CenterStone Technologies Replaces RightNow's Customer Service Software with Parature's Customer Support and Help Desk Solution

Ease of use, workflow, user interface, customization listed as reasons for move to Parature

McLean, VA - November 7, 2005 - Parature, a leading provider of award winning, on demand customer support software, announced today that CenterStone Technologies has replaced RightNow Technologies Customer Service Software with Parature’s Customer Support Solution. After implementing RightNow’s products a year ago, CenterStone, leading provider of applications helping retail dealers and salespeople work more effectively, began to realize that the workflow and user interfaces were complicated both on the customer support representative and end user customer sides. “RightNow’s basic functionalities are really difficult,” stated Terry Gates, Sr. Vice President of Technology at CenterStone Technologies. “Their complex user interfaces made navigating confusing and their workflow concepts were too complicated. Parature’s workflow and user interfaces are much cleaner and more straightforward which better meets our needs.”

In addition to the interface and workflow, customization played a key role when selecting a new provider. “When we tried to customize RightNow’s solution to simplify things, it proved very difficult to use for our customers. Parature’s customizable ticket fields enable our customers to select and narrow their support inquiries which drives their usage of the system and deflects support emails and calls that normally would have been going to our support representatives,” commented Gates. “Training is almost not needed with Parature’s system. We conduct basic training for our support representatives whereas with RightNow’s solution it takes 15 minutes just to explain what is on the screen.”

The overall scalability, feature set and ease of use will enable CenterStone to utilize Parature’s customer support solution for years to come. “Parature fits the direction we’re going as a company, allowing us to quickly launch the solution and build upon our unique customization needs. RightNow was situated where you almost have to think two years in advance on everything you were doing which isn’t always possible,” concluded Gates.

Terry goes further to explain the vast difference in total cost of ownership, stating “We had a full-time person who dedicated two thirds of their time to RightNow’s solution. I spend less than ten percent of my time administrating Parature’s solution.”

"We are continually receiving praise from our clients and industry experts about our functionality, integration capabilities, customization, ease of use and total cost of ownership,” said Duke Chung, CEO at Parature. “Because of that positive feedback and having been awarded the gold medal in SearchCRM’s 2004 Product of the Year for customer-facing online service, we are confident that we are providing our clients, their customer support representatives and customers the most complete support solution available.”

A full case study on how CenterStone Technologies is utilizing Parature’s customer support solution is available on Parature’s website at http://www.parature.com/res_casestudies.aspx.

About Parature

Parature, a leader in on-demand customer service software, makes it possible for any business to leverage the Internet to provide outstanding customer service. The company’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery and integrated, intuitive design enables organizations to better and more efficiently serve, support, engage with and retain customers in today’s Web world.  Founded in 2000, Parature received the 2007 and 2008 Product of the Year Award from Customer Interaction Solutions magazine and has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of Fastest Growing Private Companies in America. Parature has been named to both the Washington Business Journal’s list of Best Places to Work and The Washingtonian list of Great Places to Work. Headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, Parature is at work in organizations of all types and sizes, and helps support millions of end users worldwide. For more information, visit www.parature.com or follow @parature on Twitter.

About CenterStone Technologies

CenterStone’s applications give retail dealers and sales reps the ability to create proposals, view online catalogs and product availability and to place preseason, restocking, and retail employee orders more effectively and efficiently with their vendors. CenterStone Technologies makes vendors more competitive by providing increased inventory turns at retail, reducing customer service costs, and enabling greater speed to market, thus improving relationships with their customers – retail dealers. Product availability and orders for clients are exchanged between retail dealers, sales reps and vendors’ back office (ERP) systems using EDI or XML. A blue chip list of well-respected, world-wide brands currently using CenterStone’s technology include: The North Face, Helly Hansen, Ripcurl, Billabong, Ex Officio, Marmot, Pearl Izumi, KHS Bicycles, Jansport, Sport Obermeyer and others. Additional information about CenterStone Technologies, Inc. can be found on the company’s Web site at www.centerstonetech.com.

Media Contact

Dayna Tenorio
Parature, Inc.
+1-703-564-7758 x1170
dtenorio@parature.com
www.parature.com