Companies Combine Aspect Unified IP and Tellme Voice Self Service to Deliver a New Hybrid Premise- and Network-based Contact Center Solution PHOENIX, Sept. 16
PHOENIX, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- ACCE-ANNUAL CALL CENTER EXHIBITION --
Tellme(R), a Microsoft(R) subsidiary, and Aspect Software today announced an
agreement to bring together the Aspect leading unified contact center solution
and services with Tellme's proven voice services platform to deliver a
flexible, cost effective joint contact center solution. The agreement between
Tellme and Aspect expands on the strategic, multi-year alliance that Aspect
and Microsoft made earlier this year to deliver contact center solutions with
deeper unified communications capabilities.
Through the agreement with Tellme, Aspect will enhance speed to market of
a hybrid solution leveraging a premise-based and network-based contact center
offering, helping businesses realize cost savings benefits. The agreement
includes a joint roadmap to deliver Tellme's world-class, on-demand voice
services platform to US-based customers along with a tight integration with
Aspect(R) Unified IP(TM). Additionally, Aspect(R) Professional Services will
provide all consulting services across automatic call distributors (ACDs),
predictive dialers and interactive voice response (IVR) systems, inclusive of
building the Tellme speech applications. The robust functionality will serve
to help companies better manage spikes in volume, ensure business continuity
and improve their customer service, collections and sales interactions.
"Enterprises spent $875 million for 'customer care on demand' (CCOD) in
2007," observed Dan Miller, Sr. Analyst at Opus Research. "We forecast double
digit growth in this category in the coming years as partnerships like
Aspect/Tellme make it simpler to leverage premises-based resources with robust
capabilities "in the cloud." This provides enterprises with ways to reduce
expenses while maintaining control over the quality of care."
With this partnership, Tellme's caller experience monitoring and reporting
capabilities will be integrated into the Aspect Unified IP offering to create
the most reliable and seamless solution in the market. The tight integration
between Aspect Unified IP and Tellme enables common reporting, routing and
administration -- giving users a unified view of their contact center
operations.
"With our Tellme partnership, Aspect is uniquely positioned to help
customers manage expenses, while meeting consumer demands, by melding premise
and on-demand capabilities together to give contact centers the best of both
worlds," said Mike Sheridan, Senior Vice President of Strategy at Aspect
Software. "This is a great option for organizations that have dynamic
requirements, are managing a growing or inconsistent call volume, and need
lots of flexibility to deliver a superior customer experience."
"The market is looking for a solution, where a single provider can build,
deploy, manage, and monitor their customer experience," said Bob Crissman,
General Manager Partner Programs at Tellme. "With this alliance, enterprises
now have a one-stop-shop for the traditional contact center scenario as well
as new opportunities for voice-driven customer service, such as HR and CRM
needs."
Tellme's voice platform is the largest VoiceXML network in the world for
phone self-service applications. The platform handles billions of calls every
year, providing carrier-grade reliability, best-of-breed speech technologies
and flexible capacity for call traffic spikes that make it easier for
customers to manage IVR costs.
Aspect Unified IP is a session initiation protocol (SIP)-based Voice over
IP (VoIP) unified contact center solution that provides automatic call
distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, voice portal capabilities, Internet
contact, workflow management, multichannel recording and quality management to
help organizations achieve their customer service, collections and sales and
telemarketing business process goals.
About Tellme Networks, Inc.
Tellme fundamentally improves how people use the phone to get the
information they need everyday. By combining web applications and a voice
interface, Tellme's services let businesses deliver robust functionality on
the phone to the consumers they serve. People simply say what they want and
get it. Some of the services running on Tellme's platform include next
generation customer self-service, logistics/supply chain, healthcare services,
financial services and ordering for some of the largest companies in the
world. Today Tellme powers billions of calls every year and is used by more
than 40 million people every month. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif.,
Tellme is a Microsoft subsidiary.
About Aspect Software
Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the
world's largest company solely focused on unified communications for the
contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions help two-thirds of the
FORTUNE Global 100 and a variety of small and medium enterprises to
communications-enable their customer service, collections and sales &
telemarketing business processes. For more information, visit
http://www.aspect.com.
Note: Aspect, Unified IP and Aspect Software are registered trademarks of
Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and other countries. All other
trademarks or trade names are the property of their respective owners.
SOURCE Tellme
