NICE to Improve Contact Center Offerings With Acquisition of IEX and Performix
April 28, 2006
By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor
In an effort to advance its Insight from Interaction vision and strategy, NICE Systems has made plans to acquire two companies. A definitive agreement was signed by NICE to acquire IEX, a provider of contact center workforce management solutions and another agreement was signed to purchase Performix, a contact center performance management company.
Subject to customary closing conditions, both acquisition transactions are anticipated to close towards the end of the second quarter or the beginning of the third quarter for 2006.
An innovator in workforce management, strategic planning and performance management solutions, IEX’s biggest asset is its flagship product, TotalView. This high-end centralized solution compiles data seamlessly across the enterprise, allowing for more accurate and effective forecasting, planning and scheduling.
IEX is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tekelec. NICE will acquire the shares of IEX for approximately $200 million in cash.
Contact center performance management (CCPM) is an emerging trend in the contact center market and Performix is considered a pioneer in this area. NICE will acquire Performix for a total purchase price of $13.2 million in cash. This purchase price has the ability to increase by up to an additional $6.15 million based on certain performance criteria.
Recently, there has been a major shift in the way that contact center management and enterprise executives make decisions, monitor and improve performance. The combination of solutions formed by NICE Perform and the offerings of IEX and Performix contribute to these processes by:
- Offering the first truly holistic view of contact center operations, addressing contact center and enterprise stakeholders at every level including agents, customers, supervisors, management and decision makers.
- Providing a broad offering of contact center business performance and analytics solutions including interactions capture, quality monitoring, interaction analytics, coaching, forecasting, strategic planning and performance management.
- Facilitating the fast and accurate decision making using critical business information generated by different contact center sources and the definition and monitoring of key performance indicators (KPIs).
Wide-reaching and valuable operational and business insights on strategic business issues can be gained by contact center and enterprise decision makers by combining this critical business information with insights generated by interaction analytics, analyzing it and providing powerful reporting and state-of-the-art dashboards. These issues can include upselling and cross-selling opportunities, customer churn, business intelligence, compliance and fraud as well as others.
Haim Shani, Chief Executive Office of NICE notes that through these acquisitions, the company is redefining the contact center business performance and analytics market as well as expanding its position in the field. NICE is accelerating the execution of its strategy to lead the Insight from Interactions revolution in the contact center enterprise.
Shani continued with a warm welcome to the employees who will be joining NICE from IEX and Performix. Shani calls the combination of the teams the strongest talent pool in the industry, with commitment to innovation, industry knowledge and domain expertise.
IEX is excited about working with the market leader and the opportunity to redefine together the market space, according to Debbie May, President and General Manager of IEX. This new chapter in the company’s history is expected to bring unprecedented value to customers and many new opportunities for the IEX team.
Conor Sheahan, President and CEO of Performix, contributed that Performix is extremely pleased that with NICE, its CCPM solutions will get exposure to the largest customer base and distribution channel in the industry.
NICE will definitely position itself very well in the contact center arena with the acquisitions of both IEX and Performix. Both companies offer significant strengths in their respective areas and will complete an extensive portfolio when the transactions are complete.
The industry is definitely moving toward additional monitoring, reporting and the basic process of making calls easier to manage for both the agent and management. By focusing on all stakeholders, NICE will bring significant value to both contact centers and enterprises looking to improve internal and external processes.
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Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.
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