AOC Aon Corp.

1 in 4 companies: monitoring somewhat effective or not effective in improving service CHICAGO, May 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Despite the ubiquitous message "Your call may be monitored to ensure quality service," companies generally don't devote sufficient resources to monitor customer calls or to work with call center employees to improve performance, according to a survey of more than 400 companies conducted by Aon Consulting and Verint Systems. While billions of dollars are spent on call recording technology, most recordings sit idle, the survey found. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041215/CGW049LOGO ) More than 25 percent of organizations surveyed said their call monitoring efforts did not effectively lead to improved customer satisfaction or better business processes. Inadequate resourcing -- finding time and staffing required to perform robust monitoring -- is the single greatest challenge to monitoring programs, with 75 percent of companies reporting being under-resourced. More than 40 percent of respondents also questioned the adequacy of their call sampling, the consistency of their ratings and the usefulness of their findings. Coaching was cited as a challenge by 58 percent of respondents. "Even though call monitoring systems are in place at most call centers, companies do not adequately turn those recorded conversations into lessons that make customers happier or make representatives more effective," said Dr. Miriam Nelson, senior vice president of talent solutions at Aon Consulting. "Fortunately, fairly simple process changes are generally enough to give companies a better return on their investment of time and resources." "Organizations have access to a goldmine of data hidden in their customer interactions," said Mariann McDonagh, vice president of corporate marketing at Verint Systems. "By listening to the voice of the customer and utilizing powerful solutions such as quality monitoring and speech analytics to unlock this actionable intelligence, organizations can significantly enhance performance in the contact center and across the enterprise." Despite the gap between the perceived value of monitoring and the results, 11 percent of respondents led the group in terms of the benefits they derive from monitoring. These companies generally employed the following "best practices": -- Using an external quality-monitoring partner to listen to calls; -- Using speech analytics technology to identify key opportunities for improvement; -- Capturing customer satisfaction within the monitoring form itself; -- Effectively using employee rewards; -- Improving first-call resolution; -- Engaging business units with customer-call feedback. More than 1 in 4 survey respondents represented Fortune 500 organizations, with 26 percent representing financial services firms, 14 percent representing telecommunications and communications firms, and 11 percent representing service companies. About Verint Systems Inc. Verint Systems Inc., headquartered in Melville, New York, is a leading provider of analytic software-based solutions for security and business intelligence. Verint software, which is used by over 1,000 organizations in over 50 countries worldwide, generates actionable intelligence through the collection, retention and analysis of voice, fax, video, email, Internet and data transmissions from multiple communications networks. Visit us at our website http://www.verint.com/. About Aon Consulting Aon Consulting Worldwide (http://www.aon.com/hcc) is among the top global human capital consulting firms, with 2006 revenues of $1.282 billion and 6,500 professionals in 117 offices worldwide. Aon Consulting is reshaping the workplace of the future through benefits, talent management and rewards strategies and solutions. In August 2006, Aon Consulting was named the best employee benefit consulting firm by the readers of Business Insurance magazine. Aon Consulting offers an array of call center solutions to help organizations attract top talent, develop management and associate skills, and engage their commitment. A cornerstone of these solutions is the call monitoring practice. An experienced and highly organized consulting team works closely with clients to develop and implement monitoring programs that measure and improve talent-related and enterprise goals. Listening "with the ear of the customer," Aon Consulting's assessors monitor calls as an objective third party and deliver business insight to improve workforce and operational performance. About Aon Aon Corporation (NYSE:AOC) (http://www.aon.com/) is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. There are 43,000 employees working in Aon's 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Backed by broad resources, industry knowledge and technical expertise, Aon professionals help a wide range of clients develop effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions. Media contacts: Aon: Verint: Rahsaan Johnson Jayson Schkloven 312.381.2684 703.390.1529 This press release contains certain statements related to future results, or states our intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of factors. Potential factors that could impact results include: general economic conditions in different countries in which we do business around the world, changes in global equity and fixed income markets that could affect the return on invested assets, fluctuations in exchange and interest rates that could influence revenue and expense, rating agency actions that could affect our ability to borrow funds, funding of our various pension plans, changes in the competitive environment, our ability to implement restructuring initiatives and other initiatives intended to yield cost savings, our ability to execute the stock repurchase program, our ability to obtain regulatory or legislative changes to permit continuous sales of our supplemental Medicare health product, changes in commercial property and casualty markets and commercial premium rates that could impact revenues, changes in revenues and earnings due to the elimination of contingent commissions, other uncertainties surrounding a new compensation model, the impact of investigations brought by state attorneys general, state insurance regulators, federal prosecutors, and federal regulators, the impact of class actions and individual lawsuits including client class actions, securities class actions, derivative actions, ERISA class actions, the impact of the analysis of practices relating to stock options, the cost of resolution of other contingent liabilities and loss contingencies, and the difference in ultimate paid claims in our underwriting companies from actuarial estimates. Further information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company's financial results, is contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041215/CGW049LOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Aon Corporation CONTACT: Rahsaan Johnson of Aon Corporation, +1-312-381-2684, ; or Jayson Schkloven, +1-703-390-1529, , for Verint Systems Inc. Web site: http://www.aon.com/

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