Portugal's Altitude Is Rising

Portugal contact center solutions provider Altitude Software has made available a recharged version of its contact center suite of solutions for customer service, help desks, collections, order desks, proactive marketing, and business process management. The latest release--Altitude uCI 7.5--is intended to enable virtual environments, boost customer service, and strengthen agent productivity. A central component of the offering is Altitude IP Contact Center, a SIP-based multichannel contact center platform that enables centralized management and configuration and provides intelligent routing, monitoring, and reporting capabilities, according to the company. The solution can be deployed on premise, on demand, in at-home or remote agent environments or multiple sites and centrally managed. "There are some very practical reasons why virtualization adds value and creates savings," says Bern Elliot, research vice president at Gartner. "The two biggest ones are the ability to have agents wherever they happen to be located, and the second is that it allows you to network your call centers. Both of those are directly tied to the bottom line." The solution can also include Altitude vBox, IP communications software; the newest version of vBox features expanded clustering capabilities. The company's Unified Dialer application has been enhanced to include Altitude Call Classifier, a module that complies with telemarketing regulations, while Altitude Voice Portal--the company's self-service platform--features best-of-breed text-to-speech and voice solutions preintegration, while supporting standard protocols like VoiceXML, according to the company. A chunk of Altitude uCI's shored up functionality also fixes on bolstering agent productivity. Altitude Fast Script Builder features an interface for campaign flow and agent desktop screen creation, which the company says enables CRM outsourcer account managers to design campaigns, validate requirements, and signoff specifications with the customer. Other components within the suite are Altitude uAgent (a customizable GUI knowledge base) and Altitude Unified Desktop. "The scripting language in Altitude creates anything from an IVR menu to a screen pop to a recording rule," says Miguel Lopes, executive vice president of marketing and product management. "By embedding it with the new desktop we have added flexibility in terms of the custom build of the desktop for the agents." Altitude secured a position as a visionary in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, EMEA, 2006. "Altitude is a Portuguese company, and as such they really got a good start in Brazil, a real emerging market," Elliot says. "This has allowed them to get in at an early stage in emerging markets in Latin America...which has then allowed them to expand in that region." He adds that "the markets are maturing and as they mature they [demand] more support for customers and customers are requiring it, [which spurs] growth." Related articles: Alcatel Acquires Brazil's GMK Global Knowledge Must Be Multilingual Europe Will Up IT Spending