2005 product of the Year awards.Each year, Customer Inter@ction Solutions[R] magazine bestows its Product of the Year awards on companies that have demonstrated excellence in technological advancement and application refinements. Listed here are products and services that we've judged to have gone the extra mile to help improve both the customer experience and the ROI (Return On Investment) The monetary benefits derived from having spent money on developing or revising a system. In the IT world, there are more ways to compute ROI than Carter has liver pills (and for those of you who never heard of that expression, it means a lot). for the companies that use them. It is these companies' contributions that lead the way in making the contact center technology industry the dynamic field that it is today. The winning companies are broken down by general market category. Congratulations to the winners. Contact Center Suites Amcat Amcat Contact Center Suite, Enterprise Edition www.amcat.com The Enterprise Edition, a new version of Amcat's scalable Contact Center Suite, was designed for enterprise and multisite contact centers. It was created to seamlessly integrate remote or distributed contact centers into a centrally managed, networked operation; reduce operating costs operating costs npl → gastos mpl operacionales such as local support and local campaign management; and provide an enhanced level of resilience reducing single points of failure. The solution can sharpen management controls and reduce costs for enterprise operations, while improving business continuity so important with natural and man-made disasters man-made disaster Technological disaster Public health An event in which a significant number of people are injured or die as a result of human devices or activities, unrelated to conflicts, and attributed to operator error–eg, Exxon Valdez . eGain Communications eGain ServiceExpress www.egain.com eGain ServiceExpress is the small business edition of eGain OnDemand, eGain's hosted software suite for multichannel Using two or more paths for transmission or processing. It can refer to a variety of architectures including (1) multiple I/O channels between the CPU and peripheral devices, (2) multiple wires in a cable, (3) multiple "logical" channels within a single wire or fiber or (4) multiple customer service (phone, e-mail, chat, Web self-service) and knowledge management. Small businesses, like larger enterprises, are under pressure to win and keep customers with superior service while controlling costs, but are saddled with limited IT budgets and resources. They need a hosted e-service solution that is affordable, effective and able to seamlessly support business growth. eGain ServiceExpress addresses this need with its "no-risk value guarantee," a 14-day free trial; 24-hour deployment; setup help; modular design In the context of systems engineering, modular design — or "modularity in design" — is an approach aiming to subdivide a system into smaller parts (modules) that can be independently created and then used in different systems to drive multiple functionalities. and embedded Inserted into. See embedded system. best practices. M1 Global Solutions, Inc. Business Convergence Platform www.m1global.com With this release of the Business Convergence Suite, organizations can rapidly incorporate voice services (such as VoIP, IVR (Interactive Voice Response) An automated telephone information system that speaks to the caller with a combination of fixed voice menus and data extracted from databases in real time. and speech recognition) into business processes to create client-centered business solutions. With a large percentage of transactions initiating or concluding with voice, the extended capabilities of BCS (1) (The British Computer Society, Swindon, Wiltshire, England, www.bcs.org) The chartered body for information technology professionals in the U.K., founded in 1957. 1.5 will afford users the ability to deliver a better customer experience, adapt quickly to changing business dynamics and improve profitability by simplifying how they model, deploy and modify multimedia business applications. Business Convergence Suite 1.5 continues the innovation of BCS 1.0, incorporating call flow capabilities into the business process. Users can build applications, such as Web and voice self-service, that use the full range of M1's Business Convergence Platform capabilities, including workflow, Web services (1) Loosely, any online service delivered over the Web. Such usage appears in articles from non-technical sources, but not in IT-oriented publications, because definition #2 below describes the correct use of the term. orchestration orchestration Art of choosing which instruments to use for a given piece of music. The sections of the orchestra historically were separate ensembles: the stringed instruments for indoors, the woodwind instruments for outdoors, the horns for hunting, and trumpets and drums and service level management Noble Systems Noble RepliServer www.noblesys.com The Noble RepliServer solution offers 100 percent data redundancy Writing data to two or more locations for backup and data recovery. For example, data can be stored on two or more disks or disk and tape or disk and the Internet. See disk redundancy and data recovery. for continued productivity and uptime in the event of a natural disaster or a hardware failure. Noble Systems offers 100 percent data replication to enterprise organizations with the Noble RepliServer, allowing them to maintain production in the event of a hardware error, eliminating lost time resulting from hardware issues. The replication solution consists of a dual-application server configuration, including a "standby" server that is ready to take over operations in the event that the primary server becomes inoperable inoperable /in·op·er·a·ble/ (in-op´er-ah-b'l) not susceptible to treatment by surgery. in·op·er·a·ble adj. Unsuitable for a surgical procedure. . Noble RepliServer also serves as a disaster recovery solution, allowing centers to deploy the redundant server to a remote site should the primary location become inaccessible. Nortel Networks (Nortel Networks Limited, Brampton, Ontario, www.nortelnetworks.com) A world leader in telecommunications products, which includes switching, wireless and broadband systems for service providers and carriers, telephones and systems for residential and business users, computer telephony CallPilot 4.0 www.nortelnetworks.com The CallPilot Unified Messaging Having access to e-mail, voice mail and faxes via a common computer application or by telephone. For example, unified messaging may send faxes and digitized voice mail to a mail server that turns them into e-mail attachments. release 4.0, a component of Nortel's Applications Center, enables users to access messages from PDAs and other e-mail-enabled devices, empowering employees to work from any location. Additionally, advanced integration with Nortel Call Center Web Portal See portal. allows CallPilot 4.0 messages to be immediately delivered to the right agents, ensuring prompt responses to customer inquiries, allowing businesses the opportunity to achieve higher customer satisfaction. Samsung Business Communication Systems OfficeServ 7200 Converged Communications Platform www.samsung.com/bcs The OfficeServ 7200 marks the introduction of Samsung's converged platform for voice and data communications data communications, application of telecommunications technology to the problem of transmitting data, especially to, from, or between computers. In popular usage, it is said that data communications make it possible for one computer to "talk" with another. using wireline and wireless technologies, making it an efficient and flexible platform for business communications solutions. Capitalizing on Samsung's expertise and history in developing wireline, wireless, voice and digital convergence In the days of the first computers, transaction and company data were the first types of information digitized. Then came text, opening the world to word processing, followed by audio CDs and finally video. equipment, the OfficeServ 7200 allows end users to leverage new capabilities not previously available to them via Samsung products such as IP-based, in-office mobility and OfficeServ applications. OfficeServ 7200 handles voice calls and data using a flexible array of modules, including Local Area Network and Wide Area Network modules and a 10/100Base-T Ethernet interface. This provides an integrated wireless and wireline platform that offers full support for Samsung's VoIP, Wireless LAN A local area network that transmits over the air typically in the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz unlicensed frequency band. It does not require line of sight between sender and receiver. Wireless base stations (access points) are wired to an Ethernet network and transmit a radio frequency over an area and traditional phones and IP-based data and other business communications peripherals and allows for voice call quality of service control. SER Ser serine. Ser abbr. serine SER smooth endoplasmic reticulum. Ser serine. Solutions Inc. SERTAINTY Version 3.0 www.ser.com SERTAINTY is an agent performance optimization solution that enables contact centers to obtain real-time analysis on agent and team performance. SERTAINTY eliminates tedious and time-consuming manual monitoring activities by using speech recognition technology to perform highly accurate, automated evaluations of all customer interactions. SERTAINTY scores each call against a set of KPIs and flags only calls that actually need to be reviewed by a supervisor. The latest SERTAINTY release offers the following enhancements: a new, browser-based business intelligence dashboard; expanded reporting and statistical analysis; and an easy-to-use KPI KPI Key Performance Indicator KPI Kuwait Petroleum International KPI Kiev Polytechnic Institute (Ukraine) KPI Kernel Programming Interface KPI King Pin Inclination (vehicle steering geometry angle) Definition Wizard. [Editor's note Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : In the January 2006 issue, SER Solutions' winning product was incorrectly stated as CPS (1) (Characters Per Second) The measurement of the speed of a serial printer or the speed of a data transfer between hardware devices or over a communications channel. CPS is equivalent to bytes per second. E2. We regret the error. TES TES Times Educational Supplement (publication) TES The Elder Scrolls (series of computer games) TES Thermal Emission Spectrometer TES Teaching Every Student TES Thermal Energy Storage ] Siemens Communications Inc. HiPath ProCenter Standard V6.5 www.siemensenterprise.com/procenter The Siemens HiPath ProCenter V6.5 portfolio was designed to enable enterprises to drive even greater first contact resolution of customer calls with faster call center administration, call processing In telecommunication, the term call processing has the following meanings:
Transera Communications, Inc. Seratel www.transerainc.com Delivered as a service, Seratel offers tools for the widespread shift to decentralized de·cen·tral·ize v. de·cen·tral·ized, de·cen·tral·iz·ing, de·cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To distribute the administrative functions or powers of (a central authority) among several local authorities. customer service operations. Transera's Seratel on-demand call management software was designed to allow multiple enterprises to collaborate in providing customer care across organizational, geographical and technological boundaries. Seratel leverages open industry standards such as SIP, Web Services and XML XML in full Extensible Markup Language. Markup language developed to be a simplified and more structural version of SGML. It incorporates features of HTML (e.g., hypertext linking), but is designed to overcome some of HTML's limitations. rather than proprietary mechanisms, eliminating complex integration requirements and significantly reducing maintenance overhead. By linking to multiple existing carrier networks based on off-the-shelf IP network elements, Seratel reduces call center cost of ownership and provides customers with freedom of choice. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. Amae Software Amae CI Suite www.amaesoftware.com The Amae Customer Integration (CI) Suite is a modular enterprise application that delivers actionable results by engaging customers and intelligently collecting customer experience and perspectives regarding products, service and satisfaction across all channels of customer contact. The Amae CI Suite is an "appliance-like" solution that integrates all customer experiences via telephone, Web and e-mail customer contact channels. For the telephone, the Amae CI Suite uses a built-in IVR-style system that is administered by managers through a Web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. . The Amae CI Suite directly connects to existing telephony and creates no conflict or redundancy with existing IVR or contact center technology. Aplicor, Inc. Aplicor CRM ATLAS www.aplicor.com Aplicor ATLAS includes functional advancement to each of the core CRM components, including Sales Force Automation Automating the sales activities within an organization. A comprehensive SFA package provides such functions as contact management, note and information sharing, quick proposal and presentation generation, product configurators, calendars and to-do lists. (SFA See sales force automation. SFA - Sales Force Automation ), Marketing Management and Customer Service. The 2005 Aplicor CRM ATLAS release provides a hosted solution to deliver a workflow engine Workflow engine is a software application meant to manage and execute modeled business processes. It is a key component in workflow technology. It will typically make use of a database server. with visual toolkit to empower user-created business workflow processes, a visual forms designer for complete end user customization of screens, data warehousing See data warehouse. data warehousing - data warehouse and OLAP (OnLine Analytical Processing) Decision support software that allows the user to quickly analyze information that has been summarized into multidimensional views and hierarchies. OLAP tools are used to perform trend analysis on sales and financial information. (online analytical processing Online Analytical Processing, or OLAP (IPA: /ˈoʊlæp/), is an approach to quickly provide answers to analytical queries that are multidimensional in nature. ) for drag-and-drop information analysis, and synchronization (1) See synchronous and synchronous transmission. (2) Ensuring that two sets of data are always the same. See data synchronization. (3) Keeping time-of-day clocks in two devices set to the same time. See NTP. with Lotus Notes Messaging and groupware software from IBM Lotus that was introduced in 1989 for OS/2 and later expanded to Windows, Mac, Unix, NetWare, AS/400 and S/390. Notes provides e-mail, document sharing, workflow, group discussions and calendaring and scheduling. , Outlook, Exchange, Blackberry, Pocket PC and Palm. The ATLAS release also includes the Aplicor Gateway Interface (AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) A machine intelligence that resembles that of a human being. Considered impossible by many, most artificial intelligence (AI) research, projects and products deal with specific applications such as industrial robots, playing chess, ) Web services library which exposes the Aplicor Data Service (including XML schema The definition of an XML document, which includes the XML tags and their interrelationships. Residing within the document itself, an XML schema may be used to verify the integrity of the content. , Web Service Definition Language (architecture) Web Service Definition Language - (WSDL) An XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either "document oriented" or "procedure oriented" information. (WSDL (Web Services Description Language) An XML-based language for defining Web services. Developed by Microsoft and IBM, WSDL describes the protocols and formats used by the service. ) document and complete data dictionary A database about data and databases. It holds the name, type, range of values, source, and authorization for access for each data element in the organization's files and databases. ) and permits system administrators to create their own Web services integration in a graphical environment using industry-standard XML and Simple Object Application Protocol (SOAP) requests. Astute Solutions ePowerCenter www.astutesolutions.com The ePowerCenter contact center solution was developed with globalization globalization Process by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, is becoming standardized around the world. Factors that have contributed to globalization include increasingly sophisticated communications and transportation in mind, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the company. The core functionality provides all onsite and remote agents a robust, multichannel contact management solution with instant access to a unified repository of consumer, product and company information. It also provides customizable Web-based reporting for enterprisewide visibility into consumer issues and feedback. The new release (Version 6.2) can enhance a company's ability to deliver high-quality service to consumers worldwide with its "Language of the Agent" and "Language of the Caller" features. It offers complete translatability of ePowerCenter to extend the software's capabilities to non-English speaking agents and global contact centers. It also offers advanced features to facilitate data capture and rapid issue resolution with non-English speaking customers. Cincom Systems (Cincom Systems, Inc., Cincinnati, OH, www.cincom.com) One of the largest and most experienced software companies in the world. Founded in 1968 by Thomas Nies, who has the distinction of being the longest-serving company chief in the industry, Cincom sells manufacturing, financial and Cincom Synchrony synchrony /syn·chro·ny/ (-krah-ne) the occurrence of two events simultaneously or with a fixed time interval between them. atrioventricular (AV) synchrony 6.1 www.cincom.com The new 6.1 release of Cincom's Synchrony extends the flexibility of the Synchrony Desktop unified platform framework by allowing each individual desktop to be completely adaptable and customizable to meet the unique requirements of every group, department and functional area within any organization, worldwide. Equipped with a desktop that intelligently presents both the appropriate information and applications for each interaction, contact center agents can work smarter and faster, helping increase productivity and reducing handling times. Digisoft--A TouchStar Software Company eTelescript Guest Mode www.digisoft.com eTelescript is a thin-client call center software solution designed to maximize the productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of your virtual VOIP call center. eTelescript provides the capability to empower remote global agents and administrators. The solution offers agents the tools necessary to make them better organizational representatives. By focusing on the quality and performance of the interaction, management can create campaigns based on predetermined pre·de·ter·mine v. pre·de·ter·mined, pre·de·ter·min·ing, pre·de·ter·mines v.tr. 1. To determine, decide, or establish in advance: business objectives. eTelescript can help empower agents to drive revenue, ignite overall corporate growth and improve service levels by maximizing a calling campaign's efficiency and productivity while providing complete control and security for call management processes. Maximizer Software This article or section has multiple issues: * It does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by citing reliable sources. * It reads like an advertisement and needs to be rewritten in a neutral point of view. Maximizer Enterprise 9 www.maximizer.com Maximizer Enterprise 9 is an adaptable CRM software solution designed to deliver integrated sales, marketing and customer service and support. Maximizer Enterprise 9 helps businesses attract prospects, win new customers and increase repeat business to build successful, profitable customer relationships throughout the customer life cycle. With secure, on-demand access to customer information through an intuitive interface and a rapid deployment time at an affordable price, Maximizer Enterprise 9 adapts to the business demands of growing small to medium-sized enterprises and divisions of large corporations. NetSuite NetSuite CRM+ www.netsuite.com NetSuite CRM+ is a hosted customer relationship management application designed to integrate order management, partner management, incentive management and project tracking to give growing businesses a 360-degree view of all customer interactions. NetSuite CRM+ also offers eCRM, which includes Web site hosting, Web site analytics, customer portals, partner portals and partner management. These capabilities allow NetSuite CRM+ to automate the entire customer lifecycle, from a prospect browsing a company's Web site, to an interested lead, to a qualified prospect, to a customer who has actually placed an order, to servicing that customer and finally, to guiding that customer to repurchase. Oncontact