Month: August 2020

Treasury Management can be understood as the planning, organizing and controlling holding, funds and working capital of the enterprise in order to make the best possible use of the funds, maintain firm’s liquidity, reduce the overall cost of funds, and mitigate operational and financial risk.

It covers working capital management, currency management, corporate finance and financial risk management.

Simply put, treasury management is the management of all financial affairs of the business such as raising funds for the business from various sources, currency management, cash flows and various strategies and procedures of corporate finance.

Functions of Treasury Management

Treasury Management aims to ensure that adequate cash is available with the organization, during the outflow of funds. Further, it also contributes to optimum utilization of funds and makes sure that there are no unutilized funds kept in the firm for a very long term. The functions of treasury management are discussed below:

1. Cash Management

Treasury Management includes cash management, and so it ensures that there are an effective collection and payment system in the organization.

2. Liquidity Management

An optimum level of liquidity should be maintained in the business, for the better and smooth functioning of the business, i.e. the company must be able to fulfil its financial obligation when they become due for payment, such as payment to suppliers, employees, creditors, etc. And to do so, cash flow analysis and working capital management act as the most important tool for treasury management, to achieve its strategic goals.

3. Availability of funds in adequate quantity and at the right time

The treasury manager has to ensure that the funds are available with the organization in sufficient quantity, i.e. neither be more nor less, to fulfil the day to day cash requirement for the smooth functioning of the enterprise. Further, timely availability of funds also smoothens the firm’s operations, resulting in the certainty as to the amount of inflows available with the company at a particular point in time.

4. Deployment of funds in adequate quantity and at the right time

The deployment of funds has to be done in right quantity such as the acquisition of fixed assets, purchase of raw material, payment of expenses like rent, salary, bills, interest and so forth. For this purpose, the treasury manager has to keep an eye on all receipts of funds and the application thereof. Further, the funds must be available at the time of need, which may be different for different firms and also for the purpose for which they are used. The period may differ from a week to month when it comes to acquisition of the fixed assets and two to three days in case of working capital requirement.

5. Optimum utilization of resources

Treasury Management also aims at ensuring the effective utilization of the firm’s resources, to reduce the operating costs and also prevent liquidity shortage in the coming time.

6. Risk Management

One of the primary objectives of the treasury management is to manage financial risk to allow the enterprise to meet its financial obligations, as they fall due and also ensure predictable performance of the business. It tends to identify, measure, analyse and manage risk in order to mitigate losses, that has the potential to affect the company’s profitability and growth in any way. Hence, treasury management is accountable for all types of risk that can influence the business entity.

Further, the treasury management intends to maximise return on the funds available with the company, by making such investments which have higher return and low risk.

Advantages of Centralized Treasury Management

Under the centralized cash management, the treasury department is setup in head office which will look after the management of funds of multi-locational centers of the organization.

The important advantages of centralized treasury department are as follows:

(a) It avoids a mix of cash surpluses and overdrafts at different centers of the firm.

(b) The bulk cashflows allows the company to negotiate with its bankers for lower rate of interest and timely availability of funds.

(c) The surplus cash can be efficiently invested in short-term and marketable securities to earn interest on it.

(d) Borrowings in bulk might necessitate to raise funds from international money and capital markets at cheaper rates of interest.

(e) Foreign currency risk can be efficiently managed by adopting hedging techniques.

(f) It will use the services of experts with specialized knowledge of dealing in forward contracts, futures, options, euro currency markets, swaps etc.

(g) The balance of funds to be maintained for entire organization, on precautionary measures.

(h) Efficient utilization of funds is ensured by centralized funds management.

Advantages of Decentralized Treasury Management:

The decentralized treasury management is advocated for the following reasons:

(i) Sources of finance can be diversified and can match local assets.

(ii) Greater autonomy can be given to subsidiaries and divisions because of the closer relation­ships they will have with the decentralized cash management function.

(iii) The decentralized treasury function may be able to be more responsive to the needs of individual operating units.

(iv) Since cash balances will not be aggregated at group level, there will be more limited opportunities to invest such balances on a short-term basis.

Cash Management Vs. Treasury Management

The cash management is very closely linked with the treasury operations of any business organization.

The treasury operations of any organization can broadly be divided into two parts as follows:

(a) Short-term investment of surplus funds in the money market to maximize the benefit arising out of availability of surplus funds.

(b) Short-term borrowings of funds from banks or market for normal working capital require­ments and for temporary shortage of funds at the lowest possible cost to the company.

