September 1999

• Lucent Delivers CentreVu Explorer II
• Call Processing Solutions Announces InfoServer 2000 Version 2
• iMarket Inc. Unveils zapdata.com
• NEC America Announces Unified Messaging Solution
• Brightware Ships E-Mail Management Solution
• NexCen Introduces Customer Care Solution For CLECs
• infoUSA Launches Database Research Solution
• AVT Introduces Unified Messaging Product Suite
• Digital Products Offers New Release Of Phone Line Simulator Kit
• Davox Introduces Unison 4.0
• Unica Expands Its Product Suite With New Release
• Blue Pumpkin Announces PrimeTime 2.0
• Dennis Baggott Releases SRM Help Desk
• Telrad Announces ACD I.Q.
• Help Desk Institute Markets Call Center Designer Software
• Vocalis Releases SpeechWare
• Edify Introduces Electronic Workforce 6.1
• Informix Introduces Business Intelligence Solution
• Foresight Software Announces SiteWare Version 8.1

• DraftWorldwide Expands Asia/Pacific Network
• Onyx Acquires Versametrix
• Datacom Technologies Merges With Trans-West Telephone Company
• C-COR Announces Completion Of Merger With Convergence.com
• Telco Research And TSB International Merge
• Naviant Technology To Acquire IQ2.net

• META Group Launches Call Center Benchmark Offerings
• U.S. Exports Of Telecom Equipment Top $5 Billion
• The DMA To Require Members To Follow Consumer Privacy Practices
• Study Predicts Major Growth In Automated Telephony Applications

• Performix Technologies Announces Plans For UK Office
• LHS Joins Multimedia Super Corridor In Malaysia
• Davox And Scandinavian Firm Strike Overseas Distribution Agreement
• ECI Telecom To Supply Telecommunications Backbone Network To Korean Telecom
• ITXC And Global TeleSystems' Teleross Form Russian Alliance
• AOL Canada Selects ICT Group

• Unica And Acxiom Announce Marketing Agreement
• Omnipoint And HiddenMind Announce Alliance
• Siemens Signs Agreement To Resell And Implement Remedy Applications
• ALLTELL Signs Contract With BancWest Corp.
• Lucent To Include Unimax Software With Octel Products
• Convergys And AT&T Wireless Sign Billing Services Agreement
• Harte-Hanks Signs Reseller Agreement With E.piphany
• Harte-Hanks And BroadVision Form Alliance
• Primus To Integrate Software With Siebel Front-Office Applications
• Ulysses And Teknekron Announce Partnership Agreement
• The Info Group Forges Alliance With Blue Pumpkin
• Spanlink Announces Support For Siemens Switch

• Precision Response Expands To West Coast
• Lightbridge Opens Brazil Office
• TBC Consulting To Open Canadian Center
• Convergys Announces Plans For Two New Call Centers
• TeleServices Direct Opens Call Center In Bloomington, Indiana
• M3 Relocating To New Delaware Technology Park
  

Lucent Delivers CentreVu Explorer II
Lucent Technologies has announced CentreVu Explorer II, a software solution designed to give companies more flexible options for accessing and viewing multimedia call center performance data. The solution enables custom-built, conditional queries to measure and analyze hundreds of combinations of performance criteria. Queries can be generated on-demand, or run regularly to compare customer care performance over time. CenterVu Explorer II was designed to enable businesses to create and maintain a library of custom-built queries so the same queries don't have to be rebuilt from scratch. The product is Internet-enabled, Windows NT-based and is accessed through a standard Web browser from a desktop PC. Users build data queries through point-and-click elements. Managers can peel back layers of data generated from customer contacts to reveal details about any particular contact, agent activity or agent-customer interaction. Queries can be based on criteria such as time of day/day of week, agent skill group and business application.
No. 510, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Call Processing Solutions Announces InfoServer 2000 Version 2
Call Processing Solutions, Inc., a supplier of on-site, outsourced systems for call centers, has announced the availability of InfoServer 2000 Version 2, an integrated outbound system for IVR, Web response and other call center applications, extending the capability of live agents. Inbound call centers using the CPS InfoServer 2000 can reduce line charges and labor and improve overall customer relations response, in part by filtering 20 to 40 percent of incoming calls into an automated system. The other calls are automatically routed to appropriate live agents.
No. 511, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

