ATG, Woolworths Sign Call Center Software Deal

Art Technology Group (News - Alert), Inc., a vendor of eCommerce platform vendor, has announced that Woolworths, still one of the UK’s biggest retailers, is deploying additional ATG software to power its online storefront and call center operations.

Using ATG applications such as ATG Commerce Assist and ATG Outreach, Woolworths officials say they can now offer a "stronger" multi-channel experience to customers.

Woolworths already had a commerce platform from ATG, but with the added ATG Commerce Assist application, the company says it is "further unifying its Web and call center environments, enabling contact center agents to create and manage online orders for customers."

ATG Outreach, company officials say, will help Woolworths "gain a richer understanding of customers through their web interactions, preferences and behaviors" to create "e-mail and proactive customer service campaigns."

Andrew Harber, head of strategy and channel systems at Woolworths, said the venerable retailer wants to "drive even more revenue online." Following a "de-merger," company officials say, Woolworths has moved into an Enterprise-wide Licensing Agreement, adding ATG Outreach and Commerce Assist to the mix to "drive forward its multi-channel campaign."

In September ATG and eStara announced that the two companies signed a definitive agreement for ATG to acquire eStara in a stock and cash merger transaction.  The closing of the transaction is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2006.

The transaction is expected to be accretive on a non-GAAP diluted per share basis in the first full quarter following the closing of the transaction.

EStara's Click to Call, Click to Chat and Call Tracking products were eyed by ATG in hopes of furthering ATG's mission of "enabling online sellers to find customers, convert them to buyers and ensure their satisfaction so they become loyal, repeat, and profitable customers," in ATG official boilerplate.

EStara's Click to Call solution allows an online consumer to request an immediate call from a salesperson or customer care agent, via the telephone or computer.

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

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