Quality Customer Service Will Be Key to eCommerce Success Latest Call Center and CRM Solutions to be Highlighted at Internet Telecom Expo 2000

PRNewswire
NEW YORK
Sep 12, 2000

Top providers of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and call center solutions will showcase their product and service offerings at the upcoming Internet Telecom Expo 2000 (September 19 -- 21 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City), CMP Media announced today. Exhibitors located in the CRM & Call Center Pavilion will provide interactive demonstrations of their latest technology offerings. There will also be a pre-conference tutorial and an entire conference track dedicated to customer care technology. At Internet Telecom Expo attendees will discover the latest solutions to humanize the online buyers' shopping experience, integrate enterprise systems and databases for more efficient sales and marketing, create integrated multimedia call centers and automate many functions along the supply chain/fulfillment channels.

"With the killer combination of huge cost/resource savings and new revenue opportunities, businesses in every industry and geographic region are rushing to implement these solutions," explained Simon Cooper, Executive Director for Events in CMP's Converging Communications Group. "Any organization that's not moving to adopt these innovations will soon be at a tremendous disadvantage - because their competitors will be reaping these benefits and capable of delivering products and services much more cost effectively."

A full-day, pre-conference tutorial, Monday, September 18 by Don Van Doren, President, Vanguard Communications, will examine ways of "Putting the Call Center at the Heart of e-Commerce."

The conference track, "Customer Care Technology," consists of eight separate conference sessions spread across three days. Each focuses on a different aspect of customer relationship management and call center solutions, including "Managing the Impact of Change in the Contact Center," Implementing and Managing the Web-Enabled Interaction Center," and "The ASP Call Center Model: Enabling Mass Customer Care." This conference track is designed to teach customer care professionals how to evolve their current call center into a web-based, blended multi-media contact center.

Several exhibitors will be on-hand at Internet Telecom Expo 2000 to showcase their latest offerings and provide interactive demonstrations of their call center and customer relationship solutions. Brightware is a leading supplier of eCustomer Assistance software for the Internet and helps companies build better customer relationships, one interaction at a time. At Internet Telecom Expo 2000, Brightware will be exhibiting Brightware 2000, which unifies the Web site, email and live chat to assist eCustomers by responding immediately to their issues and questions, expressed in their own words, and helping them achieve maximum results from their Web site visits. Brightware 2000 benefits eBusinesses by promptly satisfying their customers needs and requests and answering their questions in real-time, turning visitors into loyal customers.

HearMe (NASDAQ: HEAR) is a leading provider of next generation VoIP technologies that merge the functionality of the telephone, mobile devices, and the PC. HearMe partners already using the company's next generation voice technology to enhance their e-commerce applications and services include: LivePerson, Ask Jeeves, Telcopoint, and FaceTime Communications. HearMe will be showing the first public demonstrations of the integration of its technology with key ecommerce applications that include Click&Talkā„¢ functionality, advanced firewall and proxy server handling, and phone and PC integration. The company will also provide a preview of its newest technologies for voice-enabled email for online customer service.

Symon Communications, a leader in visual alerting communications, offers the most advanced real-time visual messaging technology available today. SYMON's highly effective SYMON2000 software and NetBrite LED displays provide instant messages and alerts for call centers, help desks, command centers, data centers, manufacturing plants and more. By providing time-sensitive statistics and information in real-time, employees and managers are empowered to make faster, more informed decisions to improve efficiency and quality in contact centers.

"The evolution from call centers to contact centers seems to be a simple progression incorporating technological innovations as they become available," said Mr. Cooper. "But in reality, every organization has legacy systems, proprietary hardware/software solutions and scattered incompatible databases that must be leveraged or replaced. Internet Telecom Expo is the place decision makers can come to determine the best way for their organizations to take advantage of the benefits the solutions offer."

According to the recent "eTail eService Functionality Study" by Gartner Group, Inc., an analyst firm specializing in information technology, none of the top consumer e-tail sites were rated "excellent" or even "good" for their customer service. Only 23% of these top sites were rated "average," 73% delivered fair customer service and the rest were "poor."

About CMP Media Inc

CMP Media Inc. (http://www.cmpnet.com/), a subsidiary of United News & Media plc (UNEWY), is a leading high-tech media company providing essential information and marketing services to the entire technology spectrum-the builders, sellers and users of technology worldwide. Capitalizing on its editorial strength, CMP is uniquely positioned to offer marketers comprehensive, integrated media solutions tailored to meet their individual needs. Its diverse products and services include newspapers, magazines, Internet products, research, direct marketing services, education and training, trade shows and conferences, custom publishing, testing and consulting. Online editions of the company's converging communications print publications, along with products and services created exclusively for the Internet, can be found on CommWeb at http://www.commweb.com/.

To obtain additional information on Internet Telecom Expo 2000 and related properties visit http://www.I-TelecomExpo.com Press representative and industry analysts interested in attending should contact Clark DesSoye at 917-305-3358, cdessoye@cmp.com

SOURCE: CMP Media, Inc.

Contact: Clark DesSoye Company Contact for Internet Telecom Expo 2000,
917-305-3358, or e-mail cdessoye@cmp.com; or Glenn Steinberg,
gsteinberg@s-board.com, or Stephanie Bennett, sbennett@s-board.com, both of
Springboard Communications, 732-863-1900

Website: http://www.i-telecomexpo.com/
http://www.cmpnet.com/

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