Wires: News and Technology for November 12, 2004

News Nuasis, an IP contact center company, announced results of a national study it conduct with Issues & Answers Network. The study examined consumer preferences in dealing with customer service call centers offshore. The survey found that 86 percent of U.S. consumers prefer that they speak with a customer service representative based in the United States. Additionally, the survey found that 72 percent of U.S. consumers believe that a U.S.-based customer service agent will provide better service than an overseas agent. Finally, 69 percent of U.S. consumers are concerned that overseas agents have access to their personal information. Acxiom announced that it has acquired ChinaLoop, a business intelligence, CRM, and data management company based in Shanghai, China. This is the latest in a series of acquisitions by Acxiom within a year of purchasing Claritas Europe and Consodata S.A. ChinaLoop's principal owners, Gabrielle Chou and Frederic Jouve, will remain on the leadership team in the Shanghai office. ChinaLoop clients include Diago, Financial Tiimes, Nokia, Total, Citroen, and Johnson and Johnson. WebSideStory, a provider of on-demand Web analytics, announced its results for the third quarter of 2004. Revenue for the third quarter was $5.7 million, compared to $4.1 million for the same period of 2003. Net income was $614,000, compared to a loss of $561,000 for the third quarter of 2003. Pro-forma net income before stock-based compensation was $80,000 for the third quarter of 2004, compared to a net loss of $39,000 for the same period of 2003. Pragmatech Software, a provider of sales productivity and proposal automation applications, announced results for the third quarter of 2004. Pragmatech's revenues increased 16 percent over the previous year's third quarter results. Pragmatech signed dozens of new customers, including FileNet, Metavante, Schroder Investment Management, UniFirst, and VWR International. New Products BlueRoads, a channel management software company, has announced the availability of BlueRoads Deal Registration Manager. Designed to help increase resellers' profit margins, Deal Registration Manager helps vendors and channel partners automate the process of deal registration. The program works by centralizing deal submissions and allows both partner and vendor to access real-time status and feedback while working on closing deals. The program streamlines the participation of the two parties involved through a centralized Web-based interface system. EagleACD, a provider of hosted contact center services, has released a new Web Chat feature that enables live agent support via the Internet. The product was originally offered as part of Eagle's VoiceACD and Predictive Dialer, but is now offered as a stand-alone product for Internet-based technical support. The service is part of Eagle's hosted platform. A single agent can support multiple callers or talk sessions at the same time. There is no minimum on the number of seats since subscriptions are based on usage rates. BeNOW, a strategic database marketing service provider, announced its line of MVP Analytics services. Designed to help marketers acquire, retain, and develop customers, MVP is an analytics methodology that focuses on customer activities that show their value and potential for growth. Products within the suite include: MVP Customer Profiling, MVP Customer Value Chart Segmentation, MVP Customer Scoreboard, MVP Statistical Modeling, and MVP Reporting Suite. The new suite creates data models, business processes, and management reports. It targets catalog, retail, and e-merchants. Witness Systems, a global provider of performance optimization software and services, has released enhanced enterprise reporting and drill-down analysis functionality within its eQuality software. The software has a new user interface, which features native portal technology that offers pre-defined scoreboards and standard reports. Key performance indicators on the scoreboards provide consolidated data results while centralized reporting could allow contact center management to gain a better overview of performance -- either site by site, or via a combined view of all sites together. Pegasystems, a provider of business process management software, announced the availability of it SmartBPM Suite, which includes PegaRules Process Commander Version 4.2. SmartBPM is designed to let users model, simulate, execute, and analyze the results of own business practices and processes. The program has new case management options, as well as content management and enterprise integration. These features are designed to assist in users in developing and deploying processes that best address their business needs.