NICE Introduces a New Methodology for Optimizing Customer Dynamics to Generate Maximum Business Value from Customer Interactions

RA'ANANA, Israel, March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE), a leading global provider of advanced solutions that enable enterprises and security organizations to extract Insight from Interactions, transactions and surveillance to drive business performance, reduce risk and ensure safety, today unveiled a new methodology for optimizing Customer Dynamics, the ongoing exchange of information, ideas, opinions and commerce that occurs between businesses and customers, via various touch points, including phone, email, chat, and social media.  The NICE methodology and tools allow companies in all industries, including those with the most complex customer interactions environments, to capture customer intent across channels, rapidly analyze the information to gain insights and apply the insights to strengthen customer loyalty and make the organization more profitable and efficient. Electric Insurance, DHL, GoDaddy.com, and Salt River Project are among the industry leaders that are already using the NICE SmartCenter  suite to harness Customer Dynamics. NICE and CRMxchange will hold a webcast on Customer Dynamics on March 25, 2010.  CRMxchange is a leading online resource for information on customer service contact management, marketing and sales.  For more information, please see http://www.crmxchange.com/webcast/customer_intent/nicefeb10.asp.

"The ability of an enterprise to understand the customer and optimize the dynamics between customer and enterprise as the interaction is happening sets it apart from the competition," said Michael Maoz, Research Vice President and Distinguished Analyst at industry analyst firm Gartner.  "It can make the difference between becoming an effective company with a loyal customer base or remaining an industry laggard.  To discover the "voice of the customer" -- the sentiment and opinions that shape customer behavior -- leading organizations analyze interactions across multiple channels, including mobile devices and social networks outside of their direct control."

The dynamic between customers and organizations -- Customer Dynamics -- is rich, complex, and difficult to manage. According to the NICE benchmark of contact center business and technology trends(1), this phenomenon will only become more complex in the future. The benchmark revealed that more than 40 percent of survey respondents expect the volume of customer interactions to increase, including phone interactions and those driven by the availability and maturation of alternate communication channels, such as chat, text messaging and web self-service. NICE has developed the 'Intent-to-Insight-to-Impact' methodology, which is enabled by its NICE SmartCenter suite and tools, to optimize Customer Dynamics. The new methodology is based on NICE's domain expertise, founded on extensive experience working with thousands of companies around the world.

"Today, more than ever, it is a business imperative for companies to understand and take charge of Customer Dynamics to generate tangible business value," said Dan Yalon, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at NICE. "In fact, we believe that optimizing Customer Dynamics will be a major competitive differentiator for companies in 2010 and beyond.  Customer Dynamics optimization is a new approach that can solve the dual challenge of today's enterprises -- make your customers loyal and satisfied, and make your business efficient and profitable."

The companies already using the NICE methodology and NICE SmartCenter suite to optimize Customer Dynamics include Electric Insurance Company, a leading U.S. national provider of personal lines insurance products, DHL Russia, GoDaddy.com, the world's largest domain name registrar, and Salt River Project, the third-largest public power utility in the United States.  

"Electric Insurance has seen major operational improvements driven by the insights we have gained from tapping into our Customer Dynamics," said Kimberly Koury, Vice President of Contact Center Operations, Electric Insurance. "The ability to better understand the intent of our customers and serve them better, while improving our business processes and our bottom line is incredibly valuable."

"Being able to optimize Customer Dynamics is one of our most successful strategic initiatives," said Natalia Kabakova, head of customer service at DHL Russia, a long-time NICE customer and the leading provider of express and logistics transportation and delivery solutions in the country. "Using the NICE solutions for some time now, at the contact center level we have been able to enrich the experience of our customers through world-class customer service. At the organizational level, we have been able to achieve unprecedented efficiency in how we deliver customer service, and more importantly -- we can now be proactive in our customer-centric, profit-generating growth initiatives."

According to Derek Murashige, Director of CRM Systems Strategy, GoDaddy.com, "By understanding and leveraging Customer Dynamics, we've made tremendous strides in terms of our ability to understand why our customers are contacting us, and how well our agents and Go Daddy, can better satisfy their needs.  Our use of NICE's SmartCenter suite with Interaction Analytics has been instrumental in efficiently identifying customer experience issues, and making sure their issues are addressed -- whether the issue originates in the contact center or some other part of our business."  

"NICE has provided us with a window into our Customer Dynamics -- the interactions between SRP and our customers, and has allowed us to take charge of it," said Brandon Whiting, Manager, Call Center Operations & Support, Salt River Project.  "This gives us insight into the reasons why customers call back multiple times.  Based on that insight, we can make the necessary adjustments that positively impact not only our customers' experience, but also improve our ability to function more efficiently and cost effectively."

"NICE's methodology and solutions help companies turn the untapped asset of Customer Dynamics into fuel for growth," continued Yalon.  "Our approach is based on expertise we have developed over the past 24 years, helping thousands of enterprises around the world, in every vertical industry to create value from customer interactions.  NICE SmartCenter is unique in powering Customer Dynamics optimization -- it captures interactions across channels, in different environments -- contact center, branches, and the back office, and uses cross-channel interaction analytics to extract insights. It uncovers hidden opportunities for cross-sell and up-sell, it improves the customer experience, and addresses key operational aspects of the contact center workforce, such as skill assessment, coaching and performance management. The result is tangible business value in the areas of compliance, operational efficiency, customer experience and revenue generation."

About NICE SmartCenter

NICE SmartCenter is the premier tool to help companies generate business value from Customer Dynamics.  NICE SmartCenter is a suite of pre-packaged business solutions that address specific business issues, powered by best-in-class functional components spanning call recording, quality management, multi-channel interaction analytics, workforce management and performance management. The business solutions capture, analyze and impact customer interactions across a variety of channels, from audio, email and chat to social media and text messaging.  The solutions include nine packaged offerings: Customer Churn Reduction, Sales Effectiveness, Customer Experience, Marketing Effectiveness, Collections Optimization, Quality Optimization, First Call Resolution Optimization, Average Handle Time Optimization, and Compliance Management.  These solutions can be deployed on premise, in a hosted model, or via a managed service, and can be implemented stand-alone or fully integrated with customer relationship management and business intelligence solutions.

About NICE Systems

NICE Systems (Nasdaq: NICE) is the leading provider of Insight from Interactions solutions and value-added services, powered by the convergence of advanced analytics of unstructured multimedia content and transactional data -- from telephony, web, email, radio, video, and other data sources. NICE's solutions address the needs of the enterprise and security markets, enabling organizations to operate in an insightful and proactive manner, and take immediate action to improve business and operational performance and ensure safety and security. NICE has over 24,000 customers in more than 150 countries, including over 85 of the Fortune 100 companies.  More information is available at www.nice.com.

(1) "Preparing for the Upturn: Research on Contact Center Operational and Investment Practices," NICE Benchmark, conducted by Ventana Research, published September, 2009

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This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on the current expectations of the management of NICE Systems Ltd. (the Company) only, and are subject to a number of risk factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to changes in technology and market requirements, decline in demand for the Company's products, inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications, difficulties or delays in absorbing and integrating acquired operations, products, technologies and personnel, loss of market share, pressure on pricing resulting from competition, and inability to maintain certain marketing and distribution arrangements, which could cause the actual results or performance of the Company to differ materially from those described therein. We undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting the company, refer to the Company's reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE NICE Systems Ltd.