Nuasis Launches NuContact Center 3.0
Nuasis Corp. (news - alert) recently announced the availability of its NuContact Center 3.0 software. The new release supports agents located anywhere, higher system scalability and advanced conditional routing based on customer intelligence and business analytics. NuContact Center 3.0 features continue to highlight the extensibility of the software-only product architecture. With this release, the product extends functionality to customer service agents beyond the formal call center and uses customer intelligence from multiple enterprise software applications to improve routing decisions. NuContact Center 3.0 supports the use of any hard phone device for remote or home-based agents. This capability allows customers to more quickly address call center staffing challenges that include limited recruiting pools, commuting issues and business continuity. Customers can deploy agents at low cost within hours without the need for the proprietary phone sets required by other vendor solutions. Agents simply download the NuContact Center desktop software over the Internet and sign on to the system from any available phone set. NuContact Center 3.0 provides remote agents with the same feature set that is available to agents at major call center operations. Call center supervisors also have the full set of management features available for monitoring remote agents, viewing real-time statistics and reporting on remote agent status and performance. This new capability extends the product’s Enterprise Routing Architecture beyond the physical confines of formal call center locations. Customer contacts are routed to a single virtual pool of agents who can be distributed physically across the system regardless of geographic location. This same capability can also be used to extend call center functionality to customer service personnel stationed in the field who are not normally part of the formal call center staff. http://www.nuasis.com

Portrait Software Enhances CIM Suite
Portrait Software, (news - alert) a provider of customer interaction management and predictive customer analytics software, has announced the latest addition to its Customer Interaction Management Suite. The new offering, called Interaction Optimizer, integrates with any existing CRM infrastructure to bring real-time analytics to the point of customer interaction. It allows b-to-c companies with large customer bases to leverage everything they know about each customer, including information learned during the interaction itself, to help them take the most profitable action and provide the best customer experience. Interaction Optimizer is the first new offering emerging from Portrait Software’s acquisition of Quadstone, a customer analytics player, in December 2005. Interaction Optimizer was designed to bring a new capability to any existing CRM environment: real-time scoring. With real-time scoring, automated customer behavior models — for churn risk or propensity to buy — are used to recommend the best next action to take in each interaction, including cross-selling, special offers or service initiatives. Portrait Interaction Optimizer uses customer propensity models and leverages business rules that determine how, when and where each offer is delivered. Unlike batch-mode scoring that updates customer scores weekly or monthly, real-time scoring updates scores on demand, allowing comprehensive, up-to-the-second insight to be delivered to the front line, whether it is an assisted or unassisted channel. This can translate into more relevant offers, more sensitive service delivery and increased profitability and loyalty. http://www.portraitsoftware.com

Switchvox Launches SMB IP-PBX
Switchvox (news - alert) recently announced the launch of its IP-PBX for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). According to the company, Switchvox SMB is the only IP-PBX to offer a call event notification application programming interface (API) for companies to integrate their IP phone system with other business applications or databases such as contact directories or order tracking software. The product also includes Switchboard 2.0, a real-time call control panel that leverages the benefits of unified voice and data while providing greater visibility into the phone system. For example, users can easily direct calls to other extensions in real time, view if other employees are currently on a call, and even be shown relevant information from other applications as calls are received. Switchvox is built from open source software and uses open standards. It works with all Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) compatible hardware and software phones as well as standard analog handsets, rather than typical PBXs that rely on proprietary telephones. Voice over IP providers can be used to send calls over the Internet worldwide and directly to remote corporate offices by peering Switchvox systems using the SIP or Inter-Asterisk eXchange (IAX) protocols. http://www.switchvox.com

