Archive

Friends in the call center software industry are telling me that they've noticed a decided pickup in their business. What's interesting about that tidbit is that these people are also saying that the interest is in on-demand solutions and that opens a lot of topics for discussion. For example, we ...

"Your call is important to us. Please hold." "We've automated our phone system for your convenience." "Our agents are busy helping other customers." As consumers, we are all too familiar with these rote statements that are somehow supposed to make us feel all warm and fuzzy while we cool our hee...

American consumers would rather have to deal with a rude or condescending customer service agent on the phone than one who speaks with a foreign accent, according to a survey released earlier this year. The survey seemed to indicate that the arguments against outsourcing of certain operations -- fro...

Contact centers will dramatically increase the adoption of Voice over Internet Protocol technology over the next few years, the Yankee Group projects. This long-awaited development will be driven in some part by related growth in the number of home agents. The VoIP adoption rate in North American co...

Sprint has entered the hosted contact center space, a submarket that is rapidly expanding, with the introduction of an IP-based offering that is powered by Avaya technology. It is Sprint's first toll-free VoIP product, Barry Tishgart, director of product marketing, told CRM Buyer. "We have always su...

With tight budgets and plenty of alternative ways to invest their money, small and medium-sized businesses must always balance value with overall affordability as they pursue software solutions. Some solutions may seem like must-haves -- but if it is not affordable, then the "must-have" quickly beco...

Google made its presence felt in the front office market in a big way this week when both Salesforce.com and NetSuite announced within hours of each other their embrace of Google AdWords as an integral part of their marketing solutions. To be sure, the AdWords platform by itself will not solve the...

First it was support for e-mail marketing, then it was a user interface that displayed real time system data -- also known as the "Dashboard." Now the latest must-have feature in on-demand CRM, at least as evidenced by two separate offerings, is paid search. Both NetSuite and Salesforce.com have in...

Online surveys are becoming more popular and easier to use, and while their ability to find out exactly what customers want promises a goldmine for CRM, their real potential is not always tapped. "There's a lot more work that needs to be done by the organization than simply ask the questions and loo...

Accessing the Internet in India can be a major problem, discovered Akiba Stern, a partner with New York-based Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, on a recent visit to an outsourcing service provider's facilities there. It wasn't that the firm's connectivity services were poor. Rather, its security processe...

Several years ago, a large manufacturing company lost a key distribution center to a fire. The fire destroyed not only the building, but also thousands of shipments destined for a global customer base. Naturally, the CEO of this company wanted to send a letter to customers to explain the situation ...

SplendidCRM has created what it says is the ideal "compile once, run everywhere" cross-platform application with its release of SplendidCRM 1.2 for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and SplendidCRM 1.1 for Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10. The company used Novell's Mono open source toolset to lev...

More companies are viewing the Software as a Service model as a viable delivery option for functions beyond CRM -- the area in which it has probably developed the greatest traction -- according to a new study by Aberdeen. SaaS implementation times and ROI cycles are growing shorter in such areas as...

Oracle has released the next version of PeopleSoft's CRM application, version 9, fulfilling a promise made to PeopleSoft customers concerned over Oracle's acquisition of the vendor. Included in the new release, according to Doris Wong, vice president and general manager for PeopleSoft Enterprise pro...

One of the most advanced communication hubs in the world crashed unexpectedly in Seattle on Sunday afternoon, July 30, 2006, due to a string of malfunctions in the facility's electrical power system. The facility, called Fisher Plaza, is billed as one of the most secure data centers and telecommuni...