Using Polls Correctly, Knowledge Management 100, CRM Software, Transera and NICE

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David Sims
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Using Polls Correctly, Knowledge Management 100, CRM Software, Transera and NICE

Polls, when done correctly and honestly, can be a useful fact-finding tool.
“While sociologists and economists like to point out the influence of biases in polls, there’s no question of their usefulness.”

That’s from Floodlight, which says yeah, polls “in their most basic form are the sample polls. Because they’re about facts and not opinions, these kinds of polls are pretty basic.”

You know these kinds of polls, odds are good you’ve been contacted for one -- “Hi, we’re doing a survey, are you a registered voter? If the election were held tomorrow, would you vote for Candidate A or Candidate B?”

Such polls’ accuracy and usefulness depends largely on “the scientific method behind the selection of the people polled,” what kind of a representation the pollster included, for its value. Polling 500 college students on whether the government should hand out free beer will get you a different result than polling 500 retirement home residents.

Read more here.

It’s always good to be in the Top 100 of anything. That’s where KMWorld put RightAnswers. The industry journal serving the Knowledge Management space recognized RightAnswers as one of “100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management” recently.

“I like the space we are in,” said the RightAnswers blogger in response to the honor. “It is squarely focused on providing organizations that specialize in supporting fellow employees, students, and customers with a knowledge platform solving the issues of today and just as important, addressing the challenges of tomorrow.”

TMC’s Juliana Kenny wrote that Hugh McKellar, editor-in-chief at KMWorld, said “RightAnswers’ inclusion on KMWorld’s 2011 list is based on the breadth and impact of its innovations to meet specific customer needs while adding true value to its entire chain of constituencies. The firms on this list are true solution providers that are dedicated to understanding what their customers need.”

Read more here.

Transera Communications has formed a partnership with NICE Systems, which sells products to help analyze business transactions. The intent of the partnership, according to Transera officials, is to “allow for the integration of Transera's Scorecard Routing with NICE's Real-time Process Optimization and cross-channel Interaction Analytics.”

Prem Uppaluru, CEO of Transera, said “contact centers need real-time insight to have the maximum impact. We will be able to infuse contact centers with even more relevant insights that help drive revenue from their customer interactions."

The deal specifies that Transera will resell NICE contact centers as SaaS offerings.

In other words, they want to produce something to let contact centers identify customers by their intent and value, and then connect them to agents with matching skills, using real-time customer classification and agent performance information.

The overall strategy, then, is to combine NICE's Real-time Process Optimization and Interaction Analytics with Transera's Scorecard Routing, with the result that a customer's profile will be evaluated with information taken from public and private databases and previous interactions, upon which a “suitable” agent will be chosen for that customer.

Read more here.

Two CRM (customer relationship management) software providers who work with the charity sector are partnering with other companies for the purpose of improving and expanding their services to users, according to officials of both firms, Blackbaud and IRIS NFP Solutions.

Blackbaud officials say the company has linked up with O-Matic Software to offer a plug-in which “expands the importing capabilities of its fundraising platform The Raiser’s Edge.”

In addition to having one of the zingier names, Raiser’s Edge is a widely-used package for UK charities, commanding 16 percent of the market, according to the Civil Society’s Charity CRM Survey 2010. Raiser’s Edge officials say it will be the first product to market the Import-O-Matic tool to its users.

What that plug-in does is streamlines data processing, company officials explain, “by increasing the efficiency of data entry and eliminating manual steps.” It already has 150 U.K. users. O-Matic officials explain that the company has developed “a range of plug-ins” designed to improve the functionality of Blackbaud products, and the Import-O-Matic tool “is fully compatible with both The Raiser’s Edge and the Raiser’s Edge.”

Read more here.

 



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