Newest Version of KANA Response Delivers on KANA’s Commitment to Provide Innovative External-facing eCRM Solutions that Meet the Growing Needs of Global Enterprises
MENLO PARK, Calif. - September 9, 2002— KANA® (NASDAQ: KANA), the leading provider of external-facing eCRM solutions, today announced the availability of KANA Response™ software version 7.5, which enables global enterprises to provide immediate and effective response to customer inquiries in most major languages. One of the modular solutions that make up the KANA iCARE™ suite of products, KANA Response 7.5 is the latest in a series of product releases delivering on KANA’s commitment to providing innovative features and functionality that meet the evolving needs of global enterprises.
While working toward full iCARE suite platform unification, KANA is addressing the current needs of enterprise organizations for solutions that can be smoothly deployed worldwide and facilitate critical communication with their growing global customer bases. Response 7.5 is a fully internationalized product and accommodates easy localization, enabling companies worldwide to answer inbound e-mail and Web inquiries intelligently and cost-efficiently, regardless of which language the e-mail was written in.
Each day enterprises are faced with the daunting challenge of managing a flood of e-mails. KANA Response 7.5 empowers them to successfully manage growth in customer requests without increasing the size of their customer service departments. Additional benefits of KANA Response 7.5 include zero-maintenance and administration at the agent desktop; seamless integration with KANA’s Web-based self-service system, KANA IQ™ software; and a new high-performance, high-functionality Web-based client.
NEC, a strategic partner of KANA eCRM solutions, has already begun deploying KANA Response 7.5 for leading Japanese customers.
“With increasing frequency our customers are asking for CRM solutions with multi-lingual capabilities that accommodate the needs of their growing global customer base, “ said Nobuo Hanada, General Manager, Front Office Systems Division, NEC Solutions at NEC Corporation. “Many corporations need an e-mail management system that will enable them to decrease costs in the contact center, while increasing the speed of response time to multi-national customers. With KANA Response 7.5’s fully-internationalized solutions, they will be able to provide their customers with the highest level of customer service.”
KANA Response 7.5 includes the following features and benefits:
Full internationalization at the architecture level enabling a customer service representative (CSR) to view and respond to multi-lingual content, including most major languages worldwide, as supported by the operating system.
In addition, the user interface language settings and formatting, such as currencies, dates and measurements, can be easily and quickly localized. This helps businesses decrease customer service costs because CSRs can operate in their native language and can handle multi-lingual content in the same application interface. Additionally, the global capabilities decrease IT costs and increase revenue as single servers can handle worldwide content.
A new high performance Web-based client enabling higher functionality, speed and ease of use without the installation requirements. This saves costs by providing IT departments with zero-maintenance client deployment and self-maintenance capabilities at the agent desktop as new versions are loaded onto the server. The new high-performance client provides customer service representatives with the convenience and speed of a desktop application with all the deployment benefits of a Web architecture.
Seamless integration with KANA’s Web self-service application, KANA IQ. KANA ResponseIQ offers companies the ability to significantly lower the cost of customer service by deflecting costly telephone service inquiries to the Web. By integrating KANA IQ’s intelligent knowledge base with KANA Response 7.5, agents can automatically respond to customer e-mails with a link to a page in the knowledge base, saving costs by eliminating manual involvement in day-to-day queries and improving customer service by easily escalating self-service inquires to e-mail.
Multi-channel service analytics for analyzing customer inquiries, evaluating performance and accuracy of the e-mail system and customer service agents, and identifying trends and opportunities for improvement.
“As companies strive to achieve greater market penetration through a stronger global presence, they must be able to effectively communicate across varying demographics,” said Yankee Group Analyst Devon Shea. “This announcement reinforces KANA’s commitment to delivering innovative, feature-rich solutions that help enterprises meet this demand. With this latest release, KANA is equipping enterprises with eCRM technology that enables them to provide quick, cost-effective global customer service.”
