Retailer Contact Centers: A Strategic Point of Interaction (AMR Research)

“What are the options to decrease operational costs without decreasing quality ofservice?” Retailers have been asking us this question, but it overlooks thepotential to capitalize on a pivotal customer interaction. The better question is,“What are the strategies for taking advantage of incoming inquiries—possiblyeven complaints—to increase revenue, conversion, and brand value?”

There are a host of companies offering customer interaction center products that address various available pain points in retail. This category of contact center and customer relationship management (CRM) vendors, along with their partner ecosystems, offer everything from hardware and telephony to software and services. Companies looking to build strategic contact center functionality with an experienced provider should consider a specialist. Vendors in this category with retail customers include Amdocs, Aspect Software (formerly Concerto), Avaya, Astute Software, Genesis Labs, and Siebel (now part of Oracle). Vendors specializing in web self-service applications include InQuira, Kana, Knova, and Parature.

Update: Salesforce.com acquires wireless technology (InfoWorld)

Salesforce.com uses Sendia's technology to launch mobile access service

Salesforce.com Inc. announced Tuesday that it has acquired wireless technology developer Sendia Corp. for US$15 million in cash. The move is the on-demand CRM (customer relationship management) software vendor's first acquisition, according to Salesforce.com executives.

Aspect Software Moves to Unified Contact Center Management (Gartner)

Aspect Software has acquired SophistiCom Technologies to add quality management to its contact center software. It expects integration with its Performance Optimization offering by the end of 2006.