Boise Cascade "integrates all customer touch-points".

At Illinois-based Boise Cascade Office Products Corp., which employs 12,000 people and operates 63 distribution centers, the goal of installing Cisco Contact Center solutions was twofold. The company wanted to improve its customers' experience when contacting the company and wanted to use customer data intelligently to generate additional sales through multiple channels -- over the phone, on the Web or through e-mail.

"We were looking to integrate all our customer touch-points so that however a customer interacted with our company -- inbound phones, an outbound salesperson or the Internet -- information about the interaction would be available to all," says Gary Massel, Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Boise Cascade.

Deployment of Cisco IPCC and Cisco Collaboration Server has enabled Boise Cascade to develop closer relationships with its customers by closely linking customer data to a multi-channel IP-based contact center solution. Boise is currently deploying the initiative on a widespread basis and has already identified a number of benefits, including:

* Accelerated profitable growth by attracting, retaining and growing business-to-business customers,

* Increased margins by creating a greater value to customers and helping improve customer retention,

* Improved customer experiences by increasing first-contact resolutions through greater access to information,

* Reduced operating expenses by improving customer-management process efficiencies and reducing duplicate efforts across business units.

"We are basically turning ourselves into a knowledge-driven corporation, and our customers have responded very favorably to the changes," says Massel.