Statistically Speaking

> Forty-seven percent of the 1,000 U.S. consumers Accenture surveyed have stopped doing business with a company within the past year, despite continued investment in CRM technology by U.S. industries. Eighteen percent of respondents reporting they have stopped doing business with a retailer due to poor service. Retailers were trailed by Internet service providers (15 percent), banks (14 percent), telephone service providers (12 percent), wireless/cell phone companies (11 percent), and cable/satellite TV service providers (10 percent). Insurance and utility companies fared well, with just 3 percent of respondents admitting that they defected. Additional findings reveal that consumers under the age of 40 are the least likely to be loyal and more likely than those over the age of 55 to switch companies. > RFID software and services revenue is expected to be $3.1 billion in 2007, a 15 percent decrease from previous estimates, according to "Focus on RFID Software: Investigating New Solutions and Approaches," a report by ABI Research. > IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) has the potential to amass more than $15 billion annually by 2010 for U.S. carriers, according to In-Stat's "IMS in the Enterprise Market." More than 45 percent of respondents to the survey indicated they would consider reengineering internal processes to take advantage of IMS-based network services. > In England, almost two thirds of staff with skills gaps are reported to lack customer handling skills, and employers not being able to find staff with the right people skills cause one quarter of vacancies, according to "National Employers' Skills Survey 2005: Main Report." The research, produced by the Learning and Skills Council in partnership with the Department for Education and Skills and the Sector Skills Development Agency, is based on interviews with 74,500 employers of varying sizes across different sectors and locations in England.