Interactive Intelligence Expands into South Africa

Interactive Intelligence (News - Alert) has continued to spread worldwide, and its latest foray is into South Africa. IT News Africa recently spoke with Deon Scheepers, Interactive Intelligence’s head of sales and business development, to discuss the future of IP and voice communications, what makes Interactive Intelligence a success and its plans for the future.

There are always challenges presented when expanding into a new location, but Interactive Intelligence has had products selling in South Africa for nearly a decade. It was only in January of 2012 that the company set up a new location in the area, and while the Internet bandwidth they can access there is limited, thus limiting the range of Interactive Intelligence solutions available, it’s growing steadily. Worldwide connectivity is approaching, although as it still relies on local service providers, we’re not ready for the singularity quite yet.

The game is changing, though, with IP communications and social media on the rise. Voice communications and solutions are still dominating the communications market, but with the cost savings presented by IP, that might shift in the coming years.

Meanwhile, landline communications are on the decline, as mobile phones, online communications, and video communications are taking over. Organizations need to keep up, and make sure they can communicate on the customer’s terms as well as their own.

"By far, the next wave is all about social,” Scheepers said. “It's all about Internet, it's all about mobility, with regards to mobile devices, touch pads, and things like that… and that's all changing the way people communicate both to organizations and within their personal lives."

With its new location in South Africa, Interactive Intelligence hopes to reach north, and expand worldwide to provide better service to multinational partners. Its solutions are consistently high quality and useful across the world, allowing for quality communications on both sides of the line, no matter how far it reaches. There are no global borders for the challenges and needs of communications, so it’s great that Interactive Intelligence is reaching so far, and will continue reaching further.

Interactive Intelligence is a Platinum sponsor of ITEXPO West 2012. To be held Oct. 2-5 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX, ITEXPO (News - Alert) is the world’s premier IP communications event. Brandon Rowe, Solutions Marketing Manager, will be a keynote speaker at the event. For more information on IEXPO West 2012 click here.