August 2003

American Power Conversion Introduces Next Generation Of Its Smart-UPS Line
American Power Conversion (APC) recently announced the next generation of its Smart-UPS line of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) with the new 2200VA and 3000VA rack-mount models. The new design occupies only 2U of valuable rack space, while providing up to 2700 watts of power, making them a good solution for rack optimized servers, server blades and storage devices. The new models incorporate an advanced feature set designed to provide enhanced power conditioning and management capabilities for the protection of critical business applications, data and equipment from utility power disturbances. As new additions to APC's integrated rack, power and cooling architecture, InfraStruXure, these models offer an open and adaptable solution for network-critical physical infrastructure in server rooms, wiring closets and other small to medium-sized computing environments. Highlighted features of the next generation of Smart-UPS units include: higher power output for the increasing power requirements of today's IT racks; extended range AVR, which maintains high-quality, computer-grade power even if the utility voltage drops by 30 percent without using critical battery power; improved battery management in a temperature-compensated battery charging system with redundant overcharge protection offers longer life in adverse conditions; self-contained, hot-swappable battery modules; full PowerChute Business Edition functionality with serial or USB; and a new sleek design with improved ventilation. All units are black in color and feature an advanced 16-segment bar graph display and provide front-to-back airflow for optimum cooling in enclosed racks. In addition to these features, the new Smart-UPS rack-mount units offer improved manageability with proactive alarms, a built-in emergency power off (EPO) circuit, newly enhanced VA/Watt load meter and a comprehensive array of power management accessories supported through the unit's SmartSlot. Additional accessories include APC's Network Management Card products, which provide standards-based monitoring, configuration, control and event handling for APC UPSs, and PowerChute remote shutdown for systems over a 10/100BaseT network. The new modules are integrated onto a single UPS SmartSlot card and have features like a built-in modem for dial in, out of band management and environmental management capabilities for infrastructure management.
www.apcc.com

Castel Unveils Latest Version Of DirectQuest
Castel Inc. has announced its new approach to outbound calling with its DirectQuest call management solution. Castel believes that DirectQuest is a fundamentally different outbound calling solution that allows businesses to make and take more customer calls without the hindrance of dead air, abandoned calls or "unknown" caller IDs. The company believes that what distinguishes DirectQuest from today's predictive dialing systems is its patent-pending technology which communicates directly with the public switched telephone network at the command and control layer. This approach to dialing can guarantee answer detection that is 100 percent accurate, 100 percent of the time. When a signal pattern meets the criteria set by the manufacturer for an answered call, such as the presence of noise energy followed by two seconds of silence, the call attempt is considered a connect and is routed to an agent. Castel has engineered a different approach for answer detection and call management by designing DirectQuest to receive and send telephone network messages. When a telephone is answered, an off-hook message is sent back to the originating Central Office Switch. This message, the same message telephone companies use to initiate billing, is also received by DirectQuest, which responds by routing the connected call and its appropriate data screen to an available agent. The amount of time it takes to receive this connect message and route the call to an agent is in the tenths of a second range. By the time the called party says "Hello," an agent is already there to return the greeting. Other features include: dynamic caller ID on a campaign-by-campaign basis, outbound/inbound call blending, seamless integration with existing customer contact applications, an array of calling activity monitors and reports, centralized call center management and distributed dialing, and reduced total cost of ownership. The DirectQuest solution is a modular software application that works in conjunction with Castel's CTI interface and a digital softswitch, the Castel Enterprise Softswitch Platforms (ESP). The server-based DirectQuest application is capable of centrally managing the calling operations of a network of distributed ESP softswitch dialers.
www.castel.com

Bustronic Offering New 6U 3-Slot cPCI Backplane
Bustronic Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of high-performance backplanes, has developed a new backplane for low-profile horizontal CompactPCI (cPCI) chassis. CompactPCI backplanes are most common in 4,
6 and 8-slot sizes. That company states that its new 6U 3-slot cPCI backplane is a rare configuration with interesting features. Compliant with the latest PICMG specifications, the 3-slot cPCI backplane features an ATX power connector to allow easy plug-in from the backplane to the chassis during assembly. The ATX power connector can eliminate the need to build a wire harness by using the standard PC power supply cable. The backplane also features power studs for optimal performance in systems with higher power requirements. Bustronic's CompactPCI backplanes are designed to offer faster chassis assembly during system production and provide a cost-effective solution for system designers.
www.bustronic.com

