1. Witness Systems, similar to many other companies in the contact center market sector, has expanded its products offerings and is striving to provide a single source for multiple applications. This strategy is fairly commonplace among several vendors. How does Witness Systems differentiate itself from its many competitors?
Witness Systems’ Impact 360™ Workforce Optimization (WFO) solution presents a unique combination of strategy and bundling functionality designed to work optimally together. Meeting customer demand for a single provider framework from vendors, Witness Systems will continue to deepen integrations between the anchors segments that comprise its solutions – quality monitoring, full-time and IP recording, workforce management, performance management and e-learning.
In May 2006, we announced the second release of our Impact 360 solution. Key additions include deeper e-learning process integration, targeted learning from key performance indicators (KPIs), one-touch drill down from scorecards to schedule adherence, and the addition of an ad-hoc reporting data model for performance management. As the contact center becomes an increasingly valuable environment for organizations to collect customer information, collaborate on customer service challenges and drive consistency, the people tasked with performing these activities benefit from even more powerful and versatile software to accomplish their goals.
Another differentiator is with Impact 360, customers benefit from one login to gain access to all appropriate WFO functions, one common graphical user interface for easy navigation between functions, and reduced maintenance through a single point of agent database administration. Impact 360 solutions and services also draw on a structured upgrade path and single support organization. This enables worldwide organizations to benefit from even easier installation and implementation, reduced learning curves and training expenses, and lower maintenance and software expenses – all of which translate into lower total cost of ownership and a faster return on investment.
2. What contact center applications do you consider to be “hot” now and in the near future?
The two areas we see the greatest interest and uptake in are Workforce Optimization (WFO) and IP telephony – both of which play into the heart of our Impact 360 solutions.
From a WFO perspective, analyst firms project this technology market will exceed the $1 billion mark in 2006. By definition, WFO incorporates quality monitoring, full-time and IP recording, workforce management, performance management and e-learning. When all of these components are supplied through a single provider, fully integrated and under a common architecture, the greatest value emerges. During our recent customer user conference, attendees participated in an interactive polling session in which they were asked their company position relative to deploying an integrated WFO solution. Respondents – at a rate of 55 percent – said they have already deployed across the enterprise, have a pilot implemented, and/or are planning to deploy within the next one to two years.
IP is another hot topic – one that companies are increasingly embracing, and one that will continue to be at the forefront for a long time to come. The convergence of voice and data communication technologies, most notably through the rapid adoption of VoIP, has rapidly changed the landscape of telecommunications infrastructures. The fact that IP enables the customer service function to extend beyond the traditional contact center is also significant in that it paves the way for optimizing workforce performance in remote and branch offices, as well as in at-home agent work environments. As some organizations run the course in their TDM environment, they are starting to look at what a migration to IP looks like. Others are standardizing on IP from the get-go. What we find to be critical, regardless, is investment protection for our customers. If they start on TDM and wish to move to IP later, they know our solutions enable a smooth migration – and that their investment is safe. If they chose to gradually make the switch, Impact 360 also supports mixed telephony environments.
3. What changes have you seen in the needs of users over the past year? Do you anticipate any significant changes in user requirements in the near future?
During our May 2006 customer user conference, attendees participated in an interactive polling session in which they were asked about their top contact center challenges. Topping the list were customer satisfaction and retention, followed by cost reduction, and agent satisfaction. Others included improving up-selling and cross-selling rates, and root cause analysis. What we find more and more organizations are looking for today is an integrated solution – one that runs on a common, open architecture that is delivered through a single solution provider. With this structure, customers can experience lower cost of ownership and a faster ROI. They also gain advantage because their solutions and services draw on a structured upgrade path and single support organization. These are precisely the types of benefits our Impact 360 solutions deliver.
We see several key shifts and trends driving the workforce optimization (WFO) market:
Voice over Internet Protocol
The convergence of voice and data communication technologies, most notably through the rapid adoption of VoIP, is rapidly changing the landscape of telecommunications infrastructures. Many companies are replacing legacy analog voice infrastructures in their contact centers with VoIP telephony infrastructures to realize the many benefits of IP-based communications.
Software Solutions Running on Open Systems
Organizations are increasingly interested in deploying IT and business software applications based on open standards that run on commercially available, non-proprietary hardware. The use of open systems, as opposed to applications that run on proprietary hardware offered by a single vendor, generally provide for lower cost of ownership and greater flexibility in their infrastructures.
