Civil Air Patrol of Nebraska To Install
Contact Center Software from Interactive Intelligence
Indianapolis, Ind. & Ashland, Neb. (February 28,
2005)
The Nebraska Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, a nonprofit civilian
auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, will install contact center
software from Interactive Intelligence Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ)
to provide more efficient customer service to CAP members
and the general public.
Nebraska Wing CAP offers aerospace education, cadet programs,
and emergency services, which include assisting the air force
with search and rescue efforts. It will use the new software,
called Customer Interaction Center® (CIC), to more quickly
respond to customers by automating communications functions
and providing new self-service options.
"We don't have funding to staff our facility 24x7, yet it's
critical that we're able to respond quickly to emergencies
such as when a plane goes down," said Lieutenant Colonel
Kenneth Jurek, Nebraska Wing CAP's chief of staff for mission
support. "Using CIC, we'll be able to cut customer response
time, especially during off-hours, without adding staff by
using applications such as call forward/find-me, presence
management, directory look-up, and interactive voice response."
Nebraska Wing CAP also plans to use CIC to better utilize
resources and make customer service more convenient. "We
already have plans to use CIC to provide callers with pre-recorded
messages that give them safety briefings, such as how a current
weather condition is affecting our aircraft, and other information
that assists them with mission risk management," said Jurek. "By
eliminating the need for members to take these calls, we
can more effectively use resources, while providing faster,
more convenient customer service."
Nebraska Wing CAP plans to complete its CIC deployment by
the end of the second quarter. CIC will support about 35
employees in its search and rescue operations center located
at its headquarters' campus at Camp Ashland Training Site,
a Nebraska Army National Guard Post. An additional 30 members
in Nebraska Wing CAP's remaining two buildings will be tied
to CIC using fiber optics. The software will replace an AT&T
Merlin phone system.
CIC is a standards-based bundled communications application
suite that includes PBX and IP PBX switching capabilities,
as well as interaction management features, such as skills-based
routing, IVR with speech recognition, auto-attendant, unified
messaging, softphone, fax-on-demand, call recording, Web
chat, and more. Its open, single-platform architecture was
designed to lower total cost of ownership and simplify administration
and management.
"Our existing phone system requires up to three people to
perform even simple management functions like moves, adds
and changes, let alone any type of customization," said Jurek. "CIC's
'all-in-one' software-based architecture gives us a single
point of administration and a built-in graphical application
generator tool, so we can reduce the number of dedicated
IT staff, and more quickly create and modify applications
that better meet the needs of our customers."
Following the initial phase of deployment, Nebraska Wing
CAP may also extend CIC to field personnel in Nebraska using
voice over IP. There are about 600 CAP members throughout
the state.
Nebraska Wing CAP is only one of two wings out of a total
of 52 nationwide (including the District of Columbia and
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico) that maintains an internal IT
staff. It hopes that a successful CIC deployment will encourage
roll-out within other CAP wings.
"We would love to model for the entire CAP organization
numbering more than 60,000 members how innovative communications
technology can be applied to more efficiently utilize resources,
while improving our responsiveness and adding convenience
to the customer experience," concluded Jurek.
About Civil Air Patrol
CAP has more than 63,000 volunteer members nationwide. Its
members are trained to perform aerial and ground missions
for homeland security, disaster relief, and search and rescue.
USAF-CAP owns nearly 550 single-engine aircraft, the largest
privately owned fleet in the nation.
To perform security missions, CAP aircraft are outfitted
with advanced technology sensors and video imaging equipment.
CAP aircraft can fly "low and slow," and offer a cost-effective
alternative to other reconnaissance methods.
Civil Air Patrol performs 95 percent of continental U.S.
inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force
Rescue Coordination Center. Its volunteers also perform missions
at the request of federal, state and local agencies.
About Interactive Intelligence
Interactive Intelligence Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ) is a global
developer of business communications software for IP telephony,
contact center automation, unified communications, and customer
self-service. The company was founded in 1994 and has more
than 1,000 customers worldwide. Recent company awards include
Software Magazine's 2004 Top 500 Global Software and Services
Companies, and Network World Magazine's 2003 Top 200. Interactive
Intelligence employs approximately 350 people and is headquartered
in Indianapolis. The company has 12 offices throughout North
America, Europe and Asia. Interactive Intelligence can be
reached at +1 317.872.3000 or info@inin.com;
on the Web: http://www.ININ.com. |
