NICE SmartCenter Cross-Channel Analytics to be Implemented by Blizzard Entertainment

RA'ANANA, Israel, May 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE), today announced that Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software, including the award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft^®, will be deploying the full NICE SmartCenter suite for deployment in its customer service centers in the US, France, Ireland, and South Korea. The suite will help the company quickly and efficiently address player issues and optimize scheduling of its 2,500 support representatives, who handle approximately 5 million chat queries, 8 million emails, and 7 million calls from players per year.

"We're committed to achieving industry-leading levels of quality in every aspect of our organization, including customer service," said Paul Sams, Chief Operating Officer of Blizzard Entertainment. "NICE's SmartCenter will help us address our players' issues more quickly and efficiently and continue to ensure they have the best possible experience with our games."

Blizzard Entertainment plans to implement all of the functional components of the NICE SmartCenter suite, including quality management and workforce management, and use NICE cross-channel analytics to prioritize in-game and email tickets from players before they get routed to a customer service representative. This will enable the company to provide faster and more effective service to players who are contacting it regarding technical, gameplay, and other customer-support issues.

The ongoing interchange between customers and organizations – Customer Dynamics -- is rich, complex, and difficult to manage. Optimizing Customer Dynamics is the key to enhancing the customer experience, mitigating risk, and improving operational efficiency. This can be accomplished by understanding the intent, attitudes and needs that are part of every customer interaction. Once uncovered, these insights can be applied to improve every customer interaction to strengthen customer loyalty and help the organization ensure it is able to handle its customers' needs efficiently.  

"NICE is at the forefront of helping companies around the world harness Customer Dynamics by understanding customer intent, gathering strategic customer insights, and leveraging these insights for a valuable impact on customer relationships," said Yochai Rozenblat, Chief Executive Officer and president, NICE Americas. "NICE SmartCenter presents unique capabilities for capturing, analyzing and impacting every customer interaction across multiple channels. This is the winning combination that allows companies such as Blizzard Entertainment to improve their customers' experience, positioning NICE at the forefront of the industry."

About NICE SmartCenter

NICE SmartCenter is the premier solution suite for helping companies optimize Customer Dynamics, with unique capabilities for capturing customer and organization intent, analyzing interactions and transactions for insight, and generating impact on the interaction and the business. NICE SmartCenter includes pre-packaged business solutions that address specific business issues, powered by best-in-class functional components spanning call recording, quality management, workforce management, cross-channel interaction analytics, including speech analytics, real-time guidance, and  performance management. The business solutions capture, analyze and impact customer interactions in real time, across a variety of channels, from audio, email and chat to social media and text messaging.  The solutions include nine packaged offerings: Customer Churn Reduction, Sales Effectiveness, Customer Experience, Marketing Effectiveness, Collections Optimization, Quality Optimization, First Contact Resolution Optimization, Average Handle Time Optimization, and Compliance Management.  These solutions can be deployed on premise, in a hosted model, or via a managed service, and can be implemented stand-alone or fully integrated with customer relationship management and business intelligence solutions.

About NICE Systems

NICE Systems (Nasdaq: NICE) is the leading provider of Insight from Interactions solutions and value-added services, powered by advanced analytics of unstructured multimedia content – from telephony, web, radio and video communications. NICE's solutions address the needs of the enterprise and security markets, enabling organizations to operate in an insightful and proactive manner, and take immediate action to improve business and operational performance and ensure safety and security. NICE has over 24,000 customers in more than 150 countries, including more than 80 of the Fortune 100 companies. More information is available at http://www.nice.com.

About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft^® and the Warcraft^®, StarCraft^®, and Diablo^® series, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry's most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment's track record includes eleven #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company's online-gaming service, Battle.net^®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active players.

Trademark Note: 360 degrees View, Alpha, ACTIMIZE, Actimize logo, Customer Feedback, Dispatcher Assessment, Encorder, eNiceLink, Executive Connect, Executive Insight, FAST, FAST alpha Blue, FAST alpha Silver, FAST Video Security, Freedom, Freedom Connect, IEX, Interaction Capture Unit, Insight from Interactions, Investigator, Last Message Replay, Mirra, My Universe, NICE, NICE logo, NICE Analyzer, NiceCall, NiceCall Focus, NiceCLS, NICE Inform, NICE Learning, NiceLog, NICE Perform, NiceScreen, NICE SmartCenter, NICE Storage Center, NiceTrack, NiceUniverse, NiceUniverse Compact, NiceVision, NiceVision Alto, NiceVision Analytics, NiceVision ControlCenter, NiceVision Digital, NiceVision Harmony, NiceVision Mobile, NiceVision Net, NiceVision NVSAT, NiceVision Pro, Performix, Playback Organizer, Renaissance, Scenario Replay, ScreenSense, Tienna, TotalNet, TotalView, Universe, Wordnet are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NICE Systems Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, including the statements by Messer Rozenblat, are based on the current expectations of the management of NICE-Systems Ltd. (the Company) only, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results or performance of the Company to differ materially from those described herein, including but not limited to the impact of the global economic environment on the Company's customer base (particularly financial services firms) and the resulting uncertainties; changes in technology and market requirements; decline in demand for the Company's products; inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications; difficulties or delays in absorbing and integrating acquired operations, products, technologies and personnel; loss of market share; pressure on pricing resulting from competition; and inability to maintain certain marketing and distribution arrangements. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting the company, refer to the Company's reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F.   The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise them, except as required by law.

SOURCE NICE Systems Ltd