NEW YORK, March 26, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — CRM magazine has named the recipients of this year’s CRM Service Awards and highlighted them in its April 2019 issue. The CRM Service Awards, now in their 16th year, honor the leading vendors across nine customer service and contact center technology segments. Also highlighted are three companies, named the Service Elite, that have used those solutions to pull in very significant benefits; and six Rising Stars—both emerging and established vendors—that have reshaped the industry in the past year.

In total, 31 vendors are represented on the leaderboards for the nine types of technologies evaluated: customer case management, contact center infrastructure, interactive voice response systems, web support, workforce optimization, contact center search, enterprise feedback management, contact center analytics, and contact center outsourcing. In each category, CRM magazine names one winner, denoting the company receiving the highest overall score; four CRM Service Leaders; and a One to Watch. Recipients of the CRM Service Leader Awards are determined through a proprietary ranking system based on the scores given by leading industry analysts and consultants for each vendor’s deployment costs, customer satisfaction, depth of functionality (or breadth of services, in the case of outsourcing), and company direction. Company financial data is also taken into consideration.

“Our annual CRM Service Awards uniquely provide a comprehensive and unbiased look at the leading vendors offering technology and services to the contact center market. The market is in a constant state of flux, alternating between periods of consolidation and expansion as new technologies emerge and new vendors enter the market to meet changing demands. This is as much a reality today as it was when we first started the awards 16 years ago,” said CRM editor Leonard Klie.

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning were clearly the top trends in the past year, touching just about every customer service category and technology available. As human agents come to rely more on machines, and vice-versa, contact centers are quickly becoming far more sophisticated than ever. We couldn’t be happier to recognize all those who are making it possible,” Klie said.

Recipients of the 2019 CRM Service Awards are listed below in their respective categories. Leaders in each category are listed in alphabetical order:

Customer Case Management
Winner: Microsoft
Leaders: Oracle, Pegasystems, Salesforce.com, and Zendesk
One to Watch: Freshworks

Contact Center Infrastructure
Winner: NICE inContact
Leaders: Cisco Systems, Five9, Genesys, and Mitel Networks
One to Watch: Aspect Software

Interactive Voice Response
Winner: NICE inContact
Leaders: Aspect Software, Cisco Systems, Genesys, and Verint Systems
One to Watch: Nuance Communications

Web Support
Winner: Microsoft
Leaders: Freshworks, Oracle, Salesforce.com, and Zendesk
One to Watch: Nuance Communications

Workforce Optimization
Winner: NICE.
Leaders: Aspect Software, Calabrio, OnviSource, and Verint Systems
One to Watch: ZOOM International

Contact Center Search
Winner: Microsoft
Leaders: Coveo, Oracle, Salesforce.com, and Verint Systems
One to Watch: IBM

Enterprise Feedback Management
Winner: Qualtrics
Leaders: MaritzCX, Medallia, SurveyMonkey, and Verint Systems
One to Watch: NICE

Contact Center Analytics
Winner: NICE
Leaders: Calabrio, Clarabridge, Twilio, and Verint Systems
One to Watch: Oracle

Contact Center Outsourcing
Winner: Alorica
Leaders: Sitel Group, Teleperformance, TTEC, and Working Solutions
One to Watch: Concentrix

The six companies named as Rising Stars this year were the following:

• Avaya
• RingCentral
• SAP
• Twilio
• Vonage
• Zappix

This year, the three customer companies that won CRM’s Service Elite awards for their customer service technology deployments are the following:

• CompanyNurse, a provider of services for work-related injuries, which deployed Genesys’ PureCloud technology to expand the number of contact channels available;
• MoneyGram, the money transfer and payments processing provider, which implemented NICE inContact’s CXone platform to streamline customer service processes for a global audience; and
• Parking spot reservations provider SpotHero, which installed UJET’s contact center infrastructure to improve system reliability.

The 2019 CRM Service Awards have been published in the April 2019 issue of CRM magazine—available in print and online here.

About CRM Magazine

CRM magazine is the leading publication of the customer relationship management industry, covering sales, marketing, and customer service strategies. The magazine also produces the annual CRM Evolution and SmartCustomerService conferences. For more information about the magazine, its editorial calendar, or CRM in general, please visit http://www.destinationcrm.com. CRM magazine and the destinationCRM.com website are properties of CRM Media, a division of Information Today, Inc.

SOURCE CRM Magazine