Interactive Intelligence (News - Alert) was founded in 1994. The company offers a standards-based communications platform designed to unify every aspect of business communications, from multimedia interaction management, to phone calls, faxes, e-mails and Web chat. The company serves contact centers of all sizes, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), global 1,000 organizations, and large, distributed enterprises, including those with mobile workers. Key vertical markets include financial services, healthcare, legal, and higher education.

 

Joseph A. Staples is senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Interactive Intelligence. Staples was kind enough to answer a series of questions I posed regarding the trends shaping our industry and the future of IP communications.

 

 

JS: We’ve had two significant achievements in 2007. The first has been our strong growth — greater than 30 percent year-over-year. We think that this faster-than-market growth is a direct result of our innovative all-in-one communications software suite that helps customers increase revenue opportunities and operational efficiencies, reduce costs, and ensure investment protection. The second achievement is the release of version 3.0 of our flagship Customer Interaction Center (CIC) software. This breakthrough offering provides industry-leading VoIP security, maximum scalability, new mobile applications, additional integrations with Microsoft (News - Alert) OCS, and simplified deployment across the enterprise.

 

JS: Continued innovation to drive additional revenue opportunities for customers, particularly in the areas of analytics and business process automation.

JS: The best news is that it continues to grow. There are so many great applications now available that are enabled by a VoIP/SIP infrastructure, which is really good news since it’s these enhanced applications that result in true business value for the customer.

 

JS: It was SIP that made applications such as video, presence, multimedia communications, remote agent tools, and mobile interfaces economically possible. As an early adopter of SIP, our business has significantly benefited from it.

 

JS: With VoIP adoption nearing mainstream, the market looks great. Companies are seeing the benefits from VoIP-enabled applications. Gone are the days of customers worrying if the technology is mature enough for deployment.

 

JS: Our growth is pretty consistent around the world. We’ve had consistently strong growth throughout North America, and our EMEA operations continue to increase their contribution to our bottom-line. This year we’re focusing more on certain regions in APAC, where we believe there is major growth potential.

 

JS: We’ve had a hosted solution for several years, but in mid-2007 that market really seemed to take off. We’re seeing a lot more interest in deploying our products as “software-as-a-service.” We give customers a choice between that and premise-based. There are advantages to both.

 

JS: We’ll be showing our complete line of all-in-one communications software for contact center automation, enterprise IP telephony, and enterprise messaging.

 

JS: Any company that wants to improve its business communications. In particular, our products and services are ideal for mid-size to large contact centers and enterprises, including large multinational organizations.

 

JS: Our all-in-one, standards-based communications software suite and comprehensive global services help customers increase revenue opportunities and operational efficiencies, while reducing costs and ensuring investment protection. In short, we provide the most comprehensive business communications solutions in the most cost-effective manner.

 

JS: The Boston Red Sox will NOT repeat as World Series champions. :-)