May 2000

A Delicious Medley Of Products & Services For The New Economy

• ERM Solutions From Talisma

• Hipbone Internet Co-Navigation Service

• Web-Based Issue Tracking System: FootPrints 4.0

• The Intelligent Communications Network From Telera

• Voyant's Conference- Now!

• Rainmaker eCRM Program

Talisma Corporation offers a range of modular products and services for customizable electronic relationship management (ERM), designed to give e-businesses immediate benefits regardless of the scope or complexity of e-service operations. Talisma gives its clients the flexibility to purchase a portion of overall solutions, a blend of services and products or entire end-to-end solutions.

Talisma's software products aim to offer effective customer e-mail management, outbound electronic marketing and Web-based customer service. Talisma Business Edition is constructed to enable companies to organize high volume customer service requests sent to corporate aliases (such as [email protected]) so that they can be efficiently assigned, tracked and reported on. Small- to mid-sized businesses typically use Business Edition to electronically connect their customers to provide e-sales, marketing and services.

Talisma Enterprise Edition Version 2.02, successor to Business Edition, is a scalable, enterprise-architected customer service and ERM package designed to decrease support costs and improve customer satisfaction by increasing connection and information delivery to customers. Enterprise Edition is comprised of Talisma Dialog, a customer communication management application; Talisma Integrate, a complete software developer's kit (SDK) module; and Talisma Campaign, an outbound marketing module available in either a basic or premium version. Features include: inbound customer communication tracking and integrated electronic direct marketing functionality; automation and productivity features in user-defined rules, canned responses, auto text and categories; recognition and personalization with a customizable customer database; monitoring and analysis tools to track customer trends and job performance; and integration capabilities with knowledgebase, CRM and e-commerce applications.

Talisma also offers its solutions through Talisma Online, a Web-hosted system that leverages Talisma Enterprise and is intended for companies that recognize the benefits of deploying online customer service, yet have limited resources to do so. All of the software version's functionality and features are available. Customers can also engage Talisma Professional Services (TPS), its customer service application team for providing clients strategy, integration services, training and custom development. TPS offers a one-week deployment of Enterprise Edition through the Talisma QuickStart program, providing installation and set-up expertise, help with staffing and mailbox organization for different groups, routing rules, categorization, product knowledge transfer and administration training.
No. 526, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

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Increasingly, e-commerce companies see a demand from customers for a blend of Web and personal interaction. As Web-based commerce grows, so do the number of customers and their level of sophistication. Increasingly, they demand more than FAQ pages, waiting several hours for an e-mail/fax response or point-and-click options that only redirect them to another page on the site. Hipbone, Inc.'s Internet co-navigation technology is intended to provide a solution for companies who want to conduct business on the Internet and offer their customers personal, real-time interaction. The service is meant to allow companies to improve their customers' experiences, more effectively demonstrate online products and services, increase sales and shorten the sales cycle. Internet co-navigation enables two or more people to connect browsers, visually interact and navigate the Web together. Hipbone's Java-based co-navigation technology allows sales and customer service agents to connect browsers with customers for joint Web navigation. Agents and customers can view Web-based applications, complete online forms, and walk through Internet transactions while communicating using text chat, voice over IP or standard telephony.

Hipbone's service is designed for easy deployment so that companies can improve customer interactions without adding expensive software and systems to their infrastructures or making expensive changes to their Web sites. Similarly, users can co-navigate without time-consuming downloads or plug-ins, yet have instant connectivity. According to the company, deployment takes an hour at most, and training generally requires about twenty minutes.

Hipbone is set up by "cutting and pasting" an HTML link/connect button onto a company's Web site. The service connects customers whether a company or customer is behind a firewall; and supports SSL 2.0 and 3.0, and uses the encryption to encode sensitive information while in transit on the Internet. Customers can customize and co-brand the service to make it match a company's "look and feel." Hipbone adds updates or new functionality to its service every month. Users have access to the newest features and tools without waiting for software upgrades that must be installed and configured. The service is a 24x7 operation, utilizing servers run by AboveNet Communications, featuring the latest in security, network management tools, fire safety and emergency backup. Minimum system requirements are Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT with Internet Explorer 4.x or Netscape 4.06, or Mac OS 8.x with Netscape Communicator 4.06.
No. 527, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

UniPress Software Inc.'s FootPrints solution is a Web-based issue and problem tracking system that is designed to support a broad range of business applications, including help desk and customer relationship management, supply chain, product development and sales operations. Targeted at small and medium-sized businesses and departments within enterprise organizations, FootPrints is meant to provide a scalable, cost-effective solution to automatically track, manage and report customer problems and activities and build a comprehensive knowledge base for self-directed help. Its Web-based orientation also is intended to support centralized information access and allow customers and end users to rapidly submit issues or query the knowledge base from any location.

