TMCnet News
First Coffee -- eLoyalty's Q2 Loss -- Vodafone New Zealand Announces 3G -- Jerk-O-Meter -- David Gardner, New TyMetrix CTO -- Siemens Invests In Dune -- Abayudaya, Ugandan Jewish Coffee FarmersUgandan Jewish coffee seller J.J. Keki, left, leader of Uganda's Abayudaya Jewish community, with his son and two colleagues. Photo by Laura Wetzler. By David Sims [email protected] The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Everybody’s Bach: ELoyalty Corporation, an enterprise CRM consulting company, has posted a net loss of $2.9 million for the period ended July 2, 2005. For the second quarter of 2005, eLoyalty reported total revenue of $19.6 million, an increase of 8 percent over the comparable period last year, but a net loss of $2.9 million, “which is unfavorable by $2.5 million,” according to company officials’ rather elegant phrasing, “when compared to the second quarter of 2004.” The net loss available to common shareholders was $0.52 a share, compared to a net loss of $0.13 a share in the second quarter of 2004. ELoyalty realized non-GAAP “Adjusted Earnings” measure loss of $0.2 million for the second quarter of 2005. In addition, the company recorded a restructuring charge of $0.5 million in the second quarter of 2005. The charge was for severance and other expenses primarily related to the elimination of two Vice President positions and a small number of other personnel reductions. … Finally, someone putting technology to good use. “Have you ever had the experience where you call someone up and they don’t seem to be paying attention to you? “ asks Anmol Madan in the abstract for a project he leads at the MIT Media Lab. If you, you might need the Jerk-O-Meter. As described by graduate researcher Madan, it’s “a real-time speech feature analysis application that runs on your VoIP phone or cell phone that remedies precisely that experience.” The Jerk-O-Meter uses “speech features for activity and stress (and soon empathy) to measure if you are ‘being a jerk’ on the phone,” the abstract claims. “The phone displays messages in case you are, and can also be set up to inform the person on the other end of the line that you’re extremely busy.” The current version of the application runs in Linux on the Zaurus VoIP phone. The Associated Press reports that Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are “developing software for cell phones that would analyze speech patterns and voice tones to rate people – on a scale of 0 to 100 percent – on how engaged they are in a conversation.” Madan says the tool might assist telephone sales: “Think of a situation where you could actually prevent an argument,” he tells the AP. “Just having this device can make people more attentive because they know they’re being monitored.” The software measures levels of stress and empathy in a person’s voice, keeps track of how often someone is speaking and pops up warning messages such as “Don’t be a jerk!” or “Be a little nicer.” Or you could win the “Wow, you’re a smooth talker” commendation. First CoffeeSM frankly sees this as a boon to political androids such as Hillary Clinton, who invest great deals of time, effort and money in trying to be appealing and humanly likeable to Earthlings. Delivering their stump speeches in front of the Jerk-O-Meter is one way of learning to imitate the way flesh and blood human beings who believe what they’re saying sound like. … Siemens Venture Capital GmbH, a subsidiary of Siemens AG, is announcing a strategic investment in Dune Networks, a provider of merchant silicon for traffic management and scalable switching fabrics. “To enable the emerging converged network, carrier-class equipment needs to be flexible and able to guarantee bandwidth not only per subscriber but also per each subscriber-application,” said Gerd Goette, Investment Partner at Siemens Venture Capital, adding that Dune’s traffic management technology “together with its scalable fabric” has let Siemens “develop a product portfolio, around a single technology, which addresses the service provider’s traffic management requirements in the Metro, Core and Edge markets.” … A tip of the coffee pot to David Gardner, named TyMetrix’s Chief Technology Officer. TyMetrix, a CT Corporation company and Wolters Kluwer business does web-based e-billing and matter management solutions for corporate law departments, claims organizations, law firms, and other legal support vendors. Gardner is responsible for product development, security, quality assurance, and all technology platforms and infrastructure that support TyMetrix engagements. Prior to joining TyMetrix, he spent 12 years with Pitney Bowes. … Vodafone New Zealand is announcing the launch of 3G enabled services. From this week on, Vodafone customers can access what company officials are calling “the latest mobile services that this new technology makes possible, such as simultaneous voice and data sessions, for example video calling.” Vodafone New Zealand Director of Technology Jeni Mundy says the launch of 3G enabled services is “a huge milestone” for Vodafone’s 1.9 million customers and the New Zealand mobile market. Mundy said Vodafone was bringing “the world’s most popular mobile technology,” 3GSM, to its New Zealand customers to “ensure that they have the best and most advanced technology available with advantages such as an extensive roaming footprint.” Nokia is providing the complete 3G core and radio networks, supplying, deploying and testing the equipment in the field. It’s also providing 3G network management, monitoring and maintenance services in an arrangement known as Managed Services, which means it’ll run the network to Vodafone’s specifications allowing them to move away from day-to-day operations of their networks. Vodafone New Zealand Ltd is part of Vodafone Group Plc, which has more than 165 million proportionate customers worldwide. As at June 2005 Vodafone New Zealand has more than 1.9 million customers. What’s a “proportionate” customer? … According to JTA News (“Global News Service Of the Jewish People”), the recent release of Mirembe Kawomera, or “Delicious Peace,” a Fair Trade – and kosher – coffee is produced by a new cooperative of Jewish, Muslim and Christian coffee farmers from the Mbale region of Uganda. “We think this coalition is unique in all of Africa,” says coffee farmer J. J. Keki, leader of the 700-member Abayudaya Ugandan Jewish community that is at the core of the project. Laura Wetzler, the Uganda coordinator for Kulanu, a Washington-based Jewish charity that promotes community-empowerment projects around the world contacted fair trade Thanksgiving Coffee Co.’s head Paul Katzeff and told him of the cooperative of 400 coffee farmers organized by Keki, “who was going door-to-door asking his Muslim and Christian neighbors to join the Abayudaya Jews to improve their general lot.” The Abayudaya are descendants of a Ugandan general who adopted Judaism in the early 20th century, according to JTA: “Nearing extinction during the reign of the dictator Idi Amin, the community revitalized itself in the 1980s and drew the interest of Kulanu, which sent a delegation in 1995 along with a Conservative rabbi, who formally converted the community.” If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/ for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored content. |