Business Intelligence Watch
| Business intelligence is a crucial part of any enterprise. This blog analyzes business trends and developments and provides insights and analysis on business intelligence.- About Me - Got a News Tip? |
| Business intelligence is a crucial part of any enterprise. This blog analyzes business trends and developments and provides insights and analysis on business intelligence.- About Me - Got a News Tip? |
There is no end to the negative economic news produced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Consider that the disaster produced $100 billion in uninsured losses last month as consumer spending dropped by the greatest amount since 9/11, according to the Commerce Department.
Consumer spending, after adjusting for inflation, dropped 1 percent last month.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
As if $3 per gallon gasoline wasn't enough, Americans in the Northeast and
The price of natural gas has doubled since the start of summer and analyst Carl Neill of Risk Management Inc. has been quoted as saying, "The public has absolutely no idea how high prices are going to be this year. It's going to be mind-boggling."
Consumers can expect to pay about $400 more for natural gas this winter compared with last year as average bills will reach $1,130, according to the Energy Department.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
It's been about a month since Hurricane Katrina devastated the
But the impact is still being felt, as the number of Americans who are out of work as a result of the catastrophe jumped by an additional 60,000 last week with the total looking for unemployment benefits due to the storm reaching 279,000.
The overall number includes a revised total of 108,000 claims filed two weeks ago, up from an original amount of 103,000 claims. The number of claims had totaled 20,000 and 91,000 during the first two weeks after the storm hit.
Katrina could eliminate 400,000 positions during the last four months of 2005, according to the Congressional Budget Office. However, it has been reported that some economists have said that as many as 500,000 workers could lose their jobs due to Katrina.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
The irresponsible use of credit has produced a new record for the American consumer.
The American Bankers Association tells us that the seasonally adjusted percentage of credit cards overdue for 30 days or more increased during the second quarter to 4.81 percent. The amount is just above the 4.76 percent posted during the first quarter. It was also the highest since the organization started collecting the data in 1973.
Some of the reasons for the development: the increased cost of credit; skyrocketing energy prices; and a boost in minimum payments required by credit card companies.
Credit card delinquencies should remain high in future quarters, according to the association's chief economist Jim Chessen.
Making matters worse was that the association also reported that the delinquency rate on a composite of other consumer loan types, including home-equity and car loans, jumped to 2.22 percent during the quarter from 2.03 during the first quarter.
The message to the American consumer: get those payments in on time and, at all costs, avoid those punishing late fees.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
News flash from
We learn from a story filed from
But then we are informed that "developing countries have been frustrated that Western countries that got on the Internet first gobbled up most of the available addresses required for computers to connect, leaving developing nations to share a limited supply."
Reportedly, the State Department's David Gross has told the rest of the world to forget about a U.N. takeover.
Let's see if I've got this straight.
Keep the Internet under the control of the
Or, turn it over to an organization that gave us the oil-for-food scandal?
The choice couldn't be more clear.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
So much for all of the reports that indicate the savings rate of Americans is a fraction of what it should be.
A new report revealed that from 1999 to 2004, the average balance for 401(k) accounts that existed during the entire period improved 36 percent. This includes employee contributions, matches provided by employers, investment gains as well as withdrawals or loans made by participants.
In fact, the average balance in 401(k) accounts opened at least five years reportedly jumped from $67,106 at the end of 1999 to $91,042 at the end of last year.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Also, 57 foreign companies opened offices in the city and invested $209 million through Sept. 27.
In addition,
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Here is some good news about rich people: it seems there are more of them.
A survey has revealed that the number of American millionaires has reached a record 8.9 million. The total represented an increase for three consecutive years after the number of millionaires fell in 2001 and 2002.
Also, the number of households with a net worth between $100,000 and $500,000 also was up, reaching a total of 24.5 million.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
With the news dominated by the aftermath of hurricanes Rita and Katrina along with soaring energy prices, there was some good news reported recently regarding entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship has remained relatively unchanged in recent years in the
It revealed that the number of small businesses nationwide increased by 550,000 each month between 1996 and 2004. Another finding was that Latinos have a higher rate of entrepreneurship when compared with white, non-Latinos.
In addition, the average rate of entrepreneurship was greater for immigrants compared with native
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
A story chronicling the sorry state of consumer confidence Tuesday contained the one word Americans never want to read or hear: recession.
We learned that consumer confidence was hit with its greatest plunge in 15 years this month. The Consumer Confidence Index fell 18.9 points to 86.6 from a revised level of 105.5 in August. This represented the largest drop since October 1990 when the number declined 23 points to 62.6 "in the wake of the recession."
The September level was the lowest since October 2003 when it came in at 81.7.
Consumer spending during the remainder of the year, including the all-important holiday shopping season, is in jeopardy following the double dose of disaster provided by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and gas prices hovering around $3 per gallon.
Adding to the misery was the government's report that new home sales fell in August by the greatest total in nine months.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Plantronics has issued a release informing those traveling in
The move will make the use of hand-held mobile phones without headsets a no-no throughout the entire
Hands-free legislation was passed in
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
A local TV news report that aired this week in Seattle during the Annual Call Center Exhibition warned viewers about telemarketers who "are making thousands of automated sales calls to cell phones, and you get charged for the airtime."
The KOMO-TV reporter then mentioned "how to make sure your cell phone is protected" during the broadcast's "buyer beware" segment. That was followed by a mention of "automated dialing systems, programmed to call your cell phone and leave recorded or text messages with a sales pitch."
The reporter then informed the audience that this practice is illegal.
That was followed by a mention of Verizon Wireless' decision to target Intelligent Alternatives of San Diego, and Resort Marketing Trends of Coral Springs, Fla. Verizon claims they made nearly 1.5 million unsolicited cell phone marketing calls and it is suing for up to $700 million in penalties, KOMO said.
The report continued by mentioning "a rash of cell phone violations is prompting e-mail alerts … warning that all cell phone numbers will be released to telemarketers within the next 31 days."
Viewers get a more complete explanation of what's going on a little later in the report when they learn that those e-mails are only partly true.
"Your cell phone number is not about to be released to telemarketers and there is no cell phone directory," KOMO said.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Speech technology company Loquendo is offering Eusebio, a product it describes as "the outstanding new expressive voice for the Portuguese language."
Loquendo TTS software has been enriched with a repertoire of "expressive cues," enabling users to "enliven" their voice prompts. Eusebio is further described as a "step towards expressive synthetic speech."
Loquendo offers a full range of technological components to create solutions in 16 languages. Currently available languages include U.S. and UK English, Castilian, Catalan, Mexican, Chilean and Argentinean Spanish, Italian, German, French, Dutch, Greek, Mandarin Chinese, Brazilian, Portuguese and Swedish, in both male and female voices.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Angel.com, which provides on-demand call center and IVR solutions and is a division of MicroStrategy Inc., announced that Borland Software Corp. has deployed the company’s Virtual Call Center solution.
Borland selected the Angel.com solution to replace its previous on-premise, hardware-based solution. The company will use the
Angel.com said that its
CadCom Telesystems is announcing today the release of the CadCom AccuCenter Product Line, an integrated suite of contact center technologies.
The CadCom AccuCenter Product Line operates across all CadCom open system platforms and provides a unified set of capabilities for contact center applications and operations support. AccuCenter’s operations support offers call recording, tracking, monitoring, data mining, alerting and reporting that is meant to increase productivity, compliance and liability management.
AccuCenter applications provide a series of inbound and outbound call handling, such as teleservices, dispatching, autodialing, predictive dialing, voice mail, unified communications and IVR along with agent productivity and automation tools that include agent auto-scripting, contact database management and intelligent data mining.
The CadCom suite is built on an open architecture and unified framework, called OnviNet, which allows standard communication and interface between various functionalities as well as protecting contact center investment in capital equipment by allowing the addition of standard and new applications or technologies.
CadCom Telesystems Inc. is headquartered in Plano, Texas, and has operation centers in Enid, Okla. It provides integrated and advance call center operation support and application technologies.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
The news coming from Seattle's Envision Telephony, Inc. Monday had to do with its Envision SpeechMiner.
Envision SpeechMiner is fully integrated into the Envision Performance Suite and the company's Business Intelligence application and Business Intelligence Portal. Envision SpeechMiner combines analysis of customer interactions through speech with the ability to gather and provide the contextual information with the call to provide a complete understanding of: why customers are calling; what is working or not working in both the contact center as well as enterprise process; determining root cause analysis on the failures of execution; spotting customer trends, perceptions and competitor information; and understanding the exceptions in a contact center, including such things as long calls, short calls, long holds and failure to complete self-service or Web transactions.
The company states that Envision SpeechMiner is based on phrases and natural speech, thus capturing the meaning of what customers say rather than just the words.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
The passage of time is doing nothing to slow the response to those who have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Nortel has announced that it will contribute up to $250,000 to match employee donations made to the American Red Cross to aid victims.
The company and its workers are focusing on installing new communications systems in the Gulf Coast area.
Also, the company and its employees are making contributions that include:
* Nortel telecommunications equipment is doubling call capacity for the Federal Emergency Call Center that manages disaster assistance requests for the three states impacted the most by the event.
* New telecommunications systems have been installed in evacuee centers to aid the Social Security Administration in issuing checks to those who have been displaced.