iMarket Inc. Unveils zapdata.com
iMarket Inc., the developer of MarketPlace software, has unveiled a new data portal, zapdata.com. zapdata.com aims to be a comprehensive Web site for sales and marketing professionals who use data such as names and detailed information on U.S. businesses. The site provides sales leads and offers detailed customer analysis, lead enhancing and profiling and market penetration reports. zapdata.com provides a single point of access from anywhere in the world to a virtual data warehouse of information from industry data sources, including Cahners Business Lists, Dun & Bradstreet, List Technology Systems Group, Harris InfoSource, Pension Data Resources, PNR & Associates, WEFA, ZD Marketing Intelligence and others. The site allows users to create detailed lead lists, obtain market profile reports with market size statistics and potential, append key business data to their own lead or customer databases and obtain complete customer analysis reports.
No. 512, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

NEC America Announces Unified Messaging Solution
NEC America, Inc. has announced the availability of the NEC Unity 2.1, a Windows NT-, Microsoft Exchange-based unified messaging solution from Active Voice. The new solution will be offered as part of the NEAX family of PBX phone systems. The Unity 2.1 server connects to the NEAX platform, providing users access and management capabilities of e-mail, voice mail and fax messages from multiple access points including desktop PCs, touch-tone telephones or over the Internet.
No. 513, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Brightware Ships E-Mail Management Solution
Brightware, Inc., a supplier of electronic customer assistance software for the Internet, has announced the availability of Brightware Knowledge Packs for financial services. The Knowledge Packs are industry-specific e-mail management solutions designed for retail banking, mortgage banking and securities firms. They are designed to extend Brightware's existing e-mail assistance offering by leveraging industry-standard information to provide financial service companies with out-of-the-box coverage of common customer e-mail requests.
No. 514, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo

NexCen Introduces Customer Care Solution For CLECs
NexCen Technologies, Inc., a provider of customer relationship management solutions for telecommunications service providers, has introduced Envoy, a packaged CRM software solution for CLECs. Designed to integrate with existing billing, network management, trouble ticketing and order management applications, Envoy unifies all customer information to enable CLECs to identify, acquire and retain valued customers. Envoy's architecture supports a unified view of consolidated customer information; manages Web, e-mail and telephone interactions; provides a centralized customer support database and delivers opportunity intelligence through a decision support engine. Based on client/server technology, Envoy is browser-based and consolidates customer billing, order and trouble status on one screen.
No. 515, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

infoUSA Launches Database Research Solution
infoUSA Inc., a provider of proprietary business and consumer databases and database marketing services, has announced it plans to offer infoCall, a custom research solution for businesses. The service combines infoUSA's telephone research resources with its proprietary database technology to help customers cut costs, increase productivity and grow their customer base. It was designed to serve as a tool for effective management of telesales budgets, generation of sales leads and better customer service. The company plans to offer the service as a value-added service to its existing and potential customers.
No. 516, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

