NewsFactor Network

CRM Booming, Business Process Management Critical Too

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:41:34 -0500

Considering the sheer spending on Customer Relationship Management software this year alone, it's clear that enterprises see the benefits of popular CRM platforms like Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

According to a recent Gartner research report, global spending for all enterprise software (including CRM) will be $304 billion in 2013, with growth of 6.4 percent over 2012 spending. The market research firm said demand is being driven by strength in software suites offering customer relationship management, supply chain management, and social networking, as well as Web conferencing, and collaboration.

Gartner predicts that CRM specifically will grow to be a $36.5 billion market by 2017. That's on a compound annual growth rate of 15.1 percent between 2012 and 2017, and is dramatically up from a Gartner forecast earlier this year of a $20.6 billion market by 2017.

While those numbers are key to the CRM software makers, what's most important to customer service managers and sales directors is how to leverage the CRM platforms to really improve the customer experience in ways that boost customer satisfaction, sales and profitability. If you don't manage the customer experience well from a human resources front, all that spending could be in vain.

Melding Business and Customer Strategies

To learn more about how companies are using CRM software not only manage customer relationships, but also to shape the overall customer experience, we spoke with Colosa CEO Brian Reale. His company develops ProcessMaker and ProcessMapper -- open source software for Business Process Management, workflow management, and related analytics. His perspective reflects how CRM software can be used most effectively as part of a broader Business Process Management (BPM) approach.

Reale describes Customer Experience Management as a classic example of a knowledge-worker discipline.

"Today's knowledge worker needs the ability to quickly find and utilize customer information in order to deliver the...

Is Cumulus Network OS Really a Cisco-Killer?

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:09:36 -0500

Cumulus Networks on Wednesday rolled out what some are calling a Cisco-killer. Bold words, but there may be a sliver of truth to them as the Cumulus Linux operating system for data center networking makes its way into several next-generation service providers and enterprises and finds broad industry support.

Veteran networking engineers from Cisco and VMware founded the company in 2010. Led by CEO JR Rivers and CTO Nolan Leake, the company has raised more than $15 million in venture funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Peter Wagner and four of the original VMware founders.

Cumulus Linux promises fast, easy and affordable networking. Industry watchers agree that it fills the void for a truly stand-alone network operating system. Cumulus contends that these benefits are helping its customers fulfill the promise of the software-defined data center.

"Linux revolutionized the compute side of the data center over the past 15 years," said Rivers, who as well as CEO is co-founder of Cumulus Networks. "Having a common OS broke vendor lock-in, drove down server hardware cost, allowed scale-out architectures, and provided a common platform for innovations like virtualization.

"Meanwhile, networking remained stagnant. Innovation is finally coming to the network, and we are bringing that same transformational impact that Linux has had on data center economics and innovation to the networking side of the house."

Transforming the Data Center

Enterprises and service providers operating modern data centers face three interlocking challenges: creating infrastructure that is higher capacity, less complex and affordable. They need to address those three challenges in a way that supports new, more fluid application architectures with great agility and efficiency. The network is vital to making this all work.

According to Cumulus, legacy networking solutions are flawed for numerous reasons. They are proprietary with tightly integrated hardware and software. They are expensive and complex. There are no common...

Dish Drops Its Pursuit of Sprint, Clearing Way for SoftBank

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:07:26 -0500

In a telecom drama that's getting nastier by the day, Dish Network has pulled its proposal to merge with Sprint Nextel. That paves the way for SoftBank Corp. to make final its acquisition of the wireless carrier in the weeks ahead.

Last week, SoftBank raised its offer from $20.1 billion to $21.6 billion. SoftBank has proposed to grab 70 percent of the company for that price. Sprint's board of directors has stayed the course with its recommendation for stockholders to vote in favor of the transaction.

"While Dish continues to see strategic value in a merger with Sprint, the decisions made by Sprint to prematurely terminate our due diligence process and accept extreme deal protections in its revised agreement with SoftBank, among other things, have made it impracticable for Dish to submit a revised offer by the June 18th deadline imposed by Sprint," Dish said in a statement. "We will consider our options with respect to Sprint, and focus our efforts and resources on completing the Clearwire tender offer."

Taking It to Court

But Dish won't get Clearwire, either, if Sprint has anything to say about it. Sprint on Monday filed a complaint in the Delaware Court of Chancery against Dish and Clearwire asking the court to block the sale. Sprint claims the transaction violates Delaware law and the rights of both Sprint and Clearwire's other strategic investors. Sprint's lawsuit also seeks to rescind certain parts of the tender offer agreement and seeks declaratory, injunctive, compensatory and other relief.

In the complaint, Sprint alleges that Dish has repeatedly attempted to fool Clearwire's shareholders into believing its proposal was actionable in an effort to acquire Clearwire's spectrum and to obstruct Sprint's transaction with Clearwire. Dish also responded to the lawsuit:

"Sprint's lawsuit is a transparent attempt to divert attention from its failure to deal fairly with Clearwire's...

Virtual Reality Gets Thumbs Up with Oculus VR Funding

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:45:50 -0500

Oculus VR, makers of a virtual reality headset for video games, has raised $16 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners, along with Founders Fund and Formation 8.

In case you aren't familiar with the concept, the company's flagship product, Oculus Rift, promises to change the way you think about gaming with a wide field of view, high-resolution display and ultra-low latency. Even with 'next generation' consoles on the horizon, virtual reality still came away with dozens of awards and accolades at E3 and Oculus Rift is on the cutting-edge of that realm.

"I got into VR because it seemed like the obvious path to the best possible gaming experience, but never expected it to take off so quickly," said Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR, in a blog post. "In less than a year, incredible game developers all over the world are building games designed explicitly for virtual reality, and people are beginning to understand that the tech is finally viable."

Changing Virtual Realities

The funding will open new doors for the Irvine, Calif.-based company. Luckey is no stranger to fund-raising. He used Kickstarter to get its first product, Oculus Rift, off the ground. The concept first garnered $2.4 million in support from the likes of Valve, Epic Games and Unity and more than 9,500 other potential customers.

According to the company, Oculus Rift is different from other virtual reality headsets because it offers an immersive gaming experience. Even though this space is still young, the company is already racing to a lead with its approach -- and now it's funding.

"Most products either lack the technical features required for believable immersion or sit at a very high price-point ($20,000+) reserved for the military or scientific community," the company said as part of its Kickstarter campaign....

Huawei Ascend P6 Smartphone Is a Quarter-Inch Thin

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:02:34 -0500

Huawei just unveiled what it is contending is the world's thinnest smartphone, the Ascend P6, which measures just 6.18mm thick, or less than a quarter-inch.

The device features a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, a metallic body, a 4.7-inch high-definition in-cell display and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The smartphone weighs just over 4 ounces and fits into small pockets. Android 4.2.2, Jelly Bean, operating system runs the phone and a 2000 mAh battery powers it.

Avi Greengart, principal analyst at Current Analysis, said the smartphone is indeed "incredibly, incredibly" thin and has decent stats.

"The phone offers a 2000 mAh battery even though the device is incredibly thin," Greengart said. "One of the reasons for that is that it's a 4.7-inch display. Huawei is able to fit a modest-sized battery in there. There's a quad-core 720p display so I don't know how good the battery life is going to be, but at least it's not a going to be a tiny battery."

Perfect for Selfies

Huawei said its Automated Discontinuous Reception and Quick Power Control battery optimization and power-saving technology improves performance by more than 30 percent compared with smartphone batteries of equal size. With its multi-screen AirSharing capability, users can connect to a range of devices to boost productivity.

