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

First Coffee for August 31, 2005

August 31, 2005

By David Sims
[email protected]


The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is “Worried About You,” one of the sweetest soul songs the Rolling Stones – a vastly underrated soul band – recorded:

Interesting that Microsoft has bought Teleo, a privately-held San Francisco VoIP company which uses the same voice-processing software from Global IP Sound that Google and Skype use.  Of course – Google’s jumping into VoIP, Microsoft wants to keep up.



It had to happen sooner or later, someone coming along and organizing all the toys, add-ons, gizmos and general Skype paraphernalia the way people used to hold competitions to see how many different ways one could trick out a Volkswagen Beetle.

Skype has held its first developer competition, awarding Jybe the first prize. More than 100 developers entered the competition, open to pretty much anyone. Luxembourg-based Skype claims there are currently over 400 hardware and software products that integrate with Skype.

(Luxembourg note of the day: Kudos to Gilles Muller, who as far as First CoffeeSM can remember is the First LuxembourgerSM to compete in the U.S.

First Coffee for August 30, 2005

August 30, 2005

By David Sims
[email protected]


The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Weird Al Yankovic’s “She Never Told Me She Was A Mime.” That’s the great thing about having kids, you get socially acceptable excuses to play with Hot Wheels, read Where The Wild Things Are and Harold And the Purple Crayon again and listen to Weird Al, the musical and spiritual heir to Spike Jones:

First CoffeeSM’s mild-mannered reporter alter ego virtually sat down with RightNow Technologies’ founder and CEO Greg Gianforte for a Q&A as he explained why he’s not afraid of Microsoft and SAP, why there’s a lot more to business than money, The Big Idea, impressing candidates you’re recruiting by letting them camp in the snow and the competitive advantage of the tater pig.

Excerpts here today, the full interview on Thursday on the TMC site:

Hi Greg, thanks for taking time out with us today. You’ve already tried retiring once, if you leave RightNow would it be to retire or start something else?

I’m not sure the whole concept of “retirement” as we generally understand it is really valid. We all have skills and resources, and it’s really our responsibility to use those skills and resources in a worthwhile manner. Putting them on the shelf doesn’t seem very appealing or even ethical to me.

There are those who say the on-demand space is a three-way horserace between you, salesforce.com and NetSuite.

First Coffee for August 29, 2005

August 29, 2005

By David Sims
[email protected]


The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Alabama’s “Song Of the South:”

Wait, first we have to take our doctor-recommended dose of cancer-preventing antioxidants here, hang on a sec… okay, there we go. Gotta do what’s healthy, y’know.

First CoffeeSM doesn’t much like the dog days of August, when news is scarce on the ground, too much like working for a living. Hey, readers in N’Awlins, isn’t it about time y’all went to stay with your in-laws in Shreveport for a while?

New Zealand is making the most audacious change in the 100-year history of its national telephone network, ripping out its public switched telephone network and hiring Alcatel to replace it with an internet protocol network, at a cost of about $200 million New Zealand dollars, about $139 million in American dollars, The Dominion Post is reporting, citing sources in the national capital of Wellington. Go Kiwis.

“It has already spent about $130 million upgrading its six core telecommunications switches and revamping its billing systems, partly in preparation for the move to IP,” according to the news report.

New Zealand Telecom says the project is part of a $1 billion investment in a next-generation telephony network plan, architected last year “following a recommendation by the Commerce Commission, accepted by the Cabinet, that it would not have to give competitors access to the new infrastructure,” the Post says:

The plan calls for Telecom to get rid of about 600 of its 700 telephone exchanges, replacing the other 100 with fiber optic cable running to roadside cabinets, “the first point of aggregation for home phone lines, typically supporting a few hundred households.” The work is expected to stretch out over several years.

It’s possible that the roadside cabinets will be equipped with remote concentrators allowing Telecom to deliver triple play services of on-demand video, broadband internet and IP-based voice services.

Telecom says it will support traditional switched circuit phone calls until at least 2012, but hasn’t made any promises beyond that.

Whew. Time for more antioxidants, can’t be too careful, cancer running in the family and all that.

