Customer Interaction Solutions articles from June 2008

Customer Interaction Solutions archives from June 2008

32 principles of modern marketing: Part I; The dawn of new media digital marketing; Today's marketers face many more options than those of just a decade ago.(Publisher's Outlook)
June 1, 2008... Where once there were broadcast, print, direct mail, outdoor and telemarketing, there are now countless digital options. Today's new media marketing vehicles allow your message to be de- livered to your prospect in the medium of their choice at...

Taking the temperature of the hosted enterprise app marketplace: Salesforce.com, Google And Microsoft; Google and Salesforce.com enhance relationship.(High Priority)(Company overview)
June 1, 2008... It was over a year and a half ago when I had a chance to listen to Marc Benioff talk about how his company's software would be integrating with Google to provide a mashup designed to allow companies to better track their Google advertising....

Eloqua announces new campaign management capabilities.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Eloqua Corporation, a vendor of demand generation applications and expertise for business-to-business marketers, has announced new campaign management capabilities that help business-to-business marketers deploy campaigns. Campaign Composer, a...

CRM revenue to hit $9 billion in 2008.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Worldwide customer relationship management software revenue is projected to surpass $8.9 billion in 2008, a 14.2 per cent increase from preliminary 2007 revenue estimates of $7.8 billion, according to research mavens Gartner, Inc. The CRM...

Commerce Planet's Iventa, Yesmail announce e-mail marketing program.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Commerce Planet and its subsidiary, Iventa, which sells e-commerce management software, have announced an e-mail marketing program with Yesmail, an infoUSA company. Under the terms of the agreement, Yesmail will manage and direct Iventa's...

U.S. economic downturn driving growth for hosted contact center solutions market.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... DMG Consulting, which sells contact center and real-time analytics research and consulting services, has published the 2008 Hosted Contact Center Infrastructure Market Report, a guide to the market, products and vendors. The firm's research...

CRM provider NetSuite, BT announce reseller deal.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... CRM vendor NetSuite has announced a partnership with BT to distribute, resell and support NetSuite in the UK and EMEA. The BT/NetSuite announcement comes on the heels of NetSuite's introduction of NetSuite One World, a new on-demand product...

SAS helps turn business intelligence green.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Business intelligence provider SAS announced a new "green" initiative: the company has positioned itself to better help organizations accurately measure and manage their environmental impact. SAS for Sustainability Management introduces what...

[C] 2007 by CallCenterComics.com.(Cartoon)
June 1, 2008... THE CALL CENTER IS CURRENTLY CLOSED.... PLEASE CALL BACK DURING OUR REGULAR WORK HOURS, WHICH ARE EVERY OTHER MONDAY... BETWEEN 5:30 AM AND 6:00 AM.... EASTERN TIME. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Infor launches CRM for SMBs.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Business solutions provider Infor recently announced the availability of its Infor CRM Business Edition, a CRM software package designed to meet the specialized sales and service needs of small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs). According to the...

EPA's call center cited for Government Customer Support Excellence.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Apptis, which provides IT solutions and services to the federal marketplace, announced that the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) call center has won the 2008 Government Customer Support (GCS) Excellence Award for its Overall...

Study shows marketers still not properly using e-mail.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Marketing platform provider Alterian has released the results of its free online interactive assessment measuring the level of sophistication of more than 700 marketers, agencies and marketing services providers' e-mail strategies and...

Call Genie appoints former telcordia president.(NEWS)(appointment of Michael Henderson)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Call Genie, which provides mobile local search and advertising solutions, recently announced the appointment of Michael Henderson as its Chief Sales Officer. Henderson, a career communications industry professional, is tasked with leading Call...

ContactBabel invites U.S. call centers to participate in study.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Research group ContactBabel announced this morning it has begun research for the second edition of its "U.S. Contact Center Operational Review (second edition-2008). The company is inviting the participation of any U.S. business that has...

LiveOps follows salesforce.com model to corporate philanthropy.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Home agent provider LiveOps has announced the creation of its new philanthropic Foundation. The Live Ops Foundation was developed with the goal of supporting activities that enhance and serve the communities in which LiveOps employees live and...

CallMiner awarded U.S. patent for speech analytics.(NEWS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Speech analytics solutions provider CallMiner has announced it has been awarded a U.S. Patent for speech analytics. CallMiner's patented software generates word alternatives to "disambiguate confusing phrases used in speech patterning,"...

CRM for non-profits solution now includes Web integration platform.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Open-source CRM provider MPower announced that its solution now includes a Web integration platform designed to enable users of the company's donor database to integrate easily and in real-time with Web content management systems (CMS) of their...

SugarCRM delivers enhanced enterprise reporting and wireless features.(NEWS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Open source CRM provider, SugarCRM has announced the beta release of new reporting and wireless capabilities for SugarCRM. For SugarCRM users, this means more insight into sales effectiveness and customer behavior and with new wireless...

TouchStar intros Call Center System guaranteed to reduce costs.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Call center solutions provider TouchStar has announced its Enterprise Call Center System now provides enterprise clients with rapidly reduced costs. The newly enhanced system, complete with support for NMS Communications Open Access carrier...