Software Oncontact V www.oncontact.com Oncontact V, the company's flagship CRM software, was designed to provide sales, marketing and customer service professionals the tools they need to more effectively manage prospects and customers. Version V uses the latest Microsoft .NET See .NET. platform to provide a detailed snapshot of the complete customer and prospect relationship, including account history and organizational hierarchy. The application contains a history of all interactions with customers and prospects on an individual or companywide level. The interface is completely customizable, which allows users to decide how they want to manage their customer and prospect relationships. The solution also offers marketing functionality complete with call center features to maximize marketing dollars by allowing users to create, execute, manage and track successful campaigns that increase leads and generate sales. Portrait Software Portrait Foundation www.portraitsoftware.com Portrait Foundation is an application platform suite optimized for customer interaction management that offers the next generation of sales through service platform. It is designed for building process-centric, enterprisewide, multichannel, composite customer interaction applications that integrate to many existing legacy systems. Foundation addresses the most important and most complex processes: those that drive customer interactions and fulfill customer demands. RightNow Technologies RightNow Technologies NASDAQ: RNOW is a U.S. software company that develops customer relationship management (CRM) software for small and mid-market businesses. It is incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Bozeman, Montana. RightNow CRM 7.5 www.rightnow.com RightNow CRM 7.5 is the latest version of RightNow's on-demand CRM solution. With a range of new and enhanced features, RightNow CRM 7.5 was created to deliver improved functionality across marketing, sales and service processes, enabling organizations to optimize the lifetime value of their customer relationships and the end-to-end quality of their customer experience. The product's components, RightNow Marketing, RightNow Sales and RightNow Service, are engineered with a common database, common business rules management and a common workflow engine. By automating a range of processes and eliminating the boundaries between customer-facing departments, RightNow CRM provides important advantages: marketing leads can be automatically routed to salespeople, data from service interactions can be used to improve marketing campaign targeting, and salespeople can avoid being surprised by open service incidents and/or active marketing promotions. Sage Software Sage CRM www.sagecrm.com Sage CRM is full-suite, configurable and fully Web-based CRM software for SMBs that is available both as a hosted service at SageCRM.com and for on-premises deployment. Sage CRM was designed to provide SMBs with the ability to move from hosted to on-premises implementation as business needs dictate, keeping all online data and customizations fully intact. Sage CRM provides bi-directional front-office/back-office integration with many accounting and operations management Operations management is an area of business that is concerned with the production of goods and services, and involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient and effective. solutions. Sage CRM users also have more supporting technology options, including Outlook and Lotus Notes integration, plus IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) DB2, MS SQL See Microsoft SQL Server and mSQL. , Oracle and Sybase database See SQL Server. options. Additionally, Sage CRM offers businesses other advantages, including local service and support through an established network of CRM solution providers; support for wireless devices such as PDAs and cell phones; a portfolio of vertical enhancements and custom components; and affordable pricing. SAS Institute SAS Institute Inc., headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, USA, has been a major producer of software since it was founded in 1976 by Anthony Barr, James Goodnight, John Sall and Jane Helwig. Inc. SAS (1) (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, www.sas.com) A software company that specializes in data warehousing and decision support software based on the SAS System. Founded in 1976, SAS is one of the world's largest privately held software companies. See SAS System. Marketing Automation 4.3 www.sas.com SAS Marketing Automation provides comprehensive data management, campaign management and advanced customer analytics in one integrated solution. The new version features notable enhancements such as performance capabilities with proven scalability, the solution's ability to flexibly manage multiple lines of business--product areas, customer segment or geographies--from the same system, improved real-time integration capabilities, a more powerful Web user interface for remote users and more flexible reporting and scheduling capabilities. Sendia Corporation Sendia WorkSpace CRM www.sendia.com Designed for salesforce.com mobile users, WorkSpace CRM 3.0 replaces Sendia's Wireless Salesforce Automation (SFA) 2.3 and is compatible with popular wireless handheld devices such as Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry Wireless Handhelds and Palm's Treo series. With WorkSpace CRM 3.0, custom objects such as invoices, purchase orders, HR tracking, expenses and project management originally created for the desktop version of Salesforce can be made accessible wirelessly on BlackBerry or Treo devices. This allows administrators to decide the exact custom application functionality they want mobilized on their field teams' mobile devices. SugarCRM Sugar Enterprise Edition www.sugarcrm.com Sugar Enterprise Edition is the first commercial open source CRM application designed specifically for larger businesses. It expands SugarCRM's open source platform to provide a full-featured CRM alternative to organizations with advanced database, mobility and reporting needs at a cost of just $449 per user per year, including technical support. The price also includes full access to the source code, facilitating customization and integration with legacy customer databases that can save time and increase the effectiveness of customer interactions. Tigerpaw Software, Inc. Tigerpaw CRM+ www.tigerpawsoftware.com The release of Tigerpaw CRM+ signals the completion of three years of development that spawned a host of new features and expanded functionality. Chief among them are a revamped and much-improved user interface, brand new features like project management and subcontractor One who takes a portion of a contract from the principal contractor or from another subcontractor. When an individual or a company is involved in a large-scale project, a contractor is often hired to see that the work is done. support, enhanced business analytics highlighted by a new dashboard and expanded customization tools. More than 1,000 user-requested enhancements were folded into the release, bolstering the product's core functionality of contact management, sales force and marketing automation, service management and inventory control. Other notable enhancements include a new group calendar, international date support, progressive billing functionality, payment tracking, an enhanced security model, improved RMA (RealMedia Architecture) See RealMedia. tracking, unlimited pricing levels and unlimited user-defined custom fields throughout the application. Dialing Solutions TouchStar Software Dial-On-Demand www.touchstarsoftware.com Dial-On-Demand was engineered for contact centers with two to 400 seats, and expands TouchStar Software's dialer product offering to include an affordable hosted solution. It includes a predictive dialer An automatic telephone dialing system that dials from a list of numbers and turns the call over to an agent when a human responds. It increases productivity in a call center, because the agents can spend their time talking rather than waiting for calls to go through as well as hanging up , power dialer, broadcast voice messaging Using voice mail as an alternative to electronic mail, in which voice messages are intentionally recorded, not because the recipient was not available. , graphical reports with real-time statistics, fast and easy access to software upgrades, level-one security with privilege-based assignments and 24/7 technical support. Dial-On-Demand can help provide contact centers across diverse industries with the opportunity to instantly employ a "pay-as-you-go" system. Disaster Recovery/Alerting AMTELCO RED ALERT www.redalertsystem.com RED ALERT gives organizations and call centers a fast method for automatically notifying personnel in disaster and emergency situations, as well as providing routine notifications for meetings and other events. New features added to RED ALERT help ensure that recipients receive the most current alert information, and increase the flexibility by including more system customization options. The new RED ALERT features include recorded alert messages, concurrent alert messages, status updates for confirmed receipts, real-time updating of both alert messages and contact methods, auto check-in URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. and check-in URL, custom message fields and recipient permissions. Prosodie Interactive InfoCast www.prosodieinteractive.com InfoCast is a rapid alerting and notification system A modern notification system is a combination of software and hardware that provides a means of delivering a message to a set of recipients. For example, notification systems can send an e-mail when a new topic has been added to Wikipedia. that can be controlled from anywhere. Giving managers and administrators tools to contact employees, faculty and students, contractors and vendors on an urgent or emergency basis is a challenging and expensive requirement for most organizations. InfoCast was created as a simple solution to address the growing need of both large and small organizations, businesses, schools and hospitals to reach members of their community through voice and other channels. Display Technologies/Dashboards Symon Communications Inc. SDA SDA abbr. specific dynamic action Serotonin dopamine antagonist (SDA) The newer second-generation antipsychotic drugs, also called atypical antipsychotics. (Symon Digital Appliance Any apparatus controlled by a computer. It may refer to an actual household appliance (coffee maker, toaster, etc.) that is computerized, but often refers to a handheld device such as a pager, cellphone or PDA. See Internet appliance. ) Series