The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is a great find - iTunes finally got Larry Norman's back catalogue, so we're listening to Only Visiting This Planet. Still sounds as good as anything on radio did in 1972:
Oracle partner
Promero has announced that is has completed an upgrade of its premier call center software as a service platform to Oracle's Contact Center Anywhere v811.
"We've used the
Oracle call center software for years," said Gregg Troyanowski, president of Promero, adding that their customers "truly like" the new features and GUI.
Promero also offers a premise-based product as well as the SaaS version of Contact Center Anywhere.
Contact Center Anywhere v8 features include Multi-Channel ACD Built-In Softswitch, and TDM Switching provides "skills-based routing and a universal queue for phone calls, e-mails, faxes and callbacks to route customers in virtual queue," company officials say.
Contact Center Anywhere "replaces or co-exists with" PBX Inbound/outbound cross-media blending, integrated outbound predictive and preview dialing IVR, company officials say, adding that it also provides built-in voice recording, supervision and agent-coaching capabilities, voicemail, fax, and unified messaging.
The product also comes with screen pops -- integrated in pre-built agent User Interface or as separate screen, and a blended agent for both inbound and outbound communications.
Contact Center Anywhere has won 49 industry awards from Internet Telephony Magazine, Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine, TMC Labs and others.
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Intacct has announced a "new and improved" version of Intacct MAX for
Salesforce CRM, described by company officials as a streamlined "lead to cash" application built on the Force.com platform connecting Intacct's financial management and accounting system and Salesforce CRM.
Intacct officials say over 50 companies have posted reviews on the Salesforce.com AppExchange concerning their experiences combining Salesforce CRM and Intacct.
The Summer '09 edition of Intacct MAX for Salesforce CRM has such features as bi-directional data synchronization, price book management, automated contract renewals and payment processing.
As a composite application, Intacct MAX for Salesforce CRM goes far beyond simple data integration by creating new and unified business processes, an integrated user experience, aligned master data and shared business objects across both Salesforce CRM and Intacct.
Intacct officials are hyping cloud-connected applications like Salesforce CRM and Intacct as allowing companies to "choose best-of-breed systems, knowing that they will not have to incur the cost or risk of maintaining integration between the applications themselves."
Generally, they contend, with vendor-supported composite applications, "the end result will be far superior" to that delivered by data integration-based products.
"The combination of Salesforce CRM, Force.com and Intacct is compelling for companies moving their business applications to the cloud," said Kendall Collins, Chief Marketing Officer at Salesforce.com, "avoiding the compromises associated with single-vendor ERP and CRM suites."
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Questetra has launched the Questetra BPM Suite SaaS Edition in Japanese, renamed "Questetra BPM Suite Download Edition."
The free workflow/BPM software "Questetra BPM Suite Download Edition" is a Web application that has been downloaded about 6,000 times since its release in January 2009, and is currently used in such BPM practices as Kyoto University's inquiry and contact process.
The Questetra BPM Suite SaaS Edition service is billed as contributing to BPM activities of bodies such as businesses that promote cloud computing, departments "with no restriction on software installation," as well as small organizations with around twenty members.
The software shall be available in other languages in the future.
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Noting correctly that small business owners and employees "typically wear many hats in a given day," call center vendor
my1voice officials say the company's products offer them "a host of features that are both flexible and easy to use," reflecting "an understanding of the day-to-day challenges facing owners and employees in a small business."
And hey, they're designed to "match the way they work rather than forcing them to work according to the phone service."
Examples include a single phone number to reach all employees: "Rather than each employee handing out individual -- or multiple -- phone numbers, customers, prospects and partners can reach anyone in the organization by dialing a single number." The virtual receptionist directs calls by extension, or callers can select the company directory to dial by name.
"Time is a precious commodity in a small business," said Steve Adams, vice president of marketing for Protus, the provider of my1voice. "The rich feature set in my1voice allows small business owners and their employees to set up their phones in a way that will use their time more efficiently."
There's also smart call forwarding, letting users customize incoming calls to their cell, home, office, voicemail, and even numbers with extensions. Also my1voice "can be set to deliver voicemail messages directly to the customer's e-mail," company officials say, "eliminating the need to check voicemail for messages or dial in to retrieve them."
Other features include a Web call button letting customers and prospects searching the site connect to an employee over the phone by clicking one button.