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November 1999


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Expansions


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Lynk Ltd. Introduces Hardware And Software System For Voice Services
Lynk Ltd., a subsidiary of Better On-line Solutions, has introduced E-TeleLynk, a hardware and software system designed to provide an effective way for businesses to provide real-time voice services via the Internet. E-TeleLynk can be deployed and customized to the needs of the individual business and offers a small plug-in (as small as 45K) for establishing click and talk buttons on Web pages. Comprised of the E-TeleLynk Gateway and Click & Talk software, E-TeleLynk helps ensure voice integrity using a system to detect the quality of service and trigger a dynamic jitter buffering mechanism. The product was designed to allow help desks, call centers, online stores and any business with a Web presence offer personal and real-time voice service via the Internet, without the need for 800 service, callback or collect dialing.
No. 511, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Rockwell Electronic Commerce Offers Internet Customer Contact Solution
Rockwell Electronic Commerce has introduced its Multimedia Call Manager, an addition to Rockwell EC's Internet Communications Studio, an Internet customer contact management solution. By adding the Multimedia Call Manager to its existing product suite, the company will be able to offer better service and support to Web-based businesses. The new product accepts calls from any H.323-compatible caller, including Microsoft NetMeeting clients and H.323-compliant Internet Telephony gateways. A multimedia PC, with an H.323-compliant Internet phone and Internet connection, allows a consumer to call the multimedia call center. By clicking on a Web page's "Connect Me" button or directly calling the call center with an H.323/T.120 standards-based Internet phone, callers can reach a call center agent qualified to answer their questions. The Multimedia Call Manager switch is used as the basis for queuing and managing the H.323/T.120 sessions. All communications between callers and agents go through the multimedia call center switch, which provides agent, supervisor and management features.
No. 512, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

AVT Corporation Introduces RightFAX Version 7.0 Product Line
AVT Corporation, a developer of managed communications solutions, has announced the release of the RightFAX Version 7.0 product line. Version 7.0, which began shipping in mid-October, combines network fax, IP fax and production fax technologies from AVT's RightFAX, MediaLinq (formerly MediaTel Corporation) and CommercePath solutions into one offering. Version 7.0 was designed to provide organizations with a single source for electronic document exchange. The product is made up of the RightFAX IP Plus Connector, RightFAX production fax servers, enhancements to the RightFAX Gateway for Lotus Notes and an SNMP Alerting Module.
No. 513, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Knowlix Ships New Releases Of iKnow And iKnowAuthor Software
Knowlix Corporation has announced that it is shipping its newest releases of iKnow and iKnowAuthor software. The new releases contain enhanced administrative features that allow users to fine-tune their knowledge systems. The new release of iKnow lets users customize the look and feel of knowledge they capture in the workflow. The new version of iKnowAuthor was designed to give administrators greater control over knowledgebase access through enhanced security, plus increased intelligence through enhanced reporting capability. Administrators can track variables such as frequently used documents, usage by product category and author productivity.
No. 514, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

CCS TrexCom Announces New Version Of ScriptExpress
CCS TrexCom Inc., a provider of interactive Web and voice solutions, has announced the general availability of ScriptExpress Version 3.0, a graphical application development tool with a built-in debugger that allows customers to develop and test applications quickly without requiring extensive coding. ScriptExpress is a 32-bit, Windows NT-based application development tool that supports CCS' IVR system, FirstLine Encore, and its optional Web server module, Web Encore. ScriptExpress 3.0 was designed to enable users to quickly design and develop IVR and Web applications by generating command-line code based on variables input by the developer.
No. 515, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

BrailleStream Developed To Assist Visually Handicapped Agents
Adaptive Innovations, a division of Trango Software Corporation, a product developer and provider of call center products, has introduced BrailleStream, an assistive technology for internal call center communication and automation designed to assist the visually impaired by providing output directly to a voice synthesizer or Braille display. The solution was designed to simultaneously communicate data to both sighted and visually impaired agents. It communicates real-time statistics and messages directly to a visually handicapped agents' desktop, using a voice synthesizer or a 40 or 80 cell refreshable Braille display, while enabling agents to continue their work without interruption. BrailleStream interacts with source data to generate updated information for specified agents, automatically reflecting changes in data. It can read many forms of source data, including ACD information, database files, statistical information and any information that exists in text or ASCII form.
No. 516, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

SYMON Announces Ethernet-Connected LED Displays
SYMON Communications, Inc. has introduced NetBrite, a network-connected, full-matrix LED display board. The boards incorporate an integrated Ethernet TCP/IP connection to provide speed, bandwidth and utility along with BOOTP address resolution, Telnet, PING, TFTP and SYMON's IP JumpStart utility. Each NetBrite initiates a self-test sequence upon initialization and an automatic link indicator provides an LED display of the cable/link status. The product uses standard Cat 5 wiring, which helps make installation easier, more flexible and cost-effective. Messages can be displayed in various configurations using multiple lines, colors, sizes and areas. NetBrite can display 1, 2, 3 or 4 lines of text in a variety of character heights and fonts.
No. 517, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Cisco Announces IP-Based ACD Solution
As an integral component of Cisco AVVID, its architecture for voice, video and integrated data for the corporate enterprise, Cisco Systems, Inc. has introduced the Cisco IP Contact Center (IPCC), a solution designed to deliver intelligent call routing, network-to-desktop CTI and multimedia contact management to enterprise agents over an IP network. The IP Contact Center combines IP networking and contact management by applying Cisco's VoIP product base in conjunction with technology from the recent acquisition of GeoTel Communications.
No. 518, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

CCD Online Introduces Product For Data Field Changes In Legacy Systems
CCD Online Systems, Inc., a provider of software tools and services for mainframe, enterprise maintenance projects, has introduced MegaChange, a product designed to help enable fast, accurate impact assessment and data field changes in legacy systems. The PC-based impact analysis tool helps organizations save time and resources by automatically implementing changes on large-scale maintenance projects. The product's enterprise impact assessment engine finds virtually all fields that would be impacted by a proposed change. It was designed to manage data field changes where the legacy systems of two or more organizations need to be combined for interactivity, the integration of third-party software and enterprise resource planning.
No. 519, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Electronic Technical Services Launches Integrated Predictive Dialing System
Electronic Technical Services, Inc. has announced the release of CallGenTP, an integrated predictive dialing system that was designed for businesses that realize the benefits of telemarketing and require more features than dialing manually or using an older dialing system. CallGenTP converts "dead time" into "talk time" by making it possible for agents to continuously take calls. It provides onscreen scripts for guidance through each campaign. Group or individual performance can be monitored with real-time onscreen displays. Agents receive only connected calls, as the product eliminates busy signals, no answers, intercept tones and answering machines. System features include database management, duplicate number elimination, online statistical displays, automated callback notification, lead confirmation management, 20 custom call disposition, credit card verification and custom database conversion periodical upgrades.
No. 520, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Experian Launches Connected Consumers Database
Experian has announced the launch of its Connected Customers database, which was designed to help bring high-tech marketers together with consumers interested in high-tech products and services. Experian hopes the database will help marketers reach more than 14 million confirmed technology users who perform a variety of high-tech activities. The database was built for high-tech marketers using self-reported information from consumers' online product registrations and survey responses. It includes such information as PC ownership, chosen Internet service and usage and ownership of cell phones, video equipment, DVD players and other electronic devices.
No. 521, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Comdial Subsidiary Introduces Unified Messaging System
Comdial Corporation has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Key Voice, has introduced a new Windows NT-based unified messaging system that fits into any office LAN and combines voice mail, fax and e-mail. Called iNTerchange, the system was designed to scale to both large and small companies' needs. It will be sold as an integrated feature in Comdial's Impact FXS communications server and as a stand-alone product by Key Voice. The product features a universal inbox using Microsoft's Outlook, a text-to-speech e-mail reader, two-way synchronization of e-mail and voice message stores and desktop notification of faxes coupled with the ability to view, annotate, forward, create and send faxes from the desktop.
No. 522, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Excell Consulting Launches Problem-Solving Service For Call Centers
Select call center managers throughout the U.S. can now take advantage of a one-day, free call center audit from Excell Consulting Services, a provider of inbound call center operation consulting services. Excell's Call Center Audit will address major issues facing call centers today and is available to call center decision makers faced with improving customer satisfaction through people, processes and technology solutions. This one-day Call Center Audit was implemented to help call center professionals in identifying issues that should be addressed during a formal call center review. Call Center Review works with call center professionals to assess and deliver improvement recommendations in areas such as business processes, technology, quality initiatives, human resource practices and workforce management.
No. 523, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

NEC Introduces AGENT ANYWHERE
NEC America, Inc. Corporate Networks Group has introduced AGENT ANYWHERE, a capability that allows call center agents to be spread across a networked environment of NEC's NEAX 2400 IMX systems. A single NEAX 2400 IMX system with automatic call distribution can provide centralized control, administration, computer-telephony integration and monitoring and reporting, helping establish a remote agent network in a multisite environment.
No. 524, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Fujitsu Enhances IntelliCenter Call Center System
Fujitsu Business Communication Systems, Inc. has announced enhancements to its IntelliCenter call center system. The key updates include the addition of dynamic routing, which enables users of the system to create a sequence of call routing instructions that adjusts to changing call center conditions. Call centers can also manipulate the calls in a queue using the IntelliCenter 3.0 system, which includes the optional Fujitsu IntelliAgent call center agent application program, which brings a set of agent productivity tools to the desktop. The queue control feature allows IntelliCenter and IntelliAgent users to view and select calls from a pull-down menu and rearrange the order of importance or remove calls from the queue. Calls can be identified by DNIS, ANI, pilot number, trunk number, transfer number and IVR caller-entered digits.
No. 525, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Paragren Enhances One-By-One Product Suite
Paragren has released version 3.0 of its One-By-One suite of marketing software designed to enable the communications, financial services, retail and energy industries to conduct better customer-focused marketing. The suite of applications consists of Data Discovery for integrated exploration, analysis and data mining, Campaign Manager for planning and designing customer acquisition and retention programs and Interactive Marketer for real-time, personal marketing execution. The product's environment helps users design and execute multistaging campaigns and plan, create and deploy automated longitudinal, or cascading, campaigns in which the next promotion depends on responses received to a prior promotion. Users follow decision-tree logic to specify the base offer and all subsequent cascading offers. The offers can depend on elapsed time, response or non-response to the base offer, past customer behaviors or attributes as well as unexpected events.
No. 526, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

IEX Unveils Agent WebStation
IEX, a Tekelec company and developer of call center products, has announced the addition of the Agent WebStation module to its TotalView Workforce Management Software. The Agent WebStation helps allow call center agents to use a Web browser to view call statistics and access their weekly schedules via a desktop computer. To access the TotalView Agent WebStation, call center agents connect to the TotalView server and are prompted for an I.D. and password. A JAVA applet maintains data security. Once an agent is logged on, the product provides up-to-date information at the agent's desktop, tracking call handling efficiency and automating the distribution of work schedules and schedule changes through its StatsViewer and ScheduleViewer modules.
No. 527, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Vineyardsoft Corporation Announces KnowledgeSync 2000
Vineyardsoft Corporation, a provider of knowledge synchronization software, has announced KnowledgeSync 2000, a software solution that enhances customer relationship management (CRM) applications. Supporting alerts based on trend analysis and on conditions across multiple business applications, KnowledgeSync was designed to be a fast and cost-effective solution that enables organizations to make business decisions by ensuring that the right information is available to decision makers. In addition to Webcast alert technology, the product features e-mail, fax and pager notifications. It enables users to receive alerts about a range of application events from any ODBC-compliant database and also supports external alert subscription, helping enable organizations to keep customers, business partners and all members of the supply chain up-to-date on corporate events.
No. 528, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

BioFit Introduces New Control For Backrest Tilt
BioFit Engineered Products has replaced its backrest tilt mechanism with a new Task Control. The Task Control provides seated ergonomic tilt adjustment for the backrest with the touch of a paddle. This feature will be standard for chairs in the 1P, 1Q, 4L, 4M, 4P, 4Q, 4V, 4X, 4Y, ERA, EOC, MOC, TOC, and CHC Series and eight chairs in the Drafting Series. Each chair will be equipped with two seat control paddles that will allow chair and backrest adjustment from a seated position. The front paddle will adjust seat height and the back paddle will adjust backrest tilt. The backrest height adjustment will still be controlled by a knob located on the back right-hand side of the chair.
No. 529, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Easyphone To Offer Version 5 Of Its Software Suite
Easyphone Inc., a provider of software solutions for global contact centers, has announced the availability of version 5 of its integrated software suite. Enhancements include EASYsupervisor, a management capability for contact center performance monitoring and reporting; and the addition of skills-based routing to its intelligent media router. Also, the updated product includes support for new switching platforms.
No. 530, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

MarketFirst Introduces Channel Lead Management Blueprint
MarketFirst, a provider of Web-hosted "e-marketing" solutions, has announced the availability of its new Channel Lead Management Blueprint. This electronic marketing application was designed to help streamline the acquisition of leads and effectively distribute them to the channel, helping leverage the Internet to give manufacturers and distributors the tools for developing and launching lead generation programs that support channel sales efforts. The product provides reporting and analysis functions that help enable customers to close the loop on their channel programs by knowing how many new sales were generated through individualized reports on each channel partner.
No. 531, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Andrea Electronics Unveils Universal Serial Bus Microphone Array
Andrea Electronics Corporation has announced its unveiling of the Pentium processor-based Andrea Universal Serial Bus (USB) Microphone Array, a headset-free, far-field digital microphone. The USB Microphone Array, which incorporates Andrea's Digital Super Directional Array (DSDA) and PureAudio noise reduction microphone technologies, were developed to address the need for a digital microphone solution that enables users to communicate through the PC and operate command and control speech applications with improved voice clarity, while at a distance from the microphone.
No. 532, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Association Of Support Professionals Publishes "Best Web Support Sites"
Developers of online support sites are putting increased emphasis on personalization features and usability improvements, according to a new report on "Best Web Support Sites" published by The Association of Support Professionals (ASP). The 114-page report profiles the 10 winners of the ASP's 1999 "Best Support Sites" competition and includes screen shots of key site features, essays by site designers and hands-on advice about performance metrics, project management, promotion, navigation and other aspects of support site development.
No. 533, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Intarka Brings New Web Mining Solution To Market
Intarka, a developer of Web-mining tools for business, has announced ProspectMiner 1.2, an intelligent agent for Web mining and data profiling that retrieves detailed company information from the Web. ProspectMiner pulls information from 20 search engines and the entire Web to identify companies that match the user-specified criteria, then applies data profiling to refine the search. After viewing the initial results, users can interactively rate the data, tightening the search criteria to find only the most targeted prospects. The new release features several interface and speed enhancements. Users can now customize reports and datasheets using built-in templates. The Export Wizard has been updated, enabling users to export data to Siebel, GoldMine and ACT!, as well as custom fields.
No. 534, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Waldmann Lighting Adds To Its Product Line
Waldmann Lighting Company introduces the desk- and furniture-mounted Chorus Uplighter. This luminaire is part of Waldmann's Twin-C product line, which includes two lighting components. The first component features indirect lighting consisting of furniture-integrated (binder bin, desk and furniture panel clamp models), and freestanding, pendant or wall-mounted (sconce) fixtures. The second component is comprised of adjustable arm (direct) task lighting for work surfaces. Together, the components are designed to complement each other to offer an integrated lighting solution. Four 40WPL-L compact fluorescent lamps provide flicker-free illumination and have a rated life of 20,000 hours with a light output of 3,150 lumens. A three-way control switch, built into the head, lights up two or all four lamps for maximum illumination.
No. 535, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

ITP Offers New Features In Translation And Localization Services For Web Sites
ITP, which specializes in the development and use of localization technologies and services for Web sites, announced the latest addition of FastTrack to its localization services. The service, designed to provide clients with a faster, more efficient solution to their translation/localization needs, consists of two services: Rapid Translation Service and Project Service. FastTrack puts the localization service into a Web environment, or an e-localization process, using the Internet. The Rapid Translation Service of FastTrack is designed for small text files, in either a rich text format (rtf) or word document (doc), which require translation only. By submitting requirements on the Web form, and attaching files, customers can get an instant cost estimate. The company guarantees a maximum turnaround time of 72 hours for files with 2,5000 words (10 pages) or less.
No. 536, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

