Cincom Newsroom » Cincom Synchrony

Intelliverse and Cincom Systems Partner to Provide Cloud-Based, Multi-Channel Contact Center Solution

Donna Hedge Burns — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:19:24 +0000

Atlanta – Intelliverse®, a global leader in cloud applications and Cincom Systems®, a worldwide software provider of customer experience management (CEM) solutions, announced today the integration of Intelliverse’s Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) and Cincom’s Synchrony intelligent agent desktop. With all transactions managed by a universal queue, a single interface for all customer interaction channels (phone, email, chat, and fax) provides one lens into all relevant information, including CRM systems, legacy applications and external resources. This intelligent agent desktop, along with multi-channel interaction management, provides a high-value, low-cost contact center solution for inbound and outbound environments.

Intelliverse has been providing reliable, scalable communications solutions for 29 years and for the past 44 years, Cincom has provided software to simplify and improve business operations and customer communications. The combined solution offers decision modeling and process workflow automation, which not only streamlines complex and non-value add tasks, but also harnesses the experience and expertise of a business’ knowledge experts (typically a small percent of the organization’s staff) into designed experiences that can be delivered by lesser-skilled employees. Plus, the cloud-based nature of the solution makes Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) available with any phone environment, including at-home agents and wireless devices which can be especially helpful for disaster recovery planning.

“Contact centers are expected to consistently deliver reliable and efficient service across an increasing number of channels,” said Randy Saunders, Cincom’s CEM program director. “With this combined solution, workloads and processes are simplified. Customers can choose to contact their favorite businesses however they like and expect the same, quality service.”

“I’m very excited because this integrated cloud solution levels the playing field,” said Sean Gordon, CEO of Intelliverse. “By leveraging the combined Intelliverse-Cincom solution, any size business can maximize the value of all customer interactions, regardless of how the customers want to communicate, and provide world-class customer service without having to invest the time and money to buy and integrate technology.”

About Intelliverse®

Intelliverse is a global leader in cloud applications that help businesses and customers connect. With solutions that address all areas of business communications, including social media, lead generation/appointment setting, online file collaboration, cloud telephony and CRM, Intelliverse has been delivering reliable, scalable and flexible services for close to three decades. By constantly exploring innovative technologies, Intelliverse maintains its leadership position and continues to stay focused on its customers. For more information, visit http://www.intelliverse.com.

About Cincom

For 44 years, Cincom has helped thousands of clients worldwide by solving complex business problems with its software and services. For more information about Cincom’s products and services, contact Cincom at 1-800-2CINCOM (USA only), send an e-mail to info@cincom.com or visit the company’s website at http://www.cincom.com. Cincom is an IBM Premier Business Partner.

Press Contacts:

Sandra Donovan
Intelliverse
770.663.5496
sandra.donovan@intelliverse.com

Donna Burns
Corporate Public Relations
Cincom Systems
dburns@cincom.com
513-612-2305

Energy Customers Biggest Complaint: Too Much Work Needed to Fix Service Issues

Jessica Lovejoy — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:26:02 +0000

CINCINNATI, Ohio – Seventy-six percent of energy and utility customers say that speed–the ability to get information quickly and accurately–is very important in how they are serviced, according to a report released today by worldwide software provider, Cincom Systems, an IBM Premier Business Partner. The biggest complaint that these customers had was the need to participate in multiple interactions to resolve an issue followed by not being able to get through to anyone in a timely manner.

“With so many industry advances underway and consumers becoming more actively engaged in managing their energy consumption, it’s a real challenge to keep up with the changing customer service demands,” said Randy Saunders, Cincom’s CEM Program Director. “Fortunately most retailers are making this a top priority and nearly half are planning major upgrades of their systems within the next 12 months.”

The report, “Market Trends: Customer Experiences in Energy & Utilities Organizations, 2013”, surveyed energy and utility retailers and consumers across the nation, and the findings show that customer experience remains a critical priority. As consumers require a deeper level of assistance, energy and utility companies are continually challenged to deliver better customer satisfaction and loyalty. For 57.7% of retailers, technology issues were considered to be the biggest obstacle in delivering consistent customer experiences. Ease-of-use of their current systems (15.4%), integration with back-end systems (26.9%) and the features and functionality of their current systems (15.4%) were also issues.

To view the full report, visit www.cincom.com/energyreport.

