Interactive Intelligence (News - Alert) announced Monday a major upgrade to its enterprise VoIP and contact center automation software platforms. Customer Interaction Center 3.0 (CIC) and Vonexus (News - Alert) Enterprise Interaction Center 3.0 (EIC) have been updated with new integration, deployment, security and mobility features.

 

One of the changes Interactive Intelligence made was to boost CIC and EIC integration with Microsoft (News - Alert) Office Communications Server and Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging, in order to help users be more productive by embedding call control features into those Microsoft applications.

 

Mobile workers also gain integration with Microsoft Exchange calendar with Interactive Intelligence’s Interaction Mobile Office application—plus cost-effective speech recognition capabilities and a graphical client interface that supports Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0.

 

Since speedy deployment is very important to Interactive Intelligence’s customers, with this latest release the company added new features making the software even easier to set up. Auto-provisioning is now included for Polycom (News - Alert) phones, as is automated service updates, and an enhanced version of the desktop client.

 

Security was a major focus for Interactive Intelligence during the upgrade development process for its solutions, as indeed security is for the company’s clients. New security features include support for real-time transport protocol and transport layer security standards, which results in end-to-end call encryption. The company further beefed up security by including recording encryption, making password generation requirements stricter, incorporating public and private key certificates and ensuring that the software can handle communications between secure and non-secure devices.

 

“We wanted to take security a step further than what's available today by not just providing user-to-user call encryption, but encryption for inbound IVR and ACD, outbound predictive dialing, and other core communications applications,” explained Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO Donald Brown, in a statement. “We’ve also ensured our security features are specialized for voice over IP to meet customers' performance requirements.”

 

Yankee Group (News - Alert) analyst Ken Landoline praised Interactive Intelligence for features found in its latest software upgrade.

 

“Interactive Intelligence has taken the key end-user concerns we hear every day and incorporated them into its latest software upgrade,” Landoline said Landoline in a statement. “Particularly for organizations migrating to IP, as well as large enterprises, this new software's security and deployment enhancements are extremely beneficial.”

 

CIC and Vonexus EIC 3.0 will be distributed by Interactive Intelligence’s global network of value-added resellers. The new software is slated for availability by the end of Q4 2007 for North America and during the first quarter of 2008 in other parts of the world.

Mae Kowalke previously wrote for Cleveland Magazine in Ohio and The Burlington Free Press in Vermont. To see more of her articles, please visit Mae Kowalke’s columnist page. Also check out her Wireless Mobility blog.