Interactive Intelligence Unveils New Release Of IP Communications And Contact Center Software
Interactive Intelligence recently announced a major upgrade to its enterprise VoIP and contact center automation software platforms. Customer Interaction Center 3.0 (CIC) and Vonexus Enterprise Interaction Center 3.0 (EIC) have been updated with new integration, deployment, security and mobility features. In terms of integration, the company has boosted CIC and EIC integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging to help users be more productive by embedding call control features into those Microsoft applications. Mobile workers also gain integration with Microsoft Exchange calendar with Interactive Intelligence's Interaction Mobile Office application — plus cost-effective speech recognition capabilities and a graphical client interface that supports Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0. Finally, the latest release added new features making the software even easier to set up. Auto-provisioning is now included for Polycom phones, as is automated service updates and an enhanced version of the desktop client.
www.tmcnet.com/1279.1

Autonomy's etalk Recognized By Frost & Sullivan
Autonomy and its etalk solution have been recognized by Frost & Sullivan. Workforce optimization solution etalk is the recipient of the 2007 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation in the North American agent performance optimization (APO) market. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in new products and technologies within its industry.
www.tmcnet.com/1280.1

Customer Service "View From The Top"
Customer satisfaction and loyalty consultants Omega Management Group, Inc. recently announced the View from Top (VFT) Research Panel 500 program. The new program — open only to VP-level executives in customer-facing positions — is devoted to the continuous improvement of the customer service industry. The VFT Research Panel 500 is now being formed as an online community. Charter membership is on an invitation-only basis, targeting VPs of customer service, support, sales/marketing and similar titles.
www.tmcnet.com/1270.1

Spanlink Communications Spins Off Calabrio Software
Seeking to focus purely on unified communications for the enterprise and SMB markets, Cisco partner Spanlink Communications is spinning off its Calabrio Software division, which has a focus on workforce optimization software for the contact center. As of November 2007, Calabrio will operate as a separate, independent company focused on the development and distribution of customer interaction and workforce optimization software for IP-based contact centers.
www.tmcnet.com/1271.1

Aspect And OpenSpan Partner For Integration
Aspect Software, Inc. and OpenSpan, an application integration company, have announced the general availability of the OpenSpan integration with Aspect's PerformanceEdge quality management application. The integration with OpenSpan allows Aspect Software to extend Aspect quality management functionality, such as screen capture and call tagging, to record all back-office interactions with applications across the enterprise, helping companies gain insight into overall agent performance and create actionable plans to enhance productivity, performance and the customer experience.
www.tmcnet.com.1272.1

InfoCision's Steve Brubaker Honored By ATA
Steve Brubaker, senior vice president of corporate affairs for InfoCision Management Corp., has been awarded the highest honor in the teleservices industry. Steve was presented with the 2007 Fulcrum Award, presented by the American Teleservices Association (ATA) at its National Convention held in October in Scottsdale, Arizona. In addition, Brubaker was named to the organization's National Board of Directors.
www.tmcnet.com/1274.1

Greg Gianforte, CEO Of RightNow Technologies, Inducted Into CRM Hall Of Fame
RightNow Technologies' CEO, Greg Gianforte, was recently inducted into the CRM Hall of Fame. Named "The Lone Wolf," the tribute noted that Gianforte has spent the last decade "in Bozeman, Montana, far from the glare of Silicon Valley and the rest of the CRM cohort." Gianforte founded RightNow in 1997 in Bozeman with a goal of creating a world-class enterprise software company in Montana, and within three years Gianforte had 500 customers, 100 employees and an on-demand product that could "dramatically improve the quality and effectiveness of clients' online customer service operations," according to the Hall of Fame citation.
www.tmcnet.com/1277.1

Research Shows Contact Center Service Impacts Business
According to the Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index Europe 2007 study, produced by both Aspect and Leo J. Shapiro and Associates, 33 percent of European consumers who were satisfied with their last interaction would conduct more business with that company. A total of eight percent of those customers would do much more business with that company. Conversely, nearly half of customers who were unsatisfied claimed they would conduct less business.
www.tmcnet.com/1281.1

NICE Recognized By Gartner And Frost & Sullivan
NICE Systems has announced that it is the recipient of the prestigious 2007 Market Leadership Award for Excellence in North American contact center quality management solutions from Frost & Sullivan. The analyst firm cited NICE as number one in its industry report. Additionally, research and analysis company Gartner has also rated the company "strong positive" — its highest rating possible — in two recent reports, "MarketScope for Contact Center Quality Management" and "MarketScope for Contact Center Workforce Management." www.tmcnet.com/1282.1

Plantronics' New Wideband USB Optimized For MS Office Communicator 2007
Plantronics has announced that its new SupraPlus Wideband USB professional headset is optimized for Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. The headset provides Office Communicator 2007 users with enhanced wideband audio, reliability and hands-free communications. Utilizing more than twice the audio bandwidth of conventional telephony, Wideband greatly enhances intelligibility.
www.tmcnet.com/1283.1

SAP And Business Objects Join In Friendly Merger
SAP and Business Objects, two leaders in the information technology industry, recently announced they are joining forces. The Business Objects board of directors has approved the agreement and plans to recommend the offer to its shareholders. The friendly merger is expected to result in greater efficiency for business users. Both companies plan on offering high-value solutions for business- and process-oriented professionals, designed for helping companies looking to increase customer value, strengthen decision processes and create more sustainable competitive advantage.
www.tmcnet.com/1284.1

SAS Placed In Visionaries Quadrant For Data Integration Tools Magic Quadrant
SAS, a provider of business intelligence, has been placed by Gartner, Inc. in the Visionaries Quadrant of the "Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools, 2007" report. SAS supplies data integration, helping customers through a full range of solutions that include connectivity and metadata; data cleansing and enrichment; extraction, transformation and loading (ETL); migration and synchronization; data federation; and master data management.
www.tmcnet.com/1285.1

Cbeyond And Avaya Team For SIP Trunking Services
Cbeyond recently announced that its BeyondVoice with SIPconnect service, an integrated package of local and long-distance voice, broadband Internet and mobile services, is interoperable with Avaya's IP Office solution, a converged voice and data system. Together, the companies said they provide small businesses with business-quality voice services, increased flexibility and reduced costs. "Through our joint commitment to interoperability, Cbeyond and Avaya are able to deliver a comprehensive communications solution for small businesses," said Chris Gatch, CTO for Cbeyond.
www.tmcnet.com/1286.1

Verint Named To Annual Software 500
Contact center solutions provider Verint Systems Inc. has announced that it has been named to Software Magazine's Annual Software 500. Now in its 25th year, the program ranks the world's largest software and service providers. Verint, included in the Software 500 for the first time, was ranked 98th. In addition to contact center quality solutions, Verint offers networked video solutions, communications interception and analytics solutions to government and law enforcement entities and enterprise performance software.
www.tmcnet.com/1288.1

Aspect Enhances eWorkforce Management
The PerformanceEdge Group of Aspect Software has announced new and enhanced workforce management functionality for PerformanceEdge. Aspect eWorkforce Management 7.1 now provides contact centers with expanded agent scheduling capabilities to better comply with local, regional and country labor laws. Additionally, the Aspect eWorkforce Management – Analyze II enhancement package now includes pre-packaged performance management features focused on workforce management, automatic call distributor (ACD) and dialer applications. The PerformanceEdge solution combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and e-learning to enable organizations to more holistically respond to changing business conditions.
www.tmcnet.com/1290.1