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The article presents information on several information technology (IT) shops that are testing new ways to use the latest technologies to increase revenue, and improve customer service. The Community College of Rhode Island in Warwick is working on VM-ware's View and Liquidware Labs' ProfileUnity software to bring virtualized applications for 18,000 students at the university. The American College of Physicians (ACP) is testing a mobile version of its medical knowledge self-assessment program.

An interview with Deputy Commissioner of Technology and Support Services John A. Benanti and Assistant Commissioner Donald Stanton is presented. When asked about their favorite technology, Benanti replies that he loves iPad. Stanton comments about the Fire Department Operations Center (FDOC). Further they comments on the challenges they faced during developing and deploying software.

The article tackles the significance of Web 2.0 tools in monitoring blogs and social networks to better communicate with users and know their concerns. It is noted that companies not implementing Web 2.0 tools are faced with the risk of losing their businesses to rivals that do. Comcast Corp. has launched the Comcast Cares program, which monitors Twitter feeds and respond to customer concerns posted at its Web site. Most commonly used Web 2.0 tools are internal blogs, social networks and online communities. The increasing popularity of these tools has prompted the launch of the Customer Service 2.0 tools.

The article focuses on the use of business intelligence (BI) software by United Pipe & Supply to maintain the operations of its supply lines that was affected by Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. Purchasing vice president Dan Kraxberger has generated a critical-items analysis and has sent the analysis to each vendor. Vendor feedback is the basis for the continuous update of the data. The use of BI software has enabled United Pipe to keep its regular customers supplied, and has transformed many aspects of its business operations.

The article presents a list of considerations for corporate customers to follow in order to avoid certain traps in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) agreements. First, SaaS providers typically send electronic contract notifications with an "I agree" button for customers to click on, in which one should be aware of the significant risk on the agreement of online software with terms they are not familiar with. Second, SaaS agreements offer attractive characteristics, in which they do not require large up-front financial commitment. Third, service-level agreements that guarantees vendor response time are critical components of SaaS contracts, in which some charge extra fees, while others do not. INSET: AN AGREEMENT THAT WORKS.

The article discusses the significance of monitoring the level of service for each transaction to gain better insight on the service for customers and employees of service industries. Monitoring the experiences of the users in businesses such as Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. in White Plains, New York, has become critical, according to sources. If customers fail to receive the service they need, they would take their business to the competition. Thus, Starwood and other companies turn to new appliances and software tools to monitor the level of service for each transaction. According to the author, although monitoring tools may not be the complete solutions, they provide a different view of the situation and improve the problem-solving process. INSET: Monitoring to Improve Best Practices.

The article focuses on the complaints of users of Veritas Software Corp.'s storage management tools, that the company has done little to improve its confusing and hard-to-track software licensing models. Many IT managers at the annual Veritas user conference here also expressed concerns that its licenses could become even more difficult to manage after Symantec Corp.'s planned purchase of Veritas. In addition, some users said they fear that the acquisition will hurt Veritas' customer service operation. Douglas Britz, a storage administrator at farm equipment manufacturer Deere & Co. in Moline, Illinois, agreed, saying Veritas needs to do more to improve the tracking of its software licenses. Tom Lake, a network administrator at LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. in Richmond, Virginia, said that his organization has had a difficult time tracking Veritas software licenses, and he believes that it may be paying for licenses it doesn't use Britz and others also voiced fears that support will suffer as a result of the Symantec buyout--mostly because of what he called Symantec's reputation for poor service.

This article discusses the adoption of customer relationship management (CRM) software by the retail industry in the U.S. It is said that the retail sector is managing relationships with millions of consumers, compared with clients in business-to-business sectors. Most retailers have implemented call center and data-gathering CRM software and are beginning to wade into analytics and customer segmentation. According to retailers, the process of moving from quarterly business intelligence reports to real-time customer segmentation is difficult because large retailers are collecting highly complex and granular information on their customers that can vary greatly from business to business. Though the number of packaged applications is at an all-time high, that doesn't mean mainframes are going away.

Microsoft Corp. announced in May 2004 that it plans to extend the support phase for business and developer products to a minimum of 10 years. The support policy updates the timetable that the software maker set in October 2002. The old plan called for five years of mainstream support and two years of extended support. Under the updated policy, there will be a minimum of five years of mainstream support followed by five years of extended support. But the new mainstream and extended support policy will apply only to software released during the past five years, said Peter Houston, Microsoft's senior director of servicing strategy. The mainstream support phase provides for no-charge incident support, support for warranty claims and hot-fix support, as well as paid per incident support and support charged on an hourly basis. Some customers who have yet to migrate off older products may consider paid extension options from Microsoft or third-party vendors, unless they decide to run the products unsupported. Several users said they have been forced to keep older versions of Windows and other Microsoft products as a result of application dependencies involving software built by third-party vendors. INSET: Microsoft Unveils Team System for Visual Studio.

This article focuses on the need for marketing relationship management software, which can allegedly boost productivity and campaign effectiveness, to overcome technical and cultural hurdles in its deployment. According to Linda Hecht, director of marketing at geographic information systems vendor Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. (ESRI), as the company grew and added more people to marketing, the company experienced a limit on productivity. Hecht has a marketing staff of 180, but with 40 products to market to 40 industries worldwide, she could allegedly not manage the workload. In 2003, ESRI turned to marketing resource management (MRM) software to automate routine actions and improve strategic planning. Such tools, provided either as extensions to customer relationship management (CRM) packages or as stand-alone offerings, are designed to incorporate every aspect of marketing, from initial concept through the evaluation of completed campaigns. While the number of MRM implementations is still relatively small, analysts allegedly expect strong growth in the area as companies look to extend efficiencies gained in traditional CRM strongholds, such as sales force automation.

Reports on the approaches of Microsoft Corporation's Passport service and Web authentication services of Liberty Alliance Project to Web identity management. Release of specifications by Liberty Alliance for a standards-based mechanism for simplified sign-on and user identity management; Redirection of a user accessing a password-protected site under a Liberty-based system; Second phase of the Liberty specification.

Focuses on the action taken by Larry Ellison, chief executive officer of Oracle Corp. to dispute reports that users are unhappy with the company's capacity-based pricing scheme. Increase in sales of the company's Oracle8i software; Pricing of the software; Reactions of customers on the pricing scheme.

Reports on the use of integrated customer interaction systems in the United States to track everything from sales to customer complaints. Collection from a help desk; Assembly of integrated customer profiles; Strategic information gathering; Examples of companies using customer interaction systems; Comments.

The article reports that Microsoft Corp. has extended its support for Windows Server 2008 by 18 months.

The article reports on the move of Oracle Corp. to clarify its support plan for non-Oracle virtual servers in the U.S. to dispel confusion caused by conflicting statements from executives during its OpenWorld user conference. According to chief executive officer (CEO) Larry Ellison, Oracle would continue to offer support for Oracle software running on the virtual machines of its competitor, VMware Corp. Moreover, Oracle has contended that there is no change in its support policy for customers running Oracle applications on VMware environment, and the company has been responsive and supportive for these customers.

The article offers definitions distinguishing live and online services. It states that live services are designed for home users, business end users and virtual work groups. Meanwhile, online services are aimed at organizations with higher-level information technology (IT) needs, like scalability and security. The prior includes software pieces of Windows and Office, as well as the hosted version of Dynamics CRM, while the latter includes the hosted software versions of Exchange, SharePoint and the Office Communications Server 2007.

The article reports on the software as a service (SaaS) technology platform of Microsoft Corp. The firm has joined the SaaS arena through its Live services which focuses on home users, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. Microsoft directly reaches enterprise users with its Online family of hosted services. Customers buying licenses for 5,000 seats gets the software vendor's SaaS versions of Exchange, SharePoint and Office Communications Server 2007. Moreover, Microsoft offers rebates ranging from 25 to 100 percent of the service subscription fees if service-level agreements are not met.

The article reports on the improvement in the service offered by the customer service center of lens retailer 1-800 Contact Inc. in the U.S. as the company employed the business intelligence (BI) technology. Through the application of BI, the company's information technology and marketing staff determined that the lack of qualitative customer service information cannot boost sales. With this, a BI analysis tool that filters trading data all the way down to agents answering customer calls was implemented, resulting to a more favorable outcome that changed the behaviors of both agents and customers. According to James Hill, manager of the 1-800 Contact's data warehouse, the company's call center agents have boosted sales by the use of BI information that changed their approach to customers.

The article reports that GTSI Corp. has fixed its supply chain application system. It had spent 1 million dollars to fix the problems of its PeopleSoft applications. The company, which supplies systems to government agencies, disclosed that the 10 million dollars implementation of the PeopleSoft supply chain management application was hurting its revenue. The software was supplied by the former PeopleSoft Inc. in 2002 prior to its acquisition by Oracle Corp. GTSI chief information officer Bob Mitchell states that the supply chain software is now starting to work as planned.

The article reports on Unified Customer Interaction Analyzer, the latest product offering from Cisco Systems Inc. The software, developed by Lake Forest has the ability to scan detect problems from calls. Furthermore, it can be used by call center supervisors to track conversations with angry customers. John Reike, Uniprise Innovation Lab senior vice president affirmed that almost 300 call center agents already have the software. His company spent millions of dollars for the project but expects payback in several months. He believes that the software can improve the retention of the employee and keep their customers happier.

Brent Callinicos, vice president of worldwide licensing and pricing at Microsoft Corp., was interviewed by Computerworld about the continuing simplification efforts for its Licensing 6.0 software-pricing program. He said that the firm is not developing a Licensing 7.0 version. Its efforts for customer flexibility, reduced complexity and more customer choice are continuing. The Software Assurance program is being enhanced. Fourteen benefits have been added for customers. Two-thirds to 75 percent of the Enterprise Agreement customers have renewed. rates. Callinicos has said that users can look at a return on investment over a 10-year period and their total cost of ownership and what they get for the licensing, their own individual upgrade cycles and other factors.

The article reports that BEA Systems Inc. is planning to boost its Weblogic business. BEA Systems Inc. is looking to broaden its middleware business, last week took the wraps off a solutions framework that can help Weblogic Platform users build service-oriented architectures (SOA) for tackling common enterprise pain points like boosting customer service. The move marks BEA's entry into the bundled technology solutions arena, traditionally a stronghold for rival IBM, and it is supported by several major software suppliers. The framework is part BEA's Liquid Computing initiative, unveiled at its user conference last spring. The bundled offering will use BEA's Weblogic Platform, through its portlets and reusable service-oriented integration components called controls to build SOA for five common enterprise goals: customer service, employee service, service delivery platforms, trade processing and radio frequency identification capability. BEA plans to provide frameworks for four vertical markets: telecommunications, financial services, manufacturing and government.

This article shares the author's thoughts on the adoption of customer relationship management or personalization application by InterContinental Hotels Group PLC in the U.S. The author relates the personalization technology underpinning Priority Club, the online service for frequent guests of InterContinental Hotels Group's hotels worldwide. In effect, InterContinental Hotels Group had to create a personalized profile for a user who never traveled. The new account had to be flexible enough to suit the preferences of individual customers for how they want their assistants to access and use their private accounts.

Reports on the plan of J.C. Penney Co. to upgrade its application performance monitoring software from NetQoS Inc. to ensure compliance with information technology service-level agreements (SLA) nationwide. Strategic importance of SLA; Computer software used by J.C. Penney; Expectations of the company on the software.

Deals with the decision of Red Hat Inc. to cease maintenance of its Red Hat Linux 9 server software effective April 30, 2004. Criticism on the support contract of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux; Range of per-system licensing fees for Red Hat software; Reaction of customers regarding the decision.

Identifies several negative attitudes of people in the information technology (IT) industry. Claim of IT vendors that they sell solutions; Misuse by companies of IT to erect barriers between customer service staffers and clients; Concept of real-time computing; Software vendors who assume no liability for their products; Vendors who would rather sue than innovate.

Reports on the move of Microsoft Corp. to extend mainstream support for its Microsoft Exchange 5.5 software corporate users. Reason for the move of Microsoft; Percentage of Microsoft Exchange 5.5. users which run the software on Windows NT 4; Details on the issue.

Deals with the customer loyalty software. Difference of the software from customer relations software; Information on the SmartLoyalty service; Details on the loyalty program of Harrah's Entertainment Inc.

Reports on the end of extended support phase for Microsoft Corporation's Windows NT 4.0 Workstations operation system. Self-help online option service of Microsoft Corp.; Details on the extended support service of Microsoft Corp.

Focuses on the needs of corporations addressed by electronic mail customer support systems. Benefits gained by TD Bank Financial Group in Toronto, Ontario in using customer support system; Capabilities of the Internet Message Center software of Mustang software Inc. used by Uniforms To You company; Problems of I-Escrow Inc. addressed by the E-Mail Messaging Server of eGain Communications Corp.

Reports on Prudential Insurance Co. of America's project to improve customer relationship management systems for cross-selling and better marketing. Use of data analysis software from Cognos; Use of data mining software from SAS Institute; Central data hub running on an IBM MVS mainframe.

Presents articles pertaining to enterprise network. Worldwide telecommunications costs for Internet fax providers; Membership for the free Hotmail E-mail service of Microsoft Corp.; Selection of MailMail communication software of Infonet Services Corp. by Worldwide Online Corp. to deliver Web-based messaging and collaboration services to its customers; Token ring hub sales in 1997 and 1998.

Reports on the teaming up of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corp. with Chordiant Software Inc. to offer large companies a better way to track and serve their customers. Idea behind customer relationship management; Integration of Centrobe's, a business unit within EDS, dbIntellect data mining tools with Chordiant's Customer Communications Solution software; Why Thomas Cook Global Services chose Chordiant software.

Presents a review of Microsoft Corporation and its Internet Information Server (IIS). Internet product services; Impact of its initial release. INSET: Microsoft's Internet Information Server..

Reports that Microsoft Corporation finishing its Network OLE, to will allow Windows applications communication across a network, will not be addressing the company's problems. Concerns of vendors; Impact of Open Environment Corporation announcement of OLEnterprise. INSET: Good communication skills..

Features Net.Genesis Corp.'s Net.Analysis software. Online applications; Use in analyzing traffic patterns on the World Wide Web; Retail price.