Witness Systems Launches Industry's First End-to-End Workforce Optimi

Witness Systems Launches Industry's First End-to-End Workforce Optimization Solution

    Business Editors

    ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2005--

--	Outlines course for driving increased business value and customer success
--	Pre-packages contact center Quality Monitoring and Workforce Management solutions with Performance Management and Actionable Learning capabilities

    Witness Systems (NASDAQ: WITS), a leading global provider of workforce optimization software and services, unveiled today the contact center industry's first end-to-end solution for optimizing workforce performance. The solution breaks new ground for companies striving to manage their personnel effectively, as well as capitalize on the valuable information captured through customer interactions, by leveraging the pre-packaged software and services from Witness Systems.
    The comprehensive workforce optimization solutions feature four functional areas that will be engineered to work optimally together: quality monitoring/contact center recording, workforce management, performance management and e-learning. While certain capabilities can be deployed independently, Witness Systems has combined functions to create pre-packaged solutions to deliver increased business value and drive customer success. By fusing together actionable learning and performance management with the workforce optimization anchors of quality monitoring and workforce management, Witness Systems is redefining two of the contact center industry's most promising segments and providing customers with an entry point to a complete workforce optimization solution.
    "There is no question that by improving workforce performance and capturing customer intelligence, especially in the contact center, organizations have the greatest opportunity to leverage technology for performance improvement, customer satisfaction and competitive advantage," said Nick Discombe, president and COO of Witness Systems. "Building on our base of industry leadership and experience, Witness Systems and our partners are squarely focused on workforce optimization and are committed to delivering tangible business outcomes for our customers. We are engineering the components customers want and expect from a single provider to work together seamlessly."
    Organizations can leverage the company's technology solutions and services to capture customer intelligence, optimize the customer experience, increase customer satisfaction, improve customer retention, achieve customer loyalty and seize revenue growth opportunities. Witness Systems has outlined several trends that underscore how focusing on optimizing workforce performance will enable companies to take advantage of changing global business conditions, including the move from Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) infrastructures, the shift toward remote agents and virtual contact center models, changes in hiring and training practices, and the move to workforce optimization in the contact center and enterprise.
    Industry experts are concluding that the workforce optimization market is maturing and that customers are demanding more integrated and robust software and services. Now, more than ever, quality monitoring and workforce management are the focal points of successful contact centers, as well as thriving enterprises. As a result, capturing the customer experience and analyzing its effectiveness, as well as managing to excellence through forecasting and scheduling, is critical.
    As companies evolve and mature, whether they are global organizations or small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Witness Systems has the foundation-level and strategic offerings to help them progress through the workforce optimization continuum to extend business value. For example, the company's pre-packaged solutions at the foundation level are comprised of functionality to help reduce risk and optimize agent performance, and are designed to help organizations:

    -- Decrease average handle time

    -- Improve quality scores

    -- Drive down average speed to answer

    -- Manage occupancy

    -- Enhance service levels

    The next level of pre-packaged solutions focuses on further optimizing contact center performance and is designed to:

    -- Boost first call resolution

    -- Increase up-selling and cross-selling

    -- Improve contact center customer satisfaction

    Additional functionality is available for organizations that work to differentiate themselves through customer service and/or strive to create seamless customer service across the enterprise. These functions help companies:

    -- Perform root cause analysis

    -- Grow overall customer satisfaction

    -- Increase customer loyalty

    Regardless of an organization or contact center's size and requirements, Witness Systems has an offering designed to meet its specific needs today, as well as a path for growth as the company advances its customer service objectives.

    Workforce Optimization Integration and Architecture

    Building upon the company's flagship platforms for recording - the industry's first software for monitoring and evaluating customer sales/services representatives' (CSR) telephone interactions with customers, as well as their corresponding computer desktop activities - and workforce management - the industry's first multimedia scheduling and 100 percent adherence management offering - Witness Systems' workforce optimization solution offers robust functionality, including recording in IP Telephony and back office environments.
    The company's combined workforce optimization solution in-process focuses on the deep integration between functions, helping companies realize real business value by:

    -- Creating a pre-defined workforce optimization scorecard that's
    auto-populated with workforce management statistics, quality
    scores and CTI information. Separately, both Witness Systems
    and Blue Pumpkin offered the market's first and most robust
    enterprise reporting scorecard functionality for their
    segments. Together, the company offers the first and only
    pre-defined workforce optimization scorecard available today.

