Feeling blue? Consider giving Eric Bozich, vice president of product management at the business end of Qwest Communications International Inc. (Q), a buzz. He said that despite the recession, there’s plenty of opportunity out there for telcos such as Qwest in 2009. Among the bright spots, he said, are managed services, hosted call centers, conferencing and verticals such as health care.
“There are a lot of bright spots out there,” he told xchange last month. “The one that is the brightest is around services and managed services.”
Bozich noted that traditionally service providers have provided their customers with components of a larger solution, but that now more services are being delivered in a more holistic way and in a manner that allows enterprise customers to avoid large capital outlays. Today’s managed services, he continued, can include customer premises equipment, ongoing management of the service and visibility into its performance metrics.
At the same time that managed services can lower the capex and opex costs, and thus risk, for business customers, these offers also can help users increase productivity, he added. “There’s been a bit of transformation in the last year or two where businesses are evaluating not just the cost of parts and services, but also looking at productivity,” he said. Features like presence and IM help workers more easily locate colleagues and partners, and thus waste less time. And mobility is also a big part of this idea, he added.
Tying into this theme of more effective communications and more productivity is collaboration and conferencing. According to Bozich, consumption of these types of services rose in 2008 over 2007 due in part to the economy and gas prices. Bozich expects continued growth on this front in the year ahead.
Hosted call centers is another key opportunity for Qwest going forward, continued Bozich. Contact center solutions can range from premises-based PBXs to sophisticated call-in 800 numbers with a list of options, he said. “We don’t publicly disclose numbers, but this is one of the highest growth areas,” said Bozich, adding that customers can rent call center capability from Qwest on a per-seat basis as needed, allowing them to avoid idle assets during down times of the year. Another benefit of an outsourced call center from Qwest, he added, is that customers as a result realize freedom from geographic constraints, meaning call reps can work anywhere in the event of telecommuting due to company strategy, weather or whatever.
Qwest’s contact center platform also can be a great way for customers in the health care arena to make automated calls to patients and even tie into home-based devices involved in patient care, Bozich said. Of course, that’s just one example of where Qwest sees opportunity related to this hot vertical. “Health care is interesting because, I wouldn’t say it’s recession-proof, but people use it regardless of the economy,” he said. But the fact that the economy is tough and some people may not be able to pay their health care bills and how the new guard in Washington will affect health care policy are all question marks for this vertical, he added.
One other area where Qwest sees ample opportunity in the year ahead, Bozich added, is related to the payment card industry. He said companies need help meeting compliance standards relative to credit card processing.
