MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 18, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Based on its recent analysis of the Proactive Customer Communications (PCC) applications market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes SoundBite Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:SDBT) with the 2011 North American Frost & Sullivan Company of the Year Award.
Unlike its bigger rivals, SoundBite has a strong and consistent track record of introducing innovative technologies enabling organizations to leverage proactive (outbound) communications to create long-term profitable relationships with consumers. SoundBite has evolved to become the only leading global provider of hosted, interactive multi-channel PCC using any combination of voice, text and email messaging and predictive dialing. This 2011 award recipient now has more than 350 end-clients, including nearly 50 Fortune 500 companies.
"SoundBite has successfully pivoted from its initial strength of leveraging automated voice messaging for collections applications, and become the leader in bringing the three "I's" – Interactivity, Intelligence, and Integration – to multi-channel proactive customer communications. This transformation has enabled SoundBite to become a leading PCC solution provider for the full consumer lifecycle – from marketing to customer care to payments, collections and risk management across many markets," said Frost & Sullivan research analyst Keith Dawson.
Strategically, SoundBite is leveraging its technology leadership via four growth initiatives:
- Improve PCC Results, by an "Order of Magnitude," via Intelligent Preference Management: While most PCC providers simply focus on delivering messages, SoundBite believes its secret is the intelligent toolset it provides organizations to design and optimize its consumer communications. SoundBite Insight, a recently launched preference management platform, provides organizations with the information and intelligence needed to determine the best way(s) to communicate with a given consumer to improve response rates. SoundBite has pioneered the ability to understand and honor consumer communications preferences while leveraging observed behaviors to achieve optimal business results.
- Drive Adoption of Powered by two key technologies, the Dialog Engine and Agent Portal, SoundBite's IMM capability enables organizations to automate customer interactions to the mobile handset via SMS, voice or email messages and, when necessary, escalate those conversations to a live agent. Introduced in late 2009, SoundBite now lists many IMM clients, including some of the world's largest consumer-oriented organizations.
- Transform the Traditional Contact Center to an "Interaction Center": SoundBite's hosted (cloud-based), interactive multi-channel platform provides organizations with a single view of the consumer across multiple functional and business units, while enabling contact centers to blend inbound and outbound communications into a seamless customer interaction. Importantly, SoundBite has invested in key hosted contact center capabilities including a hosted predictive dialer, agent utilization tools, routing, and CTI for Cisco, Genesys and Avaya.
- Expand Globally: Over the past year, SoundBite has established a UK data center, has announced significant EMEA client wins, and has hired and relocated key talent to catalyze its global growth.
"Organizations worldwide are seeking more effective communications strategies that acknowledge consumer preferences, the ubiquity of the mobile device, and create deeper customer engagement," said Mark Friedman, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at SoundBite. "In the end, it all comes down to results. SoundBite will continue its relentless pursuit of delivering ground-breaking cloud-based technologies to enable our clients to achieve the results they seek."
Understanding that the majority of growth in PCC, including the Interaction Center, will take place in the "cloud," SoundBite has created a secure, scalable, multi-tenant hosted platform. The hosted model provides clients with a dual benefit: quick time to results as little or no investment is needed in hardware, software and infrastructure; and maximum lifetime value as the hosted model provides the flexibility to meet the rapidly evolving communications needs of many organizations. Client administration is accessed using a self-service web interface for designing, executing and optimizing communication campaigns.
Understanding the criticality of data security, SoundBite invests in a comprehensive Information Security Program and an annual PCI recertification process. This comprehensive approach ensures that safeguards are in place to protect information entrusted to SoundBite by all of its clients, not only those with a requirement for PCI certification.
The company has built packaged solutions to help clients build long-lasting, profitable relationships with their consumers across the full customer lifecycle across multiple vertical markets enabling SoundBite to grow its client base to include seven of the top 10 U.S. banks, seven of the top 10 U.S. telecommunications providers, five of the top 20 U.S. retailers, and 10 of the top 20 U.S. utility providers.
Based on the aforementioned criteria, Frost & Sullivan is proud to recognize SoundBite Communications with the 2011 North American Company of the Year Award in PCC applications. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in terms of growth strategy and implementation. The award recognizes a high degree of innovation with products and technologies as well as the resulting leadership in terms of customer value and market penetration.
Frost & Sullivan's 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 SoundBite Communications
SoundBite Communications is a leading provider of cloud-based, multi-channel, proactive customer communications solutions designed to transform the way organizations communicate throughout the customer lifecycle to build trusted, lifelong and profitable relationships. Clients can leverage SoundBite's proactive customer communications offering and expertise in designing, executing and optimizing communications strategies to engage in relevant customer interactions that deliver long-term business value. Visit SoundBite.com for more information.
The SoundBite Communications, Inc. logo is available at
SoundBite is a registered service mark of SoundBite Communications, Inc.
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CONTACT: Mireya Espinoza Frost & Sullivan P: 210.247.3870 F: 210.348.1003 E: mireya.espinoza@frost.com Marie Ruzzo SoundBite Communications P: 781 897 2632 mruzzo@soundbite.com
