If science fiction movies represent creative musings about the future then we’re in for some pretty bleak times, with technology delivering a good dose of the misery. From Blade Runner to Minority Report, and the entire canon of James Cameron, technology is the enemy.

Yet Ian Pearson who’s job of futurist, formerly for BT and now for his own business Futurizon, thinks that technology will soon become so good at handling dull, repetitive tasks and computers so reliable and intuitive, that all workers will be free to focus on what they do best: empathising and building relationships with other people. This will create what Pearson describes as a ‘care economy’ that will move call centres away from their process-driven legacy. In this utopia, call centre staff will not be treated as entry level staff, but highly respected builders and guardians of business, with video-conferencing turning the idea of call centres being ‘the face’ of a business into a tangible reality.

Yet changing the nature of work is not the only way in which technology will transform call centres, it also offers a choice as to where the agent is located. High-speed networks and virtualisation technologies mean it is no longer essential to come to work at all and the call centre, so often seen as impersonal, factory-style working environments, could be one of biggest benefactors of this movement.

The practice is already going strong in the States, with the 2008 figures from ContactBabel showing that 21 per cent of US call centres use home working. Peter Ryan, lead call centre outsourcing analyst at Ovum, says it is a well-established and respected model in the States, adding that tougher health and safety and taxation rules, and an ingrained notion that work and home should be kept as wholly separate entities in countries such as the UK and Canada, are holding home working back, despite its obvious appeal. “Attrition rates are lower and often service levels are very high with home working because people who would normally dismiss call centre work may be convinced to get involved if they can carry out the work from home.”

 There are technological issues to be overcome for home working to succeed. The good news, according to Rufus Grig, managing director of CallMedia, is they are all surmountable. “A lot of workers now work in a blended way, the technology is available to work virtually and seamlessly,” he offers. Although currently the preserve of knowledge workers, consultants and high earners, the figures involved in making home working cost effective for everyone are tumbling all the time. But there are some fundamental issues to consider says Grig. “Do you trust the PC your staff already have at home? Is it powerful enough? Is it secure enough to trust your corporate data?”

Nick Cavalancia, vice president of Windows management for Scriptlogic says, “the obvious approach is to allow home workers to join the central IT hub on their own PC via a web-browser and VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection.” The problem with the web-browser/VPN approach is that it presents a security risk to the corporate network - a security breach could occur, for example, if the user were to accidently install a virus while using the computer for business or personal use.

 In the States the common solution is to create a virtual desktop which is effectively screened off from the user’s personal desktop. “The virtual desktop only exists on the server of the host business, meaning it is the same as it being located on site. All the functionality, call queues, quality monitoring etc. will be available and the user will be able to switch between the two environments without fear of the messing up the security.”

Finally there is the telephony to consider; VOIP is fine for the odd call, but is it reliable enough to manage what is effectively the core of the proposition (the phone call)? A business grade DSL is therefore the natural choice. However, costs are now mounting. You’ve beefed up the phone line, created a virtual desktop, and this is without considering the other costs of setting up a home office; phone, desk, ergonomic chair etc. Yet with green concerns set to dominate IT over the next few years, the pressure to reduce staff travel will see more businesses investigating home working. Vertex, an outsourcer with call centres located across the globe, is increasingly turning to home working and its consulting director, Philip Mitchell, says you have to take the hit on infrastructure costs wherever the agent works. “We spend as much time thinking about the quality of the desk and chair as we do the technology,” he says.

Maygenta, an outsourced call centre service provider comprised entirely of home-based agents, has overcome the technological and logistical issues. Laurin Mcdonald, the founder of the business with a background of running outsourced call centre service organisations, said she investigated the potential of home working some years ago but, pre-broadband, it wasn’t viable. “Around 18 months ago we looked at it again, and were amazed that it hasn’t caught on yet.” Mcdonald said the rise of what she calls ‘portfolio workers’, those who are happy to work from home, picking up work as and when needed, is the perfect fit for call centre work. “With pricing between offshoring and running operations in-house, and workers who are happy and motivated, home working is very compelling now.” The other advantage, insists Mcdonald, is that unlike bricks and mortar call centres with perhaps a 20-mile radius to recruit from, home working holds no such boundaries. 

Starting from scratch was a huge advantage for Maygenta, and the rise of hosted and often open source software meant that Mcdonald and the team could take the pieces of technology they needed and slot them together. Recruitment is all handled online and the costs of the IT needed is manageable, partly because there is no need for a hardware switch which is traditionally one of the biggest capital costs for call centres. “From a technology point of view, you’d be surprised how easy it is to set up home workers,” says Mcdonald.

Creating a sense of agent belonging is a trickier proposition. Social networking sites and instant messaging offer a glimmer of hope, but Rufus Grig feels they are a poor substitute for the real thing. Vertex uses a combination of old-fashioned methods (regular town hall meetings) mixed with technologies, most notably video-conferencing which in theory puts other call centre workers in the room with you.

The other solution to this problem lies in the recruitment process. “It’s not for everyone, call centre work is quite intensive, especially when carried out at home without the interaction with other staff to break it up, therefore I don’t think it’s suitable for full time work. 20-25 hours per week is ideal,” says Mcdonald. Get the profile right - find people who already have busy lives and want work to fit around their schedules (parents caring for young children, the semi-retired, students etc.), and home working may be the perfect solution.

The biggest problem with call centre home working is not technology or even the logistics of making it work, but rather perception. Research from ContactBabel shows that almost two-thirds of call centre who haven’t tried home working fear the practice will make it difficult to manage staff. Yet just 17 per cent of those who practice some home workinghave found remote staff management difficult. As the benefits enjoyed by businesses such as Maygenta and Vertex become well known and the final technological kinks are ironed out of the practice, home working could easily soar and become the norm for the call centre industry desperate in need of a higher calibre of staff that the changing economy requires.

Interactive Intelligence is a leader in providing homeworking technology. Director of solutions marketing, Tim Passios, and Interactive Intelligence customer, Sally Hurley, president of homeworking outsourcer, VIPdesk, talk about how it could transform your business.

CCF: How affordable is homeworking?

TP: Usually it is less expensive because the remote agents are working from home. There are no health benefits or electricity or heating overheads, or any kind of expensive rent. So it is highly affordable.

SH: In terms of cost, it is a nightmare to run a centralised call centre. All of our agents and most of our management are remote. And in terms of cost Interactive Intelligence was great on two fronts: The pricing allowed us to have a lot of part time people, who generally make up our workforce, while other vendors don’t budget for this model at all. That meant that while it wasn’t necessarily the cheapest on paper, it allowed us to invest as the business grew, rather than be hit with a huge upfront cost. And we didn’t have to commit to a massive programme.

CCF: So is cost the most important factor?

TP: No. It’s definitely the talent pool you can tap into. You can find people anywhere you need them. Rather then try to find someone locally, when sometimes employers can spend months looking for the right people.

SH: I would agree with that. We can choose from many thousands of potential employees, and consequently, the quality of our recruits is much better along with providing much better attrition rates. At the moment our workforce is largely national but our goal is to start recruiting from all over the world.

CCF: Do many of your customers recruit overseas? 

TP: It depends on your needs. As soon as you look overseas you begin to face some cultural barriers. If one of those is a language barrier then it probably isn’t worth it. But if you are looking for specific language skills then home working is probably the best way of achieving that.