Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

July 10, 2008

ASPCA Selects CIC from Interactive Intelligence

By Susan J. Campbell

The American Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has selected the all-in-one IP communications software suite, Customer Interaction Center (CIC) from Interactive Intelligence (News - Alert).
 
The ASPCA plans to deploy CIC at its Midwest office in Urbana, Illinois, which includes the organization’s Animal Poison Control Center. The CIC was established to help improve call management to enable the organization to more effectively accomplish its mission of saving animals’ lives.

“We selected the Interactive Intelligence software based on its unified, all-software architecture that will enable us to get calls to the right person the first time, thus respond faster and more cost-effectively to emergencies,” said Steven Hansen, senior vice president of the ASPCA’s animal health services, in a Thursday statement. “Because of the system’s flexible architecture, we’ll also be able to quickly and easily make changes for improved customer service and increased operational efficiencies.”

The wide range of unified communication capabilities within the CIC will replace the ASPCA’s NEC (News - Alert) PBX. This PBX (News - Alert) is being replaced as a result of its limited contact center functionality and complex management.

“With our old system we often had to use the vendor’s technicians to assist with anything more than simple daily management tasks,” said Harold Trammel, vice president of knowledge management for the ASPCA, in Thursday’s statement.

Trammel continued: “The ASPCA is constantly adding new programs and creating new levels of experts, so limited customization options and relying on third-parties for support proved cumbersome and expensive. The Interactive Intelligence software addresses these issues, while giving us a single source for our support needs, and eliminating problems as a result of upgrading multi-vendor components.”

Trammel also highlighted that the ASPCA made the selection of the new software in an effort to improve its quality control. The organization’s old system lacked reporting accuracy and reliability and the management did not feel confident in making staffing or operational decisions. 

CIC’s built-in voice and screen recording ensures that management knows that each call is being tracked from start to finish, and they can easily drill down into that data if needed. This will help the ASPCA to improve training, documentation and quality assurance.

The organization will also use CIC’s remote capabilities to support a hotline that connects callers to a psychologist for grief counseling. The solution’s disaster recovery capabilities will also allow for automatic re-route of calls to another location in the event of a disaster hitting the Urbana office.

The CIC software was selected in May and plans to complete deployment by the end of July. Beyond SIP-based switching and call routing, the ASPCA will use CIC’s call and screen recording, supervisory monitoring, unified messaging and a computer-based operator console.

“Based on CIC’s unique architecture that gives us maximum value for our money, along with the vendor’s accessibility and clear product roadmap, we’re confident that our new deployment will help us more effectively fulfill our mission of saving animals’ lives,” Hansen concluded.

Organizations such as the ASPCA rely on effective communications within their call centers to ensure it can deliver the services that are the key focus of its mission. By relying on Interactive Intelligence and its CIC software suite, the ASPCA is much better position to drive performance and ensure all interactions meet the expectations of the caller.
 
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
 
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. Today’s featured white paper is Jim Cossetta, President, CEO, 4What Interactive, Creators of The VoIPTrainer, brought to you by 4What Interactive (News - Alert).
 


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