Huawei said the device is perfect for "selfies" (pictures of yourself) with its front-facing camera and auto facial-enhancing capabilities. The phone also offers an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with f2.0 aperture and 4cm macro view, as well as 1080p full HD video recording and playback. Huawei has also pre-installed proprietary IMAGESmart software, which offers contrast and color enhancement, auto scene recognition, object tracing focus, and what it calls "instant facial beauty support."

Huawei's Emotion user interface has been improved, including updates to Uni-Home, Me Widget, MagicTouch and SmartReading. New to Huawei's Emotion UI are the panoramic shoot...

Yahoo, Apple Disclose Government Data Requests

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:14:36 -0500

Following disclosures from Microsoft and Facebook last Friday, Yahoo and Apple are releasing information on thousands of requests they have received for user data related to criminal and security investigations from law enforcement and the U.S. National Security Agency.

Requests for user data that investigative agencies in the U.S. made to Yahoo from Dec. 1, 2012, to May 31 numbered between 12,000 and 13,000, including both criminal requests and those under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is the authority the NSA uses to seek information. Yahoo said the most common requests for user data concerned fraud, homicides, kidnappings and other criminal investigations. Yahoo did not specify how many user accounts were involved in the requests.

"Democracy demands accountability," Yahoo said in a statement authored by CEO Marissa Mayer and General Counsel Ron Bell. "Recognizing the important role that Yahoo can play in ensuring accountability, we will issue later this summer our first global law enforcement transparency report, which will cover the first half of the year. We will refresh this report with current statistics twice a year.

"As always, we will continually evaluate whether further actions can be taken to protect the privacy of our users and our ability to defend it. We appreciate -- and do not take for granted -- the trust you place in us."

Apple Data Requests

For Apple, from Dec. 1, 2012, to May 31 the company received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. investigative agencies for customer data. Between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters. Apple said the most common form of request came from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer's disease,...

Leaker Vows New Details on NSA Access to Tech Servers

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:56:40 -0500

NSA leaker Edward Snowden, answering questions Monday in a live blog on his revelations about the top-secret agency, denied charges he was spying for China and vowed to release more details on the NSA's "direct access" to the tech companies' servers.

"Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped," Snowden said, according to The Guardian, which held the "live chat" on its website.

He said the U.S. government "is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me."

Snowden, a former NSA contractor who fled the United States after revealing top-secret details on the government's collection of Americans' phone and Internet records, has said he "does not expect to see home again."

Snowden, who took immediate refuge in Hong Kong, also denied any plans to give information to China in exchange for asylum.

Former vice president Dick Cheney told Fox News Sunday that he thinks Snowden is a "traitor" and warned that the analyst may be spying for the Chinese government.

"Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American," Snowden responded, "and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him, (Sen. Dianne) Feinstein, and (Rep. Peter) King, the better off we all are."

He called Cheney "a man who gave us the warrantless wiretapping scheme as a kind of atrocity warm-up" for the war in Iraq.

"Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn't I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now," he said.

Snowden did not elaborate on when he would reveal more information, but said, "the reality is this: if an NSA, FBI, CIA, DIA, etc., analyst has access to query raw SIGINT databases, they can enter and get results for anything they want. Phone number, email, user id, cell...

Google Settles Suit, Clears Way for Stock Split

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:04:52 -0500

Google has resolved a shareholder lawsuit blocking a long-delayed stock split, clearing the way for the Internet search leader to issue a new class of non-voting shares later this year.

The settlement announced Monday came on the eve of a scheduled Delaware chancery court trial that threatened to cast an unflattering light on Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

The class-action by the Brockton Retirement Board in Massachusetts and another Google shareholder, Philip Skidmore, alleged that Page and Brin engineered the stock split in a way that unfairly benefits them while shortchanging the rest of the company's shareholders.

Google denied the allegations and maintained that the proposed stock split announced 14 months ago would benefit shareholders by ensuring that Page and Brin would preserve the power that has enabled them to make the same kinds of bold bets on technology that has helped increase the company's market value by more than $260 billion during the past nine years.

