Bachir Halimi - ctiforum · 9/28/1999 · opers to build applications in a user-friendly Windows environment, then run ... e-Commerce Inc. in ... tion in a way that is most convenient

CTI WorldGoldenAward

1999

Bachir Halimi is President and founderof MediaSoft Telecom, a Montreal-based company that provides ComputerTelephony and Web solutions as a strate-gic technology partner to systems inte-grators, OEMs and application develop-ers worldwide. Prior to foundingMediaSoft in 1989, Mr. Halimi foundedtwo other companies: AlisTechnologies, which specializes inenabling computer systems to supportnon-Latin based languages, and BachalTelematic, which provides videotextechnology platforms to telcos and ser-vice providers worldwide.

As the driving force behind the suc-cess of MediaSoft, Bachir has built adynamic CT-Web software company thathas achieved global recognition reflect-ing the company’s contributions to theadvancement of CT-Web technologies.

He holds a Master’s and Bachelor’sdegree in Computer Science from theUniversity of Montreal, is a highlyacclaimed speaker at internationalindustry conferences, and is a memberof the Management Committee of Inno-Centre, a Montreal-based organizationthat helps high technology start-ups.Software-The Driving Force

Market globalization, telecom deregu-lation, increased competition and theneed for companies and governments toreduce costs and improve customer ser-vice has set the stage for what promisesto be one of the greatest technologicalrevolutions the world has ever seen. Theconvergence of computers, telephonyand the Internet is inevitable as seen bythe ongoing pace of mergers and acqui-

sitions by some of the industry’s majorplayers. The telephone world willchange forever, giving way to a new andelegant marriage of technologies –Computer Telephony and the Internet.

MediaSoft has closely followed theparadigm shifts and we believe that soft-ware will be a major driving force inchanging the face of the telephone worldand will become the major componentfor building intelligence in the network(telcos, ISPs and Wireless) and on theperiphery (PBX, software and PC man-ufacturers). As a result, MediaSoft hasrealigned its operations and formed sep-arate business units to provide enhancedsolutions targeting specific customersegment needs.

High Density Systems – The HighDensity Systems Unit addresses theunique high density requirements of tel-cos, service bureaus, systems integratorsand Fortune 1000 companies.Scalability, reliability and performanceare the key features of this product line.Support for SS7, ATM switching,SNMP and high density, hot-swappableboards running on robust NT, UNIX andSolaris-based operating systems guidethe unit’s focus.

Office Telephony Systems – TheOffice Telephony Unit identifies thegrowing need to provide small to medi-um-sized businesses with easy-to-installand easy-to-configure enterprise tele-phony solutions that support industrystandards like the ECTF S.100 andMicrosoft TAPI running on WindowsNT.

MediaSoft solutions are centeredaround its core product, IVS, and its lat-est-generation offering, OfficeTelephony 2000. IVS is a CT-Web soft-ware platform that enables applicationdevelopers, systems integrators andOEMs to rapidly build, run and managesmall to large-scale interactive CT-Websolutions integrating voice, fax, Web andmultimedia technologies. One of IVS’key strengths is that it empowers devel-opers to build applications in a user-friendly Windows environment, then run

them on robust IVS Servers in a UNIXor Windows NT operating environment.In addition, with MediaSoft’s multi-award-winning development tool IVSStudio, developers can build and modifyIVS applications at "warp speed" usinghigh-level IVS Components andApplets. The generated results are fullyfunctional standards-based applicationsthat support the latest technologies likeVoIP, FoIP, Voice Recognition, TTS, faxand Web.

Office Telephony 2000 ("OT 2000") isan intelligent PC-based PBX that bringsa whole new world of telephony solu-tions to the small to medium-sized enter-prise ("SME"). It features an integratedsuite of enterprise telephony applica-tions that allows customers and employ-ees to get information, communicateand make transactions through public orprivate networks including the Internet,anytime and anywhere. Designed towork with an existing PBX or as a stand-alone telephone system on a standardPC architecture and operating system,OT 2000 delivers increased functionali-ty over traditional PBXs for less money,plus delivers advanced capabilities suchas IVR, ACD and Unified Messaging.

The bottom line is that OT 2000 is anaffordable, all-in-one-box communica-tions solution for SMEs that is easy-to-use and easy-to-install usingMediaSoft’s Applet Setup with Wizards(a light version of IVS Studio).Designed to facilitate and acceleratebusiness communications, OT 2000saves the user time and money by pro-viding a scalable, feature-rich multime-dia phone system that can grow with theuser’s technology needs and budget.

As a customer-driven organization,MediaSoft’s targeted business unit strate-gy reflects our commitment to provide thesolutions today’s enterprises need – busi-ness solutions that deliver the rightanswers for increased efficiency and prof-itability in the new business communica-tions paradigm. For further informationvisit our web site at www.mediasoft.com

T H E C A N A D I A N C T I P I O N E E R A W A R D

Bachir HalimiPresident and FounderMediaSoft Telecom

C T I W o r l d M a g a z i n e 1 9 9 9 C o m m e m o r a t i v e I s s u e w w w . c t i w o r l d . c a

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Bachir Halimi – President, MediaSoft Telecom

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1999

A telecommunications industry participantfor over 25 years, Mr. Bob Morgan has beena leader in the call centre / CTI segment ofour industry for almost 10 years – since itsinception!

