Wires: News and Technology for October 1, 2004

In the news... Internet advertising revenues in the United States surged 42.7 percent in the second quarter, compared with the same period a year ago, to $2.37 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Revenues for the first six months of 2004 jumped to $4.6 billion, a 39.7 percent increase over the first half of 2003. The increase in revenues for the April through June period was six percent higher from the prior quarter. Fair Isaac and Braun Consulting, a marketing strategy and technology consulting firm, have announced an agreement on a plan for Fair Isaac to acquire Braun. The acquisition terms have been approved by both companies' boards of directors, and the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. According to Tom Grudnowski, CEO of Fair Isaac, the addition of Braun will further enhance Fair Isaac's marketing team. The move will also greatly expand its client base. Cognos is strengthening ties to the retail industry by partnering with Teradata, to enhance customer relationships through Teradata's Retail Decisions analytical solution. Retail Decisions gives retailers the ability to analyze any subset of their business. This, in conjunction with Cognos ReportNet, will allow retailers to understand which items, locations, and vendors contribute the most or least to sales and profitability. New products... Austin Logistics, a leading provider of analytic software and solutions that predict customer value and behavior, today announced its new application, the EarlyDetection System. It combines intelligent-prediction capabilities, sorting of nontraditional data, and ease of deployment to allow companies to assess new customers' credit risk and to take risk management actions on the first day of new account activity, before high-risk accounts build their balances to dangerous levels. Traditional credit risk assessments, rely on customer behavior and can take six months to deliver, which leaves creditors vulnerable. DiCarta, a provider of enterprise contract management solutions, has announced DiCarta Contracts Version 6, a program that provides companies with Universal Contract ManagementTM. Companies can combine all contracts, both internal and external, contract presentations, negotiation methods, and professionals involved in the contract process into one presentable format. SmartCompany announced SmartCompany Office, a Windows desktop application that communicates with SmartCompany's existing hosted Web base via Web services, while meshing with local desktop applications like Microsoft Office and Outlook. SmartCompany Office offers users the ability to download information, orders, and opportunities, and to perform multiple data analysis. Envision, and Call Centre Expo 2004 have announced Envision Performance Suite for use with the firms' European competitors. Envision has also introduced its suite of business applications, which focuses on four areas: contact center performance, transaction management, customer management and enterprise quality. This will allow companies to better gather business information from customer interactions through their contact centers. Gelco Expense Management, the leading provider of expense management automation solutions, has announced an upgrade to its ExpenseLink expense management service that allows companies to determine the process by which expenses are routed and payments made. It gives companies the ability to select which route to send expense reports for approval and at which stage the filer is reimbursed. On Monday, October 4, Pivotal Veracity will announce the release of E-Brand Monitor. The brand-monitoring tool helps companies monitor their greatest assets, protect their reputation, and safeguard email communications. This new system tracks a company's domains, IP addresses, URLs, and brand names to ensure they are not being used by unauthorized parties or in ways that will hamper the ability to effectively communicate. Related articles The Week in Review, March 12, 2004