Integrating Telephones and Computers: One of The Keys To Successful IT Lead Generation

Today's generation is for the IT industry. The world has been hungry to taste the products and services available for use from the Information Technology sector. This is so because we reap convenience, speed and accuracy in a particular action when we use the appropriate technological product and service. Until now and perhaps in the years to come, we remain insatiable of what technology will provide for us. For this reason, the growth of the IT economy has been exponentially astounding.

Despite the colossal growth and demand hovering over the IT market, IT business organizations are still seeking the assistance of various experts to fully attain success. For accounting services as an example, they look for accounting specialists who will do auditing, management advisory, consultancy, bookkeeping and tax services. On the other hand, the need to have a successful IT lead generation is first and foremost their main concern. This is so because of the simple equation, no leads is equal to no profit.

The rise of the IT sector has been welcomed by the outsourcing industry. The partnership has then been built and sealed to provide the intended services for both. The IT companies provide the technology while the telemarketing firms give them sales leads of high quality on a silver platter. However, in choosing the right partner, IT firms must be very critical in assessing the available technology of the prospective outsourcer. After all, call centers have been built out of the convenience and comfort brought by technology.

One part of the investigation must be centered on the computer-telephony integration (CTI). This refers to a system of software and hardware which permits communication between the telephone and the computer systems. Powerful results will arrive when this works out well. Here are the functions of a CTI team:

• Screen pops. This application collects a caller's phone number which will then be passed to the CTI system. Then, it will look for the prospect's information in the database. The information will appear on the screen from the time call arrives. In this case, the agent does not have to be stressed in pulling up prospects' data.

• Mandatory data entry. Agents are required to encode critical data before the next call.

• Enhanced reporting. CTI system will store information about the details of a particular call. Included in the data are the agent who make the call, the prospect's information, the length of the call, the actions the agent made by using company applications and other things that happen during a phone call.

• Idle-time training.

• Coordinated screen transfer.

• Call routing.

• Dynamic scripting.

• Call blending.

• Soft-phone functionality.

Another application is an automated call-monitoring system. Through this, all telemarketers are being monitored. It automatically stores phone calls completely. This application is of great significant since team leaders will be able to do his/her evaluation of the agent's performance.

Be assured that the prospective telemarketing service provider is using customer relationship management (CRM) technology, specialized applications and other telecommunications technology. The CRM is for you, as the client, to get updates and reports about the campaign. Specialized applications comprise knowledge-management software, contact management software, help-desk software, sales and marketing software, billing and order system. Telecommunications technology include but not limited to automatic number identification (ANI) dynamic network routing, automatic call distributor (ACD), predictive dialing, interactive voice response (IVR) and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).