CenterStone Technologies Replaces RightNow’s Customer Service Software with Parature’s Customer Support and Help Desk Solution (email this article)

MCLEAN, VA - November 7, 2005 - Parature (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies), the leading provider of award winning, on demand customer support software, announced today that CenterStone Technologies has replaced RightNow Technologies Customer Service Software with Parature’s Customer Support Solution. After implementing RightNow’s products a year ago, CenterStone, leading provider of applications helping retail dealers and salespeople work more effectively, began to realize that the workflow and user interfaces were complicated both on the customer support representative and end user customer sides. “RightNow’s basic functionalities are really difficult,” stated Terry Gates, Sr. Vice President of Technology at CenterStone Technologies. “Their complex user interfaces made navigating confusing and their workflow concepts were too complicated. Parature’s workflow and user interfaces are much cleaner and more straightforward which better meets our needs.”

In addition to the interface and workflow, customization played a key role when selecting a new provider. “When we tried to customize RightNow’s solution to simplify things, it proved very difficult to use for our customers. Parature’s customizable ticket fields enable our customers to select and narrow their support inquiries which drives their usage of the system and deflects support emails and calls that normally would have been going to our support representatives,” commented Gates. “Training is almost not needed with Parature’s system. We conduct basic training for our support representatives whereas with RightNow’s solution it takes 15 minutes just to explain what is on the screen.”

The overall scalability, feature set and ease of use will enable CenterStone to utilize Parature’s customer support solution for years to come. “Parature fits the direction we’re going as a company, allowing us to quickly launch the solution and build upon our unique customization needs. RightNow was situated where you almost have to think two years in advance on everything you were doing which isn’t always possible,” concluded Gates.

Terry goes further to explain the vast difference in total cost of ownership, stating “We had a full-time person who dedicated two thirds of their time to RightNow’s solution. I spend less than ten percent of my time administrating Parature’s solution.”

"We are continually receiving praise from our clients and industry experts about our functionality, integration capabilities, customization, ease of use and total cost of ownership,” said Duke Chung, CEO at Parature. “Because of that positive feedback and having been awarded the gold medal in SearchCRM’s 2004 Product of the Year for customer-facing online service, we are confident that we are providing our clients, their customer support representatives and customers the most complete support solution available.”

A full case study on how CenterStone Technologies is utilizing Parature’s customer support solution is available on Parature’s website at http://www.parature.com/res_casestudies.aspx.

About Parature
Parature, the leader of online support software, enables companies to improve their internal and external support while reducing costs. Through Parature 6, the company’s flagship customer service and help desk solution suite, Parature allows companies to provide critical self service information on a 24x7 basis via the web, resulting in reduction of inbound support load and therefore reducing support costs. Continually growing, Parature serves industry leaders such as Office Depot, ATI Technologies Inc. and Florida State University. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Parature can be found on the Web at www.parature.com.

For more information on the full features available in Parature 6, or to sign up for the FREE 30-Day Trial, please visit www.parature.com.

About CenterStone Technologies
CenterStone’s applications give retail dealers and sales reps the ability to create proposals, view online catalogs and product availability and to place preseason, restocking, and retail employee orders more effectively and efficiently with their vendors. CenterStone Technologies makes vendors more competitive by providing increased inventory turns at retail, reducing customer service costs, and enabling greater speed to market, thus improving relationships with their customers – retail dealers. Product availability and orders for clients are exchanged between retail dealers, sales reps and vendors’ back office (ERP) systems using EDI or XML.

A blue chip list of well-respected, world-wide brands currently using CenterStone’s technology include: The North Face, Helly Hansen, Ripcurl, Billabong, Ex Officio, Marmot, Pearl Izumi, KHS Bicycles, Jansport, Sport Obermeyer and others. Additional information about CenterStone Technologies, Inc. can be found on the company’s Web site at www.centerstonetech.com.