We had our Supplier Council meeting yesterday in London. A great session - lots of really interesting discussion around improving relationships between suppliers and operators to positively impact on service and bottom line results. 

All of the members of the group have long-standing relationships with CCA and clearly demonstrate their commitment to support businesses make better decisions about the solutions they invest in. 
 
We had two really thought-provoking presentations from Stuart Morgan at Capita and Andy Roberts from Sabio, and as is often the case, discussion was wide-ranging and challenging. 
 
Points discussed varied from who actually owns the customer in the business, to the impact of future technologies. One particularly interesting point was how the increased use of apps on smart devices is actually driving demand to the contact centre! Align this with customers’ increased use of intuitive technologies such as the iPad and Android operating systems, and we can get a glimpse of how customer service operations need to dramatically change in the not too distant future.
 
Consumers are familiar with very sophisticated technologies and software. Contact centres need to leapfrog their operations to be ahead of the game rather than be running very fast to keep up with old, clunky technology weighing them down. A huge challenge but one the supply market can help operators meet.
 
Thanks to all of the group for a great day and we look forward to taking this agenda forward in the coming months.
 
Group Members: Mark King, SVP European Sales, Aspect; Suzette Bouzane Meadows, Director, Jam IP; Richard Kenny, EMEA Marketing Manager, Plantronics; Murray Farquharson, Sales Director EMEA, Sword Ciboodle; Andy Roberts, Commercial Director, Sabio; Davin Yap, Chief Executive, Transversal; David Parcell, Managing Director, Verint