Post on 09-Apr-2017
transcript
2017 North American Contact Centers Product
Line Strategy Leadership Award
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
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Contents
Background and Company Performance ........................................................................ 3
Industry Challenges .............................................................................................. 3
Product Line Strength and Customer Impact ............................................................ 3
Conclusion........................................................................................................... 8
Significance of Product Line Strategy ............................................................................ 9
Understanding Product Line Strategy Leadership ............................................................ 9
Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................. 10
Product Line Strength ......................................................................................... 10
Customer Impact ............................................................................................... 10
The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ..................... 11
Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 11
Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ................................................................................................................. 12
About Frost & Sullivan .............................................................................................. 13
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Background and Company Performance
Industry Challenges
The contact center industry has gone through rapid expansion and transformation in the
past decade. Drivers and disruptors in the market have been many. Most significant of
these have been:
The addition of new channels of customer interaction (social, mobile, chat)
The meteoric rise of cloud as a deployment methodology
The addition of a range of new market entrants, from new cloud providers, to start-
up companies in customer contact adjunct markets, such as gamification
The beginnings of digital transformation of customer contact
Vast industry consolidation
Enhanced application functionality to support omni-channel customer experience
strategies
Burgeoning demand for contact center analytics capabilities
Wildly changing customer preferences for customer service that include proactive
customer contact and advanced self-service capabilities.
To stay abreast of these changes has posed quite a challenge for contact center providers.
It requires a long term growth strategy that strikes a balance between holding down costs
in stagnant economies and funding market expansion and new development. This has not
been easy, particularly as it means successfully weighing the decision to build, buy or
partner to get there.
Product Line Strength and Customer Impact
NICE, a global leader in customer interaction solutions provides a breadth of offerings
across customer contact. In addition to customer interaction, the company has two other
business units with robust intellectual property assets that are often used to fuel the
greater functionality of the company’s contact center offerings. ACTIMIZE, provides
financial crime, risk, and compliance solutions; and Security, provides visibility and
insights supporting emergency communications, command and control, incident
reconstruction, and others.
Breadth
NICE has an enviable portfolio of customer contact solutions. Together they provide real-
time interaction management, advanced analytics, and employee engagement tools to
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help customers improve and differentiate their Customer Experience. NICE also has one of
the broadest intellectual property portfolios in the industry with 135 issued US patents, 50
patents issued in other countries, and over 72 patent applications pending in the United
States.
NICE customer interaction solutions include:
Workforce Optimization (WFO) is a suite of analytics and management solutions to
enable enterprises to better manage the back office and contact center. These include:
Performance Management
Workforce Management
Quality Management
Interaction Analytics
Back Office Performance
Robotic Process Automation
Interaction Optimization is a set of tools for optimizing customer interactions, and
includes:
Real-Time Authentication
Real-Time Process Optimization
Real-Time Activity Monitoring
Real-Time Speech Analytics
Call Volume Reduction
Sales Optimization
Incentive Compensation Management
Customer Retention
Real-Time Web Engagement
Contact Center Compliance Solutions
Contact Center Compliance Recording
Complaint Management
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Customer Journey Solutions provide real-time data capture and analytics from all
customer touchpoints, including the Web, call center, retail outlets, email, chat, and social
media to create a single view of a customer’s journey and include:
• Customer Journey Optimization
• Real-Time Personalization
• Call Volume Optimization
• IVR Optimization
• Total Voice of the Customer
• NICE Interaction Analytics
• Real-time Customer Feedback
Scalability
NICE’s product line addresses the needs of customers of all size and degree of complexity.
These solutions range from the most complete and feature-rich enterprise offerings, to
cost-efficient, easy to use packages for the SMB market. However, it hasn’t always been
this way. The company got its start developing best of breed capabilities within call
recording, quality monitoring and analytics. It developed deep expertise within those
segments, as well as in specific vertical markets. For instance, it created specialized pre-
packaged applications to solve specific challenges, such as compliance solutions which
address issues within highly regulated industries including finance and telemarketing.
In the past, this high degree of functionality often came at a premium price. However,
part of the recent success of its product line strategy has been in reducing complexity and
cost to address all areas of the market not just enterprise.
The company’s two most recent announcements showcase this with affordable, intuitive,
easy to use solutions. The first is EvolveWFM, a completely redesigned workforce
management solution for small to mid-sized companies. EvolveWFM addresses the needs
for high functionality with reduced costs and minimal IT support. It provides sophisticated
tools for automated scheduling, forecasting, and real-time adherence at an affordable
price point, which enables companies traditionally mired in managing through
spreadsheets, far greater functionality without a big investment. The product is delivered
in the cloud to provide companies with continuous delivery and flexibility. It also is
designed for minimal training, easy configuration, and management.
