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Private Pipkins Provides Powerful Products

As Facebook (News - Alert) is finding out recently, there are indeed drawbacks to being a publically held company. In fact, after speaking with Bob Webb, vice president of sales at Pipkins (News - Alert), I am starting to see that being a private company has its own advantages as well.

I spoke with Webb at Call Center Week in Las Vegas, discussing how the company, which has been in the workforce management space for almost 30 years, has been thriving. While other companies in the call center space have had patchy success over the last three or four years, Webb said that Pipkins has had four strong years in a row. He attributes much of this success to the fact that Pipkins is a private company.

While publically held companies have limits, private companies can pull the trigger faster. And they have pulled that trigger quite a few times recently. Pipkins has had a hosted platform for a decade now, and has seen interest in that hosted offering going up recently. Webb attributes this rise in part to the fact that, in the hosted world, Pipkins can act as the IT department for their customers, handling problems and removing a burden from already overworked IT managers.

Webb takes pride in the fact that, as he sees it, Pipkins is three to five years ahead of its competitors from a technology perspective. He said that seven years ago, Pipkins introduced the ability to browse its workforce management tool on a smartphone, and now that functionality is available on every kind of tablet as well.

The company specializes in workforce management solutions and nothing else, seeking to create “bulletproof software” that stands the test of time. Webb says that Pipkins’ specialization helps it maintain its edge in the market because, as he puts it, “nine women can’t make a baby in a month.”

He also touted the company’s strong service, citing a recent company that fled a competitor to come to Pipkins due to its strong customer support. Webb also stated that more and more customers are starting to understand that “one vendor can’t be all things to all people,” so Pipkins strives to be the best in the workforce management space while working with other best-of-breed providers. He also said that the second half of 2012 is shaping up to be an exciting one, with many new announcements coming down the pike.