Over-the-phone language interpreter workforce continues growth.(NEWS)(Language Services International Inc.)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The increasing need for over the phone interpretation and bilingual translation especially with call center and customer care transactions between companies and limited English speakers, is resulting in a greater demand for the interpreter...

Survey finds Web meetings are increasing, companies getting greener.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... As the focus on "Going Green" increases in today's workplace the latest survey by unified communication services provider, Genesys reveals that companies have become much greener in the last year. According to the latest survey, travel is down...

Survey says 87 percent question safety of personal info.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Despite placing the security of their personal information as a top priority, many U.S. adults are unwittingly engaging in everyday activities that could put their privacy in jeopardy, according to a new study. Such risky behaviors include...

CRM incorporated into mobile marketing, New Media Institute says.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Major U.S. brands have incorporated mobile marketing into CRM as well as their traditional advertising campaigns and call centers in order to "increase response, enhance loyalty and improve customer relations," according to the New Media...

Apatar phone verify tool released for SugarCRM, salesforce, other apps.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Apatar, a vendor of open source data integration software, has announced the CDYNE Phone Verification connector for the Apatar Open Source Data Integration toolset, which works for SugarCRM, Salcsforce.com and other applications. The new...

DirectMail.com acquires HP Indigo technology to enhance customer messaging.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Direct Mail.com, a direct mail and data services provider, has successfully acquired Hewlett Packard's HP Indigo technology for creating dynamic, high-quality customer messaging. With this acquisition, DirectMail. com will be better positioned...

Verint Witness Actionable Solutions validated through Gvalidated Application Integration.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Verint Systems Inc. has announced that the quality monitoring and recording solutions from its Verint Witness Actionable Solutions business line has been validated through the Gvalidated Application Integration initiative by Genesys...

Talisma Click To Call now available to improve customer service.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Talisma Corporation, a customer interaction management (CIM) software solution provider, has announced the release of Talisma Click to Call, a product designed to enable seamless escalation from Web to phone. The Talisma Click to Call solution...

Nuance partners with Genesys to integrate Voice for on Demand.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Nuance Communications has announced a partnership with Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories to integrate the Genesys Voice Platform (GVP) into Nuance's On Demand Network. This relationship will enable enterprises to gain access to GVP in a...

Motorola's eCare 5.2 CRM-integrated customer care product released.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Motorola has announced a new version of its eCare customer support application, according to company officials "adding versatility and secure functionality to improve the quality and efficiency of Web-based call center resolution." The vendor's...

FrontRange Solutions acquires Centennial Software.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... FrontRange Solutions has announced the acquisition of Centennial Software, a dynamic infrastructure management products provider. Centennial, which is focused on auto-discovery and inventory management and license management solutions, offers...

Customer feedback management from Interactive Intelligence.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Interactive Intelligence announced a series of products designed to help organizations better measure and improve customer service by listening to the voice of the customer. The first of the customer feedback management products being...

Egypt gaining ground as global contact center competitor.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... According to Frost & Sullivan research, Egypt is a rising star of a contact center off-shore destination. Comparative analysis has proven that it has good potential to become a location of choice for European companies, as well as an...

Cisco and Microsoft vying for domination of unified communications market.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... While neither company may want to openly admit the other is fierce competition, Cisco and Microsoft are both vying for domination of the unified communications market. Considering the growth and oppottunitles within this market, this position...

Dragon NaturallySpeaking contest announced by Nuance.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Nuance Communications, a provider of speech and imaging solutions, has announced the "I Speak Dragon" contest. This competition allows Dragon NaturallySpeaking users to share their unique experiences using the world's most popular speech...

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Now generally available.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Microsoft has announced the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. The company's hosted and managed on-demand customer relationship management service delivers a full suite of marketing, sales and service capabilities through a...

TuVox to support intelligent Customer Front Door.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... TuVox, a provider of On Demand speech applications, has become one of the first major partners to support the intelligent Customer Front Door (iCFD), a key solutions bundle from Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company. iCFD was introduced in early...

Siemens intros OpenScape Contact Centre.(NEWS)
June 1, 2008... Siemens Enterprise Communications has introduced the OpenScape Contact Centre, a complete voice, unified communications and customer interaction software solution designed to work with any existing telephony environment. OpenScape is based on...

CRM comes to you: SAP and RIM announce expanded partnership.(CRM, BPO & Teleservices)
June 1, 2008... SAP and Research in Motion recently announced an agreement that should prove to be very welcome to companies looking to meet the needs of mobile sales professionals. The announcement, issued during a joint press conference at SAP's Manhattan...

Say what you want and get it: a Q&A with Tellme.(CALL CENTER Technology)(dialogue with Jamie Bertasi)(Interview)
June 1, 2008... Say what you want it get it," is the message on Tellme's Web site. It's hard to get more succinct than that. The company also states that more than 40 million people use Tellme every month to reach the people, businesses and information they...

The real life of CRM: politics, Health care, E-mail and coffee shops.(CRM, BPO & Teleservices)(Survey)
June 1, 2008... Where the customer relationship management rubber hits the road has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with those techie toys most people confuse with "CRM". Here are four instances of real CRM either winning or losing customers, and you don't...

