"Potentially negative or positive discussions can happen at any moment, triggering a domino effect that can quickly evade our grasp to control it."

"Market changes will always affect businesses - wise business owners are able to navigate them, while great business owners take advantage of the changes to benefit their companies."

"We are an airline business, and since 9-11 the world has changed. The price of oil is forcing airlines to struggle, so we have to focus on new ideas to sell more while lowering costs - To make the process quick and easy."

"The external events affecting us are:

• Competitor’s high performance, resolved by introducing a better CRM.
• The economic crisis, resolved by reducing costs through segmentation and different SLA models while studying outsourcing."

"Cost cutting has moved from a department-level concern to a business process concern. Our business is focused at the business process level to respond to this trend."

"A lack of funding has resulted in a loss of clients. Staff levels have been cut and across the board pay reductions were implemented."

"Acquisitions have impacted my business along with the need to allow for home based agents."

"For IntelePeer, the Great Recession has increased the appeal of our services, particularly our powerful value proposition that allows businesses to significantly reduce communications operating costs while preserving call quality and reliability. As a result, last year, we saw a dramatic increase in voice traffic and revenues. Now we are seeing an increased demand for voice services that can help drive top line revenues."

"Because of new laws, the company I work for had to divide the company into two new divisions. Even in these hard economic times the government gave you no choice."

"Free advertising has been one of the major events that impacted our business in the past year. How we adapted? we offered a seven day free trial period on our site to customers who wished to place ads, once customers tried our avenue, sales reps will actually contact them and up sell them into our publications and online"

"We are an agile, market-driven firm and effectively adapts to industry developments on a continuous basis."

"Being an offshore service provider, it has worked to our advantage up to a point. Focus got concentrated towards opening a center in Latin America and the Philippines as well"

"We expected to be severely tested by the Swine Flu Epidemic, and we are pleased that it turned out to be less of an impact upon all of us than we feared. Better to be prepared though. We planned and re-planned for the worst case and now have confidence in the structure if an equivalent event strikes."

"Like most businesses, NICE has faced challenges due to the global economic slowdown, but they have been balanced by a strong demand for our products and services due in part to the economy. Companies today are especially conscious of the need to satisfy existing customers and minimize customer churn. This need spans many industries including healthcare, communications services, retail and banking, as companies are more aware than ever of the high cost of acquiring new customers compared to keeping existing ones. The analytics-based solutions of the NICE SmartCenter suite help companies better understand customers and build longer-lasting, profitable relationships with their customers. NICE’s Interaction Analytics also offers an opportunity to understand how resources can be used more effectively and business processes can be improved to streamline operations and reduce costs."

"During 2009, our call center was experiencing an inbound volume call decrease of 25% - Therefore we started mass outbound calls. We also noticed more third party clients outsourcing activities to professional call centers (reducing costs)."

"What we at Altitude see in common to all collectors in this crisis is that they all realize they must rely on technology in order to win this challenge.
ACA is stating that and so is CSA. The next issue of Collectors will be focused on technology. Altitude's positions in Debt Collection have grown significantly in the last 12 months.

• Time is Money: The faster you contact the debtor, the more money you will get.
• Get your Target: Maximize the odds of getting in touch with your debtor. Have several contact alternatives and use intelligent systems to do it in a time and cost effective way.
• The Right Message: Make sure your agents follow the best practices and the debtor is informed of all the consequences of not paying. Be Friendly. Comply with applicable Legislation"

"As a consultant on R&R’s for contact centers, what has impacted our customers has been actually positive, due to the crisis the turnover rate has been lower than previous years. However our customers know that this is temporary, so they are taking measures to try to keep that rate as low as possible by implementing best practices."

"The economy hit the travel industry hard. Travel is the first thing people tend to cut from their budgets since in essence it is "non-essential". We have re-engineered our marketing to be more aggressive. We are also approaching past travelers with great success."

"The economy has been the obvious outside factor. We’ve reduced the number of new projects and give 100% effort to existing projects, and we never lose touch with old clients."

"The recession has impacted the core trades we supply. We are ever more mindful of the need to delight the customer."