AMCAT Incorporates Digitalized Recording Into Predictive Dialing Software
American Computer and Telephone (AMCAT) has incorporated digital recording as an optional feature in the enterprise predictive dialing software. This enables users to record both the agents' and prospects' conversations. Call centers can use the feature for quality control, verification or when required by contract or law. The feature digitally stores the selected conversation in ether .wav or .vox format to the drive or path chosen in the user setup utility. The agent, upon demand, can record portions of any conversation. Stored data can then be retrieved by any of the standard indexes of date, agent I.D. or telephone number.
No. 537, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Dictaphone Introduces Freedom Open-Architecture Recording System
Dictaphone Corporation has introduced Freedom, an open-architecture recording system designed to give call centers built-in protection against obsolescence. Using standard file access methods like SMB, NFS and FTP, Freedom helps allow users to take advantage of any existing or anticipated future storage device. Freedom's plug-in telecommunications interfaces and operating system-independent architecture help it adapt should a call center upgrade its phone system, operating system or network.
No. 538, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Nuance Enterprise Solutions
Nuance has announced its Nuance Enterprise Solutions suite, a set of products and services designed to help companies voice-enable customer relationship management and e-commerce solutions. Nuance Enterprise Solutions include speech recognition and voice authentication server software, a set of Nuance SpeechObjects combined to define the voice user interfaces to the packaged applications, and user interface design and tuning services. The first two Enterprise Solutions to be available are the Nuance Customer Support Suite, which will automate caller/customer identification, new customer registration (name and address capture), product identification, support level validation, problem status updates and initial problem determination; and the Nuance Order Management Suite, which will handle caller/customer identification, new customer registration, order entry and order status.
No. 539, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

Lucent Launches eSight
Lucent Technologies has unveiled eSight, an interactive Web site designed to provide 24/7 service and support for Lucent's data networking products and services. The Web site features live chat, video and audio streaming, Web casts, Web push technologies and an extensive knowledge base and case-based reasoning. Lucent agents can track customer activity, see the customer's Web page and push Web pages to the customer while maintaining an ongoing chat session. The first Lucent data networking customers to have access to eSight are Lucent customers with NetCare service warranties. Other Lucent products will be phased in over the next year and a half. Michael Graham-Hyde, NetCare senior vice president of Global Marketing and Market Management, said the average session on eSight lasts 9 minutes, down from the 15 minutes of the average telephone support call.
No. 540, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

MetaSound Introduces Audio Marketing Product
MetaSound Systems, a media services company which focuses on products for in-queue audiences, has announced inQ, an addition to its line of PromoCast audio marketing products. InQ is a Web-enabled digital audio announcer that provides brand and image enhancing audio content, such as live news, programming, marketing messages or music, to captive callers who are placed on hold or waiting in a call center queue. The Web-enabled deliver was included to enable distribution of programs automatically without human intervention, helping clients retrieve automatic audio program updates at any time. InQ's audio files are digitally recorded and are downloaded into digital memory.
No. 541, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo

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PeopleSupport.com, a provider of e-commerce customer care, has announced the appointment of Leslie Fleisher to the post of vice president of business development. Fleisher will be responsible for driving new business and sales opportunities to the company.

RightPoint Inc. has announced the appointment of Al Castino as chief financial officer. Castino will play a major role in leading the company to its initial public offering. Additionally, the company appointed Lin Johnstone, former vice president at Aspect Communications, to vice president and managing director for Europe. RightPoint produces enterprise applications for delivering real-time electronic marketing campaigns via interactive customer touch points.

Brendon N. Hansford has joined Convergys Corporation as vice president of business development. Hansford, a former Pepsico director, will be responsible for all phases of business development for Convergys.

Greenwich Technology Partners, an e-commerce and internetworking consulting company, has appointed Kevin Bock to the newly created position of regional vice president, New York and New Jersey. Additionally, the company has appointed William Alquist to vice president of planning and development.

MicroAge Teleservices has announced it has appointed Lorraine Bergman as vice president of utilities business development.

Tellabs has announced that it has named Don Jones as its new vice president of North American Sales. He will be responsible for sales of Tellabs products in North America. Jones replaces Chris Cooney, one of Tellabs' original six founders, who will help transition the leadership of the North American sales organization to Jones and will continue to serve Tellabs in other capacities. Additionally, Tellabs has named Jane Brandt to vice president of sales of the company's multiservice networking products.

Click Interconnect, Inc. has announced three new appointments to support its portfolio of products and services. Kenneth M. Manfredi has taken the position of vice president of sales; Ernesto Liebster has been appointed director of sales and marketing; and Jeffrey G. Mason, CPA, has accepted the position of vice president of finance. Click Interconnect's product, Click 1-2-1, is a connectivity service that provides Web site customers with live assistance via regular phone lines, free of charge.

Right Now Technologies, a provider of Internet customer care systems, has announced that Jeff Honeycomb has joined the company as president and chief operating officer. Honeycomb will oversee the company's worldwide sales, marketing and customer support operations.

LivePerson has announced the addition of four new executives to its management team. Scott Cohen will serve as executive vice president of sales and strategic alliances; Larry Wasserman has been appointed to vice president of marketing; Vince Beese accepted the post of vice president of sales; and Kirk Shelton has joined as chief operating officer.

Robert E. Bossert has been named vice president of technology development and chief technology officer of Protocol Communications, Inc. Bossert will be responsible for developing the company's e-commerce solutions and directing all aspects of the company's technology plans and programs.

Rick Miller has been named executive vice president of business development for Onsite Access, a provider of commercial high-speed Internet and advanced broadband communications servers.

NICE Systems Ltd. has named Robert J. LaFlamme president of the company's U.S. subsidiary, NICE Systems, Inc. He will be responsible for leading NICE's North American operations.

Mitel Corporation has confirmed the appointment of Paul Butcher to the position of senior vice president, Mitel Communications Systems. Butcher will lead one of the company's two business units, focused on converging voice and data communications systems and applications for enterprises. He has been acting in this position since April, 1999.

Ray Zukowski has accepted the position of chief operating officer for Sky Alland. The company provides customer retention and acquisition services through one-to-one communications programs. Zukowski comes to Sky Alland from APAC, an outsourced teleservices firm.

The Phillips Group-InfoTech, an arm of The Phillips Group, has named David Laughland president of the company. Laughland formerly held executive positions with both AT&T and Lucent Technologies.