The broad objective of cash management with regards to the treasury operations of the organizations is to maximize the availability of funds at any point of time and at the desired place for investment purposes and/or also to minimize the deficit or shortfall in the requirement of funds at any point of time, i.e., what cash management seeks to do for treasury operations is to convert its sales, whether on cash or credit into ‘available cash’ as fast as possible.

The foreign exchange market (Forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. It includes all aspects of buying, selling and exchanging currencies at current or determined prices. In terms of trading volume, it is by far the largest market in the world, followed by the credit market.

The main participants in this market are the larger international banks. Financial centers around the world function as anchors of trading between a wide range of multiple types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends. Since currencies are always traded in pairs, the foreign exchange market does not set a currency’s absolute value but rather determines its relative value by setting the market price of one currency if paid for with another. Ex: US$1 is worth X CAD, or CHF, or JPY, etc.

The foreign exchange market works through financial institutions and operates on several levels. Behind the scenes, banks turn to a smaller number of financial firms known as “dealers“, who are involved in large quantities of foreign exchange trading. Most foreign exchange dealers are banks, so this behind-the-scenes market is sometimes called the “interbank market” (although a few insurance companies and other kinds of financial firms are involved). Trades between foreign exchange dealers can be very large, involving hundreds of millions of dollars. Because of the sovereignty issue when involving two currencies, Forex has little (if any) supervisory entity regulating its actions.

The foreign exchange market assists international trade and investments by enabling currency conversion. For example, it permits a business in the United States to import goods from European Union member states, especially Eurozone members, and pay Euros, even though its income is in United States dollars. It also supports direct speculation and evaluation relative to the value of currencies and the carry trade speculation, based on the differential interest rate between two currencies.

In a typical foreign exchange transaction, a party purchases some quantity of one currency by paying with some quantity of another currency.

The modern foreign exchange market began forming during the 1970s. This followed three decades of government restrictions on foreign exchange transactions under the Bretton Woods system of monetary management, which set out the rules for commercial and financial relations among the world’s major industrial states after World War II. Countries gradually switched to floating exchange rates from the previous exchange rate regime, which remained fixed per the Bretton Woods system.

The foreign exchange market is unique because of the following characteristics:

• Its huge trading volume, representing the largest asset class in the world leading to high liquidity;
• Its geographical dispersion;
• Its continuous operation: 24 hours a day except for weekends, i.e., trading from 22:00 GMT on Sunday (Sydney) until 22:00 GMT Friday (New York);
• The variety of factors that affect exchange rates;
• The low margins of relative profit compared with other markets of fixed income; and
• The use of leverage to enhance profit and loss margins and with respect to account size.

As such, it has been referred to as the market closest to the ideal of perfect competition, notwithstanding currency intervention by central banks.

According to the Bank for International Settlements, the preliminary global results from the 2019 Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and OTC Derivatives Markets Activity show that trading in foreign exchange markets averaged $6.6 trillion per day in April 2019. This is up from $5.1 trillion in April 2016. Measured by value, foreign exchange swaps were traded more than any other instrument in April 2019, at $3.2 trillion per day, followed by spot trading at $2 trillion.

The $6.6 trillion break-down is as follows:

• $2 trillion in spot transactions
• $1 trillion in outright forwards
• $3.2 trillion in foreign exchange swaps
• $108 billion currency swaps
• $294 billion in options and other products

Data center management refers to the role of an individual within the data center (data center manager) who is responsible for overseeing technical and IT issues within the data center. This includes computer and server operations, data entry, data security, data quality control and management of the services and applications used for data processing.

Data center management integrates into other IT systems for complete data synchronization including virtual systems, proprietary systems, and automation. Data center management requires a number of tools, IT policies and strategies to create and maintain a secure and efficient data center.

The data center is responsible for the management of large data sets and hardware systems that are part of an organization’s large distributed network serving employees and customers. Data center management plays a crucial role in protecting data and keeping it secure to avoid data security breaches.

The hosted computer environment within a data center must continuously be managed, but most of this management is now automated. Data centers can be managed remotely and may not even house actual employees (dark or lights-out data centers). Functions of data center management include upgrading hardware and software/operating systems, managing data distribution and storage, backup policies, contingency planning, and technical support.

What are some of the Data Center Management Challenges?

Modern enterprise data centers are some of the most technically sophisticated infrastructures on earth. Ironically, they are also often rife with inefficiency, with equipment utilization well below ten percent and nearly 30 percent of the servers being zombies (consuming electricity but performing no useful service). Data center operators also struggle to keep pace with rapid changes in deployments of computing equipment. This leads to the discussion of Data Center Management Best Practices.

