Think About Defense

CRM Buyer
CRM Buyer -- "The Essential Guide for CRM System Purchasers"

1. Think About Defense - 2007-06-20 07:00:00-04
   On my way out of Fenway Park the other night, I found a credit card on the sidewalk -- an American Express platinum card to be specific. When I got to a well-lit place, I called one of the numbers on the back of the card and began my odyssey. It turns out, however, that there really is no easy set of procedures for reporting a found card. Lost? Yes. Found? Not so much, as Jon Stewart might say.
   
2. Hotels Pamper Loyal Customers With Luxury Floors - 2007-06-20 11:08:56-04
   In a world where hotel guests increasingly crave pampering, upscale hotel chains are turning club floors into over-the-top retreats where members can choose their pillow, groove to a free iPod and pour a cappuccino day or night. Now, hotel chains are trying to raise the bar with exclusive luxury floors to justify higher rates and boost revenue.
   
3. Oracle's Siebel CRM Enhances Mobility - 2007-06-20 12:31:53-04
   Oracle is enhancing the mobile options it offers to Siebel CRM On Demand customers through partnerships with best-of-breed application vendors and device manufacturers. Earlier this year, for example, it announced a partnership with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. More recently, it struck a deal to integrate Siebel CRM On Demand with Vettro's portfolio of mobile on-demand sales applications.
   
4. Wal-Mart Caters to Low-Income Customers With Prepaid Debit Cards - 2007-06-20 13:57:02-04
   Wal-Mart, furthering a lucrative push to offer financial services to its customers, will sell prepaid Visa debit cards that would allow millions of low-income shoppers who don't have bank accounts to keep up with an increasingly cashless society. Wal-Mart is following other retailers who hope to tap into a large pool of consumers who deal mostly in cash, but want the convenience of plastic.
   
5. Computer Gremlin Strands Thousands of United Airlines Passengers - 2007-06-20 16:49:03-04
   A computer failure at United Airlines prevented the takeoff of all the air carrier's flights worldwide for about two hours on Wednesday. Flights scheduled to depart between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. EDT were grounded, causing backups and delays around the globe. Twenty-four domestic flights were canceled, and approximately 268 domestic and international flights were delayed.
   
6. Customer Self-Service: How May You Help Me? - 2007-06-21 07:00:00-04
   In an effort to gain a competitive edge in the market, companies are implementing customer self-service solutions to address two distinctly separate business challenges -- improving the customer experience and cost reduction. New research by the Aberdeen Group found that a well-crafted customer self-service strategy can have a demonstrable impact on financial and growth objectives.
   
7. Cooling Down Angry Customers - 2007-06-21 10:53:51-04
   If you sell almost any type of product, then you already know that despite your best efforts at managing service and inventory, clients will be displeased from time to time. However, don't simply accept ongoing dissatisfaction as an inevitable part of doing business. Instead, work at improving how you deal with customers whose experience has been less than satisfactory.
   
8. The Lonely E-Shopping Cart - 2007-06-22 07:00:00-04
   Have you ever walked into a big box store and seen scores of half-full shopping carts scattered throughout the aisles? It would seem unlikely, but for e-commerce retailers, abandoned carts are more common than you think. Shopping cart abandonment has existed since the dawn of the e-cart, but how can retailers determine why customers leave? What can they do to reduce shopping cart abandonment?
   
9. Swiping Your Credit Card Is So Yesterday - 2007-06-22 07:00:00-04
   Customers who drive up to any of the more than 1,000 Arby's restaurants can literally wave themselves through the payment window. The fast-food chain is one of the first to have rolled out support for contactless payment cards nationwide, both inside and at the drive-through. "We built it," says CIO Don Zimmerman. "Now we'll see if they'll come."
   
