More reason to believe that voice over the Internet may be the way to go.
Subj: eShare Technologies Announces iChat Transition Program;...
Date: 1/12/99 12:51:15 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: AOL News
BCC: Bigkid53
eShare Technologies Announces iChat Transition Program; Provides Special Offer to Organizations Using Acuity's iChat Products
COMMACK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 12, 1999--eShare Technologies, a leading provider of Internet-based human interaction software, today announced a transition program for customers of Acuity's iChat products. Responding to Acuity's decision to discontinue its core chat product, eShare's Transition Program offers iChat customers the confidence that they can maintain technology currency with their chat applications into the future. Under the special offer, iChat customers, for a limited time, can purchase all configurations of eShare Expressions for a reduced price. Expressions is a suite of interaction software solutions designed to transform Web, extranet and intranet sites into online communities through the use of chat technology.
Despite Acuity's step to discontinue its chat product, Steve Robbins, analyst with Yankee Group, estimates that community/customer service chat will be a growing market through the year 2001, growing from between $15M and $20M in 1998 to more than 200 million. Gartner Group also predicts that by 2001, 25 percent of all customer contacts and inquiries will be conducted via the Internet.
"eShare's goal is to provide companies with a complete solution for online human interaction," said Doris Granatowski, president of eShare Technologies. "Chat is at the core of the growing customer interaction market. By discontinuing support for this technology, Acuity is abandoning not only its customers but also its core capability. As the Internet-based human interaction market continues to grow, eShare will continue to offer a full range of products to meet industry needs."
"We believe in long-term partnerships with our customers who value our forward-thinking, leading edge products. In that spirit, we want to help those iChat customers stranded by Acuity's decision by offering them many advanced features, including unprecedented scalability," said Glenn Reyer vice president of marketing for eShare. "eShare strongly believes in the viability of chat, and we will continue to provide customers with products and enhancements to our Expressions product line."
Transition Program Details
For a limited time, iChat customers can apply the purchase price of their iChat product to reduce the cost of any eShare Expressions product by up to 50 percent. To take advantage of this special offer, call 1-888ESHARE4 and use the key word: "iChat Offer," or go to www.eshare.com/ichat/index.html. This offer expires on January 31, 1999.
eShare Expressions can be utilized for virtual meetings, live training and conferencing, distance learning, moderated events and social chat. The product line features four key components Chat, a server-based software solution for adding live real time interaction; Forums, a conferencing tool; Web Tours which provides the ability to lead a group on a tour from page to page and site to site; Moderator, for hosting and managing live discussion and Integrator Pro which integrates the software with existing databases.
NetAgent is an award winning eBusiness solution which provides Web-based customer care and e-commerce support. It enables businesses to increase their revenues, margins and client retention rates by facilitating Internet-based customer interaction. NetAgent acts as a vital communications conduit between suppliers and their customers by providing real-time dialog capabilities and integrated, managed e-mail support that both automate and improve Web-based commerce, customer support and service.
About eShare Technologies
eShare Technologies, Inc. (www.eshare.com) delivers powerful enterprise-class interaction software and services that are crucial for eBusiness. These innovative technologies include web-based customer service and support, customer self-service, live conferencing and events, distance learning, Community chat, threaded discussion forums and custom integration tools. Current eShare Technologies clients include AOL, AT&T WorldNet Service, Computer Associates, GeoCities, Lycos, networkMCI, UUNet, the University of Florida, Pfizer, Bertelsmann, Columbia University, Hewlett Packard, Xerox and 1-800 FLOWERS News. |