• SLA management – Customer dissatisfaction and business loss
• Cost of downtime regarding personnel & productivity
• Securing Data Center Networks
• Government restrictions
• Technology Refresh
• Disaster Recovery
• Scalability

What are some Data Center Management Best Practices?

There are 3 primary phases to Data Center Management

• Monitorand Visualize the details and activities across all systems and locations
• Analyze how to utilize the data center more efficiently to save energy and space or increase the utilization of existing equipment
• Automate the action layer, which allows for synchronized management across the silos of facility, IT hardware, networks, and applications.

These primary phases:

• Ensure that you provide the highest fidelity in connectivity
• Support sustainability and longevity of the facility
• Assure availability of power to servers and data access to users
• Embrace change in business demands and technology
• Guard against known and unknown threats and unauthorized access.

Bank Network Management (BNM) is a global team with presence in various locations. The team manages relationships with agent banks to provide transparency, governance, and control over real World Bank accounts which Citigroup holds globally, both with Citi affiliates and 3rd party banks. BNM manages key relationships with the global agent bank and custody service providers, Finance, Regulatory, Legal & Compliance, Global Operations, Global Treasury, Product teams, etc.

Services include managing of: bank relations, pricing negotiations, service reviews, regulatory support & documentation and acting as a centralized escalation point.

An interbank network, also known as an ATM consortium or ATM network, is a computer network that enables ATM cards issued by a financial institution that is a member of the network to be used to perform ATM transactions through ATMs that belong to another member of the network.

However, the functions which may be performed at the network ATM vary. For example, special services, such as the purchase of mobile phone airtime, may be available to own-bank but not to network ATM cardholders. Furthermore, the network ATM owner may charge a fee for use of network cards (in addition to any fees imposed by the own-bank).

Interbank networks enable ATM cardholders to have access to ATMs of other banks that are members of the network when their own bank’s ATM is unavailable. This is especially convenient for travelers traveling abroad, where multinational interbank networks, like Plus or Cirrus, are widely available.

Interbank networks also permit, through different means, the use of ATM cards at a point of sale through the use of a special EFTPOS terminal where ATM cards are treated as debit cards.

Main Channels for Delivery of Banking Services

Branch Banking

A branch of a bank is a place, office, unit where all banking operations are done under the single roof. People go to the branch for their banking requirements. This is the most popular and therefore most important channel of the Bank.

It is a place where customers can visit personally and can make use of different kind of services and banking products in one place. In case of any difficulty the customers are able to seek advise of the bank staff, remove their all doubts, get their all clarifications about banking operations.

Branch in fact is a place that serves as a channel of sales and services and bank employees can play vital role of customer satisfaction with smile. The branch is a channel that can boost the image of the entire bank by developing personal relations with customers and enhancing the customer relationship management of the bank.

Extension Counters

The Extension Counter is a part of Branch Banking. Whenever any Branch deals with some huge Business House, A big Institution or Organization may be Government or Private it has to perform banking transactions in Bulk. In addition to keeping the accounts of such big houses, branch has to provide banking services to the staff of these organizations which may run in thousands in number. Other ancillary services are also required to be provided by the branch.

In case such organizations are not located very near to the branch the dealing branch opens a counter in the premises of such organization to facilitate the easy access to banking requirements and deploys some staff on such Extension Counters. The business conducted by these extension counters is always on behalf of the main branch and is taken into the account of the branch itself.

In other words the counter functions like a mini branch and provides all banking services either on the counter itself or through the main Branch. Previously banks were required to obtain license from RBI for opening extension counters now RBI has permitted all banks without obtaining its permission.

Mobile Banking

In the era of stiff competition every bank want to reach to maximum people to enhance their customer base. In this process some of the banks have started Mobile banking services. A mobile van is equipped with necessary equipment’s and a few staff members are assigned the duty on such vans.

These vans roam about the local area in order to provide door to door service to its customers. But in such a system very limited banking services are provided. The main services include receipt and payment of cash only. Some ancillary services like balance enquiry, cheque collection are also provided.

ATM Channel of Banking

In simple words The ATM is known as Automated Teller Machine. Before the introduction of ATM in 80’s the people were familiar with one teller only. A human being sitting behind the cash counter and making cash payments or receiving cash from customers. For cash transactions one was required to go to the teller physically and that too within the working hours of the bank. The invention of the ATM has changed the entire scenario.

