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Customer Inter@ction Solutions News
April 2001

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Expansions

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Castcom Strengthens Interactive Solution
Castcom AB launched version 2.0 of its contact center solution, Castcom Contact, designed to enable improved customer service via the Internet and to handle both traditional and Internet telephony. The system provides uniform queue-management for all types of contacts: telephony, chat, e-mail, co-browsing and video. Both phone calls and Internet-based contacts are handled in a joint queue and automatically distributed to the correct administrator in customer services. Enhancements include: enterprisewide communications for customer interactions; callback functionality allied with the Castcom Contact co-browsing application; improved, customizable reporting tools for analyzing customer information and contact center operations (traffic details for all channels, agent volumes, etc.); and increased report categories. www.castcom.com

eOn Offers Web Chat Feature
eOn Communications Corporation added browser-based Web chat for its eQueue and eNterprise communications systems. The Linux-based Web chat software, called Agent WebSpace, is part of the WebCenter suite of customer interaction management solutions. Agent WebSpace is designed to provide live customer interaction through multiple channels, including text-based chat, document and form sharing, and the ability to "push" pages and information. Customer service agents can also use instant messaging to collaborate with one another for improving customer service. Supervisors can assist and monitor the live interaction between customers and customer service representatives. A full-featured response library allows Web site visitors to receive frequently requested information, such as product literature or FAQ libraries, with minimal agent intervention. www.eoncc.com

IEX Small Contact Center Workforce Solution
IEX Corporation, a subsidiary of Tekelec, Inc., rolled out its TotalView SC Workforce Management solution, designed to address the needs of organizations with smaller contact centers. Based on the same technology as its TotalView workforce management product, the SC solution is geared to provide sites with less than a hundred agents a cost-effective, full-featured solution to address the issue of scheduling customer service representatives. The company said a smaller contact center with fewer resources is challenged to provide the same levels of service as larger centers. IEX developed TotalView SC to give smaller operations access to the same advanced, scalable workforce management technologies used by larger centers. The TotalView SC package includes software licenses for 100 agents and onsite installation and training. www.iex.com

3Com Adds New Solution To Its IP PBX Product Line
3Com Corporation debuted its new 3Com SuperStack 3 NBX Networked Telephony Solution. 3Com aims at meeting customers' business requirements for increased flexibility and cost savings with a system that is simpler to use and maintain than traditional PBX systems. This latest addition to the NBX 25 and NBX 100 product line expands to 600 users. The solution includes an enhanced call processor and a newly designed gateway at its core. It delivers 10/100 business telephones providing improved displays and easier connections. The phones are also available with a built-in infrared port, as well as software that integrates Palm computing applications. 3Com's NBX dialing application for Palm computing devices is shipped with every system. The SuperStack 3 NBX solution addresses the communication needs of larger organizations by giving customers the ability to network multiple locations with up to 600 users per site. The solution includes nine built-in, easy-to-deploy localized language options. Enhancements to system management utilities include 3Com Network Supervisor and NBX NetSet administrator, and improved system flexibility. www.3com.com

Forecasting Software For Workforce Management
HTL Telemanagement, Ltd. recently introduced Hills-B Optimizer, a forecasting software tool developed for contact center professionals responsible for predicting and analyzing operational cost-efficiency and service quality. The software focuses solely on resource and cost forecasting and is intended to provide quick and accurate forecasting results for short- and long-term planning purposes. Designed for convenience, Hills-B Optimizer lets users perform and analyze results of "what-if" scenarios on one spreadsheet, and is a flexible add-in to MS Excel 97 (or greater). It generates detailed results of 26 areas of importance, ranging from operating costs and service qualities to FTE and agent requirements. The product includes templates and a Wizard for forecast customization. www.htlt.com

Motive Extends Customer Care To Mobile And Wireless Devices
Motive Communications, Inc. announced its Mobile Customer Care solution to provide online service for users of mobile and wireless devices, such as Microsoft Pocket PCs and wireless phones, supporting the Wireless Application Protocol. Motive's solution is designed to deliver instant access to relevant and dynamic self-service answers based on the context of what users are trying to do. With one click, a mobile or wireless user can also connect and interact directly with specific service personnel having expertise with the problem they are experiencing. Service personnel are automatically presented with customer, context, process and device information to help them provide accurate and timely resolution to customers' service problems. www.motive.com

GMT Enhances The Planets
GMT Corporation released new versions of its workforce management offerings, GMT Planet-Jupiter Edition 7 and Mercury Edition 7. Jupiter Edition 7 features enhancements to its Employee Time Center (allowing employees to be involved in the scheduling process) and the Team Scheduling feature, with which organizations can schedule groups of people at the same time or within the same timeframe. Team Scheduling also can be used to construct special group schedules. The "One-Click-Sick" digital wizard can be used to find replacements having comparable skills to an absent worker. Jupiter Edition 7's Auto-Scheduling component has improved optimization and options for more consistent start times. Planet Mercury Edition 7, targeted toward small and medium size call centers, is a wizard-based interface designed for creating complex scheduling with minimal training. Pop-up screens are designed to allow for easy input of information into Mercury. Enhancements were made to the Setup, Daily, Schedule and What-If wizards, and its new Campaign Forecasting feature allows smaller call centers to prepare for events that can significantly impact daily call volume; e.g., a catalog mailing, holiday period, special premium program, etc. www.gmtcorp.com

Voice-Driven Application Enablers From Nuance
Nuance Communications announced availability of the Nuance Customer Support Suite and the latest release of the Nuance Order Management Suite. The two suites are intended to offer software components to voice-enable customer relationship management and e-commerce applications, reduce the cost of customer service, leverage existing investments in CRM/eCRM applications and extend customer self-service to any telephone. It voice-enables service requests, service request tracking, frequently asked questions and service bulletins. The new release of the Nuance Order Management Suite brings e-commerce to the telephone with new shopping cart and checkout functionality. The suite can handle the entire ordering process, enabling order entry, order review and access to product information through voice commands. www.nuance.com

YellowBrick Produces Campaign Management Solution
YellowBrick Solutions announced the general availability of Visitant Experience Manager Version 2.0. The release is an application that plugs into YellowBrick's CRM software platform, providing marketers with a tool to create dynamic and seamless customer communications. Version 2.0 is designed to deliver consistent customer dialogs across multiple channels, learn and make decisions in real-time, provide access to real-time campaign response data and enable fast access to any data resource. These features are intended to empower database marketing professionals to create and modify targeted campaigns and dialogs that help to achieve effective customer acquisition and retention. Features include: campaign management integration and synchronization that can collect, analyze and act on customer data from all inbound and outbound channels simultaneously; capture of customer behavior data and personalized, dynamic campaigns based on marketing rules; and monitoring of campaign response in real-time, allowing for on-the-fly campaign modification and management. www.yellowbricksolutions.com

eRMNow! Version 2.0 Debuts
Neteos, Inc. announced the release of eRMNow! Version 2.0, its Internet-based eCRM solution. Version 2.0 is designed to deliver enhanced levels of adaptability, personalization and customization through its Design Studio, enable wireless connectivity through its Connected Enterprise and provide enhancements to Neteos' Active-Web technology. Design Studio, a menu driven, drag-and-drop interface, is intended to allow nontechnical users to modify or build eCRM application add-ons, customizations, third-party integrations, etc. The Design Studio post-processing engine builds all HTML screens, wireless device renderings, database schema and table definitions and prepares an application meta-data definition that drives the Neteos core eRMNow! platform. Connected Enterprise delivers standardized interfaces to mobile personal organizers, including wireless Palm and WAP devices. Active-Web links any element of the core eRMNow! application into any e-commerce portal, partner and customer Web environment or corporate home page, and maintains rules, permissions, formats and context relevant to the native environment. www.neteos.com

Presto!: Magic's eContact Version 2 Appears
Magic Software Enterprises unveiled Magic eContact Version 2, an integrated desktop application designed to furnish contact center agents with tools for more efficient customer interaction management, including the ability to drive targeted marketing campaigns in response to market changes. The solution also is intended to give contact center managers the ability to rapidly modify any variable, from small data items to complex business rules, without the need for coding. A key feature is its dynamic scripting engine that guides agents through all conversational phases. The scripting mechanism allows agents to give customers personalized attention and improved service based on the customers' unique profiles. www.magic-sw.com

Acxiom Delivers Family Of Solutions
Acxiom Corporation introduced a new group of offerings, the AbiliTec-Enabled Services (AES). The services will utilize AbiliTec software in the creation and delivery of pre-packaged, application-specific Acxiom service solutions. The services are: Customer Preference Solution, designed to help financial institutions and services comply with privacy regulations of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act deadline of July 1, 2001; Mergers & Acquisitions Solution, for helping businesses to segment, analyze, retain and expand relationships, and build customer trust during merger activities and the integration of systems, processes and information; Customer Information File Clean-Up Solution, designed to improve the accuracy of aging, duplicative and inaccurate information.; and Merge Purge Service, for improved accuracy in merging information and purging duplicates, and faster performance. www.acxiom.com

