NICE Ltd.

NICE is a New York metropolitan area based, public, global company with operations around the world. It specializes in contact center software (NICE CXone), artificial intelligence, digital and workforce engagement management solutions. The company serves various industries, such as financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, outsourcers, retail, media, travel, service providers, and utilities.

NICE Ltd.
TypePublic
TASE: NICE
Nasdaq: NICE
IndustrySoftware
Founded1986 (1986)
Headquarters
Ra'anana
,
Israel
Key people
  • David Kostman​ (chairman)
  • Barak Eilam (president &​ CEO)
RevenueIncrease $2.067 billion (2022)[1]
Increase $290 million (2022)[1]
Increase $225 million (2022)[2]
Number of employees
7,900 (2023)[1]
SubsidiariesNICE Systems Ltd.
NICE Systems Inc.
Nexidia
NICE Actimize Ltd.
NICE Vision
NICE CXone
Websitenice.com

The company is listed on both the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. In Tel Aviv, it is part of the TA-35 Index.[3]

History

NICE was founded in 1986 as Neptune Intelligence Computer Engineering (NICE) in Israel. Much of the early technology developed by NICE was for contact centers, financial services and business intelligence markets.[4] The computer engineers that founded NICE created a telephony voice recording system in the early 90s, followed by ATM software under the subsidiary, NICECom.[5] The ATM vendor quickly grew its operations in the 90s and NICE sold its subsidiary to 3Com in 1994 for $54 million.[6] In 2007, NICE acquired Actimize for $280 million. The company developed risk management software for various markets, identifying risks for its customers.[7]

In 2011 NICE acquired UK-based Fizzback, with the value of the deal said to be $80 million.[8] The UK company specialized in customer feedback, collecting real-time customer experience information. At the time of acquisition, Fizzback processed 150 million individual feedback reports; many of these reports taken in real-time from social media platforms.[8] During the same year, NICE announced the acquisition of analytics firm, Merced Systems for $150 million. Merced was a provider of performance management services, offered predominantly as software as a service with additional analytics and workforce optimization.[9]

In 2014, Zeevi Bregman left his role as CEO, to be replaced by Barak Eilam who previously served as President, a role he had held for 18 months before becoming CEO.[10][11][12]

In 2016, NICE acquired inContact for a reported $960 million allowing NICE to expand their customer services offering and integrate a cloud contact center, using a Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) approach. Paul Jarman of inContact would continue as CEO to lead the inContact division once integrated into NICE.[13]

In 2018, NICE acquired The Mattersight Corporation that was founded as a behavioral analytics software company in 1994, before diversifying into cloud analytics and its SaaS offering. The agreed deal was $90 million, which made the total acquisition price 25% above share value and Mattersight's service offering was integrated into NICE.[14]

In May 2019, NICE acquired Brand Embassy allow NICE to manage customer interactions across a greater number of platforms, including social media. According to BizJournals, this would include 30 additional channels, such as Facebook, WhatsApp and LinkedIn.[15]

In April 2021, it was announced that NICE would be acquiring MindTouch, a San Diego-based knowledge management company. It was founded in 2005 it offered KM (knowledge management) to maximize customer lifetime value. NICE rebranded the platform as CXone Expert.[16] Recently, NICE has been touted by the media as a potential benefactor to the growth of the AI and chatbot industries.[17] In 2021, growth in numerous tech sectors led to NICE receiving a valuation of $17 billion, making it the most valuable company in Israel.[18] During the same period, the company partnered with Google Cloud with the aim of creating a more effective customer service applications for traditional contact centers.[19] At Interactions Live 2022, NICE demonstrated how brands can build frictionless customer experiences and how the Customer Experience Interactions (CXi) framework can assist the creation of these frictionless experiences. The line-up of speakers included 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush.[20]

In June 2023, NICE was recognized by Frost & Sullivan with its 2023 Best Practices Company of the Year Award for Conversational AI.[21] During the same month, NICE presented a range of new AI solutions at its annual Interactions event. Barak Eilam stated in a speech to the attendees of Interactions 2023 that customer service was in the infancy of an AI revolution, calling it a "new technology wave unlike any we've seen before."[22]

Products & services

NICE specializes in AI and customer experience software, or CX as it is often abbreviated to. After inContact became part of the company's product portfolio in 2016, it allowed the company to expand its contact center as a service (CCaaS) offering.[23]

CXone

CXone is part of NICE's product offering. The scalable, cloud-native platform is underpinned by an AI engine to provide a seamless customer experience.[19] In 2021, NICE surpassed $1 billion in cloud revenue.[24] In March 2023, the platform reached the milestone of having one million users.[25]

In early 2023, NICE announced the industry's first conversational CX with ChatGPT-enabled CXone. CX Network magazine stated the offering would be ideal for contact centres where customers were unable to wait for callbacks due to the nature of their inquiry.[26] NICE also announced that CXone customers in Europe would now experience the first "EU Sovereign" CCaaS platform on the continent. After working with various regulatory bodies in the European Union, data centers, and also cloud providers, NICE delivered the first CX platform where all data passing through it would remain within the EU.[27]

Enlighten

Enlighten is NICE's artificial intelligence engine. It contains three solutions, Enlighten Copilot, Enlighten Autopilot and Enlighten Actions. Collectively they use an AI system built from recorded customer interactions, which is then integrated with generative AI technology to help companies to "engage, predict and take actions to improve agent empowerment, consumer experiences, and operational excellence." At the time of the service's launch, Enlighten would allow for deeper insights and more personalization.[28]

NICE launched Enlighten Copilot, Enlighten Autopilot and Enlighten Actions at NICE's Interactions 2023 event. This was seen by some within the CX industry as the first generative AI solution for large enterprises.[29]

Media Findings

In 2019, NICE released a study on internal business performance and how that effected customer experience, with the main finding that companies in Australia and the United States both over estimate the quality of their customer experience.[30]

NICE’s 2022 Digital-First Customer Experience Report revealed that there are major gaps between what customers think about the support they receive and how seriously business leaders are taking their expectations.[31]

References
  1. "NICE SYSTEMS LTD (NICE:Tel Aviv)". The Wall Street Journal . 2 June 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  2. "NICE Ltd. Revenue statistics". Macrotrends.
  3. "NICE Ltd. profile". Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
  4. "NICE Marks 20th Anniversary". NICE News. March 2006. Archived from the original on October 22, 2007. Retrieved November 6, 2016.
  5. "3COM Completes NICECom Asset Acquisition". TechMonitor. October 21, 1994.
  6. Fisher, Lawrence M. (December 16, 1994). "Strong Profit at 3Com Lifts Its and Rivals' Stock Prices". New York Times.
  7. Keidan, Amir (July 2, 2007). "NICE buys Actimize for $280 million". Globes.
  8. "NICE Systems acquires Fizzback for approximately $80 million". TechCrunch. September 19, 2011.
  9. "NICE to acquire analytics firm Merced Systems for $150m". Tech Monitor. December 4, 2011.
  10. "Nice Systems Names Americas Chief Barak Eilam as CEO". Haaretz. February 5, 2014.
  11. "seekingalpha". Seeking Alpha. August 6, 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  12. Scheer, Steven (February 4, 2014). "Nice Systems names Americas chief Barak Eilam as CEO". Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  13. "Software group Nice Systems to buy inContact for $940 million". Reuters. May 18, 2016.
  14. "NICE Systems buys US cloud analytics co Mattersight". Globes. April 26, 2018.
  15. "Nice takes over Brand Embassy, touts 30% jump in cloud-tech revenue". BizJournals. May 16, 2019.
  16. McGee-Smith, Sheila (April 20, 2021). "NICE Acquires MindTouch for Smarter Digital Self-Service". No Jitter.
  17. Barlow, Scott (28 February 2023). "Fifteen companies that benefit from the chatbot/AI arms race". The Globe & Mail.
  18. Sternlicht, Hezi (August 8, 2021). "NICE becomes Israel's highest valued company thanks to cloud revenue spike". CTech.
  19. Preimesberger, Chris J. "NICE and Google Cloud team up to improve customer interactions". VentureBeat.
  20. "NICE Interactions Live 2022 to Showcase Strategies for Mastering Frictionless Customer Experiences". The Globe and Mail. May 10, 2022.
  21. "NICE Named Company of the Year for Conversational AI In the North American CCaaS Market". Financial Times. June 5, 2023.
  22. Cronis, Chris (June 6, 2023). "NICE Proclaims a New Era of AI in Customer Service at Interactions". Destination CRM.
  23. Gagliordi, Natalie (May 18, 2016). "NICE acquires inContact for $940 million, eyes cloud-based call centers". ZDNet.
  24. "NICE Surpasses $1 Billion in Annual Cloud Revenue". CX Today. March 10, 2022.
  25. Brooks, Steve (March 17, 2023). "NICE celebrates its millionth user for CXone". Enterprise Times.
  26. Mingas, Melanie (February 9, 2023). "How to use ChatGPT to elevate your CX function". CX Network.
  27. "NICE Claims CXone as the "First EU Sovereign" CCaaS Platform". CX Today. June 27, 2023.
  28. Klie, Leonard (June 6, 2023). "NICE Adds to Enlighten AI at Interactions Event". Destination CRM.
  29. "NICE Launches Next Big Leap of Enlighten, Creating the CX Industry's First Trusted AI For Business". Yahoo!. June 6, 2023.
  30. Birnbaum, Brad. "The Rise of Human Agents: AI-Powered Customer Service Automation". Forbes.
  31. "Actian's plan for the AI era". Protocol Media. May 27, 2022.
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