10. China Aims to Bump India in Outsourcing Services - 2007-06-22 11:53:14-04
    China's IT services outsourcing industry could generate $56 billion in revenue and create 4 million jobs by 2015, becoming a new engine for the nation's economic growth, a report said. Outsourcing service providers in China could earn as much as $18 billion by 2010 and $56 billion by 2015, according to a white paper released by Electronic Data Systems Thursday.
    
11. Nuance Expands Product Reach With Tegic Acquisition - 2007-06-23 07:00:00-04
    Nuance Communications, the lead vendor in the growing speech-recognition software category, plans to acquire Time Warner's Tegic Communications for $265 million. The acquisition will add $45 million to $48 million in net revenue in fiscal 2008, the company reported.
    
12. Rx for Preventing Hospital Communication Breakdowns - 2007-06-24 07:00:00-04
    A girl sitting on her mom's lap followed along as a nurse read a story detailing the child's pending dental operation in Memphis, Tenn. Although 3-year-old Ruby Armenta and her mother Edith Armenta, 23, speak little English, they had no trouble understanding the nurse. Speaking into a phone specially fitted with two handsets, registered nurse Tish Fortner overcame the language hurdle.
    
13. Turning the Risk Discount Into a Trust Premium - 2007-06-25 07:00:00-04
    Buyers are naturally cautious when considering whether or not to make a purchase from unfamiliar merchants. Even if this anxiety is not justified, the effect on online retailers is often detrimental. Shopper anxiety creates a complicated challenge for online merchants, especially ones without national, trusted brands.
    
14. Survey: RFID Development Outpacing Demand - 2007-06-25 07:00:00-04
    While vendors are gearing up for greater use of RFID applications in the supply chain, customers have been slow to accept them, a new survey shows. Retail, pharma and automotive "are the areas in which we have seen the greatest interest and deployment of RFID," said Steven Ostrowski, spokesperson for the Computing Technology Industry Association.
    
15. Symantec Compensates Chinese Users for Faulty AV Update - 2007-06-25 12:12:00-04
    Symantec announced on Monday a compensation package for Chinese users for a faulty update to its Norton antivirus software, which paralyzed many computers across China last month. Individuals users who were affected will have the period of validity for the antivirus software extended by 12 months, plus free data backup and restoration software.
    
16. Bringing Bankless Customers Into the Fold - 2007-06-25 14:15:48-04
    Grandma stuffing money under the mattress isn't the only one living outside the banking system. As many as 28 million people in the United States are forgoing traditional financial institutions because of mistrust, cultural and language barriers, or a belief that by the time all the bills are paid, there will be nothing left for an account. That can be expensive and risky.
    
17. Court Finds Plaintiff's Argument in Dry Cleaning Suit All Wet - 2007-06-25 17:52:08-04
    The saga of the $54 million lawsuit against a Washington, D.C.-area dry cleaners over a missing pair of pants has come to an end, with Washington Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruling that the plaintiff, Roy Pearson, had not proven the store had lost the pants.
    
18. SOA: Next Step in Healthcare Systems Evolution - 2007-06-26 07:00:00-04
    Today's healthcare IT organizations are challenged to manage a growing portfolio of system solutions. The cost of acquiring, integrating and maintaining these systems is rising, while the demands of system users are increasing. Organizations must address evolving clinical requirements as well as continue to support revenue cycle and administration business functions.
    
19. Building a Better BI Competency Center - 2007-06-26 12:10:10-04
    To make better decisions and ensure effective delivery of business intelligence, an organization should deploy the right talent capable of integrating intelligent processes with business processes, a proper infrastructure that supports the deployment of intelligence throughout the organization, and take into consideration the organization's culture in support of information delivery.
    
20. Inside PayPal's Customer Service Nerve Center - 2007-06-26 12:30:44-04
    Row after row of industrial gray cubicles make the inside of PayPal's two cavernous operations buildings in La Vista, Neb., an Omaha suburb, look a bit like any other office or call center. However, the balloon clusters floating above the desks of top performers, an outdoor basketball court and the conference rooms named after comic book heroes such as Green Lantern suggest there is more to the place.