Mobility Plus Cloud: The Need for 'Burstability'

Danamichele Brennen is CTO of Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, which uses RightNow Technologies' cloud platform to link its call center with those of its partners, allowing users in different locations (and tax preparers in the field) to access the same knowledge base and the same call-management system. "This year, we contracted with a partner that has on-demand, at-home remote agents, and the RightNow system has enabled us to bring that partner in with no connectivity or processing challenges," she says.

Brennen says the freedom inherent in any cloud platform is particularly attractive for a company such as Jackson Hewitt. "Our planning has more flexibility,: she says. "We can burst to needing this much processing power or this many users through these applications at certain times of the year, [which is a plus] given that we do the majority of our business, obviously, between January 1 and April 15. ... Now we have that 'burstability,' because it's a cloud-based solution."