Bob joined the ecommerce+ (formerlyCallPro) team in early 1995 to create CallCentre Solutions Inc., a company focussedcompletely on the integrated call centrearena. Bob currently leads ecommerce+’sCTI sales efforts in Eastern Canada.

A veteran of the Canadian telecommunica-tions scene, Bob’s career has consistentlyfound him in sales and marketing positionswith an emphasis on customer-focussed busi-ness applications. He uses this experienceand background with real-world solutions asa source when presenting his popular callcentre seminars.

Prior to joining ecommerce+, Bob heldmarketing, sales and customer service man-agement positions within the telecommunica-tions industry, including having led AspectTelecommunications’ successful entry intothe Canadian Marketplace.

Introducing a New Business Unit For aNew Way of Doing Business

By integrating Internet, voice and securitytechnologies for the first time, ecommerce+takes a unique approach to ecommerce. Abusiness unit of LGS Group Inc., ecom-merce+ provides secure Internet and telepho-ny solutions that help organizations bettermanage their client, supplier and partner rela-tionships. ecommerce+ is driven by the

belief that the convergence of telephony andthe Internet is essential for conducting busi-ness and should be viewed as one completemethod of interaction, facilitated in a secureenvironment.

Launched in May 1999, ecommerce+ wasformed by bringing together the expertise ofDOMUS in security, CallPro Canada inapplied telephony, e-Commerce Inc. inInternet and LGS in consulting, systems inte-gration and project management. LGSGroup Inc. (LGS.A - ME, LGSA - NAS-DAQ) is one of Canada's largest informationtechnology consulting firms specializing inmanagement and systems integration.

By blending expertise in Internet, securityand telephony, ecommerce+ enables organi-zations embarking on electronic commerceinitiatives to overcome two major inhibitorsto success: concerns over threats to securityand the need for human interaction to com-plete commercial transactions. According toa Gallup survey commissioned by ecom-merce+, electronic commerce is transformingthe way industries around the world do busi-ness. If Canadian companies want to realizeits full potential, fundamental security issuesmust be addressed by online retailers, serviceproviders and governments.

The unique ecommerce+ solutions aredesigned not only to help clients improverelations with customers, but also reduceoperating expenses, generate new revenuestreams, take advantage of new deliverychannels and improve operational processes."We believe ecommerce is more than justbuying and selling on the Internet," saidBrian Cott, Vice President and GeneralManager, ecommerce+. "Customers shouldbe able to conduct business with an organiza-tion in a way that is most convenient for them- with the choice of multiple channels ofaccess. With ecommerce+, we can now offerthis unique ability to organizations around theworld."

ecommerce+ has developed a number ofcore, integrated ecommerce solutions thatcan be customized to address specific busi-

ness and marketplace needs. Current ecom-merce+ solutions include: Commerce Centre- a fully integrated multimedia call centre thatallows an organization to conduct businessregardless of the medium, including: voice,fax and Internet; Track & Trace - allows cus-tomers to monitor online the delivery statusof parcels, trouble-tickets, and orders;Eprocurement - enables organizations tointeract online with suppliers for procure-ment of products and services; and TradeXchange - a web-based system to supporttrading of products and services.

In addition to these solution offerings,ecommerce+ provides management andtechnology services in Internet design anddevelopment, Internet implementation sup-port, threat and risk assessment, penetrationtesting, messaging, interactive voiceresponse, computer telephony integrationand call centres.

ecommerce+ is a national practice with aglobal mandate. ecommerce+ serves morethan 400 clients in Canada and around theworld -- in all major sectors, includingFinancial Services, Telecommunications,Government, Retail, Utilities, Food andBeverage, and Manufacturing. Clientsinclude CIBC, Hydro Quebec, Sears Canada,Zurich Insurance, Federal Express, SeagateSoftware, Pepsi-Cola, and Mutual ExchangeInternational.

ecommerce+ intends to extend its scopeand provide ecommerce business solutions tocountries around the world.

To ensure that its solutions leverage lead-ing-edge technologies, ecommerce+ main-tains partnerships and alliances with a num-ber of organizations. Among current partnersare Apropos Technology, EntrustTechnologies, Lucent, Microsoft and SunMicrosystems.

For more information about ecommerce+please call 1-800- 565-6137 ext. 408 or visitthe website at www.lgs.com.


Bob MorganSenior Director CTI Practiceecommerce+ (formerly CallPro Canada)


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Bob Morgan (l.), ecommerce+ and Jacob Gordon (r.), CTI World

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1999

Founder and President, MohammadNezarati, was an early pioneer indeveloping integrated CTI solutions."We set out very early to develop inte-grated systems that would be a com-plete solution for the professional’soffice communications needs, 10years later we know our strategicdirection was right on".

A leader in the Computer Telephonyindustry, Esnatech developed one ofthe first voice mail products with agraphical user interface. Today, thecompany offers a complete line ofVoice Mail, Unified Messaging andFax CTI products including the awardwinning Telephony Office-LinX andLan-LinX. Esnatech’s major expertiselies in computer telephony integrationof voice messaging, automated atten-dant, audiotex, fax processing, callprocessing, and LAN integration forproviding desktop messaging.Mohammad is proud to point out thatall Esnatech software products havealways been designed to be Y2K com-pliant.

