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JeevesOne Goes Inside the
Enterprise to Enhance Global 2000 Corporations' Investments in CRM and Increase
the Widespread Adoption of Its Natural Language Technology
EMERYVILLE,
Calif., Sept. 24, 2001 - Jeeves Solutions, a division of Ask Jeeves, Inc.®
today announced general availability of JeevesOne. Its first packaged,
question answering software product, JeevesOne delivers cost-effective,
intelligent self-service. For the last three years, Jeeves Solutions has
delivered its technology as an outsourced service or ASP to companies such as
Dell, Ford, Nike, British Telecom, Verizon and other industry leaders. With
JeevesOne, the two thirds of the U.S. market that prefer a self-service solution
that is customer-resident and delivers valuable customer insight, will be able
to benefit from Ask Jeeves' technology. A competitively-priced, enterprise
software application, JeevesOne delivers highly relevant answers and
unparalleled customer analytics while simultaneously giving companies the
independence and control they seek. In addition to significantly reducing
support costs, JeevesOne will help companies deliver better products and
services by learning from every question customers ask.
``Cost-effective, intelligent self-service solutions are crucial for
companies in the current environment of demanding customers and limited
budgets,'' said Robert Mirani, director of CRM strategies for
Yankee Group. ``Although companies
have invested millions of dollars in CRM, content management and other solutions
to interact and respond to customers, many still execute ineffectively in using
self-service so that customer communications is managed optimally. Solutions
like JeevesOne can help provide the missing link through high value customer
analytics tools and an easy-to-use question answering system - all controlled
within a company's firewall.''
``While answering questions is seen as an absolute necessity for
corporate Web sites, the opportunity to profit from the insight gained in
question answering analysis has been largely ignored. JeevesOne uses natural
language to provide an unconstrained medium for users to freely express their
desires, wants, interests and intentions,'' said Claudio Pinkus, president of
Jeeves Solutions. ``JeevesOne provides companies with a window into customers'
thinking at key points in the customer life cycle helping them maximize the
lifetime value of their customers.''
JeevesOne can be installed by companies within hours and a customized
implementation can be up and running in three weeks. JeevesOne is available now
and competitively priced starting at $100,000. JeevesOne supports Windows NT and
Windows 2000 platforms in the first release. Support for additional platforms is
under development.
...Ask Jeeves web site
Editor's
comment:- when the database query language SQL was first being marketed, one of
the selling points was that non programmers, such as marketing people, could
just type in natural English like SQL statements at a terminal and extract all
the data they needed from the company mainframe... Well, that didn't happen, but
the need hasn't changed. The Ask Jeeves web site stood out when it first
appeared, many years ago, because it seemed to offer sensible answers compared
to most other search-engines. I think that any company that's brave enough to
put a cartoon character on its home page is also worthy of serious
consideration;-) |
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New eMarketer Report
Reveals Online Shopping Continues to Grow, Despite Downturn in US Economy
New
York, NY - September 20, 2001 - Despite a softening US economy, the number of
online users and buyers continues to grow, according to the new eCommerce: B2C
Report from eMarketer. The report, which aggregates and analyzes
data from more than 100 research organizations, includes estimates for US B2C
e-commerce revenues in 2001 ranging from the Direct Marketing Association's
$37.1 billion to $117 billion by Keenan Vision. eMarketer's own estimate,
based on careful analysis of the various projections (including figures from the
Department of Commerce), is that US B2C e-commerce revenues, which totaled $38.3
billion in 2000, will quadruple to $156 billion by 2005.
Key highlights from the eCommerce: B2C Report:
- The number of US internet users -- 116.5 million in 2000 -- will increase
to 184.1 million by 2005.
- Americans buying online will more than double, from 64.1 million in 2000 to
130 million by 2005.
- Giga Information Group's data indicate that click-and-mortar companies will
dominate internet sales in 2001, as they did in 2000.
- Alexa Research reports that 33 sites in the top 50 have multi-channel
operations, while only 17 are pure dot-coms.
- eMarketer places the online customer conversion ratio at 2.9% for 2000, an
improvement from 1.9% of 1999. For 2001, the ratio will jump to 3.5% as
e-tailers attract and win new customers with more targeted, customized marketing
campaigns.
- By year-end 2001, 37% of all teens (age 14 to 17) online will have
purchased something on the web, up from 30% in 2000.
