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China Telecom: Now how’d you like to sign that baby up for implementation?

PacificNet Epro was able to bag this one, announcing today the firm’s engagement to enhance the CRM service level and telemarketing management capability of China Telecom’s customer service center known as the “10000 Information Hotline.”

Company officials cited the following “deliverables” undertaken as part of the contract: Development of Outsourcing Telemarketing Program, Call Center Workflow Design, Business Management, Project Return On Investment (ROI), Critical Success Factors on Customer Affinity, Five Steps of Customer Service and Telemarketing, How to Design Effective Telemarketing Script, and Customer Service Agent Role Playing Sessions.

As though more excuses were needed to justify doing business in 21st century China, PacificNet CEO Joseph Levinson reiterated the importance of the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games and the infrastructural changes due to the event in China. “We believe that our fundamentals are stronger than ever and that market opportunities for sustainable growth and profitability in China’s CRM, telecom and e-commerce services are vast.”

China Telecom is the largest fixed service telecommunications provider in China, which includes data, the internet, and the XiaoLingTong PAS wireless system. China Telecom is the leading provider of fixed line telecommunications services in China, providing voice, data, image, multimedia and telecommunications and information services in 20 municipalities, provinces and autonomous regions in China with a subscriber base exceeding 200 million.

Beijing- and Hong Kong-headquartered PacificNet Inc. is an investor in and operator of companies that provide outsourcing, e-commerce, and value-added services in China, such as call centers, telemarketing, direct response television marketing, CRM, interactive voice response, mobile applications, and communications product distribution services. PacificNet corporate clients include China Telecom, China Mobile, Unicom, PCCW, Hutchison Telecom, Bell24, SONY, TCL, Huawei, American Express, Citibank, HSBC, Bank of China, Bank of East Asia, DBS, TNT, and the Hong Kong government. PacificNet employs over 2,300 in China with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Macau, and branch offices in 26 provinces.

Africa continues to move up in the tech world, and Kenya made a big score within the hotly contested exploitable market. Capital city Nairobi will host the first African business process and outsourcing and call-centre conference this month.

The conference will provide a forum for international investors and outsourcing companies to meet local operators and potential business partners, an emailed statement said. “…hosting the first African BPO&O and call-centre conference … will provide an important boost to the country’s concerted drive to become a leading outsource destination in the world market,” stated Minister of Information and Communication Mutahi Kagwe.

The BPO&O and call-centre industries are hoped to be high-potential job creators in South Africa in particular and the continent in general. Last month saw a highly influential development from ContactinGauteng that gives hope to those in the sector in Africa.

ContactinGauteng envisions a full-on business process outsourcing skills hub in Gauteng, South Africa, which would create a whopping 60,000 new jobs in the call-centre industry within the next three years. ContactinGauteng seeks to develop this potential talent pool to its call-centre industry. Through this initiative, Gauteng’s school dropouts would be able to gain the opportunity to learn basic skills to increase their level of employability and career prospects.

ContactinGauteng doubles as call-centre industry authority and member association in Gauteng. The firm is responsible for more than 60 percent of call centres in South Africa; the city of Johannesburg’s economic development unit itself will be partnering with ContactinGauteng to develop the BPO skills hub.

The passage of call center jobs moves inexorably again, and this week Scotland loses some while Canada loses quite a bit.

Air Canada has announced the imminent layoffs of 280 at their call centres and airports across the country beginning in October; over half the job losses will hit Toronto. The announcement came despite reports of near record level profits for the airline, a sticking point for the workers’ union CAW Airline Local 2002. “We’re still working with the union on mitigation measures,” said an Air Canada spokeswoman.

Air Canada representatives blamed the layoffs on the seasonal slowdown in traffic after the summer peak and on the increasing use of the internet to book tickets. A leading call-centre company has announced it will create 350 jobs by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, customer contact service provider BeCogent has announced 350 new jobs to be created before the end of 2006. Erskine, Renfrewshire, Scotland will get the work. BeCogent currently employs 1,800 people across in three locations in Scotland – Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Erskine. Clients of these UK national customer contact centres for clients include John Lewis, Argos, NTL/Telewest, JD Williams, Traveline Scotland and the National Australia Bank Group.

The beCogent announcement followed by days a warning from insurance firm Aviva stating that they would be losing 450 posts from Scotland’s call centers. Aviva spokespeople, too, blamed an increase on internet shopping for the layoffs. Aviva’s long-term goal, also recently announced, was to shift 1,000 jobs currently based in the UK to overseas locations.

Sykes has opened a second call center in Miskolc, Hungary, paving the way for more than 200 new jobs for this city of 180,000. The center has operated at full occupancy from day one, thanks to Sykes obtaining the commission to both build and operate the electronic customer service system for the national transportation company MÁV.

From its two regional centers in Budapest, Sykes offers call center services in 17 languages to a number of European countries. The first Sykes call center in Miskolc opened last December, and presently employs about 100.

Miskolc is the third-largest city in Hungary and is informally known as the regional centre of Northern Hungary. The city has welcomed call-centre jobs for the past three years in the hopes of reviving the perpetually stagnant, formerly industrial-based economy.

Sykes provides customer contact management solutions and services in the business process outsourcing arena. Sykes clientele includes international Fortune 1000 companies, primarily in the communications, financial services, healthcare, technology and transportation and leisure industries. Sykes specializes in customer support outsourcing solutions with an emphasis on inbound technical support and customer service. The firm is headquartered in Tampa, Fla.

CTI Group, a provider of online billing, self-care and communication management solutions, has announced the release of SmartRecord IP. SmartRecord is a web-based call recording solution that promises to enable service providers a contact center solution with almost all equipment off-site; company PR claims this is a first and has a U.S. patent pending on the technique.

Also touted in the new product is the ability to enable federal and governmental compliance by service providers with pending VoIP legislation, while still facilitating the essential needs of vertical markets such as contact centers.

Along with the announcement, CTI Group representatives cited statistics from industry analyst InfoTech, which postulate that the hosted IP telephony market will grow from $310 million in 2005 to almost $6 billion by the end of 2010 for an 80 percent compounded annual growth rate.

CTI is a global provider of online billing, self-care, and communications management solutions. CTI clientele now includes over 50 percent of Fortune 500 enterprises. The firm has operations in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Winners were announced at the Contact Center World Awards Conference for Best in Europe, Middle East and Africa on Friday. In addition to their high prestige factor, these awards also allow winners to advance to the “Contact Center Best of the Best” competition. Best of the Best Americas were announced in Dallas, Texas earlier this year and Best of the Best Asia Pacific in Singapore last week.

Finalists were examined by a panel of independent judges, had to present to conference delegates, and answer delegate questions before the final voting took place.

And the winners in the 2006 Contact Center World Award Winners For Best of the Best in Europe, Middle East and Africa are:

Best Agent: Linda Walsh, Abtran

Best Supervisor: Janet Smallwood, Siemens

Best Leader: Carita Vallinkoski, Competence Call Center

Best Trainer: Jenny Woodrow, ClientLogic

Best Customer Service: Veolia Water, Apa Nova Ploiesti

Best Community Spirit: Sage UK

Best Technology Innovation: Sage UK

Best Contact Center (fewer than 250 agents): eircom

Best Contact Center (250+ agents): National Australia Group Europe

The World Finals are to be held November 7 and 8 in (where else?) Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, Lagan CRM has announced that their major implementation for the Lancaster City Council has been nominated in the “Best Contact Center Network” category of the UK Communications in Business awards; they’ll be facing off against Orchestra, Leeds City Council, and Screwfix Direct.

Lancaster City Council’s nomination reflects the work done in the creation of a new contact centre in June 2005. Macfarlane Telesystems and Lagan CRM technology was selected and a tight integration between Macfarlane CallPlus and the Lagan solution was achieved within a single day. (Now that may be award-worthy in and of itself.)

The UK Communications in Business awards are run by Communications News magazine and sponsored by IT firms including Thus, O2 and ntl:Telewest. The winners will be announced at the London Marriott hotel, Mayfair on September 7.

Lagan was established in 1994 as a spin-off from Queen’s University Belfast, with backing from QUBIS Ltd. Lagan specializes in CRM solutions, principally for government. The firm has recently received kudos with its appearance in the Deloitte Fast 50 for four successive years and a listing in the Sunday Times ARM Tech Track 100 as one of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies.

Founded in 1987, Macfarlane is a UK developer and supplier of communication solutions to service providers, enterprises and public sector organisations. Strategic partners include vendors Lagan, Capita, Northgate, Steria, Onyx, Sx3, and Deloittes.

This week, some big award shows are gearing up to recognize the cream of the crop in the industry. Kicking things off this awards season, nominees for the European Call Centre Awards were announced by organiser CCF Magazine on Friday.

The European Call Centre Awards are sponsored by Garlands Call Centres for the purpose of honoring “the excellent and innovative work done within the customer contact community throughout Europe.” Categories include Best Use of Technology within a Contact Centre, Best Contact Centre Culture, Team Leader of the Year, Best Global Strategy and European Call Centre of the Year. First Direct leads the field with ten nominations, while Lloyds, Sitel, Carphone Warehouse, LEGO and AXA Lite all received multiple nominations.

