August 5, 2005

NEW PRODUCTS NetSuite launched NetSuite 10.6, which includes a customization toolkit for NetFlex, Microsoft integration capabilities, and AJAX-powered dashboards. The toolkit adds customer centers to an application builder, allowing companies to completely build a user interface for different roles within an organization or build new applications by taking advantage of NetSuite's architecture. Those companies then have the ability to have NetSuite host what they built. Liz Herbert, analyst at Forrester Research, calls the toolkit the most important feature of this latest release. "With 10.6...customer- and partner-developed applications can access the same datastore as the core NetSuite application, which means tighter integration and a single user interface for accessing custom functionality and partner add-ons," she says. Equally important to the customers is Outlook integration, with the most popular being Excel, according to Mini Peiris, NetSuite's senior director of product management. "Basically Microsoft owns the desktop world. We know that and we're not trying to replace those desktop tools. Now you can capture attachments and link them with customers," she says. This capability is, in effect, one of the same features that Microsoft itself will provide in Microsoft CRM 3.0, scheduled to be available to current customers in Q4 2005, and to reach general availability in Q1 2006. "Microsoft seems to take a long time coming out [with its products]--that's an advantage for us. We're coming out with something today that they're releasing later this year." VoiceGenie Technologies released the VoiceGenie 7.0 Media Platform, which supports standards including VoiceXML 2.0; CCXML (Call Control XML); X+V (XHTML + Voice), a markup language for developing multimodal applications; SIP; MRCP (Media Resource Control Protocol); and X/mode, ScanSoft's VoIP-based multimodal applications platform. VoiceGenie 7.0 also integrates with most CTI systems. VoiceObjects announced the latest installment of VoiceObjects X5, its voice applications management system. The newest version supports Eclipse-based developments environments, ScanSoft OpenSpeech DialogModules, and the Inference Grammar Trainer, a product that produces grammars for voice applications, from Inference Communications. New features include automatic generation of project and storyboard documents in Excel and PDF formats. New plug-ins in the VoiceObjects Studio element of VoiceObjects X5 connect all Eclipse-based integrated development environments, including IBM WebSphere Studio and SAP NetWeaver Studio, to the VoiceObjects Server component. IN THE NEWS Knova Software announced the financial results for the second quarter ending June 30,2005. The results of operations include the consolidated results of ServiceWare and Kanisa as of the Feb. 8, 2005 merger. Revenue for the second quarter was $7.3 million as compared to revenue of $3.9 million for the second quarter of 2004. Net income for the quarter was approximately $64,000 or $0.01 per share compared to a net income of approximately $163,000 or $0.03 per share for the second quarter of 2004. Revenue for the six months ending June 30, 2005 was $11.0 million as compared to $5.7 million for the same period last year. "The second quarter represented the first full quarter of combined operations since the merger. [The] results validate our strategy of combining our organizations to create critical mass and competitive differentiation," Knova CEO Bruce Armstrong said in a written statement. "Our combined sales force is well-trained and customer-focused. We have made significant progress on the integration of our products and technology, while keeping a sharp focus on the satisfaction of our combined, growing customer base." NaviSite sold its Microsoft Business Solutions Software Resell and Professional Services practice to Navint Consulting for approximately $3.5 million, allowing NaviSite to focus on its key growth markets including application outsourcing, managed services and software-as-a-service. ON THE MOVE Voxify appointed Roger Nunn, former executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Blue Pumpkin Software, to vice president of sales. Coradiant appointed Brett Helm as CEO. He will lead the company's growth and diversification as it explores opportunities to apply its session-level networking technology to real-user monitoring and other emerging data and Web infrastructure products. Helm will continue in his role as chairman of Coradiant's board of directors. He replaces Mike Chuli, who continues as president and COO and will be responsible for expanding the company's sales and marketing operations. Related articles: Knova Knows Knowledge A guide to knowledge-enabled CRM applications puts the company's solutions on top. NaviSite Acquires SureBridge to Boost CRM Capabilities The outsourcing specialist adds breadth to hosted midmarket offerings.

Related Articles

Voxeo Acquires VoiceObjects

The voice platform vendor helps itself to a portfolio of self-service applications.