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Avaya Announces New CIS Capabilities By David Sims TMCnet Contributing Editor Avaya (News - Alert), which sells call centers and communications applications, systems and services, has introduced new Avaya Customer Interaction Suite capabilities which, according to company officials, "enable businesses to deliver superior customer service." The Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based vendor is introducing Avaya IQ for its Customer Interaction Suite, a reporting and analytics product designed to "integrate disparate data inputs" and "analyze and link the data to the company's overall business objectives." Avaya IQ lets businesses assess what company officials call "the complete customer contact experience," defining both good and bad agent behavior and delivering real-time information allowing companies to adjust customer care. The components of the Avaya Customer Interaction Suite are Call Center, Interaction Center, Voice Portal, and the new reporting and analytics platform, Avaya IQ. Rather than referring shoppers to toll-free numbers or less personal Internet content, using Avaya IQ stores can connect consumers to remote product experts via live video through integrated voice/video kiosks. It also lets companies reduce live agents costs by streaming video self-help topics related to the customer's inquiry to a browser on a PC or a smart mobile phone such as how to use a satellite TV remote control, record a favorite TV show, or connect a DVD player. There are also real-time cross-sell, up-sell, and advertising features, where reporting and analytics reveal customers who may benefit from a new service. Upon next contact the identified customers can then be routed and matched with agents supporting the best offers for the customer type. The agent can then use the customer's preferred communications approach, be it voice, e-mail or streaming video, to introduce the product or service. All enterprise resources from the contact center to sales offices to supply chain to billing to other support functions can be engaged to serve customers cost-effectively, regardless of location -- and through a variety of media: Avaya's new capabilities include the integration of live or streaming video, and new analytics capabilities provide real-time monitoring and historical data analysis tools. End-to-end Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert), or SIP "The confluence of open standards, advanced technologies and evolving IT environments are enabling 'decision-oriented enterprises,'" and reducing "decision-making friction," said Mary Wardley, Research vice president, CRM Applications at IDC (News - Alert). Last June Gartner Inc. issued a report on the 2005 global contact center market showing that Avaya Inc. was the market leader with 39.1 percent of all contact center agents -- more than triple the share of the company's closest competitor. Before that AIM Technology, a vendor of management software, had announced that its AIM Performance product was certified compliant with key contact center products from Avaya. And Avaya and Onyx Software Corporation had announced that the companies will integrate their respective products for the contact center market in Japan. David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page. |
