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Visionary Innovation Leadership Award

The Contact Center Systems Industry

LATIN AMERICA

© Frost & Sullivan 2015 1 “We Accelerate Growth”

BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH

ContentsLetter of Congratulations 3

Background and Company Performance 4

Industry Challenges..........................................................................................................4

Focus on the Future and Best Practices Implementation..................................................4

Conclusion........................................................................................................................9

Significance of Visionary Innovation Leadership 10

Understanding Visionary Innovation Leadership 10

Key Benchmarking Criteria.............................................................................................11

Best Practice Award Analysis for Altitude Software11

Decision Support Scorecard............................................................................................11

Focus on the Future........................................................................................................12

Best Practices Implementation.......................................................................................12

Decision Support Matrix.................................................................................................13

The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards 14

Research Methodology...................................................................................................14

Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices 15

About Frost & Sullivan 16

Copyright 16



Letter of CongratulationsWe are proud to present you with this year’s award for best practices in Visionary Innovation Leadership in the Contact Center Systems industry. Frost & Sullivan has a global team of analysts and consultants continuously researching a wide range of markets across multiple sectors and geographies. As part of this ongoing research, we identify companies that consistently develop new growth strategies based on a visionary understanding of the future, and thus more effectively address new challenges and opportunities. This research involves extensive primary and secondary research across the entire value chain of specific products. Against the backdrop of this research, Frost & Sullivan is pleased to recognize Altitude Software as the Visionary Innovation Leader in the Contact Center Systems Market.To achieve leadership in visionary innovation is never an easy task, but it is one made even more difficult due to today’s competitive intensity, customer volatility, and economic uncertainty—not to mention the difficulty of innovating in an environment of escalating challenges to intellectual property. Within this context, your receipt of this award signifies an even greater accomplishment.Moreover, we recognize that your receipt of this award is the result of many individuals (employees, customers, and investors) making daily choices to believe in the organization and contribute in a meaningful way to its future. We believe that such an achievement should be acknowledged and celebrated.Once again, we congratulate you on your achievements and wish you great success in the future. We are here to support you on any future endeavors.Sincerely yours,

David FrigstadChairmanFrost & Sullivan



Background and Company PerformanceIndustry Challenges

The Latin American economy is undergoing a transformation. The US dollar revaluated against most of the currencies worldwide in 2014 and it continues to rise in 2015 as well. Latin American currencies, in particular, are devaluating significantly against the US dollar in 2015, especially the currencies of countries such as Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil which are expected to devaluate 24%, 14%, and 40%, respectively. This devaluation impacts investment in all these countries, as technology is becoming more expensive and most of the deals are done in US dollars.

Moreover, Brazil, which alone accounts for over 50% of the total contact center systems market in Latin America, is in the midst of an economic and political crisis, with inflation reaching 9.2%. Therefore, 2015 is expected to be a very difficult year for the contact center systems market in this country.

In times like these, companies tend to make little or no investments at all and constantly look towards cost optimization, improvement of productivity and efficiency, and, most importantly, customer retention. This implies that vendors offering the same products for the last couple of years without much product differentiation or innovation that can leverage customers’ existing technology will probably lose the battle in this time of economic crisis.

A majority of vendors in the contact center systems market in Latin America currently offer omni-channel solutions. However, few of them go beyond just selling the product. Therefore it is important to integrate all channels of customer interaction on three fronts: first, the actual Customer Journey (with no breakpoints between channels); secondly, consolidate the interaction data from those channels and touch points, including those that might be from third-party suppliers or the broader enterprise, to gain an actionable and holistic picture of the Customer Journey; and thirdly, embed the concepts of Omni-Channel Customer Engagement and Customer Journey into the client’s corporate culture and cross-organizational operating models so as to create and continuously improve Omni-Channel engagement.

Therefore, it is imperative that vendors in the contact center systems market reinvent themselves and offer more innovative solutions to help their customers become more productive. This will also enable the vendors to retain their customers.



Focus on the Future and Best Practices Implementation

Focus on Unmet Needs

It is common knowledge that increasingly consumers are interacting with companies through multiple channels. The Portugal-based Altitude Software has invested significantly in the last year to provide many innovative customer interaction management solutions to its customers.

Nowadays, a company does not choose the channel through which to communicate with its customer or through which to receive customer feedback. On the contrary, it is the customer who chooses the channel of communication and the company has to make that channel available to the customer if it does not want to lose out to competition.

