Aspect Sponsors Benchmark Study of Voice Self-Service in Achieving 2010 Goals

CHELMSFORD, Mass. — Aspect, a global provider of unified communications (UC) and collaboration services and software, today announced its sponsorship of the 2009 Hosted/Managed Service IVR Market Report, a report conducted by DMG Consulting LLC, an independent research, advisory and consulting firm. The report surveys more than one hundred global contact centers that included IT vice presidents, managers, directors, leaders and decision makers. This report enables companies to benchmark their 2010 enterprise, contact center and IT goals against their peers, compare their interactive voice response (IVR) solutions against the best of breed offerings and understand best practices.

“This study has found that enterprises are waking up to the power and benefits of voice self-service applications,” said Donna Fluss, president, DMG Consulting LLC. “The top three goals for both the contact center and enterprise for 2010 are: improving the customer experience, expense control/improving productivity, and preserving existing revenue/increasing customer retention. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solutions are growing in importance due to their ability to cost-effectively help companies achieve these goals.”

“Reports like this are very important for us to enable our customers to benchmark their business and support strategic decisions in their enterprise and contact centers,” said Andy Bezaitis, senior vice president of product management, Aspect. “At Aspect, we want our customers to know that we continuously work to help them identify how to improve the performance of their solutions compared to those of their peers, and to provide them with best practices to deliver a superior customer experience while reducing expenses.”

Based on the report, 76.6 percent of responding enterprises are using IVRs today and 37.8 percent of those companies that are not using an IVR plan to invest in one within the next 12 months, and another 23.2 percent in the next 24 months. The report also found that the profile of IVR users continues to change, as traditionally in the past, IVR was only a topic of interest for large contact centers. Through the findings of this report, however, the survey participants show that it has captured the attention of contact centers of all sizes.

“Enterprises continue to demand technology solutions that help them both improve customer service and reduce costs,” said Brooks Crichlow, director of marketing at Tellme Business Solutions at Microsoft Corp. “This study reflects the accelerating trend toward hosted IVR solutions, where a well-designed speech application running on a highly reliable on-demand platform, makes it easier for callers to complete self-service tasks. That makes for a better caller experience and translates directly to higher task completion rates that drive significant savings for the enterprise.”

In addition to sponsoring the report, Aspect will host a webinar on Thursday, 28 January 2010 to present findings on the DMG report and discuss Aspect voice self-service offerings, including Aspect On-demand Voice Portal powered by Tellme. To register for the webinar, please visit http://regs.aspect.12hna.com/2010/q1/voice-webcast-tellme

About DMG Consulting LLC
DMG Consulting LLC is an independent research, advisory and consulting firm that provides strategic and tactical advice to contact center managers, vendors and the financial community about the contact center and analytics markets. Our mission is to help clients build world-class contact centers by leveraging technology, processes and people. We provide insight and guidance to assist management in optimizing the performance of their contact centers by increasing operational efficiency, providing an outstanding customer experience, enhancing loyalty and increasing sales and profits.

DMG Consulting analyzes all aspects of the contact center market and publishes research on Quality Management/Liability Recording (WFO), Speech Analytics, Performance Management, Surveying/Feedback, Workforce Management, Contact Center Outsourcing, Hosted Contact Center Infrastructure and Interactive Voice Response Systems. DMG’s consulting experience spans more than 2,000 end-user organizations and vendors. Our hands-on operational, technology and financial expertise gives us deep insight into what customers need and want from enterprises and vendors. For more information, visit www.dmgconsult.com.

About Aspect
Aspect is a global software and IT services firm specializing in applying Microsoft® unified communications and collaboration to help customers achieve optimal results through enhanced business processes across the enterprise and in the contact center. Aspect provides IT consulting, integration services and business applications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.