By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Only Life by The Feelies:

Cisco Systems has announced what company officials consider a "significant investment initiative" in Turkey, totaling up to $275 million (about 410 million New Turkish Lira… frickin' heck it's down to 1.45 YTL per dollar again, we live here in Istanbul and our rent's set in lira and we get paid in dollars, it's been as high as 1.60ish recently, let's see it do that again) over five years.

This announcement was made by John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco Systems, during his visit to Central and Eastern Europe and highlights the growing importance of places like Turkey in the global emerging markets.

Don'tcha just love that phrase, "emerging markets?" When I was a journalist here in Istanbul in the early '90s it was an "emerging" market. When has a market emerged as much as it's ever going to, and what do you nicely call it when it does? If you've got a 5'2, 48-year old man you don't call him a "growing man," you call him a "short man."

Chambers discussed Cisco's investment plans in Turkey with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan while in Ankara this week.

By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Aimee Mann's live CD, Live At St. Ann's Warehouse. Didn't know there was a patron saint of warehouses:

Callidus Software Inc., a vendor of Enterprise Incentive Management products, has announced that it has signed a Cooperative Development Agreement with SAP AG.

Under the terms of the agreement, SAP and Callidus will promote and market Callidus Software's TrueComp and TrueInformation products in the United States and Canada.

"With this partnership agreement, SAP and Callidus will offer their customers a comprehensive, fully-integrated incentive compensation and sales performance management software solution.  Callidus is pleased to be a part of the growing SAP NetWeaver ecosystem," said Robert Youngjohns, president and CEO of Callidus Software. 

Callidus specializes in tools for tracking incentive compensation for both direct and indirect sales channels. Company officials say they help with "efficient modeling, implementation, and monitoring of incentive compensation programs with easy-to-create business rules." Incentive compensation is "one of the untapped levers to bring these strategies to life," Youngjohns said.

By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Miles Davis's Sketches Of Spain:

Not a bad day for musical birthdays today -- 1926 John Coltrane, 1930 Ray Charles and 1949 Bruce Springsteen.

Wrapping up the news for the week, bear in mind that a couple days ago Support Fusion, a vendor of web-based Helpdesk, CRM, and Business Process products, announced the immediate availability of its no-cost, web-based Helpdesk Application Service for commercial and non-profit organizations

Support Fusion's web-based, high availability system is now being made available free of cost to thousands of small, medium, and large size companies for tracking and managing issues and tasks related to every day business operations.

Traditionally companies of all sizes have "struggled with the overall value proposition" when it comes to implementing helpdesk systems largely due to cost and resources, company officials say, claiming that Support Fusion "mitigates cost and resource risks by providing a no-cost option along with the convenience of an application service."

Along with Free web-based Helpdesk, Support Fusion offers a no-cost, no obligation "needs assessment" to help companies understand their business requirements, and will provide assistance and startup training to get users and system administrators off to a successful start.

"Our Free system is the perfect way to level the playing ground when it comes to providing a feature-rich, easy-to-use system for issue and task tracking," company officials say in a clear marketing pitch to the "little guy" out there. The product's Professional version with additional features can be added on to the basic system for "as little as $9.95 per user per month," too.

Effective immediately, users can click to the main Support Fusion Web site and register online to receive their Free system -- no cost, no obligation, officials claim. The first 100 users to register will also be entered into a drawing to receive 12 months of the Professional add-on features at absolutely no cost.

…

Unipower Solutions, a UK vendor of software that handles all customer-facing retail and wholesale activities, has joined Symbol Technologies' PartnerSelect Independent Software Provider Partner Program as an ISV member.

By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Miles Davis' landmark jazz album "Bitches Brew." It's considered a "landmark" by critics, personally I like what he did before this album better than what he did after it.

Bigcheeseware has announced a 30-day trial for businesses of what it calls its "Total CRM Design."

As more and more online consumers take advantage of free trial services, Bigcheeseware officials say, Internet-based businesses like to offer free trial sessions.

Some more "free" than others, of course, in First Coffee's opinion the truly devious ones are like Sports Illustrated saying "Four Free Issues!" and it turning out that if you subscribe first, they'll throw on four free issues at the end of your subscription term, not that they'll give you four free issues to decide if you like the magazine or not.

"Free trials differ in terms of use and the period of use," Bigcheeseware officials note. "From kids’ and adults’ computer games to anti-virus software and CRMs, free trials are one way of taking hold of a business’ target market."

Which of course is what Bigcheeseware is doing. "Bigcheeseware’s countless features make it one of the most powerful tools in live chat support software," company officials claim, saying it's also "packed with features absent in other support software," to wit, Instant Message and Email Notification of Dropped Chat and Chat on Queue, a Web Call Back System, Live customer support agents -- hey, there's a new one!

