News in View: Call centres face Net integration test

The integration of call centre technology with ecommerce strategy is one of the most pressing challenges for all IT directors, according to Charles Wade, director of enterprise applications at Nortel.

In this weeks News in View, Wade said: "It is horrendously difficult to integrate the two at the moment. Call centre technology is generally run by the call centre manager, but it will fall more and more into the hands of the IT director."

The Internet was originally seen as a threat to the traditional call centre, but recent research by Datamonitor refutes this. A report by the analyst house predicts that in four years' time, over 70 per cent of company contact will be through the telephone.

However, many call centres are receiving thousands of emails each week. David Hurd, IT director at Merchants Group, said: "The IT director of the companies that are involved in this area are going to get a rude awakening. They'll get caught short with the uptake of ecommerce transactions with clients and the way that call centres can respond to them."

The full News in View can be seen in the Call Centre channel.