By David Sims
[email protected]

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is the best album ever to emerge from Motown, Marvin Gaye’s 1971 What’s Going On:

Horsham, Pennsylvania-based CentraView LLC, a provider of Open Source Centralized Business Management software is being secretive about a deal they’ve signed with “an established software company” to develop its next generation of product and services offerings on CentraView’s software technology.

“CentraView recently secured a multiple six figure license agreement with an established software company” says Alan Rihm, CEO of CentraView. “We are unable to reveal the name of the company due to the private label nature of the agreement.”

Evidently the company in question, according to Rihm, had the choice of “building, buying or partnering with CentraView” and chose CentraView because the company felt that working with CentraView’s architecture and code base “would enable them to get to market faster, and reduce the risks and expenses associated with launching their new product and service offerings.”

Source code for the CentraView Open Source project is now available for download through Sourceforge.net. Built on the Enterprise Java platform and optimized for Linux and Windows environments, it uses open source technologies such as Linux (RedHat Enterprise and Fedora), Apache Tomcat, JBoss and MySQL.
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For those who missed this announcement, VoX Communications, a packet communications services provider deploying wholesale, residential and business VoIP services nationwide, has announced plans to debut its total VoIP product at SUPERCOMM 2005.

VoX will demonstrate its wholly owned packet telephony technology and its advanced, nationwide network, terminating traffic with Global Crossing VoIP Outbound Services. VoX Communications' President Mark Richards said visitors to the IPCC booth “will be able to make calls using the most advanced wireless IP phones available over our advanced, nationwide network and packet telephony technology.”
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PacificNet Epro, a provider of contact center and CRM products and a subsidiary of PacificNet Inc. has announced a partnership with Epicor Software Corporation, a provider of software for middle-market companies, to provide Customer Relationship Management for Chinese companies.

PacificNet Epro became a Value-Added Reseller of Epicor in August 2004. PacificNet Epro and Epicor’s partnership includes holding joint seminars to promote integrated products by the two companies.

The seminars have the catchy, if somewhat ambiguous title “Unlock the hidden risks and cost for not having an integrated CRM and CTI solutions,” a title written by the same guy who writes such snappy slogans for China’s Communist Party as “Fully utilize various levels of the Party organization as bases in a battle ground.”

The seminars cover the cost and risks faced by sales and marketing professionals that can lead to lost sales revenue and market share.

At the seminar Billy Lui, Business Solutions Manager, Epicor Software (North Asia) Ltd, demonstrated various CRM tools such as eMarketing, Sales Force Automation, Customer Service for better understanding customer needs and improving customer loyalty.

In addition Terry Leung, General Manager of System & Solutions of PacificNet Epro, demonstrated Epro’s WISE-xb Contact Center System with customizable Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) and seamlessly integration with Epicor’s CRM software.
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Bangalore-based software giant and global outsourcer Infosys made the Business 2.0 list of the top 100 fastest-growing technology companies in the U.S., placing at #8.

And they’re not just running call centers. According to their fiscal year 2004 report, in addition to a slew of other jobs Infosys worked with “a large US-based Cable Multi-Service Operator” to upgrade its network to offer VoIP. They also enabled a global telecom service provider to “set up a regional customer service center to provide data, voice, mobile and CRM services to its Asia Pacific customers.”

Until last year, the billion-dollar firm had been offering back office services from India, according to the World IT Report. In May 2004, after setting up a consulting division in the US, Infosys started establishing business process outsourcing operation centers in America and Europe itself, on site or near clients’ premises.

“Plans are to have sizeable onshore operations by the end of the year and about 20 percent of its workforce based in US or Europe within 3 to 5 years… Infosys’s BPO arm, Progeon, is also bidding for complete outsourcing contracts where it will take over entire departments of American companies, even if all jobs cannot be transferred to India.”
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Vancouver-based VoIPMDU.com has announced that it has launched its VoIP telephony package program online with Points.com, a reward program management portal with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

VoIPMDU.com has an exclusive agreement on the Points.com site to market its VoIP telephony packages and discounted long distance bundles. It’s offering three comprehensive packages varying in length from six months to twelve months to Points.com subscribers, who can exchange or redeem their loyalty points from 40 loyalty programs instead of having to pay cash.

“We’ve spent over six months developing and refining our comprehensive, multi-featured VoIP packages and a state-of-the-art billing platform,” stated Richard Kipping, Chairman and CEO of VoIPMDU.com. “And to my knowledge, the Points.com website is the only site in the world where you can purchase VoIP telephony packages and long distance calls using loyalty points.”

Points International Ltd. is the owner and operator of Points.com, a reward program management portal where consumers can swap points and miles between reward programs. Participants include Delta Skymiles, eBay Anything Points, American Airlines AAdvantage Program, S&H greenpoints, Cendant TripRewards, Starbucks, Asiamiles, and Intercontinental Hotels Group’s Priority Club Rewards.

“Miles” are an international currency developed in the early 1980s by the American airline industry.

VoIPMDU.com will receive full cash value for all products sold online with loyalty point redemptions.
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Taking a lead from large public sector conglomerates, Indian software companies are starting to attempt calculations of the value of human resources, putting the numbers in their Annual Reports as a statement of intangibles.

There are different cost-based approaches, one is the “opportunity cost method” outlined on Tata Technologies’ page:

Suppose that Acme Anvils’ target ROI is 16 percent. It has a capital base of $1 billion, but its profit is only $13 million, which is $3 million short of the target. Management feels if they can acquire the services of Wile E. Coyote, its profit improves by $4 million to $17 million, or $1 million more than the target ROI of $16 million. $1 million capitalized at 16 percent comes to $62,500, so the unit can bid up $62,500 for Mr. Coyote’s services.