Esnatech’s Telephony Office-LinX isa Windows ’95 or Windows 2000/NTbased unified messaging system witha powerful array of functions. WithTelephony Office-LinX, users canconnect business telephone systems,local area networks and the Internet tocombine the powerful messaging fea-tures with the flexible networking fea-tures of Windows. Since it was firstlaunched in 1995, Telephony Office-LinX has been the recipient of a num-

ber of prestigious industry awards,including the best of CT Expo in 1996and 1997, and CTI Product of the Year1998 (Lan-LinX).

With Esna Technologies celebratingits 10th anniversary this yearMohammad has witnessed the evolu-tion and transformation of the industry."It’s a very fast paced and dynamicindustry with new and emerging tech-nologies, changing standards, mergersand evolving needs of the marketplace.Although you have to be innovativeand great at anticipating customerneeds our goal is to be ‘best to market’,not always ‘first to market’".

With steady growth, profitability andexpansion, Esnatech has focused ener-gy and resources on development,testing and support for the company’snew line of Windows 2000/NT prod-ucts. "Our vision was to design ourproducts with superior ease of use andexpandability in mind. All our sys-tems are designed to provide growthfor any size business, ranging from thesmallest professional office to largemulti-national corporations. All can beupgraded in the field from voice mailto state of the art unified messagingsystems. We have developed our newsoftware product lines to give thechoice of platform/cost to the dealerand installed customer".

Executive Vice President, MarkBurack, emphasizes the industry lead-ing dealer programs EsnaTechnologies is launching to attractnew partners in the fall of ‘99, "Ourdealer incentive, warranty, demo sys-tem/training packages and upgradeprograms will be unique in the indus-try…our continued focus is building

ongoing/long term business relation-ships with our partners.

Esnatech’s Telephony Office-LinXmultilingual CTI software (9 lan-guages) is offered in 38 different coun-tries and is distributed through selectTelephony Dealers. Jim Baron,President of Baron Telecommuni-cations (Seattle, WA), has been dis-tributing Esnatech products since1993. "We continue to be impressedwith Esnatech’s ability to deliverexcellent solutions and provide greatsupport for our sales and technicalstaff."

President Mohammad Nezaratilooks forward to the future with greatoptimism, "Our focus has always beenon developing world-class CTI solu-tions and doing business with ourdealers "their way"…in the next 12months we intend to become theindustry marketing/innovation leadersand increase our strategic partner busi-ness many fold. The Year 2000 will bean excellent one for Esna Technologiesand our partners."

Established in 1989, EsnaTechnologies Inc. is a privately ownedCanadian company that specializes invoice mail, unified messaging and cor-porate fax office communicationssolutions for small to medium sizedenterprises (5-1,000+ users).Esnatech’s multi-lingual ComputerTelephony Integration software is dis-tributed in 38 different countriesaround the world.

For further information about EsnaTechnologies, visit their web siteat www.esnatech.com or call905-707-9700.


Mohammad NezaratiPresident & Founder Esna Technologies Inc.

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…in the next 12 monthswe intend to become theindustry marketing/innova-tion leaders

Mohammad Nezarati (l.), Esna Technologies Inc.and Jacob Gordon (r.), CTI World


1999

Denis Van Decker, Nortel Networks,Senior Manager of the InteractiveSolution Teams within SymposiumProfessional Services (SPS), received hisEngineering Bachelors Degree fromWaterloo in 1985. By 1986 Denis hadembarked into the Voice Processing busi-ness with the founding of PhonetixCorporation as Chairman and ChiefOperating Officer. Phonetix was one ofthe pioneering Canadian VoiceProcessing, IVR and CTI companies.

Denis provided the corporate and tech-nology vision to build the company thatprovided the first Canadian customersolutions in bilingual alphanumeric VoiceRecognition, bilingual Text-to-Speechand CTI. In addition to developing theInterVoice platform to #1 in the CanadianIVR industry, Phonetix developed one ofthe first Canadian PC Based Voice Mailsystems (Voice Courier) as well as patent-ed the first Digital Voice Logging systemand provided many innovative solutions tonew entrant Long Distance Resellers inthe early 90's. The Voice Courier andLogging Software was also licenced inter-nationally.

Denis joined Nortel as Product Managerfor Nortel IVR in 1994 after selling hisshare of Phonetix. In May 1995 he waspromoted to Senior Manager in the newlyfounded Call Center Solutions Group. InMay 1996 he was given responsibility forthe CATeams and SPS’s mandate for IVRcentric Advanced and InteractiveApplication Development. With thismandate Denis has been using his experi-ence to build the Interactive SolutionsTeams within SPS over the last 4 years.

Under Denis’s leadership the InteractiveSolutions teams have pioneered leadingedge switch integrations to NortelSwitching platforms. These integrationshave been the foundation for success forthe full Interactive Suite of Symposiumproducts such as IVR, Web ResponseServer, TAPI Server and SymposiumAgent that complement SymposiumServer. 1998 marked new progress for theteam as they successfully launched SPSinto the Centrex market and brought the

Symposium Digital Doorways to realitywith the Multi Media Call CenterSolution.

SPS partners with Nortel Networks dis-tributors to design, propose, implement,support and optimize world-class callcenter, networking, and multimedia solu-tions. The breadth and depth ofSymposium Professional Services pro-vides expert support and is unprecedentedin the industry for all types of Call CenterCustomer Care initiatives. These offeringsare designed to optimize the Call Centercustomer experience, through superiorcustomer service.

Customer Care driven Call Centers havelegacy equipment, database information,and network architecture that requireanalysis, understanding, and design toenable them to take advantage of the latestadvances in call center technology.Investments for these solutions requireboth an understanding of the technologyas well as an understanding of the busi-ness requirements driving the technologychange.

SPS value lies in its ability to reviewvarious types of equipment and configu-rations to determine the most advanta-geous overall solution for you. The bestend-to-end solution should not cause anegative effect to the enterprise; thereforeSPS solutions are designed with zero tol-erance for disrupting current operations.

Understanding that the modern CallCenter, impacts and interacts with thetotal enterprise, Symposium ProfessionalServices is often engaged to evaluate thebroader enterprise-wide telecom and ITinfrastructure with the rest of the network,professional services team from CogentGlobal Services, the enterprise servicesdivision at Nortel Networks. Our experi-enced staff and technical resources havethe most up-to-date knowledge of themost widely used network configurations,computer telephony integration (CTI)middle-ware solutions, 3rd party softwareapplications, interactive voice response(IVR), speech recognition, and Web com-merce technology as well as the NortelNetworks switching fabric.

Advanced Call Center solutions increas-ingly require the integration of E-commerceand Net-enabled technology to remain glob-ally competitive. As such, the solutionshave to blend the Internet, WEBServers,push, and collaboration, Voice over IP,Unified Inbox, with the other componentscontained in the traditional call center envi-ronment. Integration must be as effortlessfor the call center and its people as possibleto be effective.

Leading edge technology that effectivelyintegrates voice, data, Internet, legacy data,and multimedia environments often requiressome customization by the Enterprise,Cogent Global Services or 3rd party devel-oper staff. Tools typically used for develop-ment efforts include Visual Basic, C++,Java, TAPI, IMAP4, IMAPI, STMP, SAPI,ASP, MS IIS, HTML, XTML, andCOBRA. DCOM, ADP, and MS WindowsNT. Our total development effort placeshigh value on the successful developmentand deployment of integrated solutions thatprovide customer and agent satisfaction.

In consultancy, network evolution andmanaged network services, SPS and CogentGlobal Services from Nortel Network canhelp maximize your network’s capabilitiesto meet your current and future data, voiceand video communications requirements.We are the Enterprise SPS organization ofNortel Networks, one of the largest data andvoice communications companies in theworld and the acknowledged leader in digi-tal networks. With offices throughout NorthAmerica, Europe, and Asia, we have unpar-alleled people, skills, and global operationscapabilities.


Denis Van Decker Senior Manager, Interactive Solutions TeamNortel Networks

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Denis Van Decker (l.), Nortel Networksand Jacob Gordon (r.), CTI World

"We’re reinventing the callcentre, changing it to a customer relationship man-agement centre that helpsbusinesses offer the type ofsuperior service that keepscustomers coming back againand again, whether throughthe door, the mail, the phone,the Internet, e-mail or fax."


1999 C A N A D I A N C T I L E A D E R S H I P A W A R D

Kenneth Barr President, Business Communications SystemsLucent Technologies Canada

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Now in his 30th year in the telecom-munications industry, Lucent Canada’sBusiness Communications Systems(BCS) President Ken Barr is proud hisorganization has grown 600 percent inthe six years under his leadership.

Prior to joining Lucent when it wasstill part of AT&T, Ken spent five yearsat TTS, Nortel’s largest interconnectdistributor in Canada, two years atNortel, five years at BellCommunications Systems Inc.(BCSI)and 12 years at Bell Canada in a vari-ety of sales, marketing, regulatory andmanagement roles.

He has seen an industry that hasundergone phenomenal growth andchange. "At the end of my first decadein the business," Barr says, "we sawterminal competition coming. At theend of my second decade, long dis-tance competition was authorized. Andat the end of my third decade, we’regetting into heavy integration of voiceand data services on converged net-works."

This convergence is the bottom lineat Lucent Canada’s (BCS) and how it"parlays integrated voice and data net-works into what clients see as advan-tages," Barr says. "We show clientshow taking advantage of our new tech-nology gives them a competitive edge."

Lucent’s BCS organization providesmore than 1.5 million businessesaround the world with voice-relatedand computer telephony integratedproducts. A leader in many businesscommunications areas including callcentres, BCS designs, manufacturesand sells solutions for sales and serviceoperations, conferencing and collabo-ration, mobility and distributed work-forces, messaging and intelligent net-working.

Barr cites call centres as one exampleof how companies can benefit from hiscompany’s expertise in voice and datanetworking. Delivering ‘anymediacalls’ to agents and integrating withtheir company’s data warehouse savestime, with more calls being handled byfewer people. "This translates intogreater customer satisfaction," Barrmaintains, "because people calling thecall centre are getting the right answerthe first time. We apply many Lucentpatented solutions in the call centrearena that create excellent productivityresults for call centre managers whichtranslate into real dollar savings."

Barr defines the communicationsrevolution, the theme of LucentCanada’s current television and printads, as "not just the convergence ofvoice and data systems, but the seam-less integration of wireless, wireline,video, fax and other systems over a net-work."

Lucent’s BCS organization, likeLucent Technologies Canada Inc., isheadquartered in Toronto. The compa-ny employs 750 people in major cen-tres across the country. Its parent com-pany, Lucent Technologies of MurrayHill, New Jersey, is the world’s leadingsupplier of communications systemsand technologies with more than143,000 employees in 90 countries andrevenues of US$30.1 billion in 1998.

