By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music
is a shuffle of all the songs on iTunes that I’ve played fewer than three
times, just to keep things from getting stale. Current song: “The Shadow Of
Your Smile,” by Tony Bennett:
Management Technology Consulting LLC,
through its MTCCRM.com site, is now
offering Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 in what MTC officials say is “a choice
of hosted products to fit every customer need and budget size.”
Hosted products allow CRM users to offload all the cost and
headache of an enterprise-class business application. It’s proven quite the
successful business model for RightNow
Technologies, NetSuite and salesforce.com.
MTCCRM.com is MTC’s online resource, e-store, and
e-consultant site exclusively about Microsoft Dynamics CRM, devoted to over
1,000 pages of Microsoft CRM resources.
MTC has added two choices for organizations that are
considering a hosted option that company officials claim “truly is frictionless
in start-up and maintained at a value.” Offering both dedicated servers and virtual
servers in an encompassing array of set-up and monthly cost price points, as
well as performance, scalability, and the ability to host complementary
enterprise applications.
The virtual server technology basically allows inexpensive,
low price points for up to 10 users, and even if you have only two or three
users it might be affordable to implement CRM and get value out of the deal.
The dedicated server has greater performance, scaling to
thousands of users and allowing later line-of-business integration they may
need.
MTC’s job is to efficiently manage a frictionless on-line
process and provide deep customer service for their server hosting partners.
…
Datamonitor‘s
announcing that Avaya Inc. has unveiled yet
another major VoIP alliance, “announcing a partnership with router and
security vendor Juniper Networks Inc.
for the delivery of ‘secure, reliable, intelligent communications to
enterprises.’”
Yesterday Avaya announced they would partner with fixed-line
carrier AT&T Inc. to try to sign
up business customers into their IP telephony. The partnership with Juniper is
to focus on the security and optimization and acceleration sides of the WAN
networking vendor’s business, Datamonitor says:
“The two companies already have a history of working
together, not least because they can jointly offer much of what archrival Cisco
can offer on its own, except Ethernet switches.”
The offerings will include distributed IPT, i.e. IPT across
highly distributed companies, secure IPT on any network, letting customers add
IDS/IP and optimization onto existing multi-vendor IP networks and a virtual contact
center, taking in branches and home agents as well as HQ.
…
FYI: A company called Penny Per Call is announcing that it is now
servicing mortgage brokers and insurance brokers, as well as “the MLM industry”
with its new one penny per call voice broadcasting service.
Here’s betting they get calls every day asking “So, how much do you guys charge for a
call?”
…
Ten Words the world would be better off without:
Utilize. Means
nothing “use” doesn’t mean, just consumes more bytes.
Leverage. Again, means nothing “use” doesn’t mean.
Pretentious.
Solution. When you mean “product” or “tool” instead.
Enable. What’s wrong with “let?”
Empower. See “enable.”
Leading. Meaningless. If you’re #1 say so, otherwise keep
working at it.
Rate of speed. Friends, “rate” means “how fast.”
Provider. What, you’re ashamed to be a “vendor” or, better
yet, “seller?”
Insurgent. Shows you don’t have the clarity to recognize a “terrorist.”
Honestly. What, you’re lying whenever you don’t preface a
comment with this?
Other gratuitous opinions to follow as events warrant. Oh,
and folks, it’s not a “cemetery.” It’s a “graveyard.”
…
Optum, a UnitedHealth Group Company, has selected DSHI Systems to provide
TriageXpert Call Center, DSHI Systems’ proprietary triage decision-support
solution, to Optum call-center nurses.
Optum nurses provide health information and education to
more than 28 million consumers from 8 call centers across the nation. Nurse
call centers direct callers to appropriate care.
TriageXpert uses sophisticated, physician-written – but
readable – algorithms to help nurses analyze thousands of symptoms. Algorithms
are designed by DSHI Systems’ physician-authors, using best-evidence and
best-practice resources. TriageXpert then generates a symptom-based interview
from a library of 50,000 questions. The exact sequence of questions is steered
by the caller’s responses. TriageXpert analyzes the responses and then provides
its recommendation to the nurse. This entire task is completed in less than
eight minutes.
Company officials say the product’s outcome studies show
that “the majority” of callers who planned to visit the emergency room were
re-directed to an alternative location for care.
DSHI Systems supplied Optum with a custom application
programming interface to TriageXpert, allowing Optum to choose its own CRM
application and use existing information assets, while using high-quality
medical decision-making provided by TriageXpert.
In 2006, DSHI Systems will release two new products based on
TriageXpert. TriageXpert WorkerWell puts decision making tools in the hands of
consumers, letting them make better health decisions. TriageXpert Context
Search converts conventional medical web searches that are based on word syntax
to more powerful searches based on concepts. The TriageXpert Context Search
prompts users for relevant medical history, analyzes the results, and generates
the most accurate search terms.
…
In other call center news, FPMI, Inc., a provider of information
resource/call center and recruitment products to the federal government, was awarded a contract extension worth $24
million to continue supporting a major civilian government agency.
The contract extension is the fourth-year option of a
five-year contract.
FPMI will continue to provide a full range of information
resource/call center products for the agency, including the recruitment and
hiring of management, administrative and professional personnel and conducting
call center operations for thousands of employment candidates across the
nation.
…
Tim
Wilson has a good piece listing the 11
Dumbest Things To Do At Your CIO’s Super Bowl Party.
Highlights include “Mention that the CIO’s high-tech
projector looks like the one the IT department bought during last year’s
technology refresh,” “After a great play, say, ‘If only our software worked
that well!’” and “Yell out, ‘Hey, the data center called and asked how to turn
off the fire sprinklers!’”
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