Industry News

December 2006

TAS Marketing Increases Acquisition Opportunities

Because of a subscriber's breach in confidentiality, TAS Marketing has elected to discontinue its popular Preferred Client Program where individuals paid to receive advanced listing information about a business for sale before it was posted on their Web site.

"The seller's privacy and confidentiality while selling a business is of utmost importance," stated Steve Michaels, president of TAS Marketing, "and I was not going to jeopardize my integrity and reputation because of a couple bad apples."

The good news is that if you would like to receive listing information about what TAS Marketing has for sale as it becomes available, simply go to www.tasmarketing.com, click on Current Market Listings, select the nondisclosure page, sign it, and fax it to TAS Marketing at 406-827-4554.

For more information, contact TAS Marketing at 800-369-6126.  Visit www.tasmarketing.com or email tas@tasmarketing.com.

Professional Teledata Expands Message Formatting 

Professional Teledata announced the expansion of message formatting capabilities on the PInnacle Telemessaging System.  "PInnacle allows a message to generate an unlimited number of destinations based upon responses to scripted questions ("Is this an emergency?") or system/account variables (time-of-day, day-of-week, person-on-call, etc.)," explained Allen Kalik, president of Professional Teledata. "Now each destination within an account that generates readable output can automatically invoke a pre-designed format varying in layout and can include or exclude information as required. The screen image of the message can have its own unique format for optimal operator use."

Allen explained that transmissions to noncompliant HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) destinations can exclude sensitive information without any decision making required by the operator. Alpha pages will usually be a subset of information collected on a call, and multiple dispatched emails can be customized for each recipient. This multiformat messaging environment satisfies the most demanding client requirements.

Contact Karen Black 800-344-9944 x112 for more information or visit www.professionalteledata.com. 

Amtelco Announces Billing Link Software Version 4.0

Amtelco announced an upgrade to its billing application, BillingLink.  With this new version, BillingLink allows users to link directly to the raw statistics database in either SQL Server or Access format.  Billing Link Version 4.0 features a full suite of all the customizable capabilities, plus a long list of new features and enhancements.  Many of these new features have been developed with the input of current users, such as:

• Unlimited invoice layouts

• Additional invoice printing and export methods

• New charge options like night, weekend, and holiday multipliers

• New master options – up to 100 custom formulas

• Increased recurring charges

• Unlimited one-time charges, plus new options for aging, finance charges, statistic rounding and charge parameters

For more information about Billing Link, contact Amtelco at 800-356-9148 or email info@amtelco.com.

Telescan Adds Events Manager to Spectrum Messenger

Telescan's latest addition to their Spectrum Messenger was introduced at the annual TUNe meeting in Nashville.  Spectrum Messenger provides secure, encrypted communications across a local area network and the Internet.  The new addition, Events Manager, provides event management and tracking.  With this tool, a telemessaging business can manage and track events they initiate for clients. 

When a customer calls, information is input into the system and the event is entered with a brief description.  The event can be assigned to a specific person with a priority level.  As the event progresses, a history is established by Spectrum Messenger's Events Manager and maintained until the event is closed.  Filters limit searching to assigned individuals, priority levels, or other established criteria.

"Events Manager is just one more tool Telescan gives TAS businesses to manage more efficiently and provide more service to their customers," said Telescan director of sales, Patty Anderson.

To find out more about Spectrum by Telescan, call at 800-770-7662 or visit www.telescan.net.

Startel Announces Executive Management Change

On October 16, 2006, Startel Corporation accepted David Chuchinsky's resignation as chief executive officer, president, and as a director of Startel Corporation; he is leaving to pursue other interests.  Alice E. Reuter was named acting president and interim chief financial officer of Startel.  Ms. Reuter provides interim management consulting services to small businesses including, most recently, her assignment as Startel's interim chief financial officer and chief administrative officer that began in July of this year.  Ms. Reuter's background includes senior management positions with PacifiCare Health Systems and ConAgra Foods as well as managing her own businesses.

The new acting president stated, "I am delighted to be leading an organization of Startel's caliber.  We will continue providing the most innovative solutions in our industry.  I will be reaching out to our various constituencies in the near future and look forward to working with our customers as well as our employees."

Visit Startel at www.startelcorp.com.