There's a Customizable Proactive Chat Total CRM Solution, as well as a Real Time Agent Performance Reporting, which lets you "evaluate your live support agents with Bigcheeseware’s Performance Agent Scores feature."

Bigcheeseware’s promotional 30-day free trial registration runs on secure pages, company officials say, adding that registration information is kept private and is used only for verifying purposes.

By David Sims david@david-sims.com

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Electro-Shock Blues by The Eels. The Eels is essentially the vehicle for E, born Mark Oliver Everett, and the guy writes interesting, if dark, songs. Hey you probably would too if you were in his moccasins -- his father was a brilliant physicist who originated the many worlds theory of quantum physics, and died at 51 from heavy drinking. Mark's sister later committed suicide, his mother died of cancer, eliminating the last of his immediate family, and if that weren't enough, his cousin was a stewardess on the 9/11 flight that hit the Pentagon.

By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Meatloaf's "Saturday Night (Love That Rock'n'Roll)" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack:

Seems the latest kerfuffle here in our little corner of the telecom world involves the Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel) protesting the mergers of SBC and AT&T on the one hand and Verizon and MCI on the other.  

Little background: You may have heard of the $67 billion-dollar merger between AT&T Inc. and BellSouth proposed in March. It would give AT&T control of Cingular Wireless, the nation's biggest wireless operator.

By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is probably the single finest performance in rock history next to The Clash's "Complete Control," Ten Years After's "Goin' Home" rendition at Woodstock. The real one, kids, on Max Yazgur's farm in upstate New York. Ask Jim Berkowitz, he remembers.

Full credit to Alvin Lee's guitar pyrotechnics, of course, but ever notice what a great job the bassist does? This morning I tried listening to it without the bass track and was surprised how much the overall performance suffers:

First Coffee has written about Dell's lousy customer service recently, and got the usual -- although better-written than most, I must say -- "rebuttals" from Dell PR flacks saying hey, our customer satisfaction has increased so much (they don't say from where to where, though, just that it's not spiraling downward at the moment), blah blah blah.

Then I got this e-mail:

I am a recipient of the latest and greatest Dell customer service, which has now been going on for the last month. During this period I have been passed off from one division to another continually having e-mail discussions with people who ask redundant questions and others who do not know what they are taking about.

By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Beatles' The Beatles, a.k.a. The White Album:

Autonomy Corporation plc, a vendor of what they call "infrastructure software for the enterprise and proponent of meaning-based computing," might have to Wiki that term a bit later on today, has announced that Nomura has selected Autonomy's IDOL 7 for a multi-lingual deployment to more than 20,000 users.

Nomura had experience of legacy keyword technologies which spurred them to search for a next-generation solution. CRM vendor Autonomy's product was chosen following a competitive procurement focusing on scalability and finding a system that spoke Japanese.

Nomura is a securities and investment banking company in Japan providing individual investors and corporate clients with a broad range of services, including investment advisory services and securities underwriting.

The firm felt that order to capitalize on opportunities and cater for a broader range of investment needs, it needed Autonomy's technology to automate the process of information retrieval, connecting Nomura's global departments more efficiently than was currently being done, and aggregate information through a single channel.

Mike Lynch, founder and CEO of Autonomy, attributes such interest in his company's products to firms running into "limitations of keyword search."

…

Siperian has announced a "complete and proven set of architectural styles" for organizations looking to deploy master data management products.

By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music, thanks to LimeWire.com, is The Beatles' "I've Just Seen A Face," downloaded at no cost thanks to the urination war between The Beatles' business entity Apple and iTunes. I mean I'm willing to pay for iTunes, maintain quality and fight piracy and all that, but so far I've gotten Revolver, Abbey Road and now Rubber Soul from file-sharing because hey, if two billionaires can't split the difference on 10 or 12 cents royalty per song or whatever it is, screw 'em:

Comverse, a subsidiary of Comverse Technology, Inc., who sells software and systems enabling network-based multimedia enhanced communication and billing services, has announced that it has completed its acquisition of privately-held Netonomy for approximately $19 million in cash, subject, as usual, to certain post-closing adjustments.

Netonomy, is a customer self-service, bill analysis and point of sale products vendor. The move, Comverse officials say, is to extend their real-time billing and customer management products for communication service providers with "additional tools to increase efficiency and enhance the end-customer experience."

Netonomy customers include Bouygues Telecom, several Orange operators, T-Mobile UK, Telstra and Vodafone UK.

Howard Woolf, President Comverse Converged Billing Solutions Group, said this latest acquisition is "part of our commitment to provide the most comprehensive and innovative solutions to the communications industry."

"Joining Comverse enables Netonomy's customers to benefit from Comverse's field proven, end-to-end billing offering as well as the company's strength in messaging, content, converged IP communications and handset software," said John Ball, CEO of Netonomy.

Earlier this week Comverse announced the launch of Quad Play Suite, described by company officials as "a pre-integrated package combining IPTV middleware with fixed-mobile voice and video communication applications."

