FEATURES
Extending
CRM To Reach Out To Your Customers
Kenneth Pawlak, PAR3 Communications
How can businesses maximize the effectiveness of their CRM systems to
create more intimate, intelligent, and profitable customer relationships?
This article discusses how adding a new customer-directed layer to
existing CRM systems can help reach out to the customer with
account-specific information for whatever reason the customer specifies.
Next-Gen
Backplanes: Change At The Molecular Level
Melissa Heckman and Justin Moll, Bustronic
The traditional CompactPCI backplane has been widely accepted, but it's
also limited to 8 slots and relatively low densities. Several initiatives
are underway to address these limits, and this article considers two of
them.
Service
Carriers: Poised To Deliver Value And "Cash In"
Cathy Gadecki, Ellacoya Networks
Never mind "added value." Think premium services -- targeted and
customizable applications and content available on demand, supplied by a
new breed of provider, the service carrier.
Productivity
Gains Of The Flexible Enterprise
Greg Ness, Shoreline Communications
Recent reports from analyst firms such as Phillips and Yankee Group cite
growth in IP-PBX and IP LAN telephony and declines in legacy shipments.
This article considers what is driving enterprises to make the move.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Breaking News
Letters To The
Editor
Enabling
Technologies
Chris Donner, Contributing Editor
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the chassis, CompactPCI
starts making waves. Chris takes a look at how high density is manifesting
itself on the H.110 backplane.
Interactive
Commerce
Dan Callahan, Associate Editor
Coordinating the schedules of 50 different agents with 50 different
preferences is enough to send a contact center manager looking for the
aspirin bottle, but workforce management helps ease the headache.
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PUBLISHER’S OUTLOOK
If
You Simplify It, They Will Come
Rich Tehrani, Publisher
Wireless data services, by taking advantage of sophisticated middleware,
may support the use of a range of devices, even succeeding generations of
devices. Also, with middleware, the network may absorb some of the
annoying little tasks that currently demand lots of button pushing.
EDITOR'S OUTLOOK
Virtual
Symmetry
Kevin Mayer, Editorial Director
As VPN applications take on more elaborate and ambitious roles, the
underlying technologies improve support for security and voice quality.
Thus, a "voice VPN" needn't involve dedicated facilities, but
may describe a data VPN with quality of service capabilities minimizing
the latency and jitter of packetized voice transmissions.
TOM KEATING'S CC:
Just
How Open Is "Open"?
Tom Keating, Executive Technology Editor
This month, Tom discusses voice/data convergence, and the trend towards
open systems. He also questions why, in an era of open standards, complete
interoperability is still out of reach.
REVIEWS
Versadial
Solutions' VSLogger v. 2.3
Praxon's
Phone Data eXchange
DEPARTMENTS
Inside Networking: Changing
The Business Of Networking
Tony Rybczynski, Nortel Networks
The optical Ethernet combines the power of Ethernet with the power of
optical networking to eliminate the bottleneck between the LAN and the
WAN. Tony Rybczynski explains how it's creating a revolution within the
enterprise.
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