About Cincom® Synchrony™

Validated in IBM’s Solution Architecture for Energy and Utilities Framework (SAFE), Cincom Synchrony simplifies the complexities of today’s contact center to enhance the customer’s experience while optimizing agent and operational efficiency. By uniting multiple applications, systems and resources into an intelligent agent desktop, along with multi-channel interaction management, Synchrony provides a high-value, low-cost contact center solution for inbound and outbound environments.

About Cincom

For 44 years, Cincom has helped thousands of clients worldwide by solving complex business problems. For more information about Cincom’s products and services, contact Cincom at 1-800-2CINCOM (USA only), send an e-mail to info@cincom.com or visit the company’s website at http://www.cincom.com.

Media Contact:
Jessica Lovejoy
Corporate Public Relations
Cincom Systems
jlovejoy@cincom.com

513-612-2244

Cincom, the Quadrant Logo and Synchrony are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cincom Systems, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective companies.

Contact Center Expert to Discuss Quality and Customer Experience Management

Liz Harter — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:11:28 +0000

CINCINNATI – October 4, 2012 – Contact centers are spending a significant amount on their quality assurance functions in terms of capital, hardware, software and resources like training, listening and reviewing. But a lot of these functions are implemented at the end of the interaction process, which can occur days or weeks after the interaction has occurred. Contact center leadership needs to shift investments from end-of-the-line QA to infusing quality into the organization and interactions.

Brian Flagg, from Cincom Systems’ Customer Experience Management Division, Cincom® Synchrony™, will be speaking at the Contact Center Association Fall Conference in Miami, FL on October 9-2. His session, titled “Total Quality Management,” will help participants take a holistic assessment of their organizations in regards to quality and hone in on the contact interactions themselves. He will also touch on how to design and use technology to ensure that the delivered interaction meets the goals of the designed interaction.

Brian Flagg has 32 years of IT experience, including 19 years of support contact center leadership experience. He recently published the book, “Contact Center Excellence: Standing Out from the Crowd,” about using strategy to drive quality and measurements, the importance of managing variability, how to hire the right staff and how to ensure they are engaged.

Visit the Cincom booth to win a signed copy of the book.

To register for the Contact Center Association Fall Conference, visit the Contact Center Association website here.

What Is NOT Strategy in the IT Support Center – Cincom Expert Access

Is Your Support Contact Center Out of Control? – Cincom Expert Access

Knowledge Management in the Support Center – Cincom Expert Access

Cincom Synchrony

Cincom Synchrony is a CEM Solution for contact centers that guides smarter interactions with customers. It leverages the insight you have about each customer in the context of each interaction to deliver optimal customer experiences and organizational outcomes. Synchrony brings your CEM strategy to life in a realistic, operational model that grows your business while improving operational results.

About Cincom

For 44 years, Cincom has helped thousands of clients worldwide by solving complex business problems with its software and services. Cincom, an IBM Premier Business Partner, helps customer-centric organizations differentiate and outperform through customer experience management.

Media Contact

Liz Harter
Cincom Public Relations
lharter@cincom.com
513-612-2155

New Cincom Whitepaper: Steps to Achieving CEM Success

Liz Harter — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:27:30 +0000

The rate of consumer technology development is growing every day. In a recent study, Australia was found to have the 5th highest level of internet penetration in the world. One clear example of this internet obsession is the rise of blogging and online reviews.

Whether looking for electronics, a restaurant or even a new style of running shoes, the internet has delivered plenty of opportunities for potential customers to learn about products and more importantly the services provided by the brands. Social media, blogs and forums are now all viable avenues for consumers to voice concerns, complaints and compliments about brands in the public arena, which could be consequently devastating for a business. As consumers become more and more vocal, brands have realised that the basics of CRM are no longer enough to satisfy this new age of consumers and thus Customer Experience Management is born.

The foundation of Customer Experience Management is Customer Expectation Management. Customers have a perception of the promises you as a business make to them that forms their expectations of the product or service they will receive from you. Customer Experience Management involves attempting to control the formation of these expectations as well as the reactions when they are met, over-delivered or under-delivered upon.

There are two elements of customer expectations: that which is controlled by you e.g. brand management, PR, marketing, corporate messaging, etc., and that which is controlled by external factors such as reputation, media, competitors, industry, social change, government regulation and more.

The reality is that unfortunately the external elements contributing to customer expectations are far more significant and dynamic than those you can manipulate. While controlling the external elements of customer expectation is out of reach, we can aim to influence it. By putting in place customer-service strategies and goals, we can strive to consistently meet and over-deliver on customer expectations, and if we fail to deliver, have the means to address the issue promptly and efficiently to change the tide.

