Virtual Hold Technology Takes Award for Best Technology Solution Provider

Akron, OH—Virtual Hold Technology® (VHT®) has received a Call Center Excellence Award in the category of Best Technology Solutions Provider from the International Quality and Productivity Center (IQPC). The award was presented on June 16, 2010 at the IQPC’s 11th annual Call Center Week at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

“As the market leader in virtual queuing, VHT focuses on developing customer-focused technology solutions that help our clients deliver positive, consistent experiences to all of their customers,” said Mark Williams, president, VHT. “We’re honored that an organization like IQPC has recognized our contribution to the call center with this award.”

Clients with a Virtual Hold® solution see improvements in customer satisfaction and contact center metrics, including average speed of answer, abandon rate and service level. As the core of the virtual queuing solution, Concierge® calculates and announces the estimated wait time and offers callers a choice to wait on hold or receive a callback in the same amount of time as if they’d stayed on hold. The Concierge solution holds the caller’s place in line and calls them back when it’s their turn, in the time promised. Other VHT products include scheduled callback, proactive notification and integration to Web, mobile and desktop devices.

Cococ Streamlines Customer Services with Teleopti CCC, version 7

Stockholm, Sweden — China-based leading travel solutions provider Cococ have helped improve customer services as well as contact centre moral with Teleopti’s latest Workforce Management application, Teleopti CCC, version 7. It is the first Chinese customer in what is an exciting market for Teleopti. With full Chinese translation throughout the whole Teleopti CCC solution, it was an easy and natural progression into the far eastern country. Working with local partners NetInfo and VoiceCyber, the project was successfully completed in March to help forecast and schedule their 250 agent contact centre in Shenzhen.

“Teleopti CCC is easy to use, especially with the full and precise translation, with highly accurate forecasting and clear and easy to use and distribute schedules”, said Ms. Xiajing of Cococ. “We have been extremely pleased with the training and after sales services.”

Mr. Neale Faulkner, Project Manager for Teleopti said “It was a pleasure to manage such a successful project working with NetInfo and VoiceCyber, in such an interesting and exciting country as China. What was especially pleasing was how Teleopti CCC was so easily adaptable for the Chinese contact centre market, and this was proved with the highly professional and expertise of Cococ’s contact centre management and workforce planning team.”

Verint Witness Actionable Solutions Advances Industry’s First Workforce Optimization Solution Specifically for Back-Office Operations

Melville, NY — Verint® Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNT) announced enhancements to Impact 360® for Back-Office Operations, part of its comprehensive, next-generation Impact 360 Workforce Optimization suite from Verint® Witness Actionable Solutions® and the industry’s most complete back-office workforce optimization (WFO) offering for four years running.  New functionality includes advancements in volume and inventory management and in work item processing and tracking, both of which can help managers address and counter the complexities of managing workloads across back-office functions and departments. 
The Impact 360 solution is comprised of software uniquely designed to enhance the effectiveness of back-office functions that help evaluate operational effectiveness, determine system and process efficiencies, monitor workflow, reduce errors, identify trends, and implement changes to enhance the customer experience and drive profitability.  The latest enhancements incorporate feedback from Verint’s customers spanning an array of industries, including insurance, healthcare, banking, pharmacy benefits management and transportation.

“Workforce optimization in the back-office is relatively new for us.  Verint has not only invested in developing functionality to meet the specific needs of back-office operations, but it provides critical back-office consulting expertise,” shares the vice president of customer service operations at a large financial services firm.  “Verint worked closely with us to make sure the solution fit our requirements and was successfully incorporated into our management approach and methodologies.”

Canadian Finance Company Selects Workforce Management Solution from InVision Software

Naperville, IL — InVision Software, a leading international supplier of enterprise-wide workforce management solutions, was selected by one of Canada’s leading consumer finance providers to implement a new cost-saving workforce management (WFM) software for its contact center operations. The WFM system will bring operating efficiencies to the company’s contact centers that will result in better adherence to service levels and lower operating costs.