The split calls for a new class of "C" stock with no voting power to be issued for each share of an existing category of "A" voting stock. The structure is designed to ensure that Page and Brin retain control over the company, even though they only currently own about 15 percent of Google's outstanding stock, combined.

Page, Google's CEO, and Brin, an executive who oversees special projects in the company's secret X Lab, hold 56 percent of Google's voting power through a "B" class of stock that gives them 10 votes per share. By creating a new class of non-voting shares, Google will be able to keep rewarding other employees with more stock and financing potential acquisitions of stock without undermining the voting power of Page and Brin.

The co-founders began pushing for the stock split three years ago, according...

Texting Spammers Correlate Phone Users to Local Banks

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:55:57 -0500

If you use an Internet-connected smartphone, touch tablet, e-reader, notebook, laptop or desktop computer you ought to care about cybersecurity and online privacy. Here you'll find information you can use to live your digital life more securely -- and on terms of your choosing.

So let's drill down on a particularly nasty form of fraudulent spam that's on the rise: SMS text-messaging spam.

Spam is most familiar as obnoxious pitches for dubious products that most of us are used to ignoring. But cybercriminals have figured out that they can trigger any number of lucrative scams if they can get us, via a text message, to do something, such as click on a link, send a text or make a phone call.

The immersive Internet cloud and our love affair with mobile devices combine to make a perfect platform for clever spammers. Text messages are cheap, anonymous and scalable. And we haven't learned to be as wary as we should be of messages that arrive on our phone screens.

So spam gangs are increasingly supplementing their e-mail campaigns with SMS spam. Their singular goal is to get more of us to click on more of their messages.

The elite spam gangs are making high use of tracking techniques, pioneered by the likes of Google and Facebook, to infuse more efficiency into their scam campaigns. Each time you type your phone number into a Web form, such as your Facebook profile page or a Web survey, that data get compiled, stored and sold to marketers, including spammers.

The best-and-brightest spammers are obtaining and using these lists of active numbers. Anyone can go online and buy lists of 100,000 numbers, broken down by carrier, for as little as $400.

One particular gang has begun sending messages to active numbers in certain area codes -- after first correlating smaller local banks...

Free Videomail Comes to Skype

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:55:23 -0500

Feature by feature, Microsoft's Skype is becoming a full communications suite. Microsoft announced Monday that its video messaging function, where users can leave videomail as well as voicemail, has now moved out of beta into general release.

The new, free feature is available for Skype versions on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry. Users can send and receive as many video messages as desired, with no charge. The preview version of Skype video messaging was launched in May. However, users were limited in preview to 20 free messages, after which a Skype Premium subscription was required.

On a posting on its official Skype blog, Microsoft's Yasmin Khan wrote of the possible use cases. "Want to say goodnight to your kids while traveling, but you'll be up in the air? Need to wish your dad a happy birthday, but can't seem to catch up? Spot something interesting while you're out and about, and want to share with your friend?"

Skype for Windows 8

To do so, a user simply taps the "video message" button, clicks the record button to capture the video message, and then records up to three minutes. Messages can be previewed before sending, and, if so desired, deleted and re-recorded before sending.

Some of the video messaging features are still to be completed, however. For example, although video messages should show up in chat history, they do not currently. Additionally, there is a reported bug in some situations where the thumbnail image for a video message sometimes leads to the record function instead of playback.

Although Skype was a major pioneer in free, voice-and-video-over-IP communications, competing communication apps are popping up all over. Startups include Glide and Viber, which offer features for non-synchronous video communications, and in this environment, Microsoft has been rushing to get out new Skype features and versions....

Samsung Offers Tiny, Superfast PCIe SSDs for Ultrabooks

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:30:55 -0500

Solid-state drives are continuing their march forward. On Monday, Samsung Electronics announced it has started to mass produce the first PCI-Express 3.0 SSDs for the new wave of Ultrabooks.