Now you can withdraw money 24 hours a day without going to bank through an ATM installed in a nearby place. It has provided customers an option to access the banking services beyond the regular banking hours. ATM is a machine for receiving and dispensing cash round the clock. In its initial stage it was able to dispense cash only without able to perform any other function.

With advancement of technology the present time ATMs have been equipped with multitask technology and can perform following services:

• Cash withdrawal
• Cash Deposits
• Balance Enquiry
• Providing mini statement
• Deposit cheques
• Fund Transfers

Some more advance ATMs provides services like paying utility Bills, Recharging Mobile services, Cheque Book requests. Etc.

The services from ATM can be availed only after one applies with the bank a request to issue him an ATM card. On receiving the request bank issues an ATM Card. This card carries a Personal Identification Number popularly known as (PIN). This number is generated by the computers of the bank at random. Only the customer and nobody else know this number.

This number in inscribed on a magnetic strip along with the Account number of the customer from which customer would like transact his banking transactions. This magnetic strip is in fact data storage devise about the particular customer and is secret one. While using the ATM card with magnetic strip fixed on its back works as tool to access the account to be operated.

As soon as the customer swipes the card, his account number is activated. ATM reads the information contained in the magnetic strip and finding the valid account number synchronized with PIN number, it advises the customer to enter the PIN number. After ensuring the authenticity of the user the ATM provides a field containing different services. Customer is free to choose among the list of services and proceed with the desired transactions.

Mobile Banking or Phone Banking, Tele-Banking

It is matter of surprise that many people are using mobile or phone banking without knowing that restricted services are being provided to them. Like ATM it is another electronic banking Channel which provides round the clock 24 hours banking for the customers. You deposit some amount in cash or through cheques a SMS shall flash on your mobile informing that such and such amount has been credited in your such and such account.

Likewise the moment any withdrawal is made from your account a similar message shall be sent on your mobile. This phone banking is one part that banks are doing themselves to keep their customers updated about the transactions of their respective accounts.

On the other part customers can approach to their banks and request for using the Phone banking or tele-banking. The bank shall enable its customers with their computerized system of IVR. This IVR technology is known as Interactive Voice Response which automates interactions with telephone callers.

Banks are increasingly turning to IVR to reduce the cost of services, inquiries and support calls. The system is enabled with input and responses to be gathered via spoken words with voice recognition.

The IVR solutions enable users to retrieve information from banks or are send information, requests and make queries. With the invention of IVR the practice of phone banking is increasing day by day because it helps in accessing the bank services from anywhere like Home, Office, Workplace or anywhere else.

The banks computers are connected with telephone (IVR is phone technology) and the telephone is linked with the modem. The customers are identified by a code word/keyword (in case of ATM it is PIN) after due identification of the callers a suitable reply or solution is sent on phone. With the help of phone banking the customers may get reply of their enquiries or services without going to bank.

IVR system also contains pre-recorded solutions. In case of Land Line the customer after dialing to the bank receives the guided instructions to proceed further like keying his/her account number. For identification six digit date of birth is also to be dialed.

IVR system provides number for availing the service. Each number pertains to different service. The customer has to press the number of desired service. Than IVR indicates further actions and following the same a customer can get the desired service.

Services provided through Phone banking are limited like:

• Asking for account balance,
• Status of a cheque deposited for collection,
• Request for cheque book or statement of account,
• Record stop payments, and
• Information on bank products.

Off course enquires relating to banking services are also attended.

In case of Mobile banking a set of text messages or SMS can be used. Bank balance, cheque status, status of loan applications can be obtained through this system. As already stated the banks send SMS on mobile to keep its customers informed about any type of transaction in their accounts.

It is under active consideration of RBI to provide mobile banking services for transfer of amounts also. It approved it would be within reach of everyone to transact banking business through mobile phones in near talkes.

PC Banking, y, Self Service Banking

The internet banking as known today has gone through many phases of development. In each phase it was known by different names. In its initial stage in early 80s it was known as Home Banking means the banking transactions that can be done while sitting at home. During contemporary period it was also known as Self Service banking.

Initially the customers were able to perform some routine banking functions at home for availing home banking services telephone or cable connections were required and transactions were performed with the help of a terminal, keyboard and a monitor (TV or PC).

With the help of this facility customers were able to access to bank services like inquiry of account balance, moving funds between accounts, payment of bills and buy/sell investments or securities. All this was done by the customers themselves on their own system while sitting home, office, or work place.

That is why it was also known as self service banking although everything was done online. It was than a luxury for the customers. In New York this services were started in 1981 by some banks. In the year of 1983 it was started in U.K. by Bank of stock land. But the facility at that time was limited some restricted areas and also to only some select class of customers.

