Frost & Sullivan Honours Interactive Intelligence with its EMEA Contact Centre Company of the Year Award

LONDON, Sept. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent contact centre systems market research, Frost & Sullivan presents Interactive Intelligence with the 2013 EMEA Frost & Sullivan Award for Contact Centre Company of the Year.

Amidst challenging market conditions, Interactive Intelligence increased its market share in all segments of contact centre systems, including hosted automatic call distribution and agent performance optimization. It especially stood out for uptake of its intelligent call routing, one of the hardest hit segments of the contact centre systems market.

Interactive Intelligence EMEA revenues in 2012 increased by 12 percent to $47.7 million, with market share improving for its on-premises software suite, Customer Interaction Center^™ (CIC), and boosted by the European launch of its cloud-based Communications as a Service℠ (CaaS) offering. It is one of the very few companies that can offer cloud and premises-based deployments at competitive price points, while enabling customers to move back and forth between the two.

Interactive Intelligence's foray into the cloud has been successful largely because companies in the region needed to overhaul their complex, multi-site contact centre system environments. The company aims to achieve a deployment mix wherein its cloud offering will comprise 50 percent or more of total orders.

Interactive Intelligence has strategically leveraged its direct sales force. Simultaneously, the company's indirect sales from its partner network of more than 350 value-added resellers worldwide has registered robust growth.

Interactive Intelligence has grown its EMEA sales and operations through strategic acquisitions and aggressive recruitment. Some of its main acquisitions include Agori, a distribution company based in Germany; ATIO, a distribution company based in South Africa; and Brightware, a value-added reseller business based in the Netherlands.

"Interactive Intelligence's software-based, all-in-one model was purpose-built from the ground up, which has enabled the company to quickly and cost-effectively add functionality without undue complexity," said Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Suvradeep Bhattacharjee. "Its CIC version 4.0 release was a huge boost for the company, as it significantly enhanced ease-of-deployment and scalability."

In addition to internally developing functionality for all six contact centre segments, CIC includes SIP-based IP PBX switching, unified communications capabilities, and a business process automation application. All of these have enabled customers to derive value across the enterprise through the integration of contact centre and broader enterprise applications.

Customers have the option of using the cloud-based CaaS offering for overflow of their premises-based CIC system, or they can start in the cloud and later migrate to a premises deployment. Importantly, CaaS is configurable for a range of deployment models. For example, customers can configure the system to keep all voice traffic, recordings, and sensitive customer data within the customer's network. Only the CIC software is installed in the cloud data centre. This particular model has found favour among large, mission-critical contact centres and those that have stringent security, regulatory, and compliance requirements.

"The company has continued to add innovative features to its core system in emerging areas within the contact centre, such as social media and proactive customer contact," Bhattacharjee said. "By working closely with customers to understand the best practices that should be applied to these newer capabilities, Interactive Intelligence has helped companies position their contact centres as a vital part of the their overall enterprise, rather than a mere cost centre."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in the areas of growth strategy and implementation. The award recognises a high degree of innovation with products and technologies, and the resulting customer value and market penetration leadership.

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Interactive Intelligence

Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ) is a global provider of contact centre, unified communications, and business process automation software and services designed to improve the customer experience. The company was founded in 1994 and has more than 5,000 customers worldwide. Interactive Intelligence can be reached at +1 317.872.3000 or info@inin.com; on the Net: www.inin.com.

Melissa Cowdry
Marketing Manager
Interactive Intelligence
01 753 41 8821
Melissa.cowdry@inin.com

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan