Latest CRM Software Industry News

57 percent of UK’s leading companies offer little or no web self-service

Slough, United Kingdom, March 21, 2007: According to research released by eGain (OTC BB: EGAN.OB) today, 57 percent of UK companies offer little or no web self-service, resulting in lost revenues and declining customer satisfaction. Only 17 percent of UK companies are offering their customers “visionary” or “above average” customer self-service via the web*.

eGain analysts assessed the web self-service capabilities of 125 major companies in the UK across retail, financial services, telecommunications and local government sectors. The research revealed that businesses in the UK are still falling short in this critically important aspect of customer service.

The websites of the companies included in the study were assessed on seven key capabilities: FAQs, dynamic FAQs, search / browse, natural language indicators, guided help, ease of escalation to customer service agents, and speed and quality of response to escalated enquiries. The results were used to categorise the web self-service capabilities of the companies into four groups: visionary, above average, below average and basic, based on the scores they received*.

The results showed that a third of UK companies (29 percent) offer very basic web self-service facilities. These sites provide just static FAQs, which lead customers to either abandon the website or resort to calling the company. Only three percent of all companies researched offered visionary web self-service. Six percent of companies offered no facility for email escalation from self-service, a critical requirement to prevent customer abandonment of the website. Only 18 percent of companies acknowledged the receipt of a customer e-mail, sent as a result of an escalation, a simple best practice to set customer expectations and enhance the service experience. The option to escalate seamlessly from self-service to agent-assisted service and providing rapid, high-quality resolution to the escalated queries help create a safety net for customers that can actually increase self-service adoption.

The telecommunications sector performed the best with 15 percent of the companies providing visionary self-service., while the local government sector performed the worst, with 70 percent rated below average.

“The study revealed that a significant number of UK companies are still failing to realise their full potential for customer retention and revenue growth by falling short in customer self-service via the web,” commented Andrew Mennie, General Manager and Vice President EMEA for eGain.

The findings of the study, along with self-service pitfalls and opportunities for innovation, will be presented at a seminar series in the UK titled “Web Self-Service in the UK – State of the Industry, Pitfalls, and Opportunities”. To register, click on the following url: http://www.egain.com/news/registration_mar07.asp
KMWorld’s list of “100 Companies that Matter” is selected by knowledge management practitioners, theorists, analysts, vendors, and customers and represents the list of vendors that make the most impact in knowledge management.

KMWorld continues to recognize eGain’s track record of innovation and business value delivery through knowledge management software and best practices

Mountain View, Calif. (February 22, 2007) – eGain Communications (OTC BB: EGAN.OB), provider of the industry’s top-rated* customer service and contact center software for in-house or on-demand SaaS deployment, announced today that KMWorld (www.kmworld.com) has named eGain to the 2007 list of “100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management”.

KMWorld’s list of “100 Companies that Matter” is selected by knowledge management practitioners, theorists, analysts, vendors, and customers and represents the list of vendors that make the most impact in knowledge management.

“If there is a single trait shared by the companies listed in the KMWorld ‘100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management’, it is their determination to treat their entire constituency chain, from top to bottom, with respect and without hubris. Clearly, attitude alone doesn’t warrant inclusion on the list, attitude must be accompanied by elegance in the design and implementation of their software,” said Hugh McKellar, KMWorld editor in chief.

eGain’s knowledge management software offers comprehensive capabilities for knowledge capture, adaptive content management, flexible information access and easy integration with existing enterprise content assets. The solution includes two decades of best practices and is used by blue-chip clients around the world in multichannel contact centers, helpdesks and web self-service sites to improve customer service quality, consistency and compliance, increase agent productivity, enhance revenue through contextual upsell and cross-sell, and curb support costs. The solution is an integral part of eGain Serviceâ„¢, a comprehensive software suite that helps companies transform their traditional contact centers into unified customer interaction hubs. In-depth information on eGain Service is available at the following url: http://www.egain.com/products/multichannel_service.asp

“eGain is a pioneer in knowledge management with a long track record of adding business value,” said Ashu Roy, CEO of eGain. “We are pleased with KMWorld’s recognition that we are one of the 100 companies that matter most in knowledge management.”

The 2007 list of “100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management” will be published in the March issue of KMWorld magazine.

Areas for improvement and innovation include multichannel integration, web self-service, knowledge management and service level management

Mountain View, Calif., February 08, 2007 – eGain Communications (OTC BB: EGAN.OB), provider of the industry’s top-rated* customer service and contact center software for in-house or on-demand SaaS deployment, today announced the results of a survey of customer service and helpdesk executives. Sponsored by eGain, the study was conducted and results compiled by supportindustry.com and crmindustry.com between November 2006 and January 2007.