NICE Offers Next-Gen VoIP Recording Solution
NICE Systems, (news - alert) a provider of solutions that enable organizations to extract insight from interactions to drive performance, has announced the availability of its next-generation VoIP active recording solutions. New developments include technologies designed to revolutionize the way recording is done in a VoIP environment, and which are fully integrated with the industry’s popular VoIP switch vendors. The new offering includes solutions for active recording in Nortel’s newly developed Duplicate Media Stream over IP (DMS-IP) architecture, active recording for Cisco’s CallManager, new redundancy options for Avaya’s Communication Manager API, and IP-phone applications. NICE’s next generation, active VoIP recording solutions can help “flatten” the organization, according to the company, helping enable efficient management and administration of branches and agents from home, and enhance centralized recording capabilities for distributed environments, with a low total cost of ownership. By eliminating the need for setup, administration and management at branches or remote sites, active recording can reduce the overhead and complexity associated with previousgeneration VoIP recording. http://www.nice.com

eTelecare Global Solutions Names President And CEO
eTelecare Global Solutions (eGS), (news - alert) a provider of outsourced customer care solutions, announced that it has appointed John R. Harris as President and CEO. Harris will join eGS’s Board of Directors and will be based at eGS’s headquarters in Scottsdale. “We are delighted to have recruited John, who has a long track record of building successful outsourced business services and information technology organizations. He also has extensive CEO, M&A and public company board experience,” said Fred Ayala, eGS Chairman. Harris was one of the top executives at Electronic Data Systems (EDS). During his 25 years with EDS, one of the pioneers of the IT outsourcing industry, it grew from approximately $100 million in revenue to over $19 billion. Harris brings to eGS extensive operations, sales, marketing and international experience. While at EDS, he was President of the Communications Industry Group (CIG), which he led from under $100 million in revenue to approximately $900 million. CIG delivered customer care, system integration and business process management services to telecom and media clients with a staff of 5,000 in 22 countries, and included a significant customer care operation with 2,000 staff and over $100 million in revenue. He also led sales teams that targeted the Fortune 500 market and were responsible for EDS’s first $1 billion dollar commercial contract, and spent 10 years living and working in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. http://www.etelecare.com.

VoiceSage Secures First-Round Funding
VoiceSage, (news - alert) a Cork, Ireland-based provider of interactive notification solutions to the enterprise sector, has announced that it has secured over €€ 1.5m first-round funding. The company has raised the total funding to date to €€ 2.5m. VoiceSage provides its solution on an ASP (application service provider) basis, requiring from a customer only access to a computer and an Internet connection. VoiceSage calls its solutions “really easy to use, but behind the scenes some pretty sophisticated technology is keeping that simple for the customer.” Paul Sweeney, European Marketing Director at VoiceSage, has stated that, “Over the coming months, we will be adding world-class natural voice interaction technology to the service, and this will enable our clients to achieve even more business value by increasing the impact on key communications metrics, while also impacting on other issues such as policy renewal rates, late payment days, and lowering the overall cost of customer contact.” VoiceSage Notice can be integrated into
existing communications processes in a way that allows customers to harness the power of voice communications at reduced costs. VoiceSage Notice can be triggered from within any database to deliver automated real-time alerting. For example, a bank may wish to notify a client that his or her overdraft is coming to its limit and encourage the bank patron to contact customer service so that a direct debit doesn’t fail; a credit card company may wish to notify a client that there has been some unusual activity on his or her account and ask the credit card customer to validate or cancel that transaction. http://www.voicesage.com.

Voice Print, Syntora And Pipkins Partner For Solution
Three contact center software solution providers — Voice Print(news - alert) , Syntora (news - alert) and Pipkins— (news - alert) recently made a joint announcement regarding the launch of “Solution Made Easy,” an integrated, modular suite of contact center solutions developed by the three companies. Solution Made Easy is comprised of the six key components essential for workforce optimization: call recording, quality monitoring, workforce management, performance management, speech analytics and agent coaching. Called a “mix ‘n’ match, one-stop-shop” by the companies, it helps enable organizations to design their ideal workforce optimization solution for their specific environment at their own pace. Solution Made Easy offers a selection of applications from which to choose. The approach was designed to give organizations of all sizes the opportunity to adopt capabilities that were previously only cost-effective for very large enterprises; companies are not forced to purchase an expensive suite package they may not need, nor do they have to perform costly integrations or incur professional services fees in order to implement the solutions they need. http://www.solutionmadeeasy.com