www.symon.com The Symon Digital Appliance (SDA-500) series of advanced network-manageable products was created to deliver digital signage Digital signage is a form of out-of-home advertising in which content and messages displayed on an electronic screen, or digital sign, can be changed without modification to the physical sign, typically with the goal of delivering targeted messages to specific locations at and a wide variety of broadcast content to visual displays such as televisions and plasmas, while combining Symon's expertise in real-time data Real-time data denotes information that is delivered immediately after collection. There is no delay in the timeliness of the information provided. Some uses of this term confuse it with the term dynamic data. collection and visual display technology. The SDA-500 is an IP/Ethernet network addressable Reachable. When something is addressable, it can be identified and manipulated independently of its surroundings. For example, screen pixels and RAM memory are addressable. Each of the screen's picture elements can be individually turned on and off, and each of the memory's bytes can be device that can be collocated with the display signage for 24 x 7 operations. Being LAN-connected enables the SDA-500 software to receive content, scheduling and other instructions from a seamless integration An addition of a new application, routine or device that works smoothly with the existing system. It implies that the new feature or program can be installed and used without problems. Contrast with "transparent," which implies that there is no discernible change after installation. to the Symon Enterprise Server (SES) single control site. Multiple display systems can be controlled and monitored from this central location, including proof of play with confirmation. The SDA controller is built on open standards Specifications for hardware and software that are developed by a standards organization or a consortium involved in supporting a standard. Available to the public for developing compliant products, open standards imply "open systems;" that an existing component in a system can be replaced and supports a wide variety of PDPs, LCDs, CRTs and projectors with preinstalled drivers and integrates with a multi-vendor networking environment. Informiam ClearPath for Contact Centers www.informiam.com Version 2.5 of the ClearPath for Contact Centers product provides contact center customers with the ability to instantly identify operational issues, determine problem root causes and automatically take corrective action A corrective action is a change implemented to address a weakness identified in a management system. Normally corrective actions are instigated in response to a customer complaint, abnormal levels if internal nonconformity, nonconformities identified during an internal audit or or receive recommendations on resolutions via the system itself. It leverages intelligent call management and IP contact center technologies to deliver improved levels of business visibility for contact centers that use traditional, IP and converged communications systems. ClearPath for Contact Centers 2.5 also introduces Integrated Performance Indicators (IPIs), added to aid contact center managers in gleaning Harvesting for free distribution to the needy, or for donation to a nonprofit organization for ultimate distribution to the needy, an agricultural crop that has been donated by the owner. insights from the real-time correlation of disparate performance metrics Performance metrics are measures of an organizations activities and performance. Performance metrics should support a range of stakeholder needs from customers, shareholders to employees [1]. . Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Plum Voice Portals MedTalk www.plumvoiceportals.com MedTalk was designed for use by healthcare providers such as pharmaceutical companies, health insurers and research organizations, and enables the automation of sophisticated communication campaigns with healthcare consumers. MedTalk is powered by the Plum VoiceXML IVR platform and facilitates notification and alerting, as well as the creation of elaborate, dynamic and scientifically valid surveys and studies. MedTalk supports 24x7x365 communication with patients via the one communication media that is almost universal in modern society: the telephone. The telephone enables participation in surveys by members of the population who are functionality illiterate, lack access to the Internet, or lack the ability to make regular physical appearances at doctors' offices or research centers. IP Contact Center Platforms Aspect Software Aspect Uniphi Suite v6.1 www.aspect.com Aspect Uniphi Suite is an operating environment In computing, an operating environment is the environment in which users run programs, whether in a command line interface, such as in MS-DOS or the Unix shell, or in a graphical user interface, such as in the Macintosh operating system. that gives businesses the flexibility and functionality needed for the convergence of contact center applications including ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) A computerized phone system that responds to the caller with a voice menu and connects the call to the appropriate agent. It can also distribute calls equally to agents. , CTI (Computer Telephone Integration) Combining data with voice systems in order to enhance telephone services. For example, automatic number identification (ANI) allows a caller's records to be retrieved from the database while the call is routed to the appropriate party. and IVR on a single, switch-agnostic platform that supports both PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) The worldwide voice telephone network. Once only an analog system, the heart of most telephone networks today is all digital. In the U.S. and IP switches. Released in June 2005, Uniphi Suite v6.1 is the next step in the platform's evolution, offering streamlined customer interaction, simpler application development and system administration, and centralized cen·tral·ize v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. reporting and analytics--all while doubling the number of agents supported. Based on the Aspect Uniphi architecture, Uniphi Suite includes the Aspect Uniphi Engine, Aspect Uniphi Contact Center, Aspect Uniphi Voice Portal and tight integration with Aspect's workforce management Workforce Management (WFM) encompasses all the responsibilities for maintaining a productive and happy workforce. Sometimes referred to as HRMS systems, or even the larger ERP systems (Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP). There are many software vendors within this space. software. Avaya Avaya IP Office with Microsoft CRM www.avaya.com The Avaya IP Office Customer Management suite featuring Microsoft CRM encompasses all the hardware, software and support that businesses need to transform their sales and service operations. The IP Office solution integrated with Microsoft CRM delivers on a strategic alliance announced between Avaya and Microsoft to create packaged business solutions for small and medium-sized organizations. The solution now combines Avaya's IP Office Solution and contact center application with the Sales and Customer Service modules of Microsoft CRM Professional edition, coupling telephony call routing with customer relationship management technology to enable a new set of applications that can improve the customer experience and increase the information businesses have about their customers. Cisco Systems “Cisco” redirects here. For other uses, see Cisco (disambiguation). Cisco System,Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO, HKSE: 4333 ) is an American multinational corporation with 54,000 employees and annual revenue of US $28.48 billion as of 2006. Cisco IP Contact Center Enterprise Edition www.cisco.com The new Cisco IPCC See IMS Forum. Gateway provides customers with the option to increase the scalability of their contact centers while also offering more flexible deployment options. Customers can deploy and manage a single customer contact solution for an entire enterprise or choose site-specific Cisco IPCC Enterprise and manage them from a single ICM ICM Intercom ICM Integrated Crop Management ICM International Congress of Mathematicians ICM Information Classification and Management ICM Intelligent Contact Management (Cisco) ICM International Creative Management . This option allows customers to address contact center ownership requirements at a specific site while still maintaining a virtual solution. The Cisco IPCC Gateway also allows for greater overall system redundancy, business continuity and a seamless migration from a traditional call center environment to an IP-based solution. CosmoCom CosmoCall Universe 4.5 www.cosmocom.com CosmoCall Universe (CCU CCU abbr. 1. coronary care unit 2. critical care unit CCU critical care unit. CCU Critical care unit, see there ) is an all-IP contact center platform with carrier-class reliability. CCU helps organizations achieve higher levels of customer service while reducing costs, by supporting all of their enterprisewide contact center needs from one virtual contact center platform, self-hosted or hosted by a network service provider. The CCU platform unifies all communication channels, including telephone, video phone, e-mail, voice mail and Web chat/voice/video/collaboration, and also unifies the contact center functions of automatic call distribution (ACD), interactive voice and video response (IVVR IVVR Interactive Voice & Video Response ), computer-telephony integration (CTI), recording and quality monitoring, interaction history, and administration and reporting. deltathree Launch Ready Outsourced Platform Solution www.deltathree.com deltathree's "Launch Ready" solution provides cable and Internet service providers Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. with a complete VoIP telephony solution with a sharp focus on customers' needs. While deltathree's modular counterpart lets larger companies select the specific elements they want to outsource, enabling them to leverage their existing in-house capabilities and completely customize their products, medium-sized companies that have limited resources and capabilities find the deltathree "Launch Ready" solution more attractive. The "Launch Ready" solution provides a full turnkey solution and allows service providers to move quickly from the initial planning stage to full implementation. Eagle IP LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control EagleACD www.eagle.net EagleACD's hosted contact center model is a tool for giving small businesses and large