ISS Annouces Web+Center
Internet Software Sciences (ISS), a provider of Web-based help desk and CRM applications, has announced the release of a its new 4.0 version. The new release includes added features such as integrated customer surveys. The Web+Center is a suite of three integrated, Web-based applications designed to provide help desk functionality, customer self-help and business CRM applications. The Web+Center's suite of products can be used for either external customer support and internal IT support operations. The product's generic and configurable options were designed to allow the product to be used in a variety of IT support operations in government, military, healthcare, education, corporate and hospitality markets. The new 4.0 version now includes case auto-escalation, internationalization language options, file download options, customer surveys, calendar features, customer note searches and new reporting capabilities for complete case time account and billing. Previous versions include preventative maintenance/case scheduler, e-mail and cell phone e-mail notification options, knowledge base, asset management and customer and support case exporting to PDAs. The Web+Center offers unlimited customization options by providing over 99 percent of the source code in an open-source code ASP (active server pages) development environment.
www.inet-sciences.com

RightNow Launches RightNow Hosting 2.0
RightNow Technologies, a provider of multitenancy hosted customer service and support solutions, has announced its new, accelerated application hosting platform, RightNow Hosting 2.0, which harnesses added features and capabilities such as a new hosting management system for customers, fixed-scope integrations and a business intelligence monitoring system. RightNow Hosting 2.0's multichannel customer service solution builds on RightNow's more than 800 hosting deployments and was designed to help customers overcome common enterprise software barriers. New features include integration, which enables integration with Web services and XML into both front- and back-office applications; customization, which allows for customization of the display field and creates unique interfaces based on needs; faster and easier deployment, usually in about 30 days, including integration and customization; and decreased investment. RightNow Hosting 2.0 will expand into three more areas: business intelligence, which will offer the ability to uncover and exploit critical information to maximize customers' service and support operations; hosting management, which gives customers visibility and control over hosted applications, including control over timing of upgrades; and fixed-scope integration solutions, which add multichannel service capabilities to customers' current enterprise CRM systems at a fixed cost.
www.rightnow.com

Symon Communications Releases NetLite II Wireless LED Displays
Symon Communications, Inc., a provider of contact center and enterprise performance and productivity tools, has announced the release of its next-generation LED display, NetLite II, an advanced wireless LED panel. Symon created NetLite II wireless real-time display technology to solve the persistent need for increased productivity and improved team awareness of critical business metrics regardless of time and location. With NetLite II's wireless capability, enterprises are not constrained by physical CAT-5 cabling limitations. Companies can deploy NetLite II displays anywhere there is a need to convey mission-critical information. Symon's patented NetLite II intelligent real-time displays are available in a variety of full matrix-sizes. Users can display information the way they want to see it, with multiple lines or by splitting the panel into user-defined sections. The new displays also include expanded data storage and memory enabling enhanced graphics for demanding custom uses. Symon states that NetLite II offers low-cost installation and superior ease of maintenance, resulting in a low cost of ownership, and that the slim panels are the thinnest available on the market today (1.64" deep) and include an internal power supply. Their thinness, according to the company, allows them to be installed almost anywhere and in unusual configurations such as back-to-back. The power cable further minimizes installation costs by reducing cabling costs and eliminating conduit enclosures. Symon's server technology drives the NetLite II for instant alerting, messaging and real-time information display of enterprise data. This helps enable managers to make available performance, operational and business statistics to employees enterprisewide.
www.symon.com

Salesforce.com Launches sforce, New Alliances
Salesforce.com, which specializes in delivering software-as-service, has announced the launch of sforce, the salesforce.com client/service application development utility; announced strategic alliances with BEA Systems, Microsoft and Sun; and plans to work with Borland to enable enterprises to more rapidly build and deliver business applications using the software-as-service model. Sforce was designed to allow business application developers to use the tools they love, combined with the Web services provided by sforce, to more rapidly develop and deploy business applications at a lower cost than has previously been available. Using the same utility computing model as salesforce.com, sforce was designed to provide the services that developers need to build business applications directly over the Internet. Sforce helps enable enterprises to drive business processes as a Web-based service for a monthly per-user fee. Developers can build applications on the sforce architecture using the tools they already know, leveraging the power of Web services standards. Strategic alliances and relationships with tool vendors allow developers to use products such as Sun's Sun ONE Studio tools, Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET, Borland JBuilder and BEA WebLogic Workshop to build enterprise solutions, with sforce providing core application services such as authentication, data management, document management and text search. The sforce online application development utility allows companies to deploy Web services using the write-once, run-anywhere capabilities of the Java platform. Using industry-standard Web service protocols like XML, WSDL and SOAP, sforce developers can build applications for PCs, PDAs, smart phones and other Internet-aware devices without buying additional software or servers. Sforce developers can also extend salesforce.com's functionality and integrate salesforce.com with other applications.
www.salesforce.com

