Software is at its essence instructions to turn switches on and off in a given order to achieve a result, namely a calculation that can send a spacecraft to the stars, make these words appear on a screen, and enable contact center agents to provide more effective customer service. So there’s no real reason why all software at a fundamental level can’t work together.

 

eGain has recognized that fact. In a savvy very competitive move in these economically challenging times, it has hit the key on a new program, eGain SafeSwitch, to enable contact centers to seamlessly switch to its solution to provide what it says is ‘best-in-class customer service’. And in doing so helping firms avoid costly and disruptive upgrades to new and unproven versions of existing software.

 

Among the key elements of eGain SafeSwitch are:

--No license fee for acquiring eGain software to replace existing vendor licenses, one for one. The client will pay the ongoing support fee

--Proven, rapid, and low-cost adapter-based upgrade to eGain Service. Typical conversion effort would be in weeks, not months

The promotion is available immediately to U.S. and Canadian businesses that have existing on-site deployments from the vendors including Brightware/FirePond, Colloquis, Kaidara, KANA, KNOVA/Consona (News - Alert), Mustang/Quintus, noHold, and Talisma

eGain Service provides the following capabilities to enable what it calls multichannel ‘customer interaction hubs’ (CIHs):

--Cross-channel case management and interaction tracking: eGain Service provides a complete view of multichannel interactions and the ability to seamlessly track a service request or a case across channels and people in an enterprise or a service chain.

--Single knowledge base with adaptive content management: A key requirement for an effective CIH is a common knowledge base. With centralized content and adapters for integrated access to content in existing repositories, eGain Service ensures that customers receive the same answers across channels and agents. Best-practice content approval workflows enable knowledge base managers to easily set up authors, subject matter experts, editors, and approvers for content improvement. The system’s adaptive content management capability includes the ability to set triggers on usage patterns and user feedback that automatically generate content management tasks and workflows.

--Centralized business rules and workflow: Customers want it says consistent service across channels. For instance, a platinum customer will want the best service level regardless of the channel: e-mail, chat, or the phone. With eGain Service, contact centers can implement common business rules and cross-channel workflows using a powerful visual designer within the platform and leverage it across all channels.

--Common user and system administration: eGain Service provides centralized administration of business and system resources to eliminate time wastage and errors that can occur when trying to manage disparate applications.

--Consolidated, cross-channel reporting: eGain Service provides a centralized multichannel dashboard and analytics capability that makes it easy to optimize service operations across channels, departments, and queues.

--Easy integration with other enterprise systems: “Businesses are actively replacing dead-end vendor products in favor of cost-effective, leading-edge platforms for unified multichannel customer service,” says Ashu Roy, CEO of eGain. “Our SafeSwitch Program will make the decision even easier for them.”