Erik Linask
writer
CloudTC and N-Able Acquired
"Australian-owned IP PBX systems company, Vixtel, has completed the acquisition of Silicon Valley based glass phone developer, CloudTC, for an undisclosed figure,"...
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ProfitBricks: Where InfiniBand Meets Cloud 2.0
In a recent meeting with William Toll and Pete Johnson of ProfitBricks, the pair were ecstatic to explain how their company has...
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Proactive Care Puts Operators One Step Ahead
By Thomas Fuerst, Senior Director, Multimedia Solutions MarketingAlcatel-Lucent
Monitoring and analyzing network data proactively saves operators time, money, and customers.
When a network service fails, it makes headlines, ticks off customers, and costs that network operator money. When a failure is headed off in advance, on the other hand, there might not be praise-laden headlines, but it's newsworthy nonetheless.
The traditional approach to customer care has typically been: a disgruntled customer calls customer service and complains of a service interruption or problem; the rep, learning of it for the first time, sends out a technician the next day, and eventually finds a resolution. Often, customers are left feeling put out, and the operator has spent significant time and money resolving the problem. Even worse is the customer who doesn’t call and just feels this is ‘typical’ of their network experience. That is a customer at risk of leaving.
Proactive care flips this dynamic on its head by using predictive analytics to identify potential outages or errors in the network and stop them before they occur. It consists of three main parts: one, constantly monitoring and measuring data on the network; two, real-time analysis of the data; and three, the most important, acting on that analysis to fix the problem.
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10 Lessons from Volleyball
I've played volleyball for over 25 years. I have traveled around the US to watch the pros live - both indoor...
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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...
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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...
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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 »Why Your Business Must Form a Social Media Strategy Today
June 27, 2011There has been an unworldly volume of social media related content filling the pages of media sites of late – and you’ve certainly read a fair amount within the pages of Customer Interaction Solutions as well over the past 18 months. Many arguments have been made for why social media should be part of customer service organizations, and how, particularly on the inbound side. But, one of the reasons social media can be such a tremendous asset is its nature as a two-way medium, allowing businesses to follow a basic principle of marketing: In order to succeed, your brand must be where your customers are because that’s where the power lies.
Tweeting Isn't Just for Birds
May 24, 2011One hundred and forty characters. One tweet. Such a small space, yet one that has become powerful beyond its size. What can you accomplish in just a few words?
Sports Illustrated iPad Version a Winner (Finally)
May 20, 2011Recently, I questioned the immediate future of the iPad as a reader. I don’t see it as a game changer yet. That said, one thing bothered me for a long time – the fact that Sports Illustrated somehow found sense in charging print subscribers $4.99 for each iPad issue. I would expect non-print readers to pay for issues, but the idea of making those of us who already pay for print to double our investment is pure lunacy, especially when its key competition (ESPN The Magazine) doesn’t.
What You Need to Know About HTML5
May 19, 2011I just wrote about the growth of open source technology in IT departments, driven by the interoperability, flexibility, and freedom from proprietary vendor lock-in open source provides. A similar phenomenon is about to hit the Web developer world, which has for years been dominated by Adobe Flash technology.
Will Sony's Playstation Network Intrusion Give New Life to Game Discs?
May 5, 2011When Sony first went public with the news that its Playstation Network had been compromised, it claimed some 77 million accounts had been hacked. It later found nearly 25 million more user accounts had been breached earlier, bringing the total to more than 100 million.
Publicly, Sony appears to be handling the devastating attack on its network reasonably, working with Debix Inc. to offer one year of identity monitoring to its subscribers, vowing to locate the cyber criminals responsible – a group known as Anonymous – and promising to relaunch its network with the most sophisticated security protocols available to prevent a repeat incident.
To Read or Not to Read (on Your iPad)
May 4, 2011A recent study by Simba Information suggests that 40 percent of iPad owners do not read e-books on their iPads. Should we be surprised? I think not, but Michael Norris, senior analyst and author of the report, says, “A lot of people equate the sale of a new gadget with the creation of a new reader, and it just doesn’t happen.”
That may be true, but the question is why, and there are a number of factors that likely play into the survey results.
Need an Education in Video? Business Video Expo West 2011 is Your Experience
May 3, 2011Got video?
If not, you’re rapidly falling into the minority, at least in terms of businesses with successful Web presences. Consider the last Web site you visited that did not incorporate video into its daily content in some fashion?
SIPNOC Agenda Announced to Drive SIP Awareness
April 7, 2011Less than two months ago, when it launched SIPNOC (SIP Network Operators Conference), SIP Forum president Marc Robins noted, “The SIP Forum is dedicated to providing technical guidance and support of the SIP protocol across all audiences.”
Today, it has taken the next step to bringing that promise to fruition in announcing the official agenda for SIPNOC 11, which will be held at the Hyatt Dulles Hotel in Herndon, VA, April 25-27, and will be keynoted by FCC Chief Technologist Dr. Douglas C. Sicker.
Considering the emergence of SIP as the dominant standard for IP Communications, an overarching event considering security, troubleshooting, monitoring and metrics, interop, ancillary services like Fax over IP (a rapidly growing market, which once was considered on the way out), and of course key services and infrastructure that enable SIP-based communications, is almost a necessity.
Customer Satisfaction is all About Access to the Right Information
April 6, 2011

Customer satisfactionis a pretty simple game – and it really is a game, considering the company in any particular industry that scores better in customer sat wins the market.
In order to win, customer service agents must be equipped with the right tools and information from the outset, whether it is an inbound call or outbound solicitation. It seems logical that outbound agents would be better prepared, since they are typically soliciting based on specific criteria.
Can Skype Bring Back the Phone Booth?
March 31, 2011Phone booths are back?
If you ask today’s younger generations, I’m not sure they even know what a phone booth is.
Thanks to the popularity of Skype, though they may soon find out, thanks to an initiative driven by Enterprise Estonia.
