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55-529: Foundever (previously known as Sitel and Sykes) is a privately owned customer experience technology company headquartered in Luxembourg City. It provides outsourced sales, technical support, customer service, and other business processes for large companies. The company has 170,001 employees and $ 4 billion in revenue. Foundever started as a subsidiary of United Technologies before being bought by then-President James Lynch in 1985. It grew quickly and became

110-520: A 69.2 percent interest in Teleaction, a Spanish-focused telemarketing company, for about $ 24 million. That same year, Sitel acquired Canadian Telephone Corporation. In the 1990s, Sitel grew about twelve-fold to $ 600 million in revenues. Sitel had 24,000 employees and 70 call centers but was struggling to turn a profit. It had substantial debt from the cost of acquisitions and expenses related to closing unprofitable call centers it had acquired. In 2001, Sitel

165-644: A consequence open mail relays have become rare, and many MTAs do not accept messages from open mail relays. The basic Internet message format used for email is defined by RFC   5322 , with encoding of non-ASCII data and multimedia content attachments defined in RFC 2045 through RFC 2049, collectively called Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions or MIME . The extensions in International email apply only to email. RFC 5322 replaced RFC 2822 in 2008. Earlier, in 2001, RFC 2822 had in turn replaced RFC 822, which had been

220-569: A consumer product or troubleshoot problems with a bank account. It also operates sub-brands for things like training and IT software. It also develops customer service chatbots. Initially, Sitel primarily did sales calls for insurance and credit card companies. It started specializing in different industries and services in 1990. Sitel started doing inbound calls in 1990 tech support in 1997 and customer relationship management in 2001. Contact center telephony The interactions between callers and customer service representatives are supported by

275-555: A current Internet connection. The Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) is a mail access protocol used by a client application to read messages from the mail server. Received messages are often deleted from the server . POP supports simple download-and-delete requirements for access to remote mailboxes (termed maildrop in the POP RFC's). POP3 allows downloading messages on a local computer and reading them even when offline. The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) provides features to manage

330-413: A few characters outside that range and base64 for arbitrary binary data. The 8BITMIME and BINARY extensions were introduced to allow transmission of mail without the need for these encodings, but many mail transport agents may not support them. In some countries, e-mail software violates RFC   5322 by sending raw non-ASCII text and several encoding schemes co-exist; as a result, by default,

385-437: A large corporate environment, with a proprietary protocol specific to Novell Groupwise , Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange Servers . Programs used by users for retrieving, reading, and managing email are called mail user agents (MUAs). When opening an email, it is marked as "read", which typically visibly distinguishes it from "unread" messages on clients' user interfaces. Email clients may allow hiding read emails from

440-410: A mail store by programs called mail delivery agents (MDAs, also sometimes called local delivery agents, LDAs). Accepting a message obliges an MTA to deliver it, and when a message cannot be delivered, that MTA must send a bounce message back to the sender, indicating the problem. Users can retrieve their messages from servers using standard protocols such as POP or IMAP , or, as is more likely in

495-402: A mailbox from multiple devices. Small portable devices like smartphones are increasingly used to check email while traveling and to make brief replies, larger devices with better keyboard access being used to reply at greater length. IMAP shows the headers of messages, the sender and the subject and the device needs to request to download specific messages. Usually, the mail is left in folders in

550-422: A notable implementation by MIT 's CTSS project in 1965. Most developers of early mainframes and minicomputers developed similar, but generally incompatible, mail applications. In 1971 the first ARPANET network mail was sent, introducing the now-familiar address syntax with the ' @ ' symbol designating the user's system address. Over a series of RFCs , conventions were refined for sending mail messages over

605-412: A single piece of electronic mail is called a message . The conventions for fields within emails—the "To", "From", "CC", "BCC" etc.—began with RFC-680 in 1975. An Internet email consists of an envelope and content ; the content consists of a header and a body . Computer-based messaging between users of the same system became possible after the advent of time-sharing in the early 1960s, with

