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Kanisa Inc.'s latest software release, improved with search technology gained from last year's acquisition of a business unit of Ask Jeeves Inc., is designed to help companies shorten cycles for resolving customer-support calls.

Kanisa 5.5 call-center application suite uses natural-language search technology to let call-center representatives more efficiently search documents and applications for answers to customer problems, the company says. Technology from the former Jeeves Solutions business unit was embedded in Kanisa's core platform so it improves search results in any of the suite's four apps.

In addition, Kanisa 5.5 features improved analytics and tighter integration with customer-relationship-management applications, the company says. For example, analytics enhancements in the software can help companies better map who should be contacted to solve specific customer problems and also can generate reports on setting up business rules for support processes. Tighter integration with CRM apps will let call-center reps research data pulled from CRM apps for answers to customer issues based on past experience. Histories of customer calls and how they were handled often are stored in CRM applications but not in customer call-center apps.

Broadband-network provider AFC Inc. has used Kanisa in its customer call center since December and is an early user of Kanisa 5.5. AFC's front-line customer-support staff resolves more than a quarter of the calls it receives without requiring help, compared with just 5% before it started using Kanisa, the company says. The new version's improved analytics and search capabilities promise to further that trend, says Marc Fischer, manager of customer-service support solutions at AFC. "The analytics are much cleaner and much better," he says. "We have a clearer picture of how the center and agents are working."

Kanisa's suite, which includes applications designed for support staff, self-service functions, customer feedback, and service-related search, starts at between $100,000 and $150,000 per app.