September 2002

The TMC Labs Innovation Awards were implemented to honor products that help to carve a new market niche or start a trend. These awards are bestowed on products that are set apart from their competitors due to one or more unique features.

Under current economic conditions, retaining customers and keeping them happy has become an increasingly critical task. Unfortunately, with poor economic conditions come cutbacks in staffing levels, which lead to lower customer service quality and result in unhappy customers. This paradox can be avoided through proper implementation of technologies to make customer service agents as knowledgeable and productive as possible. As such, TMC Labs has based our award selection criteria on not only innovation, but also on products that will improve customer service and lead to a bottom-line ROI that even the most cost-cutting and stringent CFO will be hard-pressed to ignore.

Picking this year's TMC Labs Innovation Awards winners was the most difficult and challenging process yet for TMC Labs. Choosing just a few select winners from over 200 applicants when there were so many innovative products submitted made our job extra challenging.

We examined a plethora of applications, checked customer references, researched the products extensively and gradually whittled the winners' list down to our final 23 companies. After an exhaustive elimination process, the best of the best emerged, allowing us to present to readers our choices for the most innovative products within the customer interaction space.

Congratulations to the winners!

Tom Keating
Vice President, TMC
Chief Technology Officer and
Executive Technology Editor

AMCAT
MediaLynx
800-364-5518; www.amcat.com

AMCAT MediaLynx is one of the most complete 'soup to nuts' call center solutions we have seen. If you took all the functionality and feature sets built into MediaLynx and tried to build an equivalent system, you would need a predictive dialer, PBX, IVR, ACD, Web chat system and more. AMCAT provides all these features and more. AMCAT's MediaLynx is targeted at small to mid-sized businesses looking to attain the functionality of much larger call centers at a reasonable price.

Essentially, MediaLynx is an open system based on Windows that offers complete call center functionality. It provides multimedia agent applications, open hardware and software based on industry standards, Web-enabled agents, VoIP, call blending, video, fax and predictive dialing ' all of which are seamlessly integrated.

One unique feature is that MediaLynx provides true inbound/outbound call blending that allows agents to receive or place either type of call as center demands change. The Inbound Call Blending option is designed to increase the efficiency of the call center. Resource pools can be created that allow agents to receive inbound calls and automatically switch to outbound calling (or vice-versa) as the need arises. In addition, MediaLynx routes inbound contacts based on the dialed number (DNIS), agent skills, customer profile, service levels and user-defined business rules.

MediaLynx is based upon the Intel NetMerge communications server software. We should mention that Artisoft TeleVantage is another company that uses NetMerge. NetMerge is a media-based architecture that fits well into the CRM space, either as a standalone offering or connected to a legacy PBX. In addition, the Intel middleware supports many industry- standard APIs such as S.100, S.410, JTAPI media and Voice XML 2.0 (soon). MediaLynx leverages real-time consumer information to deliver a consistent message across all forms of communication: voice, e-mail, fax, Web, VoIP and video. This application contains all the necessary functionality to increase customer retention and enhance productivity for the call center customer. AMCAT claims that with their product, a complete call center can be set up in just a few days, whereas many competing products take several weeks of tweaking and integrating the various telecom equipment such as ACD, predictive dialer, PBX, IVR, etc.

Apropos Technology
Apropos Version 5
630-472-9600; www.apropos.com

Apropos Technology claims to be the first vendor to bring to market a native multichannel interaction management solution dating back to 1997. From our recollection we can't dispute their claim. In fact, we recall Apropos being the first to proactively market multichannel integration at various tradeshows that TMC Labs engineers have attended.

Apropos Version 5 is a multichannel interaction management solution that enables companies to manage all customer interactions, including e-mail, Web chat, Web callback, fax, voice and VoIP in a single multichannel queue and provide a 360-degree holistic view of all past interactions. The software application delivers real-time and historical information to customer service agents so the agents are as well informed as possible. More important, it collects all the various customer interactions in one place so the agent can quickly and easily classify, prioritize, route and manage all the various types of customer interactions.

Using business-rules-driven prioritization and escalation, companies can manage each interaction uniquely, based on its importance. Apropos also provides contact center managers with real-time information on all interaction types to better manage, control and report on contact center activity. The Interaction VaultT application within the suite creates an archived record of each interaction and allows agents and supervisors to immediately view the entire history of any interaction, right from their desktops. In a multichannel contact center environment, having access to previous interactions, regardless of the communication media used, is critical to identify and prioritize customers and subsequently offer the appropriate level of customer service.

In addition, Apropos has recently added IP telephony support with complete native support for voice-over-IP (VoIP) platforms using TAPI/WAV integration. Apropos has removed the gateways and bypassed the hardware traditionally involved with integrating to a VoIP platform. By integrating all the various customer touch points into a single seamless solution, we commend Apropos and bestow our TMC Labs Innovation Award without reservation.

