High Priority!
Dynamic CRM From Microsoft
By Rich Tehrani, Group Editor-in-Chief,
Technology Marketing Corp.
In my quest to keep abreast of the latest developments in the CRM marketplace, I like to take the time to touch base with the most prominent and innovative CRM solutions providers several times each year to find out where they've been, where they are now and where they are going.

Customer [email protected] News™

Last Call
Data And I.D. Theft: Killing E-Commerce Dead
By Tracey E. Schelmetic, Editorial Director, Customer [email protected] Solutions
Eastern supermarket grocery chain Stop & Shop has been dealing with a big headache as of late - the theft of an undetermined amount of
credit and debit card numbers. The “entrepreneurs” removed the legitimate point-of-sale keypads and installed fake keypads in the physical stores with the express goal of collecting numbers and PIN info.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
CRM SaaS: Paying More For Uptime
By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor
According to a recent customer survey conducted by managed Web hosting provider Rackspace Managed Hosting, nearly 36 percent of responding SaaS (software as a service) customers do not know the uptime guarantees provided in the SaaS vendor service level agreement (SLA) although, the survey found, “security, application uptime and network connectivity are among their top technical concerns.”

Customer Interaction Solutions' Eighth Annual CRM Excellence Awards, Part One
By Tracey E. Schelmetic, Editorial Director, Customer Interaction Solutions
For the eighth consecutive year, the editors of Customer Interaction Solutions dared readers to prove that their companies have what it takes to win the coveted CRM Excellence Award. Below is Part One of the winners list — the companies that offer the best and the brightest customer relationship management products and services, all to the benefit of their clients.

OUTSOURCING TELESERVICES
Serving the U.S. Hispanic Marketplace
As Hispanic-American consumers become more affluent, they represent a rapidly expanding sector of the business-to-consumer market. American businesses are starting to realize that if they want to reap sales from this increasingly valuable market segment, they need to offer marketing and customer service in both Spanish and English, in whatever combination the customer prefers. And they need to start doing it now.

WORKFORCE OPTIMIZATION
Calculating The Return On Investment Of Workforce Management
By Rick Seeley and Rick Glew, IEX'Corp.
Vendors know how important proof of return on investment is to the success of a workforce management project ' and, ultimately, to the success of the proposal they put on the table and the company's willingness to make a commitment.

Achieving Differentiation Through Customer Centricity
By Vance Christensen, Witness Systems
Today's customer service network and value chain are widespread, not to mention often siloed and complex. While most customers still opt to do business by phone with a live agent, others prefer the flexibility of e-mail and the always-accessible Web. That said, organizations cannot underestimate the value of the customer impact from their in-person sales and service opportunities.

CONTACT CENTER TECHNOLOGY
The Top 10 Advantages Of Software As A Service For The Call Center
By Patrick Barnard, Associate Editor, Customer Interaction Solutions
Adoption of the software as a service ( SaaS (News - Alert) ) model is rapidly increasing across the enterprise, but particularly in the call center as companies are discovering the advantages today’s hosted solutions offer over premise-based systems.

IP CONTACT CENTER
Five Things To Know About IP Call Recording For The Contact Center
By Tracey E. Schelmetic, Editorial Director, Customer Interaction Solutions
While watching some escapist sci-fi television recently, I wandered onto a show with a plot that featured werewolves. The main characters knew the victims of a recent spate of killings were werewolves because the post-mortems showed the individuals had been injected with silver nitrate which, as everybody who has been exposed to a lifetime of pop culture knows, kills werewolves.

SPEECH TECH
Speech Analytics: The Fastest-Growing Application In Contact Center History
By Susan J. Campbell, Contributing Editor, TMCnet
Speech analytics have become an important tool in the contact center in a short amount of time. When properly implemented and monitored, such solutions can drive better customer satisfaction and productivity in the center, thus facilitating an increase in agent satisfaction and boosting the overall performance of the contact center.

ASK THE EXPERT
With Tim Passios, Director of Product Management, Interactive Intelligence
Our contact center seems to operate well, yet we’re still looking to make changes that will set us apart and provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Are there technologies or products other contact centers are using that can help us accomplish our goal?