enterprises the functional equivalent of a premise-based call center, including full operational and administrative control Direction or exercise of authority over subordinate or other organizations in respect to administration and support, including organization of Service forces, control of resources and equipment, personnel management, unit logistics, individual and unit training, readiness, mobilization, and access to all real-time and historical reports, without the implementation lead time, the system integration cost, and the capital expense of an in-house system. EagleACD offers full control of call treatment with monitoring and recording of all media for effective call center management and quality assurance. Five9 Virtual Contact Center www.five9.com The Five9 Virtual Contact Center was designed to enable companies of any size to build a comprehensive, feature-rich contact center without hardware, software or upfront capital expenditures. In addition to helping companies generate higher sales and customer service productivity and operating and long-distance cost savings, Five9's on-demand service allows for easy set-up and administration of single-site, distributed and at-home agent workforces and enables them to act as an integrated virtual call center, regardless of geographic location. The Five9 Virtual Contact Center consists of a comprehensive suite of applications, including blended inbound and outbound calling, automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, CRM, automatic number identification, IVR, call scripting, computer-telephony integration, remote agent capabilities, skills-based routing, call recording, silent monitoring, real-time reporting and centralized management. FrontRange Solutions This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. IP Contact Center (IPCC) 5.0 www.frontrange.com The new version of FrontRange's Voice Over Internet Protocol-based (VoIP) software suite features quality management and integration with other FrontRange product families, including the company's HEAT, GoldMine Corporate Edition, and the new IT Service Management (ITSM ITSM Information Technology Service Management ITSM Information Technology Security Manager ITSM Indirect Tensile Stiffness Modulus ITSM Information Technology System Management ITSM Ibm Tivoli Storage Manager ITSM It Service Management ) modules. As contact center managers continue to scrutinize scru·ti·nize tr.v. scru·ti·nized, scru·ti·niz·ing, scru·ti·niz·es To examine or observe with great care; inspect critically. scru and manage costs meticulously, IPCC's integration to business applications reduces implementation as well as ongoing costs. FrontRange IPCC 5.0 enables users to train staff more effectively with features like the optional module Quality Management with which a supervisor can record calls with server-based recording and call rating. Genesys Telecommunications Labs, Inc. Genesys Enterprise Telephony Software (GETS) www.genesyslab.com GETS enhances information workers' desktop real-time collaboration experience by enabling users to call contacts directly from within the right-click presence menu that is displayed in several familiar Microsoft Office Microsoft's primary desktop applications for Windows and Mac. Depending on the package, it includes some combination of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook along with various Internet and other utilities. applications, such as Outlook, Excel, Word and SharePoint. GETS also provides the telephony presence info that is displayed within Communicator. The technology helps maximize worker productivity by saving time agents would otherwise spend switching between applications to find contacts, and calling or setting up meetings and conference calls when contacts are busy, on the phone or away. Interactive Intelligence Inc. Customer Interaction Center (CIC CIC circulating immune complexes. CIC Circulating immune complexes. See Immune complexes. ) www.inin.com The new version of CIC provides three important new capabilities. First, the release introduces a new session initiation protocol-based Interaction Media Server, which provides an increase in IP system scalability and reliability by transferring the majority of all media processing See media control. to the dedicated media server. Second, CIC delivers additional agent optimization enhancements including screen recording, whisper coaching and agent alerts. The final addition to the release targets the product's enterprise telephony users with enhancements to the voice messaging component of the offering, including a speech recognition interface for message management and the addition of customer-configurable voice mail menus. Kayote Networks, Inc. FronTier--Advanced VoIP Traffic Management System www.kayote.com FronTier is Kayote Networks' flagship hosted VoIP traffic management solution. It was designed to enable carriers and Internet telephony service providers (communications) Internet Telephony Service Providers - (ITSP) Companies providing IP Telephony. (ITSPs) to deploy mission-critical VoIP networks quickly, efficiently and securely with complete technical support and comprehensive provisioning and monitoring functionality. Companies spend a lot of money setting up their own VoIP operations, which require elaborate Session Border Controllers A Session Border Controller is a device used in some VoIP networks to exert control over the signaling and usually also the media streams involved in setting up, conducting, and tearing down calls. (SBCs) and routing engine hardware, software licensing agreements and support contracts. However, this still leaves VoIP networks with extensive interoperability challenges. FronTier combines the features of an SBC (1) (SBC Communications Inc., San Antonio, TX, www.sbc.com) A large, national telecommunications company that grew from a multitude of local and regional companies, including Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell, into a single, unified brand by 2002. and routing engine with robust management and reporting tools, all within a secure environment, providing carriers and ITSPs with an advanced, field-proven interconnectivity solution. Telephony@Work Dynamic Customer Satisfaction Management www.telephonyatwork.com Dynamic Customer Satisfaction Management (DCSM DCSM Distributed Computer Systems Management DCSM Dual Channel Stereo Mixer ) is not a feature but rather a set of capabilities that spans across various technologies to deliver maximum customer satisfaction rates. Traditional service level approaches don't provide reliable data on customer satisfaction because they measure adherence to corporate policies rather than whether customers were actually satisfied with the quality of the service that they received. CallCenterAnywhere Enterprise Edition V.8.0 effectively addresses the problem of how to accurately measure customer satisfaction by measuring it directly, with end-of-transaction surveys which supplement traditional service-level data analysis. The solution goes beyond existing survey technology approaches by dynamically implementing technology-driven responses to negative customer feedback and adapting routing rules to take account of customer feedback trends for future routing decisions. Vertical Communications Vertical Communications, Inc. NASDAQ: VRCC is a corporation that specializes in software-based PBXes (eg business telephone systems). Vertical Communications changed its name on 1 January, 2005 from Artisoft, Inc. after acquiring Vertical Networks in September 2004. TeleVantage 7 www.vertical.com Vertical Communications' TeleVantage 7 is a software-based IP-PBX targeted at small and medium-sized businesses. The enhancements in the new version aim to build on TeleVantage's reputation for providing superior productivity tools, ease of use and lower costs of ownership. With TeleVantage 7, Vertical provides greater productivity and cost reductions through comprehensive SIP support, allowing customers to take advantage of the growing range and decreasing costs of SIP-enabled networks. TeleVantage 7 customers can now deploy everything from a pure SIP solution, to a hybrid solution of SIP, digital and analog phones, all with full access to TeleVantage's feature set. Knowledge Management/Business Intelligence Envision The Envision Report Server www.envisioninc.com The Envision Report Server is a centralized reporting database that will gather key agent performance data as well as key customer interaction data. The search and reporting capability will allow users to make customer queries, spot trends and produce customized reports based on customers' business requirements. The product was designed to address the growing desire of customers to design new quality metrics as well as defining metrics to measure and better understand the customer experience. The data mart A subset of a data warehouse for a single department or function. A data mart may have tens of gigabytes of data rather than hundreds of gigabytes for the entire enterprise. See data warehouse. allows for centralized data and processing; de-normalized data for fast, ad hoc For this purpose. Meaning "to this" in Latin, it refers to dealing with special situations as they occur rather than functions that are repeated on a regular basis. See ad hoc query and ad hoc mode. reports; storage of historical data; summarization of reports based on any business requirement; and integration with other enterprise data sources to present a single view of the entire enterprise. InQuira Inc. InQuira www.inquira.com The InQuira 7 customer interaction platform helps empower companies to consistently manage their customers' interaction experiences across Web self-service and assisted-service channels. A complete suite of applications built from a core ability to understand language for its semantic meaning, InQuira can analyze any search interaction to determine the searcher's need or "intent" and index enterprise knowledge assets for their meaning. Armed with an understanding of customer or user intents, regardless of how they are articulated, companies can focus their resources on optimizing the customer interaction experience on an intent-by-intent basis, regardless of interaction channel (Web, call center, e-mail) or stage in the customer interaction lifecycle (i.e., acquisition, transaction, fulfill, service). Knova Software Knova 6.5 www.knova.com Knova 6.5, the company's application suite, is built on what the company calls a "next-generation search and knowledge management platform." Version 6.5 applications include Knova Contact Center, an assisted-service application that automates the resolution process for customer