Fourth-annual CRM excellence awards Part II. (Customer Relationship Management).For the fourth consecutive year, the editors of Customer Inter@ction Solutions[R] dared readers to prove that their companies have what it takes to win the coveted cov·et v. cov·et·ed, cov·et·ing, cov·ets v.tr. 1. To feel blameworthy desire for (that which is another's). See Synonyms at envy. 2. To wish for longingly. See Synonyms at desire. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. Excellence Award. Below ate the winners...the companies that offer the best and the brightest customer relationship management products and services, all to the benefit of their clients, Winners were chosen on hard data...quantifiable results that convinced us, without a doubt, that their clients were infinitely better off with these companies' products and services than without. Congratulations to the winners! EDITORS NOTE: Because of the very large volume of deserving award recipients, the CRM Excellence Awards are being presented in two parts, with the first part appearing in the June 2003 issue of Customer Inter@ction Solutions[R] 3Com www.3com.com Product: 3Com NBX (Network Branch EXchange) A family of IP-based telephony systems from 3Com. The name was derived from "PBX," the traditional name for an enterprise telephone switch. IP-based telephone system The client reports, "Thanks to 3Com, we've unified our voice communications across all of our locations. This lets us operate more efficiently and serve our customers more effectively. Our new voice solution ensures our ability to deliver consistent service to every location and to continue doing so as we grow. AltiGen Communications www.altigen.com Product: AltiGen P telephony product family "So far, the company has seen cost savings result in two areas. Interoffice in·ter·of·fice adj. Transmitted or taking place between offices, especially those of a single organization: an interoffice memo; interoffice conferences. calls (calls within the VoIP system to fellow employees across multiple company sites) now cost nothing since they travel through the existing data network. Also, the client was able to negotiate lower per-minute rates for incoming 800 and outbound out·bound adj. Outward bound; headed away: outbound trains. Adj. 1. outbound - that is going out or leaving; "the departing train"; "an outward journey"; "outward-bound ships" calls, as all calls are now routed though the main Chicago hub. Additionally, they are now able to use call center resources in India, which was not an option before implementing a VoIP phone See IP phone and softphone. system." Amdocs ClarifyCRM www.amdocs.com Product: Amdocs ClarifyCRM product suite "Amdocs ClarifyCRM improved the service delivered by the client to its customers by reducing the time it takes to resolve queries, enabling users to carry out their own simple support tasks, and automating many support functions. For instance, by automating the processing of 30,000 password re-set requests each year, Amdocs ClarifyCRM has reduced time and resources by 10 percent, which equates to U.S. $96,000 a year." Americall Group, Inc. www.callmarcom.com Service: Consolidation Program "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, has supported the client since June 2002. Over this time period, AGI has accepted 22,412 inbound in·bound 1 adj. Bound inward; incoming: inbound commuter traffic. Adj. 1. inbound calls, placed 140,645 outbound calls, sent out 34,699 applications and has delivered 11,525 complete applications back to the client. Applications generated have involved over $200 million dollars in loan consolidation. The most significant factor influencing application return has proven to be outbound follow-up calls by highly informative and helpful CSRs. Over 60 percent of the applications returned require three or more follow-up calls to the customer." Artisoft www.artisoft.com Product: TeleVantage "All businesses grow by attracting new customers and TaleVantage has enabled the client to expand its customer base. Located in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, , the client uses the system's fully customizable menus to provide instructions, information and mortgage counseling in two languages -- English and Spanish. By meeting the language needs of more potential customers, the client has begun to cultivate a broader market, while providing an additional tier of customer service across its entire customer base." Best Software www.usbestcrm.com Product: SalesLogix "With the rollout of SalesLogix, the client's customers received increased levels of responsiveness as well an increase in accurate information. Up-to-the-minute information such as order status is now readily available. The introduction of the CRM application also increased the level of communication between the client and its channel partners and customers." Call Compliance, Inc. www.callcompliance.cOm Product: TeleB lock Do-Not-Call Blocking System The client reports, "TeleBlock has been everything we hoped it would be. It has given us the power to perform our outbound calling campaigns without relying on our agents to take the necessary precautions precautions Infectious disease The constellation of activities intended to minimize exposure to an infectious agent; precautions imply that the isolation of an infected Pt is optional, but not mandatory. to be in compliance, and it has allowed us to broaden our telephone marketing reach from solely inbound to include outbound calling as well." CCC CCC A very speculative grade assigned to a debt obligation by a rating agency. Such a rating indicates default or considerable doubt that interest will be paid or principal repaid. Also called Caa. Interactive Corporation www.cccinteractive.com Service: CCC Interactive Customer Care Services "Responding to the urgency for our client to get an accurate understanding of the true benefits of this campaign, CCC Interactive assembled their top resources to form the implementation team. Our in-house application development team built front-end applications, designed databases, performed indexing and linked reporting