Exstream Software, Inc. announced today that EATEL, an innovative Louisiana-based communications company is successfully using its Dialogue software to keep document development in-house and create user-friendly personalized customer documents that reduce call center volume. EATEL provides local phone service, long distance, Internet, web development and e-Commerce solutions to nearly 100,000 customers in Louisiana. With Dialogue, EATEL is able to maintain control over the creation of its customer communications, resulting in easier-to-read statements that clarify commonly asked questions about charges. Key drivers in the selection of Dialogue included its ease of use, ability to dynamically incorporate rule-driven relevant messages directly into customer communications and its capacity to distribute complex communications through multiple delivery channels. Dialogue is making it possible for EATEL to keep the design function in-house since its role-based visual interface and built-in approval workflow allow employees to build applications without specialized programming skills. “The main reason we chose Dialogue was to reduce calls to the customer service center,” said Sandra Kowalski, billing systems manager. “Dialogue gives us the flexibility to expand our descriptions of charges, put detailed notes in the white space of the bill and use highlight color to make things stand out. Additionally, having control of our documents in-house and not having to send them out to a third party for changes is huge in terms of time and cost savings. With Dialogue, we can preview documents right away in our test environment, make changes quickly and add targeted messages to customer communications in minutes instead of days. This capability alone is making our marketing department very happy.” EATEL is also benefiting from Dialogue’s ability to create PDFs for archival and electronic storage of information, further reducing costs. Going forward, the company plans to take advantage of Dialogue’s functionality to create highly personalized welcome kits with pertinent messages targeted to new customers. “Reducing call center volume and driving down costs are big challenges for the telecommunications industry,” said Davis Marksbury, president and CEO of Exstream Software. “We are excited about EATEL’s ability to do both of these things using Dialogue and we look forward to our continued partnership with such an innovative company.”