As SaaS (News - Alert) becomes a major player in the call center space, those providing it have seen tremendous room for growth and have been afforded the ability to reinvest in themselves to produce even more effective solutions. So it goes with Five9 (News - Alert), who today announced its appointment of industry leader Tom Schollmey as their new CTO.

Schollmey has decades of experience managing and strategizing to improve efficiency in enterprise level call centers and customer service operations. At Five9, Schollmey will be responsible for product development and management, and will work to improve the company’s already impressive line of call center solutions.

Mike Burkland, chief executive officer of Five9, said, “I am thrilled that Tom is joining Five9. As a 15-year veteran of the call center industry, with an outstanding track record of technology innovation and delivery, Tom is the right person to lead Five9’s technology organizations. Tom’s experience delivering call center technology as well as running large call center operations provides a unique blend of experience and talent that sets him apart from others in this industry.”

Five9 offers cloud-based call center software utilized in call centers from the SMB to the enterprise level. Schollmey’s addition to the team will in no uncertain terms bolster the company’s understanding of the space and the technology powering it.

“I am excited to be joining Five9,” Schollmey said in a release accompanying the news. “The company is revolutionizing call center software the way that Salesforce.com (News - Alert) revolutionized CRM software. With revenue growth in excess of 50 percent for the last three years running, Five9 is rapidly becoming the breakaway leader in this market. As a profitable, 250-person company that is currently processing over 1 billion calls annually through its platform, Five9 has established itself as a sizable player in the rapidly growing cloud-based call center software market”

With this announcement Five9 continues a year that has already been marked by growth milestones. In May, Five9 welcomed Ken Osborn as the company’s new vice president of marketing; and in March the company announced expansion of their corporate offices. Five9’s growth is a testament to the acceptance of hosted call center software as a viable alternative to premise-based technologies.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

Chris DiMarco is a Web Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.

Edited by Tammy Wolf