First Coffee for August 26, 2005

August 26, 2005

By David Sims
[email protected]


The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Beethoven’s Sonata For Piano and Violin No. 5, op. 24:

Public service request: A reader writes to First CoffeeSM and says “Do you have any info concerning ORASCOM doing business in the US. I know about a the deal with Motorola. Anything else you recall seeing?”

Nothing else First CoffeeSM’s seen, any other readers know anything?



A tip of the coffee pot to Gordon Coburn, named to ICT Group’s Board of Directors. Mr. Coburn will also serve on the Audit Committee of the Board.

First Coffee for August 25, 2005

August 25, 2005

By David Sims
[email protected]


The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is silky smooth pop with lyrics etched in acid, Carry On Up the Charts: The Best Of the Beautiful South:

Recently Anurag Wadehra, Vice-President of Marketing and Product Management of Siperian, which is big into Customer Data Integration products, took the time to answer some questions from First CoffeeSM’s mild-mannered reporter alter ego. Excerpts appear below. The full interview, including Anurag’s thoughts on what’s coming next for CDI will be published Monday on the TMC site.

Hi Anurag, thanks for taking the time with us. What exactly is Customer Data Integration?

Customer Data Integration, or CDI as it is often referred to, is a new software category which combines the necessary technology, processes and services needed to create and maintain an accurate, timely and complete view of a customer.

Sounds like the Holy Grail.

First Coffee for August 24, 2005

August 24, 2005

By David Sims
[email protected]


The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is the pinnacle of pop-rock, 1968’s Something Else by The Kinks – more fun than The Beatles, more rock than Pet Sounds and way more intelligent than anything else at the time:

“It’s really a Dantesque scene,” said police officer Arioso Obregon.

Another plane goes down, this one in Peru. First CoffeeSM isn’t a paranoid conspiracy theorist, except when it comes to the left-wing MSM never giving President Bush any credit for anything whatsoever – the man could single-handedly cure cancer and the headlines would be “Cancer Researchers Thrown Out Of Work By Bush,” “Leukemia Sufferers: Why Is Bush Ignoring Us?” and “Cancer Cure Too Late For Many” and TV coverage would focus on AIDS activists protesting the lack of a cure for AIDS and one six-year old Hispanic girl in Albuquerque who will have died of cancer a week before the cure became available, with the family crying that “people like us” don’t matter enough to Bush for him to find that cure a little bit faster – but doesn’t it seem like there’ve been quite a few plane crashes recently?

Or maybe First CoffeeSM’s just thinking of his family’s upcoming trip to see Mrs. First CoffeeSM’s family in New Zealand, which will entail that old favorite Antalya- Istanbul- Dubai- Singapore- Brisbane- Auckland itinerary, and back again. We don’t need to be reading about more plane crashes for a while, okay?



The news yesterday was that CRM is “back,” that the market’s going great guns again.

Half right.

Remember 1979? That year a single named “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang hit the charts.

First Coffee for August 23, 2005

August 23, 2005

By David Sims
[email protected]


The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Billie Holiday’s Lady In Autumn: The Best of The Verve Years, a 1991 compilation of her late recordings:

Got one of the more interesting comments in a while yesterday on something in the column. Yes, First CoffeeSM does get some great responses, and we also get… well, some of you people have way too much free time on your hands.

A senior executive from a 9-1-1 service provider who asked to remain anonymous wrote in response to First CoffeeSM’s meditation (i.e. slightly unhinged rant) on Nuvio’s lawsuit challenging the wisdom of the Federal Communications Commission giving VoIPers 120 days to conform to the outmoded emergency 9-1-1 technology they’re in the process of rendering obsolete to say that actually, Karl Rove had nothing to do with it, Joe Wilson’s the one who outed his wife, Valerie Plame as a CIA agent when the lying buffoon shot off his mouth to The Nation and The New York Times… uh, sorry, wrong anonymous source…

“Read your piece about the Nuvio lawsuit,” the exec writes. “Of course we all agree that Nuvio is just trying to buy time.

