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 SAN RAMON, CA, November 18, 2013 – Ventana Research has released the findings of its latest benchmark research on Next-Generation Customer Engagement. This cutting-edge research evaluated the effectiveness of current and planned methods companies use to interact with their customers.

Increasingly, customers expect to be able to interact with a company using any available communication channel or what­ever mix of them is convenient and at a time of their choosing. To handle this hetero­geneous array of interactions, com­panies are imple­menting next-generation techno­logies that support efficient and effective customer engagement. This new research shows that almost three-quarters (74%) of organizations are being driven to improve this engagement in order to improve the customer experience. However, this in-depth benchmark research and application of the Ventana Research Maturity Model finds that fewer than one in six is fully mature in how it engages with customers.

In an important insight, the research makes clear that deploying collaboration to improve internal communications is the most important technological advance a company can embrace to improve engagement. In addition, three out of five organizations view mobile technology and analytics as important technology capabilities that make possible innovation in customer engagement. Topping the list of businesses’ plans for improving customer engagement is deploying mobile customer applications. In the area of analytics, the important customer metric is customer satisfaction score for a substantial majority (64 percent) of organizations.

“This research finds a significant shift in companies moving to a multichannel method to support the range of interactions required to meet customer expectations,” said Richard Snow, VP and research director of Ventana Research. “Organizations that do not expand their channels to support the next generation of customer engagement will face a reduction in customer satisfaction and loss of business. This research confirms our view that although many companies now support multiple channels, there is still of lot of work to be done before customers get consistent, personalized and high quality responses across all channels.”

To learn more about Next-generation Customer Engagement, please visit: www.ventanaresearch.com/NextGenCustomerEngagement. Ventana Research, the leading business technology research and advisory services firm, provides free access to the executive summary of the benchmark research report as well as access to webcast of best practices found in the Next-Generation Customer Engagement benchmark research. This research was sponsored by Enghouse Interactive.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the most authoritative and respected benchmark business technology research and advisory services firm. We provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream and disruptive technologies through a unique set of research-based offerings including benchmark research and technology evaluation assessments, education workshops and our research and advisory services, Ventana On-Demand. Our unparalleled understanding of the role of technology in optimizing business processes and performance and our best practices guidance are rooted in our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions in every industry. This benchmark research plus our market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver education and expertise to our clients to increase the value they derive from technology investments while reducing time, cost and risk.

Ventana Research provides the most comprehensive analyst and research coverage in the industry; business and IT professionals worldwide are members of our community and benefit from Ventana Research's insights, as do highly regarded media and association partners around the globe. Our views and analyses are distributed daily through blogs and social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.

To learn how Ventana Research advances the maturity of organizations' use of information and technology through benchmark research, education and advisory services, visit www.ventanaresearch.com.

Media: Copies of benchmark research report and interviews are available upon request.

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