Internal and external helpdesk/support technicians, customers and end-users can log onto FootPrints via the Internet/Intranet to instantly manage and share information. All activities are controlled by comprehensive security facilities to ensure authorized access. FootPrints 4.0 features a completely redesigned interface, improved customer support features, expanded search capabilities and advanced customization abilities.

According to UniPress, this latest version has been improved to allow for easy deployment on a central Web server, with no additional programming or software necessary. Users can log on from any standard Web browser. An intuitive interface is designed to make it easy to quickly locate project status, action items and new developments. By supporting file and e-mail attachments, version 4.0 helps users access screenshots, documents and other files to expedite problem resolution. Additionally, it offers built-in search and reporting capabilities to facilitate faster access to critical information. Users can search on a variety of criteria, sort results by any data field and save searches directly to their workstation. FootPrints 4.0 is also designed for simple customization to support a wide range of individual and organizational needs. The system's Project Wizard provides simple menus and pull-down lists to help create and manage a variety of different activities; for example, managing the steps and details in a project or tracking sales leads, keep records of customer progress through the sales cycle and provide forecasting reports. Activity fields and nomenclature can be changed to reflect specific functions.
No. 528, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Using the Telera network, browser software on desktops connects with business Web applications running on Web servers housed at the enterprise. The Telera Web servers run the call handling software using XML pages using XML specifications defined by Telera and implemented by the call handling software on Telera's Intelligent Communications Servers, which are integrated with premise-based call routing software that implements the business rules of customer contact workflow.

Telera provides various service offerings, designed to give voice applications the same level of customer personalization as Web applications: they include Talk@Net, which provides local delivery of self-service applications; Route@Net, which provides local queuing plus intelligent routing to an agent using least-cost routing over the PSTN or VoIP; Notify@Net, which provides outbound customer notification driven by Web applications; and Click@Net, which connects Web customers to a contact center agent through a click-to-talk button on a Web page.

Telera also provides options for application development and hosting services for the rapid deployment of personalized customer contact applications and a service management portal that allows customers to monitor their applications and network activity using a standard Web browser.
No. 529, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Using the ConferenceNow! system, service providers can customize the look and feel of end-user interfaces to the system or integrate voice connections to existing Web applications. For example, the HTML in the ConferenceNow! Moderator interface can be adapted to use customer-specific information, hotlinks, advertising information, instructions for support and other information to differentiate the service provider's offering.

Each customer or subscriber on ConferenceNow! is a member of a Subscriber Group, which allows the account to be customized to the group or company level. Access Phone Numbers, voice message sets, feature sets, company names, billing information and the graphic displayed on the Moderator interface can all be designated here.

ConferenceNow! also provides: multiple language and message support; customer welcome messages that are associated with the Access Phone Number dialed by the conference subscriber and participants; the ability to customize several of the GIF or JPEG graphics; the ability to input an attendant or operator script at the Subscriber Group level; and the ability to initiate a conference anytime, 24/7; a Participant Count function; entry/exit announcements; a roll call feature; and Internet connections that can utilize Secure Socket Layer encryption.

The ConferenceNow! platform is designed to scale up to 9,600 voice connections.
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Designed to be up and running in a week and providing a return in six weeks, Rainmaker will design a customized Web-based program that includes sales, marketing and other customer relationship programs using the Internet and other communication channels. Once a client provides Rainmaker with a list of its customers it wants to contact, Rainmaker launches the encourage phase. In the encourage phase, either banner ads or e-mail will encourage customers to go to the Rainmaker-supported Web page where they can, for example, download a demo of the client's software for evaluation or talk to a representative through a Web page "call me" button. After the trial, representatives from Rainmaker will consult with the potential customer to persuade them to buy. Rainmaker also provides Web-based solutions companies can use for their channel partners.

Michael Silton, CEO at Rainmaker, said the idea is to provide, "results-driven, one-to-one CRM" that delivers the right product to the right person.
No. 531, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo