TMCnet News

The CRM Week In Review
[November 18, 2005]

The CRM Week In Review


Editorial Director, CUSTOMER INTER@CTION Solutions
 
Happy Friday, reader. The CRM Week in Review is here to usher in your relaxing weekend, to allow you to kick back secure in the knowledge that no timely and important CRM news tidbit escaped your notice. We know you lay awake many long nights fretting over what you may have missed during the week. Never fear.
 


 

This week, David Sims told us why there's never a dull moment at NetSuite, and it has nothing to do with the company cafeteria's overuse of cayenne pepper in last week's lunchtime jambalaya. It seems that NetSuite has been busy indeed lately, offering practical new e-commerce functionality to online merchants, just in time for those of us with Mallphobia to do our holiday shopping.
 
"Deliberately innovative" is what Interactive Intelligence calls itself. This week, we saw that the company's CIC 2.4 release proves it's true. 
 
This week, we also featured a congenial Q&A with Talisma CEO Dan Vetras, in which he discusses Talisma's pursuit of the CIM (customer interaction management) market, and why all the best musicians' names begin with "C".
 
Rich Tehrani discusses why that old 1980s mantra of Japanese manufacturing, Just-In-Time, needs to be applied to customer care and communication. The CRM Week in Review is happy for this particular aspect of the 80s to come back, but it vows it will never feather its hair or put a "Duran Duran" pin on its denim jacket ever again.
 
TMCnet Wireless & Technology columnist Bob Liu brought the news this week that the Feds have given the all-clear sign to Oracle for its acquisition of Siebel, having determined that the software giant was in compliance with the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, which sounds like a comedy team but is, in fact, not.
 
We saw some product releases this week, including one by TechWhale Solutions, which provides mid-market CRM software and services. The company with an oceanic appellation announced the release of version 2.1 of its BlueWhaleCRM software.
 
Also, Kintera announced a CRM product aimed toward the non-profit industry. The solution boasts a "Salutations and Households" feature, which Kintera says helps non-profits keep track of information across entire households.
 
Culture differences between North America, Europe and Southeast Asia are a hot topic of discussion in the call center industry, but nobody pays much attention to the fact that regional differences within U.S. borders can sometimes be just as prohibitive to communication. I wish I'd titled this article, "Y'all Schlep Back Again, Y'hear?"
But I didn't.  
 
Finally, CosmoCom announced this week that it has added video IVR capabilities to its CosmoCall Universe product. Read the article to find out why. 
 
See? That was easy. Now you can relax, watch football and clean the garage out this weekend and be confident you missed nothing. Keep an eye out for next Wednesday's special Thanksgiving Edition of the CRM Week In Review, and we promise to keep the bad turkey puns to a minimum.
 
Tracey Schelmetic is editorial director for CUSTOMER INTER@CTION Solutions. For more articles please visit Tracey Schelmetic’s columnist page.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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