    -- Drilling to recorded interactions during scorecard analysis
    and investigation, allowing users to review customer contacts
    and gain a high-level or detailed view of how customer service
    unfolds and potential areas for improvement.

    -- Driving schedule changes from e-learning requests and allowing
    agents to navigate to training from their workforce
    optimization desktops.

    -- Forming a central agent database, defined as a single source
    of record for moves, adds and changes in the workforce
    optimization solution set.

    -- Leveraging quality evaluation scores for more accurate
    scheduling.

    Witness Systems' solution is evolving to a single graphical user interface (GUI), single agent database, single system administration and single security model. With this structure, customers will benefit from easier installation and implementation, reduced learning curves and training expenses, and lower maintenance and software expenses - all of which translate into lower cost of ownership and a faster return on investment. Couple that with solutions and services that draw on a structured upgrade path and single support organization, and users gain significant advantages from Witness Systems' tightly-woven workforce optimization solution.

    Redefining Quality Monitoring and Workforce Management

    Witness Systems is redefining stand-alone workforce management software by pre-packaging compelling performance analysis and actionable learning capabilities that companies can leverage to:

    -- Identify trends, recognize top performers and quickly focus on
    key areas in need of improvement

    -- Improve agent competence in product knowledge, call handling
    and system navigation

    The company is similarly transforming the quality monitoring market by bundling scorecards and e-learning software so organizations can:

    -- Compare actual performance with goals using pre-defined key
    performance indicators (KPIs) displayed in role-appropriate
    scorecards

    -- Address skill deficiencies with e-learning based on actual
    recorded customer interactions

    As it develops a tightly-woven solution, organizations can call on Witness Systems to fulfill a larger set of their business requirements.
    Recording for compliance recording purposes is another market segment that Witness Systems supports with pre-packaged capabilities. Leading organizations with 100 percent voice recording requirements can now purchase a pre-packaged solution that enables them to record, search and replay calls, as well as graphically visualize their interactions and create business rules to categorize and save important calls to comply with legal or other market requirements.

    Pricing and Availability

    The new pre-packaged workforce optimization solutions are available today. Because contact centers have different needs, Witness Systems offers packaged solutions that provide different levels of functionality at attractive price points that companies would expect from a single, best-in-class provider. Organizations currently evaluating quality monitoring or workforce management applications should contact Witness Systems for more information on how they can extend the value of these products to include pre-packaged actionable learning and performance management.

    About Witness Systems

    Witness Systems (NASDAQ: WITS) is a leading global provider of workforce optimization software and services. The company's solutions - which play a strategic role in the customer interaction centers of Global 2000 and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) worldwide - also are deployed in IP Telephony and back office environments, and throughout the extended enterprise, including branch offices. Witness Systems' software is comprised of quality monitoring, compliance, high-volume and IP Telephony recording solutions, as well as workforce management, actionable learning and performance management applications. The company's solutions enable organizations to optimize their people, processes and technology throughout the enterprise. Witness Systems' customers benefit from an integrated business consulting, implementation and training methodology that supports a rapid deployment, enabling them to drive revenue, reduce operational costs, and achieve greater customer retention and loyalty. For additional information about Witness Systems, visit www.witness.com.
    Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this release that involves Witness Systems' expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. They are identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. These statements are based upon information available to Witness Systems as of the date of this release, and the company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements believed true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Some of the factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from current expectations include fluctuations in customer demand and the timing of orders; the company's ability to manage its growth; the risk of new product introductions and customer acceptance of new products; the rapid technological change which characterizes the company's markets; the risks associated with international sales as the company expands its markets, including the risks associated with foreign currency fluctuations; the ability of the company to complete and integrate successfully any acquisitions or investments it may make; and the ability of the company to compete successfully in the future, as well as other risks identified under the caption "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2004, and any other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
    Witness, eQuality and the Witness logo are United States registered trademarks of Witness Systems, Inc., protected by laws of the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

--30--JAH/at*

CONTACT: Witness Systems Candace Flynn, 770/754-1878 cflynn@witness.com or Schwartz Communications Jen Spark / Payal Cudia, 781/684-0770 jspark@schwartz-pr.com / pcudia@schwartz-pr.com

KEYWORD: GEORGIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE SOURCE: Witness Systems

Copyright Business Wire 2005