Brendan Read
TMC
Emerging Threats Combats a Million Plus Pieces of New Malware a Week
There are 250,000 plus new pieces of malware being produced each day equating to one piece per person in the US in...
Full Story »
NFV-Based Software Telcos Need OSS/BSS Interoperability
One of the goals of ETSI NFV is to allow new entrants to provide solutions to carriers based on software instead of...
Full Story »
SysAid's Lifshitz: The Cloud Will Dominate ITSM Market
Cloud computing has really become a household word with mainstream media outlets running stories on television about the growth in the space...
Full Story »
Avaya Takes Networking Lead in SPB
At Interop Las Vegas 2013 Avaya was demonstrating their real-world Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) solutions and while interoperating with Spirent, HP and...
Full Story »
Alianza Wants to Host Your Software Telco
The software telco(r)evolution representing the move from hardware to software is perhaps the biggest trend in the world of carrier telecom this...
Full Story »
WebRTC Screen Sharing Using Openfire
I've written about WebRTC screen sharing, but today I came across another WebRTC screen sharing solution leveraging Openfire and using WebSockets and...
Full Story »
LTE Network Interactions
According to a recently released GSMA Wireless Intelligence infographic, there are 163 live LTE networks today, and that figure is expected...
Full Story »New Facilities For Convergys
January 25, 2007
Teleservices giant Convergys Corp. today announced it will open new facilities in Kentucky and Texas as part of a plan to increase capacity for its Customer Care business. The two new customer care centers are in addition to the previously announced Albuquerque, New Mexico facility Convergys acquired in December.
In the first quarter of 2007, Convergys expects to open a new 600-agent contact center in Erlanger, Kentucky, in the Greater Cincinnati metropolitan area. The company also plans to open a contact center in Longview, Texas in the second quarter of 2007 with approximately 550 employees.
Hiring has begun for both contact centers. Interested parties should visit www.convergys.greatjob.net for details.
TES
In the first quarter of 2007, Convergys expects to open a new 600-agent contact center in Erlanger, Kentucky, in the Greater Cincinnati metropolitan area. The company also plans to open a contact center in Longview, Texas in the second quarter of 2007 with approximately 550 employees.
Hiring has begun for both contact centers. Interested parties should visit www.convergys.greatjob.net for details.
TES
Entellium Honored By Frost & Sullivan
January 24, 2007
CRM provider Entellium (www.entellium.com) issued a release today announcing it has won Frost & Sullivan’s 2006 Customer Value Enhancement Award. This particular award recognizes companies that best demonstrate an ability to expand its customer base and nurture its existing base while using "innovative value-creation and enhancement strategies."
Said Entellium CEO Paul Johnston, “We are delighted to be recognized by Frost & Sullivan in this category. It’s long been our aim to bring value to our customers in the form of increasingly robust and user-friendly products as well as industry-leading customer service. This award confirms that we are on the right track. We are determined to meet our customers’ highest expectations today and in the future.”
Congratulations to Entellium.
TES
Said Entellium CEO Paul Johnston, “We are delighted to be recognized by Frost & Sullivan in this category. It’s long been our aim to bring value to our customers in the form of increasingly robust and user-friendly products as well as industry-leading customer service. This award confirms that we are on the right track. We are determined to meet our customers’ highest expectations today and in the future.”
Congratulations to Entellium.
TES
Targus Expects Strong Growth For 2007
January 22, 2007
TARGUSinfo, which provides both lists and what it calls on-demand lead verification, today issued a release that the company "anticipates another year of 'meteoric gains' for the affiliate marketing industry and is poised to help these companies with a solution that scales easily with their explosive growth."
Why?
Why?
Overall Internet advertising is expected to grow by 13.4 percent in 2007, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and affiliate marketing – the generation of sales and leads through advertising on others’ sites – is positioned to take on an even larger role within the expansion of the overall advertising market.
“I think we can expect another year of meteoric gains for affiliate marketing,” says Shawn Collins, the co-founder of the Affiliate Summit and one of the industry’s foremost experts. Collins also notes that 2005-06 holiday spending growth was 26 percent, and he expects affiliate programs to also increase with this uptick.
“The biggest challenge in the coming year for affiliate marketing is for the positive forces in the industry to dispose of the garbage in the space, including using better lead verification from the likes of TARGUSinfo,” Collins says.
Teleperformance Makes German Acquisition
January 19, 2007Teleperformance SA and United Internet AG have signed a share purchase agreement relating to the acquisition by Teleperformance of 100 percent of the shares of twenty4help Knowledge Service AG, a European provider of technical support and help desk services.
twenty4help is the current European leading company in technical support and help desk with a consolidated turnover of more than 100 million euros. The company operates in European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic and offers technical support in 22 languages.
At the closing date, the acquisition will be paid in cash by Teleperformance for a consideration of approx 85 million euros. According to Teleperformance, the operation is the first step of its 2007 external growth plan.
Web Site Security
January 18, 2007
Anyone ever had this happen before? This is new to me.
At lunchtime, I visited Citibank's Citicards Web site to check my balance and see if my Vonage and NetFlix charges were posted yet, so I can pay my card balance off.
The moment I arrived on Citicard's Web site, however, Firefox (my browser) popped a message on me that it had been reported that the site was being hijacked by fraudsters, and warned me not to enter any personal information (user name and password) onto the site, because it could be used by criminals. I retried three times and received the same message each time before I gave up. This afternoon, the message was gone and I was able to successfully log in to my account.
I'm not sure if the problem was truly with the CitiCard site, or whether it was Firefox being overzealous.
At lunchtime, I visited Citibank's Citicards Web site to check my balance and see if my Vonage and NetFlix charges were posted yet, so I can pay my card balance off.
The moment I arrived on Citicard's Web site, however, Firefox (my browser) popped a message on me that it had been reported that the site was being hijacked by fraudsters, and warned me not to enter any personal information (user name and password) onto the site, because it could be used by criminals. I retried three times and received the same message each time before I gave up. This afternoon, the message was gone and I was able to successfully log in to my account.
I'm not sure if the problem was truly with the CitiCard site, or whether it was Firefox being overzealous.
New GM for Onyx
January 17, 2007M2M Holdings Inc. today made an announcement that Pete Strom will join the company to become the general manager of Onyx Software Corporation, a business unit of M2M Holdings Inc. Onyx is a CRM and process management software provider that caters to for mid-sized and large enterprises. Strom will take over for Acting General Manager Tom Millay, who will return to his previous role as vice president of sales and marketing for M2M Holdings.
For more info about the appointment, visit www.onyx.com.TEX
Mercado Improves E-Commerce
January 16, 2007E-merchandising company Mercado today announced the launch of Mercado 4.0 – a solution the company is positioning as a "new generation of intelligent e-Commerce." According to the company, version 4.0 combines the best site search and navigation technologies with sophisticated merchandising and actionable reporting. It can provides e-commerce merchandising managers with the knowledge, tools and control that they need to immediately obtain maximum return on their online retail site.
Merchandising managers can deploy auto-ranking formulas that self optimize product ranking according to dynamic metrics such as inventory levels, conversion rates and product freshness. Mercado 4.0 automates the process of aggregating and analyzing data and affecting changes to e-commerce site behavior, helping save time and ensuring information is acted on according to a company’s formulas and merchandising campaigns.
Technology's Watchful Eye
January 16, 2007
There's a rather frightening article in the Washington Post today about how often the average person is tracked, recorded, identified and photographed during the average day. It shouldn't be scary...after all, we all know these technologies exist, and where those data go, but when you put them all together, it forms a picture better suited to the kind of dystopia portrayed in "1984" or "Blade Runner".
My only real solace is that, after dealing with consumer companies and the government for so long, I suspect that few of the organizations that keep this information are competent enough to actually use it properly.
I hope.
Here's the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501304.html
TES
My only real solace is that, after dealing with consumer companies and the government for so long, I suspect that few of the organizations that keep this information are competent enough to actually use it properly.
I hope.
Here's the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501304.html
TES
Executive Pay Lunacy
January 3, 2007
Did you read about the resignation of Home Depot's CEO, Robert Nardelli today? It appears that activist shareholders are being pesky and want to know why Home Depot sends all its profits home in ridiculous levels of executive pay while stock prices are flagging. So...to quell those ludicrous executive pay accusations, the company is letting Nardelli walk with essentially $210 million dollars. The New York Times reports that, "Under an agreement with the company, Mr. Nardelli will receive a severance payment of about $210 million, an amount that includes cash, the acceleration of unvested stock awards and options, bonus payments and incentive awards and various benefit programs.
Canadians Buying Online Less Than Americans
December 22, 2006
Here's an article from Canada's Globe & Mail about online buying behavior in Canada, which lags behind U.S. online purchasing. The article points out the "chicken and egg" conundrum that many Canadian retailers don't offer good online purchasing services because Canadians aren't buying. But of course...Canadians won't buy if services are not being offered.
One comment on the article posits that in the U.S., no tax is charged on most Internet purchases, which makes paying shipping costs more palatable, but that Canadians must pay both tax and shipping on online purchases.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061221.wretaill1221/BNStory/Technology/home
TES
One comment on the article posits that in the U.S., no tax is charged on most Internet purchases, which makes paying shipping costs more palatable, but that Canadians must pay both tax and shipping on online purchases.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061221.wretaill1221/BNStory/Technology/home
TES
