C3i needed to modernize its Enghouse interactive solution, focused on Improving quality management in the Contact Center
C3i, a multi-channel customer engagement services (BPO) provider, is an organization that supports 80% of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies, in addition to 175 companies across multiple industries. Headquartered in Horsham and Pennsylvania, C3i reports to its parent company, HCL, a leader in the technology outsourcing industry based in India.
This company has been a Tier I client of Enghouse Interactive for the past 20 years and were at risk of loss (“red”) for the past four years. They planned to migrate from Enghouse CCE version 8.0 to Avaya Oceana Contact Center.
What did we do about it?
Kai Kaufmann (VP of R&D) initiated a resumption of discussions between the customer and our sales and services teams to address concerns around their legacy platform. He had worked with Enghouse since C3i became a customer, so he had cultivated a strong business relationship with key stakeholders. That, coupled with his deep knowledge of CCE, telephony, as well as the C3i platform and environment, made him a key player in rebuilding our relationship with them.
Kai initiated a call with C3i and convened several EIA stakeholders to participate: Aaron Jenkins (VP of Services), Buster Hansen (Director of Solutions Engineering), and Michael Scouten (Director of Customer Success). Scouten set up weekly calls with our account champion at C3i, Michael Baker, and engaged Ray Chronister (Solutions Architect) on the CCE experience, as well as QMS SME and demo expert, Allan Reizman (Solutions Engineer).
With the customer in mind
The relationship between EIA and C3i gradually improved until a new agreement became a possibility. By sensing what was most important to the customer, including finding value in the premium the customer would pay, Michael Scouten was able to identify the right product offerings, pricing models, and deal structure that would not only serve the customer’s needs but would offer unparalleled value for improving quality management in the contact center.
In addition, thanks to his extensive industry knowledge of the market standards related to the commercial side of the deal, Rudy Heezen (VP Sales) helped Michael successfully navigate the long and often difficult process of negotiating the C3i acquisition.
After more than 17 months of protracted negotiations, painstaking work and countless calls, and even some Friday nights, the deal closed, and Michael and Rudy closed the deal with C3i on Friday, May 7, 2021.
Our winning value proposition
We won this deal on two fronts:
First, we focused on improving quality management in the contact center. Our on-prem CCE contact center package included a multi-channel QMS (our call recording and quality management solution) that allowed them to record SMS, chat and email with other new features included in the CCE package.
Although we tried to move C3i to the private cloud (hosted CCE), they decided to remain on-premises for security reasons, mainly due to the highly sensitive data of their pharmaceutical customers. In addition, on-premises allows them to have maximum flexibility (due to their ability to control custom development) in how they respond to RFPs when trying to acquire new customers.
Although this functionality was not materially different from that offered by Avaya Oceana, CCE’s open standards appealed to them, as this gave them more control to develop, with ease, their own customizations using their in-house development operations team.
Second, the strength of our relationship played an important role in this case. C3i’s long-standing relationship with and access to senior management, such as Kai and Aaron, was valued, as was the attention we showed them through weekly calls from our Customer Success Manager. Our demonstrated willingness to “go the extra mile for them” won us the deal.
What we achieved by improving quality management in the contact center
- 239,000 per year (July renewal).
- A new $1.087 million agreement resulting in part from an upgrade of CCE v8 to v10.
resulting in part from an upgrade from CCE v8 to v10, which breaks down as follows:
- $408,000 in professional services (includes rewriting some internal applications).
- 300,000 in perpetual software (CCE and QMS).
- 379,000 in new software maintenance for 3 years paid in advance ($126,000 per year).
Key Participants
It took a team effort to achieve this result and achieve quality management improvement in the C3i Contact Center. Here are some of the staff members who played key roles:
R&D:
Kai Kaufmann (VP R&D).
Eileen Steffen (CCE R&D Manager) -Assistance with roadmap and integration issues.
Services:
Aaron Jenkins (VP, Services).
Professional Services:
Chris Miller (Director, PS) Nav Randhawa (Director of Development) -Assistance with SOW and speed to budgets.
Customer Support:
Mike Trepanier (Senior Director, Customer Support).
Terry Fryder (CS III Engineer).
Scott Conway (Technical Account Manager, CS) -Quick action to put out fires.
Sales:
Rudy Heezen (VP, Sales).
Michael Scouten (Director, Customer Success).
Solutions Architects:
Buster Hanson (Director, Solutions Engineering).
Ray Chronister (Solutions Architect).
Allan Reizman (Solutions Engineer).
With this new version of Enghouse, C3i has managed to modernize its operations and take care of the quality of its services. As well as having maximum flexibility and customized development of the Contact Center solution.
Download the success story of how C3i managed to optimize quality management in the contact center!
