Contact Center Leader to Showcase New Proactive Outreach Manager Solution Demonstrating Next-Generation Outbound Self Service

NEW YORK, NY – SpeechTEK – At this year’s SpeechTEK event, Avaya a global leader in enterprise communications systems, software and services, spotlights its next-generation self service solutions for contact centers that use speech automation to help businesses enhance customer experiences. SpeechTEK, occurring in New York City, is a global event on innovative speech technologies.

At SpeechTEK, Avaya demonstrates and discusses how real-time speech self service can deliver a more convenient, cost-effective and interactive way to serve customers in an environment where demographics and communications modes are shifting, even as risks are increasing. Avaya is the 2009 leader in the worldwide contact center market (measured by contact center agent end user revenue).

The company will demonstrate its Automated Customer Care Solution, including the recently announced Avaya Proactive Outreach Manager, as well as the newest releases of Avaya Voice Portal and Avaya Self Service Optimizer. The new Avaya Proactive Outreach Manager lets businesses automate the process of reaching out to customers via phone, email, or text, and simplifies management of all self service applications on a single platform. For instance, hotels can use the solution to send room availability alerts via SMS, while manufacturers can use email to provide real-time updates on events like new product launches and shipments. Speech applications can be integrated into Proactive Outreach Manager to blend automation into multimedia campaigns of all kinds, such as using automated outreach during business hours, and shifting to email after hours.

Outbound self-service can drive new revenues and savings, with one customer reporting a 10 percent increase in payments, and $50,000 in annual savings from automated appointment reminders.

New Opportunities to Drive Experience Management with Speech Self Service

Avaya Proactive Outreach and Avaya Voice Portal are key solutions driving the company’s strategic vision for helping businesses succeed through Experience Management. Experience Management uses open communications so businesses can orchestrate people and information, learn customer data, bring full context to sessions, and immerse agents and customers into a collaborative session.

In this way, businesses will have a strong way to use the capabilities of Avaya’s latest self-service solutions. Loquendo, a global technology provider, will offer its Loquendo ASR and TTS for use with Avaya Voice Portal and Avaya Proactive Outreach Manager.

“This Loquendo offer is an excellent way for Avaya customers to preview and experience the benefits of Loquendo Portfolio and capabilities with Avaya’s innovative self service products” said Paolo Coppo, Loquendo VP Marketing and Business Development. “This is part of our vision to make Loquendo technologies available to all, in the most innovative ways.”

Avaya Receives “Strong Positive” Rating in IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals Report by Top Analyst Firm

Also at SpeechTEK, Avaya announced it recently received a “Strong Positive” Rating in Gartner’s recent “MarketScope for Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals” The report evaluated leading vendors’ voice response systems and applications, and rated vendors according to a number of criteria.

A “Strong Positive” rating is the highest possible rating given, and provided to a vendor that is “viewed as a provider of strategic products, services or solutions.” If a business is using or considering a “Strong Positive” vendor, Gartner recommends customers “continue with planned investments,” while potential customers should “consider this vendor a strong choice for strategic investments.” Gartner’s overall market rating for the IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals market was “Positive.”

In order to be included in the MarketScope report, vendors had to have an “established market presence in one or two major regions and mind share for voice response solutions,” among other inclusion criteria.