Avaya
Multimedia
Contact Center 6.0
866-462-8292; www.avaya.com

Avaya is certainly one of the leaders in the multimedia/multichannel customer interaction space. We should point out that part of Avaya's Multimedia Contact Center (MCC) was acquired via Avaya's purchase of Quintus ' one of the pioneers of providing a multimedia interaction solution. MCC is an open-standards-based software suite that enables companies to deliver consistent, measurable service levels across multiple communications channels and locations. The solution consists of two primary components: Avaya Interaction Center, which handles multichannel communications, CTI and interaction history collection and management; and Avaya Operational Analyst, which delivers consolidated, real-time and historical reporting for multiple switches and locations.

Avaya Interaction Center manages inbound and outbound communications and self-service interactions, with advanced integration with third-party equipment and databases. Because it is built as a modular solution, companies can choose solution components for outbound dialing, voice, e-mail, Web chat, Web collaboration, fax communications and advanced CTI, with a built-in repository that stores interaction history for future use.

One of the unique benefits of Avaya's MCC is that it offers preintegrated connectors (versus more costly custom-integrated) to industry-leading interaction applications, such as Siebel applications, IVR platforms, reporting/business intelligence applications, NICE (call/interaction recording) and Blue Pumpkin (workforce management), as well as others. Also, with MCC's modular approach, companies can add various interaction types as needed without incurring an upfront cost to buy the entire package.

Important functionality includes predictive intelligent routing for multichannel communications, IP telephony for click-to-talk functionality, content analysis enhancements that provide more in-depth analysis of both incoming and outgoing correspondence to ensure consistent, appropriate routing and response, as well as a software-based dialer.

Avaya Interaction Center intelligently routes customers in their preferred medium of communication to the appropriate agents within your contact center. In addition, Avaya Interaction Center can help agents to communicate more effectively and to work more efficiently. Improved ROI results from the fact that agents can handle e-mail, Web and telephone requests simultaneously, making the best use of their time.

Banter
Banter
Workbench 5.5
877-992-2683; www.banter.com

Web self-service is great for simple searches, but when help is needed, a simple FAQ page that is not updated regularly will not suffice. Customers can quickly be turned off by the inability of a Web site to provide answers to their questions. Certainly, not everyone is adept at using a Web site's search feature, which uses simple keyword matching as opposed to natural language searching, such as 'I'd like to know more about ASP-model workforce management.'

Banter's Workbench 5.5 comes to the rescue by providing an easy-to-use text analysis and deployment tool, enabling rapid deployment of Banter RME. Banter RME provides a natural-language processor to interpret natural human text, including e-mail, Web chat and other electronic queries. Banter RME is a combination of proprietary technology for natural-language proc-essing, statistical and semantic modeling and automatic machine learning that is distinctively positioned to analyze and understand the content of documents and messages written in informal form, including the naturally occurring variations in expression, spelling and grammar typically present in such text. In addition, Banter supports XML standards as well as Microsoft's .NET technologies.

Banter WorkBench includes text-mining, reporting and an automatic knowledge-base-building application. Essentially, it helps organize and react to unstructured written communication through the automatic analysis of the content. Using Workbench 5.5, organizations can improve their efficiency in handling informal written text (such as e-mail, instant messages, self-service inquiries, etc.), control and reduce the costs of e-mail management and contact-center-related tasks. It also tracks trends and builds the corporate knowledge base based on user queries.

Banter Workbench is highly innovative in its ability to handle the imperfect nature (inconsistent spelling, grammar, slang, etc.) of informal communications. Workbench also enables customers to quickly implement and maintain accurate suggested and automated responses for e-mail response applications, intelligent skills-based routing, Web self-service applications, spam filtering and e-mail prioritization. For using natural language technology to provide automated responses and automatically build a knowledge base that improves customer 'self-service,' we honor Banter with our Innovation Award.

BeVocal
BeVocal Foundation
Platform 2.0
650-210-8600; www.bevocal.com

Voice recognition is certainly coming of age. As the premiere form of communication, voice is also the quickest. As a result, voice recognition is being deployed in several enhanced applications that improve the efficiency, ease of use and ability to obtain information. BeVocal's Foundation Platform is one such voice recognition platform specifically targeting telecom service providers looking to offer enhanced voice applications such as voice-activated dialing, voice-activated messaging, entertainment, customer care, e-mail reader functionality, voice portals and more.

The BeVocal Foundation Platform is an open standards-based modular architecture enabling carriers to create and deliver hosted or in-network voice-enabled enhanced services. The Foundation Platform supports scalable nodes for processing speech, running applications, creating services, administering systems and integrating with back-end services. Each node can be physically deployed at a centralized site or distributed among multiple sites within the network. The Foundation Platform also supports both the VoiceXML 2.0 and Java standards for application development.

