We have found suppliers tend to fall in one of four primary categories, or Chambers.

What is the SmartContact Continuum? An online market analysis tool developed to provide enterprise customers a current view of how suppliers stack up across various Customer Interaction market segments. We have found suppliers tend to fall in one of four primary categories, or Chambers:

Where one falls is determined by how they stack up in the following areas: 1) strength of offering, 2) strength of company, 3) channel effectiveness and 4) market perception. We built a comprehensive model to evaluate supplier offerings against detailed criteria in each of these areas. The results are plotted on separate axes and the point of convergence determines which chamber a supplier lies.

A write-up for each supplier includes a general overview, mapping of supplier products to segment functionality, and summary of how they fared in terms of the four primary areas detailed above. Supplier evaluations are performed and updated on a continual basis. Thus, the Continuum is meant to be dynamic in nature, able to reflect major new market developments as they materialize.

The Customer Interaction segment we are focusing on initially is the Enterprise Contact Center Suite. To-date, we have completed the following evaluations:

* Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE), and

* Interactive Intelligence Customer Interaction Center (CIC).

Cisco Enters Chamber of Rule The following is an excerpt from the UCCE evaluation write-up:

Cisco has done an excellent job establishing UCCE as a strong ECCS play. While not having the largest market share, or a perfect product offering, Cisco has managed to capture the mindshare of many enterprise contact centers by leveraging their corporate prowess, success in the IP-PBX market, technically savvy channels, and positive perception and momentum generated in the market. Many enterprise customers see Cisco UCCE as the safe bet for the future--a solution they will never get fired for buying. That's a pretty amazing accomplishment given the relatively short period Cisco has been participating in this market.

Click here to dive deeper into the evaluation.

Interactive Intelligence Poised in Chamber of Opportunity The following is an excerpt from the CIC evaluation write-up:

Interactive Intelligence has done a great job of staying the course and broadening the CIC suite through organic development, offering one of the most tightly integrated contact center suites on the market. While peripheral applications are not yet best of breed, they are maturing and beginning to address the needs of the larger enterprise--as is the core CIC platform. The timing seems to be opportune as more and more enterprise customers are looking for tightly integrated contact center suites to streamline operations. We expect Interactive Intelligence to capitalize on this opportunity and to enjoy accelerated success in the Enterprise Contact Center Suites (ECCS) market.

Click here to dive deeper into the evaluation.

Things to Come We are moving forward with additional ECCS supplier evaluations and plan to expand the depth of information and analysis provided over time. In the meantime, please visit the ECCS Continuum to learn more. You may comment here or email us with additional insight you wish to share. We would love your feedback.We have found suppliers tend to fall in one of four primary categories, or Chambers.