Genesys Enhances IP Contact Center Portfolio
Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., a subsidiary of Alcatel, has announced that Genesys is extending its Internet Protocol (IP) family with the introduction of Enterprise IP Contact Center (IPCC) and Network IP Contact Center, and added support for multiple IP-PBXs. The Genesys IP Contact Center portfolio was created to deliver functionality formerly available only in traditional telephony environments, enabling a seamless migration path for companies transitioning from circuit-switched communications either to a pure IP or hybrid environment. Genesys' suite of contact center applications for IP networks is comprised of components with each addressing a specific market segment, including Network IPCC, which was designed for telecommunications companies and service providers relying on carrier-grade IP softswitches; Enterprise IPCC, which serves large contact centers with more than 150 agents; and Express IPCC, which offers the same benefits of Enterprise IPCC in a solution specifically suited for mid-sized contact centers with less than 150 agents. Genesys also announced that it has added support for Cisco CallManager (IP PBX). Genesys T-Server 6.5 has been tested in accordance with interoperability criteria set by Cisco Systems, Inc. for compatibility with the Cisco CallManager, version 3.1.
www.genesyslab.com

VoiceLog Announces "Pay As You Go" Call Logging
VoiceLog LLC, a provider of third-party verification and call recording services, has announced its new VirtualLogger call recording service. Like traditional call loggers that record all or part of a call, the VirtualLogger can be used for quality control and legal compliance purposes for any call center. VirtualLogger was designed to offer benefits including no capital expense, pay only for what you use, the ability to access recordings from anywhere using the phone or the Web, no staff requirements for maintenance or tech support; availability in as little as 24 hours, no obsolescence issues and optional recording review and quality control monitoring. VirtualLogger also offers tested storage and retrieval technology. Using fully redundant network storage, combined with a fault-tolerant Oracle database configuration, VoiceLog can store VirtualLogger calls for up to seven years. Recordings can also be instantly retrieved from anywhere, using either any telephone or a computer with access to the Internet
www.voicelog.com

Centergistic Announces AgentView Web Version 3.0
Centergistic Solutions has announced the latest release of AgentView Web, version 3.0, which comes complete with three predefined page views of contact center performance information. Included is a message/information page that can be modified/changed by managers and supervisors. At the bottom of each page, the viewer can see breaking performance information in the form of a "suspended" virtual wallboard display. Above this are pages containing other pertinent company or general Web-based information, depending on what is of interest to the user. Because it is browser-based, it can be accessed globally at any time. Additional options include the ability to import and customize content from other sources which may include training courses, weather or news feeds or other information pertaining to the center.
www.centergistic.com

Expertcity Introduces DesktopStreaming 4.0
Expertcity, Inc. recently announced the launch of DesktopStreaming 4.0, a new version of its remote-assistance service designed to enable help desk organizations to provide improved service and more cost-effective support for the real time enterprise. DesktopStreaming 4.0 includes feature enhancements designed to accommodate remote problem solving, administration, support, training and issue resolution. With DesktopStreaming, help desk agents can collaborate in real time with employees. It enables agents, using the phone or the Web, to share an employee's PC desktop, mouse and keyboard, helping enable first-contact resolution (FCR) with improved accuracy. New features include Restart and Session Reconnect. For issues requiring the computer to be shut down, this feature allows an agent to initiate the action to restart and reconnect to the employee's PC, all within one session. Second, version 4.0 offers Support Session Transfer, which enables an agent to stay connected to the employee when the issue requires escalation. The "warm transfer" helps assist in driving employee satisfaction and reducing training time for agents. A third new feature is Multiple-Customer Support, which allows agents to engage in up to eight simultaneous support sessions by communicating via chat tools as well as sharing control of multiple remote PCs, helping reduce average answer speeds. A final new feature is Global Management Console, which provides reporting, performance measurement and customer-satisfaction feedback tools to allow managers to monitor sessions and manage agents from a single console.
www.expertcity.com