So where does Barr think LucentCanada’s BCS organization will headin his fourth decade in the business?

"One of the questions that major cor-porations will have to answer in thenext 10 years is how to treat customersand clients with more individuality.Customers aren’t looking for a one-size-fits-all answer, they’re looking fora what-size-fits-me solution. Therewill be explosive growth in relation-ship management between corpora-tions and customers as networks areconverged," Barr says. "There will alsobe convergence between the front andback office in many corporations.Whether that company deals with thatclient by phone, email, fax or theInternet, there will have to be a goodhistory of that client’s wants and wish-es, their buying history, their prefer-ences in treatment. This will build cus-tomer and brand loyalty. It’s going tochange the way people are marketingtoday. There will be marketing pro-grams created for the individual thatwill capture and retain that individualas a client by continuing to focus on hisor her preferences."

"This is a new era for Lucent and ourcustomers," states Barr. "We are con-stantly reinventing ourselves, and we’reworking on delivering the next genera-tion of communications networks in away and at a pace our customers needand want."

Kenneth Barr, President BCSLucent Technologies Canada

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1999

Ken Harrison, a telecom pioneerwith more than 20 years of experiencein the telecom industry, serves asGeneral Manager for Williams WilTelCommunications, Canadian CentralRegion. During his 17 year tenure atWilliams, Ken has worked in severalareas of the business including opera-tions, engineering and sales. Taking aleading role in a successful sales team,

Ken made a significant contribution tothe company's success during thenewly deregulated Canadian CPE(Customer Premise Equipment) mar-ketplace and expansion of the businesscoast to coast. Ken also led the com-pany to its first foray into the call cen-ter business by employing an advancedCTI application solution to a majorcustomer in Ontario. In his currentrole, Ken focuses on new businessdevelopment in the data, voice andvideo arena, as well as customer ser-vice within the Central Region. Kenhas made a substantial contribution toan industry that continues to grow andconverge into new arenas and has beenpart of the leading force that makesWilliams WilTel Communicationssuccessful in Canada.

Williams WilTel Communications

Williams WilTel Communicationshas been a leader within the Canadiancompetitive CPE business environ-ment since 1982. Williams WilTelCommunications currently has 110sales and service locations to provide

focused customer service to more than100,000 customer sites throughoutNorth America. As a business unit ofWilliams (NYSE:WMB), WilliamsWilTel Communications benefits fromthe strength imparted from a companywith a 90-year legacy of quality, inno-vation and success. This heritage,combined with a robust portfolio ofadvanced business communicationsproducts and services, allows them todeliver and support a full range of com-munications needs.

The Williams WilTel Communications’product portfolio continues to expandwhich means customers have the abili-ty to access even more comprehensivesolutions from a single-source serviceprovider. Its expanded portfolioincludes Nortel Networks data, voiceand video products as well as otherdiverse and complimentary productlines to effectively address the needs ofthe converging data, voice, video, callcenter and Internet market.

As technology evolves, WilliamsWilTel Communications’ commitmentto provide proactive service and sup-port has remained a cornerstone of itscustomer focused operations. Thereare three customer service centersacross Canada and an industry leadingnetwork management facility -National Technical Resource Center(NTRC) in Houston providing24x7x365 network monitoring andmanagement services. Customers’networks are kept running at peak effi-ciency through the use of advancednetwork management systems thatenable Williams network specialists toproactively predict network problemslong before they happen.

To further support customers’ evolv-ing enterprise network needs, WilliamsWilTel Communications merged keytechnical groups into an integratedsolution and support team calledEnterprise Integration Services (EIS).

The EIS group includes Call Centers,Strategic Outsourcing, Data Networks,Enterprise Networks, and NetworkApplications and Planning. The CallCenter Applications Team (CCAT) is anetwork of systems analysts and tech-nicians who work with Williams’ CTILab to design total customer call centersolutions. The CTI Lab has designedand deployed an award-winning portfo-lio of call center software products mar-keted under the name of Dialect™.Their main objective is to deliver com-prehensive solutions that satisfy businessneeds regardless of their complexity.

Williams WilTel Communications isa company committed to offeringeverything companies need to operatetheir mission-critical data and voicenetworks at peak efficiency. To supportthis commitment they provide end-to-end network support services thatinclude a diverse portfolio of productsfrom all the industry’s leading data andvoice manufacturers, as well as value-added services, such as consultation,design, installation, configuration,maintenance and management.Simply stated, when it comes to full-service business communications,Williams WilTel Communications hastaken a leading position in Canada byproviding customers with the breadthand depth of experience, customer-focused resources, geographic pres-ence and capabilities to deliver com-plete solutions.

For more information about WilliamsWilTel Communications, visit theirweb site at www.williams.com or call1-800-WILLIAMS.

C A N A D I A N C T I L E A D E R S H I P A W A R D

Ken HarrisonGeneral Manager, Canadian Central RegionWilliams WilTel Communications

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Ken Harrison (l.), Williams WilTel Communicationsand Jacob Gordon (r.) CTI World

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1999

Pauline Lacroix holds the position ofAssistant Vice President - Marketingin Bell Canada, Gateways. Gateways,one of the largest distributors of com-munications systems in NorthAmerica, is the division of Bell Canadawhich is focussed on the delivery andsupport of innovative, customer-valuedbusiness systems, applications and pro-fessional services.

