April 9, 2001

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WorldCom Bets The Future On Its Web Center Service

By Bob Wallace   (bwallace@cmp.com) and George V. Hulme   (ghulme@cmp.com)

he way things are shaping up, WorldCom seems poised to be the first with the most when it comes to delivering network-based call-center services. The company is so confident in this market that its top executives say they're betting WorldCom's future on its Web Center Service, along with its more established hosting and IP virtual private network offerings.

Prior to its merger with WorldCom, MCI offered network-based routing and call-processing services for years. But analysts say MCI-turned-WorldCom as well as AT&T and Qwest Communications are entering uncharted waters when it comes to linking Web visitors to call-center agents--and they've got a lot to prove. Sprint took the easy way out last week by unveiling plans to co-sell and co-market a similar service from little-known EchoPass.

"These providers first need to release detailed pricing, not just pricing structures, and convince the market through education that these services are viable alternatives to traditional call centers," says Daniel Briere, founder of telecom consulting firm TeleChoice. "Carriers talk a good marketing game when rolling out advanced services, but beyond that, they're often slow to deliver and they make pricing extremely difficult to understand."

Here's how WorldCom's Web Center Service works: Voice calls, E-mails, faxes, and requests to initiate chat sessions from a subscribing company's customers are routed to a server housed in a data center in WorldCom's network. Once there, the requests are slotted in a single queue. Rules that specify how each contact or request in the queue is handled have been set by the subscribing company's call-center operators through the service's Manager Portal. The operators can also use the portal to view call-center performance data and statistical historical information to help them optimize their operations. The contacts are routed to specific call centers or agents equipped with Web browsers to best serve the customers. Information about each contact, such as whom it's from and whether it's a voice call or a chat session, can be exported to the subscribing company's existing call-center applications.

Still, at least one customer-service manager doubts his company would use a network-based call-center service, largely because of a perceived loss of control. "We want control, and we want to see what our customers are doing,'' says Vance Brown, chief customer officer at Phobo.com Inc., an Irvine, Calif., operator of leisure-time E-commerce Web sites. "It's something I'd be interested in looking at, but so far subscription-based pricing hasn't looked attractive.''

WorldCom won't be without competition in this emerging market; Qwest has offered a similar service for months as part of a controlled introduction, and AT&T's timetable calls for the launch of its call-center service as early as this summer. AT&T wouldn't discuss details, and Qwest is unsure when it will formally debut its service.

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Call center photo by Burke Uzzle

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