Aspect 6.6 to go GA

Aspect has announced that the upcoming GA release of Aspect Unified IP 6.6, scheduled for December 12. The news software will include many new UC-capablefeatures, including integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 to support "ask-the-expert" capabilities outside the contact center and within the enterprise itself.Datapoint, a UK-based systems integrator and application developer, had been using OCS to escalate customer related issues separately from its use of Aspect in the contact center. The trouble with that process is that any given rep reaches out only to the people they know in the company--putting stress on those individuals, and limiting the reps access to information if their known contacts aren't available.Now Datapoint is a beta customer of Aspect Unified IP 6.6, which it is using with 65 staffers specifically to access people in a particular group and with specific skills or knowledge, without having to know who that person is. They''ve been trialing it forthree months, and are tracking first-call resolution. They expect to see better customer satisfaction, and ultimately some staffing efficiencies.Not surprisingly, Aspect is also using the software. More interestingly, perhaps, is the fact that the company also plans to port all its 2,000 employees onto OCS for voice communications throughout the enterprise in the next 9-12 months.