Just as your pulse is checked during a routine physical, free cash flow is used as an indicator of a company's health. It equals the cash brought in from operations minus the money needed to pay the bills. Think about leftover money in your checking account after you pay this month's bills.

Investors and analysts see this leftover money as a gauge of a company's ability to perform. It is available for transactions such as handing out dividends and working on new products.

Some argue free cash flow is wrongly overshadowed by the emphasis often placed on earnings. Earnings numbers can be manipulated and don't always tell the whole story -- and earnings don't mean much if there's nothing left over after a company pays its expenses. Even if you bring in a six-figure salary, but no money left after paying the bills, are you in great financial shape?

You don't have to be Einstein to figure out free cash flow. To calculate the number, subtract the company's expenditures and dividends from its operating cash flow.

If the free cash flow is written in red ink, it doesn't necessarily signal curtains. This is common for young companies looking to grow. It also could be a result of heavy investments, which in the long run could be worth a standing ovation.

Home / Markets / Industries / Energy

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

S&P 500 Energy Company Implements Verint Witness Actionable Solutions Quality Monitoring Software in Multi-Site Competitive Replacement

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MELVILLE, N.Y., May 14, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----Verint Systems Inc. today announced that Tampa Electric has implemented quality monitoring software from its Verint(R) Witness Actionable Solutions(TM) business line to support customer service initiatives across the company's multiple contact center site locations.

Tampa Electric - part of TECO Energy, the S&P 500 energy company headquartered in Tampa, Florida - has supplied the Tampa Bay area with electricity since 1899. Approximately 670,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in a 2,000 square mile service territory depend on it for reliable power and affordable energy services. The company has nearly 4,400 megawatts of generating capacity.

To further enhance the overall customer experience across its growing customer base, as well as streamline operations across multiple sites, Tampa Electric has implemented quality monitoring software from Verint Witness Actionable Solutions across its three contact center locations in Ybor, Downtown Tampa and Plant City. The software's robust voice and data recording functionality - along with its detailed reporting and Smart Inbox(TM) capabilities that make customer interactions easily available to individuals/departments outside the contact center - will help deliver gains in operational efficiency. These range from service quality and consistency, to performance and staff development, as well as the ability to enhance business processes and leverage valuable customer intelligence company-wide.

"We conducted an assessment of several competing technologies, including the existing system we had in place. Verint's solution fit both our short-term and long-term plans, and they were able to partner with us and understand our unique requirements that aligned with our focus on strengthening the customer experience," explains Rachel Roman, manager, revenue recovery (project lead), Tampa Electric. "In addition, we felt its speech and data analytics were the best our team evaluated - through the ability to analyze call content and gain valuable insight into the reasons why our customers call and how we can better serve them. This is a definite business driver and area of interest for us."

"We are delighted to be working with Tampa Electric. Its selection of our quality monitoring solution is another market indicator that leading organizations focused on creating a more customer-centric enterprise are turning to Verint Witness Actionable Solutions to achieve this goal," adds Nancy Treaster, senior vice president and general manager, Verint Witness Actionable Solutions. "The software is inherently designed to enable organizations to quickly and effectively uncover potential quality and performance issues before they impact operational efficiency or customer satisfaction."

About Tampa Electric

Tampa Electric Company is the principal subsidiary of TECO Energy, Inc. (NYSE: TE), an energy-related holding company with regulated utility operations in Florida including both Tampa Electric and Peoples Gas System. Other subsidiaries include TECO Coal, which owns and operates coal production facilities in Kentucky and Virginia, and TECO Guatemala, which is engaged in electric power generation and distribution and energy-related businesses in Guatemala.

About Verint Witness Actionable Solutions

Verint(R) Witness Actionable Solutions(TM) is the leader in analytics-driven workforce optimization. Its solutions are designed to help organizations capture customer intelligence, uncover business trends, discover the root cause of employee and customer behavior, and optimize the customer experience. From contact centers to remote office, branch and back-office operations, its award-winning, next-generation Impact 360(R) Workforce Optimization suite is the industry's most unified solution set - featuring quality monitoring and recording, workforce management, speech and data analytics, customer feedback surveys, performance management and eLearning. Impact 360 helps organizations improve the entire customer service delivery network, powering the right decisions to help ensure service excellence and transform organizations into customer-centric enterprises.

About Verint Systems Inc.

Verint Systems Inc. (VRNT.PK), headquartered in Melville, New York, is a leading provider of actionable intelligence solutions for an optimized enterprise and a safer world. Today, more than 10,000 organizations in over 150 countries rely on Verint solutions to perform more effectively, build competitive advantage and enhance the security of people, facilities and infrastructure. Visit us at our website www.verint.com.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding expectations, predictions, views, opportunities, plans, strategies, beliefs, and statements of similar effect relating to Verint Systems Inc. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and they are based on management's expectations that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. For a detailed discussion of these risk factors, see the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 10, 2007, as supplemented by our Current Reports on Form 8-K filed on November 5, 2007, January 16, 2008, and April 9, 2008. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and, except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them or to provide reasons why actual results may differ.

VERINT, the VERINT logo, ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE, POWERING ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE, STAR-GATE, RELIANT, VANTAGE, X-TRACT, NEXTIVA, ULTRA, AUDIOLOG, WITNESS, the WITNESS logo, IMPACT 360, the IMPACT 360 logo, IMPROVE EVERYTHING, EQUALITY, CONTACTSTORE, EYRETEL, BLUE PUMPKIN SOFTWARE, BLUE PUMPKIN, the BLUE PUMPKIN logo, EXAMETRIC and the EXAMETRIC logo, CLICK2STAFF, STAFFSMART, AMAE SOFTWARE and the AMAE logo are trademarks and registered trademarks of Verint Systems Inc. Other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Verint Systems Inc.

Industry Information
   Verint Witness Actionable Solutions Candace Flynn, 770-754-1878 candace.flynn@verint.com or Industry Information Merritt Group
   Jayson Schkloven, 703-390-1529 schkloven@merrittgrp.com or Investor Relations Verint Systems Inc. Alan Roden, 631-962-9304
   alan.roden@verint.com