With so many companies - vendors, distributors, consultants and telcos - offering systems integration services - which one should you choose for your call center? That, say observers, depends foremost on the integrator's competencies. The right choice will also hinge on the integrator's ability to recommend and implement a solution tailored to the client's operational practices (not the other way around); and to servicing the client over the long haul.

The integrator's expertise and go-to-market strategy depends much on the outfit's position in the industry. Hardware makers and software developers (or their professional services arms) know a lot about their products - though not necessarily much about implementing competitive offerings. Wholesalers may offer systems integration. But their main competencies are logistics, product assembly and distribution. Consulting firms may recommend a range of multi-vendor solutions and non-product-specific expertise (such as how to manage your business). There are also integrators that keep inventories of, and resell, vendor solutions.

Whatever their competencies, don't expect integrators to be completely objective about the products and services they recommend. "If you're giving someone advice, are you realistically going to give them advice on something you know little of?" says John Cosgrove, vice president of solutions strategy for Expanets (Denver, CO). "If you're providing true consulting advice, it may not be to [use products from] the same manufacturer every time. But it's going to be from a limited group."

Experts say call centers are wising up to differences among, and how best to work with, solutions providers. To that end, they're researching products before hiring an outfit. And they're encouraging IT departments and managers to create a dialogue with partnering integrators. "We see that buyers are [technically] smarter today than they have been in the past," says Tim Grimes, vice president of strategic business development for Siemens. "So we're dealing more with business owners."

You don't need to be a technical virtuoso to benefit from a systems integrator. But you do need to articulate your call center's business objectives. A systems integrator can recommend a course to accomplish these objectives, be they to increase sales, provide better customer support or reduce hold times. That plan may be different than the one you envisioned. Here's a look at the differences among systems integrators and the methods they use.

Speak Out About Call Centers

Many call centers rely on advice from the "Big Five" consultants: Anderson, Deloitte Consulting, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC Consulting. These companies are familiar with a broad cross-section of vendors and with call centers for different types of organizations. Many vendors or their professional services arms partner with Big Five firms to draw from their wealth of call center knowledge and experience.

Steve Pratt, global call leader for Deloitte Consulting, says that some of the Big Five help clients plan corporate strategies, like how to market products and services. Other consultants, including Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and PriceWaterhouseCoopers' unit PwC Consulting, partner with service bureaus to provide outsourcing services. All of the Big Five consultants recommend and implement vendor solutions.

What those recommendations include depends on integrator and vendor relationships. Many "alliances" are loose partnerships that provide only for an exchange of sales leads between vendor and integrator. Other deals are more strategic: They entail co-marketing and co-development of products; an exchange of financial, people, or intellectual assets; or exclusionary clauses that prohibit the integrator from recommending competitors' products, or the vendor from teaming with other integrators.

Example: Deloitte Consulting's alliance with Siemens Enterprise Networks, inked in November 2001. The pact, says Siemens' Grimes, calls on Deloitte to help Siemens develop business strategies for call centers. That includes setting and benchmarking center performance goals. The two companies will also collaborate to identify call center trends.

Siemens also formed alliances with vendors to recommend diverse solutions for call centers. These include Blue Pumpkin's workforce management software; Verint Systems quality control solutions; and InterVoice-Brite's IVR systems. These companies also recommend and implement Siemens' IP telephony products.

Siemens reps visit call centers on-site to assess their efficiency. Grimes says that establishing a trusting relationship with call center executives can be challenging. Underpinning clients' wariness is their concern about achieving a fast return on investment for a proposed solution.

"We're dealing with folks who understand ROI," says Grimes. "So we can make a compelling case for using different types of technology," and, he adds, solutions from multiple vendors. To reduce caller wait times and call lengths, Grimes might recommend, for example, leveraging one vendor's CRM software with another's skills-based routing app.

Telecommunications carriers also offer systems integration for call centers. "It's right up our alley because the telephone lines terminate in the call centers," says Bob Vilsoet, director of systems integration for SBC Call Center Solutions (Chicago, IL). "So why not also sell the equipment and services at the termination points?"

SBC Call Center Solutions is owned by SBC Communications, the parent company of phone service providers Pacific Bell, Nevada Bell and Southwestern Bell. In October 1999, SBC Communications acquired Ameritech, a regional holding company comprising Bell companies serving five states (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI). SBC Communications combined its systems integration team with Ameritech's, re-branding the unit SBC Call Center Solutions.

SBC offers multi-vendor solutions and benchmarking services to customers. The more specific the benchmarking study is, Vilsoet says, the greater the benefit to vendors and customers. "Everybody looks like a hero in the end," he says. "The call center manager gets credit for the improvements. The vendor has the operational consultants or the technology validated as providing improvements. And the executive management gets a more efficient operation."

Call center managers increasingly expect systems integrators to assist them with installing and testing third- party solutions the integrator may not advertise as part of its portfolio. "[Call centers] are looking for a single point of contact," says Expanets' Cosgrove. "Someone to pull it all together and produce results." He adds that call centers also look to integrators to do post-implementation performance evaluation and to provide constructive criticism.

Expanets, for example, helped San Diego-based Greater San Diego Transportation, a taxi company, assess the impact of a new call center that handles customer service. Expanets found out that the center had a 42% call abandonment rate, causing an appreciable loss in revenue. To remedy the problem, Expanets installed Expanets SmartConnect, software that informs callers of their place in queue and routes calls to qualified agents.

