January 23, 2007

Altitude Software's uCI 7.5 Call Center Suite Introduced

By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Datelined "Lisbon, Portugal" comes the announcement that Altitude Software, an independent contact center vendor, has announced the availability of Altitude uCI 7.5, the latest release of the contact center suite.

The Altitude uCI 7.5 is the latest release of the contact center software with fifteen years of service. The latest release enables contact centers to" embrace change, profit from virtualization, increase productivity and grow proactive customer service practices," according to company officials.

This has evidently driven a focus on "more effective use of established technology through improved desktop applications delivery, better initial call screening, more use of scripted customer interactions, self-service automation and multichannel contact management," according to their "Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, EMEA, 2006" report written by Terry Wright, Steve Blood, Bern Elliot last March.

The uCI 7.5 release has native IP supports for distributed operations -- including home-based and remote agents -- and streamlining IT investments and optimizing human resources, company officials say, adding that the tool gives managers the tools to "centrally design and implement flexible service-delivery models that profit from increased agent productivity."

Company officials break down the suite's benefits in a couple areas:

Virtualized operations. The Altitude IP Contact Center provides businesses with a SIP-based multi-channel contact center, allowing centralized management and configuration as well as intelligent routing, monitoring and reporting capabilities for several contact center deployment options, such as "on-demand"  contact center, home or remote agents and multiple sites centrally managed or on customer premises.

Reinvented customer service. The Altitude uCI 7.5 suite has what company officials call "proactive customer care," which lets contact centers use outbound calling to proactively contact affected customers/groups "when service disruptions are anticipated," or "pursue customer satisfaction follow-up after service fulfillment."

Company officials also say the Altitude Fast Script Builder is an intuitive tool with an interface for campaign flow and agent desktop screen creation that "enables CRM outsourcer account managers to design campaigns, validate requirements, and signoff specifications with the customer."

This past October Altitude announced that its products are "in use by the top five call center outsourcing companies in Brazil," according to Altitude officials, "by revenue and agent positions."  

The company claims a 30 percent revenue growth in 2005, to 1.7 billion euros, in the Call Center Outsourcing industry in Brazil as a whole, "one of the highest growth industries in Brazil."

Altitude's flagship product is Altitude uCI, a suite of customer interaction management products for customer service; help desks; collections; order desks; proactive marketing, sales and service; and business process management.

It supports both open and proprietary VoIP products, company officials say, "using the detailed know-how of the contact center operational aspects, from agent coaching to IT management."

In July SMT Direct Marketing Inc., parent company, InfoSpan Pakistan, a vendor of multi-media contact center outsourcing services, selected Altitude uCI software for its customer relationship management.

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

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Internet Protocol (IP)	X
IP stands for Internet Protocol, a data-networking protocol developed throughout the 1980s. It is the established standard protocol for transmitting and receiving data in packets over the Internet. I...more

Voice over IP (VoIP)	X
A real-time communications system that converts voice into digital packets containing media and signaling data that travel over networks using Internet Protocol....more

Routing	X
There are many often too many explanation of routing. Heres one: Hop-by-Hop Routing - IP Routing - Distributes routing to routers - Networks look/act like trees - Data can traverse many routers ...more

Virtualization	X
Central Processor Virtualization or Virtualization allows one computer system to emulate as multiple virtual computer systems. A Virtual Machine Monitor also known as a hypervisor is a system of sy...more

(source: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/01/23/2268355.htm)