Envision Launches A Powerful Suite Of Management Tools For Contact Centers

Envision Telephony, Inc. a leading provider of contact center software solutions, today announced that it has introduced Envision Performance Suite, a powerful set of workforce optimization applications that optimize customer contacts, agent effectiveness and contact center resources.

The fully-integrated suite of products includes: Envision Workforce Management -- to forecast, schedule and manage agent workforce resources; Envision Quality Monitoring (formerly, Click2Coach Supervisor) -- to monitor, evaluate and coach agents at their desks; and Envision eLearning (formerly Click2Coach Trainer) -- to create, manage and deliver eLearning to agent desktops.

"Agent performance optimization technologies have continued to gain momentum despite the current economic downturn," said Katrina Howell, Program Leader Contact Center Research at Frost & Sullivan. "These solutions, unlike others with lofty promises such as CRM, offer clear, measurable benefits that can be realized in a short time frame. An integrated suite of agent performance technologies simplifies the current challenges and costs associated with any attempt to integrate standalone solutions. Compared to the extensive integration and administrative costs and the in-house or expensive external technical expertise needed to develop custom integrations, an integrated suite offers an immediate savings plus a long-term holistic solution for managing the agent workforce."

The new Envision Performance Suite is the natural evolution of the company's strategy for delivering the industry's best agent technologies. The evolution began in 2000, when Envision integrated Quality Monitoring with eLearning to introduce the industry's first integrated coaching solution, Click2Coach. Now, Envision has expanded agent-coaching tools to create the industry's first truly integrated workforce optimization product suite.

"There's a distinct relationship between quality monitoring, workforce management and training in the contact center. These management disciplines address the key issues surrounding the agent workforce," said Rodney Kuhn, Envision CEO. "Quite simply the issues are: How many agents do I need? How are my agents doing? How can I make my agents better? By tightly integrating the products in the Envision Performance Suite, we're introducing a better way to manage the agent workforce with powerful interoperability that actually brings functions and people together."

The applications that deal with these issues need to be tightly integrated in order to achieve maximum results in the contact center. Now with the Envision Performance Suite of products, contact centers can understand how their agents are doing (quality monitoring), address skill gaps with the proper training (eLearning), and accurately schedule the right number of agents with the proper skills. With this powerful set of tools, contact centers can decrease average handle time, improve screen navigation, elevate skill levels across the enterprise and raise levels of service with fewer agents to meet customer needs.

Features and Functionality
Though fully integrated to work seamlessly together, each Envision product is also a standalone solution for those companies with specific needs.

Envision Quality Monitoring allows supervisors to provide advanced feedback with multi-channel recording, online evaluations and desktop delivery. The monitoring interface is intuitive and easy-to-use, enabling supervisors to set schedules based on skill level, customer ID, or business rules. When combined with other Envision applications, Envision Quality Monitoring becomes a powerful solution for individual coaching at the agent's desktop.

Envision eLearning provides powerful desktop training with a proprietary Learning Management System (LMS) that includes an easy-to-use authoring tool for the creation of training videos on virtually any topic that can be viewed on screen. Envision eLearning integrates with other types of training, in-house CBT and third-party training applications that can be delivered to the agent desktop at the appropriate time.

Envision(TM) Workforce Management is an easy-to-use solution that helps managers forecast, schedule and manage their agent workforce to provide the ideal level of service to their customers. The agent-focused solution delivers agent schedules to the agent desktop and schedules coaching sessions for ongoing training and feedback. Other features include multi-skill blending, "what-if" analysis and state-of-the art algorithms that allow for the correct balance between agent preferences and business needs.

The Envision Performance Suite will be available on September 1, 2003.

About Envision
Envision Telephony, Inc. is a leading provider of contact center software solutions that empower businesses to maximize every contact with their customers. Since its founding in 1994, Envision has focused on improving the effectiveness and performance of contact center agents to create measurable value for the enterprise. The company's scalable products are used by some of the world's most customer-focused companies in a variety of industries, including financial, utilities, telecommunications, software and insurance. Envision introduced the first agent desktop interface for direct delivery of information, training and coaching in 1998. Industry analysts have since recognized the company's leadership for its overall impact on improving the quality of customer interactions.

Envision has offices in Seattle, Atlanta, Toronto and Amsterdam. For more information on contact center solutions, companies can call 206.621.9384, ext. 500, or visit the Web site at www.envisioninc.com.