But now the internet banking or online banking has changed the entire scenario of banking industry throughout the world. From luxury it has become necessity. Banks are no longer confined to branches only, it has become a world vide phenomena.

Internet Banking, Online Banking, E-Banking

In India now most of the banks have their own websites for the purpose of offering banking services on the internet. The Reserve Bank of India has also issued guidelines for internet banking which all the banks are required to follow. The multinational and private sector banks have been successful in setting up internet banking but some Public Sector banks had been lagging behind because of their inherent difficulties.

Most of the public sector banks have very large network of their branches and good number of them are located in far flung remote areas and they face lack of connectivity. These banks have very large base of customers and include illiterate customers also. Some are still following old dated and traditional type of application methods and are not flexible for change.

Providing infrastructure for starting internet banking to wide spread network of branches in one go may not be possible. But it is really credible that these banks have done much and are now near to a stage when all will be web enabled.

As per RBI planning the banks were to enabled for internet banking in three levels:

(i) The basic level service in which the bank’s websites disseminate information on different products and services to customers. It may receive and reply to customers’ queries through e- mails. It is also known as Information Only Service which provides general purpose information like interest rates, branch location, bank products and their features etc.

(ii) Simple transactional websites which allow customers to submit their instructions, applications for different services, and queries on their account balances. They do not permit any fund based transactions on their account. It is also known as Electronic Information Transfer system which provides specific information like account balances, transaction details, statement of account etc.

(iii) The third level of internet banking services offered by fully transactional websites which allow customers to operate on their accounts for transfer of funds, payments of different bills, subscribing to other products of the bank, and to transact purchase and sale of securities. It is also known as Fully Electronic Transactional System.

This system requires high degree of security controls as it comprises technology covering computerization, networking and security, inter-bank payment gateway and legal infrastructure.

One of the most convenient banking services provided by the majority of the banks and financial institutions is phone banking. It has made life easy as account holders can initiate transactions as well as complete some of the transactions from the convenience of their mobile phone. Customers can enjoy the flexibility of time with 24-hour phone banking service. The account holder can enquire about account balance, make bill payments, transfer funds to another account and do much more with phone banking facility.

Advantages of Phone Banking to the Bank

The cost of managing the transactions is reduced as the number of visits to a bank by an account holder is reduced. The account holder does not need to visit the branch for non-cash withdrawals frequently. There has, however, been a decline in the usage of phone banking services due to the introduction of Internet banking in the 2010s.

Advantages of Phone Banking to the Customer

Getting a banking transaction done is made easier for an account holder with the phone banking service. The phone banking facility gives the account holder flexibility to do any transaction from anywhere. It is most convenient for the users located in rural areas where the bank branch is far or not easily accessible. Phone banking is secured as well as a risk-free mode of banking. It can be used to make the utility bill payments, block the ATM card, fund transfer, open fixed deposit/recurring deposit etc. Also, account holders can use phone banking facility on any phone. It is not essential to have a smartphone to use phone banking services, unlike mobile banking.

How to Avail Phone Banking Facility?

It is important to register the mobile number with the bank to use the phone banking service. After phone banking registration, the account holder will be given a Customer Number for phone banking which can differ from the account number. After this, he/she will be given the password or will be required to set the desired password.

It is must to have the Customer User ID and password to get access to phone banking. Following are the ways which most of the banks follow for phone banking registration:

1. Phone Banking registration/password generation through Contact Centre

The customer can call the toll free number of the bank and choose the desired option in IVR. The customer will be asked to give important details such as ATM card number, PIN, mobile number, account number etc. A 6-digit password is sent on the registered number after completing the registration.

2. Phone Banking registration/password generation through ATM

Account holder can also visit the nearest ATM of the bank to get the phone banking registration done. He/she will be required to just swipe the ATM card, enter the ATM PIN and select the “Phone Banking Registration” option on the screen. Enter the registered mobile number to get the 6-digit password.

3. Phone Banking registration through Branch

The customer can visit the bank branch and submit the phone banking application to avail the service. A pre-printed kit will be provided by the bank, which will contain the 6-digit phone-banking password.

Above mentioned methods of phone banking registration can be common amongst banks. But, some of the steps or registration methods can differ from one bank to another.