The Quad Play Suite uses IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture for service convergence across wireless, wireline and cable networks, and gives a way for service providers to enter the quad play market.

The announcement is part of Comverse's focus on converged IP communications, specifically its recent acquisition of Netcentrex, a vendor of Class 5 application servers with 4 million VoIP lines in commercial service, as well as its portfolio of VoIP, IP Centrex, Triple Play and IMS products.

By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Jimmy Cliff's 20th Century Masters compilation:

So who is this Mikhail Youzhny? He dissected sixth-seed Tommy Robredo -- admittedly overranked, but still -- in the U.S. Open in straight sets, and last night beat second seed Rafael Nadal in four to make the quarterfinals.

If I were Andy Roddick I wouldn't be so happy that Youzhny cleared Nadal out of my half of the draw, I'd be concerned about becoming the next scalp on the guy's belt.

By the way, whatever happened to Lleyton Hewitt, who was swept out in straight sets by Roddick yesterday? For that matter, what the heck's happened to Australian tennis? The nation that's had so many great players, including the incomparable Rod Laver, has only one player in the Top 100 men's singles players today -- Hewitt, at #18.

Time to build more public courts down there, guys. …

Salesforce.com, a vendor of on-demand business services, has previewed Salesforce Winter '07, what it calls "the 21st generation of its family of on-demand business applications."

Salesforce Winter '07 is scheduled for availability in the fourth quarter. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications "should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available," company officials advise.

By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is "Drunken Medley" from the Dust Rhinos' live CD. My particular corner of heaven will be an Irish pub -- pouring Harp, not Guinness -- with a rock band much like this one playing traditional Irish tunes rock-style. Electric guitar and pennywhistle, bodhran and bass:

Yes, goodbye Steve Irwin. It's rare to find someone who's so genuine about enjoying what he does for a living so much, that was what First Coffee's family thoroughly enjoyed about your shows -- it was patently clear you loved animals, you loved showing us how wonderful and amazing you found them, you loved your wife and kids and you just loved life.

By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is John Coltrane's Love Supreme. Happy Labor Day, in honor of which First Coffee is laboring:

TMC's Dear Leader Rich Tehrani forwarded this piece from the Telugu Portal over the weekend, datelined Kolkata, India:

A call center employee who allegedly splurged on online shopping with credit card numbers of the company's US clients was arrested here.

Sulagna Roy, 23, an employee of a call center the city's IT hub at Sector 5 of Salt Lake, was arrested Friday from her James Long Sarani residence in south Kolkata on charges of cheating foreign nationals by using their credit card numbers and shopping for goods worth Rs.200,000, about $4,300.

Roy allegedly duped 42 US clients of the call center and purchased everything from chocolate to an air conditioner.

And then this telling quote:

"Sulagna is well aware of the new age cyber crimes, going by her modus operandi. She targeted US citizens so that she can escape law as they would be unable to lodge complaints from there," said Gyanwant Singh, deputy commissioner of police (detective department).

Singh explained that there wasn't anything particularly complicated or high-tech about the fraud: When the American clients would contact the call center for online purchases she'd simply jot the numbers down. Evidently clients in California started complaining about unauthorized purchases, and Indian police tracked the fraud back to the Kolkata center and to Roy.

India's touchy attitude towards reports of call center fraud was on display in coverage of the incident on the Indian business site Moneycontrol India.

By David Sims david@firstcoffee.biz

The news as of the first coffee here at Radio KCRM 98.6, All Johnny Cash All The Time, and we have a special guest for you listeners, straight from Hades ladies and devils give it up for Mephistopheles, who's always willing to play "Let's Make A Deal." Meph, thanks for taking the time to come by the studio.

Meph: Thank you, KCRM, it's a pleasure to be here.

KCRM: We understand you've been quite busy recently, we'd like to talk to you about some of the deals you've been putting together.

Meph: Well, as you know, it's really in the best interests of the good people of southern Lebanon to support Hezbollah, there might be a little discomfort and changes to their daily routine, but really life as a human shield for a terrorist organization has a lot of upside on the retirement plan if you haven't exactly been a lady-killer this side of Paradise, if you get my drift. We've been working to put our message across and I think the personal visits from Hezbollah itself have been quite convincing to --

KCRM: We're sure they are, and it sounds like that's been pretty fertile territory for you for years now, but we'd like to focus on your work with Dell Inc.

Meph: Hey, we have nothing to do with any batteries exploding or catching fire or what, as a matter of fact I know a couple guys in our Accounts Closing who've been affected by the recall, we definitely did not whiteboard that one. We do kind of admire it, though.

KCRM: What we're thinking of is the work you've been doing with Dell's call centers. Can you outline for us your organization's thinking on the whole area of call centers?

Meph: It's quite a compelling case.