Communications News: What does Focom Ltd do?
Donna Pickrell: Focom provides call management information. Some people call it call logging or call man-agement. Whichever term you use, our software takes the output from a telephone switch, voice over IP file or CD and puts this into a database. From there, our customers can run reports and analyse those areas of interest such as departmental spend, answer time performance, international spend. You name it, our customers come up with more and more reasons to use the CMI.
CN: What made you decide to start Focom when there were so many competitors in the marketplace?
Sarah Glavin: You have to bear in mind that when we started out, many of the products that were available were still DOS-based, there was the millennium bug looming and there was a general apathy towards call logging and the facilities they could provide. We felt passionately – if you can about call logging –that users needed to be able to design and generate reports which actually provided them with the informationthey needed, rather than a standard suite of reports which didn’t fit their requirements. Cliché though it is, we wanted our customers to be happy with the product and the company. We have worked hard to maintain this position.
CN: Where does Focom currently stand in the marketplace?
SG: The great thing is that competition is stronger than ever. Most products can provide the customisable reports and real-time screens, but we are very fortunate that our development team are on-site and are always looking to develop the product further. Users expect web access, logging of VoIP switches and, luckily for our design team, we run many managed and bureau systems in-house, which allows us to have a hands-on approach. I can assure you that if there is something that is irritating, the design team soon know! Our users are very loyal and are always coming up with new ideas or business benefits that they have found with LUMBERJACK. We like to keep abreast of their requirements—our development list today is as long as it was nine years ago.
CN: What type of companies are customers of Focom?
DP: Our customerstend tobe the large blue-chip companies including Computacenter, which requires a system that is both accurate and reliable. Many of our customers may have 20+ sites and it is really important for them to be able to identify the route calls have been taking; which extension started the call; and where the call completed. Part of our recent development has been the ability to link site data together so that, in one easy report, you can identify the full route of a call showing the OLI and TLI. But this is not exclusive and we have a number of much smaller clients whose requirements are just as large!
CN: What does call logging offer the user?
SG: Turn the question round – how many calls do you make each day? How many calls do you receive a day? Howlong do you spend on the phone each day? How much is your total spend each day including deskand mobile? Now take your answers and imagine that you have a company with, say, 200+ people. How do you know that the bills you are receiving are accurate? Call logging can also help you to allocate your departmental budgets.
CN: Can call loggers give you anything else?
DP: How do you know whether somebody is hacking into your system? Is somebody running their own business from your telephone system? Have you thought how many trunks you need to provide the level of service your clients demand? What is your blocking probability? You are about to move three sites into one building—how many lines do you need? Which access codes are routing your calls and where? How quickly does your receptionist answer the calls? Somebody has dialled emergency services—who? The list goes on and on, and only call logging can give you answers to these questions.
CN: In today’s market the switch can provide all of this. Why should telecoms managers buy a separate package?
DP: Switches do give better management stats these days but this doesn’t help if you have five sites. You would have to sift through five lots of reports and you still wouldn't know how the calls were routed. Switch manufacturers are specialists in making telephone systems that work, not producing call-logging statistics. To many switch manufacturers, call-logging information is incidental.
CN: How do you think call logging will have evolved in five years’ time?
SG: We are seeing a shift of technology from your standard PBX to VoIP. We have been very fortunate as our customers tend to have a larger multi-site set-up, and they are often the first to start dabbling with VoIP. We starting logging VoIP in 1998 and seeing this taking shape and becoming more competitive has been really interesting. Even with the increased use of VoIP, our customers still need to log the data regardless of the switch output, whether this is looked after by the voice or data people. Even with little experience, call-logging gives you the answers in a format you can understand.
CN: What is the difference between ACD and call management information?
DP: ACD systems provide the service desks/telesales environment with real-time statistics such as how many calls are waiting, how many are abandoned, how quickly calls are answered. With Call Management Information, real-time means the detail of the call once it has been completed. You need this to see the trends and provide the management information, it answers the question "How have we been doing?" rather than "What's happening now". CMI works hand in hand with your CRM system.
CN: What makes Focom people tick?
SG: Do you know how difficult it is to find people who can get really excited over call logging information? But, somehow, we seem to attract like-minded people. We were really pleased to be awarded Investors in People again this year and during 2002 and 2003 we received an award from the DTI for Work Life Balance. What we have found is the more you take care of your staff, the better they perform. Working from home is not a cop-out—far from it. We all find that we work much harder at home than in the office, without the distractions from colleagues.
CN: Where does Focom go from here—what is the future?
SG: We are proud to have designed the most comprehensive call logger on the market. However, we know that all the options can be a bit mind blowing or unnecessary for single site users. We are, therefore, working on producing a web-based version which will cut down some of this functionality and make call logging stats more accessible.
DP: We have other software packages in the pipe line, too. Our Directory software is going web-based and we have been approached by customers to produce further integration with other systems. This is leading us towards creating a more comprehensive range of software packages for the business manager.
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