Business Intelligence Watch
| Business intelligence is a crucial part of any enterprise. This blog analyzes business trends and developments and provides insights and analysis on business intelligence.- About Me - Got a News Tip? |
| Business intelligence is a crucial part of any enterprise. This blog analyzes business trends and developments and provides insights and analysis on business intelligence.- About Me - Got a News Tip? |
It's not every day that a specific doomsday scenario is presented for an entire industry on a nationwide level. But consider the ramifications of this headline: "Telemarketing in the
That's because, according to a study from marketing consultancy Marketing Improvement, the acceleration in Telephone Preference Service registrations will result in 75 percent of all
And just how does Marketing Improvement CEO Tim Beadle back this up?
“In 2000 just over 1 million homes were on TPS, by the end of 2003 that had grown to 5 million, today it is 10 million," he said. "When it reaches 21 million, or 75 percent of all homes, telemarketing will cease to be economically viable, and that happens, according to our analysis, on [Feb. 14] 2007.”
Projecting beyond the day of doom, the research indicates that if the current trend continues, all homes in the
The rapid increase in registrations is being driven, according to MI, by three factors, including:
* The off-shoring of telemarketing. “Poor call quality infuriates people,” he said.
* "Silent" calls. This refers to when a predictive dialer autodials a phone number and, when the recipient answers the phone, an agent isn’t available to handle the call.
* The “networking effect,” with those registered to the TPS recommending it to others.
So, what's the answer for the industry in the
The industry must:
* Set predictive dialers to a zero silent call threshold.
* Guarantee that outbound calls are of high quality, both line quality and agent quality.
* Become much more targeted regarding its calling.
The industry, according to MI, must act now if it is not to “dig its own grave” during the next 18 months.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Sometimes you must go beyond the headline.
Consider this example: "If the Calls Persist, Fight Back."
That was the headline for a story appearing recently on washingtonpost.com. The first paragraph took readers on a trip down memory lane, providing the image of "another maddening, won't take-no-for-an-answer" telemarketer "insisting on selling you a miracle product or vacation plan you didn’t want."
Then we read about the National Do Not Call Registry with registrations exceeding 100 million this month. And then there's the example of the consumer complaining about how "in the past two to three weeks, I have received four calls from businesses that I have never dealt with before."
We also learn about calls that are exempt from DNC restrictions, such as those from pollsters, political groups and charities. And there's something on companies having existing business relationships with consumers that are allowed to call.
But it's not until paragraph No. 11 that we get the real news.
"Telemarketers' compliance with the rules has been good, however," according to the story. "Since its origin, the registry has received nearly 1 million complaints, a fraction of the number of registrants. And, so far, the FTC has brought just nine violation cases and four fraud cases related to the registry, including its first 'pure' do-not-call case last year against time-share telemarketers who made more than 300,000 sales calls to registered numbers, a breach that cost them $500,000 in civil penalties. The FCC has issued an additional 20 citations against companies for violating regulations, in some cases settling the $11,000 per illegal call penalty for hundreds of thousands of dollars."
So, let me get this straight: one million complaints vs. more than 100 million DNC registrants; nine violation cases and four fraud cases along with 20 citations.
Maybe the headline should have been: "Telemarketers Obey the Law, Respect Consumers' Wishes."
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Something of a milestone was reported recently by the Federal Trade Commission.
"Statement of Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras on the 100 Millionth Number on the National Do Not Call Registry," was the headline on the announcement from the FTC.
For those keeping score, the actual number is 100,275,559 recorded between June 27, 2003, and Aug. 12, 2005.
The FTC accounted for 90,449,111, including 65,513,405 Web registrations and 24,935,706 via phone. Also reported were 9,826,448 registrations transferred from states.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
The smallest state in the country will soon provide some big news, thanks to a banking powerhouse.
Bank of America is looking to open a new call center that is under construction in October in East Providence, Rhode Island.
The effort represents a $60 million investment in construction, equipment and personnel costs. Bank of America will create between 700 and 900 new positions at the facility.
Most of the work that will occur will include problem resolution, inquiries as well as maintenance on consumer accounts.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
So who is this "Net Radio Sales," anyway?
If you place streaming media advertising, you oughta know (OK, Russ, get that Alanis song o the same name out of that iPod in your brain).
According to Ando Media's newest Internet Radio Top20 survey of Internet radio networks ranked by listeners, Net Radio Sales Network is by far the leader in what's called "AQH." For the purposes of the survey, that's the average number of listeners tuned in to Internet-only or Internet versions of streaming feeds of broadcast stations each measured quarter-hour.
Ando measures "quarter-hours" from 6 a.m. to Midnight, seven days a week.
Net Radio Sales averaged 76,250 listeners per quarter-hour. The ad network says its stations stream well
over 15 million hours of listening per month to nearly 4 million unique listeners.
Their list of stations includes hundreds of recognizable Webcasters.
And that 76,250 AQH is -more than four times the amount of runner-up, totally cool U.K. based Electronic Dance-oriented Digitally Imported Radio's totally respectable 17,130.
DirecTV can use its network of satellites to send signals down to viewers.
But those same viewers need a phone line to send information back up- to and through the network. This is called "return path."
Phone lines are subject to interference, are a lot slower, and have trouble handling wide bandwidth applications such as video gaming or sending up of large file images such as photos or videos.
Now, DirecTV Group thinks it has found the answer: WiMAX.
At the Reuters Telecommunications, Cable and Satellite Summit today, network equipment maker Alvarion Ltd.'s CEO Zvi Slonimsky said his company is in talks with DirecTV to supply wireless equipment that would enable DirecTV to use WiMAX for return path tasks.
Sonus Networks, Inc., which provides VoIP infrastructure solutions for wireline and wireless service providers, received its reward today for the news it reported following the close of the market yesterday.
Yesterday's numbers, in fact, were quite impressive.
Revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2005 totaled $58.1 million compared with $33.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2005, and $42.4 million during the second quarter of fiscal 2004. In addition, net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2005 reached $9.7 million compared with a net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 of $3.7 million, and compared with net income of $4.9 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2004.
The reward was a 9 percent increase in the stock price today, up from yesterday's closing price of $4.69 to today's $5.13 close.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
The Sprint-Nextel deal is only days away from becoming official.
The companies announced today that they intend to close their proposed merger Friday. They report receiving all required regulatory approvals.
The deal was announced on Dec. 15, 2004.
After the completion of the merger, Sprint Nextel common stock will start trading on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange using the ticker symbol "S."
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Two new studies are out that quantify the promise of streaming video advertising.
AccuStream iMedia Research's "Streaming Advertising and Subscription Media: 2003-2006" says that the market for streaming video ads will be $343 million this year, up 78% from 2004's totals.
That would be ads such as this one on CNN.com.
Streaming audio advertising income is expected to total $22 million this year.
"There are more advertisers in the market, product categories represented range from automotive to technology and telecom," says AccuStream research director Paul Palumbo. "There are repeat buyers, solid click-through results from previous campaign and a generally clutter-free broadband environment- despite the fact that pre-roll units are essentially sold out for the remainder of the year."
A separate Jupitermedia study of streaming media and rich media ads
predicts that over the next five years, streaming media revenue will
rise at a 30 percent per year compound growth rate to $943 million five
years from now.
Earlier today, Macromedia announced that Macromedia Studio 8 suite will be available next month.
The three main components of this $999 (ouch I know, but imagine the possibilities) of Studio 8 are Dreamweaver 8, Flash Professional 8 and Fireworks 8.
As far as rich media is concerned, Flash Professional 8 sounds the most exciting. The leading authoring environment for Flash Player, its got improved graphics performance and effects capabilities, a far more extensive library of Flash Video features, new animation controls. Flash Pro 8 also has boosted integration with video and encoding tools.
I'm not the world's biggest Flash dev expert, but still, I can't wait to take this baby out for a spin.
And just in case you were wondering (or even if you are not:
The Dreamweaver 8 website authoring tool simplfies the process of incorporating Flash Video content into websites. Fireworks 8 improves on file format imports that were possible in earlier versions.
So, there I was, looking at my wife's T-Mobile statement that lists all of her cell phone calls and out popped an insert with the headline: "Federal Communications Commission -- Do Not Call Registry."
The insert asked: "Want to reduce the number of unwanted phone calls to your home or cell phone? The FCC established a national Do-Not-Call Registry. Commercial telemarketers may not call you if your number is on the registry."
It's been a while since the DNC list went into effect with millions having signed up. There has been considerable media coverage of it as well.
The message to T-Mobile: Thanks, but I think we all know about this.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
I've been trying out the new Yahoo! Video Search feature.
I gotta tell ya-this resource is sooo incomplete it's not even worthy of the term "Beta." Which they don't use, BTW.
The nicest thing I can say is the resource offers an Advanced Search by format. You can specify rich video clip searches for Real, Windows Media, QuickTime, Flash, MPEG and even .avi.
But what good is video search with a limited inventory? I gave this tool a shot with a search request to show me streaming video listings for Peter Krause, who played the just-deceased Nate on Six Feet Under.
Because I blog about the show elsewhere, I happen to know there are hundreds of videos with Krause.
Instead, I got back a search results page without any specific Six Feet Under references. Lots of hits for Peter Krause the golfer, too.
In looking at cited sources for Krause, as well as those from several other searches, I noticed a pattern. Some of the same sites appeared over and over. This tells me that Yahoo!'s Video Search has been launched more as a portal to clips from preferred content providers (like iFilm) than as a truly partner-agnostic scrape.
Oh, one more thing. I searched for "Paris Hilton" with Safe Search on. One thumbnail I got showed Paris topless. The other showed Paris very, very busy in a most personal way.
Chris Crosby made up his mind regarding next year’s SpeechTek after exhibiting at the event for the first time: he’s coming back.
“It’s been good, there’s been a lot of traffic with a lot of techies here and it’s been better than we expected,” said Crosby, who is the president/CEO of 2-year-old company Latigent, a Chicago-based firm that provides software for call centers. “It’s a great networking event, more for partner opportunities than user opportunities. There are a lot of integration opportunities.”
People he has met with include three prospective partners along with what he characterized as four or five “hot prospects.” Blue.vue is the application that he has been demonstrating in
Jeff Macomber used the words “pretty good foot traffic” and “exciting conversations” Tuesday when asked to describe the event.
“There’s a level of energy in terms of the number of companies entering the speech market and new developments in technology,” said Macomber, chief architect at NetByTel, a developer of hosted speech applications.
This is his fourth time at the event, which he described as the best attended by far of the four.
“This show for NetByTel is where we meet resellers and potential partners,” Macomber said. “We’re booked all day today and tomorrow with about 10 or 12 meetings with potential partners.”
Leigh Ann Clavenna said the show was providing “quality traffic.”
“I didn’t expect this much,” said Clavenna, regional marketing manager for Montreal-based telephony hardware vendor Eicon Networks. “We’ve seen some pretty strong prospects.”
The company was offering free training on its Diva Server regarding installation, configuration and how to develop applications with the company’s software development kit.
She said about “30 really strong prospects” had come in contact with the company, with an overall total of 50 or 60 expected through tomorrow.
“This is a partner-centered show,” she said. “We’ve got about 10 meetings set up with prospective partners.”
And what is the goal of those meetings?
“To get half [to become] new technology partners,” she said.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
There was no shortage of numbers provided by Don Peterson this morning in
The Avaya chairman/CEO discussed the business communications applications market and provided a 2006 estimate of the global market: $30 billion.
Even more impressive was the projected 20 percent compound annual growth rate between 2005 and 2008.
Software constitutes $13 billion of the total and includes the following segments: contact center (26 percent); IP telephony (19 percent); e-mail (14 percent); UC, messaging (12 percent); collaboration (3 percent); conferencing (11 percent); and converged clients (15 percent). The $17 billion services sector includes: hosted (8 percent); consulting (35 percent); implementation (21 percent); and support (35 percent).
He also mentioned the skyrocketing number of IP lines shipped, which stood at 18.3 million last year and is projected to reach 47.2 million by 2008.
Also discussed was 2005 representing the tipping point in the speech applications market, with IP telephony overtaking traditional telephony.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Don Peterson spoke in
Well, sort of.
The chairman/CEO of Avaya mentioned famous Vegas hotel developer Steve Wynn and his determination to build around the guest experience. Part of this was the realization that 50 percent of resort revenue came from other than gambling, representing a significant shift over time in the Vegas hotel sector.
“In response to that, Wynn created a differentiation strategy,” Peterson said. “He wanted to use technology to transform the guest experience.”
Peterson then described the communication strategy Wynn developed.
“He wanted to provide … ubiquitous access,” Peterson said. “He started out with the belief that that would mean a PC in every room and kiosks. He ended up with an IP phone, a screen phone, in every room with voice access [and] a knowledgeable agent at the end of the line providing the intimacy that he was looking for with the hotel guests.”
The strategy also included cell phone availability for guests as well as a guest value code that would identify guests’ attributes to agents who could provide more responsive service.
“Mr. Wynn … is delighted with the attributes [and] guest response … has been positive,” Peterson said during today’s keynote address at SpeechTek.
Telemarketers behaving badly better beware!
That's because the Federal Trade Commission is definitely looking out for the industry's bad apples and is ready to make them pay.
The agency issued its ninth quarterly announcement in which the agency’s enforcement efforts against telemarketing fraud and abuse were summarized.
"The quarterly enforcement update lists significant case developments in 22 federal district court cases occurring between May and July 2005," we learned from the FTC press release.
The FTC also provides "a list of enforcement actions involving telemarketing that have seen developments" since Oct. 1, 2002.
There are links to press releases related to each of these actions.
"The Web page now contains information about 165 actions involving the use of the telephone to market goods or services. This information covers cold-call outbound telemarketing, as well as inbound calls generated from advertisements or other solicitations to purchase products or services," the FTC said.
Regarding the recent quarterly enforcement update, it is on the FTC’s Web site at: www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/telemarkfraudenforcement/update05jul.htm.
Some of the more interesting headlines from the recent releases appearing on the site include:
* Defendants Who Deceptively Marketed the “Himalayan Diet Breakthrough” Settle FTC Charges: Agree To Pay $400,000 In Consumer Redress.
* Cross Border Con Artist Ordered to Pay $2.9 Million.
* FTC and Law Enforcement Partners Continue Targeting Scammers of Spanish-Speakers.
* FTC Targets Bogus Anti-Aging Claims for Pills and Sprays Promising Human Growth Hormone Benefits: Settlement Provides Up To $20 Million In Consumer Redress.
* Fraudulent “Debt Negotiators” Settle FTC Charges.
* FTC Cracks down on Internet Mall Pyramid Promoters.
* FTC Bans Bogus Operator from Credit Repair Business.
* Court Order Bars Deceptive Investment Pitches.
There have also been some big fish reeled in by the FTC, including Scholastic and Columbia House, as revealed in the following headlines:
* Children’s Book Publisher to Pay $710,000 to Settle Charges it Violated Commission’s Negative Option and Telemarketing Sales Rule: Complaint Alleges Scholastic, Grolier, and Scholastic-at-Home Failed to Adequately Disclose the Terms of Their Direct-to-Home Book Clubs.
*
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