Plantronics Offers Three New Products In Wireless Family
Plantronics, Inc. (news - alert) recently announced it has augmented its family of wireless office headset systems with three new products designed to address the communication needs and challenges for all levels of office employees: the CS70 Wireless Office Headset System for executives, the SupraPlus Wireless Headset System for phone-intensive users, and the Plantronics Voyager 510SL Bluetooth Headset System with WindSmart for mobile professionals. Together with the CS50 and CS55 products, Plantronics’ family of wireless office products now addresses the wearing and functional preferences of every office professional, according to the company. Results from a new international study by Plantronics reinforce the need for wireless headsets in the office. The study, which polled 1,200 office workers across the globe, found that approximately 80 percent believe the modern work environment requires more multitasking, while 47 percent spend more time on the phone at work than they did five years ago. Fifty-nine percent of employees believes that workplaces will be completely wireless within the next five years. The CS70 enables executives to be fully engrossed in conversation while simultaneously accomplishing supporting tasks up to 300 feet away from their desk. The CS70 features a very discreet form factor and is extremely lightweight (0.75 oz) to provide all-day wearing comfort. The headset is built on digitally encrypted, voice-dedicated DECT 6.0 technology to provide exceptional audio quality and lower interference with other wireless devices. http://www.plantronics.com

Premiere Global Services Introduces Voice Messaging Solution
Premiere Global Services, Inc., (news - alert) a global outsource provider of business process solutions, has announced Interactive Notifications, an enhanced voice messaging solution that enables enterprises to deliver automated, personalized alerts and notifications to their customers in a timely and efficient manner, with speech recognition capabilities for capturing responses and feedback. The automated Interactive Notifications solution allows companies to confirm appointments, survey customers and gather important feedback by asking questions and receiving a spoken response. Recipient responses are captured and delivered to Interactive Notifications clients to update records and follow up with recipients as needed. Interactive Notifications can be triggered based on specific business rules, allowing businesses to immediately reach out to customers with important information such as flight cancellations or fraud alerts. With professional voice talent available for recording, Premiere Global’s solution can create for customers consistent, compelling messages that can help generate a higher response rate than other modes of communication, while reinforcing their brand and building stronger customer relationships. Premiere Global clients can access real-time status reports to track the progress of their notifications programs as they run, and detailed reports are available for analysis and fine-tuning of future campaigns. http://www.premiereglobal.com

Spanlink Introduces New Call Recording Solution
Spanlink Communications, (news - alert) a provider of customer interaction solutions that leverage VoIP technology, has announced Spanlink Quality Management, a new call recording and evaluation software product designed to optimize team performance in virtual customer interaction networks. The new product is part of the Spanlink InteractiveEdge family of products, which are built from the ground up to help transform centralized contact center environments into virtual customer interaction networks. Spanlink also recently announced new speech-based and agentbased products in its Spanlink AnswerCenter family, which automates multichannel question answering through natural language understanding. Spanlink also recently announced a significant new release of Spanlink CentralControl software for virtual IP communications systems management. http://www.spanlink.com

ASC Adds E-mail Response Management
ASC, (news - alert) a provider of communication recording and quality monitoring solutions for contact centers, financial institutions and public safety and government organizations, has announced the addition of e-mail response management (ERM) to INSPIRATIONpro, its quality monitoring solution. ERM systems automate e-mail acknowledgements and responses to standard customer inquiries. They minimize workload in a multichannel environment and help ensure a high-quality, well-written and credible response to customers. When integrated into ASC’s quality monitoring software, INSPIRATIONpro, they allow systematic and standardized monitoring with identical evaluation templates for all media types, including voice, e-mail, fax and computer screen. INSPIRATIONpro now works with a range of ERM systems, including the popular “Mailminder” from Xtramind. When the products are integrated, supervisors may monitor agents “cross channel,” by reviewing calls, emails, faxes or mailed correspondence. This broad examination helps supervisors generate more accurate reports and pinpoint agents who may be better in one media type than another. INSPIRATIONpro offers flexible templates used for evaluation and scoring, and agents may train by listening to their own calls. Remote playback lets supervisors directly access calls through a WAN connection and a browser-based interface. The product uses the industrystandard Crystal Reports as its reporting engine, and an evaluation wizard customizes and reflects the supervisor’s requirements in an easy and intuitive manner. http://www.asctelecom.com