With so many companies - vendors, distributors, consultants and telcos - offering systems integration services - which one should you choose for your call center? That, say observers, depends foremost on the integrator's competencies. The right choice will also hinge on the integrator's ability to recommend and implement a solution tailored to the client's operational practices (not the other way around); and to servicing the client over the long haul.

The integrator's expertise and go-to-market strategy depends much on the outfit's position in the industry. Hardware makers and software developers (or their professional services arms) know a lot about their products - though not necessarily much about implementing competitive offerings. Wholesalers may offer systems integration. But their main competencies are logistics, product assembly and distribution. Consulting firms may recommend a range of multi-vendor solutions and non-product-specific expertise (such as how to manage your business). There are also integrators that keep inventories of, and resell, vendor solutions.

Whatever their competencies, don't expect integrators to be completely objective about the products and services they recommend. "If you're giving someone advice, are you realistically going to give them advice on something you know little of?" says John Cosgrove, vice president of solutions strategy for Expanets (Denver, CO). "If you're providing true consulting advice, it may not be to use products from the same manufacturer every time. But it's going to be from a limited group."

Experts say call centers are wising up to differences among, and how best to work with, solutions providers. To that end, they're researching products before hiring an outfit. And they're encouraging IT departments and managers to create a dialogue with partnering integrators. "We see that buyers are technically smarter today than they have been in the past," says Tim Grimes, vice president of strategic business development for Siemens. "So we're dealing more with business owners."

You don't need to be a technical virtuoso to benefit from a systems integrator. But you do need to articulate your call center's business objectives. A systems integrator can recommend a course to accomplish these objectives, be they to increase sales, provide better customer support or reduce hold times. That plan may be different than the one you envisioned. Here's a look at the differences among systems integrators and the methods they use.

Speak Out About Call Centers

Many call centers rely on advice from the "Big Five" consultants: Anderson, Deloitte Consulting, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC Consulting. These companies are familiar with a broad cross-section of vendors and with call centers for different types of organizations. Many vendors or their professional services arms partner with Big Five firms to draw from their wealth of call center knowledge and experience.

Steve Pratt, global call leader for Deloitte Consulting, says that some of the Big Five help clients plan corporate strategies, like how to market products and services. Other consultants, including Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and PriceWaterhouseCoopers' unit PwC Consulting, partner with service bureaus to provide outsourcing services. All of the Big Five consultants recommend and implement vendor solutions.

What those recommendations include depends on integrator and vendor relationships. Many "alliances" are loose partnerships that provide only for an exchange of sales leads between vendor and integrator. Other deals are more strategic: They entail co-marketing and co-development of products; an exchange of financial, people, or intellectual assets; or exclusionary clauses that prohibit the integrator from recommending competitors' products, or the vendor from teaming with other integrators.

Example: Deloitte Consulting's alliance with Siemens Enterprise Networks, inked in November 2001. The pact, says Siemens' Grimes, calls on Deloitte to help Siemens develop business strategies for call centers. That includes setting and benchmarking center performance goals. The two companies will also collaborate to identify call center trends.

Siemens also formed alliances with vendors to recommend diverse solutions for call centers. These include Blue Pumpkin's workforce management software; Verint Systems quality control solutions; and InterVoice-Brite's IVR systems. These companies also recommend and implement Siemens' IP telephony products.

Siemens reps visit call centers on-site to assess their efficiency. Grimes says that establishing a trusting relationship with call center executives can be challenging. Underpinning clients' wariness is their concern about achieving a fast return on investment for a proposed solution.

"We're dealing with folks who understand ROI," says Grimes. "So we can make a compelling case for using different types of technology," and, he adds, solutions from multiple vendors. To reduce caller wait times and call lengths, Grimes might recommend, for example, leveraging one vendor's CRM software with another's skills-based routing app.

Telecommunications carriers also offer systems integration for call centers. "It's right up our alley because the telephone lines terminate in the call centers," says Bob Vilsoet, director of systems integration for SBC Call Center Solutions (Chicago, IL). "So why not also sell the equipment and services at the termination points?"

SBC Call Center Solutions is owned by SBC Communications, the parent company of phone service providers Pacific Bell, Nevada Bell and Southwestern Bell. In October 1999, SBC Communications acquired Ameritech, a regional holding company comprising Bell companies serving five states (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI). SBC Communications combined its systems integration team with Ameritech's, re-branding the unit SBC Call Center Solutions.

SBC offers multi-vendor solutions and benchmarking services to customers. The more specific the benchmarking study is, Vilsoet says, the greater the benefit to vendors and customers. "Everybody looks like a hero in the end," he says. "The call center manager gets credit for the improvements. The vendor has the operational consultants or the technology validated as providing improvements. And the executive management gets a more efficient operation."

Call center managers increasingly expect systems integrators to assist them with installing and testing third- party solutions the integrator may not advertise as part of its portfolio. "Call centers are looking for a single point of contact," says Expanets' Cosgrove. "Someone to pull it all together and produce results." He adds that call centers also look to integrators to do post-implementation performance evaluation and to provide constructive criticism.

Expanets, for example, helped San Diego-based Greater San Diego Transportation, a taxi company, assess the impact of a new call center that handles customer service. Expanets found out that the center had a 42% call abandonment rate, causing an appreciable loss in revenue. To remedy the problem, Expanets installed Expanets SmartConnect, software that informs callers of their place in queue and routes calls to qualified agents.