High Tech High Touch Solutions Teleseminars

High Tech High Touch Solutions offers complimentary tele-seminars presented by speakers of our conferences. We use a gently facilitated "Mastermind" format, and keep the lines open for discussions.

What's a "Mastermind" format? Napoleon Hill, author of the must-read book Think and Grow Rich, said “A mastermind is the harmonious alliance of two or more minds that create a friendly environment to gather, classify and organize new information for fast and effective implementation.”

The only sales-pitch you will get on these calls is hearing about the opportunities to learn more from our expert speakers by attending one of our events.

There is a limited number of lines so be sure and call in early for the sessions. We love hearing from you and invite you to email solutions4u@hthts.com to let us know you will be joining us or send us any questions you may like to ask the speaker in advance.

Next Tele-seminar is August 12th, 2008
10:00 am (PT) 1:00 pm (ET)

Call-In Number: 308-344-6400

CODE: 1029936#

8/12/08

Tools of the Trade: Building the Business Case and Legacy System Integration

Jerry Keely, Customer Service Administrator, Pinal County Government

You have a legacy telecommunications system; you have a need to add ACD, queuing, skill based routing, even multimedia routing.

You are not alone. Many companies are faced with this challenge. The “fork-lift” approach is costly and cannot be justified. Upgrading and adding this functionality to an “end of life” telecommunications system is neither a good investment nor a good business decision.

This teleseminar will provide some cost effective alternatives to adding state-of-the-art technology to your company by identifying ways to ingrate it into your environment. We will discuss the benefits and challenges associated with hosted ACD solutions as well as server-based premise solutions. We will discuss how these types of integration reduce risk and reduce interruptions to the business during implementation.

We will discuss some key points to make in your business case that will help justify the benefits and the return on investment (ROI). We will address disaster recovery and business continuity support that the right implementation can provide.

Benefits of Attending:

Learn about options that add the latest technologies and leverage your current telecommunication infrastructure
Increase your chances of success by building a robust business case.
Learn about hosted and server based ACD solution.
Understand how disaster recovery and business continuity can be added to your organization through this type of integration.

Meet the Speaker:

With over 20 years of experience in computer networking and software, I have spent the last 11 years using telecommunications and desktop solutions to support processes and procedures that improve customer service. I was brought in to Pinal County in 2006 to determine how to set up a new contact center environment. After months of research, I opened the Citizen Contact Center on June 27, 2007 using state of the art technologies operating on the legacy telecommunications infrastructure.

7/8/08

The Truth About Communication: How to Speak with Strength and Sensitivity to Get the Respect, Rewards and Results you Deserve

Presented by Colette Carlson, Speaker and Author

Date: July 8th, 2008

Time: 10:00 AM (pacific time) / 1:00 PM (eastern time)

Cost: None

Professionals must articulate what they want succinctly and appropriately to get the credibility and respect they deserve. We have often heard about inappropriate communication, but could never identify when it rears its ugly head or more importantly, how to substitute appropriate responses. Colette exposes these secrets so you can master how to communicate for results. As a result of this program you will be able to:

Speak honestly, intelligently and with grace
Use clear and direct language to get immediate results
Deal with challenging situations and handle conflict better

Meet the Speaker:

Colette Carlson, M.A. is a nationally acclaimed motivational speaker recognized for her ability to inspire both men and women alike to unmask their genuine potential and achieve unlimited success through the alignment of their thoughts, words and actions.

Colette brings every lesson, module, technique and 20-years of real-life experience, including a Masters in Human Behavior, to her role as founder of Colette Carlson Communications. Colette’s relevant content and charismatic delivery keep her in front of Fortune 100 clients including PepsiCo, Boeing, Merck Inc. & Co., Chevron-Texaco and Exxon Mobil. She is the author of the soon-to-be-released book, Speak Your Truth: How to Align your Thoughts, Words and Actions into Amazing Results! and a contributing author in the book, Conversations on Success.

Her monthly column, “Tactfully Speaking” is featured in the National Institute of Business Publications, in addition to her professional advice column, “Ask Colette.” Colette was recently featured on The Success Training Network’s “Made for Success” series, and has often been interviewed on numerous national radio shows for her expertise. She is also featured in the just-released motivational movie, “Pass It ON!,” and will appear in an upcoming issue of Personal Development Magazine.

Access the DEAL and PEACEful approach that Colette shared on this tele-seminar

6/11/08

MOTIVATION IN THE WORKPLACE

Presented by Corina Stretch, Puget Sound Energy

Session Description:

The complex challenge facing many companies today is how to attract, motivate and influence employees to want to be part of their company. (“Own it!”). Values, beliefs and attitudes are significantly influenced by what was happening in the world around them during their formative years. The employee/employer equation has changed. From the first contact or touch with the potential employee, employers must be demonstrating “we meet your needs and we want you.” No longer is it a one-way street.

