Customer Interaction Solutions articles from June 2005

Customer Interaction Solutions archives from June 2005

Taking CRM to the next level ... Making your customer care profitable.(Publisher's Outlook)(Editorial)
June 1, 2005... The Essence Of Appropriately Conducted CRM Should Be Customer Care By far and away, the primary focus of savvy contact center/CRM executives is "customer care." For without customer care, there is no customer to manage by CRM. In this...

Speech-World and the world of speech.(High Priority)(Column)
June 1, 2005... What's happening in the world of speech? Lots. I recently attended TMC's Speech-World event in Dallas and learned a great deal about the future of speech technology. At some point over the horizon, I am convinced we will all have natural...

CEO Spotlight.(Davacord Inc.)(Chief Executive Officer )(Interview)
June 1, 2005... This month, Customer Interaction Solutions[R] speaks with Jon McNaught, CEO of Davacord. Jon McNaught, CEO Davacord [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CIS: First of all, you recently incurred a name change from VoiceLogger to Davacord....

The TMC Seal of Approval.(2005 Recommended Vendor List)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... The following Recommended Vendors have distinguished themselves by winning one or more of TMC's coveted awards, earning them the TMC Seal of Approval. CRM/Contact Center Software/Hardware Amae Software Aspect Communications Corp....

Interactive Intelligence's updated CIC integrates and diets.(Technology Highlights)
June 1, 2005... Interactive Intelligence recently enhanced its Customer Interaction Center (CIC) software suite, already with meritorious built-in components and pre-integrated add-on applications, to offer significant integration and .NET thin client...

Best Software introduces new CRM suite, new company name.(CRM)
June 1, 2005... Sage Software (formerly Best Software), a provider of business management products and services, has introduced Sage CRM, a full suite of configurable customer relationship management (CRM) software that is fully Web-based. Available both as a...

e-Glue launches Guideline 5.4, real-time CIO suite.(CRM)(customer interaction optimization software)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... e-Glue Software Technologies has launched Guideline 5.4, a new version of the company's real-time customer interaction optimization software suite for contact centers. Guideline 5.4 is aimed at enabling companies to realize significant and...

Compiere releases upgraded ERP, CRM systems.(Compiere Inc)(Enterprise Resource Planning)(Customer Relationship Management)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Compiere, Inc., a provider of open-source business software applications, announced the release of Compiere ERP & CRM system, version 2.5.2c, with enhanced functionality and stability. The new version of the software features improved request...

Fused KnowPlex v5.0 generally available, CRM/knowledge base management.(CRM)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Fused Solutions, a provider of help desk technology and contact center services, has announced the general availability of KnowPlex 5.0, its Web-native CRM and knowledge base management solution. Available either as an on-premise or on-demand...

Epiphany makes available latest version of CRM software suite.(CRM)
June 1, 2005... Epiphany, Inc., a provider of CRM solutions, has announced the immediate availability of the latest version of the Epiphany 6.5 CRM software suite. The Epiphany 6.5 software suite is a family of modular CRM applications designed to assist the...

Kaidara announces enhanced tool, accelerates knowledge base creation.(customer relationship management software)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Kaidara Software, Inc., a provider of software for building, managing and maintaining knowledge bases with problem-solving data, has announced the release of its Text2Data v3. The enhancements to the Text2Data tool, which is used in conjunction...

Microsoft announces contact center solution.(CRM)
June 1, 2005... Microsoft Corp. has announced the general availability of Microsoft Customer Care Framework, an integrated software solution that streamlines call center operations for service providers. Microsoft Customer Care Framework is designed to assist...

Pegasystems announces SmartBuild for software design, built-in design methodology.(CRM)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Pegasystems Inc., a provider of smart business process management (BPM) software, has announced the availability of its latest SmartBPM Suite release, featuring built-in design and implementation support. Pegasystems' SmartBuild BPM release...

Talisma releases KnowledgeBase.net 5.0.(CRM)
June 1, 2005... Talisma, a provider of multichannel CRM solutions, has announced the immediate availability of Talisma KnowledgeBase.net 5.0, the company's Web self-service and customer support software. In addition to improving contact center efficiency,...

KANA unveils Agent Desktop Search solution.(CRM)
June 1, 2005... KANA Software, Inc., a provider of service resolution management (SRM) solutions, has announced KANA Agent Desktop Search. The new solution is for enabling integration between KANA Agent IQ, the company's contact center knowledge base, with...

