For Immediate Release: 26-Jun-2001
Chicago, IL and Atlanta, GA, USAvaya Inc. (NYSE:AV), a global leader in corporate networking
solutions and services, today announced that it has been selected
as the strategic supplier of multi-channel customer relationship
management (CRM) solutions for Home Depot's new customer contact
centers. The announcement was made in Chicago at Retail Systems 2001. Using Avaya's Interaction Management solutions, the world's
largest home improvement retailer plans to link to multiple,
existing databases in local stores, deliver the information to
agent desktops in regional customer support centers and enable
agents to seamlessly respond to customers using any communication
medium. By handling all contacts on a regional level, Home Depot
frees store associates to spend more time with in-store customers.
Customers contacting the company through other channels, including
phone and e-mail, will also receive more efficient and accurate
service, with little or no time spent on hold or waiting for a
response. "For us, contact center technology is more than getting a call
to an agent," said Ed Buter, Senior Manager " Information Services,
Home Depot. "We have approximately a million products in more than
1,200 stores, with numerous databases kept at the stores for things
like product orders, delivery and installation schedules, tool
rentals or promotional events. Our challenge is to get this
information to the agents while quickly and effectively integrating
all channels of communication into a system that supports the
business. Avaya's contact center solution has the open architecture
we require and will also be able to grow in scale to match our
customer support plans to expand into additional areas." Home Depot's first new customer contact center is scheduled to
open in September in Tampa, Fla., and will employ up to 1,000
agents. All calls to local Home Depot stores in the company's
Southern Division (Fla. and southern Ala.) will be answered by
agents in the Tampa center, who will be able to access specific,
detailed information relative to each individual location. "Getting information to the right person at the right time is a
critical part of customer support and can turn a service experience
into a sales opportunity, " said Jim Smith, vice president CRM
Solutions, Avaya. "But accessing and delivering the information
across channels can be a major challenge. With Avaya's Interaction
Management solutions, Home Depot can provide customers in any
setting with a seamless experience that not only answers their
questions, but reinforces buying behavior." Avaya's Interaction Management solutions will allow Home Depot
to effectively handle customer support through a variety of
channels, such as web chat, email, voice-over IP and phone. Using
an open platform that easily integrates with existing systems and
communications equipment from multiple vendors, Interaction
Management solutions will enable Home Depot agents in regional
support centers to quickly access information from databases at
local stores. Avaya Professional Services will be providing design
and integration support to deliver solution integrity. In addition to Interaction Management, Avaya's CRM Solutions
include Commitment Management solutions that manage and distribute
work from the front desk through fulfillment, and Business
Intelligence solutions to help better understand customer buying
patterns and preferences to improve the effectiveness of each
encounter between a company and a customer. Avaya, headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., is a leading global
provider of communications solutions and services that help
businesses, government agencies and other institutions " including
more than 75 percent of the Fortune 500 " excel in the customer
economy. Avaya offers Customer Relationship Management Solutions,
Unified Communication Solutions, Hosted Solutions, MultiService
Networking Infrastructure, and Converged Voice and Data Networks "
including the company's no-compromise Enterprise-Class IP Solutions
(ECLIPS) " all supported by Avaya Services and Avaya Labs. Avaya is
the worldwide leader in unified messaging, messaging systems, call
centers and structured cabling systems. It is the U.S. leader in
voice communications systems. For more information about Avaya,
visit its Web site at http://www.avaya.com. Founded in 1978, Home Depot has 1,220 stores in the United
States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Chile and Argentina. In February,
Fortune magazine named Home Depot the sixth Most Admired Company in
America. The company's stock is publicly traded (NYSE:HD) and is
included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard &
Poor's 500 Index. | 
