The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is a good Dexter Gordon album we don't listen to as often as we probably should around here, Doin' Allright. Released during his stellar early '60s run of albums, it's a perfectly fine jazz album, it just doesn't seem to hold our interest the way other Gordon albums from the same period do:

Gamma Engineers has released Interaction Search, a call center reporting search tool designed, company officials say, to "search all interactions that occur in a call center across all media," such as voice, chat and e-mail in real-time. 

 

Along with real-time search, other features of this tool include "the ability to drill down into searches, unstructured search capability, access to customer information as well as call center information, and cradle to grave report of a call," according to Gamma officials. 

 

So what exactly does all of this mean? Let's take an example: have you ever needed to find out something like "how many people from the 212 area code are calling with a warranty issue right now?" Sure you have. But how do you do it?

 

Interaction Search, according to Gamma officials, allows you to search callers from the 212 area code and then drill down to find out how many 212 callers have warranty issues, and "all of this can be performed in real-time. Unstructured searches are searches that do not require you to follow SQL rules or syntax rules or adhere to any specific language to perform searches. To perform a search, just type in your search criteria much the same way you would type in a Google search, in free form text."

 

So you don't need technical expertise to perform searches, and you can look for specific information relating to customers or for information relating to the call center as a whole, such as how many times Wile E. Coyote called your call center about an issue with Acme Anvils today.

 

And since many call center situations require tracing the entire path a caller took, the product has what company officials call "Cradle to Grave" reporting of a call, "giving users full transparency of a call."

...

Promero, a member of the Oracle Partner Network, has announced that it will make a free offer of its proprietary Salesforce CTI Adapter for any customer using the company's OnDemand call center software as a service. 

 

Hurry, though, the offer ends November 15th.

"Salesforce customers can integrate their SFDC service to Promero's hosted product of Oracle Contact Center Anywhere's virtual call center," said Gregg Troyanowski, president of Promero.  Evidently CCA is a tool for telephony features for "sales and customer service environments." 

 

Promero offers a free CTI adapter for SFDC and hosts the Contact Center Anywhere in its data center. The OnDemand Call Center is provided as a software as a service or on premise tool.

With the CTI Adapter and the call center product, Promero officials say, Salesforce users will get to click-to-dial for Salesforce contacts, control inbound calls from within Salesforce --  i.e. put on hold, transfer, or forward calls, open the records for incoming callers, capture and store call activity within your Salesforce customer records.

 

The product also lets users create reports to analyze call activity and performance and improve targeting, and to download direct to the user's PC, meaning no additional servers or IT burden. 
...

Altec Lansing, a division of Plantronics, has introduced the newest member of its inMotion family, the inMotion Classic (iMT620), which works with iPhones as well as iPods and includes an FM radio tuner. 

 

Does anybody listen to FM radio anymore? Really? Huh.

 

Based on the iM600 portable iPod speaker system, the inMotion Classic is "engineered for portability and versatility" as it folds to the size of a small book, company officials say, adding that its handle can "swing up for grab-and-go transport, swing back as a kickstand and swing under to stow away and turn off the battery."

Ed Benforado, product category director for Altec Lansing, says in his opinion "mobility is becoming more and more important," adding that "consumers told us they don't want to drain their batteries during travel, they don't want to lose their remote and they want an easy way to carry the dock."

 

As a result, he said, the product has "automatic shutoff in pack mode, a built-in remote control cubby and a three-position handle."

"Works with iPhone" certification, Altec officials say, means "interference-free listening, eliminating the need to switch the iPhone to airplane mode."

It automatically pauses the music when you get a call on your iPhone.

...

Aging geeks, nostalgic for those halcyon days of your youth, you're in luck: Aarhuis, Denmark-based Kiloo and Manomio have released the Commodore 64 Emulator for iPhone and iPod touch on Apple's App Store. 

 

Yes, you heard right: That same Commodore 64 you loved in lieu of a social life. The iPhone Emulator is based on the "original and all-time famous" 8-bit home computer released in August 1982.

Jacob Moller, Chief Executive Officer at Kiloo, said it is now possible to "re-experience the golden days of computer gaming right in the palm of your hand anywhere and at anytime. Expect to be entertained as we are rolling out a vast amount of the good old game classics in the coming months."

It's been "almost three decades since we released our first home computer, and today it is possible to get the exact same retro experience on an iPhone," said Bala Keilman, Chief Executive Officer at Commodore Gaming.

Stuart Carnie, Chief Technical Officer at Manomio, said the revered C64 was "all about good game play and it has been fantastic to participate in the creation of what is possibly the best retro gaming experience on the iPhone."

 

Yes, classic SID sounds are included as well, don't worry.

...

PowerSteering, which sells SaaS project & portfolio management software products, has announced the introduction of "SaaS for Clunkers," a new software trade-in program making it easier to switch from installed PPM software to PowerSteering's Enterprise SaaS solution at what company officials say is "no additional cost."

Company officials are targeting the program at organizations "burdened with a PPM system that has failed to deliver the ROI expected."

"SaaS for Clunkers" is designed to eliminate "the financial obstacles of switching from traditional software," company officials say, adding that it's supposed to lower the cost of ownership over the life of the deployment as well. 

 

To qualify for the "SaaS for Clunkers" program, companies must currently pay $50,000 or more in annual maintenance fees for installed project portfolio management software. 

 

The product provides access to the PowerSteering application free for the first year. After that an annual subscription -- which includes licenses, hosting, support, upgrades, training and maintenance -- is "priced at 20 percent less than the current yearly maintenance fees for the retired installed system.

 

Is your current system a "clunker?" Helpful signs provided by PowerSteering that you do, in fact, own a PPM "clunker:"

 

Has your PPM system been deployed for more than six months and still isn't fully implemented? (Warning -- you may want to check to see if you have any "clunkers" on the payroll first if this is true, it may not be the software's fault.)

 

Do your configuration changes require extensive IT help? Is the installed application difficult to support, administer and maintain? Is user adoption poor?

"Too often companies find themselves stuck with installed PPM software that's not delivering any return because people simply don't use it," observed Michael Roberts.

...

Cortado is offering iPhone users a way to use Microsoft e-mail apps without a "cumbersome PC detour."

 

Users can set up their exchange account directly from their iPhone, using the Cortado mailbox with mobile e-mail, calendar, and address book synchronization. 

 

You can try it out free for 30 days if you want. After that it's the rather quirky price of $11.98 per month. Of if you want to just cut to the chase there's a free demo on the home page linked above.

"Fewer and fewer freelancers are operating their own mail server environment," Cortado officials say, adding that  mailboxes no longer have to be set up and configured on a PC: "It can all be done directly from the iPhone or iPod Touch."

The package is based on Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, includes a 2 GB mailbox, and lets you continue using your previous e-mail address. It comes with a personal address book and calendar, online access using Outlook Web Access, ActiveSync direct push synchronization of e-mails, contacts, tasks and appointments.