Call Center Solutions Article ArchiveCall Centers Continue Career CreationFive hundred jobs are being created in Chattanooga, Tennessee thanks to an expansion in employment at a Convergys Corp. call center. The new jobs will cover inbound sales and customer service calls and according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press bring company employment in the municipality to about 1300 by the middle of the summer. 5/3/2013 Red Roof Call Centers Exceed Customer Expectations Red Roof Inn, a Columbus, Ohio-based hospitality company with a coast-to-coast presence, recently implemented a cloud based platform, called RediStay PMS. The platform from Sabre Hospitality Solutions provides a centralized, web-based interface for accessing group sales information. The platform also gives a centralized view of the activities of call center agents. In addition the offering can be used for back-office accounting with centralized accounts receivable. 5/3/2013 Power Dialer: Five9 Gives Muscle to DirectBuy San Diego's Outbound Calling DirectBuy was founded in 1971 to offer consumers a different, less expensive way to buy home products and services. Based in Merrillville, Ind., the company has 160 showrooms across the U.S. and Canada. Members pay a fee to join, which allows them to buy merchandise directly from 700 manufacturers and suppliers while avoiding the price markups typically charged by retailers. Products include home furnishings, home improvement items, outdoor furnishings, flooring, and other accessories. 4/29/2013 Gamification : Effective Tool or Wasted Effort? The technology used in the contact center today has evolved to a point that it's hard to imagine the hardware and software used by contact center agents being any more helpful than it already is. And yet, contact centers continue to struggle with the same issues - high employee turnover, efficiency and productivity, ensuring a quality customer experience - time and again. Perhaps, the weak link in the call center chain isn't technology, but the people who use it every day. 4/25/2013 OrderLogix Releases Version 4 of its Call Center, Order Management Solution OrderLogix has released its fourth version of its call center and order management solution. The Maine-based company provides solutions for call centers, marketers, and e-commerce and multi-channel merchants. 4/16/2013 Tele-Quote.com Now Offers Outbound Call Center Quotes Tele-Quote.com, a company providing online quotes for business phone systems, has announced that it is now offering outbound call center quotes. 4/15/2013 Oracle Study Finds Disconnect Between Company Executives and the Customer Experience According to new research from Oracle conducted in conjunction with research company O'Keeffe & Company, brands today may be losing up to 20 percent of revenue due to poor customer experiences. The study, "Global Insights on Succeeding in the Customer Experience Era," interviewed 1,342 senior-level executives from 18 countries in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The results, says Oracle, yield new insights on the challenges, strategies and lessons learned for succeeding in the customer experience era. 2/4/2013 Message Bus Provides Tips to Ensure Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deliverability Tips like spending the time and investigate the AOL Postmaster Site, and whitelisting IPs as well as setting up feedback loops with domains that offer these services, are just a few of the tips the company is offering to marketers this year. 11/21/2012 Intuate Group Helps CCI Recover Quickly from Fire Accident Natural disasters can bring any company, big or small, to a standstill. It usually takes a company many weeks, sometimes months, to get back to its normal operation after being hit by a natural disaster. 10/23/2012 Expert Planet Adopts Five9 As Customer Requirements Evolve When ExpertPlanet's operations outgrew its own on-premise infrastructure, the company's vice president for technology, Greg Levow, was forced to look for a flexible solution in the cloud. The blue print he had in mind was that of powerful application programming interfaces (APIs) which could be used to configure contact center programs and real time links with customer data. 9/5/2012 Five9 Appoints Dave DeWalt to Board of Directors Five9 is a provider of cloud-based contact center software for sales, marketing and support. It gives enterprises of all sizes access to contact center solutions quickly, at a cost of ownership far lower than traditional premise-based solutions.Already coming off of record revenue growth in 2011, Five9 increased its Q1 2012 revenue by 65 percent year-over-year. 5/15/2012 the Call Center Corp. Offers Free Dialing Licenses the Call Center Corporation, which launched last month, has announced a launch promotion that will see some of its early customers get free licenses to use the Nuxiba dialing solution. 4/20/2012 Presence Technology and VMware Join, Help Call Centers on the Cloud Presence Technology has been certified by VMware, adding to its already impressive resume as an industry defining software manufacturer. The Contact Center Suite, the flagship product for Presence Technology, was developed from within a large multichannel Call Center in Europe, so it carries a deep understanding of the daily operations of a Contact Center. 3/28/2012 Lessons in Call Center Scheduling According to the webcast, "Utilizing a Six Sigma Approach to Reduce Unwanted Turnover", Volt Workforce Solutions, the staffing business unit of Volt Information Sciences Inc., will share expertise improving call center recruiting and retention. Volt delivers integrated workforce consulting, technology management consulting and database services that improve company performance in Human Capital Solutions, Data Management, IT Infrastructure and Support, Telecommunications, Outsourced Project Solutions, Customer Care Resources and Directory Printing. 3/23/2012 Drishti Provides Better View of Business Process Matrices According to Drishti, Ameyo Stats Wallboard adds value to contact centers by providing a bird's eye view of all operations in a contact center, resulting in better management and delivering an increase of the overall business productivity. 2/24/2012 TMCnet's Call Center Solutions Week in Review Looking at some of the top stories in call center solutions for the past week, TMC noted that people could get advice on how to quit smoking or be tested for sexually transmitted diseases or even just attend a session on balancing their work and home lives at a large Brighton contact center last week in the UK when five organizations came together to improve health education among employees at Domestic & General. 2/4/2012 TMCnet's Call Center Solutions Week in Review Wrapping up the top call center solutions stories for the week, TMC had the news that multinational office equipment company Xerox finalized plans to build a new call center in Webster, New York. 1/28/2012 DSCI's iPBX Premium Call Center Improves Inbound Call Handling DSCI Corporation, a provider of IP and unified communications solutions, announced it has expanded its iPBX Call Center service, empowering enterprises to enhance communication and interaction with their customers. 1/20/2012 Siemens' Cloud Call Center Solutions Garner Awards Global integrated media company TMC's Customer Interaction Solutions magazine has honored Siemens Enterprise Communications with multiple awards for its achievement in advancing unified communications and contact center technologies and demonstrating excellence in innovation. The magazine has named OpenScape Cloud Solutions as a recipient of the 2011 Internet Telephony Product of the Year Award, and OpenScape Cloud Contact Center as well as the OpenScape Contact Center Customer Collaboration Solutions as Customer Interaction Solutions' products of the year. 1/20/2012 AuraPortal Adds Enhanced Dynamic Case Management Features to Latest Version AuraPortal, a provider of Business Process Management Suite or 'BPMS' solutions that automatically generate 'Business Process Workflow Execution Models' or 'BPWEMs,' without having to be administered by skilled IT programmers, has announced its now answering to this need with the new version of AuraPortal, its BPMS offering. 12/12/2011 TMCnet Call Center Software Week in Review This past week TMC's Rajani Baburajan wrote that Merced Systems, a provider of performance management products, would showcase its Service and Sales Performance Management solutionsat the 12th Annual Call Center Week conference in Las Vegas. 6/18/2011 Callidus Software Announces Acquisition of Litmos Limited Callidus Software Inc., a major player in Sales Performance Management, has successfully completed the acquisition of leading Learning Management Systems vendor, Litmos Limited. 6/13/2011 Five9 Improves Resiliency, Scalability of Cloud-Based Call Centers with Internap Data Center For a number of years, Five9 was growing at a rate that was faster than the on-demand call center industry as a whole. As a result, the company needed to provide reliable, geographical redundancy to support its continued expansion. The company turned to Internap to make this happen. 6/10/2011 Nuance Unveils Complete Care Multi-Channel Solutions for Customer Care Call Center The global provider of speech and customer interaction solutions for businesses and consumers Nuance Communications, Inc. recently unveiled a new multi-channel solution called Nuance Complete Care. Developed as an integrated inbound/outbound, multi-channel solution, Nuance Complete Care is targeted at the customer care call center market. 6/7/2011 Verba Technologies Expands Central European Operations Responding to the burgeoning demand for its high-performance call recording and contact center quality assurance solutions, Verba Technologies has expanded its central European operations by opening an office in Budapest, Hungary. Officials with Verba Technologies said that with an expanded team, the company's engineers and sales professionals can conveniently assist regional Verba staff, partners and customers in various time zones across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 5/19/2011 Improve Call Center Performance by Matching Callers to Agents via 'Personality Mapping' As those in the industry know, the key to delivering great customer service in the call center is being able to correctly match the customer to the right agent. Companies today can no longer take the approach of treating every customer the same - they have to provide "personalized" service to each and every customer if they are to build customer loyalty - which is not as easy to achieve in this new age of social media. 5/10/2011 Bill.com Now Integrated with Sage Peachtree Software Bill.com, a leader in paperless bill management and payment for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and CPA firms, today announced that Sage Peachtree Sync, will allow for the integration of Bill.com with Sage Peachtree software. 5/2/2011 How to Indentify What Customers Want When They Dial into Your Call Center As most people in the call center industry know, the key to delivering great customer service is being able to determine what the customer wants as of the moment they call. 4/21/2011 WASI Deploys Indosoft's Q-Suite Call Center Solution According to an important announcement by Indosoft, Worldwide Access Solutions Inc., a successful and innovative provider of Call Center Service Solutions with deployments of Q-Suite, has successfully developed and launched productivity modules to its contact center platform on Asterisk. With Q-Suite's robust CTI for Asterisk with .NET and Socket library, WASI has been able to enhance and customize its call center services according to the needs of its clients. 4/14/2011 InVision Teams Up with Training Company to Round Out its WFM Solution The global provider of workforce management solutions, InVision Software announced a strategic alliance with The Call Center School. 4/7/2011 Gartner Places BT in Leaders Quadrant According to a recent announcement, BT Global Services, part of BT Group, is positioned by Gartner, Inc., in the "Leaders" quadrant of the 2011 Magic Quadrants for Pan-European and Global Network Service Providers. "I'm pleased to see BT placed as a leader in these key Quadrants," said Jeff Kelly, CEO BT Global Services, in a statement. "Our ambition is to be the industry's best in partnering with customers as they exploit the tremendous opportunities our technology and expertise present to them." 4/6/2011 Bruce Telecom chooses Telax Hosted Call Center In locations like Bruce County in southwestern Ontario, Canada, harsh weather can be a real threat to businesses' service continuity. That's one of the reasons Bruce Telecom, a 100-year-old communications provider, announced today it has entered into a five-year partnership with Telax Hosted Call Center. 4/1/2011 Apex Voice Communications Launches OmniLite APEX Voice Communications, a provider of service delivery platforms and application servers for voice, video and data enhanced services, announced the availability of OmniLite, a Web portal for customizing applications designed and developed in the graphically-based OmniView Service Creation Environment. 2/16/2011 iovation and Affirmative Become Partners iovation, the Device Reputation Authority protecting online businesses from fraud and abuse, has entered a partnership agreement with Affirmative Technologies, a technology provider offering a suite of electronic payment and risk management solutions to financial institutions, payment aggregators and third-party ACH processors. 2/15/2011 Webinar Details Successful Voice of the Customer Program Using Real-Life Case Study Is there something you can learn from the design and implementation of a successful voice of the customer program, featuring a real-life case study from a restaurant chain? Sure there is. Fortunately, on Thursday, Feb. 10, at 2 in the afternoon on the East Coast and at 11 in the morning on the West Coast, there will be a Webinar offered dealing with precisely that topic. 2/10/2011 RO|Innovation Releases Apple iPad And iPhone 4 Mobile Application For Customer References As the leading customer reference technology and services provider, RO|Innovation unveiled new mobile customer reference application for the Apple iPad and iPhone 4 devices that will equip sales professionals with invaluable customer testimonials and marketing assets irrespective of location or internet connectivity. Developed in conjunction with Philips, the mobile app is an extension of the SaaS-based customer reference application, RO|ReferenceView that helps manage global enterprise customer reference program. 2/4/2011 Medallia Wins 2010 Product of the Year Award from Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine Medallia, a provider of SaaS Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions, announced that Medallia Contact Center has received a 2010 Product of the Year Award from Technology Marketing Corporation's (TMC) Customer Interaction Solutions magazine. "Medallia was given the honor of a 2010 Product of the Year Award for its achievement in advancing contact center technologies," said Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC. "Medallia Contact Center has demonstrated excellence as well as provided ROI for the companies that use it." 2/3/2011 Voice2Phone Releases Auto Dialer, Eases Phone Surveys, Reminders Company officials say the product "automates the process of broadcasting voice message by phone making it easier to perform phone surveys, send voice notifications or reminders to clients." It's being pitched to those looking for mass phone notification, customer surveys and reminders with virtually endless number of possible applications. 1/17/2011 DiJiPOP Launches Mobile Extension to On-Demand Ad Management Platform DiJiPOP, a provider of an on-demand shopper marketing technology platform, announced the mobile extension to its Point-of-Point (POP) technology that allows retailers and their consumer brands to run dynamic digital shopper marketing campaigns. 12/13/2010 eGain Introduces All-In-One Search Technology for Superior Navigation and Result Relevance eGain, a leading provider of cloud and on-site customer interaction hub software, recently launched eGain Multisearch, a unique, all-in-one search technology for web self-service and the multichannel contact center. In a press release, the company announced that the solution is currently available at the company's website. 12/9/2010 IP Telephony Service Provider Altura Is Avaya Connect Channel Partner Program Certified Altura Communication Solutions a provider of voice communications, data infrastructure, and product solutions and services announced that it has been certified at the Platinum level based on the new 2011 Avaya Connect Channel Partner Program requirements. 12/8/2010 New Office in the United Kingdom for Cameleon Software Cameleon Software is one of the leaders in the offer design, product configuration, pricing and quoting software market. The company is proud to announce the opening of a new office in London. Cameleon is now expanding to the middle of the "City of London" after having years of success in France and the United States. 11/29/2010 ARGI, iPacesetters Merge to Form Contact Center Solutions Company ARGI and iPacesetters have merged to form a new company that will operate under the name iPacesetters. According to company sources the audience development, lead generation and marketing technology of ARGI will be synergized with the performance-based call center services of iPacesetters. 11/24/2010 Noetica Adds Contact Center Solution, Real Time Lead Generation Ability U.K.'s leading customer interaction management (CIM) solutions provider, Noetica, introduced a software tool for the contact centers serving financial market. 11/23/2010 Call Center Software Solution Knowlagent 8.5 Expands Off-phone Activities Knowlagent, a provider of call center software solutions that deliver shrinkage activities during idle time and increase agent utilization, launched Knowlagent 8.5, a new update to its solution. The new version has been designed to significantly expand the types of off-phone activities delivered to agents during call volume downtime, which further cuts down shrinkage in the call center. 11/17/2010 Convergys Releases Call Center Performance Software Convergys Smart Rating and Billing Manager 5.0 Convergys Corporation, a dealer in relationship management, released the Convergys Smart Rating and Billing Manager 5.0 that can be used by communications and utilities companies to realize advanced credit management. The new version is part of the company's smart suite of BSS solutions. 11/15/2010 Tranzact and Interactive Softworks Maximizes Customer Engagement Software Value Especially when money is tight it pays to find out, go with and build on the right software solution and supplier rather than unnecessarily ripping-and-replacing products from a myriad of vendors that adds to IT costs, risks operations disruption and with this annoying customers. 11/8/2010 ManageEngine Releases On-Demand, ITIL-Ready ServiceDesk Plus Solution ManageEngine released an on-demand version of its established ServiceDesk Plus software which is a highly popular, on-premise solution. The ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand is an ITIL-ready help desk and asset management solution delivered as an online, Web-based application (SaaS) and is an essential part of the company's cost-effective, best-in-class IT management solutions. 11/4/2010 SAS and Teradata Strengthen Their Analytic Advantage Program SAS and Teradata announced that they have enhanced their Analytic Advantage Program by adding four new capabilities. Teradata specializes in data warehousing and enterprise intelligence. 10/26/2010 Adobe Further Untangles Applications with LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 2.5 The net result of these entanglements is that employees and firms are wasting time, effort and resources that could be devoted to serving customers. Ben Watson, principal of enterprise user experience for Adobe, reported that when his company began looking at customer service organizations it would find users utilizing Post-it notes, notebooks and note paper. They would also be opening multiple instances of applications, one to find items in, another to find out product information and another to find to enter details about the calls they are on. 10/25/2010 New Initiatives Reveal Intentions for Purchase of Leading Edge Technology Harte-Hanks, Inc., a multichannel direct and digital marketing company, expanded its Ci Pipeline lead generation service. The expanded service now includes tracking of eight new leading-edge technology initiatives planned for more than 740,000 North American and European business locations. The new initiatives identified include emerging opportunities in cloud computing, desktop virtualization, messaging security, data loss prevention, electronic medical records and mobile devices/smartphones. 10/19/2010 Strategic Planning Software a 'Must' in the Call Center Not only are contact centers tasked with keeping costs low and customers happy, but successfully managing the forecasting, staffing and budgeting of a call center can become a cumbersome process without the right tools. 10/12/2010 Maximizer Mobile CRM Supports Leading Array of Mobile Devices These solutions enable SMBs to leverage their latest customer data to make informed business decisions from anywhere, anytime. 10/7/2010 Blytheco Acquires SFA Technology and the Sage SalesLogix Blytheco announced the acquisition of SFA Technology and the Sage SalesLogix practice of Columbus, Ohio-based Result Data Consulting, Ltd. 10/6/2010 PlanetRE Introduces CRM and Social Media Platform for Real Estate Industry Real estate technology provider planetRE announced what the company claims as "the industry's first interactive unified client communication management platform." 10/5/2010 Avalar Offers Value-added Recruitment and Contract Staffing Service Plantation, FL-based Auxis, Inc., is a management consulting firm, which has been delivering project based services to its clients since 1997. According to Auxis, its proprietary growth strategy, business transformation, and outsourcing solutions help many companies identify and implement specific, immediate, and practical solutions for cost savings and growth. In order to further add value to its consulting and outsourcing services, Auxis announced the founding of Avalar LLC. The newly found company is designed to provide recruitment and contract staffing service for finance, accounting, supply chain and IT professionals. 10/4/2010 Saba Selects Carpathia Hosting for Compliant SaaS Solutions Saba, a provider of people systems, has selected Carpathia Hosting as a strategic cloud infrastructure partner, supporting U.S., Canadian and EMEA operations. 9/28/2010 WebTech Wireless' NextBus Division Bags a Five-Year Contract WebTech Wireless Inc., a market leader of vehicle fleet location-based services and telematics technology, was awarded a five-year contract for deploying NextBus Real-Time Passenger Information Services, by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro). 9/28/2010 Oracle CRM on Demand Release 18 Marks the Second Major Oracle Release in Fewer than Six Months Oracle has recently released the latest version of Oracle CRM On Demand. Called CRM On Demand Release 18, this CRM solution comes complete with several new capabilities. Being the second major release in less than six months, the latest version of Oracle CRM On Demand clearly indicates that Oracle is constantly innovating to respond to ever changing customer needs. 9/28/2010 Gryphon Network's PrivacyAdvisor Integrates with Oracle CRM On Demand Gryphon Networks, a provider of on-demand contact governance solutions, announced that its PrivacyAdvisor for Oracle CRM On Demand 3.2 solution has achieved Oracle Validated Integration with Oracle CRM On Demand Release 16. 9/21/2010 Learn How to Derive Value from SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions: Free Webinar SAP Customer Relationship Management software solutions and SAP Business Communications Management are significant solutions that deliver considerable value to the enterprise as long as the enterprise can implement the solutions to their full capacity. 9/21/2010 South African SMEs Value Investing in IT AdvanceNet, Africa's leading simple CRM provider, recently conducted a survey, revealing that less than 50 percent of South African's use Cloud CRM systems, compared to other users. The survey further illustrated that only 15 percent of South African SMEs use Cloud CRM systems. 