ClickSoftware launches new system for customer interaction management
Filed under: CRM, Data Storage, Information Technology, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Uncategorized
Israel-based ClickSoftware Technologies
, a mobile workforce management and service optimization solutions provider, recently announced its new solution for customer interaction management and the addition of it to the ClickSoftware’s ServiceOptimization Suite.
The new solution, ClickContact, automates the process of customers scheduling and maintaining appointments over the Internet in a way that gives them more control and flexibility while reducing the staff costs and responsibilities of the company. It also enables customers to provide feedback in an organized manner in which a company can act on.
According to ClickSoftware website, ClickContact features include:
- Integrated with ClickSchedule to maintain consistent service policy
- May be deployed on-premises or as a hosted solution
- Enables integration into corporate web site
- Online appointment scheduling, updating and/or canceling
- Automatic notifications, including appointment confirmation, reminders and real-time updates, available via text message, voicemail or email
- Customer satisfaction surveys available immediately following service visit
- Look & feel, notification defaults, notification templates and customer survey all fully configurable to meet customer needs
Other solutions making up the ServiceOptimization Suite include ClickMobile, ClickSchedule and ClickLocation.
ClickSoftware solutions are currently being used in industries such as Insurance, Telecommunications, Utilities and Home Services.
Company Facts
Founded in 1997.
Moshe BenBassat, Chairman and CEO.
Hannan Carmeli, Chief Operating Officer.
Products: ClickSchedule, ClickContact and ClickMobile.
Website: www.clicksoftware.com
Despite economic climate, OpTier raises $63 million in funding
Filed under: BTM, Information Technology, Performance Management, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Uncategorized, VC, virtualization
Last week, OpTier, an Israeli business transaction management software company, announced that it had successfully raised $63 million in its latest round of funding to focus on its product line and market expansion. While $63 million in funds raised is impressive at any time, it is especially impressive now given the unstable global economy and the impact it is likely to have on Israel’s economy in the next year.
This was fourth-round funding though, so presumably OpTier is established enough and has a viable enough plan to improve its product and expand its market share that investing such an amount is much less of a gamble for investors compared to an investment of $4-7 million in a seed or early stage startup seeking funding.
OpTier’s product, CoreFirst, does seem to be a winner. Written off in its first few years as unlikely to stand a chance against competition from companies such as BMC Software, Computer Associates, HP, IBM and Mercury Interactive, OpTier has become one of the leaders with CoreFirst being identified by Forrester Research as bringing Business Transaction Management (BTM) to Business Service Management (BSM).
According to the company website,
“Based on unique Active Context Tracking™ (ACT) technology, our CoreFirst® product assures that business transactions flow smoothly within IT applications and infrastructure, without bottlenecks or outages, for improved end-user experience and reduced cost.”
The latest version of CoreFirst, CoreFirst 3.0, was unveiled earlier this month and promises enterprises the ability to deploy it in even the most complex of IT environments to link business and IT so that transactions flow smoothly through the IT infrastructure, ensuring that services remain uninterrupted and business goals are met. CoreFirst 3.0 now also supports the Microsoft Application Framework (.Net).
Some of its features include:
- “Built-in real time ability to continually benchmark business transactions performance across tiers and provide alerts when SLAs are breached.
- Full recording of every business transaction executed in any system it monitors, so you can easily track every transaction’s execution throughout customer facing systems, backend supporting systems, and shared services environments, pointing out how much time was spent at each stop and how many resources were consumed.”
Plans for this round of funding were first announced in May shortly after B-hives was acquired by VMWare and OpTier noted that the market is consolidating. Whether or not the economy will impact OpTier’s vision or abilities for acquisitions should be seen probably in the next few months.
Company Facts
Founded in 2002.
Headquartered in New York. R&D in Ramat Gan, Israel.
Dov Gal, Co-founder, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
Amir Alon, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.
Four co-founders in total.
Product: CoreFirst
Website: www.optier.com
21 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of June 15, 2008
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, Industry pulse, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), VC
The main headlines coming from Israel’s hi-tech scene during the week of June 15, 2008 were primarily related to water technology and future investments in Israel. It was announced that Los Angeles joined Israel on water research and Germany-based RWE made a bid for Israel’s Negev solar plant. The MSCI index announced that it will be upgrading Israel from an emerging market to a developed one, joining the ranks of the United States and the UK among others. While being considered “developed” sounds nice, Israel will now be vying against these more established economies for funds. Although this was covered extensively in the media around the world (and is covered in it’s own section on this list), there were plenty of other Israel technology-related headlines from the past week. Check out the full list of this week’s 21 Israel-related technology headlines below:
Cleantech
BP seeks more Israeli cleantech investment
Arison’s water venture gets name, launch date
Environmentalists unite against Red-Dead canal
Los Angeles and Israel to cooperate on water research
RWE reportedly makes bid for Negev
Investments (VC)
Neocleus Raises Over $11M in Series B Financing
Get with the consumer program, say Israeli VCs
Tax breaks urged for venture lending cos
Investments (Israeli Market)
A worrying look at the future of Israeli hi-tech
Markets slide on financial, oil fears
High-tech industry sees slowdown loom
Tel Aviv Bourse to Stay Independent, Forgo Alliances, CEO Says
Information Technology
Amdocs and IBM Introduce Unified Data Management Solution
Magic Software Nominated for SYS-CON’s “SOA World Magazine Readers’ Choice Awards”
Miscellaneous
Israeli telecom start-ups find success in Asian road show
TI in Israel says it “believes in fabs”
Partner launches video-on-demand service
About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership
Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or
inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be
directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.
VeNotion Technologies and Software AG sign agreement
Filed under: Information Technology, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
Earlier this week, Israel-based VeNotion Technologies, an innovative Business ServiceWare software solutions provider, and Software AG, a leading business infrastructure software company, announced the signing of a technology partnership agreement to integrate
Software AG’s SOA technology with
VeNotion’s automated SOA Business
ServiceWare.
According to the VeNotion website, ServiceWare,
consists of an automated business services and related IT
assets models, assuring software components and SOA services are
organized and managed by business context.
The company’s VeN4 ServiceWare™,
(patent pending) technology enables visibility, use and reuse of the
enterprise business logic and software assets within the SOA initiative.
Enterprise architects working with Software AG’s CentraSite Community Network can integrate VeNotion’s VeN4 ServiceWare™ into it to enable Business ServiceWare that organizes IT and SOA
services by business context.
Company Facts
Founded in 2006.
Avi Kochva, Co-Founder and CEO.
Ronen Yochpaz, Co-Founder and CTO.
Products: VeN4 ServiceWare™.
Website: www.venotion.com.
Related ebizQ and ITGumbo content:
BPM Basics for Dummies: Getting a Read on BPM (archive webinar)
Company in Focus: Magic Software Enterprises Ltd
About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership
Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or
inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be
directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.
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