The thin Samsung XP941, available in 512 GB, 256 GB, and 128 GB sizes, will be provided to manufacturers for the next generation of slim notebooks. The new model provides a sequential read of 1,400 megabytes/second, which Samsung noted is the highest performance available using a PCIe 2.0 interface. The PCIe connection offers faster transfer speeds than SSDs using the SATA, or Serial ATA, interface.

This level of transfer speed, the company said, allows a drive to read half a terabyte of data -- or 10 HD movies as large as 5 GB each -- in only 36 seconds. Samsung said that is seven times faster than a hard drive, which would require more than 40 minutes for the same tasks, and it's more than 2.5 times faster than the fastest SSD using an SATA interface.

Six Grams

The new drive is available in an 80mm x 22mm form factor, weighing 6 grams, or about one-ninth the weight of an SATA-based 2.5-inch SSD. In volume, the XP941 is about one-seventh the size of a 2.5-inch SSD drive, allowing more room in a mobile device for, say, a larger battery.

Young-Hyun Jun, Samsung Electronic executive vice president for memory sales and marketing, said in a statement that the company's shipment of the XP941 makes it "the first to provide the highest performance PCIe SSD to global PC makers so that they can launch leading-edge ultra-slim notebook PCs this year."

Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said SSDs have been coming from SanDisk, Intel, Kingston and others in addition to Samsung, which is the "largest flash memory vendor in the world."

Classic Technology Adoption

He...

E3 Launches the Future of Video Games with a Bang

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:19:48 -0500

Since the first battles over "Pong" machines in local arcades four decades ago, video gamers have loved good competition. And this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo -- the industry's largest annual gathering -- presented more thrilling showdowns than ever. Microsoft vs. Sony. Mobile vs. console games. "Titanfall" vs. "Destiny." So who won E3?

MICROSOFT VS. SONY

Both companies served up flashy presentations of the forthcoming next-generation consoles, the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. Microsoft's show came off bland and corporate, and did little to answer consumer disenchantment with the Xbox One's requirement for regular Internet connections and Microsoft's vague statements on the playability of used games. Sony came out swinging, promising it would not try to restrict used game sales and the PS4 would not require a persistent online connection.

Sony also scored by announcing a $399 price tag for the PS4, $100 less than the Xbox One. While the contest is far from decided (indeed, much of the whole used-games issue rests in the hands of third-party publishers like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft), Sony assuredly won over some hearts. Winner: Sony.

"TITANFALL" VS. "DESTINY"

Two of the biggest debuts at E3 were first-person shooters from veterans of the genre. Respawn's "Titanfall," shepherded by the masterminds behind the landmark "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare," updates the formula with the addition of giant robots. "Destiny," from "Halo" creator Bungie, is more ambitious, promising vast open worlds that reward exploration more than the typical shooter. Winner: "Destiny."

CONSOLE VS. MOBILE

Console game publishers have been fretting over the continued viability of the $60, disc-based game in the face of competition from 99-cent smartphone apps. But mobile games, tucked away in the corners of the Los Angeles Convention Center, barely made a peep amid the bombast of their big-budget brethren at E3. And some big companies are looking at...

Secret to Prism Program: Even Bigger Data Seizure

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:23:45 -0500

In the months and early years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, FBI agents began showing up at Microsoft Corp. more frequently than before, armed with court orders demanding information on customers.

Around the world, government spies and eavesdroppers were tracking the email and Internet addresses used by suspected terrorists. Often, those trails led to the world's largest software company and, at the time, largest email provider.

The agents wanted email archives, account information, practically everything, and quickly. Engineers compiled the data, sometimes by hand, and delivered it to the government.

Often there was no easy way to tell if the information belonged to foreigners or Americans. So much data was changing hands that one former Microsoft employee recalls that the engineers were anxious about whether the company should cooperate.