9/21/2010 SurePayroll Releases Mobile Paycheck App to Accompany Mobile Payroll App SurePayroll, a provider of simple, convenient and accurate online payroll service, has claimed that they have launched the Mobile Paycheck app to go together with the already available Mobile Payroll app. 9/20/2010 Avature to Bring Its Candidate Management Solution to Taleo Talent Grid Avature is globally known for its candidate management CRM solution, which is currently used by 26 of the Fortune 500 companies. Avarture CRM, based on Web 2.0 technology, is especially designed for recruiting. According to Avarture, Fast Boolean search (with custom operators and meta data tags) of all documents, notes, and user defined fields combines with Avature CRM's List Management and e-mail marketing features to make it the ideal system for global sourcing initiatives. 9/20/2010 IneoQuest Unveils Expedus DVA - an Advanced Headend Video Probe IneoQuest Technologies, a dealer in intelligent video quality and service assurance, says that their newly unveiled advanced headend video probe for simultaneous management of content quality and transport availability, the Expedus DVA, caters to the industry demand for an efficient solution to monitor and address video content and delivery issues simultaneously. 9/14/2010 A Small Scale Alternative for the CTstage 5i Call Center System OKI Networks, a dealer in telecommunication products, has claimed that they have unveiled the new CTstage Lite, a small scale alternative to the CTstage 5i call center system. 9/14/2010 Velaris Checks Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for BI The Health Check assessment and report is a perfect starting point for organizations looking to evaluate their existing business intelligence strategy, according to Velaris. 9/9/2010 Pallas Athena Signs OEM Agreement with Magic Software Officials with Pallas Athena said that the company in its BPM|one solution brings simplicity to complexity, and empowers organizations to boost efficiency and increase agility. 9/9/2010 Drishti-Soft Enters into Partnership with Orange Garden Indonesia Drishti-Soft Solutions, a company specializing in IP telephony and call center solutions, has joined hands with Orange Garden Indonesia (OGI), a solution provider for enterprise communications. 9/8/2010 Telecom Systems Company Deploys Encover's Service Contract Sales Solution Encover, an organization committed to providing services in software automation platforms to enterprise customers, announced it has successfully launched an end-to-end solution for a telecom systems company based in the U.S. 9/7/2010 CyberTech Announces an Unlimited Scalability Recording Platform CyberTech has immediate availability of CyberTech MAX, an unlimited scalability recording platform. CyberTech is the world's fastest-growing and 2nd largest compliance recording provider. 9/1/2010 CTC Enhances Business with Deltek's CRM Solution Deltek, Inc., a provider of enterprise applications software and solutions for project-focused businesses, announced that Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) has selected their Costpoint CRM and their Document Management solution as part of a company-wide process improvement initiative 9/1/2010 Lenovo Implements Callidus Software's Quota Management Solution The solution was implemented in the second quarter of 2010 and offers organizations a solution that ensures sales quotas are allocated quickly and effectively based on market potential and corporate revenue goals. 8/31/2010 Digital Sabre Launches SaaS-Based Vehicle Tracking Solution TRAKR is a Global Positioning System for fleet and mobile workforce management to bring efficiency across fleet and workforce operations. 8/30/2010 General Motors Approves Recertification for both Autobase and AVV Ed Braunbeck, general manager of AVV, explained that AVV and GM together invested a significant amount of time working on these requirements. AVV is committed to providing GM dealers with a comprehensive lead management tool, and the company is pleased that its efforts have met GM's rigorous standards. 8/30/2010 White Paper Highlights Latest Evolution from the IBM Information on Demand Strategy The Enterprise of the Future recognizes the value of the information it collects through its many channels and actively mines that information for insights. However, for most companies today, information managed by these applications like ERP, CRM and SCM is isolated, unsynchronized, and of questionable quality. 8/25/2010 NYCMate 2.0 Available for Immediate Download The development of mobile applications is considered to be one of the cutting edge IT solutions for improving productivity and customer satisfaction. Mobile map applications enable users to get fragmented and regionalized knowledge of local areas. 8/23/2010 Silver Networks Intros Enhanced Hosted Call Center Solution Silver Networks, a provider of call center solutions and services, has announced its latest "Hosted Call Center" suite of services for seamless integration with existing phone systems of enterprises. 8/23/2010 Sales Performance International, Kadient Collaborate to Bring Solution Selling Playbooks for Increased Sales Productivity SPI has recently announced the availability of Solution Selling Playbooks for Kadient, an innovative technology for CRM enhancement. 8/18/2010 Free Webinar to Demonstrate Power of the Customer Voice This webinar, Voice of Customer Best Practices: Leveraging Customer Feedback as an Enterprise Asset is scheduled for Wednesday, August 25 at 2PM EDT and aims to demonstrate how Enterprise Feedback Management "EFM" can turn feedback into an enterprise asset. This asset can directly impact revenue and profitability. 8/18/2010 OnTheGo App for Sage SalesLogix CRM Introduced The Sage SalesLogix app, developed by Net@Work's U.S.-based application development group, allows users to source information from the host database without requiring them to carry large volumes of data while facilitating secure transactions and fast data retrieval. 8/12/2010 EverdowCRM Establishes New Department for Mobile Apps The company, which focuses on business-oriented product development, offers customers CRM systems and easy transaction/information management. The company's core products include Everdow Online Examination System, Everdow Customer Relationship Management System and Award-winning Everdow Bank Risk Monitoring System. 8/12/2010 Microsoft Dynamics CRM Recognized as Leader by Forrester Research and Gartner The CRM suite earned a Leader position in The Forrester Wave: CRM Suites Customer Service Solutions, Q3, 2010 (July 2010) report, while it was also recognized by Gartner as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation (July 2010) report. 8/5/2010 Voxware Announces Version 4.0 of Voxware 3 According to company officials, the new version is equipped with an expanded Enterprise Voice Manager, which is part of the Voxware Adaptive Voice Framework. 8/4/2010 Cleverbridge Enhances Affiliate Program for Call Center Software Solutions It is not enough to have the right products and services at the right prices, and high quality service and support for them. There also needs to be the marketing, and having the powerful marketing tools can make a difference in selling those goods and services. 8/3/2010 Communication Providers Worldwide selects Oracle's Solutions for Improved Customer Service and Cost-Effective Operations Communications providers like Romtelecom and TeleKom Malaysia are turning to Oracle's rapid order design and order delivery solution to deliver complex, convergent services with improved time to market, decreased order cycle time and low operational cost. 8/2/2010 Consona Goes Live With Service Gateway 4.1 SG 4.1 configures, manages and supports multiple broadband home devices for a full range of service fulfillment and assurance operations. When a customer calls for new or additional service, Service Gateway will automatically authenticate them, set up the device using an Auto Configuration Server and enable service to begin, all carried out via a secure walled garden environment. The result is, says Consona "a reduction in the cost of installation and support as well as improvement in the quality and consistency of service and support." 7/30/2010 Romtelecom, Telekom Malaysia Deploy Oracle Communications Order and Service Management Solutions Important offerings included as part of Oracle's rapid offer design and order delivery solution are Oracle Communications Order and Service Management, Oracle's Siebel CRM, Oracle Product Hub for Communications and Oracle Application Integration Architecture for Communications. 7/30/2010 Nexidia Enhances Contact Center Solutions Portfolio These enhancements, according to company officials, were designed in response to the maturation of the market for speech analytics and a better understanding of the different need sets that have evolved. The new packages offer greater flexibility and more options for how customers can implement the technology to support their operations. 7/29/2010 Legiant's IVR Now Features Absence Notification Legiant has announced a new Absence Notification feature for its interactive voice response system. 7/27/2010 Ringio Banks on a Call Center Solution to Serve the Needs of SMBS Enterprises, with their big wallets, and pick from any number of call center solutions to better serve customers. The same cannot always be said for small businesses, with their limited budgets. That's why longtime telecom industry partners Michael Zirngibl and Sam Aparicio founded Ringio. 7/27/2010 Pentaho Corporation Reaches Milestone in Terms of Cumulative Customer Savings Pentaho Corporation, a dealer in open source business intelligence, has claimed that its Agile BI is saving customers billions of dollars. 7/26/2010 InfoGrow Announces Benefits Growth Builder CRM Suite for Employee Benefits Broker Agencies Insurers in the United States are facing tremendous pressure. Adding to their woes created by the economic turbulence is the forthcoming changes to insurance regulations, notes InfoGrow, a provider of Customer Relationship Management solutions to businesses. 7/23/2010 Inova Solutions' Products Now Windows 7-Capable It does appear that way given what the operating system (OS) has done for contact centers. Market exploration conducted by Inova Solutions shows that many contact centers are beginning to migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7 (few had installed the reportedly problematic Windows Vista) because the new system is more secure, manageable and responsive. Contact centers investing in technology are likely to have Windows 7 installed on new computers so desktop messaging and digital signage software must continue to work flawlessly on the new system. 7/22/2010 Berlin's crm-now Partners with Illuminetic to Bring Affordable CRM Solution to SMBs Stone Ridge, Virginia-based Illuminetic is a provider of cloud-based CRM solutions and related consulting services for small to medium-sized enterprises. crm-now is based in Berlin, Germany and has been providing CRM solutions and related consulting services since 2004. Illuminetic and crm-now teamed up to introduce crm-now/PS cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution in the US market. 7/15/2010 Tigerpaw Software Enhances Employee Web Portal Tigerpaw Software, a developer of business building software for technology providers, has announced a new Employee Web Portal that provides IT and telecommunications providers with real-time Web access to the information in Tigerpaw. 7/15/2010 Echelon Announces Partnership with Convergys Convergys and Echelon have come together to provide an integrated metering, rating, billing, and customer care system that allows customers in easily harvesting data from the Echelon NES platform and passing it in real time to the Convergys Smart CIS Solution, whereby creating an ecosystem that coverts data into immediate actionable intelligence, enabling utilities to improve customer control and interaction. 7/14/2010 VHA Picks MicroStrategy Mobile to Build Mobile Business Intelligence App Business intelligence software provider MicroStrategy announced that VHA, a national health care network, has selected MicroStrategy Mobile to build its mobile business intelligence application that gives hospitals instant access to supply chain analytics data. 7/12/2010 Ensuring Agents' Quick Access to Information: Vivisimo Ask any contact center agent what is one of the most annoying aspect of their work and high on their list will be instant access to information e.g. a recent order shipped, the amount outstanding in an account balance that they need to resolve customers' issues. Agents can hear in their hands and sometimes through their headsets the callers' impatient finger rumbling in the background. 7/9/2010 TeleTech Offers Timely BC/DR Advice The next disaster can happen tomorrow or the next instant. With contact centers being on the organizations' front lines-the key interfaces with customers-they must be prepared for them with business continuity/disaster response planning and solutions. 7/9/2010 New App Lets you Play the Vuvuzela on your iPod, iPhone or iPod American success is all about ingenuity and capitalizing on popular concepts. Take the vuvuzela for example. This South African instrument is now famous thanks to the popularity of the World Cup. 7/9/2010 NICE On Performance Analytics Knowledge is power and for organizations they need more than ever what with a too-slow economic recover the knowledge from captured customer interactions to find ways to reduce costs and retain and grow revenue and customers 7/8/2010 Virtual Hold Technology's Concierge Software Is Judged to Be Avaya Compliant Virtual Hold Technology's Virtual Hold Concierge software was found to be compliant with Internet Protocol, IP; telephony; and contact center solutions from Avaya - after a series of comprehensive tests. 7/6/2010 Core Services Successfully Completes Major Oracle R12 Upgradation Project with Coach USA In a release Ralph Groen who is the director of information systems at Coach USA said that "Initially, Coach USA selected another vendor to help us with our Oracle R12 upgrade. However, after the other vendor failed to adequately perform, we engaged Core Services and saw immediate results. The Core Services team of experts more than exceeded our expectations by delivering our upgrade on budget and on schedule. We are delighted with how well our strategic partnership with Core Services worked." 7/6/2010 With New Maximizer CRM 11 Editions, No One Knows You're a Small Biz There is an adage that "on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog", which Wikipedia reports "began as the caption of a cartoon by Peter Steiner published by The New Yorker on July 5, 1993. The cartoon features two dogs: one sitting on a chair in front of a computer, speaking the caption to a second dog sitting on the floor." It refers to the anonymity of the medium except as defined by the users. 6/30/2010 InsideView Teams up with LinkSV to Enhance the Capabilities of SalesView Looking to expand coverage of start-ups and fast-growing SMB companies within its flagship sales productivity application, SalesView, InsideView has teamed up with LinkSV. With this, B2B sales organizations targeting technology start-ups and the venture capital community will get an improved sales intelligence solution, states InsideView. 6/30/2010 EasyRMS Announces Multi-Property Rollout with Choice Hotels Scandinavia AS EasyRMS, a provider of ASP/Internet revenue and yield management solutions,announced that its EzRMS SaaS solution will be implemented by Choice Hotels Scandinavia AS in its properties located across Norway, Denmark and Sweden. 6/28/2010 Amcom Delivers Intuitive Call-Taker Functionality to 911 Contact Centers Amcom Software's pc/psap 911 Call Center Software has been included on the Department of Defense's Unified Capabilities Approved Products list after receiving certification from Joint Interoperability Teat Command "JITC." 6/25/2010 Unamic/HCN Selects InVision Enterprise WFM Solution For Scheduling At Different Sites InVision Software, a provider of 'Work Force Management' or 'WFM' solutions, has announced that Unamic/HCN, a well known contact center outsourcing company based in the Netherlands has selected InVision for providing demand-oriented multi-site staff scheduling services. With the new WFM system, the company will be able to handle front office inbound and outbound calls as well as back office tasks in a more efficient manner. 6/24/2010 ACS Now Offers Outsourced Predictive Analytics Service Being proactive is almost always more effective in most circumstances than being reactive and that especially includes customer relationships. ACS, a Xerox company, offers a new service that enables just that: predictive analytics on data obtained from customer interactions. 6/24/2010 ProtoCall One Won Three Years Contract to Support PlusOne Services ProtoCall One, a contact centre consultancy and systems integrator specializing in multi-channel communications, workforce optimization and decision management solutions, won a contract to provide support to all contact center technology infrastructure for PlusOne Services. 6/23/2010 Sony Ericsson's Facebook Competition Tab a Great Success Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are bringing revolution in brand marketing scenario. As an innovative step, some companies have started announcing regular competitions through these channels offering attractive prizes to winners. 6/21/2010 Webinar to Focus on Improving Customer Experience Only providing customer service is not enough for the today's customers who want an experience that engages them and gives them a reason to remain connected to you. 6/17/2010 PowerObjects Expands Minneapolis Office to Support Market Growth The new office expansion results in additional infrastructure and space required to support company's present growth in the industry. 6/16/2010 CDC Software Projects Double Digit Growth in Application Sales CDC Software Corporation, a hybrid enterprise software provider of on-premise and cloud deployments, declared that based on the initial financial projections and estimates, the company is anticipating second quarter 2010 application sales to be in the range of around $10.2 million to $10.9 million. 6/15/2010 Pegasystems CEO Literally Walks The Walk on Customer Relationships Pegasystems, which supplies CRM solutions, has been literally been walking the walk. Company CEO and founder Alan Trefler, has taken for a larger firm the different step of meeting face-to-face with his customers following its purchase of Chordiant Software this spring for $161.5 million. Here's the interview TMCnet had with Mr. Trefler about his visits: 6/11/2010 Get Cash for Sending Your Old Phone to the Boneyard The services these websites provide may prove invaluable over time. After all, the cellphone industry is quotidian - it seems like only yesterday we were heralding the advent of 3G wireless phones. Now 4G is the buzzword, making tech savvy consumers everywhere want to ditch their beaters for the newest, hottest it-thang. And for those that like to save a few bucks when upgrading our gadgetry? This is important news. 6/11/2010 Ventana Research Awards 'Hot Vendor' Rating to VPI The Ventana Research 2010 Value Index for Agent Performance Management has awarded the top rating of "Hot Vendor" to VPI, a provider of interaction recording and analytics, contact center agent performance management and workforce optimization solutions. 6/9/2010 SpeechCycle Enables .NET and Visual Studio Developers to Easily Create Rich Phone Applications To eliminate the barriers for contact center integrators and developers to quickly build and deploy voice-enabled cross-channel self-service solutions, SpeechCycle has announced that its RPA Express solution now enables millions of Microsoft .NET Framework and Visual Studio developers to easily create Rich Phone Applications that automate multi-channel customer interactions for exceptional customer experiences. 6/9/2010 PowerObjects Helps Non-Profit Organization Expand Services for Disabled by Integrating CRM In order to help Lifeworks, a growing Minneapolis-based non-profit organization that provides services for people with disabilities to reduce costs, increase employee productivity, and streamline its overall business operations, PowerObjects announced the successful completion of a CRM/xRM implementation solution for Lifeworks. 6/7/2010 Aamcom Boosts Quality with Avidian CRM Small teleservices companies provide high-touch-and quality programs, such as telephone answering and telemessaging for professionals and businesses such as physicians, dentists, attorneys, roadside assistance, building maintenance and contractors, especially after-hours when their patients, clients, residents and customers need immediate assistance. Assuring, helpful interactions with well-trained experienced and empathetic contact center agents make the difference in their experiences. 6/4/2010 MLC Improves User Discovery Capabilities with AGent VERSO Auto-Graphics, Inc. provides library automation solutions for 40 years, today announced that the Mississippi Library Commission (MLC) will be implementing AGent VERSO as its integrated library system (ILS). The library's SirsiDynix Symphony system will be replaced by AGent VERSO. 6/2/2010 ResearchPoint Picks SAP Business ByDesign The implementation team, led by Teresa Blackwell, ResearchPoint, staff accountant, began to see all the pieces coming together and commented that "project and financial reports are now completed and available online to management within 7 to 10 days, and we expect to shave more time off that in the future. Prior to implementation, it took about 15 days from the end of the month to complete invoicing and make reports available to project managers." 6/2/2010 iEnterprises Receives IBM Beacon Award for Outstanding Performance "Our Beacon Award winners represent the tremendous power of the IBM Business Partner ecosystem in creating unique client value through our combined capabilities, expertise and offerings," Hume said. 6/2/2010 RightNow Debuts RightNow Mobile RightNow, a provider of customer interactive solutions, has stated that they have unveiled the RightNow Mobile application through which organizations can offer exceptional experiences to mobile-savvy consumers. 5/26/2010 CAST Unveils its Automated Analysis and Measurement Software for SAP, Siebel and PeopleSoft CAST, a provider of software analysis and measurement, has introduced its automated analysis and measurement software for SAP, Siebel and PeopleSoft. 5/26/2010 Now in North America: Update.Revolution CRM Suite While the launch marks the first time update.revolution will be generally available in North America, the local divisions of several companies, including global pharmaceutical company ALK-Abello, have employed update.revolution in their U.S. operations. 5/18/2010 Propertybase Successfully Closes First Financing Package Propertybase offers a full-fledged CRM system that includes contact management, activity coordination, and front-and-back-office administration. In addition, the company's offering comes with industry specific features such as offer and contract preparation, sales commission tracking, a Web-based property sales module, and finance management designed specifically for realtors, real estate developers and property investors such as banks and insurance companies. 5/12/2010 XWAuctions Launches Integrated Live and Online Auction SaaS Platform for Real Estate industry Company officials pointed out that the other advantages of this new version software is that the code has been completely rewritten and optimized for faster more robust performance and high quality audio/video streaming is offered. 5/12/2010 Demandbase Intros Real-Time Business Identification Platform "B2B marketers have been telling us for years that one of the biggest headaches is converting visitors on their websites," said Chris Golec, CEO of Demandbase. 5/12/2010 Proactive Chat is Actually Helpful and Not Harmful: Bold Software Research Bold Software's latest study reveals that not only does proactive chat increase conversion likelihood, but that a majority of website visitors find invitations helpful. 5/5/2010 Pegasystems Buys Chordiant Chordiant brings to Pegasystems its Customer Experience (Cx) inbound and outbound CRM, predictive analytics, adaptive decisioning, cross-sell/upsell, retention and process monitoring software and services. 