AVT Introduces Unified Messaging Product Suite
AVT Corporation has announced it has created a new unified messaging product suite. CallXpress provides companies with the ability to implement unified messaging, delivering access to all message types (voice, fax and e-mail) from any device (phone, PC or Web browser). By providing unified messaging as a bundled package, AVT is able to offer its customers a cost-effective, straightforward means of implementing unified messaging throughout the organization. The suite includes voice messaging ports, RightFAX fax server channels, text-to-speech resources and the maximum number of desktop client licenses. The suite supports full integration with Microsoft Exchange/Outlook and Lotus Notes and is available immediately through the AVT distribution channel.
No. 517, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Digital Products Offers New Release Of Phone Line Simulator Kit
Digital Products Company has announced the release of its newly revised Ring-It!, a microprocessor-controlled telephone-line simulator. Ring-It! acts like a phone company central office and is used to test and demonstrate telephones, answering machines, fax units, voice mail systems or modems. The recently updated design supports E-911 training and caller I.D. signaling. An external audio jack has been added for call monitoring applications. The caller I.D. feature provides number only or name/number messages. Five different test modes offer standard telephone-line emulation or special repetitive cycle testing, including automatic ring-up. An LED digital display readout displays the DTMF digits that are dialed to verify operation of touch-tone phones.
No. 518, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Davox Introduces Unison 4.0
Davox Corporation has announced Unison 4.0, the latest version of its call management solution. Unison 4.0 offers a variety of new features and functions designed to enable contact centers to more effectively manage agent activity while providing higher levels of service to customers. The new release includes wizard-driven application development, enhanced switch support and other capabilities. The product is part of Davox's Allbound product line and will be an integrated module in Davox's forthcoming Ensemble customer contact suite. Enhancements include the Inbound Call Director, real-time application development, an enhanced user interface, call logging and recording and LYRICall browser-based scripting.
No. 519, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Unica Expands Its Product Suite With New Release
Unica Technologies, Inc. has announced the availability of a new release of its data mining application, MODEL 1. The new release has improved reporting capabilities, user interface enhancements, additional security features, added client/server functionality and compatibility with SAS statistical systems. The software was designed for ease of use and offers four solution-specific modules, including Response Modeler, Cross Seller, Customer Valuator and Segmenter. It also features a wizard-driven graphical user interface. MODEL 1 can help analysts, modelers, statisticians and marketers devote more time to the application of the knowledge to solve business problems.
No. 520, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Blue Pumpkin Announces PrimeTime 2.0
Blue Pumpkin Software, a provider of workforce management solutions, has introduced PrimeTime 2.0, a product revision which includes the company's PrimeTime Skills technology. The new release is designed to solve challenges for customer contact centers with cross-skilled agents, multiple products and services, multiple languages and agents shared across different groups of ACD queues, all within the PrimeTime environment. PrimeTime 2.0 helps contact centers find an affordable solution to help maximize the use of their workforce's diverse skill sets. Small centers with multilingual agents or multiple products and services to support can deliver improved customer service through forecasting customer demand and scheduling the right mix of cross-skilled agents.
No. 521, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Dennis Baggott Releases SRM Help Desk
Dennis Baggott has announced the release of new software for help desk management. The new program, SRM Help Desk, incorporates many of the suggestions received from users of the company's earlier release, Been There, Done That! Features of the new release include the use of the Microsoft Access 97 data file format, an output wizard which allows users to export selected data from any table, and point-and-click filtering of reports and data-entry forms. SRM Help Desk is licensed on a per company basis and the data files may be installed locally or on either Novell NetWare or Windows NT file servers.
No. 522, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Telrad Announces ACD I.Q.
Telrad Telecommunications, Inc., a provider of commercial telecom systems and equipment, has announced the release of its new ACD I.Q. management information and statistical reporting system for Windows NT. ACD I.Q. is a client/server application designed to provide real-time and historical reporting and data analysis tools for Telrad's automatic call distribution system. The product integrates with the Telrad Digital systems, providing a scalable, cost-effective solution for the small, informal call center or the dedicated, large-scale call center environment. It offers flexible system cofiguration options in software-only or turnkey systems.
No. 523, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Help Desk Institute Markets Call Center Designer Software
The Help Desk Institute (HDI), an association serving the growing help desk industry, will include Portage Communications' Call Center Designer and SimACD staffing software in the debut of its upcoming Web sales site at www.helpdeskinst.com. Call Center Designer and SimACD software are used by call centers to determine the optimal number of agents needed for each period of time in their work day based on expected call volumes and desired service level goals. The new HDI site was unveiled in August.
No. 524, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Vocalis Releases SpeechWare
Vocalis, a speech recognition telephony company, has announced the availability of the latest release of its automatic speech recognition (ASR) package, SpeechWare. Additionally, Vocalis is announcing the availability of SpeechWare for third-party developers in the open market. The new release adds support for Windows NT to the existing availability for SCO UNIX. It builds on the core SpeechWare technology, which was designed to address the complex demands of natural speech recognition over both wireline and wireless telephone networks. A significant feature is a new API layer, which gives developers access to all the recognizer parameters required to build sophisticated applications. SpeechWare's capabilities include phoneme and word-based recognition, flexible grammar capabilities, word-spotting, extended vocabularies and the use of confidence measures.
No. 525, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Edify Introduces Electronic Workforce 6.1
Edify Corporation, a provider of Internet and voice e-commerce portal solutions, has announced the release of Electronic Workforce (EWF) 6.1, a software platform that allows enterprises to create and deploy e-commerce applications across multiple channels. The new version features SMART Options, a one-to-one customer relationship management solution; speaker verification and enhanced connectivity. Other features include the support of additional interfaces, telephony boards and telephony protocols.
No. 526, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Informix Introduces Business Intelligence Solution
Informix Corporation has introduced the first in a series of business intelligence solutions for the telecommunications industry. The marketing automation solution, which combines Informix's Decision Frontier product suite, Sun Microsystems' Enterprise Servers and Solaris computing platform and Paragren Technologies' campaign management software, was designed to help telecom companies better understand customer behavior and deploy appropriate marketing programs. The solution is the first in a series of end-to-end solutions for business-critical analysis that will be offered by Informix. In the coming months, the company will bring to market a range of similarly structured solutions to address customer churn, fraud and other telecom-specific issues.
No. 527, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Foresight Software Announces SiteWare Version 8.1
Foresight Software, Inc. has announced SiteWare version 8.1, an upgrade to its remote field application that improves the deployment and effectiveness of field service engineers by enabling them via model or wireless communications to use laptop computers to gain direct access to the information and knowledge available in Foresight's Service Management System. SiteWare allows field service engineers to manage all aspects of onsite service � from contacting the customer and arriving at the appropriate service location with the right parts through tracking time and parts usage to closing and printing the service order. At a customer's site, technicians can manage their work assignments, enter new service requests, order and ship replacement parts and print detailed service reports.
No. 528, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

