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By Tracey E. Schelmetic, Editorial Director, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
ClientLogic And SITEL To Merge
Global teleservices/BPO providers ClientLogic and SITEL have announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, a newly formed subsidiary of ClientLogic will merge with SITEL and pay $4.05 per share in cash for all of the outstanding common stock of SITEL. The Board of Directors of each company has unanimously approved the transaction. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2007 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval of SITEL’s shareholders and regulatory clearances. SITEL’s Board of Directors has recommended to SITEL’s shareholders that they vote in favor of the transaction. Approximately 19.9 percent of the outstanding common stock of SITEL is subject to voting agreements which require such shares to be voted in favor of the merger. SITEL has agreed to pay a termination fee to ClientLogic should the transaction not close due to certain circumstances. ClientLogic will fund the transaction with the proceeds of a committed loan facility. The transaction values SITEL at approximately $450 million. The combined entity will continue to be named ClientLogic Corporation, and will have approximately 65,000 employees across 28 countries. Dave Garner will be Chief Executive Officer of the combined entity.
www.clientlogic.com
Spanlink (News - Alert)
Introduces Mobile Supervisor Workstation
Spanlink Communications has introduced Spanlink Mobile Supervisor Workstation, a portable, hand-held tool that allows contact center supervisors to monitor, manage schedules and collaborate with agents regardless of location. Mobile Supervisor Workstation extends the Spanlink InteractiveEdge line of products, which are built to transform centralized contact center environments into virtual customer interaction networks. The product was designed to enable supervisors to maintain constant contact with agents from any location with wireless access. Supervisors can attend meetings or work offsite and still provide effective coaching and receive immediate notification of all contact center activity and issues, enabling quick response time for optimal productivity and consistent customer interaction.
www.spanlink.com
Verint Introduces Customer Interaction Analytics
Verint Systems (News - Alert)
Inc., a provider of analytic software-based solutions for security and business intelligence, recently announced the introduction of Customer Interaction Analytics (CI Analytics), a new enterprise analytics offering that helps organizations transform customer relationships through actionable intelligence.
CI Analytics combines platform-agnostic speech analytics with a proven Interaction Intelligence methodology to help organizations enhance customer retention and satisfaction, increase first-call resolution and improve sales and self-service effectiveness. CI Analytics operates independently of call recording infrastructure that may already be deployed in the enterprise. Designed to be delivered as a managed service via a network of certified consulting partners, CI Analytics is ideally suited for large enterprises with traditionally high volumes of customer interactions.
CI Analytics is built on Verint’s speech analytics and expertise in customer behavior analysis, business process optimization and operational transformation techniques developed by working with prominent enterprises around the world. This unique combination of technology and methodology enables enterprises to identify their most important interactions and analyze their true impact on customer relationships. Armed with this intelligence, CI Analytics then determines a new approach to these “moment of truth” interactions that promotes greater customer centricity and better business outcomes.
“By unbundling Verint’s proven speech technology and customer relationship methodology from our contact center analytics, our CI Analytics offering enables enterprises, regardless of their recording platform, to build stronger and more profitable customer relationships. This new approach makes Verint Solutions available to a broader range of customers and supports our expanding enterprise actionable intelligence strategy,” said Dan Bodner, CEO and President of Verint.
www.verint.com
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Dirigosoft Launches Dirigo iQueue
Dirigosoft Corporation, a provider of customer contact solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, has announced the debut of Dirigo iQueue, an intelligent assistant-based communications solution combining an array of robust private branch exchange (
PBX (News - Alert)
) features with the advanced capabilities of automatic call distribution (ACD) solutions to support customer contact strategies. Designed with the functionality, scalability and redundancy of world-class, enterprise solutions, Dirigo iQueue is priced specifically for small and medium-sized businesses with up to 500 users or five- to 150-position contact centers. According to the company, Dirigo iQueue is easy to install and use and is highly configurable. It comes with a set of traditional PBX and ACD features, among others. iQueue delivers actionable data through real-time reporting and results, including insight into queue depths and service levels; measurements for successful campaigns and initiatives with business results; and improved agent management with local or remote monitoring.
www.dirigosoft.com
NICE And
Avaya (News - Alert)
Extend Global Alliance
NICE Systems Ltd. and Avaya Inc. recently announced the expansion of their global relationship to encompass the distribution of workforce management software from IEX Corp., a subsidiary of NICE. According to the companies, the decision to extend the long-term distribution agreement between NICE and Avaya to include the IEX TotalView Workforce Management system is based upon their shared vision for delivering a comprehensive suite of applications that addresses the full spectrum of contact center business issues. With the expansion of the distribution agreement, contact centers can now purchase TotalView directly from Avaya in addition to the NICE Solutions, which Avaya has been reselling since 1997.
www.nice.com and www.avaya.com
Witness Systems (News - Alert)
Announces Acquisitions
Witness Systems recently announced that it has acquired Demos Solutions Consulting Group Ltd. and Exametric, Inc., two suppliers of enterprise productivity and resource planning solutions to the financial services industry. The acquisitions were forged to broaden the revenue opportunity and customer base for Witness, further extending the business value of its workforce optimization solutions from contact centers to bank branches and ultimately to other areas in the enterprise. The aggregate purchase price for both transactions is $29 million in cash plus a potential earn-out of up to $18 million based on the growth of the business over the next few years.
www.witness.com
Home Agent Company Working Solutions Acquires Advanced Data-Comm
Working Solutions, a provider of remote agent call center services, has announced the acquisition of Advanced Data-Comm, an 18-year old call center services company based in Dubuque, Iowa. ADC is a provider of outsourced sales and customer care solutions for medium to large enterprise companies that require highly skilled, educated agents to support their customer interactions.