- Visa International places online credit card fraud rates between $0.25 and
$0.28 per every $100 charged, significantly higher than the $0.07 for all
transactions.
- Jupiter found that consumers are "overwhelmingly" fearful about
the theft of credit card data online. Nearly 81% of US consumers are afraid that
their card number will be intercepted online.
The eCommerce: B2C
Report, containing 240 pages and 308 color tables and graphs, aggregates
research data from a variety of sources, and can be
ordered online for $795 |
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'Twin Towers Orphan Fund'
Nets Praise, Support from Local Officials, Civic Leaders
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. September 14, 2001 -
The Twin Towers Orphan Fund, which was announced today here and
established by a national coalition of independent public relations
practitioners around the country along with a local charity, has received a
groundswell of support from elected officials, civic leaders, public
corporations and the charitable community here and across the nation.
Created by more than 40 PR professionals around the nation collectively acting
in response to the tragedies affecting families and children in New York, Los
Angeles, Boston, and Washington, the new fund was co-founded and is administered
by an established local Bakersfield charity. Funds are earmarked for the
long-term well being of children that were made orphans by the national
disasters of September 11, 2001.
All donations collected will be used
to provide those children with long-term educational and housing assistance,
daily necessities, as well as mental and physical health care.
Within hours of the first explosion, PR professionals, many of whom
have never met in person, began exchanging e-mails on a public relations
Internet mailing list and within that one day had gathered enough support to
build an instant grass roots national publicity campaign.
...Twin Towers Orphan Fund web site |
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Most Computer Resellers
Prefer to See Business Decline Rather Than Promote Themselves on the Web
The
world wide web can no longer be called a "new" media. In most
countries a child of this age would already be attending school, and in Europe
at least, probably have its own cell phone and PC. So you'd think that
especially in a recession, most computer resellers would welcome the low cost
and no cost opportunities offered by the web to get more leads at a lower cost
than other more traditional forms of promotion.
I did write an
article a few years
ago, at that time time criticising Sun resellers (who were busy selling web
hosting systems to everyone else) for failing to do simple things like having
their own web sites, and submitting their url to our Sun buyers publication.
That aspect has improved in recent months, but most VARs in the markets which we
cover (Sun and storage) still have a long way to go when it comes to doing
anything about that other important element of free web promotion:- sending out
press releases.
If I look at the number of total number of incoming
press releases from companies in the IT markets we cover, probably less than 1%
of them come from VARs. And I have to work very hard to extract the 1% which I
get. But there are approximately 50 times as many VAR companies as principals,
so if anything ever happens in those organizations, the ratio could
theoretically be the other way around. There are many possible and probable
reasons for this deficit in VAR news including:-
- maybe not many VARs use our publications? - Our readers are mainly
end-users, it's true, and that's good for our advertisers, but that should be an
incentive for more VARs to send us news.
- nothing ever happens in a VAR? - But you'd be surprised how many times I
find out 6 months after it's no longer a news item that they've moved to a
larger office, changed their logo, or acquired another company - all of which
are little in the world scale of things - but newsworthy enough in a VAR
context.
See also:-
Press Release FAQ's -
How to write them, where to distribute them etc,
Marketing Agencies
which ARE Effective at PR |
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Broadcast TV Still Has an
Important Role as a News Medium in the DotCom Age
When the
tragic events of September 11th started to unfold, I was still at work. But the
main news web sites I tried to access were overloaded or down. So I switched to
satellite TV and watched CNN. Then created a real-time news digest to warn
readers who were using my web sites. It shows that broadcast media still have an
important role when they're broadcasting something which affects everyone. Most
web sites can't cope with that that kind of surge in reader demand. But TV is
set up and organised for the maximum audience all the time. |
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Intel To Co-Author Series
Of Books On How To Build, Deploy An E-Business
NETWORLD
+ INTEROP CONFERENCE, Atlanta, September 11, 2001 - Intel Corporation
plans to present a series of books to help guide businesses in the design and
build-out of their e-Business strategies. The IT-focused effort was
developed with leading researchers, vendors and end-users, and is intended to
show information technology decision-makers how to use the Internet for greater
business performance and competitive advantage.
"The rules for e-Business have changed, with a greater emphasis
on standardization, investment protection and unconditional uptime," said
Dan Fineberg, Intel Enterprise/e-Business manager. "Intel is leading a
multi-vendor program to help IT managers build, use and manage a computing
infrastructure that helps a company communicate and conduct business more
efficiently and profitably."