The company employs 550 call center agents handling incoming claims calls from customers at three sites across Canada and is committed to delivering a great service experience. Therefore, it has decided to implement a high-performance WFM software solution to improve efficiency by means of demand-oriented scheduling of its contact center agents. Using the PhoneLink interface within the InVision software, all relevant statistical information for planning and scheduling, e.g. call times, call volumes and call handling time from the Cisco telephone system, is automatically transferred to the new WFM system. Based on this historical data, the planners set up a detailed forecast of the expected working volumes and the required staff with the help of the InVision module ForecastPro. The AutoScheduler enables the planners to create rule-compliant schedules in a fully automated process covering the forecasted demand. The Infothek Interactive Schedule module will provide the agents with the opportunity to request and to swap shifts in an automated, paper-free process and to get at-a-glance information on their current schedules and upcoming changeovers to other activities, boosting their motivation and acceptance of flexible shifts.

Calabrio Targets Avaya Contact Center Market with Calabrio One Workforce Optimization Suite

Minneapolis, MN— Calabrio, Inc., a leading provider of contact center management and customer interaction software, today announced it will make its new Calabrio One™ workforce optimization suite available to Avaya customers this year.

Calabrio, a gold member of the Avaya DevConnect program, is developing integration that will provide call recording for Avaya IP telephony networks and contact centers through Avaya Communications Server. This move will allow Avaya customers to take advantage of new applications in the Calabrio One suite, including Calabrio Call Recording, Calabrio Quality Management, Calabrio Speech Analytics, and associated performance management dashboards and reports.  Calabrio Workforce Management is available today for Avaya contact centers and deployed at customer locations. 

Calabrio plans to leverage existing channel partners that provide solutions for both Cisco and Avaya contact centers, allowing partners to offer a consistent product suite for customers with Cisco or Avaya environments, as well as customers with hybrid Cisco and Avaya environments. Calabrio has also begun discussions with a select group of Avaya resellers about new partnerships.

Aspect Awarded Contact Center Applications Vendor of the Year in Asia Pacific by Frost & Sullivan

Singapore— Aspect, a global provider of unified communications and collaboration services and software, announced that it has been awarded the Frost & Sullivan award for 2010 Contact Center Applications Vendor of the Year in the Asia Pacific region. Aspect received this award in recognition of its exemplary business growth and performance in the Asia Pacific region in 2009, including significant new customer wins in new and existing vertical market segments, as well as its success in gaining momentum in unified communications applications deployment in contact centers.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the Contact Center Applications Vendor of the Year award is the most prestigious annual award conferred by the consulting firm within the contact center industry in Asia Pacific and was one of 29 awards presented on June 10 at the 2010 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards banquet in Singapore.

Manoj Menon, Partner & Asia Pacific Managing Director at Frost & Sullivan said, “Aspect Software is a leading player in the contact center applications industry with good market presence in the Asia Pacific region. Its unified communications applications for contact centers have enabled enterprises to enhance their service offerings, addressing key challenges of proprietary architectures.

Salt River Project Receives Prestigious Award for Transforming Customer Service and Improving Contact Center Efficiency With Solutions From NICE Systems

Tempe, AZ — Salt River Project (SRP) the third-largest public power utility in the United States and the largest provider of water and power to the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, has received the 2010 Speech Industry Award from Speech Technology magazine for leadership and superior performance in the application of speech technologies. SRP received the award based on its implementation of advanced Customer Dynamics optimization solutions from NICE Systems, including NICE Interaction Analytics, NICE Quality Management, NICE IEX Workforce Management, and NICE Customer Feedback.

SRP implemented the NICE solutions when it opened its new contact center in 2009, to help address the growing needs of its nearly one million customers. By utilizing the advanced capabilities of the NICE solutions, SRP’s contact center management has improved agent behaviors for increased customer satisfaction, addressing the key business issues that impact call center effectiveness and efficiency, and better aligning the business with the strategic goals of the enterprise.

“This year, SRP was honored as the highest-ranked power company in customer satisfaction in the US West, according to a survey by JD Powers & Associates,” said Mike Lowe, Customer Services Executive at SRP. “This is the 9th consecutive year we have received this honor and reflects the strategic importance we as a company place on ensuring customer satisfaction and is also the reason why we decided to go with NICE. The NICE business solutions and unique technological capabilities have given us the ability to dramatically increase both customer satisfaction and our contact center efficiency in delivering world-class customer service.”

©2010 Society of Workforce Planning Professionals