2015 South African Cloud Based Solutions to the Contact Centre Product Leadership Award

Transcription

1 South African Cloud Based Solutions to the Contact Centre Product Leadership Award

2 Contents Background and Company Performance... 3 Industry Challenges... 3 Implementation Excellence... 4 Product Excellence... 5 Conclusion... 6 Significance of Product Leadership... 7 Understanding Product Leadership... 7 Key Benchmarking Criteria... 8 Best Practice Award Analysis for Interactive Intelligence... 8 Decision Support Scorecard... 8 Product Family Attributes... 9 Business Impact... 9 Decision Support Matrix The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards Research Methodology Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

3 Background and Company Performance Industry Challenges Technology providers in the contact centre industry play an important role to ultimately ensure an exceptional customer service experience. It is important for these providers to understand business strategies and challenges encountered by enterprises irrespective of their size and industry. Technology providers and companies with contact centres partner to improve the customer experience and, at the same time, drive efficiencies, which is an enabler for the technology they utilise. Alternatively, many companies develop in-house capabilities, and/or buy the company s software or technology. This creates a challenge as it takes time for these organisations to align their interests and be fully integrated to operate efficiently and effectively. Because the contact centre market in South Africa is nascent, a lot can be learned from the international market in terms of technology, such as using Unified Communications asa-service (UCaaS) or a contact centre platform to deliver Unified Communications. The majority of international contact centre providers operating in South Africa utilise technology from abroad. However, offering communications on a wide range of channels requires readily available, uninterrupted bandwidth from the corporation to the end user. Telecommunication costs are still a challenge for the industry. Although the costs have come down, they are still prohibitive for organisations to be comfortable for a call being routed externally. This pushes up the actual cost of sales. In addition, South Africa is lagging behind its global counterparts regarding contact centres in the cloud. Corporate South Africa is putting pressure on service providers to deploy contact centre technology quicker, cheaper and faster and the pressure will not subside but increase. In the ever changing technology world, especially regarding the cloud, the landscape is continuously changing and technology providers need to ensure their service offerings are agile enough to meet this growing demand. Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

4 Implementation Excellence Vision Alignment Interactive Intelligence is an organisation that takes a holistic view of all facets of their business, including product development, various deployment models and after sales services. All these facets are driven from the top executive level to every individual in the organisation. Interactive Intelligence is absolutely driven by strategic goals and this is underpinned by very specific objectives which are clearly defined and visible to all levels of the organisation. For example, daily and monthly reviews of the analysis of customer feedback are conducted and these goals are embedded in every discipline of the company. Process Design Interactive Intelligence displays a superior approach to process design compared to the rest of the industry. As an example, in 2009 the company decided to completely rearchitect its cloud solution to meet the needs of its customers. This investment was driven by the imperative to innovate, and the resulting offering -- Interactive Intelligence Communications as a Service (CaaS) has proved incredibly successful. The company s wide adoption of the Organizational Change Methodology (OCM) enables them to implement new strategies or directional changes. This methodology ensures that the organisation has identified the pains and benefits that come with change, that they create the right messages around those and identify and educate employees on those messages, and then implement internal marketing campaigns to rally the entire organisation around the changes they have made. Through this process, Interactive Intelligence gives each employee the opportunity to provide feedback and have their voice heard on what they perceive to be the pains and benefits of the new strategies and directional changes. This process ensures that each employee is involved and appreciated and, most often, they are more eager to assist in implementing the changes. Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

5 Technological Sophistication The Interactive Intelligence PureCloud platform is the company s latest cloud offering designed to support today s modern, connected workforce. It s the first enterprise-grade cloud platform using microservice architecture built for multi-use cases: customer engagement, unified communications and collaboration. Interactive Intelligence PureCloud Engage is an omnichannel customer engagement cloud service designed to help contact centers accelerate business impact, deliver consistent outcomes and innovate the customer and agent experience. It enables contact centers to get deployed in days, not weeks, and without the need for customizations or desktop installs. Contact centers can also turn up new functionality almost instantly, while giving customers a true omnichannel experience. In addition to rich customer engagement features such as built-in speech recognition, recording, quality monitoring, workforce management and content management, it includes enterprise collaboration and business communications features to help break down information silos between business users and agents. Product Excellence Match to Needs Interactive Intelligence prioritises the needs of its customers and partners by fostering their ideas through a portal on the organisation s website, enhancements requests, and inquiries for solutions which are not totally out of the box. The Product Management team collaborates closely with this forum working on moderating specific areas to fast track the best ideas for prioritisation and development. The company s flagship on-premises customer engagement software suite, Customer Interaction Center (CIC), has helped thousands of organisations deliver exceptional customer service, while improving overall efficiency and productivity. Reliability and Quality Interactive Intelligence s product excellence is rooted in the idea of handling any type of communication on a single interaction engine. Many of Interactive Intelligence competitors provide a loosely integrated set of products assembled through acquisition or marketing alliances. In contrast, Interactive Intelligence s solution is a tightly integrated suite of software components that was developed and designed by a committed and innovative team. This has enabled Interactive Intelligence to deliver comprehensive applications while ensuring reliability across an entire suite of solutions and quality across all functions. Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

