Today at Citrix iForum, the world's largest application delivery conference, Citrix Systems, Inc. announced Cox Communications, the third-largest cable communications provider in the U.S., as the winner of the 2007 Citrix Innovation Award. The Citrix Innovation Awards are presented to honor Citrix customers who are strategically leveraging application delivery to gain a competitive business advantage. Cox took home the honors for its implementation of a green call center program, Cox Connect, which promotes workforce agility, supports business expansion and lowers costs.
The other two finalists for the 2007 award were HSBC Bank, the fourth-largest banking and financial services firm worldwide, and the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), the Australian government body that manages, develops and invests in sports. A panel of industry analysts, press and experts selected the three finalists for the 2007 award for their unique approaches to using application delivery infrastructure to improve their businesses.
Cox Communications serves more than 6 million residential and commercial customers and has more than 22,000 employees. The Cox initiative creates a more “green” call center by enabling customer service representatives to work from home, an environmentally conscious move that reduces telecommuter traffic while simultaneously reducing office supply and electrical consumption. Cox is fueled by Citrix Application Delivery Infrastructure — an end-to-end solution combining Citrix Presentation Server™, Citrix® NetScaler®, and Citrix Access Gateway™ — that gives Cox employees working from home secure, anytime application access and call center telephony. This increases worker satisfaction and retention, while saving the company more than $3,300 per agent per year in space, equipment, and operational costs – supporting Cox’s business objectives to lower costs, increase productivity and support growth, all while providing excellent customer service and support. Cox also relies on Citrix® GoToAssist® to speed resolution time for technical support calls for workers both in the office and at home and uses Citrix® GoToMeeting® to eliminate the need for agents to travel to Cox offices for training by offering it online.
“We’ve made a very conscious effort to be environmentally responsible in all aspects of our business — from implementing the latest in solar energy technologies and high-efficiency hybrid cars to leveraging application delivery to support our teleworking initiative, just to name a few — so it’s quite an honor for our hard work to be recognized by both industry leaders and our peers with this award from Citrix,” said Josh Nelson, Vice President of Network & Information Technology, Cox Communications. “Collaborating with Citrix has enabled us to implement our vision for greening our call center function, and we look forward to continuing to innovate together.”
About iForum 07 - The App Delivery Expo
Now in its tenth year, the Citrix App Delivery Expo is the industry’s largest conference focused entirely on application delivery infrastructure, bringing together thousands of business leaders, IT managers and technology leaders from around the world. Application delivery infrastructure best practices will be highlighted in more than 60 sessions, including keynotes and general sessions from analysts at Gartner, Forrester, IDC and Yankee Group, as well as industry leaders like Accenture, Dell, Microsoft, HP, IBM, Intel, Oracle and SAP. The conference also features 15 enterprise customer presentations, vendor exhibits, technology labs, hands-on technical workshops, panel discussions, and product demonstrations. The event will present thought leaders and cutting-edge technology behind some of the hottest trends in the market, including virtualization, desktop delivery and application networking. Held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, NV, from October 22-25, 2007, the Citrix App Delivery Expo will also feature keynotes by Citrix executives including Mark Templeton, president and CEO. More information is available at http://www.citrixiforum.com.