Gateways offers customized voicesolutions that include digital keyand/or PBX switches, integrated mes-saging, call centre solutions, mobility,computer telephony integration (CTI),and peripheral products. Tailor-madeinternetworking solutions include tech-nologies such as routers, hubs, switch-es, CSU/DSUs, and broadband solu-tions, as well as IP-based products thatenable convergence services such asVoice and Fax over IP. State-of-the artintegration products such asInstantOffice* help businesses com-bine and simplify all of their voice anddata requirements.

In order to recommend the very bestsolution, an analysis of the customer'sindividual business needs is conductedthrough a formal discovery process – afeature that greatly differentiatesGateways from its competitors. Aswell, Gateways offers full installationand maintenance services to all of itscustomers, including the design andinstallation of the cables used to con-nect everything together.

Gateways also has a team of special-ists who can transform your call centreinto a high performance, next genera-tion multimedia customer contact cen-tre. Bell Contact Centre Solutions isstaffed by skilled professionals whohave the backing and support of anorganization with more then 25 yearsof contact centre experience. They usethe extensive scope of the Bell Canadafamily of resources, as well as otherBCE franchises and strategic partner-ships to deliver an array of innovativeproducts and services that are recog-nized on a global basis.

As Team Leader, Pauline is account-able for the strategic direction andoverall management of Marketing andProduct Management for voice andintegrated solutions.

With extensive experience in theTelecom industry, Pauline combinesstrong business acumen with compre-hensive management, negotiation andcritical client interface skills. Quick torecognize and champion new opportu-nities for our clients, Pauline demon-strates how "from Bell Canada, thefirst name in communications, comesthe next generation of business solu-tions."

Pauline has been instrumental inbringing leading edge CTI applica-tions to many Bell Canada customers.Perhaps her greatest value is in herability to help customers successfullymanage technological change. Such as,our experiences with implementingSymposium Call Centre Server at themulti location insurance companyMeloche Monnex.

Meloche Monnex customers dealwith the company by telephone exclu-sively, a highly successful formula thatdistinguishes the firm from many of itsmore traditional competitors. Given thecompany relies on its telephone systemfor 100 per cent of its business, relia-bility is paramount. Thanks to a strong

partnership with Nortel and BellCanada, Meloche Monnex was awarethat Nortel was preparing to launchSymposium Call Centre Server, aclient -server architecture thatpromised early adopters like MelocheMonnex something better to help oper-ations perform and met their businessobjectives.

Symposuim Call Centre Serverallows the company to route calls tothose agents best qualified to handlethem, track calls from "cradle to grave"and generate a host of valuable stan-dard and customized reports.

Technology was only part of theanswer. The project also saw Bellassign a full time coordinator to ensurea smooth transition. Susan Carrier,manager of administrative serviceswith the company, said that having thissupport was critical: "….I don't thinkwe would have pulled off the imple-mentation in 3 months and it wouldn'thave been as smooth as it was."

The results for Meloche Monnex? --Smarter, speedier customer service--better management of agent skills…ongoing productivity increases…complete stability--there hasn't been asingle major system failure.

On behalf of Bell Canada, the BCEfamily of companies and other valuedpartners, Pauline has been influential indelivering these types of world-classsolutions for clients with Call Centreapplications, outsourcing needs, andmore.


Pauline LacroixAssistant Vice President-Marketing, Gateways Bell Canada

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Pauline Lacroix, Bell Canadaand Jacob Gordon, CTI World

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1999

The CTI World ’99 Golden AwardsGala was a fabulous night for PRIMAand its president, Mr. FrançoisRainville, who received the CanadianCTI Leadership Award. Co-founder ofPRIMA, Mr. Rainville has consistent-ly demonstrated outstanding leader-ship and perseverance, which hasensured PRIMA’s success. FromPRIMA Telematic, Rainville shiftedthe company’s focus from on-line ser-vices using a proprietary terminal(does anyone remember the Alexdays?) to on-line services using... thetelephone.

"Considering that it is being given byCTI World and our industry peers, theCanadian Leadership Award is a greathonour to me and PRIMA’s members,"says Mr. Rainville. "The CTI GoldenAwards is certainly a great initiativefrom CTI World and I hope that theindustry will continue to recognise theefforts put in the Canadian market."

Once upon a time…

PRIMA’s 36 year-old president’sstory started in 1988 when Mr.Rainville decided to join PRIMATelematic, a company owned byCossette Communications-Marketingand IST Informatique that then spe-cialised in videotex. He contributed tothe definition of the marketing strate-gy for the consulting division andpositioned PRIMA as Canada’s pre-mier on-line service provider, manag-

ing national accounts such as SearsCanada, Ontario Government andLoto-Québec.

In the early 90’s, Mr. Rainvilleopened PRIMA’s first office inToronto. Following, Bell Canada’sdecision to shut down the Alex project,Cossette and IST sold the business.Along with two long-time partners,Mr. Rainville decided to acquire thecompany and to change its orientationtowards Computer TelephonyIntegration (CTI). Since then PRIMA’srevenues have increased at a rate of1350%, while the number of employ-ees has increased from 4 to 90.

In the fast lane

Under the leadership of Mr.Rainville, PRIMA was recognised byDeloitte & Touche and Financial PostMagazine as a "Fast 55", one of thefifty-five fastest-growing informationtechnology firms in Canada. With rev-enues growing by 970% over the lastfive years, PRIMA solidified its posi-tion as the prime CTI vendor inCanada while aggressively continuingits expansion in the United States andLatin America. At this growth ratePRIMA is the 344th fastest growingcompany in North America on theDeloitte & Touche USA Fast 500 list.