service agents and support analysts; Knova Self-Service, a self-service application A software application that allows a user to obtain information or complete a business transaction on the computer that has traditionally required the help of a human representative. Voice response systems and Web sites are widely used for self-service applications. See kiosk. that enables customers to help themselves with a personalized per·son·al·ize tr.v. per·son·al·ized, per·son·al·iz·ing, per·son·al·iz·es 1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner. 2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. , proactive self-service experience; Knova Forums, an integrated forums application for peer-service that enables customers to help each other while providing valuable feedback; Knova Field Service, a mobile support application that enables service professionals to quickly resolve customer issues on-site; and Knova Knowledge Desk, a knowledge management solution that helps service desks to more quickly resolve problems and answer questions Latigent LLC BlueVue II www.latigent.com BlueVue II Business Intelligence Suite was designed to be the convergence of business intelligence, performance management, reporting and analytics for the call center, employee management and enterprise RSS (Really Simple Syndication) A syndication format that was developed by Netscape in 1999 and became very popular for aggregating updates to blogs and the news sites. RSS has also stood for "Rich Site Summary" and "RDF Site Summary. in a single product, on a single architecture. According to Latigent, BlueVue II is the first business intelligence portal A corporate portal that enables users to query and produce reports on enterprise-wide databases. The term was coined by Information Advantage, makers of the MyEureka software, which was the first to combine BI software with a corporate portal. See MyEureka and BI software. to integrate an enterprise RSS aggregator and reader to create a converged information portal for employees. Managers and employees can identify the feeds that are applicable and incorporate them into dashboards with reports and charts from other data sources. BlueVue II adds several new features to allow for greater data connectivity and report design flexibility, including: Web service support for building reports on non-premise-based data; the capability to apply XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) A standard from the W3C for describing a style sheet for XML documents. It is the XML counterpart to the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in HTML and is compatible with CSS2. templates to BlueVue reports giving the report author complete control over the presentation layer; and the ability to integrate reports directly with third-party Web-based applications. OutStart OutStart Participate V2006 www.outstart.com OutStart Participate is a knowledge, expertise and community management platform. V2006 addresses key barriers associated with contributing and using the learning and knowledge that employees, customers and partners need to perform their jobs efficiently and effectively. New capabilities include the organic contribution of knowledge to eliminate the typical knowledge creation bottleneck; connections to existing document, information and data repositories; and the ability to leverage the extensive learning objects contained within formal and rapid training sources. With these expanded capabilities and newly created learning objects, the OutStart Participate system can act as the single source of on-demand learning and knowledge available through a self-service, just-in-time manner. Performance Management/Training Aon Consulting REPeValuator www.aon.com/tsc/repevaluator REPeValuator is a Web-based simulation that assesses the critical skills of contact center candidates who are seeking positions that require communication in both English and Spanish. LOMASelect REPeValuator Bilingual measures essential on-the-job skills like managing customer relationships, providing complete and accurate information and managing call time. The LOMASelect REPeValuator Bilingual simulation determines how well candidates deal with customers using Web chat and phone interaction while providing a human touch. Candidates face different scenarios from customers inquiring about product support and service termination. Co-nexus, Inc. CXM CXM Canmex Minerals Corporation (stock symbol) Agent Portal www.4cxm.com CXM is a suite of call logging and quality monitoring products. The CXM system is comprised of hardware (servers and voice boards) and software that are integrated with the customers' PBX (Private Branch eXchange) An inhouse telephone switching system that interconnects telephone extensions to each other as well as to the outside telephone network (PSTN). and LAN (Local Area Network) A communications network that serves users within a confined geographical area. The "clients" are the user's workstations typically running Windows, although Mac and Linux clients are also used. . CXM is used by businesses to help improve customer satisfaction, resolve customer disputes, verify information, ensure compliance and improve agent performance. New to CXM V4 is the CXM Agent Portal; the agents' virtual classroom. Within the Agent Portal, each agent has a private view of their recordings, their evaluation results and access to all of their training materials. Enkata Enkata 5 www.enkata.com Enkata 5 is an Operational Performance Management (OPM See Oracle Process Manufacturing. ) suite that offers industry-specific solutions designed to capture, integrate and analyze both front- and back-office operational data to provide businesses with actionable information needed to reduce costs while simultaneously increasing customer loyalty. Released in February 2005, Enkata 5 includes three solution suites: Enkata Contact Performance, Enkata Back Office Performance and Enkata Voice of the Customer. Together, the solutions help companies provide an integrated view of the entire end-to-end customer lifecycle, enabling organizations to both identify the root causes of costly operational failures that lead to high contact volumes, dissatisfaction and churn, and take corrective action that improves overall service and cost effectiveness. etalk Qfiniti Enterprise www.etalk.com Qfiniti Enterprise is a unified call recording, agent evaluation and advanced speech analytics solution for the contact center market. The solution was created to deliver a scalable and centrally managed enterprise platform that allows international, multisite customer service operations to effectively monitor, measure, improve and understand relevant customer interactions. Qfiniti Enterprise has new features and functionality, including a fully integrated recording, evaluation and speech analytics offering for quality monitoring, logging and VoIP-based call acquisition that does not use third-party analytics technology. In addition, the new interface provides operational and visual improvement and supports language localization Customizing software and documentation for a particular country. It includes the translation of menus and messages into the native spoken language as well as changes in the user interface to accommodate different alphabets and culture. See internationalization and l10n. , which is expected to open up more international opportunities. Merced Systems Merced Performance Suite www.mercedsystems.com The Merced Performance Suite (MPS) increases contact center efficiency and effectiveness by consolidating data from disparate sources, delivering advanced analytics, providing personalized dashboards and integrating workflow and process improvement tools. By delivering performance data to every employee and automating key managerial processes, Merced can help link data directly to specific employee actions, driving overall operational productivity. With v2.5, Merced Systems has introduced two new features: Staff Manager, which provides a unified view of both quantitative and qualitative performance data; and Pre-configured Workflows, which are best practices for coaching and recognition. Onyx onyx (ŏn`ĭks), variety of cryptocrystalline quartz, differing from agate only in that the bands of which it is composed are parallel and regular. Software Onyx Process Manager www.onyx.com Onyx Process Manager was designed to help companies automate, manage and evolve customer processes with efficiency and consistency. The solution includes applications for process design and business rules creation, which enable organizations to streamline key business processes. Onyx Process Manager is part of the Onyx Process Management portfolio of products. It allows business analysts to design and modify end-to-end business processes using graphical workflow and business rule design tools. The technology enables users to model processes without writing code, thereby reducing the need for IT support--as well as the associated delay and expense--while creating greater business agility for the enterprise. Opus Group (a division of Verint Systems Verint Systems (Pink Sheets: VRNT) is a leading provider of analytic software and hardware based solutions for the security and business intelligence markets. See also
