So why have the apparently complementary technologies of Internet and Call Centres failed to merge?  There are four points that stand out for me.

Voice over IP.A large number of call centre offerings have centred their attention around the use of Voice over IP. Most PCs although being designed with a multimedia capability fall short of being able to make a phone call. Just because you have a PC with a sound card, doesn't mean that you can converse with someone. Those that can, suffer from poor quality speech. A plethora of conflicting standards is not helping the situation. In contrast telephones are installed in most houses, are "ready to go" and are very simple to use. Just how difficult is it to dial a free-phone number?

One phone line at home. To compound this, many households have only one telephone line. When this line is in use, it prevents use of the phone to talk to the call centre. Many vendors have been struggling with this.

Ever had an email answered? If you have browsed a web page and then sent an email to an organisation you stand a very good chance of never receiving a reply. Up to 50% of e-mails sent to a company are never answered. If you then follow this up with a phone call there is unlikely to be any record of ever sending the e-mail. Most companies struggle to deal with customer emails, yet alone link them to a call centre.

Different IT departments. Many companies have split their IT department into voice and Internet sections. Rivalries and the different skill sets have often separated the functions into clearly demarcated areas. This has significantly reduced the ability of IT departments to deliver an integrated Internet Call Centre.

So, where do the technologies come closer together?

Despite all of the problems these technologies will merge. Business processes certainly require this. There are two areas where the Internet and the call centre are working together to good effect.

"Call me" buttons can be inserted into a Web page. When someone is browsing a company web site and needs to talk to a human agent, they have the choice of either dialling a freephone number or pressing the "call me" button. The button allows the user to enter a telephone number. The Web server instructs the call centre to make an outbound call to them. Rather than needing CTI in the call centre, it is offered by telephone companies such as Global One. They can supply "applets" that can be inserted into a Web page. A good example of this is the Sales Call Back found on the UK home page of the PC manufacturer, Dell. This can make the call immediately, or be scheduled up to one hour in the future.

Integrated Help Desks. Many of the Help Desk software packages now have optional Internet or Intranet interfaces. These can be readily added to the existing help desk application. They allow users to log their own problems and to see the progress of their existing trouble tickets. This can free the help desk agents to concentrate on problem resolution. This has worked best for closed user groups, and particularly for internal help desks. It is particularly useful for providing out-of-hours problem logging.

While these two facilities may not amount to revolution, they are examples of where the Internet is forming a niche in call centres. Call centres and the Internet will merge, but rather than happening as a tidal wave, it will come as a gradual stream.