May 30, 2005

NEW PRODUCTS SPSS has unveiled a new solution that the company says will reduce insurance fraud, significantly improve the claims process, and cut costs. PredictiveClaims is based on real-time predictive analytic technology and integrates with existing claims management systems to instantly determine which claims qualify for immediate approval and which are potentially fraudulent. The application automatically analyzes all claims entering the system from any channel against risk profiles and external fraud databases. It also can generate questions that prompt a claim handler to ask customers for critical new information that can confirm the likelihood of fraud. Talisma has announced the availability of Talisma Velocity Marketing v 6.0, a multichannel campaign creation, management, and tracking application that allows marketing professionals to automate, personalize, and manage direct marketing campaigns, surveys, and newsletters. New features of this latest version include a reporting dashboard, dynamic survey capabilities, and enhanced reporting functionality. The dashboard provides an efficient, real-time view of all metrics involved in campaign monitoring and controlling. Also new is the Campaign Result Summary Report, a comprehensive, campaign-based report summarizing relevant metrics for campaign administration. Spoke Software has announced the new release of its hosted Web application, Spoke 2.0 for sales professionals featuring enhanced search capabilities, sophisticated Web crawling and content aggregation, corporate and financial information on more than 500,000 North American businesses, and a new streamlined user interface. It also introduces Spoke Pro, which provides the ability to gain access to the company's full set of advanced features including advanced company search, account tracking, and integration to Salesforce.com and Siebel CRM OnDemand. IN THE NEWS Witness Systems has acquired Optimis Group Limited, the exclusive reseller of Blue Pumpkin's enterprise workforce management solutions in the United Kingdom, for $5 million. Witness will add roughly 15 employees from Optimis, which the company says will significantly extend the breadth and depth of its U.K.-based services offering in workforce optimization. As a result of the acquisition, Witness is increasing its estimate of adjusted revenue to a range of $180 million to $182 million and increasing its estimate of non-GAAP adjusted earnings to a range of 60 cents to 63 cents per share. Cisco Systems has announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held FineGround Networks, a provider of network appliances that accelerate, secure, and monitor application delivery while minimizing bandwidth usage and maximizing infrastructure capacity in the data center. The move will allow Cisco to provide customers with advanced application-acceleration across networks for secure and optimized delivery of Web-based applications. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $70 million in cash and options for FineGround. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2005, ending July 30, 2005. CUSTOMER WINS RightNow Technologies has signed its 100th RightNow Marketing customer, CinemaNow. The video-on-demand provider will use RightNow Marketing to deliver more than 5 million carefully crafted, highly personalized messages to customers and prospects every month and will be able to closely track consumers' responses to those messages and automate the execution of multistage campaigns, according to the company. NetSuitehas announced that Workopolis has selected NetSuite CRM for SFA, customer service, and support. Workopolis is a Canadian provider of Internet recruitment and job search solutions. The company will use NetSuite's customization capabilities via NetFlex to have multiple CSRs attached to a single customer record. Related articles: SPSS Highlights Customers' Future Needs Talisma Acquires KnowledgeBase.net