Contact center software firm Eyretel has announced a 50% rise in turnover.
UK firm Eyretel, which announced on Monday a 50% rise in half-year turnover, used to concentrate on hardware recording of calls. But it is now following quality assurance (QA) leaders eTalk and Witness in the higher-growth market of developing quality monitoring applications for contact centers. The other players in Eyretel’s market are also making this move, albeit with varying success.
Eyretel seems to be managing this transition well. Although it is fairly small compared to the size of the market, with about $40 million sales in the 1999 calendar year, its current flagship offering, a call center solution for QA with graphical analysis, is impressive. Eyretel, along with its competitors, is planning how it can broaden its portfolio and has integrated with the major CRM players including Siebel. It is also involved with Cisco (a minority shareholder) and BT.
The major restriction on Eyretel’s growth, however, is the US, where it has actually seen a decline in revenue on last year. Since North America accounted for 59% of the recording market in Q2 2000, and should show the most growth in the short term, US presence is key to strong revenue growth. Eyretel has failed to find a major US distributor since Lanier pulled out of the recording market, and has not so far been able to make up the shortfall by increasing direct sales. To make the problem worse, other recording players have already secured many of the best routes to market.
If Eyretel can turn things around in the US, its prospects are very good indeed. But at the moment there is nothing to suggest that this will happen. Whilst recent management changes may help, its real strategy is still unannounced. It is probably too late to succeed as a generalist in the US, so the company needs to differentiate itself from its competitors and carve its own niche. Its decisions over the next few months will determine whether it can achieve this. But, even if it can’t, it should continue to see success in Europe and the rest of the world.
