The news as of the caffeinizing third cup of coffee this morning, and the music is The Feelies' great album Only Life. First Coffee saw these guys open for Lou Reed in Washington D.C. in the '90s, saw them in a D.C. club a bit later, and wonders whatever happened to them. Doesn't the world need another Velvet Underground imitator?

 

InQuira, a vendor of software applications for Web self-help, agent-assisted support and enterprise knowledge management, has announced that MSC.Software, a vendor of enterprise simulation products to help reduce costs associated with designing and testing manufactured products, has selected InQuira.

 

MSC.Software will use InQuira's knowledge management platform, InQuira Information Manager, to power Web technical support interactions. MSC.Software chose InQuira for "its ability to harvest simulation knowledge from employees, customers and partners to make it accessible to consumers," among other factors, InQuira officials say.

 

A 40-year veteran in offering simulation tools, MSC.Software uses simulation knowledge and process management as components of its Enterprise Strategy products. The company will integrate InQuira with its single sign-on platform and Oracle's service request management applications.

 

The initial deployment will power MSC.Software's Japanese support Web site. Deployment of an InQuira-powered English support Web site will follow the Japanese implementation.

 

" InQuira is capable of capturing and distributing all of our simulation products knowledge with the integrated end-user collaboration required to satisfy the needs of our customers," said Jeffrey Graff, Director of Global Technical Support, MSC.Software. 

 

"Online and call center customer service is a priority for companies with a technically complex product offering, as the user base has more complicated support needs and higher expectations for online self-service," noted Mike Murphy, CEO of InQuira.

...

 

Bango has announced it is processing on-bill payments in South Africa, one of the most active mobile Web markets.

 

South Africa, which is in the top five countries in Bango's mobile Web surfing chart, has over 42 million mobile subscribers and a mobile penetration rate of between 85-90 percent of the population.

 

In South Africa, Bango officials say, mobiles are "the only way for much of the population to access the Internet. This factor, combined with an appetite for Western content and mobile savvy users, are reasons for the country's high traffic growth."

 

"Just as the UK has done, South Africa is embracing off-portal and understands the importance of having an open model," said Anil Malhotra, SVP Alliances and Marketing. "We have direct WAP billing with South African operators, MTN and Vodafone ZA to help grow their off-portal services and make it easier for consumers in this top mobile market to pay for mobile content."

 

The new on-bill payment available in South Africa gives consumers payment through a single click to their phone bill.

 

Included in the Bango payment service is the Bango Analytics tool which collects data about mobile Web visitors -- where traffic is coming from, the network and handset. Using its Bango user ID technology it can also identify unique visitors and distinguish between new and repeat visitors.

...

 

Boomi, a vendor of on-demand integration, has announced that it has teamed with Taleo, a vendor of on-demand talent management products, "increase the software-as-a-service integration options" for customers of Taleo Business Edition, an on-demand recruiting product for small to medium-sized businesses.

 

Through the partnership customers can integrate Taleo Business Edition with any SaaS or on-premise applications including financial management, ERP and human resource applications. They can deploy and manage integrations directly from the Web using only a browser.

 

With the product, integrations are built visually with familiar point-and-click, drag-and-drop ease. No coding is required.

 

Jason Blessing, group vice president for Taleo's SMB business unit, said customers will "have access to integration capabilities without the headache and expense associated with implementing complex integration products."  

 

With Boomi, companies can pay by connection, and not for an entire integration software suite, and can usually employ the capabilities and functionality of enterprise application integration at less cost of conventional integration offerings.

...

 

Ottawa-based Protecode has announced the general availability of its software development tool for governance and Intellectual Property management.

 

The latest release enables commercial software developers and open source creators to "accelerate managed adoption of open source code in a simple, painless process," company officials say.

 

Additionally, the software is available to the Eclipse community for anyone working on an active Eclipse project. Protecode generates records of software content, identifies and reports associated pedigree and licensing information by checking its properties and compliance against an organization's policies, establishing IP ownership and creating a software Bill of Materials.

 

"What we like about the tool is the way it brings forward the detection of license policy violations to the developer's desktop, where they can be quickly addressed, before they get deeply embedded in the product," said Simon Redding, Vice President, R&D of Zeligsoft, a vendor of software development tools.

...

 

Saba, a people management software and services provider, has announced that Broadridge Financial Solutions, a vendor of technology-based outsourcing products to the financial services industry, and Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union have implemented Saba OnDemand.

 

With Saba OnDemand, organizations get best practices in people management.

 

Bobby Yazdani, chairman and CEO for Saba, said the company's OnDemand business "provides customers of all sizes with the ability to centralize and streamline people processes like certifications and performance reviews."

 

Broadridge Financial Solutions sells outsourcing products to the financial services industry. It markets Web-based and instructor-led training requirements and is currently "implementing competencies and job roles to align learning and performance," company officials say.

 

"Our LearningEdge system is an environment that assists people in achieving high performance," said Lily Benjamin, Vice President, Chief Learning Officer at Broadridge. "By outsourcing hardware and software maintenance to Saba, we can remain focused on our people."

 

Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union is based in Palo Alto, California, and has a national footprint with locations in nine states and Puerto Rico.

 

The firm was "looking for a unified learning, performance and talent management product," company officials said. The organization also wanted a system to automate and centralize its performance review process and manage succession planning.