Unisys and Interactive Intelligence Sign Global Distribution Agreement for Integrated Call Center Solution - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Feb 7, 2000

Unisys Corporation and Interactive Intelligence, a developer of interaction management software solutions, Wednesday announced a global distribution agreement through which Unisys will market and provide systems integration services for Interactive Intelligence's Windows NT-based "all-in-one" communications software solution known as the Enterprise Interaction Center (EIC).

EIC will be offered as part of the Unisys e-@ction Customer Interaction Solutions (CIS) practice, which provides call center solutions to help companies better manage their customer interaction process through diverse communications media, such as voice mail, e-mail, fax and the Web.

EIC functions as an open, software-based interaction management platform supporting a wide range of call center, enterprise and service provider solutions. EIC is designed to replace proprietary communication devices such as PBXs, Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) systems, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, voice mail systems, fax servers, Web gateways and Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) middleware systems.

EIC's unified architecture eliminates multiple points of interaction required in more traditional environments, significantly reducing reliability risks associated with integration.

"Many of our clients are frustrated with the complexities of developing, integrating, and implementing multichannel customer interaction services," said Darrell Jennings, who heads Unisys Worldwide Communications. "They are seeking a simplified approach that will enable them to provide customer service solutions in a more timely and cost effective manner. In many cases, the design and development time for rolling out traditional customer service solutions--that is, integrating various providers' products for PBX, IVR, CTI and other technologies--outruns the window of opportunity for companies to support new product and service offerings."

Using the EIC architecture, Unisys can help clients reduce complexity and time involved in bringing call center solutions to market, while improving the reliability of clients' communication infrastructures. By implementing an "all-in-one" platform, clients also benefit from reduced development, maintenance and support costs.

Based on Windows NT technology, EIC enhances Unisys capability to provide scalable and reliable solutions to support mid-range to large-scale call centers.

"We chose to partner with Unisys because of the company's outstanding reputation, its leadership position as a Windows NT-based solutions provider, and its global service and support capabilities," said Dr. Donald E. Brown, president and CEO of Interactive Intelligence. "Unisys is unique in its ability to deliver to its clients a complete service offering, from business consulting, systems design and development, to worldwide installation, service and support."

As part of their relationship, Unisys and Interactive Intelligence have worked jointly to qualify the EIC solution on Unisys enterprise servers running the Microsoft Windows NT operating system, including the Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES7000, an Intel-based mainframe featuring Unisys revolutionary Cellular MultiProcessing (CMP) architecture.

The ES7000 family of systems can be configured to support up to 32 processsors and 96 PCI I/O slots in a single system, which will provide the capacities to support some of the largest customer interaction systems or call centers in the world.

With over 350 installed customer sites to date, Interactive Intelligence is a leading developer of interaction management software that allows enterprises, call centers, and service providers to automate virtually every aspect of their business communications.

The company's flagship product, Enterprise Interaction Center (EIC), is an "all-in-one" Windows NT-based communications software solution that replaces proprietary communication devices such as PBXs, ACDs, IVRs, voice mail systems, fax servers, Web gateways, and CTI middleware systems.

Add-on products include Interaction Web (Web chat/collaboration, Web callback, and Voice Over Net calls), Interaction Recorder (voice logging), Interaction Director (SS7 pre-call routing), and Interaction Dialer (predictive dialing). EIC for Service Providers offers support for large-scale subscriber services including unified messaging, one-number "follow me", call screening, conferencing, and international call back.

The company also markets e-FAQ, a standalone e-mail response management solution for organizations of all sizes. Interactive Intelligence is headquartered in Indianapolis with offices in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Denver, Atlanta, Boca Raton, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, San Francisco, Tokyo, Seoul, Aix-en-Provence (France), Surrey (U.K.), Reigate (Australia), and Waspik (Netherlands).

The company can be reached at 1 317.872.3000 or www.ININ.com.

Unisys is an electronic business solutions company whose 36,000 employees help customers in 100 countries apply information technology to seize opportunities and overcome challenges of the Internet economy. Unisys people integrate and deliver the solutions, services, platforms and network infrastructure required by business and government to transform their organizations for success in this new era.