SAP announces new mySAP CRM.(CRM)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... SAP AG, a provider of collaborative business solutions, has announced the newest version of mySAP CRM, a culmination of enhancements to deliver new abilities across key business processes for the telecommunication, public sector and financial...

Amae Software releases new reporting component of CI Suite.(Workforce Optimization)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Amae Software, a provider of a customer experience management (CEM) system with interaction and agent-level actionable information, has released a new reporting component within the Actionable Results Module of the Amae CI Suite. The newest...

Witness releases enhanced workforce management solution.(Workforce Optimization)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Witness Systems has announced enhanced capabilities to its workforce management software (following the company's first quarter combined with Blue Pumpkin Software). The enhancements are available as part of the standard delivery for the...

CosmoCom announces UniFrame offering, integrated with Microsoft.(IP Contact Center)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... CosmoCom, a provider of an all-IP, universal-access contact center system, has announced the availability of UniFrame, an integrated combination of the company's flagship CosmoCall Universe and Microsoft's Customer Care Framework (CCF)....

Atos Origin, Loquendo present new interactive virtual assistant solution.(Web-Based Customer Service)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Atos Origin, an international information technology services provider, jointly with global speech technology company Loquendo, has presented its new Web-based self-service and multiple-channel applications in new conversational interfaces and...

noHold announces upgrades InstantSupport in v4.3.(Web-Based Customer Service)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... noHold, a provider of Web-based self-service solutions, has announced the release of InstantSupport version 4.3. InstantSupport is designed to provide technical support and sales organizations with the tools needed to automatically respond...

NetSuite's new hosted CRM application integrates order/partner/incentive management.(On-Demand Solutions)
June 1, 2005... NetSuite, Inc., a provider of integrated business application software, has launched NetSuite CRM+, a hosted CRM application that integrates order management, partner management, incentive management and project tracking. The application is...

Salesboom announces multilingual support in Web-based CRM/SFA solutions.(On-Demand Solutions)(salesboom.com)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Salesboom.com, a provider of on-demand CRM/SFA services, has announced the addition of multilingual support to coincide with its Salesboom.com v5.0 CRM release. The new Salesboom CRM improvements, already in effect, allow global users to type...

EnvoyWorldWide releases EnvoyConnect v.2.0.(Outbound)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... EnvoyWorldWide, a provider of enterprise notification services, has announced the availability of EnvoyConnect v. 2.0, the company's new campaign management tool. The EnvoyConnect suite has been enhanced to facilitate proactive automated...

Siemens announces v6.5 contact center applications.(Telephone Systems & Software)(Siemens Communications inc.)
June 1, 2005... Siemens Communications, Inc., a provider of convergent technologies, products and services, has announced Versions 6.5 of its HiPath ProCenter Agile and ProCenter Standard contact center applications, building further on the product portfolio...

Line4 announces latest CTI product suite.(Telephone Systems & Software)(computer-telephony integration)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Line4, a provider of contact center applications, has announced the release of the company's latest generation of computer-telephony integration (CTI) technology, aimed at bringing the small and medium-sized contact center market a...

FrontRange offers enhanced IT service management to global market.(Customer Experience Management)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... FrontRange Solutions, a provider of IT service management, voice application and CRM solutions for distributed enterprises, has announced extended global access of its modular IT Service Management (ITSM) solution with a new version and new...

VoiceLog announces quality call monitoring service, TargetQM.(Customer Experience Management)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... VoiceLog LLC, a provider of on-demand call recording and monitoring services, has announced the availability of its TargetQM service, a quality monitoring process that leverages speech analytics to target calls for evaluation. TargetQM,...

FB corporation releases product to relieve call center agents' lower back pain.(Peripherals)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... FB Corporation, a manufacturer of back supports, has introduced The Back Thing, a low back support for call center agents. Designed to fit any chair and for any type of physique, The Back Thing is aimed at relieving low back pain and improving...

Cepstral announces Swift MRCP text-to-speech.(Speech)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Cepstral LLC, a speech technology company, has announced the release of standards-compliant Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) support for the Cepstral Swift Text-to-Speech System. The new product, Swift MRPC, will target IVR, VoIP PBX and...

New Knova SRM suite highlights search ability.(Knova Software)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Knova Software, a provider of service resolution management (SRM) applications, has announced the general availability of Knova 6.5, the newest version of the company's application suite for automating the service resolution process across all...