“This is an important step in the future growth of Working Solutions and will open up new opportunities for our clients,” said Tim Houlne, CEO of Working Solutions. “Companies can now witness first hand how remote home agent solutions will be used to optimize facility-based call centers to increase utilization, efficiency, conversion rates and customer satisfaction ratings using industry professional agents.”
www.workingsol.com
FrontRange Releases Upgraded IP Contact Center Solution
FrontRange Solutions has announced the general availability of version 5.0.3 of IP Contact Center (IPCC), the communications interaction management solution designed to provide an integrated voice communications platform that extends the functionality of other FrontRange software products, such as the HEAT Service and Support. FrontRange IPCC is now deeply integrated with HEAT, the FrontRange help desk management solution, to address many challenges at the help desk. IPCC’s interoperability with HEAT means organizations now benefit from inbound call routing, customer self-service options, screen pops with prepopulated customer data with status information, after-hours service and management of shared incidents that affect multiple users. Self-service is one major enhancement to IPCC, allowing business to offer callers the option of completing a service request without needing to speak to a live service representative.
www.frontrange.com
Aspect Announces Aspect Quality Management 2.5.1
Aspect Software (News - Alert)
, Inc. recently announced the general availability of Aspect Quality Management 2.5.1, a solution designed to simplify the call recording and quality management process. The latest release of Aspect Quality Management includes integration with Aspect Spectrum ACD. With this added integration, the quality management and full-time recording solution is available to all users of the Aspect Signature ACDs, including Aspect CallCenter ACD. Aspect Quality Management provides capabilities for recording, reviewing and reporting on customer interactions, which can be used to help improve agent performance and job satisfaction, increase customer satisfaction and revenue generation, and better manage overall costs.
www.aspect.com
NextNine Introduces Support Automation Platform For The Service Ecosystem
NextNine recently announced its NextNine Service Automation (NSA) ECOSYSTEM EDITION, which offers a suite of products and solutions and represents the evolution of the company’s support automation suite. NSA Ecosystem Edition is a direct response to the growing demand across all markets, such as financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and telecommunications, for reliable, cost-effective support automation solutions. The platform is based on NextNine’s patented Virtual Support Engineer and provides solutions that automate self-support, assisted support and proactive support, in addition to managed and partner service offerings.
www.nextnine.com
AIM Technology Solution Now Rated “Avaya Compliant”
AIM Technology, a provider of operational performance management software, recently announced that its AIM Performance solution is compliant with key contact center solutions from Avaya. AIM Technology develops AIM Performance Suite, an enterprise application suite that optimizes and aligns the performance of agents, teams and businesses processes, transitioning call centers and other customer-facing entities from a cost center to a strategic operational asset. The application now is compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with the Avaya Call Management System 13.1, an application that provides the information and management tools businesses need to monitor and analyze the performance of their contact center operations.
www.aimtechnology.com
Syntora Acquired By
Voice Print International (News - Alert)
Syntora, Inc., a provider of agent performance optimization solutions for contact centers, has been acquired by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Voice Print International, a provider of integrated interactions recording and workforce optimization solutions. The acquisition will enable Voice Print to further enhance its Activ! Performance Suite of contact center solutions, delivering integration between the interactions recording, quality monitoring, real-time performance management, speech analytics, customer surveying and automated agent coaching modules. The acquisition supports Voice Print’s strategy of equipping organizations with the tools necessary to improve workforce performance, build customer loyalty, minimize risk and ensure regulatory compliance.
www.voiceprintonline.com
Persay Delivers Biometric Speaker Verification For
Microsoft (News - Alert)
Speech Server
Persay, a provider of biometric speaker verification technology, has announced that its VocalPassword text-dependent speaker verification platform is available as an add-on to Microsoft Speech Server 2004 R2 (MSS) and the next version of Speech Server, which was recently renamed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Speech Platform Services. Several MSS solution providers have already deployed Persay’s VocalPassword as part of their MSS-based password-reset solutions in the security and healthcare industries, providing two-factor authentication. The additional security layer provided by VocalPassword enables MSS’s customers to deploy voice applications that provide secure and convenient access to private and sensitive information as well as risky transactions. Independent of language and accent, VocalPassword verifies a speaker’s identity using a simple pass phrase, offering a secure, convenient and efficient alternative to traditional forms of verification. VocalPassword’s platform is based on .NET technology and exposes Web service (SOAP) APIs that make integration with MSS seamless and straightforward.
www.persay.com
CTI Group (News - Alert)
Announces Hosted VoIP Call Recording Solution
CTI Group has released SmartRecord IP, a Web-based call recording solution designed to enable service providers to deliver an improved contact center solution as well as facilitate legal and regulatory recording scenarios, according to the company. As contact centers become increasingly distributed and begin to leverage the benefits of hosted VoIP services, CTI Group’s SmartRecord IP will help them drive efficiency, automation and distributed workforce management into their communications infrastructure. CTI Group’s hosted call recording service enables service providers to offer this mission-critical feature to their customers as an enhanced service; the customer does not have to tie up precious capital in hardware or software, further eliminating risk of technology that becomes obsolete.
www.ctigroup.com
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