May 31, 2005

NEW PRODUCTS Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories has chosen Microsoft as a platform to support Genesys' first offering intended for BPO solutions. Outsourcing firms will use the new Genesys Global Communications Manager and the Microsoft platform to create open, standards-based contact center infrastructure. This new solution will allow enterprises and outsourcers to improve customer relationships, lower telecommunication costs, and establish a base to support best-of-breed contact center interactions, according to Genesys. The company also announced a new Genesys Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) contact center solution. Apptera has designed a new voice-enabled campaign management solution for the retail market that allows businesses to create marketing promotions via their inbound phone channel. Apptera Campaign Manager for Retail will provide marketing and business executives with messages, promotions, and events over the phone. S1 has introduced a new speech application for the financial services industry. This voice-banking solution gives retail banks and credit unions speech-based ways to automate user authentication, merchant funds verification and branch/ATM locator help without live agent assistance. Pivotal has made available Pivotal Medical Devices, a sales, marketing, and service product suite designed to help medical device manufacturers take their products to market. Siebel Systems has released Siebel Insurance, an industry-specific CRM solution. The suite of applications enables insurance companies to manage and coordinate all customer touchpoints across any channel of interaction. The suite also allows insurance companies to manage sales and service channels for claims service organizations, brokers, and call center agents. IN THE NEWS Corel announced an agreement with Constant Contact to provide Corel customers with access to Constant Contact's permission-driven email marketing services. Corel's customer base of small businesses will be able to create email newsletters and announcements. ON THE MOVE FirstLogic has appointed former SAS executive Walter Wijn to the newly created position of global channel partner director for the EMEA region. Previously Wijn managed international development partnerships for SAS within the EMEA region. CUSTOMER WINS Park Hill School District has selected BusinessObjects to enable administrators and teachers to get a multidimensional overview of scholastic performance. Related articles: Siebel Launches Its Latest Application Microsoft Streamlines the Contact Center