* The company is deploying wireless mesh technology to support command and control communications for National Guard personnel.
* Nortel has deployed wireless equipment to enable communications between U.S. Navy personnel in New Orleans, the USS Iwo Jima helping from the Gulf and Fleet Headquarters.
* The company has sent containerized switching equipment to the Department of Homeland Security to expedite operations and communications.
* Employees have given more than seven tons of supplies. This includes bottled water, diapers, canned food and clothing to The Salvation Army.
* Regional Nortel campuses are directing volunteers to relief centers and providing computer center support to assist evacuees with activities that include establishing e-mail accounts, filing for assistance and searching Web sites for friends and relatives.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
The recent negative economic news continued Friday as a measure of consumer confidence fell below levels that were recorded following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The consumer sentiment index from the
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
The news coming from the Labor Department Thursday was disappointing, but not unexpected.
Initial claims for unemployment last week jumped by 71,000 to 398,000. About 68,000 of the claims were related to Hurricane Katrina as
In another development, consumer inflation jumped 0.5 percent last month with energy prices skyrocketing by the largest amount in more than two years in advance of the hurricane.
Also consider that a report placed the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the
In addition, inflation is expected to worsen this month due, in large part, to soaring gasoline prices.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
A story appearing on the Web site of The New York Times today regarding the contributions that corporations are making to the relief effort following Hurricane Katrina contained the following sentence:
"Amid all this, it seems that cash donations, especially anything less than $1 million from the largest companies, are considered tight-fisted."
Memo to The New York Times: When considering the unimaginable suffering the people of the
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
A public opinion poll released this week revealed the negative outlook American consumers are expressing regarding the economy.
The CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll revealed that 80 percent of Americans think Hurricane Katrina will negatively impact family finances.
A total of 43 percent of respondents said the
The survey was based on opinions obtained from 1,005 adults between Sept. 8-11.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
The news from the Commerce Department was disappointing, but could not be considered surprising.
Plummeting retail sales in August were reported Wednesday, indicating economic weakness in advance of Hurricane Katrina.
Sales dropped 2.1 percent in August, including a 12 percent falloff in the automobile sector. An overall increase of 1 percent was the result when autos are excluded. Automobile sales had improved 6.3 percent in July.
Economists have reported that the hurricane could slash growth by a percentage point during the second half of the year. The 2.1 percent decline represented the greatest drop since a 2.9 percent falloff in November 2001.
And where was the greatest increase in sales last month? Answer: gas stations, with a 4.4 percent boost as prices skyrocketed beyond $3 per gallon. Excluding sales at gas stations, the overall drop in sales last month would have been 2.8 percent.
Other results included: clothing store sales were flat after falling 0.9 percent in July; department store sales were up 0.3 percent following a 0.2 percent drop in the prior month; furniture store sales improved 0.9 percent; and sales at appliance and electronic stores were up 0.3 percent.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
A couple of reports that came out Tuesday revealed what can best be described as economic sluggishness.
First consider that, according to a report from UBS and the International Council of Shopping Centers, chain store retail sales nationwide dropped in the latest week. The culprit: soaring energy costs, driving consumers to lower nonessential purchases.
The report revealed a 0.2 percent drop during the week that concluded Sept. 10. This compared with flat sales in the prior week.
Also, the National Federation of Independent Business' small business optimism index fell from 101.1 in July to 100.9 in August. The group listed employee compensation increases as well as flagging profits and sales as reasons for the drop. Respondents' concerns, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's impact on shipping and oil refining, regarding the delivery and production of energy were also mentioned.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Consumer confidence, according to numbers released last week, took a beating during the first few days of the month as the long-term economic fallout from Hurricane Katrina remained uncertain.
How bad is the situation?
Consider that the RBC CASH Index placed consumer confidence at 61.5 in September, its lowest level since early March 2003 when it was at 61.4. September represented the third consecutive month of dropping confidence. The number was at 72.6 in August. In September 2004 the figure stood at 103.4.
The Index is benchmarked to a 100 level as of January 2002 when international polling firm Ipsos initiated the measurement.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Soutions
In the midst of $3-per-gallon gas resulting in sticker shock at the pump, legislators in
Lawmakers failed to enact a proposal that would have repealed the 31-cent tax for three months. According to a report, the $270 million loss in revenue would have been covered by budget reserves. But Democrats were reported to have dismissed the idea, deciding against any relief.
Gov. Christine Gregoire reportedly said the proposal was not "thought through" and that it would strain the "ability to cover basis needs in education, health care and other vital services to people in
One of the "basic needs" the people in
If other states considering such a tax rollback fail to act and we find ourselves in a recession at the start of 2006, last week's decision may be viewed as a lost opportunity.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
InterCall, a division of West Corporation that specializes in conference communications, is providing free conference calling for victims of Hurricane Katrina, allowing them to contact friends and relatives.
