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Palo Alto, Calif. — June 19, 2006 — Following its recent analysis of the North American Outsourced Contact Center Market, Frost & Sullivan selected West Corporation as the recipient of the 2006 Product Differentiation Innovation Award. Specifically, the Award is presented for its West at Home remote agent offering.
This Award is presented to the company that has best demonstrated the ability to develop and/or advance products or services with more innovative capabilities than competing vendors and products. Such innovation is expected to significantly contribute to the industry in terms of product performance degree/rate of technical change.
West has identified agent results, scale and flexibility as the three critical drivers in defining their home agent model as a viable client solution. In a crowded field of thousands of outsourcing providers, West's at-home contracted agent model is ranked as the most robust and well developed in the industry. Using the self-employed contractor model, West's clients are able to obtain more skilled agents, reduce per call cost from 10-15%, and have the capability to push computer-based resources directly to the agent desktop for their use in handling calls.
With more than 10,000 active contractors and nearly double that number of qualified registrants on hold, West draws its network of agents from across the United States. Contractor agents selected by West have a significantly higher level of education – 80% have some college – compared to a national average of 34% that employees have in traditional brick-and-mortar call centers.
"West's contracted home agents are able to deliver superior results and higher cross-sell/up-sell results," notes Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Michael DeSalles. "The company's selective screening process and reputation give West the luxury of choosing only the most highly qualified agents for a 'best fit' to meet unique client needs or complex business applications."
West's home agents service a variety of industry verticals, among them are retail, travel/hospitality, pharmaceuticals, catalog sales, communications, financial services, and healthcare providers.
West Corporation's at-home agent solution is also distinguished through the use of a vigorous set of best practices deployed across several disciplines:
- Agent screening, skill profiling and extensive background checks
- Complete security coverage at the agent, desktop, and system level
- 100% call recording with quality monitoring
- Contractor certification and customizable product/service training
While call centers have traditionally experienced high attrition rates, the independent contractors West relies upon are more skilled and provide services to West and other service providers for a significant period of time. "West has accurately identified that success in the outsourcing market can be achieved by being able to select highly skilled customer service contractors for its clients," points out DeSalles. "Combining geographically disbursed work-at-home contractors with traditional on-site contact center representatives mitigates the client risk and generates a new business."
Frost & Sullivan believes that the West at home agent model will drive movement in verticals that have been slow to adopt outsourced solutions in the contact center space. West at Home is a good match for those companies that have a specific need for home agents or that want to cut real estate costs and yet still retain a high service quality using U.S. citizens.
The Frost & Sullivan Product Differentiation Innovation Award is bestowed upon a company that has carried out new research, which has resulted in innovations that have or are expected to bring significant contributions to the industry in terms of adoption, change, and competitive posture. This Award recognizes the quality and depth of a company's research and development program as well as the vision and risk-taking that enabled it to undertake such an endeavor.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.
About West West Corporation is a leading provider of outsourced communication solutions to many of the world's largest companies, organizations and government agencies. West helps its clients communicate effectively, maximize the value of their customer relationships and drive greater profitability from every interaction. The company's integrated suite of customized solutions includes customer acquisition, customer care, automated voice services, emergency communications, conferencing, and receivables management services. Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, West has a team of 29,000 employees based in North America, Europe and Asia.
About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit http://www.awards.frost.com or http://www.ict.frost.com