1. We would appreciate a better understanding of your merger of Melita. What was the rational for taking this step?
There are several reasons for the Concerto/Melita merger, but the first and most important point to make is that the two companies are 100 percent focused on the global contact center market and together provide solutions to more than 1,800 companies around the world. Concerto Software and Melita have tremendous synergies in terms of our expertise, technology and geographic strengths. For example, Concerto Software has a strong presence in Asia-Pacific, while Melita is very strong in Latin America and Europe. With this geographic coverage, we are able to sell, service and seamlessly support customers and distributors in all regions of the world. Our customers will surely benefit from the combined company's expanded skill sets, support infrastructure, intellectual property and distribution channels. In addition, together, Melita and Concerto definitively lead the outbound customer interaction management market. As the new company, we anticipate leveraging that leadership position for continued progress in the high-growth inbound and multichannel markets.
2. How are the FTC rulings and amendments affecting your outbound business? What is the future of this business for Concerto? What market sectors do you believe are still viable for the outbound business?
Our outbound business is extremely solid, with a good portion of our revenue attributed to our predictive dialing solution. The FTC rulings have not had a negative impact on Concerto Software because our dialers - and our expertise - are helping companies comply with the laws. Our customers are relying on us to educate them and provide the technology that, when aligned properly with their business processes, will not only help them to comply with new and emerging regulations, but also create new opportunities.
The market for outbound solutions continues to grow in some parts of the world, namely in Asia-Pacific, where many outsourced teleservices operations are being established. Another key to the growth of our outbound business is that, in addition to telemarketing, companies leverage our dialer for a number of other functions, including collections and proactive customer care. This is where we see a real opportunity for our customers. Since they are limited in their ability to reach out to anyone they do not have an existing business relationship with, organizations need to leverage their outbound efforts to offer top-notch service to customers. For example, banks and other financial services companies can reach out to new account holders to welcome them aboard or tell them of a special offer.
3. What enhancements have been made to the former CELLIT product line?
The former CELLIT product line has evolved to become Concerto Software's flagship solution, EnsemblePro. This award-winning contact center technology is a complete, globalized multichannel solution that brings a powerful set of the best functionality from all of the Concerto Software products together in a single platform. EnsemblePro is unique in that it offers contact centers all of the functionality they need to be fully operational while also offering the flexibility to connect with any existing systems that are in place in order to fully maximize those investments. Sales of EnsemblePro have steadily increased since its launch in December 2002, and we will continue providing companies with EnsemblePro as the solution that unifies and reduces the complexity of their contact centers. Look for another major release of EnsemblePro this year.
4. What markets do you anticipate Concerto Software will focus on in the future?
We will continue to focus on all the markets we currently have a presence in, including addressing the growing contact center market in China, an initiative we began in 2003 with our joint venture, Concerto Software New World. And as I mentioned earlier, we will also focus on emerging markets in Asia-Pacific, Latin American and Southern Europe. The advantage we have here is the complementary geographic presence of Melita and Concerto which enables us to leverage the channels we have in place to grow our business, both with new customers and as it relates to additional revenue opportunities within our installed customer bases.
Vertically speaking, financial services, telecommunications and other utilities companies, service bureaus and retailers are our top targets.
5. Can you please explain your relationship with E.piphany? Doesn't your EnsemblePro product compete with their Telesales solution?
E.piphany and Concerto Software are aligning to market a combined
solution for telesales organizations. When used together, our solutions allow companies to execute effective marketing campaigns within the boundaries of the new federal regulations. Simply stated, the E.piphany solution provides telesales agents with real-time access to the necessary customer, product and promotional information to effectively close sales over the phone. On the other hand, EnsemblePro manages the customer interaction, including routing inbound or outbound calls or e-mails to the most appropriate agent. So, the two solutions don't compete-rather, they complement one another.
6. Is there still a market for a standalone scripting software product? Or, is LYRICall sold as part of your integrated suite?
There is still a market for standalone scripting software, as evidenced
by the players in that market. However, LYRICall, our browser-based agent desktop solution, works with all of our contact center solutions. And since it is based on an open architecture, it allows us to quickly adapt it to work with new products, such as Melita's Conversations. In addition, customers are using it for more than just scripting -- it can bring data from a variety of disparate data sources and present it to the agent in real-time. This removes the need to log into and toggle between multiple back-end systems. We are aggressively developing our desktop technology to include SOAP and web services to continually enhance our ability to integrate with all technology that touches the contact center. We believe this continues to be very important technology and customers love it.
7. How does Concerto differentiate EnsemblePro from the many multichannel offerings in the market?
A. EnsemblePro is the only product of its kind truly designed to have a 'unifying' impact on contact centers. It has been architected and built from the ground up to have all of the necessary contact center functionality work together in a single platform, whereas other solutions are just multiple parts being integrated into a single 'suite'. In addition, EnsemblePro has the ability to both operate on its own as well as to connect to and leverage exiting point solutions, which allows companies to take an evolutionary approach to moving to new technology.
Another critical differentiator is that EnsemblePro is offered by Concerto Software, a stable, profitable, proven provider of customer interaction management solutions to blue-chip and growth companies around the world for more than 20 years. Very few of our competitors can claim the same.
8. Are you finding the economic environment improving? What can we expect from Concerto from a profitability point of view in the near future?
A. Fortunately, Concerto Software has been able to "weather the economic storm" and continuously remain financially strong and competitive in a generally dreary economy. We grew revenue and increased profitability every quarter in 2003 and have taken advantage of the tough economic times to continue to strengthen our position in the market and distance ourselves from the competition. The cautious spending environment and tight budgets have forced the industry to think more strategically and look for ways to increase efficiencies and reduce complexities in the contact center - two things we can really help them achieve. We believe this will carry through as companies maintain their focus on strengthening their positions in the markets that they serve. In 2004, we are optimistic about the economy, we will continue to invest in resources and regions that will extend our reach in the contact center market and make bold strides toward achieving our stated goal of becoming the leading provider of contact center solutions in the market, while maintaining profitable growth.