The European Call Centre Awards has been called “the most prestigious night out of the call centre social calendar.” And, indeed, the 1300 invitees will be dressed up for a black-tie affair.

The list of finalists includes:

Accor Customer Contact Centre

Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank

Associa Limited

AXA Life

Barclays

British Gas Business

buw Unternehmensgruppe

Capita BBC Information

ClientLogic

Competence Call Center

ComXo

CPM United Kingdom Limited

D+S europe AG - Kabel Deutschland GmbH

EDF Energy

Enterprise Rent-A-Car UK

first direct

Future Travel

Gallions Housing Association

Garlands Call Centres - Vodafone Quality Team

Global-Bilgi A.S

HBOS GI

Hertz Europe Service Centre

Homeserve GB Ltd

Ion Group Ltd - Fiat Auto UK

Kingston Communications Contact Centres Ltd - Powergen

Leeds City Council, Customer Services

LEGO Group

Lloyds TBS Business Banking, Dudley

Lloyds TSB, Dudley

Lloyds TSB, Sunderland

London Borough of Barking & Dagenham

London Borough of Islington

Merchants Limited NL

Metro

Mondial UK

National Rail Enquiries / Ventura / BT

Northern Ireland Electricity, TFCC and Eckoh

Orange P&O Ferries Ltd

Parcelforce Worldwide

Portman Building Society

Premier Travel Inn

RBS Credit Cards Operations - Southend Sage (UK) Ltd

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Coucil

Screwfix Direct Ltd SITEL GmbH - GMAC

SITEL Iberia

SITEL UK

SITEL Paris

SITEL Sevilla

Telecom Service Centres

The Camping and Caravanning Club

The Carphone Warehouse

T-Mobile Deutschland

Toyota Financial Services

Vodafone, Cheshire

Vodafone / Conduit

Wunderman

Yell

The European Call Centre Awards will take place as part of Call Centre Expo on October 3, 2006 at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham, the seventh annual show.

The cross-breeding of FrontRange Solutions and Ticomix took the “Best of Show” blue ribbon in the category of “Contact Management Systems” today at the 18th Annual International Call Center Management Conference and Exposition in Chicago.

The award was given to the team’s FrontRange IP Contact Center product. FrontRange IPCC is designed to extend functionality of other FrontRange software products with VoIP, offering functions such as advanced queuing and routing of inbound calls; integrated voice self service application and integrated voice response; quality management through agent / supervisor collaboration tools with monitoring and recording; and a unified messaging foundation.

FrontRange reseller Ticomix implements IPCC in combination with the FrontRange HEAT Help Desk product suite and FrontRange IT Service Management solutions, among others. The Best of Show judges were independent industry analysts, consultants, editors and writers in the contact center management and customer relationship management fields.

The ICCM awards recognize companies and individuals that are “truly at the forefront of innovation and leadership in the contact center industry.” Exhibitor’s entries were judged on ease of integration, implementation, system quality, customer service features, and return on investment. Ticomix is a provider of CRM and service desk management technology solutions and services to small- and mid-sized enterprises in the American midwest.

Ticomix headquarters are located in Rockford, Ill. Flagship products include GoldMine for CRM; ITSM, built on the ITIL framework for complete service management; IPCC for communication management; and IM for comprehensive asset management. Software and solutions developer FrontRange Solutions now claims a clientele of over 130,000 companies and more than 1.7 million seats worldwide.

FrontRange products are designed primarily for small-, mid-sized, and distributed enterprise organizations. Solution families are three: customer relationship management, including GoldMine; IT service management including HEAT, ITSM and infrastructure management product lines; and communication interaction management, including IP Office, GoldMine IP Voice Suite and IP Contact Center.

FrontRange corporate clientele includes Coca-Cola, Shell Oil, Prudential Securities, Electricite de France, Mack Trucks, Campbell Soup, Avaya, Bechtel Corp, Bank of America, and the Turner News Network.

Call center jobs are moving again, but this time it’s good news.

Recently upwardly mobile Convergys Corporation made happy headlines in Oklahoma today with the announcement that the firm would be expanding its customer service work for DirecT-V and thus would need to expand total employment at its Moore plant to about 1,350, a net increase of 220 new jobs. The company also offers college tuition reimbursement. Good for them, then.

A member of Standard & Poor’s 500, Convergys Corporation is a provider of customer care, human resources, and billing services. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Convergys has more than 65,000 employees in 75 customer contact centers, three data centers, and other facilities in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.