Avoka, the acknowledged leader in digital customer acquisition for financial services companies and government agencies, today announced that it has been awarded two “XCelent Awards” from global research and consulting firm Celent.

The awards were based on Celent’s evaluation of omnichannel customer acquisition vendors in the banking sector with the focus on functionality, technology, customer service, and customer base. Following a detailed independent assessment that included significant input from customers, Celent named Avoka as XCelent Award winner in the categories of Service, and Breadth of Functionality.  Read the Celent award assessment here.

In July and September this year, Celent published extensive reports on omnichannel success in banking customer acquisition and highlighted specific vendors who excel in each of four categories and who were candidates for the XCelent awards.

“There is rapidly growing interest in omnichannel customer acquisition among financial institutions, with many still over reliant on the branch structure,” said Bob Meara, a senior analyst at Celent and a co-author of the reports.

“The need for solutions uniquely addressing omnichannel customer acquisition arises from the combination of rapidly changing consumer expectations alongside vexing constraints imposed by legacy channel and core systems,” Mr Meara said.

Celent said Avoka, which serves banking and credit union clients in Australia, North America, Europe and South Africa, has deep experience in the provisioning of effective and flexible digital acquisition mechanisms through its Avoka Transact platform.

It said Avoka won the XCelent Award for Service due to its “exceptionally strong customer service feedback, demonstrably effective implementation strategies, and value realization program”.

The Breadth of Functionality award, Celent said, reflected Avoka Transact’s “broad product support, shopping cart construct, and excellent dashboard and analytics capabilities”. The XCelent Award for Advanced Technology went to Lexmark while Bottomline Technologies won the XCelent Customer Base award.

“These are significant and gratifying awards for Avoka given the impressive level of competition and the fact that they reflect the enthusiasm of customers in the functionality of our sector-leading platform Avoka Transact,” said Avoka Chief Executive Philip Copeland.

“The banking sector around the world is embracing digital customer acquisition strategies and Avoka is committed to remaining the market leader in helping banks secure customers quickly and easily via an efficient and seamless process,” Mr. Copeland said