Hammer Out The Telephony Bugs
Empirix, Inc. released Hammer CallMaster 2.5, its automated testing tool for customer-facing telephony applications in contact centers, including interactive voice response (IVR). In combination with the Hammer IT test platform, CallMaster 2.5 is designed to reduce test development and execution time for new or modified IVR applications, so that contact centers can deploy error-free applications and improve the overall quality of customer experiences. Hammer CallFlow Designer freeware provides for call flow diagram creation that can be imported directly into CallMaster, which uses path generation technology to find paths through the application and test all application call flow objects. CallMaster creates a Hammer IT test that is scheduled and run on a Hammer IT automated test system. Test scripts can be modified by editing the call flow diagram, and CallMaster 2.5 regenerates the test scripts for automated execution on the Hammer test platform. www.empirix.com

eContact.Center Server From Pyderion
Pyderion Contact Technologies Inc. launched the eContact.Center Server (eCCS), designed to furnish enterprises with e-business analytics applications to analyze and manage data at all customer touch points. eContact.Center Server software provides enterprises with centralized management control over decentralized contact center environments and offers consolidated reporting and real-time views across all locations, vendors and media sources. It consolidates current agent status information, historical reporting, workforce management, text chat and e-mail router software. The open client server architecture supports multiple PBXs and contact center servers with a consistent interface, making data more compatible across the enterprise. eCCS is flexible and can be customized to create the key performance indicators pertinent to a particular business, and presents the metrics in easy-to-read formats. www.pyderion.com

PeopleSoft Accelerates Solution For Mid-Size Enterprises
PeopleSoft Inc. recently introduced PeopleSoft 8 Accelerated Enterprise, a turnkey solution combining Internet e-business applications, rapid implementation services, training and financing. Accelerated Enterprise is designed to allow mid-size enterprises to rapidly implement and manage PeopleSoft 8 Internet e-business applications, including CRM, supply chain management, human resources management, financials and professional services automation. Accelerated Enterprise targets companies looking for a single vendor that can provide quick deployment of e-business applications rapidly and at a cost-effective price. www.peoplesoft.com

Upgraded Interaction Dialer For Distributed Contact Centers
Interactive Intelligence Inc. upgraded its add-on predictive dialing product, Interaction Dialer. Interaction Dialer version 1.3C, is designed to give contact centers multiserver campaign support and new campaign monitoring capabilities. Other enhanced features include: support for outbound campaigns across multiple distributed dialer servers, a pause campaign facility, real-time statistical displays, improved reporting, enhanced call list record distribution and enhanced campaign and agent statistical information. Interaction Dialer is an add-on product to Interactive Intelligence's Customer Interaction Center. The solution is intended to enable skills-based routing to be applied to outbound calls, messages or prompts to be played prior to calls being routed to an agent and "agentless" campaigns to be initiated for message playing, e-mail or fax blasting. www.inin.com

TASKE Offers Call Management Tools For Avaya System
TASKE Technology Inc. announced the release of TASKE Call Center Management Tools 8.0 for the Avaya MERLIN MAGIX 2.0 telephone system. TASKE's offering is a suite of integrated management solutions designed to empower supervisors and agents to handle heavy call volumes, help supervisors coordinate and optimize call center resources with advanced reporting and analysis capabilities and assist in providing improved customer service. Call Center Management Tools 8.0 provides advanced management functionality for call centers of any size. The suite features real-time agent monitoring, an ACD monitor GUI, more than 150 standard reports including real-time intra-day, statistical alarms, forecasting, readerboard messaging and call-traffic analysis. www.taske.com

Chordiant Adds Unified Rules Component
Chordiant Software, Inc. released Chordiant Unified CRM Solution v3.0 with new Chordiant Unified Rules. Chordiant Unified Rules is an enterprise class, customer integration management application designed to provide real-time rules functionality enabling sophisticated customer management algorithms to be implemented by nontechnical business users. The Unified Rules component aims at delivering consistent offers and interaction with customers and guiding customers to the appropriate cross-sell and upsell processes. The customizable business rule language feature allows the creation of business rules using terminology specific to an industry or a company. www.chordiant.com

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Cisco Completes Acquisition Of Active Voice, Pronexus
Cisco Systems, Inc. has completed the acquisition of Active Voice, Inc. and its subsidiary company, Pronexus, Inc. The new company will be privately held and retain the Active Voice and Pronexus names. Cisco stated the acquisition of Active Voice supports its vision to deliver unified communications and a single, end-to-end IP network combining data, voice and video for the corporate enterprise. Pronexus will continue selling its application generator, VBVoice, and Active Voice will continue selling its voice and unified messaging solutions, including Repartee, PhoneSoft, Replay, Lingo and its embedded solutions.