Pipkins Releases Agent Notification System
Pipkins Inc. recently announced its Agent Notification System for its Vantage Point workforce management software that expedites intra-day schedule adjustments by enabling call center supervisors to send pop-up messages to agents' computer screens. Messages can alert agents to schedule changes and incorporate each agent's new schedule within the pop-up window; or send overtime requests and allow agents to respond with a click. The optional module was designed to ensure that intra-day adjustments can be finalized and communicated quickly without any interruption to call handling. It can also help eliminate the need for supervisors to print and distribute new intra-day schedules, and/or talk to agents individually by phone or in person to solicit overtime hours to compensate for absences or other last-minute staffing problems. The new Agent Notification System complements Pipkins' other intra-day adjustment capabilities, including intra-day forecasting and intra-day schedule reoptimization. It can also be used to send general business messages, configured to issue audible prompts notifying agents to check their computers for screen pops, and used to send information in ticker mode across the top of agents' screens. Pipkins' Vantage Point workforce management software forecasts workload and schedules staff in single or multi-site call centers using a proprietary optimization algorithm, advanced skill-based modeling, and exclusive historical trend analysis that fine-tunes call volume forecasts for special events such as mail drops.
www.pipkins.com

Stratasoft Unveils StrataVoice SV4
Stratasoft, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of I-Sector Corporation and a provider of contact center solutions, has released the latest version of StrataVoice SV4, its interactive voice response system with outbound notification capabilities. The latest version - version 4 - was engineered to deliver world-class text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities to the IVR and notification system. Highlighted by a new design which is more user-friendly than its predecessor, StrataVoice is also coupled with a more dependable call processing algorithm. It is built on Intel Dialogic technology, which the company claims boosts its robustness and scalability. A single chassis can house up to 336 ports for IVR in any telephony protocol: T-1, ISDN, E-1 or analog. StrataVoice delivers several new features, such as multicampaign inbound, over an unlimited number of DNIS, while capturing ANI. Customers can design a series of inbound IVR campaigns versus the one campaign inflexibility of some other systems. The added TTS capabilities are compliant with the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI), which is supported by a dozen third-party TTS providers, such as ScanSoft and SpeechWorks. Customers can design IVR scripts that can perform external lookups into any ODBC-compatible data source to retrieve and playback caller-specific information. New application hooks have been added to post-call processing activities, which allow the customer to print orders, update external databases and send data to external applications, such as a shipping terminal for label printing, all based on a caller response code or action.
www.stratasoft.com

Teltone Releases Notify
Teltone Corporation, a provider of telephony solutions, has announced the release of Notify for OfficeLink. Notify enables proactive announcements to inform key personnel quickly in crisis and non-emergency situations. Notify is a value-added software module for OfficeLink ReVo remote voice solutions. Notify for OfficeLink automates the notification process, helping provide more consistent, clear and timely announcements. Notify can be used for employee announcements, organizing emergency response teams, activating on-call staff, school announcements, service outage notifications, military status alerts and public disaster warnings. Notify integrates with OfficeLink ReVo to provide remote access to the corporate phone system. For notification scenarios that require call center, help desk or emergency response teams, Notify for OfficeLink can automatically log in remote workers to receive calls just like they would normally on their office extension.
www.teltone.com

Selligent Creates Web Content Management Tool
Selligent, a vendor of CRM solutions, has announced the availability of Selligent Web Content, a Web content management tool designed to offer companies an easier means of delivering relevant information to their extended relationship network (customers, partners, employees and suppliers). Selligent Web Content can help companies create and consistently manage and share information across multiple platforms, such as the Internet, Extranet or Intranet sites. It thereby helps increase the value of the information contained in a company's business system, speed up business processes and maximize the productivity of employees. Selligent Web Content helps control the dissemination of information by providing customizable workflows that can make it easier to implement a company's cooperation and approval procedures. A well-defined workflow makes sure that the right people are part of the publishing process, and that content is published on the right platforms at the right time. People with different roles, based on their profile in the Selligent CRM Solution, may be included in a workflow: readers, approvers, publishers, etc. These profiles are at the same time the basis of the security mechanisms of Selligent Web Content. End users can benefit from Selligent Web Content in two ways: they can subscribe to topics they are interested in, and be alerted when new information on these topics becomes available. They can also use the search capability built into Selligent Web Content. In either case, they can get at relevant information faster and help save themselves the time and trouble of sorting through a mass of irrelevant content.
www.selligent.com

