NICE announced it has signed an agreement to acquire the assets of Hannamax Hi-Tech Pty Ltd, the company's largest distributor in Australia and New Zealand, for $1.8 million in a one-time cash installment plus a future earn-out based on performance.

Concerto Software and Aspect Communications announced that upon closing of their intended merger as announced on 5 July 2005, the combined company will be named Aspect Software.

ServicePower announced that Rossum Oy will distribute, implement, and provide local support for the SERVICEPower intelligent scheduler in Finland and throughout the Nordic region.

eAgency announced the availability of the company's next-generation Nice Office Wireless solution, for use on Windows Mobile, Pocket PC and Smartphone devices. Compatibility with the above devices significantly expands the reach of Nice Office to millions of wireless users and provides small-to-medium-sized businesses with an enterprise-level wireless solution.

Nuasis announces that it has integrated its software-only, IP-based contact center system with Aspect eWorkforce Management software, another in a series of integrations between the Nuasis NuContact Center and other call center applications/infrastructure.

Midea Refrigeration Equipment continues to deliver first rate customer services to consumers all over the country, with the help of a contact center based on solutions from Avaya.

CrossTec NetOp Desktop Firewall provides proactive host-based intrusion prevention against viruses, trojans, and worms, like the 'Zotob-C' worm that shut down computers worldwide Tuesday. This latest variant of the Zotob worm exploits vulnerability in Windows 2000 and XP machines, resulting from inadequate patch management.

DataDelta has launched the CDI industry's first "Single Customer View Accuracy Survey" in partnership with market research firm The CDI Institute. Initial survey results will be presented at the 17th Information Quality Conference and The International Association for Information and Data Quality (IAIDQ) September 19-23 in Houston, Texas.

EDEKA has completed shopping for new IT Service Management software by selecting Axios Systems' solution, assyst. The product is being used initially for Incident Management, followed by Problem, Change, and Configuration and Asset Management.

Genesys announced an expansion of its contract with SalesForce to provide contact center software and services to support an additional 1000 agents across its e*smart call centers in Australia. The centers provide outsourced sales, after sales and customer service solutions to a range of clients within the telecommunications and financial services sectors.

  "OUR TAKE" (more)

8/22/05 - An Era of Organic Growth Staying on the subject of hunters and farmers, another reader echoed Friday's point about the need for hunters and farmers depending on where in the business cycle an organization might be. But this reader went on to talk about the make-up of the marketplace. He says:   "We're now settling into an era of organic growth, a time when it will be more important to make an additional sale to an existing customer than it will be to capture new customers for the simple reason that there are few truly new customers to capture."   The reader goes on to vote for farmers as more important than hunters. It reminds me of a book called "Double Digit Growth" written by M. Traecy in which keeping and growing your installed base is viewed as the easiest way to grow.   Gary Lemke, Publisher (Share your thoughts)