April 6, 2005

CUSTOMER WINS An IP telephony solution from Avaya is doing the heavy lifting in communications for Gold's Gym, which is now using Avaya's IP Office Solutions to eliminate outside conferencing costs and to consolidate its fragmented customer care team. Nice Systems has been selected by iXP and the Fire Department of New York to supply its advanced solution for the management of emergency communications. The order follows a successful implementation of the NICE solution with iXP for the New York Police Department. The contract is valued at approximately $2 million; the FDNY and iXP will use NICE to capture, manage, and replay on-scene voice transmissions to help them improve future emergency responses. Alliance Data Systems, a provider of transaction, credit, and marketing services, has signed a seven-year agreement with Hanover, a leading catalog and Web retailer of home furnishings, to provide an integrated private-label credit card and cobranded bankcard solution. It will address Hanover Direct's catalog and corollary Web brands, including The Company Store, Domestications, International Male, and Undergear, and Silhouettes. Services provided will include account acquisition and activation, card authorization, card issuance, customer service functions, receivables funding, and statement generation. EStara has been selected by A9.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, to provide VoIP technology for the Click-to-Call feature highlighted in its recent launch of A9.com Yellow Pages. The tool allows potential customers to connect with businesses with one click of a mouse. IN THE NEWS WebSideStory has entered into a technology partnership with Falk eSolutions, a provider of online ad-serving and email delivery solutions, to deliver an integrated digital marketing solution for agencies, advertisers, and publishers. The two companies will integrate Falk's AdSolution and MailSolution with WebSideStory's HBX On-Demand Web Analytics to enable clients to measure their online campaigns and increase overall marketing ROI. ON THE MOVE Pivotal has announced a series of management changes. Divesh Sisodraker, president and CEO, has left the company. Keith Oliver, CFO for Chinadotcom, Pivotal's parent company, has been appointed interim CEO. Pivotal anticipates a six- to nine-month search for a new CEO. Bigfoot Interactive, a provider of strategic, email communications solutions and marketing automation technology, has appointed Jonathan Guttenberg to vice president of strategic development. Guttenberg will be responsible for investigating, securing, and building strategic partnerships between Bigfoot Interactive and third-party organizations. Previously, Guttenberg was president of Guttenberg.NET, a consulting services firm. NEW PRODUCTS CustomerSat, a provider of real-time, multichannel feedback solutions, has made available CustomerSat Enterprise 8.0. According to the company, 8.0 adds real-time analytics and charts that are designed to improve a user's ability to understand and act on customer feedback and manage customer accounts. BlueRoads has announced the enhancement of its channel management suite with BlueRoads Partner Relationship Management Module. Part of the BlueRoads 5 suite, the PRM Module enables vendors to model a view of the partner network to generate more accurate partner recruitment and retention plans and maximize market opportunities around new products, industry verticals, and underserved geographies. Related articles: CRM Contributes to Homeland Security Leading Providers Team to Create a Web Analytics Association