The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Gustav Holst's The Planets suite. Yeah it was kind of a cheesy gimmick, but the music's nicely complex and satisfying:

 

Zebbo.com has announced the launch of its new payment product introducing carrier billing using mobile platforms.

 

The app can be used to pay for downloads of applications, digital content and services purchased on mobile smart-phones, company officials say, adding that with it, "the self-funded startup provides a way for mobile developers to monetize their applications."

 

Malik Yacoubi, CEO of Zebbo.com, says the Zebbo team noticed the lack of a straightforward mobile payment method in the market," so decided to create one: "Zebbo now offers an easy, fast and convenient check-out to pay for your mobile apps and other services purchased on a mobile phone. The purchase simply gets billed on the users' carrier bill."

 

Company officials claim developers get a higher conversion for paid app downloads by offering consumers a simple process: "Zebbo offers direct carrier billing that replaces complicated multi-step third party billing that can deter users from purchasing apps.

 

Zebbo works on all smart-phones and services the three major mobile platforms iPhone, Blackberry and Android. Zebbo is also integrating with Amazon Payments and more traditional payment methods like, credit and prepaid cards which will be available shortly, company officials say, adding that "integration of a virtual currency platform is expected soon."

 

Currently Zebbo covers the USA, Canada and 21 European countries.

...

Customer Relationship Metrics has announced its Elite Customer Experience Award Winners for 2010, noting those who "have made a proven commitment to customer-centricity and consistently delivered elite performance throughout the year," CRM officials say.

 

The winning organizations were measured on "outstanding customer service" in several categories including Utility Provider of the Year, Product Support Provider of the Year, Agent of the Year, Team of the Year, Outsourced Center of the Year, In-house Contact Center of the Year and the Elite Customer Experience Award.

 

Jodie Monger, CEO of CRM, announced the 2010 award winners and honorable mentions:

 

·         Elite Customer Experience Award - Otter Tail Power Company; Honorable Mention - Portland General Electric.

·         Utility Provider of the Year - Otter Tail Power Company; Honorable Mention - Portland General Electric.

·         Product Support Provider of the Year - HP Home and Home Office Store; Honorable Mention - Black & Decker.

·         Agent of the Year - Joyce Sanders, Cincinnati Children's Hospital; Honorable Mention - Tracey Forbin of Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

·         Team of the Year - Mindy McDulin Team, Cincinnati Children's Hospital; Honorable Mention - Otter Tail Power Company- Team Name: Damian Reiter.

·         Outsourced Center of the Year - Michelin North America; Honorable Mention - Affiliated Computer Services for the Commonwealth of Virginia, Family Access Medical Insurance Security Plan.

·         In-house Contact Center of the Year - Michelin North America; Honorable Mention - Otter Tail Power Company.

 

Kind of makes you wish you got your power from Otter Tail, doesn't it? Evidently it was incorporated in 1907 and began producing electricity in 1909 at Dayton Hollow Dam on the Otter tail River near Fergus Falls, Minnesota. As you may have guessed, it's a subisdiary of Otter Tail Corporation, which trades under the symbol OTTR on The NASDAQ Global Select Market.

 

Headquartered in Fergus Falls, it has 130,000 customers across Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

 

CRM officials say they analyzed more than 230,000 real-time customer satisfaction evaluations. They point out that some accomplishments of the honorees include a 16.7 percent reduction in repeat call volume, 5 percent reduction in customer attrition, reduced costs to acquire new customers, increased lifetime customer value and employee engagement.

...

Hughes Network Systems, a vendor of broadband satellite networks and services, has announced the launch of a digital signage iPhone application for its Hughes MediaSignage offering. The mobile application "allows network administrators to disseminate information and emergency notifications from their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad devices."

 

Administrators can pre-define messages to be sent, and with a single touch "update their entire Hughes MediaSignage network to display the message they want employees or customers to see," company officials explain.

 

"Events don't always happen when administrators are at their desks," Mike Tippets, vice president, Hughes Solutions Group noted correctly. "Overwhelmingly, the feedback from beta testing was this is a convenient, easy-to-use application ideal for emergency situations."

 

Digital signage, company officials say, might be a way of delivering dynamic, content-rich audio and video aimed at replacing legacy print media, such as printed signs and billboards. It can be delivered to multiple sites within a building or complex, or to unlimited sites around the globe, "with the ability to create unique content tailored for each site via custom channels, programs, and schedules."

 

Tippets said today's launch, "as well as the recent release of our learning management system iPhone application," demonstrates the company's commitment "to our customers' increasing need for mobility in their environments."

 

Hughes is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Communications.

...

Handcast Media Labs, which develops interactive graphic applications for iPhone, is launching Spark Radio, which company officials say is a premier radio app for Apple's iPhone and iPod with "visually stunning animations, as well as more than 10,000 global station choices and social media features."

 

Spark Radio is a radio tuner using the RadioTime.com guide to provide "more than 10,000 terrestrial and Internet-only radio stations worldwide," company officials claim: "The app is adding new stations daily and will support more than 30,000 by April."

 

Sounds like you'll be able to listen to precisely what you want to at any given time, if you spend all day searching the Internet and changing stations. Most of us are happy to find something that's pretty good most of the time and let it go at that while we get on with, you know. living.

 

Users can search for stations or programs by keyword, location or the station URL and can browse programming by genre or location, company officials say, adding that a GPS component "allows listeners to find local stations in any given city based on current GPS coordinates."

 

Bill Moore, CEO of RadioTime, says the app "makes it easy for Spark Radio users to find their favorite radio stations and discover new ones from wherever they are."

 

Its features include eight unique graphic visualizers reacting to music and "creating mesmerizing and ever-changing animations. Each animation is touch sensitive so users can interact and 'play' while they listen."

 

Naturally it also has the ubiquitous "social features," in this case letting users create a profile and see what other Spark Radio users are listening to at any given moment using an interactive Globe Navigator, and seeing who else is listening to any station in the directory. Users can also create their own directory of favorite stations.

 

Spark Radio is available for download from the iTunes App Store for $5.99.

...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced that the Education Call Center, closed on Thursdays and Fridays over the past two months, is again operating five days a week.

 

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki said as a result of their efforts, "30,000 additional student veterans received their checks, bought books, paid the rent, and stayed in school."

 

By temporarily reassigning call center employees on Thursdays and Fridays to process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims, VA "was able to complete a significant number of education claims from mid-December through mid-February," VA officials say, adding that VA's goal was always to return call center employees to their permanent duties.

 

The decision to supplement claims processing staff by the call center employees was part of meeting VA's processing goal of Post-9/11 GI Bill claims, agency officials say, adding that as of mid-February 2010, VA's capacity to process Post-9/11 GI bill claims jumped from an average of 2,000 a day in August 2009 to 7,000 a day.

 

As of Feb. 12, VA received spring semester Post-9/11 GI Bill enrollments from approximately 180,000 student Veterans and already paid nearly 90 percent of them.

 

In December when the decision was made to redirect phone agents to claims processing, the number of pending claims was almost 80,000. The inventory of education claims was driving call volume at the call center to an all time high of 1.26 million call attempts during November.

 

But don't worry about the government running your health care. No doubt they'll do a much better job there.

 

...

"Weekends are sacred for British workers," according to recent figures from national automotive glazing services company, Auto Windscreens, as if anybody needed figures to buttress that statement.

"Waiting until Monday to book a glass repair or replacement job is costing the UK economy a staggering 11,752 lost working days a year," the survey found: "Every Monday, Auto Windscreens witnesses a 350 percent increase in calls to its contact center compared to a weekend day."

 

With each call lasting an average of five minutes, Auto Windscreens officials say, on Monday alone 1,808 hours are spent by British workers, between 9 in the morning and five in the afternoon, when theoretically they should be, you know, working, "making phone calls to arrange an appointment to have the glass in vehicles replaced."

 

Auto Windscreens wants workers to use its 24/7 contact center and online booking service. Nigel Davies, Auto Windscreens Sales and Marketing Director, noted, however, that the traditional British attitude of "waiting until Monday to sort non-essential repairs, like windscreen repair and replacement, is costing the UK economy dear."

 

Davies wants people to call service providers outside their working hours "if possible. Not only will they not have to face the potential frustration of being in a call queue during peak periods, but they will help their employer better manage its costs and productivity."

 

Auto Windscreens is doing its part: You can call their mobile service from eight in the morning to eight at night now, seven days a week.

 

The UK economy grew by only 0.1 percent in the final three months of last year. The unexpectedly sluggish performance prompted the Chancellor Alastair Darling to warn that Britain could yet fall back into recession.

 

And calling to get your windscreen fixed when you're not working is, evidently, a small step in that direction.