MCI helps customers go interactive: Chordiant agreement facilitates customized solutions

Helping consumers conduct business with a company through a customized interactive interface is the goal of an agreement announced last week between MCI Systemhouse and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Chordiant Software. Such interfaces could be via telephone, fax, the Internet or a stand-alone kiosk. The new services target Fortune 1000 companies in telecom, travel and financial services.

Integral to the new services, dubbed Customer Interaction Solutions, is a customer care system from Chordiant that bridges legacy systems to provide a unified view of the customer. The Chordiant system will be integrated with professional services, outsourced management offerings and call center services from MCI Systemhouse.

"This system is going to allow our customers to redefine their business processes and provide a single point of contact for customers," said Rick Favro, vice president of customer care processes at MCI Systemhouse. "It will quickly provide us with a way for providing unified customer interactions."

Don Morrison, vice president of marketing at Chordiant, sees more potential applications for the customer care application. "Carriers can use the offering in-house to manage bundling and other marketing issues on the front end, or they can use the technology in an outsourced form from MCI."

The merged solution also will include MCI Systemhouse's Business Intelligence Software, an integrated, real-time support system that uses data warehousing techniques to build customer loyalty, retention and promotion.

The agreement includes an MCI Systemhouse plan to train more than 200 consultants on the platform and the construction of a jointly owned factory that will produce the software for the solution.