Google is transforming the ways in which many businesses purchase and consume office productivity software. With Google Apps, the company delivers a suite of practical communications and collaboration tools as an affordable cloud-based service. For just $50 per user per year, any organization can enjoy business-quality email, instant messaging, document and spreadsheet management and other useful office applications – without the hassles and expense of client/server software. Google Apps gained initial popularity with small businesses looking for an affordable alternative to Microsoft Office and with universities seeking more open and extensible office productivity packages. Today organizations of all size and type are using Google Apps (Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Docs, etc). According to the company’s web site over 1 million businesses and 10 million subscribers now use Google Apps, with over 1,500 new businesses joining the ranks every day.
In addition to reducing software deployment cost and complexity, Google Apps simplifies and improves communications, and boosts worker productivity. Rather than inefficiently exchanging files as email attachments, dispersed teams can collaborate on documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. A sales person in New York and a technical specialist in Chicago can edit a customer proposal simultaneously. A CEO and a CFO can prepare a board presentation together – from different hotel rooms, in different cities. And integrated voice, video, and text chat and presence make it easy for coworkers to stay in touch and exchange ideas in real-time.
Until now, most businesses have used Google Apps and the new Google Voice mainly for internal purposes. Now OnState, a cloud-based business communications service, is allowing companies to use Google Apps and Google Voice for customer-facing communications (sales, customer service, etc) as well. With OnState, employees can leverage a common set of cloud-based solutions for both internal and external communications. They can use Google Talk and Google Voice to chat or speak with customers in the same manner they communicate with colleagues. And they can use Google Docs to share customer conversations (say a recording of successful sales call) in the same way they might share a spreadsheet or a presentation.
Today GoogleTalk is used mostly for internal instant messaging. Few businesses chat directly with customers. And while some businesses may take advantage of GoogleTalk voice or video capabilities, not many companies have tried to tie Google into the office phone system or use GoogleTalk as an alternative to a traditional PBX.
OnState helps companies extract additional business value from Google by extending Google solutions and practices to the corporate phone system. OnState operates with diverse PBXs and services (such as Google Talk) and uses business presence to optimize interactive communications amongst employees and customers – independent of device (desk phones, soft phones, mobile phones), network (PSTN, Google, VoIP/SIP), or medium (voice, text chat, video). OnState lets office workers, telecommuters and mobile workers leverage Google Talk for customer conversations and utilize cloud-based services to share customer information and manage customer dialogues. OnState can even be used as an alternative to a traditional office phone system (green field deployments, legacy PBX retirement).
With OnState businesses can add Google voice, text chat or even video chat to customer-facing web sites or Web 2.0 applications and use business presence to direct Web visitors to the employee who can serve them best based on worker availability and business rules – independent of employee location (office, home, road) or client (PBX phone, Google Talk, mobile phone).
Google Talk was designed to facilitate communications between two or more individuals. It is not well suited for customer-facing applications where a company may wish to conceal employee information (screen name, phone number) or establish conversations based on business logic and job functions – not user identities. Sure you can use Google Talk chatback badges to add a click-to-chat link to a Web site, but a badge is associated with a specific Google user account (an individual) – not a general business function (sales, support).
OnState adds a business abstraction layer to Google. It tracks the availability and activity of workers wherever they are – in the office, working from home or travelling – and uses business presence to intelligently connect customers to employees based on worker availability, capability or any other company-defined criteria.
OnState Tracks Real-Time Business Presence Data
OnState improves customer satisfaction and enhances worker productivity by connecting customers to the person who can best serve them – on the first attempt. With OnState companies can deliver rich call-center features to ordinary employees and everyday business functions at a fraction of the price of a conventional premises-based call center solution. And OnState is easily integrated with other cloud-based services such as Salesforce.com which can be used to further influence call routing decisions or enhance customer interactions.
OnState Connects Customers to the Employee Who Can Best Serve Them
With OnState, employees can share customer data and conversations in the same way they might share a word document or a spreadsheet. Customer records, chat transcripts, voicemail messages, emails and call recordings can all be tagged and stored in a common, well-indexed, cloud-based repository. A sales manager can share a successful telesales call with her entire team by simply publishing the link to the call recording. A service technician can leverage Google’s rich search capabilities to find chat transcripts related to a specific product defect – regardless of customer or region. An inside sales rep can append a call recording to a Salesforce.com record for the benefit of the outside sales team.
OnState lets companies exploit Google tools and services to optimize interactive customer communications. With OnState, businesses can use Google chat, voice and video for customer engagements, and leverage rich business presence to intelligently connect customers to the right employee at the right time. Sales and service organizations can use familiar Google applications and services to share customer conversations and collaborate on customer interactions. By delivering business communications as a cloud-based service, and by treating Google as an integral component of the corporate phone system, OnState helps businesses improve productivity, enhance customer satisfaction, and boost sales and service.
With OnState, employees can share customer data and conversations in the same way they might share a word document or a spreadsheet. Customer records, chat transcripts, voicemail messages, emails and call recordings can all be tagged and stored in a common, well-indexed, cloud-based repository. A sales manager can share a successful telesales call with her entire team by simply publishing the link to the call recording. A service technician can leverage Google’s rich search capabilities to find chat transcripts related to a specific product defect – regardless of customer or region. An inside sales rep can append a call recording to a Salesforce.com record for the benefit of the outside sales team.
OnState lets companies exploit Google tools and services to optimize interactive customer communications. With OnState, businesses can use Google chat, voice and video for customer engagements, and leverage rich business presence to intelligently connect customers to the right employee at the right time. Sales and service organizations can use familiar Google applications and services to share customer conversations and collaborate on customer interactions. By delivering business communications as a cloud-based service, and by treating Google as an integral component of the corporate phone system, OnState helps businesses improve productivity, enhance customer satisfaction, and boost sales and service.
Related: Virtual Call Center Company OnState Announces Support For Google Voice
Google Voice with Your Existing Number (Google Voice Blog)
