HigherGround Announces Fusion Series 7
HigherGround introduced its Fusion Series 7 at the Society of Telecommunications Consultants Fall Conference. HigherGround's Fusion Series 7 provides call recording and quality monitoring solutions through its Praetorian Voice Recorder(tm), agent evaluation and screen capture through its Mentor Quality Assurance Suite(tm) and a Telecom Business Intelligence Suite(tm) that incorporates multi-dimensional analysis and report, usage accounting, enterprise network licensing, multi-site integration, centralized collection/reporting and voice/data replication.

Reynolds and Reynolds Creates Loyalty Solutions Group
Reynolds and Reynolds announced the creation of a new Loyalty Solutions Group focused on providing automotive retailers with a suite of solutions to increase customer retention. Reynolds' loyalty solutions work in various areas of the dealership, from the sales to service department, addressing customer interactions throughout the vehicle ownership lifecycle.

Walker Releases Telecom Study
The telecom industry's lack of customer focus and missteps in after-sales support come at a bad time when there are new, consumer-friendly federal regulations and a burgeoning menu of choices. Ironically, as telecommunications firms work harder to provide more options, they're enabling lower rates of customer loyalty and higher rates of customer churn according to a soon-to-be-released national study on customer loyalty in the telecom industry conducted by Walker Information.   (about Walker Information)

			Required Reading
		Getting Started with CRM    Many businesses have started on the CRM journey but there are parts of the organization that still remain untouched. How do these parts of the organization start CRM? The lack of clarity to what CRM actually means to different people leads to even more problems for our new beginner. Different parts of an organization realize they should be customer centric, but all the resources and knowledge have been drawn into areas over which they have had little influence. more >>
Archive of past Required Reading articles

Shoppers Looking Online for Support
With the biggest shopping season of the year right around the corner, retailers can expect more customers turning to online channels for service inquiries, according to a new consumer poll released today. The survey indicates that while many American consumers will continue to contact retailers through traditional phone (74 percent) and store (47 percent) channels, online channels—e-mail (26 percent), web sites (15 percent) and instant messaging (8 percent)—are rapidly becoming many consumers’ preferred method of handling service issues. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive® and commissioned by RightNow Technologies.   (about RightNow)

Merced Systems Implements Siebel OnDemand
Siebel Systems announced that Merced Systems, a developer of performance management software for contact centers and related back-office applications, is using Siebel CRM OnDemand to support short-term sales and marketing strategies as well as its long-term growth objectives. Merced is participating in an early adopters program of Siebel Systems' new hosted offering.   (about Siebel)

Courion and Control-f1 Partner
Courion and Control-F1 announced a partnership to offer Courion’s Identity Management Suite™ customers more options for a smooth migration path to online support and self-service. Courion’s Identity Management Suite, coupled with CF1-LIVE!, will allow end users to -obtain assistance from support agents online. This ability is provided through CF1-LIVE!’s suite of capabilities including collaboration, diagnostic, support automation, and advanced repair. CF1-LIVE! allows help desk personnel to work in the background (with the end user’s permission).   (about Courion)

Union Bank of CA Expands ClarifyCRM Installation
Amdocs announced that Union Bank of California has expanded its Amdocs ClarifyCRM deployment across its commercial call centers and the consumer call centers within its Customer Services Division. Prior to implementing Amdocs ClarifyCRM, Union Bank operated these call centers independently of one another resulting in a system environment that was difficult to maintain and unable to scale to meet the demands of its growing business.   (about Amdocs)

TeleTech Awarded Contract With Circuit City
TeleTech Holdings announced a contract with Circuit City Stores to provide customer service, sales, warranty and private label credit card support. TeleTech will also provide Circuit City with a consolidated report that will identify and analyze consumer trends to improve communication and profitability.

ATG Powers Launch of Freeman Online
ATG announced that The Freeman Companies, a full service contractor in North America for expositions, conventions, corporate and special events and exhibit programs, has completed the launch of the Freeman Online e-commerce site powered by ATG Commerce. Built by ATG and Dallas-based partner Credera, Freeman Online allows the more than 250,000 exhibiting companies that purchase Freeman's trade show equipment and services to conduct their business online.

NICE Lauded in Asia Pacific
NICE Systems announced that it has been awarded the "Frost and Sullivan 2002 Market Engineering Leadership Award in the Total Asia Pacific Call Monitoring Systems Market". Frost and Sullivan announced the award win in its latest "Asia Pacific Interaction Customer Relationship Management (ICRM) Market" report.   (about NICE)