September 2007 Archives

Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. has reportedly agreed to buy privately-held call center and business intelligence software company Latigent. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

 

Chicago-based Latigent specializes in Web-based business intelligence and analytics reporting solutions, with a focus on contact centers. The company last made news on TMCnet in June, when it announced version 3.0 of its BlueVue X-Ray Edition business intelligence software, which is said to give managers and executives an “X-ray view” into their contact center operations. The new version of the software offers Real Time Performance Manager (RPM) and “cradle-to-grave” reporting for Cisco ICM & IPCC, plus expanded support for Cisco IPCC Express.

 

Some no doubt saw Cisco’s acquisition of Latigent coming, since the two have been working closely together for years. Latigent's products will add nicely to Cisco's suite of Unified Customer Contact solutions. These solutions, which run on a single, integrated platform, enable multi-channel services and integration with customer relationship management applications. In addition they readily integrate with other existing contact center systems.

 

Laurent Philonenko, vice president and general manager of the Customer Contact Business Unit, Cisco, said the acquisition shows Cisco’s “commitment to increase the value of customer investments in our customer interaction solutions by providing appealing, robust and dynamic tools to enable increased visibility and efficiency, resulting in improved customer experiences."

 

"Cisco views reporting as a critical component for the management of a contact center,” Philonenko said in a statement. “We believe Latigent offers an excellent combination of talent and technologies that will further position Cisco Unified Customer Contact solutions to help enable customer-centric relationship management with unprecedented flexibility. Marketing, sales and support communities that are increasingly tied to contact center technologies will benefit from this new dimension in our offer."

 

As per the deal, Latigent’s CEO Chris Crosby and CTO Jason Kolb will both join Cisco after the close of the acquisition, which is still subject to the usual closing conditions.

 

Cisco hopes to close the deal in the first quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2008.

 

San Jose, Calif., start-up Pudding Media has unveiled a new Skype-like VoIP service which allows advertisers to deliver targeted advertising content to user’s desktops while they are chatting away on their PCs. Basically, the company is using speech analytics to monitor, or eavesdrop on, people’s VoIP calls, and then based on what words are used in the conversation, targeted, personalized advertising will be displayed on screen, corresponding with what is being said. So, for example, if I’m talking to my wife about what to have for dinner tonight, a frozen food manufacturer can have their ad pop up on my screen when I say “dinner.”

Advertisers pay based on how often users click on their ads, with prices similar to those offered through Google’s AdSense network. Pudding Media reportedly plans to add other payment models, like charging for each ad impression or by the number of calls an ad generates to the advertiser.

I don’t know about you, but there’s no way I’m going to let someone monitor my calls for the purpose of delivering personalized advertising. I mean, if I’m watching a cooking show on IPTV and a local store that sells gourmet food or cookware wants to show their ads during the commercial break, that’s fine. But monitoring my calls to find out what I’m talking about is just a little too Orwellian for me. Anyway, after AT&T and Verizon allegedly supplying call data to the NSA a couple of years ago, how do I know who’s really monitoring my calls – and for what purpose? The company claims it won’t keep the recordings or do anything unethical with the data. Yeah right.

Sure, I know everyone who uses VoIP has their privacy of their calls somewhat in doubt right now, since it is so easy to hack into someone’s session and eavesdrop away, but I’m not going to hand my right to privacy over to someone just so I can get personalized advertising. I find it hard to believe that anyone in the younger, or “MySpace” generation would want this either.

To me, this is just another grand idea that simply won’t work. You can’t make me believe that huge numbers of people will actually want this. I’d rather have someone put a billboard up on the side of my house.

Then again, I’m a traditionalist and you’ll never find me sitting at my computer with a headset on anyway. The only way I make phone calls is using fixed line VoIP and a traditional handset. To me, that’s using the phone.

I just want to thank Apple's Steve Jobs for reminding me that the holiday shopping season is already upon us ... even though here in Connecticut it’s still in the 80s and people are swimming at the beaches.

I also want to thank him for lowering the price of the iPhone from $599 to $399 barely three months after the phone hit store shelves. Now maybe I can afford to buy one as a Christmas gift for someone special. Or should I wait until January, when the price will drop to $199?

Granted, Jobs issued an apology to those who already bought the iPhone for the full price $599. Plus, Apple is now offering a $100 rebate to everyone who purchased it for the full price, meaning that the original full price was, in fact, $499.

But in my view, anyone who went out and bought the iPhone right away (perhaps even waited in line for it) got what they deserved. Personally, I never buy any consumer electronics until they’ve been on the market for a full year (or more specifically until a particular model has been on the market for a full year). I learned my lesson 10 years ago when I bought my N64 and PS1 game consoles from Nintendo and Sony, respectively. Months later I saw the prices drop on both units and said “#@%&! Why did I buy that so soon?” Naturally, I didn’t buy my PS2 until that model had been out for a full year and a half.

As far as Jobs’ comment that the price was lowered to stimulate sales moving into the holiday shopping season goes, all I have to say is, wow, $399 for a Christmas gift? I’m kind of appalled that someone’s telling me that I should go out and spend that much on someone else. I might spend that much on my wife … but then again, last year we promised each other we’d only spend $40 max on our gifts and that actually worked out really well. (So much for our contribution to the U.S. economy.)

So, yeah, sure, go out and spend $399 on a new iPhone. Be one of the first to have it on your block. Put it on your credit card and pay the interest. Then, 2 or 3 years from now when the next model comes out, you can ditch your current phone and move on to the next model. It’s the American way. You don’t want to suffer the embarrassment of being seen with last year’s model do you? People will think you’re poor. And of course you'll want to buy the iPhone as a gift for all your family members and friends, won’t you? I mean, otherwise you might look … cheap.

For now I’m content to use my computer to surf the Web and my landline phone to make calls. But then again, I’m getting to be kind of “obsolete” myself ... maybe I need a new iPhone to become "relevant" again?