KANA Express Listed as a Market Pillar in Info-Tech Research Group's Customer Service Market Landscape Report

SUNNYVALE, CA, Feb 13, 2013 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- KANA Software, Inc., a global leader in customer service solutions delivered on-premise or in the cloud and used by more than 900 organizations worldwide, including half of the Global 100 and 250 government entities, today announced its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based KANA Express solution was included in a recent evaluation of leading vendors in the Customer Service Management market from industry analyst firm the Info-Tech Research Group, and was categorized as among the solutions "best suited for mid-sized organizations." Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape reports recognize outstanding vendors in the technology marketplace. Assessing vendors by the strength of their offering and their strategy for the enterprise, Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscapes pay tribute to the contribution of exceptional vendors in a particular category.

For this Customer Service Management Vendor Landscape, Info-Tech focused on evaluating those vendors that offer broad capabilities across multiple platforms and that have a strong market presence, primarily among mid-sized enterprises. The report assesses the relative strengths of the solutions' features, usability, affordability and architecture, as well as the overall market strength of each vendor. The full Info-Tech evaluation is available to download here.

Regarding the KANA Express offering, Info-Tech Research Group acknowledged its strong social monitoring and listening capabilities, and noted in the report, "Proactive management of social inquiries is the true differentiator on the social front, not reactive response.

KANA Express Social Experience provides social listening capabilities, powerful social analytics, and sentiment analysis." Other strengths of the KANA Express offering noted in the evaluation include the solution's "advanced search and knowledge base capabilities, which include a virtual assistant -- support provided by a chat robot." Also noted was the product's "sophisticated and flexible reporting infrastructure ..., whereby reports can be constructed based on various factors (e.g. channel volume) and can assess performance against pre-defined service goals." The Info-Tech Research Group report states that not all vendors are appropriate for organizations of all sizes, and encourages organizations to choose a vendor with a solution that is attuned to their needs and requirements. To this end, InfoTech Research Group categorized KANA Express as among those solutions evaluated that were "best suited for mid-sized organizations." According to Info-Tech Research Group: "KANA's entry into small and mid-market customer service management extends the benefits of their strong service knowledge management and customer interaction management vendor skills to SMB. KANA is a viable vendor, and KANA Express offers a solid feature set for a very reasonable price." "Multi-channel customer service is now a strategic imperative for all organizations," said James Norwood, CMO for KANA Software. "KANA Express provides enterprise-grade multi-channel customer service capabilities combined with affordable pay-as-you go pricing and seamless integration with website and sales operations, enabling mid-sized organizations to provide rich engaging customer support without extensive and costly overhead." KANA Express A single, integrated platform ensuring consistent customer service across all channels including phone, email, live and automated chat, web self-service, and social media, KANA Express unifies customer contact records and knowledge resources and automatically delivers contextual help and information when and where it is needed. The solution is scalable to handle hundreds of thousands of transactions a day, even for businesses with as few as 20 call center agents.

At the heart of KANA Express is a centralized and powerful knowledge base that automatically scans text in emails, chat sessions and web self-service interactions to intuitively and quickly display relevant answers and information across channels in seconds -- consistently and accurately. The solution also features sophisticated integral reporting and analytic capabilities that support proactive performance management by providing real-time insight into the status of each customer, department and agent. A powerful integration server supports ease of connectivity with front office and unified communication systems such as IVR, ACD, CTI and CRM, as well as back office functions such as accounting and ERP systems.

Available on-demand, KANA Express is accessed via a web browser, requires no separate hardware or software installation, and is securely delivered, managed and monitored in the cloud by KANA.

Offering low cost of entry and lower TCO, KANA Express customers benefit from world-class infrastructure without capital expenditures, and guaranteed service level backed uptime. Day-to-day administration of the system (including business continuity and disaster recovery) is handled in a secure SAS 70 certified data center with the applicable levels of redundancy, scalability and security. Customers also benefit from flexible "pay-as-you-go" pricing; apart from the initial implementation service, all other costs are paid as part of an annual subscription.

About Info-Tech Research Group With a paid membership of over 25,000 members worldwide, Info-Tech Research Group (www.infotech.com) is the global leader in providing tactical, practical Information Technology research and analysis. Info-Tech Research Group has a fourteen-year history of delivering quality research and is North America's fastest growing full-service IT analyst firm.

About KANA Software KANA makes every customer experience a good experience. A global leader in customer service solutions delivered on-premise or in the cloud, KANA lets organizations take complete control over customer service interactions, so they can take care of customers, while managing costs and reinforcing brand. By unifying and maintaining context for customer journeys across agent, web, social and mobile experiences, KANA solutions have reduced handling time, increased resolution rates and improved net promoter score (NPS) at more than 900 enterprises, including half of the Global 100 and more than 250 government agencies. KANA is based in Silicon Valley, California and has offices worldwide.

Follow KANA on Twitter: http://twitter.com/KANAsoftware KANA is a registered trademark of KANA Software, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact: Erin Lutz Lutz PR for KANA Software, Inc.

+1 949 293 1055 Email Contact SOURCE: KANA http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct id=71A3450C33575B9E

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