Kristi Pambioanco has been named vice president of marketing of TotalTEL USA Communications, Inc. Pambioanco, formerly a marketing director at Lucent Technologies, will be responsible for leading TotalTEL's marketing, communications and product development efforts.

InfoUSA has appointed Jack Landry senior vice president of recruiting and training. Landry will be responsible for developing and implementing corporate policies, strategies and programs for employee training and development.

Gary D. Cuccio will join LHS Group, Inc. as president and chief executive officer. He progresses to LHS from AirTouch Paging, where he was president since 1998. Cuccio's appointment will be effective as of January 1, 2000. Additionally, R�diger Hellmich has joined LHS as executive vice president and chief business units officer to lead a newly formed product lines function and organization.

Witness Systems has announced that Russell Brown, formerly of PeopleSoft, has joined the company as vice president of business development. His new position will involve the cultivation of technology alliances.

Former California Governor Pete Wilson has been appointed to the board of TelePacific Communications. During his term as Governor, Wilson urged both the state's legislature and regulatory agencies to make California the leader in deregulation of telecom and other public utilities.

eLoyalty, a business consulting and systems integration organization, has announced the promotions of eight employees to vice president positions. These employees are Mark Berry, Martin Dixon-Tyrer, Barry Evans, John Klustner, Kathy Novak-Johnson, Kenneth Olson, Millie Ortiz, Thomas Ryan and Tom Schmidt.

Apropos Technology as announced that Paul L. Conti has joined the company as vice president of human resources. Conti will be responsible for developing and implementing an extensive recruitment program and execute a long-term plan for attracting candidates in the high-tech industry. He will also be responsible for the company's corporate information technology (IT) and facilities departments.

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Cisco Systems Acquires WebLine Communications
Cisco Systems, Inc. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held WebLine Communications of Burlington, Massachusetts. WebLine is a provider of customer interaction management software for Internet customer service and e-commerce. The acquisition was intended to further Cisco's commitment to the advanced communications network of integrated data, voice and video and strengthen its strategy to create an open software platform for enterprise and service provider customers. WebLine's product's include Web collaboration and e-mail management tools, which allow multiple parties to work collaboratively over the Internet. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco common stock worth $325 million will be exchanged for all outstanding shares, warrants and options of WebLine. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2000.

TSC Announces Intention To Accelerate Spin-Off Of eLoyalty
Technology Solutions Company (TSC) has announced its intention to accelerate the spin-off of its eLoyalty division into a separate publicly traded company through a tax-free distribution of its eLoyalty shares to TSC shareholders. The decision will eliminate the need for an eLoyalty IPO and permit the spin-off to occur in the first quarter of 2000, subject to the receipt of a favorable IRS ruling and other regulatory approvals. eLoyalty is a consulting and systems integration organization focused on building customer loyalty. The company offers technologies and business practices that span the spectrum of the Internet, call centers, marketing channels, sales force optimization, customer service and field service and logistics.

ISI Infortext Purchases Account-A-Call Call Accounting Division
ISI Infortext has signed an agreement to purchase the Account-A-Call Service Bureau Division of AAC Corporation. The agreement provides for the sale and transfer of AAC's bureau based in southern California and its TUMS software platform. AAC and its operating subsidiaries, Call Center Systems, AAC Latinoamerica and Lynch, Young & Company, will continue existing operations. ISI Infortext offers a line of solutions for call accounting, corporate directory, cable/facilities management, toll-fraud management, inventory management, billing and fraud detection for single- and multi-site applications.

Naviant Acquires IQ2.net
Naviant Technology Solutions, a customer relationship management (CRM) consulting and services provider, has announced that it has acquired IQ2.net, a provider of online registrations and direct marketing lists and services to companies looking to reach e-commerce consumers. IQ2.net was formerly owned by IntelliQuest.

Janna Systems Announces Two Acquisitions
Janna Systems, Inc., a supplier of enterprise-class customer relationship management solutions, has announced it has entered into agreements to acquire all of the shares of LivePage Corporation, a supplier of Web content management and personalization software, and Archer Enterprise Systems Inc., a developer of CRM data synchronization software. The acquisitions were forged to bring skilled software developers into Janna's research and development arm to assist with the company's next generation of data synchronization products.

Harte-Hanks Expands Services Through Acquisition Of ZD Market Intelligence
Harte-Hanks, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ZD Market Intelligence, a unit of Ziff-Davis Inc., for $101 million cash. ZDMI (formerly Computer Intelligence) is a provider of database products and solutions to the high-tech and communications industries in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Based in San Antonio, Texas, Harte-Hanks owns and operates an integrated direct marketing company that provides a range of integrated direct marketing services including response management, database marketing and marketing services. The acquisition of ZDMI is expected to expand Harte-Hanks' ability to provide database solutions to its core market.

Tellabs Completes Acquisition Of NetCore Systems
Tellabs has completed its acquisition of NetCore Systems, Inc., a purchase intended to strengthen Tellabs's ability to help service providers build multiservice networks. NetCore Systems will form the core of Tellabs' new Internetworking Systems Division, based in Wilmington, Massachusetts. The new division's Everest Integrated Switch combines carrier-class IP routing and ATM switching into a single multilayer device. The switch/router was designed to reduce network cost and complexity and help carriers provide Internet, virtual private network (VPN) and other services on a single platform.

Amdocs To Acquire International Telecommunication Data Systems
Amdocs Limited, a provider of customer care, billing and order management solutions for the telecom industry, and International Telecommunications Data Systems Inc., a provider of outsourcing and service bureau solutions, jointly announced an agreement for Amdocs to acquire International Telecommunications Data Systems for approximately $182 million in Amdocs shares. It is hoped that the purchase will expand the scope of Amdocs' solution services through the enhancement of outsourcing capabilities for telecom customer care and billing operations. Amdocs expects the transaction to close by the end of December, 1999.

