In 2011, the idea of “self-service” is morphing from a derogatory term about automated handling of calls into an IVR or contact center and has transformed into the preferred point of arrival for users of the mobile, multimodal Internet.
Articles
Teletech Reselling Salesforce.com’s Service Cloud
Business process outsourcing (BPO) specialist Teletech has reached an agreement whereby it will resell features, capabilities and components hosted in Salesforce.com’s Service Cloud.
Voxeo Pumps Up Developer Support With Voxeo Connect Program
Voxeo has formally launched the Voxeo Connect program offering go-to-market partners, including solution providers, resellers and systems integrators.
$17 Million Series C Financing Vote of Confidence in Twilio and “Conversations as a Platform”
Two of its three Series B investors our upping their ante in Twilio, providing cash to fuel the three-year-old company’s international expansion and growth in support of a community of telco application developers.
With xBox+Kinect+Tellme+Bing, Microsoft Offers Conversational Control of TV Content
As of today, people can use their voices, in conjunction with an xBox 360, Kinect motion detection and Bing Search, to take command and navigate the growing variety of content offered through TV screens.
West to Acquire HyperCube LLC; Tackle Network Reliability for Multichannel, Mobile e-Commerce
West Corporation’s pending acquisition of HyperCube brings to light a very important “ground truth” in the world of Conversational Commerce.
Salmat Makes Big Move to Avaya
In a pre-holiday-rock-your-world moment, Avaya and Salmat jointly announced a multi-million dollar (meaning between $10 and $20 million) deal whereby the Australian contact center outsourcer would replace its Genesys-based platform with “a broad suite of Avaya technology and expertise.”
LiveOps Acquisition Makes SMS, Twitter Part of Customer Conversations with Remote Agents
Cloud-based contact center specialist LiveOps is buying New Zealand-based DataSquirt for $12.5 million.
Novauris and SingTel Offer Mobile Voice Search in Singapore
SingTel and Novauris launched a version of voice search that is tailored specifically for “the unique style of English” that is spoken on the nation-island of Singapore.
The Siri Chronicles: Amazon.com Quietly Acquired Yap; The Speech-Enabled Kindle Awaits
Yap, Inc., was quietly merged with a shell corporation owned by Amazon.com on September 8, 2011.