Aspect Named an Agent Performance Management ?Hot Vendor? in 2010 Value Index by Ventana Research

Chelmsford, Mass. – Aspect, a global provider of unified communications and collaboration services and software, today announced that Ventana Research, a leading benchmark and research advisory firm, has recognized Aspect as a ‘Hot Vendor’ in its newly established Value Index for Agent Performance Management. Aspect secured a top-level position in a weighted evaluation for its PerformanceEdge® platform and applications which were researched in the year-long market and product study. The Ventana Research report acknowledges Aspect for having noteworthy call routing, call recording, quality monitoring, workforce management, training and coaching, and analytics, and also certifies, through its evaluation and audit, that Hot Vendors provide the best buyer value available.

“Aspect understands that managing agent performance is a critical success factor for any organization that interacts with customers,” said Richard Snow, global research director and vice president, Ventana Research. “With elegant and robust solutions in workforce optimization, Aspect showcases it prowess in delivering powerful analytics and metrics capabilities that can have a profound effect on improving agent and overall organization performance.”

Aspect’s performance management capabilities are delivered on its PerformanceEdge® platform and are also available through the company’s unified communications applications for the contact center, Optimized Collections™ and Productive Workforce™. PerformanceEdge is a Microsoft .Net Web services platform that synchronizes workforce optimization capabilities including workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to help organizations optimize contact center operations.

“Our unified communication applications for the contact center are being used by some of the world’s leading companies across numerous industries,” said Andy Bezaitis, senior vice president of product management, Aspect. “These organizations choose Aspect because our solutions integrate the most advanced technologies with unmatched expertise in addressing the business challenges of the contact center. By assisting our customers in optimizing business process and facilitating enhanced agent productivity, we help to ensure exceptional service and value are consistently delivered to their customers. This recognition by Ventana Research is a great validation of our strategy and ability to deliver market-leading, relevant applications and solutions.”

The Ventana Research Value Index is an analytic representation of the assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements for software that enables and supports Agent Performance Management. The Index evaluates the software in the context of seven key categories. Five are product-related: adoptability, manageability, reliability, usability and functionality. In addition, there are two customer assurance categories considered: total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI), and validation. To assess functionality, the Ventana Research Agent Performance Management methodology and blueprint were applied, which links the business process of managing agent performance to an organization’s information technology. If you want to download the Value Index for Agent Performance Management executive report, visit www.ventanaresearch.com/apm.

About Ventana Research
Ventana Research is the leading benchmark research and business technology advisory services firm. They provide insight and expert guidance on trends and mainstream and disruptive technologies. Their unparalleled insights and best practices guidance are based on rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions worldwide. The combination offered of benchmark research, market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means that they can deliver business and technology education and expertise to clients where and when needed to reduce the time requirements, cost and risk of technology investments. The Ventana Research Indexes – the Value Index and the Benchmark Index family – have redefined the research industry by providing accessible, easy-to-use research-based business and technology guidance to businesses. Ventana Research provides the most comprehensive analyst and research coverage in the industry; the many business and IT professionals worldwide who are members of the community benefit from Ventana Research’s insights, as do highly regarded media and association partners around the globe. The views and analyses are distributed daily through blogs and social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Business Week’s Business Exchange. Ventana Research was ranked the #1 analyst firm you can trust in enterprise software for 2009 for its relevance to the industry. To learn how Ventana Research advances the maturity of organizations use of information and technology through benchmark research, education and advisory services, or for more information about our monthly subscription-based service called Ventana On-Demand, visit www.ventanaresearch.com.

About Aspect
Aspect is a global software and IT services firm specializing in applying Microsoft® unified communications and collaboration to help customers achieve optimal results through enhanced business processes across the enterprise and in the contact center. Aspect provides IT consulting, integration services and business applications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.

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