The second is NPM Essentials, a performance management solution that is also feature-
rich and affordable. NPM Essentials comes pre-configured and pre-integrated for reduced
cost and simplicity, yet provides a robust set of performance management features,
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including root cause analysis, advanced closed-loop coaching, a best practices library for
coaching action plans, goals management, quality management for the front and back
offices, and virtual collaborative communities for employee engagement.
Technology Leverage
The hallmark of NICE’s product line strategy is its keen vision as to what the company
needs to provide customers with the best of what is available today, with an eye on future
needs. Its success can be seen in the balance NICE has struck between acquisition and
internal development.
NICE has a long history of company acquisitions that have enabled it to bring products to
market earlier than the competition, and add functionality and value to existing products.
For instance, in 2010 when the industry was just looking at real-time analytics, NICE
acquired eGlue to gain more functionality in this arena. In 2011, when the concept of
Voice of the Customer (VoC) was just gaining a foothold in the contact center market,
NICE acquired Fizzback, adding VoC capabilities to its portfolio. Again, NICE addressed the
need to leverage the emerging area of Big Data when it acquired Causata in 2013. The
company’s latest acquisition, in the Spring of 2016, is probably the biggest as far as
acquiring new technology to further the product stack. In May, NICE acquired one of the
market leaders in the cloud contact center space with inContact, bringing it a complete set
of cloud contact center products.
Another strong suit is that NICE doesn’t just acquire technology to deploy as is, but
weaves it into its existing product lines. For instance, in January 2016, NICE acquired aC2,
a WFM solutions provider to add more capabilities to its WFO offerings. Because of the
strength of the technology, it became the basis for the WFM rewrite that became
EvolveWFM, and core pieces are being integrated across NICE’s other WFM offers.
Finally, NICE is also adept and utilizing the assets from its other business units to enhance
existing solutions and create new ones. For instance, it has one of the most complete set
of fraud detection, risk management and compliance suites on the market in its ACTIMIZE
and SECURITY business units. Utilizing components, such as Real-Time Authentication
(RTA), has enabled NICE to also develop suites of fraud reduction, security and
compliance solutions within customer contact.
Customer Purchase Experience
As one of the earliest suppliers of contact center analytics and management solutions,
customers enjoy the breadth and depth of experience that NICE has accrued across its
organization. The company has also take care to ensure its products incorporate industry
standards, which enhance customization by partners or customers. It also has deep
integrations with a wide array of third-party suppliers, to take care of customer needs.
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From pre-sales to professional services, NICE maintains personnel spread throughout its
global hubs, supplemented by field support and on-site personnel. Each region has its
local focal point, but the governance and infrastructure is global.
Customer Ownership Experience
Customers have come to expect continuous innovation and best of breed offerings from
NICE. They know that NICE remains at the forefront of innovation, developing products to
address unmet needs of customers, and innovating in ways customers have not even
thought of yet.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a good example. RPA consists of virtual agents –
robots that work in the background to complete tasks without human intervention. They
can complete any number of tasks from claims processing to scheduling work orders and
delivery. These robots operate on a virtual server and pull tasks from a work queue.
Robots can work on back office or contact center. Work can be initiated on the
agent/worker desktop and completed by the robot or vice versa. Work can be initiated by
an Intelligent Virtual Assistant, an agent, or initiated by interactive analytics that trigger a
workflow. All robot work can be checked by agents and workers. While they can only do
one task at a time, they can handle an infinite number, prioritized, scheduled, or first in,
first out. Robots are also subject to the same performance metrics as live agents.
The breadth of NICE’s offerings also allow it to combine assets to create some unique and
powerful solutions within customer contact. Voice of the Customer provides an excellent
illustration of this. One of the pioneers in the industry for creating VoC applications, NICE
has taken this vision a step farther than most of the industry in looking at omnichannel
VoC interactions. This provides a complete picture of customer sentiment in that a
customer engaging with a business in person, over the phone and on the web, may
experience very different interactions, and provide very different feedback on each.
However, interactions looked at as a whole, across a multi-instance time period, gives a
much more complete picture of customer engagement.
Closed loop coaching provides another example. Rather than manually determining the
need for coaching, then providing the coaching and hoping the agent does better, NICE
couples coaching with a workflow engine that engages both the agent and supervisor from
start to finish. The supervisor gets an alert, can verify if it’s for a recurring problem that
requires attention, and then schedule coaching. When a coaching session is initiated, both
parties receive information about what is going to happen during the coaching. They are
prompted with further information during the session, mutually agree on action items at
the end, and then the system creates work flow tasks for completion with reminders. This
is backed with a best practices library that provides examples, such as a call to listen to,
for coaching and training. To close the loop, when the agent’s next coaching session
occurs, up pops the items that are still open, and if items aren’t complete, they can focus
on those rather than start on a new issue.