ALLTEL Purchases Southern Data Systems
ALLTEL has announced that it has purchased Southern Data Systems, a privately held company that produces software systems for the community bank market. When combined with its existing HORIZON Banking System, ALLTEL will have an integrated front- and back-office system for the community bank market. The acquisition of Southern Data Systems marks the third software company acquired by ALLTEL in the past six months. Previously this year, ALLTEL acquired both Corporate Solutions International, a producer of consumer loan origination software, and Advanced Information Resources, which produced a comprehensive commercial lending suite.

Remedy Announces The Purchase Of Fortress Technologies
Remedy Corporation, a provider of asset management solutions, has announced the purchase of privately held Fortress Technologies, Inc., a consultation firm specializing in asset management. As part of its initiative to expand its asset management practice, Remedy has tripled its staff of enterprise consultants. By acquiring Fortress' proprietary methodology, Remedy can help customers identify and prioritize opportunities to improve management of their assets, both inside and outside IT. Areas of emphasis will include asset acquisition, risk management, change management, vendor management, software management, financial management, infrastructure planning, laptop management and lease management.

Protocol Communications Announces Four Acquisitions
Protocol Communications, an integrated marketing services company, has announced four new acquisitions. The first is that of Blue Line Promotions, headquartered in Atlanta. Blue Line is a marketing services company that specializes in fund raising through customized programs that it develops for non-profit and charitable organizations. Additionally, Protocol has acquired Media Express of Montr�al, Qu�bec, Canada. Media Express is also a marketing services company. The third acquisition announced by Protocol was that of Cross Industry Communications, a Boston-based company that offers a range of value-added marketing and teleservices to its clients. Finally, Protocol has acquired MBS Communications, a large integrated marketing services company. MBS is based in Cheshire, Connecticut.

SR. Teleperformance Strengthens U.S. Presence
SR. Teleperformance, a provider of outsourced telemarketing and teleservices, has announced its acquisition of 51 percent interest in NSDI, a provider of customer relationship management and teleservices. NSDI will become known as NSDI-Teleperformance and currently has call centers in South Carolina, Colorado, Georgia and New Mexico, adding 400 workstations to the 2,000 workstations already operated by the SR. Teleperformance Group in North America. The majority interest in NSDI was acquired to tap the company's experience in customer relationship marketing and telesales, with clients primarily in the health care, telecom, financial services and Internet sectors.

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U|Force Announces Sun Certification
U|Force Inc. has announced its certification by Sun Microsystems Canada Inc. as a Sun Authorized Java Center service location. U|Force provides a Java application platform for the computer-telephony integration market and unified messaging for telecommunications service providers. Both companies will jointly participate in marketing activities to promote U|Force's products and services. Headquartered in Montr�al, Qu�bec, Canada, U|Force is a Java telecom enterprise software company specializing in the development and implementation of applications for Web-enabled telecommunications, e-business, government and service sectors.

Associates First Capital Corporation Renames Subsidiary
SPS Payment Systems, Inc. (SPS) announced that it adopted the new name, Associates Commerce Solutions, in late September, 1999. The company was purchased by Associates First Capital Corporation in October, 1998. SPS provides retail private label credit card services, commercial accounts processing services and call center teleservices to clients. The company has additionally announced the opening of a new headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois.

Durham College And Parmac Offer Skills Enhancement
Durham College and Parmac Relationship Marketing, Ltd., both of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, have struck an agreement whereby the college will help 15 Parmac employees enhance their telemarketing skills and knowledge through call center training on areas including customer service, telecommunications and sales. While Durham College has offered call center programs since 1997, this is the first time that they are conducting this type of training onsite at a business. The weekly, two-hour training sessions will be led by a Durham College instructor at Parmac's facilities in Oshawa. At the conclusion of the training, participating Parmac staff will receive a certificate from Durham College.

KnowDev Becomes Knowlagent
The former KnowDev has announced a name change to Knowlagent as of the second quarter of 1999. The company, which produces online learning solution software for customer contact centers, counts as its flagship software KnowDev 5.0, which was designed to help call centers train their employees at their workstations without disrupting the flow of calls or productivity. Additionally, the company has recently acquired a new president and CEO, Phil C. Solomon, who joined the company in January to direct Knowlagent's growth initiatives.

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SITEL And HP Announce CRM Agreement In Spain And Portugal
SITEL Corporation has announced that its Spanish-based subsidiary, SITEL Ib�rica Teleservices, has reached an agreement with Hewlett-Packard to provide phone-based technical support, presale and postsale customer service, online technical support and warranty administration for Hewlett-Packard's customers in Spain and Portugal. SITEL, as the provider to HP in both countries, will implement this contract from its existing call center in San Fernando de Henares in Madrid.

LivePerson Signs BeWeb As First French Reseller
LivePerson, Inc. has announced that it has partnered with French company BeWeb to resell LivePerson's real-time, online customer service product to French Web sites. LivePerson's technology allows visitors to e-commerce sites to engage in real-time text conversations with customer service representatives, helping provide shoppers with a secure, Web-based forum for questions and assistance.

Philips And Portugal Telecom To Deploy Speech Recognition Technology
Portugal Telecom and Philips have announced initiation of a large deployment of speech recognition technology and natural language understanding in the Portuguese market. Portugal Telecom will equip more than 1,000 ports in its call center operations with Philips speech recognition technology, speech-enabling its range of services, including directory assistance, calling card validation, call completion and other value-added offerings. The system is based on Philips' SpeechPearl speech recognition and natural language understanding engine. By implementing Philips' technology, Portugal Telecom hopes to generate additional income, reduce operating costs and increase customer loyalty.

SITEL Extends Its Relationship With Compaq To Colombia
SITEL Corporation announced the signing of a three-year agreement with COMPAQ Computer Colombia to provide a range of telephone-based customer relationship management service applications and technical support services to COMPAQ's corporate and consumer customers in Colombia. SITEL will oversee the operations from COMPAQ's CRM center located in Bogota.

