[Go To Products Of The Year List]

Customer Inter@ction Solutions' magazine heartily congratulates the Product of the Year 2000 Award recipients. Technological evolution and application refinements are reflected in these companies' offerings; their labors provide us with an exciting array of products and services that just a few years ago were only available to enterprises with deep pockets. For example, the power of "enterprisewide solutions" has been extended to small- and mid-sized concerns: a market segment that until recently was generally neglected. We have witnessed the dynamics of the Internet inexorably shape the direction of customer relationship management and service. In a sense, however, we have returned to the point of our departure: how to fulfill, service and retain customers. Given that enabling technologies have provided powerful platforms upon which to develop competitive and efficient e-businesses, a not-too-subtle realization has emerged that (to paraphrase a past political campaign) it's the customer, stupid! Even with the fits, starts and reversals of dot com fortunes, the Internet is not going away, and neither are customers who value its convenience. As evidenced by our award recipients' products, the tools to facilitate optimizing customer interactions are spread across the workbench. And what a toolkit! A brief sampling: customer analytics, call management, unified messaging, workforce management, CRM and CIM solutions, computer-telephony integration, marketing campaign management, IVR, security, contact center and CTI platforms, and Web-based sales channels. There are products to address the selling complexities of business-to-business, multichannel/multimedia interaction, speech recognition, call logging and monitoring and e-mail management.

We are pleased to present to you, our readers, products that, in our judgment, represent the best of 2000. As is our wont, we also encourage you to do your homework(!) so that you ultimately select those technologies that best satisfy your business plan, keep you connected with your customers and ensure the success of your venture.