Innovation through partnerships

One of PRIMA’s strong points is itsability to deliver turnkey solutions,thanks to its many partners. In 1995,PRIMA was the first to sign aCanadian partnership agreement withGenesys. By far the most successfulGenesys VAR and System Integratorin Canada, PRIMA is also the firstorganisation in Canada to implementGenesys T-Server within a multi-siteDMS100 (central office equipment)environment.

Today, PRIMA is a partner of the fol-

lowing companies: Genesys Labs,Dialogic, Nuance Communications,Compaq, Vantive, Nortel Networks,Siebel, Locus Dialogue, IBM, HewlettPackard and Microsoft.

About PRIMA

PRIMA is a privately held Canadiancompany. The majority of its owner-ship is shared by its key officers aswell as its 90 employees. In 1998,PRIMA celebrated its tenth anniver-sary. It has its headquarters inMontréal with a major sales and sup-port office in Toronto and a new salesoffice in Calgary which opened lastJanuary, covering Canada’s westernregion.

PRIMA is the manufacturer of theaward-winning OPUS Maestro, aComputer Telephony framework fordeploying large-scale, mission-criticalinteractive voice response systems likephone banking, order entry and e-commerce applications using the tele-phone as the data terminal. As a sys-tem integrator for call centres, PRIMAhas developed significant expertise;for example, PRIMA was able todesign and deliver a complete calling-name display solution to BC Tel with-in budget and ahead of time.

PRIMA also offers solutions for thePublic Switched Telephone Network,telecom operators and telephony com-panies using SS7 technology. PRIMAdelivers turnkey systems that providereverse 411 directory lookup, networkcall routing, calling name display, sin-gle number follow-me and prepaidcalling cards among others.

“Our main objective at PRIMA is tohelp organisations enhance their busi-ness relationships by improving con-tact with their customers. We offerbusiness solutions, not just great tech-nology, that improves productivity,management and customer satisfac-tion” concludes Mr. Rainville.


François RainvillePresident and Co-founderPRIMA

30


François Rainville (l.), PRIMA and Jacob Gordon (r.), CTI World


1999

Rob is the manager of IBM Canada'sService Delivery group in theCustomer Relationship ManagementServices (CRMS) organization. Robhas over twenty-five years of experi-ence in the I/T industry with the pastten years in IBM's Call Centre andCRM services business. Rob wasinstrumental in starting IBM's CallCentre Services group through pio-neering efforts to develop IBM's initialsolutions for their internal CallCentres, developing Callpath productsfor IBM Corporation and transforminga strongly skilled product developmentorganization into a diversified organi-zation that is recognized around theIBM world as one of the leaders in thisarea.

Rob currently runs an organizationof eighty-five people that continues todevelop products for IBM but who'smain focus now is to manage, design,implement and support CRM solutionsfor IBM customers. They have imple-mented over fifty solutions in the pasttwo years. These customers includemajor players in the Finance,Insurance, Utilities and Telecom indus-tries in Canada, the U.S., Europe andAustralia.

Rob has been involved in the devel-opment and implementation of manyfirst of a kind solutions and productsfor the corporation. The first CTIbased Smart Phone Interface, the firstWindows/OS/2 client serverCTI inter-face, the first CTI enabled Help Desk,the first Virtual Call Centre implemen-tation, the first network based CallCentre solution offering and the firstWeb collaboration product.IBM Customer RelationshipManagement Services

IBM Corporation views its CustomerRelationship Management (CRM) areaas one of the five strategic parts of itsbusiness. IBM has made significantinvestments in training and developingthe call centre specialists within theCRM organization. This training ini-

tiative is ongoing. IBM knows that inorder to deliver the best solutions to itscustomers, the customer contact centrespecialists need to stay abreast ofemerging call centre and customer ser-vice trends and technologies.

IBM has been developing contactcentre and call centre solutions for cus-tomers since the 1980s. On a world-wide perspective, IBM is one of thelargest Call Centre solution supplierswith over 750 customer sites, morethan 50 of them in Canada. IBMCustomer Relationship ManagementServices teams have successfullyimplemented solutions for varioustypes of customers ranging from singlesite locations to complex, multi-site,and multi-national institutions.

The IBM CRMS customer baseencompasses all types of industriesincluding government, finance, insur-ance, retail, telecommunications anddistribution.

IBM is also a major user of call cen-tre technology. In Canada, IBM oper-ates a state-of-the-art customer servicecentre in North York, Ontario with1200 agents. It is one of three majorinbound and outbound call centersIBM has in North America and pro-vides customer service and productsales support.

IBM supports applications such astelemarketing, help desk, and customerservice, building on its own experi-ences as well as those of its customersto add value through consulting and thedevelopment of high quality solutions.

Worldwide, IBM has over 800 pro-fessionals directly involved in selling,delivering and supporting call centresolutions. The varied skills of the groupallows it to perform whatever rolesnecessary to deliver world class solu-tions to customers, drawing onresources and strengths across IBM.