The survey focused on a wide array of strategic and tactical issues in multichannel customer service and support, including the importance of customer service to the business value proposition, multichannel integration, web self-service, contact center knowledge management, service level management and contact center and helpdesk performance management. Survey respondents comprised of high-level executives and managers, who are members of supportindustry.com and crmindustry.com, leading online communities for customer-facing professionals. Responsible for functions such as customer service, web self-service, ebusiness, IT support contact centers, marketing and sales, the respondents represented a range of industry sectors.

Key findings include the following:
More than three-quarters (77%) of the respondents said customer service played a primary role in their business value proposition, and 66% said service emphasis in their value proposition increased in 2006.

43% said they were launching a major customer service or contact center knowledge management initiative in 2007, with an overwhelming majority (86%) of respondents expecting their budgets to increase at least somewhat in 2007.

Only 26% of respondents had achieved a single view of all customer interactions and 44% had not established service levels for every customer communication channel they offered.

To get a complimentary copy of this comprehensive report, please visit:
http://www.egain.com/landingus/report_supportindustry.asp?
id=eG020607&source=eGain&trc=ndcser4526sadkse

Support and services revenue up 21% from the comparable year-ago quarter
Hosting revenue up 19% from the comparable year-ago quarter

Mountain View, Calif. (February 12, 2007) – eGain Communications (OTC BB: EGAN.OB), a leading provider of customer service and contact center software, today announced financial results for the second fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2006.

Total revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2007 was $5.7 million, a decrease of 5% from the comparable year-ago quarter. License revenue was $850,000, a decrease of 58% from the comparable year-ago quarter. Support and services revenue was $4.8 million, an increase of 21% from the comparable year-ago quarter.

Cost of revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2007 was $2.2 million, an increase of 30% from the comparable year-ago quarter. Gross margin for the quarter was 61% compared to 72% in the comparable year-ago quarter. Research and development expense for the quarter was $833,000, an increase of 18% from the comparable year-ago quarter. Sales and marketing expense for the quarter was $2.9 million, an increase of 29% from the comparable year-ago quarter. General and administrative expense for the quarter was $484,000, a decrease of 38% from the comparable year-ago quarter.

Net loss for the second quarter of fiscal year 2007 was $1.1 million, or $(0.07) per share, compared to a net income of $245,000, or $0.02 per share, for the comparable year-ago quarter. Net loss for the quarter included stock-based compensation of $77,000 and interest and tax expense of $330,000 compared to stock-based compensation expense of $75,000 and interest and tax expense of $313,000, for the comparable year-ago quarter.

Total cash and cash equivalents were $6.0 million at December 31, 2006 compared to $6.9 million at June 30, 2006. Days sales outstanding in receivables for the quarter ended December 31, 2006 were 41 days compared to 75 days for the comparable year-ago quarter. Deferred revenues totaled $5.2 million at December 31, 2006, up from $4.3 million at June 30, 2006.

“We are disappointed that several large transactions we had forecast to close in the quarter slipped but our sales team is working diligently to bring these deals to closure in the current quarter” said Ashu Roy, eGain CEO. “Despite this short-term disappointment, we are pleased with the growth in our recurring revenue base which is due in part to the increase in hosting bookings we have experienced in recent quarters. The planned ramp-up in hiring of our direct sales force is complete. We are also very focused on training the expanded sales team to get them productive as quickly as possible. Lastly, we are pleased to report that we successfully delivered the first major milestone under the Cisco OEM agreement and we are continuing our channel development to support this important relationship.”

Business highlights
Over the last six months, eGain has continued to invest in its sales force by adding headcount, ramping up its European presence, and structuring the sales force into industry verticals and geographic groups.

eGain successfully released eGain Serviceâ„¢ 7.6, a product eGain jointly conceived and developed with its blue chip customers. With nine new applications, Service 7.6 is the first to address short message service (SMS) customer service interactions, as well as next-generation web self-service including chat bot, agent-assisted chat, cobrowsing, email, fax, postal mail, notification management, call tracking and resolution, knowledge management, and service fulfillment, all based on a common platform.

eGain’s offerings continue to be one of the most acclaimed in the industry. eGain recently won Customer Interaction Solutions magazine’s Product of the Year award, and was named to Software Magazine’s Software 500 list. In addition, eGain’s deployment at ABN AMRO was selected as an InfoWorld 100 award winner.

