Market Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about Content Guru, drawn from our Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

In all of our Value Indexes we utilize a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal and vendor selection process for agent management. We evaluated Content Guru and 17 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (Adaptability, Capability, Manageability, Reliability and Usability) and two related to the vendor (Total Cost of Ownership/Return on Investment and Vendor Validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and on data derived from our benchmark research on agent management.

Content Guru provides a Contact Center as a Service platform to customers globally, with particular emphasis on public sector and utility contact centers. Content Guru was categorized as an Exemplary Vendor, ranking seventh overall in this Value Index evaluation. It ranked seventh in Product Experience, where it performed best in Reliability, fifth in Manageability and eighth in Capability. It ranked eighth in Customer Experience and fifth in TCO/ROI. Its overall performance was impacted by its lower rankings in Capability and Usability that, together, represent 40% of the weighting in the overall Value Index.

Content Guru could perform better in Capability — where it ranked eighth — in the area of automated workflows, particularly in leveraging AI in workflow creation. In Adaptability, where it also ranked eighth, it could examine its customization features, including the level of development support for applications and tools, and in the depth of customization documentation. This assessment was based on Content Guru’s products for agent management that were available as of November 1, 2021.

The Value Index methodology is designed to provide potential buyers with a balanced look at vendors and products, rooted in an understanding of business drivers and needs. Buyers should consider reviewing their own processes to discern whether they are using a broad enough framework in their own RFI/RFP explorations, one that includes the qualities in all seven of Ventana Research’s evaluation categories that are designed to provide the best possible product and customer experience. The decisions that go into deploying an agent management toolkit cross multiple departmental and functional boundaries. The tools themselves are becoming more complex and connected to other parts of the technology stack. That suggests a need for buyers to examine more than just the features and functionality vendors put forward.

On the vendor side of the equation, we are seeing evidence that the provision of agent management systems can be a strong differentiator for vendors that articulate the use cases for extended agent management in terms of benefits. The challenge is to draw clear lines between the core tools used for basic contact center operations and the extended tools that have more nuanced value propositions lying outside the center itself.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of agent management software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Value Index by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Read the report here.