iRobot Corp., maker of the Roomba vacuum and explosives disarming robots, has moved it call center to an outsourced operation. Maryellen Abreu, director of global technical support with iRobot and Josh Ward, call center supervisor with The Jay Group discuss best practices for working with an outsourcer and running a support operation.

In this 13-minute podcast, Abreu and Ward discuss:

• Why iRobot outsourced the call center
• The metrics they use in the call center and how they hold their outsourcer accountable
• Why they’re using on-demand software
• Integrating voice recognition with service
• Communication between iRobot and the outsources

 

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For more information on managing a call center:

Measure the costs and benefits of call center centralization vs. decentralization

Keep up with the latest call center developments with our Call Center Manager Learning Guide

Take a call center outsourcing quiz

In this installment of the Voices of CRM podcast series, Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite Inc. in San Mateo, Calif., talks about NetSuite’s beginnings, the CRM market and the importance of integration between ERP, CRM and e-commerce systems. Nelson also discusses how NetSuite’s CRM approach differs from Salesforce.com, RightNow, SAP and Siebel.

Nelson has served as NetSuite’s CEO since 2002, previously holding posts at Network Associates, myCIO and Oracle.

 

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In this podcast, John Roberts, CEO of SugarCRM, discusses the present and future prospects of open source CRM, compares it to on-demand CRM and shares why he stays friendly with Microsoft, a company many in the open source community consider a foe.

Roberts, Clint Oram and Jacob Taylor co-founded SugarCRM in 2004. The three men had previously worked together at Epiphany. Roberts has also held sales and marketing positions at BroadVision, Baan and IBM.

 

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