Act 3: The Technogogo Millefeuille
In the past, everything was simple. We communicated by calling from landlines, sending messages via pagers or Minitel, using a fax machine, and sometimes, for the more nostalgic, by telegram or telex. It took just one telephone line to do everything. Then in 1994, everything changed with the advent of the public internet and the IP protocol. Email replaced fax, VoIP supplanted landline calls, and the web made Minitel obsolete. Our venerable copper networks experienced a renaissance with dial-up modems, then ADSL, before optical fiber and 4G networks marked their programmed disappearance.
The same happened in the IT world. In 1990, a single developer could develop an application in Visual Basic or with FileMaker Pro. Then the advent of local networks gave rise to "Client-server" applications (who remembers Novell?!), quickly supplanted by three-tier Java architectures, then by web applications and finally mobile applications and widgets. At the same time, companies first replaced their mainframes with personal computers and servers operated in their offices. Their servers later ended up with hosters, and desktop computers were replaced by laptops, up to the present time when applications are deployed in the "Cloud" as "Infrastructure As a Service."
In 30 years, telecommunications networks and IT equipment will have merged, mutated, and relocated to become smartphones, web services, and other APIs and SDKs. This technological millefeuille has spread everywhere, particularly in contact centers where landlines and mobiles, wired and Bluetooth headsets, workstations and laptops, telecom networks, ethernet, and wifi coexist, with a myriad of software applications, on-premise, hosted, or in the cloud, all being essential to the proper functioning of customer relations.
Technical debt is present at every level, IT managers are somewhat spelunkers, telecom managers are somewhat archaeologists, and tele-advisors are obliged to know the past to adapt to the present and prepare for the future. This stacking is today the cause of many frictions and expenses. Many legacy business applications are still immovable (ah, Cobol in banks), and yet new needs require the use of the very latest generations of technologies. Consequently, startups starting their business have a clear path to disrupt veterans trapped in their old codes, free to develop everything "from scratch" with the most modern "stack" and build their application in "API" mode or even in "no Code" but in all cases while remaining "Lean"!
So, is this the end of the story for the dinosaurs? No, really not. Because no comet has struck traditional economies, and the digital economy is indeed a goldmine that all generations of businesses, even those born in the last century, are entitled to. Like in chemistry, nothing is lost, everything transforms. Data remains. The vials change.
It is now possible to deploy "meta-applications" that replace obsolete software with cutting-edge floware, which allow coding "business" actions instead of "software functions" and especially which communicate with the "legacy" to ensure the continuity of commerce. Workflow, BPA, and RPA impose themselves everywhere to address the obsolescence of initial systems while avoiding having to start from a blank sheet, which would be, as anyone faced with this dilemma knows, like changing the tires of a car while driving.
In contact centers too, this wave is growing and improving daily the functioning of processes, the work of agents, and customer satisfaction… At ViaDialog, we have worked tirelessly on this subject and we are proud of our latest creation… A natively omnichannel platform, available online or on-site, which provides a 360° customer knowledge, interfaceable with the main CRM and support software on the market, and above all, provided with a SDK that finally offers the possibility to code workflows directly in intelligent widgets reducing agents’ processing time by at least 30%. With the cherry on top, an embedded AI that greets customers in natural language, sorts and routes messages, and helps the agent provide the most relevant response as quickly as possible. And also, made in France, with love. A lot of love!
To all generations of engineers, managers, and advisors, nostalgic for Minitel and fans of virtual reality headsets, we are proud to introduce you to our latest work, the first hybrid and programmable platform for customer relations, ViaFlow! 👇
Article update: December 31, 2021
