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Vertical Networks Tackles Customer Calling Experience With New Reporting Solution

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 06:00 CST

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 11, 2003--Vertical Networks(R), the leading developer of distributed communications solutions, today announced a new product designed to put store communications reporting on a par with sophisticated reporting technology in other sales channels. The new reporting solution, called MultiSite Reporter, gives business executives insight into how local stores or branch offices across their network respond to their calling customers.

"We believe the telephone in stores and branch offices is an important customer touchpoint, especially in the retail and retail banking industries where phone calls across a network of stores or branches often exceeds the number of calls going into call centers. But, until now, it hasn't received the same amount of attention and investment as other sales channels," said Scott Pickett, CTO of Vertical Networks. "That's because there hasn't been a cost-effective way to gather data on customers using this channel and improve their customer experience."

Vertical Networks MultiSite Reporter, based on J2EE Web services, consolidates reports across a network of Vertical Networks systems to provide a complete view of the customer calling experience - across the enterprise, in particular regions, or even in individual stores or branch offices.

MultiSite Reporter offers:

-- Data to analyze caller behavior

-- Exception reporting across all stores

-- Visibility into employee productivity

-- Statistics on facilities use

-- Near real-time assessment of marketing campaigns

-- Automatic report generation and distribution

A Business Intelligence Piece Left Out of the Mix Today

In the trend toward multichannel retailing, retailers have added call centers, catalogs, Web sites and kiosks to their list of sales channels. They've invested in customer relationship management, customer databases and inventory management systems, many of which are based on J2EE Web services. But while retailers have allocated significant funding to measure every other aspect of their operation - sales per square foot, sales per employee and sales via the Web - they have thus far neglected a very important touchpoint: the telephone in the store. As a result, they are unable to measure key factors, such as telephone disconnects, that lead to poor service and customer dissatisfaction.

Today, most businesses, including retailers, do not have a reliable way to track and understand who is calling and why. They can't tell whether callers were first timers or loyal, long time customers, which department they were trying to reach or how long they were placed on hold.

Vertical Networks MultiSite Reporter provides the answers business executives need in order to make better strategic and operational decisions:

-- What calling patterns customers have

-- What time of day most calls come in

-- How many callers get placed on hold, for how long and at which

locations

-- Whether some offices or stores receive more calls

-- How their retail stores or branch offices compare across their

entire enterprise

-- How marketing campaigns are performing

-- How well customers are adapting to new technology

Why Don't Companies Know What Happens to Their Customers Who Call Them?

Not having this kind of actionable business intelligence has hurt retailers' performance. But until now, there has been no cost-effective model for gaining visibility into store or branch office communications activity. Centralized models have been too expensive and complex; distributed models have lacked centralized management and control.

Vertical Networks MultiSite Reporter, combined with Vertical Networks communications platform, can help businesses meet their goals by

-- increasing sales through better understanding of customer

calling patterns;

-- improving customer service through customized call flows and

efficient call handling; and

-- reducing costs and improving margins through a cost-effective

communication platform with centralized management.

The reports offer, among other data, the ability to determine the quality of store or branch call handling, employee performance and whether some calls should be transferred out of a particular location. This new reporting product lets them see how long calls are on hold, how quickly calls are answered and how communications traffic flows across specific departments - from store, regional and enterprise perspectives.

Vertical Networks' enabling infrastructure also allows for centralized management and control. It is now possible to collect reporting data from an entire store network and proactively manage this network from a single location. In addition, updates, upgrades and other changes can be made remotely and at prescheduled times.

Vertical Networks MultiSite Reporter promises to revolutionize the way customer calling data are collected and used, leading to increased customer satisfaction and sales.

"Surprisingly," said Pickett, "Many executives don't know that the kind of business intelligence offered via the Vertical Networks products is available. With the ability to see it, sort it and react to it, executives could have a positive impact on sales and productivity - and, of course, the bottom line."

Pricing and Availability

Vertical Networks MultiSite Reporter is available now on a limited basis. Pricing begins at $500 per site.

Vertical Networks Communications Platform

The Vertical Networks communications platform provides: an applications platform for customized call routing, automated call handling and other vertical and custom applications; a next-generation phone system that supports IP, digital and wireless phones, speech recognition, IVR and fax; and management capabilities to centrally manage a network of communications platforms.

About Vertical Networks, Inc.

Vertical Networks is the leading provider of distributed communications solutions for stores and branch offices. These solutions help enterprises streamline their communications while improving customer service, lowering costs and improving operational efficiency in their remote locations. The company holds more than 32 patents and has shipped more than 6,500 systems since October 1998.

For more information about Vertical Networks, please visit www.vertical.com.

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