Empirix Awarded New Patent
Empirix Inc., (news - alert) which helps organizations adopt complex communications solutions with confidence, announced that it has been issued U.S. patent # 6,957,420 for testing non-deterministic behavior of voice and speech applications, a key element of its Hammer testing products. The technology enables Empirix to intelligently test next-generation contact center technologies such as voice and speech applications that interact with callers dynamically rather than through a rigid path. One example would be a speech recognition application that prompts callers with, “What would you like to do today?” or presents options based on a caller’s unique history, rather than “Press 1 for account balance, Press 2 to open an account” and so forth. In the past, the only way to test these dynamic applications was manually, relying on human testers to determine every possible path and then test each individually.
http://www.empirix.com

Kansas To Open Call Center To Recover Delinquent Child Support
The State of Kansas recently announced its plans to open a call center to assist in its child support enforcement endeavors. Kansas’ Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services has put in a request for $2 million to fund the call center over the next year. The bill has the support of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. The contact center would be assigned to maintain and follow up on the address change information required in the recovery of back-due child support. The state government feels that the establishment of such a call center would assist the state’s caseworkers and allow them to devote more time to searching for delinquent parents and establishing more support orders for Kansas families and children. http://www.srskansas.org

Aspect Software Forges Distribution Partnership For Middle East And Africa
Aspect Software, Inc. (news - alert) recently announced that according to a recently signed agreement, United Arab Emiratesbased CTSoft of the Al Yousuf Group will distribute Aspect products in the Middle East and Africa. With expertise in services like systems integration, business and technology consulting and postsales support in the contact center space, CTSoft maintains a strong channel network comprised of established players in the enterprise IT and telecom solutions industry. It has a widespread customer base in core verticals like banking and telecom and in sunrise verticals, including utilities, retail and transportation. CTSoft will distribute the following Aspect solutions: Aspect EnsemblePro, Aspect Spectrum ACD, Aspect Unison Predictive Dialer, Aspect Conversations Predictive Dialer, and Aspect RightForce Workforce Management http://www.aspect.com

Telrex Introduces New VoIP Call Recording Product For Small Businesses
Telrex, (news - alert) developer of VoIP call recording and monitoring software for small and medium-sized businesses using IP-PBXs or hosted PBX services, recently announced the release of CallRex Express, a new recording solution designed specifically for small businesses that must record or monitor up to 15 phones. CallRex Express is a single-server, single-site solution for businesses that need call recording but have been priced out of the market due to the historically high cost of recording solutions. CallRex Express is priced aggressively for small businesses and smaller remote call centers, starting at only $89 per phone. With CallRex Express, businesses have a reliable way to train new employees, resolve disputes with clients, ensure improved levels of customer service and address security concerns. When a business grows beyond 15 phones, CallRex Express can be easily upgraded to CallRex Professional with an upgrade key code. CallRex Express offers two kinds of licenses: unlimited licenses for automatic, triggered call recordings; and ondemand licenses for recording calls on an ad hoc basis. An on-demand license requires manual initiation of a recording and allows managers to spot-monitor any phone call. A manager can start a recording at any time in the conversation and still capture the entire conversation. http://www.telrex.com

Left Bank Solutions Engages Stevens Communications As Partner
Left Bank Solutions Inc. (news - alert) recently announced a strategic partnership and reseller agreement with Stevens Communications Inc., (news - alert) a provider of workforce management solutions to the call center industry. The partnership allows Stevens to deliver Left Bank Solutions’ Monet WFM OnDemand workforce management suite to users throughout the U.S. Further, it provides Left Bank Solutions with access to financial, call center and enterprise customers within the extensive Stevens customer base. Stevens has been a player in the call center solutions space for over 20 years. It has completed hundreds of successful workforce management implementations for companies such as Fidelity, Dean Health Care, Federal Reserve, Kohler, Pfizer and Aon Insurance. Stevens has said it believes that Monet WFM OnDemand fills “a gaping hole in the marketplace.” http://www.stevenscom.com and http://www.leftbanksolutions.com

