QuadraNet Systems brings automatic SMS reminders for restaurant bookings
QuadraNet Systems, a Restaurant Reservation software provider has incorporated its platform with the SMS sender, ‘Boomerang’ to allow the automatic sending of SMS reminders to customers the day before their meal.
According to Mike Edworthy, Service and Sales Director, QuadraNet Systems, no shows cost restaurants a huge amount in lost revenue every year. For that reason, an extensive amount of time and resource is invested in confirming bookings prior to a diner’s visit. At present, restaurateurs face the necessary and time-consuming task of calling diners one by one to confirm bookings, often only to be confronted by their voicemails. Boomerang’s two-way intelligent SMS technology solves this problem by automating this daily procedure. From within QuadraNet Reservations, an automated message is sent asking the customer to confirm their booking prior to dining. The customer is then able to respond by confirming their booking, automatically updating the reservation from a booked table to a confirmed table through intelligent pairing of the response with the outbound message.
He added that the Boomerang intelligent SMS communication solution allows restaurateurs to quickly communicate with its customers without human intervention; bookings are confirmed in an instant enabling owners and managers to see real-time reservation updates. SMS used intelligently will save restaurateurs money; remove resource-hungry admin and free-up phones, computers and most importantly staff. QuadraNet RESv5 users are able to regularly achieve overall savings of over US$1616.7 per month – based on the average hourly wage, cost of call and hours spent on the task. By removing this time-consuming process restaurants and hotels can use this resource to focus on value-add activities such as marketing, promotions, customer service and client-facing communication.
KPN selects ZTE for HSPA+, LTE trials in Belgium, Germany (Netherlands)
Dutch operator, KPN has announced a joint development programme with ZTE focusing on the application of LTE technology in Germany and Belgium.
KPN Mobile International and ZTE have scheduled a field trial program for 2011 to investigate the capabilities of ZTE’s commercial equipment.
The co-operation gives KPN the flexibility to upgrade quickly its network equipment to LTE in the future, depending on the demand. KPN has already worked with ZTE on its HSPA networks in Germany and Belgium, started last year.
Under the latest agreement, ZTE will help transform KPN networks in Germany and Belgium over a three-year period using ZTE’s SDR technology to provide HSPA+ data services. This will mean that customers at Base in Belgium and E-Plus in Germany will have access to mobile broadband at up to 21.6Mbps.
The initial agreement between ZTE and KPN involved the provision of access network technology, but the deal was extended to cover end-to-end solutions including core network and wireless access technologies and Android handsets. The packet-based core network equipment deployed in Germany is now in commercial use.
France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom plan to expand tech partnership
Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom SA are planning to explore potential areas of co-operation in several fields of technology.
The possible partnerships could include radio access network sharing in Europe, improving wireless internet while roaming, equipment standardization and cross-border services.
A France Telecom spokesman stated that this does not include any share swaps.
The two groups already own British mobile operator Everything Everywhere jointly, which has nearly 28 million customers.
America Movil Profit decreases 4.7% on depreciation costs
Latin America’s largest wireless carrier, America Movil SAB has stated that its fourth-quarter profit fell by 4.7% as costs to depreciate older technology increased.
Net income fell to $2.01 billion, from US$2.10 billion a year earlier and sales rose 6% to US$13.40 billion.
According to the company, the pace of technological advances in the market is growing so quickly that America Movil had to reduce the value on its books of older equipment. It categorized US$736.53 million of its US$2.21 billion in depreciation and amortization expenses in the quarter as extraordinary charges.
The company also recorded an extraordinary deferred tax credit of US$413.78 million in Brazil.
America Movil added that the depreciation charges represented 16.5% of sales in the fourth quarter compared to 14.3% in the previous three-month period. The charges will decline to 12% throughout 2011.
The company added 8.2 million mobile subscribers to close the quarter at 225 million. The biggest additions came in Brazil and Mexico.
America Movil expects to add as many as 17 million mobile phone subscribers in 2011, as compared to 24 million last year.