Interactive Intelligence And Solutions 77 Partner To Offer Server In The Philippines
Solutions 77, a Philippines-based consulting company, and Interactive Intelligence, developer of the communications server known as Enterprise Interaction Center (EIC), have announced an agreement that names Solutions 77 as an Interactive Intelligence partner, giving the Filipino company the right to market, sell and support EIC throughout the Philippines. Solutions 77 provides information systems solutions and services, particularly to the customer care management functions of manufacturing, telecommunications, health care, insurance, energy and finance industries.

Vodavi Expands International Distribution Of Digital Communications Products
Vodavi Communications Systems, Inc. has announced an international distribution agreement with ITApps Limited, formerly known as Teledata. The agreement will enable ITApps to resell a range of Vodavi's digital communication products to small and mid-sized businesses in Hong Kong and throughout Southeast Asia. ITApps, a provider of PABX systems, voice logging equipment, audio and video conferencing equipment, call center management applications and customer relationship management systems, began product rollout in September, 1999.

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HP And Oracle Team To Expand Solutions
Hewlett-Packard Company and Oracle Corp. have announced a series of agreements aimed at expanding the companies' ability to jointly develop and deliver Oracle Internet solutions on the HP platform. By using Internet-enabled technology from both companies, Oracle's and HP's sales environments will be linked via the Internet, allowing the companies to collaborate on sales opportunities to expand the market potential for both companies' technologies. Specifically, the companies announced that HP will use and co-sell the Oracle Sales component of Oracle's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software suite; Oracle will make HP-UX a strategic development platform for all of Oracle's e-business software applications by stepping up development and engineering efforts on the HP-UX computing platform; Oracle will pre-configure and tune its Business OnLine (BOL) offering on HP systems and will run key internal business systems, such as Oracle CRM and e-mail, on HP systems; and HP will expand its CRM consulting capacity to deploy Oracle solutions sold on HP systems.

Genesis Communications And GTE Infotel Sign Agreement
Genesis Communications International, Inc., a provider of local and long-distance telecommunications services to the Hispanic market, announced it has signed an agreement to outsource telemarketing services to Infotel. A subsidiary of GTE, Infotel is supported by CODETEL, the largest phone company in the Dominican Republic. As part of the agreement, Infotel will market Genesis long-distance services to Spanish-speaking customers in the U.S. Infotel has established call centers in the Dominican Republic staffed by employees fluent in both English and Spanish. Infotel, together with CODETEL, offers a range of services, including operator services, data entry, image correction and inbound and outbound telemarketing.

Call Center University And Achieve Global Offer Training Solution
Call Center University (CCU) and AchieveGlobal have formed an alliance to give call centers single-source access to professional education, consulting services on technical and operational issues and training programs in leadership, teamwork, customer service and sales performance. CCU, a vendor-neutral, educational division of TCS Management Group, Inc., is a provider of professional education for call center personnel. AchieveGlobal, a division of The Times Mirror Company, is a resource for performance skills training and consulting.

Apropos Technology And Baan Company Sign Agreement
Apropos Technology has announced the signing of a BaanConnect Alliance agreement with Baan Company. Under the agreement, Apropos and Baan will develop a tight integration between BaanService and Apropos' Version 4 Total Interaction Management system. Apropos Version 4 provides users of the BaanService module with an array of front-end interactive voice response data collection and self-service options, database integration, desktop "screen pop" of BaanService screens, voice/e-mail/Web/fax interaction routing, historical reporting and real-time resource management functionality.

eLoyalty And DST Design Solution For Financial Services Industry
eLoyalty and DST Systems, a provider of workflow and customer relationship management solutions, have announced a solution to help companies in the financial services and insurance industries more effectively manage all aspects of their customer relationships. eLoyalty is a consulting and technology integration organization focused on helping companies attain and retain customer relationships. By extending DST's AWD suite of customer service solutions with eLoyalty's software toolkit, users can more easily implement a solution within the constraints of their existing technology environment. The new solution will be designed to help enable companies to improve customer satisfaction by providing their service representatives with easier access from their desktops to all customer information.

HAHT And TSC Enable Configure-To-Order Sales Applications For SAP Customers
Technology Solutions Company and HAHT Software, a provider of e-business applications that extend ERP systems to the Web, have announced the details of their strategic partnership. Together, HAHT and TSC will offer companies implementing e-business systems the ability to extend existing SAP R/3 processes to sell configurable products and services to customers over the Internet. TSC and HAHT collaborated to integrate SAP's Internet Pricing and Configurator (IPC) with the HAHT e-Scenario for Sales & Distribution (SD e-Scenario). The combined solution was designed to enable offline and Web-based R/3 sales configuration and pricing capabilities.

Dictaphone Integrates Question Mark Perception With da Vinci QMS/CMS
Question Mark Corporation has announced the integration of Question Mark's Perception testing and assessment software with Dictaphone's da Vinci quality monitoring and call management (QMS/CMS) system for call centers. The da Vinci solution provides call centers with the ability to monitor and evaluate how the call center manages the entire customer experience and the ability to quickly find and retrieve specific recorded phone conversations for liability or customer service purposes. The integration of the Perception software with da Vinci means that call centers can use da Vinci's built-in evaluation form, or design their own custom evaluation forms, to use in evaluating and scoring their call center's agent/customer interactions. Question Mark is a provider of computer-based testing and assessment software. Question Mark's product, Perception, is a Web-based testing and assessment tool with multimedia capabilities and was designed for use on the World Wide Web.