CallCenterTechs Celebrates Fifth Anniversary

CallCenterTechs, an email list focusing on the technical aspects of the call center industry, was founded five years ago by Kevin Bachelder.  In the past five years, the list's members have shared over 13,500 messages in an ongoing effort to assist each other with managing the use of technology in their call centers. 

"With the ever-increasing use of technology in our businesses, it is important to have a broad based support group to turn to when you need assistance.  Many of the technical challenges we face are not limited to a specific vendor's system, so this list can give you a larger knowledge base to learn from," states Bachelder on the Web site.

The list currently has approximately 240 members with varying levels of technical expertise, including 60 members who have been involved since the founding of the list.  Bachelder's goal is to help those responsible for the technology in their organization learn, regardless of which vendor they use or what title appears on their business card.

For more information or to join the Listserv, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/callcentertechs/.

Chuck Boyce Joins Brandywine Technology

Brandywine Technology announced that Chuck Boyce has joined the team as director of telecommunication services.  Chuck brings his experience in the telephone messaging industry to lead this new team.

"Chuck brings a wealth of operational and technical experience to our team.  He has the ability to translate business requirements into technical specifications, making sure that the needs of our clients are met with an appropriate and creative combination of service, software, and hardware," said Joel Pierson, president of Brandywine Technology.

Brandywine Technology provides unbiased professional consultation and service delivery solutions.  Capitalizing on relationships with major carriers and hardware manufacturers, they aim to provide customer-crafted solutions.

For more information, visit www.btpartners.net or call 302-656-6100; Chuck's new email address is cboyce@btpartners.net.

OnviSource Expands Product Line

OnviSource, Inc. released an enterprise application software for its OnviCenter Product Portfolio, expanding its existing call center product line to include sought-after business applications such as order processing, order fulfillment, inventory management, and transaction payment processing.  These products further expand OnviCenter's present enterprise teleservices, answering services, and resource scheduling and dispatching applications.

OnviSource's new enterprise applications provide call center agents with integrated, real-time customer interaction scripting and transaction management tools for inbound-outbound order processing, real-time inventory management, and disposition, electronic payments, and validations.  OnviCenter's new enterprise applications are fully supported by the product suite's existing voice and data applications, call recording, quality assurance, workforce optimization, auto-scripting, and data mining.

In order to advance the company's position as a provider of cost-effective Integrated Customer Interaction Management (ICIM) solutions in the contact center markets, OnviSource acquired and integrated the technologies necessary to build the new enterprise applications.

 "Our two-prong strategy of in-house development and various acquisitions will remain key to our objective of providing cost-effective, integrated, and bundled solutions," said Ray S. Naeini, chairman and CEO of OnviSource.

For more information, visit www.onvisource.com.

Professional Teledata Expands Support Staff 

Professional Teledata today announced the expansion of its support staff for PInnacle Telemessaging System installations.  Effective immediately, Wendy Comella and Matt Salvas have joined the company in providing both technical customer support for existing users and account transfer services for new customers of the PInnacle Telemessaging System.

"We are pleased to have Wendy and Matt join the staff, especially since they have experience with both the company's products and the telephone answering industry," said Jim Graham, vice president of software development.  "We look forward to them making a substantial contribution to Professional Teledata's excellent reputation for providing timely and efficient assistance to our growing customer base."Wendy and Matt will be based at the company's Manchester, NH headquarters. 

Professional Teledata (www.professionalteledata.com) provides systems and software products for the telemessaging and call center industries.  Contact Karen Black at 800-344-9944 x112 for more information. 

Amtelco Hosts a Free Seminar on Infinity Tips, Tricks, and Techniques

Amtelco invites Infinity system users to a free seminar at the Holiday Inn Santa Ana-Orange County Airport on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.  Lunch will be provided.  The seminar will cover the benefits of the Infinity features that have proven to be the most valuable to users.  This one-day seminar is designed for call center agents and marketing personnel. 

Learn how to unleash the profitable potential of the Infinity system.  The "Tips, Tricks, and Techniques" seminar is the latest in a series of popular seminars held all over the country.  To reserve a spot at this free Amtelco seminar, send an email to t3@amtelco.com. 

For more information, contact Amtelco at 800-356-9148 or email info@amtelco.com.