Comparing and justifying workforce management systems.(WORKFORCE Optimization)
June 1, 2008... The vendor landscape for workforce management software (WFM) is thin and highly concentrated. In our recent report, "Is it Time to Invest in Workforce Management Software?" we at the PELORUS Group were able to identify only 10 sizable vendors...

Customer Interaction Solutions' ninth annual CRM excellence awards, Part Two.(AWARDS & Recognition)(customer relationship management)(Awards list)
June 1, 2008... For the ninth 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 Two of the winners list--the companies that...

How unified communications benefits the call center.(CALL CENTER Technology)(Company overview)
June 1, 2008... The concept of "presence," which is central to unified communications, is not new to the call center, of course. In days past, it was referred to as "agent state." Because of this, one might reasonably say that a rudimentary form of unified...

Yearning for e-learning? the pros and cons of the virtual classroom for your call center.(Insider's Report)
June 1, 2008... Call center professionals today face a mind-numbing array of training choices. You can choose from dozens of traditional classroom seminars on a wide variety of topics. Or take a class via the Web with other students from across the country...

Agent at home: more than wearing slippers to work.(Innovative SOLUTIONS)
June 1, 2008... Agent at home" is more than a new buzz phrase or job title that takes business casual dress to an extreme level. Instead, it is becoming a key asset in the contact center industry that is increasing overall contact center performance, agent...

Attaining and retaining mature agents.(Innovative SOLUTIONS)
June 1, 2008... If you manage or supervise a call center, chances are pretty good you are familiar with drama. According to Booz, Allen, Hamilton, the average brick-and-mortar call center agent is between 18 and 28 years old. Not to disparage the youth...

Workforce management finding dissatisfaction, according to study.(From The Analysts' Desks)(Survey)
June 1, 2008... Customer Relationship Metrics, L.C., a provider of research excellence, has announced the completion of a three-month study into Contact Center Workforce Management Practices in North America. This research was sponsored by Verint, InVision,...

Survey studies global contact center performance.(From The Analysts' Desks)
June 1, 2008... Contact centers are an important interaction point between the company and the customer, yet many contact centers still struggle with delivering the level of customer service the customer expects. One of the most effective methods for improving...

Yahoo's voice search ambitions.(from the TMCnet[TM] BLOGS)(Brief article)(Column)
June 1, 2008... In his VoIP blog, Rich Tehrani writes: [In April] at Interop, I asked exhibitors and analysts what they were hearing about the economy. Most said they think the recovery would be "U-shaped" as opposed to "V-shaped," but some thought that...

IP fairy dust.(from the TMCnet [TM] BLOGS)
June 1, 2008... In her "Call Center/CRM" blog, Tracey Schelmetic writes: Here's something you don't think about very often. When connecting to the public telephone network in the U.S., many VoIP and wireless telephone companies are essentially "riding...

Cisco is green (with envy).(from the TMCnet[TM] BLOGS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... In his Hyperconnected Enterprise blog, Tony Rybczynski, Director of Strategic Enterprise Technologies for Nortel, writes: Cisco is green (with envy) that Nortel data solutions are 50 percent more energy efficient. Green may be in, but Cisco...

Data centers find they can't afford not to "go green".(from the TMCnet[TM] BLOGS)
June 1, 2008... In TMCnet's "Green Blog," Mae Kowalke writes In the data center market, the need for green technology solutions to reduce energy consumption is rapidly becoming imperative. That's according to executives who gathered for a panel recently...

Call screening patent.(from the TMCnet[TM] BLOGS)
June 1, 2008... In his VoIP & Gadgets Blog, TMC's Tom Keating writes: While researching for my VoIP call screening post, I came across a patent for "call screening," Curious, I decided to check it out the filed patent and found it was filed by Nortel...

The security of online surveys: how safe is it to respond?(Innovative SOLUTIONS)
June 1, 2008... You may have a real threat to your oraganization's data security perimeter you may have never considered, much less taken action to prevent. This threat is not the result of some sinister activity or technical exploit of your network--it comes...

Seeking survey salvation.(Innovative SOLUTIONS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Security threats can be considered a sin visited upon your organization by outside forces, be they truly malignant or even seemingly benign, as outlined in the main featured article on this page. The author, Jim Ivers, of Vovici, understands...

Display technologies roundup.(CALL CENTER Technology)
June 1, 2008... A long with the humble headset and the unassuming ergonomic chair, a call center's message board may be the next most critical but often underappreciated piece of equipment. Large reader boards have been used in call centers for decades to...

Last call? First round.(Last Call)(Column)
June 1, 2008... The summer season officially kicks off about three-quarters through this month of June, but being deadline oriented, and fixated on the map three months out, I find myself listening to Don Henley's Boys of Summer and thinking, "my, but the...

Responding to an absurd claim from a customer.(Ask the EXPERTS)(Interview)
June 1, 2008... QI'm a customer service team member for an auto manufacturer. Recently, a gentleman called requesting to speak with someone "high up." When I asked him what the issue was, he refused to say and continued to request that he speak with a...