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Summary
There is increasing recognition that CRM is not just about installing technology. It requires redirecting focus and processes away from a company’s internal issues and toward its customers. Synthesys from Noetica Ltd. not only enables this shift but also allows companies to take pragmatic steps toward implementing a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Synthesys is built from a set of tools that make it possible to develop customer-centric processes and then couple those processes to data sources and systems to automate the extraction and delivery of the data required to execute the processes. Combined with analytic tools, these enable companies to re-engineer their processes and measure how effectively the new processes are working.

Assessment
Customers interface with companies at multiple touch points. Whether it’s receiving marketing mail, chatting online with a sales representative, calling the contact center or simply visiting a Web site, that contact can occur at any time, with various people, through a variety of communication channels. To achieve consistency in handling each of these interactions, companies first need to establish consistency among all their interaction-handling processes.

Synthesys has three main components that support process re-engineering: modules for business process management, Script Aware Predictive Dialler and Service Dispatching. These business process management tools are the heart of the product suite. They provide a simple drag-and-drop capability to draw process maps, making this a much easier tool to use than Microsoft PowerPoint or Visio. Noetica also has a growing library of common components that can be dropped into maps to define the most complex and, if need be, nested processes. These can be used as is or modified to meet specific requirements, and Noetica will work with customers to develop new components.

But tasks within processes don’t come alive unless they have data. Noetica has therefore developed a library of extractors that can be configured to extract and/or push data into many of the common contact center systems. Again these can be used as is, modified or custom-built. Data can be displayed through the user interface of the host system or in purpose-built screens that present subsets of data from one or more host systems. The reverse is also true: Data newly entered can be pushed back to the host systems. This in effect produces an SOA in which users don’t have to know where the data is coming from or is going to; they see only what is needed to execute the task.

Another important feature allows users to attach metrics to tasks and to points within the process. During operations, performance data is collected and made available either as standard reports or purpose-built reports and dashboards. These can show information such as how long each step in the process is taking, how many times an option was chosen or how many times the positive or negative path was chosen. This information is helpful in identifying where the processes can be improved.

This information also drives the Script Aware Predictive Dialler. Once they have set up an outbound campaign, most companies use an automated dialer to call the target number when an agent comes free from the last call. Script Aware Dialler is smarter than that. It can monitor an agent’s progress throughout a call and, based on historical analysis, predict when to make the call, even down to the point of deciding how long the call will take to complete based on the customer’s choices and decisions. This automated awareness improves agent utilization and can make the process of running outbound campaigns more effective. For companies that need it, dispatching software allows the configuration of processes to automate handling of emergency calls, dispatch of field engineers, follow-ups and other activities.

The suite includes standard management tools to provide security, user authority, configuration and the like. The newest version, Synthesys.Net, provides similar functionality but is based on Microsoft’s .Net Framework and provides a browser-based interface, which makes it easier for nontechnical staff to set up and configure the system to their requirements.

Ventana Research interviews with customers uncovered no reports of issues with product functionality and performance. One customer told us it runs the software from its base in Europe interfaced with systems housed in North America for company users in the Far East; performance is well within acceptable bounds and although the processes stay the same, the user interface varies in the different locations so that all users are comfortable with using it. But the customer highlighted that Synthesys forced it to think explicitly about its processes, something the company wasn’t used to doing. Once company managers had overcome the initial shock, they were able to quickly re-engineer the way they worked without having to make massive changes to existing business applications.

Market Impact
The CRM label today is often associated with technology projects that did not live up to expectations. Recent research by Ventana Research shows that companies want to become more customer-centric, and we believe to do this requires a fundamental look at customer-focused processes. But companies need to recognize that this cannot be done without changes in company culture, processes and people, and existing customer-associated problems cannot be solved by implementing stand-alone CRM technology. Noetica positions its products as customer interaction management tools. We see the offering more as a mix of CRM, desktop management such as Jacada sells, process management such as the embedded tools in Onyx, and contact center-specific business intelligence tools such as those from Hardmetrics and Merced Systems. This gives it a unique position in the market; with careful marketing, we believe it will continue to carve out a major share of the “CRM” market.

Recommendation
Ventana Research believes it is time for companies to rethink the idea of CRM as a technology deployment. To truly succeed in managing customer relationships, they must first decide that customers really are important. This is a non-trivial shift, since they then will have to act on that decision, which will require several sets of changes. First they’ll have to change attitudes and re-evaluate key performance metrics. Next they‘ll need to look at how their customer-touching processes need to be improved. As this point, we recommend that they examine Noetica’s ability to assist in re-engineering these processes without necessarily changing the supporting technologies. They also should consider its ability to support the delivery of new metrics that reflect the change of focus and help identify where the processes can be further improved.