First Coffee for August 22, 2005

August 22, 2005

By David Sims
[email protected]


The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is an iPod mix, current song “Jerry Springer” by Weird Al Yankovic:

This came out last Friday afternoon, so maybe you missed it (too), but customer support outsourcer Sitel Corp., has announced that it’s completed a $145 million refinancing package, consisting of a senior revolving credit facility of $90 million and two term loans totaling $55 million.

Proceeds from the new financing will be used “to retire the Company’s 9 ¼ percent senior subordinated notes, due March 2006, replace the existing credit facility due December 2005, and provide funds for working capital and other general corporate purposes,” according to company officials.

The senior subordinated notes will be redeemed in September 2005 at the face value of $83.8 million, plus interest. The refinancing will result in an estimated non-cash charge in the third quarter of 2005 of approximately $0.4 million to write-off remaining debt issuance costs.

A couple weeks ago the Omaha, Nebraska-based announced Q2 net income of $3.2 million, or 4 cents per share, compared with $2.5 million, or 3 cents per share, for Q2 2004.



LoJack for Laptops – does it work? According to an evaluation by David Andelman, yes it does. If you don’t mind the way the system works, it might be a good idea for you.

Absolute Software's LoJack for Laptops used to be called CompuTrace, Andelman says.

First Coffee for August 19, 2005

August 19, 2005

By David Sims
[email protected]


The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is the 1993 Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration, the all-star Madison Square Garden tribute to ol’ Minnesota Mudthroat, and when we say “tribute,” we don’t mean a bunch of bands you’ve never heard of phoning in covers, we’re talking Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, Ron Wood, George Harrison, Eddie Vedder, Lou Reed, John Mellencamp, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Winter, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty and Chrissie Hynde, Roger McGuinn, Levon Helm, Shawn Colvin, Tracy Chapman – where else do you get the greatest country, soul, Irish, rock and folk acts sharing the stage with a Beatle? Well, now that Cash and Harrison are dead the answer is nowhere, but you get the point, we’re talking guys who usually get tribute concerts showing up to pay tribute to Bob … huh? Oh, right, sorry, the frustrated rock critic will shut up now:



First CoffeeSM wrote a while ago about Concerto Software and Aspect Communications merging, today they’ve announced that the combined company will be named Aspect Software. Like when Chrysler “merged” with Daimler-Benz, the merged name was “Daimler Chrysler,” which is pronounced “Daimler.”



What’s interesting is this lawsuit filed by Nuvio which is, in reality, a plea by VoIP to please let us do it a better way, don’t make us conform to a dying technology.

Now that the VoIP industry’s grumblingly accepted the government’s authority to regulate, they want it to be as enlightened as possible and not to get in the way of business.

First Coffee for August 18, 2005

August 18, 2005

By David Sims
[email protected]


The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Alan Parsons Project’s Poe project, Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, the only album of theirs worth buying:

A decision that VoIP should not be monopolized by Philippine telcos is expected next week from the country’s National Telecommunications Commission, according to Business World.

The two-year debate on who can offer VoIP and on what terms is expected to end with a ruling that while VoIP may be provided by the state telcos, it can also be offered commercially by companies such as ISPs.

Deputy Commissioner Jorge V. Sarmiento said the final NTC ruling will not veer from the “essence” of the last draft ruling issued in March, which said VoIP falls under the definition of VAS in the 1995 Philippine Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines or Republic Act 7925, Business World said:

“VoIP is expected to drastically drive down monthly telecommunication charges in the Philippines. With VoIP, the NTC expects international call rates to drop to $0.10 a minute from $0.40 a minute.”



NetSuite’s happy – as they should be, as they should be – with the decision of the St. John Sea Dogs, a team in an organization called the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, to adopt NetSuite.

Sorry, if First CoffeeSM knew or cared the first thing about hockey there’d be some cute hockey terminology in a pun here, but frankly it rates in interest somewhere just south of test cricket and just north of buzkashi, the national sport of Afghanistan, where teams of men on horseback try to pitch a headless goat carcass across a goal line. Games may last as long as a week. Anything goes.

NetSuite also counts the Oakland Athletics major league baseball team as a customer.

As a start-up hockey franchise, the Sea Dogs team realized it needed consistent, targeted communication to season ticket holders and potential fan base.

Featured Events