French Public Sector Consultancy Joins RightNow PRISM Program(email this article)

(Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies) RightNow Technologies, the world’s leading provider of hosted customer service and support solutions, today announced a significant addition to its PRISM partner program with Imnet, a leading French and pan-European technology consultancy.  Imnet, particularly noted for its work with the public sector, joins existing partners Alabus, Dimension Data, Infoco/Unisys, Protein, SNT, and Syntegra in this reseller program to sell and deploy RightNow.

The RightNow PRISM partnership program allows VARS and system integrators continual revenue generation opportunities through such support and consulting services as counsel on best practices, integration with existing business systems, and software customization.

The program enables RightNow to provide local support to European customers through selected business partners and grow its European customer base.  RightNow has more than 100 public sector organizations, and more than 1,000 customers worldwide, including British Airways, Belgacom Skynet, easyCar, KPN Mobile, Lufthansa, Pioneer, Svenska Spel, TeliaSonera, William Hill, and others.

Discussing the partnership with RightNow, Imnet sales director Victor Marty emphasized the increasing need for government departments not only to use the Internet as a source of information, but also to effectively and efficiently interact with the general public.  Interacting with Web-based solutions like RightNow eService Center, members of the public can rapidly access information 24x7 and make more effective use of eGovernment services.

With RightNow, government agencies are now able to give consistent and timely information to members of the public regardless of communication channel they choose—phone, Web, email, or live chat.  In addition, government agencies can centralize all customer communication in a single application to better understand how customers have been historically interacting with the agency.

Although supportive of moves towards providing government services online, Marty recognizes problems often arise in providing support to end users in the call center.

"The workload here can be unpredictable. Operators need to provide support 24 hours a day, without knowing when peaks in demand are likely to hit them” Marty said.  “We needed a flexible solution, which can help deflect calls, and also provide operators with a central knowledgebase to reduce call duration. The RightNow solution meets those needs."

Imnet's goal is to provide public-sector customers with a system that resolves queries on the first interaction. RightNow provides that multi-channel service solution, which is designed around a self-learning knowledge base.  The company’s core technology is based on three U.S. patents, with another seven patents pending.

"There is a real need among our clients for an integrated multi-channel service and support solution that provides world-class technology for electronic channels, and RightNow provides that with their current solution and product roadmap," Marty said. "That is why we feel confident in presenting it to our high profile customers."

Welcoming Imnet to the PRISM program, Didier Guibal, vice president of international operations at RightNow, said, "This marks a further strengthening of RightNow's commitment to Europe.  The company will continue to aggressively partner with VARs and system integrators in Europe to provide customers with leading customer service and support solutions, and the full range of services to meet their individual needs."

About RightNow Technologies
RightNow Technologies is the leading customer service and support solutions company that radically and rapidly improves the effectiveness of service and support operations with easy-to-implement/easy-to-use technology, replicable best practices drawn from the industry's broadest base of successful implementations, and engagement terms that create accountability for delivering quantifiable results.

RightNow has delivered these benefits to more than 1,000 customers worldwide such as: Air New Zealand, Ben & Jerry's, Briggs and Stratton, British Airways, Cisco, Dolby Laboratories, Inc., Electronic Arts, Pioneer, Raymarine, Remington, Sanyo, Specialized Bicycles, and more than 100 public sector clients including the Social Security Administration and the State of Florida.

Founded in 1997, RightNow has offices in Bozeman, Dallas, San Mateo, London, and Sydney, with an associated office in Tokyo.  RightNow's products are available in 17 languages worldwide.  For further information visit http://www.rightnow.com/.