Nexidia, Merced Systems Partner, Blending Speech Analytics, PM Solutions

By: Brendan B. Read, Senior Contributing Editor
Call Center Software
Nov. 10, 2009

http://call-center-software.tmcnet.com/topics/call-center-solutions/articles/68603-nexidia-merced-systems-partner-blending-speech-analytics-pm.htm

Speech analytics and performance management software make for an ideal partnership by providing an integrated tool that enables organizations to find new opportunities to boost service quality and improve agent productivity.

Speech analytics firm Nexidia and performance management software provider Merced Systems have teamed up for that reason. This is a multi-win for both firms and for their existing and future contact center customers.

Nexidia’s (News - Alert) Enterprise Speech Intelligence (ESI) product has been integrated with Merced’s core offerings: Merced Performance Suite and Merced Incentive Compensation Management. This integration will, both firms say, help joint customers to more accurately identify the root cause of performance issues and then quickly rollout targeted improvement campaigns based on accurate “voice of the [end] customer” analysis. With direct access to individual agent calls, operations can link specific call recordings to performance improvement opportunities.

Integration of the Nexidia and Merced Systems (News - Alert) technologies will specifically:

--Allow speech analytics to identify issues that affect agent performance and pinpoint true root causes. This allows contact centers to develop more targeted performance improvement campaigns focused on behaviors that drive key performance indicators (KPI) such as: first contact resolution (FCR), average handle time (AHT), escalation rates and customer satisfaction.

--Improve agent coaching and training by providing better organizational awareness of which behaviors are the biggest drivers of performance. This delivers to supervisors and coaches deeper insight into strengths and weaknesses of their employees. It also enables the use of the recordings that underlie speech analytics within the coaching process.

Both companies have been enhancing their products prior to the engagement. Earlier this year Merced released the Merced Performance Suite 3.7 with new features to the Coaching Plus module including a Best Practices Library, Best Practices Suggestion Engine and Integrated Action Planner. It added the Analyst Workbench, a new module designed specifically for analysts which gives them data access and problem investigation tools.

This fall Nexidia introduced ESI (News - Alert)—Monitor, a solution set that gives contact centers access to real time monitoring and can apply speech analytics during the actual calls. It integrates into the also newly launched ESI-Capture that allows contact centers to bypass legacy call recording platforms entirely, capturing calls and meta-data information directly from the switching environment.

“Our partnership with Merced represents a breakthrough in agent performance management,” said John Willcutts (News - Alert), president and chief executive officer of Nexidia. “Unlike the legacy call recording systems in place, which analyze only a small percentage of calls, Nexidia provides the scalability to analyze up to 100 percent of calls in a contact center. With our integration into Merced’s Performance Management products, this intelligence can be driven directly into agent and team leader coaching routines, which ensures the highest level of performance improvement.”

“We’re proud to be collaborating with Nexidia,” said Mark Selcow, Merced Systems’ president. “By integrating speech analytics with sales and service performance management applications, joint sales or service customers can quickly and effectively act on key voice-of-the-customer information.”