Fused Solutions Enters Workforce Management Market With Second Revision
Fused Solutions, a supplier of contact center solutions, has announced the general availability of the 2.0 version of EmPlex. Part of a broader solution suite of technology, services and expertise, EmPlex was designed to combine the features of multiple workforce management systems in one easy-to-use, Web-based application, including: skills-based scheduling; employee-profile management; staff training and development; time keeping and labor reporting; internal company communications; human resource management tools; and performance measurement and reporting. The combination of features helps provide a more central location for employee-centric data and a comprehensive reporting solution for each of the included areas. While developed with the specific needs of contact centers in mind, EmPlex is customizable for use in any organization where employee management is important. With the ability to manage each of the included features in one application, each EmPlex implementation is a custom-built solution.
www.fusedsolutions.com

KANA Announces Availability Of KANA Service 8
KANA, a provider of enterprise customer support and communications applications, recently announced the availability of KANA Service 8 software, its application for multichannel contact center management. To help ensure more rapid delivery of KANA Service 8, KANA outsourced development of the product to Accenture. With the combination of KANA's domain knowledge and Accenture's knowledge of business applications, the companies feel the application was quickly and more cost-effectively developed to provide support for improved customer service throughout the contact center. KANA Service 8 was designed to help contact centers deliver personalized, consistent service across all channels. In addition, the application provides a link between internal systems and customer interactions, helping empower every customer service agent to respond quickly and consistently through a universal view of all relevant information. Available on both J2EE and .Net platforms, KANA Service 8 can be configured to meet specific customer service information, process, application and scalability requirements. The Web-architected, modular application integrates with the other applications in the KANA iCARE suite as well as other solutions in the enterprise. New functionality in KANA Service 8 includes: multichannel interaction management and secure messaging, support for global access to information with capabilities for localized user interfaces, role-based access to functionality and support for memberships and permissions to empower IT administrators within the enterprise with improved ability to distribute access among business users, enhanced capabilities to execute and view reports for customer service and knowledge management analysis, the ability for managers to create and schedule new reports, and the ability for all reports to be executed across various parameter-based options.
www.kana.com

DPS Announces Version 7 Of Results
DPS Consulting, LLC has announced version 7.0 of its Results software with new features, designed to provide users with one-click access to information. Created to address the needs of consultants, small business owners, associations and other professionals, Results integrates contact and business processes to control the critical customer management details from initial contact to final payment within one software product. The company states that Results' detail-centric approach helps organizations coordinate essential business processes including contact management, scheduling, time-billing, invoicing and reporting, from one integrated application. To further enhance user productivity, all of the information is presented on the main contact screen, allowing the user to have a 360-degree picture of a customer's status. Data can be merged into reports, letters, invoices and other documents; Results is compatible with applications including Word, Outlook, Outlook Express and Excel. New features in Results 7.0 include a new e-mail tab that integrates with Outlook or Outlook Express, automatically showing messages for contacts and their associates, helping eliminate the need to switch to an e-mail program; the ability to automatically create a permanent activity record from an individual e-mail, so that a user's entire customer activity history will be tracked; new activities and e-mail tabs in the associates module to provide one-click access for the current contact associate record; direct availability to the mail-merge module from the payments module, allowing notification and acknowledgments to be created referencing specific payments, and dynamically changing password for the main data file so that sensitive data stays confidential, even on shared computers; and current USPS ZIP codes built-in for more accurate mailing, reverse lookup.
www.results-software.com

Happenings

Salesforce.com And Genesys Partner
Salesforce.com and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., a subsidiary of Alcatel, have announced a strategic alliance to support integration between salesforce.com S3 and Genesys contact center software. The combined salesforce.com and Genesys solution is expected to enable joint customers to leverage pre-integrated customer relationship management (CRM) and contact center software for telesales and telemarketing activities, delivering the benefits of more productive agent resources and improved customer satisfaction. The new offering was designed to deliver to companies a certified, pre-packaged solution that helps reduce the time and costs associated with traditional CRM and contact center implementations, and provides advanced communications via phone, e-mail or Web for both inbound and outbound interactions.
www.salesforce.com/www.genesyslab.com

