By David Sims
David at firstcoffee dot biz
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is various It's A Beautiful Day cuts:
Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation, a vendor of business process management and service-oriented architecture, and Seagull Software, which sells software to transform legacy business applications, has announced that CentraSite now integrates with LegaSuite, Seagull's flagship product.
Under a cooperative marketing program agreement, Seagull Software can refer CentraSite to customers through its various channels. CentraSite is the industry's only vendor-neutral, standards-based SOA registry and repository.
In September, Seagull Software announced it had become a strategic sponsor of the CentraSite Community, and the referral agreement and integration are the first steps resulting from that sponsorship.
The integration of CentraSite with LegaSuite, according to Seagull officials, means that companies creating an SOA can "expose their legacy assets to their entire corporate development community, as well as the global development community."
There, got all that?
Fujitsu and Seagull Software are among 22 sponsors that contribute to the CentraSite Community, which can be accessed at www.CentraSite.com.
Don Addington, CEO and president of Seagull Software, explained that CentraSite enables services to be "effectively managed and made available for reuse." The benefit for customers, he sees, is that as they build out their SOA infrastructure, "they can minimize the risk in migrating to a SOA environment by maximizing the reuse of their proven, legacy applications."
Robert Sepanloo, senior vice president of the Enterprise Software and Solutions Group, Fujitsu Computer Systems, said the partnership helps "remove complexity and the risks involved in migrating from legacy applications to modern, SOA environments. This helps expand market adoption of SOAs and accelerates individual SOA projects."
Seagull Software plans to offer a CentraSite Jump Start Program to allow customers to explore the benefits of putting their SOA assets into CentraSite.
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Avaya, which sells call centers and communications applications, systems and services, has introduced new Avaya Customer Interaction Suite capabilities which, according to company officials, "enable businesses to deliver superior customer service."
The Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based vendor is introducing Avaya IQ for its Customer Interaction Suite, a reporting and analytics product designed to "integrate disparate data inputs" and "analyze and link the data to the company's overall business objectives."
Avaya IQ lets businesses assess what company officials call "the complete customer contact experience," defining both good and bad agent behavior and delivering real-time information allowing companies to adjust customer care.
The components of the Avaya Customer Interaction Suite are Call Center, Interaction Center, Voice Portal, and the new reporting and analytics platform, Avaya IQ. Rather than referring shoppers to toll-free numbers or less personal Internet content, using Avaya IQ stores can connect consumers to remote product experts via live video through integrated voice/video kiosks.
It also lets companies reduce live agents costs by streaming video self-help topics related to the customer's inquiry to a browser on a PC or a smart mobile phone such as how to use a satellite TV remote control, record a favorite TV show, or connect a DVD player.
There are also real-time cross-sell, up-sell, and advertising features, where reporting and analytics reveal customers who may benefit from a new service. Upon next contact the identified customers can then be routed and matched with agents supporting the best offers for the customer type. The agent can then use the customer's preferred communications approach, be it voice, e-mail or streaming video, to introduce the product or service.
The new capabilities delivered by Avaya's Customer Interaction Suite, company officials explain, "allow customers to be served by the most capable resources throughout the enterprise," using new capabilities such as streaming video while providing a complete view of the customer experience.
All enterprise resources from the contact center to sales offices to supply chain to billing to other support functions can be engaged to serve customers cost-effectively, regardless of location -- and through a variety of media: Avaya's new capabilities include the integration of live or streaming video, and new analytics capabilities provide real-time monitoring and historical data analysis tools.
End-to-end Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP, support is at the core of the Customer Interaction Suite. SIP is an emerging Internet standard for communications that enables people, resources, and devices to be connected over IP networks regardless of location.
"The confluence of open standards, advanced technologies and evolving IT environments are enabling 'decision-oriented enterprises,'" and reducing "decision-making friction," said Mary Wardley, Research vice president, CRM Applications at IDC.
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AdventNet Inc., a vendor of collaboration, CRM & office productivity applications as well as network management software, has announced the upgraded release of OpManager MSP Edition.
OpManager offers a variety of managed network services such as server monitoring, firewall monitoring, exchange monitoring, router monitoring, wireless monitoring, and custom device monitoring at what company officials believe are "attractively low price points." Its probe-server architecture uses a secure HTTPs connection and works without requiring any firewall configurations at the clients' end.
In addition to network monitoring, OpManager MSP Edition's latest release features ticketing, security and inventory modules to let MSPs provide helpdesk and security services to their customers. To download a free trial copy visit http://msp.opmanager.com/.
Edward Martinbor of EJM Solutions, an OpManager MSP partner located in Windsor, California said the helpdesk integration "rocks. Tickets get generated on the fly and are assigned to the right technicians all by themselves. Our helpdesk staffs love it."
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CRM vendor Amdocs has announced that UPC Broadband, operator of the largest cable network in Europe, has selected Amdocs for customer service assistance. UPC Broadband will initially deploy the new system in Romania and Switzerland.
Replacing its legacy system with Amdocs CRM 6 will allow UPC Broadband to reduce its total cost of ownership, automate the ordering process, improve customer service and shorten the time to market for new services, UPC officials believe.
"We are moving to a more flexible and integrated product with Amdocs CRM 6, which has the new features and functionalities to service our triple-play customers throughout Europe," said Mehrdad Mansourpour, managing director and chief information officer for UPC.
Amdocs CRM 6, with its customer management and order management capabilities, is expected to help UPC Broadband improve customer satisfaction and retention, reduce call waiting time for customers, make the ordering process quicker and more effective, and bring new services to market faster.
"In the competitive European cable market, organizations which focus on the customer will be the ones which win," said Michael Matthews, chief marketing officer for Amdocs.
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