The company also made significant progress in laying the foundation for expanding its partnerships and distribution channels. The company joined the EMC Documentum Application Developer Program. As an EMC Documentum partner, eGain will receive specialized design consultation and guidance, along with access to dedicated Documentum technical resources to ensure that the integration of eGain’s customer interaction hub (CIH) software suite with Documentum’s solutions meet the highest quality standard. In addition, the company entered into several new partnerships in Europe and Africa, including agreements with 4C Consulting to cover customer service project implementations in Belgium and France and with HappyCustomers to collaborate on customer service project implementations in the Netherlands.

Finally, the company held its annual customer summit in November 2006 with active participation from customers and industry thought leaders.

Guidance for fiscal year

Based upon the increased sales and marketing investments made in the first half of fiscal year 2007, management is projecting revenues to increase in the second half of fiscal year 2007 and is maintaining the previously announced guidance:

Management anticipates revenue to be in the range of $27 million to $30 million or a 20% to 33% increase from fiscal year 2006.

Management anticipates GAAP income from operations to be positive for fiscal year 2007.

Teleconference scheduled for Monday February 12, 2007

Mountain View, Calif., February 5, 2007 : eGain Communications Corporation (OTCBB: EGAN.OB), a provider of customer service and contact center software for in-house or on-demand deployment, will announce financial results for the second quarter ended December 31, 2006 on Monday, February 12, 2007 after the close of market.

Management of eGain will host a conference call that day to discuss the results at 2:00 p.m. (Pacific) / 5:00 p.m. (Eastern).

This call will be webcast and can be accessed from the Investor Relations section of eGain’s web site at www.egain.com. A replay will be available following conclusion of the call on eGain’s Investor Relations web site or for one week at the following number: (703) 925-2533 (international) or (888) 266-2081 (domestic) with ID# 1036397.

eGain’s solution to play key role in BASEL II compliance

Slough, United Kingdom, January 10, 2007 – eGain Communications (OTC BB: EGAN.OB), a provider of top-rated* customer service and contact centre software for in-house or on demand deployment, is today announcing it has been selected to implement its eGain Knowledge Agentâ„¢ software across all 2,400 customer facing staff within Yorkshire Building Society.

Yorkshire Building Society has selected eGain’s knowledge management software to support fast and quality customer service delivery across its entire product range. An additional objective of the implementation is to demonstrate the Society’s compliance to risk management as part of BASEL II regulations.

Robert Matthews, Head of Strategic Liaison, Yorkshire Building Society, commented: “We have achieved the prestigious accolade of ‘Lender of the Year’ by Mortgage Magazine for the last two years and are always looking at ways to better serve our customers. In this highly competitive market, providing fast and accurate information is key. eGain will enable us to continue to improve our service delivery by developing a collaborative approach to knowledge sharing and then making this available enterprise-wide in the most intuitive way possible.”

eGain was selected in November 2006, following a competitive pitch against other companies operating within the same field. eGain’s solution will replace Yorkshire Building Society’s existing intranet based knowledge repository. The implementation will enable Yorkshire Building Society to review and improve its processes, progress change requirements quickly and flexibly, and keep the Society’s vast amount of information up-to-date and easily accessible through keyword searches. Designing the information delivery from the customer’s perspective will enable the Society to provide the right information to clients, promptly.

eGain’s knowledge management solution is being implemented for Yorkshire Building Society’s Savings information in the first instance. This pilot is due to go live in January for 2,000 users, with over 750 knowledge articles authored and available for access. Thereafter it will be rolled out across all products and services and will be used by all 2,400 of the Society’s multi-disciplined contact centre and branch staff, to support customer services across their 1.25 million customer accounts.

Andrew Mennie, General Manager and Vice President EMEA, eGain said: “We are thrilled to see Yorkshire Building Society embrace the broader benefits of eGain’s knowledge management software. It is an excellent tool for validating risk management and demonstrating control of procedures. The Society is again proving itself to be very forward-thinking in this implementation”.

Slough, United Kingdom, January 4, 2007 – eGain Communications (OTC BB: EGAN.OB), a leading provider of customer service and contact centre software, is today announcing it has been selected by N-Allo to implement eGain Knowledgeâ„¢ software to enhance the customer service N-Allo’s contact centre agents deliver on behalf of customers.

