Bill,
I think you hit the nail on the head. A year ago I wrote a UC Views (January) on expert agents and UC. One of the points I didn't clearly make was that there has to be accountability and control as to how these experts are being used or else you have what you call chaos.
At the time I had discussions with various vendors as to how they would get buy in from different departments if all the sudden their employees were getting tapped by contact center agents as experts. How do you account for their time? How do you show that their contribution is impacting business processes and improvements so that their time isn't just being used, but accounted for. If not, then one department would end up easing the burden of the contact center, but not getting compensated budget-wise, for example.
What I think is very cool, is that by using UC analytics, meaning all of the tools we have, we can take a holistic approach to the entire organization and see the effects of one department helping another, for example.
Nancy
Another thing, and this is probably an obvious question, is that for organizations presently in the midst of a unified communications initiative or planning for one, should they be considering UC analytics as part of this? I would say yes, but we need to get the word out as to what it is and how powerful it can be.
Nancy – Yes, getting the word out is important, especially given that I am often dismayed by the disconnect between the interest groups around Unified Communications and the emerging UC Analytics practice. They don’t seem to be aware of each other and even, at times, seem dismissive of each other.
It all reminds me of an old cartoon where a medieval warlord is standing outside and in front of a tent. Behind the tent is a salesperson selling machine guns (It is a cartoon, after all!). The caption has the warlord saying, “I don’t have time to see any salesperson, I have a war to fight.”
And, so it seems with UC and Analytics. Each camp is fighting a war of sorts; call it what you will – acceptance or awareness. But the battle can’t be won without considering using the superior tools of the other camp.
Given the issues that continue to beleaguer many organizations as they strive to increase stakeholder value, UC Analytics should be a component of any UC strategy. This is particularly true for process- and back-office intensive organizations where UC can create a baseline for improving business processes, but the analysis of information and uncovering key business issues and trends is necessary to realize process optimization.
Overall, UC Analytics furthers the process improvements that UC inherently delivers by delivering actionable intelligence from the converged communication flows into and out of the enterprise. Using two “lenses” – one internal and one external – UC Analytics illuminates how employees are performing and reveals what customers feel and tell you during their interactions with the enterprise. Organizations are better informed and strategically armed to maximize results.