July 2002

Part I

EDITOR'S NOTE: Because of the volume of awards applications we received, the CRM Excellence Awards will be presented in two parts, to be continued next month in the August issue of Customer Inter@ction Solutions'.

For the third consecutive year, the editors of Customer Inter@ction Solutions' dared readers to prove that their companies have what it takes to win the coveted CRM Excellence Award. Below are the winners'the companies that offer the best and the brightest customer relationship management products and services, all to the benefit of their clients. Winners were chosen on hard data'quantifiable results that convinced us, without a doubt, that their clients were infinitely better off with these companies' products and services than without.

Congratulations to the winners.

Alorica, Inc.
Suhail Khan
[email protected]
Ph: 909-606-3667
Web: www.alorica.com
Product: Helix
'In the six months since the new program began with Alorica, the client has cut its product returns by 50 percent, adding huge savings to the company's bottom line. In fact, the company reported its first profitable quarter ever, just three months into the customer care program. Instead of receiving angry letters, the company is now getting letters from consumers praising its stellar customer service.'

Apropos Technology
Nicole Fitzmaurice
[email protected]
Ph: 630-575-7771
Web: www.apropos.com
Product: Apropos Multi-Channel Interaction Management Suite
'After implementing Apropos Multi-Channel Interaction Management Suite, the client reported it was able to reduce the cost of doing business, reduce hold times from 40 minutes to 45 seconds, recover lost revenue by identifying high-value customers and allow for 24 x 7 support around the world.'

ATG (Art Technology Group)
Sales dept.
[email protected]
Ph: 617-386-1000
Web: www.atg.com
Product: ATG Consumer Commerce Suite
'Client has seen a number of measurable business and IT benefits across the board using ATG. Online sales revenue is up 38 percent from last year. The site also has quadrupled online lead captures for offline telemarketing and, since the re-launch, there has been a 765 percent outbound revenue improvement over 2000 in 2001.'

Call Compliance, Inc.
Stefan E. Dunigan
[email protected]
Ph: 516-656-5131
Web: www.callcompliance.com
Product: TeleBlock Do-Not-Call Blocking System
'Since TeleBlock's deployment in 2001, client has achieved an unblemished compliance record ' not a single fine or penalty has been levied by any state. Most importantly, the company has avoided the damage to reputation normally associated with such fines.'

Concerto Software
Candace Berman
[email protected]
Ph: 305-639-2267
Web: www.concerto.com
Product: ContactPro
The client reported, 'ContactPro lets us match a customer's travel desires with an agent's skills and experience, and that has made our business much more dynamic.'

CyberRep
Carol Miller
[email protected]
Ph: 703-917-9170
Web: www.cyberrep.com
Product: Click2Chat
'CyberRep's implementation of cross-sell/up-sell strategies has increased conversion rates and revenue percentages, exceeding the client's overall projections by 50 percent. CyberRep averages between 25 to 32 percent conversions each month, adding $23,000 to $29,000 in weekly revenue, nearly doubling the profit margin.'

Data-Tel Info Solutions
Heidi Snow
[email protected]
Ph: 614-895-8852, ext. 103
Web: www.datatel-info.com
Product: xSELLerator Contact Center Suite
'Using xSELLerator with remote automation services, all data now resides at the central office in the client's Phoenix-based call center. Lists can be broken up and disbursed to each additional location, while result codes (dispositioning) will automatically return back to the master list in the central office.'

divine
Shane Kinder
[email protected]
Ph: 773-394-6600
Web: www.divine.com
Product: divine NetAgent
Client reports, 'Using divine NetAgent and divine Expressions is necessary to be successful. I don't think we would have half the sales we do if we were not able to guide the people through the process, relieve their anxiety or answer their questions.'

Edcor
John Robertson
[email protected]
Ph: 248-836-1321
Web: www.edcor.com
Product: Outsourced Contact Center, Web administration services
'While Edcor offers the advantage of being a single-source solution, offering the full spectrum of customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities, its flexible architecture enabled this client to come with pre-selected choices. This provided the client with cost-savings, and the ability to meet their speed-to-market goals.'