KANA Response is the industry standard for enterprise e-mail response management systems and provides world-class agent-assisted service with fast, high volume, intelligent, automated e-mail, Web and instant messaging request management. Installed in more than 700 organizations, KANA Response is the most effective and widely used e-mail management system in the world. KANA Response enables organizations to respond faster and more accurately to employee requests, increasing employee satisfaction and employee productivity. Additionally, KANA Response’s reporting features allow businesses to categorize and report the most frequently asked consumer service inquiries, creating even greater efficiencies in the contact center.
“With increased globalization, organizations need to provide effective customer service in any language,” said Bud Michael, executive vice president of products and marketing at KANA. “Response 7.5 is the most scalable and reliable solution on the market and reflects KANA’s ongoing commitment to designing innovative, feature-rich applications for today’s global enterprises. With this latest version of KANA Response, KANA is addressing the immediate needs of global organizations seeking to dramatically increase productivity, decrease costs, and build loyal customer relationships worldwide.”
KANA Response 7.5 is part of the KANA iCARE suite, a comprehensive enterprise software suite made up of modular eCRM solutions, including an ultra scalable contact center solution, the industry`s leading in- and out-bound e-mail management system, a robust knowledge base for self- and assisted-service and sophisticated marketing and analytics. KANA’s modular approach enables companies to address specific customer service issues with a particular eCRM solution, without the need to deploy an entire suite. Additionally, KANA’s Web architecture enables integration with additional eCRM solutions as needed.
Nearly 1,300 companies worldwide are using KANA next generation eCRM solutions to drive better relationships through effective, efficient interactions with customers at all points of contact (Web collaboration, phone, e-mail, live chat) and throughout the enterprise. The KANA approach to customer relationship management technology solutions combines sophisticated analytics with thin-client Web architecture to deliver extraordinary customer interactions that decrease costs and drive revenue.
Pricing and availability
KANA Response 7.5 is available immediately through KANA and its network of strategic partners. Pricing available upon request.
About KANA
KANA (NASDAQ: KANA) provides the industry`s leading external facing eCRM solutions to the largest businesses in the world, helping them to better service, market to, and understand their customers and partners, while improving results and decreasing costs in contact centers and marketing departments. Through comprehensive multi-channel customer relationship management that combines the best-in-class KANA iCARE Architecture with enterprise applications, KANA has become one of the fastest-growing providers of next generation eCRM technology. The company`s customer-focused service, marketing and commerce software applications enable organizations to improve customer and partner relationships by enabling them to productively interact when, where and how they want - across all touch points, including web contact, web collaboration, e-mail, and telephone. KANA`s global customer base includes Global 2000 organizations in the financial services, manufacturing, high technology, communications, retail and services markets. ADP, Chase, E*Trade, GAP, GM, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Sony, United Airlines, Verizon, and Williams Sonoma are among the industry leaders that have implemented KANA`s eCRM solutions. KANA has locations in 22 countries worldwide, in addition to an extensive global network of channel partners. For more information, please visit www.kana.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
Information in this release that involves KANA’s financial forecasts, projections, expectations, beliefs, hopes, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements include statements about KANA’s expected profitability, cash flow, revenue, margins, expenses, growth and new business, its market position and its relationship with customers. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to KANA as of the date of the release, which may likely change, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the merger with Broadbase and integration of the companies; risks associated with lack of market acceptance of KANA’s products or services; inability to enhance and develop our products and services within budget and on schedule; competition in our marketplace, including introduction of new products or services, or reductions in prices, by competitors; inability to attract and retain qualified employees, to manage cash and expenditures or to expand sales; inability to manage business in light of recent management changes and personnel reductions; KANA’s history of losses; and trends and uncertainties slowing and uncertain economic conditions, particularly as they affect spending by our prospective customers on eCRM and similar enterprise software products. These and other factors are risks associated with our business that may affect our operating results are discussed in KANA’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q, and registration statement on Form S-4.
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NOTE: KANA is a registered trademark, and KANA Software, KANA iCARE, KANA Contact Center, KANA IQ, KANA ResponseIQ, KANA Response, KANA Marketing, KANA iCARE Analytics and the KANA logo are trademarks of KANA Software, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Christine Campbell
KANA
508/598-3126
ccampbell@kana.com
Jennifer Meyer/Jason Ouellette
PAN Communications
978/474-1900
kana@pancomm.com
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