Sony Music Australia Deploys Interaction Management Solution by Interactive Intelligence

Business Wire, Dec 13, 2000

Business Editors, High Tech & Entertainment Writers

INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 2000

Sony Music uses interaction management solution to improve

customer service and increase productivity

Sony Music Australia deployed a new interaction management solution by Interactive Intelligence Inc. (Nasdaq:ININ) to more efficiently process national sales and customer service inquiries from major music retail clients such as Sanity and HMV.

Call Time Solutions installed the open, software-based solution, called Customer Interaction Center (CIC), in August at Sony Music's new contact center facility in Sydney. Integration to Onyx, Sony Music's CRM package, was completed in October.

Sony Music's 25 contact center agents use CIC to process all communications, including phone calls, faxes and e-mail. CIC is a unified, versus an integrated solution that comes equipped with full digital PBX capabilities, Interactive Voice Response system (IVR), skills-based routing, soft phone, screen pop, Internet text chat and more.

According to Sony Music, CIC has improved customer service by allowing agents to directly route incoming calls from a particular client to the appropriate sales representative. The company also says that agent productivity has improved through the use of a graphical desktop console, which allows supervisors or agents to monitor queue volumes, abandon rates and other call statistics.

"We wanted a communications solution that offered us a sophisticated feature set and would integrate with our CRM system from Onyx," said Gavin Parry, Director of IT for Sony Music Australia. "When we began our search it appeared that we would have to integrate many different devices to get our CRM and telephony systems working together. With CIC, we use a single server to handle all of our telephony needs and the whole system easily incorporates our CRM package. CIC's already showing us a return on investment and our customer service levels have never been better."

"Sony Music and Call Time have done an excellent job of showing how CIC can be installed and customized quickly and cost-effectively to meet the needs of one of the most demanding and successful entertainment and digital consumer goods companies in the world," said Douglas Shinsato, vice president, Asia Pacific Operations for Interactive Intelligence. "Perhaps best of all, CIC will enhance Sony Music's investment in customer service technology through its unique architecture, which integrates with virtually any database, Web server, e-mail system or switching platform."

Sony Music plans to extend its customer service options next year by adding a business-to-business Web site. Clients will then be able to access account information and place orders via the Internet.

ABOUT INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE INC.

With a worldwide customer base of more than 600 companies, Interactive Intelligence, Inc. (Nasdaq:ININ) is considered a leading developer of multi-channel customer interaction management software that automates virtually every aspect of business communications. The company develops and markets the Customer Interaction Center (CIC) for contact centers, the Enterprise Interaction Center(R) (EIC) for e-businesses and enterprises, and the Service Interaction Center(TM) (SIC) for ISPs, ASPs, CLECs, and other service providers. The Interactive Intelligence product line is based on an open, unified Windows NT/2000-based communications platform called the Interaction Center Platform(TM). This platform was designed as an alternative to expensive and complex CTI solutions. The Interactive Intelligence product line is subject to numerous United States and international patents pending. Interactive Intelligence is headquartered in Indianapolis with European headquarters in France and Asia Pacific headquarters in Japan. The company was founded in 1994 and has received numerous accolades, including Microsoft's 1998 Fastest Growing Independent Software Vendor's (ISV's) Award and Red Herring's Top 100 Technology IPOs of 1999. Interactive Intelligence can be reached at 81.3.5469.1100 or 1 317.872.3000 or www.ININ.com.

This release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: rapid technological changes in the industry, volatility in the market price of the company's common stock; the company's ability to achieve profitability, to manage successfully its growth and increasingly complex third party relationships, to maintain successful relationships with its current and any new resellers, to maintain and improve its current products and to develop new products and to protect its proprietary rights adequately; and other factors described in the company's SEC filings, including the company's latest annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.

Copyright (c)1994 -2000 Interactive Intelligence Incorporated. All rights reserved. Interactive Intelligence(R), Enterprise Interaction Center(R), EIC(TM), Interaction Center(TM), Interaction Center Platform(TM), Service Interaction Center(TM), SIC(TM), Interaction Recorder(TM), Interaction Dialer(TM), Interaction Director(TM), e-FAQ(TM), Wireless Interaction Client(TM), and Wireless Interaction Center(TM) are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Interactive Intelligence, Inc. All other products and company names should be considered servicemarks or trademarks of their respective companies.