Despite being an essential element of your business strategy, Customer Experience Management still is a relatively new concept. This, coupled with the fact that every company — from multinational telecommunications companies to your local fashion retailer — is completely unique, means that quite often people do not know where to start with CEM strategy. Read on to find a condensed version of Cincom’s in-depth analysis and review: ‘Your Customer Experience Management Handbook: Eight Steps to Constructing the Strategy that Will Turn Customers to Brand Advocates’ available here.

The following steps are a practical and realistic guide to achieving a tailored and agile CEM strategy.

Analyse: There is no “one-size-fits-all” way to identify what a customer wants, let alone expects. Each individual customer is different, and the stage at which a customer is within the consumner life cycle will also substantially influence their expectations.
Moving Target: As mentioned earlier, customers’ expectations are influenced by a number of dynamic external factors as well as their own consumer lifecycle; it is therefore important to regularly re-assess these expectations. Using surveys, customer feedback and even social media are great ways to keep your finger on the pulse and anticipate potential changes and shifts in expectations.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: In addition to analysing your customer base, it is also important to take a look at yourself. Canvas existing customers and find out what your company excels at as well as the areas where you fall short on the expectations of your predetermined (number-one) customer segments. Take a walk in their shoes; go through the same processes, and experience firsthand what your customers’ experience.
Prioritise: As previously mentioned, delighting every customer and meeting each and every one of their expectations is impossible. Through your analysis, you will be able to identify the profile of a “profitable customer” or segment. Then, prioritise the improvements focusing your attention on what is most important to your business now as well as in the future. For example, you may choose to target different areas based on whether or not your business is focusing on customer acquisition or customer retention.

As mentioned, further detail into the discussed points along with the remaining steps can be found in our whitepaper, available for download here.

Employing the tools you have identified in the eight steps that are relevant to your business, you should be able to make a start on drafting the CEM strategy that is going to convert your customers into loyal brand advocates!

Learn more about Cincom’s Customer Experience Management

Cincom’s focus is in providing you with the means to deliver on the brand promise as well as consistency. To do this, we have integrated three of our core products into a flexible, modular suite to cover the value chain of customer interactions.

At the agents’ level, such as the call centre, our Unified Desktop solution provides a 360-degree view of the customer. Using powerful, real-time Intelligent Guidance, agents can engage with customers at a deeper, emotional level and focus on value-building activities across all channels. Our integrated correspondence-management module allows personalised, timely, relevant, consistent generation of all communications whether ad hoc or batch and across multiple channels. All of this as well as incoming correspondence is securely stored in our Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Library for a complete history and for fast retrieval anytime, anywhere.

Our challenge as a technology vendor is to anticipate what our customers are going to need so they can delight their customers. Our aim is to develop technology to give them that competitive advantage, enabling them to earn their customers’ advocacy. The more we understand our customers’ challenges the more innovative our solutions can be.

Media Contacts:
Maria Mourikis
Cincom Australia Marketing Department
Phone: 02-8875 1400
Email: mmourikis@cincom.com

Contact Center Expert to Discuss Driving Employee Engagement

Liz Harter — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:10:36 +0000

CINCINNATI, Ohio – April 20, 2012 – Contact center results are often based on averages across a day, week or month — averages that can hide service issues. The biggest issue is a high level of variability in performance, which leads to variability in the customer experience.

Brian Flagg, from Cincom Systems’ Customer Experience Management Division, Cincom® Synchrony™, will be speaking at the Contact Center Association Spring Conference in Orlando, FL on April 23-26. His session titled “Driving Employee Engagement,” will help industry leaders learn how to understand, measure and manage employee engagement and deliver better productivity. This session is part of the Agent Hiring, Development, and Retention Track and will take place on April 24 at 1:45 p.m.

Brian Flagg has 32 years of IT experience, including 19 years of support contact center leadership experience. He has transformed and led global contact centers for IBM and Target. He is a regularly featured contributor to Cincom’s Expert Access business e-zine, writing on topics like support center excellence, knowledge management and the use of statistical process control charts in a support center.

To register for the Contact Center Association Spring Conference, visit the Contact Center Association website here.

