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Technology Highlights
April 2001

The Personal Touch: Caring For Your Customers And CSRs

2001 Editors' Choice Awards

 Now Your See It: K2 HELP
K2 Digital, Inc.'s K2 HELP is designed to enable consumer and industrial product manufacturers to deploy an eCRM desktop help application that can be delivered on a CD with their product. K2's intent is to reduce costs associated with customer support and better meet the higher service expectations of customers in the Internet economy. Aaron Gavios, K2's vice president of business development, noted that "for example, shifting 5,000 inbound calls per week into online interactions can save over $2 million per year." He said that a major problem encountered when creating an online customer support tool is "the necessity to identify, integrate and maintain different software and networking components." This barrier can discourage or prevent the effective design and implementation of an eCRM application. In response, K2 HELP provides capabilities to deliver a complete customer-facing tool: help (using natural-language questions and tutorials), demonstrations, training and documentation. The product includes an integrated browser and search engine that allows users to navigate through local and Internet-based information, can self-install from a CD and update content automatically over the Internet. K2 HELP is designed to be private-labeled and customized to look like the product it supports, be it a camcorder, washing machine, medical device, etc. K2 offers an optional technology integration of HELP with Viewpoint Corp.'s Viewpoint Experience Technology. With it, HELP can provide 360-degree product views and point-and-click interactions. Users can turn products over, open doors and covers, push buttons to examine product features and get training on operation. Options also include capabilities for e-mail and live chat with a customer service representative and an e-commerce module for selling product accessories, streaming audio and video, etc. The product can be translated into multiple languages (13 at press time). In addition to licensing the application, K2 Digital provides consulting and implementation services for K2 HELP and a full range of digital professional services.

2001 Editors' Choice Awards

 Assistware: "Moment Of Need" Support
Baydon Solutions, Inc. offers what it terms predicament-based knowledge support, providing knowledge to employees engaged in customer interactions when they need it, rather than if they might need it. Baydon cites just-in-time performance as an emerging trend that de-emphasizes training per se so that employees spend more time performing their tasks. Aimed at reducing dependence on classroom or online training where the instruction is generic and may involve training in features or functions not normally used by employees, Baydon's predicament-based approach allows users to define their own training. Assistware is a software toolkit used to develop and deploy electronic performance support systems for single or multiple applications. It provides a central information repository for creation and maintenance/management of support and training materials, an intuitive developer toolkit for assembling and linking training materials into an intuitive project structure and a multi-user developer environment with revision controls for team-based materials development. It also allows for project sharing and linking for reducing duplication in generic support materials. The solution provides for multiplatform generation, does not require source code access or technical resources for project development and is customizable.

Assistware is comprised of four components: Assistware Developer, the main project development work area; Assistware Camera, a technology that captures screen information to which context-sensitive support is attached; Assistware Viewer, which displays training and support content to the end user of the desktop at the moment of need; and the Entry Point Manager, the link between the host application and associated training/support content. End users receive help with their specific needs when they position the Assistware Bubble on the application area requiring support. Assistware information can be linked to screens, messages, buttons, etc., within end user applications. The product tracks the use of information in its database, which can be assessed by other programs to determine what support materials are being used, frequency of use and by whom. Assistware's output is in HTML, with converters to other formats available from Baydon. Assistware can be deployed on your existing Web infrastructure or proprietary networks.

2001 Editors' Choice Awards

 Solidus eCare From Ericsson
With the launch of Solidus eCare, Ericsson Enterprise has focused on creating a customer contact center suite that integrates call center features with the speed of the Web to provide faster and more efficient customer service. Ericsson geared its technology to construct a fully integrated, multimedia interaction center and provide businesses the capability of transitioning into the e-mail/Internet contact center arena to offer more communication channels. Customers can contact companies or organizations through any medium (voice, Web chat, e-mail, fax, etc.) and be consistently offered the same level of service. In response to the oft-cited customer dissatisfaction and abandonment statistics that result from inadequate automated customer response configurations, Ericsson set out to enable Solidus eCare to replicate the in-store experience to provide better customer service. Its Virtual Agent and Auto-response e-mail capabilities use an interactive knowledge base to provide answers to the most commonly asked customer questions. Solidus eCare also provides customers with the option of speaking in real-time with a customer service representative by a simple button click (on a Web page) that enables live conversation with text-chat or voice over IP. Customers can also explore a site or search for information using interactive voice response (IVR) or the Web. At any point during the search, customers can initiate direct conversation with a customer service representative. Solidus eCare tracks where the customer is or the area of interest he or she has been searching for, and this information is provided to the customer service agent instantaneously.
A key feature is an advanced routing engine designed to provide a range of applications, including Internet support, online chat, automatic Web callback, Web collaboration, e-mail and auto e-mail responses. Solidus eCare uses skills and profile-based routing to forward incoming contacts to the agent best qualified for a specific query. Voice capabilities of the solution include interactive voice response and speech recognition. Other features include agent scripting, agent recording and outbound campaign dialing and mobile communications technologies to free agents from their desks. The solution also offers a flexible client-server architecture so service providers can deliver eCare to their clients in an application service provider (ASP) environment. Solidus eCare operates on the Open Application Server platform: a multimedia services platform that extends call control capabilities and enables advanced telephony functionality.

2001 Editors' Choice Awards

 The Brand Connection: Good Listeners Make Better Marketers
Recipio's motto, "Listen. Learn. Lead," effectively sums up its raison d''tre and is the philosophy behind the company's e-business platform, the Brand Connection. Rather than blind or permission-based marketing via the Web, Recipio believes that Web-based, two-way interactive media can forge higher-quality relationships with customers. Brand Connection consists of software and proprietary service methodologies that allow businesses to engage customers in "conversations" in an informal, personal way and deliver real-time analysis of customer ideas, opinions and preferences. In a sense, it empowers customers to become part of the product team. Using adaptive sampling and patented algorithms, Brand Connection filters this unstructured information, generates consensus information that is indicative of the attitudinal direction of the group and provides the most relevant data for analysis and action. The platform allows corporations to understand customers' responses across multiple products and campaigns with statistically significant, real-time results. It simplifies creation of a marketing tool that incorporates e-commerce, customer service, marketing and marketing research. An obvious benefit is the potential for reducing marketing research costs and time by embedding this technology into existing marketing and branding Web sites. This should also reduce the time required to launch new products or campaigns in the market.

Allied with the Brand Connection are two additional products, Recipio's Interaction Session applications (what the company terms "directed conversations" on specific issues) and its Desktop Reporting System. Currently, Recipio offers 12 standard Interaction Session applications, covering topics such as brand equity, customer satisfaction, advertising development, Web site optimization, promotion development and retail experience. Clients have the ability to customize part or all of a session to suit their needs. The Desktop Reporting System provides access to online, real-time reports: Executive Dashboard (key ideas and issues emerging from a specific interaction session application); standard Participation reports (metrics on a particular engagement); and customizable Segmentation reports that allow managers and decision makers to segment information on any demographic or reported behavioral range using drop-down menus.

[ Return To April 2001 Table Of Contents ]

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