Amtrak Turns to Empirix for Assuring Best Voice Quality

BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Empirix Inc., the market leader of service quality assurance solutions for new IP communications, today announced that Amtrak, America’s nationwide passenger railroad, selected the Empirix^® OneSight^® Voice Quality Assurance solution to consistently monitor Amtrak’s traditional voice network to identify and prevent voice quality issues before they negatively impact the customer. With significant importance placed on ensuring Amtrak’s telephony servers operate as they should, the OneSight Voice Quality Assurance solution enables the company to proactively manage voice quality and the quality of experience (QoE) for customers on a 24/7 basis.

“Ninety percent of Amtrak’s diagnostic testing that finds problems between its IVR applications and back-end data systems are now fully automated by Empirix”

Amtrak serves more than 500 destinations in 46 states and three Canadian provinces with more than 21,000 miles of track. On average, more than 74,000 customers ride an Amtrak train each day, and more than 45,000 customers call into the Amtrak contact center each day, which operates for 24 hours every day. As a result of a routinely high call volume and such weighted importance placed on providing high customer QoE, it is of the utmost importance that the Amtrak contact center operates as it should, connecting caller to agent in an appropriate amount of time, while also ensuring the best quality for the customer from end-to-end.

“In an industry where the competition is stiff—we compete with various methods of travel, land and air alike—it is imperative that we ensure a high quality customer experience,” said Rob Early, lead IVR engineer, Amtrak. “Amtrak needed a proactive approach to manage voice quality and the quality of the customer experience across our network, while also controlling costs. Of the solutions we evaluated, Empirix is the only provider that can fully emulate many aspects of caller behavior that we frequently look at, allowing us to monitor the overall health of specific components across the telephony servers. Empirix helps us stay true to our promise of delivering the best QoE to our customers.”

Empirix’s OneSight Voice Quality Assurance solution measures and reports on the actual call experience and identifies voice quality issues that other solutions cannot detect, providing telephony managers with a unique, real-time view of the server. Through the use of a preset dashboard, the OneSight Voice Quality Assurance solution enables organizations to see a realistic view of their telephony servers, making it easier to identify where a voice quality issue may exist and thereby fix it in a timely fashion. As a result, organizations can prevent end-user frustration, thus enhancing the customer QoE.

“Ninety percent of Amtrak’s diagnostic testing that finds problems between its IVR applications and back-end data systems are now fully automated by Empirix,” said Tim Moynihan, vice president of marketing, Enterprise business unit, Empirix. “Using our solution, Amtrak can update their IVRs and test them in a pre-deployment phase, allowing them to ensure the call happens as it should. With Empirix, Amtrak is able to obtain reports that illustrate server activity through the preset dashboard, helping them identify issues long before they can impact the end-user—all with a cost effective solution. By implementing our solution to ensure voice quality from end-to-end, Amtrak clearly demonstrates their commitment to providing the best customer experience.”

About Amtrak

As the nation’s intercity passenger rail operator, Amtrak connects America in safer, greener and healthier ways. Last fiscal year (FY 2010), the railroad carried 28.7 million passengers, making it the best year in the company’s history. With 21,000 route miles in 46 states, the District of Columbia and three Canadian provinces, Amtrak operates more than 300 trains each day—at speeds up to 150 mph—to more than 500 destinations. Amtrak also is the operator of choice for state-supported corridor services in 15 states and for several commuter rail agencies. Visit Amtrak.com or call 800-USA-RAIL for schedules, fares and more. Become a fan at www.facebook.com/amtrak and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Amtrak.

About Empirix Inc.

Empirix is the leading provider of service quality assurance solutions for new IP communications. Since 1992, Empirix has led the market in innovation and expertise for IP testing and application performance management. Its widely acclaimed Hammer Test Engine™, with patented technology is the acknowledged global standard for validating the quality of IP networks, systems and applications. The world’s largest service providers, enterprise contact centers, and equipment manufacturers depend on Empirix^® solutions to maintain the quality of the user experience for business-critical voice, data, video and mobile services. With Empirix, customers can increase revenues, reduce customer churn and cut support costs. Empirix is privately held and headquartered in Bedford, MA. For further information, please visit www.empirix.com.

Empirix and Hammer are trademarks of Empirix Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.