Convergys, Intervoice and Nuance Mobilizing Call Centers

Implications: Convergys’s acquisition of Intervoice is an opportunity to penetrate call center solutions on the front end of IVR platforms instead of just outsourced staffing and information management.

Analysis:

Convergys’s core business has been billing systems and call center outsourcing that is threatened by the economic slowdown.  Convergys holds major billing system contracts with Verizon for wireless and Cox in cable VoIP, but has lost deals such as the Sprint Nextel integration to Amdocs.  Amdocs will probably also win the billing outsource for the new Clearwire WiMAX venture.  AT&T is outsourced to Amdocs for billing, but Convergys has been able to contract for customer information management in call centers.  And Convergys is a global player with deals in the India call center market.

The acquisition of Intervoice allows Convergys to increase traction in the call center space with Intervoice’s platforms in ACD, self-service IVRs, and Web Chat requests.  The payback might be protracted if the  margins decrease as enterprises control capital expenditures in the slumping economy.  For the future, Convergys can exploit Intervoice’s use of Nuance speech recognition.  Nuance has been successful with directory assistance (DA) applications to carriers and free mobile DA with ads like Jingle and SayHello.  Nuance has also launched handset solutions for voice-enabled search across the OEM vendors like RIM, Nokia, LG,  Samsung and Garmin. 
Most recently, Nuance announced its Mobile Care solution for mobile users to access their carrier’s customer care center with a data application instead of calling a live agent.  Convergys, Intervoice and Nuance applications can be part of the mobilization of call centers, initially for carriers and later in other industries.  The competition will be keen in packaged speech applications from Microsoft acquiring Tellme Networks and Google buying Grand Central Communications.  And AT&T is testing its web-based portal of voice search called AT&T WATSON Speech Mashups.  The competitive differentiator for Convergys is their diverse global scale of service engagements for contact centers.