Benefits of attending:

Learn the differences of generation values, beliefs and attitudes.
Learn the best practiced questions to ask your employees so they feel relevant and appreciated.
Identify the gaps in your company (Leadership/employees/turnover.)
Learn how to sustain rewards and motivation throughout your organization
Seek advice and strategies from other companies

Meet Corina Stretch

Corina Stretch brings over 19 years experience in the customer service department with Puget Sound Energy. Puget Sound Energy (PSE) serves more than 1 million electric customers and 718,000 natural gas customers. This is Washington state’s oldest and largest energy utility, with a 6,000-square-mile service territory stretching across 11 counties. As a front-line supervisor, outage manager, trainer and support business analyst, she plays a key role in the 200+ seat department disaster recovery and continuity planning and well as daily business operations. Corina will provide worthwhile information that you’ll not want to miss.

Click for Slides

5/13/08

Blueprint for Success: Charting a Course for Personnel Development

Presented by Penny Reynolds, Co-founder, The Call Center School

Session Description:

This session will discuss how to build a call center personnel development program, ranging from new employee orientation to ongoing training, to long-term career development and planning.

New products to learn - Writing skills to develop - Customer service skills to acquire. Does your current staff have the necessary set of skills and knowledge they need? Has your training plan been updated to cover all the new skills needed to be successful in today’s competitive, multi-channel contact center environment? What plans do you have for ongoing assessment of performance gaps and needed training? How will you provide career growth and development?

Benefits of attending:

Outline the step-by-step process of performing a training needs analysis.
Identify areas to evaluate to determine if current training meets your call center and business needs.
Outline initial training components versus ongoing training and education requirements.
Describe ways to provide a variety of career opportunities within the call center.
Identify ways to incorporate adult learning principles into your training and development program.

Meet the Speaker:

As a Founding Partner of The Call Center School, Penny Reynolds heads up curriculum development. She develops and teaches courses on a wide variety of call center topics and speaks at many industry conferences and association meetings. Penny has spent over twenty years in the call center and telecommunications industry, and is known as an industry expert on topics such as workforce management, application of call center technologies, and general call center operations and people management.

Penny is the author of several call center management books, including Call Center Supervision: The Complete, Practical Guide to Managing Frontline Staff, Call Center Staffing: The Complete, Practical Guide to Workforce Management and The Power of One. She has also co-authored several other books with Maggie Klenke and Pamela Trickey, including Business School Essentials for Call Center Leaders, Strategies for Managing Call Center Personnel, Call Center Operations Management I and II, and Call Center Management Overview and Applications.

Click for slides

4/1/08

Workforce Management for Non-Workforce Managers

Presented by Michelle Borboa, President, Contact Center Resources

Benefits of attending:

Fill in any gaps in your Workforce Management knowledge, and increase your confidence in your WFM-related decision-making.
Feel more comfortable reading ACD reports, and understand what those ACD statistics are telling you.
Learn some of the latest trends in Workforce Management technology and business processes, and how you can apply them in your center.

Session Description:

Is there something you’ve always wondered about forecasting or scheduling? Are you curious about why your WFM department does what they do? Even if you are a Workforce Management professional, this session may give you ideas on how to communicate with your colleagues back at your center, or even anticipate their questions.

This workshop will be presented in its entirety at the Government Customer Support Conference in April 2008. Michael loads her presentations. You won't want to miss the live interactive session at the conference.

Meet the Speaker:

During her 25 years in contact centers, Michele Borboa’s work has repeatedly cycled through the Workforce Management function. She started as an Agent at AT&T, moving through a variety of other roles, including her first WFM assignment. Her role as VP of Workforce Management came after an eight year period of consulting, to which she has recently returned.

She now runs Contact Center Resources (www.contactcenter-resources.com), a consulting and training firm that specializes in Workforce Management effectiveness. Michele is an Advisory Board member for the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals, and a frequent presenter at SWPP conferences. She is a Certified Workforce Planning Professional and holds a BBA from the University of Michigan.

Click for slides

3/4/08

Great Leaders in History – And the Decisions They Made That Changed Everything

Presented by Michael Callahan, Program Manager, Microsoft

Session Description:

The history of nearly every great leader can be traced to a single momentous decision – often made against the advice of experts and popular sentiments - that changed the course of history.