Altitude Joins Forces With Verint
Altitude Software, Inc. recently announced the integration of Altitude uCI with the Verint ULTRA Intelligent Recording platform. The Altitude and Verint joint offering was forged to provide increased workforce performance, improved customer acquisition and retention and increased revenues and profits. ULTRA Intelligent Recording was designed to drive enterprise quality by enabling organizations of all sizes to more cost-effectively capture every customer interaction and extract actionable intelligence from telephone, voice over IP, e-mail, chat or agent-assisted co-browsing contacts. The integration to Altitude uCI is expected to empower contact centers to control recording and then attach the recorded interactions to contacts. The integration can allow users to view a full contact history through Altitude uSupervisor, and play back calls from directly within the application. The Altitude uCI product suite allows companies to interact with their customers in a personalized way by keeping the history of previous interactions and maintaining the context of these interactions across multiple communication channels. Altitude's intelligent and skills-based routing capabilities empower users to improve service quality while increasing upselling and cross-selling opportunities through retrieval, routing and display of full customer information. Altitude's predictive dialing option for outbound calls also offers increased agent productivity and reduced costs. Altitude uCI enables more efficient and accurate customer service, sales and marketing activities.
www.altitude.com/www.verintsystems.com

Clear Joins HP OpenView Solution Alliance Program
Clear, a supplier of optical, broadband and digital performance management software, has announced it has joined the Hewlett-Packard OpenView Solution Alliance Program as a Solution Level partner. The company plans to deliver a solution, integrated with HP OpenView management software, to monitor the transport layer (layer one) of the network. The solution will be designed to enable real-time performance-based service assurance and end-to-end service management for both service providers and the enterprise market. With 60 percent of service-affecting problems occurring at the transport layer of the network, which impacts all protocols (layers one through seven), Clear helps provide HP OpenView software with the functionality to monitor mission-critical transport technologies including SONET/SDH, DWDM and T/E-carrier. Additionally, as part of Clear's real-time performance-based service assurance offerings, service providers and enterprises receive customer-centric circuit status, historical performance reporting, trends, SLA compliance reporting and threshold violation alerts. Clear's software module is easily integrated into HP's clients' existing OSS frameworks (inventory, provisioning, fault, customer care, etc.) and key HP OpenView modules including: Service Information Portal, TeMIP, Service Quality Manager, Performance Insight, Operations and Network Node Manager.
www.clear.com/www.openview.hp.com

Indigo Software And i3 Micro Partner
Indigo Software, a developer of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)-based communication solutions for IP networks, and i3 Micro Technology, provider of residential gateway products, have announced that they have entered into a partnership agreement to provide Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSP) with an end-to-end solution for residential IP telephony services, combining Indigo Software's SIP routing and service infrastructure and i3 Micro's VOOD line of residential gateways. Broadband access is fast becoming ubiquitous in the workplace and broadband connections at home are growing exponentially. According to IDC, in the coming years, broadband Internet will keep on growing at an impressive CAGR of 31 percent. Taking advantage of the rising popularity of broadband Internet, service providers are now capable of offering new services on a low-cost packet telephony network. The combination of Indigo Software's SIP Server & SDK (comprising carrier-grade SIP Proxy, Registrar, Redirect and Location servers) and i3 Micro's VOOD residential gateways is expected to provide service providers with an end-to-end solution offering higher quality Internet telephony over an IP network.
www.indigiosw.com/www.i3micro.com

Spherion Launches Bilingual Contact Center
To enhance its ability to serve organizations that are focused on the expanding Spanish-speaking market in the U.S., Spherion Corporation announced it has opened a new bilingual contact center near Panama City, Panama. Spherion officially launched the center on Monday, June 16, in an opening ceremony attended by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso. Spherion's bilingual contact center has been operating since early May, fielding contacts for a major U.S. telecommunications client. The center supports calls for both Spanish- and English-speaking callers.
www.spherion.com

Edify Welcomes New CEO
Edify Corporation, an S1 company and a supplier of multichannel CRM solutions throughout the enterprise, recently announced that Mitch Mandich has been named president and CEO of the company. Mandich has more than 20 years of management experience and has been instrumental in implementing high-growth strategies at several technology companies throughout his career including Apple, NeXT, Pyramid Technology and Tandem Computers. Mandich has general management, marketing, sales and field operations skills with a track record of success through his leadership and understanding of strategic market opportunities. Mandich has held numerous executive management positions including senior vice president worldwide sales and executive officer at Apple. Most recently, he successfully completed consulting and operational assignments at several portfolio companies for Kleiner Perkins. He previously served as vice president of worldwide sales and service for NeXT, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Pyramid Technology in addition to senior management positions at Tandem Computers. Mandich began his career in computers in the technical and sales ranks at Burroughs. He holds a Master's degree from California State University and a Bachelor's degree from the University of California in Berkeley.
www.edify.com

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