1. Your Synchrony product appears to be both a hosted and on site solution, however, Cincom appears to be emphasizing their hosted solution. Is this correct? What percentage of your sales are hosted solutions?
We’re emphasizing our hosted offering because we find such strong interest and growth in the on-demand contact center market. Since our on-demand and licensed (on-premise) offerings are the identical product and functionality, each customer chooses the implementation that best fits their immediate needs knowing they can always switch if their future requirements or preferences change.
The breakdown of sales is a bit tricky. Since we offer the “freedom to crossover” this means at any time the customer can switch between on-demand and on-premise. Because of this flexibility, most customers start with On-Demand. It’s easy, low risk and they realize the benefits faster, even if they plan to bring it in-house eventually. Then once they start with on-demand, many customers delay bringing it in house -- sometimes for several years. So we’re seeing 90% or more of our sales at least start as on-demand. Some will eventually bring it in-house but most are telling me they plan to stay with on-demand.
2. Cincom is in a market sector with many other major players, i.e. Cisco, Concerto, CosmoCom, Nortel. How do differentiate your offering from the others?
It’s a combination of our company strengths and our unique product capabilities. Cincom has been in business for almost 40 year with thousands of customers across the globe. We have the experienced people, infrastructure and reputation for providing outstanding customer service and support. That’s why customers choose Cincom.
They choose our product Synchrony because of its inbound multi-channel capabilities combined with a very productive agent desktop. Many of our clients need to access five or more existing business applications because they contain relevant customer information that’s required to respond to the customer. Synchrony’s universal view provides a seamless integration to these systems, eliminating the tedious task of maneuvering in and out of so many different applications.
3. We assume that since there are so many companies in your market sector, gaining market awareness is a major issue. How do you expect to achieve such awareness?
We’re taking a very targeted approach, focusing on customers within certain sectors and geographic regions with specific needs where we know our solution is an ideal fit.
We are leveraging our large global customer base - many of whom have been working with Cincom for decades - as well as our experienced sales organization comprised of direct reps and partners across the world. And we’re recruiting additional partners that have the skills and reach to penetrate these identified market segments. We’ll continue investing in localized marketing activities that increase awareness and support our established distribution channels.
4. Since a company’s financial strength is big issue for many users in today’s marketplace, can you please comment on Cincom’s financial status?
Financial strength should be a critical factor since it determines how well the vendor can support you and move the product forward. Unlike many start ups, Cincom has the financial integrity and sustainability to provide long term support.
Cincom is one of the largest privately held software companies in the world. Among all of the existing software firms only Microsoft reached the $100 Million level before Cincom.
While many in the software industry struggled after the "bubble" burst, the last two years have been our two most profitable years over our nearly 40 year history. In our last fiscal year, profits increased by 28% while revenues increased 25%.
5. Are there any other contact center/CRM solutions from Cincom besides Synchrony that we should be aware of?
Yes, Cincom has a very successful outbound product called Encompass. Large customers, service providers and other partners have been utilizing Encompass around the world -- many for 8 years or more. For example many large outsourcers in India, the GAP region and other markets run their business on Encompass.
Eighteen months ago we acquired Synchrony, an established and comprehensive multi-channel inbound and unified desktop solution. More than $50 million had already been invested in Synchrony and it was highly regarded in the industry. Cincom had spent several months analyzing globally the market and customer’s growth plans to determine our strategy for our solution. We were then on a quest to find the best way to provide a multi-channel, universal view, inbound/outbound solution. Acquiring Synchrony and incorporating specific Encompass functionality was our fastest way to hitting our goal.
6. Can we expect Cincom to expand their applications suite in the near future? If so, what additional offerings can we expect from Cincom in the near future?
As mentioned, many of our customers are asking for a single inbound/outbound solution. Some want to use it in a blended environment, where idle inbound agents are dynamically reassigned to outbound marketing, sales or customer follow-up/satisfaction calls. Or at peak inbound periods they want outbound agents to handle incoming calls. We have other customers that have totally separate inbound and outbound operations, but they’re trying to consolidate the number of vendors and products they utilize.
So we are rapidly incorporating more and more of the Encompass outbound functionality into Synchrony. That includes extremely flexible low-to-high volume dialing capabilities driven by an award-winning campaign management suite.
7. Where do you expect Cincom to be in about a year from now from a market share and product development perspective?
Cincom is taking a very focused approach to the market. We are being selected by our clients a high percentage of the decisions where we’re focused. We’re also constantly encountering many new “green field” contact center opportunities – departments and service industries that don’t fit the classic call center definition, yet they have unique customer experience needs that our solutions address.
It is obviously difficult to predict market share. What we are experiencing is increased activity each quarter. We are engaging with more customers who choose our solutions. They become great references because they’re going live quickly and are realizing the value. So our business is growing and I believe if we keep doing more of the same things we’re doing, our market share will continue to grow.
8. What do you believe is the general business outlook for contact center vendors in the upcoming year?
We are very bullish on the market, especially at the small/medium business and enterprise departmental level. That’s where we see the growth. These companies have always had needs, but they could not afford, nor could they implement and operate the big contact center solutions. Today SMBs have access to very advanced contact center technologies like Synchrony that were not possible just a few years ago. The hosted model makes sense for these customers and it’s great to see the market is now recognizing and embracing its benefits.