inContact Cloud Contact Center Expands with Universal Queue

inContact, a provider of cloud-based contact center software, launched the first of at least two major 2013 releases of its contact center software.

This release of the software is packed full of new and enhanced features, including work item routing so callers can be directed to the most appropriate and available agent, channel interlacing that classifies different types of communication as active and passive, a new user interface that was designed to make agents as efficient as possible, and a new universal queue feature.

According to Madelyn Gengelbach, senior product marketing manager at inContact, the most customer-requested of the new features was the work item routing. This latest release of inContact was designed to “harmonize contact center operations by creating a single integrated flow of multi-channel interactions,” which the company noted will enable customers to communicate with contact center agents using the communications channel of their choice.

Essentially, all of the new features are meant to provide additional visibility and flexibility while optimizing agent workflow and contact handling.

“We think that generates a better customer experience overall,” Gengelbach said.

For channel partners, there’s also a new inContact ecosystem that will help the channel take the cloud-based software to customers and enable ISVs and developers to build on what inContact has provided. Gengelbach explained that inContact has been working on a series of APIs over the last year. The news with this release is the company has launched three open APIs for the developer community.

“With our inCloud Ecosystem, we’re rapidly building a developer base of people who want to access contact center technology and do it in a way with our platform that they can develop on,” Gengelbach said.

According to inContact, the inCloud Ecosystem provides partners with the ability to quickly and easily develop on the inContact ecosystem. The new APIs include the Real-Time Data API, Admin API and Chat API. Others will roll out over time.

Additionally, Gengelbach stressed inContact’s focus on providing four-nines uptime for its cloud infrastructure.

“This is mission-critical for our customers. Contact centers aren’t just the ability to access data. … It is the ability to communicate, and it has to be always on and always up,” she said.