CHELMSFORD, MA, Sept 10, 2012 -- Aspect Software, a provider of customer contact, enterprise workforce optimization and Microsoft platform solutions, today announced the launch of Unified IP 7.1, codenamed Tiger Shark, which is an extension of the Unified IP 7 family that powers Aspect's multi-channel interaction solutions for customer contact. Aspect's Unified IP 7 family includes features that address what many companies say is the most challenging business capability -- effectively managing and delivering a differentiated customer experience in the light of consumer demand for expanded choices in communication channels such as social.

A feature of the Unified IP 7 platform, Aspect Social Media Channel Integration, allows companies to bring social dialogue into the contact center and apply workflow rules, call center performance analytics, and workforce optimization capabilities to social media-based communications. The 7.1 release brings additional flexibility and efficiencies for inbound multichannel contact handling to minimize customer time and effort, making engagement simple. The solution allows customers to deliver consistent experiences across all communications channels creating a single experience continuum from self-service through assisted service. According to a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Aspect, 58% of enterprise customer service strategy managers rate their organizations from poor to average in this area, admitting that in comparison to other business capabilities social media is where they are least proficient.

The Forrester study states "Today's contact center managers recognize the competitive challenges and opportunities that delivering consistent service across channels presents. Customers expect consistent, value-added answers across all media types. They also expect to be able to start an interaction using one media type, and complete it on another without having to re-start the conversation. 32% of surveyed contact center agents say they don't have access to the right content to answer customer questions consistently."

Increasing Agent Productivity through Dynamic Skills-Based Routing and Contextual Information Analysis As companies address consumer demand for higher levels of service, many are implementing personalized approaches to ensure customers come in contact with agents who already know or have access to their unique situation and history. In fact, the Forrester and Aspect research found 64 percent of respondents say routing inquiries to the right contact center agent in the most streamlined way is an important priority. The Unified IP 7 family includes turnkey features for dynamic inbound, skills-based and rules-based routing to ensure the right agent is matched with the right customer for a consistent customer experience and increased agent productivity. This capability is now expanded to voice mail routing giving companies the ability to cue, prioritize and route messages as if it were a call.

"As an Aspect application service provider, we've been very impressed with the easy upgrade and the improved usability of Aspect Unified IP 7.1," says Rocky Livingston, CIO at USAN. The advanced capabilities such as the skills-based routing feature and dynamic inbound services in this release have been instrumental in helping us close new business opportunities for USAN. These features particularly have been a big selling point to our customers looking for a feature-rich, geographically redundant hosted solution."

"Why the code name Tiger Shark? With the ability to keep customers agile and moving forward, Unified IP 7.1 is an interaction management solution that enables organizations to shrewdly navigate the challenges of effective customer interaction management," says Michael Regan, senior vice president, research and development at Aspect. "Aspect Unified IP 7.1 comes with a host of enhanced features that fully leverage its highly available, scalable architecture. But Tiger Shark is not just about the sheer number of next-generation capabilities; it's also about the quality built in to each and every one of them."

As contact centers grapple with increased demand from consumers for seamless, multichannel interactions, Aspect's aim is to offer enterprises a solution that allows them to provide exceptional customer experiences.

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.marketwatch.com