What is NOT Strategy in the IT Support Center – Cincom Expert Access

Is Your Support Contact Center Out of Control? – Cincom Expert Access

Knowledge Management in the Support Center – Cincom Expert Access

Cincom Synchrony

About Cincom

For 43 years, Cincom has helped thousands of clients worldwide by solving complex business problems with its software and services. Cincom, an IBM Premier Business Partner, helps customer-centric organizations differentiate and outperform through customer experience management.

Media Contact

Robyn Johnson
Corporate Public Relations
rrobinettjohnson@cincom.com
513-612-2123

Cincom and IBM to Focus on Retail Interactions During Webinar

Liz Harter — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:37:08 +0000

CINCINNATI – November 30, 2011 – Consumer expectations are growing rapidly as retail touch points are improved and expanded. Are you prepared to deliver consistent brand experiences across your retail channels?

Tadd Wilson, Senior Managing Consultant with IBM Retail Store Solutions, will be joining Brian Flagg from international software and service provider Cincom Systems customer experience management group, to deliver a one-hour webinar entitled “Managing Cross-Channel Interactions in Retail” today, November 30 at 11 am ET.

Wilson has worked with many of the world’s largest retailers, regional leaders and niche specialists to help them identify and harness emerging technologies. He is a frequent speaker at industry and technology conferences.

Flagg has 31 years of IT and contact center experience. He has transformed global contact centers for IBM, Target and other Fortune 500 companies.

Together, they will discuss how to:

Deliver customer the technology, choices and control they want when interacting with your company
Focus on the customer’s experience instead of their location or technology
Ensure your message is personalized and relevant
Deliver a consistent brand experience across all channels

To register for today’s webinar visit: http://synchronynow.cincom.com/forms/SYUS1104068CEMRetailWebinar

Cincom Synchrony

About Cincom

Media Contact
Liz Harter
Corporate Public Relations
lharter@cincom.com
513-612-2155

Cincom’s Brian Flagg Featured at Contact Center Association Fall Conference

Liz Harter — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:18:17 +0000

Contact Center Expert to Discuss Managing Variability and Averages and Strategic Planning Tool

CINCINNATI, Ohio – September 20, 2011 – Contact center results are often based on averages across a day, week or month — averages that can hide service issues. The biggest issue is a high level of variability in performance, which leads to variability in the customer experience.

Brian Flagg, from Cincom Systems’ Customer Experience Management Division, Cincom® Synchrony™, will be speaking at the Contact Center Association Fall Conference in Phoenix, AZ on October 3-6. His first session titled “Understanding Variability to Avoid the Hidden Traps,” will help industry leaders learn how to understand, measure and manage variability to deliver smarter interactions with customers. This session is part of the Performance Management Track and will take place on October 4 at 11:15 a.m.

The second session, “Strategic Planning Tools for the Contact Center,” is part of the Strategic Planning Track and will point out what measures are important in the contact center, how to steer capital investments toward projects with a needed rate of return and how to drive the prioritization of projects competing for fixed resources. It will cover two strategic planning tools— strategy maps and the Baldrige Assessment—and their applicability in the support contact center. This session will be on October 4 at 3:30 p.m.

Brian Flagg has 31 years of IT experience, including 18 years of support contact center leadership experience. He has transformed and led global contact centers for IBM and Target. He is a regularly featured contributor to Cincom’s Expert Access business e-zine, writing on topics like support center excellence, knowledge management and the use of statistical process control charts in a support center.

To register for the Contact Center Association Fall Conference, visit the Contact Center Association website here.

Going the “Last Mile” for Customer Satisfaction

What is NOT Strategy in the IT Support Center – Cincom Expert Access

Is Your Support Contact Center Out of Control? – Cincom Expert Access

Knowledge Management in the Support Center – Cincom Expert Access

Cincom Synchrony

About Cincom

Media Contact

Liz Harter
Corporate Public Relations
lharter@cincom.com
513-612-2155

Cincom’s Brian Flagg Featured on Contact Center Association Webinar

Liz Harter — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:21:53 +0000

CINCINNATI – 7-14-2011 – Contact centers have created a lot of maturity models over the years, but have they really been effective? And will they be important in the future?

Brian Flagg, from software and service provider Cincom Systems, will lay out his maturity model in a Contact Center Association webinar on July 19 at 10 am PT. His webinar, “The Value of a Contact Center Maturity Model,” will help industry leaders learn how to utilize his model to improve their contact center efficiency and profitability.

Brian will also be a featured speaker at the Contact Center Association’s fall conference, October 4-6, 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona. This is the leading conference for managing the customer experience. Brian will speak on a number of topics including “Moving People Through the Pipeline Better than Oil” and “Strategic Planning Tools for the Contact Center.”

