Natural language processing and sentiment analysis to strengthen multichannel customer experience

Paris and Reading 8 November 2012: Eptica, a leading provider of Multi channel Customer Interaction software, today announced the acquisition of multilingual semantic search engine and sentiment analysis software developer Lingway. Lingway's advanced technology will strengthen Eptica's multichannel customer service suite, enabling organisations to improve the customer experience and benefit from increased consumer insight.

Eptica enables organisations to create the best customer experience by delivering the answers customers want on the channel of their choice (phone, email, web, chat, social media, and mobile). Through its powerful technology, Eptica's software ensures every request is handled efficiently whether managed through a self-service channel or the contact centre. As Eptica records the complete multichannel history of every customer contact, whether through Facebook, email, chat or Tweets , companies benefit from improved customer management, reporting and insight.

Core to Eptica's multichannel suite is a dynamic, self learning knowledgebase and enterprise class workflow engine. The suite, which can be deployed on-premise or as Software as a Service (SaaS) is a centralised platform that can be rolled out across any customer service channel with ease. More than 400 organisations worldwide are using Eptica to improve service levels, increase efficiency and maximise sales.

The addition of Lingway's natural language search and sentiment analysis technology will benefit organisations and their customers by providing an improved multichannel search experience through the centralised Eptica platform. Lingway's technology also allows advanced content analysis, extraction and automated classification of data from any document source enabling Eptica customers to broaden the scope of their knowledgebase and extend its use to support enterprise applications such as HR.

Lingway's advanced Sentiment Analysis will also be integrated with Eptica's Social Media Interaction suite, enabling customer service and marketing departments to track and analyse the tone of social media discussions in real time, giving a deeper insight into customer behaviour across networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Businesses such as AirAsia and Verbaudet rely on Eptica's Social Media Interaction software to monitor and respond to social media customer posts and questions in real-time.

Lingway currently has 100 customers using its search and knowledge management technology in specialised business applications such as HR and reputation management. These customers will continue to be supported under the Eptica-Lingway brand. The acquisition also benefits Eptica's development resources by adding a team of experienced linguistic engineers. The terms of the all cash transaction were not disclosed.

Driven by greater competition and ever-rising consumer expectations, the market for customer service software is growing rapidly around the world. Industry analysts expect the web self-service sector alone to be worth $1 billion in 2012, growing at $100m per year[1].

"Today customers want to receive fast, tailored service, whatever channel they use. At Eptica we believe this can only be delivered efficiently through a multichannel platform with centralised, accessible knowledge and powerful search technology at its core," said Olivier Njamfa, CEO and President, Eptica. "The acquisition of Lingway's advanced technology brings us best in class multilingual search, strengthens our multichannel platform and enables Eptica and Lingway customers worldwide to improve customer experience, increase efficiency, and consequently grow revenues."

"Our acquisition by Eptica is positive news for everyone involved. The integration of our complementary technologies will deliver powerful benefits for all of our customers and provide Lingway users with the security of working with a larger, global organisation," said Bernard Normier, CEO, Lingway. "The agreement will enable our team to further develop our world leading multilingual semantic search technology, ensuring we continue to meet changing customer needs."

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[1]Source: Gartner Group, quoted in http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/customer-experience/web-self-service-final-frontier-customer-service/156398

About Eptica
Eptica is the leading European multilingual solution for Customer Interaction Management including Web Self-service, Social Customer Service, Email Management, Chat, Fax-Letter- SMS and Knowledge management for Customer Service. Available on premise or SaaS, Eptica software enables website and customer service channels to improve quality of service, resolve enquiries faster, reduce costs and maximise every sales opportunity. Today more than 400 customers, including some of the world's largest brands, in 15 countries, use Eptica software to deliver excellent customer service at much lower cost. Eptica's customers include: Dixons, Domestic & General, Haven Holidays, Republic, Panasonic, Virgin Holidays, Capita and Ageas Insurance Solutions.

Eptica is based in the UK, France, Spain and Singapore and operates worldwide through its network of partners The Company's continuing innovation and strong performance has maintained Eptica's inclusion in the Magic Quadrants for Web Customer Service.

About Lingway
Founded in 2001 Lingway was created by a team of 13 specialists from the French-U.S. company Lexiquest, a leading developer of language-based search solutions, who left after its acquisition by IBM to form Lingway. Lingway offers specialised search solutions based on powerful multilingual semantic tools and business specific linguistic resources. These solutions provide companies with search capabilities tailored to their line of business and comply with Semantic Web specifications. Based in Paris and with an office in Spain, Lingway has over 100 customers, including Siemens, Toyota, Cap Gemini and Axa.

For further information, please contact:
Measures Consulting
Chris Measures +44 (0) 7976 535147 / chris@measuresconsulting.com
Uday Radia +44 (0) 7940 584161 / uradia@cloudninepr.com