Inside Microsoft, some called it "Hoovering" -- not after the vacuum cleaner, but after J. Edgar Hoover, the first FBI director, who gathered dirt on countless Americans.

This frenetic, manual process was the forerunner to Prism, the recently revealed highly classified National Security Agency program that seizes records from Internet companies. As laws changed and technology improved, the government and industry moved toward a streamlined, electronic process, which required less time from the companies and provided the government data in a more standard format.

The revelation of Prism this month by the Washington Post and Guardian newspapers has touched off the latest round in a decade-long debate over what limits to impose on government eavesdropping, which the Obama administration says is essential to keep the U.S. safe.

But interviews with more than a dozen current and former government and technology officials and outside experts show that, while Prism has attracted the recent attention, the program actually is a relatively small part of a much more expansive and intrusive eavesdropping effort.

Americans who disapprove of the government...

Edward Snowden's Life Surrounded by Spycraft

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:35:38 -0500

In the suburbs edged by woods midway between Baltimore and Washington, residents long joked that the government spy shop next door was so ultra-secretive its initials stood for "No Such Agency." But when Edward Snowden grew up here, the National Security Agency's looming presence was both a very visible and accepted part of everyday life.

When Snowden -- the 29-year-old intelligence contractor whose leak of top-secret documents has exposed sweeping government surveillance programs -- went to Arundel High School, the agency regularly sent employees from its nearby black-glass headquarters to tutor struggling math students.

When Snowden went on to Anne Arundel Community College in the spring of 1999 after leaving high school halfway through his sophomore year, he arrived on a campus developing a specialty in cybersecurity training for future employees of the NSA and Department of Defense, though, according to the records, he never took such a class.

And when Snowden joined friends in his late teens to edit a Web site built around a shared interest in Japanese animation, they chartered the venture from an apartment in military housing at Fort George G. Meade, the installation that houses the NSA center dubbed the Puzzle Palace and calls itself the "nation's pre-eminent center for information, intelligence and cyber."

In this setting, it's easy to see how the young Snowden was exposed to the notion of spycraft as a career, first with the Central Intelligence Agency and later as a systems analyst for two companies under contract to the NSA. But details of his early life -- in the agency's shadows and with both parents working for other branches of the federal government -- only magnify the contradictions inherent in Snowden's decision to become a leaker.

What, after all, did he think he was getting into when he signed up to work for the nation's...

Netflix To Run Original TV Series from Dreamworks

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:22:51 -0500

Netflix is going to start running original television series from Dreamworks Animation. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Netflix Inc. says the multi-year agreement is its biggest deal ever for original first-run content and includes more than 300 hours of new programming. It expands on an existing relationship between the companies.

For Dreamworks, the transaction announced Monday is part of a major initiative to expand its television production and distribution worldwide.

Netflix has been adding original programming to its roster of movies, and debuted the original series "House of Cards" on Feb. 1. It has also increased its focus on children's programming in a move seen as taking a different tack than traditional premium pay TV channels such as HBO, Starz and Showtime, whose original shows are tailored more to adults.

In December Netflix announced it will offer Disney movies, starting with films released in 2016. It declined to make a similar deal for the rights to Sony movies starting in 2016, which was kept by Starz.

The new Dreamworks shows will be inspired by characters from its hit franchises like "Shrek" and "Kung Fu Panda" and upcoming feature films as well as the Classic Media library that Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc. bought last year. The television shows will be commercial free.

The first series is expected to begin airing in 2014 and will be shown in the 40 countries in which Netflix operates.

In February the companies announced their first ever Netflix original series for kids based on the film "Turbo" that is coming out in movie theaters next month. The original series, called "Turbo F.A.S.T.," will be shown starting in December.

Next year Netflix customers in the U.S. and Latin America will also have access to some of Dreamworks' newest films, including "The Croods" and "Turbo."

Netflix shares rose $12.29, or 5.7 percent, to $226.28 in morning trading....