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Opus Suite www.theopusgroup.com The new Opus Performance Analytics solution combines process optimization Process optimization is the practice of making changes or adjustments to a process, to get results. Optimization is the use of specific techniques to determine the most cost effective and efficient solution to a problem or design for a process. techniques with performance analytics to help enterprises enhance operational performance across their customer-facing and back-office operations. The Opus Suite includes performance analytics that integrate and analyze data from a variety of systems across the enterprise, including customer and operational databases such as CRM and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) An integrated information system that serves all departments within an enterprise. Evolving out of the manufacturing industry, ERP implies the use of packaged software rather than proprietary software written by or for one customer. , and presents these data in an executive dashboard to help management identify areas of improvement and drive operational performance. The Opus Suite dashboard delivers business process, compliance and operational performance intelligence directly to executives and alerts them when performance in key areas drops below acceptable levels. Executives can then drill down by department, team or individual to determine the root cause of the unacceptable performance levels. Ulysses Learning Ulysses Learning helps global organizations improve customer service, sales and coaching results at all points of customer contact. Client results are achieved by using simulation-based e-Learning intelligently blended with facilitation, coaching and performance improvement CallMentor Learning and Performance Improvement System www.ulysseslearning.com Ulysses Learning says that CallMentor develops what's often "the missing link" between executive intent and front-line execution--sound judgment and effective sales and service skills employees can use in every customer conversation to consistently deliver the company's brand promise. The company uses simulation-based e-learning blended with facilitation Facilitation The process of providing a market for a security. Normally, this refers to bids and offers made for large blocks of securities, such as those traded by institutions. , coaching and performance improvement consulting. The 2005 version features new skill reinforcement training aligned with simulations, enabling ongoing development and refinement of skills on the job. The company has also enhanced its performance tracking process and post-training Knowledge Transfer Plan. Verint Systems Inc. ULTRA IntelliMiner 9.4 Performance Intelligence www.verint.com ULTRA Analytics, powered by Verint's IntelliFind and IntelliMiner solutions, combines voice and data analysis to help enterprises identify, understand and resolve issues that impact the effectiveness of their customer-focused operations. ULTRA Analytics goes beyond traditional performance management and workforce optimization tools, enabling businesses to understand what is happening in their operations and identify the underlying causes. ULTRA Analytics provides actionable intelligence Having the necessary information immediately available in order to deal with the situation at hand. With regard to call centers, it refers to agents having customer history and related product data available on screen before the call is taken. on critical issues such as why agents are underperforming, why customers are dissatisfied or why enterprise processes are ineffective. Salesforce Automation Concurrent Technologies CT.SFA www.concurrenttechnologies.com CT. SFA + is a complete Web-based solution that allows companies to automate their marketing and sales processes and integrate key customer information across their organizations. CT.SFA + supports the strategies that help further enhance relationships with existing clients and establish relationships with new clients. With the product's intuitive, easy-to-use interface, users can more efficiently manage sales opportunities, securely centralize cen·tral·ize v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. and access client data, effectively create and manage sophisticated marketing campaigns and improve day-to-day operations. VanillaSoft, Inc. VanillaSoft www.vanillasoft.com VanillaSoft delivers a Web-based application that helps inside sales teams improve their calling efficiency by 35 percent or more. Typical CRM functionality has been designed to handle complex account management tasks, not to improve productivity. By offering a "desktop distraction-free" environment, interactive call scripting, one-click response collection, progressive dialing and automatic call recording in one package, the VanillaSoft application can help improve both the efficiency and the quality of every call. Speech Technologies Nexidia Nexidia Enterprise Speech Intelligence 5.0 www.nexidia.com Building on Nexidia's existing technology, Nexidia ESI (Edge Side Includes) A markup language for Web pages that enables elements of a Web page to be dynamically assembled in servers distributed throughout the Internet. 5.0 was designed to help dramatically impact an organization's ability to generate and analyze intelligence contained in recorded spoken interactions. Nexidia's approach makes recorded audio searchable at over 55 times real time and returns search results from the database at over 30 million times real time. New features in Nexidia ESI 5.0 include enhanced analysis using metadata, additional reporting and trending capabilities, enhancements to searching recorded speech and media replay and search. Utopy, Inc. Utopy SpeechMiner 3.5 www.utopy.com SpeechMiner 3.5 is the latest version of Utopy's speech analytics solution. It identifies, evaluates and catalogs events within recorded person-to-person conversations, providing reports that categorize cat·e·go·rize tr.v. cat·e·go·rized, cat·e·go·riz·ing, cat·e·go·riz·es To put into a category or categories; classify. cat the content of customer conversations for contact center managers, quality monitoring groups, sales, marketing and business unit managers. According to the company, they have strengthened the solution's ability to accurately capture the meaning of conversations and correctly categorize calls; upgraded SpeechMiner's "Enterprise Ready" features so it easily supports complex, multi-divisional solutions across wide area enterprises; enhanced SMART, the solution's topic and management software, in terms of ease-of-use and features; and made pre-packaged reports available in Microsoft Reporting Services. Vicorp UK Limited xMP www.vicorp.com Vicorp's xMP service creation capabilities allow users to present next-generation speech and data services to the market rapidly and in a way that enables both clients and their customers to control the key service elements themselves, with less technical skills. xMP enables users to quickly create, deploy and manage a range of high quality voice self-services, from the provision of Web access, allowing customers to make changes to their interactive voice services as well as construct sophisticated speech-based voice services. The xMP software is unique in its ability to offer a secure, partitioned service that allows customers the freedom to make real-time changes to their customer self-service applications, which are then executed in the their network. This enables customers to focus on providing better services for their consumers without the need to invest and manage complex and costly technology infrastructure. Surveys/Feedback Benchmark Portal Echo Customer Feedback Solution www.benchmarkportal.com Echo is a Web-based application designed to help companies continually improve the service they provide by collecting and leveraging the voice of their customers. With Echo in place, real-time feedback is channeled directly from the customer to front-line customer service representatives, which results in CSRs being able to self-correct gaps in the service they deliver, based upon the behavioral reinforcement or redirection they receive. Feedback directed to the company's leadership team is available via meaningful online reports that can be filtered to view by CSR (1) (Customer Service Representative) A person who handles a customer's request regarding a bill, account changes or service or merchandise ordered. Agents in call centers are known as CSRs. See call center. , team, location, product, reason for call and other factors. Testing Solutions Empirix Inc. Hammer Service Assurance for Cisco CVP CVP central venous pressure. CVP abbr. central venous pressure CVP central venous pressure. CVP Central venous pressure, see there www.empirix.com Hammer Service Assurance for Cisco CVP is a solution designed to ensure the quality of Cisco Customer Voice Portal (CVP) applications; according to Empirix, similar testing and management solutions for other VXML See VoiceXML. platform vendors will follow. Hammer Service Assurance for Cisco CVP is a managed service that allows enterprises to reap the benefit of the experience of Empirix and its partner, Audium, with VXML application lifecycle and quality assurance. It was designed to lower the barriers to implementing thorough testing and management practices. Empirix and Audium's integrated testing and management solutions focus on the quality perspective that matters most--that of the caller. Based on Empirix's Hammer technology--a voice transaction engine that can hear, speak and listen just as a caller can--they combine a test harness In software testing, a test harness or automated test framework is a collection of software and test data configured to test a program unit by running it under varying conditions and monitor its behavior and outputs. built by Audium with Empirix's managed services An umbrella term for third-party monitoring and maintaining of computers, networks and software. The actual equipment may be inhouse or at the third-party's facilities, but the "managed" implies an ongoing effort; for example, making sure the equipment is running at a certain quality for pre-deployment testing and production monitoring of voice applications. Web-based Customer Service Citrix Online Citrix Online is a division of Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS) that sells Web-based remote access, support, and collaboration software and services. Its products are GoToAssist, GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, and GoToWebinar. Citrix GoToAssist www.citrixonline.com GoToAssist is a remote assistance solution that enables contact centers and outsourcers, consulting and IT professionals to better help their customers anytime and anywhere, while increasing profitability. Now in its seventh generation and delivering more than 10,000,000 remote sessions annually to more than 4,000 corporate customers, GoToAssist is a managed service offering high ease-of-use, quality of service, availability, security and capability. With its advanced suite of new features, including a management center dashboard, expanded integration services, best practices resource center and enhanced collaboration and productivity tools, GoToAssist 7.0 can help transform remote services/support into competitive advantage. Glance Networks Inc. Glance 2.0 www.glance.net The Glance screen-sharing service, used primarily as a sales tool for hosting instant Web demos and presentations, provides a quick and dependable Web demo service. It includes "Guests Connect for Free" flat-rate pricing and the ability to connect instantly to nearly any PC, Mac or Linux computer without downloading software. Inter-Tel, Incorporated Inter-Tel Remote Support www.inter-tel.com Inter-Tel Remote Support was designed to be a secure and efficient customer service tool that enables technical and sales support groups to quickly troubleshoot and correct end user issues. Through this application, agents have the ability to view and control a user's desktop to perform a number of tasks remotely, such as installing