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Avaya And IBM Collaborate to Deliver New Speech-Enabled Self-Service Solutions
Avaya and IBM announced they will jointly deliver speech-enabled self-service solutions that allow easier, more cost-effective deployment of customized speech applications throughout a business. The solutions -- which are the result of an expanded alliance between the two companies -- bring together IBM's leading position in business middleware and speech technology with Avaya's leadership in global contact centers.

eDigitalResearch Applies its Layered Technology in ePollingStation
eDigitalResearch is applying its new layered technology in ePollingStation, its instant online polling system. eDigitalResearch's layered technology sidesteps pop-up blocking software and has created additional solutions to boost ePollingStation's impact: The capability for exact positioning of its unobtrusive polling panels enables polls that are specific to webpage content. Particular answers to polls can also be linked to a relevant follow-on webpage, which could potentially contain another polling panel.

New Research Shows Workforce Productivity Gains Exaggerated
Large corporations are not effectively using their workforces, and they are losing revenue and market share potential as a result. That's according to the results of a new study announced by Convergys and conducted by Saratoga/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, in conjunction with the University of Michigan. Even though the U.S. Labor Department reports that the productivity of American workers rose at an annual rate of 2.9 percent last spring, 84 percent of executives surveyed admitted they were unable to take advantage of their workforce's full potential, and half of all HR executives acknowledged they did not have enough information about their workforce to remain competitive in their industry.

Customer1 Selected By CSD
Genticity's Customer1 has been selected by CSD to support its expanding client base for its contact center operations. Customer1 is being put in place in order to keep up with the diverse needs of an ever-growing customer base and to surpass the demands of an evolving marketplace.

Folksam Selects DoubleClick
DoubleClick announced that Folksam has selected DoubleClick's combined SmartPath and Ensemble platform as its marketing resource management and campaign management solution. Folksam is a customer of DoubleClick's Enterprise Marketing Solution offering, combining Ensemble and SmartPath to improve both the effectiveness and efficiency of their marketing. DoubleClick's Enterprise Marketing Solution will provide Folksam with a single platform to plan and manage its marketing activity across all channels, as well as a segmentation engine to optimize its direct marketing and customer relationship initiatives.

			Required Reading
		CRM Goes Vertical    Welcome to the "verticalization" of customer relationship management. Some CRM vendors offer as many as 20 different versions of their products, each geared to a different industry. Plus there are niche software vendors in various sectors, as well as systems integrators that are willing to do as much industry-specific tailoring as you can afford. Is this a good thing? Mostly. It's certainly true that CRM for manufacturing is dramatically different from CRM for financial services or health care. The big advantage of an industry-specific CRM package is that it saves companies from that first layer of customization and provides functionality that the business can recognize and use immediately. The ROI should come a bit sooner, too. (ComputerWorld) more >>
Archive of past Required Reading articles

Terrasoft CRM v2.8
Terrasoft announced its Terrasoft CRM 2.8 release. Its MS SQL and Cache supporting CRM tool delivers a fast return on investment and up to 50% lower cost of ownership than hosted alternatives. Sales, marketing professionals and workgroups increasingly require powerful customer relationship management tools that are ease-to-use and have low cost. In response to this, Terrasoft CRM revolutionizes this formula, delivering products that not only contain CRM functions, but also includes tools for products, documents and knowledge management.

New Content Management Professionals Organization Announced
A group of thirty content management experts from around the world has announced the formation of CM Professionals, an international community of content management professionals whose purpose is to further best practices based on shared experiences of experts and peers. CM Pros offers a members-only mailing list, a collaborative website, discussion forums, issue-oriented group blogs, knowledge wikis, syndicated web services, a job board, a professional directory and a calendar of face-to-face meeting opportunities.

Alcatel Extends DSL Solutions Portfolio With Motive
Alcatel and Motive announced at Broadband World Forum Europe that they have entered into an alliance that will help broadband service providers more cost effectively acquire and retain subscribers, as well as grow revenue. Through the relationship, Alcatel, whose broadband solutions are present in more than 120 operators in the world, will sell, customize, deploy and support Motive's core broadband self-management products on a global basis as part of Alcatel's DSL Subscriber Care solution.

CRM Innovations 2004 Event Announced
Harvest Solutions is hosting CRM Innovations 2004. This event will showcase the latest CRM products and tools available in the marketplace. CRM Innovations 2004 will be held on Thursday, October 21, 2004 from 1:30-6:30 pm at the Four Points Sheraton in Waltham.

Epicor on Software 500 Ranking
Epicor Software announced the editors of Software Magazine have named the Company to the 22nd Annual Software 500. Featured in the September 2004 issue of the publication and online at www.softwaremag.com, this year's Software 500 list places Epicor in the top third of software companies based on 2003 revenues of $155.4.   (about Epicor)