- New development platform melds unified multichannel interaction, effective people management, and technology expertise with Microsoft enterprise technologies

- Delivers 5 critical areas of innovation: social enablement, enterprise collaboration, advanced analytics, workforce accelerators, and optimisation and automation

- New approach to customer partnerships allows businesses to jump-start tailored solutions that best meet the needs of customer interaction and the broader enterprise

Aspect, a leading provider of customer contact, enterprise workforce optimisation and Microsoft platform solutions, today announced the introduction of Aspect® Applications Foundation. The versatile new development platform brings together the company’s multichannel interaction management software and workforce optimisation solution with Microsoft SharePoint, Lync and Dynamics CRM unified communications and collaboration technologies, providing an innovative foundation for next generation customer contact (NGCC) applications.

“Many organisations that have standardised on enterprise collaboration and CRM tools are wanting to leverage those investments by integrating them into their contact centre business practices and technology stacks,” said Drew Kraus, Research Vice President, Enterprise Communications Applications Gartner, Inc. “Organisations that can do this are in a good position to fully achieve enterprise-wide collaboration.”

Aspect's expertise in the customer contact solution market and success in helping organisations optimise their Microsoft enterprise technology investment gives the company a unique opportunity at a crucial time. Global competition for brand loyalty continues to intensify as consumers continue to demand expanded choice and deeper engagement when they interact with companies. Aspect Applications Foundation helps companies deliver a differentiated customer experience by enabling organisations to be agile in how they respond to such challenges – not only within the contact centre but across the enterprise.

“Providing great customer service is more complex than ever, and now encompasses front and back office resources, social media engagement, proactive outreach efforts and self-service experiences,” says Jim Foy, CEO, Aspect interaction management division. “The combination of interaction management, unified communications and workforce optimisation solutions, popular enterprise technologies, and the expertise to make it all work together, is what’s needed to meet the interaction demands of today’s consumer.”

Aspect Applications Foundation addresses the critical areas that often thwart customer-pleasing experiences while maximising the efficiencies of business processes across the front and back office.

Aspect Applications Foundation capabilities include:

- Enterprise Collaboration - provides internal collaboration and knowledge sharing within the contact centre as a well as between the contact centre and the broader enterprise through email, knowledge base, visibility into task assignment and status, internal discussion boards and announcements.

- Social Enablement - equips the contact centre to use channels such as discussion boards, instant messaging, chat and social networks, and includes the ability to provide context, interaction history and guidance to minimise customer frustration and accelerate issue resolution.

- Advanced Analytics - provides actionable intelligence from all relevant analytical areas to executives, managers, supervisors, agents and knowledge workers, and provides intelligence to the systems that are driving business processes.

- Workforce Accelerators - create a streamlined, intuitive interface for agents that reduces handle times, improves efficiencies and provides context for customer issues. They also include capabilities to facilitate communication between the agent, their supervisor and enterprise experts.

- Optimisation & Automation - facilitates integration and automation of customer-facing processes in the front office as well as the back office and provides the ability to integrate with third-party systems such as HR, payroll and CRM.

“One of the most compelling things about Aspect, aside from Seamless Customer Service™ meeting the needs we had defined, was the company’s breadth of experience with Microsoft technologies and how their own leading contact centre applications could work on top of that,” said Wayne Dunn, SVP and CTO, HarborOne Credit Union. “That is what really enabled us to bring our vision of a connected enterprise to reality.”
 
“Aspect’s priority is to provide our customers with the tools needed for an innovative, individualised approach to customer experience in an increasingly crowded marketplace,” adds Foy. “With Aspect Applications Foundation, we look forward to working closely with our customers, and tailoring applications to their specific needs in delivering a next generation customer experience.”

For more information on the Aspect Applications Foundation, click here.