Integration of WFO Applications
Customers benefit from a single login to gain access to all appropriate WFO functions and one common graphical user interface for easy navigation between functions. Under a common architecture, they also gain valuable interoperability that’s simply not possible though point solutions operating on disparate technology platforms with conflicting hardware, database and architectural standards.
Increasing Complexity of Customer Service Operations
Organizations are facilitating multimedia customer service now, and are therefore challenged to maintain consistency across channels. Couple that with the fact that companies are increasingly offshoring and outsourcing contact center operations. Managing and optimizing the quality of customer interactions has now become more important than ever.
4. What role to do see Witness Systems playing in the VoIP environment?
At our recent customer user conference, nearly 50 percent of attendees polled reported they are currently employing or plan to employ home-based agents over the next year. When asked about their plans to deploy IP telephony, 70 percent said they already have or will deploy IP telephony in their contact centers over the course of the next two years. These figures reinforce and paint a clear picture that IP is driving “at home” and branch office models.
For many of our customers, the remote call center workforce is viewed as a solid alternative to offshoring – and even as a competitive differentiator. Calls can be routed to agents either in their homes, to their counterparts working in the traditional center environment and even to other staff in the enterprise. It’s absolutely transparent to the customer. Over the next several years, many call centers will reach end-of-life cycles with their switches and will make the move to IP. For those that already have great benefits, efficiencies and savings are already being realized.
When adding workforce optimization (WFO) into the mix with IP, organizations can tap into a previously unavailable pool of new employees, as well as become more competitive. Staff can be more efficient, and organizations can realize new cost benefits. Together, companies and their centers can plan, forecast and schedule your entire staff across multiple sites, time zones and countries; and measure and analyze their performance. WFO combines the processes, services and technology necessary to enable enterprises to deploy the best resources for meeting customer demand and increasing customer value effectively while getting the highest ROI.
5. What gaps in your product and services offerings do you see Witness Systems addressing in the near future?
Witness Systems will continue to extend and develop its workforce optimization (WFO) platform to include deeper and broader solution capabilities and integrations that optimize the customer service value chain for our global customers. In our May 2006 release of Impact 360, we deliver substantial enhanced capabilities derived from our new WFO, workforce management, quality monitoring and compliance recording packages. Our customers and partners see an even greater value proposition working with a single vendor that can provide significant economic, customer support and solution integration benefits. Witness Systems will stay in the forefront of new optimization technology for emerging growth markets, such as IP telephony, measuring and analyzing performance and effectiveness, and actionable learning. We’ve always been regarded as the technology and thought leader for our market. We take this responsibility seriously and intend to continue to raise the bar.
6. What has been the market acceptance of your solutions offered through OEM partners Nortel and Avaya? Have there been any specific “challenges” that the companies have had to overcome to further promote workforce optimization?
Our channels have enthusiastically embraced selling our new Impact 360 packages in both the TDM and IP markets – and 40+ percent of our deals are driven through the indirect channel. Demand for our solutions continues to grow with Impact 360 serving as the most integrated OEM solution in the WFO market. The Avaya partnership was the first channel to sell our WFO solution beginning in 2005 and the uptake through that channel has been exceptional. In addition to our ground-breaking offering with Avaya, our Nortel OEM partnership and strong success in the Cisco channel are further proof of our leadership in the IP applications market. Our relationship with Nortel is off to a good start blending leading contact center communications technologies with advanced contact recording and quality monitoring products to create an integrated solution delivering world-class WFO capabilities. The latest version of our jointly developed recording and quality monitoring software applications became available in late December 2005. The Witness Systems offerings – whether they are through our direct or indirect channels – provide customers a broader solution, driving higher revenue and margins for themselves.
7. What do you believe are Witness Systems’ greatest opportunities over the next year?
By combining our core strengths in workforce management, quality monitoring and IP recording, Witness Systems is positioned to create and enhance a portfolio of workforce optimization (WFO) solutions that offer maximum market impact and upside potential. We are passionately focused on helping our customers capture intelligence and optimize their workforce performance. The company is exploiting its opportunities, such as large and under-penetrated markets, IP adoption, solutions that extend from the contact center into the enterprise, an expanded indirect channel and strategic acquisitions. From product development to sales and marketing, and through to customer service and general administration, our global team of nearly 800 associates continues to anchor our success by delivering world-class solutions and services.