Ventana Research Ranks Contact Center Agent Desktop Software in the 2011 Value Index for Customer Experience Management

PLEASANTON, CA, February 28, 2011 (Press-News.org) Ventana Research today released its 2011 Value Index for Customer Experience Management: Agent Desktop, the latest in a new category of quantified, research-based Indexes on technology vendors and products. This new Value Index provides guidance that will enable organizations to ascertain the value of applications for addressing the needs of contact center agents in their interactions with customers. Using the Value Index, businesses and the customer service, operations, finance and IT organizations within them will be able to evaluate vendors and their products as well as make choices based on an understanding of how well existing and new offerings satisfy their needs.

The Value Indexes are the product of more than two decades of experience and knowledge of the market and of in-depth analyses of technology suppliers' products. The Value Index for Customer Experience Management: Agent Desktop examines agent desktop applications for customer experience management, which is a key activity for supporting customer service processes. Providing the right support for contact center agent desktops is an essential and required component of every customer service organization. The methodology used to produce this Value Index evaluates in detail aspects of product functionality and suitability-to-task as well as the effectiveness of vendor support for the buying process and customer assurance. The Index reflects the value offered by a vendor and its products, presented both as a clear and accessible graphic representation in a simple thermometer and as a precise index percentage.

The technology vendors earning the highest "Hot" and "Warm" Vendor classifications are those that Ventana Research certifies best deliver buyer value based on a thorough evaluation and audit - that is, based on research and verifiable facts. The Value Index is not just a selection of "cool" products, and rather than merely representing a vendor on a four-quadrant chart, the Index provides specific thermometer readings, both overall and component metrics, for a technology buyer to consider. Organizations can use the Value Index by first determining their priorities and then consulting the Index to determine which vendors best meet those needs.

In the 2011 Value Index for Customer Experience Management: Agent Desktop, the company delivering the highest value on an overall weighted-evaluation basis is Upstream Works, while OpenSpan, Cicero, Cincom, salesforce.com and Jacada also earned the Hot Vendor rating. They are followed by Smartpoint, Genesys, Altitude and RiverStar which earned the Warm Vendor rating.

"The need to increase the efficiency of contact center agents. and provide timely and appropriate responses to customer interactions needs to be improved, and many organizations are finding they need a new approach," said Richard Snow, research director and vice president of Ventana Research. "This Agent Desktop assessment of vendors and products as part of the Customer Experience Management Value Index will help customer service and contact center evaluate more clearly how they need to improve handling of customer interactions. Ventana Research believes that an investment in contact center agent desktops, wisely done, is a strategic step toward improving customer experience, and our benchmark research confirms this evaluation.

"I would like to thank all the customers and vendors for the support of the research to enable a deep level of scrutiny, enabling us to provide assessment of this critical market segment," Snow added. "The lack of vendor and product reviews offered in the market by IT analysts has misled the business and IT buyers on the importance of this category. This isn't surprising, as most analysts only advise and research IT organizations, not customer service and contact centers and have been influencing vendors to take a focus on the past and prevent smart investments in the future."

This new research-based undertaking is fully independent. It is neither sponsored nor influenced by technology vendors and is conducted solely in pursuit of Ventana Research's mission to provide value to business and IT through benchmark assessments, workshops and advisory services. Ventana Research's goal is to guide organizations to optimal efficiency in their use of technology investments for business and IT. To learn more about the Value Index for total Customer Experience Management: Agent Desktop, please visit http://www.ventanaresearch.com/cemvalueindex.

About Ventana Research
Ventana Research is the leading benchmark research and advisory services firm. We provide expert guidance to help organizations manage and optimize performance - to become not only more efficient but more effective. Our unparalleled insights and best practices guidance are based on our rigorous research-based benchmarking indexes of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions worldwide. The combination we offer of benchmark research, rigorous market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver business and technology education and expertise to our clients where and when needed. The Ventana Research Indexes - the Value Index and the Benchmark Index family - have redefined the research industry by providing accessible, easy-to-use research-based business and technology guidance to businesses.

Ventana Research provides the most comprehensive analyst and research coverage in the industry; the many business and IT professionals worldwide who are members of our community benefit from Ventana Research's insights, as do highly regarded media and association partners around the globe. Our views and analyses are distributed daily through blogs and social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Business Week's Business Exchange. Ventana Research was ranked the #1 analyst firm you can trust in enterprise software for 2009 for its relevance to the industry. We focus on business and technology trends and best practices that maximize organizations' potential to perform while reducing the time, cost and risk and still achieve optimal outcomes.

Media: Copies of the Value Index for Total Compensation Management are available upon request.

Media Contact: Marisela Reynoso (925) 474-0060 marketing@ventanaresearch.com

Website: http://www.ventanaresearch.com