Brian recently joined the Cincom Synchrony customer experience management team. He has 31 years of IT experience, including 18 years of support contact center leadership experience. He has transformed and led global contact centers for IBM and Target. He is a regularly featured contributor to Cincom’s Expert Access business e-zine, writing on topics like support center excellence, knowledge management and the use of statistical process control charts in a support center.

To register for the upcoming webinar, visit the Contact Center Association website here.
Related Links

Contact Center Conference 2011

What is NOT Strategy in the IT Support Center – Cincom Expert Access

Is Your Support Contact Center Out of Control? – Cincom Expert Access

Knowledge Management in the Support Center – Cincom Expert Access

Cincom Synchrony

Cincom Synchrony

About Cincom

For 43 years, Cincom has helped thousands of clients worldwide by solving complex business problems with its software and services. Cincom, an IBM Premier Business Partner, helps customer-centric organizations differentiate and outperform through customer experience management.

Media Contact
Liz Harter
Corporate Public Relations
lharter@cincom.com
513-612-2155

Cincom Synchrony Wins 2011 Call Center Week Award

Liz Harter — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:10:05 +0000

Customer Experience Management Solution Recognized as one of the Best Technology Solution Providers

June 23, 2011 – CINCINNATI – International software and service provider Cincom Systems was recognized for Synchrony, their customer experience management solution, at the IQPC Call Center Excellence Awards ceremony, held last week at the annual Call Center Week conference.

Cincom Synchrony received an Honorable Mention in the Best Technology Solution Provider category.

Established by Call Center IQPC, the Excellence Awards are designed to recognize superior thinking, creativity and execution across the full spectrum of call center functions. First, Second and three Honorable Mention awards were presented across eight categories.

“Synchrony has been working hard over the past few years to help our clients realize gains in delivering customer experiences to grow their business,” said Randy Saunders, program director, Cincom Synchrony. “Receiving recognition from IQPC validates our efforts in delivering a great customer experience to our clients and helping them deliver smarter interactions in their call centers.”

Cincom Synchrony

About Cincom

Media Contact
Liz Harter
Corporate Public Relations
lharter@cincom.com
513.612.2155

Ventana Research Rates Cincom Synchrony a “Hot” Vendor in the 2011 Value Index for Customer Experience Management: Agent Desktop

Liz Harter — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:25:45 +0000

“The Cincom agent desktop product, Synchrony, not only provides agents with a unified workspace to help them resolve customer interactions but it also guides them on what to do next,” said Richard Snow, VP and Contact Center Research Director at Ventana Research. “This level of functionality and all around balanced set of support across the evaluation criteria make it very worthy of its Hot ranking in our Value Index.”

According to Ventana Research, the Value Index provides guidance that will enable organizations to ascertain the value of applications for addressing the needs of contact center agents in their interactions with customers. The Index reflects the value offered by a vendor and its products, presented both as a clear and accessible graphic representation in a simple thermometer and as a precise index percentage.

Ratings are based on a thorough evaluation and audit indexing seven key categories: usability, manageability, reliability, capability, adaptability, vendor validation, and total cost of ownership and return on investment. Cincom achieved a 92.6 percent rating over these categories.

“We’re honored to be included among this list because it recognizes our value in the market place and validates the positive response we’ve been hearing from customers about the innovation and robust capabilities we deliver,” said Randy Saunders, program director, Cincom Synchrony Customer Experience Management.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the leading benchmark research and advisory services firm. We provide expert guidance to help organizations manage and optimize performance – to become not only more efficient but more effective. Our unparalleled insights and best practices guidance are based on our rigorous research-based benchmarking indexes of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions worldwide. The combination we offer of benchmark research, rigorous market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver business and technology education and expertise to our clients where and when needed. The Ventana Research Indexes – the Value Index and the Benchmark Index family – have redefined the research industry by providing accessible, easy-to-use research-based business and technology guidance to businesses.

About Cincom

For 42 years, Cincom has helped thousands of clients worldwide by solving complex business problems with its software and services.

Cincom Synchrony

Cincom Synchrony is a Customer Experience Management (CEM) Solution for contact centers that guides winning conversations with customers. It leverages the insight about each customer in the context of each interaction to deliver optimal customer experiences and organizational outcomes. Synchrony brings any CEM strategy to life in a realistic, operational model that grows business while improving operational results.