By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music
is Tim Hardin’s “If I Were A Carpenter:”
Eye-opening stuff here in the news this
morning:
PHILADELPHIA - The Justice
Department is demanding internal files from dozens of Internet service
providers and other technology firms as it seeks to defend a controversial
Internet child protection law.
The subpoenas are
similar to one given to Google Inc., which waged a partially successful battle
over the government’s request for millions of pieces of information about
search engine requests and Web site domains.
InformationWeek
magazine unearthed subpoenas that show the government also demanded information
from at least 34 other companies, including Internet service providers such as
Comcast Corp. and EarthLink Inc., security software firms and other technology
companies.
The subpoenas, which
the magazine obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, show the Justice
Department preparing for an October trial in Philadelphia over the 1996 Child
Online Protection Act. It is not clear which companies are complying, and to
what extent.
“That money could be
spent so much more wisely on giving software away to parents that are having
these problems,” Dan Jude, president of Security Software Systems, said of the
litigation costs.
The 12-person firm,
which makes filtering software, spent more than 40 hours trying to comply with
the subpoena, he said. The company refused to provide some information on
proprietary grounds, fearing it could make its way into the court file.
“If that information
gets out in the public, we’ve just lost our competitive edge,” Jude said
Thursday. The subpoena also sought information the company does not keep, such
as customer satisfaction, he said.
Department
of Justice spokesman Charles
Miller did not immediately return a message Thursday afternoon.
The subpoenas also
went to companies including AT&T Inc., Cox Communications Inc., Verizon Communications
Inc. and Symantec Corp…
Can you believe that? I mean, what are they thinking? They don’t keep customer satisfaction
information? What is wrong with
these people? I don’t know what industry secrets they’re keeping under wraps,
but admitting that they don’t care about keeping customer satisfaction records is far more
damning and destructive than showing anything they could be hiding.
…
Yesterday I published an article titled “Outsourcing?
Watch For These Pitfalls” under my mild-mannered reporter alter ego on the
TMC site, and today I received an apt
correction from TMC’s very own Pop Culture Maven Tracey
E. Schelmetic.
Reviewing a recently-published book I had written “There’s a reason Barry Manilow, George
Harrison, and Mary Tyler Moore can’t smile anymore without making it painful
for us to watch,” the authors write, evidently unaware that George Harrison’s
guitar is gently weeping in rock’n’roll heaven these days.
As usual Tracey was a half-step more awake: “I think that
author must have meant George
Hamilton, rather than Harrison. I never really took George
Harrison for a Botox-type guy. As for Barry Manilow, it’s always been
painful to watch him. It makes me think of his music, and well... that just
stops me from smiling.”
Hey, you know what they say, Trace: Can’t smile without you.
…
Database Solutions, Ltd., a Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) vendor to the insurance industry, has announced the release of Agent Intelligence
Version 3.0 On Demand Software.
Agent Intelligence v.3.0 on demand software includes
numerous new features such as a expanded commission system, expanded print
functionality and client search capabilities. The company’s Agent Intelligence
on demand software has met company expectations, and “the development of AI
v.3.0 was strictly based on how the insurance industry manages its business,”
company officials say.
Agent Intelligence v3.0 on demand software incorporates
features based on feedback from current AI users. Agent Intelligence is built
specifically for the life insurance industry.
The Agent Intelligence Technology is a proprietary
browser-based software and was designed specifically for the insurance industry
to provide backend administration of insurance policies, client tracking and
client marketing/selling strategies for an entire insurance brokerage or
insurance company.
The company’s family of products includes a comprehensive
suite of CRM applications. By automatically tracking all events along the lead
development process an agent and/or manager is able to see any weaknesses in an
agents selling process. Agent Intelligence is 100% browser based and requires
no hardware or software installation.
…
Sitel Corporation, a vendor of outsourced
customer support services, has announced that, due to the continuing
investigation of certain irregularities at one of its international
subsidiaries and to allow KPMG LLP time to complete their audit of the Company’s
financial statements, it has determined that it will be unable to timely file its Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 2005.
The company is continuing to work to complete the
restatements of its previously issued financial statements for the fiscal years
2000 through 2004 and potentially for each of the three-month periods covered
by the interim quarterly reports for the fiscal year 2005 determined necessary
as a result of the investigation.
The company intends to complete the restatements and to file
all required SEC reports as quickly as practicable but cannot predict a precise
date at this time.
…
Jacada Ltd., a vendor of application
integration and contact center products, has announced a contract with GISS, the IT Department for the Social Security
of the Spanish Ministry of Labor.
GISS will be using Jacada HostFuse (formerly Jacada
Integrator) to improve and simplify processes supported by GISS applications.
The project will help Social Security employees to access all of the ministry’s
resources and applications and automate cumbersome service and administration
processes.
Jacada HostFuse is part of an integration and process
optimization platform called Jacada Fusion. The Jacada product will help GISS
integrate existing back office systems and streamline the Spanish Social
Security’s business processes, improving both efficiency and accuracy.
The fact that Jacada Fusion supports web-services and open
application development standards further supports a strategic initiative at
GISS to adopt service-oriented architectures.
The contract was signed in conjunction with Selesta S.p.A.,
a player in the Spanish and Italian IT software market. Selesta S.p.A has
recently expanded its partnership agreement with Jacada to supply Jacada Fusion
products to the Italian and Spanish customer service market.
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