N-Allo is today one of Belgium’s leading customer contact centres. N-Allo has selected to implement eGain Knowledgeâ„¢ to strengthen its customer service proposition.

eGain was selected following a competitive tender process. In the first instance, eGain implemented a proof of concept knowledge management solution to support incoming calls for the social energy supply network of Flanders.

N-Allo will implement eGain Knowledge across a selection of suitable clients in its target markets in 2007. eGain Knowledge will help N-Allo capture the knowledge of its most experienced agents and centralise this knowledge across all applications, by integrating with N-Allo’s existing state-of-the-art technology infrastructure, to include its CRM and back-end systems, current knowledge management system, Intranet and website.

The pilot delivered a number of clear benefits. eGain worked with N-Allo to design the knowledge base from a consumer enquiry perspective as opposed to a technical delivery perspective, making the knowledge easily accessible to everyone and intuitive to use. This has resulted in more knowledgeable, accurate and faster customer service delivery and increased agents’ ability to fluidly communicate with consumers. Time taken to make system changes has been slashed by 20%.

The benchmarking within eGain Knowledgeâ„¢ has helped identify potential efficiencies in the grid operators’ processes and the ease of change has delivered greater flexibility to them. The software has also delivered improved reporting for the operators on query resolutions. eGain Knowledge will initially support telephone communications.

Pepijn Gerckens, Knowledge Manager, N-Allo commented: “The pilot implementation alone has delivered numerous clear benefits. The agents using eGain Knowledge have been hugely enthusiastic about the flexibility it has brought, so too have the grid operators themselves. We are looking forward to bringing these same benefits to all aspects of our service delivery for a number of clients. We believe working with eGain will strengthen our offering and enable us to take advantage of the impending deregulation of the utilities market. We do however also plan to integrate eGain Knowledge with our non-utilities customers too”.

Andrew Mennie, Vice President and General Manager EMEA, eGain stated: “N-Allo offers state-of the-art contact centre facilities to its clients, as such we are delighted that eGain Knowledge has been selected as N-Allo’s knowledge management solution of choice. Following a successful pilot, we are looking forward to providing benefits across the full spectrum of N-Allo’s service offering”.

eGain Service 7.6 recognized for delivering quality, excellence, and ROI to customers

Mountain View, Calif., January 9, 2007 – eGain Communications (OTC BB: EGAN.OB), provider of the industry’s top-rated* customer service and contact center software for in-house or on-demand deployment, today announced that eGain Service 7.6 was named a Customer Interaction Solutions 2006 Product of the Year.

Customer Interaction Solutions editors selected companies who demonstrate the vision, leadership, and attention to detail that are the hallmarks of the prestigious Product of the Year award winners.

“The Product of the Year awards represents the best that this industry has to offer. The companies earning this distinction have demonstrated a commitment to quality and to furthering the development of the call center and CRM industry through their contributions. These winners are very deserving of this great honor, and I look forward to seeing more innovative solutions from them as they continue to contribute to the future of call center and CRM industry technologies,” stated Tracey Schelmetic, Editorial Director, Customer Interactions Solutions.

Jointly conceived and developed by eGain and its blue-chip customers, eGain Service 7.6 directly addresses the mindset of today’s consumers, who expect a broad choice of communication channels and superior service quality when interacting with their favorite brands. The software suite combines deep knowledge management and process automation tools with a rich set of applications for managing the ever-growing volume of interactions through traditional as well as emerging communication channels. The customer interaction hub (CIH) approach centralizes channel management, knowledge bases, business rules, and analytical engines, and drastically reduces the cost of managing multiple channels while improving customer experience and process efficiencies.

eGain Service 7.6 is the industry’s first solution to support short message service (SMS) customer service interactions as well as next-generation web self-service, chat, cobrowsing, email, fax, postal mail, notification management, call tracking and resolution, knowledge management, and service fulfillment. The solution can be deployed on-demand or on-premise. Details about eGain Service 7.6 are available at http://www.egain.com/products/index.asp.

“Customer interaction hub architecture will become the preferred way of retooling enterprise contact centers,” said Ashu Roy, CEO of eGain. “It’s a great honor for eGain Service 7.6 to be named a winner of the Customer Interaction Solutions 2006 Product of the Year Award.”

A full list of Product of the Year Award winners will be published in the January and February 2007 issues of Customer Interaction Solutions (www.cismag.com).

Slough, United Kingdom, January 4, 2007 – eGain Communications (OTC BB: EGAN.OB), a leading provider of customer service and contact centre software, is today announcing it has been selected by N-Allo to implement eGain Knowledgeâ„¢ software to enhance the customer service N-Allo’s contact centre agents deliver on behalf of customers.

