Glossary

Within the call center industry and our blog posts there may be specific terms that provide greater benefit with a full definition. Our glossary will be linked to postings, reviewed and updated to further your understanding of the terminology that we use.

ACD An Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) is a telephone system that manages incoming calls and handles them based on the number called and an associated database of handling instructions

BPO Business Process Outsourcing Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the contracting of a specific business task to a third-party service provider. Usually, BPO is implemented as a cost-saving measure for tasks that a company requires but does not wish to develop or manage in-house.   BPO is often divided into two categories: back office outsourcing which includes internal business functions such as billing or purchasing, and front office outsourcing which includes customer-related services such as call center or tech support.

Carbon Footprint Carbon Footprint is “the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product” (UK Carbon Trust 2008). An individual, nation, or organization’s carbon footprint is measured by undertaking a GHG emissions assessment. Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it.

CRM Customer Relationship Management. Those aspects of a business strategy which relate to techniques and methods for attracting and retaining customers.

CSR Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), also known as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, responsible business, sustainable responsible business (SRB), or corporate social performance,   is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model.  Essentially, CSR is the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making, and the honoring of a triple bottom line philosophy: People, Planet, Profit in every business decision.

FSC Forest Stewardship Council – is an international non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established in 1993 to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. Its main tools for achieving this are standard setting, independent certification and labelling of forest products. This offers customers around the world the ability to choose products from socially and environmentally responsible forestry.  According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, half of the world’s forests have already been altered, degraded, destroyed or converted into other land uses. Much of the remaining forests today suffer from illegal exploitation and otherwise poor management. FSC was established as a response to these concerns over global deforestation.  Look for FSC on your paper products.  It’s an acronym for some very cool ecofriendly words that hold very important meaning.

IVR Interactive Voice Response is an option of a telephone system that gives you the ability to route calls according to the caller’s response to your recording. Most IVRs take the form of a recording that states (for example) ‘For sales, press one. For support, press two’

Nearshore Outsourcing Nearshore outsourcing is the practice of getting work done or services performed by people in neighboring countries rather than in your own country. Many companies in the United States, for example, outsource work to Canada and Mexico. Geographic proximity means that travel and communications are easier and less expensive, there are likely to be at least some commonalities between the cultures, and people are more likely to speak the same language

Offshore Outsourcing Offshore outsourcing, a type of business process outsourcing (BPO), is the exporting of IT-related work from Canada or the United States (and other developed countries) to areas of the world where there is lower labor costs or tax savings

Onshore Outsourcing Onshore outsourcing (also called domestic outsourcing) is the obtaining of services from an outside vendor that is from within the same country.

Outsourcing Outsourcing is any task, operation, job or process that could be performed by employees within an organization, but is instead is contracted to a third party vendor. The functions that are performed by the third party can be performed on-site or off-site. The pros of outsourcing are cost-savings, expanded service profile and capacity and it allows the organization to focus on core competencies.

Sustainable Development Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for future generations.