to our client's legacy databases. Custom reports were designed and approved. Agents were hired, trained and setup for skills-based routing. Workstation phones were configured con·fig·ure tr.v. con·fig·ured, con·fig·ur·ing, con·fig·ures To design, arrange, set up, or shape with a view to specific applications or uses: for Third Party Verification, desktop imaging and agent scripting was completed, and all systems were live-tested and verified within 45 days." Centerpost Corp. www.centerpost.com Product: SmartDelivery The client, an airline, reported that over 200,000 customers have registered for EasyUpdate; millions of messages were delivered to customers in its first year; the client's market research indicated that 76 percent of EasyUpdate customers clearly noted that having this service would influence their decision to choose the airline for their next trip; EasyUpdate's impact on customer satisfaction was very positive: the percentage of EasyUpdate customers that were satisfied by the handling of a delay was 90 percent more than non-EasyUpdate customers; and 89 percent of customers who have used EasyUpdate found the service to be a highly valued tool. ClientLogic www.clientlogic.com Service: Integrated Customer Care and Fulfillment "In Q1 and Q2 of 2002, ClientLogic's support services support services Psychology Non-health care-related ancillary services–eg, transportation, financial aid, support groups, homemaker services, respite services, and other services achieved an impressive 97.3 percent and 91.3 percent customer satisfaction ratings from the client's customers. In general, customer satisfaction exceeds the target SLA (1) (StereoLithography Apparatus) See 3D printing. (2) (Service Level Agreement) A contract between the provider and the user that specifies the level of service expected during its term. of 90 percent and remains well above (typically 15 to 20 percent) the industry standard American This article is about a bidding system for bridge. For the "standard" American English accent, see General American. For Mitsubishi's S-AYC (Super Active Yaw Control) technology, see Active yaw control. Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI ACSI Association of Christian Schools International ACSI American Customer Satisfaction Index ACSI Association Canadienne des Sciences de l'Information (French) ACSI American Communications Services, Inc. ) level: Cross Country Automotive Services www.crosscountry-auto.com Service: Total Case Management The client, an auto manufacturer, reported improvement of same-day case close rate from 75 percent at program inception to 80 percent YE 2002, with a 30 percent increase in call volume and only 10 percent increase in staffing. The client also experienced continual enhancement of timely, actionable Giving sufficient legal grounds for a lawsuit; giving rise to a Cause of Action. An act, event, or occurrence is said to be actionable when there are legal grounds for basing a lawsuit on it. issue reports and significant technology updates with no disruption and immediate benefits for both companies. eAssist Global Solutions, Inc. www.eassist.com Product: eAssist Contact Center and eAssist Service Desk "The customer service and support environment designed by eAssist -- leveraging eAssist Contact Center and eAssist Service Desk -- has had a positive affect on agent productivity in the client's Burlington, Ontario Burlington (2006 population 164,415) is a city located in the Golden Horseshoe, across Lake Ontario and Burlington Bay harbour from Hamilton, in Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. call center, and it has significantly enhanced the customer service and support experience for the company's customers. In a matter of six months, eAssist was able to implement and roll out a solution that has had a positive impact on the client's call center operations." Epicor Software Corp. www.epicor.com Product: Clientele CRM The client reports, "The new sales process A sales process is a systematic approach for performing product or service sales. The reasons for having a sales process include seller and buyer risk management, achieving standardized customer interaction in sales and scalable revenue generation. has helped us establish best practices throughout our organization. With everyone in the company using the same process and the same milestones, sales forecasting Sales forecast A key input to a firm's financial planning process. External sales forecasts are based on historical experience, statistical analysis, and consideration of various macroeconomic factors. has become a faster and more accurate process. Even more important, having a clear and up-to-date picture of the entire sales process gives our management the ability to respond quickly, identify and fix problems or spot opportunities and move to take advantage of them." Genesys www.genesyslab.com Product: Genesys Suite 6.5 "With Genesys, the average speed of answering a business-to-business phone call has gone from 41 seconds to 4 seconds. Before the installation, callers were on hold and hanging up after 1 minute, 18 seconds. The client has seen significant return on investment for both of its major contact centers. The operations group saved $988,000 in 2001, while the marketing group saved $975,000 in 2001 by implementing CRM technologies, including the Genesys 6 Suite of call center solutions and Genesys Framework. Under the old system, the company experienced an average of 2 minutes and 7 seconds of handling time, with an abandon rate of 17 percent. Today the agents, armed with screens that show customer information and history, are able to handle their customers' business in only 1 minute and 40 seconds on average. The abandon rate has plummeted to 2.6 percent." Linktivity, a division of SpartaCom Technologies www.linktivity.com Product: WebInteractive "After the first three days in service, the cost of the WebInteractive implementation was offset by the revenue generated from the associated service level upgrades," the client reports. "By the end of the second week the implementation of Webinteractive had generated more than $2,500 in additional revenue from service level upgrades." 