Pegasystems Founder Urges Businesses to Unify BPM and Real-Time Decision Making

TMC (News - Alert) this year celebrates 30 years of covering customer interaction, which means it couldn’t be a better time to look at where we’ve been with customer service and where we’re going. We’re also rebranding and retooling our customer effort. In this installment of our CUSTOMER coverage, we talk with Steve Kraus, senior director of CRM product marketing at Pegasystems (News - Alert).

How and when was your company established?

Kraus: The idea behind Pegasystems ultimately came from CEO and founder Alan Trefler's (News - Alert) work with computers. If he could teach a computer the rules of chess, Trefler wondered, why couldn't he help executives teach computers the rules and procedures for business? The trick was writing software easy enough for executives to use and change on the fly as their business needs changed. So, instead of having to tap a programmer to pound out dozens of lines of new code each time a company tweaked a product, an executive could make the changes in short order. This market differentiator for Pegasystems eliminates costly, tedious waiting as organizations develop software to meet their unique needs.

How is CRM changing?

Kraus: CRM has changed, as a result of increasing pressure from customers, competitors and shareholders and the result of accelerating changes in regulations, communication channels and personal devices. Companies are realizing if they are going to maximize the value of their customers they need to manage the relationship not just an interaction. They need to take advantage of every customer touch to prove their competence to the customer, build trust and not only satisfy the customer but cross and upsell whenever appropriate. Companies need to deliver an experience that cuts across organizations, including marketing, sales, and service. They need to break down the silos that exist between the front and back office and the silos between products to leverage the enterprise context of the customer and to ensure they can continuously build value. Companies have learned that is not only the designated personnel in sales, marketing and customer service that have responsibility for managing customer relationships, but customer processes must extend to legal, finance, fulfillment teams, partners and beyond. 

How is WFM changing?

Kraus: WFM is changing from the perspective that organizations are continuously looking to leverage their technology to enable any customer service or sales representative to service any product. By taking this approach they are able to break down silos of employee skills and much more successfully spread work across a larger pool of resources, increasing utilization without sacrificing quality or consistency. Companies are leaning on technology that learns and adapts from prior interactions to improve the next interaction so they no longer have to rely as much on historical reporting or post interaction quality reviews. Companies are turning more toward predictive technologies that can better anticipate contact volumes and more closely align the needed resources with the anticipated demand to ensure maximum productivity without sacrificing customer satisfaction.

How is marketing changing?

Kraus: As CMOs are under extreme pressure to bolster marketing’s contribution and deliver a better return on investment, they can now complement their existing marketing infrastructure with solutions proven to increase revenue. Simply automating outbound marketing is no longer sufficient in today’s customer-driven world. To succeed, marketers must deliver a high volume of intelligent and customer-centric messages across all channels, including inbound and outbound.

What new tools and practices are businesses using to better leverage their own and/or outside data to target, engage with, and deliver product/service/support to the customer?

Kraus: We’re seeing more large-scale customers adopt advanced technology that incorporates decision management and predictive analytics into customer interactions (marketing, sales and service). These include top-tier banks, communications services providers and healthcare organizations. By taking this customer-centric approach, these organizations are providing a way to build customer loyalty and value with the best decisions delivered across channels, products and applications, while managing process costs and risks. By unifying BPM and real-time decision making technology, you can eliminate the gap between business insight and execution. That’s a powerful tool to have, and we expect even further adoption to take shape near-term.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

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