Edify
Steve Bell
[email protected]
Ph: 408-486-1745
Web: www.edify.com
Product: Edify eService Suite
'Edify's comprehensive, multichannel platform and CRM applications gave the client, a European roadside assistance company, the enterprise-based solution to manage complex internal, multipart Web and e-mail communications.'

eGain Communications Corporation
Anne Carr
[email protected]
Ph: 408-331-7721
Web: www.egain.com
Product: eGain eService Enterprise (E3)
'eGain eService Enterprise has given the client the kind of efficiency and productivity it was looking for. The client has been able to minimize their growth, respond directly to customer requests for better support and more channels for delivering that support, and secure a competitive edge.'

Epicor Software Corporation
Sean Foote
[email protected]
Ph: 800-356-0912
Web: www.clientele.epicor.com
Product: Clientele CRM
'The customer service and technical support departments have experienced dramatic improvement in their ability to manage calls. With Clientele, the turnaround time for resolving customer issues has improved approximately 30 to 40 percent, allowing service professionals to handle more calls per day.'

e-talk
Yvonne Powell
[email protected]
Ph: 972-819-3244
Web: www.e-talk.com
Products: Survey, Recorder and Advisor
'Recorder provides powerful quality assurance monitoring capabilities and allows the client's contact centers to capture and store customer interactions for easy evaluation. This allows its call center managers to ensure constant and powerful customer communications.'

FrontRange Solutions
Jacqueline Lamb
[email protected]
Ph: 719-532-7330
Web: www.frontrange.com
Product: HEAT
'The new system allows the user, a large city, to capture knowledge so it's available to everyone. Plus, employees can add to it themselves any time. The knowledge bases and HEAT's ease of use have simplified the training of new hires.'

Genesys
Dana Dye
[email protected]
Ph: 415-437-1078
Web: www.genesyslab.com
Product: Genesys Interaction Management Framework, Genesys Enterprise Routing Solution and screen pop
'Not only was the client able to reduce costs, but also they were able to support their sales operations more effectively by handling more calls with the same number of agents. The company reported, 'The day after we started using Genesys' Enterprise Routing, we could handle 25 percent more calls with the same number of staff.''

Marketsoft
Jason Cigarran
[email protected]
Web: www.marketsoft.com
Product: DemandMore'Leads
'DemandMore'Leads is helping us maintain our position as the market leader by changing the way we do business,' said the client. 'We respond to our customers and prospects faster, and we have clear proof of what marketing campaigns work and where we get the most bang for our buck.'

Message Time, Inc.
Jessica Thach
[email protected]
Ph: 800-214-0803
Web: www.messagetime.com
Product: Message Time Business Center
'Ninety-eight out of 100 letters end up in the circular file and 80 percent of your advertising campaign gets lost in the cracks. The toll-free-number usage costs 9.9 cents per minute.' The user contends that his system is '3,000 percent more cost-effective than the old way of doing advertising.'

Oncontact Software
Tim Vertz
[email protected]
Ph: 262-375-5143
Web: www.oncontact.com
Product: Client Management Software (CMS)
'An insurance company was in search of technology that could simplify the weighty sales process its mobile sales force was juggling. It found Oncontact's CMS'and more than a million dollars in reduced operational costs.'

Oracle Corp.
Deborah Athens
[email protected]
Ph: 650-506-1787
Web: www.oracle.com
Products: Oracle 11i TeleService, Interaction Center
'In approximately 18 months, the client nearly doubled its staff productivity, resulting in almost $3 million savings in personnel costs.'

Phase 2 Solutions, Inc.
Dave Ammons
[email protected]
Ph: 480-477-1210
Web: www.phase2solutions.com
Product: Catalyst
'Phase 2's integrated billing solution dramatically outperformed all previous conversion and integration efforts, resulting in the recovery of substantial billable revenue, while bringing all billing cycles current. Since July 2001, Phase 2 has generated over 2.8 million invoices, has handled 1.3 million inbound calls and processed over 417,000 pieces of correspondence.'

