The picture above, many will recognise, is the Severn Bridge. It is also the view from my friend’s back garden. It’s a magnificent view and connects England with Wales across a huge and extraordinary expanse of water. Bridges connect places: some are huge, others exceedingly small. Some are incredible feats of engineering, others a plank across a muddy gap. We use the word ‘bridge’ as a verb. Something we do. We ‘bridge the gap,’ and it is the gap that interests me more than the bridge. We ‘abridge’ books, shorten them into easier to access chunks, and it is the parts we choose to include, and exclude, that draws my attention.

Whether you love it or hate it, AI is here. AI has had a bigger impact on Contact Centres than Analytics, WFM, Quality Management, Insight Dashboards, and other technologies we’ve used over the years. It’s as significant in our lives as mobile phones, broadband at home, smart devices and IoT have been.

Outsourcing is a tricky balancing act. Get it right, and it can transform your business. Get it wrong, and it can turn into a never-ending headache. Companies outsource for many reasons, like saving money, gaining expertise, or increasing scale. But success largely depends on managing the relationship well. To make outsourcing successful, follow these tips and avoid common mistakes. Also, learn why some businesses choose multiple outsourcers to spread their risk.

How can we combine data and human intuition to drive continuous improvement? Today, there is huge excitement about the potential of data, machine learning, and AI. With these tools, we’re capturing more data than ever. We’re pushing our analysis to new heights.

This is a new term that is starting to be used in our industry. So I thought I would look into this in detail. Is this a leap forward for our industry? Or, is it another tech advance that promises much but won’t change much? I have found one thing. When people consider the implications, they don’t grasp the real world Team Leaders and their teams inhabit.