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. www.maximizer.com Product: Maximizer Enterprise The client states, "Maximizer Enterprise acts as the backbone for sales and marketing, providing a 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. hub for the collection and distribution of vital information between salesmen, customer service, marketing and management. When we first started looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a CRM system, we realized that we needed a solution that had more functionality and that we could customize to our needs. We launched Maximizer Enterprise in 1999, have since upgraded to the latest version and have never looked back. We rely on it as the cornerstone to maintain our leadership position in the near and foreseeable future." 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 www.onyx.com Product: Onyx Enterprise CRM Suite "Streamlined processes have increased sales volume and significantly reduced administrative expenses. Costly paper processes and unnecessary handoffs between departments have been eliminated. Additionally, the ability to do instantaneous in·stan·ta·ne·ous adj. 1. Occurring or completed without perceptible delay: Relief was instantaneous. 2. quotes is a significant competitive advantage for the business, allowing the client to compete in many more opportunities. But more importantly, what the client accomplished was a reduction in the size of their distribution channel and an increase in the channel's effectiveness while at the same time having a better educated, managed broker network. That has translated into more deal opportunities plus higher close rates, and it has allowed the company to more quickly turn quotes into contracts." Oracle Corp. www.oracle.com Product: Oracle E-Business Suite A group of integrated Internet-based applications from Oracle. Introduced in 2001 as Version 11i, it includes modules for CRM, finance, human resources, supply chain management as well as applications for business intelligence. "One of the client's biggest 'downstream' paybacks came in the form of a vastly improved customer service operation, which the company rolled out at the same time it launched its new contact management system. The client's new Client Service Center (CSC (Card Security Code) A three- or four-digit number printed on the back of credit cards for security purposes. Called "Card Verification Value" (CVV) by Visa, "Card Validation Code" (CVC) by MasterCard and "Card Identification (CID) by American Express and Discover, ), based on Oracle Interaction Center and Service technology, replaced an outsourced call center that had mainly served to field customers' billing questions. The switch to Oracle was both a strategic move, since the company gained better control over customer relationships, and a cost-cutting initiative, since the company found it could now run the service center for less than what the outsourcer charged -- a $900,000 annual savings." ORCOM www.orcom.com Product: ORCOM E-CIS "Since the enhanced training program was implemented, the retention of ORCOM's customer service representatives increased by 50 percent, resulting in an overall elevation in the skill level of the client's front line and achieving one of the client's highest priorities. In addition, the client, a natural gas company, has reaped the rewards from ORCOM's ability to sell value-added services A value-added service (VAS) is a telecommunications industry term for non-core services or, in short, all services beyond standard voice calls and fax transmissions. , such as the Customer Appliance Protection Program (CAPP), an insurance program that offers monthly monitoring of major appliances A major appliance is usually defined as a large machine which accomplishes some routine housekeeping task, which includes purposes such as cooking, food preservation, or cleaning, whether in a household, institutional, commercial or industrial setting. , including furnaces, stoves and dishwashers, and provides a service technician for repairs when needed. In any given month, ORCOM's customer service representatives have been able to sell between 300 and 1000 CAPP plans. With ORCOM sales, the gas company has been able to fortify for·ti·fy v. for·ti·fied, for·ti·fy·ing, for·ti·fies v.tr. To make strong, as: a. To strengthen and secure (a position) with fortifications. b. To reinforce by adding material. its program and combat customer drops, resulting in higher revenues. Pegasystems www.pega.com Product: PegaINTEGRATED INVESTIGATIONS The client, a cooperative of banks, reports, "We chose to work with Pegasystems because they had the right technology solution to fit with our operational requirements (programming) operational requirements - Qualitative and quantitative parameters that specify the desired capabilities of a system and serve as a basis for determining the operational effectiveness and suitability of a system prior to deployment. and support our growing business. Pegasystems was able to demonstrate considerable experience in this market, and the functionality of its products met all our requirements. We now have a seamless and transparent investigations process, improved customer service, and reduced operational risk." Phase 2 Solutions, Inc. www.phase2solutions.com Service: Speech Recognition Program "Through random samplings of live agents verifying the results of the speech recognition program, the identification success rate was 95.7 percent. The automation Phase 2 developed saves this client over $3.1 million per month in call processing In telecommunication, the term call processing has the following meanings:
