ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sheila McGee-Smith
Sheila McGee-Smith, the founder of McGee-Smith Analytics, is a leading communications industry analyst and strategic consultant focused on the contact...
Read Full Bio >>
SHARE

Sheila McGee-Smith | September 10, 2008 |

 
 
share
 

Siemens to Offer Hosted Self Service

Siemens to Offer Hosted Self Service Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc. today announced an extension to its OpenScape Contact Center portfolio in the form of a hosted self service solution. Siemens will be offering the services of Contact Solutions, Inc. (CSI), a privately-held Reston, VA-based firm that has been around since 2002. Certainly there are a number of vendors that already offer hosted self-service solutions. What makes this announcement from Siemens interesting?

Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc. today announced an extension to its OpenScape Contact Center portfolio in the form of a hosted self service solution. Siemens will be offering the services of Contact Solutions, Inc. (CSI), a privately-held Reston, VA-based firm that has been around since 2002. Certainly there are a number of vendors that already offer hosted self-service solutions. What makes this announcement from Siemens interesting?

Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc. today announced an extension to its OpenScape Contact Center portfolio in the form of a hosted self service solution. Siemens will be offering the services of Contact Solutions, Inc. (CSI), a privately-held Reston, VA-based firm that has been around since 2002. Certainly there are a number of vendors that already offer hosted self-service solutions. What makes this announcement from Siemens interesting?First, the announcement says something about what's going on at Siemens post-Gores. Business as usual, and I mean that in a good way. While they have tweaked the name of the company a bit (for the umpteenth time), this announcement shows that things are not at a dead standstill at Siemens, waiting for some mythical other shoe to drop. One has to believe that a partnership of this kind takes at least a couple of months. So while Siemens started searching for a partner in the pre-Gores world they were able to make a choice and announce it in a post-Gores one.

Second, the decision to offer hosted self service plays into a stated Siemens objective to increase services revenues. The point is to be a one-stop shopping resource for the Siemens customer that wants to get into sophisticated applications like natural language speech recognition, not send them off to a carrier or third party. With CSI, Siemens is offering its customers solutions that have out-of-the-box integration with existing HiPath platforms and HiPath ProCenter solutions.

Next, the combination of relatively pint-sized CSI and billion-dollar Siemens allows them to offer customers the best of both worlds. CSI offers Siemens a small, focused team steeped in speech recognition and self service design expertise. Siemens offers CSI a large direct sales force, access to Siemens channel partners and the Siemens maintenance organization.

Finally, I love the energy of the CSI team. This is a big opportunity for a relatively small firm, and CEO Paul Logan gets that. Over the next couple of years, there is an opportunity here for him to grow CSI dramatically from the ~200 applications deployed today.



COMMENTS



Currently we allow the following HTML tags in comments:

Single tags

These tags can be used alone and don't need an ending tag.

<br> Defines a single line break

<hr> Defines a horizontal line

Matching tags

These require an ending tag - e.g. <i>italic text</i>

<a> Defines an anchor

<b> Defines bold text

<big> Defines big text

<blockquote> Defines a long quotation

<caption> Defines a table caption

<cite> Defines a citation

<code> Defines computer code text

<em> Defines emphasized text

<fieldset> Defines a border around elements in a form

<h1> This is heading 1

<h2> This is heading 2

<h3> This is heading 3

<h4> This is heading 4

<h5> This is heading 5

<h6> This is heading 6

<i> Defines italic text

<p> Defines a paragraph

<pre> Defines preformatted text

<q> Defines a short quotation

<samp> Defines sample computer code text

<small> Defines small text

<span> Defines a section in a document

<s> Defines strikethrough text

<strike> Defines strikethrough text

<strong> Defines strong text

<sub> Defines subscripted text

<sup> Defines superscripted text

<u> Defines underlined text

Did you know you can style comments using HTML tags and upload your avatar photo? To upload your avatar photo, first complete your Disqus profile. Once your profile is complete, you may add your avatar photo. (Hide this hint)

Sign up to the No Jitter email newsletters

  • Catch up with the blogs, features and columns from No Jitter, the online community for the IP communications industry. Each Thursday, we'll send you a synopsis of the high-impact articles, podcasts and other material posted to No Jitter that week, with links for quick access.

  • A quick hit of original analysis by the experts who bring you Enterprise Connect, the leading event in Enterprise Communications & Collaboration. Each Wednesday, this enewsletter delivers to your email box a thought-provoking, objective take on the latest news and trends in the industry.

Your email address is required for membership. For details about the user information, please read the UBM Privacy Statement

As an added benefit, would you like to receive relevant 3rd party offers about new products/services and discounted offers via email? Yes

* = Required Field
Enterprise Connect Orlando 2012
Keynote Speakers Announced
Enterprise Connect is proud to announce the following industry leaders will deliver keynote addresses at Enterprise Connect Orlando:
--Steven J. Bandrowczak, Vice President & General Manager, Avaya Networking
--OJ Winge, Senior VP/GM,Video & Collaboration, Cisco
--Kirk Koenigsbauer, Corporate VP, Office Business Group, Microsoft
--Alistair Rennie, GM, Lotus Software and Collaboration Solutions, IBM Software Group
Enterprise Connect Webinars
Building Cloud Grade Data Center Networks
Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2 PM EST/11 AM PST

This presentation reviews best practices and tools for implementing data center clouds, including how to pin-point and resolve problems, and minimize cost while maximizing performance and usability.
Virtual Enterprise Connect
Implementing Microsoft Lync in the Enterprise--REGISTER NOW!
This in-depth Virtual Event will feature detailed presentations by technology experts who can help you plan your Lync-based UC migration and get the most out of all that Lync has to offer..
Enterprise Connect Orlando 2012
Orlando Conference Program Announced
The Enterprise Connect conference program has been published! Our confernce is designed with one over-riding objective: To help you make the best decisions as you migrate your enterprise communications and collaboration.
Trending Now
Upcoming Events
Webinars Virtual Events Live Events
Mobile Collaboration: Faster, Smarter, Better
February 15, 2012
For employees away from the office—whether on the go, at a remote location, or telecommuting from home—success depends on connecting the right people with the right information anywhere to a...
A Proven Approach-Four Steps to Drive Organizational Video Adoption
February 1, 2012
Have your video implementation projects fallen short of your expectations in user satisfaction or utilization? Reaping the benefits depends on not only on selecting the technology, but on careful plan...
Real-World Lessons for Your UC Migration
January 18, 2012
As your enterprise moves into its Unified Communications migration, you’ll need to meet short-, medium- and long-term goals that provide investment protection, return on investment, and real bus...
More Webinars
More Virtual Events