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Avaya Completes Acquisition of Tenovis
Avaya said it completed the acquisition of Tenovis GmbH & Co. KG, a European provider of enterprise communications systems and services, from affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. The acquisition increases the company's European customer base, market share and presence.

West Announces Definitive Agreement to Purchase ECI
West announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ECI Conference Call Services LLC (ECI) for $52 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close on December 1st 2004 and will be funded with cash and borrowings from West's existing bank credit facility.

Speech Recognition Fuels eLoyalty Self-Service Offering
eLoyalty announced the launch of a new offering that enables large enterprises to greatly enhance the quality and cost effectiveness of their voice self-service applications. eLoyalty's Integrated Voice Self-Service offering is a set of tools, methodologies, and templates to help clients ensure that their Voice Self-Service channels are tightly linked to their CRM systems and contact centers.

New Web Portal from The Hackett Group
The Hackett Group, an Answerthink company launched a new Web portal that streamlines and speeds up the benchmarking process for organizations that collect data from multiple locations. The new Web portal, which can be accessed from Hackett's public Web site, is an information resource on business performance.

Datamonitor Report
Over 95% of communication in call centers occur over the phone and a new report by independent analyst firm Datamonitor presents the argument that speech-enabled self-service technology will compete with offshore call center agents as it provides a more cost effective approach to service low-level transactions. The report, "Voice Business in Regional Perspective: The Americas," reveals that when compared to one handled in the domestic market, a call center in an offshore location, like India, saves a US company approximately 25% to 35% per transaction - significant savings. However, a call serviced through speech automation costs approximately 15% to 25% of the cost of a call handled by an agent in India.

			Required Reading
		Optimizing IVR/Speech Using Customer Behavior Intelligence    For many years, interactive voice response (IVR) technology has been used as a solution to resolve routine customer service tasks. By saving significant dollars for these tasks, IVR systems siphon the more complex customer service calls to live agents. In the late 1990s, many companies began to take advantage of a newer technology - the Internet - to provide an additional self-service option to their customers. Although the number of online users will continue to grow rapidly, the number of cell phone users will increase at an even faster rate. (ClickFox) more >>
Archive of past Required Reading articles

Active Request Engine Help Desk 3.3 Released
ARE HelpDesk Software announced it is shipping Active Request Engine Help Desk 3.3. The New Active Request Engine 3.3 is an information work management system that betters the collaboration amongst staff and teams.

Nortel Expands Interoperability of VoIP
Nortel is expanding the compatibility of its voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and multimedia solutions through completion of interoperability testing with new, third-party products and the addition of new industry leaders to its interoperability program. Nortel has awarded Nortel Compatible Product status to products from Adax, ARRIS, AudioCodes, Carrier Access, Entrisphere, Nuera and Westell. This designation is awarded to companies that successfully demonstrate interoperability with Nortel's Communication Server 2000 superclass softswitch and Multimedia Communication Server 5200.   (about Nortel)