4/21/2010 Convergys Extends Distributorship Agreement With Information Technologies Australia Convergys Corporation, a provider of relationship management solutions that drive more value from the relationships its clients have with their customers and employees, has announced to extend its long-standing distribution agreement with Information Technologies Australia, or iTa, a provider of call automation solutions from Australia. 4/21/2010 Emerald's Universal Onboarding solution Now Available in the 'Cloud Environment' Emerald Software Group, LLC., a leading publisher of paperless employee onboarding technology, has announced that their product, Universal Onboarding, is available to clients in a cloud computing platform. 4/21/2010 Tealeaf Offers Real-Time Customer Behavior Analysis In the context of e-commerce which is very challenging, it is important to record the behavior of customers that is a key factor influencing the success of any retail business. Online customer experience management (CEM) software provider Tealeaf has announced Tealeaf 8, which analyzes the customer by bringing powerful real-time customer behavior analysis to ebusiness teams. 4/20/2010 Dinahosting Uses OpenXchange Platform To Deliver E-Mail in Spain Open-Xchange helps Web-hosting companies, ISPs, telecommunication companies and IT service companies expand their product range through SaaS offerings. Dinahosting, an independent provider of Internet business services, is indicated to be the first partner to offer Open-Xchange in Spain. 4/19/2010 Not for Profits Invest in Microsoft ERP and CRM Many organizations have sought to improve their competitiveness by investing in advanced information technology, such as Enterprise Resource Planning system. 4/19/2010 SaaS-Based Performance Monitoring Solution Launched by AppFirst AppFirst announced the immediate availability of AppFirst Professional Edition, a Software-as-a-Service-based performance monitoring solution. 4/19/2010 ACT! Synchronization with Apple iPhone OS 4 Announced The new iPhone OS 4 allows CompanionLink to synchronize ACT! contacts, calendar activities, recurring events, alarms and reminders, call logs, contact notes and histories to the address book and calendar applications on iPhone and iPad. 4/14/2010 InterconnectNow Platform Selected by Frontier Communications Frontier Communications will use the InterconnectNow platform to manage access orders, local service requests, trouble administration requests, professional services, and integrate these components with Frontier's Operational Support System. 4/13/2010 SendMe Deploys Five9 Virtual Call Center Software, Realizes 80% Savings Any company in the call center industry knows that call center on demand software provider Five9 has created quite the portfolio of services, and, in doing so, has become one of the most trusted providers of hosted contact center systems, as well as virtual call center solutions. 4/7/2010 M-Factor's Solutions to Boost Dannon's Top Line Growth in Short time In addition, M-factor helped companies to optimize the allocation of trade promotion budgets efficiently across key accounts, and also helped to establish and reconcile the plans and integrate the insights with Trade Promotion systems. 4/7/2010 Clarabridge Launches Industry's First Self Service Text Analytics Software Clarabridge Self Service came out after a beta period which involved nearly 200 analysts and researchers. Feedback from these beta users is driving a series of usability, reporting and other enhancements to be rolled out over the summer and fall. 4/7/2010 Mongoose Metrics Call Tracking Benefits Mobile Marketers A February 2010 survey by BIA/Kelsey and ConStat, found that 97 percent of consumers use online media to shop locally - making tracking phone calls resulting from online searches more important than ever. 4/6/2010 Central Desktop Merges Adeptol Document Viewer into its SaaS Collaboration Software Central Desktop's customers can now have a single Web-based viewing source for more than 300 document formats. 4/6/2010 Pipeline Supply Selects Edgenet's Big Hammer Data Services With the help of Edgenet's Big Hammer data services, Pipeline Supply's suppliers will be able to save time and money with one central location for acquisition, management, distribution and optimization of product information. They can also upload product information with flexible options such as the Supplier Portal, Smart Spreadsheets, XML data feeds or the Data Quality Filter. 3/31/2010 PeopleCube's Live Webinar Explains How to Save Millions of Dollars with Workplace Management Technology PeopleCube is offering a live webinar that discloses how to save millions of dollars with workplace management technology. The webinar explains how to utilize workplace management technology to maximize resource utilization, prevent off-site facility leasing and produce substantial savings in real estate and operational costs. PeopleCube provides intelligent, on-demand workplace; resource and energy management solutions that help customers maximize space utilization, increase operational efficiency and reduce costs. 3/30/2010 Serco UK to Leverage iCIMS' Talent Platform to Manage Employees Across Global Locations iCIMS, offering software-as-a-service (SaaS) talent acquisition solutions, has announced that the global consulting firm, Serco UK, has selected the iCIMS Talent Platform for employee data management. 3/30/2010 MorganFranklin Launches Proprietary PeopleSoft Toolkit to Fully Utilize ERP Solutions MorganFranklin Corporation, a business and technology solutions provider to government and business leaders on high-stakes financial, operational, and IT issues, has launched its proprietary PeopleSoft Toolkit to place new emphasis on Enterprise Resource Planning services. 3/30/2010 RAND Worldwide Organizes Various Events to Bolster its Autodesk Products Offering increased support for its 2011 suite of Autodesk products, RAND Worldwide has announced various live event Webcasts and Updated Support and Training Offerings through its IMAGINiT Technologies division. 3/29/2010 Alcatel-Lucent Unveils 'Smart Desk Phone' Similar to what the BlackBerry and iPhone did to transform mobile phones, Alcatel-Lucent could do the same thing for traditional desktop phones. 3/24/2010 Sybase Analytics Hosted Service for Messaging Traffic Analysis Sybase, Inc. subsidiary Sybase 365 has announced Sybase Operator Analytics 365, a new hosted service for messaging traffic analysis. 3/24/2010 Small Perks a Great Morale Booster for Employees: Survey "It's important for business managers to recognize and reward their staff for their hard work, even if a tight budget only allows for small perks. Simple rewards can go a long way in attracting, motivating and retaining needed talent," said Bob Nelson, an authority on workforce motivation and a best-selling author of 1001 Ways to Reward Employees and Keeping Up in a Down Economy. 3/24/2010 WellAWARE Systems Selects Intacct's Cloud Financial Applications Officials with Intacct, a major player in cloud financial management and accounting applications, said that the company will help WellAWARE gain real-time access to business metrics and automate revenue management. 3/24/2010 Precise intros Precise 8.7 Precise, which offers a complete management solution for SAP, helping customers streamline IT operation, lower risk, and ensure project success, has announced the release of the industry's first fully automated Transaction Performance Management product, Precise 8.7. 3/23/2010 Hi-Rez Studios Selects Five9 Virtual Call Center Suite to Support Growing Customer Base For call center on demand and hosted contact center provider, Five9, a company that continues to report its successes and accomplishments, it seems it is a rare breed of company that continues to stay proactive in today's tough professional environment. 3/15/2010 Five9's Call Center on Demand Improves Business Over Premise-based Solutions: Customer Spotlight For call center on demand and hosted contact center provider, Five9, success is often measured by more than just end of year revenue and pats on the back. Specifically, listening to customers talk about how and why they implement Five9's services is a direct way to assess the performance and reliability of its call center systems. 3/12/2010 Google Online App Story Brings New Functionalities & Services to the Cloud For any of the 25 million users and 2 million businesses using Google Apps, the portolio of other software-as-a-service, or "SaaS," apps that work within the Google cloud are an added bonus. 3/10/2010 Braxtel Introduces SIP Based Solution for Contact Centers Contact Q, the new open source contact center system from Braxtel Communications, is set for a global release on April, 1 2010. 3/9/2010 Sales Force Automation Buyer's Guide Although sales force automation helps companies to increase sales, many companies still face the dilemma of choosing the right solution that fits the needs of their company. 3/9/2010 Alpha Bay to Provide Enhanced Retail Information Technology to AutoZone Salt Lake City, Utah-based ALPHA BAY has announced a multi-year technology agreement with AutoZone. Alpha Bay has agreed to provide AutoZone with retail computing functionality with its AIRS Enterprise product. 3/8/2010 SAS Text Analytics Helps in Decision Making by Interpreting Stored Documents and Data SAS Text Analytics is said to have built-in capabilities to automate the processes of document reading and extracting relevant information and can aid organizations in decision making by helping them mine, interpret and structure information from data gathered from social networks, call centers, customer surveys, claims forms and sales returns. 3/8/2010 Mercedes-Benz Financial Information Now in Smartphone Users' Palms Mercedes-Benz Financial, the subsidiary that takes care of the aspects of accounts and financing for Mercedes-Benz dealers' inventories and their retail customers, has expanded personalized and convenient account management features to all of its customers using smartphones like BlackBerry, Droid, and other mobile devices with internet capability. With this, Mercedes-Benz Financial becomes the first automotive financial services company to offer a convenient mobile platform to its distinguished customers worldwide. 3/4/2010 Enterasys Honored with 2010 CRM Elite Award The company entered the "Outstanding Workforce Optimization Suite" category based on achievements its Global Technical Assistance Center made through Salesforce CRM and Service Cloud 2 applications, including the streamlining of critical global sales and customer data in multiple languages and currencies. 3/3/2010 Australasia's Consultancy Major Solution Minds to Leverage the Knowledge Base of TEC for Better Selection Capabilities for Purchasers One is highly acclaimed online resource for software selection and another has earned reputation in the arena of consultancy. The two market leaders recently forged a strategic partnership to leverage each other's expertise. 3/2/2010 Mobile Fringe introduces its First Mobile App at ICSC A state of the art Mobile Marketing App, developed by Mobile Fringe, will make its debut at the International Council of Shopping Centers, Inc. (ICSC) Fusion Conference, currently underway in Chicago. 3/2/2010 RedHorse Releases Another CRM Update Customers "identify much needed functionality that incorporates their custom use of the application into standard functions that RedHorse provides," company officials say, adding that "we felt that these requests would provide a whole new set of possibilities for customers furthering the extensibility of RedHorse." 2/24/2010 iCIMS Scores Over Competitors as SciQuest Chooses iCIMS' Talent Platform iCIMS, an applicant tracking and recruiting software that puts HR and Recruiting Professionals in the best position to make the strongest hiring and employee management decisions, announced that SciQuest, a global software provider of e-procurement solutions, had chosen to adopt the iCIMS Talent Platform to support the company's talent management needs. 2/23/2010 United Supermarkets Signs up for Teradata Database manager Teradata said that United Supermarkets has "signed on as a client for database management software and services." 2/17/2010 eBay to Launch European Platform According to reports, eBay plans to launch a worldwide service that will bridge foreign marketplaces together. 2/17/2010 LG Electronics Selects On-Demand Insight from TARGUSinfo TARGUSinfo's services can be used in IVR platforms, agent desktops and automated call-handling processes so companies can improve customer interactions and increase overall customer satisfaction. 2/17/2010 Globoforce Launches 'Strategic Consulting' Solution Backed by Globoforce's recognition experts and strategists, In*sight "is designed to provide Global 2000 companies with a blueprint to implement successful strategic employee recognition programs," according to company officials. 2/17/2010 InetSoft Announces Free Dashboard Software Application "The sharing capabilities of our new free dashboard offering stand out from the other free solutions out there," said Mark Flaherty, vice president of Marketing at InetSoft. 2/17/2010 Nuance and WorldManuals Partner on Mobile Customer Care Solution Nuance Communications, a provider of speech, imaging and customer interaction solutions for businesses and consumers around the world, and WorldManuals, a Copenhagen-based company that specializes in delivering mobile device support solutions, have entered into a partnership to provide access to relevant and timely customer support the content delivered through Nuance Mobile Care. 2/16/2010 Comarch Offers New Satellite Package for ISPs With the recent emergence of convergent services, the creation and implementation of cost and time-effective integration solutions has gained more significance for service providers. Customers' constant demand for new services is on the increase. 2/16/2010 The Customer Is Always Right? B2C and Google the Phone-Maker The continuing coverage of Nexus One support and whether Google was prepared, leads one to a larger discussion on the DNA of a company. Specifically, whether Google has what it takes to be a hardware vendor, with all that it entails regarding customer handholding, returns, and the retail channel. 2/15/2010 Down Under CRM Vendor Aims to Break Out Escaping Oz: With its February release, Adelaide, Australia-based You Grow "is set to break the stranglehold held by international companies on CRM software for small to medium sized businesses in Australia and New Zealand," according to company officials. Good on yer, mate. 2/15/2010 CRM Week in Review: SIP Print Announces Codec Appliances, Ifbyphone Proves Cloud Telephony Apps Successful Welcome to the week in review for the customer relationship management, or "CRM," industry. Below are some of the top stories that came across the TMCnet news wires this week. 2/12/2010 Five9 Awarded Product of the Year for Cloud Computing Platform for Call Centers Call center software provider, Five9 Inc. won an award for its cloud computing platform by TMC's 2009 Product of the Year Customer Interaction Solutions magazine, the leading publication covering CRM, call centers and teleservices since 1982. 2/10/2010 ID Watchdog, InComm Ready to Launch Retail Version of idCHECK The retail version of idCHECK will be available in April 2010 and utilizes ID Watchdog's patent-pending technology to immediately identify if a consumer has a pre-existing identity theft condition, and outlines recommended next steps based on the report. 2/10/2010 Satuit Announces '80 Percent' Improvement in Earnings "There was a lot of strong talent out there and we were in a position to make some bold moves," Maguire said. "We also saw our reputation for success in the asset management industry bear fruit as we won larger deals against must larger competitors." 2/10/2010 Cicero Announces Cicero XM In addition, the company has also disclosed its two new customers: Interactive Response Technologies, Inc., a contact center outsourcer, and Innoverse Services Network, Inc., a technology solutions company specializing in helping clients execute 'outside-the-box' projects. These comapnies will be implementing Cicero XM to improve business user efficiency, effectiveness, and operational insight in their contact centers. 2/3/2010 CallCopy Receives ShoreTel Partner Proven Certification ShoreTel's high-performance, secure network reduces latency and jitter, resulting in high-quality voice communications. Wideband audio codecs deliver outstanding voice quality. 1/27/2010 Single Touch Provides Users with a New Way to Donate to Charities Using the charity solution, AT&T subscribers dial #505 and are able to select a charity or cause of their choice and simply make a one-time donation of $25 in addition, callers have the ability to contribute to the 'International Humanitarian Relief' cause. 1/27/2010 WFO Market Strengthening: DMG Consulting Workforce optimization also known as "WFO" solutions, enable contact centers to maximize staff productivity and performance. For these reasons that even in the face of the severe economic downturn the demand for them, though diminished on account of budget constraints, has held up relative to other contact center products. 1/27/2010 One Negative Call Center Experience Turns off 68 Percent of Customers A single negative experience with a customer call center would likely cause 68 percent of the respondents to take their business elsewhere, according to a recent survey released by Teleperformance, an outsourced contact center vendor. 1/26/2010 HighJump Software Releases Mobility Solution for Mobile Sales, Delivery HighJump Software, a company that simplifies the business of creating, selling and moving products across global networks, reportedly released a mobility solution for mobile sales and mobile delivery. The HighJump Mobile Sales Advantage, HighJump Virtual Cooler and HighJump RouteXpress have also been enhanced based on evolving technology and industry requirements. 1/25/2010 Outstanding Customer Service Experience Certificate Earned by CIGNA Healthcare CIGNA HealthCare has earned the call center operation customer satisfaction excellence for a fourth consecutive year, issued by the J.D. Power and Associates Call Center Certification Program. The Call Center Certification Program distinction acknowledges a strong commitment by CIGNA HealthCare's call center operation to provide "An Outstanding Customer Service Experience." 1/21/2010 Study: Search and Web Analytics Key in CMS Strategy Organizations are looking for a more integrated understanding of site traffic and Web campaigns, therefore unifying Web Content Management, analytics and marketing automation has become a top priority to yield faster conversions. In addition, respondents noted that integrating Customer Relationship Management "CRM" systems and Web CMS software is a top priority. 1/21/2010 ITEXPO Start Up Camp: During Tough Times, Fonolo Entrepreneur Finds Opportunity IP communications and other IT entrepreneurial hopefuls will state their case for investment dollars at ITEXPO's inaugural Startup Camp being held at the Miami Beach Convention Center on Thursday evening. 1/20/2010 iEnterpises Announces IBM Lotus Notes Apps for iPhone IEnterprises, a global desktop and wireless customer relationship management solution provider, reportedly announced the availability of IBM Lotus Notes and Domino collaboration software applications on the Apple iPhone through its wireless application, Mobile Edge. An IBM Premier Partner, iEnterprises built Mobile Edge for Lotus Notes on the Mobile Edge platform, company officials said. This platform lets Lotus Notes developers configure and deploy Lotus Notes applications to iPhones and other smartphones without having to develop new phone optimized applications. 1/19/2010 MediaFunnel Chirps Tweet-to-Lead for Salesforce and New Tweeting Convention More businesses are realizing that the tunes that their customers and partners are singing on Twitter. MediaFunnel, formerly known as TweetFunnel, has reportedly launched two new tools to help enterprises clearly hear their songs. 1/19/2010 New Verizon Call Center Stirs Neighborhood, Upsets Residents Just 16 months after moving in to his brand new house, in his nice residential neighborhood of Elgin, South Carolina, Joe Jacobs is thinking of packing up, selling and moving out. 1/14/2010 HRS Launches Aggressive Outreach Program to Drive Call Center Services for SMBs Hit Rate Solutions has announced the launch of an aggressive market outreach program designed to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to realize the benefits of large scale call center operations, much like their large, corporate competitors. 1/14/2010 Contact Center Compliance Introduces SmartBlock Tool Contact Center Compliance, a privately held company with more than 50 years experience in the teleservice industry, has reportedly introduced new "Do Not Call" compliance solution called SmartBlock. 1/13/2010 ATG Acquires InstantService With its acquisition of InstantService, ATG can look to increased market adoption of chat and other interactive functions. 1/13/2010 Dimension, Sword Ciboodle Partner for Sony The product was designed and managed by Dimension Data and Sword Ciboodle, and is based on Sword Ciboodle's process-driven CRM software. It has been rolled out to Sony operations in all European countries and manages customer interactions across phone, e-mail, white mail, fax and Web contacts. 1/13/2010 Epicor Unveils Epicor Retail Mobile Marketing for Retailers Retailers, who often use ingenious marketing techniques to attract traditional customers, are all at sea when it comes marketing their goods to the mobile customers. This is mainly because the traditional methods of marketing do not work with the mobile customers. So, Epicor Software Corporation has introduced Epicor Retail Mobile Marketing for retailers, which helps them target mobile consumers easily and economically. 1/12/2010 Plantronics Expands Family of Audio PC Headsets, Adds Four New Wideband Models Plantronics has announced that it has expanded its family of audio PC headsets with four new wideband models --.Audio 476 DSP, .Audio 646 DSP, .Audio 626 DSP and the upgraded .Audio 655 DSP. 1/8/2010 VoIP's MagicJack Goes Wireless Analog telephone adapter outfit MagicJack has now expanded its sights to the wireless space. According to reports, the company has introduced a GSM-based femtocell that enables users to make VoIP calls via their mobile handsets. 1/8/2010 CRM Week in Review Welcome to the week in review for the customer relationship management, or "CRM," industry. Below are some of the top stories that came across the TMCnet news wires this week. 1/8/2010 ASI Improves CRM with SyncSite Implementation of Sage SalesLogix SyncSite has completed another successful implementation of Sage SalesLogix. The benefactor of this implementation is American Strategic Insurance, or "ASI," which provides homeowner and commercial insurance to customers in six states. 1/5/2010 CompanionLink Aids Secure Transfer of Data CompanionLink Software, a developer of data synchronization solutions for mobile phones and CRM software and services, reportedly launched a direct wired sync between PC and Motorola DROID, Motorola CLIQ, and other Android-based phones. This solution helps secure transfer of data by syncing contacts, calendar, tasks, and notes from information management software like Microsoft Outlook, IBM Lotus Notes, and ACT! by Sage to phones running Google Android OS. 1/4/2010 Bain Capital Acquires BELLSYSTEM24 Bain Capital has reportedly completed the acquisition of BELLSYSTEM24, Japan's call center operator. 12/31/2009 InfoCision Wins 2009 International Service Excellence Award teleservices firm has long had an excellent reputation for looking after its customers, employees and the communities it has operations in. 12/29/2009 PMC Telecom Announces ProTelx Range of Phone Headsets PMC Telecom, a U.K.-based provider of headsets and cordless phones, reportedly announced the release of a new line of telephone headsets under the brand name ProTelx that are ideal for both home and office use, such as professional contact centers, office workers and reception areas. 12/28/2009 Costa Rican Company Switches to Five9 Systems, Increases Productivity by 30% Further validating its success in the call center industry, call center software provider, Five9 Inc., announced that a Costa Rican company has now standardized Five9 to power its call centers. 12/21/2009 InnoPath Cleans the Air with 'Through the Air' Solution Delivery Think globally. Act locally. That means instead of waiting for the world's leaders meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark to try and come up with an agreement on climate change, enterprises can take their own steps to reduce their environmental footprint. To encourage that, InnoPath Software, which makes Over-the-Air customer care applications for mobile devices, is raising awareness that its technology is part of the environmental solution, integrated with affected popular holiday images 12/18/2009 ClickFox Launches Interactive ROI Calculator Tool ClickFox, specializing in customer experience analytics, or "CEA," software and solutions, has launched an interactive online tool that can calculate and forecast potential return on investment figures. 12/17/2009 Multinational Consumer Electronics Manufacturer Chooses Sitel for Tech Support Sitel, a global business process outsourcing or "BPO" provider, has announced that a multinational consumer electronics manufacturing company chose them to deliver technical support services. 12/16/2009 Paylocity Announces Newest Features in WebPay 7.0 Release Paylocity, a company providing independent payroll services and human resource software solutions to employees and companies in USA since 1997, reportedly announced the release of its payroll and HR solutions software WebPay 7.0 with added features. The WebPay 7.0 from Paylocity incorporates improvements such as aggregate updating facility, VETS 100 reporting and template and checklists feature to the general ledger, time off accruals and Family and Medical Leave Act modules. 12/14/2009 The CRM Week in Review Welcome to this week’s installment of the TMCnet CRM Week in Review, TMCnet’s weekly round-up of all-things new in CRM software. 12/11/2009 White Paper Offers Wealth of Information on Data Mining Customer data can be a treasure trove just waiting to be unlocked. But pulling, filtering and analyzing this wealth of information from various sources can be a daunting challenge. 12/11/2009 Comverse Earns 2009 BSS/OSS Excellence Award from INTERNET TELEPHONY Magazine Comverse, a provider of software and systems enabling value-added services for voice, messaging, mobile Internet and mobile advertising, has reportedly received the 2009 BSS/OSS Excellence Award from INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine for its flagship Comverse ONE Billing & Active Customer Management solution. 12/10/2009 Saugatuck Technology Rates MetraTech 'Excellent' in Cloud Billing Solutions Study MetraTech Corp, a provider of charging, billing, settlement and customer care solutions, has been awarded the highest ratings in a recent report published by Saugatuck Technology, an analyst firm with expertise in enterprise IT, including SaaS, cloud infrastructure, open source, and enterprise social computing. 12/8/2009 Altitude Software, Teleopti Announce 'Out of the Box' Integration Contact center solutions provider Altitude Software and workforce management solutions provider Teleopti have announced “out of the box” integration between the Altitude uCI, Altitude’s unified suite of contact center applications, and Teleopti CCC, Teleopti’s workforce management solution. 12/7/2009 Convergys Hosted Contact Center Solutions Now Available 'Globally' Thanks to the fact that it has significantly expanded international data center infrastructure, Convergys has gone global with its hosted contact center solutions. 12/3/2009 Aradial, UshaComm Launch Billing and CRM Solution at Nepal Telecom Aradial reportedly announced that a new billing and CRM solution was launched at Nepal Telecom which is the largest telecommunications operator in Nepal. 12/3/2009 inContact Now a Certified Service Provider under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard On-demand contact center software provider inContact has announced that it is now a certified Service Provider under the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS). The company previously attained certification as a Merchant Provider under the PCI DSS, and plans to maintain both certifications, which under law require an annual review or "audit." 12/2/2009 Markinson Cops Sage Biz Partner Awards for Australasia Brisbane, Australia-based Markinson, a specialist business software selling to SMBs, was recognized for its "outstanding sales efforts" at the 2009 Sage Business Partner Awards, winning Highest Revenue for Sage SalesLogix CRM in Australasia. 12/1/2009 CRM Manager Reports Successful Customer Adds for 2009 CRM manager, which describes itself as a software-as-a-service implementation and integration firm, has announced the doubling of its customer base since 2008, signing agreements with more than 100 new customers in 2009. 12/1/2009 GE LED Light Bulbs Now Available for Homes, Small Offices GE has created Energy Smart LED bulbs that are available for use in the home, as well as in commercial settings. 11/30/2009 Rainmaker Signs Fortune 500 Mobile Telecommunications Company as New Client for Contract Sales Rainmaker Systems, Inc., a provider of sales and marketing solutions offering hosted application software and execution services, reportedly has signed an agreement for contract sales with a new Fortune 500 mobile telecommunications client. 11/25/2009 IBM Goes Live With Global Telecom Development Centers IBM is opening telecommunications development centers that create new business models while improving the customer experience and operational efficiencies for these customers. Located in China, South Africa and Malaysia, the centers provide a broad array of advanced technical skills and specialized offerings. It has also opened a dedicated center in France for solutions based on products and services from Comverse, which supplies telecom software and systems. 11/25/2009 Nepal Satellite Telecom Selects eServGlobal for Business Models NSTPL will use eServGlobal's Convergent Billing System, "ChargingMax," including Rating and Charging for prepaid subscribers, PayMobile, an electronic recharge and voucher management and Missed Call Alert solution. 11/25/2009 Responsys Offers Marketing Solutions to Nutrisystem Responsys, a global provider of email and cross-channel marketing solutions, has been selected by Nutrisystem, a provider of weight management products and services, to improve the performance of its email marketing programs and enhance the cross-channel customer experience. 11/19/2009 PowerObjects Opens Two Texas Offices to Meet Demands for Dynamic CRM Solutions PowerObjects, a provider of Microsoft Dynamics CRM/xRM or customer relationship management, reportedly announced that it is opening two new offices in Texas to cater to the growing demands for Dynamic CRM. The CRM solution provides the tools and capabilities required to create and easily maintain a clear picture of customers from first contact through to purchase and post-sales. PowerObjects solutions are customized according to the needs of the customers. 11/16/2009 Aspect Adds New Features, Capabilities, to its Productive Workforce Offering Call center solutions provider Aspect has reportedly added new features and capabilities to its Productive Workforce offering, including "cradle-to-grave" interaction tracking, enhanced security and compliance, improved alerting, redundancy, system management, and increased features for outsourcers, allowing for full-time call logging and quality recording in mid- to large-sized call centers. 11/13/2009 Cavalier Telephone Selects Convergys for its Smart BSS Solutions With its telecom business support systems, Convergys makes it possible for clients to deploy and optimize mission-critical, cost-effective billing and business support systems technologies and services to better address the needs of their customers. 11/11/2009 Nexidia, Merced Systems Partner, Blending Speech Analytics, PM Solutions Speech analytics and performance management software make for an ideal partnership by providing an integrated tool that enables organizations to find new opportunities to boost service quality and improve agent productivity. 11/10/2009 CTDI Deploys Management Dynamics' RPS On-Demand Solution Global trade management systems provider Management Dynamics has reported that Communications Test Design has deployed its RPS On-Demand solution. 11/6/2009 Aspect Wins Contact Center Award from PilotHouse "More than 1,300 individuals participated in the survey," according to Nemertes officials, who said Aspect garnered a 4.48 overall score on a five-point scale, bettering whoever was in second place in the IP contact center market by more a half-point. 11/4/2009 inContact Enters into Strategic Partnership with Astadia inContact, Inc., which offers on-demand call center solutions and agent optimization tools, reportedly has entered into a strategic partnership with Astadia, which offers technology enabled business consulting and is a leading salesforce.com partner. 10/29/2009 StayinFront, Euphony Announce Deployment From London comes the news that CRM vendor StayinFront has reportedly announced that Euphony Communications, a telecom vendor, has deployed the latest version of its flagship product, StayinFront CRM 11, across its European offices. Euphony initially launched StayinFront CRM 11 in its Benelux operations. Evidently things went well enough there -- hey if it flies in Belgium it'll fly anywhere -- to where Euphony has adopted StayinFront CRM 11 as the platform for sales and customer service management throughout their operations. 10/26/2009 Callidus Software Unveils Enhanced Monaco SPM Suite with Focus on Rapid ROI The Callidus Monaco SPM Suite enables business users to implement and deploy a sales performance solution without reliance on IT, say Callidus officials. The application automatically handles user creation and permissions. 10/23/2009 Dubai Road & Transport Authority Picks Nortel's Contact Center Solution Dubai RTA is responsible for providing "safe and smooth transport for all" in Dubai. At the end of 2008, it unveiled a Managed Consolidated Contact Center (M3CS) project to replace its customer-facing communications with the latest technology for streamlining and improving customer service and responsiveness. 10/14/2009 Infusionsoft Announces All-In-One Marketing Tool with Palo Alto Software The tool does this by combining sales and marketing technologies into one automated system geared to small businesses with 25 employees or fewer, including e-commerce, CRM and e-mail marketing. 10/14/2009 Marketers: Adapt to New Internet And Digital Media Practices For Modern Consumers Insites Consulting have joined hands with IAB Europe to recently publish their "Marketers and Consumers, Digital & Connected," or "MC DC," report that suggests that marketing professionals will need to adapt their communication to suit the garb of modern day Internet and other digital media if it has to be relevant for the modern day consumer. 10/8/2009 Allegiance Engage 6.3 Collects and Analyzes Feedback from Multiple Sources Engage 6.3, which is useful in real-time analysis, incorporates Inquisite Survey, an end-to-end survey solution that can provide organizations with a single platform for the performance of surveys. The gathered information can be analyzed and suitable action can be taken depending on feedback from customers, partners and employees. 10/7/2009 Acquirelists' CRM Services Help Companies Improve Bottom Line Acquirelists, a provider of Business to Business and Information Technology mailing, email and telemarketing lists, has continued to improve business performance with the company's customer relationship management, or "CRM," data systems. 9/25/2009 Telrex Enhances Call Recording Software, Interoperability, with Cisco UC Manager To translate the interactions via IP telephony into quality customer care requires call recording. To that end Telrex has enhanced its CallRex call recording software and has completed interoperability testing with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 7.0 via a third party so that their users can use the CallRex solution. Telrex has Solution Developer level membership in the Cisco Developer Network Program. 9/23/2009 How to Improve Customer Loyalty Using Existing Assets Unless you are a niche marketer with just an unbelievably charismatic brand and an utterly enthralling, completely unique, out-of-this-world product line, chances are you're going to have a hard time holding onto your customers in this economy, even if you know them well. 9/22/2009 Northwest Surgeons Deploys Avaya Small Business Communications Solution The advanced call routing solution is helping their doctors and administrative executives to collaborate more efficiently with each other among six locations, including mission-critical surgical centers. 9/21/2009 Maximizer Software Offers U.K. Deal There is nothing like a great deal, especially in these challenging times to get new customers through the 3-D or virtual door to sign up for an excellent solution. A product and supplier they will stay with long after the promotion is history. That's the goal of Maximizer Software's U.K. branch. It has launched, in association with certified business partners, its GBP5,000 Lift Off offer - a complete, fully featured 5 user CRM system for a fixed cost of just GBP5,000. 9/21/2009 Sage CRM Solutions Pilots Cloud Computing Edition of SalesLogix CRM Suite Sage CRM Solutions, part of The Sage Group plc, a business management software and services provider, is piloting a cloud computing edition of the Sage SalesLogix CRM suite for commercial availability in early 2010. 9/14/2009 nGenera Wants Firms to 'Know Your ROI Before You Buy' nGenera, via its nGenera Customer Interaction Management (CIM) division, has come along with a timely limited-time service/promotion aimed at helping contact centers and enterprises make the right solutions acquisition decisions. Called "Know Your ROI Before You Buy", customer service experts will perform free business operations assessments and provide custom reports projecting the ROI customer service and sales solutions can deliver in their environment. 9/10/2009 My1voice Pitches Call Center for SMBs Noting that small business owners and employees typically wear many hats in a given day, Protus said as its new my1voice will offer businesses "a host of features that are both flexible and easy to use," that reflect understanding of the day-to-day challenges facing owners and employees in a small business. 9/2/2009 ShoreTel Announces the Release of ShoreTel Contact Center 5.1 IP phone system maker ShoreTel, which is participating in ITEXPO West in Los Angeles this week as an exhibitor, presenter and platinum sponsor, has released ShoreTel Contact Center 5.1. This latest version of the company's application suite is designed for high-performance and highly available inbound and outbound multimedia contact centers. 9/1/2009 CallCopy's cc: Discover 4.0 Now Certified Interoperable with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 7.0 CallCopy, which offers a suite of applications for the call center geared to help organizations improve customer service, has announced that its cc: Discover version 4.0 platform is now certified interoperable with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 7.0. 8/26/2009 DMG: Down Economy Helps Spur Growth in Survey, Customer Feedback Solutions A new report from DMG consulting, "2009 Contact Center Surveying/Feedback and Analytics Market Share," predicts that the market for survey and customer feedback solutions will grow by 6 percent in 2009, 5 percent in 2010, and 8 percent in 2011. 8/14/2009 TMC Honors Convergys with Two Awards Technology Marketing Corporation's Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine has given two Awards of Excellence to Convergys Corporation. According to TMC, these awards are based on Convergys' ability to intelligently route customer contacts across multiple service models. 8/14/2009 Service Payment Plan Integrates StoneEagle's SEcureSalesTool Software solutions and enterprise administration systems provider The StoneEagle Group (StoneEagle) has announced that Service Payment Plan, Inc. (SPP) has integrated its SEcureSalesTool in order to automate contract generation as well as the submission process for its service. 8/12/2009 Parature Allows Customers to Monitor Tweets Helping customers monitor tweets for improved customer experience, Parature, a provider of on-demand customer service software, has reportedly announced a social media integration with Twitter. Parature said that this integration with Twitter will help the company to establish a better communication with the customers. 8/10/2009 Acquirelists Announces CRM Data Enrichment Company officials say the CRM data cleansing services "ensure that data within ERP or CRM silos, data marts or legacy systems is accurate and complete," enriching it with "data from trusted sources." 8/5/2009 Scottish Tourism Gets Boost From Portrait Software Portrait Software, a vendor of customer interaction software, has reportedly announced that VisitScotland, the national tourism agency, increased revenues through the use of Portrait Customer Analytics to the tune of $80 million PCA, delivered as a hosted service through Optima Value Group, is credited by officials of the tourism board with increasing the revenue in the Scottish tourism industry $80 million. That figure is evidently calculated from independent market research referenced by VisitScotland officials, who said it represents the value of trips by visitors who claim they would not have visited without prompting from marketing. 8/3/2009 NET10 Ranks High in Customer Satisfaction among Non-Contract Wireless Users According to a study by J.D Power and Associates, NET10, a prepaid wireless service offering all local, long distance and roaming calls, reportedly ranks the highest in overall customer satisfaction among non-contract wireless users. The study, "2009 U.S. Wireless Prepaid Customer Satisfaction Index Study" measures customer satisfaction with current non-contract wireless service across six key factors such as performance and reliability, cost of service, account management, initial activation, offerings and promotions, and customer service. 7/31/2009 SaaS WFM Solutions Increasing in Popularity Among Organizations For HR professionals, the solutions will makes it easier to quickly deploy a workforce management system that automates complex labor polices and business rules, and manages compliance with labor regulations and union contracts. 7/30/2009 Revention Releases C3 Customer Communication Center The call center application may be used as a stand-alone module or in conjunction with Revention's HungerRush online ordering offering. Revention officials say they're offering special pricing packages "for customers who implement both the HungerRush and Customer Communication Center modules." 7/29/2009 3Com Endorses the EU Code of Conduct on Data Center 3Com, an enterprise networking solutions provider that sets new price/performance standards for customers, has reportedly said it will adhere to the EU Code of Conduct on Datacenters and will design solutions that will encourage datacenters to cost-effectively reduce energy consumption and at the same time enhance the datacenter functionalities. 7/27/2009 Neudesic Named to Microsoft Inner Circle Neudesic has been named to the 2009 Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle, company officials say, adding that the Microsoft designation is for "the top 10 Dynamics partners in the world." 7/24/2009 Sage Intros ERPX3 in Australia, New Zealand Sage has announced the availability of Sage ERPX3 for Australian and New Zealand customers, specifically designed for deployment and operation over the Internet. 7/24/2009 Requisite Technology Releases E-Commerce Suite Requisite Technology, a vendor of channel management, eCommerce and master data management products, has announced the release of eCommerce Suite - Small Business Edition, a streamlined version of their flagship product designed for small enterprises. 7/24/2009 Equinix Acquires New Data Center in Frankfurt Equinix, Inc, a provider of global data center services, has announced the acquisition of a 130,000 square foot data center in Frankfurt, Germany, and the build out of the third phase of the company's New York-4 International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Secaucus, N.J. 7/24/2009 ASC Strikes Framework Contract with Deutsche Telekom ASC telecom, a provider of recording and quality monitoring solutions, has just signed a framework contract with Deutsche Telekom for the delivery of its quality management software. The framework contract covers the planning, projecting, delivery and implementation of ASC's quality management software, INSPIRATIONpro, for more than 10,000 call center agents at 33 locations, as well as the education of agents, trainers and supervisors. 7/23/2009 Cox Business Extends Fiber Network to Switch Communications' SuperNAP Data Center Cox Business announced the extension of its fiber network to Switch Communications Group's SuperNAP data center. This is a 407,000 square foot facility and is a power dense commercial data center. Cox Business is a full-service, facilities-based provider of communications solutions for commercial customers, providing high-speed Internet, voice and long distance services, as well as data and video transport services for small to large-sized businesses. 7/23/2009 Zoho Offers Zwitch to Switch from Salesforce.com to Zoho CRM Zoho has reportedly released the Zwitch program for Salesforce.com. Zwitch allows users of Salesforce.com to seamlessly migrate to Zoho CRM. 7/23/2009 PlantCML Intros New Mapping Solution for Emergency Call Centers According to the company, the new ORION Vela is designed to provide sophisticated administrative control and help call takers find the wireline and wireless call locations for dispatching first responders in high-pressure situations. 7/22/2009 Butler Group Releases Report on Evolving Enterprise Applications A new report published by IT research and advisory organization Butler Group suggests that enterprise applications such as enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management, also known as "CRM" are prime targets when a company is under pressure to optimize existing resources. But the report states that these are important to run the businesses efficiently and effectively. 7/20/2009 Mojo Interactive Improves Business with Salesforce CRM Salesforce.com, a provider of enterprise cloud computing solutions, announced that Mojo Interactive has increased business productivity and customer retention using Salesforce CRM solutions. 7/16/2009 Knoa Launches Academy, End User Benchmark Report Knoa Software has launched the Knoa Academy of End-User Experience Management, kicking off with the publication of a benchmark report titled "Monitoring the End-User Experience: Improving Business Performance through Application Management," by Aberdeen Group. 7/16/2009 Enkata Helps BNY Mellon Shareowner Services Transform Its Contact Center Financial services firms have traditionally viewed contact centers as operating expenses, with the focus being to answer customer questions as efficiently as possible and to manage average speed of answer and handle times with an eye on decreasing costs year-over-year. 7/14/2009 IQ Services to Present Conference Session at ITEXPO West 2009 in Los Angeles MINNEAPOLIS, July 8, 2009 — IQ Services today announced that Mike Burke has accepted an invitation to present a session titled, "Multi-Channel Contact Center Solutions: You Need to Test Performance from All Angles" at TMC's INTERNET TELEPHONY® Conference & EXPO West 2009 (ITEXPO) from 1:45 to 2:30 p.m. at on Sept. 1 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, Calif. 7/14/2009 T-Mobile UK Turns to Amdocs for Billing, Customer Care and Ordering Systems Support Amdocs, a provider of customer experience systems, has announced that T-Mobile UK has selected Amdocs for a four-year managed services agreement. This agreement dictates that Amdocs will manage the ongoing development, maintenance and support of T-Mobile UK's billing, customer care and ordering systems for the operators 16.7 million subscribers. 7/8/2009 Oracle Ranked in Three Leaders Quadrants by Gartner Gartner's Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers (MQCSCC) placed the Oracle Siebel platform above the Microsoft Dynamic CRM and the solution from salesforce.com. 7/7/2009 Contact Centers Advancing with Outbound IVR As technology advances to improve automation and the way humans interact with computers, predictive dialers are now being supplemented by outbound IVR solutions, which a – as Datamonitor reports – has a number benefits over predictive dialers. 