Verint Makes a Speedy Impact

Workforce analytics vendor Verint made available its Verint Witness Actionable Solutions Impact 360 this week, marking the first offering since the company announced its intent to merge with rival quality-monitoring vendor Witness Systems back in February 2007.

Despite the quick turnaround -- the Verint/Witness deal closed on May 29 -- Impact 360 being billed as a unified suite: "[T]he first end-to-end solution for analyzing customer service effectiveness and optimizing workforce performance," according to Verint. Its purpose is to use business intelligence and analytics to improve customer service delivery, regardless of the channel or the business function involved. Impact 360 suite includes new quality monitoring, call recording, speech and data analytics, workforce and performance management, customer feedback, and e-learning to raise the quality at all touch points, according to the company.

One notable new feature is call recording functionality that supports customers in meeting Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards. This opens up a new line of prospects for Verint in a popular market. Other features include:

• Integrated automated speech engine results for root cause analysis;
  
• Strategic forecasting techniques;
  
• Outbound forecasting and scheduling capabilities;
  
• integrated desktop application adherence; and
  
• extended workflow capabilities across the suite.

Impact 360 also serves as a simple upgrade path for Verint Witness Actionable Solutions customers regardless of which legacy product they have installed, according to the company. "Regardless of an organization or contact center's size and requirements, we have an offering designed to meet its specific needs today, as well as a path for growth as the company advances its customer service objectives," says Nancy Treaster, senior vice president and general manager, Verint Witness Actionable Solutions. "We designed the next-generation Impact 360 with our global customers' needs in mind."

Analysts are impressed with Verint's speed to market in this instance. "Having a unified suite this soon after a merger/acquisition not only shows that the transaction was well planned out as far as product roadmap, but it also proves that the work both vendors have done in previous years to move to standards-based architectures has paid off," writes John Ragsdale, vice president of research for the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), in his blog, "Ragsdale's Eye on Service."

Ragsdale also appreciates the all-encompassing nature of a truly unified suite. "Other QM [quality monitoring] vendors (such as Nice) are missing the WFM [workforce management] piece, and the telephony vendors (Genesys, Aspect) that offer both QM and WFM don't have an analytics platform," he writes. "I'm happy to report that the new suite also includes a new, common UI [user interface] across all functionality and modules, including a dashboard style portal that supervisors will appreciate."

Related articles:

Checking the Pulse of the Contact Center

IP Recording in the Contact Center and Beyond

Doubling Down on Quality Management

Verint Refreshes Its PM Piece

Verint: Can I Get a Witness?

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