Executive Spotlight

Verint (News - Alert) is a recognized leader in the enterprise and security intelligence markets. Its solutions are used by more than 10,000 organizations around the globe, including more than 80 percent of the Fortune 100.

What it’s established over the years is a successful, long-standing business with a unique culture that is a draw for its customers, partners, and employees alike. Verint’s core values are and have been the foundation of its culture and have remained consistent since the company’s inception more than 20 years ago.

Nancy Treaster, Verint’s general manager of strategic operations for enterprise intelligence solutions is one of the individuals who personifies that culture. CUSTOMER recently interviewed Treaster to learn more about her and the company.

As a general manager at Verint, what do you consider your greatest professional accomplishment during that time?

Treaster: I’m proud to be part of a team that continuously innovates to help organizations accelerate their business and stay ahead of their competitors. As a market leader, we have a responsibility to lead the way, and Verint has reinforced its ability to do just that.

Nearly 10 years ago, we helped our customers take a big step forward by combining contact center recording, quality monitoring, workforce management, and speech analytics into a unified workforce optimization suite. A few years after that we innovated solutions to extend those WFO capabilities to our customers’ branch and back-office operations to help expand their productivity improvements. 

Currently, we’re leading the market through another big change. We see many organizations working to transform the way they engage with their customers and are now innovating in new areas such as employee desktops, email, chat, and knowledge management. Additionally, we’re helping organizations drive improvements beyond contact centers, branches, and back offices by focusing on self-service engagements, such as the web, mobile, and social communities. Connecting all the customer engagement channels (assisted and self-service) and optimizing across them is a challenge we’re committed to helping our customers meet.  

It’s often uncommon for an organization of Verint’s size to continue to drive market innovation. So for me, it’s hard to single out one particular professional accomplishment. I’m really proud to be a part of a team that thinks big and innovates each and every day. It’s very rewarding to watch our customers use Verint’s innovations to make a big impact on their success.

When you’re not working, how do you spend your free time?

Treaster: When not working, I focus on my family, my community, and try to make time for myself. Cooking and running are two things I enjoy, so on the weekends I often spend time doing both.

I also volunteer on a couple of boards in my local community, as well as serve as a member of the Alpharetta Technology Commission. Verint’s largest office in the U.S. is in Alpharetta, Ga. Alpharetta is referred to as The Technology City of the South. It might surprise some that it’s home to more than 600 tech companies and over a quarter of metro Atlanta’s top 25 technology employers. The Alpharetta Technology Commission focuses on bringing leaders from the high tech community together so as a city it can remain a leading location for technology companies.    

How would you describe your personal brand?

Treaster: I’m a firm believer in the power of transferring enthusiasm across the team. My passion for the business is deeply engrained in both my personality and work style, and it’s important to me that others understand why. To be a part of Verint for the last 19 years, I’ve experienced first-hand the impact we have on our customers and the market. It’s very motivating to know that the innovations we create make a real difference.

Verint says it’s the leader in actionable intelligence. What does that term mean? Treaster: Actionable Intelligencmeans, in this dynamic world of massive information growth, empowering organizations with crucial insights and enabling decision makers to anticipate, respond, and take action. With Verint solutions, organizations of all sizes and across industries can make more timely and effective decisions. Our Actionable Iintelligence solutions help organizations address three important challenges: customer engagement optimization; security intelligence; and fraud, risk, and compliance. We help our customers capture large amounts of information from numerous data types and sources, use analytics to glean insights from the information, and leverage the resulting actionable intelligence to help optimize customer engagement, enhance security, and mitigate risk.

How would you describe Verint’s culture?

Treaster: At the center of our culture are five core values: integrity, transparency, humility, innovation, and passion. With these core values we focus on developing customers for life; driving customer, partner, and employee success; and a creating a smarter world with Aactionable Iintelligence.

The Verint team is also committed to giving back to the communities in which we live and work. Our Next Generation Program engages employees around the globe in projects that benefit children in need – from supplying food pantries and participating in blood drives, to collecting clothing and school supplies, to building playgrounds, cleaning parks and planting gardens.

What do you look for in a new hire?

Treaster: Verint looks for people who are passionate; fit our fast-paced, collaborative culture; and have a drive to innovate in their respective disciplines. The company recognizes that its employees are the driving force behind its success. This is the reason we engage outstanding talent – experienced professionals who thrive in a dynamic environment and value initiative, innovation, and a customer-centric focus – in every area of our business. 

How do you keep your employees engaged so they can deliver the best possible experience for your customers?

Treaster: We believe that the customer experience is everyone’s responsibility – from those whothat develop solutions, to those whothat sell, install, train, and support it. Back-office functions also continue to play key roles both directly and indirectly. With a focus on developing customers for life, we partner across business functions through the whole customer journey. This barometer not only helps determine how we’re doing, but also drives a more consistent customer experience across the business. Likewise, it enables us to gain a deeper understanding of customer perceptions about our solutions and services, so we can continue to improve, innovate, and excel in meeting expectations and requirements today and into the future.   

There’s a lot of talk these days about leveraging big data for better customer service. Why is Verint’s approach noteworthy?

Treaster: Verint helps organizations transform the way they engage with their customers by enriching interactions, improving business processes, and optimizing the workforce. With Aactionable Iintelligence, they can capture, analyze, and take action on customer, employee, and business insights to make better decisions faster – decisions that ultimately impact experiences, customer satisfaction, and loyalty; and help maximize revenue, reduce operational costs, and mitigate risk. In this market, we address a wide range of buyers – from customer engagement centers, to customer experience and marketing leaders, to risk management personnel, and even the heads of branch and back-office operations.

Historically, as organizations have looked to engage with their customers more effectively and address new communications channels and changing customer expectations, they have had to purchase multiple point solutions from different vendors, creating integration and maintenance challenges. Even if such point solutions were able to be integrated, we believe they often do not work together optimally or in a unified manner. We offer organizations a comprehensive Customer Engagement Optimization solution that includes customer analytics, engagement management, and enterprise workforce optimization capabilities, all from a single provider. As organizations take a more strategic approach to customer service and sales, we believe that they will be better positioned to gain competitive advantage, build more meaningful customer and employee engagement, heighten loyalty, reduce operating costs, and increase revenue.