Cisco, IBM plan to deliver new speech-enabled self-service solutions.(Speech)
June 1, 2005... IBM and Cisco have announced the two companies' joint plan to deliver speech-enabled self-service solutions to contact centers by combining IBM's WebSphere Voice Server product and Cisco's Customer Voice Portal. The solutions would combine...

Loquendo announces optimized speech recognition performance with Loquendo ASR 6.6.(Loquendo S.p.A)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Loquendo, a speech technology company, has announced the release of Loquendo ASR 6.6. This new version of the Automatic Speech Recognition engine assists in enabling a more powerful use of speech recognition for voice application development....

Autonomy enters agreement to acquire etalk.(etalk corp.)(Autonomy Corporation plc)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Autonomy Corporation plc, a provider of infrastructure software for the enterprise, has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire etalk Corporation, a provider of enterprise-class contact center products, for a purchase...

EADS TELECOM North America now named Aastra Intecom.(Aastra Intecom )(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... EADS TELECOM's North American commercial information networks division, which provides enterprise telephony and contact center solutions, is now operating as Aastra Intecom in the U.S. This name, effective immediately, combines Aastra--which...

StarTek names new president, CEO.(appointment of Steven D. Butler as Chief Executive Officer)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... StarTek, Inc., a provider of business process outsourced services, has announced that its board of directors has named Steven D. Butler as the company's president and CEO. The board has also elected him as a director of the company. ...

Envox expands Professional Services initiative.(Happenings)(Envox Worldwide)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Envox Worldwide, a global provider of voice solutions, has announced the expansion of its Professional Services initiative, an initiative put forth to further assist companies in their move to open, standards-based voice solutions, including...

InfoCision aims newest call center at Hispanic community.(Happenings)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... InfoCision Management Corporation, a provider of inbound and outbound marketing, has recently opened a new call center in Youngstown, Ohio, calling the teleservices company's newest center "an oportunidad perfecta" (perfect opportunity) for the...

Macromedia, Premiere Global announce strategic partnership.(Happenings)(Premiere Global Services)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Macromedia, a Web communications provider, and Premiere Global Services, a provider of business communications services and business process solutions, have announced a strategic partnership for a new, integrated teleconferencing service with...

vCustomer names new president, COO.(appointment of Wesley T. O'Brien as Chief Operating Officer)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... vCustomer Corporation, a provider of business process outsourcing (BPO), CRM and technology support services, has announced that it has named Wesley T. O'Brien to the newly created position of president and chief operating officer (COO). He...

WebEx, Salesforce.com integrate.(Happenings)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... WebEx Communications, a Web conference provider, has integrated its Sales Center service with that of hosted CRM provider Salesforce.com Inc, extending the range of the sales force automation application. This means Salesforce.com subscribers...

Customer Inter@ction Solutions' sixth annual CRM Excellence Awards, Part I.(CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT)
June 1, 2005... For the sixth consecutive year, the editors of Customer Interaction Solutions dared readers to prove that their companies have what it takes to win the coveted CRM Excellence Award. Below is Part One of the winners--the companies that offer the...

Simulation training: the power of continuous performance optimization.(OUTSOURCING)
June 1, 2005... The Current State Of Call Centers There are more than 160,000 call centers in operation worldwide. These centers are facing increasing challenges, including globalization, the need for more knowledgeable call agents, pressure to reduce...

Fix it now: using on-demand e-learning to stop bad habits.(training of customer care officers)
June 1, 2005... E-learning has gained momentum in call centers as a tool that is used in conjunction with classroom-based training to keep agents' skills at the level required to meet customer service goals. While most e-learning is delivered on a scheduled...

West Corp. can help you maximize customer service savings by using VoIP.(INNOVATIVE IDEAS FROM THE TELESERVICES EXPERTS)(Voice over Internet Protocol)
June 1, 2005... For years, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) has been a hot topic in the business community. Experts touted the eventuality that replacing normal telephony connections with Internet-based connections would revolutionize telecommunications by...

This is the best thing EVER!... Don't tell anyone.(INNOVATIVE IDEAS FROM THE TELESERVICES EXPERTS)(Column)
June 1, 2005... In the accompanying article by West's Steve McCoy, the question is proposed: "Why hasn't this revolution fully happened yet?" Also noted is, "despite the fact that large corporations are typically the earliest adopters of new technologies for...

The real case for the home-based-agent model.(CONTACT CENTER TECHNOLOGY)
June 1, 2005... In recent years, there has been a rapidly increasing level of interest in the use of agents working from home as an alternative to the traditional, facilities-based call center approach. It is particularly interesting to follow how many in the...

Virtualize your contact center.(CONTACT CENTER TECHNOLOGY)
June 1, 2005... Propelled by strong economic trends such as workforce globalization and corporate acquisitions, increasing numbers of companies in industries such as financial services, healthcare, retail and telecommunications have found themselves operating...

IP contact center technology: eliminating the risks (part V).(INNOVATIVE IDEAS FROM THE NEXT-GEN CONTACT CENTER EXPERTS)(Column)
June 1, 2005... As regular readers of this column know, our focus every month is to spotlight core business issues related to multisite IP contact center deployments and the differentiated results that can be expected depending on the technology decisions made...

The benefits of distributing the call center.(INNOVATIVE IDEAS FROM THE NEXT-GEN CONTACT CENTER EXPERTS)
June 1, 2005... In the olden days, they called them "boiler rooms." Call center employees were hearty (and underpaid) souls who sat in large, unpleasant rooms, spending eight hours a day manually dialing out and reading scripts off index cards. Had Dante lived...

The next step in the evolution of customer care: the customer interaction network.(IP CONTACT CENTERS)
June 1, 2005... Businesses have for years understood that providing their customers with a superior customer contact experience means connecting customers to the right person with the right information as quickly as possible. Comprehensive customer information...

The elusive achievement of IP contact center ROI: ten reasons why contact centers migrating to IP telephony don't hit their ROI projections--and what you can do about it.(INNOVATIVE IDEAS FROM THE MULTIMEDIA CONTACT CENTER SOLUTIONS EXPERTS)(Internet protocol, return on investment)
June 1, 2005... One of the leading messages for IP telephony in contact center markets is that IP reduces costs and "increases your return on investment," or "delivers ROI in 12 to 18 months," or "produces a higher ROI than traditional communications." But...

Returning to the old IT adage of "garbage in, garbage out".(INNOVATIVE IDEAS FROM THE MULTIMEDIA CONTACT CENTER SOLUTIONS EXPERTS)(Column)
June 1, 2005... As anyone who has worked in the tech industry for even only a few years knows, the chasm between technology and business management has always been great. I once worked with a manager (many, many years ago) who couldn't understand why his...

ScanSoft, Nuance to merge.(SPEECH-WORLD[TM])
June 1, 2005... ScanSoft, Inc. and Nuance Communications, Inc. recently announced that the two companies have signed a definitive agreement whereby ScanSoft will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Nuance, merging the two organizations into a single...

Chinese proverb.(SPEECH-WORLD[TM])
June 1, 2005... "Go three days without reading and your speech will become tasteless." --Chinese proverb

Empirix launches new OneSight telephony monitors for Concerto, Intervoice and Nuance environments.(SPEECH-WORLD[TM])
June 1, 2005... Empirix Inc., which helps organizations strengthen customer loyalty through assured Web and voice application performance, has announced new telephony monitors for its OneSight for Contact Centers proactive application management solution. The...

Sociolinguistics.(Definition Du Jour)(Column)
June 1, 2005... A scientific study of the connection between language and society and culture. Understanding sociolinguistics allows the creators of speech applications to understand what information or mood certain vocabularies, accents, pronunciations and...

LumenVox's Speech Tuner supports Nuance 8.5.(SPEECH-WORLD[TM])(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... LumenVox, a provider of speech recognition technology, has announced the availability of Nuance 8.5 support with its Speech Tuner. The Tuner was updated to allow companies working with Nuance-based speech applications to perform various tuning...

Design issues in multilingual applications.(SPEECH-WORLD[TM])(interactive voice response systems)
June 1, 2005... People have always perceived and organized the world in terms that are familiar to them. Why else would the constellation that was called "The Great Bear" in ancient Greece and Rome now be called "The Big Dipper" in North America, "The...

Raindance Meeting Edition.(TMC[TM] LABS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Raindance Meeting Edition Raindance Communications, Inc. 1157 Century Dr. Louisville, CO 80027 Ph: 800-878-7326 Fax: 303-928-2832 Web: www.raindance.com As gas prices continue to rise, traveling for business...

A mental perambulation betwixt the minefields of technological syntactic horrors and acronymic zealotry.(Last Call)
June 1, 2005... The world is getting more complicated, but you knew that already. It's not because our cars talk to us, our refrigerators are more intelligent than we are and we have devices that communicate our thoughts three minutes before we think them. Our...