The collection of books, called the "IT Best Practices Series,"
will begin publication this fall. The first three books in the series will
feature content developed in collaboration with META Group and other companies.
The titles include:
- "The Adaptive Enterprise: IT Infrastructure Strategies to Manage
Change and Enable Growth"
- "Enriching The Value Chain: Infrastructure Strategies Beyond the
Enterprise"
- "Securing Business Information: Strategies to Protect the Enterprise
and Its Network"
Editor's comments:- Intel used to have a very rich set of case
studies on their site about e-Business, a long time before Sun and Microsoft
copied the same idea. If the books follow the same pattern, they should be a
good read. However, it's likely that many of the companies mentioned, if they
use real life examples, may no longer be around. That will take some careful
last minute editing. |
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Gartner Says Domain Names
Cost a Typical Large Business Nearly $100,000 per Year
STAMFORD,
CONN., September 11, 2001 - According to Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and
ITB), a typical large business owns between 200 and 500 domain names and spends
close to $100,000 per year registering, maintaining and defending them. Seven
additional domains will be put into use within the next 12 months, with the .biz
and .info domains scheduled to go live in early October. Gartner advises
businesses to protect their corporate identities and product lines through
strict domain name management. "Managing domain names is becoming
absolutely critical," said Ted Chamberlin, analyst for Gartner. "Businesses
that do not have a strong domain management strategy risk losing precious
enterprise mind share and may ultimately pay large legal fees defending itself
against sabotage to its brand and corporate identities."
Through 2006 and beyond, it will be 1,000 to 100,000 times more costly
to recover a domain name from hostile ground than simple and proactive domain
name management and registration. Gartner analysts said enterprises must
implement a strategy that assigns domain names with importance corresponding to
the enterprise's overall needs. Gartner suggests that domain names be assigned
three different priorities: critical, important and secondary.
Critical names are domains that are essential to the brand identity
and awareness of the company or a specific product line. Companies will devote
65 percent of their money, time and effort in registering, maintaining and
defending these names.
Important names are domains that entail some time-to-marketing efforts
or brand awareness, but are not essentially critical. An example would be if
Coke or Pepsi designated a name such as "www.dietcola.com." A company
may consider this important since the generic term is identified with its
specific product, but at the same time, if a competitor registered the name, it
would not negatively impact the other company. Companies should devote 20
percent of their money, time and effort in registering, maintaining and
defending these names.
Secondary names are domains that enterprises typically should not
proactively register, but should be vigilant about the abuse or misuse of such
domains and their potential to damage brand awareness of public perception of
the company or brand. Examples include "yahooo.com" or "www.microsoff.com."
These domain name variations are typically registered by parties that intend to
divert Internet traffic away from a legitimate site, confuse the Web surfer or
inflict harm on the targeted Web site. Companies should spend 15 percent of
their time, effort and money in defending its names against such domain name
variations, and the defense should consist of monitoring, recovery and
arbitration. "The consequences of inaction can result in the
brick-and-mortar equivalent of storefront destruction, or at least graffiti.
Either way it will cost companies money. They shouldn't let others ransom or
destroy their storefronts," Chamberlin said.
See also:-
Market research companies
and analysts
Ed. I couldn't agree more about the
importance of this. But there's more to it than the bits after the dot. My
company published a site called STORAGEsearch.com.com
in September 1998. A competing publisher started a site called SearchStorage.com
in March 2000. Because the words "storage" and "search" are
generic and not trademarks, there was nothing we could do about it. If we had a
time machine, we would of course, go back and register both versions of the
name. You have been warned. |
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MarketingViews | |
Other news on this page
JeevesOne
Goes Inside the Enterprise to Enhance Global 2000 Corporations' Investments in
CRM and Increase the Widespread Adoption of Its Natural Language Technology
New
eMarketer Report Reveals Online Shopping Continues to Grow, Despite Downturn in
US Economy
'Twin Towers Orphan Fund' Nets Praise, Support from Local
Officials, Civic Leaders
Most Resellers Prefer to See Business Decline Rather Than Promote
Themselves on the Web
Broadcast TV Still Has an Important Role as a
News Medium in the DotCom Age
Intel To Co-Author Series Of Books On How
To Build, Deploy An E-Business
Gartner Says Domain Names Cost a Typical Large Business Nearly
$100,000 per Year
earlier news
(archive) |
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