6 Product/Service Value Interactive Intelligence measures the impact of its product excellence in enhancing customer value through two methods sales and net promoter score (NPS). The organisation s strategy is to continue building out its all-in-one customer engagement software suite, CIC. It will also continue to offer its single-tenant CaaS solution, while heavily investing in PureCloud Engage. This strategy is designed to meet customer needs whatever their deployment choice whether on-premises, through a single-tenant cloud architecture, or delivered by a microservice cloud platform. This aim equates to Interactive Intelligence enabling companies to deploy the solutions they want, however they want, while knowing that their investment is protected even when their business needs change. Conclusion Frost & Sullivan s latest research confirms that Interactive Intelligence is the leading cloud-based solution provider to the contact centre market in South Africa with key differentiating factors positioning them ahead of their competitors. With its strong overall performance, Interactive Intelligence has earned Frost & Sullivan s 2015 Product Leadership Award. Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

7 Significance of Product Leadership Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon customers purchasing from your company, and then making the decision to return time and again. A comprehensive product line, filled with high-quality, value-driven options, is the key to building an engaged customer base. To achieve and maintain product excellence, an organization must strive to be best-in-class in three key areas: understanding demand, nurturing the brand, and differentiating from the competition. Understanding Product Leadership Demand forecasting, branding, and differentiation all play a critical role in finding growth opportunities for your product line. This three-fold focus, however, must be complemented by an equally rigorous focus on pursuing those opportunities to a best-in-class standard. Customer communications, customer feedback, pricing, and competitor actions must all be managed and monitored for ongoing success. If an organization can successfully parlay product excellence into positive business impact, increased market share will inevitably follow over time. Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

8 Key Benchmarking Criteria For the Product Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently evaluated two key factors Product Family Attributes and Business Impact according to the criteria identified below. Product Family Attributes Criterion 1: Match to Needs Criterion 2: Reliability and Quality Criterion 3: Product/Service Value Criterion 4: Positioning Criterion 5: Design Business Impact Criterion 1: Financial Performance Criterion 2: Customer Acquisition Criterion 3: Operational Efficiency Criterion 4: Growth Potential Criterion 5: Human Capital Best Practice Award Analysis for Interactive Intelligence Decision Support Scorecard To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation; ratings guidelines are illustrated below. RATINGS GUIDELINES The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Product Family Attributes and Business Impact (i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the definitions for each criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies. Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

9 The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3. DECISION SUPPORT SCORECARD FOR PRODUCT LEADERSHIP AWARD Measurement of 1 10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent) Product Leadership Product Family Attributes Business Impact Average Rating Interactive Intelligence Company B Company C Product Family Attributes Criterion 1: Match to Needs Requirement: Customer needs directly influence and inspire the design and positioning of the product family Criterion 2: Reliability and Quality Requirement: Products consistently meet or exceed customer expectations for performance and length of service Criterion 3: Product/Service Value Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar offerings in the market Criterion 4: Positioning Requirement: Products or services unique, unmet need that competitors cannot easily replicate or replace Criterion 5: Design Requirement: The product features an innovative design, enhancing both visual appeal and ease of use Business Impact Criterion 1: Financial Performance Requirement: Strong overall financial performance in terms of revenues, revenue growth, operating margin and other key financial metrics Criterion 2: Customer Acquisition Requirement: Product strength enables acquisition of new customers, even as it enhances retention of current customers Criterion 3: Operational Efficiency Requirement: Staff is able to perform assigned tasks productively, quickly, and to a high quality standard Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

10 Criterion 4: Growth Potential Requirements: Product quality strengthens brand, reinforces customer loyalty and enhances growth potential Criterion 5: Human Capital Requirement: Company culture is characterized by a strong commitment to product quality and customer impact, which in turn enhances employee morale and retention Decision Support Matrix Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard, analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at best-in-class levels. DECISION SUPPORT MATRIX FOR PRODUCT LEADERSHIP AWARD High Interactive Intelligence Company B Company C Business Impact Low Low Product Family Attributes High Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

11 The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards Research Methodology Frost & Sullivan s 360-degree research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree-view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Too often, companies make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the 360-degree research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at bestin-class levels. 360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN THE CHAOS Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

12 Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices Frost & Sullivan Awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate award candidates and assess their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are based on close adherence to this process. STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT 1 Monitor, target, and screen Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe Conduct in-depth industry research Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all bestpractice criteria 2 Perform 360-degree research Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners Assess candidates fit with best-practice criteria Rank all candidates Matrix positioning all candidates performance relative to one another 3 Invite thought leadership in best practices Perform in-depth examination of all candidates Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all candidates Identify any information gaps Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates 4 Initiate research director review Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives on candidates performance Update candidate profiles Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper 5 Assemble panel of industry experts Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders Share findings Strengthen cases for candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates Refined list of prioritized award candidates 6 Conduct global industry review Build consensus on award candidates eligibility Hold global team meeting to review all candidates Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all eligible candidates Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide 7 Perform quality check Develop official award consideration materials Perform final performance benchmarking activities Write nominations Perform quality review High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees successes 8 Reconnect with panel of industry experts Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria 9 Communicate recognition Inform award recipient of award recognition Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for continued success Celebrate the recipient s performance Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand 10 Take strategic action Upon licensing, company may share award news with stakeholders and customers Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award s role in future strategic planning Widespread awareness of recipient s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

13 About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth