1. Inova Corporation has been in the contact center market for a considerable amount of time. What types of technology and services can we expect Inova to focus on in the future?
The goal of our technology is to help companies improve productivity, which is how our products and services have historically added the most value. Inova has developed a new generation of up-market, broadly scaled solutions for major customer contact business segments. Our new distributed middleware platform - Inova LightLinkT - Enterprise Edition - will be the backbone for delivery of a variety of high-value, productivity-oriented information, delivered "right-time" to decision-makers at the executive, managerial and front line levels of the organization. For example, delivering individual agent performance information, historical or real-time, to tens of thousands of subscribers, is well within our capability and extremely valuable to improving contact center operations.
2. Where do you see a fit for your Business Activity Monitoring program in the contact center? How do you intend to compete with some of the major players in the Performance Management and Monitoring areas?
Business Activity Monitoring is of paramount interest to executives responsible for improving business process throughout the enterprise, and this is especially true in contact centers where a multitude of complex variables impact the productivity of a labor-intensive business unit. While BAM and other acronyms are hot buzzwords in the Business Intelligence market, real value comes down to three key elements in which we are particularly strong. First, we have a rich knowledge of this sector that enables us to bring real expertise in crafting solutions for our customers. Second, with nearly twenty years' experience, our technology has depth and breadth that newer companies cannot offer, no matter how many venture capital dollars they throw around. And third, we are finding that many of the "major players" recognize the value of partnership over competition in a market where real expertise is required for success.
3. The slow economy has had a significant effect on the technology sector. In what way has this environment affected your marketing efforts? Do you anticipate an economic turnaround in the near future?
Dealing with the current and anticipated economic situation is part of everyone's strategy, from sellers to end-users. Now, more than ever, managers are feeling pressure to do more with their existing IT infrastructure, and to justify any new purchases with a solid ROI. Our emphasis on demonstrated ROI and integration with existing systems has helped us overcome the sluggish pace of capital purchases. Today's economy has helped us to streamline our own message even as our customers are examining every purchase for value, but our solutions withstand that scrutiny well, providing a strong return and boosting efficiency. We are encouraged by recent indications that the economy may be on the upswing, and we are continually developing additional integration and data capabilities for our solutions, anticipating the time when contact centers and other real-time enterprises can once again invest in the systems they need.
4. Inova Corporation is a privately held company. Can you please comment on your present financial condition and anticipated results in the future?
Inova has a history of financial strength, and we have effectively managed our way through business cycles for nearly 20 years. A contributing factor is that we deploy variants of our technology in two major sectors (the other being transportation) with very different business cycles. This will be a year of modest gains for us, consistent with the national economic climate, and next year is one of our most promising.
5. As a leader in wallboards over the past years, what are some of the most creative ways contact centers have used them?
The most creative uses I've seen involve promotions, rewards programs and personal recognition messages that draw attention to the wallboards and keep peoples' interest up. Of course, our system can control other devices besides wallboards. My favorite was a customer that had our system automatically turn on a disco-style party ball over the agents' heads and spin it whenever they achieved a productivity goal.
6. Business Activity Monitoring consolidates data from various sources throughout the enterprise. This environment usually requires a departmental selling approach and convincing senior management of the value of your product. How has Inova prepared for this sales environment?
Inova's relationships with companies that require information delivered in "right time" span nearly two decades. The primary challenge that these companies have faced, and in turn placed on Inova, has been the addition of more data from more sources to be monitored, filtered and delivered to the appropriate executive, manager, analyst, team or employee. The importance of information that resides in other departments and the positive business impact that it can have across departments has refined the need for selling into an approach that is focused on solving. Inova has risen to this requirement with a team of Technology and Solution Consultants who assist companies by professionally preparing documents that clearly identify the problems and issues. This allows for the proper communication, information exchange, expectation capturing, and expectation setting to take place in advance of solutions being deployed across the enterprise.
7. Can you share with us some tangible results from customers using Business Activity Monitoring?
Business Activity Monitoring is a general term that encompasses many things, including process automation, reporting, customized alerts, data and system integration, and more.
One of our customers is an outsourcer providing customer management services with clients dispersed across thirteen call centers. Their Inova system at their centralized Operations Center receives the thirteen live data feeds and displays the information on a bank of eight plasma screens. This consolidated and flexible view of multiple locations enables managers to delegate priorities, transfer call loads and receive alerts of irregularities - a far cry from the old system of manual calculations and time-consuming data scanning.
This customer had been developing reports manually: scanning and compiling information, running multiple calculations by hand, and then delivering that information - much of it already outdated - to the executives who relied on it to make decisions. We designed and installed a solution that automated this entire process, continuously running report scripts, overseeing volumes of live data, and generating, delivering and archiving reports automatically. With an estimated 40% time savings in this automated process alone, our customer was able to spend more time on current priorities.
Another customer was facing a similar situation: running numbers and calculations by hand, communicating by individual emails or phone calls, and more. Their Inova system now collects, manages and shares their multi-source and multi-site data in real time. This has enabled a sea change in the way their critical information is managed and communicated, from raw data to custom formula-derived information, archived reports, and more. Unshackling managers from the need to manually manipulate the data has let them focus on business management and decision-making where it is most needed.