These folks seem to be really crankin' it up...good to
see them get aggressive...after being quiet so long this
type of activity means to me that they think the ducks are lined
up in a nice row...gpg
That is exactly the impression I got yesterday when I
spoke with Mary Ann Davis and Tom Duffy. It's a "charged"
atmosphere at CTIG; they are emphatically pleased with
Siemens view and expectations of them. The consequences of that
relationship are far-reaching and we will begin to see some
of them soon, from the impression I got.
I asked Tom Duffy to give me a quick summary of what was cooking in the Internet area, since it was mentioned in the 3/9 release.
With the Neptune billing software, they are involved in billing
for usage in all sorts of telephony-related areas -- long distance, long-distance re-sellers, Internet, fax, and cable.(The latter might be a combined cable TV and telephony delivery system, for instance.)
CTIG has been processing the billing data from their clients,
creating invoices and mailing same. But in a growing number of areas,
the individual customers of CTIG's clients supply a credit card
number for automatic monthly billing. (as you might do with your
cable TV or Internet ISP) Here's where the Internet comes in
to start. CTIG plans to save their clients the cost of mailing
an invoice when a credit card has been supplied. If the individual
agrees to forego the mailed invoice, his monthly invoice with
all the charges will be available to him on-line at anytime
with a PIN number. I forgot to ask, but I assume CTIG data
processors can update the charges daily on the web site.
CTIG has started this quietly in Europe on a small scale, and
is now going to market the feature in the States.
This is the sort of thing that your cable company and thousands of ISPs, for instance, could benefit from immensely. Less $$ in
mailing, fewer phone calls, etc.
And that makes it a terrific edge or selling point
for CTIG to sign on and keep new clients
Speaking of which, I got the impression we'll be hearing more
about that topic soon. Hope I am right. I do know that they are,
as you say, crankin' it up, Gary. They seem to put out releases only when there is something to say, and talking to them, they have
lots of kettles on the fire.
Madly |
