Who Is Convergys, and Why Do They Want Intervoice?Who Is Convergys, and Why Do They Want Intervoice?
Convergys announced today that it will acquire Intervoice. Those of us in the enterprise voice communications space are well familiar with Intervoice, perhaps less so with Convergys. Who are they, why are they buying Intervoice and what does this acquisition say about the IVR/voice portal space?
July 16, 2008
Convergys announced today that it will acquire Intervoice. Those of us in the enterprise voice communications space are well familiar with Intervoice, perhaps less so with Convergys. Who are they, why are they buying Intervoice and what does this acquisition say about the IVR/voice portal space?
Convergys announced today that it will acquire Intervoice. Those of us in the enterprise voice communications space are well familiar with Intervoice, perhaps less so with Convergys. Who are they, why are they buying Intervoice and what does this acquisition say about the IVR/voice portal space?Who? Convergys is a $2.8 billion business process outsourcing (BPO) company with three core markets: contact center services, information management and human resources. In 2007, contact center services were 66 percent of total revenues. Even while the company is looking to increase its revenue in the other two markets, contact center services is still seen as having enormous potential. As they describe it, total $300 billion is spent on managing customer interactions, only 22 percent of which is outsourced today. Convergys sees the 78 percent that is handled by internal contact center equipment and software as additional addressable market.
Why? The contact center services outsourcing market, while increasingly attractive as more and more companies choose to outsource all or part of the customer care requirements, is also increasingly competitive. As one way of building competitive advantage, in November 2007 Convergys created a new unit within its Customer Care Group called Relationship Management Technology. The focus of the group is to create technology-enabled solutions to improve the quality and value of customer and employee interactions including:
Live agent,
Speech automation,
Web self-care,
Enhanced analytics,
Interaction intelligence.
Intervoice clearly provides a wealth of technology to help Convergys create differentiated offers, but the key benefit being discussed is the ability to bridge self- and assisted service. As discussed in a blog in April, existing Intervoice customers were beginning to see the value in Intervoice's combined contact center/voice portal solution. Convergys can now take this solution to its customer base.
What does this say about the IVR/voice portal space? Intervoice was arguably the last standalone player in that space, most of the others having been acquired by ACD companies (e.g., Aspect bought VoiceTek, Nortel bought Periphonics, Genesys bought Telera and GMK, etc.). If a contact center software company had acquired Intervoice, it would have been a play to buy its customer base and services revenues and perhaps bits and pieces of its technology.
The acquisition by Convergys has completely different, and certainly more game-changing synergies: to complement outsourcing leadership with Intervoice's expertise in enterprise, internal contact center operations; and to complement Convergys' strength in live agent services with Intervoice's in assisted service. Self and assisted service continue to come together, and Convergys now has an even stronger story to take to the market.
Intervoice clearly provides a wealth of technology to help Convergys create differentiated offers, but the key benefit being discussed is the ability to bridge self- and assisted service. As discussed in a blog in April, existing Intervoice customers were beginning to see the value in Intervoice's combined contact center/voice portal solution. Convergys can now take this solution to its customer base.
What does this say about the IVR/voice portal space? Intervoice was arguably the last standalone player in that space, most of the others having been acquired by ACD companies (e.g., Aspect bought VoiceTek, Nortel bought Periphonics, Genesys bought Telera and GMK, etc.). If a contact center software company had acquired Intervoice, it would have been a play to buy its customer base and services revenues and perhaps bits and pieces of its technology.
The acquisition by Convergys has completely different, and certainly more game-changing synergies: to complement outsourcing leadership with Intervoice's expertise in enterprise, internal contact center operations; and to complement Convergys' strength in live agent services with Intervoice's in assisted service. Self and assisted service continue to come together, and Convergys now has an even stronger story to take to the market.
