Speech Analytics Continues Transition from Early Stage to Mission-Critical Technology

Worldwide Customer Interest in Verint Witness Actionable Solutions’ Speech Analytics Software Accelerates as Organizations Prioritize Cost Reduction
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Verint® Systems Inc. today announced increased interest in its analytics software solutions, in particular its patent-protected speech analytics. As worldwide organizations continue to make cost reduction a top priority, the company and its next-generation Impact 360® workforce optimization solutions are well positioned to help customers balance the need for uncovering new revenue opportunities and optimizing the customer experience. Offered through Verint® Witness Actionable Solutions®, the speech analytics software identifies and surfaces trends in customer behavior, in addition to driving effective organizational change needed to address fluctuating market conditions.

Verint’s Impact 360 Speech Analytics combines structured and unstructured data collected from recorded interactions. This enables organizations to better understand customer behavior by automatically categorizing and analyzing customer interaction content to reveal call drivers. Additionally, it identifies the root causes of customer perceptions and business outcomes, competitive threats and market opportunities, and trends that might not otherwise be detected without listening to thousands of call recordings.

With patent-pending audio indexing and categorization technology, Verint’s Impact 360 Speech Analytics can search and surface a nearly unlimited number of terms and even hone in on emotional calls. Impact 360 Speech Analytics processes, retains and mines the entire call content—not just predefined keywords/phrases—and with its data mining engine, analyzes and exposes key circumstances that positively and negatively impact business performance, such as canceled orders and account closures. By mining data sources and presenting results in a way that immediately prioritizes areas with the greatest impact, organizations can quickly take action to optimize the customer experience and maximize company performance.

Through functionality that shows what drives costs and customer satisfaction, and why it is happening, global companies can make more informed decisions.

Industry analysts emphasize the potential impact of speech analytics in respect to operational improvements, cost containment and customer retention, particularly in today’s economy. Several recent research studies point to how the technology is influencing and driving the customer experience. According to DMG Consulting’s 2008-2009 Quality Management/Liability Recording Product and Market Report, which was released in January 2009, “speech analytics is expected to sell in the current challenged economy because it can help contact center managers achieve their four primary goals.” The firm further identifies these goals as “1) improving productivity and reducing operating expenses, 2) retaining customers, 3) generating incremental revenue, and 4) providing an outstanding customer experience.”

Forrester Research highlights the opportunities afforded by speech applications in customer service environments. Its Innovative Speech Apps Deliver Value report published June 5, 2008 shares how “today’s customer experience professionals are evaluating innovative speech applications to create higher value activities such as identifying and extending offers to potential buyers, providing personalized services by identifying callers, and supporting callers proactively by extending information to them based on their profile and current activities.”

Even further, in its February 2008 Speech Analytics in Contact Centers research study, Frost & Sullivan imparts that “…by aggregating the call center’s information along with data from other sources, you get a much more nuanced picture of the root causes of customer issues. You can then take action to correct (or anticipate) problems that’s quicker and more effective…According to this model, speech analytics is necessary for its power to predict customer behavior like churn through call mining or emotion detection, and for its ability to provide near-instant feedback on marketing initiatives.”

This is exactly what several Impact 360 Speech Analytics users have achieved. The following highlights how one organization influenced process and product direction, another established a customer recovery program to improve attrition, and the third reduced contact center costs dramatically.
In a market focused on cost reduction, a Verint Witness Actionable Solutions telecommunications service provider customer leveraged Impact 360 Speech Analytics to discover and take action on vital consumer feedback. By understanding why customers were calling and identifying the drivers behind repeat calls, the company leveraged the information acquired through speech analytics to influence processes, product direction, price and company strategy, as well as compliance initiatives. In addition, it shared key findings with departments outside of the contact center, such as marketing and executive management, on a regular basis. The end result included a reduction in average handle time, transfers and repeat calls, allowing the organization to focus on what it does best—sell services that make everyday communications easier.
Another global and well-known business solutions customer recognized a growing trend in program cancellations and turned to Impact 360 Speech Analytics to gain first-hand intelligence about the drivers resulting in lost business. The organization married the customer feedback data gathered through its contact center to proactively identify risks and share the information with other departments affected by the cancellations. These specific groups were then able to implement a customer recovery plan, addressing and countering the drivers impacting customer attrition, and in turn shape its business mode to heighten customer retention rates and create more customer-centric offerings. The intelligence gained through the speech analytics solution has continued to provide color and more detailed insights into what customers want in respect to contracts/agreements, products/services and more.
Doing more with less is a common theme in today’s business world. After implementing Impact 360 Speech Analytics, a third customer—a provider of insurance and financial services products—automatically identified first call resolution deterrents. By leveraging Impact 360’s speech analytics-driven scorecards, context-based suggestions and guided search capabilities, the organization experienced a 300 percent increase in supervisor productivity—which equated to an estimated savings of $226,000 a year. Other results included improved agent accuracy from 71 percent to 87 percent, a reduction in status calls by five percent and an increase in effectiveness of self service.

“Impact 360 Speech Analytics goes above and beyond the immediate customer touch points, taking data from the contact center and sharing it with other departments,” says Nancy Treaster, senior vice president and general manager, Verint Witness Actionable Solutions. “The software demonstrates an adaptable and straightforward approach to helping organizations reveal opportunities to fix the root cause of problems by analyzing the audio from recorded customer calls, which can help them save money and enhance the customer experience at the same time.”

About Verint Witness Actionable Solutions

Verint® Witness Actionable Solutions® is the leader in analytics-driven workforce optimization software and services. Its solutions are designed to help organizations capture customer intelligence, uncover business trends, discover the root cause of employee and customer behavior, and optimize the customer experience. From contact centers to remote office, branch and back-office operations, its award-winning, next-generation Impact 360® Workforce Optimization suite is the industry’s most unified solution set – featuring quality monitoring and recording, workforce management, speech and data analytics, customer feedback surveys, performance management, eLearning and coaching. Impact 360 helps improve the entire customer service delivery network, powering the right decisions to help ensure service excellence and transform organizations into customer-centric enterprises.

About Verint Systems Inc.

Verint Systems Inc. (VRNT.PK), headquartered in Melville, New York, is a leading provider of actionable intelligence solutions for an optimized enterprise and a safer world. Today, more than 10,000 organizations in over 150 countries rely on Verint solutions to perform more effectively, build competitive advantage and enhance the security of people, facilities and infrastructure. Visit us at our website www.verint.com.

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding expectations, predictions, views, opportunities, plans, strategies, beliefs, and statements of similar effect relating to Verint Systems Inc. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and they are based on management’s expectations that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. For a detailed discussion of these risk factors, see the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 10, 2007, as supplemented by our Current Reports on Form 8-K filed on November 5, 2007, January 16, 2008, and April 9, 2008 and the Form NT-10Q filed on December 10, 2008. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and, except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them or to provide reasons why actual results may differ.

VERINT, the VERINT logo, ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE, POWERING ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE, WITNESS ACTIONABLE SOLUTIONS, STAR-GATE, RELIANT, VANTAGE, X-TRACT, NEXTIVA, ULTRA, AUDIOLOG, WITNESS, the WITNESS logo, IMPACT 360, the IMPACT 360 logo, IMPROVE EVERYTHING, EQUALITY, CONTACTSTORE, EYRETEL, BLUE PUMPKIN SOFTWARE, BLUE PUMPKIN, the BLUE PUMPKIN logo, EXAMETRIC and the EXAMETRIC logo, CLICK2STAFF, STAFFSMART, AMAE SOFTWARE and the AMAE logo are trademarks and registered trademarks of Verint Systems Inc. Other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

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Verint Systems Inc.
Alan Roden, 631-962-9304
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