Companies Align to Offer Intelligent Customer Service Solutions to Single and Multi site Contact Centers
SAN JOSE and SAN MATEO, CA - September 25, 2001- Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, and E.piphany (Nasdaq: EPNY), a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, today announced a strategic relationship to develop, market and sell next-generation contact center solutions. The solutions will combine E.piphany`s real-time customer intelligence and customer relationship management application capabilities with key elements of the Cisco customer contact software platform for medium to large enterprises focused on using customer data to enrich routing decisions.
As part of this collaboration, the two companies are taking a phased technology integration approach. Solutions that are available today integrate E.piphany`s E.5 platform with the various components of the Cisco customer contact software platform: the Cisco Intelligent Contact Management (ICM) software platform, the Cisco IP Contact Center (IPCC) solution, and the Cisco Collaboration Server (CCS). The next phase will include integration of E.piphany`s real-time customer analytics platform with the Cisco ICM software platform, delivering customer value-based routing based on E.piphany`s real-time analysis of customer profiles and other data and Cisco`s network routing capabilities. Together, these technologies will provide customers with a complete contact center solution with more intelligent network routing decisions and real-time customer analytics.
Cisco and E.piphany solutions are currently in use at Emerson, a leader in bringing technology and engineering together to provide innovative solutions to its customers worldwide. "Cisco and E.piphany recently teamed with us on our latest contact center initiative and helped create the customer service and Web collaboration solution that we had envisioned," said Charles Peters, Senior Executive Vice President at Emerson. "Their newly formalized relationship is great news for Emerson and others whose customers expect nothing less than the latest service solutions." "Cisco and E.piphany come to the table with strong complementary products and similar visions to pioneer the future of next-generation contact centers," said Roger Siboni, President and CEO of E.piphany. "This is a wonderful opportunity for customers looking to leverage existing legacy contact center infrastructure investments and at the same time migrate to a more flexible, cost-effective, IP-based voice and data infrastructure. We firmly believe that by aligning closely with Cisco, the leader in contact center and networking infrastructure technology, our customer interaction software will enrich the customer experience in contact centers around the world."
The Cisco and E.piphany Solutions
Current solutions promote IP-based contact center architectures using specific components of the Cisco customer contact software platform and the E.piphany E.5 platform. The Cisco ICM software platform delivers an integrated suite of capabilities that enables enterprise-wide contact routing over multisite contact center environments and connects customers to the most knowledgeable agent resource, regardless of their location or the media channel used. The Cisco IPCC solution is a scalable, integrated suite of IP telephony and contact center solutions that provides intelligent contact routing and multichannel contact management over a single converged IP network for multisite or single-site enterprise call centers. Based upon open standards, the Cisco IPCC solution interoperates with both legacy time division multiplexing (TDM) and IP infrastructures, which helps enterprises leverage existing investments in proprietary legacy technology while simultaneously migrating to IP-based networks. The Cisco CCS integrates customer interactions with contact center agents using the Web (for example, text chat conversation) and/or voice channels simultaneously. The voice interactions can be supported using a traditional telephone or using a voice-over-IP (VoIP) solution.
E.piphany E.5 delivers a suite of Web-based intelligent CRM applications that unify all inbound and outbound marketing, sales and service interactions. The E.piphany E.5 system enables a single, enterprise-wide view of each customer to help global businesses better understand and proactively serve customers in real time. Consequently, the combination of E.piphany`s intelligent Web-based CRM applications with the Cisco customer contact software platform helps customers build profitable IP-based contact centers.
"Today`s companies understand the importance of a single, collective view of customer interactions and ROI," said Brett Shockley, Vice President and General Manager of the Customer Contact Business Unit, Cisco Systems. "The combined contact center solutions from Cisco and E.piphany offer enhanced customer intelligence, routing and reporting based on real-time customer, network and agent resource feedback. More effective routing decisions to the right resource at the right time means improved customer retention and results in improved ROI."
Availability and Deployment
Available today, the E.piphany E.5 customer interaction application suite is currently integrated with Cisco ICM, the Cisco IPCC solution and the Cisco CCS. Integration of E.piphany`s real-time customer analytics platform with the Cisco ICM software platform will be available in December 2001. Cisco and E.piphany have each teamed with KPMG Consulting, Inc. (NASDAQ:KCIN), one of the world`s largest consulting companies, and Hewlett-Packard to provide a full range of management consulting and solution deployment services that support the combined solutions.
About E.piphany
E.piphany is the leading provider of intelligent customer interaction software for the Customer Economy. By providing an integrated suite of software solutions, E.piphany E.5 blends Web-based analytic and operational CRM to unify all inbound and outbound marketing, sales and service customer interactions. The E.piphany E.5 system enables a single, enterprise-wide view of each customer to help global businesses better understand and proactively serve customers in real time. With worldwide headquarters in San Mateo, California, E.piphany has regional operations and offices throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific.
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