THIS WEEK IN THE FRONT OFFICE
Now that I am no longer posting my weekly update on AOL, you folks will just have to put up with me here. :)
The News
Siebel added yet another link to its value chain. CTG is an IT services provider with 55 offices in North America and Europe. From the press release, "CTG's alliance with Siebel as a Consulting Partner will combine CTG's expertise in systems integration, data warehousing, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) with Siebel's Web-based front office system capabilities. CTG also will contribute organizational change management to help clients make the best use of integrated front office solutions."
The funny part of the press release is CTG's stock symbol -- TSK. Tsk tsk. :)
Quite awhile ago we learned that Lucent had chosen Remedy as the provider of its automated customer support apps. This week we learned that they're up and running. "Built by Remedy, CTS CARES supports all Lucent network systems and products worldwide. The application development and initial deployment were completed in six months. Lucent rolled out the completed application in less than two months to more than 7,000 users at more than 100 sites in 65 countries." I don't usually report this type of news item, but the win of Lucent's account is not unimportant.
Clarify and a company called Newtonian have been marketing partners since 1988. They also have mutual customers. This week they decided to tie the knot and make it permanent. Clarify will purchase Newtonian, a company that should have changed its name long ago lest it be associated with Apple's failed Newton. :)
Anyhow, "Newtonian develops interactive selling systems (ISS) that enable unassisted selling and configuration for complex products and services. With an ISS solution completely integrated within Clarify eFrontOffice, companies can improve customer loyalty and increase revenues by customizing sales interactions, automating product configuration and simplifying the online sales process. Newtonian further extends Clarify's ability to capture and leverage each customer interaction spanning all channels, including web self-sales, telesales, partner sales and mobile team selling."
The Stocks
Our Front Office Gorilla Game underperformed the indexes by a wide margin this week. Boo! Hiss!
You'll have to wait until next weekend, when I provide a detailed month-end report, to see how much our gorilla candidates are stomping the indexes over the long term.
--Mike Buckley |
