Having survived (actually thrived) the IT deep freeze that was 2009, Interactive Intelligence has launched its “Spring Media Tour” with its cloud based CaaS (Communications as a Service) offering as its centerpiece. While major IP-based contact center rivals like Avaya^Nortel, Cisco and several others reported that 2009 was a down year, InIn (a public company) has been able to crow about 8% revenue growth (2009 over 2008), adding that it saw 19% revenue growth in the first quarter of 2010, which was accompanied by a 65% increase in operating income.

Those 2010 figures were spurred in no small part by growth in sales of its “cloud-based” offerings, marketed as CaaS. Product Manager Roe Jones told us that 25% of the dollar volume in new orders was driven by CaaS contracts. He added that from 2008 to 2009 CaaS revenues grew 59%. It is no surprise that InIn could make the transition to cloud-based services so quickly, when compared with its largely premises-based rivals. From its beginnings, InIn’s offerings amounted to the application of a “private IP-based cloud” for its existing clients. Once customers built confidence in IP-based VoIP transport, the transition to distributed (or cloud-based) implementations was just a matter of time.

That said, InIn’s packaging of CaaS, specifically its “Local Control VoIP” approach, represents good product positioning. It is able to capture “pull” in the form of enterprise customer demand for “hosted” or “managed” services that have the potential to eliminate capital expenses, reduce operating expense and staffing needs without sacrificing reliability or business continuity. It is doing so without a radical alteration in its long-standing technological approach, which has been software based and data center driven.

The CaaS approach moves the Data Center (which houses application logic and communicates with premises-based resources over SIP Signaling) into “The Cloud” where it communicates over MPLS-based data or signaling links with enterprise, premises-based resources. Those resources include a Media Server and SIP Proxy, agent workstations and the corporate database (which could be moved to The Cloud if desired). The voice path is entirely premises based, allowing for greater security, as well as the ability to store and analyze voice files for compliance purposes.

InIn is holding the Spring tour to announce three new features (which will be available “late Q2 or early Q3), which differentiate the CaaS offering. The CaaS portal is a Web page which serves administrative functions, like displaying billing summaries and details, as well as enabling the ability to make moves, adds and changes. In the coming months InIn will add call monitoring and access to an archive of voice files to the mix, making it a very robust supervisor portal. More features are coming as the company pursues its cloud-based destiny.

A second, new feature of CaaS is browser-based Work Force Management (WFM). It provides mechanisms for scheduling and managing relatively large contact center staffs. InIn calls the third feature “Agentless Dialing”, but Opus Research has long called the sorts of services offered “intelligent notification”. This software supports automated, outbound messaging for alerts, appointment or payment reminders or other “updates” that comprise customer service strategies. The application also enables called parties to be put in touch with a live agent should that become necessary in the course of a call.

As mentioned above, InIn its roll-out strategy, thus far, can be considered a success. Its timing is great and its product architecture and sales strategy has been largely friction free for prospective implementers. The services are offered on a per user/per month basis with a price that ranges from $65 to $200 depending on volume levels and features that are included. As the new services come on line in the coming months, we would expect revenue growth to accelerate. But growth could be tempered as non-traditional competitors from the cloud-based community – think Voxeo, Salesforce.com, Amazon.com and even Google along with telephony partners – aim their sights (and sites) on the “next generation” customer care services, which are destined to support more social networking and mobile interactions.

Categories: Articles

Tags: customer care, VoIP, self-service