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Frost & Sullivan Presents Interactive Intelligence with Product Leadership AwardJul 18, 2013 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- Based on its recent research on the hosted contact centre market, Frost & Sullivan reported that it presents Interactive Intelligence with the 2013 South African Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Leadership. In a release on July 15, the Company noted details of Interactive Intelligence: The company has leveraged its global pedigree, range of product functionality, and solutions set to become a trusted partner for enterprises in the hosted contact centre space. Interactive Intelligence's contact centre platform offers customers access to a full suite of multi-channel contact centre, unified communications, and business process automation features. The company's product functionality is broad, with its competitors typically having to rely on third-party solutions for extra functionality. "To address customer challenges stemming from South Africa's bandwidth constraints and the resulting hesitation in adopting hosted contact centers, Interactive Intelligence has developed different deployment models for South African customers," noted Frost & Sullivan Information & Communication Technologies Industry Analyst Ishe Zingoni. "Under its unique, configurable 'Local Control' model, customers can opt to deploy the hardware device on their premises as opposed to a fully hosted service. This allows voice traffic, recordings and other sensitive data to remain on the premises while call control and other intelligence software reside in a hosted environment. Since voice traffic is bandwidth-intensive, this model enables bandwidth optimization, and hence cost control." Another key source of customer value addition for Interactive Intelligence lies in the ability of its solutions to integrate with existing systems. This is because the company's products are based on open standards SIP and soft-based solutions. Since the company strives to be ahead of its peers, 90 per cent of its products are cloud-ready, and all newer modules are ready for both cloud and premise setting. "Interactive Intelligence offers a clear migration path for contact centers, where they could start off in the cloud and move to the premise environment when ready, without suffering disruptions or data losses," observed Zingoni. "Interactive Intelligence is one of the few companies in the market offering both cloud and premise systems, and a seamless migration between the two. It also offers integration with social media and extension onto mobile platforms as both channels are gaining prominence in South Africa as contact channels." According to Frost & Sullivan research, there is currently a market perception that Interactive Intelligence's solutions were truly meant for the hosted environment, as opposed to its rivals' rigid, un-adaptable product sets. This has aided the company in supplanting established players. Interactive Intelligence also has a reputation for quality, reliability and security of its solutions through its multi-instance hosting architecture. "The company provisions virtual machines where each client runs on a separate virtual instance of the application; this differs from the more prevalent multi-tenant architecture where tenants reside on a shared software instance," explained Zingoni. "This architecture allows for improved integration capabilities and the minimization of the risk that other customers will impact on performance." Interactive Intelligence's route to market in South Africa currently involves partnerships with ICT service providers MTN Business and 1Stream. While MTN Business offers a viable avenue to customers, 1Stream already has a formidable presence in the small to mid-markets. These partners offer Interactive Intelligence platforms for growth across the key segments. In recognition of its achievements, Frost & Sullivan has presented Interactive Intelligence with the 2013 Product Leadership Award in the South African hosted contact centre market. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated development in product features and functionality that provides enhanced quality and more benefit to customers. The award recognizes the rapid acceptance such technology finds in the marketplace. Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. is a global provider of contact centre automation, unified communications, and business process automation software and services. More Information: inin.com/za ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) |