N-Allo is today one of Belgium’s leading customer contact centres. N-Allo has selected to implement eGain Knowledgeâ„¢ to strengthen its customer service proposition.

eGain was selected following a competitive tender process. In the first instance, eGain implemented a proof of concept knowledge management solution to support incoming calls for the social energy supply network of Flanders.

N-Allo will implement eGain Knowledge across a selection of suitable clients in its target markets in 2007. eGain Knowledge will help N-Allo capture the knowledge of its most experienced agents and centralise this knowledge across all applications, by integrating with N-Allo’s existing state-of-the-art technology infrastructure, to include its CRM and back-end systems, current knowledge management system, Intranet and website.

The pilot delivered a number of clear benefits. eGain worked with N-Allo to design the knowledge base from a consumer enquiry perspective as opposed to a technical delivery perspective, making the knowledge easily accessible to everyone and intuitive to use. This has resulted in more knowledgeable, accurate and faster customer service delivery and increased agents’ ability to fluidly communicate with consumers. Time taken to make system changes has been slashed by 20%.

The benchmarking within eGain Knowledgeâ„¢ has helped identify potential efficiencies in the grid operators’ processes and the ease of change has delivered greater flexibility to them. The software has also delivered improved reporting for the operators on query resolutions. eGain Knowledge will initially support telephone communications.

Pepijn Gerckens, Knowledge Manager, N-Allo commented: “The pilot implementation alone has delivered numerous clear benefits. The agents using eGain Knowledge have been hugely enthusiastic about the flexibility it has brought, so too have the grid operators themselves. We are looking forward to bringing these same benefits to all aspects of our service delivery for a number of clients. We believe working with eGain will strengthen our offering and enable us to take advantage of the impending deregulation of the utilities market. We do however also plan to integrate eGain Knowledge with our non-utilities customers too”.

Andrew Mennie, Vice President and General Manager EMEA, eGain stated: “N-Allo offers state-of the-art contact centre facilities to its clients, as such we are delighted that eGain Knowledge has been selected as N-Allo’s knowledge management solution of choice. Following a successful pilot, we are looking forward to providing benefits across the full spectrum of N-Allo’s service offering”.

Solution will enable joint customers to optimize customer experience by combining best-in-class eService, knowledge management, and content management capabilities

Mountain View, Calif., December 13, 2006 – eGain Communications (OTC BB: EGAN.OB), provider of the industry’s top-rated* customer service and contact center software for in-house or on-demand deployment, today announced that it has joined the EMC Documentum Application Developer Program. As a member, eGain will receive specialized design consultation and guidance, along with access to dedicated Documentum technical resources to ensure that the integration of eGain’s customer interaction hub (CIH) software suite with Documentum’s solutions meet the highest quality standard.

eGain Service is built on the eGain CIHâ„¢ Platform, the industry’s most comprehensive, integrated, and flexible platform for multichannel customer service, knowledge management, and service process automation. Based on a 100% J2EE architecture, it includes out-of-the-box integration with leading business applications, content management systems, and call center infrastructure solutions. The fine-grained service-oriented architecture of the platform enables rapid development of powerful custom applications. eGain’s out-of-the-box integration with leading content management systems enables companies to exploit existing enterprise content assets to provide exceptional customer service experience.

“Our partner program is the most comprehensive of its kind and offers partners a complete set of tools and support to ensure their solutions achieve our ‘Designed for EMC Documentum’ accreditation,” said Rob Tarkoff, Senior Vice President of Strategy, Business Development and Alliances, EMC Software Group. “By joining our program, eGain is demonstrating their commitment to excellence in enterprise content management application design for its customer interaction suite.”

“eGain and EMC Documentum are pioneers in knowledge management and content management respectively,” said Ashu Roy, CEO of eGain. “Our joint customers will be able to take contact center and customer service performance to the next level by leveraging end-to-end, best-in-class capabilities across knowledge capture, content access, and adaptive content management.”

The EMC Documentum Application Developer Program helps ISVs, VSPs and SIs target, design, develop and go-to-market with successful offerings based on the EMC Documentum platform. As a member, partners can submit their offering to be considered for “Designed for EMC Documentum” accreditation, which ensures their offering has met all requirements to be certified on the Documentum platform. To learn more about EMC Documentum Developer Application Program, please visit
http://software.emc.com/products/app_portfolio/about_logo_program.htm