Benefits of attending:

Learn how to make the ‘”right” decision in challenging times, even when it’s not popular
Identify your core weaknesses and how to strengthen them to become a great leader
Understand how personal charisma and communication skills play critical roles in leading through a crisis
Learn how to motivate your team to become the next generation of great leaders

This session will be presented in its entirety at the Government Customer Support Conference in April 2008. Michael loads his presentations. You won't want to miss the live interactive session at the conference.

Meet the Speaker:

Michael Callahan is the lead supportability program manager for Windows Live Mail technologies, advocating for nearly 400 million customers around the world. A published playwright, author and speaker, Michael has won numerous awards for customer focus, services innovation and collaboration.

2/13/08

The Best Service is No Service

Presented by Bill Price, President, DrivaSolutions

Presenting a taste of what is coming in his new book and being presented in full at the Government Customer Support Conference April 28-30, 2008
"The Best Service is No Service"

Session Description:

Today every organization needs to balance cost controls and customer satisfaction, a very tough assignment. Drawing upon his experience at MCI and Amazon, and with clients in the government, academic, and for profit sectors, Bill Price and his co-author David Jaffe have written The Best Service is No Service, addressing this balance by taking a fresh new approach to challenge the reasons why customers/students/citizens need to contact the organization, and then to find better solutions including eliminating “dumb contacts” entirely.

Benefits of attending:

a) how to challenge demand for service

b) how to eliminate dumb contacts, create engaging self-service, and be proactive

c) how to listen to customers’ requests and act upon them across the organization

d) how to develop “awesome customer experiences” when they do contact your organization

e) how to score your organization’s situation to see how close to “Best Service” it is today

This session will be presented in its entirety at the Government Customer Support Conference in April 2008. Bill will have even more to be presented in the live interactive session at the conference.

Meet the Speaker:

Bill Price founded Driva Solutions, LLC in September 2001 after serving as Amazon’s first Global VP of Customer Service. He also co-founded the 10-country LimeBridge Global Alliance to help build their clients’ customer service strategies and improve operational performance and chairs the 34-company Global Operations Council that he formed in early 2002 to share “best practices and worst experiences”.

Bill started his career with McKinsey in its San Francisco and Stockholm offices, working on what turned into In Search of Excellence; was then COO at early IVR service bureau ACP, which MCI acquired; built MCI Call Center Services’ automation, consulting, and agent outsourcing divisions; and was named one of the first Call Center Pioneers in 1997. Bill is a frequent keynote speaker, graduate school CRM instructor, and advisory board member. His 1st book The Best Service is No Service will be published in March 2008 by Wiley & Sons. He graduated from Dartmouth College and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and lives in Bellevue, Washington.

Click for handout

7/10/07

"Surefire Steps to Building Teamwork Between the Frontline and the Beyond!"

Presented by Kate Nasser, President, CAS, Inc.

Session Description:

This one-hour teleseminar will address one of the most persistent challenges in Help Desk -- building ownership and follow-through beyond the frontline. If you are managing the front-line or leading the entire support effort, information packed seminar will address both the philosophy/culture you need to build as well as tangible steps to that end.

Meet the Speaker:

Kate is wise, funny, down-to-earth, and just wild and different enough to inspire growth and improvement in individuals and teams. Her varied background as a business owner, certified teacher, technology professional and organizational psychologist, makes her credible to many. Before founding CAS, Inc. Kate Nasser worked for American Home Products and Johnson & Johnson in Computer Systems Development and Client Services/Training. She has a B.S. Mathematics, M.A. in Organizational Psychology and is a member of the American Consultants League and the American Society of Training & Development. Kate's customers include IBM, Time Inc., Pfizer Inc, Discover Card, The Gap, GTE, The National Institutes of Health, NIST, and US Veterans Administration, to name just a few.

4/4/07

yolunda davis and Deborah Eaton from the IRS call Center present how they built a collaborative culture through employee engagement.

Session Description:

There is one thing that plagues most businesses - CHANGE. The ERC is the single point of contact for all IRS employees to request administrative products and services. We have morphed from a Call Center to a Customer Service site. There has been no significant turn over in employees. How did we do it? Two words, Employee Engagement.

In this seminar, you will see how change was effectively managed through building a culture that emphasizes individual skill. Employees expressed a need to modify the work distribution system. As a result, employees were empowered to develop a solution that addressed both their concerns and management objectives. The new process not only met the immediate needs of the employees but it increased productivity.

Benefits of attending:

Learn how to use collaboration and influence to maximize operations
Hear how employee driven solutions lead to increased productivity
Discuss negotiations strategy to gain union support
Tips on building an employee engagement program

Meet the Speakers:

Deborah Eaton has 32 years of IRS experience, in administrative services, help desks and taxation. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Memphis, and a Masters of Science in Management from National-Louis University in Chicago.

Yolunda Davis has over seventeen years of experience as a Management Analyst, has been a part of the IRS Employee Resource Center from it’s inception in 2001. Yolunda holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

* * * * * *

This session will be presented in its entirety at the Government Customer Support Conference in May 2007. Yolunda and Deborah have loads of good info to share on this call but even more will be presented in the live interactive session at the conference.

Click for IRS session slides

3/22/07

Putting ITIL, Six-Sigma and CobIT to WORK-shop

Presented by Greg Charles, PH.D, Computer Associates

Session Description:

Greg will be covering key components in this ITIL Theory seminar, a compressed version of the mini-workshop he is presenting at GCSC 2007. It is based upon ITIL education and discussions of real-world scenarios. Attendees will learn and discuss the benefits of applying ITIL best practices while at the same time learning the basic principles of ITIL. Attendees will also learn the relationships between ITIL processes, the different ITIL roles and discuss the best way to implement this framework in their organizations. At the conference, attendees will follow the ITIL best-practice processes to react to a real-world scenario and design, implement, evaluate and improve their own ITIL based processes. On the tele-seminar Greg will share very some useful insights that you will be able to apply in your own environment and also answer questions.

This is not a vendor sponsored session and no sales pitch will be made at any level. Greg is an expert in delivering educational material and is a favored speaker in our program.

Meet our speaker:

Greg Charles, Ph.D., is an Area-wide Principal Consultant at CA. Greg is in constant demand across the entire U.S. and Canada as a speaker and consultant on the topic of IT Service Management. Since joining CA in 1998, he has continually been focused on meeting clients' business challenges through CA's Management solutions on both distributed and mainframe platforms. Currently, Greg is the lead for CA's ITIL, Best Practices, and Compliance practices for the Western United States.

Greg has been an IT professional since 1981, and holds a Ph.D. in Business Ethics, attained after completing his undergraduate studies in Information Technology.

* * * * * *

This session will be presented in its entirety at the Government Customer Support Conference in May 2007. Greg will be delivering a mini-workshop that is absolutely loaded with content. This is just a sampling of the useful information you will learn from Greg.

Click for slides from Greg's session

2/1/07

voip survival guide
Can you really save $, improve operations, AND achieve greater security and availability?

Presented by Peggy Gritt, President and founder VoIP Institute and President of ZelphaMedia

Get ready to do an about face on your current thinking about VoIP. The VoIP Institute's founder, Peggy Gritt, will give a refreshing presentation on VoIP and the standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). She will cover how SIP and VoIP are more reliable, offer greater disaster recovery options and are possibly MORE secure than your previous voice communications systems.

The presentation will be aimed at all levels and offer technical and business level advice for these important VoIP design considerations. Ms. Gritt has 17 years background in voice and data convergence and has spoken to groups worldwide regarding multi-channel contact center, VoIP and SIP technologies.

Meet our speaker:

Peggy Gritt has over 17 years experience in the multi-channel contact center and VoIP technologies – she spent ten years launching products at Interactive Intelligence including the first multi-channel ACD system in 97 and the first software-based IP PBX in 2002.

Peggy has spoken to groups internationally and has traveled to over 20 countries meeting with and presenting to businesses and contact centers. As founder and CEO of the VoIP Institute, she is focused on accurate and educational information for the user of VoIP technology. She provides workshops on requirements planning, security, and VoIP technology basics for professionals. Her focus on the user experience means a non-biased look at the state of the technology, deployment types and the effects on your company’s operations.

Click for slides from Peggy's session

Previous sessions:
(see session details for handouts or slides)

THE TRUTH ABOUT COMMUNICATION - Presented by Colette Carlson

MOTIVATION IN THE WORKPLACE - Presented by Corina Stretch

Blueprint for Success: Charting a Course for Personnel Development - Presented by Penny Reynolds

Workforce Management for Non-Workforce Managers - Presented by Michelle Borboa

Great Leaders in History - Presented by Michael Callahan

The Best Service is No Service - Presented by Bill Price

Surefire Steps to Building Teamwork Between the Frontline and the Beyond! - Presented by Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc.

How the IRS Call Center Built a Collaborative Culture Through Employee Engagement - Presented by Yolunda Davis and Deborah Eaton

Putting ITIL, Six-Sigma and CobIT to WORK-shop - Presented by Greg Charles, PH.D, Computer Associates (This is not a vendor sponsored session and no sales pitch will be made at any level.)

VoIP Survival Guide - Presented by Peggy Gritt, VoIP Institute

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Reach us at solutions4U@hthts.com or call 425-398-9292.