1. What applications can we expect Autonomy etalk to emphasis in the upcoming 12 months?
Autonomy continues to emphasize speech analytics as a critical contact center and business solution. Speech analytics is still in the early stages of adoption but interest is high and the number of implementations is growing steadily. With the industry’s only conceptual analysis technology and innovative products like Explore, a multi-channel interaction analysis solution and Assist, a real-time agent assistance tool, we are confident we can help enterprises worldwide reap the benefits of analytics, no matter the business need.
We are also emphasizing the value of a complete Workforce Optimization suite that combines workflow, performance, quality monitoring, and analytics in a single solution. Maximizing sales and enhancing customer satisfaction are no doubt the primary concerns for the majority of corporations, but many of them lack the technological strategy needed to drive customer loyalty and revenue.
We are shifting our focus back to these underlying needs and reminding our potential customers that having all of these tools in a single solution greatly reduces the complexities of performance and operational management.
2. As a long time major player in the quality assurance/monitoring sector, what new trends are you encountering in this sector? What are users most interested in?
Not necessarily a new trend, rich customer insight is always a high priority for contact centers, who continue to evaluate and implement technologies like customer surveys and speech analytics that provide an automatic pulse on customer behaviors and perceptions for quality assurance, training, and business analysis.
What we have also been seeing more of in the past few months is the use of quality monitoring data to drive process improvements. Companies are looking for new ways to collect, analyze, and distribute this information throughout the enterprise, and as a result, are developing quality monitoring programs in conjunction with organizational strategies rather than as a necessity of the contact center. With this movement, there is a growing interest in quality monitoring suites that can span multiple departments and functions, including performance management, speech analytics, and even compliance and litigation support. Quality monitoring technologies are being evaluated less on their value as contact center solutions and more on their potential to deliver actionable information to the entire organization.
3. How does Autonomy etalk help companies with compliance, governance and liability requirements?
Autonomy delivers robust and reliable voice compliance solutions, including 100 percent recording technology, with integrated reporting, audits, and archiving functionality for industry retention purposes. Our technology additionally supports recording and real-time analysis on the trading floor to streamline compliance efforts across financial institutions.
In addition to innovative voice compliance capabilities, our solution integrates directly with email and chat applications so that business managers can search, monitor, and analyze all enterprise communications in a single solution. Our intelligent multi-channel analytics capabilities enable companies to search for specific recordings, whether they be voice, email, or chat, and deliver them automatically to meet compliance and litigation requirements. This solution further mitigates risk and fraud by automatically identifying breeches and suspicious activity and alerting business managers for swift resolution.
4. Several of the QA vendors, including Autonomy etalk, have expanded their applications suites to include such applications as data and speech analytics, and performance management. How are you differentiating your Qfiniti product line from your competitors?
Like many of our competitors, our Qfiniti product line delivers quality monitoring, performance management and analytics in a unified solution. However, what sets our technology apart from our competitors is the fundamental difference in our analytics functionality. Where other vendors are promoting their phonetic searching or word spotting technologies, Autonomy is the only vendor that offers a conceptual approach to speech analytics. What this means is that our technology has the unique ability to understand the meaning of spoken information based on its context within the conversation. Because other technologies rely solely on sound to search audio, they often miss relevant information or return false positives. Autonomy’s meaning based computing combines audio search with a conceptual understanding to deliver only the most relevant information to the end-user, automatically and in real-time.
5. Several years ago etalk was acquired by Autonomy. Please comment on the synergistic benefits as well as challenges of this relationship.
The Autonomy acquisition was completed in June 2005 and the company is now fully integrated. As the market leader in enterprise search and information access, Autonomy provides global exposure, vast resources, and a high level of brand awareness for its customer interaction solutions.
6. As a major player in the international market, please comment on your penetration in this arena. What markets are most active? What are some of the major differences that differentiate these markets from the North American market?
The Latin American Market has always been an active region for us and continues to grow. We have also experienced successful market penetration in Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and a number of Asian countries. Some of these markets have matured faster than others, and each has different drivers for its adoption of certain products. However, a global economy has created a more even sales field for our technology, and because our product supports over 20 languages, we are able to offer a localized solution suite to any region in the world.
7. Has the decision making process for contact center technology changed significantly over the past few years? If so, how?
Decision making for contact center technology has changed as more companies now look beyond recording and quality monitoring during this process. Enterprises want advanced, single-suite technologies that include speech analytics, custom dashboards, and customer experience tools that can not only compliment their monitoring solutions but provide a whole new level of value to the organization.
8. Has Autonomy etalk experienced any effects of the downturn in the economy? If so, what adjustments are you making in your marketing efforts to cope with these economic conditions?
Despite a slowing economy, Autonomy has not seen any effects based on its first half earnings. In the first half of 2008 Autonomy achieved record six months revenues, which were up 66 percent from 2007. Autonomy offers an extremely diversified and stable portfolio of products that are constantly in demand, as today’s business environment remains as fast-paced and competitive as ever.