In Canada, IBM CustomerRelationship Management is an organi-zation of more than 120 experiencedCall Centre consultants, developers,

project managers and ComputerTelephony Integration / InteractiveVoice Response (CTI/IVR) specialists,all dedicated to providing leading-edgesolutions for next generation call cen-tres. It is comprised of consultants whoprovide assessment and evaluation ser-vices, and systems integrators whoprovide solutions combining hardwareand software products from multiple

vendors in the computer and telecom-munications industries. Having sys-tems integration experience is criticalwhen assessing existing call centresand for making recommendations forimproving them. IBM specializes indelivering leading-edge call centredesigns and productivity improvementsfor existing and new call centre imple-mentations, encompassing both inter-active voice response and computer-telephone integrated solutions.

IBM Canada Ltd. is especially proudof its reputation as one of the most boldand innovative business and IT solutioncompanies. The IBM Toronto develop-ment laboratory owns a number of keyworldwide missions, including responsibility for e-commerce andrelational database software. IBM'sCustomer Relationship ManagementServices organization is a world leader,building customized solutions thathave often evolved to become part ofIBM's worldwide offerings.


Rob Woods Manager Service Delivery Group, CRMSIBM Canada

31


Rob Woods (l.), IBM Canada and Jacob Gordon (r.), CTI World


1999

Cynthia Byerlay is Practice Leader, ServiceCentre Consulting for Towers Perrin,Ms. Byerlay specializes in the design andimplementation of technology and integratedapplications for Service Centres. She assistsclients to utilize new and emerging technolo-gies to effectively optimize their ServiceCentres. Cynthia is also skilled in buildingcross-functional teams for the successfuldesign and implementation of these newapplications.

Cynthia has over 15 years of industry expe-rience. She has consulted with a wide rangeof organizations from start-up companies toFortune 500 firms. Her experience includesengagements in the banking, utilities, insur-ance, consumer, retail and airline industries.She has consulted on projects in NorthAmerica, Australia, the U.K., and Europe.Ms. Byerlay earned two undergraduatedegrees from the University of Guelph, grad-uating with Honours. She has completedgraduate courses at the University of Torontoand Trinity College, Oxford.

Prior to joining Towers Perrin, Ms. Byerlaywas the Vice President of Consulting forCentrPoint Inc., a Toronto-based companyspecializing in Call Centre and Computer-Telephony Integration consulting. She is aspeaker at industry conferences and is facili-tating the start-up of the Call CentreManagement Association in Canada.

Although there are regional associationswith a focus on call centre management, anational professional association has beenneeded. This became painfully clear at the

ICCM conference in Denver last year. Therean award ceremony highlighting Call CentreManagers from around the globe took place -and Canada was not represented. It was at thistime that Cynthia brought the vision ofCCMA - Canada home. The first step in theprocess was to gather a group of like mindedindividuals together who shared a passion forthe profession of call centre management.Acting as a facilitator and advisor, Cynthiahelped the steering committee embark on anaggressive programme to bring theAssociation to Canada.

Throughout the fall of 1998 and the springof 1999 the steering committee obtainedfunding from industry vendors, and heldfocus group meetings with call centre profes-sionals to determine the direction of CCMA-Canada.

The steering committee next establishedthe CCMA as a non-profit Association withsupporting bylaws. Advertising and promo-tional materials were developed and distrib-uted and the membership drive started.

The following information provides back-ground on the evolution of CCMA, the objec-tives of the Association and the advantages ofbecoming a member.

The CCMA was originally formed in theUK in 1995 to meet the professional needs ofthose managers and supervisors employed inthe operation and/or support of call centres.

CCMA - Canada is a non-profit organiza-tion run by call centre industry professionals.Committee members share co-ordinatingroles covering Finance, Membership,Education, External Relations, PublicRelations and Marketing. Each member hasa passion for, and is committed to, seeing theAssociation launch, and become a valuablepart of the call centre industry.

The main objective of the organization is topromote and give recognition to the profes-sion of call centre management. The CCMAwill offer related education and training andprovide a forum in order to network and learnfrom other call centre professionals.

Members of the Association will have theopportunity to participate in an annual gener-al meeting and to vote on the leadership anddirection of CCMA-Canada.

Almost a year has passed since the the cur-rent steering committee came together by"finding each other" through a commondesire to launch a CCMA in Canada. Theyhave devoted many hours of their personaltime to it’s development and successfullaunch.

The most recent accomplishment of theAssociation was to place a credible recipienton the world stage, to receive the CanadianCall Centre Manager of the year award, pre-sented by CCMA – Canada.

After the development of criteria and mail-ing of over 250 nomination forms acrossCanada, John H. Carver, Sr. Manager,Customer Sales and Service, ,Bank ofMontreal, MasterCard, emerged as the win-ner. John Carver, travelled to Chicago to join5 other countries to receive his award. Hiswinning of the award was featured in an arti-cle in the Financial Post section of theNational Post on August 21st., as an out-standing call centre manager.

CCMA-Canada thanks their current spon-sors, Aspect, Chordiant Software,Drake International, Rockwell, TKMCommunications and Wiltel for their supportin bringing the CCMA into Canada.

CCMA-Canada has established a solidfoundation on which to build for the future.Through the steering committee’s passion forthe profession and their dedicated work, theCCMA membership continues to grow.

For additional information on joiningCCMA-Canada or how to become a sponsorplease call 416-218-1113 or visit the web-siteat www.ccmacanada.com

THE CANADIAN CTI INDUSTRY APPRECIATION AWARD

Cynthia ByerlayCall Centre Management Associationof Canada


32

Cynthia Byerlay, CCMA - Canada

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