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By
Alana Grelyak
Ah, May. The flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping, Verizon is hiring people to work 72 hour weeks to keep up with customers, and Blockbuster is attempting to stream. This year, we’ve already noticed customers demanding new and better service; this month we’ll take a look at just a few things companies are doing to keep up with those demands. We also have the usual mergers, acquisitions, and other tidbits that keep bringing you back to read NewsWatch month after month. We appreciate your readership and offer this month’s NewsWatch with a sincere thanks.
Verizon is currently doing a test run of what they call PAMs or “Personal Account Managers” in Tampa, Florida. The idea is that each customer will have a PAM, who will be available via Blackberry six days a week, twelve hours a day, to personally resolve the customer’s issues. Each PAM will service, in theory, 800 customers. Twelve hours a day. Six days a week. While this seems like a somewhat innovative approach to customer service, what happens if the PAM quits, which seems a likely possibility given the probable strain of dealing with complaints for a majority of one’s week? I, for one, am looking forward to Verizon’s official report on this experiment.
Verizon Communications, in another pair of strange maneuvers, is suing Time Warner for false advertising, claiming that Time Warner’s cable TV ads imply that Verizon’s TV service is inferior to Time Warner’s and requires a satellite dish, among other things. The lawsuit now seems odd in light of Verizon awarding AOL (Time Warner is AOL’s parent company) a rather large online advertising contract just days later.
In the world of mergers, Amdocs is continuing on its quest to become the leader in customer experience systems for broadband and in the OSS market by acquiring Jacobs Rimell, Ltd. for approximately $45 million in cash. This now puts Amdocs in charge of Comcast’s provisioning infrastructure. “Comcast looks forward to working with Amdocs as it enhances Jacobs Rimell’s capabilities and integrates Jacobs Rimell into
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While this seems like a somewhat innovative approach to customer service, what happens if the PAM quits, which seems a likely possibility given the probable strain of dealing with complaints for a majority of one’s week? I, for one, am looking forward to Verizon’s official report on this experiment. |
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its broader service offerings,” said Comcast’s chief information officer Andy Baer. And how does Jacobs Rimell feel about the acquisition? “Amdocs and Jacobs Rimell have a shared vision of where the industry is going, what the broadband cable industry needs to continue to transform, and what it takes to be both a leading technology provider and a trusted advisor,” said David Jacobs, chief technology officer and co-founder of Jacobs Rimell. “The integration of Jacobs Rimell’s service fulfillment solutions with Amdocs’ OSS portfolio brings together the deep industry knowledge and an expanded product suite needed for customers to simplify new product introduction and quickly broaden their services portfolios.” Amdocs doesn’t expect its non-GAAP earnings per share to be affected in fiscal 2008.
Also on the merger front, Axiom Systems was acquired by Comptel (the fulfillment company, not the trade association). The UK-based Axiom, whose Active Catalog has drawn special notice in recent years, was purchased for GBP 7 million (which, at current exchange rates works out to around EUR 8.7 million and a USD amount that I refuse to calculate because the current exchange rates make me weep). There are additional considerations built in that allow for an additional purchase price between GBP 4 and 16 million if Axiom's 2008 sales exceed EUR 13.5 million.
But wait! There's more! Sonus Networks announced that it has completed the acquisition of Atreus Systems. The two companies had enjoyed a lengthy partnership prior to the acquisition, and the terms of the deal haven't been disclosed. With the ink still wet on these three deals, it's an interesting time to be a smaller-to-midsized OSS play. Who'll be next? Sigma Systems? Nakina?
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