By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this
morning, and the music is “Road Ode,” by Loudon Wainwright III:
Great news:
At the Stockholm
Concert Hall yesterday, TMC President Richard Tehrani was awarded the inaugural Nobel Prize in
Telecommunications for his contributions to Voice-over Internet Protocol
telephony.
Presented by His
Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, the 2006 telecom prize was created in
an effort to “make the Nobel more relevant to the breathtaking technological
advancements which contribute so much to world prosperity,” according to the
King’s presentation remarks.
“Rarely do we see
an idea, an invention, a technology so completely change the face of the modern
world -- for the better,” King Gustaf said to the glittering assemblage of past
winners, international jet-setters and dignitaries. “And of course it’s
primarily thanks to the individual we’re honoring here today.”
Information
technology has become one of the world’s most dynamic fields, and Tehrani is
responsible for the founding of the Technology Marketing Corporation, or TMC,
which has been at the forefront of cutting-edge trends within the industry. “This
is the future, plain and simple,” Tehrani, resplendent in a salmon-pink tuxedo
with ruffled shirt, told the audience during his acceptance speech. “I’m
overwhelmed and honored by this award.”
Laureates
welcomed Tehrani into their company. “Does this guy do that Skype deal? I save
beaucoup bucks on that puppy,” said Wislawa Szymborska, the 1996 Literature
honoree. Belgian chemist Ilya Priggone, the recipient of the 1977 Nobel Prize
for Chemistry for his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, said he
hoped Tehrani could come over to his hotel and show him how to get the
microphone hooked up. “Ever made a call on hotel international rates? Hoo boy,”
he said to a reporter.
French actress
Audrey Tautou, star of the upcoming film The
Da Vinci Code and in attendance, told reporters she would be interested in
doing a movie based on Tehrani’s life. “VoIP is the most exciting meme in the
world today,” she said. “I am very fascinated with the possibilities of this
technology for creativity, for business and for passion.”
Other attendees
offered mixed opinions on the award. “ I think the guy who invented Velcro
should have gotten one of these, that’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen --
that and duct tape,” said Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and the 1989 Nobel
Peace Prize laureate. And Canadian honoree Robert Mundell, winner of the 1999
laureate in Economics, said VoIP was a “passing fancy” that would “play havoc”
with his “telecom investments.”
Overall reaction,
however, was positive. The VoIP industry is certainly growing in popularity as
a personal convenience and business tool, a fact Tehrani emphasized in his
after-dinner comments at the Nobel Banquet in the famed Blue Hall of the City
Hall of Stockholm.
Long time Nobel
observers said it was unlikely more categories would be added in the foreseeable
future. “Alfred Nobel established physics, chemistry, literature, medicine and
peace,” said Ole Danbolt Mjos, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which
awards the prizes. “The Bank of Sweden established an economics prize in 1969,
so we think this is quite enough innovation. Those who want a Nobel Prize for
Planes That Actually Land On Time will have to wait. Get it? Have to wait? Ha
ha. And people think we are too stuffy here. We show them.”
Strict
confidentiality rules ensure that no nominees other than the winners of the
prize are ever disclosed by the nominating committee, although it’s rumored
that former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell was in
the running, as were American author Toni Morrison, Irish rocker and political
activist Bono and the film Brokeback
Mountain, all of which by law must be shortlisted for any award ever given
out anywhere.
…
Alba Spectrum Group, a CRM, ERP/MRP system
integrator in Brazil, USA, Mexico and Europe, is planning a move to strategic partnership to resell, localize,
implement PerformanceSoft/Actuate PBViews Performance Management Solution in
Brazil and Latin America.
The company will be using their ERP implementations to
multinational and Brazilian enterprises in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Belo
Horizonte, Recife, Manaus and across Brazil to “open the door for
PBViews projects,” according to company officials:
“As our research indicates, PBViews should find its
performance management software market niche in the following Brazilian
industries: telecommunication, financial, power, energy and others.”
…
TeleTech Holdings, Inc., a vendor of
customer relationship management (CRM) and business process outsourcing (BPO)
services, has added new functionality to
three suites of the TeleTech OnDemand hosted contact center offering.
The new features, according to company officials, “support
easy-to-access information that responds to customers’ needs, in addition to
real-time measurement and coaching.”
Interactive voice response (IVR) and Web services automate “routine”
interactions with customers. These features are now part of the TeleTech
OnDemand suites for customer experience management, workforce optimization, and
multichannel interaction routing.
Mark de la Vega, general manager TeleTech OnDemand services,
said “with our hosted product, clients can tap into a globally-connected and
highly scalable contact center environment with a simple broadband connection
to our network.”
TeleTech claims that customers using its hosted contact
center product can get “more than 50 percent in cost savings over building,
integrating and maintaining their own environments.”
One of the improved suites is the multichannel interaction routing,
which according to company officials “enables intelligent routing and
self-service automation for improved customer interactions.”
Current automatic call distribution and computer telephony
integration services have been enhanced with the addition of IVR, Web, and
voice-portal self-service automation to resolve customers’ routine requests
efficiently, thereby reducing the need for live agents.
…
Cognitronics Corporation has reported
income from continuing operations of $.2 million, or $.03 per share on a
diluted basis, for the quarter ended December 31, 2005 compared to income of
$2.1 million, or $.33 per share on a diluted basis, a year ago.
Revenues from continuing operations for the fourth quarter
were $4 million in 2005 and $4.9 million in 2004.
The company acquired ThinkEngine Networks, Inc. and divested
its European distributorship operations, Dacon Electronics Plc. during the
fourth quarter of 2005.
“From a market perspective, ThinkEngine represents
diversification for Cognitronics,” said Brian J. Kelley, president and chief
executive officer of Cognitronics. “With ThinkEngine’s VSR1000, we now have a
broader product offering which uses our core AIN expertise with a
purpose-built, SIP-based, VoIP product.”
The net loss for the three months ended December 31, 2005
was $46,000, or $.01 per share on a diluted basis, compared to net income of
$1.8 million, or $.28 per share on a diluted basis in the comparable 2004
quarter. For the year ended December 31, the loss from continuing operations
was $2.6 million, or $.44 per share on a diluted basis, on revenues of 6.7
million in 2005 compared to $.3 million, or $.06 per share on a diluted basis,
in 2004.
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