BeVocal offers carriers a suite of voice applications that run on the platform: voice dialer, e-mail reader, voice-activated voice-mail, voice portals and address book/PIM. With BeVocal's VoiceXML platform, carriers can use a single platform to run several voice applications, and those applications are customizable and interoperable with one another. Also, this platform enables a carrier to seamlessly add, modify and bundle various voice-activated services, as well as draw upon the large VoiceXML developer community. BeVocal claims the Foundation Platform is the first open, VoiceXML platform licensed by a carrier (BellSouth) to run in their network.

With port densities that can scale into the millions, plus NEBS III compliance, BeVocal's VoiceXML platform has what it takes to succeed in the carrier market. With carriers facing the need to go beyond simple, per-minute calling plans to increase revenue and improve customer loyalty, BeVocal's VoiceXML platform just might be the ticket to help bring the carriers out of their earnings funk.

Call Compliance Inc.
Teleblock 3.0
888-674-6774; www.callcompliance.com

Every reputable call center that performs outbound marketing maintains a do-not-call (DNC) list compiled from several sources, including internal and state DNC lists. The problem is that laws vary from state to state and many states maintain their own DNC lists. As a result, an organization that does business across all 50 states must obtain many DNC lists. The Federal government is looking to deploy a nationwide DNC list, with built-in fines for violators, which makes it even more imperative that companies ensure they do not make costly errors. Another problem is that maintaining your own in-house DNC list is extremely difficult as it must be constantly updated, which is time-consuming and can make for a list that is often not up-to-date.

TeleBlock is a 'do-not-call' blocking product that automatically screens and blocks outbound calls against state, in-house and third party do-not-call and do-not-fax lists on a participating telephone company's network level without additional hardware or software required from the customer. Their service is housed within the participating telephone carrier's network infrastructure and uses the public SS7 network to perform queries to determine if a number should be blocked. Of course, one of the biggest benefits is that the customer no longer needs to worry about maintaining its own DNC list.

Unlike some competing products, there is no logging on or off required. A subscriber's agents, dialers and fax broadcast devices simply access an outbound trunk and dial. All numbers dialed are screened against the end user's customer-specific database. If a dialed number appears on any available do-not-call or do-not-fax list, the call is blocked and a 'restricted' number message is furnished. The message features a Special Information Tone (SIT) header for clients using predictive dialer equipment.

TeleBlock is completely independent of the telemarketers' telephone equipment. The system is compatible with all single and multiple line telephones, key systems, PBXs, predictive dialers, voice-messaging systems, fax broadcast equipment, etc. TeleBlock is simply a value-added feature treatment applied to the telemarketer's telephone lines (ANI) and trunk groups (AUTH Codes). Call Compliance claims nationwide coverage with many carriers supporting their service.

In addition, TeleBlock allows the customer's administrator to customize and manage their separate and distinct DNC database via a Web-based GUI interface. Other administrative features include the selection and deselection of available lists (state, in-house, third-party and eventually Federal), full editing capabilities, number overrides, searching mechanisms and a reporting module. For providing a hosted service-based DNC list that removes this time-consuming, tedious and often costly task (if fined due to error) from the call center, we grant Call Compliance our TMC Labs Innovation Award.

CosmoCom
CosmoCall
Universe v4.3
631-940-4200; www.cosmocom.com

Without a doubt, CosmoCom's solution is one of our most innovative winners. CosmoCom's Universe technology is totally computer- and software-based, and uses IP packet switching to provide connectivity for both Internet and telephone callers, rather than traditional telephone circuit switching. Universe supports a 100 percent pure IP solution as well as hybrid IP and PSTN installations using VoIP gateways. Of course, the value of a 100 percent pure IP solution is that you can set up a complete call center with call center agents anywhere in the world very quickly, since all that is required is an IP connection, a multimedia PC and a headset. CosmoCom supports hardware-based VoIP phones and traditional phones as well.

CosmoCall Universe features full queuing and routing of all call types (chat, VoIP, PSTN) and creates connections that feature collaborative desktop sharing capabilities in addition to basic voice. Also, since CosmoCall Universe is IP-based, there are no worries about integrating various call center equipment or relying on cumbersome CTI techniques. In fact, CosmoCall Universe features open standards-based APIs that allow it to be easily integrated with best-of-breed call center products to form a complete contact center solution.

Since CosmoCom hosts all the hardware and all the 'intelligence' (i.e., call routing) is handled by CosmoCom's servers, customers can quickly deploy a complete call center with advanced functionality in a matter of hours. They can quickly add capacity via additional licenses at any time, with scalability up to 8,000 agents, 50,000 simultaneous calls and messages and 500,000 call arrivals per hour, with no single point of failure.

In addition, by offering a hosted service (similar to Centrex, but IP-based), service providers and carriers can offer their customers access to the latest call center technologies while minimizing their capital investment and IT/telephony-integration complexities.

Features include unlimited queues and CSR groups, skills-based routing, e-mail and voice mail queuing and routing, IVR, Web collaboration, workforce management, multichannel call recording, Web chat, Web video, predictive dialing, blended inbound/outbound and more. Also available is CosmoDesigner, an app-gen tool for design and deployment of call flows, including pre-routing. Developers will be glad to know that CosmoDesigner is XML-based. In a nutshell, CosmoCom's unique IP architecture provides superb scalability, flexibility and redundancy that allows service providers and telcos to offer customers a complete hosted call center platform.

Employment Technologies Corporation
e.SKILLS v1.0
800-833-3279; www.etc-easy.com

Interviewing and hiring call center agents who become successful, well-performing employees is a very difficult chore for call center supervisors. Often times, candidates perform very well in interviews but very poorly once they have been hired. This results in wasted time and money for the company. So how do you alleviate the problem of hiring under-performing staff?

Employment Technologies Corporation has a product call e.SKILLS that is a realistic pre-employment test (simulation) that evaluates a job applicant's written composition, data entry and typing/keyboarding skills, then accurately predicts future job success. e.SKILLs attempts to realistically simulate the job, thereby allowing applicants to respond to the test the same way they would respond on the job.

The e.SKILLS simulation includes three sections: Data Entry, E-mail Composition and Typing. As an example, here's how the Data Entry test works: applicants listen to a series of pre-recorded customer orders; they are then required to accurately enter information into the appropriate fields on the order form (e.g., account numbers, addresses, phone numbers, credit card information). The software program measures the data entry speed and accuracy. We should point out that within the E-Mail composition test, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, tone and response content are measured.

Employment Technologies claims that e.SKILLS is the first pre-employment simulation that combines data entry, typing/keyboarding and e-mail composition into a single product suite. e.SKILLS incorporates simulation technology and allows applicants to compose written responses into a free-form field to gather a more accurate/realistic work sample. For providing a valuable tool in predicting future job performance, thus allowing organizations to better hire high-performers, increase customer satisfaction and decrease turnover, we commend Employment Technologies and bestow our Innovation Award.

Envision Telephony
Click2Coach
Multisite Edition
206-621-9384, ext. 137; www.envisiontelephony.com

Delivering consistent service is always difficult, and the complexities increase exponentially when a company has more than one contact center. Just as when trying to provide consistent training and reporting to more than one site, local idiosyncrasies inevitably creep in. We liked the fact that Envision Telephony's Click2Coach Multisite Edition is designed as a central point for the collection and distribution of enterprise reporting, administration and training that pulls together information from all of an enterprise's contact centers, which ensures a uniformity across all sites.

Click2Coach offers integrated quality monitoring, performance evaluation and e-learning in one coaching solution, providing tools for scheduling and recording customer interactions, evaluating agent skills and producing personalized training content delivered directly to agents' desktops. It also offers the tools for authoring personalized training videos on-demand as well as integration with existing training content in any format.

With Click2Coach, supervisors can review recorded interactions, complete an online evaluation and attach existing training or create a personalized video that addresses the agent's specific needs. This coaching package can then be sent directly to the agent's desktop. The ability to author video training on-the-fly makes it easy for supervisors to coach agents immediately as well as customize the content to specific needs. Because agents receive an instant alert telling them they have received new information, they are able to access their supervisors' coaching instantly. The browser-based Multisite Edition also provides a global view of agents, groups and contact centers from a single interface and consolidated, real-time reporting for instant access to critical data. The centralization of all these activities will go a long way toward helping users provide consistent training and service throughout all their contact centers, no matter the location.

Epicor Software Corporation
Clientele Customer
Support 8.0
800-356-0912; www.epicor.com

Clientele Customer Support 8.0 (CCS) delivers a CRM application that provides a complete call management and problem resolution solution for supporting external customers. CCS enables users to provide timely and accurate assistance via phone, fax, e-mail or the Web. In addition, since it provides immediate access to complete customer information, it enables users to be more knowledgeable, responsive and proactive in communicating with customers, co-workers and managers.

One innovative feature is that this software is one of the first CRM applications built on Microsoft's .NET architecture, which enables accessibility, extensibility and integration with other applications. Also, because CCS uses native XML Web services throughout, integration with external applications is easier. In addition, CCS uses the well-known Visual Studio .NET as its customization tool. By using this very popular development tool, finding and hiring developers to perform customizations should be much easier.

CCS includes several important features. For instance, the AnswerBook feature allows service agents to answer the most frequently asked customer questions promptly. In addition, the AnswerBook can be accessed through the Web and used as a self-service tool by customers. Another important feature is the Web services technology, which allows customizations and new releases to be automatically deployed to the client from the administrator terminal, saving IT administrators hours implementing updates manually at each desktop. Using CCS, a call center can easily open, track, report on and close calls. Follow-ups can be attached to calls to ensure that commitments are kept. Plus, user-definable call queues allow managers to prioritize work flow. Finally, since the software is Web-based, agents can use the software anywhere there is Internet access. By offering a standards-based, customizable CRM application that offers 'access to customer information anywhere you are,' Epicor Software earns our mark of innovation.

Linktivity, a division of SpartaCom Technologies Inc.
WebInteractive v2.0
800-846-9726; www.linktivity.com

WebInteractive is a Web-based software tool installed on a customer premises Web server and allows technical support and sales professionals to demonstrate products and manage online PC support requests. WebInteractive comes in two flavors: e-Sales and e-Support. Both allow users to manage a queue of online requests, communicate with customers online, monitor a remote PC and control a remote customer's PC to resolve issues. WebInteractive is ideal for help desk support use, allowing support representatives to view a user's screen rather than relying upon verbal descriptions. Help desk/technical support can diagnose problems much quicker by remotely taking control of a user's desktop.

Since WebInteractive is a Web-based design, it requires no client software installation. Customers simply log on to the Web site and are instantly available for interactive PC support. The software provides a simple online log-on and queuing process for customers who wish to receive online support. It then routes a Web-based support request to the most appropriate support representative. Calls can also be transferred among support or sales representatives to ensure the most relevant agent is supporting a customer. WebInteractive for e-Sales can leverage this product's features by enabling companies to add real-time, live customer service or even product demonstrations to their Web sites in an effort to help reduce sales cycles, close sales, reduce operating costs and resolve sales questions.

WebInteractive has several good features. It has Internet co-browsing and file transfer capabilities. One interesting feature is voice chat that allows a user to communicate via VoIP with the help desk technician. Keyboard chat is also available for communicating. Unlike most competing solutions, WebInteractive provides system recovery. It uses a previously saved configuration (snapshot) to restore a PC to the most recent working state.

WebInteractive is certainly innovative in that it integrates remote control, support request queuing, co-browsing and system recovery features all into a single package. Before WebInteractive, the remote control help desk service was only available to organizations as an ASP-hosted solution. With this product, you can own the software without paying monthly rental fees. Overall, TMC Labs was very impressed with Linktivity's WebInteractive solution, which has the best of WebEx, PCAnywhere and help desk software all rolled in one.

LumenVox
Speech Driven
Information System v2.5
877-977-0707; www.lumenvox.com

Speech recognition has improved to the point where many companies are deploying it in their telephony systems (such as IVR/auto-attendant) for customer self-service information retrieval, voice-activated dial-by-name and other voice applications. The problem is that speech recognition is often complex to manage and set up as well as very costly.

LumenVox's Speech Driven Information System solves both the problem of complexity in managing and setting up, as well the problem of cost. Targeting small to mid-sized companies that want speech recognition but can't afford competing solutions, at $250 per port, SDIS is the perfect match. Also, SDIS was designed with relatively non-technical people in mind, so developing on this platform is a fairly easy task.

The Speech Driven Information System (SDIS) is an easy-to-use natural speech recognition app-gen wrapped around the company's Speech Recognition Engine and designed to answer customers' commonly asked questions. The system can 'offload' simple, repetitive queries from agents, such as driving directions, account balances, etc., leaving agents free to answer more complex queries.

One of the most unique features of LumenVox's SDIS is the ease at which speech applications can be developed. People without a technical background can develop an application without any formal training. It runs on Windows 2000, supports a range of voice hardware including TAPI modems and Dialogic hardware, and can scale from as few as one port up to multiple T1 lines. C++ developers can write their own dynamic link library (dll) to take control over the call flow, such as in the case of performing database queries or even transferring the call. LumenVox provides a free one-port version that can be downloaded from LumenVox's Web site.

Netopia
ECare 2.0
510-814-5000; www.netopia.com

eCare is a browser-based customer interaction solution that facilitates real-time interaction between an organization's help desk and its customers using features such as remote control, file sharing, live view co-browsing, dynamic chat and URL push. Unlike some of its competitors, it has cross-platform capabilities between Windows and Mac operating systems. Also, Netopia claims to have the thinnest remote-control client available at 400K.

The software allows agents to view a Web page with a listing of all pending requests in the support request queue. Agents can review the queue for issues in their area of expertise, then initiate a support session by clicking on a Web link. Unresolved issues can be returned to the support request queue, where they can be highlighted and escalated for expert assistance.

Since it is completely Web-based, agents can work from multiple locations or even from home. As for security, all data passed between the remote desktop and the Support Agent can be encrypted for secure data transfer using SSL, ensuring the secure transmission of passwords and other critical information. In addition, Netopia offers its solution both as an ASP model or as a site server deployment. Most of its competitors only offer one or the other. We should mention that the software comes with extensive reporting that delivers usage tracking, data mining and data logs into a client's CRM system.

