Call centres given the human touch

Blue chip club: Video technology developed by a Glasgow company is putting a face to annonymous operators, finds Mike Woodcock

For many companies changing a name can often be seen as a sign of failure but in the case of WBM it is a sign of a business adapting to the rapidly changing face of its marketplace.

The Glasgow-based company was formerly known as Web Broadcast Media and recently opted to change its name because it was felt to define a market sector rather than the direction in which the company wanted to go.

WBM is a snappier moniker for the business that is already making its presence felt in the live video streaming marketplace through its Interactive Operator (IO) system and on the back of a £160 million partnership agreement signed with Glasgow-based telecoms hardware supplier Damovo last year.

WBM sees itself as the leading provider of live, real-time interactive solutions for the contact centre market and technical director David Brock says the company is pursuing an aggressive growth strategy. 'Rather than play catch-up what we want to do is grab the market. Our role as directors is to manage the risk in doing that.'

The IO system is focused on the contact centre sector and is designed to humanise the customer relationship management process by allowing callers to have face-to-face access to operators rather than simply listening to a detached voice.

In WBM's demonstration system, a user accesses the operator's website using anything from a dial-up modem to a broadband connection and a live link-up appears on the screen to an operator who will then direct the user through the various stages of the website to deal with the enquiry.

Other applications include filling in forms or bank loan applications and companies can use the system to monitor internal security or train contact centre operators. IO is designed to be firewall friendly and not to require any additional reconfiguration from the user. It can also be used to route the user to the best-qualified person available to deal with their enquiry.

'We are looking at building models that in effect use the core technology,' says Brock. 'For one of our Japanese clients who is interested in security we developed a security model but we can also develop models for training, to look at body language and whether people are leaning forward or sitting back. It just keeps raising the bar and if you don't keep raising the bar then your competition will.'

The potential for the IO system in the call centre market is clearly significant and for WBM's worldwide managing director of the project Brian Stennett, it could enable the industry to make a leap forward akin to that of moving from radio to TV.

After an extensive career in the contact centre industry in the UK and across the Far East in Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the Phillipines, Stennett believes IO is hitting the market just at the right time as customer expectations of service expand exponentially.

Contact centres used to be rigid Monday to Friday 9-5 operations but now people expect quick and ready access to information 24/7 through an increasing range of media from e-mail to mobile phones.

Stennett says: 'Five years ago my big worry was people in contact centres reading scripts. But my biggest worry in five to six years' time will be that the agent doesn't pick his nose because the customer will be able to see him.

'The really big thing now is CRM (customer relationship management). If you look at the real world, relationships are face-to-face. This helps you get back to that point where you are developing a face to face relationship.'

While WBM has its own sales operation and Stennett, who gives his home address as Heathrow, spends much of his time travelling to new and existing markets in the Far East, it is the tie-up with Damovo which has really catapulted the Hillington business to prominence.

A chance encounter between WBM chief executive and co-founder Jim Park and his counterpart at Damovo, Pearse Flynn, in the coffee room at Hillington Innovation Centre, led to an animated conversation about the need for a human face in contact centre transactions which struck a chord with the Irish millionaire.

The upshot was a three-year deal signed last year after a rigorous accreditation programme with Damovo, the enterprise solutions division of Ericsson, whereby WBM's IO system is supplied to a range of its clients around the world.

Stennett acknowledges the deal, which is expected to generate revenues of £160m, has transformed WBM and says the fact that it is among a list of Damovo partners that includes blue chips such as Cisco and Nortel gives it instant bargaining power in the marketplace.

'We have got a part of Ericsson going to the market and saying this is a good product for you to use. They are not going to take you to customers and say this is good if it doesn't work.

'Being bundled in with that size and class of organisation gives us a credible route to market because they have a presence all over the world.'

WBM was formed in 1998 by Park, Gordon Terris and Tim Brighton as a video streaming technology specialist. It initially worked on advertising projects delivering web presentations on video for sales seminars. One of its earliest clients was the distiller Edrington for its Macallan brand and the business quickly secured international sales.

But the company became aware of the changing direction of the technology sector towards utilising high-speed internet connections and the growing need for more sophisticated solutions for the contact centre industry. Brock explains: 'From there we recognised the benefits of adapting this technology. Our awareness of the marketplace increased to the point where it was commercially viable to exploit this opportunity and we did so.'

WBM spent two years developing the IO system as its flagship technology and secured backing from the Bank of Scotland in return for a 20% stake in the company.

With Damovo on board, WBM has seen turnover leap from £2.2m two years ago to £12m this year and the company now employs 25 people. It has recently secured a contract with outsourcing company Reach International in Japan which is worth £750,000 for the first tranche of 100 seats going live but this is expected to rise to 500 over the next three years, which would take the revenues for WBM up to £3.75m.

The growth of the contact centre industry in India has made it a key market for WBM but given Stennett's conviction that high end contact centre operations will still need to be carried out in the UK and the west, WBM is also striving to build its presence at home and in Europe and America.

From a technology perspective, Brock's technical team at WBM are already working on new ways of adapting the IO system and he believes the timing is good to look at other forms of communication. 'I'm looking to have it deployed on to mobile phones and PDA's and the 3G networks are just starting to come on board now. That's an area we are looking to for the future when it's mature enough to accept the technology.'

Sunday Herald 4th May 2003, Mike Woodcock