Prosodie Interactive www.prosodie.com Product: RPM (1) (Revolutions Per Minute) With electric and electronics devices, RPM measures the rotational speed of the motor's spindle. Floppy disks rotate at 300 RPM, while hard disks rotate from 3,000 to 15,000 RPM. The client states, "What we were seeing was a large percentage of customers seemed to be zeroing out to our customer service reps. Through our analysis using RPM, we found that the information customers were looking to access was somewhat difficult to get to, so we pushed that information up to the front of the program and saw a huge drop in calls that transferred out to our customer agents." Pronexus, Inc. www.pronexus.com Product: Utilities OnCall "The implementation of the automated 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. system resulted in a wide range of benefits. The new system led to a reduction of 80 percent in manual data entry, and to the automatic uploading of more than 95 percent of customer-communicated reads. In addition, the system eliminated significant workload issues that usually occurred following weekends and holidays, allowing for better work scheduling. Issues that previously caused meter reads to enter the system too late to be included on that month's billing have also been eliminated." Salesnet, Inc. www.salesnet.com Product: Salesnet Extended The client was quoted as saying, "Salesnet's focused CRM solution gives us the deep sales features we need to maintain consistency and effectiveness throughout our sales organization. Since using Salesnet, our sales team has a more defined pipeline, which allows us to forecast more accurately. In turn, this keeps sales goals in focus and helps us attain these goals faster. Ultimately, we sell more effectively and bring more revenue into the company." Siemens Enterprise Networks www.icn.siemens.com Products: HiPath ProCenter and HiPath Teleworking Since fewer calls are transferred, the abandon rate is down to 4 percent from 10 to 15 percent. Calls that used to be answered in 60 seconds or more are now picked up in less than 20 seconds, literally a world-class level, reports the client, These results make customers happy, as has been indicated by customer surveys over the past year showing increased customer satisfaction with the call center." Telvista www.telvista.com Service: Telvista Customer Management System (TCMS TCMS Taylor County Middle School (Georgia) TCMS Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (treatment of Parkinson's disease) TCMS Theater Construction Management System TCMS Trouble Call Management System ) "In addition to providing agents with the tools and data needed to quickly and effectively meet the needs of callers, Telvista implemented a fully automated post-call customer survey utilizing state-of-the-art IVR technology. Since this survey was initiated in July 2002, results show that customer satisfaction has consistently exceeded 90 percent. At the same time, first-call resolution has climbed to more than 95 percent. Although the total number of inbound calls increased from 684 to 5,411 between April and July 2002, the client's per-call costs fell by 45 percent during the same period and have since remained steady despite moderate growth." Unica Corp. www.unicacorp.com Product: Affinium "Since its first year with Affinium, the client continues to realize return on investment on the total cost of projects (i.e., in-house labor), software upgrades, implementation and Unica consulting by having more data available for more effective targeting, as welt welt n. 1. A ridge or bump on the skin caused by a lash or blow or sometimes by an allergic reaction. 2. See wheal. as less manually driven processes and easier ways to suppress and segment its customer base. The client has also recognized significant savings by eliminating catalog catalog, descriptive list, on cards or in a book, of the contents of a library. Assurbanipal's library at Nineveh was cataloged on shelves of slate. The first known subject catalog was compiled by Callimachus at the Alexandrian Library in the 3d cent. B.C. mailings to unproductive customer segments." UniPress Software, Inc. www.unipress.com Product: FootPrints With FootPrints, the client provides faster service and support to its customers. More than 500 tickets were addressed within the first 4 months. With constant access to support, users have become more comfortable using the client's system, and are more self-sufficient by resolving most problems on their own. The client has also become much more proactive in responding to requests. At the same time, customers are equally proactive in answering their own questions, submitting requests and getting the information they need, when they need it." Upshot Corp. www.upshot.com Product: UpShot XE The client reports, "UpShot has excellent functionality, providing 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. views for every company representative in all of our lines of business. This is the type of customization that Siebel provides, but UpShot does so without the astronomical as·tro·nom·i·cal also as·tro·nom·ic adj. 1. Of or relating to astronomy. 2. Of enormous magnitude; immense: an astronomical increase in the deficit. cost to maintain and modify the application as needs change." Voice Mail Broadcasting Corp. (VMBC VMBC Van Mildert Boat Club ) www.vmbc.com Product: IVM See Investment Valuation Model. (Interactive 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. ) The client, a financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. company, has achieved quarter over quarter record cross-sell and upsell growth. The contribution made by VMBC's CRM initiatives is a key component of that growth. The company's direct mail CRM efforts have had their response rates increase by over 100 percent by pre-calling with a voice message through VMBC's service. VocalCom www.vocalcom.com Product: Hermes Pro INTER@CTIVE "HERMES INTER@CTIVE allows the client to make an instantaneous and automated link between the Web surfer and the company, which makes it an ideal convergence between call centers and Web sites. Thanks to HERMES INTER@CTIVE, the Web site shows a real commercial dimension, by offering a link in real-time. HERMES INTER@CTIVE is adapted to the company, there is no modification needed in the structure of the Web site, nor in the telephone installations." For information and subscriptions, visit www.TMCnet.com or call 203-852-6800. |
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