BroadQuest, Inc., a provider of enterprise portal applications, has announced that it has appointed Larry Crume to chief executive officer. Crume will lead operations for the company to expand its presence as a solutions provider for Web-based, enterprisewide information access.

George Dobrowski has joined Ficon Technology as chief technology officer. Ficon provides products and engineering services to equipment vendors and silicon vendors in networking and communication technologies such as IP routing and switching, ATM, frame relay and voice over packet.

Davox Corporation has announced that John J. Connolly has been promoted to the post of senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer. Connolly has served as vice president and CFO of Davox since he joined the company in 1994. Additionally, Davox has named James T. Pepe to senior vice president of research and development. Pepe will focus his attention specifically on the company's evolving suite of customer contact solutions.

ServiceWare Inc. has announced additions to its senior management team in conjunction with its recent acquisition of Molloy Group, Inc. The company has named Lou Venezia as vice president of global sales and Rick Koloski as vice president of software development. Both join ServiceWare from Molloy Group. ServiceWare also promoted Alicia Sanford to vice president of strategic alliances, a new position. Additionally, the company has appointed Gary Gubranson to vice president of marketing.

Harte-Hanks, Inc. has announced the appointment of Ann Pichette to president of direct response agency Harte-Hanks Direct in New York City. Pichette will be responsible for overseeing all agency operations.

IMA, a provider of enterprise customer interaction software for call center automation, has announced the promotion of Glenda O'Neill to vice president of marketing. She has had more than four years of service with IMA in marketing and professional services and will be responsible for overseeing the company's domestic and international marketing activities.

Primus, which specializes in Web-based problem resolution and knowledge management software, has named Norman Guadagno as vice president of marketing. He will assume responsibility for the company's corporate marketing and brand strategy.

WhiteCap Development Corp., a maker of communications software for the business front office, has announced the appointment of Paul J. Gagne as executive vice president of engineering and Brian Sherman as chief technology officer.

Karen Johnson has been named vice president of client services for Smart World Technologies, a software and telecommunications company. Her responsibilities will include account implementation, customer service and ongoing support.

FaceTime Communications, a provider of Internet-based customer interaction solutions, has announced that former IBM E-Business executive Kelly Trammel has joined the company as president.

Sitel Corporation has issued a statement announcing the death of Henk P. Kruithof after an extended illness. Mr. Kruithof has served as executive vice-chairman of the board and a director since 1996. He was also the founder and chairman of SITEL Europe plc. He was 63 years of age.

Lucent Technologies has named Scott Thompson as president of its new division, Lucent NetCare Professional Services. The new division is focused on network services and the design and installation of broadband networks that deliver converged voice, data and video.

Jim Carey, chief operating officer of Core Industries, Inc., has been installed as the 44th president of the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing (CADM). Carey formerly served as vice president of the board and succeeds Ron Jacobs, president of Jacobs & Clevenger, Inc. Jacobs will remain on the CADM executive board as immediate past president.

eFORCE, Inc., an e-business solutions provider, has announced the appointment of three individuals to its eFORCE Executive Advisory Board. These executives are Kent Godfrey, CEO of Andromedia; Jack Hewitt, CEO of Vision Software and Michael Taylor, managing director, e-commerce practice, of Arthur D. Little. The three will work closely with the eFORCE management team to formulate and execute growth strategies.