Aegis and Saudi Telecom Form Joint Venture to Transform Customer Care in the Region
Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), Saudi Arabia’s largest telecom operator and Aegis, a global outsourcing services company and part of the $15 billion Essar Group, today announced a landmark strategic partnership, which would see Aegis managing STC’s entire customer care operations including billing, directory enquiry, collection, verification.
Aegis, a leader in total customer lifecycle management, serves over 150 clients through a network of 47 delivery centers spread across 11 countries. It has more than 50,000 employees and serves a diversified base of customers in Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Telecom, Healthcare, Travel & Hospitality, Consumer Goods, Retail and Technology.
Aegis and STC will form a joint venture, Call Centre Company (CCC), to provide customer care to STC’s 28 million customers in Saudi Arabia. Initially, STC will transfer 550 agents across two directory-assistance centers. Over the next 18-24 months, Aegis will re-badge the remaining 4,500 STC customer care agents.
Both partners would have near-equal stakes in CCC, with STC holding 50% plus one share, and Aegis the rest. Aegis would have operational control and responsibilities. CCC would enjoy an exclusivity contract with STC. Besides targeting other customers in Saudi Arabia, CCC would also pursue customer care opportunities in Bahrain and Kuwait.
“STC has been a pioneer in the telecom landscape of Saudi Arabia and now has broadened its horizon to focus on other growth markets like the Gulf states, Africa, and India. We will increase our focus on our core operations, such as providing next generation telecommunication service to our customers. We are happy to have found an able partner in Aegis, we are confident Aegis would provide a great level of satisfaction to our customers, given their vast experience in managing customer experience across multiple geographies,” said Saud Al Daweesh, Group CEO, STC.
“We are pleased to be selected by STC in this landmark deal which not only demonstrates the visionary thinking of STC but also endorses Aegis’ expertise in managing customer experience,” said Aparup Sengupta, Managing Director & Global CEO, Aegis. “This deal would help STC vary their fixed cost and free up their management bandwidth to focus on emerging opportunities. This would also provide a huge boost to Aegis’ West Asia presence, since the joint venture would actively seek new businesses. We have aspirations of making this the largest BPO operation in the region.”
About Aegis
Aegis is a world-leading outsourcing services partner for more than 150 clients and with over two decades of leadership in total customer lifecycle management. The company has more than 50,000 employees across 47 locations, with a presence in 11 countries, serving verticals such as BFSI, Telecom, Healthcare, Travel & Hospitality, Consumer Goods, Retail and Technology. The company specializes in tailor-made solutions that cover the entire spectrum of customer and business experiences — across business processing, technology, and shared services — and offers customized engagement models to further facilitate the ease of doing business. Aegis is wholly owned by the Essar Group — a US$15 billion conglomerate. For more information, please visit www.aegisglobal.com.
About STC
Saudi Telecom owns and operates the largest, most reliable and diverse state-of-art telecommunications infrastructure, with investments in major terabit-size submarine cable systems passing through the Region, a self-healing national backhaul network, and multiple border-crossing terrestrial fiber optics links. As a consequence, Saudi Telecom has succeeded in becoming the leading Wholesaler within the Region by fully addressing the telecommunications requirements of its domestic and international customers at very attractive terms and with innovative services and unparalleled connectivity. STC, nowadays working in 10 different markets through its subsidiaries and affiliates having an access to more than 100 million subscribers. For more information, please visit www.stc.com.sa.
Research In Motion acquires TAT
Research In Motion has announced that it is acquiring Sweden based The Astonishing Tribe (TAT). The company is a developer of mobile user interface (UI) designs and has a long history of working with mobile and embedded technology.
TAT focuses on delivering great user experiences, from a design, technology, and usability perspective. Their design technology is used today in a variety of industries including the consumer electronics and automotive sectors. No financial details were provided.
As of September 2010 over 180 employees work for TAT at the offices in Sweden, South Korea, the United States, and the newly opened office in Japan.
