Zeacom's Business in 2011: Behind the NumbersZeacom's Business in 2011: Behind the Numbers

Four metrics were offered to quantify what the company calls record growth.

This week New Zealand-based, and privately-held, Zeacom issued a press release with highlights of its fiscal year 2011 (ending March 31). Four metrics were offered to quantify what the company calls record growth. While the numbers themselves are impressive, research and an interview with CEO Miles Valentine adds color to each of the metrics.

Global revenues increased by 36%: Revenue increases in the absence of actual revenue figures can be difficult to judge. Without divulging the actual number, Valentine reports that annual company revenue was between $25 and $30 million. Combined with growth of 15% last year, Zeacom has essentially doubled its business in two years.

Asked about the breakdown of contact center versus unified communications revenues (the flagship product Zeacom Communications Center (ZCC) supports both), Valentine reports that 85% can be attributed to contact center. He reiterated a comment Zeacom's President for the Americas Ernie Wallenstein made to me at Enteprise Connect this year, that Zeacom sees UC becoming more and more commoditized.

New customers gained increased by 61%: Zeacom has customers in about 30 different countries. Tracking back, in March 2008 Zeacom press releases talked about the having 2,500 customers. In 2009, the number jumped to 2,800 and this week's press release says 3,500. Percentages aside, the company has added 1,000 customers in the past 3 years.

Staff numbers increased by 15%: In 2010, the company reported having 150 employees. With this 15 percent increase, today's number is about 175.

Business process automation revenues increased by 66%: This is the number that made me scratch my head the most. What is Zeacom counting as BPA revenue? Genesys (with intelligent Workload Distribution) and Interactive Intelligence (with Interaction Process Automation) have productized offerings in this space. A trip to Zeacom's website shows that BPA is largely defined by example, like the automated civil emergency and weather warning system Zeacom implemented for the Tasman District Council.

It became clear during my discussion on the topic with Valentine that what Zeacom calls BPA might have been called CEBP (communications-enabled business processes) a few years back. Like contact center platforms from Genesys, Interactive Intelligence, the Avaya Aura Contact Center, etc., ZCC has the ability to queue, route and report on non-contact center work items. For years, this has often involved integrating ZCC with productized connectors to 3rd party CRM applications like Salesforce.com, SAP or Oracle. Most recently, BPA on Zeacom’s platform involved routing social media contacts from social media monitoring applications, often from partner Alterian. Valentine reports that they have "half a dozen" customers routing social media contacts to agents.

Recall that both Genesys and Interactive Intelligence began their BPA journey with similar offerings (Genesys with Business Process Routing and Interactive Intelligence with Generic Object Routing) before productizing iWD and IPA. With the revenue and number of BPA projects increasing at Zeacom, I'll close by saying stay tuned.