Call Centers news from FierceCIO

Networking equipment vendor Nortel is taking aim at SMBs with new products that are designed to appeal to small business techies: a number of stackable switches and a new small office IP-PBX that sports some enterprise-worthy features. The company's stackable switches can be placed on top of each other to save space and once stacked, can be managed as a single device. Meanwhile, the new IP-PBX, the BCM 50 version 2, boasts features like call-center functionality, which allows small groups …

Is the U.S. gaining or losing call centers? According to the National Association of Call Centers, America led the world with 52 percent of new call centers opening here from 2002 to 2006, but we also led with 75 percent of existing call centers closing. Many call center companies pay agents about $10 per hour plus benefits, compared to virtually pennies per day in some third-world countries.

For more on call centers:
- read this Destination CRM …

> Indian call center? That's so 2004. Article

> FileMaker 8.5 database ups the ante. Review

> Mainframes not just for old fogies. Article

And Finally... The hard disk that changed the world. Article

Another week, another Oracle acquisition: this time it's hosted call-center vendor Telephony@Work. TaW's products perform call-center and CRM functions over IP connections and were already used by Siebel Systems. Now, Oracle will integrate the software not just with Siebel but also with a variety of CRM and business intelligence products, officials said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

For more on Oracle:
- see this CRN …

Mercury Interactive is bolstering its IT service management software with technology from Vertical Solutions (not to be confused with the better-known Vertical Communications) and researchers and facilities from Tefensoft for a total of $18.5 million. Vertical's PowerHelp IT program will be merged into Mercury's Service Desk family. The deals follow the $105 million purchase of Systinet earlier this year that resulted in a business scandal; hopefully …

SugarCRM, known for its eponymous 3.0 software, is the first commercial open-source company to take a Microsoft shared-source license. That might not endear them to anyone in LinuxLand, but it'll help them move up the food chain in WindowsWorld. (What's your opinion? Email me.) Licensees get code for things like directory building, installation tools and, perhaps most valuable of all, access to the people who make the OS.

For more on …

Companies in southeast Asia and Australia are leading the trend to integrate voice technologies into IT applications, with more than half of applications getting either speech recognition, text-to-speech or VoIP in two years, Gartner analyst Geoff Johnson said. The call center business in Asia will grow from $617.4 million last year to $1.4 billion in 2011, analysts at Frost & Sullivan add. The bad news: Such analysts are using another TLA, "VoE" for "voice over …

> AT&T doubling Bay Area Net capacity. Article

> People, processes at call center show. Article

> SAP opens arms to NetWeaver community. Article

> GPL 3 may tackle Web distribution …

Normally, I use this space to elaborate on the top story of the week gone by. This week, however, I'd like to share a funny story.

I subscribe to a daily CRM headlines newsletter, as one of dozens of sources for selecting the right stories for each issue of FierceEnterprise. (All FierceMarkets stories are hand-selected by us editors, not automated by .RSS feeds …

A new upgrade from RightNow Technologies -- RightNow CRM 3.5 -- focuses on marketing, sales, and service features, officials said. The hosted software maker, previously a call center specialist, acquired some name-brand customers recently in its quest to become a bigger enterprise player (read between the lines: to get acquired). The software also focuses on education and government tools.

For more about RightNow's plans:
- see this News.com …