The service is offered through Salvation Army aid stations.
The donation will enable the Salvation Army to access InterCall's international audio conferencing services to connect relief workers and essential service groups.
Businesses in
Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
The experts are telling us that Hurricane Katrina's impact on the economy will not send the
A loss of 400,000 jobs will be coupled with growth falling by no more than 1 percentage point in the second half of the year, with funding for recovery and reconstruction offsetting much of that reduction in growth next year.
"Last week, it appeared that larger economic impacts might occur, but despite continued uncertainty, progress in opening refineries and restarting pipelines now makes those larger impacts less likely," said Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin in a letter to leaders of Congress.
John Silvia, Wachovia Corp.'s chief economist, said, "The background to when this hit is an economy that was doing quite well. That's a very, very different backdrop from 9/11."
And Mark Zandi, Economy.com's chief economist, said, "By this time next year, I think the effects on the macro economy will largely have faded."
The most significant threat to the economy, according to Chicago Fed president Michael Moskow, is the potential for increasing inflation. A long-term effect of Katrina is expected to be skyrocketing energy costs.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
I suppose it was inevitable, but the report that scams related to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort are proliferating on the Internet is nonetheless disheartening.
ScamBusters.org, described as an Internet clearinghouse for information regarding online fraud, has identified dozens of Katrina-related frauds. Officials in
For the generous, contribute only to reputable, established charities.
For the fraudsters, even the maximum punishment allowed under the law will seem insufficient.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
It was something of a good news/bad news scenario presented in a report that used the Energy Information Administration, a division of the Energy Department, as its source.
The price of gasoline should drop to $2.58 per gallon by the end of the year. But under a "medium" recovery scenario, the $3-per-gallon level should be maintained for most of September.
Also in the bad news category, natural gas prices will be 21.3 percent above where they were last year while consumers can expect to pay 31 percent more during the winter for heating oil.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
GeoLearning, Inc., which provides managed learning services and hosted learning technology, said Wednesday that PHH Corporation, an outsource provider of mortgage and vehicle fleet management services, selected the GeoMaestro learning management suite to deliver training content and manage enterprise-wide human capital performance for its 8,000 employees as part of a three-year learning services contract.
GeoMaestro is delivered entirely over the Internet. The learning management platform is designed to enable organizations to capture, create, manage and share knowledge in order to improve workforce productivity, accelerate critical business processes and drive organizational performance. The system centralizes and automates the learning management process.
GeoLearning will also provide Internet hosting, security and maintenance services, vendor management, professional services, and 24x7 help desk support for PHH employees and administrators.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
The resiliency of the
A report Sunday mentioned that last week the Dow Jones average was up 0.48 percent, the S&P 500 increased 1.07 percent and the Nasdaq improved by 0.96 percent.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
There's more to this recent headline than just the pain felt at the pump.
More money spent on gasoline, which has skyrocketed beyond $3 per gallon, means less money spent elsewhere. Remember that the all-important holiday shopping season starts in less than three months. Sales during that brief window of opportunity for retailers can mean the difference between profitability and disaster.
But some help may be on the way, at least in certain places.
It's been reported that under a proposal in
According to another report,
Also suggested has been a 90-day suspension of the federal tax on gas, which would save 18 cents per gallon.
In other news, an all-time low of negative 0.6 percent was reported as the savings rate of Americans in July. What does this mean? We're using our savings to deal with the gap between spending and take-home pay.
The time for relief from exploding gas prices is now.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
The death and destruction throughout the
But at some point we should remember that we are fortunate to live in a country that is capable of such a comeback. Remember that we are a nation that:
* Spent about half a century opposing Communism until the Berlin Wall fell and the
* Was victorious in World War II after simultaneously fighting and defeating two major powers on opposite sides of the world.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
It has been reported that the victims of Hurricane Katrina who endured horrific conditions for several days at the Louisiana Superdome in
While food, clean water, shelter, security and the basic necessities of modern life will be the most important things they will look forward to, those who have been relocated may be able to re-establish contact with their relatives via a network of communication services that SBC Communications Inc. has started deploying at the Astrodome.
The company will provide the victims with up to 1,000 telephones with free local and long distance calling, free wireless service in conjunction with Cingular Wireless and SBC Yahoo! DSL service as well as computers with high-speed Internet access. The company also plans to install Wi-Fi hot spots to be used by public service personnel and media for wireless Internet access.
The company expects that most of the communications services at the Astrodome will be in place by the time the relocation effort is completed.
By Glenn J. Kalinoski, Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions
