Gerber Life Insurance Company has reported reduced costs and improved customer service as a result of deploying Interactive Intelligence Group Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ININ) unified IP business communications software solution.

Gerber Life, which provides juvenile life insurance and other financial products, replaced an existing telephony system and multi-vendor add-on products with the Interactive Intelligence all-in-one IP communications software suite, Customer Interaction Center™ (CIC).

“Prior to the Interactive Intelligence software we had a multi-vendor solution that proved costly and labor-intense due to extensive integration and system change requirements,” said Gerber Life’s vice president of IT, Mike Borowski. “Interactive Intelligence gave us a multitude of features all running on an open, single platform. This has saved us more than $100,000 annually in maintenance contracts alone, not to mention reduced labor costs.”

Gerber Life also credits CIC with helping it improve customer service. “CIC enables us to route customer calls to the agent licensed to provide insurance services in that caller’s home state,” Borowski said. “This, along with screen-pop capability, which gives agents vital customer information simultaneous with a call, has helped us provide faster, more effective service.”

CIC’s outbound dialing application and multichannel support has also led to increased efficiencies, according to Borowski. “We can now automatically switch an agent between outbound calls and inbound calls, emails and Web chats,” he said. “By allocating resources where they are needed based on call volume and availability, as well as having agents support multiple channels, we’ve dramatically increased efficiencies.”

Gerber Life has also used CIC to deploy a virtual hold feature, which lets a customer hang up while keeping their place in queue. When their turn in queue is up, Gerber Life dials out to the customer. “CIC’s virtual hold feature has helped us improve customer satisfaction, while reducing toll calls,” Borowski said.

CIC supports all 500 Gerber Life employees and 80 Gerber Products employees located at its headquarters in White Plains, N.Y., and at its contact centers on the Gerber campus in Fremont, Mich.

About Gerber Life Insurance Company

Gerber Life Insurance Company was formed in 1967 as a natural extension of Gerber Products' business of helping young parents provide for their children. Today the company does business in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada, has more than $26 billion of life insurance in force, and insures more than two million people. Gerber Life is rated "A" (Excellent) by A.M. Best, the impartial reporting firm that rates insurance companies based on financial stability, management skill and integrity. The home office of Gerber Life Insurance Company is located in White Plains, N.Y. The Operations Division, responsible for issuing all policies and processing benefit payments is in Fremont, Mich. For more information, call 800.704.2180, or visit www.gerberlife.com.

About Interactive Intelligence

Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ) is a global provider of contact center automation, unified communications, and business process automation software and services. The company’s unified IP business communications solutions, which can be deployed on-premise or via the cloud, are ideal for industries such as financial services, insurance, outsourcers, collections, and utilities. Interactive Intelligence was founded in 1994 and has more than 4,500 customers worldwide. The company is among Forbes Magazine’s 2011 Best Small Companies in America and Software Magazine’s 2011 Top 500 Global Software and Service Providers. It employs more than 1,000 people and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The company has offices throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Interactive Intelligence can be reached at +1 317.872.3000 or info@inin.com; on the Net: www.inin.com.

This release may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are described in the company's SEC filings.

Interactive Intelligence Inc. is the owner of the marks INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE, its associated LOGO and numerous other marks. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

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