Sphere Communications Announces Sphericall IP-PBX Release 5
Sphere Communications Inc. (news - alert) has announced the general availability of Release 5 of Sphericall, the company’s next-generation software IP-PBX. Featuring communications Web Services for business application software integration, SIP trunking and expanded SIP device support, software-based call recording and Assured Services for optimizing emergency communications, the new Sphericall release was designed to enable a new era of all-software business communications that are cost-effective, scalable, secure and built on a proven platform. Sphere Communications delivers enterprise IP-PBX communications as an open, enterprise soft switch application that runs on industry-standard servers across existing data networks and interoperates with a comprehensive array of standards-based third-party communications devices. Sphericall IP-PBX is a fully distributed software solution that scales seamlessly up to 30,000 ports across multiple locations. http://www.spherecom.com

Talisma Announces Version 7.0 Of CIM Solution
Talisma Corporation, (news - alert) a provider of enterprise customer interaction management (CIM) solutions, has announced the release of Talisma CIM 7.0, a comprehensive interaction management suite designed to fully integrate multiple communication channels, including e-mail, chat, Web self-service and phone with an intelligent knowledgebase, robust business process functionality and third-party data. Additionally, Talisma CIM 7.0 offers measurement and cross-channel reporting capabilities. Deployed onsite or on-demand and built on a secure, extensible platform that can scale to handle millions of interactions per month, Talisma CIM 7.0 helps meet the needs of today’s global businesses delivering quality customer service and creating competitive advantage, according to the company. The Talisma CIM 7.0 product suite includes Talisma Email, Talisma Chat and Talisma Phone, and leverages the Talisma Knowledgebase across all agent and self-assisted customer contact channels. The knowledgebase integration allows a seamless escalation from Web self-service to alternate service channels and provides agents with a view of prior self-service searches and returned results. As a result of this visibility and seamless cross-channel integration, service agents can have immediate access to reliable and consistent information, enabling more helpful and rapid responses. http://www.talisma.com

Compiere Appoints New CEO
Compiere, Inc., (news - alert) a provider of open source ERP and CRM applications, has announced the appointment of LaVonne Reimer as Chief Executive Officer. Reimer plans to accelerate the growth of the company and improve speed-to-market through the expansion of the global partner community. With this community, comprised of ERP implementation experts and sales professionals, Reimer will strategically position Compiere to capture a larger share of the ERP and CRM markets and become a leading choice for small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) worldwide, according to the company. Reimer, a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur, has more than 15 years of entrepreneurial and software development experience and has successfully developed strategic partner networks for a variety of other companies. As founder and CEO of an education software start-up, she raised millions of dollars in venture capital funding. Most recently, Reimer created and launched the Open Technology Business Center in Beaverton, Oregon, which is described as an “incubator” for seed-stage open source ventures. http://www.compiere.com

ICT Group Expands Maine Call Center
ICT Group, (news - alert) a global company that provides support services to corporations, is planning to expand its thriving call center in the Nichols-Bass Business & Technology Center in Wilton, Maine, and add between 50 and 60 jobs. Gil Reed, president of The Nichols Group, which owns the Nichols-Bass property on Weld Road, has said he has a verbal agreement that the company will lease 50,000 square feet of office space. It is currently occupying 20,000 square feet in what was once the corporate offices of G.H. Bass & Co. in the shoe shop’s heyday. The news follows an announcement that MBNA, now owned by Bank of America, was closing its call center in Farmington and three other Maine sites on March 10, putting 354 people out of work. The Farmington center reportedly employed 37 full-time and 56 part-time workers. Area towns hope that the 93 jobs being lost at MBNA might be picked up
by ICT’s hiring. http://www.ictgroup.com

