Tomw Communications Pty Ltd - Media Release
Australian Old Economy Companies Failing to Invest in Web Call Centers
Wednesday, 31 May 2000, Albany, Western Australia - Tom Worthington, Information technology consultant and IT author, has criticised Australia's old economy companies for failing to invest in new economy web based call centers. A Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, Tom is in Albany meeting with government and business people as part of a project to attract call centers and other information technology investment in the Great Southern Region of Western Australia.
Worthington says that telephone Call centers have revolutionised the way many services are delivered in the last ten years. He argues they provide a better service to customers in many cases, as well as lowering business costs, but business now need to move on to install web based call centers, to handle queries online. This he says will provide further savings and better services for the new generation of online consumers.
"In a recent example my online stockbroker sent an automated reply electronic mail message to say they were busy with lots of e-mail and intended to reply to me 'in the near future'. They wanted me to phone the next business day, as they had just put on extra phone staff. This company is wasting my time and their money, due to the lack of an online call center. If properly set up with trained staff and equipment, they could easily answer my query online in minutes."
Web based call centers are one of the technologies being considered for the Great Southern Region Development Commission. The potential of other small to medium size IT enterprises are also being looked at. Background on the project is available on the web at: http://www.tomw.net.au/gsr
The Great Southern region is an hour by plane from Perth. It includes the historic whaling town of Albany; the wines and wildflowers of Mt Barker; the gourmet foods, forests and art of Denmark; and the rural farm areas and national parks further north. See the web site for links to tourist information.
In terms of IT, the region already hosts a Telstra Call Centre, located in the town of Katanning. Design Correlations, an Australian owned company located in Albany, specialises in making Numerically Controlled (NC) machinery and in particular a NC Plasma Cutter of which over thirty are in operation throughout Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.
ENDS
This media release is available on the web at: http://www.tomw.net.au/media/20000531.html
Media Enquires:
Tom Worthington FACS, Email: tom.worthington@tomw.net.au Tel: 0419 496 150
Mark Pitts-Hill, Great Southern Development Commission e-mail:mark@gsdc.com.au Ph: 08 9842 4888