7/2/2009 TreeHouse Interactive to Build Supplier Portal for VacationRoost Looking to power the newly launched supplier portal available to its partners, VacationRoost has selected the Reseller View PRM solution from TreeHouse Interactive. According to TreeHouse, this solution will enable VacationRoost to maximize program participation. 6/25/2009 Supplier Q&A on IP Contact Center Solutions with Verizon This month's Supplier Survey is focusing on IP contact center solutions. Replying for Verizon is Alla Reznik, director for global advanced voice services: 6/25/2009 Voltaire's 40 Gb/S Infiniband Solutions Available For HP Extreme Scale-Out Portfolio The 40 Gb/s InfiniBand solutions from Voltaire Ltd are now available for HP ProLiant SL6000 Scalable System which is part of the new HP Extreme Scale-Out (ExSO) portfolio. The solution is ideal for scale-out data centers that enable high performance computing, cloud-based services and Web 2.0 businesses. The solution will be available this summer from HP. 6/24/2009 NetSuite Partners with JCurve for Australasia NetSuite has partnered with Australian start-up, JCurve Solutions to offer a packaged version of NetSuite for the small business market. 6/24/2009 Salesforce's AppExchange Welcomes Bold Software Wichita, Kan.-based Bold Software, which you may have known in the past as Bravestorm, has announced that its integration module for Salesforce CRM is now live on the Force.com AppExchange. 6/24/2009 InsideView's App Hits 1,400 Installs by Salesforce.com Customers SalesView is the first Sales 2.0 application integrated with Salesforce CRM. The solution was first launched on the AppExchange on-demand application marketplace in March 2008 and since then has counted over 1,400 installs and 400 joint Salesforce.com customers. 6/22/2009 VPI Call Recording and Quality Monitoring Solutions Now Interoperable with Avaya's Latest Platforms Contact center solutions provider VPI (Voice Print International) has announced that its VPI CAPTURE interaction recording and VPI QUALITY agent evaluation applications are now compatible with Avaya's inbound and outbound contact center solutions, including Avaya Communication Manager 5.1.2; Avaya AES 4.2 and Avaya Proactive Contact/PDS with CTI 4.0.1. 6/19/2009 TMC Announces 2009 IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award Winners The awards are presented by Customer Interaction Solutions magazine. 6/19/2009 GN Netcom Debuts Two New Jabra Headsets Headset solutions provider GN Netcom has announced two new products suitable for implementing Unified Communications solutions. The Jabra GO 6400, a Bluetooth solution and the PRO 9400 Series, a DECT headset. 6/19/2009 PAR Announces SuperOffice Plug-In and Upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics Company officials said they have further developed links between proprietary CRM systems and its pan-European EuroContactPool business-to-business database with these releases. 6/19/2009 FrontRange Releases Heat Survey to Improve Delivery of IT Services FrontRange Solutions, a provider of IT software and CRM Solutions, announced the release of its new "Heat Survey," which enables tracking and improving of IT services provided to end users. The new Heat 9.0.1 includes a survey module along with enhancements to the User Interface and Web Services Integration. 6/18/2009 CyrusOne Adds Third Data Center in Houston In response to increasing demand for Data Centers in the nation, CyrusOne, a Texas-based enterprise data center colocation provider, announced that it has plans to build and operate an initial 94,000-square-foot high-availability, high-density, data center in West Houston. 6/17/2009 Southeast Asian carrier Selects Evolving Systems' Dynamic SIM Allocation Solution A Southeast Asian carrier reportedly has selected Evolving Systems' Dynamic SIM Allocation solution to help streamline its SIM supply chain logistics, manage its number inventory and enable prepaid number selection. 6/17/2009 Lanier Upshaw Selects ProspX Platform for Enterprise Social Networking Lanier Upshaw, one of the largest brokers in the U.S., has selected the ProspX platform to connect expertise within and across the company's broker, partner, and carrier network to boost sales productivity and efficiency. 6/17/2009 Maine's The Place Again New TD Contact Center The state of Maine has long sought contact centers to alleviate high unemployment in older mill and resource communities. Thanks to the state's value proposition of an affordable, educated, and hard working labor force and supportive communities, it has been successful. 6/15/2009 Ventelo Wins Customer Service Award with Avaya Solutions Ventelo, a Norway-based a telecommunications service provider that offers broadband, fixed and mobile services, was recently recognized for offering the best customer service in the country. The company was selected from a field of 56 firms across nine industries via an independent survey. The survey results were announced during Call Center 2009 held in Oslo. 6/15/2009 Free Webinar: Today's Unpredictable Economy Warrants More Powerful Call Center Forecasting Tools In the upcoming free webinar, "Strategic Planning Technologies: Contact Center Modeling From Forecasting, to Requirements Generation, to Hiring/Overtime Plans to Budgets and Variance Analysis," scheduled for 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT, this coming Tuesday, June 16, Ric Kosiba, Ph. D., president and one of the founders of Bay Bridge Decision Technologies, will discuss the outdated technologies that are still being used for forecasting, what-if analysis, and capacity planning, and the issues associated with continuing to use these technologies for your ever-evolving contact center network. 6/12/2009 NextiraOne Earns Genesys Gold Suite Certified Partner Status Both companies say they're working to help businesses transform contact centers into dynamic business assets that provide excellent service and productivity. The joint solution offers customers maximum value through industry-leading Customer Interaction Management software from Genesys. 6/12/2009 Nortel Releases Solutions for Business Process and Application Integration Nortel, a provider of communications capabilities, announces enhancements to its Agile Communication Environment and Media Processing Server, in addition to the upcoming global availability of Contact Center 7.0. 6/11/2009 Contact Centers Can Optimize Opportunities Through Social Networking Social networking at one time may have conjured up images of friends meeting up for Happy Hour and getting together for a barbeque in someone's backyard. It is now so much more and it is going beyond mere social benefits. 6/11/2009 Appletree Answers Offers Call Support to Greater Missouri Builders The company provides live phone answering service and call center technologies to offer custom scripted phone calls, customer behavior tracking, direct order entry and input into customers information systems and simultaneous monitoring of traffic on thousands of phone numbers in real-time. 6/10/2009 Eloqua and Salesforce.com Solution Reaches More than 300 Customers Eloqua has announced that the company has reached more than 300 joint customers in partnership with Salesforce.com. These companies include AON, Brightcove, Infoblox, Proofpoint and Taleo. 6/9/2009 Transverse Debuts SaaS Delivery Option The platform, blee(p), is a commercially supported carrier-grade open source BSS solution for communication service providers. 6/9/2009 Genesys Launches UC Connect, Enabling its CIM Platform to Be Readily Integrated with Leading UC Systems Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, has launched UC Connect, a solution for integrating its Customer Interaction Management (CIM) software platform with the UC solutions of other major vendors. 6/8/2009 MLSListings and Tarasoft Intro Tarasoft Matrix MLSListings and Tarasoft Corporation have announced the introduction of Tarasoft Matrix, a Web centric listing, Customer Relationship Management and search software platform, which is tailor made for real estate industry agents to provide access to mission critical data so that they can efficiently serve residential buyers and renters. 6/8/2009 Rockies Venture Club Partners with BB2e.com to Manage its CRM System Rockies Venture Club (RVC), non-profit organization built to help entrepreneurs launch and manage high-growth potential companies, has reportedly selected BB2e.com to build and manage its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to enhance membership / sponsorship value, community development and association growth. 6/5/2009 Synygy Announces Full Integration with Salesforce CRM In addition, the data from Salesforce CRM can be combined with data from Synygy's suite of SPM applications to create meaningful insight into sales performance that cannot be achieved with CRM alone. 6/5/2009 Salesforce.com's Service Cloud Wins CRM Excellence Award The enterprise cloud computing company, Salesforce.com has reportedly earned Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC)'s Customer Interaction Solutions 2009 CRM Excellence Award for its Service Cloud built on Force.com platform. 6/4/2009 Amcom Software Releases Smart Console Call Center Solution Amcom Software, Inc. has reportedly released enhanced version of its Smart Console call center software, designed to handle mission-critical communications and reduce both costs and operator fatigue. 6/4/2009 CRMCompany Extends WinForms-based CRM to the Web Using Visual WebGui CRMCompany, is a provider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions and is also in to consulting. The firm focuses on adding value to businesses, thus enhancing their profitability, by applying its knowledge and experience. This is done by the use of information technology in commercial and administrative processes efficiently and effectively with associated metrics. 6/4/2009 Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook 2007 Added to CRM OnTarget's Dynamics CRM Solution "Our ability to break through the minimum user barrier was our first step in addressing the emerging entrepreneurial market," said Mike Berger, a partner at CRM OnTarget, in a Wednesday statement. 6/3/2009 Nixxis Expands into U.K. Contact Center Market Nixxis, a contact center software vendor, has expanded into the United Kingdom. 6/2/2009 12solutions Installs Indosoft Call Center Solution at MWEB, Nigeria Indosoft and 12Solutions have installed Indosoft Q-Suite call center software suite at MWeb, in Nigeria. 5/28/2009 RehabCare Settles on Force.com Platform for iPhone App Salesforce.com has announced that RehabCare Group is using the Force.com platform to build a custom health care application to run on its staff's Apple iPhones. 5/28/2009 Ace Hardware Turns to TargusInfo for Customer Loyalty Help Ace Hardware Corporation, which probably actually is, as the company boilerplate publicity claims, the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the home improvement industry with over 4,600 stores, has partnered with TargusInfo to improve the new member sign-in process in its customer loyalty program. 5/28/2009 RedHorse CRM Gets 2.0 Release "Following the initial release of the product in December 2008," according to founder and Chief Development Officer Connie Koch, the company believes that this is "a critical release," as all of the Standard Business Modules are now integrated in the standard CRM product. 5/28/2009 Hawaiian Electric Company Improves Customer Service with New Contact Center Solution The call center solution enhances the customer experience for financial services, energy, insurance, telecommunications, wireless and retail corporations. 5/27/2009 Use of Headsets Increases Sales Success Plantronics' online survey, conducted by Opinion Matters/Tickbox.net, a market research organization, carrying out consumer, corporate and niche market surveys online amongst a 50,000+ member panel, reveals that sales representatives throughout the U.K. and Europe are using a headset to create a comfortable and compelling customer experience. 5/27/2009 newScale Releases the FrontOffice Suite for the Virtual Data Center Helping clients to manage the complete service lifecycle of virtual, physical and cloud server environments, newScale has announced the next release of the newScale FrontOffice Suite for the Virtual Data Center. The company claims that with its new release, clients can balance business justification and demand for new servers. 5/26/2009 Lagan Offers 311 Call Center Solutions as Software-as-a-Service Lagan, which provides enterprise case management (ECM) solutions that streamline the delivery of public services to constituents, launched their software-as-a-service (SaaS) customer resource management (CRM) offering, Lagan311.com. 5/26/2009 QSCU Selects IPscape for its SaaS Call Center Management Solution Qantas Staff Credit Union (QSCU) has announced that it has selected IPscape's Software as a Solution (SaaS) call center management solution to significantly improve the efficiency and customer experience of its contact office in Sydney. 5/26/2009 Syntellect to Release Version 7.0 of its CIM Solution Syntellect Inc., a major player in contact center and self-service technology, will soon release Syntellect Customer Interaction Management (CIM) version 7.0 from its line of customer interaction solutions. 5/22/2009 Hibernia Atlantic Extends Network into London Data Center The move allows Hibernia Atlantic to overcomes issues of high data traffic specific to major metro cities and expand its network in the London area. This Point of Presence also extends Global Financial Network, designed by Hibernia, into Equinix Financial eXchange, a neutral electronic marketplace consisting of active financial market participants, located within LD4. 5/21/2009 Truly 'Green': TelcoBridges' Webinars Address Cost- and Energy-Savings in Data Centers The program addresses today's economic conditions as well as environmental concerns, according to TelcoBridges' vice president of marketing, Danny Paul Blouin. 5/21/2009 FREE WEBINAR Delivering Contact Center Solutions On Wednesday, June 3, 2009 2:00 PM EDT / 11:00 AM PDT, IQ Services will be giving a free Webinar, "Something for Everyone: Testing Multi-Channel Contact Center Solutions from the Customer Perspective." Register now! 5/21/2009 Exari Launches Exari SalesAccelerator on Salesforce.com Exari Group Inc., a contract automation software company, has launched Exari SalesAccelerator on Salesforce.com. 5/19/2009 Informatica Announces ACORD Cost Help If you're looking to reduce your company's ACORD transformation costs, this might be the thing for you. "Combining ACORD standard with enterprise cloud computing," according to officials of Informatica Corporation, the company is announcing the Informatica Insurance Gateway for Salesforce CRM 5/19/2009 Ontario Systems Enters into a Strategic Alliance with Microsoft Ontario officials said that by incorporating the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform into its software suite, the company's clients will experience a more robust product line, greater efficiencies of scale, and a better-quality product - all driven by Microsoft's technology. 5/18/2009 Mellanox Unveils Six-Port, Multi-Protocol 10 Gigabit Ethernet PHY As demand for more robust networks increases, service providers are busy expanding enterprise applications and enhancing the capacity of existing multi-core server processing platforms. The next-generation data center networking systems will be based on high density 10 Gigabit Ethernet. 5/14/2009 Presidio Earns Cisco Data Center Certification Officials at Presidio said that the Cisco system unites network, computational, storage access, and virtualization resources in a single energy-efficient system that can reduce the costs and complexity of information technology infrastructure, help extend capital assets and improve business agility well into the future. 5/14/2009 Agito Networks and Joint Avaya Customer Demo Mobile Workforce Connectivity "Agito Networks and Anthony Marano Company will discuss how Anthony Marano Company works with Avaya and Agito to keep its mobile workforce connected, delivering timely service to the many customers buying its fresh produce," said Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations and technical alliances, Avaya. 5/14/2009 Report: Customer Satisfaction with Online Retail Dips When it comes to online retail, many customers seem to be echoing the Rolling Stones' tune, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." 5/13/2009 Brocade Intros New Switches Officials from the company say the application switches target service providers and enterprises who are scrambling to weather the economic storm by strengthening data centers and cutting operating cost. 5/13/2009 Cbeyond to Create 600 Jobs in Atlanta By the year 2013, Cbeyond aims to create more than 1,400 jobs locally – a good news in the country where hundreds of thousands of people have been laid off because of harsh economic climate. 5/13/2009 Aruba Unveils Virtual Branch Network for Remote Workers The VBN solution offers new software for data center-based Aruba Controllers and three new families of wired and wireless Remote Access Points and Branch Office Controllers. The solution is capable of virtualizing complex tasks at data center controllers instead of replicating routing, switching, firewall and other services at each remote location. 5/13/2009 PEER 1 to Offer All-in-One Hosting Service at Toronto Data Center The first of four planned stages of the data center is scheduled for completion in early 2010. That phase will include 7,500 square feet of data center space, and 8,000 square feet of office and staging area at an estimated capital cost of U.S. $10 million, officials said. 5/13/2009 Supplier QA on Headsets with Plantronics Our main focus has become doing more with less: making the most of every customer contact, retaining agents, and improving customer satisfaction and retention. We are seeing little decline in contact center sales compared to other more discretionary purchases, customer contact being the mission-critical customer touch vehicle for most companies. Replacement purchases are being deferred as much as is operationally tenable, and therein our customers enjoy advantage due to the robustness and longevity of our solutions. 5/12/2009 Supplier QA on Headsets with GN Netcom We are an industry leader within the contact center marketplace providing proven wired headset solutions that enable customers to hear better, choose from multiple wearing style options to maximize comfort, and provide award-winning performance, quality and reliability with each connection. 5/12/2009 Old Paradigm Shattered as Beryl Reinvents Call Center Beryl, a reputed healthcare exclusive call center, has reinvented the call center experience. For many years now, the call center industry has been plagued with allegations of poor working conditions, an unflattering rate of employee attrition and low morale. There is an image crisis for the industry at both consumer and worker ends. It is this age old attitude that has been definitively dismissed by Beryl. 5/8/2009 Orange Business Services Deploys Cisco Solutions across Legrand's North American Operations Orange Business Services, France Telecom Group's division for worldwide enterprise services and an information and communications technology provider, has announced that it is deploying Cisco Unified Communications and Contact Center solutions across the North American operations of Legrand, a major player in products and systems for electrical installations and information networks for use in commercial, industrial and residential markets. 5/7/2009 Cisco Revises CCIE Routing and Switching Certification The revisions provide an assessment of hands-on troubleshooting skills and scenario based questions in a written examination. CCIE R&S v4.0 exams are scheduled for release on Oct. 18. Cisco believes that CCIE R&S updates reflect the role of the expert in evaluating network changes. 5/6/2009 SmarterTools Updates Customer Service Solution The SmarterTrack offering is a help desk application that includes a multichannel communications portal with features like Live Chat, WhosOn, cost analysis, and much more so businesses are able to better and more accurately report on customer service and communications as well as sales and support issues. 5/5/2009 StrategicOne Uses Tableau's Software to Deliver Business Dashboards to CRM Clients Tableau Software , a provider of business intelligence software and data visualization software, announced that StrategicOne implemented Tableau to provide client-facing business dashboards and customer relationship management (CRM) analytics. 5/5/2009 Chordiant Releases IBM WPS Connector to Manage Live Customer Interaction Chordiant Software, Inc announced the availability of the Chordiant Connector for IBM WebSphere Process Server (WPS), which is a new linkage capable of improving the process of managing customer conversations as a larger business process. 5/5/2009 IQ Services: Performance and Load Testing for Screen Pop and Call Routing IQ Services is a provider of end-to-end, customer experience testing services for complex unified communications and contact center solutions. Its patented technologies and methodologies go beyond component level testing, company officials say, to deliver end-to-end performance testing of integrated solutions from the end-user perspective. 5/4/2009 SafeNet Partners with TantaComm for Call Center Secure Data Solution This partnership was initiated to create an audio file and database encryption solution that can help call centers dealing with cardholder data to become PCI compliant. 5/4/2009 Free White Paper from SPSS: Data Mining 101 In "SPSS Data Mining Tips" – available for download now in TMCnet's White Paper Library –officials from SPSS Inc. talk about how a veritable gold mine of information could be waiting to be discovered for businesses which may lack the personnel, time or skills to unearth it. 5/1/2009 FREE WEBINAR: Testing Multi-Channel Contact Center Solutions from the Customer Perspective IQ Services' mission is to encourage companies to deliver the best possible experience to their customers through flexible and responsive remote testing services for contact center and communication solutions. 4/29/2009 Altitude Software Launches Enhanced Unified Desktop Solution Altitude Software is enabling contact centers to become productive in this fashion with its enhanced Altitude Unified Desktop solution. It provides agents with all the relevant media control and applications information in user-friendly environments. It adds new tools to focus on first call resolution (FCR) rates and other customer satisfaction and business key metrics. 4/29/2009 Emerson Network Power Unveils New Power Conversion Modules LGA C Series power converters come packaged in a 16.26 x 16.26 mm outline and use an identical footprint for all models (3A, 6A, 10A and 20A) so that designers have a convenient single choice when formulating a power migration path if system requirements change. Input voltage ratings range from 3.0 to 13.8 VDC (4.5V to 13.8 VDC for the 20A model), making the power converters compatible with various input bus voltages. Emerson's new power converters also feature a wide adjustable output range from 0.59 to 5.1 VDC through external resistor trimming, reducing the number of module types needed to support multiple applications. 4/29/2009 TCN Releases Web-based Predictive Dialer and Agent Gateway TCN announced the introduction of its fully Web-based, no hardware/software, sub-second-connecting predictive dialer which will be available to any company with Internet connection. The new technology is expected to enhance accounts receivable management, political campaigning, marketing, call centers and other verticals. 4/28/2009 UK Retailer Selects Teradata for Integrated Web Intelligence JD Williams & Company Limited, the UK's direct home shopping company, has selected Teradata and its alliance partner Speed-Trap, a producer of customer insight software, to provide an Integrated Web Intelligence system that leverages fresh online interaction data to deliver instantly actionable customer insights. 