However, vendors and service providers may encourage the use of certain channels which were not known to the customers. For instance, Altitude introduced the innovative video customer service channel for one of its important customers from the financial segment in Brazil so that its customer could better serve their customers inside the stores, where a counter service already existed. This video service solution implementation had the following goals:

1. Increase productivity inside the branches and allow professionals to fulfill other activities such as sales

2. Achieve economies of scale and cost reduction with the centralization of customer needs and of the operators inside the call center

3. Maintain the flow inside the store and reduce customers’ waiting time on line (there were many situations in which some stores had huge lines, while others had idle attendants)

4. Have the customer visualize the attendee or professional, thus maintaining the level of proximity with the customer and the quality expected by him;

Altitude Software proposed the creation of a centralized contact center platform with the introduction of the video channel. This would enable all the agents to serve customers from anywhere, thus optimizing the operation. The virtual customer service through video in the store was intended for more complex requests, while the totems would be used for more common, recurrent requests. After the pilot project, Altitude Software implemented video customer service and totems in 2 months starting June 2014 and now the company has 59 workstations for video service in 20 branches and 29 totems in 27 branches.

This solution helped maintain the customer flow inside the store (the customers would still visit the store and use video customer service for example) and the face-to-face contact, even if through a video device, continued.



Video customer service in the store

Totems

Altitude Software’s customers now have 30% less agents in the call center than they did in the store (attendees in the store cost two times more than a call center agent), and customers do not have to stand in long lines. The company can now measure the success of its customer service strategy through key performance indicators (KPIs), reduce costs while



maintaining the level of customer service expected by clients, and can also serve different social groups (i.e. seniors who had never used a computer before), while leveraging the relationship between the end user and the company.

Visionary Scenarios through Mega Trends

The connected car market is accelerating globally, driven by several trends such as telematics, navigation, and smart phone integration. This growing market has strong technological implications for various stakeholders in the information and communication technologies (ICT) industry. Always looking to proactively develop solutions that satisfy customer needs through the co-creation model, Altitude Software entered the car tracking segment in 2014. The company ventured into Internet of Things (IoT) concept and developed a functionality to address the necessities of the interaction between the satellite and the automobile by maintaining an uninterrupted communication between those two through an M2M communication concept. The company is already offering this service to its European and Latin American customers.In Latin America, Altitude Software has a customer who is the partner of General Motors (GM). All the company’s cars have a tracking technology embedded in them when they leave the factory. This technology consists of a real-time device that communicates with the satellite so that services can be delivered. A cell phone chip is inserted in device small box inside the car. Every few seconds, the satellite communicates with the device to make sure that it is working. If at some point the device is shown as not working, the customer legacy system starts Altitude Software’s outbound system which calls the chip inside the device and reboots it. Additionally, the vehicle contains a red and a yellow button inside. When the person inside the vehicle clicks on the yellow button, it starts a process whereby Altitude automatically contacts the number which had been registered for that car to understand what is happening (doubts or a situation in which the driver needs help). The red button, on the other hand, besides starting that same process, also initiates communication with monitoring structures such as the police.Growth Performance

A lot of companies in the Latin American contact center systems market are still focused on cost reduction and are not mature enough in terms of productivity, although the economic scenario implies that companies need to become more efficient and productive. However, Altitude Software is both efficient and productive because the company offers innovative solutions that are compatible with companies’ goals to optimize processes, increase productivity, and reduce costs and also provides associated services (not only does the company deliver the technology, but it also offers high value-added services with an advisory focus to deliver business results as expected by the customer). Moreover, Altitude’s business model has also made the company highly efficient in service delivery. The company’s as-a-service services was launched about 10 years ago and the cloud



business model was started about 4 years ago and, since then, the company has seen the increasing representativeness of providing technology as a service versus the traditional model of user license. Altitude Software had an 8.8% revenue growth in Latin America in 2014, especially impacted by the Andean Region (12.3%), Southern Cone (12.7%) and Brazil (9.2%). In the first quarter of 2015, Altitude’s LATAM business contributed 36% of the global business.

Technological SophisticationAltitude Software has gone way beyond creating isolated solutions for contact centers and has adopted an omni-channel approach to address challenges across different verticals. The next big challenge is how to integrate all the channels to enable a 360-degree view of the customer. Altitude has a unique platform where all the channels are naturally integrated. It is an open and powerful platform in terms of APIs (application programming interface) that allow it to integrate fully with the customer ecosystem. However, customers need not buy the end-to-end platform. If they already own a legacy system for interaction management of a specific channel and wish to introduce new channels and the 360-degree view through APIs, the platform allows for the multimedia integration of voice and non-voice channels.

Moreover, Altitude Software provides advisory support in two steps for the implementation of its omni-channel platform. The first step involves the platform integration processes. For this, the company has identified 5 big service centers: Dubai, Madrid, Lisbon, Mexico City, and Brazil. There are over 60 professionals in Brazil today in the services area, and among them an advisory structure is in place to understand customers’ legacy systems, ecosystem, and business requirements, promote integration and customization of the platform and support the customer in these processes.

The second step consists of operational advisory directed to the customer, specifically the team who manages and runs the platform. Altitude Software’s new product, Altitude Operation Services, allows the company to take lead on the customers’ control desk if he wishes it to do so.

There is a big duality today between stability and performance of technological platforms. While some vendors are only worried about stability, they understand that their function goes so far as maintaining the platform stable and responding to the SLAs (service level agreements) previously agreed on. For Altitude Software, however, if the customer has no capacity to operate the advanced platform, he cannot explore its full potential, which is why the company directs professionals exclusively or partially dedicated to the customers for an operational advisory focused on using the most of the platform’s performance.

Company Culture

Altitude Software has transformed itself into a customer-centric company. The company has been increasingly investing in getting to know more about its customers from different verticals and understanding their business more deeply in order to gain insights and proactively develop solutions that satisfy their needs.Over 50% of the company’s new customers in 2014 were acquired because of Altitude Software’s innovative services such as the door-to-door mobile application, which helps the company perform external interactions with customers. The application also offers monitoring and reporting capabilities. Moreover, it also simplifies the administration



process for the employees on the field, while providing a real-time link to the company’s systems so that information is always up to date.

Operational Efficiency

Innovation and business model aligned with market needs are the two primary factors for customer acquisition and retention. Apart from the innovative customer care solutions provided by Altitude Software, the company also offers customers support, training, and consulting services for the implementation of its solutions. This means that customers can rely on a highly skilled and motivated team of experts and consulting professionals who will help them from the early phase of analysis and consulting to project management. The company’s extensive experience in delivering solutions has enabled it to build a strong methodology that guarantees smooth and safe project management and delivery.

ConclusionAltitude Software has successfully addressed many challenges faced by companies in the on-premise contact center system market with its innovations across product portfolio. Moreover, the company has met the core needs of its customers through customer interaction and co-creation and by providing value-added services. With its strong overall performance, Altitude Software has earned Frost & Sullivan’s 2015 Visionary Innovation Leadership Award.



Significance of Visionary Innovation LeadershipA visionary innovation leadership position enables a market participant to deliver highly competitive products and solutions that transform the way individuals and businesses perform their daily activities. Such products and solutions set new, long-lasting trends in how technologies are deployed and consumed by businesses and end users. Most important, they deliver unique and differentiated benefits that can greatly improve business performance as well as individuals’ work and personal lives. These improvements are measured by customer demand, brand strength, and competitive positioning.

Understanding Visionary Innovation LeadershipVisionary Innovation is the ability to innovate today in the light of perceived changes and opportunities that will arise from Mega Trends in the future. It is the ability to scout and detect unmet (and as yet undefined) needs and proactively address them with disruptive solutions that cater to new and unique customers, lifestyles, technologies, and markets. At the heart of visionary innovation is a deep understanding of the implications and global ramifications of Mega Trends, leading to correct identification and ultimate capture of niche and white-space market opportunities in the future.



Key Benchmarking CriteriaFor the Visionary Innovation Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently evaluated two key factors—Focus on the Future and Best Practices Implementation—according to the criteria identified below.Focus on the Future

Criterion 1: Focus on Unmet NeedsCriterion 2: Visionary Scenarios through Mega TrendsCriterion 3: Growth PipelineCriterion 4: Blue Ocean StrategyCriterion 5: Growth Performance

Best Practices ImplementationCriterion 1: Vision AlignmentCriterion 2: Process DesignCriterion 3: Operational EfficiencyCriterion 4: Technological SophisticationCriterion 5: Company Culture

Best Practice Award Analysis for Altitude SoftwareDecision Support ScorecardTo support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation; ratings guidelines are illustrated below.RATINGS GUIDELINES

The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Focus on the Future and Best Practices Implementation (i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the definitions for each criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies.



The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players as Competitor2 and Competitor3.DECISION SUPPORTSCORECARDFOR VISIONARY INNOVATION LEADERSHIP AWARDMeasurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)

Visionary Innovation LeadershipFocus on the Future

Best Practices Implementation

Average Rating

Altitude Software 9.5 8.5 9.5Competitor2 9 8.7 8.5Competitor3 7 7.2 7.1

Focus on the FutureCriterion 1: Focus on Unmet NeedsRequirement: Implementing a robust process to continuously unearth customers’ unmet or under-served needs, and creating the products or solutions to address them effectivelyCriterion 2: Visionary Scenarios through Mega Trends Requirement: Incorporating long-range, macro-level scenarios into the innovation strategy, thereby enabling “first to market” growth opportunities solutionsCriterion 4: Growth Pipeline Requirement: Best-in-class process to continuously identify and prioritize future growth opportunities leveraging both internal and external sourcesCriterion 3: Blue Ocean StrategyRequirement: Strategic focus in creating a leadership position in a potentially “uncontested” market space, manifested by stiff barriers to entry for competitorsCriterion 5: Growth PerformanceRequirement: Growth success linked tangibly to new growth opportunities identified though visionary innovation

Best Practices ImplementationCriterion 1: Vision AlignmentRequirement: The executive team is aligned on the organization’s mission, vision, strategy and executionCriterion 2: Process DesignRequirement: Processes support the efficient and consistent implementation of tactics designed to implement the strategy Criterion 3: Operational EfficiencyRequirement: Staff performs assigned tactics seamlessly, quickly, and to a high quality standard



Criterion 4: Technological SophisticationRequirements: Systems enable companywide transparency, communication, and efficiencyCriterion 5: Company CultureRequirement: The executive team sets the standard for commitment to customers, quality, and staff, which translates directly into front-line performance excellence

Decision Support MatrixOnce all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard, analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at best-in-class levels.DECISION SUPPORTMATRIX FOR VISIONARY INNOVATION LEADERSHIP AWARD


High

LowLow High

Best Practices Implementation

Focus on the Future

Altitude SoftwareCompetitor2

Competitor3


The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices AwardsResearch MethodologyFrost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree-view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Too often, companies make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the 360-degreeresearch methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels.


360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN THE CHAOS


Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best PracticesFrost & Sullivan awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate award candidates and assess their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are based on close adherence to this process.

STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT

1Monitor, target, and screen

Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe

Conduct in-depth industry research

Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies

Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria

2Perform 360-degree research

Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline

Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners

Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria

Rank all candidates

Matrix positioning all candidates’ performance relative to one another

3Invite thought leadership in best practices

Perform in-depth examination of all candidates

Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all

candidates Identify any information gaps

Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates

4Initiate research director review

Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles

Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives

on candidates’ performance Update candidate profiles

Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper

5Assemble panel of industry experts

Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders

Share findings Strengthen cases for

candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates

Refined list of prioritized award candidates

6Conduct global industry review

Build consensus on award candidates’ eligibility

Hold global team meeting to review all candidates

Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all

eligible candidates

Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide

7 Perform quality check

Develop official award consideration materials

Perform final performance benchmarking activities

Write nominations Perform quality review

High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes

8Reconnect with panel of industry experts

Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient

Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner

Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria

9 Communicate recognition

Inform award recipient of award recognition

Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for

continued success Celebrate the recipient’s

performance

Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand

10Take strategic action

Upon licensing, company may share award news with stakeholders and customers

Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award’s role in future

strategic planning

Widespread awareness of recipient’s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees



About Frost & SullivanFrost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com .

CopyrightThis research is owned by Frost & Sullivan. No part of this research may be disclosed to external parties without formal written permission from Frost & Sullivan. Furthermore, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of Frost & Sullivan.For information regarding permission, call your Frost & Sullivan account executive or write to:Best Practices GroupFrost & Sullivan7550 IH 10 West, Suite 400San Antonio, TX 78229-5616 USA


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