1. Since there are so many vendors selling monitoring systems to contact centers, how does NICE differentiate themselves from their competitors?
NICE Systems is different from our competitors because with each customer we work with, we see unique business problems that they are trying to address. NICE’s solutions are not “one-size-fits-all”. We work very closely with our customers to understand the key challenges that they are facing and then we create an appropriate solution to meet their challenges. Our sales and services team is focused on understanding our customers and making sure that the solutions our customers implement will have a direct impact on their bottom lines.
2. There are some vendors who are offering low priced monitoring solutions and claiming that a majority of the users in contact centers need this type of solution, and systems like NICE’s are overkill. Please comment.
NICE offers a range of solutions to meet our customers’ unique needs. NiceUniverse Compact and NiceCall Focus are two of our solutions for quality monitoring and compliance that are specifically targeted at the low and middle markets. However, it’s important to recognize that a monitoring solution may not be enough when trying to meet today’s critical business challenges. NICE has spent 20 years working with customers in a variety of industries to understand the challenges they face and deliver solutions that ensure our customers can meet those challenges. Depending on the customer’s business needs, low-end solutions could result in a higher TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) because they do not actually meet the needs of the client. Another important point to consider is that with the largest service and support organization in North America, NICE ensures that customers are receiving excellent service regardless of the NICE solution used.
3. What will NICE’s market and product focus be in 2006?
We see two major trends emerging in this market in 2006. First, we expect companies to increase their rate of adoption of Voice over IP (VoIP) technologies. VoIP is really about reducing costs and extending the reach of the voice network to people that work in remote branches or even home offices. During 2005 we saw a noticeable trend of increased dollar value per VoIP deal. We have closed a number of significant VoIP deals, including 7-figure deals in all our regions. NICE holds key patents in VoIP technology and we expect in 2006 to continue to have customers demanding the highest quality VoIP technology from us. We expect to continue to see strong demand for our Voice over IP solutions throughout 2006.
In addition to VoIP, we also expect to see an increased adoption of solutions that use the valuable information contained within the contact center to help other parts of the business. For example, finance and collections departments need to understand the billing problems that customers may have. These customers often express their concern or frustration in conversations with the contact center, which collections departments can listen to. Marketing departments are also now becoming interested in hearing from customers how various marketing campaigns are being received in the marketplace. So, in effect, our solutions transcend the contact center realities and provide a real business benefit to enterprise users.
In 2006, we will continue to develop our NICE PerformTM solution especially in the areas of VoIP and analytics.
4. Please comment on your initiatives in the IP arena for 2006.
2006 will be a big year for NICE when it comes to VoIP. NICE already holds several key patents in VoIP technology. In 2006, NICE will continue to extend our VoIP offering. We’re working with all of the major VoIP providers to ensure that our solution takes best advantage of the latest technologies and that our customers can gain a real business impact from implementing these solutions. Our work in VoIP has been extensive and we continue to research and invest in new solutions that help meet our customers’ needs. NICE invented and pioneered Voice over IP recording in the conduct center. Our patented VoIP offering is the only mission critical solution which offers the most comprehensive and advanced contact center and business improvement applications in the market.
5. There has been increased focus in the market on the use of analytics to optimize the performance of contact centers. Since analytics is a broad term, how is NICE addressing this area?
NICE believes that there’s more to analytics than just audio analysis. Analytics is really about how to sift through the substantial amount of data that is generated in the contact center to find the valuable nuggets of information that can really help drive business performance.
To accomplish this, NICE has developed an approach that we call “Multi-Dimensional Analytics”. Multi-Dimensional Analytics is about using all of the information about an interaction, e.g. the word or phrases spoken in the interaction, the emotion of the customer or the agent, the number of transfers the customer experienced, how long the customer was kept on hold, which department handled the interaction, what on-screen policies did the agent review, etc. By looking at all of this information holistically, companies can better identify the interactions that contain real information that they can use. Just using one or two of these data points is not enough.
NICE Perform has over 100 sites sold. This is a true testament to the market's recognition of the vital role customer insight plays in an organization's ability to stay ahead of the competition and drive business performance.
6. What do you anticipate the economic climate to be for contact center vendors in 2006? Has the decision making cycle changed over the past few years?
We expect 2006 to be a very good economic climate for contact center vendors, in general, and NICE, in particular. In 2005 many companies began to realize just how much value their contact center could provide to the entire organization. In 2006, we see this trend accelerating with companies looking for ways to maximize both the effectiveness of their contact center as well as leveraging the information in the contact center. VoIP is really proving its value with contact centers by dramatically reducing their costs while making possible the use of remote agents and distributed contact centers. Analytics is proving its value by helping companies identify how they can improve their businesses by identifying the issues that emerge in the contact center. The convergence of these two trends in 2006 will make it a very exciting year for NICE as we show customers how to take advantage of these two outstanding value propositions.
7. Can you please comment of NICE’s financial prospects for 2006.
NICE Systems financial prospects for 2006 are looking very good. We had a record Q3 in 2005, with revenues of $82.5M which represents a 30% increase from the same quarter in 2004. In addition, we have just raised an additional $200M in a secondary offering. These funds will be used for future acquisitions and for strengthening our working capital position.
As the market for VoIP recording solutions continues to heat up, we expect to take advantage of our competitive strength in VoIP technology. 2005 has been a remarkable year for NICE and we expect 2006 to keep the same strong momentum.
Eyal Danon is Vice President of Global Marketing Communications for NICE Systems, with responsibilities for global media, customer relations and sales training. Danon was instrumental in the creation of the NICE User Group - an independent knowledge community with more than 1,300 members. Danon speaks frequently about business intelligence in media outlets such as CNN, CBS, ABC, BusinessWeek and InfoWeek.
Prior to NICE Systems, Danon served as the European Director of Marketing Development & Sales Training for InterContinental Hotels Corporation