NEC and Tellme to Offer On-Demand Voice Services

NEC Unified Solutions and Tellme Networks, a Microsoft subsidiary, today announced an agreement to offer on-demand, customizable enterprise-class voice services. Through the agreement, NEC leverages its expertise in enterprise voice, contact centers and communications integration to bring to market innovative voice application services running on the Tellme platform.

“As mission-critical as they are, customer contact centers pose an expensive and complex challenge for large enterprises,” said Bob Crissman, general manager of Partner Programs at Tellme. “With this alliance, businesses have a single resource to help them plan, design, implement and support world-class customer care solutions that can improve customer experience and positively impact the bottom line.”

Building on NEC’s 30-year relationship with Microsoft, NEC and Tellme intend to provide end-to-end services from network planning and design through testing, tuning and ongoing customer support. NEC’s Advanced Applications Services group combines extensive knowledge of interactive voice response (IVR), speech technologies and systems integration to develop intuitive voice applications that optimize live agent call handling in contact centers. NEC’s deep knowledge in various vertical industries, including healthcare, hospitality, higher education and government, will also be key success factors in the relationship.

“NEC and Tellme share the philosophy that communications should serve customer needs through applications and services that are simple and intuitive based on the role of the end user. NEC calls this the UNIVERGE360 approach to unifying business communications,” said Paul Lopez, general manager of professional services development at NEC. “I believe that NEC’s expertise, combined with Tellme’s carrier-grade on-demand platform will allow enterprises to achieve true business process integration, automate call flow and improve customer experience in the contact center.”