June 2003

CUSTOMER INTER@CTION Solutions' Magazine's
Fourth-Annual CRM Excellence Awards

ACCPAC
www.accpac.com
Product: ACCPAC CRM
The client reports, 'By giving our managers, sales staff and dispatchers the information they need to address all customer issues, ACCPAC eCRM is letting us reduce operational overhead while enabling us to strengthen customer relationships with outstanding service.'

AIM Technology
www.aimtechnology.com
Product: AIMCall 4
The client says, 'AIMCall gives [our] agents a level playing field to measure performance. Because the team leaders automatically receive consistent and relevant information, they are able to coach their team more effectively and improve performance in the needed areas.'

Alorica, Inc.
www.alorica.com
Product: Helix 2002
'Even though implementation was speedy, Helix's real-time, customizable reporting tools showed the client that the contact center experienced almost zero 'escalation' in customer calls'those that require prolonged customer contact, additional customer calls or interaction by a customer service manager. Customer satisfaction was high and returned product was almost non-existent.'

APAC Customer Services, Inc.
www.apaccustomerservices.com
Product: Customer Preference Data Analytics
'The application of our data analytics tool and knowledge integration team added to the client's success in that it experienced a 10 percent increase in conversion rates/sales per hour during all hours of operations; increased customer satisfaction, providing longer lifetime value in customers and greater revenue through improved upsales and cross-sale generation; acquired more than 1.2 million additional customers in one year alone; and realized additional revenues of nearly $15 million in new customer lifetime value.'

Applied Innovation Management
www.innovate.com
Product: Help Desk Expert for IT Support
'Since its deployment in 1999, the client's help desk 'has become a selling feature when prospective customers ask about how we approach customer service,' reports the client. Potential customers 'are always very impressed that we have a system on the Web that allows them to enter their own trouble tickets, and ' more importantly ' allows them to see the progress of an issue as it is worked by our customer service team.''

Avaya
www.avaya.com
Product: Avaya Business Advocate
'The client met its first goal in less than a month: The call answer rate jumped to 95 percent ' but calls were being answered in less than 30 seconds, which more than exceeded the original goal of one-minute waiting times.'

Center Partners, Inc.
www.centerpartners.com
Product: Wireless Welcome Center
'The Welcome Center pilot was so successful that our client rolled it out to serve all new customers, making it part of the company's overall activation process. Now when customers receive their phones, the client requires them to activate their service through the Welcome Center, thus further increasing contact rates and program benefits.'

Edcor
www.edcor.com
Service: Employee Relationship Management
'Edcor has registered more than 6,000 employees for the client's services during the first year of the program. This registration process has far exceeded expectations.'

Edify
www.edify.com
Product: Edify Voice
'The client now successfully manages tens of thousands of calls per day throughout their worldwide call centers with this Edify Voice application. By completely automating more than one-half of the incoming inquiries, the client has provided a streamlined user interface into their system, enhancing customer service.'

etalk
www.etalk.com
Product: Qfiniti
'Using Qfiniti, the client is able to track the steps taken by the workforce manager and develop standardized procedures for handling similar issues in the future ' reducing the time required by managers to solve a problem and increasing their overall efficiency.'

eTelecare International
www.etelecare.com
Service: eTelecare customer care services
'This increased efficiency is reflected in a smoother ordering process, which now requires fewer calls per order. The average number of calls required to place an order has fallen from 2.1 to as low as 1.6. Customers who spend less time placing orders are more likely to become repeat customers, and since eTelecare implemented CRM on the client's program, we have increased repeat orders from 30 percent to 50 percent.'

Expertcity Inc.
www.expertcity.com
Product: DesktopStreaming 4.0
'DesktopStreaming resolved support incidents over 50 percent faster than support solutions the client used in the past. They estimate that this significant reduction in incident-handling time will save approximately 11,000 support-engineer labor hours per year. Plus, the reduction in incident-handling time has led to an increase in the company's overall support capacity. In fact, the client has experienced a 20 percent increase in call capacity and first-incident resolution.'

FrontRange Solutions
www.frontrange.com
Product: GoldMine Business Contact Manager
'The company's progress, with GoldMine's help, has been easy to see even without detailed reporting. At one point, after contacting approximately 100 prospects in one month, the client received a record 42 inquiries in that time. Those leads resulted in several major deals for the client company. The combination of the client's process and GoldMine as the means to keep it organized boosted sales significantly for the once-small division in just over two years.'

KANA
www.kana.com
Product: KANA IQ
'By giving employees access to information in the knowledge base, the client's HR department now receives only the tougher questions via the phone, where they can add value, make decisions and maximize their contribution to the company. Because of the reduced workload, the client was able to reassign four members of the HR staff to other positions in the company. With only one information platform to manage instead of three, the company is saving on IT support costs as well.'

KnowledgeBase Solutions, Inc.
www.knowledgebase.net
Product: KnowledgeBase.net Version 3.0
'With the application up and running on the Web site, customers and support agents started using it right away. The results speak for themselves. Within the first month, call volume fell by 15 percent and customer support agents had more time to address more complex support issues. Based on these initial results, the client is tracking a 50 percent reduction in call volume over the next 12 months, which will greatly improve the customer experience and save the company and its shareholders a good deal of money.'

MEDFONE Nationwide, Inc.
www.medfone.com
Program: Customer Notification Call Center Program
'In less than 24 hours from an initial conversation, the outbound call notification program began and was completed within seven business days. This included a supplemental mass faxing (including list cleansing) program that was completed in three business days and reinforced the outbound call notification program.'

Message Time, Inc.
www.messagetime.com
Product: Business Center 4.0
The client states, 'I manage my phone, fax and e-mail messages through one online inbox. I play, view, save and forward voice mail, faxes and e-mail right over the Web. I am notified instantly when new messages arrive. I view and forward faxes online and even print them on the spot. My Web site will automatically capture and insert prospect information right into my contact manager. I can trigger automated e-mail campaigns and follow-up and distribute phone and Web leads automatically. I can send appointment invitations, coordinate schedules, delegate tasks and share files.'

NICE Systems, Inc.
www.nice.com
Product: Nice Universe, Executive Connect and Nice Reporter
The client reported, 'Within just a few months of implementing the NICE CEM technology and strategy, we experienced a significant return on investment. Our productivity increased immediately.'

Nortel Networks
www.nortelnetworks.com
Product: Symposium Call Center Server
The client says, 'Nortel Networks Symposium Call Center Server helps us direct a range of customer interactions through skills-based routing that was not possible before. With specialized 800 numbers, our customers are assured of speaking to the correct agent on first contact. As a result, our hold times have decreased from 45 minutes to 5 minutes, while our CRM initiatives through relationship-building have been significantly improved.'

Oncontact Software
www.oncontact.com
Product: Client Management Software (CMS)
'After only a year of use, the client's customer retention was up 3.2 percent. Although 3.2 percent might not sound like much, to the client, every six-tenths of a percent difference in customer retention adds up to approximately $1 million in annualized revenue. So 3.2 percent actually translated into a $2.5 to $3 million revenue increase in one year. This figure doesn't even include the additional revenue the company sees from increased use of their products.'

Primus Knowledge Solutions
www.primus.com
Product: Primus eServer
The client states, 'Primus deployment at our company is like building Disneyland. There are so many opportunities to use the knowledgebase that we may never finish implementation. There might even be strategies for implementation that haven't yet been envisioned.'

RightNow Technologies
www.rightnow.com
Product: RightNow eService Center
'In addition to reducing overall call volume, RightNow has improved the efficiency of the client's call center. The company's service reps have access to the Web knowledgebase, so even new reps can answer common questions quickly and accurately. In fact, RightNow has become an integral part of service rep training.'

S1 Corporation
www.s1.com
Product: S1 CRM Solutions
'As the client, a bank, continues to build its database and go through promotions, bank officials expect to get better at being able to construct a promotion model that enables them to analyze and anticipate the results. With the S1 CRM system, the bank can target specific groups, set success goals and anticipate the success of the program before they invest major dollars into it, ensuring that every marketing dollar is maximized.'

Salesforce.com
www.salesforce.com
Product: Enterprise Edition
'Since deploying salesforce.com, the client has seen a substantial jump in productivity across the organization. It has also measured a 6:1 cost savings versus its previous system and a 750 percent return on investment, the outcome of technology and productivity benefits of over $1 million on an annual basis.'

SAS
www.sas.com
Product: SAS Customer Relationship Management Solutions
'ETLQ, the integrated data quality assessment and monitoring that characterizes the SAS solution for data quality, makes it easy for the client to detect and delete erroneous data, merge data between databases and match common data each time the data are handled. As a result, the company's data cleansing efforts are automated, enabling the client to deliver near real-time performance metrics and fact-based decisions to its customers.'

SCS
www.strategicinc.com
Product: ASD Softswitch
The client company reports, 'No one wants to go back to the old system! When there's a need, it's addressed immediately, and solved in one or two days. With our previous system, it could take one to two days to get a callback from technical support.'

SER Solutions, Inc.
www.ser.com
Product: Call Processing System (CPS) 7.0
The client reports, 'The SER software has tripled the amount of records we can go through per day. It's really a system, not just a dialer. It sends records to the collectors transparently, handling all the administrative duties that our collectors previously had to deal with themselves. CPS recognizes and disposes of what we call non-revenue phone numbers. That means we can talk to three times more people every day.'

Telephony@Work
[email protected]
Product: CallCenter@nywhere
'From the client's perspective, deploying CallCenter@nywhere has resulted in significant increases in the number of new loans and revenue from new clients; increased customer satisfaction and retention resulting from real-time access to customer history information and more efficient call resolutions.'

West Corporation
www.west.com
Service: West customer care services
'Through West's customized contact solution, the client, a financial institution, saved over 20 percent per call and was able to reduce the amount of time an operator spends on credit card applications by collecting much of the data ahead of time in the automated system. Utilizing computer-telephony integration, West was able to increase customer satisfaction by eliminating the need to repeat the information that was already gathered in the speech recognition system. Not only did the speech recognition system help to improve customer service, but it also led to higher conversion rates and shorter wait times in the live agent queue.'

Witness Systems
www.witness.com
Product: eQuality
'Since the company's implementation of the eQuality software, it has experienced dramatic performance improvements, including a 10 percent increase in its sell-to-call conversation ratio. The implementation of eQuality Balance to record customer interactions and eQuality Evaluation to measure associates' performance online was instrumental in this success, as the sales process is influenced directly by how effectively agents handle calls.'

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