InQuira and IGT, Bridgeline and the NFL, SugarCRM, Parature and Webs.com, CallFire Survey, the Walkman

David Sims : First Coffee
David Sims
| CRM, ERP, Contact Center, Turkish Coffee and Astroichthiology:

InQuira and IGT, Bridgeline and the NFL, SugarCRM, Parature and Webs.com, CallFire Survey, the Walkman

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, which falls in that category of music that's good for background while at work but isn't elevator music. In fact, if you can cue it up in the office at the right time, you can build your work force's emotional intensity until by the time the seventh movement, Doppio Movimento and its lovely Shaker hymn melody rolls around, they're flying at their peak of productivity:
InQuira has announced that International Game Technology, a company selling computerized gaming machines and systems products, has selected InQuira to help improve their customer service.
IGT will use InQuira's Knowledge Management software platform and customer service application to try to get "faster, more effective support products" for IGT's Web self-service customers and call center agents, according to IGT officials.
InQuira's Knowledge Management platform includes support for support-oriented content through a workflow and publishing cycle, as well as intelligent search technology that "discerns user intents and applies approaches for matching searches to available content," according to the InQuirians, adding that the search module "analyzes all search words for relevance, not just the keywords."
The platform is expected by IGT officials to provide a knowledge base for Web self-service and agent-assisted support that lets customers do more in the way of self-serve and have less occasion to call center agents.
IGT sells stand-alone and networked gaming systems for casino operators. Their products include its MegaJackpots wide-area networks of games, linking casinos together for larger jackpots, including Megabucks, Wheels of Fortune and other multi-site casino games.
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CRM vendor Parature says that Webs.com has selected Parature Customer Service software to manage their customer service and support. Webs.com is a social publishing platform that lets users build Web sites for an active community.
James Watson, Director of Customer Relations for Webs.com, says they wanted a new customer support system to correct an "inadequate process to provide customer support." As a Web-based company, according to the Paraturians, they wanted customer service software that was also Web-based, as pretty much anybody with an IQ over room temperature these days does.
One thing Webs.com wanted was the ability to make service or product announcements, or even answer a commonly asked question without accessing another application or requiring the assistance of another department, on a Web interface that looked like their presence, not a third-party fulfillment vendor.
Watson noted that Webs.com grew from fourteen products in 2005 to over fifty in 2008. "Volume isn't an issue for us, but efficiency is crucial," he said, adding that the company needs to be "able to present information in the knowledgebase and the rules based routing within the ticketing system."
Founded in 2000, Parature received the 2007 Product of the Year Award from Customer Interaction Solutions magazine and has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of Fastest Growing Private Companies in America. For the past three consecutive years Vienna, Virginia-headquartered Parature has been on the Washington Business Journal's list of Best Places to Work.
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A study performed by CallFire has shown that interest in at-home Virtual Call Center services has "nearly doubled" in the first week of operation of 2009.
Evidently weekly sales inquiries for at-home virtual call centers have increased year over year by over 52 percent. CallFire's new user sign up rate for Loan Officers, MLM agents and Insurance agents has also shown a 33 percent increase.
CallFire provides Web-based predictive dialing and contact management tools for at-home salespeople "who need to contact thousands of businesses," according to the CallFirers. You don't need First Coffee to tell you that Americans have chosen to supplement household income by embracing MLM and other work-from-home opportunities.
As you would expect, then, this interest has resulted in what CallFire officials characterize as "a noted increase in sales inquiries for Virtual Call Center services."
"Fluctuations of interest in Virtual Call Center products are a good barometer of our economic environment," thinks Dinesh Ravishanker, CallFire CEO and co-founder.
The company has released a free iPhone application called FriendCast. Salespeople using FriendCast can send personal voice messages to many clients: "The ad-supported service eliminates the time and hassle of making many phone calls and typing lengthy text messages while driving," company officials say, explaining that iPhone users can send a free voice-recorded personal message to many of their contacts at once.
