Consona CRM Product Lines Attain KCS v4 Verified Status

Consona Corporation (Consona), a worldwide leader in providing customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and services for companies of all sizes, today announced that its Consona Knowledge Management Version 7.3 and Consona Knowledge Driven Support Version 1.0 product lines have met the Consortium for Service Innovation's Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) v4 Verified standards.

"We are very pleased to have Consona join the short list of KCS Verified v4 vendors," said Greg Oxton, executive director of the Consortium for Service Innovation. "KCS v4 verification features much more comprehensive criteria, a new categorization of vendor solutions, and the requirement that vendors make their verification questionnaire available to any customer or prospect on request. Consona, which previously was KCS v3 verified with its Knowledge Management solution, now offers solutions for both the knowledge management and incident plus knowledge management (i.e., whole solution) categories. Consona has been a long-time supporter of the Consortium and KCS, and it is great to see that KCS has become a fundamental component of the company's offerings."

The KCS Verified program bases its methodology on the best practices of the world's leading service and support organizations. The Consona Knowledge Management product line integrates with a virtually any CRM or case management solution, while Consona Knowledge Driven Support represents the integration between Consona’s own case management (formerly Onyx) and knowledge management (formerly KNOVA) functionality, overlaid by a KCS template, including preconfigured screens, process scripting, workflows, and reporting/analytics.

“By providing guidance to best practices built into the software applications, Consona is making strides in customer service and support applications, particularly for high tech enterprises with customer service, technical support, or IT helpdesk operations,” said Sheryl Kingstone, director of enterprise research for Yankee Group. “Building industry best practices like KCS into its solutions demonstrates Consona’s commitment to helping these types of companies ensure a quality customer experience.”

A non-profit alliance of organizations focused on innovation for the support industry, the Consortium for Service Innovation developed the KCS in an effort to capture and structure a support or service interaction and reuse the knowledge gained, resulting in an improved operational efficiency, employee morale and customer satisfaction. The KCS Verified program is based on KCS methodology, and is an opportunity for vendors to demonstrate their support of the Consortium’s KCS practices. In order to be considered for certification, solutions must endure a rigorous, multi-step process that includes submitting an application, providing solution demos, and submitting for online assessments.

Tim Hines, vice president of product management for Consona’s CRM products, said, “Achieving KCS verified status is a special honor for Consona because it celebrates our focus on helping our customers facilitate effective and efficient service interactions across proactive, assisted and self-help channels and communities. We’re very proud to be associated with the integrity of the principles and practices of KCS.”

For additional information on Consona CRM solutions, please visit the Consona CRM Web site at http://www.consona.com/CRM.

About the Consortium for Service Innovation
The Consortium for Service Innovation is a nonprofit, alliance of industry leading service and support organizations focused on developing innovative ways to improve the customers’ support experience. For more information about the Consortium please visit the web site www.serviceinnovation.org.

About Consona Corporation
Consona Corporation (Consona) is a worldwide leader in providing customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and services for companies of all sizes. Consona is dedicated to becoming a valued business partner by helping each and every customer continuously improve business processes over time. Toward this mission, Consona invests in the people, processes, technology and tools needed to provide its customers with a unique combination of customer care; product fit; a broad range of consulting, IT and business services; and industry expertise. Consona serves more than 4,500 customers worldwide and across a variety of industries. Battery Ventures VI LP and Thoma Bravo LLC jointly own Consona. For further information, visit www.consona.com, e-mail infoATconsona.com, or call (888) 8 CONSONA.
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