Interactive Intelligence introduces Interaction Process Automation

Interactive Intelligence is introducing a new communications-based process automation product called Interaction Process Automation (IPA).

IPA is designed to reduce costs and provide a quantifiable return on investment for unified communications by automating processes that are far more efficient than their manual counterparts, enabling companies to accomplish more with fewer required resources.

Don Brown

“IPA is a completely new approach to process automation,” said Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO, Dr. Donald E. Brown. “We’ve taken mature communications technology and applied it to the broader area of business process automation. IPA helps organisations increase efficiencies and cut costs by decreasing the number of employees and the amount of time involved in a given business process; by eliminating process latency; by reducing the chance for human error; and by providing standardised methods for handling business processes.”

Interactive Intelligence developed IPA as an alternative to traditionally complex process management suites and tool-kits, which require extensive professional services, costly custom programming, and lengthy implementation cycles. The company has leveraged its IP-based unified communications platform to orchestrate the delivery of work, and give organisations everything they need to capture, prioritise, route, escalate and track each step of a business process.

Core Interactive Intelligence UC platform functionality adapted for process automation includes the following:

• Contact centre-style queuing and routing are used for accurate and flexible prioritisation and distribution of process work.
• Enterprise presence becomes “process presence”, indicating availability for a work assignment and speeding processing time.
• Automated escalation functionality ensures that service level goals are met.
• Recording becomes an essential part of compliance for business processes.
• Real-time monitoring provides management visibility into every step of the work process.
• End-to-end reporting delivers the ability to manage and measure each process attribute.
• VoIP provides complete location independence, enabling employees to participate in businesses processes from anywhere in the world.

The link between business process automation and unified communications is evident, as shown in a recent survey of CIOs and IT leaders conducted by IDG Research in conjunction with CIO magazine. The results showed that 87 per cent of respondents saw a clear relationship between UC and business process automation, with 50 per cent stating that they believed communications technology could effectively be used to automate business processes. To view the “Automating for Efficiency” whitepaper based on IDG’s survey results, visit: www.inin.com/ipa.

IPA targets mid-size to large organisations across all industries that require the automation of multi-step, people-centric business processes. Examples include new employee on-boarding, lead management, insurance claims processing, loan application management, new student enrolment, requests for government services, order discount approvals, and many others.

IPA will be distributed through select Interactive Intelligence certified resellers and through the company’s direct sales force.

IPA is planned for general availability worldwide in Q4 2009.