Naviant Technology To Acquire IQ2.net
Naviant Technology Solutions, a customer relationship management consulting and services provider, has announced its intent to acquire IQ2.net an IntelliQuest company and provider of online registrations and direct marketing lists and services to Internet, high-tech and other companies targeting the technology-enabled, Web-using consumer. The acquisition is intended to support Naviant's growth goals in the eCRM market. The new company will be known as Naviant.

META Group Launches Call Center Benchmark Offerings
META Group Inc. has launched its call center benchmarking study for gas and electric utilities. The first in a series of industry-specific efforts, the utilities call center benchmark combines the work of META Group's Energy Information Strategies service and META Group Consulting's Customer Management Strategies practice. The study will enable utility companies to know where they stand in comparison to their peers and will enable participants to identify and adopt strategies and practices to improve the effectiveness of their customer service call centers. The project will examine key performance indicators, customer satisfaction drivers, staffing strategies, technology and process optimization and other success factors in transforming the call center into a source of competitive advantage.

U.S. Exports Of Telecom Equipment Top $5 Billion
According to statistics released by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), U.S. exports of telecommunications equipment for the first quarter of 1999 totaled nearly $5.3 billion, a 4 percent increase over the same period in 1998. While telephonic apparatus and parts represent the largest market segment at more than $1.5 billion, the greatest increases were in paging alert devices and cordless telephones, which jumped 95 percent and 42 percent, respectively. The rise, despite overall U.S. exports recent downturn, is credited to the need for foreign countries to invest in U.S. telecom equipment to stimulate economic growth.

The DMA To Require Members To Follow Consumer Privacy Practices
Effective July 1, 1999, The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) is now requiring its members, including catalogs, banks and financial institutions, publishers, manufacturers, non-profit organizations, books and music clubs, Internet merchants and other consumer marketers, to follow a set of consumer privacy protection practices in a move to bolster confidence in shopping direct. These practices include the concepts of "notice" (marketers disclosing when contact information about them may be shared with other marketers) and "opt-out" (providing a consumer a choice to not have information shared). In addition, member marketers must honor any individual consumer's request not to receive solicitation from them, a term known in the industry as "in-house suppression." Marketers must also use the association's two national name-removal services, the Mail Preference Service and the Telephone Preference Service, to clean their marketing lists when prospecting for new customers using direct mail or telephone.

Study Predicts Major Growth In Automated Telephony Applications
Voice Information Associates, Inc. has announced that its new study, Automatic Speech Recognition for Telephony Applications: The World-Wide Market: 1995-2003, is now available. The study, which provides comprehensive revenue projections for speech telephony market sectors, predicts that the end-user revenue obtained from automatic speech recognition products in telephone applications will grow from $209.3 million in 1998 to $1.1 billion by 2003 yielding a CAGR of 41 percent. The unified messaging subsegment will show the strongest growth with a CAGR in excess of 80 percent while operator services is projected to have a more modest CAGR of 27.5 percent. The service revenue obtained by the carriers for ASR-based services is anticipated to be in excess of $9.5 billion in 2003.

AOL Canada Selects ICT Group
AOL Canada, operated by America Online Inc., has announced that it selected ICT Group, Inc., an integrated telesolutions company, to provide customer support services for its members in Canada. Under the terms of the agreement, ICT Group's call center in Riverview, New Brunswick will respond to members' billing inquiries, provide technical support and promote customer retention. Approximately 120 staff, fluent in both English and French, will be dedicated to handling AOL Canada member calls. As a result of this AOL Canada contract, it is expected that between 75 and 125 new call center positions will open at the Riverview facility.

Unica And Acxiom Announce Marketing Agreement
Unica has announced the integration of Acxiom's Data Network with Unica's marketing and automation products. The combination of the two companies' products is intended to enable businesses to enhance existing customer relationship management strategies and implement new ones. The Acxiom Data Network offers real-time Internet access to Acxiom's InfoBase data products. Model 1, Unica's data mining suite, and UNICA IMPACT!, a predictive campaign management system, comprise two of the key components in the marketing automation solution provided by Unica.

