The product provides call centers with a variety of tools to help interpret and respond to customer interactions. NICE SmartCenter includes multiple call center technology components, including recording, quality management, analytics, workforce management, and performance management, which made it a standout in the eyes of our judges.

"NICE goes beyond speech analytics," said one judge. "They have the most complete product."

NICE SmartCenter offers a unified speech solution that captures and monitors 100% of customer interactions. Those interactions are subject to a full suite of multi-dimensional analytics, including word spotting, emotion detection and talk analysis. Advanced analytics are not only performed on keywords but are derived from a variety of additional sources such as call flow analysis, customer feedback, business data and screen events.

One highlight of the product is the Adaptive Interaction Analytics tool, which harnesses the power of interaction analytics with an automated system self-learning solution. Adaptive Interaction Analytics uses a broad set of speech analytics engines to offer increased accuracy and efficiency when analyzing customer interactions. Using this tool, customers can extract a large amount of data from every customer interaction in a rapid, cost-effective manner.

As more call centers consider VoIP technology, having flexible technology is more important than ever. NICE's recording solutions are designed to allow for a smooth migration to VoIP should the user choose to migrate. NICE's VoIP solutions can be adapted for small-scale or large, multi-site environments.

"In terms of innovation and value to customers, [NICE is] the clear winner," one judge said.

NICE SmartCenter's service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform also allows customers to develop each suite component at its own pace. Elements are independent of each other, yet integrated, and can be upgraded individually without changes to the hard-coding. This open approach gives customers maximum flexibility and allows them to protect their technology investments. This dynamic architecture provides an open solution for sharing data, business processes and portals.

Pricing for NICE SmartCenter ranges from several hundred to several thousand dollars per seat, depending on the configuration.