Branson launches glossy iPad magazine, ‘Project’
British billionaire Richard Branson has unveiled a glossy magazine designed for Apple Inc.’s iPad, taking on News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch in the race to develop publications for the hot Apple device.
According to Branson, the monthly magazine-‘Project’, will cover entertainment, design, technology and entrepreneurs and will be available for $2.99 a month in Apple’s app store.
Branson, founder of Virgin Group Ltd., is the first to get a publication designed specifically for the iPad off the ground.
According to sources, Murdoch’s News Corp. is creating a subscription news product for the iPad called The Daily†that will cover national general interest news. The company is also planning to introduce the $1-a-week product in the U.S. in the first quarter.
According to Branson, this is not a battle; it’s not a war but is about the future of publishing.
According to Virgin, the product looks like a style magazine and acts like a website, and has been created with U.K. publisher Seven Squared. The publication is headed by Branson’s 29-year-old daughter, Holly Branson, who is special projects manager at Virgin Group, and Editor-in-chief Anthony Noguera, former editor of FHM in the U.K. and Emap East.
Retailers see rise in smartphone shopping
US shoppers equipped with smartphones have considerably increased the size of both searches and sales made from mobile devices so far this holiday season, underlining the technology‘s growing retail power.
According to Fiona Dias, head of strategy at GSI Commerce, which provides e-commerce services to retailers, a survey of a range of retailers showed that sales from mobile devices accounted for almost 3% of their online sales on the Friday and Saturday after the US Thanksgiving holiday last Thursday, compared with practically zero last year. You are talking about a nine or 10 times increase in penetration … although there’s still a way to go.
According Laura Conrad, President of Pricegrabber, a comparison shopping site owned by Experian, it had seen a significant spike in recent days in the number of people using their mobile phones both for purchases and for research. There is more research than buying because people are not completely comfortable making purchases [via this medium] and a lot of retailers still do not have good applications for the mobile phone yet.
According to the Find, a search engine that also allows shoppers to compare prices, roughly a quarter of the searches over the post-Thanksgiving weekend came from mobile devices, up from about 15% a year ago. The total number of mobile searches was more than four and a half times greater than the volume seen a year ago.
Ebay, the e-commerce marketplace, also reported that mobile transactions using its PayPal and Bill Me Later payments services more than tripled during the post-Thanksgiving Friday sales, compared with the same day last year. Ebay saw an increase of 27% in total payment transactions over last year’s Black Friday.
Microsoft in talks to Acquire Adobe to unite against Apple
If rumors are to be believed, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen were in a meeting to discuss over Apple and its control of the mobile phone market and how the two companies could collaborate in the battle against Apple. A possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft was among the options.
Formally, Adobe and Microsoft have been opponents with challenging software and the companies became really aggressive in 2007 when Microsoft began promoting Silverlight, its software plug-in for the Web that directly competes with Adobe Flash.
According to sources, the two companies had talked about the obstruction that Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, had placed on Adobe’s Flash software for its hand-held devices and whether a partnership by Adobe and Microsoft could fend off Apple, which continues to grow at juggernaut speeds. Microsoft had courted Adobe several years ago. But the deal never moved past informal talks as Microsoft feared that the Justice Department would most likely block the acquisition on antitrust grounds.
The source noted that Microsoft was the dominant force in technology, Google and Apple were not the giants they are today.
China Mobile &Vodafone to work on 4G technology
Even after the US$6.5 billion stake sale China Mobile Ltd will continue to work with Vodafone Group Plc to develop a common 4G mobile telecommunications standard.
According to the chairman Wang Jianzhou, Vodafone’s sale of its 3.2% holding in the world’s largest mobile carrier also removed the uncertainty that had surrounded its share price. The company has worked with Vodafone for ten years, and this will continue. The areas the two companies intend to work together includes development of new markets, technology, and green development.
The sale of its China Mobile shares were a part of Vodafone’s new strategy to exit non-strategic minority investments, which analysts believe have weighed on Vodafone’s overall value in recent years.
