February 7, 2005

CUSTOMER WINS Concerto Software announced that is has completed the installation of a multichannel contact center solution for Scottish Gas. The installation now represents a central component of Scottish Gas's new contact center facility in Glasgow. The facility manages outbound telemarketing of energy services and homecare products throughout Britain. The implementation of Concerto Software's EnsemblePro will integrate Scottish Gas's existing data infrastructure to operate voice and data into a single network. Marin County has selected Avaya to provide government employees the ability to stay in contact with the community. Employees and county officials will be able to access and manage business tools by calling a single number and speaking simple voice commands into the phone. With Avaya speech access, they will be able to listen to and compose emails, check and schedule appointments, create task lists, and access contacts quickly. IN THE NEWS Telekom Malaysia will provide its new Internet Protocol-based managed services for customers in Malaysia using Cisco Systems' integrated data, voice, and video IP network technologies. As part of the agreement the two companies will align their technology, marketing, and sales force, and collaborate to advance product and technology planning. BT and Accenture have signed a 10-year, $575 million BP outsourcing and transformation contract for human resource administration services. The contract significantly expands the geographic reach of services that Accenture has been providing to BT under a previous five-year contract. The agreement will provide BT with higher levels of workforce management and performance services in 38 countries around the globe. The services will continue to be delivered through Accenture HR Services via its global delivery network. Hewlett-Packard announced that www.hpshopping.com, its online consumer shopping subsidiary for U.S. consumers, will open a sales center in Boise, Idaho. The site, which represents a major research and development hub for HP, is expected to be operational this summer. ScanSoft, a global provider of speech and imaging solutions, today closed the acquisition of Phonetic Systems. Phonetic Systems provides ScanSoft with an array of technology, customer, partner, and employee resources. Combined, the organizations provide speech solutions that automate directory assistance for telecommunications carriers and power speech applications. Quaero announced its strategic partnership with NetReflector involving the integration of NetReflector's customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement capabilities into Quaero SpringboardSM hosted relationship-marketing service. The two companies will optimize marketing through customer satisfaction measurement capabilities for their mutual clients. Quaero SpringBoard is a Web-accessed, hosted relationship marketing service that provides business managers and marketing teams with a solution for managing customer and prospect information. The partnership targets clients in the hospitality and retail industries, however, both companies look to expand their current offerings into a broader market. Related articles: Concerto Acquires Legendary Contact Center System Cisco and IBM Lead the IP Telephony Market