The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is the fine Apple Jam portion of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, the only ex-Beatle album which can be spoken of in the same breath as the Beatles' records:
Zoho has announced Zoho Office for Microsoft SharePoint, so online Zoho users can now collaboratively create, view, and edit files stored in Microsoft SharePoint.
Zoho has announced Zoho Office for Microsoft SharePoint, so online Zoho users can now collaboratively create, view, and edit files stored in Microsoft SharePoint.
Clicking on a file in Microsoft SharePoint brings up options including "Edit in Zoho Editor" and "View in Zoho Editor." Hit the Edit option and you open the file for editing in a Zoho editor within Microsoft SharePoint -- either Zoho Writer,Zoho Sheet, or Zoho Show, depending upon the file selected. The View option opens the file for viewing in appropriate Zoho applications within Microsoft SharePoint, company officials explain, adding that a user must be connected to the Internet to access Zoho applications.
Raju Vegesna, a man whose business card says "Zoho evangelist," says that the company noticed "some businesses like the collaboration capabilities of online productivity applications, but they prefer to keep their data behind their firewall." Zoho Office for Microsoft SharePoint fills both needs, he claims.
It's delivered as an add-on that installs on top of Microsoft SharePoint 2007 and 2003. Once installed, company officials say, it lets users working in Microsoft SharePoint view, edit, and create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in Microsoft Office formats -- "but using Zoho online applications."
Vegesna notes that in addition to letting users work on Microsoft SharePoint documents from any operating system, the approach "can help save some money on Microsoft Office licenses." Zoho Office for Microsoft SharePoint itself is available now as a 30-day free trial version, after which an annual subscription runs $24/user and a monthly subscription three bucks per user.
It's delivered as an add-on that installs on top of Microsoft SharePoint 2007 and 2003. Once installed, company officials say, it lets users working in Microsoft SharePoint view, edit, and create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in Microsoft Office formats -- "but using Zoho online applications."
Vegesna notes that in addition to letting users work on Microsoft SharePoint documents from any operating system, the approach "can help save some money on Microsoft Office licenses." Zoho Office for Microsoft SharePoint itself is available now as a 30-day free trial version, after which an annual subscription runs $24/user and a monthly subscription three bucks per user.
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NEC Unified Solutions officials say the newly-opened boutique theWit [sic] Hotel in Chicago is using NEC communications technology to deliver guest services and amenities.
NEC Unified Solutions officials say the newly-opened boutique theWit [sic] Hotel in Chicago is using NEC communications technology to deliver guest services and amenities.
Guest rooms at theWit feature touch-screen access to such services as valet notification, setting restaurant reservations, ordering wake-up calls, requesting towels from housekeeping, and looking up airline flight or weather information. If you're into truly surreal experiences you can request wake-up calls with Second City comics doing celebrity voices, including President Barack Obama, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Al Capone and Harry Caray. As a former Chicago area denizen First Coffee would like to see Lou Mitchell's voice offered as well. Let's get on that, huh?
"Technology is a cornerstone of theWit, every piece has to integrate in order to create a truly unique guest experience," said Lou Carrier, chief brand officer for ECD Company / theWit Hotel, adding that what NEC offers "speaks directly to our brand."
From "the very beginning," the "technology vision" for theWit has been to provide guests with "an experience that is second-to-none," according to Darrin Pinkham, chief technology officer for ECD Company / theWit Hotel.
"Technology is a cornerstone of theWit, every piece has to integrate in order to create a truly unique guest experience," said Lou Carrier, chief brand officer for ECD Company / theWit Hotel, adding that what NEC offers "speaks directly to our brand."
From "the very beginning," the "technology vision" for theWit has been to provide guests with "an experience that is second-to-none," according to Darrin Pinkham, chief technology officer for ECD Company / theWit Hotel.
Lou Van De Water, vice president and general manager for eastern regional sales, NEC, says theWit is "a prime example of the UNIVERGE360 concept by making guests and staff the central components of their technology decisions."
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Mountain View, California-based eGain Communications has announced the availability of eGain IVR.
Mountain View, California-based eGain Communications has announced the availability of eGain IVR.
Company officials say it adds "human-like intelligence to IVR" while unifying it with other interaction channels, including Web self-service. The product is part of eGain's suite for multichannel customer service, eGain Service. It's being billed by eGain officials as reducing the total cost of ownership of multichannel self-service and customer service operational costs, "while enabling end-customers to accomplish more through IVR."
It comes in two flavors -- eGain IVR (Standard) helps handle informational and transactional customer service queries, using the eGain CIH platform, such as the common multichannel knowledge base, interaction records, customer database, and integration with back end systems. EGain IVR (Advanced), in addition to the standard features, has the Guided Help module, which uses the CBR technology of eGain Inference Reasoning Engine. This option enables interactive dialogs simulating customer conversations with the best human agents, in the words of eGain officials allowing businesses "to offer self-service for complex interactions that would usually need the intervention of experts."
IVR systems are notorious for frustrating users with inadequate content and the "IVR black hole" syndrome, where the user is trapped in a self-service maze, of the "press 26 to hear the menu again" variety. "Without meaning to, some companies have essentially taught consumers to avoid self-service channels because it is nearly impossible to accomplish their goals by using them," writes Dr. Natalie L. Petouhoff, Senior Analyst at Forrester, in an August 2008 report titled "Why Talking To Your Customers Is Ruining Your Business" from "The Gap in the Customer Service Experience" series.
EGain officials say to avoid this, their IVR uses CBR technology "to capture agent expertise in the knowledge base and prompt customers with appropriate questions in a way that the best agents would, until an answer or the next best step is found." They contend that this allows IVR users to access the same information and complete the same transactions that they would be able to accomplish through other channels.
EGain IVR can be deployed as an on-site, on-demand, or managed product.
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Austin, Texas-based DoubleHorn Communications CEO Tab Schadt says his company's search for a firm to conduct "unbiased interviews of its customers," settled on References-Online.
Austin, Texas-based DoubleHorn Communications CEO Tab Schadt says his company's search for a firm to conduct "unbiased interviews of its customers," settled on References-Online.
References-Online contacted executives at several DoubleHorn clients, speaking with them about such offerings as the Voice over IP system that DoubleHorn deployed and currently manages.
References-Online, which counts such companies as SAP, Phillips, Sybase and Level 3 as clients, markets its services as "sharing the real story about the relationship with their customers," providing hosted phone service, managed broadband or e-mail applications to small and medium-sized businesses along with customer service. The company sells local technical support "in each of the major Texas markets we serve, and guarantee that a live person will answer the phone within four rings during normal office hours," officials say.
References-Online, which counts such companies as SAP, Phillips, Sybase and Level 3 as clients, markets its services as "sharing the real story about the relationship with their customers," providing hosted phone service, managed broadband or e-mail applications to small and medium-sized businesses along with customer service. The company sells local technical support "in each of the major Texas markets we serve, and guarantee that a live person will answer the phone within four rings during normal office hours," officials say.
Jim Mooney, Founder and CEO of References-Online, describes the kind of company they want to work with as ones "that place importance on its reputation in the marketplace."
About DoubleHorn Communications
DoubleHorn officials say they include "all customer premise equipment at no cost, considering equipment as part of the Managed Service offering." Their service bundles provide are pitched as Small Business Communication products interoperable with such IP equipment manufacturers as Polycom, Adtran, Cisco, Digium and Linksys.
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Wichita, Kansas-based Bold Software, which you may have known in the past as Bravestorm, has announced that its integration module for Salesforce CRM is now live on the Force.com AppExchange.
Wichita, Kansas-based Bold Software, which you may have known in the past as Bravestorm, has announced that its integration module for Salesforce CRM is now live on the Force.com AppExchange.
With the Bold Software module on the AppExchange, company officials say, customers get a product that transforms chats into leads, contacts, and cases within Salesforce CRM.
Bold Software company officials describe their products as combining live chat, click-to-call, e-mail management, active co-browsing, and remote control "into a single, intuitive interface" pitched mainly as tools for larger scale retailers' sales and online support efforts.
"The integration between Bold Software and Salesforce CRM gives users tools for working with customer information," says Bold Software President and CEO Steve Castro-Miller, adding that the ability to roll live chat, click to call and e-mail management up into one tool "enhances the online customer experience."
Bold Software's newest product suites for enterprises, BoldCCM, offers Web site communications tools, including tools such as ActiveAssist, a co-browsing and remote control capability that allows an operator to take over a shopper's mouse or computer to resolve sales and support questions. An enhanced dashboard is said by company officials to provide contact center supervisors with "a graphical representation of the entire Web site communications operation."
Applications built on the Force.com platform can be distributed to the cloud computing community through the Force.com AppExchange marketplace.
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