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The home-agent contact center model has undergone a metamorphosis in the last few years. A few short years ago, it was the refuge of small companies that couldn't afford to outsource operations to typical brick-and-mortar contact centers, said Alpine CEO Christopher Carrington. However, larger compa...

Chris Formant, president of Avaya Global Services, has been on the job since March 2008. It is no small irony that one year ago he was tasked with the assignment of strengthening the services group's financial and operating performance -- a significant undertaking, given that the services division t...

This year, companies seeking to invest further -- or for the first time -- in a CRM software system will find not only a wide array of vendors, but also a large selection of computing platforms to support the application. These can range from Software as a Service offerings typified by the standard-...

Finding business value in Software as a Service implementations is a perennial topic of discussion, no matter how established the SaaS business model becomes. In part, that's because it's more a business than a tech issue, and companies tend to focus more on features and functionality during the pro...

Salesforce.com has rolled out another cloud offering -- this time for the service space. Called "Service Cloud," the bundled applications, which include integrated social networking tools, are built on the Force.com platform. Service Cloud allows users to create an online community for up to 250 cus...

Avaya is rolling out two new industry-specific applications at the National Retail Federation's annual trade show on Monday. One, Avaya Video Assist, leverages the company's contact center expertise. The other, In-Store Connect, allows retailers to do away with siloed commnication systems such as i...

For many e-tailers, online chat is a closer. Packaged and offered up to site visitors as a service, it provides an opportunity to close a sale when an uncertain customer wavers. Retailers were early adopters of this technology precisely because of the distinct return on investment, Conversive CEO Ro...

Memo to telecom service providers: "We never thanked you, but you did a great job offering us consolidated billing. It is hard to remember now, as for the last few years you have been so aggressive in promoting bundled services, but five years ago, this was a major pain point. Three bills for ISP, c...

This summer, Bob Lyons was tapped to lead Avaya's contact center division. The new general manager and vice president of customer service applications -- a relatively new position at Avaya -- joined the company at a crucial time. It was in the midst of reorganizing its operations around three busin...

The Federal Reserve Bank has issued new rules that will take effect in 2010, radically changing the way credit card companies treat their customers. Essentially, they are strong protections that regulate interest rates and billing methodologies. For instance, card companies will be prohibited from ...

SugarCRM has released Sugar 5.2, which packages some existing Web 2.0 features with new technologies. The company is also introducing Cloud Services -- a framework for developers to build links to third-party data sources such as LinkedIn or JigSaw. SugarCRM is no stranger to Web 2.0. It has made th...

Salesforce.com has announced its latest platform-to-platform integration -- this time with Google. Force.com for Google App Engine is a new set of tools and services that allows developers to build Web applications on App Engine that leverage the enterprise data that resides in Salesforce.com. "We b...

Microsoft CRM operations are in full swing, and bloggers are sharing tips and information. Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is now available. No, it's not a new release -- but as with anything Microsoft, the cyber-community is talking about implementation do's and don'ts. Microsoft is ...

RightNow Technologies has gone deep with contact center functionality in November 08, the latest quarterly update of its flagship Software as a Service CRM application. The new version builds on RightNow's strong self-service platform with the addition of agent-scripting technology, a desktop add-in...

Saturday, Nov. 8, 6:15 p.m. The Wheaton, Md., Metrorail stop in greater Washington, D.C. I am meeting a friend at 7, and I'm later than I wanted to be getting to the Metro. Unfortunately, I'm a bit off my stride. I forgot to get dollar bills and now have to scrounge through my purse looking for eno...

For the second time since its acquisition of Siebel, Oracle is rolling out a major upgrade of the iconic on-premise suite. Version 8.1.1 has rehabbed many of its features -- as well as lavished a great deal of attention on the loyalty functions. The company is also introducing Oracle CRM Gadgets for...

Avaya is targeting unmet pockets of user demand in the telecom industry with the release of three new offerings this week. Kevin Kennedy, who will be taking over as CEO in January, is appearing at VoiceCon on Monday to unveil the new products: a contact center product focused on outbound messaging a...

Salesforce.com continues to push its cloud computing functionality into the enterprise, with the introduction of a new tool that allows users to harness the applications available on Force.com and apply them to corporate Web sites. Force.com Sites allows customers to run their Web sites in Salesforc...

The U.S. government is getting better at designing Web sites that are user-friendly and provide value, according to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index, released by the University of Michigan and ForeSee Results. Satisfaction with federal Web sites improved 1.4 percent to 73.9 on ACSI's ...

It has been eight years since the 2000 presidential election revealed the many flaws that existed in the mechanics of U.S. voting systems. Despite that debacle, many states have not made even basic improvements to assist voters -- such as providing user-friendly Web sites that tell them how to regis...