Siemens Intent On Efficient Networks
Siemens Information and Communication Networks Group and Efficient Networks, Inc. announced they have entered into a definitive merger agreement, subject to regulatory clearances and approvals. Efficient Networks is a global provider of DSL customer premises equipment for the broadband access market. The transaction will enable Siemens and Efficient Networks to offer innovative DSL solutions to the market more quickly by leveraging their complementary technologies, and Siemens extends its broadband access portfolio with enterprise and end-user equipment. Efficient Networks' product line includes DSL modems, routers, integrated access devices (IADs) supporting voice and data services, management systems and software.

Call_Solutions Rings Up ATI
Call_Solutions continued its expansion with the acquisition of American Telecom, Inc. (ATI) of Horsham, Pennsylvania. The newly acquired ATI centers, located in Altamonte Springs, Florida, and Horsham, will focus on delivering quality outbound telemarketing and inbound response services along with related Management Information Systems (MIS), reporting and account management services. Call_Solutions specializes in customer relationship management through a combination of advanced technology, a quality-of-service focus on both client and customer satisfaction and an experienced team of teleservices professionals.

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CELLIT Expands Alliance Program
CELLIT Technologies, a provider of customer interaction management (CIM) solutions, recently expanded its Global Alliance Program. The program focuses on development of and support for CELLIT's worldwide network of strategic partners to deliver state-of-the-art customer interaction solutions. In support of the program, additional partner categories were created, including Consulting and Integration Alliances, Software Alliances and Platform Alliances. Within each category, three levels of partnership are available. The program seeks to extend the reach of CELLIT's solutions and technological capabilities to address clients' needs for multichannel customer interaction and real-time shared knowledge in a dynamic environment.

Silvon Support For IBM eServer And AIX
Silvon Software, Inc. announced support for IBM eServer pSeries systems running AIX, IBM's UNIX operating system. This extends Silvon's commitment to bring its Stratum suite of business performance management and CRM analytic applications to supply chain enterprises through an open, cross-platform architecture. Silvon's Stratum solutions are designed to monitor business performance indicators such as product profitability, customer purchasing patterns, customer loyalty, Web site performance and marketing campaign effectiveness.

Echopass Up In The Air With Tenzing
Echopass Corporation announced it will support Tenzing Communications Inc.'s trials of in-air e-mail and Internet service for airline passengers. Beginning with Air Canada, Echopass will move customer service telephone calls originating from planes to the front of the Tenzing's customer care center queue. Besides air-to-ground call routing, Echopass will channel calls to Tenzing according to specific needs, such as technical support or service registration. Echopass also will route calls according to language preference in support of Tenzing's multilingual service commitment. Echopass will provide statistical reports on types and frequency of calls, developing a historical record to assist Tenzing in the introduction of further efficiencies in customer care from the air.

iemagine Adds Multilingual Support
As part of its strategy to extend its turnkey ASP enabling solutions to the global market, iemagine Inc. reported it now provides multiple language support for all 12 products in its Rent & Ready! Instant Webware Suite. In addition to English, iemagine's products support Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Vietnamese and major dialects of Chinese. The new language support enables endusers to setup and deploy business functions (surveys, auctions, newsletters, CRM functions, sales tools, etc.) in any or all of the languages. The multilingual support in iemagine's suite is designed to give endusers high-quality business functions for deployment in up to 15 languages with the scalability and reliability their applications require.

Call Center Community Founded By Initiatives
Initiatives Three Inc., a call center consulting company, launched Agent Initiatives, a Web community created for call center representatives. Initiatives Three believes that the intercompany agent affiliation offered by this Web community can elevate the call center industry and, by extension, the business community at large. Agent Initiatives stated three major goals in launching the site: to provide community, resources and support to help call center agents understand how to apply their personal values to their business life and how this can elevate job performance and satisfaction; to deliver insight on developing personal skills (e.g., juggling priorities, managing stress and improving customer interactions); and to furnish information agents need to keep current on technology issues that impact their business life. The Web site is located at www.agentinitiatives.com.

Expansions

Matthews Forms New Company
Dr. Terence Matthews has embarked on a new venture, the Mitel Networks Corporation, subsequent to signing an agreement with Mitel Corporation to acquire its Worldwide Communications Systems division and purchasing the Mitel name. Mitel Networks will focus on migrating products to IP telephony solutions for the broadband network. Matthews also named Paul Butcher chief operating officer of the new company. Butcher was formerly general manager and executive vice president of Mitel Communications Systems division.

