Interactive Intelligence Upgrades its Call Center Automation Offering

 
Interactive Intelligence, Inc. of Indianapolis, Ind., is releasing a major upgrade to its contact center automation and enterprise IP telephony software platform, which an analyst says will help solidify the company’s position among small and mid-sized contact centers and will better position the company to win some large contact center customers.

Version 3.0 of Interactive Intelligence’s Customer Interaction Center (CIC) and Vonexus Enterprise Interaction Center (Vonexus EIC) software offers increased security, broader integration, simplified deployment and enhanced mobility capabilities, major factors for contact centers, which “don’t need the same technology with just a new feature set,” according to Ken Landoline, senior analyst for Yankee Group.

“These are the four key issues I hear about all of the time,” Landoline said. “These are the kind of capabilities that larger enterprises, like those in financial services, including banks, credit unions and collections firms, are seeking.”

The new software offers simplified installation for new equipment and software as well as for legacy technology while also meeting the need for workers to be mobile, while still sounding to callers like they are in the office.

“This [new version] isn’t just adding more features, it’s meeting more of customers’ core needs,” Landoline said.

The software’s new security features include support of the secure real-time transport protocol (SRTP) and transport layer security (TLS) standards, providing end-to-end call encryption. Other new security features include recording encryption, stricter password generation requirements, the use of public and private key certificates, and the ability to handle communications between secure and non-secure devices.

CIC and Vonexus EIC version 3.0 also include new integration to Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging, designed to increase user productivity by embedding call control features into the Microsoft applications.

New auto-provisioning for Polycom phones, automated service updates, and an enhanced Web version of the software’s desktop client are all designed to further simplify deployment for faster return on investment and increased operational efficiencies.

For mobile workers, Interactive Intelligence has added Microsoft Exchange calendar integration to its Interaction Mobile Office application, along with more cost-effective speech recognition capabilities. A new graphical client interface that supports the Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 operating systems is designed to make the company’s IP telephony functionality accessible via mobile devices.

Interactive Intelligence first released its single-platform, standards-based unified communications software suite in 1997 to reduce the cost and complexity introduced by product portfolio vendors.

CIC and Vonexus EIC 3.0 will be offered through the company’s channel of more than 250 value-added resellers worldwide. The upgraded software will be available in North America by the end of the fourth quarter, and in other parts of the world beginning in the first quarter of 2008.