Hello Direct And Aura Communications To Develop Wireless Headset Solution
Hello Direct, Inc., a developer and direct marketer of telephone productivity tools, has announced a development agreement with Aura Communications, Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, Hello Direct will use a technology developed by Aura to design a new wireless headset product. The headset will address the issue of increasing radio frequency (RF) interference among the growing number of wireless devices in business environments. This low-power "magnetic induction" technology is virtually immune to RF interference and is a wireless solution for "high density" applications in which many people are using wireless solutions in close proximity to one another. The product is expected to be available by mid-2000.

Bell Canada And Locus Dialogue Sign Letter Of Intent
Bell Canada and Locus Dialogue Inc. have announced they have signed a letter of intent for the purpose of supplying Locus' Liaison Speech activated attendant software to Bell customers. This letter of intent, signed by Bell Canada's Gateways division, will enable Bell to offer this speech recognition solution to the marketplace and help enable business customers to increase the efficiency of their knowledge workers. The Liaison Speech activated attendant software was designed to increases the productivity of knowledge workers by offering callers speech-enabled access to information and individuals. Applications including call answer, call center routing, corporate and personal voice-activated dialing and self-service information delivery are all available in a single transaction.

TeleDirect And Acxiom Form Alliance
TeleDirect International, Inc. and Acxiom Corporation reported that they have signed an alliance agreement that allows TeleDirect to integrate and resell Acxiom's data products within their Liberation 6000 automated marketing campaign solution. Through the agreement, TeleDirect's Liberation 6000 accesses the Acxiom Data Network version of InfoBase Profiler to retrieve key profile information via the Internet. Using Liberation 6000, TeleDirect's customers can automatically select the most appropriate campaign message for each customer and improve campaign effectiveness. TeleDirect is a developer of automated campaign technology for contact centers. Acxiom provides data products, data integration services, mailing list services, modeling and analysis and information technology outsourcing services, as well as data warehousing and decision support services.

InfoPlex And Intarka Partner To Develop Sales Solution
InfoPlex Corporation has announced a joint marketing partnership with Intarka Inc. The partnership was forged to offer clients a better way to attain prospects (modeled after best customers) and apply customer relationship management (CRM) principles to these prospects through teleservices. Intarka's ProspectMiner helps empower marketing and sales professionals to search the Web for quality business prospects and research and to generate targeted lists for sales and marketing activities. InfoPlex's teleservices combine real-time marketing, CRM principles and market intelligence to improves sales and marketing ROI. Knowledge is gained through the data gathered in the call center process and InfoPlex helps enhance this information by upgrading it to intelligence through analysis.

Bluestone Announces Product Agreements With XML Technology Providers
Bluestone Software Inc., a provider of enterprise interaction management solutions, has announced complementary product agreements with Cloudscape, Inc., Extensibility Inc., Fiorano Software Inc., PointBase Inc. and Vervet Logic to bundle and integrate their XML technologies with Bluestone Visual-XML, Bluestone's toolkit for building XML applications. The alliances with these XML solutions providers was forged to extend the functionality of Bluestone Visual-XML to include complementary development and deployment services, helping create a more robust XML solution for Bluestone's XML audience.

Phonetic Systems And Lucent Join Forces To Speech-Enable Definity Switches
Lucent Technologies and Phonetic Systems have announced an agreement to deliver speech-enabled directory search solutions to Lucent customers in North America. Specifically, Phonetic Systems' voice-driven auto-attendant and directory services products will be integrated into Lucent's Definity PC Console, PhoneLine and Master Directory Data Manager. The inclusion of Phonetic Systems' technology within Lucent's Enterprise Directory Solutions product family will help enable companies to speech-enable their enterprise directories, auto-attendant and call routing functions, adding new features to Lucent's directory-based products and Definity switches. Inbound calls can be directed to an agent or forwarded to Phonetic Systems' PhoneticOperator for automated speech-based processing during business hours. Calls can also be handled without any human intervention after hours or when the agent is busy with other calls.

Expansions

FutureCall Relocating Colorado Springs Call Center
FutureCall Telemarketing West, Inc. has announced that it has moved its Colorado Spring call center within the city to a new, 40,000-square-foot facility. The move took place in mid-September. The facility will house 420 calling stations, just as the previous facility did, but in more spacious surroundings. The new site was designed for better layout of calling stations in tighter team groupings for better management support from team coaches.

DecisionOne Opens New Customer Support Center In Texas
DecisionOne, an independent computer maintenance and technology support company, has begun construction of a new 50,000 square-foot customer support center in Bryan, Texas. The new center will bring an estimated 500 new call center jobs to the area located near Texas A&M University.

eGain Launches Canadian Operations
eGain Communications has announced the opening of its Canadian headquarters in Toronto to support the company's Canadian sales. Gary Taneja has been appointed to manage the company's growth in Canada.

Telecom Vision Opens Global Customer Service Center
Telecom Vision International, a subsidiary of Teleglobe Communications Corporation, has opened a new customer service facility in Montr�al, Qu�bec, Canada. The new center is intended to provide customer support for Teleglobe's portfolio of domestic and international products and services, including toll-free services, calling cards, Internet access, international private lines and its line of voice and data business services. The company anticipates that the new center will grow to support more than 100 agents.

Call Sciences Launches Service Bureau Expansion
Call Sciences, an international supplier of enhanced telecommunications services, has announced the expansion of its service bureau nodes into Los Angeles. This expansion is the first move in the company's plan to expand its services outside its current operating areas of New York and London. The company's service bureaus help enable network operators and service providers to offer advanced communications and messaging services on an outsourced basis with no up-front capital investment, no complicated product development and no expensive systems maintenance and upgrades. Through Call Sciences' packaging and support of multiple services from a single enhanced telecommunications platform, network operators and service providers are able to offer a range of value-added telecommunications services at a low price to their user base. Service offerings include unified messaging; calling card; Personal Assistant, the company's single number service; and Unified Call Management, the company's call management and unified messaging application.







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