EDS to Establish Customer Interaction Base In Nova Scotia
Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, is the intended site of Electronic Data Systems Corporation's (EDS) second customer interaction center to be established on Cape Breton Island. EDS is proposing an expansion of its current 800-person facility in Sydney, Nova Scotia through the establishment of a state-of-the-art center in Port Hawkesbury. The new center will be housed in a 55,000-square-foot facility, which EDS will lease after construction is completed. The customer interaction center, slated to be operational this spring, will support clients throughout North America and handle inbound customer service inquiries by telephone, fax, e-mail and Internet, and support CRM programs for its clients. EDS CRM solutions consist of custom strategy and solutions consulting, and turnkey and outsourced services.

CCAS Selects Sebring
Cross Country Automotive Services (CCAS) announced plans to open its fourth contact center in Sebring, Florida. The 37,184 square foot center is expected to open in June 2001 and will employ over 365 people, most of whom will be recruited from the local community. The 260-seat facility will support CCAS' 24/7 emergency response services for individuals covered under new car warranty programs, insurance policies or affinity memberships to obtain road emergency or other immediate services. CCAS' clients include automotive companies, property-casualty insurance companies, wireless carriers, financial institutions and affinity groups.

Quaero Opens In Colorado
Quaero, a provider of customer relationship management services, has opened a regional office in Denver, Colorado to support its business development and client relationships in the western United States. Bill Secrest, as senior vice president of client services, will head the office and lead Quaero's initiatives in the region.

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Compaq And Motive Partner In Mobile Arena
Compaq Computer Corporation and Motive Communications, Inc. have allied to develop a mobile customer care solution for Compaq's iPAQ line of handheld devices. Under the terms of the agreement, Motive will extend its online customer-care platform, which currently provides full-service support for Compaq PCs, to encompass the Compaq iPAQ handheld devices. The companies are developing a mobile customer care solution that will deliver end-to-end service to business professionals and enterprise IT departments, markets where the iPAQ has established itself as the leader in the handheld industry. Motive is embedding its customer care technology directly into the handheld devices to provide a customized support solution for each user, providing iPAQ users with service whether they are connecting by wireless to the Internet or managing their devices through their PCs.

Witness And Remedy Integrate Solutions
Witness Systems, Inc. announced a new software integration and co-marketing alliance with Remedy Corporation. The partnership is designed to help organizations improve support processes (especially those requiring highly efficient self-service support), enhance service delivery and heighten customer loyalty. Under the terms of the agreement, Witness Systems' eQuality multimedia recording and analysis suite will integrate with Remedy's Action Request System, the underlying technology platform for its help desk and CRM application suite, to monitor and evaluate complete customer contacts. This integration expects to provide businesses using Remedy Help Desk with greater insight into the effectiveness of their employee and customer interactions.

PRC Incorporates A NewChannel For Acquisition
Precision Response Corporation (PRC), a division of USA Networks, Inc. and a provider of outsourced customer care and CRM, announced a strategic partnership with NewChannel Inc., provider of e-sales and customer acquisition solutions. PRC was named NewChannel's preferred outsourced teleservices solutions provider and, as part of the alliance, PRC has incorporated the NewChannel Solution into PRC Netpro, its online customer acquisition tool. The PRC Netpro technology uses client-defined rules to select Web visitors who would benefit from a live sales interaction. PRC representatives can proactively invite visitors to a real-time sales consultation. If the visitor accepts the invitation, they are connected via text chat or telephone to a PRC Cyber Representative who facilitates the completion of the sale.

QUIQ And Quaero Combine For Mass Collaboration Solutions
QUIQ, Inc., a provider of mass collaboration customer service software, and Quaero LLC announced a strategic alliance whereby Quaero will help QUIQ deploy its flagship product, QUIQ Connect, and integrate customer data with third-party software applications. QUIQ Connect taps into a company's largest available source of detailed product knowledge: its customers and partners, and answers customer inquiries without involvement by call and e-mail centers. Quaero offers experience and expertise in consulting, design, development and deployment of multichannel CRM programs.

eSupportNow Chooses eStara's OneClick Voice Solution
eSupportNow signed an agreement making eStara, Inc. its preferred voice over the Web provider. The eStara OneClick Contact Web voice was added to eSupportNow's electronic customer relationship management platform, eSP. eStara connects Web site visitors with contact center agents via a voice call over the Web from any PC with microphone and speakers, and OneClick Contact technology is compatible with existing call center systems and requires no additional hardware or software. By integrating Web voice, eSupportNow's outsourced and hosted clients can better manage two-way communication and customer intelligence, and achieve their online business goals and objectives.

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