Upstream Works for Finesse Receives the Technology Innovation Award for Contact Centers from Ventana Research

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Aug. 23, 2013) – Upstream Works for Finesse, a powerful software suite for contact centers that completely rethinks how a company interacts with their customers, has been given the ‘Operational Innovation Award for Contact Centers’ from Ventana Research, a leading benchmark and research advisory firm. The Ventana Research Award distinguishes Upstream Works as a developer of visionary and transformative technology that helps the contact center engage more effectively with customers.

In an age where Social Media gives anyone the ability to broadly share a bad customer service experience instantly, most CEO’s will list improving the customer experience as a high priority initiative. Experts and the twittersphere say that the vast majority of companies do not yet have it right. So why does something so important seem so difficult to get right? The idea of improving the customer experience is not innovative, but the path to improvement is innovation.

“Working with the Cisco Finesse platform has provided us the opportunity to break down the barriers to change within customer service.” said Karen Miller, Vice President of Business Development at Upstream Works. “After years of the CEO and the Customer Service business leaders being told that their technology could not support the changes required to improve customer engagement, this new approach to solving these problems is incredibly rewarding. It’s time for the Contact Center to stop being treated like the Rodney Dangerfield of the business world and for them to get some of Aretha’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T” jokes Miller.

“Upstream Works has set the standard for innovation and creativity for the contact center” said Mark Smith, CEO and Chief Research Officer at Ventana Research. “I would like to commend them on their achievement in innovation. They’ve worked to provide methods for being smarter and faster to help move businesses to the next level in customer experience.”

“With Upstream Works for Finesse we set out to develop a solution set that didn’t ask an old dog to perform new tricks and to leverage new technologies that are reshaping the contact center industry.” said Rob McDougall, President of Upstream Works. “This award validates our approach to improving the customer experience by reducing the complexity in the contact center, and making sure that the people and systems, who are tasked with delivering great customer service have the right information about the customer, in the right context at the right time.”

The annual Technology Innovation Awards are delivered by the Ventana Research team, which through its benchmark research, on-demand advisory and education services, continues to pioneer new methods for organizations to become efficient and effective in their business. As part of the scoring process and methodology, Ventana Research examined submissions and nominations from the industry and research team to assess, score and select the technology that has the best impact for each of the specific categories. Visit http://www.ventanaresearch.com/resources/resources.aspx?id=4079 to find out more.

About Upstream Works

Since 2000, Upstream Works’ has focused on providing software solutions to connect every aspect of your contact center performance to the customer experience. With modern agent and management tools and software to enable a customer centric approach to delivering personalized service across multiple channels of communication, Upstream Works is working with companies to improve the customer experience one contact center at a time. Visit http://uwf.upstreamworks.com/product/ to find out more about Upstream Works for Finesse.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the most authoritative and respected benchmark business technology research and advisory services firm. We provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream and disruptive technologies through a unique set of research-based offerings including benchmark research and technology evaluation assessments, education workshops and our research and advisory services, Ventana On-Demand. Our unparalleled understanding of the role of technology in optimizing business processes and performance and our best practices guidance are rooted in our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions in every industry. This benchmark research plus our market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver education and expertise to our clients to increase the value they derive from technology investments while reducing time, cost and risk.
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To learn how Ventana Research advances the maturity of organizations’ use of information and technology through benchmark research, education and advisory services, visit www.ventanaresearch.com.