Virtual Call Center

With the proliferation of cloud computing and the rapid adoption of virtualization, the virtual call center is gaining in popularity. Companies of all sizes can expand their customer service initiatives for a fraction of the cost of a traditional call center when they leverage the virtual approach. 

Movement is happening in this space as USAN (News - Alert) Inc., a provider of hosted contact center solutions, has announced the acquisition of Interactive Softworks, Inc. (ISI (News - Alert)). USAN plans to augment its virtual call center capabilities with the purchase of this innovator in customer engagement software solutions. ISI offers multichannel campaign management and multi-channel customer interaction. 

By combining USAN’s virtual call center capabilities and the unified customer engagement platform offered by ISI, the resulting platform is the industry’s first hybrid, hosted and premise-based multi-channel solution for business driven customer engagement. 

“Customer-centric companies recognize that today’s customers expect and demand real-time, exemplary service in every channel of communication—from traditional telephone interactions to the web, emerging social media and everything between,” said Steve Walton, USAN’s president and CEO, in a statement.

“Interactive Softworks’ customer engagement technology provides the perfect complement to our current solution. The new USAN will offer the industry’s most complete set of customer engagement services capable of handling any type of cross-channel inbound, outbound or blended interaction,” Walton added.

With the combined solution, USAN customers will have access to hosted, premise, or a combination of the two deployment options. In addition, users will also have access to a platform designed for unifying communications, integrating back-office systems, developing multi-channel applications and exposing business processes across consumer communication channels of any kind. 

Brenton Farmer, CEO and co-founder of Interactive Softworks, said, “USAN and Interactive share a common vision to provide individualized customer interactions across any form of communication.  In today’s business environment customer loyalty and the ability to respond to changing events and engage in social interaction is critical. The combination of our technology with USAN’s experience in cloud-based contact center technology will enable the new USAN to transform the way companies communicate with and serve their customers.”

In the virtual call center space, USAN offers a comprehensive portfolio of call center products such as network-based interactive voice response systems, automatic call distributors and outbound dialers. For its part, Interactive Softworks is focused on improving the way organizations engage customers by facilitating the synchronization of critical real-time data with backend processes and driving personalized customer interactions.

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.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell