Alida CXM vs. Avaya Contact Center

From my experience, I believe that Vision Critical offers the best software to manage an insights community. They are great to work with, and my opinion has only improved over time. However, that doesn't mean it is the best survey software overall. If someone simply needs to program and distribute surveys, this may or may not be the right solution. There are some other really great survey tools on the market that are competitively priced and offer very intuitive interfaces (like Qualtrics). If you are going to recruit people to answer surveys or provide feedback on an ongoing basis (re-contacting and engaging with the same people repeatedly), though, Vision Critical would be my #1 recommendation.

I would say well-suited for the everyday user, with the ability to use the products. I think it's really user-friendly in that way. The lack of education for the end users, maybe through some of our companies, makes it difficult. And the turnover.

Incentivized

• The team is helpful in creating complicated survey logic
• The team is accommodating in creating interfaces that suit our desired look
• The team keeps in regular contact in order to effectively manage our requests and goals

• The app and the ability to use the "office" phone while on the road.
• There's an easy implementation and training process to get everyone on board quickly.
• Flexibility of transferring calls to different mediums - I can switch a phone call to a conference or patch in other parties with ease.

Incentivized

• The functionality when creating a new questionnaire is rather clunky, particularly when there are a few conditional factors in the logical flow; being able to see those factors and how they apply with some sort of other logical layout would really help when creating a longer survey.
• There are quite a few steps that aren't intuitive when launching a survey, for instance all the various dates (launch date, reserve date, survey date, etc etc etc). If there were a description field if you hovered above labeled areas of sections that explained what this field was for that would really help
• It doesn't help either that the entire site is grey; it's a cold environment to be in for a long time, and the simple design makes it seem more clunky than it probably really is.

• Calls are automatically terminated at an agent and do not allow for the agent to "manually" answer the incoming call. This is very problematic as agents are not able to prepare properly for incoming calls. In addition, agents have stepped away from their desks and forgotten to put themselves in an away status, and calls have been directed to them, and they just sit there with no agent present. This is a very undesirable feature of the system.
• Password resets are extremely problematic and continuously cause problems for users. Agents are prompted to change their password upon expiry, and when they follow the instructions as outlined, it rarely works and ends up needing a full reset. The challenge questions are useless and do not work at all.
• Support can be a bit challenging as there are definite language barriers that have made both explaining the problem and understanding the recommended solution difficult.
• The system is sometimes unreliable and will randomly log agents out with no explanation. Agents are then advised by support to log out, clear cache, and log back in. This is not feasible in a busy call center.

Incentivized

Vision Critical often requires you to dump the data to a statistical program. I hate that step. You waste time, and improve the chance of data being lost, or changed.

I am really not the decision maker on this subject but given the cost of the investment in Avaya, I do not see the company not renewing the use of Avaya. The new licensing model no longer requires expensive upgrades to stay current with new features added to the system and really helps with the cost of investment.

Incentivized

I think there is a ton of room to improve, in things as simple as aesthetics and other areas of logical flow when it comes to creating and then launching a survey, as well as providing descriptors for what each field is referencing. For instance, there are like 5 date fields to be filled out, but no button near them that says "this date will determine _________" and I am not about to go back into the training module, which was confusing enough to FIND, let alone work through to find just ONE answer.

Avaya has versatility in calling, receiving, and configuring. Being able to have notion of location, exchange of messages. we could see supplier information and configure it to our liking. as it is practicality for configuration and manual handling. Interactive and easy to learn screen. Being able to generate call reports for analysis of service in others

Incentivized

Absolutely fantastic support team. Willing to help you online through vast collection of how-to guides and resources, online via chatbox, or over the phone. Even though we were in different time zones, they were always available. Very helpful and knowledgeable

I give it this rating because the support services of Avaya have proven to be reliable when needed. Great feedback for our queries has always been received from the support agents. 24/7 availability of support, which is very essential as our Call Center department also functions this way, therefore, the knowledge and technical support we require is always available to us.

No, everything was implemented by Avaya Support

Incentivized

Vision Critical is more appealing visually but no where near as complex or robust. Vision Critical is also much more expensive though.

Switched from Polycom to Avaya, although polycom worked well there were too many reoccuring connectivity issues and the turn around time for solving them was also too long. Avaya has fewer connectivity problems and their support is much better too. Pricing wise they were similar so we didn't have much to lose.

Incentivized

• Our use of Vision Critical's software has allowed us to dramatically increase the amount of research that we do, at a much lower cost. Since there is no incremental cost for each survey we field, we can ask many questions we wouldn't have been able to otherwise.
• Our use of an insights community has also sped up the research process, allowing us to write, program, field and report on a survey within only a few days.
• Because of the two advantages listed above, we have been able to listen closer to our customers' opinions.

• Overall from a business objective standpoint, Avaya has to have had a positive impact on our Return on Investment. Its use in day-to-day operations has been beneficial to not only the company, but the business as well.
• Using the Avaya soft phones supplies a business or company a way to limit expenditures on the hard phones by allowing the use of Avaya soft phones. The equipment is no longer needed, save for headsets to be used with the application itself.
• Business objectives have to be just that, objectives. Economics begs for ways for a company to limit expenditures that may see little or no return. Avaya has tackled this issue and won!

Incentivized