The rising tide of e-mail queries is straining the abilities of many organizations to respond effectively. New tools are required to achieve a high quality of service by managing the customer dialogue in a professional, cost effective, and highly personal manner. The Internet is rapidly becoming a serious infrastructure for extending corporate networks. It allows organizations to move closer to customers as well as linking off-site workers into corporate systems. Electronic mail is the most ubiquitous Internet application and is being integrated into most Internet-based business solutions.
More people use e-mail than access the web regularly.
Forrester also estimates that organizations currently handling 500 customer service inquiries per day will typically be dealing with about 2,000 per day within 2 years. Initially, Microsoft Exchange is being installed as an infrastructure replacement for legacy e-mail systems. However, many organizations are now starting to look at, and plan for, real business applications. The web is the other major Internet technology that is being deployed. It is excellent for interactive applications requiring immediate, fully automated response.