Accor North America's Reservation Services Reports Improvement in Agent Performance with Its Investment in Witness Systems' eQuality Software (email this article)

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 2004-- Witness Systems (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies) (NASDAQ: WITS - News), a global provider of performance optimization software and services, today announced that Accor North America's Reservation Services has attributed much of its success in handling this summer's peak season for hotel and travel reservations to two factors: the superior customer service and sales of its agents and supervisors, and the impact of its investment in Witness Systems' eQuality® software. The announcement follows the news issued by the company in June 2004 regarding Accor Reservation Services Group's European deployment.

Accor North America, a division of European-based Accor - one of the world's largest groups in travel, tourism and corporate services - has a portfolio of more than 1,200 hotels in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Accor brands include the nationwide economy leaders Red Roof Inns, Studio 6 and Motel 6, and the upscale Sofitel, Novotel and Ibis.

The company uses Witness Systems' eQuality customer interaction recording and performance evaluation software as a foundation and key component of its quality assurance and customer loyalty program in its two North American contact centers, located in Columbus and Springfield, Ohio. Globally, Accor leverages eQuality across multiple contact center sites in six countries, including France, the U.K., Australia, Spain and Brazil.

After rolling eQuality out in its Ohio-based centers one year ago, Accor North America's Reservation Services reports ROI results that have impacted its training program and follow-up coaching efforts. In using the software, the company has been pleased with the improved sales effort and the customer service impact it has achieved.

Accor North America's Reservation Services invested in eQuality based on several key factors. "We felt Witness Systems' product functionality, service offerings, consulting practice and real understanding of our business and its direction made it an ideal business partner," said Larry Daniel, senior vice president of reservations for Accor North America.

"Early in the process, we took part in a Witness Systems Performance Optimization Workshop that included our North American team, along with all of our global counterparts, representing six countries and multiple centers," added Daniel. "This exercise helped us develop, map and roll-out our worldwide standards for operating procedures around customer sales, service and satisfaction. It was critical for us to calibrate across our various markets, brands and cultures to implement a strong global model that aligned our quality process goals from a corporate, country and center perspective."

Additionally, Accor Reservation Services has plans to use the software to analyze customer trends and provide information to its marketing and operations groups. eQuality will enable marketing, operations and Accor Reservation Services' contact centers to work together for a better response to meet the expectations of its customers. For example, through this analysis process, the reservations department will be able to document feedback from customers regarding the renovation project currently underway at the Red Roof brand.

"eQuality has enabled us to assign real meaning and value to the customer intelligence and feedback we're capturing," explained Leesa Williams, senior director for Accor Reservation Services in Columbus. "Using eQuality's business-driven recording capabilities, we're able to capture specific types of customer contacts and apply quality assurance by both call type and brand. This is especially important because it allows us to trend and analyze the direction our business is heading and respond accordingly. We also can share recorded customer interactions with our marketing and operations departments, enabling them to hear first-hand what consumers are interested in, which in turn, helps them in their future sales, advertising and offer development initiatives."

By offering solutions that record, evaluate and analyze interactions between agents and customers, Witness Systems' eQuality enables organizations, like Accor, to optimize workforce performance and leverage valuable customer intelligence by using captured customer contacts to ensure adherence to established business processes, respond rapidly to opportunity/improvement areas, identify trends and share agent best practices by leveraging them for training and development purposes.

About Accor North America
Accor North America is a division of Accor. With 150,000 associates in 140 countries, Accor is the European leader and one of the world's largest groups in travel, tourism and corporate services, with two major international activities: Hotels: 4,000 hotels (450,000 rooms) in 90 countries, casinos, travel agencies and restaurants; and Services to corporate clients and public institutions. Each day, 13 million people in 32 countries use a broad range of services (food vouchers, people care and services, incentive, loyalty programs, events) engineered and managed by Accor.

Accor North America has a balanced portfolio of more than 1,200 hotels in the United States, Canada and Mexico, representing more than 130,000 rooms. In key gateway cities and suburban locales, you see our brands everyday: Sofitel, Novotel, Ibis, Red Roof Inns, Studio 6 and Motel 6. Whether attending a business seminar or planning a family vacation, Accor North America offers today's traveler quality brands they can trust. For more information, visit http://www.accor-na.com.

About Witness Systems
Witness Systems (NASDAQ: WITS - News) provides the contact center industry's first integrated performance optimization software suite to help global enterprises capture customer intelligence and optimize workforce performance. The browser-based eQuality® software is comprised of compliance, high-volume and business-driven recording solutions for customer contact centers and IP telephony, as well as performance analysis and e-learning applications. The closed-loop suite enables companies to capture and retrieve, learn and train, and report and analyze customer interactions and back office transactions to develop staff, increase revenue, reduce costs, and achieve greater customer retention and loyalty. An integrated business consulting, implementation and training methodology enables organizations to maximize their return on investment. For additional information about Witness Systems and its eQuality software suite, visit www.witness.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this release that involves Witness Systems' expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. They are identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. These statements are based upon information available to Witness Systems as of the date of this release, and the company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements believed true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Some of the factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from current expectations include fluctuations in customer demand and the timing of orders; the company's ability to manage its growth; the risk of new product introductions and customer acceptance of new products; the rapid technological change which characterizes the company's markets; the risks associated with international sales as the company expands its markets, including the risks associated with foreign currency fluctuations; the ability of the company to complete and integrate successfully any acquisitions or investments it may make; and the ability of the company to compete successfully in the future, as well as other risks identified under the caption "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ending June 30, 2004, and any other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Witness, eQuality and the Witness logo are United States registered trademarks of Witness Systems, Inc., protected by laws of the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.