Performix Technologies, Ltd.
Emvolve Performance Manager 2.0
877-637-3063; www.performixtechnologies.com

So your call center has the latest and greatest technologies for optimizing and automating your call center, including an ACD, workforce management software, quality monitoring system and CRM systems? The real question is, do you have a complete picture of performance across all aspects of these call center technologies? Most likely, you have to run and analyze separate reports, which can be tedious and time-consuming.

Emvolve Performance Manager is unique in that it aggregates data from all existing systems within the call center, from the ACD, workforce management, quality monitoring and CRM systems to give a single complete view of all aspects of a contact center. This complete view of the performance gives managers access to key information for driving the business forward. By providing a single comprehensive report on the business performance of each employee, it helps alleviate the problem of providing several disparate reports to a manager or CEO, which is often too much information to handle. Also, the product requires only a Web browser to view reports and integrates with all reporting devices in the enterprise.

Emvolve increases the profitability of contact centers by improving the business performance of their employees. This is done by aligning the goals of each employee ' from agents all the way up to the CEO ' with the overall goals of the business, then providing constant feedback to all parties regarding the employees' performance. This product provides executives with the ability to drill down into each division, unit and team to find the strengths and weaknesses within his/her organization.

We should point out that not only executives or supervisors have access to the data. Agents can have access to their own statistics as well, which will encourage them to improve. This product incorporates an automated reward and recognition system to help motivate those employees who consistently meet or exceed goals. For providing a unique solution that takes data from various sources and aggregates them into a single concise report that is easy to interpret, a round of applause goes to Performix's innovative solution.

RightForce
RightForce v3.2
877-336-7231; www.rightforce.com

Providing excellent customer service requires coordination of phone calls, Web site and other enterprise activities to ensure that staff is always available to keep up with customer demand. To assist in this endeavor, workforce management solutions aid in the management of forecasting and scheduling activities. They use historic and projected business volume, manage vacation requests and provide for last-minute schedule changes.

RightForce is one such workforce management system that offers a hosted, Web-based, thin-client system. The product has excellent integration capabilities with ACDs, e-mail servers, chat servers, outbound dialers and more. It provides comprehensive attendance, real-time adherence and productivity tracking by agent for up to five years of historical data.

Several unique features are part of this solution. For instance, it forecasts and schedules not only traditional phone demand but also outbound and non-call center staff demand for increased productivity. It can perform skills-based forecasting and scheduling throughout the current day and can create schedules based on individual skills and past performance of each agent. Unlike some competing WFM solutions, which can be very static once the schedule has been finalized, changes within RightForce can be made on-the-fly as events occur.

Rockwell
Rockwell FirstPoint
Contact Enterprise 2002
800-416-8199; www.rockwellfirstpoint.com

Rockwell's FirstPoint Contact Enterprise 2002 (FCE) is a complete contact center solution that integrates customer contact technologies with several disparate contact center solutions across the enterprise. Using a unique open architecture, FCE provides an infrastructure that supports multiple channels, including voice, e-mail, Web, wireless and VoIP, to tie business and customer data together at the point of contact.

By eliminating middleware elements, FCE eliminates the dependency on multiple proprietary interfaces. FirstPoint Enterprise 2002's open architecture lets businesses choose the best-of-breed solutions, including workforce management software and ACD. For example, it is readily integrated with Edify, IEX, Witness, Aspect, Avaya and virtually every IVR/VRU manufacturer.

The reporting is quite impressive, providing a comprehensive view of the contact center. It can take proprietary vendor data and then offer consolidated real-time displays of applications or queues, call processing scripts, agents and deviations from scheduled activities.

Rockwell has superb routing call methods using its Telescripts to look at over 80 real-time variables to determine how to get a call to the most qualified resource. Variables can be service level, number of available agents, delay times, digit strings, numbers, host information and more. One final key advantage of Rockwell's solution is that they claim less than three minutes of down time in one year in a round-the-clock call center (that is considered five 9s, or 99.999 percent, reliability).

Spanlink Communications
Concentric
Supervisor v4.0
763-971-2212; www.spanlink.com

Most CTI products focus on call routing or the agent's desktop (i.e., screen pop). Concentric Supervisor is unique in that it focuses on supervisors and their interactions with agents. It integrates real-time visual and auditory monitoring, agent-to-supervisor chat capabilities and call control functions. Concentric Supervisor uses computer-telephony technology to provide supervisors with real-time call information and the tools to use that information to coach and train agents. Supervisors can use the information to coach agents in two-way chat sessions, send broadcast messages to agent teams or even join or take over a call.
Concentric Supervisor allows supervisors to coach agents in real-time without leaving their desks. Supervisors access call status through a tree control, which enables them to drill down into various elements of the contact center. The tree displays a team's corresponding groups, agents, contacts and queues/skills. Icons within the tree indicate each agent's state, name and extension. Supervisors simply click on an agent name to reveal a summary of his or her activity for the session, including logged-in time, total calls and talk time. By selecting the contact itself, supervisors can view the call status and the duration of each call. They can of course join the call as well.

