Astute Solutions' RealDialog™ Selected as 2008 Trend-Setting Product of the Year by KMWorld

Business Wire, Sept 3, 2008

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Leading the charge to help consumer-focused companies differentiate through service excellence, Astute Solutions (www.astutesolutions.com) today announced that its RealDialog[TM] knowledge management solution was selected by KMWorld Magazine for its 6th annual "Trend-Setting Products of the Year" list. Products listed in the prestigious report were chosen by the publication's editorial staff through a rigorous evaluation process.

"This year's edition has been compiled through briefings with vendors themselves, along with conversations with analysts, users and system integrators," says Hugh McKellar, KMWorld editor-in-chief. "Our mission selecting this year's products has been deceptively simple: select those that deliver robust customer value."

RealDialog is a conversational knowledge management and self-service solution that delivers a clear and specific answer to a user question asked via a company's Web site, intranet portal, contact center, email, chat, or other channel. Unlike FAQ and search-based solutions, RealDialog does not return a long list of (often irrelevant) search results based on keyword pattern matching. Rather, using Natural Language Understanding and advanced linguistics techniques, it delivers a precise response (text response, document at the paragraph level, and/or multimedia file) by comprehending a user's input and questions in their natural language.

On the occasions when a user's input isn't sufficient for enabling a precise response, or when there is an opportunity to respond with personalized details, RealDialog engages the user in a human-like "conversation." It "drills down" with clarifying questions and delivers answers within the context of the conversation and specific situation. Moreover, it can personalize responses by retrieving and incorporating user- and product-specific information from CRM systems, customer databases, order and warranty systems, and more.

RealDialog can analyze and categorize all users' questions, "learn" to improve response accuracy, cluster and identify open gaps in the knowledge base, and provide the organization with valuable "voice of the customer" insight into trends and areas of opportunity. In addition, through a powerful set of authoring and workflow tools, non-technical business users and subject matter experts are able to easily update the knowledge base for continuous improvement, greater efficiency and cost savings. All of these capabilities lead to an unprecedented level of accuracy in a self-service solution. Companies using RealDialog report accuracy rates exceeding 95 percent.

The RealDialog solution can be deployed for a variety of uses, including:

* Providing high quality Web self-service experiences 24/7 via a "conversational agent"

* Delivering precise answers and real-time guidance to help contact agents resolve issues faster, while enhancing the customer experience

* Significantly reducing the volume of inbound email and phone calls for routine responses to increase customer satisfaction and reduce interaction costs

* Simplifying knowledge management for employees and partners by providing instant access to a wide variety of systems and documents across the enterprise

* Improving the speed and quality of email and chat responses

* And providing detailed "voice of the customer" insights that drive continuous improvement and innovation across the enterprise.

RealDialog is highly scalable and capable of handling thousands of simultaneous conversations, enabling even the largest organizations to effectively handle major surges in contact volume. In addition to the areas outlined above, the solution has applications in many functions, organizations and industries, including:

* Increasing the conversion of Web site visitors

* Facilitating e-commerce transactions, and cross-sell/up-sell activities

* Controlling messaging and strengthening brand identity through high-quality responses

* And improving the speed and accuracy of technical support, dealer and franchise support, and human resources support.

"Companies are facing increasing complexities with managing and accessing information across the enterprise, which has a significant impact on employee productivity and customer satisfaction. Our focus has been on simplifying integration and information related challenges to deliver a better overall customer experience. KMWorld's recognition reinforces the value of these efforts," said Astute Solutions President, Joseph Sanda.

This announcement marks Astute Solutions' second honor from KMWorld in 2008. Earlier this year, the company was named to the publication's list of "100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management." The "Trend-Setting Products of the Year" report appears in the September issue of KMWorld Magazine (www.kmworld.com).

About Astute Solutions

Through award-winning customer interaction and relationship management solutions, Astute Solutions enables companies to differentiate through service excellence. Its user-friendly ePowerCenter(TM) and RealDialog(TM) solutions provide the robust capabilities companies need to deliver efficient, high-touch, and high-quality service; while ensuring consistent and accurate responses across all communication channels. Moreover, Astute's solutions capture actionable "voice of the customer" insights that lead to improved products, services and operations. By partnering with Astute Solutions, leading companies across a variety of industries achieve exceptional ROI by reducing overall interaction and operational costs, improving agent performance, retaining more customers, delivering market-leading products and services, and increasing revenue. For more information, visit http://www.astutesolutions.com/realdialog