RightNow Technologies
Monica Remely
[email protected]
Ph: 406-522-4264
Web: www.rightnow.com
Product: RightNow's eService solution
'Thanks to these support-driven site improvements, 86 percent of the client's Web site users never need the help of a rep ' and another 10 percent find their own answers on the site. The client company's staff therefore only need work with 4 percent of the entire user population.'

Rockwell FirstPoint Contact
Cecilia Kenneally
[email protected]
Ph: 713-963-8336
Web: www.rockwellfirstpoint.com
Product: FirstPoint Business Edition
'With the additional functions the new system offers, the client has been able to trim a quarter of its agent staff, while enabling the remaining staff to handle the same number of calls in a more efficient manner.'

Selltis LLC
Brian Gardner
[email protected]
Ph: 985-727-3455
Web: www.selltis.com
Product: Selltis
'With Selltis, we can easily view and report on any level of activity for any sales agent, lead and customer,' the client reports. 'As a result, we have a better grasp of what is happening in the sales organization at any given time, and can more easily communicate and collaborate with our colleagues, customers and partners.'

Siebel Systems
Jane Paolucci
[email protected]
Ph: 650-477-1334
Web: www.siebel.com
Products: Siebel eBusiness Applications, Siebel Call Center, Siebel Field Service, Siebel Sales
'Finally, for field salespeople, the system has facilitated the transfer of lead information, improved the ability to determine the effectiveness of sales campaigns, and greatly streamlined the preparation of quarterly forecasts.'

Simtrex Corporation
Angela Ayers
[email protected]
Ph: 678-589-9157
Web: www.simtrex.com
Product: StarTrainer
'The improvements we have seen with StarTrainer have been remarkable,' reports the client. 'We are certain that our customers will appreciate the results, which will further elevate our standard of industry-leading service.'

Syntellect, Inc.
Mark Skoog
[email protected]
Ph: 602-789-2961
Web: www.syntellect.com
Product: Vista IMR
'All in all, we have seen the cost of our self-service calls drop by one-third since our DTMF days. We recouped our original investment in speech recognition within a year and the savings over touch-tone are ongoing.'

Tigerpaw Software
Jeffrey Kaldahl
[email protected]
Ph: 402-592-4544, ext. 3110
Web: www.tigerpawsoftware.com
Product: Tigerpaw Software's Business Suite
'The client's overall cost savings by using our software was 10 to 15 percent. This savings was immediately transferred to the bottom line.'

UniPress Software, Inc.
Debbie Ingram
[email protected]
Ph: 732-287-2100, ext. 938
Web: www.unipress.com
Product: FootPrints
'FootPrints enables employees to play a larger role in the help desk, submitting tickets and searching for solutions on their own, speeding issue resolution and freeing up the help desk staff. When employees call or e-mail the help desk staff, FootPrints' automatic e-mail alerts keep them informed of new status, improving communication.'

Vividence Corp.
Blake Wise
[email protected]
Ph: 650-645-5023
Web: www.vividence.com
Product: Vividence XMS
'Based on the Vividence recommendations, the client streamlined its [Web] shopping and checkout processes, enhanced the search tool and improved site navigation. The resulting redesign reduced the number of clicks for the entire shopping process ' from product selection to checkout ' by 37 percent. Furthermore, the checkout process was greatly simplified by reducing the number of pages from five to three.'

WebTone Technologies
Kim Humphreys
[email protected]
Ph: 404-439-8267
Web: www.webtonetech.com
Product: TouchPoint
The client comments, 'We knew that our technology and process changes would dramatically improve our ability to service customers through our Phone Bank. What we didn't expect was the tremendous increase in sales leads and the four-point increase in customer satisfaction scores. We couldn't have scripted the end results better if we had tried.'

White Pajama
Ellen Pensky
[email protected]
Ph: 510-259-2535
Web: www.whitepajama.com
Product: White Pajama CRM Contact Center
The client says, 'White Pajama fosters accountability within our organization, and we can rest assured that no client issues will go unresolved.'