Pipkins, WFM Software Provider, Joins Network of Companies Creating Innovative, IP-Enabled Intelligent Communications Applications
ST. LOUIS, MO (September 26, 2006) – Pipkins Inc., a leading WFM software provider supplying workforce management (WFM) solutions for commercial call centers, today announced it has been selected by Avaya Inc. (NYSE: AV), a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, for membership in the Avaya DeveloperConnection program.
Founded in 1983, Pipkins Inc. is a leading WFM software provider serving the call center industry, providing sophisticated forecasting and scheduling technology. The company’s systems forecast and schedule more than 100,000 agents in more than 300 locations across industries worldwide – from financial services and healthcare to manufacturing, travel and telecommunications.
Pipkins’ premier enterprise product is Vantage Point, which features comprehensive scheduling, forecasting and planning for enterprise-wide, multi-site call center workforce management. This WFM softare provider’s solutions support centers with as few as 30 agents or as many as 3,000. Pipkins Vantage Point is designed to work with the Avaya Call Management System, an application that provides the information and management tools businesses need to monitor and analyze the performance of their contact center operations.
The Avaya DeveloperConnection program promotes the development, compliance-testing and co-marketing of innovative third-party products that are compatible with standards-based Avaya solutions. Member organizations have expertise in a broad range of technologies – including IP telephony, contact centers and mobility applications – helping companies extend the value of multi-vendor networks and transform voice into an intelligent business application that delivers true value to the bottom line.
“Membership in Avaya’s developer community will help us build our business by serving customers more efficiently and effectively,” said Bob Webb, VP of Sales for Pipkins. “By working more closely with Avaya to deliver compliance-tested solutions to the market, we are able to reduce network complexity, improve security and reliability, and speed time to deployment so businesses can quickly realize a benefit to their bottom line.”
The Avaya DeveloperConnection program currently includes thousands of software and hardware developer companies, integrators, service providers and customers. Members have created hundreds of innovative solutions tested for Avaya compliance, including natural language speech recognition applications, wireless services, specialized computer telephony integration and reporting capabilities, and applications tailored for specific vertical industries.
Through the DeveloperConnection program, Avaya provides a number of tools and capabilities to member companies. One example is Application Enablement Services (AES) – a set of application programming interfaces, protocols and Web services that makes it easier for developers to create Avaya-compatible networks, devices and applications.
“With the involvement of companies like Pipkins, our Avaya developer community has become a catalyst for rapid innovation – creating multi-vendor applications that help enterprises around the world unleash powerful new possibilities for operating more efficiently and effectively,” said Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations and technical alliances, Avaya. “We help businesses embed secure, reliable Intelligent Communications into the very fabric of their organization so employees and customers have ready access to information regardless of where they are and how they prefer to communicate.”
As a member of the DeveloperConnection program, companies have access to a wide range of support from Avaya, including technical resources and training. There are four levels of membership – Registered, Innovator, Premier and Strategic – each entailing progressive levels of marketing and sales involvement. Free Registered membership is available to anyone interested in designing Avaya-compatible solutions. Higher-level Innovator, Premier and Strategic members must meet rigorous Avaya criteria for customer satisfaction, product support, business operations, marketing and sales. Pipkins is an Innovator-level member of the Avaya DeveloperConnection program.
Membership information and a listing of solutions developed and tested under the DeveloperConnection program are available at www.devconnectprogram.com.
About Avaya
Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®. Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable Internet protocol (IP) telephony systems and communications software applications and services. Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications – and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services – Avaya helps customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results. For more information visit the Avaya website: www.avaya.com.
About Pipkins
Pipkins Inc., founded in 1983, is a leading WFM software provider supplying workforce management solutions to the call center industry. The company is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. For more information, visit www.pipkins.com.