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660-693: A smartphone ranges and differs dramatically across different countries. For example, in comparison to 75% of those consumers in the US who used it, only 17% in India did. As of 2010 , the number of Americans visiting email web sites had fallen 6 percent after peaking in November 2009. For persons 12 to 17, the number was down 18 percent. Young people preferred instant messaging , texting and social media . Technology writer Matt Richtel said in The New York Times that email

715-530: Is a method of transmitting and receiving messages using electronic devices. It was conceived in the late–20th century as the digital version of, or counterpart to, mail (hence e- + mail ). Email is a ubiquitous and very widely used communication medium; in current use, an email address is often treated as a basic and necessary part of many processes in business, commerce, government, education, entertainment, and other spheres of daily life in most countries. Email operates across computer networks , primarily

770-588: Is also part of the header, as defined below. SMTP defines the trace information of a message saved in the header using the following two fields: Other fields added on top of the header by the receiving server may be called trace fields . Internet email was designed for 7-bit ASCII. Most email software is 8-bit clean , but must assume it will communicate with 7-bit servers and mail readers. The MIME standard introduced character set specifiers and two content transfer encodings to enable transmission of non-ASCII data: quoted printable for mostly 7-bit content with

825-410: Is also the reason for the shift in nomenclature from " call centers " to "contact centers", "contact" being a wider term than "call". Respecting the trend, contact center owners need to adopt unified communication or multi-channel approach to let customers get in touch with them via their preferred communication mediums, either voice or non-voice (data). Cloud-based phone system is a further advancement in

880-459: Is no technical restriction on the size or number of attachments. However, in practice, email clients, servers , and Internet service providers implement various limitations on the size of files, or complete email – typically to 25MB or less. Furthermore, due to technical reasons, attachment sizes as seen by these transport systems can differ from what the user sees, which can be confusing to senders when trying to assess whether they can safely send

935-494: Is often successfully used to send special sales offerings and new product information. Depending on the recipient's culture, email sent without permission—such as an "opt-in"—is likely to be viewed as unwelcome " email spam ". Many users access their personal emails from friends and family members using a personal computer in their house or apartment. Email has become used on smartphones and on all types of computers. Mobile "apps" for email increase accessibility to

990-419: Is supplied separately to the transport protocol, SMTP , which may be extracted from the header content. The "To:" field is similar to the addressing at the top of a conventional letter delivered according to the address on the outer envelope. In the same way, the "From:" field may not be the sender. Some mail servers apply email authentication systems to messages relayed. Data pertaining to the server's activity

1045-476: The File Transfer Protocol . Proprietary electronic mail systems soon began to emerge. IBM , CompuServe and Xerox used in-house mail systems in the 1970s; CompuServe sold a commercial intraoffice mail product in 1978 to IBM and to Xerox from 1981. DEC's ALL-IN-1 and Hewlett-Packard's HPMAIL (later HP DeskManager) were released in 1982; development work on the former began in the late 1970s and

1100-494: The Internet , and also local area networks . Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need to connect, typically to a mail server or a webmail interface to send or receive messages or download it. Originally a text-only ASCII communications medium, Internet email

1155-742: The TCO ( total cost of ownership ) as professionals prefer to work with their own devices rather than using company-provisioned devices. Next, they tend to be more caring towards such devices and can even shell out money to update and upgrade those when required. Integration of IM, along with audio and video conferencing services helps call center or contact center representatives to get real time assistance from their peers or seniors to resolve any complex issues. They can internally exchange information and knowledge articles as and when required. Real-time call monitoring/barging system can be used by quality assessment team to provide important guidelines to agents to maintain

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1210-504: The URL in the To: field. Many clients also support query string parameters for the other email fields, such as its subject line or carbon copy recipients. Many email providers have a web-based email client. This allows users to log into the email account by using any compatible web browser to send and receive their email. Mail is typically not downloaded to the web client, so it cannot be read without

