call center operations.

Calls can be routed globally as Seratel maintains a centralized queue that manages and distributes calls. In the past, in multi-sourced call centers, calls were distributed to remote locations based on static information unless operators installed proprietary call center solutions. Seratel will intelligently route callers to the next available agent at any remote call center.

Remotely located agents can download a Java applet from the Internet and log-in as an available agent. The agent is provided screen pops that are embedded with URLs to their CRM application. Due to the screen pops, customers will not have to repeat information and the potential for reduced handling time exists. Supervisors can then be provided with historical reports and real-time views of call volumes and agent activities.

Seratel has incorporated open industry standards such as SIP, Web Services and XML and therefore eliminates the need for complex integration. The network becomes the platform and applications overlay the infrastructure.

Transera’s marketing position is that Seratel can enable call centers to better use all resources, lower administrations costs and extend the boundaries of their call centers to outsourcers, branch offices, home agents and knowledge workers. Essentially, Transera is promising that call center operators can deploy a world-class call center at a fraction of the traditional cost and set-up time.

Transera Communications is a Cupertino, California company founded in 2004. The organization specializes in call management software focused on improving customer care through call center optimization of time and location.

While the company may appear to still be in its infancy, the co-founders brought to the table more than seventy years of combined industry experience. While this may not seem that impressive, CEO Prem Uppaluru was CEO and founder of Telera in the 1990s. His success with that company led to its sale to Alcatel for $136 million. The company appears to be at the forefront of the technology offerings of a demanding industry. Providing the ability to handle more calls at less cost would appear to be a closer to most call center operators. As a potential call center customer, I just hope I won’t have to be on hold as long.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC and has also written for eastbiz.com.

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