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Brand Equity
In October 2016 NICE celebrated its 40th anniversary with the ringing of the NASDAQ bell.
A well-known global brand, NICE serves 80% of the Fortune 100 companies, and serves
more than 25,000 organizations in the enterprise and security industries in more than 150
countries.
With its contact center heritage squarely in agent performance optimization, NICE has
consistently been in the top five for market share within the segments of quality
monitoring, call recording and analytics for many years. This market leadership position is
being further bolstered by the brand equity that comes along with the acquisition of
inContact. Founded in 1997, inContact is one of the original cloud contact center providers
and a market leader within this space. Together NICE’s brand awareness will only get
stronger.
Conclusion
NICE has rapidly adapted to the changing needs of customers and responded with strong
product solutions across customer contact. Because of its strong overall performance,
innovative product development and well executed acquisition strategy, NICE is
recognized with Frost & Sullivan’s 2017 Product Line Strategy Award.
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Significance of Product Line Strategy
Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon customers purchasing from your
company, and then making the decision to return time and again. A full, comprehensive
product line that addresses numerous customer needs and preferences is therefore a
critical ingredient to any company’s long-term retention efforts. To achieve these dual
goals (customer value and product line strength), an organization must be best-in-class in
three key areas: understanding demand, nurturing the brand, and differentiating from the
competition.
Understanding Product Line Strategy Leadership
As discussed above, driving demand, brand strength, and competitive differentiation all
play a critical role in delivering unique value to customers. This three-fold focus, however,
must ideally be complemented by an equally rigorous focus on building a superior and
comprehensive product line.
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Key Benchmarking Criteria
For the Product Line Strategy Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently
evaluated two key factors—Product Line Strength and Customer Impact—according to the
criteria identified below.
Product Line Strength
Criterion 1: Breadth
Requirement: Product line addresses the full range of customer needs and applications
Criterion 2: Scalability
Requirement: Product line offers products at a variety of price points and functionality
levels
Criterion 3: Technology Leverage
Requirement: Demonstrated commitment to incorporating leading edge technologies into
product offerings, for greater product performance and value
Criterion 4: Features
Requirement: Products offer a comprehensive suite of features to serve customers at
multiple levels of functionality, ease of use and applications
Criterion 5: Supply Chain Reliability
Requirement: There is sufficient control over the supply chain to ensure availability of key
components and thereby the availability of products in the product line
Customer Impact
Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value
Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar
offerings in the market
Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience
Requirement: Customers feel like they are buying the most optimal solution that
addresses both their unique needs and their unique constraints
Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience
Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company’s product or service, and have a
positive experience throughout the life of the product or service
Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience
Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality
Criterion 5: Brand Equity
Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty
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The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best
Practices Awards
Research Methodology
Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research
methodology represents the analytical
rigor of our research process. It offers a
360-degree-view of industry challenges,
trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of
Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.
Too often, companies make important
growth decisions based on a narrow
understanding of their environment,
leading to errors of both omission and
commission. Successful growth strategies
are founded on a thorough understanding
of market, technical, economic, financial,
customer, best practices, and demographic
analyses. The integration of these research
disciplines into the 360-degree research
methodology provides an evaluation
platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at best-
in-class levels.
360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN
THE CHAOS
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Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching,
Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices
Frost & Sullivan Awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate Award candidates and assess
their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are
based on close adherence to this process.
STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT
1 Monitor, target, and screen
Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe
Conduct in-depth industry research
Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies
Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria
2 Perform 360-degree research
Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline
Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners
Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria
Rank all candidates
Matrix positioning all candidates’ performance relative to one another
3
Invite thought leadership in best practices
Perform in-depth examination of all candidates
Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all
candidates Identify any information gaps
Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates
4
Initiate research director review
Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles
Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives
on candidates’ performance Update candidate profiles
Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper
5
Assemble panel of industry experts
Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders
Share findings Strengthen cases for
candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates
Refined list of prioritized award candidates
6
Conduct global industry review
Build consensus on award candidates’ eligibility
Hold global team meeting to review all candidates
Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all
eligible candidates
Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide
7 Perform quality check
Develop official award consideration materials
Perform final performance benchmarking activities
Write nominations Perform quality review
High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes
8
Reconnect with panel of industry experts
Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient
Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner
Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria
9 Communicate recognition
Inform award recipient of award recognition
Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for
continued success Celebrate the recipient’s
performance
Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand
10 Take strategic action
Upon licensing, company may share award news with stakeholders and customers
Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award’s role in future
strategic planning
Widespread awareness of recipient’s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees
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About Frost & Sullivan
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