4/28/2009 Minsheng Deploys Yucheng Technologies' Stand-Alone Credit Card Call Center Beijing, China-based Yucheng Technologies has announced that it will deploy a stand-alone credit card call center for China Minsheng Bank (Minsheng), with brand new systems designed to track and avert fraud. 4/28/2009 Online Customer Service Communities: Overtaking Traditional Call Centers? I recently came across an article by Steve Lohr of The New York Times that revolves around contact center agents – an interesting piece that examines how Verizon Communications Inc. (and who could argue with that company after its earnings report today?) is helping forge a trend that could spell very bad news for paid agents. 4/27/2009 TOA Technologies' Service Call Scheduling Cuts Costs, Carbon Tireprints for Companies TOA reports that its clients save an average of about $10,000 a year per technician in gas, travel, and truck expenses. In 2008, the firm helped them reduce fuel consumption by an average of 1.5 gallons per driver, per day, which also results in lower emissions. This means a company with 1,000 drivers can save about $10 million in annual expenses and cut its carbon tireprint by 3.4 million kg (3,750 tons) a year. That also means fewer tires being disposed of, in ugly mounds, and having to be recycled that also consumes energy, along with the technicians' vehicles. 4/27/2009 Qire Launches Automated Customer Feedback Package Qire, a specialist in Voice CRM and a professional affiliate of the Customer Contact Association, has launched its Customer Feedback package, an automated survey solution which lets customers comment on the quality of call centre service received. 4/23/2009 Web Help Desk Goes Lite Web Help Desk, which sells hosted help desk software, has announced a Lite Edition which will be marketed to small to medium businesses, K-12 schools, collegiate departments and governmental agencies as both a hosted SaaS application or on site installation. 4/21/2009 LiveOps Spring 09 On-Demand Platform Features Chat, E-Mail, Surveys In this economic climate it is all about the productivity. To that end, the Spring 09 edition of LiveOps' LiveOps On-Demand Contact Center Platform promises to dramatically enhance just that across the enterprise contact center operations. It includes five key features focused on empowerment and productivity: 4/21/2009 Knoa Software Recognized in CRM and Contact Center Markets Knoa recently announced that they have been selected as a winner of the 2009 CRM Excellence Awards by TMC's Customer Interaction Solutions and have also been named as a finalist in the category of Best Technology Innovation Vendor Solution for the ContactCenterWorld.com Top Ranking Performers in the Contact Center Industry Regional Awards. 4/20/2009 PECO Offers Online Power Outage Reporting PECO is offering power outage reporting online through its Website. That means its customers have another way to report when power outages occur. 4/17/2009 Ortronics/Legrand Server Cabinets to Improve Data Center Operations Ortronics/Legrand, a provider of structured cabling solutions, reportedly introduced a new range of "Mighty Mo" network and server cabinets designed to offer network integrity by addressing several critical needs in data centers and large premise networks. 4/16/2009 AT&T Intros Hosted Data Center Service The company says that it's new offering will be helpful for companies looking to launch or expand call center capabilities without investing in premises based call distribution equipment. 4/16/2009 D-Link Rolls Out PowerLine Adapter Kit The kit is designed to support connecting computers, high-definition media players, game consoles, network attached storage and Internet content throughout the home. Users also can check the DHP-303's performance via a built-in LED. 4/16/2009 Moulton Logistics Launches Report Writer, Part of Comprehensive Solution Moulton Logistics, which providestechnology-enabled outsourced fulfillment, customer service and analytics services, has come out with its latest solution: Report Writer. This is a Web-based reporting tool that allows DRTV and other direct response marketing fulfillment clients to quickly and easily create customized reports based on real-time data available via Moulton's analytics and reporting dashboard. 4/16/2009 Acteva Joins Salesforce.com's Philanthropic Foundation's Efforts Acteva, a vendor of on-demand event registration, ticketing and payment management services space, along with the Salesforce.com Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the CRM vendor, have announced Acteva's involvement in the Salesforce.com Foundation's "Power of Us" Partner Program. In addition to donating products and related services, Acteva's employees will continue to volunteer for nonprofit organizations, including activities organized by the foundation. 4/16/2009 Paddy Power Bets on NGen for CIM Ireland's biggest bookmaker, Paddy Power, has implemented nGen E-mail from nGenera Customer Interaction Management. The company has also introduced live chat assistance on the Web site, powered by nGen Chat, to offer customers rapid and highly personalized responses to any query. 4/16/2009 NGenera, LiveLook Announce Partnership NGenera Customer Interaction Management, a division of nGenera Corporation and a customer experience software vendor, has announced that it is partnering with LiveLook, a provider of next-generation visual customer communication tools, to spice up the capabilities and usability of its nGen CoBrowse module. 4/15/2009 Nuance Study Finds Mobilers Want Customer Service Options, Too Nuance Communications has announced findings from a Yankee Group study showing -- guess what? -- consumers are more demanding than ever. Wouldn't you know it, they require access to customer care directly from their mobile devices. 4/15/2009 BLADE Network, IBM Ink Patent Cross-License Deal According to BLADE officials, the company over the past three years has been providing industry-first data center networking solutions for IBM, including the first native 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch for IBM BladeCenter, the first top-of-rack switch for iDataPlex in massive Web 2.0-style data centers and cloud computing, and the first network virtualization solution that automates the enterprise data center for dynamic migration of virtual machines. 4/15/2009 Bay Bridge Decision Technologies' The Importance of Strategic Planning Webinar Just a reminder that the first session of the Bay Bridge Decision Technologies' three part Webinar hosted by TMC is soon approaching! The three part Webinar series will talk about strategic planning for contact centers presented by Ric Kosiba, co-founder and president of Bay Bridge Decision Technologies'. 4/15/2009 Intel's Class Processors to Accelerate Data Center Transactions The new processors, led by Xeon processor 5500 series from Intel – a company that deals in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live – can be used by researchers and firms that use supercomputers as their foundation for research to reap great benefits along with reduced electricity costs. 4/15/2009 Beyond 'BRIC': Outsourcing/Offshoring Opportunities Grows in Egypt Says LSE Study Firms that are looking to set up and outsource their IT functions or ITO and/or their business processes or BPO should take a careful look beyond the leading and traditional 'BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nations and instead at countries such as Egypt. 4/14/2009 Envision Announces Executive Direct Program Envision Telephony is a contact center solutions company offering products and services that enable organizations to deliver world class customer service. 4/13/2009 inContact Chosen for Lebanon Contact Center CCI Senior Corporate Advisor, Will Robertson, explained that they have aimed to purchase an all-in-one solution to enable them to avoid complex hardware provisioning issues while providing a ready-now solution to their inbound activity needs. 4/13/2009 eGain Knowledge Verified by Consortium for Service Innovation eGain Communications Corporation, a provider of multichannel customer service and knowledge management software, has announced that its knowledge management solution, eGain Knowledge, has been recognized as "Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) Verified" by the Consortium for Service Innovation (CSI). 4/8/2009 CDC's Pivotal CRM 6.0 Selected by AAA in New York CDC Software, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China's CDC Corporation, has announced that AAA Western and Central New York has selected Pivotal CRM 6.0 for its membership relationship management system that is expected to be used by more than 650 associates at 17 locations throughout upstate New York. 4/8/2009 Q&A with Siemens on UC in the Contact Center TMCnet is publishing an ongoing series of Q&As with leading customer interaction/CRM solutions suppliers in key product/service markets to get their insights on trends within contact centers, their specific industries, and within their firms. They are also being asked for best practices in buying and obtaining maximum value from their solutions. 4/8/2009 RightNow Delivers Enhanced Customer Experience for Tesco's Tech Support Division RightNow has been selected by Tesco's Tech Support division to enable the retailer to deliver consistent responses to customers. Tesco Tech was searching for a solution that would enhance the capabilities of this division, which helps customers with questions concerning purchasing technology products online. 4/7/2009 Survey Results Lead to Live Chat Best Practices After conducting a survey on the effectiveness of live chat technology, Bravestorm, makers of BoldChat, announced a set of best practices for e-tailers to help improve live chat effectiveness. 4/7/2009 Amdocs Helps Clearwire Improve Customer Experiences To ensure that the company is able to launch new offerings quickly and that their customers continually have good experiences, they have announced the signing of a multi-year agreement with Amdocs. 4/7/2009 GWI Intros c.Support V 8.0 The company claims that it has been able to build in new features and enhance the existing functions because of its unwavering commitment to, and continuous belief in, Research and Development (R&D). 4/6/2009 Acteva Announces Participation in Salesforce.com's 'Power Of Us' Acteva's participation will include donating its RSVP tracking for Salesforce CRM. This functionality lets Salesforce.com's nonprofit customers take registrations and track RSVPs for all types of free events, including meetings, workshops, trainings, seminars, retreats, volunteer programs, parties and what have you. 4/6/2009 Wmode Enhances Mobile Service Usage with ClearMode By retrieving information from the mobile operator's network, ClearMode Consumer Analytics quickly analyzes all on/off portal browse and purchase behaviour of the mobile portals and storefront services. 4/6/2009 Ping Identity Launches SaaS Partner Directory Ping Identity, which provides secure Internet single sign-on solutions for over 300 enterprise customers, government agencies, and service providers worldwide, has launched an SaaS Partner Directory. 4/3/2009 Sipera Systems' Secure Teleworker Solution is Now Avaya Compliant The UC-Sec Teleworker solution from Sipera is now compliant with key IP telephony solutions from Avaya, Sipera announced recently. Sipera is also a member of the Avaya DevConnect program. 4/2/2009 Convergys, Oman's Renna Strike Deal for Services Convergys, a vendor of relationship management products, has announced that renna, a Middle East mobile reseller, has signed an agreement for Convergys to provide prepaid services obtained from its acquisition of Intervoice to mobile subscribers in Oman. 4/2/2009 Knoa Partners With Serene Corp. for CRM "CRM professionals cannot afford failed technology deployment projects, particularly in tough economic times when business survival may be at stake," wrote Bill Band, vice president and principal analyst, Forrester, in the February 2009 report titled "How To Risk-Proof Your CRM Deployment Strategy." 4/1/2009 Arantech Launches Telco CEM Solution CustomerWorld provides insight that was previously not available to the business and also ensures that this insight is used to maximize and enhance the customer experience. 4/1/2009 Avaya Introduces New Contact Center Solution This latest release delivers customers and their essential information to the correct agent or expert through the quickest and most efficient route possible. Using speech self-service, customers can provide key information such as account numbers, transaction history and their primary needs to get connected to the best available resource in any location of the business. 3/30/2009 Globe Broadband Chooses SupportSoft Subscriber Agent Click Fix is a tool based on SupportSoft's Subscriber Agent that is free and easy-to-use and that empowers users' to manage their Internet connection quickly and simply. 3/30/2009 Shiftboard's Online Scheduling System Meets AOP Requirements Because of the lack of proper tools, shifts went unfilled as operators couldn't see what shifts were open, and supervisors spent their days calling operators and program leaders trying to figure out why someone was not "seated" for a shift. 3/30/2009 Florida Health System Renews Broadlane Partnership Under the renewed agreement, Wuesthoff will continue to use Broadlane technologies, such as portal OnRamp to access the GPO contract portfolio, informatics and industry news and education. 3/26/2009 Fidelity Deploys Expand Networks' WAN Optimization Technology Fidelity National insurance providing personal insurance products has deployed Expand Networks' WAN Optimization technology. Expand Networks specializes in WAN optimization for branch office consolidation and virtualization. The integrated Expand platform also accelerates the organization's business critical applications for assisting in disaster recovery. 3/26/2009 Verint and Dimension Announce Woolworths Implementation Down Under Verint Systems and partner Dimension Data have announced that Woolworths Limited, an Australian retailer, has implemented the Impact 360 Workforce Optimization suite in its Everyday Money Customer Service Center located in Parramatta, New South Wales. 3/26/2009 Aruba's Remote Access Point Receives TMC 2008 Product of the Year Award Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC), recently awarded Aruba Networks' Remote Access Point (RAP) as the "2008 Product of the Year," which was presented by Unified Communications magazine. 3/24/2009 CallCopy Helps Medicare Marketers Meet Federal Regulations Last September the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated its Medicare Marketing Guidelines, which are designed to help marketers comply with changes to the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) of 2008. 3/24/2009 Salesforce.com to Offer Twitter CRM App According to a story by Mary Hayes Weier of Information Week, the new app will identify customers who – rather than call a customer service number – go to the larger Twitter community to solve problems with products. 3/24/2009 White Paper from Ryla: Weighing the Risks of Outsourcing a Call Center In "Outsourcing Customer Service: A Smart Strategy in Need of Refinement" – available for download now in TMCnet's White Paper Library – officials at Ryla, Inc. weigh factors that contribute to an increased risk that outsourcing customer contact activities increases the risk that some customers will be dissatisfied with the service they receive, and some may take their business elsewhere. 3/23/2009 ATIS Announces Three New Energy Efficiency Standards for Telecom The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, otherwise known as "ATIS," a large technical planning and standards development organization committed to the rapid development of global, market-driven standards for the information, entertainment and communications industry, has just published three standards used to determine telecommunication equipment's energy efficiency. The standards introduce the Telecommunications Energy Efficiency Ratio, or "TEER," as a measure of network-element efficiency. 3/19/2009 Inova's Middleware Is Avaya IQ-Compliant Inova Solutions, a global provider of real-time visual communications that help inbound and outbound call centers, public transit systems, schools, manufacturers and others instantly communicate vital information, reportedly has announced that its so-called "LightLink" middleware is compliant with Avaya IQ from Avaya. 3/19/2009 CosmoCall Universe V6 Delivers Unified Customer Communications Contact centers typically have two main resource streams. The customer-facing stream consists of Direct Contact Center resources that take calls, resolve problems and give critical feed-back to customers. The other stream consists of non-customer-facing staff and consultants who the DCCR's with strategic inputs, skills, field related feed-back, knowledge, trouble-shooting data, general support, and sanctioning new workflow methods. 3/19/2009 Varolii Adds Intelligence to Automated Outbound Communications, Live Agent Calls Intelligence is key to effectively managing customer interactions. The more you know about your customers and how your solutions: both automated and live agent handle them, the more tools that you have to interact with and to plan and manage these contacts and agents the more productive your organization will become. 3/17/2009 Varolii Launches New Outbound Communications Products It's getting harder for companies to ensure that their communications are being read or heard by the customers and employees they are sending them to. We live in an age where it has become commonplace for people to blow off critical communications and say "I never got it." 3/17/2009 Cisco Enters Server Computer Market According to Mario Mazzola, senior vice president of Cisco's server access and virtualization business unit, the virtual machine has become the new atomic building block of the data center, creating new challenges and opportunities with the potential to transform the computing environment and deliver significant benefits. 3/17/2009 Clarabridge Smart Response Enables Real-Time Automated Customer Response Management Clarabridge, a company that provides text mining software, has announced the release of Clarabridge Smart Response, a real-time automated customer issue analysis, response and routing solution powered by text mining. 3/17/2009 Bay Bridge Decision Technologies' Partners with TMC to Help Contact Centers Keep ahead of all the other contact centers by attending Bay Bridge Decision Technologies' three part Webinar hosted by TMC. The three part Webinar series will talk about strategic planning for contact centers presented by Ric Kosiba, co-founder and president of Bay Bridge Decision Technologies'. 3/16/2009 Plantronics Intros New Wireless Audio Solutions for UC Plantronics has launched the industry's first suite of Unified Communications wireless headset systems that improves business collaboration and provides cost savings. 3/12/2009 D-Link Makes Available a New Solution for SMBs' Data Storage Needs D-Link has announced that it is now shipping a solution for the growing data storage needs of small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs). 3/12/2009 Canada Post Installs AMC's Multi-Channel Integration Server Canada Post, Canada's postal service has reportedly selected AMC Technology's Multi-Channel Integration to integrate their SAP CRM and Nortel contact center implementations. AMC has teamed up with Innovapost, provider of complete professional IT solutions and services and part of the Canada Post group of companies, to deliver the solution. 3/12/2009 Call Center Digital Signage Explained Previously, Dan Boehm Vice President of Spectrum Corporation gave TMC readers a bit of background information on Spectrum Corporation. With 60 percent of its business in North America and the balance spread around the world, Spectrum is providing digital signage to call centers worldwide. However, Boehm wanted to make sure TMC readers understood the product, therefore, he further explained: 3/11/2009 Frost Bank Leans on Allegiance to Measure Customer Retention and Loyalty Operating as the banking, investments and insurance subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc., Frost is considered to be the largest Texas-based banking organization that operates only in Texas. With more than 100 financial centers across the state, Frost selected Allegiance due to its extensive experience in customer loyalty and engagement outreach. 3/11/2009 Gordano Enters into Agreement with eAgency Gordano Ltd an international developer of comprehensive enterprise-class messaging products delivering scalability and reliability, has entered into an agreement with eAgency, Inc to provide over-the-air PIM updates to their users via their flagship Nice Office service. 3/10/2009 Belden's New System Reduces Cooling Costs A data center needs properly working cooling enclosures to work efficiently. But many such enclosures end up using excessive amounts of energy mainly due to oversupply of cold air by the computer room. Beleden says this is done to cover up the inefficiency in the enclosure cooling process. This results in wastage of water and energy for the company. 3/10/2009 SAP Announces New CRM and Collaborative Tools BAiO is principally an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool customized for a wide range of industries such as automotive, banking, media, life sciences, and oil and gas, built to accommodate a few or all of the 700 SAP ERP modules depending on the growth and requirement of the customer. 3/5/2009 Amdocs Signs Agreement with Alcatel-Lucent Under the terms of the agreement, Amdocs will be maintaining its operational support systems (OSS) installed at Sunrise Communications. With the signing of this agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will be expanding existing Amdocs' support of Sunrise's operational support systems that also includes support features and functionality developed by third parties until 2015. 3/5/2009 Center Partners, OnviSource Target Call Center Market Under their agreement, Center Partners will make use of OnviCord call recording and screen capture technologies within the OnviCenter 6 suite of Workforce Optimization solutions. OnviCenter 6 helps the companies to effectively automate and optimize their customer transactions with products such as OnviCord, OnviTrax, OnviCall, OnviNet and OnViews. 3/4/2009 Audience Intros New Voice Processor Capabilities The company claims that participants noticed a clear difference between the Audience Voice Processor enabled handset and those of three other mobile handsets. 3/3/2009 SJS Solutions Bolsters British Contact Center with Real-Time Wallboards Positioned as contact center wallboard experts, SJS Solutions sought to provide aggressive pricing and a flexible attitude to ensure they were selected as the best supplier for the council. To meet the needs of the center, SJS was asked to create a solution that would blend and display real-time data from the council's Avaya CMS and QBuster call-queuing systems. 3/3/2009 Pac-West Telecomm Intros Voice Service Offerings for International Market For U.S.-destined traffic, Pac-West provides a termination solution that does not require detailed routing to the NPA-NXX or LATA/OCN level. Also, carriers are allowed to choose a cost level that suits their traffic patterns. The calls destined to a rate center with a termination rate equal to or lower than the threshold will be completed and billed according to the cost of that rate center. This facility, according to Pac-West Telecom, lets customers "achieve the cost benefit of detailed routing without the work." 3/3/2009 Report: Public Call Centers Lag Behind Private Sector Ken Reid of Rostrvm said public authorities "need to look closely at the advantages brought about by CTI. With efficiency being a hot topic in the public sector at present and the efficiency agenda, it is essential that public bodies use the best available technology to streamline customer contact, consolidate business processes and deliver services as efficiently as possible." 3/3/2009 KDG Selects Proxilliant's Cable Access Management System The system is a comprehensive, integrated hardware and software solution for cable-based advanced service management. Its architecture features intelligence deployed deep into the access network that works in concert with sophisticated service management software deployed in the headend and regional data center. 3/3/2009 Cellular Phone Provider Picks Verint WFO to Improve Quality Monitoring Because the provider offers its customers a number of flexible cell phone program offerings, it has resulted in the need to optimize their workforce to ensure customer needs are met, and to make use of contact center technology so that it can ensure quality is constantly being delivered to its customers. 3/3/2009 Globitel Call Center Solution Chosen by Batelco The contract, which will accommodate 100 seats in Batelco's call center, is reportedly expected to be completed by April of this year. 2/27/2009 eTelecare Signs Services Agreement with ISP Under the agreement, eTelecare will offer technical support, customer care and retention services in both Spanish and English to the client's residential and small business customers. 2/27/2009 TDI's Contact Center Solutions Now Compatible with Cisco, Mitel, ShoreTel Solutions The company believes the integration will ensure seamless interoperability between solutions and that it will enable joint customers to enhance the customer experience. 2/27/2009 VirtualLogger Offers Business Protection Plan With this uncertain economy organizations know they need to invest in tools like call monitoring/recording to help them boost productivity and increase customer retention, attraction, and revenues. Yet if business plans change, either because of mergers, acquisitions, closures, and automation, they risk paying for unused solutions. 2/26/2009 IPC Extends Ethernet Connection for Financial Trading Firms The new development has resulted in customers of Switch and Data Web sites being provided with direct access to Ethernet private lines provided by ECS. These lines improve access to the stock exchanges and other market and trading data and applications. 2/26/2009 Vocollect Intros Headset for Voice System Workers According to Vocollect officials, the new SR-15 is for people who cannot wear typical over-the-head headset models due to hair style, religious headwear or comfort issues. Its less obtrusive form makes the new Vocollect headset ideal for environments, where voice-enabled workers are visible or interacting with the public. 2/25/2009 GN Netcom, Ingram Micro Eye Canada's Telephony Market GN Netcom provides innovative headset solutions through its Jabra brand. The company will provide Ingram Micro with service and assistance that includes business, technical, sales and marketing support as well as online and technical training. Leveraging these additional tools, Ingram Micro will be able to enhance relationships with resellers and generate new business. 2/25/2009 SoundBite, IBS Help Community Banks Collect on Debts Faster By interfacing with the IBS CARM-Pro collection management system, SoundBite is able to create a specific queue that enables outbound, automated voice messages to be delivered to past due account holders. The import files are sent back into the system at the end of each business day, which ensures that call outcomes are effectively recorded and tracked. 2/25/2009 Chordiant Software Allows Real-Time Dialog, Interaction Management Chordiant Software has announced Chordiant Recommendation Advisor version 6.2, a version which allows real-time Next-Best-Action-driven dialog and interaction management at the business-to-business and household level. 2/25/2009 ShoreWare Contact Center 5 Now Available from ShoreTel ShoreTel, a provider of Pure IP Unified Communications (UC) solutions, has announced the release of ShoreWare Contact Center 5. This latest version of the company's contact center application suite is designed to help organizations to dramatically improve customer service and sales workflows. 2/19/2009 Vitrium Releases New Version of its Online Software Service Docmetrics Vitrium Systems announced the release of a new version of its online software service, docmetrics. This PDF form lead generation system provides seamless integration with Salesforce.com which is a customer relationship management system. 2/17/2009 PAR Launches One-by-One Plug-in a Link to EuroContactPool Database PAR, a Sweden-based database owner announced the launch of a plug-in called 'One-by-One' which will enable users of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to link with its pan-European EuroContactPool business-to-business database. 2/17/2009 Canadian City Adopts Motorola PremierOne CSR Application to Improve Government Response to Citizens The City of Windsor, Ontario, Canada has upgraded their 3-1-1 citizen call center with Motorola's new public sector application, PremierOne CSR. 2/17/2009 CRM Software Comparison Tool Helps SMBs Make the Right Choice But because CRM software is not a one size fits all solution it requires that companies decide on the features they need and are matched with vendors who offer them. 2/13/2009 Ventraq Releases Customer Behavior Analytics Solution Ventraq helps service providers improve their business performance by providing actionable insight and was recently formed as a result of the merger of ACE*COMM, TeleSciences and 10e Solutions. 2/12/2009 PUTTING AMERICA FIRST I love America, the land of opportunity. I came to this great country in 1957 with only $50 in my pocket. America gave me the opportunity to get to where I am today. And for that reason, I feel I owe a debt of gratitude to America and I have a moral obligation to put my country first. Therefore, in this editorial, I will offer my view on the problems that need resolution and how America can continue to be the same land of opportunity it always was. 2/12/2009 So Many Files, So Many Numbers? CRM Innovation Has the Solution AutoNumber can create a unique, easy to read reference number for records in the CRM systems. This tool allows system customizers to add 'AutoNumbering' to CRM entities that are not supported by the base numbering system. The solution makes it easy to create an AutoNumber that can be used to uniquely identify a record in the system without referencing another field or the GUID. The AutoNumber can be used to link the CRM record with other systems, such as back office, accounting applications, or even paper files. 2/11/2009 Syntellect Support Center Now Successfully Integrates with Syntellect CIM Solution Syntellect Inc., a provider of contact center management solutions, has announced the release of Syntellect Support Center for successful integration with the company's award-winning Syntellect Customer Interaction Management (CIM) solution, formerly known as Apropos. 2/10/2009 Genpact Guatemala Contact Center Becomes BPO Operation A Guatemala contact center, owned by Genpact (NYSE: G) that opened in mid-2008 has expanded to become a business process outsourcing (BPO) facility, supporting U.S. clients on a nearshore basis. 2/10/2009 CSC Wins $59 Million FBI Call Center Contract Originally the contract was awarded to Datatrac Information Systems Inc. in 2003, but that company was acquired by CSC in 2006 and the new deal was inked this quarter. As part of the order, CSC will provide the FBI with call center and help desk services to support the NICS call center. 2/5/2009 KANA: Companies Looking To Do More with CRM Solutions KANA makes multichannel customer service software solutions. The KANA Suite, which integrates phone, e-mail, Web, chat and collaboration channels with knowledge management capabilities in a unified application, recently received a Product of the Year Award from Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine. 2/3/2009 Informatica Revenues Hit $214.4 Million in Q4 Informatica Corporation, which sells enterprise data integration software and services, has announced financial results for the fourth quarter and the year ended December 31, 2008. 2/2/2009 DMC Gets Sage Status, Welcomes 200 Suite Launch DMC Software, a Sage and Microsoft Gold Certified Business Partner, has been awarded Sage Customer Development Center status in time for the launch of the new Sage 200 Suite. 2/2/2009 Presence Technology to Discuss Call Center Strategies, Showcase Solutions at ITEXPO Presence Technology, a software provider specialized in delivering advanced solutions to the contact center, will be serving as a cosponsor to the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & Expo, held February 2nd – 4th in Miami, Florida. 1/30/2009 Salesforce.com's Tips To Build Customer Loyalty With CRM The February issue of Customer Interaction Solutions magazine will have a feature on 'Top Tips to Build and Keep Customer Loyalty with CRM'. 1/30/2009 Medical Information Call Centers Hamstrung by Wide Internet Use A new report, titled "Evolving Medical Information Call Centers through Performance Measurement and Process Improvement," focuses on helping the medical information companies deal with the changing environment. 1/29/2009 Cisco and Inova Solutions Team to Broadcast Dynamic Content in Call Centers Cisco chose Inova Solutions' digital signage software, Inova Broadcaster, to populate their system hardware with customized content. The software, according to Inova Solutions, delivers real-time call center metrics along with dynamic multimedia content to agents and managers. 1/29/2009 DealerTrack Launches Enhanced CRM Solution with ILM Capability Available to users of the DealerTrack Arkona dealer management system (DMS), the enhanced CRM solution provides cutting-edge functionality to help them communicate consistently and effectively with all their customers. 1/29/2009 Sorrento Aids Hostworks with Storage Area Network The GigaMux 3200 was selected by Hostworks to connect its data center with the customer's data center on the other side of the city, facilitating low cost, low latency and bandwidth efficient Storage Area Networks. 1/28/2009 CoE Certification Encore for OEConnection OEConnection Customer Care Center recently bagged the "Center of Excellence" certificate from BenchmarkPortal for the second consecutive year. This certification is globally considered a prime indicator that a Call Center is dedicated towards quality customer care and places it in the top ten percent category. 1/27/2009 Gartner Suggests Six CRM Marketing Processes for a Cost-Constrained Economy Marketing budgets are most at risk during the economic slump. Gartner, Inc., an information technology research and advisory firm, has proposed six marketing processes that can be automated to drive revenue and cut costs, maximizing marketing budgets and Return on Investments (ROIs). 1/27/2009 Convergys Reports Loss in 2008 Profits, Expects to Bounce Back Convergys saw its financial ink bleed from black to red in 2008 primarily owing to a combination of HR management services losses and declining information system operating income caused by a slowdown in communications industry spending. 1/27/2009 Symon Honored 2008 Product of the Year Award by Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine Symon, a provider of digital signage systems, announced on Wednesday that the company's real-time desktop alerting tool, Symon InView, has received a 2008 Product of the Year Award from Technology Marketing Corporation's (TMC) Customer Interaction Solutions magazine. 1/22/2009 Genesys Gains Rights to Customer Interaction Portal with Acquisition of SDE An Alcatel-Lucent company, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, today announced it has obtained SDE Software Development Engineering GmbH, a spin-off of VoicInt Telecommunications. 1/22/2009 StarTek Inaugurates Makati BPO Facility StarTek, a high-value business process outsourcing (BPO) services provider, recently inaugurated its Makati facility. The company began operations in the facility in September 2008 with approximately 50 pioneer managers and agents who are focused on delivering services for FORTUNE 1000 corporations in the United States. 1/20/2009 Mariner Commercial Properties Employs Lasso CRM to Market Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Mariner Commercial Properties will make use of the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution from Lasso Data Systems to market and sell the luxurious Waldorf-Astoria Hotel & Residences in Philadelphia. 1/19/2009 C.A.M. Turns to Counterpoint for CRM Creazioni Artistiche Musicali (C.A.M.), an Italian record company, has selected the Counterpoint Systems' Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution for implementation. 1/19/2009 PANDUIT Intros High-Speed Transport Solution PANDUIT has released the TX6A 10GIG Copper Cabling System, a next-generation end-to-end Category 6A UTP system, which provides significant margin on all 10GBASE-T electrical parameters with improved alien crosstalk performance, delivering superior overall channel performance over a slimmer UTP cable. 1/19/2009 Wiki for Dynamics Exchange CRM in Beta FYI: The DynamicsExchange CRM AnswerCenter Wiki is here. 1/19/2009 Infoblox Virtual Software Module Available on Cisco AXP Infoblox announced that its virtual software module is now available on the Cisco application extension platform (AXP) for the Cisco integrated services router (ISR). 1/16/2009 Syntellect Intros New Functionality to its Testing Solution; Releases VOIYAGER 2009 Syntellect, a company focused in providing self-service and live contact center solutions, has announced its upgraded release of Voiyager, a testing solution that addresses comprehensive testing and quality assurance demands. 1/16/2009 Tech Data Partners with Fonality to Sell Hybrid-Hosted Solutions Tech Data has announced a distribution agreement with Fonality to sell its open source, Hybrid-Hosted solutions for small and medium businesses (SMBs). 1/14/2009 Accenture Finds Four Ways to Help Government with CRM "Engaging citizens" and "collaborating with a wider network of service providers" can help governments improve the quality of the services and outcomes they deliver to their constituents, according to a new report from Accenture. 1/13/2009 Avaya Develops, Showcases Advanced Retailer Customer Service Solutions The retail shopping experience has changed in essence very little over the centuries. It has been about salespeople determining the needs of customers or customers seeking out sales staff to assist them, one on one, with little coordination with the rest of the store, or organization. Yes, there has been technology introduced, such as pagers and walkie-talkies, but nothing in the retail environment that is as integrated as say in a contact center, and no tools that have effectively integrated retail with contact centers at the customer level. 1/12/2009 Telrex's CallRex Speech Analytics Goes SaaS Telrex's 'pay-as-you-go' model, with no capital outlays, allows companies like yours to reap the benefits of speech analytics without purchasing and maintaining expensive speech analytics technology and dedicating your staff to reviewing and analyzing recordings. You can gain a competitive edge by hearing and recalling the voices of your customers and in doing so giving these your most valuable assets a voice within your organization without busting your budget. 1/12/2009 AbilityCRM Achieves Gold Certified Partner Status This new market position communicates to customers that AbilityCRM has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies and proven its ability to meet customer needs. As a Gold Certified Partner, AbilityCRM will receive a rich set of benefits, which includes access, training and support, to provide them with a competitive advantage in the channel. 1/9/2009 Billing Automation Streamlined Bill.com recently released an upgrade, for its on-demand Accounts Payable (A/P) software, to simplify and speed up billing related workflow and process automation. It reduces paper bill handling to a one-time-only event – right at the beginning of the cycle. Thereafter, financial and business approvals, payments and tracking are conducted on-line, one hundred percent paperless, 24x7 and are fail safe. The relatively low cost of service is attractive for businesses ranging from small to very large. 1/8/2009 Convergys Gets Fortune 50 Contract CRM vendor Convergys Corporation has implemented a human resources services contract for a Fortune 50 Company. The "go-live" took place January 2 in ten countries in multiple languages in Latin America, North America, and Asia-Pacific. 1/8/2009 Avaya, Nortel ID Key Contact Routing Trends Avaya and Nortel are the two most experienced contact center solutions suppliers in North America, and arguably the world, with shared heritages as equipment makers for the Bell systems in the U.S. and Canada respectively. Who better than these two firms to find out the key inbound and outbound contact routing, including unified communications and conferencing trends from? We recently posed a series of questions to Avaya and Nortel and here are their answers, provided by Chris McGugan, vice president, Avaya Contact Center Solutions division and Wendy Mikkelsen, Contact Center Product Marketing, Nortel: 1/6/2009 MPC Call Center Chooses Plantronics as Headset Vendor MPC Call Center, a U.S.-based live operator call center for small, medium, and large companies, announced it has chosen Plantronics, a company specializing in lightweight headset products, as to provide telephone headsets for their operators. 12/30/2008 TMC ITEXPO Spotlights WBS Connect Recently, I had the chance to speak with WBS Connect Scott Charter, Managing Partner: 12/24/2008 Five9 Predicts '09 A Great Year for On Demand Call Center Software Five9's hosted call center solutions not only help improve performance and lower infrastructure maintenance costs but also increase flexibility of agent staffing and keep call centers at the forefront of their industry. 12/22/2008 UTOPY Unveils Version 5.2 of SpeechMiner UTOPY has unveiled UTOPY SpeechMiner V5.2, its flagship Speech Analytics product. UTOPY claims that its SpeechMiner V5.2, allows call centers to process unlimited customer call volume from all over the world. 12/17/2008 UCN's Call Center Software Aids Natural Gas Energy Company UCN, Inc. has reportedly entered in to an agreement with a Natural Gas Energy Company to deploy its inContact Echo call centre software in its customers contact center site 12/15/2008 Bell Canada Buyout Busts: Are Mergers In The Offing? An attempt to buy out BCE, the parent of Bell Canada, the country's largest communications firm has crashed and burned on the snow and ice of an already-hard Canadian winter. 12/11/2008 Report: Avaya Positioned by Gartner as Leader Quadrant Avaya Inc., a global provider of business communications software, systems and services, announced that Gartner, Inc. has placed them in the Leaders quadrant of its recently published Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, Worldwide 12/8/2008 Eaton Intros Power Distribution Rack to Meet Data Center Needs The PDR, according to Eaton, offers a space-saving way to distribute power throughout the data center with up to 168 factory-installed branch breakers. With its highly compact footprint, it offers traditional 225A or 400A panels to make full use of all 42-pole positions, if needed, without jeopardizing the critical load. 12/4/2008 Call Centers Have Option to Try Promero Hosted Solutions Before Committing Promero, a Certified Partner of the Oracle PartnerNetwork has announced today that it is offering a Try Before You Buy No Risk Guarantee for call center executives thinking about making a change to upgraded or hosted services. 12/4/2008 Open Solutions Signs Up Osoyoos Credit Union Osoyoos Credit Union officials say they have selected The Complete Credit Union Solution: DNA, the latest version of the relational core data processing platform from Open Solutions, a vendor of technologies for financial institutions in the United States, Canada and other international markets. 12/4/2008 Dubai Islamic Bank to Automate its Reconciliation Processes with Fiserv Dubai Islamic Bank is using Fiserv's CheckFree transaction management and reconciliation solution to rapidly automate its reconciliation processes. The solution was promptly installed within 90 days of contract execution to address actual and anticipated transaction volume growth, and reduce operational and compliance risk exposure. 12/2/2008 Sales Advantage Debuted by Genesis Global In trying to solve its own marketing communications issues, company officials say, Fort Myers, Florida-based Genesis Global Technologies developed an online sales tool, Sales Advantage, to communicate and engage with clients and prospects. 11/26/2008 Sage Customer Award Handed Out to Socius Socius, a Sage North America business partner, has announced today that its client, Experient of Twinsburg, Ohio, has won a Sage Customer Award for Lifetime Achievement. 11/26/2008 Softwrx Picks Veryant's IsCOBOL ERP Veryant, a COBOL and Java tech firm, has announced that Softwrx has selected the isCOBOL Application Platform Suite for its suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. 11/25/2008 Nectar's Converged Management Platform Now Avaya Compliant Nectar Services Corp., an IP communications services provider and wholly owned subsidiary of Juma Technology Corp., has announced that its Converged Management Platform (nectar/CMP) is compliant with key Internet Protocol (IP) telephony solutions from Avaya, a global provider of business communications applications, systems and services. 11/21/2008 Voltaire and Panasas Deliver Unified Fabrics-based Storage Solutions Voltaire Ltd, providing grid backbone solutions for data centers announced that it is working with Panasas for delivering unified fabrics-based storage solutions to customers throughout the world. The companies completed cross-certification testing of Voltaire Grid Director switches and InfiniBand-to-10-Gigabit-Ethernet gateways with the Panasas ActiveStor 6000 Parallel Storage Cluster. When working in tandem the products are capable of delivering high throughput using the unified fabric configuration. 11/20/2008 TomTom Recognized by J.D. Power For Second Consecutive Year GPS maker TomTom, has been recognized for contact center operation customer satisfaction excellence by J.D. Power and Associates under its Certified Call Center Program for a second consecutive year. The Certified Call Center Program distinction acknowledges a strong commitment from TomTom's contact center operations to provide 'An Outstanding Customer Service Experience.' 11/19/2008 InVision Enterprise WFM Delivers Staff Planning Efficiency to ZLB Plasma Boca Raton, Florida-based ZLB Plasma is now enjoying the efficient management of its workforce as a result of the support of software solution, InVision Enterprise WFM. A division of pharmaceutical company, CSL Behrin and one of the largest human plasma collectors worldwide, ZLB Plasma can now conduct efficient staff planning for the entire organization. 11/19/2008 Inova QReader Offers Increased Visibility into Real-Time Contact Center Operations Inova Solutions has launched the Inova QReader, a new plug-and-play wallboard designed to provide call centers with a simple and cost-effective way to gain visibility into real-time operations. 11/18/2008 Percall Growth Significant Thanks to App-Line Sibilo Contact Center Solution Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, PTC and Surcouf have something substantial in common – each company relies on the Sibilo Contact Center as the foundation of their technical support. 11/18/2008 Pitney Bowes to Provide Call Center Support to U.S. Mint Pitney Bowes Government Solutions (PBGS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Pitney Bowes, has been selected by the United States Mint to provide call center and fulfillment operations. 11/18/2008 XLN's Netdialer Targets SMBs Placing International Mobile Calls The financial crisis has begun to affect small businesses, and Anthony Karibian, co-founder and chief executive officer of XLN, said that his company understands the need for small businesses to reduce their operational costs. 11/17/2008 Taking Stock of CRM's Woodstock -- Dreamforce Taking stock of the Woodstock of on-demand CRM, Salesforce.com's Dreamforce: Salesforce.com officials left the Moscone Center believing they had, in the words of one, "redefined CRM with Salesforce CRM's cloud computing approach." 11/14/2008 Glovia Now on Force.com Glovia International, a subsidiary of Fujitsu and a provider of ERP products for engineer-to-order and high volume manufacturers, has announced the availability of glovia.com Order Management on Salesforce.com's Force.com. 11/14/2008 OrecX Enhances Open Source VoIP Call Recording Chicago-based OrecX, a company providing source voice recording applications, today revealed it has made two significant advancements to its Oreka Total Recorder (TR) software product. 