SPSS Predictive Analytics Help K-12 Administrators
While students were enjoying their summer break, school administrators across the country have been using predictive analytics technologies to make sure education plans for the new school year meet the needs of individual students as well as critical federal and state education mandates. School systems face compliance standards similar to those of public companies-- with federal statutes like "No Child Left Behind" being analogous to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Progressive school systems are adapting their student information systems (SISs) to be more like corporate customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Rather than simply storing bus routes and attendance records, schools are using their data to develop individualized student learning plans based on statistical and predictive analysis of test scores and system wide results.

Georgia Student Finance Commission Selects Surado CRM
In keeping with its commitment to providing solutions that help companies know their customers and keep them for life, Surado Solutions announced that Georgia Student Finance Commission has selected Surado CRM. Surado CRM was selected through a competitive RFP process initiated as a result of GSFC's enterprise wide reengineering initiative. Begun in 2003, GSFC identified a need for an enterprise Customer Relationship Management System that could provide a platform to improve all aspects of its customer service delivery including contact and issue management for its Customer Service, Marketing, Sales, and Support functions.

			Required Reading
		Hit The Spot    What's the payoff in faster customer service and self-service? Broadband access provider Advanced Fibre Communications (AFC) is saving an estimated $400,000 per year by resolving more issues on the first call. Employee benefits firm LifeCare has implemented natural-language search, andcan add suggestions that employees might not have considered. North Carolina State University (NCSU) has built a Virtual Advising Center that counsels an average of 185 students each day with only two full-time advisors. (Transform Magazine) more >>
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BCE Elix Helps City of Montreal Voice-Enable its Web Site
BCE Elix and the city of Montreal announced the launch of telephone applications that provide Montrealers with an enhanced 87-ACCES automated telephone service system. Using the Web, speech recognition, text-to-speech, VoiceXML and CCXML standards, the bilingual voice service application implemented by BCE Elix will essentially voice-enable the city's web site providing all citizens (who may not have access to, or the ability to use the Internet) with quick, 24/7 access to information on municipal services previously available only on the Montreal web site.

S1 Enterprise Voice Powered By Edify
S1 Corporation introduced S1 Enterprise Voice (powered by Edify). The product is part of the recent release of S1 Enterprise 3.0 the financial services industry's first truly integrated multi-channel solution that addresses the entire front-office of banks and insurers. With nine major applications including voice, branch, call center and Internet solutions on a common platform, S1 Enterprise 3.0 helps institutions lower operating costs, increase revenue opportunities, and improve customer service and retention by integrating and communicating customer information, transactions, and behaviors across channels.

Car Toys Amplifies Online Sales using Mercent Software
Mercent announced that its flagship software product, Mercent Commerce System, has been selected by Car Toys for selling products into the online consumer marketplaces. Car Toys has successfully integrated and deployed Mercent Commerce System to merchandise and sell products to over 42 million active customer accounts at Amazon.com, and 60 million monthly shoppers at Yahoo! Shopping, BizRate.com, PriceGrabber.com, AOL Shopping, NexTag, MSN Shopping, Shopping.com, mySimon, and Froogle.

Convergys Expands Professional Services Practice
Convergys announced the expansion of its professional and consulting capabilities within its newly formed IMG Professional Services Group (PSG). PSG helps communications carriers better address their evolving billing and customer care system needs by creating and delivering business support system (BSS) and customer relationship management (CRM) strategy, development, operations, and integration solutions.

Intel Host Media Processing to Provide VoIP Connectivity for Intervoice
Intervoice announced support for Intel NetStructure Host Media Processing (HMP) within the Intervoice Omvia Media Server, a component of its Omvia Voice Framework product line. Host Media Processing from Intel allows the Omvia Media Server to be deployed as a software-only configuration and does not require specialized signal processing hardware. This further extends the flexibility of the modular and highly scaleable Omvia Voice Framework architecture to ease integration, deployment and management of speech applications and enhanced services.

Epicor Executives To Present At IMTS 2004
Epicor Software announced its participation at the IMTS 2004 Manufacturing Conference at the McCormick Place in Chicago. Epicor executives Mollie Hunter and Paul Farrell will present at the conference, together with Epicor end user customers, on the topics of Lean Manufacturing and Product Lifecycle Management. The conference is designed for machining and manufacturing strategy professionals looking to deploy technology and tactics to increase productivity, reduce lead time and assure quality.   (about Epicor)