and configuring software, troubleshooting PC issues, transferring files and sharing documents and applications with customers, and co-browsing to direct customers to online resources that can further assist end users in resolving issues. The product includes a queuing capability that visually displays specific information on incoming callers, a recording and playback feature developed to enhance technical training and development, a system recovery tool to allow complex problems to be resolved quickly, and online management tools to track and access service histories and other relevant data. KANA Software Kana Software, Inc., usually rendered KANA (NASDAQ: KANA) is a software company, located in Menlo Park, California. It was founded in 1996 by Mark Gainey as Kana Communications. KANA's current CEO and chairman of the board is Michael Fields. KANA Response www.kana.com KANA Response allows companies to manage and respond to all e-mail. With the newly unveiled Active Framework, customer information is pulled automatically in real-time from any data source, including KANA's knowledge base application, KANA IQ. The latest version also includes increased security layers and agent management and monitoring tools. KANA Response is designed to handle up to 500,000 e-mails, in virtually any language, every day, helping guarantee almost immediate response and resolution to customer queries. The latest version helps reduce customer service costs by providing agent productivity capabilities such as a unified agent view and access to content and knowledge wherever it resides. Now, with KANA Active Framework, a rules-based desktop integration framework, Response automatically pulls data from multiple back-office systems, based on keywords in customer e-mails, to automate the resolution of transactional inquiries, including questions regarding order status, shipping and billing. LivePerson Inc. Timpani timpani: see kettledrum. timpani or kettledrums Large bowl-shaped drums with pedal mechanisms for altering their pitch by changing the membrane's tension. The timpani are the principal orchestral percussion instruments. 7.5 www.liveperson.com With new features that render relevant Web content to targeted visitors and supply better visibility into visitor behavior, Timpani 7.5 enables organizations to improve the return on online sales and service initiatives. The latest release of LivePerson's hosted multichannel communication solution was created to deliver enhanced capabilities that enable contextual and personalized online interactions, directly influencing consumer buying behavior and improving conversion rates. Featured enhancements in Timpani 7.5 include SmartBar, a function that identifies Web site visitors and audience segments that are likely to respond to offers and then automatically displays relevant content; a refined rules engine; robust reporting capabilities; and enhanced CRM tools. NextNine NextNine Service Automation www.nextnine.com NextNine Service Automation (NSA NSA abbr. National Security Agency Noun 1. NSA - the United States cryptologic organization that coordinates and directs highly specialized activities to protect United States information systems and to produce foreign ) version 3.5 was designed to facilitate improved workflows and system efficiency, providing technology vendors with a competitive advantage. The NextNine Service Automation platform enables proactive monitoring, automatic problem escalation and diagnostics, self-healing and remote secure access--functionality which significantly increases system availability and customer satisfaction while simultaneously improving the efficiency of an organization's support mechanism. Spanlink Communications Spanlink's Web Q & A www.spanlink.com Spanlink's Web Q & A product incorporates patented natural language-based question-answering technology that enables users to find answers to their questions on a company's Web site more quickly and easily. Web Q & A leverages Spanlink's natural language understanding technology, which allows customer service and support centers to provide precise answers to customer inquiries without human intervention for Web, e-mail and phone applications. The application understands questions and the content of an organization's information sources. Customers are able to ask or type questions in their own words; the software then delivers the precise answers, not thousands of potentially relevant documents, and the process increases accuracy and reduces response times and man-hours for retrieving information. Toshiba America Information Systems Toshiba Video Communication System www.telecom.toshiba.com Toshiba's VCS (1) (Verilog Computer Simulator) See Verilog. (2) (Version Control System) See version control. will initially provide affordable point-to-point (P2P See peer-to-peer and point-to-point. ) video communications and collaboration (desktop and applications sharing) capabilities. Using voice extensions, video can seamlessly be added to telephone conversations. A number of default settings (on, off, communication rate and window size for video) can be configured to meet the individual user's needs. Functionality is integrated into the telephony capabilities with features specifically tailored to handle video telephony See videophone. , including features such as hold, transfer and forward. Workforce Management/Performance Optimization IEX IEX Ion Exchange (chromatography) IEX Inter-Exchange Carrier Corporation TotalView Workforce Management System, v3.9 www.iex.com Version 3.9 of the TotalView Workforce Management system offers skill block scheduling Block scheduling is a type of academic scheduling in which each student has fewer classes per day for a longer period of time. This is intended to result in more time for teaching due to less time wasted due to class switching and preparation. features that make it easier to manage multichannel contact types and other back-office work. The new version also heightens agent empowerment with new time off management and schedule preference capabilities. Skill Block Scheduling automatically designates optimal time slots for agents to devote to a particular skill, such as outbound calling, e-mail, Web chat or other customer contact channel types. Additionally, centers can also manage offline tasks such as filing, fulfillment and other types of work. During these designated periods, the agent is considered open to handle only a defined subset of contact types. As a result, the center can manage multimedia and offline contact types more effectively. Inova Solutions, Inc. Inova Performance Optimization Suite 5.1 www.inovasolutions.com Inova LightLink is the core of the Inova Performance Optimization Suite, a family of products designed to simplify the real-time capture and communication of vital information across customer service operations. Inova LightLink 5.1 offers expanded database and XML support, providing customers with greater flexibility in managing their key data. Inova Broadcaster integrates with Inova LightLink to enable customers to display unified views of real-time data along with other mixed media content. Version 5.1 is also capable of pulling information directly from an external database, supporting basic data display in less time-sensitive environments. This latest release includes a new set of charts, gauges and graphs that offer advanced 3-D and transparency effects for presenting data with high visual impact. Customers have full control over appearance through configuration options, and configuration settings can be saved as templates for easy re-use across multiple screen layouts. Left Bank Solutions Monet WFM (1) (Wired For Management) A specification from Intel for a PC that can be centrally managed in a network. It must be DMI compliant, be accessible by a management server prior to booting, contain instrumentation for component discovery and identification and OnDemand www.leftbanksolutions.com Monet WFM OnDemand workforce planning Strategic Workforce Planning involves analyzing and forecasting the talent that companies need to execute their business strategy, proactively rather than reactively, it is a critical strategic activity, enabling the organization to identify, develop and sustain the workforce software was designed to be a vital component in capturing efficiencies, particularly in small to medium-sized contact centers for which finding the right "fit" tools can be difficult. The product harnesses the benefits of an enterprise-class WFM application without the large upfront investment for hardware, software licensing and installation. Monet WFM OnDemand features a skills-based forecasting simulator engine that provides an on-demand model designed to empower managers to forecast and best schedule agents to handle inbound calls, outbound calls, e-mail, Internet messaging, Web callbacks and other related back-office activities. The product offers drag-and-drop rostering to make training easier and requires no hardware, software or IT support resources. It adjusts to support as few as 25 to over 1,000 agents. Witness Systems Witness Systems' Impact 360 www.witness.com Witness' new workforce optimization solution, Impact 360, was created with the goal in mind of enabling global organizations to deploy a holistic, streamlined framework and accompanying feature-rich solution set with speed and confidence. Impact 360 brings together a synergistic solution for workforce management, quality monitoring/full-time recording, e-learning and performance management. The WFO WFO Weather Forecast Office WFO Wirtschaftsförderung Osnabrück Gmbh WFO Western Field Ornithologists WFO Washington Field Office WFO Work for Others (USACE) WFO World Federation of Orthodontists WFO Wide Full Open framework empowers organizations to access information, including actual recorded interactions, more quickly, easily and confidently. The company notes that Witness Systems' technology and distribution partners such as Avaya and Nortel will leverage the Impact 360 platform to further extend benefits to an even broader base of customers around the world. If you are interested in purchasing reprints of this article (in either print or PDF (Portable Document Format) The de facto standard for document publishing from Adobe. On the Web, there are countless brochures, data sheets, white papers and technical manuals in the PDF format. format), please visit Reprint Management Services online at www.reprintbuyer.com or contact a representative via e-mail at tmcnet@reprintbuyer.com or by phone at 800-290-5460. For information and subscriptions, visit www.TMCnet.com or call 203-852-6800. |
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