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Bridgeline Software, which sells SaaS-based Web application management software and award-winning Web applications, announced today that what company officials refer to as "a leading National Football League franchise" selected Bridgeline to develop an eCommerce application for their online business and the public Web site.
Through the deployment of Bridgeline's .NET-based eCommerce system, the team was looking to improve their overall online store and public site, and "grow the contribution of its online channel to its business."
Bridgeline officials do not identify this team. But if they're calling it a "leading" NFL team with a straight face, that pretty much eliminates the Oakland Raiders, Detroit Lions and St. Louis Rams right off the bat. Borderline cases would be the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs or Seattle Seahawks. Beyond that, hey, let the speculation commence.
The Bridgeline's product provides a platform that allows store owners to personalize product offerings and offer other services. The dashboard technology provides an overview of the online store and offers data intelligence reports on sales trends, buyer demographics, and profit margins as well as system alerts on inventory levels, order fulfillment status, production issues, and shopping cart abandonment.
The team's new eCommerce system and public site now offers team stats, news, ticket information, message boards, and online shopping as well as interactive features. A polling feature was rolled out to query fans and track results, and player and cheerleader bios were tweaked up: "Misty is a biochemistry major at State U. with a minor in Medieval Germanic Sagas who hopes to work with children..."
Bridgeline Software is headquartered near Boston, with additional locations in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, New York, Washington, D.C., and Bangalore, India.
Hm, so okay, knock out Bangalore, and you still have seven possible NFL franchises in that list.
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Is it true? First Coffee saw the headline and couldn't believe it... is... is the Walkman still around?
Sure enough there it is: "Enjoy music the way you want it with the W508 Walkman phone," reads the news. Oh joy.
Now I can tell my kids no, Dad's not going senile. There's nothing that sends my kids' eyes rolling, smirking behind their hands or wondering if they'll have to institutionalize the old man faster than my calling an iPod a Walkman. As in, "Hey I'm going to drive to Warkworth, anybody seen my Walkman?"  Forehead smack. Here it comes.
(snicker )"Sure Dad, I think you left it in 1981."
I remember how my dad used to call the refrigerator the "icebox," blue jeans "dungarees" and Ajax "Bab-O." I'd get that uncomfortable, sinking feeling - "Dad's failing fast." To see that same look in my kids' eyes, well. Makes you feel as old as the first time you signed a check or used the phrase "when I was in college" did.
"The W508 Walkman phone builds on our iconic Walkman range and the W380," says Alexandre Cardon, Global Product Marketing Manager (music) at Sony Ericsson. "For those who like to express their style and individuality through their mobile phone we've brought our creative design team in to design stylish changeable covers so that W508 offers a truly interactive and individual experience."
Yeah yeah, marketing fluff, I know, but honestly, I can't tell you how good, how... vindicated I feel, knowing the Walkman's alive and well into 2009. Out of sheer gratitude, fluff away.
Evidently it now has "Shake control and Gesture control," according to Sony officials, who describe them as functions that allows users to "become your own DJ with just a flick of your wrist -- raise the volume or set the shuffle function by giving your phone a quick shake."
Hm, didn't know you could have a "shuffle" feature with cassette tapes...
The W508 also includes such Walkman features such as SensMe, "for matching your mood to the music and touch keys on top to play, stop and skip tracks. A 3.2 megapixel camera, HSDPA and 1GB M2 card completes the W508 offering," Sony officials say.
Here's one feature I sure wish my old Walkman had: "Can't get that song out of your head but have no idea what it's called? Use TrackID with text search and you'll have the answer at a touch of a button," the marketing info says. Ever feel a complete moron trying to sing a line from a song so a friend can identify it for you? No? I'm the only one?
Okay, so it's not the clunky old cassette player we all thought was so streamlined in 1978. Still, the shake to get to the next song and adjust volume features do sound cool.
And it still exists. Guess what my kids are each getting for their birthday? That's right - and when they lose them, as they do everything, I'll be right there when they ask "Hey Dad, seen my Walkman around?" You'll hear me laughing from wherever you are.


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