Microsoft releases new Customer Care Framework

Microsoft’s Communications Sector is focusing on multi-channel customer care with a new release today of its Customer Care Framework 2005, a software solution designed to drive callers out of the call center and into other channels for support.

The new release adds features that enable contact center operators to better integrate customer service channels, such as voice, instant messaging and e-mail and self-service. The Customer care Framework already consolidates data from core business systems such as billing, customer relationship management (CRM) and order management through Web services interfaces and delivers it to the customer service agent desktop.

“The contact center today still gets the bulk of the customer contacts, yet it is the most expensive way of contacting the operator. It costs a whole lot to have customers call in and hang on the phone for simple tasks they could do themselves,” said Vish Thirumurthy, group manager in Microsoft’s Communications Sector. “Moving those customers from the contact center to alternate channels is a significant way of increasing productivity for service providers.”

The Customer Care Framework uses a new SharePoint-based self-service portal and interactive voice-response system, to provide customer access to account and billing information so they can either order new services or resolve business problems. Customers can also launch a Web chat or e-mail interaction with a contact center agent through the self-service portal.

The framework provides a complete view of customer data through an integration layer based on Web services standards.

Yankee Group program manager Sheryl Kingstone said in a statement that as the single most important point of contact for responding to customer needs, the contact center must become more agile, provide a consistent customer experience and be optimized for improved performance. She said the Microsoft Customer Care Framework helps break down the current barriers to achieving that.

Acknowledging the large investment service providers have made over the last decade in customer care solutions and that complete replacements is not always an option, Thirumurthy said CCF is an interoperable solution that provides a unified customer view by consuming data from whatever heterogeneous applications and platforms they already have invested in.

“We can take what you have and still give you what your business is looking for over the next few years,” he said.

Peter Hascher, head of IT Development Services for BT Germany, said his company installed CCF in the middle of last year to support its new mobility solutions business and has seen what he called “staggering results.” He said the processing time for a new mobile phone contract has been reduced by approximately 80%.

“Deploying CCF has positively impacted our bottom line which has led us to commit to upgrade to the new version of CCF," Hascher said.