Significant features include a chat board, marquee messaging, barge-in and even the ability for the supervisor to complete the call on the agent's behalf, while freeing the agent to handle other calls. Spanlink's Concentric Supervisor gives call center supervisors the tools necessary to view important information, as well as monitor and train agents, which results in better agent morale and improved customer service.

Sprint
Sprint Video
Telephony v6.0
913-534-2604; www.sprint.com

Sprint's Video Telephony product has IP telephony components, so originally we were going to save Sprint's application and award them an Innovation Award in next year's Internet Telephony magazine special, which specifically focuses on innovative IP telephony products. However, Sprint's product was just too exciting to wait that long. Besides, in addition to having IP telephony components, the product is customer interaction-oriented and the company is focusing this product on vertical markets such as call centers, healthcare and education, which fall under the auspices of this magazine.

So just what is this product that we couldn't wait to write it up? Well, it's a video telephony product that allows a person to dial a phone number using a standard telephone, which will then initiate a video call (displayed on the user's PC) with the individual the caller dialed. What's unique about this product is that it is uses a hybrid of IP Telephony and POTS (plain old telephone system) technologies.

Essentially what happens is that when a number is dialed, the touch-tone digits are sent to a RJ45 converter (located at the customer premise equipment [CPE]), which translates the touch-tone digits into IP packets. The IP packets then travel across a local LAN to the Internet, where they are sent to Sprint's database. Sprint's database then does a phone number to IP address translation to determine the IP address (i.e., the remote computer) of the person the caller is trying to reach. Once the IP addresses of both the caller and the call recipient are known, a video conference session is initiated. Now here's the real kicker ' the video is sent over IP, however the voice is transmitted over the traditional PSTN. Thus, if the Internet gets congested, only the video quality suffers ' the voice quality will be unaffected.

We should mention that this phone number to IP address translation is nothing new. In fact, the ENUM standard (mapping the PSTN world to the IP world) is attempting to do the same thing. Unfortunately, the ENUM standard has been slow to take off and there are only a few trials and even less deployment. Sprint is looking to come to market with a solution that works without waiting for ENUM to be finalized and ratified.

As we mentioned, Sprint is targeting call centers, as they feel their technology can provide customers with a better calling experience. Certainly a customer looking to buy something off the Web will feel a more personalized 'connection' with the agent when he or she is able to see the remote agent on the PC screen. Our only contention with this solution is that it requires a piece of hardware (about the size of a deck of cards) at the customer premises connected to both the telephone line and the LAN in order to translate the number dialed into IP packets. If the customer has to purchase this hardware, the product may have difficulty getting off its feet. However, Sprint will likely forge partnerships whereby either Sprint or its partners offer their customers the hardware for free. Nevertheless, these awards are about innovation and Sprint's Video Telephony certainly fits that bill.

SYMON Communications, Inc.
Contact Center COMMUNITY 2.0
800-827-9666; www.communitywfm.com

Contact Center COMMUNITY 2.0 is a Web-based workforce management solution that provides scheduling and performance data to agents and supervisors. COMMUNITY uses Web technologies to retrieve and store ACD statistics, create volume and head count requirements, optimize schedules and monitor agent status for real-time adherence. Since it is Web-based, it allows COMMUNITY to run multiple sites, multiple ACDs and all optional modules off a single server, resulting in lower TCO and a faster ROI.

Unique to the solution is that it encourages participation in scheduling and information sharing by all levels of the contact center's personnel, from management down to the agents, which SYMON claims results in more accurate and acceptable schedules. Because of this 'distributed' responsibility of scheduling, COMMUNITY frees up more time for managers to focus on important issues in the contact center. This is a key differentiator, as most workforce management vendors' applications put the control of forecasting and scheduling into the hands of one or two individuals, which can impact business in the absence of these key individuals. One other unique feature is that with the Mobile COMMUNITY product, wireless viewing is possible via a Pocket PC PDA.

TriVium Systems
SimpleRM v2.1
877-439-9338; www.trivumsys.com

SimpleRM provides a real-time view of data across an entire organization, with integrated sales, marketing and customer support functions. SimpleRM also unifies information from e-mail, Web chat, Web forms, telephone, fax and even handhelds, providing a complete integration of customer interaction channels. SimpleRM claims to be the first to offer a 100 percent Web-architected CRM application suite available across all segments of the CRM market.

