By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music
is Tom Waits’ Meisterwerk, 1985’s Rain Dogs:
Global IP Sound is announcing an OEM license agreement with Microsoft for voice processing
products which “improve PC-to-PC voice quality” to be used with MSN and
Microsoft Office Real-Time Collaboration, according to Global officials.
The MSN Service, which has more than 165 million active
users each month, supports not only text instant messaging but also PC-to-PC
voice and video services. MSN will use GIPS VoiceEngine, while RTC will use
GIPS Acoustic Echo Cancellation and GIPS Auto Gain Control high quality VoIP
functionality.
Gary P. Hermansen, President and CEO of GIPS said there are
over 200 million downloads of their software currently in market today.
GIPS VoiceEngine is a packaged VoIP product created
specifically for PC or PDA applications to improve sound quality in Internet
telephony, simplify the integration of speech codecs, communication with sound
cards, real-time performance, RTP protocol handling and other voice-related
tasks. GIPS AEC is used to eliminate echo caused by acoustic feedback in
real-time communications in a PC environment.
…
First CoffeeSM is glad things are going so well
for the University
of Arizona that they need to
use CRM to handle all their applications.
The U is using edGenuiti’s Multi-Channel & Multi-Campus
CRM for Higher Education to automate much of the University of Arizona’s inquiry
and application process, allowing their study abroad staff to manage a record
number of applications last year.
Prior to edGenuiti, the study abroad office used separate databases to track
different stages of the enrollment process – inquiry, applicant, accepted,
rejected, etc. And to make things interesting, the databases were only
available via one computer in the office. Their CRM package, in addition to
automating their student recruitment communications, let the university consolidate
all their student recruitment information and make it accessible to their staff
anywhere.
“Our data access is now transparent and available to all
users regardless of their physical location,” explains David Wright, Director of
the U’s Study Abroad Office.
…
It’s Quarterly Report Season, and First CoffeeSM
noticed yesterday that CRM and voice apps vendor FrontRange Solutions had a decent
quarter, reporting an increase in revenues and profits for the quarter
ended April 30, 2005.
Total revenue for the quarter increased to $21.6 million, an
increase of over 14% from the $18.9 million for the three months ended March
31, 2004, including an increase in license revenue of more than 22% over the
same period of the prior year.
In addition to an increase in revenue, FrontRange also
reported an operating profit of $2.3 million, an increase of 30% over the three
months ended March 31, 2004. They also signed 33 customers during Q4, with 13
customer transactions in excess of $100,000.
...
They’re a privately-held company so they’re out of all this
quarterly report swirl, but TouchStar Software Corporation is a young
company on the rise: The Denver Business
Journal has named TouchStar a
finalist in its annual Fastest Growing Large Private Companies competition.
TouchStar Software, a contact center dialer software
developer, was cited for its consistent, steady growth over the past four
years. They’re headquartered in Denver with sales offices in Denver, Atlanta,
Tampa and Jacksonville.
…
Israel-based ECI Telecom is announcing that it has implemented the XDM Multi-Service
Provisioning Platform in Astral Telecom’s network.
Astral Telecom, of course, is one of the most significant
national providers in Romania of analog and digital cable TV, Internet, and
voice services.
The XDM MSPP is already installed in Astral’s national 10
Gbps (STM-64/OC-192) SDH backbone network and connects all the major cities in
Romania. The contract is specifically designed to provide Astral’s customers
with next generation services.
Astral likes ECI’s Build-As-You-Grow approach, which
provides Astral with cost savings and ease of integration, and the additional
capacity needed for leasing lines to other carriers and for cross border
interconnection – as they can afford it.
Astral’s also planning to use the XDM MSPP platform to
migrate to DWDM as the network grows, without changing the existing platform. Eli
Peled, President of the Eastern Europe business unit at ECI Telecom says the
firm has been getting some serious traction in eastern Europe.
Astral Telecom has 800,000 cable subscribers in over 170
locations. It upgraded its network infrastructure and has now, in most of the
cities it operates, broadband optical fiber networks capable of providing the
full package of services including video, Internet and telephony/voice.
…
Another company new to First CoffeeSM, VoIP
software manufacturer Brekeke Software is announcing the release of its upgraded OnDO PBX,
an SIP compliant IP-PBX with what company officials promise is “increased call
control performance.”
OnDO PBX v1.4 is an office telephony system billed as
providing “robust, high-performance, and intelligent IP-PBX functionality.”
This IP-PBX software supports Session Initiation Protocol and is designed for
scalability from smaller to larger offices.
The new features in version 1.4 include call conferencing
and call recording. OnDO PBX is compatible with most any SIP phone in the
market.
There’s also a bandwidth saving option. OnDO PBX supports
multi-platform (Windows, Red Hat Linux, and Solaris) operations. There’s a trial version
available for free.
...
The
Washington Post writes of a way to
upgrade employee loyalty and increase productivity at the same time: Give them
good coffee.
K12 Inc. is a McLean, Virginia-based publisher of print and
computer-based curricula with a staff of 200-plus employees. Its director of
procurement and administration, Fran Roman, buying Starbucks coffee for the
office four months ago. Employees “flooded her with grateful e-mails,” she told
the Post, and management got more of
their time.
To avoid the usual burned office swill, K12 employees had
organized a coffee club. Heather Charles, senior finance manager, says twice a
day one member of the club would fight Northern Virginia traffic to make the
run to a Starbucks drive-through.
“I was spending $6 a day for coffee,” Charles told the Post. When the office began providing
Starbucks, Charles said, “it was like getting a raise.”
The Post reports
K12 management found “in-house Starbucks is paying for itself in increased
productivity.” Charles’s boss, finance chief John F. Baule said “I was losing
up to 40 minutes a day of Heather’s time. I couldn’t afford that.”
In fact, multiplying the time lost going out to Starbucks by
employees shows that providing it on site is quite an efficient idea. Because
let’s face it, a lot of us run on caffeine at work, and good coffee is much
more important to Americans. The burned no-name stuff our parents put up with
at the office isn’t cutting it any more.
If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/
for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored content
and brews the good stuff.
