Talisma Answer Receives SSPA Innovator Award (email this article)

Bellevue, WA – Nov. 8, 2006 – Talisma® Corporation (www.talisma.com), the market leader in enterprise Customer Interaction Management (CIM) solutions, today announced the release of Talisma Answer, a powerful new Talisma Email add-on that leverages innovative IBM technology to intelligently automate the creation and delivery of email responses. Talisma Answer’s release coincides with Talisma being named a Recognized Innovator by the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies), the largest and most influential associaton for technology services and support professionals. Talisma and IBM are also scheduled to host a presentation discussing email automation best practices at the upcoming SSPA Services Leadership Conference, Nov. 12-14 in Washington, D.C.

“While many areas of customer service and CRM technology are beginning to mature, only a select number of vendors continue to deliver pure innovative products and services,” said John Ragsdale, Vice President of Research, SSPA. “Talisma is truly an innovator in its space and is commended for enabling support organizations to revolutionize the way they service customers.”

Talisma Answer relies on powerful natural language technology to understand the intent of a customer’s email. Talisma Email can then quickly provide an automated response or suggest a response to an agent. Talisma Answer leverages IBM’s Classification Module for OmniFindTM Discovery Edition to represent words and text passages as “context vectors” to automatically group data into similarly themed clusters for improved response precision and relevance. The learning algorithm is designed to adjust context vectors so that words used in a similar context will have vectors that point in similar directions. Talisma Answer learns the meaning of content based on contextual usage and then organizes the content for immediate processing and retrieval. Talisma Answer also learns new concepts automatically, significantly reducing application maintenance.

Talisma Answer was a winner in the Optimization Innovation category, described as follows:
Optimization Innovation. While much of the industry buzz focuses on new channels and bleeding edge technology, innovation is still needed for customer service and support optimization. Companies recognized for Optimization Innovation are delivering innovative approaches to cutting operational expenses and increasing productivity for technical support and field service agents.

IBM and Talisma’s session at the SSPA Services Leadership Conference, Increase Customer Care Effectiveness with Intelligent Automation of Email Management, will be held Tuesday, November 14 at 10:45 a.m. EST. Attendees will learn how to define and document metrics and processes, analyze email response categories, and automate responses and suggestions in order to deliver more accurate responses and cut costs. Attendees can also visit the Talisma and IBM booth 313 to learn more about Talisma Answer.

“Gone are the days when customers are willing to wait more than 24 hours to get a response to an email inquiry,” said Dan Vetras, President & CEO, Talisma. “We’ve released this cutting-edge product because we believe that customers deserve better email customer service. Talisma Answer helps contact centers significantly improve agent productivity, response accuracy, reduce costs, and help businesses provide an exceptional customer experience.”

About the SSPA
As the industry’s foremost professional association, the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) is a key resource for the information and best practices needed to make better business decisions. It brings together the best minds from across the industry spectrum – from established companies with successful track records to the pioneering newcomers with out-of-the-box ideas. The SSPA also partners with thought leaders like J.D. Power and Associates and the Wharton School of Business to create programs that benefit the industry. For more information, visit www.thesspa.com.

About IBM For close to a century, IBM has transformed how people communicate and collaborate using technology -- around the world and across many industries. IBM OmniFind Discovery Edition helps customers maximize the value of information, regardless of where it is stored and managed. It combines breakthrough contextual delivery, enterprise search and text analytics to deliver solutions that help you achieve real-life business goals: increase sales, reduce costs, improve productivity and gain unprecedented levels of insight.

About Talisma
Talisma Corporation is a global provider of Customer Interaction Management solutions that enable businesses to deliver a truly exceptional customer experience. Talisma’s solutions integrate the power of email, phone, chat, VoIP, and Web self-service with a robust and mature customer interaction management Web services platform, comprehensive analytics, and a system-wide knowledgebase. Talisma's global customers include Aetna, AOL, Aviva, Bank of America, Canon, ChevronTexaco, Citibank, Coast Capital Savings, Daimler-Chrysler, Dell, DHL, Ford, HGTV, Intuit, University of Alabama, Microsoft, Pitney Bowes, Siemens, Sony, Sprint, and the US Department of State. For more information, visit www.talisma.com.