1265-432: The ability to be used for more frequent communication between users and allowed them to check their email and write messages throughout the day. As of 2011 , there were approximately 1.4 billion email users worldwide and 50 billion non-spam emails that were sent daily. Individuals often check emails on smartphones for both personal and work-related messages. It was found that US adults check their email more than they browse

1320-417: The ability to include in-line links and images, set apart previous messages in block quotes , wrap naturally on any display, use emphasis such as underlines and italics , and change font styles. Disadvantages include the increased size of the email, privacy concerns about web bugs , abuse of HTML email as a vector for phishing attacks and the spread of malicious software . Some e-mail clients interpret

1375-447: The attachments. Others separate attachments from messages and save them in a specific directory. The URI scheme , as registered with the IANA, defines the mailto: scheme for SMTP email addresses. Though its use is not strictly defined, URLs of this form are intended to be used to open the new message window of the user's mail client when the URL is activated, with the address as defined by

1430-466: The body as HTML even in the absence of a Content-Type: html header field; this may cause various problems. Some web-based mailing lists recommend all posts be made in plain text, with 72 or 80 characters per line for all the above reasons, and because they have a significant number of readers using text-based email clients such as Mutt . Various informal conventions evolved for marking up plain text in email and usenet posts, which later led to

1485-455: The collective system of computers, telephones and the Internet . The shift from CTI to contact center telephony is marked by the sheer change in the customer’s behavior when it comes to communication. Means customers are no longer confined only to voice-based communication i.e. phone to connect with their customer service departments. In addition, they are making use of email , SMS , chat, social media , and other virtual contact channels. This

1540-495: The company for $ 165,000 in 1985. He renamed it " SITEL / Sitel ," which stands for "System International TELemarketing." At the time, SITEL had about $ 100 million in annual revenue and 16 employees. Sitel was listed on NASDAQ in 1995. Afterwards, it expanded internationally by opening new offices and acquiring other call center companies abroad. For example, in 1996 Sitel acquired London -based telemarketing company Mitre PLC for $ 230 million. Simultaneously, Sitel announced it bought

1595-441: The developed world, and it is one of the key parts of an 'e-revolution' in workplace communication (with the other key plank being widespread adoption of highspeed Internet ). A sponsored 2010 study on workplace communication found 83% of U.S. knowledge workers felt email was critical to their success and productivity at work. It has some key benefits to business and other organizations, including: Email marketing via " opt-in "

1650-560: The development of formal languages like setext (c. 1992) and many others , the most popular of them being markdown . Some Microsoft email clients may allow rich formatting using their proprietary Rich Text Format (RTF), but this should be avoided unless the recipient is guaranteed to have a compatible email client. Messages are exchanged between hosts using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol with software programs called mail transfer agents (MTAs); and delivered to

1705-542: The direction as it allows operators to access all the features and benefits of call center telephony over the Web against an affordable & flexible pay-as-you-go subscription model. Thus, in-house infrastructure deployment to manage public switched telephone networks, storage, communication applications, and collaboration servers is no more an obligation. Neither is the need to invest resources for their upgrade, repair, maintenance and security as cloud vendor would be responsible for

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1760-421: The file system. Some clients save individual messages as separate files, while others use various database formats, often proprietary, for collective storage. A historical standard of storage is the mbox format. The specific format used is often indicated by special filename extensions : Some applications (like Apple Mail ) leave attachments encoded in messages for searching while also saving separate copies of

1815-450: The final restrictions on carrying commercial traffic over the Internet ended in 1995, a combination of factors made the current Internet suite of SMTP, POP3 and IMAP email protocols the standard (see Protocol Wars ). The following is a typical sequence of events that takes place when sender Alice transmits a message using a mail user agent (MUA) addressed to the email address of

1870-518: The first telemarketing organization to go public in 1995. It expanded internationally in the 1990s and 2000s. Financial problems prompted layoffs and restructuring in 2001. In 2007, majority owner Onex Corporation de-listed Sitel from NASDAQ . Group Acticall, the current owner and operator, acquired Sitel in 2015. Foundever started as a subsidiary of United Technologies called HQ800 and located in Omaha, Nebraska. Its then-President, James F. Lynch, bought