Phone Banking Services

Following are the services that can be availed with phone banking facility:

• Get all the information related to the account such as account balance, or any transaction details, and even the account statement of the last six months on the mail.
• Request for cheque book online
• Stop payment of any cheque (Single and multiple)
• Initiate fund transfers to self-account as well to third-party account (with some limitations)
• Open a Fixed Deposit/Recurring Deposit
• Check Account Balance
• Enquire about loans
• Generate ATM PIN
• Access Credit Card details
• Get the interest certificate of home loan or education loan.
• Get the Deposit Interest Certificate
• Know TDS deductions and other information
• Update mobile information or mail ID

For the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector, identifying the right outsourced call center partner plays an important role across many fronts: delivering cost efficiencies; providing 24x7x365 customer service to the company’s patrons for a range of requirements; cross-selling and up-selling the portfolio of products and services for revenue generation; capitalizing on marketing opportunities outside of traditional geographic markets; offering targeted promotions for different audiences; and more. Invensis Technologies, an expert Call Center Outsourcing Services company, enables your banking, financial services or insurance organization to keep the lines of communication with your valued customers open all through the year and maximize their satisfaction with your business.

With the latest technology and experienced professionals, our multi-channel contact center provides robust and cost-effective support for inbound and outbound communication with customers through: voice support, live chat support, email management, IVR (self-service) and mobile SMS / text.

A call centre is a department or an office in which incoming and outgoing telephone calls from both new and existing customers are handled by a team of advisors, otherwise known as agents.

It is traditional for companies of a larger size to have call centres for the purposes of:

• Offering customers support
• Handling their queries
• Carrying out telemarketing
• Conducting market research

However, each of these functions has developed greatly in the past few years, which has led to the emergence of the contact centre.

Virtual Call Centres

While it’s traditional to think of advisors as working in a busy, crowded environments, call centres have become more flexible over time, not just in size but in set-up too.

Virtual contact centres consist of individual advisors working from home or smaller groups of advisors working in quieter branch offices.

This trend has led to the emergence of virtual call centres, which consist of individual advisors working from home or smaller groups of advisors working in quieter branch offices.

All of the homeworkers/branch officers use the same cloud technology, so they function as one big contact centre, but from multiple different locations.

Homeworking especially is becoming more popular throughout the industry, with benefits that include attracting a new demographic of advisors, providing a better work–life balance and increased productivity.

Why Are Call Centres Still So Valuable?

One of the new rules of customer service is that the best service is no service, and when you look at Amazon’s proposition, this idea gains momentum. So why do so many brands keep investing in the contact centre?

Fundamentally, call centres are valuable to companies because they provide a platform to customers where the company has the opportunity to enhance its image, resolve problems and to create a stronger customer base.

Call centres are valuable to companies because they provide a platform to customers where the company has the opportunity to enhance its image, resolve problems and to create a stronger customer base.

In addition to this, the data that call centres store is becoming increasingly valuable. Organisations are using this to personalise service and track each customer’s journey in order to be proactive and provide the best possible experience.

How Do Contact Centres Measure Performance?

There are certain metrics that can be used to measure the quality of your call centre function and level of customer service.

Call centre metrics are often broken down into three categories:

Historical – These give an indication of the historical demand of the call centre, which helps the team to better forecast, schedule and plan for the future.

E.g. Number of Calls Handled, Forecast Accuracy and Average Handling Time

Real-time – These give an insight into the current demand of the call centre, which enables better intraday management to cope with demand.

E.g. Service Level, Wait Time and Advisor Availability

Customer focused – These give an idea of the effectiveness of the customer–advisor interactions within the call centre, particularly in terms of quality.

E.g. Customer Satisfaction, Quality Scores and First Contact Resolution

What Technologies Do Call Centres Use?

Traditionally, call centres use a few technologies which are fundamental to their function. These include an ACD system, an IVR and headsets.

However, as customer service has grown to be a competitive differentiator between different organisations, more innovative technologies have begun to emerge.

Many of these technologies are designed on the premise on better supporting advisors to improve customer service. These include the knowledge base, smart desktops and screen pops.

Then there are technologies designed to reduce contact volumes to improve efficiency, these include workforce management (WFM) systems, chatbots and process automation.

But that’s not all. With the call centre’s role in the overall customer experience becoming ever greater, there are also technologies like speech analytics, customer feedback solutions and proactive messaging making their way into the industry.

The 10 Things to Know

While we have already discussed a number of basics, here are ten things that are really useful to know if you are considering a career in the call centre industry.

1. People Account for Around 70% of Operational Costs

This figure makes people a key asset of an organization. It is the people in the centre who have the real impact on the customer, even more so than the technology or processes.

Investing in the right people with the right training will provide the right results, but unfortunately many organizations do not view it like that.

