BenchmarkPortal CEO Talks Value of Analysis, Benchmarking

The advancement in analytics is astounding, says Bruce Belfiore, but selling analytics solutions into contact centers can be a challenge because it requires customers to have senior management with a strategic view of customer service.

Belfiore is CEO of BenchmarkPortal, a company that does contact center-related assessments, benchmarking, certification and industry reports. I spoke with him last week at Call Center Week.

Analytics, he noted, involves taking the data you have (like performance metrics) and figuring out how to use it to help improve performance and the overall business. Additionally, he added, some vendors suggest companies also should be collecting information outside of their organizations about their customers. All of the above is expected to become more common practice, he said, as the return on investment for analytics is becoming more and more compelling.

Speaking of databases, BenchmarkPortal has one of the largest databases of contact center metrics in the world, according to Belfiore. It employs it to do benchmarking.

People like benchmarking because it gives them a metrics-based way to do improvement initiatives, he added. They can see where they are strong and not as strong, and BenchmarkPortal can advise organizations on what to do to get stronger.

Now, the company is automating benchmarking with iBenchmark. This solution goes from the ACD to BenchmarkPortal’s database on a regular basis.

“That makes it a management tool instead of just a report card,” said Belfiore.

The company plans to launch the solution, in collaboration with inContact, later this year.

Benchmark Portal also has a new offering called Solutions Solution. This will help organizations weigh different contact center solutions, select the ones that best meet their needs and help with the related people and processes involved in getting the most out of their solutions.