Call Recording Featured Article

The past few weeks have been quite eventful for Interactive Intelligence (News - Alert).

Just yesterday, Genesys announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Interactive Intelligence. And late last month Interactive Intelligence was apparently given the green light to discuss its Senior Housing Assistance Group Community Life Foundation customer win.

The combination of Genesys (News - Alert) and Interactive Intelligence creates “the largest innovation leader purely focused on delivering exceptional customer experiences,” according to Genesys CEO Paul Segre (News - Alert), who continues as CEO of the newly enlarged organization. The deal is valued at $1.4 billion, and Interactive Intelligence shareholders received $60.50 per share in cash for each Interactive Intelligence common stock share they held at the closing.

Both Genesys and the former Interactive Intelligence provide cloud-based and on-premises contact center solutions. When it announced the deal in August, Genesys said following the closing it expected to generate $1.3 billion in revenue and have an annual R&D spend of nearly $200 million. It also noted that part of its investment would be used to continue to support Interactive Intelligence’s PureCloud, Cloud Communications-as-a-Service and Customer Interaction Center.

As for the recently announced Interactive Intelligence customer, it’s an affordable senior housing organization in Washington state. Known as SHAG, this customer has deployed Interactive Intelligence’s PureCloud Engage solution to support its four-agent customer service department, which gets more than 7,000 calls a month.

SHAG said the solution was easy to deploy, enabling a three-day turn up. The company added that Interactive Intelligence’s engineers and support teams, as well as an online resource center, helped it get the solution running and assist in answering user questions.

This customer employs PureCloud Engage to customize call flows to each marketing campaign. That, SHAG said, has enabled it to improve productivity and service. For example, it enables agents to IM one another or others in the organization to get quick answers for customers. And its workforce management capabilities helps SHAG optimize agent schedules based on historical data.

The cloud-based solution, which replaced an on premises-based phone system, is expected to save SHAG 80 percent by eliminating investment in and maintenance of hardware, and outsourced management costs. It also offers better scalability and the ability to allow agents to work from remote locations, which means the contact center can keep running even when the facility isn’t open.