ATA Awards for Technology Advancements

The 2006 Technovation Award, bestowed at the 2006 American Teleservices Association's Annual (ATA) Convention, recognized companies with the most innovative products and services.  The winners met specific criteria in the areas of innovation, uniqueness, usefulness, availability, customer experience, and cost. 

"Every year, industries within the teleservices channel are making leaps and bounds in technological advancements," stated Tim Searcy, CEO of the ATA.  "The ATA Technovation Awards recognizes this innovation and fosters a continuing focus on new product development." 

The winners in the New Product Category were:

• Bridge Decision Technologies: for CenterBridge, a strategic planning application creating hiring plans, budgets, and forecasts.

• Noble Systems: for its contact center technology solution, Noble Composer^TM, an agent desktop with flexible scripting and a graphical interface.

• SER Solutions, Inc., for CPS Enterprise Edition, an outbound product, offering predictive dialing, call blending, outbound IVR, and more.

• TeleDirect International, Inc., for Liberation's Dialog Management Solution, which provides a unified agent desktop.

In the New Service Category, the winners were:

• NobelBiz, for LocalTouch, a service designed to increase outbound campaign effectiveness.

• Orion Marketing Group, Inc., for Chat2Phone, a proactive Web chat service.

For more information about ATA, visit www.ataconnect.org.

TeamSNUG Releases Agenda for 20th Annual Meeting

The Startel National Users Group (TeamSNUG) has released its agenda for the 2007 Annual Meeting, which will be held at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Spa and Resort on March 18 to March 21, 2007 in Dana Point, CA.  The overall theme of the meeting is "Nuts & Bolts: How Your System Works and How to Get the Most out of it."  This program is open to current or prospective Startel System users.  

SNUG, a professional association serving the educational needs of Startel equipment users, is based in Minneapolis, MN.  The Startel Corporation, which is based in Irvine, CA, manufactures, sells, and supports specific software and hardware used in the telephone answering service and messaging industry.

For more information, contact Dan L'Heureux at 800-317-8529, email him at Dan@CallConsult.net, or visit www.teamsnug.com.

STA Inspired Performance Workshop Venue Changes

The Southern Telemessaging Association (STA) has changed the venue for its 2nd Inspired Performance Workshop to Memphis TN.   The dates have remained the same: January 10th & 11th, 2007. 

For more information, contact Dan L'Heureux 800-475-0857, email him at Dan@CallConsult.net, or visit www.sta-assoc.org.

TUNe Rocks Nashville

The annual Telescan User Network (TUNe) meeting was held October 26 & 27 at the Radisson Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.  The meeting was well attended by Telescan users from across the country. 

Bob Vornberg, Telescan's director of product development, gave the attendees a look at the future of Telescan by conducting demonstrations of several new products currently in development. 

One of the highlights of the meeting was the annual "Best Idea" contest.  Each attendee was challenged to come up with a new idea for improving their business.  The winner was selected by the TUNe members.  This year's winner was Robbie Parnell of Medcom. 

TUNe members were given a taste of Nashville-style entertainment with a reception at the famous Wildhorse Saloon hosted by Patty Anderson, director of sales for Telescan.

To find out more about Telescan and TUNe, call 800-770-7662 or visit www.telescan.net.

WRB Communications Receives National Certification

WRB Communications, Inc., specializing in medical information call center services, received national certification as a Women's Business Enterprise by the Women Presidents' Educational Organization (WPEO), a regional certifying partner of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

WBENC's national standard of certification implemented by WPEO is a meticulous process that includes an in-depth review of the business and site inspection.  The certification process is designed to confirm that the business is at least 51 percent owned, operated, and controlled by one or more women.

By including women-owned businesses among their vendors, corporations, and government agencies, WRB Communications demonstrates their commitment to fostering diversity and the continued development of their supplier/vendor diversity programs.

For more information, visit www.wrbcorp.com or call 703-449-0520.

Permissive Dialing Extended for 762 Overlay of 706 Area Code

On October 3, 2006, the GA Public Service Commission (PSC) approved the request for an additional extension of the deadline for permissive dialing from October 3, 2006 to December 31, 2006 for the 706-322, 706-324, 706-327, 706-596, 706-790, and 706-796 NXX codes.  A copy of the Georgia PSC Order issued October 11, 2006 and other related PSC information can be obtained at www.psc.state.ga.us.

For more area code information, visit www.nanpa.com.