December 9, 2004

CUSTOMER WINS National Shopping Service, a provider of customizable mystery-shopping services, announced that Musicland Group, a national retailer of music, movies, and games, is using its services to drive sales processes and improve customer service in stores. Musicland is using National Shopping Service to obtain insights on associate/customer interactions that increase customer loyalty and retention. National Shopping Service's mystery shoppers are calling more that 900 Musicland sites each month, posing as ordinary customers to evaluate customer service and interaction with store employees. Parature, an on-demand support software provider, announced that Data Sciences, a provider of software solutions and consulting services for the newspaper industry, has chosen Parature's Customer Support Solution to support its customer base. Data Sciences chose Customer Support Solution after an initial evaluation period, and found the hosted solution to be safe and convenient. Dotomi, a provider of online customer retention for permission-based messaging between marketers and consumers, and BlueLithium, an Internet customized direct-response network, announced that BlueLithium will incorporate Dotomi Direct Messaging in its publisher sites to deliver personalized ad banner messages. Direct Messaging will allow BlueLithium to deliver personal and data-driven messages within the ad banner space on publisher sites within the Dotomi network. With BlueLithium's response network, Dotomi will send personal and targeted messages to consumers using BlueLithium's ad serving technology. NEW PRODUCTS NetSuite announced NetSuite Advanced Forecasting, a multiple methods program of forecasting sales outcomes. The new feature was designed to allow businesses to forecast using three key metrics: a calculated forecast that uses a rep's actual opportunities and quotes as the basis for the calculation, a "mood ring" forecast that allows reps to submit what they "believe" they will sell, and actual sales within the forecast to give a picture of what portion of the forecast is yet to close. WebSurveyor announced the release of WebSurveyor 5.0, the latest version of WebSurveyor's online survey tool. WebSurveyor is a Web-based application that was designed to make conducting surveys online easier. The latest version offers greater control through a comprehensive survey dashboard and new interface. The dashboard will provide users with control over the entire process of conducting a survey. EXECUTIVE CHANGES The Hackett Group, a business advisory firm and an Answerthink company, announced today that Pierre Mitchell has joined the company as director. Mitchell comes to Hackett from AMR Research, and has more than 17 years of consulting and implementation experience in the areas of procurement and supply chain. Mitchell will be responsible for advancing Hackett's Executive Advisory Programs in procurement and supply chain. Related article: Daily Dispatch: December 3, 2004