Organizations often feel this way due to their view that, with their traditionally high turnover, advisors are not worth investing in. However, one of the key reasons individuals leave is because of lack of training or progression.

Not having the opportunities to progress is because call centre have very flat structures, with far more advisor roles than leader or manager positions.

Having said that, there are a number of other roles within the call centre. While these often require a specific skill, here are a few positions that you might not have heard about:

• Operations Manager
• Resource Planning Manager
• Customer Service Coach
• Quality Analyst
• Human Resources

2. People Are Challenging

Where there are large groups of people working together, management becomes trickier and you will get problems. Call centres have a reputation for high turnover and absenteeism.

These challenges make managing the centre especially difficult when you think that the managers have to forecast and plan their resources very tightly against predicted call volumes.

3. Monday Is Typically the Busiest Day of the Week

We have all had the weekend to sort our bills or decide on that holiday, so now we are back to our normal week, it’s time to pick up the phone and call the call centre. If you need to call a call centre, try to do it on any day but Monday!

Also, Monday contact volumes can be even higher if the call centre is shut at weekends. This, paired with the fact that contact centres often report absenteeism to be higher on Monday than any other day, can make Monday mornings in the call centre even more challenging.

4. More Customers Call Between 10am and 12pm Than at any Other Time!

Why? Typically because those calling have either got into work and are settled into their day, so will make their personal calls (managers usually go for meetings during this time so it is easier), or they have returned home after doing the school run and are getting on with the things they need to do.

As well as daily patterns, call centres have to be aware of general patterns in contact volumes at an hourly rate as well. In fact, as a lesser known principle is that 40% of the hourly calls are handled within the first 15 minutes of the hour.

5. Technology Does Not Always Fully Support the Advisor in Doing Their Job

There can be a lot of technology in a call centre, but for a variety of reasons it may not help the advisor to do their job effectively.

Each technology component may be built separately from the others, so, like a cake mixture, when all the ingredients come together it may not be perfect.

The key factor is to understand how the advisor will use the combination of systems to handle the customer enquiry. The easier it is for the advisor, the better the experience for both the advisor and the customer when queries need to be solved.

Fully integrated systems are often key to this, and over a fifth of call centres have now achieved this through using apps instead of hardware, made available through one cloud-based system.

6. Advisors Are the Voice and Ears of the Company

Advisors will talk to more customers in a day than most other people in the organization do in a year. They can tell you what is happening with customers, what is important to them and what competitors may be doing.

The best call centres use their advisors as a means of providing feedback to all parts of an organization.

With this being the case, advisors are an invaluable research tool and can provide a multitude of ideas on how to do things better or what will or will not work.

7. Call Centre Managers Do Not Have Crystal Balls

The demand on managers to reach service levels every day with all the constraints placed on them is probably what makes the role one of the most challenging.

For this reason, most managers spend their time firefighting existing situations and do not have time to raise their head above the parapet to plan for the future.

8. Team Leaders Drive Business Performance

The team leader role is critical, provided it involves what its name suggests and that is to lead the team of advisors that they are responsible for.

Team leaders should be present with their team in order to provide support and advice throughout their day. They must also be responsible for coaching and developing their team because it will be these advisors who deliver the service.

In terms of driving business value, as Orit Avital described in her article “How to Develop Team Leaders in the Contact Centre“, team leaders need to be prepared to:

• Have difficult conversations
• Treat each member of the team as an equal
• Create a team feedback loop
• Get to know each of the advisors in their teams personally

9. The Biggest Critics of Call Centres Are Often Within the Company

Call centres are an easy target to criticise, because most people have had a bad experience of one! Criticising the call centre and highlighting its failures will enable others to distract attention from their own performance!

Few understand the complexities of call centres and the issues that they have to manage, so it makes them a soft target.

More importantly, call centres may not have a senior sponsor and may be located remotely from the head office this makes them vulnerable and open to attack.

10. Call Centre Can Be a Great Place to Work

With a wide range of opportunities to fit many different circumstances, working in a call centre can be great as a first job to provide staff with experience or flexibility in the working hours that are needed to meet family or other commitments.

In addition, with more and more contact centres focusing on the advisor experience, improving culture and adding gamification, there is usually great camaraderie and friendship to be had.

A payment gateway is a merchant service provided by an e-commerce application service provider that authorizes credit card or direct payments processing for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. The payment gateway may be provided by a bank to its customers, but can be provided by a specialised financial service provider as a separate service, such as a payment service provider.

A payment gateway facilitates a payment transaction by the transfer of information between a payment portal (such as a website, mobile phone or interactive voice response service) and the front end processor or acquiring bank.

The definition of a payment gateway is the technology that captures and transfers payment data from the customer to the acquirer and then transfers the payment acceptance or decline back to the customer. A payment gateway validates the customer’s card details securely, ensures the funds are available and eventually enables merchants to get paid. It acts as an interface between a merchant’s website and its acquirer. It encrypts sensitive credit card details, ensuring that information is passed securely from the customer to the acquiring bank, via the merchant.

In other words, the payment gateway works as the middleman between your customer and the merchant, ensuring the transaction is carried out securely and promptly. An online payment gateway can simplify how merchants integrate the necessary software. As the middleman during the payment processing, the gateway manages the customer’s sensitive card details between the acquirer and the merchant.

Why do we need a payment gateway?

You may be thinking, why do you need a payment gateway if it’s only a middleman? Before we answer this question, we’ll take a step back and highlight that online payment is processed as a card-not-present transaction. The customer’s card cannot be physically swiped on a POS terminal, as you would normally do if you processed the payment in a brick-and-mortar shop. Therefore, you can only rely on the card information that the customer is entering on the payment page. But, how can you be sure that the card the customer is using is their card? In card-not-present transactions, the fraud risk is significantly higher, and this is where a payment gateway does its magic.

What would happen if you take the payment gateway out of the online payment flow? Fraudsters would have easier access to card data you process, exposing your business to fraud and chargebacks. On top of that, fraudsters would also find additional ways to initiate illegitimate transactions, leaving you even more exposed to fraud and damaging your brand reputation.

A payment gateway is the gatekeeper of your customer’s payment data. For online merchants, a payment gateway relays the information from you, the merchant, to the acquirer and the issuing bank using data encryption to keep unwanted threats away from the sensitive card data. Aside from fraud management, a payment gateway also protects merchants from expired cards, insufficient funds, closed accounts or exceeding credit limits.

Process

Now that you’ve understood why merchants need a payment gateway, let’s take a step further and analyse how a payment gateway works throughout the payment journey.

(i) The customer chooses the product or service they want to purchase and proceeds to the payment page. Most payment gateways offer you different options for your payment page. emerchantpay’s payment gateway offers you the below options for your payment page tailor-made for your business needs:

• Hosted payment page: A hosted payment page is an out-of-the-box payment page where customers are redirected when they are ready to checkout. The payment gateway securely receives the transaction data before it passes it to the acquirer. A hosted payment page reduces the PCI burden for online merchants if you don’t collect and/ or store the cardholder data on your server.
• Server-to-server integration: A server to server integration is also known as a direct integration as it enables communication between two servers; the merchant’s server with the payment gateway’s server. By requesting the card details on the payment page, a direct transaction can be initiated. Customers can finalise a card payment without being redirected to the payment page of the payment gateway, resulting in faster checkout, more consistent user experience and more control over the look and feel of the payment page from the merchant’s perspective. A server-to-server integration is suitable if you collect and/ or store the payment data before sending them to the payment gateway for processing.
• Client-side encryption: Client-side encryption, also known as encryption-at-source refers to encrypting sensitive on the client-side device before sending it to the merchant’s server. This enables the merchant to simplify your PCI compliance requirements. In a nutshell, it enables you to accept payments on your website while encrypting card data in your browser, using the payment gateway’s encryption library.

(ii) The customer enters their credit or debit card details on the payment page. These details include the cardholder’s name, card expiration date and CVV number (Card Verification Value). This information is securely passed onto your payment gateway, based on your integration (hosted payment page, server-to-server integration or client-side encryption).

(iii) The payment gateway tokenises or encrypts the card details and performs fraud checks before they send the card data to the acquiring bank.

(iv) The acquiring bank sends securely the information to the card schemes (Visa, Mastercard).

(v) The card schemes perform another layer of fraud check and then send the payment data to the issuing bank.

(vi) The issuing bank, after performing fraud screening, authorises the transaction. The approved or declined payment message is transferred back from the card schemes, then to the acquirer.

(vii) The acquiring bank sends the approval or decline message back to the payment gateway who then transmits the message to the merchant. If the payment is approved, the acquirer collects the payment amount from the issuing bank and holds the fund into your merchant account (more on that later on).

(viii) deposits the funds into the merchant’s account, a process which is known as the settlement; when the actual settlement will occur, depends on the agreement the merchant has with their payment gateway.

(ix) Based on the message, the merchant may either display a payment confirmation page or ask the customer to provide another payment method.