Customer Interaction Solutions articles from May 2004

Customer Interaction Solutions archives from May 2004

Back to the future ... integrated marketing the only way to go!(Publisher's Outlook)
May 1, 2004... By Way of Background... Our Vision In 1982 And 1992 In 1982 when this publication was launched in a pioneering act as Telemarketing[R] magazine... we called it "The magazine of electronic Marketing and Communications." [ILLUSTRATION...

Congratulations to the 2004 CRM Excellence Award winners!(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere congratulations to all of the CRM Excellence Award winners featured in this issue. In past editorials, I have concluded that without appropriate CRM, no company can exist. Therefore,...

Letters to the Editor.(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... Dear Rich: I read your article "The 23 Rules To Becoming An Excellent Public Speaker" in the March 2004 edition of Customer Inter@ction Solutions[R] (www.tmcnet.com/cis/0304/hipriority.htm). As a speaker both at our own industry shows...

In memoriam: Laura Marshall.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... Laura Marshall was involved with the ATA (American Teleservices Association) since its early days. She spoke at the first Northern California Chapter meeting in 1985. At that time, she was the teleservices manager for McKesson Drug Company, and...

Oil and water: Verizon and customer service.(High Priority!)
May 1, 2004... You would think that after spending over $400 for a Blackberry, I would be considered a premium purchaser of some sort. This is apparently not the case if your are a Verizon customer. I must say that without a doubt, Verizon has the best U.S....

2004 teleservices outsourcing Recommended Vendor list: the TMC Seal of Approval.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The following Recommended Vendors have distinguished themselves by winning one or more of TMC's coveted awards, earning them the TMC Seal of Approval. West Corporation CCC Interactive Center Partners Creative Marketing...

2004 CRM/Contact Center Software/Hardware Recommended Vendor list: the TMC Seal of Approval.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The following CRM/Contact Center Software/Hardware 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 Aspect...

Nortel offers converged solutions for SMBs, enterprise branch offices.(Medium-sized businesses)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Nortel Networks has announced plans to enhance its enterprise convergence portfolio to help small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as well as enterprise branch offices to drive lower communication costs, simplify network operations and...

EagleIP launches new hosted contact center services.(New Products ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... EagleIP, LLC, the newest member of the Eagle.net telecommunications group, has announced the launch of hosted contact center services aimed at small, medium and large enterprises. Called EagleACD, the new contact center on demand services were...

Data Collection Resources launches CEMS-MC.(New Products ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Data Collection Resources, a provider of quality monitoring, recording and performance optimization solutions, has announced the availability of CEMS-MC, an affordable quality monitoring solution for the mid-sized call center market. CEMS-MC...

Phonologies introduces open source callcontroIXML platform integration kit.(New Products ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Phonologies, a provider of platform technologies in the voice and telephony space, has announced the availability of its CCXML (Call Control eXtensible Markup Language) Browser Platform Integration Kit (PIK), Oktopous, based on the Open Source...

MicroStrategy unveils MicroStrategy Office.(New Products ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... MicroStrategy Incorporated announced it has unveiled a new product, MicroStrategy Office, that was designed to bring business intelligence technology to users of Microsoft Office applications, including Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook....

NetCracker updates OSS solution.(NetCracker Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... NetCracker Technology, a provider of OSS and IT Infrastructure Management Solutions, has announced the latest update of the company's NetCracker OSS solution. Available to existing and new NetCracker users, the newly released NetCracker...

NetSuite adds advanced CRM features.(New Products ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... NetSuite, Inc., has announced the release of NetSuite 9.5, adding advanced CRM features including line-item billing capabilities, customer mining and segmentation tools and no-click e-mail integration for popular e-mail systems such as...

Plantronics introduces its SupraPlus headset.(New Products ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Plantronics, a provider of communications headsets, has announced its SupraPlus headset, what the company considers to be "the new standard in performance, reliability and all-day wearing comfort for contact center and office professionals."...

Envision and SIVOX form partnership to improve agent performance.(New Products ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Envision Telephony, Inc., a provider of contact center software solutions, has announced it is partnering with SIVOX Technologies to provide integration between SIVOX RealCall and the Envision eLearning product giving contact centers additional...

Positive Software Systems partners with concerto.(New Products ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Positive Software Systems, Inc., a provider of solutions for optimizing contact center sales and collections activities, has announced that the company is actively working with partner Concerto Software to make Enterprise Campaign Manager (ECM)...

Nortel enables voice over WLAN.(Nortel Networks Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Nortel Networks recently announced a new set of wireless local area network (WLAN) solutions created to further deliver on the company's vision of secure, adaptive and scalable wireless communications. This announcement is intended to be the...

MCI layoffs attributed to Do-Not-Call list.(Happenings ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Bankrupt telecommunications company MCI recently announced it is cutting 4,000 jobs--more than 7 percent of its work force--and closing three call centers because of cost-cutting pressures and fallout from the national Do-Not-Call registry. The...

TuVox CVR System to run on Microsoft Speech Server.(Happenings ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... TuVox, a provider of conversational voice response applications for call centers, has announced that it will enhance the TuVox CVR System to run on the Microsoft Speech Server, which is based on the open industry standard Speech Application...

