| Bethesda, Md. -- November 6, 2002 -- CenterForce Technologies,
award-winning provider of optimization software for call centers,
and RightForce, a pioneer developer of Intelligent Workforce
Management solutions (IWFM), announced today that effective
immediately, the two companies would merge. The merger creates
a new market leader in productivity optimization software for
contact centers. Both firms are privately held and financial
details of the merger were not disclosed.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for marketplace synergy,"
said Bob Kelly, president and CEO of CenterForce. "RightForce
has redefined workforce management for inbound and blended
channel centers while CenterForce is the leading provider
of productivity optimization tools for outbound calling centers.
Together, we provide the first end-to-end workforce optimization
solution designed exclusively for the needs of today's contact
centers. It's precisely where the customer interaction market
is heading."
"We see a significant market opportunity developing as
both inbound and outbound contact centers seek to optimize
agent as well as system performance. The outbound workforce
optimization market is one that has been largely overlooked
by the contact center Workforce Management industry, said
Paul Stockford, chief analyst at Saddletree Research, Scottsdale,
Ariz. "As a result, the combined products of RightForce
and CenterForce create a unique offering that has the potential
to provide a comprehensive workforce optimization solution
and establish a leadership position for the newly merged CenterForce
Technologies."
The new organization will operate under the name CenterForce
Technologies, Inc., and Kelly will continue as president and
CEO, based at company headquarters in Bethesda, Md. Gus Agusti,
co-founder of RightForce, will serve as a vice president of
CenterForce and will oversee the evolution of the company's
full line of workforce management applications. Howard Glass,
previously president of RightForce will return to Interactive
Response Technologies (IRT) as President and will join the
CenterForce Technologies board of directors.
"Contact centers are changing as fast as technology
will allow," said Gus Agusti, co-founder & chief
technology officer, RightForce. "Revenues and relationships
are driving the business and companies now see the contact
center as critical to the bottom line. Our solutions can help
them optimize their staff, analyze their performance, and
build on their successes with both inbound and outbound contacts.
It's a completely new set of opportunities for many companies,
and one they will welcome."
RightForce products for inbound contact centers have focused
on intelligent workforce management and optimization applications
- forecasting and scheduling proper staff levels to efficiently
handle customers through multiple channels -- incoming calls,
email, fax, and Web contacts. The company's Web-based Agent
Desktop is an innovative thin-client tool that improves contact
center operations by putting schedule access, management,
and control in the hands of the agent.
CenterForce offers a full line of industry-leading software
including CenterForce Optimizer® for outbound call scheduling,
CenterForce Planner™ for outbound staff forecasting,
and CenterForce Analyzer™, a performance analytics and
score card application for inbound, outbound, and blended
centers. Call scheduling software scrutinizes historical calling
data along with available calling lists to determine the "best
time to call," then optimizes the accounts to be called
in order to increase the likelihood of a connection to the
right party. The result is software that can increase the
number of "right-party connects" by 20 percent to
40 percent or more.
The two companies' customer lists include a number of Fortune
500 firms and large financial institutions, including Alliance
Data Systems, Bank One, BB&T Bank, Fairbanks Capital,
GMAC, PNC Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, TD Trust, Volkswagen,
Washington Mutual Bank, Wells Fargo Bank and others.
The merged company will continue operations in Bethesda,
Md. and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
About CenterForce
CenterForce Technologies is recognized for its award-winning
suite of productivity software featuring automated goal setting,
performance measurement and agent score cards with CenterForce
Analyzer™, "best-time-to-call" technology from
CenterForce Optimizer® and outbound staff forecasting
with CenterForce Planner™. CenterForce products integrate
seamlessly with systems from industry leaders including Aspect
Communications; AVAYA, Concerto, divine, Eyretel, Genesys,
IEX, Nortel; SER Solutions; and Rockwell. For more information
about CenterForce Technologies, visit www.cforcetech.com.
About RightForce
RightForce is a leading provider of contact center, e-business
and enterprise Intelligent Workforce Management (IWFM) solutions.
The company's workforce management suite provides critical
tools to help multi-channel contact centers forecast and schedule
employees to support activities such as inbound and outbound
calling, e-commerce activities like live agent chat, web collaboration
and email response, and enterprise staff demands from shipping
and warehouse to product fulfillment. Designed to reduce labor
costs, empower employees, and enhance customer service levels,
the RightForce multi-channel workforce management suite was
first to leverage browser-based technologies to allow businesses
to create forecasts and schedules across multiple media.
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