Written in Java, SimpleRM enables easy plug-and-play for all components, including databases, Web servers, e-mail servers, phone switches, faxes, wireless, VoIP and third-party applications. SimpleRM includes process modeling and workflow using an app-gen-like flowchart modeling of business processes which then automatically generates the code. It includes support for XML, is highly scalable and, TriVium claims, extremely reliable. Targeting the small to mid-sized CRM market, this product has all the ingredients to meet the most demanding contact center requirements.

Willow CSN, Inc.
CyberCenter Network/StarMatic v2.5.34
888-899-5995; www.willowcsn.com

Willow CSN offers a unique remote (home-based) staffing solution for the customer contact center industry. Willow's CyberCenter Network is composed of 1,600 home-based customer service representatives (CSRs). Called CyberAgent CSRs by Willow, they are independent contractors who have set up their own businesses as customer service representatives. Using Willow's technology, CyberAgents take customer service calls from their homes for Willow's corporate clients.

Willow uses its StarMatic workforce management technology to link these home-based agents to Willow's major corporate clients, which include 1800Flowers.com, AAA Motor Clubs and the Home Shopping Network. Each CyberAgent CSR generally works for several of Willow's clients. In fact, Willow CSN claims that StarMatic was the first product in the contact center space to allow the shared staffing resources (or CyberAgent CSRs) to view and respond to staffing requests across multiple enterprises.

Rather than traditional eight-hour work shifts, Willow's remote work model allows the home-based CyberAgent CSRs to offer clients a workforce-on-demand that can be scheduled in manageable 30-minute blocks of time. This not only helps Willow's clients ensure that the right amount of CSRs are answering the phones at the right times, but it also lets the CyberAgent CSRs schedule their work hours.

Clients use a Web-based application to submit the number of CyberAgents they require in half-hour intervals. CyberAgents are then able to view these postings and use their own Web-based application to decide which clients they are going to work for and when they are going to work for them. The solution allows the clients to increase or decrease the amount of CSRs needed in 30-minute intervals to more accurately reflect increasing and decreasing call volume, resulting in less waste due to over- and under-staffing.

Witness Systems
eQuality Suite v6.3
770-754-1900; www.witness.com

Witness Systems' eQuality suite is multimedia quality monitoring, performance analysis and electronic learning/training software that enables companies to improve the quality of their customer interactions across multiple communications media, including the telephone, e-mail and the Web. The browser-based eQuality enables companies to record, evaluate, analyze and learn from customer contacts and the touch points they use to generate additional revenue, develop staff and achieve greater customer retention and loyalty. Witness' solution is unique in that it integrates into one product many disparate features that competitors often have to 'partner' with third parties to match.

Witness Systems' eQuality software suite is designed to record and evaluate complete agent-customer interactions, including both the voice conversation as well as the agent's desktop activities, such as data entry and the agent's screen and mouse actions. By capturing both voice and data and synchronizing them during replay, a company can evaluate and analyze complete customer interactions as they occurred for a complete quality assessment. In addition, eQuality enables companies to capture, evaluate and analyze Web, collaborative chat and e-mail communications.

eQuality also allows users to establish 'business rules' to trigger recording of the multimedia customer interactions defined as most critical to their operating performance, such as those involving key customers, new marketing campaigns, specific products and select CSRs. Finally, by using the integrated e-Quality Now module, agents can be quickly trained to improve performance, morale, retention and overall customer service.

Z-Firm LLC
OmniRush v5.5
707-543-2747; www.zfirm.com

OmniRush is a unique, multifaceted communications product that is a full-blown communication server for fax and e-mail (database merge fax and database merge HTML e-mail server), that is also a multicarrier shipping server (UPS, FedEx and Airborne shipping). OmniRush combines communication, marketing, notification and fulfillment functions into a single server. It allows any CRM or SQL database application to easily trigger merge fax, merge e-mail, merge print, text-to-speech voice messaging, shipping and merchant credit card transactions.

Z-Firm claims that OmniRush is the first ever multicarrier shipping server priced under $5,000. It integrates directly with any Oracle and Microsoft SQL server applications and allows CRM and SQL databases to use a single template library to be used for merge fax, merge print and merge e-mail. All job types are driven via the same method from any SQL database or ActiveX capable development tool. OmniRush allows advanced functions such as shipping to be integrated into any application quickly.

OmniRush is innovative in its approach to centralizing all business logic-related merge and shipping jobs in a single server. This allows external apps (CRM, e-commerce, custom in-house app) to drive OmniRush via a simple API. A simple 'job' record in a database table can drive all kinds of jobs (print, fax, HTML, e-mail, UPS shipping, FedEx shipping, etc.). This means that any application that can create a record can trigger any or all of these jobs such as Web apps (in ASP, JSP, CGI, Cold Fusion, etc.), wireless apps (Palm, etc.), Windows apps (in VB, C++, Access, FoxPro), etc.