CRM Firm Activeo Signs Deal to Resell Calabrio Products

Calabrio, a vendor of software for IP-based contact centers, has announced that it has signed an agreement with Activeo (News - Alert) to resell Calabrio's workforce optimization products. Activeo is a French CRM and contact center vendor in EMEA.

Activeo will offer Calabrio Workforce Management and Calabrio (News - Alert) Quality Management products as part of its Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise offering. The French firm advises contact center users and providers on IP Contact Centers and CRM products. Activeo will also offer full support services for the Calabrio products. These include installation, design, troubleshooting and professional services.

In 2006 Spanlink Communications, a VoIP vendor and Cisco Systems partner, acquired Calabrio, then an 11-year-old workforce management products provider based in Canada. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The deal had the effect of deepening the Spanlink InteractiveEdge SOA software suite, which includes Spanlink Quality Management for recording, evaluation, and training, by adding Calabrio Workforce Management, which helps contact center managers develop and track adherence to schedules for multisite centers and monitor performance.

Spanlink sells workforce scheduling, adherence, key performance metrics, and additional reporting functionality to agent and supervisor desktop views.

In October Spanlink announced it intended to spin off the Calabrio Software division. Calabrio now operates as a separate, independent company working with software for IP-based contact centers. The new company started out with approximately 500,000 installed desktops and said it would maintain the OEM relationship with Cisco.

Spanlink founder Brett Shockley (News - Alert) continued as chief executive officer and president of Spanlink Communications. Paul Lidsky, Spanlink’s chief operating officer, assumed the role of chief executive officer and president for Calabrio, Inc.

At the time Shockley said forming the two entities “has allowed each to respond more effectively to the needs of customers, channels and partners. We see this spin off as the next logical step.”

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David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

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