July 29, 2005

IN THE NEWS The House of Representatives approved the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) on Thursday by a 217-215 vote following a 54-45 Senate vote last month. The deal eventually eliminates trade barriers between the United States and Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. NEW PRODUCTS FrontRange Solutions has announced the availability of IP Contact Center 5.0 (IPCC). The new version of the company's VoIP-based software suite features quality management and integration with other FrontRange products, including HEAT, GoldMine Corporate Edition, and IT Serve Management modules. The release includes upgrades to the dashboard, as well as improvements in chat, call recording, and call routing. iCode launched Everest Advanced 2.1, the latest version of its flagship offering. It includes improvements in performance, quality, and functionality in accounting, inventory management, and e-commerce. Highlights include automatic stock assignments, allowing users to determine the sequence in which bins will be searched when an order is being automatically filled; real-time credit card processing; third-party integration; and improved pricing flexibility. Marketing Management Analytics announced the general availability of Avista by MMA Decision Support Services. This release includes a standard version for all industries and separate financial services and pharmaceutical editions. The new Web-based service is designed to increase a company's return on marketing investment by at least 15 percent for marketers new to marketing mix modeling, according to MMA. Business Objects announced the availability of the beta version of BusinessObjects XI Release 2 and said the global beta program started earlier this month. This release continues to build innovations that deliver BI to a wider set of users. ON THE MOVE SAP America appointed James Hughes senior vice president of financial services for the North American region to lead the company's U.S. and Canadian operations for the banking, insurance, and leasing industries. Hughes will be responsible for providing strategic direction to SAP's field sales organization, solution engineers, professional services, and operations for these financial services industries. Prior to joining SAP, Hughes was the vice president and general manager for financial services at Siebel Systems. Tell-Eureka, a startup company that provides automated agents for call centers, named Roberto Pieraccini CTO. The speech technology expert will direct future deployment of Tell-Eureka's LevelOne Virtual CSR product suite and new offerings. Pieraccini comes to the company from the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. CUSTOMER WINS TransUnion announced that National City has selected its cross-sell marketing solution to correlate a consumer's credit report with its own underwriting criteria to personalize offers in real time. Related articles: Experian-Scorex Prepares Credit's Big 3 for Consulting Status SAP Snatches Up Competitive Talent FrontRange Solutions Previews Its IT Service Management Suite