1925-450: The following fields: RFC 3864 describes registration procedures for message header fields at the IANA ; it provides for permanent and provisional field names, including also fields defined for MIME, netnews, and HTTP, and referencing relevant RFCs. Common header fields for email include: The To: field may be unrelated to the addresses to which the message is delivered. The delivery list

1980-509: The inbox so the user can focus on the unread. Mail can be stored on the client , on the server side, or in both places. Standard formats for mailboxes include Maildir and mbox . Several prominent email clients use their own proprietary format and require conversion software to transfer email between them. Server-side storage is often in a proprietary format but since access is through a standard protocol such as IMAP, moving email from one server to another can be done with any MUA supporting

2035-571: The latter became the world's largest selling email system. The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) was implemented on the ARPANET in 1983. LAN email systems emerged in the mid-1980s. For a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it seemed likely that either a proprietary commercial system or the X.400 email system, part of the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP), would predominate. However, once

2090-655: The limit is 998 characters. Header fields defined by RFC 5322 contain only US-ASCII characters; for encoding characters in other sets, a syntax specified in RFC 2047 may be used. In some examples, the IETF EAI working group defines some standards track extensions, replacing previous experimental extensions so UTF-8 encoded Unicode characters may be used within the header. In particular, this allows email addresses to use non-ASCII characters. Such addresses are supported by Google and Microsoft products, and promoted by some government agents. The message header must include at least

2145-515: The mail server. Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) is used by Microsoft Outlook to communicate to Microsoft Exchange Server —and to a range of other email server products such as Axigen Mail Server , Kerio Connect , Scalix , Zimbra , HP OpenMail , IBM Lotus Notes , Zarafa , and Bynari where vendors have added MAPI support to allow their products to be accessed directly via Outlook. Email has been widely accepted by businesses, governments and non-governmental organizations in

2200-402: The medium for users who are out of their homes. While in the earliest years of email, users could only access email on desktop computers, in the 2010s, it is possible for users to check their email when they are away from home, whether they are across town or across the world. Alerts can also be sent to the smartphone or other devices to notify them immediately of new messages. This has given email

2255-510: The message in a non-Latin alphabet language appears in non-readable form (the only exception is a coincidence if the sender and receiver use the same encoding scheme). Therefore, for international character sets , Unicode is growing in popularity. Most modern graphic email clients allow the use of either plain text or HTML for the message body at the option of the user. HTML email messages often include an automatic-generated plain text copy for compatibility. Advantages of HTML include

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2310-426: The message, as unstructured text, sometimes containing a signature block at the end. The header is separated from the body by a blank line. RFC 5322 specifies the syntax of the email header. Each email message has a header (the "header section" of the message, according to the specification), comprising a number of fields ("header fields"). Each field has a name ("field name" or "header field name"), followed by

2365-615: The most from their products or services. Hence, it’s becoming instrumental in increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty and most of the call center services in India are taking refuge from it. The entire contact center telephony service can be availed by professionals over a browser. Hence, businesses can leverage the concept of BYOD (bring your own device) and mobility and serve their customers well using mobile applications. According to market analysts, BYOD increases satisfaction among workforce, and hence their individual and collective productivity as well. BYOD programme significantly reduces

2420-450: The protocol. Many current email users do not run MTA, MDA or MUA programs themselves, but use a web-based email platform, such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail , that performs the same tasks. Such webmail interfaces allow users to access their mail with any standard web browser , from any computer, rather than relying on a local email client. Upon reception of email messages, email client applications save messages in operating system files in

2475-454: The recipient. In addition to this example, alternatives and complications exist in the email system: Many MTAs used to accept messages for any recipient on the Internet and do their best to deliver them. Such MTAs are called open mail relays . This was very important in the early days of the Internet when network connections were unreliable. However, this mechanism proved to be exploitable by originators of unsolicited bulk email and as

2530-711: The same. India , a popular call center business process outsourcing destination, often uses a cloud-based phone system in order to cut operational expenses and downtime, and increase connectivity. Businesses can rely on contact center telephony services to respond to their customers ’ queries over phone, email, chat, fax, etc. Integrating it with their customer relationship management tools, entire contact details of customers and their interaction sessions with different customer service representatives can be found at one place. The combination can manage not just sales and marketing but also deliver excellent post-sales customer service or technical support to allow customers derive

2585-406: The security breach by Sitel. Foundever provides out-sourced call center services, as well as consulting, analytics, and support for other business processes. The company operates out of large buildings with employees that speak different languages. Its call centers are used for things like sales, customer service, collections, and back-office work. For example, employees might take a phone order for

2640-705: The separator character ":", and a value ("field body" or "header field body"). Each field name begins in the first character of a new line in the header section, and begins with a non- whitespace printable character . It ends with the separator character ":". The separator is followed by the field value (the "field body"). The value can continue onto subsequent lines if those lines have space or tab as their first character. Field names and, without SMTPUTF8 , field bodies are restricted to 7-bit ASCII characters. Some non-ASCII values may be represented using MIME encoded words . Email header fields can be multi-line, with each line recommended to be no more than 78 characters, although

2695-506: The standard for Internet email for decades. Published in 1982, RFC 822 was based on the earlier RFC 733 for the ARPANET. Internet email messages consist of two sections, "header" and "body". These are known as "content". The header is structured into fields such as From, To, CC, Subject, Date, and other information about the email. In the process of transporting email messages between systems, SMTP communicates delivery parameters and information using message header fields. The body contains

2750-416: The standard of the service as per industry norms. Integrated recording feature is helpful for internal training and quality purposes to improve productivity and customer satisfaction in equal measures. It also helps in getting business insights and improving products or services to gain deeper penetration into the market. Email Email (short for electronic mail ; alternatively spelled e-mail )

2805-434: The web or check their Facebook accounts, making email the most popular activity for users to do on their smartphones. 78% of the respondents in the study revealed that they check their email on their phone. It was also found that 30% of consumers use only their smartphone to check their email, and 91% were likely to check their email at least once per day on their smartphone. However, the percentage of consumers using email on

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2860-428: Was extended by MIME to carry text in expanded character sets and multimedia content such as images. International email , with internationalized email addresses using UTF-8 , is standardized but not widely adopted. The term electronic mail has been in use with its modern meaning since 1975, and variations of the shorter E-mail have been in use since 1979: The service is often simply referred to as mail , and

2915-712: Was founded in 1995 by Laurent Uberti and Olivier Camino, acquired Sitel in 2015, valuing the company at $ 850 million. In June 2021, Sitel acquired a public customer service company Sykes Enterprises for $ 2.2 billion. In March 2023, Sitel and Sykes fully merged to form Foundever. Okta , a large identity and access management company, had a security breach in early 2022 that it blamed on Sykes, one of many companies which provides customer support services for Okta. Documents leaked in May 2022 raised serious questions about Sitel/Sykes' security defenses, and gaps in Okta's response to being notified of

2970-551: Was like the VCR , vinyl records and film cameras —no longer cool and something older people do. A 2015 survey of Android users showed that persons 13 to 24 used messaging apps 3.5 times as much as those over 45, and were far less likely to use email. Email messages may have one or more attachments, which are additional files that are appended to the email. Typical attachments include Microsoft Word documents, PDF documents, and scanned images of paper documents. In principle, there

3025-561: Was restructured to reduce taxes and hundreds of middle-management positions were cut. By 2005, Sitel had $ 1 billion in annual revenue. The majority owner of Sitel Group, Onex Corporation , bought-out shareholders for $ 450 million in 2007, taking Sitel off NASDAQ and making it a privately-owned company. Sitel was merged with Onex Corporation's subsidiary ClientLogic Corporation. Onex paid an additional $ 51 million in 2008 and $ 60 million in 2014 to buy preferred shares, bringing its ownership of Sitel to 86 percent. France-based Group Acticall, which

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