Cincinnati Bell to Reduce Customer Churn with an Integrated Interaction Analytics and Transactional Data Analytics Solution from NICE and AnswerOn

RA'ANANA, Israel, CINCINNATI, and DENVER, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE), a leading global provider of advanced solutions that enable enterprises and security organizations to extract Insight from Interactions, transactions and surveillance to drive business performance, reduce risk and ensure safety, AnswerOn Inc., a leading provider of customer retention, acquisition and loyalty solutions to telecommunications service providers, and Cincinnati Bell (NYSE: CBB), one of the leading local exchange and wireless providers in the U.S., today announced that Cincinnati Bell has selected the joint NICE-AnswerOn Customer Churn Reduction business solution which integrates NICE Interaction Analytics and transactional data analytics from AnswerOn.

The end-to-end solution enables Cincinnati Bell to create more accurate churn prediction models by integrating multidimensional analysis results into their churn reduction models.  The solution cross-references customer interaction and transactional data and alerts customer retention personnel in near real-time. It helps Cincinnati Bell build highly personalized offers for at-risk customers, deliver the offers in a proactive and timely manner, and perform on-going measurement and monitoring for fine-tuning of churn models and retention offerings effectiveness. The joint NICE-AnswerOn solution is deployed in a hosted model via a managed service.

"We have a legacy of unparalleled customer service excellence, and we continuously look for ways to increase customer retention even further," said Jeff Baker, Director of Planning and Support at Cincinnati Bell, "To provide the best possible service to our customers and to ensure customer satisfaction, we need to be able to leverage insights from both customer interactions and from transactional data.  For instance, if we see highly emotional calls, combined with a drop in phone usage, this requires our immediate attention or a change in the service package. The joint NICE-AnswerOn Customer Churn Reduction solution will allow us to detect such situations and identify "at-risk" customers earlier and more accurately, resulting in better customer retention and better level of service we can provide our customer."

Eric Alan Johnson, AnswerOn's President and CEO said, "AnswerOn has been partnering with Cincinnati Bell since 2004 to predicatively identify and proactively target customers likely to churn.  By integrating data from NICE's Interaction Analytics, we were able to increase the accuracy of our predictive model by 30%, resulting in an forecasted increase of 61% in saved revenue over the next 12 months.  We have patented this ground-breaking technology and are excited about the strategic partnership with NICE."

"Retaining subscribers is vital in today's hyper-competitive environment, where a mere two percent monthly churn rate can result in many millions of dollars lost on a monthly basis, even for mid-sized service providers," said Barak Eilam, president of Interactions Business Applications at NICE,  "Improving predictive churn capabilities is top priority for the telecommunications industry. The combined interaction and transaction analytics is a unique value-add offered by NICE and AnswerOn, which can dramatically improves service providers ability to proactively retain customers."

NICE's Interaction Analytics is a multi-channel solution, which is part of NICE SmartCenter, a suite of pre-packaged business solutions that address specific business issues, powered by best-in-class functional components spanning call recording, quality management, multi-channel interaction analytics, workforce management and performance management. The business solutions address interactions across a variety of channels, from audio, email and chat to social media and text messaging, and include nine packaged offerings: Customer Churn Reduction, Sales Effectiveness, Customer Experience, Marketing Effectiveness, Collections Optimization, Quality Optimization, First Call 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 standalone or fully integrated with customer relationship management and business intelligence solutions.

About Cincinnati Bell

Cincinnati Bell (NYSE: CBB) is one of the nation's most-respected and best-performing local exchange and wireless providers, with a legacy of unparalleled customer service excellence and financial strength. Cincinnati Bell provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services to residential and business customers in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.  More information is available at http://www.cincinnatibell.com.

About AnswerOn

Founded 2001 with headquarters in Denver, Colorado, and offices in San Diego, California, AnswerOn creates custom solutions to positively influence subscriber relationships in the service provider industry. AnswerOn's Total Lifecycle Management solutions identify and help manage proactive customer interventions that create high value, loyal subscribers. AnswerOn's history of multi-year partnerships with a variety of clients proves its ability to produce sustainable, long-term results that are unmatched by others in the field of predictive analytics.  AnswerOn's customer's include many leading technology and  telecommunication companies.  Current and past customers include AT&T, Alltel, Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Communications, United Online and Dobson Communications.  More information is available at http://www.answeron.com/.

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 85 of the Fortune 100 companies. More information is available at http://www.nice.com.

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 statements are based on the current expectations of the management of NICE Systems Ltd. (the Company) only, and are subject to a number of risk factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to 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, which could cause the actual results or performance of the Company to differ materially from those described therein. We undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. 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.

SOURCE Nice Systems Ltd