Omnipoint And HiddenMind Announce Alliance
HiddenMind Technology, a software development firm offering software framework for digital wireless data applications, and Omnipoint Technologies, Inc., a developer of wireless technologies, have announced a market development alliance. The two companies will collaborate on the development of wireless applications for GSM-based networks. The products will focus on improving the use of dispersed business resources and advanced communication capabilities for telecommuters and members of the mobile workforce. The collaborative applications being developed are based on HiddenMind's new software framework, HiddenLogic, and Omnipoint's GSM-module products.

Siemens Signs Agreement To Resell And Implement Remedy Applications
Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc. has signed an agreement with Remedy Corporation, a provider of adaptable enterprise applications, to resell and implement its suite of Remedy@Work solutions for automating the employee workplace. The agreement will allow the companies to offer Web-centric Remedy@Work solutions designed to enable organizations to increase employee efficiency, streamline everyday tasks and achieve time and cost savings. Remedy will be responsible for maintaining and supporting the installed systems.

ALLTELL Signs Contract With BancWest Corp.
ALLTELL, an information technology company which provides wireline and wireless communications and information services, has signed a long-term information technology facilities management contract with BancWest Corporation of Honolulu, Hawaii. The contract calls for ALLTEL Information Services to consolidate BancWest's three existing data centers into a single data center in Honolulu. The 127 employees at the Hawaii data center will become employees of ALLTEL Information Services. Additionally, ALLTEL will provide its set of core account processing applications for the consolidated data center.

Lucent To Include Unimax Software With Octel Products
Unimax Systems Corporation, a developer of configuration management software, has announced that Lucent Technologies will include Mailbox Manager software with all of Lucent's new Octel 200/300 and Octel 250/350 voice and fax message servers and upgrades. Unimax originally developed Mailbox Manager for Lucent's Messaging Solutions Group to offer as a stand-alone product to business customers. Mailbox Manager is a Windows-based management tool providing intuitive voice mail administration from a single user interface to the Octel 200/300 and Octel 250/350 message servers for enterprise customers. The product enables systems administrators to create and maintain voice mailboxes, update corporate telephone directories and manage class of service and system distribution lists on one or many message servers.

Convergys And AT&T Wireless Sign Billing Services Agreement
Convergys Corporation has announced an agreement with AT&T Wireless Services (AWS) to extend the term of the current billing services contract. The agreement extends the existing contract into the year 2004 and replaces the current agreement, which was to expire in 2001. Convergys has been providing AWS and predecessor, McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc., with customer care and billing services for 16 years.

Harte-Hanks Signs Reseller Agreement With E.piphany
Harte-Hanks, Inc. has announced the signing of a reseller and systems integration agreement with E.piphany, a provider of customer-centric analytic solutions. The move represents Harte-Hanks expansion into Internet direct marketing through program development and alliance. Harte-Hanks will offer E.piphany analytic solutions to help businesses collect and analyze customer information from inside and outside the enterprise. This aims to help users in distributed locations quickly design and deploy campaigns and analysis using a combination of Internet, third-party and non-localized data. Companies will be able to coordinate fully designed campaigns received from remote locations into broader campaign plans across the organization.

Harte-Hanks And BroadVision Form Alliance
Harte-Hanks has announced another alliance, an agreement with BroadVision, a supplier of e-business applications for relationship management across the extended enterprise. Under the agreement, Harte-Hanks will develop and market branded relationship management solutions integrating its customer relationship management (CRM) and e-business technologies with BroadVision's One-To-One suite of e-business applications. The agreement will enable Harte-Hanks to provide clients full-spectrum CRM solutions using the enterprise business and e-commerce capabilities of BroadVision's product.

Primus To Integrate Software With Siebel Front-Office Applications
Primus has forged an agreement with Siebel Systems through which Primus will become a Siebel Permier Software Partner. Primus, with assistance from Siebel, will be developing an integration of Siebel's front office product and Primus SolutionSeries software. The integrated solution will go through Siebel's validation process to ensure joint customers benefit from a fully tested, integrated customer interaction system. As a result of the integration, Primus SolutionSeries will operate with Siebel 99 to allow customer support organizations to resolve customer calls more efficiently with specific technical support solutions.

