Washing machines aren't making their own calls for repair service yet, but Tom Goodmanson, president and CEO of Calabrio Inc., a call center workforce optimization software developer, said the Minneapolis-based company would be ready when they do.
Such machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is just one of the many channels, including phone calls, texts and social media, that firms will need to integrate in what Goodmanson calls the "Contact Center of 2020."
In his washing machine scenario, which he estimates will be a reality in three to five years, sensors on the appliance will report problems to the manufacturer, which will e-mail the customer while a virtual customer service agent schedules a service call.
"When your washing machine calls the call center agent, we're going to be ready to take that call and schedule that automatic repair," he said.
Creating that more automated, virtual and predictive contact center of 2020 is the rallying cry of what Goodmanson terms the second act of Calabrio, which in 2007 spun off from Spanlink Communications Inc., the Golden Valley-based designer and builder of customized Cisco contact center solutions. Soon after, Calabrio closed on a round of $8 million in venture capital led by Minneapolis-based BlueStream Ventures and Split Rock Partners.
Calabrio's first act featured a 2009 "left turn" into direct competition against two much larger competitors, a market-disrupting move that Goodmanson said has paid off in rapid growth.
Revenue is projected to rise 60 percent this year to more than $40 million on sales of Calabrio One, the company's Web 2.0-based workforce optimization suite, which integrates call recording, quality management, workforce management, performance management and speech. Staffing is expected to go from a recent total of 158 to more than 180 by year's end.
'Visionary vendor' recognition
Contributing to Calabrio's growth and rising profile, he believes, was its second consecutive recognition, in December, as the only visionary vendor in a Gartner review of contact center workforce software companies.