Interactive Intelligence Group Inc., a global provider of software and services designed to improve the customer experience, has received the 2013 EMEA Frost & Sullivan Contact Centre Company of the Year Award. The award is based on Frost & Sullivan’s recent research into the contact centre systems market and is presented annually to organisations that demonstrate growth strategy and implementation excellence. The award recognises a high degree of innovation with products and technologies, and the resulting customer value and market penetration leadership.

Interactive Intelligence’s flagship product, Customer Interaction Center™ (CIC), offers contact centre, unified communications, and business process automation applications all running on a single platform. “Interactive Intelligence’s software-based, all-in-one model was purpose-built from the ground up, which has enabled the company to quickly and cost-effectively add functionality without undue complexity,” says Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Suvradeep Bhattacharjee. “Its CIC version 4.0 release was a huge boost for the company, as it significantly enhanced ease-of-deployment and scalability.”

According to the Frost report about the Interactive Intelligence 2013 EMEA Contact Centre Systems Company of the Year Award, Interactive Intelligence EMEA showed significant growth in 2012 with an increase in market share in all contact centre segments, including hosted automatic call distribution, agent performance optimisation, and intelligent call routing, despite challenging industry conditions.

Sales growth came from Interactive Intelligence’s direct sales force and from its partner network of more than 350 value-added resellers. It also grew through strategic acquisitions and recruitment, including the acquisition of distribution companies in Germany and South Africa, as well as the acquisition of a value-added reseller in the Netherlands.

“This award affirms the value our unified IP business communications software is bringing to EMEA customers through its all-in-one architecture that helps them reduces costs and simplify system management,” says Interactive Intelligence Vice President of Sales for EMEA Richard Brown. “Adding to this value – and boosting our EMEA growth – was the European launch of our cloud-based communications-as-a-service offering last year, which gives our customers an unprecedented degree of deployment flexibility.”
“We’ve hung our hat on customer service innovation and this award demonstrates that companies are benefitting from our goal of creating the most streamlined, feature-rich business communications system on the market,” says Interactive Intelligence Chief Marketing Officer Joe Staples.

“Interactive Intelligence has continued to add innovative features to its core system in emerging areas within the contact centre, such as social media and proactive customer contact,” Bhattacharjee says. “By working closely with customers to understand the best practices that should be applied to these newer capabilities, Interactive Intelligence has helped companies position their contact centres as a vital part of the their overall enterprise, rather than a mere cost centre.”

Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.


About Interactive Intelligence
Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ) is a global provider of contact center, unified communications, and business process automation software and services designed to improve the customer experience. The company’s solutions, which can be deployed via the cloud or on-premises, are ideal for industries such as financial services, insurance, outsourcers, collections and utilities. Interactive Intelligence was founded in 1994 and has more than 5,000 customers worldwide. The company is among Software Magazine’s 2013 Top 500 Global Software and Service Providers, and is the recipient of TMC’s Cloud Computing Magazine’s 2012 Cloud Computing Excellence Award. It has received Frost & Sullivan’s Company of the Year Award, Contact Center Systems, North America, for the last two consecutive years. Interactive Intelligence employs more than 1,500 people and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The company has offices throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Interactive Intelligence can be reached at +27 87 825 0900 or info@inin.com; on the Net: www.inin.com/za.

This release may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are described in the company's SEC filings.
Interactive Intelligence is the owner of the marks INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE, its associated LOGO and numerous other marks. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.ININ-G

Press Information
Deon Scheepers
Interactive Intelligence
087 825 0977
Deon.Scheepers@inin.com

Lizelle Cloete
Red Ribbon Communications
022 433 4914
lizelle@redribboncommunications.co.za

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