11/12/2008 NEC Unified and Microsoft's Tellme Team on Hosted Call Center Voice Services Solution With an eye toward simplifying the design and implementation of customer service-supporting communications systems, NEC Unified Solutions is partnering with Microsoft subsidiary Tellme. The objective: to offer on-demand, enterprise-class voice services solutions. 11/12/2008 Convergys Intros Intervoice Voice Portal 6.0 and Interaction Composer Convergys Corporation, a global provider of relationship management solutions, has announced that Intervoice Voice Portal 6.0 (IPV 6) and the introduction of its next-generation application creation environment – Interaction Composer. 11/11/2008 AMC Technology Offers Extended Payment Options to Customers AMC Technology has announced extended payment plans to help customers with new purchases of AMC Technology products and services. 11/11/2008 Minimizing the Risks and Overcoming the Challenges of Transitioning to an IP-Based Infrastructure Organizations are continuing to migrate to IP-based contact centers as they recognize the benefits that can be gained by moving from closed proprietary solutions to a more open, standards-based environment. With many legacy systems reaching maturity, enterprises also are looking for ways to protect their investments, reduce maintenance and upgrade costs and continue to deploy new innovative applications. This article takes a look at the key business drivers of IP telephony and highlights the underlying benefits, technology considerations and key components of a successful migration strategy. 11/11/2008 Verint Systems Recognized by Frost & Sullivan for Call Monitoring Solutions Verint Systems recently launched its next-generation Impact 360 Workforce Optimization suite, which was met with great anticipation as companies sought to implement a solution that would streamline costly processes within the contact center. 11/11/2008 Informatica On Demand Introduced for Salesforce.com Informatica, which sells enterprise data integration and data quality software and services has announced Informatica On Demand Data Synchronization Service for Salesforce.com, the newest addition to its family of On Demand Data Integration Services. 11/4/2008 Five9 Thanks Partners with More Rewards The program, which was launched back in January, allows partners to provide sales referrals and share in the revenue. 11/4/2008 CRM Manager to Buy Redxlerant An on-demand software consultancy firm, CRM manager, is set to acquire Dallas-based Redxlerant Inc. to expand its reach nationwide. Redxlerant provides CRM software development and consulting. Both are Salesforce.com consulting partners. 11/4/2008 Jitterbit Eases Salesforce.com Integration to Enhance Customer Benefit "Companies are increasingly recognizing the need to effectively link salesforce.com with existing applications," said Sharam Sasson, Jitterbit chairman and CEO, in a Monday statement. 11/3/2008 Aspect Lands Strategic Partnership Agreement with Intech Aspect, a provider of unified communications (UC) and contact center software/services, announced that it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Integration Technologies (Intech), an information technology consulting and integration firm. 10/30/2008 Lane County Sheriff's Office Improves Call Recording with Verint Audiolog System Verint Systems and regional partner, DialPro Northwest, have announced today that the Lane County Sheriff's Office in Eugene, Oregon has deployed the Audiolog system. 10/28/2008 EGlue Deploys to Nationwide Financial Services EGlue, a software company selling real-time customer interaction products, has announced the deployment of eGlue InterAct at Nationwide Financial Services, an insurance and financial services firm. 10/28/2008 U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs Picks Verizon Business for Call Center Routing The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has selected Verizon Business to provide call center routing and support under a new agreement valued at $20.9 million. 10/28/2008 SSPA Identifies Top Five Initiatives For Customer Tech Support Centers The Service and Support Professionals Association (SSPA) has identified five top initiatives that customer technical support centers should pursue to deliver breakthrough customer support and enable customer success. These methods, it says, will help firms through today's challenging economic climate and securely position them when the economy bounces back. 10/23/2008 Fonality Enables Crusecom to Save Money with PBXtra Call Center Solution The call center system from Fonality has helped Crusecom to attain rapid growth and a reputation as a leading-edge call center facility. The dramatic savings are a result of the PBXtra Call Center deployment that has enabled the company to invest in a new 14,000 square foot call center facility that will house up to 150 call center agents. 10/23/2008 Appirio Allows Companies to Leverage Facebook to Manage Customer Relationships Considering the increased use of Facebook in the office, leveraging its capability to actually drive performance rather than reduce productivity is certainly a positive thing that is likely to help drive deployment. 10/23/2008 Dimension Data Implements Contact Center Solution for Towerstream Towerstream was enjoying strong growth and had rapid market expansion goals. To meet these goals, Dimension Data designed and built an IP-based contact center to harness unified communications (UC) technologies. 10/22/2008 NHS Lothian Turns to Telephonetics VIP Contact Center Solution to Improve Service The Telephonetics VIP ContactPortal and Result solution has already been successfully implemented by NHS Lothian. This deployment was done for internal operator services and automated medical results provision. The success of this original deployment helped to drive for further implementations. 10/22/2008 Syntellect Expands Presence with Envox Group AB Purchase Syntellect has recently purchase the business and assets of Envox Group AB for $14 million, giving the company a better handle in enterprise-class contact center solutions. 10/21/2008 MarkeTel Partners with Call Compliance On Canada's DNC Law More than 3.3 million Canadian telephone, cellular and fax numbers have been registered on Canada's do not call list (DNC) since it went live on September 30, reports the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. 10/21/2008 Time Warner Contact Centers to Use Virtual Hold Solutions Time Warner officials say their company is the second-largest cable operator in the United States, and that they've been developing and launching video, data and voice services. 10/16/2008 KazCommertzBank Uses Cisco Technology to Improve Tele-Banking Services KazCommertzBank's new contact center uses Cisco solutions to support up to 30 simultaneous customer calls. In addition, it also provides automated self-service for easy and fast access to personalized information, such as: account balances and credit card limits; changing Homebank.kz passwords; and paying for fixed and mobile communications and cable TV services. 10/16/2008 Centennial Turns to CosmoCall Universe for Puerto Rico Contact Center Centennial, a mobile and broadband provider in Puerto Rico, has selected CosmoCom, a contact center solutions company, to help to sustain high levels of customer service that have helped to differentiate the carrier in its markets. 10/16/2008 Digirad Implements QAD Customer Relationship Management QAD, Inc., a provider of enterprise software and services for global manufacturers and Strategic Information Group, a service provider of enterprise technology and regulatory management solutions announced that Digirad, a medical imaging products manufacturer based in Poway, Calif., has gone live with QAD Customer Relationship Management (QAD CRM) solution. 10/16/2008 OnviSource Rolls Out Explora Speech Solution for OnviCenter 6 Using a state-of-the-art phonetic engine, the Explora call center speech solution provides fast, highly accurate audio search and analysis of speech content. The audio search within Explora speech analytics is not reliant on dictionaries, static grammar or the need to convert speech to text. 10/14/2008 LiveVox Wants to Cut Agents Think of all the free time that you might—well most likely will have if LiveVox takes your job—in the near future. If LiveVox has its way, people in the collection service industry may be out of work and then they themselves may be placed on the list of people to call. 10/14/2008 Acxiom Intros New Data Quality Platform Acxiom Corporation announced the introduction of a new data quality platform, designed to save companies thousands of dollars with more efficient features. It offers low total cost of ownership (TCO) and high returns on customer contact and marketing initiatives. 10/14/2008 New Teradata Solution May End Abandoned Online Sales Teradata is working on new Web business intelligence software that can be used in conjunction with contact center applications to enable enterprises to reduce dropped online sales by adding intelligence to interactive voice response (IVR) tools, automatic call distribution (ACD) systems, and live agent interactions. 10/14/2008 Life is Good: How a Focus on Satisfaction Can Improve Business Results Life satisfaction, job satisfaction, employee satisfaction. You may think these are all the same, but the impact on performance lies in the definition. 10/13/2008 Call Center Strategy: Invest, Invest, Invest... In People While the economy, the political environment, and uncertainty loom in our faces, when we focus on this situation or set of circumstances, usually what comes up is fear. However, if you focus on the fear, the fear expands. 10/10/2008 Jigsaw Survey Finds Clients Realizing Significant Benefits Survey results identified that individuals have experienced a marked improvement across all enterprise functional areas when utilizing Jigsaw data services to power direct marketing campaigns, sales prospecting efforts, the recruitment of new talent and the ongoing maintenance of CRM solutions. 10/9/2008 IDOL Powers Fiat Group Automobiles' Worldwide Technical Assistance Portal Autonomy has announced it is powering Fiat Group Automobiles' portal eTech which provides technical assistance to Fiat Group Automobiles' dealers and workshops across the globe. 10/7/2008 California BOE Extends Call Center Hours to Handle Volume Influx The California State Board of Equalization (BOE) has announced that it plans to extend its Taxpayer Information Call Center operating hours from October 14-30. This extension is being positioned as part of the effort to reduce wait times and better help taxpayers during peak return filing periods. 10/7/2008 Corporate Call Center Teams with Guardian Capital Partners to Spur Growth Guardian Capital Partners (GCP), a private equity firm that invests in middle market manufacturing and service companies, has acquired a controlling interest in Corporate Call Center (CCC). 10/7/2008 iQor CEO Demos 'Virtual' Call Center; Creates New Jobs in Rural Areas On Friday, October 3rd, iQor President and CEO, Vikas Kapoor demonstrated innovative technology that moves the company's 21 global call centers into a 100 percent virtualized environment. 10/6/2008 Internap Expands Relationship with NADAguides.com Now, officials from both companies say, Internap will offer its Content Delivery Network, data center co-location and Performance IP networking services to NADAguide Web site for an expanded vehicle information and services. 10/2/2008 Calabrio Intros New Compliance Recording Bundle for Contact Centers Calabrio, a provider of workforce optimization and unified desktop software for IP-based contact centers, announced its new Compliance Recording and Quality Management solution. 10/2/2008 CosmoCom Customers Assured FTC Compliance While the Federal Trade Commission's recently added requirements for telemarketing sales may have some telemarketers worried, CosmoCom is announcing that customers of their CosmoCall Universe offering can rest assured they are fully compliant with the new guidelines. 10/1/2008 1&1 Internet Data Center Goes Green To make its data center energy efficient, 1&1 Internet is purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates from the non-profit Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Most of the certificates will be sourced from Bowersock Mills and Power Company's hydroelectric facility in Lawrence, Kansas – home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks and title of a popular song by Josh Ritter. 10/1/2008 Alchemy Systems Now Offering Customer Service Certification Training Austin, Texas-based Alchemy Systems, a provider of e-learning courses to train production personnel and entry-level job-seekers, has announced the addition of Customer Service Training for its SISTEM Courseware. 10/1/2008 Accident Fund Selects Siemens OpenScape Contact Center Portfolio Accident Fund has deployed the HiPath ProCenter Enterprise solution, an important component of the OpenScape Contact Center portfolio from Siemens Enterprise Communications. Accident Fund Insurance Company of America helps protect employers and employees from issues arising out of work-related injuries. Accident Fund also deployed Siemens' HiPath 4000 real-time IP platform to provide digital, analog and VoIP functionality on a single platform. 9/30/2008 RAB Implements Ontario Systems Verified Contacts On-Demand Regional Adjustment Bureau (RAB) has announced the implementation of Ontario Systems Verified Contacts On-Demand, a Software-as-a-Service module. RAB is a privately-owned collection agency. Founded in 1971, RAB has a quality team of managers, trainers and collectors. 9/30/2008 3PAR, Databasement to Deliver Utility Storage in Europe 3PAR considers the partnership with Databasement strategic as it facilitates the utility storage provider to increase its sales presence in EMEA while expanding into European markets such as Spain. 3PAR has already introduced utility storage to several countries across Europe. The company either has a direct or indirect sales presence in all these companies. 3PAR has gained additional channels in the Netherlands and Belgium by partnering with Databasement. This partnership has also introduced utility storage to the Spanish market. 9/29/2008 Fleximation Systems Signs Reseller Agreement with Ensim Ensim Corporation, a provider of user provisioning and access control software, has entered into a reseller partnership with Fleximation Systems. 9/29/2008 Hillsborough Kids, Mindshare Create Virtual Call Center The Mindshare virtual call center will provide contact with caregivers to provide timely visits and the delivery of quality services. Such dynamic interaction is essential to deliver ongoing services. Creating a call center on a virtual platform allows for faster deployment and ongoing support. 9/29/2008 Ramshyam Communications Lowers Call Center Cost for SMBs Ramshyam Communications, a call center outsourcing firm, has announced today that it has lowered its prices in an effort to help small businesses to continue to realize profits during the economic slowdown. 9/24/2008 American IT, Customer Service Training Inadequate: SkillSoft Survey A new global survey conducted by e-learning and training provider SkillSoft has revealed what many IT and contact center professionals have long observed: that training is inadequate. 9/24/2008 NEC Unified Announces 'Unique' VoIP, ACD Deployment On Mondays, five to six nurses must handle the influx of calls that come through MKMG's pediatric offices. The CallCenterWorX call-back feature allows parents to call, quickly reserve their place in the call queue, and hang up; when a nurse is available, the system automatically returns the call. 9/23/2008 CRM, Billing From FTS Picked for Indonesia's Sampoerna FTS, a vendor of billing, CRM and business control products for communication and content service providers, has announced that Sampoerna Telecom Indonesia has deployed FTS' convergent prepaid-postpaid billing and customer care product for its entire subscriber base. 9/23/2008 Kyocera Gets Oracle Demantra from BearingPoint In a bid to help wireless manufacturer, Kyocera, to improve planning and forecasting functions, BearingPoint, Inc. has announced it deployed Oracle Demantra Demand Management for the San Diego, California- based company. 9/22/2008 Marketing Alternatives Improves Call Center Up-Sell Performance for Seta Chicago-based outsourced call center provider, Marketing Alternatives, has announced that it has improved call center up-sell performance by as much as 20 percent for jewelry cataloger Seta Corporation (Palm Beach Jewelry). 9/22/2008 Technogym Simplifies Order Process with WebSource CPQ and Oracle CRM OnDemand Webcom, providing simplified quote-to-order enablement for the selling of complex products and services and a Certified Partner in Oracle PartnerNetwork, today announced that Technogym, a global innovator in the design of fitness equipment, has implemented the Webcom WebSource CPQ solution to simplify the quote-to-order process. 9/22/2008 Aspect Software Appoints New Senior Vice President and General Counsel Aspect Software, a provider of unified communications (UC) for the contact center has appointed David Reibel as its new Senior Vice President and General Counsel. 9/18/2008 Metro One Completes Second Expansion of Contact Center, Adds Two Business Leaders Metro One Telecommunications has announced the completion of its second expansion of a contact center within its company headquarters. The company has also added two long-time contact center business leaders as a result of growth in its revitalized business model. 9/17/2008 Aspect Partners with Tellme to Deliver Unified Contact Center Solution and Services Tellme, a Microsoft subsidiary, and Aspect Software have announced an agreement to bring together the Aspect unified contact center solution and services with Tellme's proven voice services platform in an effort to deliver a flexible, cost effective joint contact center solution. 9/16/2008 Impact 360 Coaching Now Available From Verint Systems Impact 360 Coaching is offered as part of the Verint Witness Actionable Solutions product line and is the latest addition the company's analytics-driven workforce optimization (WFO) suite. 9/16/2008 IDGC of Centre, JSC Automates CRM IDGC of Centre is known as one of the first grid companies of Russia to start automation of customer service processes using SAP CRM-based programs. Being one of the first allowed the company to not only set standards, it also was able to identify best practices for those companies competing in Russia. 9/15/2008 Conversive Introduces Automated Chat Solution The Conversive software leverages an organization's knowledge base of products, pricing and procedures into enabling them to create automated responses instantly to routine questions in a conversational format. It provides highly accurate and context-sensitive answers to queries. 9/15/2008 CRM, Billing Implementations Subject of NTG Clarity's LOI NTG will provide "a range of consulting and re-engineering services in support of the implementation of a new CRM and billing system," company officials say. Specific services will involve functional process improvement, assessment and analysis, requirements prototyping and testing. 9/12/2008 Report: Customers Want Cable, Voice Providers to Use Web Sites for Customer Service Across the United States, the study measures customer satisfaction with both local and long-distance telephone service in four regions. 9/11/2008 Global Connect Bolsters Security and Compliance for Call Centers These features, as well as the company's renewal of its SysTrust certification, assure clients that the data they use for Global Connect messaging campaigns is secure, and that campaigns they conduct using the service comply with applicable regulations. 9/9/2008 Amdocs and Siemens to Deliver T-Mobile Croatia CRM Solution Amdocs and Siemens have joined hands to deliver a T-Mobile Croatia customer relationship management (CRM) solution. 9/9/2008 Playboy.com Improves Customer Service with eGain Solution An integral part of eGain's services, eGain Mail enables contact centers to route incoming emails and process them. 9/9/2008 Enkata Director of Marketing to Present at Call Center 2.0 Conference First call resolution is an important and even critical element within the call center as it can reduce the number of contacts necessary between the company and the customer and can create a better customer experience to boost satisfaction. The key to these benefits is understanding how to accomplish first call resolution. 9/9/2008 CRM Company Founder Gianforte Lists 'Eight to Great' Steps RightNow Technologies has announced a new book, Eight to Great: Eight Steps to Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience, authored by RightNow CEO and founder Greg Gianforte. 9/8/2008 Metro One Intros Counts and Order System to Reach New Movers Metro One said that it has developed a new Counts and Order System that enables marketers to perform a quick query to identify the number of recent movers in any given geography. 9/5/2008 ACCENT Deploys NICE SmartCenter Solution for Contact Center ACCENT Marketing Services operates a contact center with 250-plus agents for a Kingston, Jamaica-based telecommunications client, which was originally maintained in-house. The contact center had manual processes and systems. 9/4/2008 Amazon's Customer Service Center Hiring for 2008 Holiday Season Amazon.com today announced it will be hosting a hiring event for more than 250 full-time and part-time seasonal customer service positions for its Kennewick, Washington, customer service center, which is operated by AMZN wacs. 8/29/2008 Inova Expands Dashboard Tool for Call Center Management Inova Solutions has expanded the capabilities of its web-based dashboard tool for call center management. Simple reporting has been expanded to actionable alerts based on threshold values which occur in real-time. Thus managers are able to instantly compare actual performance against goals. Inova solutions provides real-time visual communications that help call centers, public transit systems, schools, hospitals and others instantly communicate vital information. The company was founded in 1984. 8/26/2008 Australia's IRESS Deploys Radware's OnDemand Switch Platform for Data Centers The company's scalable, cost-effective switch is expected to enhance business continuity at IRESS' data centers, simplify network topology and provide customers the assurance of always-available financial industry information. 8/26/2008 Web-Based Call Center Tool from Inova to Aid Managers' Analyses Officials from Inova Solutions say their "Performance Tracker 2.0" will gather data from workforce management systems, internal databases and ACD's and produce charts, gauges and grids that will help call centers reach their daily goals. 8/25/2008 Convergys Receives New Relationship Management Solutions Contract Convergys has announced that a well known Canadian company has awarded them a new 3-year contract for its state-of-the-art Relationship Management Solutions. 8/25/2008 InvisibleCRM Announces Outlook Integration Product for Amdocs CES InvisibleCRM has announced the availability of its Outlook Integration product for Amdocs CES, CRM 7.5, the latest release of Amdocs' customer management solutions. 8/25/2008 Compliance Systems Supports FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule Amendment Offering a valuable resource for regulatory guide subscribers, Compliance Systems Corporation, a provider of compliance technologies and methodologies to the teleservices industry, praises the two recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) telemarketing sales rule (TSR) amendments 8/25/2008 inContact by UCN to Improve Contact Center Efficiency UCN Inc., a company that is engaged in development of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications for intelligent contact routing and agent improvement, has announced that it has gone into an agreement with Limited Treasures, a company manufacturing and retailing entertainment memorabilia, for inContact, a SaaS application developed by UCN for multi-site contact centers. 8/22/2008 Envision Telephony Products Earn Alcatel-Lucent Partner Certification The Envision Performance Suite from Envision Telephony, a set of integrated contact center solutions that features quality monitoring, eLearning, workforce management and business intelligence has been certified by the Alcatel-Lucent Alliance and Application Partner Program following rigorous testing. 8/22/2008 |