Ulysses And Teknekron Announce Partnership Agreement
Ulysses Training Corp. has entered into a partnership agreement with Teknekron InfoSwitch Corporation, a provider of performance-management solutions for call centers. The two firms will join forces in an effort to boost call center performance and combat the effects of high turnover among call center customer service representatives (CSRs). Turnover has climbed to an average of nearly 30 percent and is among the greatest challenges now facing the industry. For call centers, the agreement is intended to yield simple, fast access to an end-to-end, state-of-the-art system for improving CSR quality and productivity. The two companies will help call centers blend Ulysses' product, 1-800-FOR-SERVICE into Teknekron's Performance Suite of call center products.

The Info Group Forges Alliance With Blue Pumpkin
The Info Group has announced a strategic partnership with Blue Pumpkin Software, a provider of workforce management solutions. The relationship provides The Info Group the ability to sell Blue Pumpkin's PrimeTime and PrimeTime Enterprise software, as well as integrate its own call center reporting system, OutLook, with the PrimeTime family of products. The intent of this integration is to provide customers with a single solution for forecasting, scheduling, reporting and managing agents. OutLook is a consolidated call center reporting system that gathers, integrates and presents information needed to increase agent performance, measure service levels by customer and identify additional opportunities for improving business performance. Blue Pumpkins' PrimeTime product line encompasses workforce management software solutions designed for forecasting and scheduling agents in customer contact centers.

Spanlink Announces Support For Siemens Switch
Spanlink Communications, Inc., a software developer of automated customer interaction solutions for call centers, has announced that its FastCall Enterprise computer-telephony integration (CTI) family of products now feature standard integration with Siemens Hicom 300 E, a call center switch. Call centers with Siemens switches can now incorporate the FastCall Enterprise solution, which can be deployed within days to build customer relationships and increase agent effectiveness.

Precision Response Expands To West Coast
Precision Response Corporation has announced that its prcnetcare.com subsidiary has opened a West Coast office to address the demand for Web-based live customer support from e-commerce-focused companies. The company provides outsourced customer care, employing an integrated mix of traditional call center and e-commerce customer care technologies and services. Precision Response is headquartered in Miami, Florida and has chosen Sausalito, California for its new West Coast office.

Lightbridge Opens Brazil Office
Lightbridge, Inc., a provider of customer acquisition, retention and risk management solutions for the converged telecom market, has announced the opening of its Brazilian subsidiary in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The subsidiary, Lightbridge Tecnologia Ltda., intends to bring a range of products and services to the Latin American market, including Lightbridge Consulting Services; the FraudBuster fraud detection and profiling system; Alias, a subscription fraud profiler; and Retail Management System, a point-of-sale application that enables retail operations to manage the sale of telecom products more efficiently.

TBC Consulting To Open Canadian Center
TBC Consulting has announced its expansion into the international marketplace with the opening of its new quality assurance monitoring center. The center is located in Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada. The center will build 25 state-of-the-art positions with expansion up to 50 positions available, all with high-speed Internet access. Jamie Kelly has been appointed to vice president and general manager of the New Brunswick facility.

Convergys Announces Plans For Two New Call Centers
Convergys Corporation, a provider of outsourced, integrated customer care and billing services, has broken ground for a new call center in Valdosta, Georgia. The new call center will create up to 500 new jobs, serviced by 250 workstations. The facility will occupy 30,000 square feet and is slated to open in December of this year. The company also announced plans to open a bilingual call center in Brownsville, Texas. This facility is expected to create 800 new jobs, with approximately 400 workstations over the next two years. It is scheduled to open in October of this year.

TeleServices Direct Opens Call Center In Bloomington, Indiana
TeleServices Direct, a collegiate marketing company, has opened a third call center in Bloomington, Indiana. The new center will initially have 100 stations and increase TeleServices Direct's total capacity to 350 stations featuring inbound/outbound call-blending capabilities. The center will occupy 8,000 square feet and have a state-of-the-art EIS computer system. Two hundred and fifty employees have been added to the company's staff.

M3 Relocating To New Delaware Technology Park
M3 Information Systems, a systems integrator, has selected the Delaware Technology Park for its new Delaware headquarters. The company focuses on developing and implementing enterprisewide information systems. Applying software engineering, M3 provides network consultation services in client/server environments to businesses and governmental agencies. The Delaware facility will concentrate on helping small and medium-sized businesses manage the cost of PC ownership by providing local area network, workstation and help desk support for clients.