I.S. Associates and TransNexus complete interoperability testing.(Happenings ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... I.S. Associates, Inc. (ISA) has announced the completion of interoperability testing and its partnership with TransNexus, Inc. The interoperability testing between ISA's billing solutions and TransNexus' Open Settlement Protocol (OSP) solutions...

eGain integrates with Aspect.(Happenings ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... eGain Communications Corp., a provider of customer service and contact center software, has announced the validation of eGain Email 6.0's integration with the Aspect Enterprise Contact Server version 5.2 via the eGain CTI Adapter. The latest...

Edify positioned in Leader Gartner Quadrant for IVR.(Happenings ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Edify Corp., a global supplier of voice and speech solutions and an S1 subsidiary, announced it was placed in the Leader Quadrant in the Gartner Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Enterprise Voice Portal Magic Quadrant 2004. According to the...

NetByTel, Vocalocity and ScanSoft, team on first hosted commercial SALT deployments.(Happenings ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... NetByTel, Inc., Vocalocity and ScanSoft, Inc. recently announced the first commercial deployments of hosted speech-driven applications using Speech Application Language Tags (SALT). SALT is an emerging industry standard that extends existing...

Concer to and Rockwell form alliance.(Concerto Software Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Concerto Software, Inc. and Rockwell FirstPoint Contact have announced the formation of a strategic technology and business part-traditional voice applications as well as the increasingly popular voice over IP soft-phone applications. ...

Centra launches customized online collaborative solutions.(Happenings ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Centra, a provider of specialized application software and services for online business collaboration, announced the launch of a series of solutions comprised of a technology platform, an integrated learning content management system, business...

ServiceWare Enhances ServiceWare Enterprise.(Happenings ...)
May 1, 2004... ServiceWare Technologies Inc., a provider of knowledge-powered support solutions, has announced interface and feature enhancements to its flagship product, ServiceWare Enterprise, which was designed to help improve customer satisfaction,...

SilkRoad offers Eprise 2004.(Happenings ...)(SilkRoad Technology, Inc.,)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... SilkRoad Technology, Inc., a provider of content management and collaboration software, has announced the availability of Eprise 2004, the company's new content management system. Eprise 2004 was designed to offer a number of features built on...

IceNet, LLC launches its VoiceWorks Network.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... IceNet, LLC has announced the launch of its VoiceWorks Network, an enterprise-class VoIP network built specifically to carry voice, data and video traffic. Already serving over 50,000 customers, IceNet's VoiceWorks Network was created to...

01 Communique Laboratory launches Version 3.5 of I'm InTouch.(Happenings ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... 01 Communique Laboratory Inc., a remote access solutions provider, has announced the release of I'm In Touch Version 3.5, which was introduced to offer more extensive file management capabilities and support for Microsoft Office 2003 and...

Customer Inter@ction Solutions[R] magazine's fifth-annual CRM Excellence Awards: Part I.(Customer Relationship Management)
May 1, 2004... For the fifth consecutive year, the editors of Customer Inter@ction Solutions[R] 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...

Losing money by spending less; when outsourcing customer service doesn't make business sense: a case study.(Outsourcing)(Web.com )
May 1, 2004... Web.com is a medium-sized Web hosting and Internet services provider located in Brookfield, Connecticut. We've been in business since 1996 and pride ourselves on two things: offering flexible and customizable solutions and being a completely...

Drivers and restrainers of the Indian call center.(Outsourcing)
May 1, 2004... Every year, two million Indian college kids graduate, and they think it's cool to work for a call center. The dramatic growth of call centers in India has had a major positive impact on the job prospects of college students, and joining a call...

Attempts to divide an industry: the following is reprinted from the American Teleservices' Associations e-newsletter, eConnections (February 24, 2004).(Outsourcing)(Editorial)
May 1, 2004... It's been three weeks since the ATA announced that it would proceed to seek legal relief for our members relating to the national DNC registry. We have received numerous calls and e-mails of thanks (which are greatly appreciated), as well as a...

Voicexml versus salt: selecting a voice application standard.(Call Center/CRM Management Scope)(Interactive voice response)
May 1, 2004... When it comes to speech application standards, it seems we've been asking all the wrong questions. The VXML versus SALT debate is currently a hot topic in the IT conference rooms of organizations that rely on efficient, cost-effective...

Speech recognition for the contact center.(Call Center/CRM Management Scope)
May 1, 2004... In today's competitive marketplace, contact centers everywhere are installing speech recognition systems to improve their responsiveness to customers. Should you deploy a speech solution in your contact center? The following questions may help...

Search engine marketing campaigns make a local call.(Cutting-Edge Technologies for the Contact Center)(search engine marketing )
May 1, 2004... In today's market, online visibility is crucial for many businesses. In the call center industry alone, more than 675,000 Internet searches were executed for terms related to call centers and help desks in February 2004. Many companies rely on...

Automating contact centers to support regulatory compliance efforts.(Compliance Technologies & Solutions)(Federal Communications Commission )
May 1, 2004... Corporate America is facing ever increasing controls over how it deals with customers and manages business. Wide-sweeping regulations have been passed in the last decade that affect nearly all businesses. If you are managing an organization...

TMC[TM] Labs review.(TMC[TM] Labs)(WorkFroce Management)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2004... Loyal readers of this magazine already know the tried-and-true benefits of workforce management (WFM), so we won't belabor the point. What readers may not realize, however, is how poorly underserved small-to-mid-sized call centers are in the...

Unraveling the mystery of service level discrepancies.(Managing by the Numbers)
May 1, 2004... You've covered all the bases in creating your call forecast--evaluated past trends and calling patterns, incorporated marketing's new promotional campaign--and you are convinced you've got an accurate forecast. You've fine-tuned handle time...