April 2000

Study Predicts 40 Percent Of Small Businesses To Have Web Sites By End Of Year
The Kelsey Group and ConStat, Inc. released research findings indicating that 40 percent of all small businesses will have a Web site by the end of 2000. This number represents a 74 percent increase from today, when 23 percent of small businesses have a Web site up and running. A third of the companies that expect to be online by the end of the year plan to use their Web sites as electronic platforms for selling goods and services. The research also indicates that small businesses are eager to take advantage of the Web's interactive capabilities to strengthen their local client base, and are beginning to seek more comprehensive services to facilitate this process. The findings are based on 600 interviews in Wave Two of The Kelsey Group/ConStat's Local Commerce Monitor. The Kelsey Group is a provider of research and analysis focusing on local advertising, voice and wireless technology and electronic commerce. ConStat, Inc. is a provider of custom market research and strategic planning for the high-tech and telecommunications industries and specializes in researching the attitudes and behaviors of small businesses.
No. 501, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo

Primus And supportindustry.com Unveil Survey Results On Trends In E-Support And Web Self-Service
Primus, a provider of e-service solutions for marketing, sales and support, and supportindustry.com, an online resource for senior-level service and support professionals, announced that they have released survey results on trends in electronic customer support and Web self-service. According to the findings, 65 percent of organizations have seen an increase in the number of visitors to their support sites and 74 percent have seen an increase in customers contacting them via e-mail in the past year. The research also found that 71 percent of companies do not have an integrated e-service strategy across sales, marketing and support and 30 percent rate their current e-support offerings as below average or poor as compared to their competitors. In an effort to gather data on current practices in e-support and Web self-service, a series of three surveys was administered via e-mail to service and support executives. The research, sponsored by Primus, support.com and customersat.com, received more than 400 responses and helps provide insight into what tools, technologies and practices support organizations are implementing successfully.
No. 502, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo

Witness Systems And eShare Provide Enhanced Media Capabilities To Contact Centers
Witness Systems, Inc., a provider of recording and analysis software, and eShare Technologies, Inc., a provider of eCRM collaboration solutions, have announced an integration and reseller agreement. With the integration of eShare's NetAgent 3.0 and Witness Systems' eQuality Response and eQuality Interactive applications, the two companies aim to enable contact centers to be able to further extend and complement their e-mail response management and collaborative Web chat functionality with recording, evaluation and analysis capabilities. Prior to the integration of their products, Witness Systems and eShare developed an integration between their computer-telephony customer interaction recording and customer contact management solutions. For telephone-based sales and service, contact centers using both companies' technologies can process inbound and outbound communications and call monitoring seamlessly. The integration of the two products can help companies direct interactions to the most profitable medium, while improving online revenues and sales and service levels, and helping strengthen customer loyalty.
No. 503, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo

Software911 Launches E-Service Portal As A Leased Application
Software911 has announced the launch of its customer relationship management system, which was designed to meet the needs of medium-sized companies that experience heavy customer service phone and e-mail loads. The site was implemented to allow companies or divisions to unify their customer service functions into one portal, allowing them to manage their FAQs, e-mail and documents at a reduced cost of typical enterprise solutions. The leased e-service portal, hosted at AboveNet and transparently linked to the client's Web site, integrates the look and feel of the site. The portals start by managing and tracking customer service e-mail by automatically routing the e-mail to designated department heads. E-mail can be converted to FAQs in the process of being answered so that over time, a customer-driven library of FAQs is developed. No HTML coding is involved in loading or editing on the Web portal. Software911 also provides an interactive advisor based on a rules-based expert system to create "Super FAQs," which trigger a mini-session of interactive consultation, helping lead to more useful answers to the Web visitor.
No. 504, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo

Associated Global Systems Offers Freight Shipping Program For E-Commerce
Associated Global Systems (AGS), a heavyweight delivery specialist, has announced a new program designed to address the needs of online marketers, both consumer and business-to-business. The program is being made available to catalog marketers, as well. Development of the program was sparked by surveys published in 1999 revealing increased consumer dissatisfaction with the high cost of delivery of goods purchased online. High shipping costs are often cited as the reason for the large number of abandoned online shopping carts. Some e-marketers have sought to boost sales by assuming shipping costs themselves, putting further pressure on profits in an already highly competitive sales arena, and virtually all online stores must incur the costs of return shipping when consumers are dissatisfied with purchases. AGS' new program, AGS e-Commerce Heavyweight Freight Services, was designed to trim costs for shipments weighing in excess of 75 pounds, while also addressing such problems as late deliveries and excessive damage claims. The AGS program, which can be customized to an individual e-marketers' specific needs, offers a menu of delivery options both domestic and international, including same-day, overnight, second-day, three-day and four to five day. Additionally, AGS allows companies that use the service to track delivery through its Web site using their own product, order or customer reference numbers.
No. 505, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo

webmasterSolutions.com Offers Solutions For E-Commerce Failures
San Diego-based webmasterSolutions.com (formerly webXamine.com) has begun offering a solution designed to help companies with e-commerce sites eliminate costly online errors through monitoring, diagnostic and testing services. By simulating a real user's experience at the site, the company's Application Monitoring Service can detect different types of system errors occurring with networks, routers, firewalls, databases, Web servers, applications or payment processors. Additionally, the company's new Stress Testing Services use the technology behind its Application Monitoring Service and multiplies it to help preempt possible site crashes by mimicking thousands of users interacting with the site, helping ensure that the site is ready to handle a heavy load of user interactions. The company is also currently developing security monitoring services to help ensure sites are protected against hackers.
No. 506, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo

FaceTime Unveils E-Business Applications For Instant Messaging Networks
FaceTime Communications has unveiled its family of business-to-consumer and business-to-business applications developed for instant messaging networks from America Online and other providers. FaceTime has stated that it hopes its announcement will transform instant messaging into the most profitable and effective strategy for business-to-consumer and business-to-business communications on the Web. New applications announced include FaceTime Instant Groups, which enables a group of individuals to be accessed through a single buddy name; FaceTime Instant Email, which allows recipients of direct marketing e-mail to click on an embedded link and be immediately connected to a live agent; and FaceTime Instant Alert, which enables companies to provide customers with permission-based, real-time, personalized instant messaging alerts delivered directly to their desktops. The instant messaging-based applications run on a common technology platform, FaceTime's recently introduced I.M. Director business communications platform, which provides the architecture and tools to build custom business applications on commercial instant messaging networks.
No. 507, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo