Call centre software: beware of the hype.

Vendor propaganda is fooling some business managers into believing that their call centre is out of date. The warning was delivered by researcher Ovum in a report released last week. Ovum urges managers to look at their call centre needs, and not at vendors' propaganda.

The report, Ovum Evaluates: Call Centre Software for CRM, argues that despite the growing hype about customer relationship management (CRM) packages from suppliers such as Siebel, Oracle and Clarify, call centre managers should not assume that they need CRM software. In fact, such packages can often make customer relations harder to achieve in the call centre, the report argues.

Report author David Bradshaw says that by using call centre systems wisely, costs could be reduced and customer satisfaction increased. 'For the vast majority of businesses, their customer relationship strategy is the call centre,' he said. 'If business managers think of a call centre as a cost centre, they should consider what would happen if the phones were cut off.'

CRM packages can indeed benefit businesses, but only if used correctly, as most of the software compels users to change their data and business models, Bradshaw added.

'If your call centre is the main interface with the customer, then it makes sense to use a dedicated call centre tool,' he said. 'But if you have many customer channels then it's worth exploring CRM software, some of which has good call centre modules.'

Nick Cobban, spokesman for Bank One International, which is currently integrating Chordiant's CRM software with its call centre, said: 'The call centre and the web are both important customer channels. From Bank One's point of view, we want to give our customers the channels that they want.'