Saratoga Systems Files For Patent
CRM solutions provider Saratoga Systems (news - alert) has announced that the company has filed for a patent on a new technology that provides synchronization of complex heterogeneous databases in a fraction of the time of other solutions. This synchronizing technology works with any complex relational databases and can handle databases with millions of records and thousands of users. The patent-pending data synchronization technology was designed to make it easier to support remote and mobile database users, making Saratoga’s CRM technology an attractive alternative to some “less nimble” CRM software competitors, and to software-as-service alternatives that are subject to outages or Web connectivity issues. According to the company, the real benefit of this patentpending synchronization technology is faster synchronization speed. The latest release of Saratoga CRM has been tested handling SQL data synchronization at least seven times faster than previous versions. This will prove a boon to users with large database systems who need to keep their data current, but previously had to schedule synchronization over weekends or long periods, when users could not access the system. http://www.saratogasystems.com

Enkata 6 Brought To Market
Enkata, (news - alert) a provider of operational performance management (OPM) solutions, has announced the launch of Enkata 6, a new solution introduced to further the company’s pursuit of the OPM solutions market. Enkata’s OPM solutions integrate and analyze front- and back-office customer lifecycle data to reduce operational costs while simultaneously increasing customer satisfaction. Enkata 6 features greater vertical-industry depth, including a complete suite of applications specifically tailored for financial services, and a new module that helps health insurers overcome the operational challenges presented by Consumer Directed Health Care (CDHC) plans. The latest release is also positioned to improve on Enkata’s usability throughout the organization, including increased scalability and security enhancements, advanced collaboration and initiatives management functionality and improved role-based reports, dashboards and analytics. Enkata 6 also marks the first release of Enkata’s entire Financial Services application suite designed to address the needs of dynamic and complex retail banking organizations. The new suite, which integrates and analyzes data sources specific to financial services organizations, helps retail banking institutions identify costly operational failures that can lead to dissatisfaction, customer churn and unwanted calls. Features of the new financial services solution include providing a complete view of the customer lifecycle by analyzing data across multiple systems; monitoring customer satisfaction and operational costs via pre-built reports and metrics such as fee adjustments per agent and calls per issued statement; and identifying specific drivers of failures in front- and back-office operations, such as agents with low FCR, customer events with highest call rates and fee adjustments, and customers with the highest propensity to churn. http://www.enkata.com

QuestionPro Introduces Feature To Calculate Customer Loyalty
QuestionPro, (news - alert) a provider of online survey services, recently announced a new feature designed to enable businesses to quickly calculate customer loyalty, a key determinant in a company’s overall health. The feature is based on a methodology discussed in a newly released book called ”The Ultimate Question” by loyalty expert Fred Reichheld, which postulates that knowing the answer to a single question can help companies determine whether they are heading in the right direction. QuestionPro has introduced a feature that automatically creates this type of methodology and incorporates answers into an easy-toread report, showing users exactly what percentages of customers are “promoters” and “detractors” and then calculating the score. Used in conjunction with the insights in the book, business owners, marketers and researchers are better positioned to find an easy and more cost-effective way to determine the health of their business in near real-time. http://www.questionpro.com/the-ultimate-question/

Inter-Tel Introduces Contact Center Suite Version 4.0
Inter-Tel, Incorporated, (news - alert) a provider of voice and data communications solutions for businesses, has announced the general availability of Contact Center Suite Version 4.0. A robust software application, Contact Center Suite v. 4.0 offers several new and enhanced features, including media blending, improved call routing, advanced reporting tools and simplified administration designed to enable small- and medium-sized businesses to more effectively manage customer communications through multiple media such as voice, email, voice mail or fax. Among the enhancements to Contact Center Suite v. 4.0 are Internal Call Modeling, which provides new activity reporting and intelligent routing capabilities for internal calls; an Enhanced CallViewer, which increases user functionality and customization and includes changeable screens, DSS buttons, integrated call logger and personal call router; Historical Call Routing to provide new, intelligent routing capabilities; Media Blending, including real-time and
historical reporting; Live and Remote Server Configuration; and Agent Help Support, which allows managers to monitor and react to the support needs of their staff in real-time when faced with a difficult call that requires the assistance of a manager. http://www.inter-tel.com