Amdocs Unveils ClarifyCRM 11

It's been a rocky road for Amdocs' ClarifyCRM, to be sure. But the company has reason to celebrate after unveiling Release 11 of the embattled call-center software, earlier this week. A big part of Release 11 is to show the CRM community some stability. Specifically, Release 11's most significant upgrade is its thin-client, browser-based architecture for operational CRM applications pointed at sales, support and customer interaction management. It's all about anytime, anywhere access. "The main trend in the market is to make CRM much more down to earth," says Dror Pockard, president of the ClarifyCRM division at Amdocs. Other enhancements include an XML-based integration gateway, a billing manager module and a beefed-up process manager application. Billing manager is basically a pre-built integration product linking Amdocs ClarifyCRM to Amdocs Billing software suite. CRM integration, though, requires more than products -- it demands services. And to this end, Pockard insists his team is involved in every implementation project. "Clients are looking for someone to take responsibility," he says. Responsibility has been a moving target for ClarifyCRM. Clarify was virtually synonymous with call-center CRM solutions when suddenly the company was bought by Nortel Networks for a whopping $2 billion stock swap. Nortel then proceeded to mismanage the company, ultimately selling it off for mere dimes on the dollar to Amdocs. Industry watchers began searching for signs of stability. And apparently, they found it. "Amdocs continues to develop and enhance the technology and architecture of Amdocs ClarifyCRM software. Their commitment to pragmatically migrating customers to the new Internet architecture is a good example of this," said David Hawley, senior analyst at Yankee Group. "The new capabilities in Amdocs ClarifyCRM Release 11 show Amdocs' dedication to offering their customers high quality, industry-specific CRM solutions."