Call center solutions provider Five9 offers businesses of all sizes on five continents with solutions to meet their inbound, outbound and blended call center needs.

 

Five9's hosted call center solutions not only help improve performance and lower infrastructure maintenance costs but also increase flexibility of agent staffing and keep call centers at the forefront of their industry.

 

The company was recently awarded a 2008 Product of the Year Award by Customer Interaction Solutions magazine and was recognized for demonstrating technological excellence and application refinement.

 

For a closer look at how the company spent 2008, and their plans for the upcoming year I took sometime to speak with David Van Everen, Director of Product Management at Five9.

 

 

  

Looking back at 2008, how would you characterize the year for your company?

|2008 was a record-setting year for Five9 in a number of areas, and continues the high-growth trajectory that is setting the pace for the on-demand call center software industry. On July 23rd, Five9 introduced Release 7.0, bringing major enhancements that received rave reviews from our customers for their flexibility and ease of use for inbound and outbound call centers.

 

What were the key trends that impacted your business?

Difficult macro-economic conditions in 2008 stand out as the dominant market trend of the year that helped our business. Our business seems to run counter to general economic conditions. As the economy worsens, companies that traditionally considered premise equipment from vendors like Nortel (News - Alert), Avaya, Aspect, etc., are looking to move from CAPEX to OPEX, placing Five9 at the top of their decision-making process.

What was your company’s biggest achievement in the past year?

Our biggest accomplishment was signing a 900-seat account with at-home agents and implementing them all within 48 hours. 2008 was a breakout year for Five9 in terms of the number of enterprise accounts that signed on for our software as a service.

What are your customers looking for in the coming year?

We have the largest engineering team in the on-demand call center industry, with close to 100 people developing, testing and operating our platform, so naturally customers will be looking to further enhancements and new capabilities in the product line throughout 2009. Since staffing costs generally represent the majority of call center operational expenses, we are focusing on products and enhancements that can help our customers ensure their agents' time is spent most effectively and efficiently. In early 2009, we expect to start the year off with a bang by making major announcements regarding product line updates focused on agent productivity and management.

Do you think a new administration in Washington, D.C. will be good for the communications industry? If so, how? If not, why not?

Appropriate and timely legislation is crucial for the communications industry, which is facing many challenges as technology paradigms shift from land line to mobile and from TDM to IP. A new administration can help regulatory agencies by fostering a culture of progressive legislation solutions that keep pace with and support our evolving communications culture. Specifically, topics such as network neutrality, number portability, do-not-call rules and opt-in requirements all have a significant impact on next-generation communications infrastructure and solutions.

If you had to make one bold prediction for 2009, what would it be?

Given all the pessimistic economic forecasts, 2009 will be a great year for on-demand call center software