CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Nov. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the hosted contact centre market, Frost & Sullivan recognises 1Stream with the South African Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award.

Since its inception in 2008, 1Stream has managed to grow its business phenomenally in response to the strengthening demand for hosted contact centre solutions. The company has witnessed exceptionally strong growth in the last year, with year-on-year growth exceeding 100%.

1Stream boasts a client list including multinational companies such as wonga.com and Bloomberg. Undoubtedly, the most important milestone achieved by 1Stream was the signing of a deal in October 2010 to host the Cape Town-based contact centre of a large global online retail company.

"In this context, 1Stream demonstrated superior agility and speed of execution through its ability to set up a fully-fledged contact centre solution within three months," stated Frost & Sullivan's Information & Communication Technologies Industry Analyst, Ishe Zingoni. "In conjunction with a partner, 1Stream was able to deliver a robust and highly scalable cloud contact centre solution within a short span of time."

This provided compelling evidence of 1Stream's world-class capabilities, as well as demonstrating a strong vote of confidence in local companies' abilities to provide world-class solutions to multinational and sophisticated customers.

1Stream's managed contact centre offering is based on Interactive Intelligence's Customer Interaction Centre's SIP-based IP platform, an all-in-one multichannel software platform. The company has a comprehensive portfolio spanning inbound routing systems, outbound dialers, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), IP telephony, multimedia, recording and quality management, and computer telephony integration.

Recently, 1Stream announced integration of its products with leading CRM provider, Salesforce.com. Rather than outright purchase, 1Stream was able to achieve quick and easy implementation by opting to deploy it in the cloud. 

"Another advantage is that Salesforce.com is fairly easy to integrate with other applications, which has allowed 1Stream to seamlessly integrate it with their hosted contact centre platform from Interactive Intelligence," added Zingoni.

In its quest to constantly excel and deliver superior value, 1Stream invested R10 million in a new contact centre platform in Gauteng, earlier this year. The company rolled out a new platform with hosting partner Teraco, which became its second hosting provider after Internet Solutions.

"The new partnership with Teraco will increase customer value as it is a carrier-neutral facility allowing 1Stream to connect to its choice of telecommunications provider," noted Zingoni. "Furthermore, the addition of a second hosting provider will bolster the redundancy and resilience to its platform, adding to capacity, and hence positioning the company for future growth."

Earlier in 2012, the company opened a new office in Johannesburg in order to serve the increasing demand for cloud-based contact centres. The office offers on-the-ground operations and support. It acts as a crucial step in improving the company's response to market needs, as well as in managing customer relationships.

Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company  demonstrating excellence in growth strategy and growth implementation. The company is lauded for its customer value leadership and speed of response to market needs. A high degree of innovation in terms of products and technologies also underlie the award receipt.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

For more information about Frost & Sullivan's Best Practice Awards, please contact Birgitta Cederstrom, Head – Best Practices: Growth Innovation and Leadership, Africa, at +27 21 680 3263 or email: birgitta.cederstrom@frost.com

About 1Stream

1Stream is the leading provider of cloud based call centre technology in Southern Africa.  Their award-winning platform serves customers of all sizes.  1Stream provide pay-per-use access to world-class technology that is redundant, flexible and scalable, and requires no capital investment. For more information visit www.1stream.co.za

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Samantha James
Corporate Communications Africa
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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan