Blue Pumpkin Software More Than Triples Revenues; E-Commerce and Global Expansion Expected to Spur Further Sales Growth.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 1, 2000 Global expansion fueled record quarterly and annual revenues for Blue Pumpkin Software, a venture-backed startup and leader in workforce management Workforce Management (WFM) encompasses all the responsibilities for maintaining a productive and happy workforce. Sometimes referred to as HRMS systems, or even the larger ERP systems (Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP). There are many software vendors within this space. software for customer contact centers. Blue Pumpkin's 1999 revenues more than tripled compared to 1998. The company added 78 new customers in the fourth quarter, an increase of 24 percent over the third quarter, and ended the year with more than 325 customers, an increase of 225 percent, over 1998. New fourth quarter customers include American Express American Express (NYSE: AXP), sometimes known as "AmEx" or "Amex", is a diversified global financial services company, headquartered in New York City. The company is best known for its credit card, charge card and traveler's cheque businesses. , AAA AAA: see American Automobile Association. (Triple A) A common single-cell battery used in a myriad of electronic devices of all variety. Like its double A (AA) cousin, it provides 1.5 volts of DC power. When used in series, the voltage is multiplied. , Circuit City, Fannie Mae Fannie Mae: see Federal National Mortgage Association. , General Electric, MCI (1) (Media Control Interface) A high-level programming interface from Microsoft and IBM for controlling multimedia devices. It provides commands and functions to open, play and close the device. (2) (Microwave Communications Inc. WorldCom Network Services, Inc., the Federal Reserve Bank, 21st Century Insurance and Send.com. &uot;We are excited about the tremendous acceptance by well-known companies which are now utilizing our PrimeTime family of products,&uot; said Doron Aspitz, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. and co-founder of Blue Pumpkin. &uot;This quarter has been a time of great growth for the company, both strategically and financially. Through a partnership with Kana Communications and an expansion of the product line, Blue Pumpkin continues to stand out as both a thought leader and a product leader in the industry.&uot; During the quarter, Blue Pumpkin announced a partnership with Kana Communications calling for the joint marketing and integration of each company's products to provide a solution that will help e-businesses manage their online customer communications by effectively scheduling their workforce and responding in a timely manner to electronic customer inquiries. The complexity of online contact centers, combined with an increase of inbound customer inquiries either through e-mail or phone, requires a solution dependent upon the strengths of both Blue Pumpkin and Kana. This relationship creates a total solution that will help e-businesses, such as Drugstore.com and eToys, both current customers of Blue Pumpkin and Kana. Additionally, Blue Pumpkin expanded its North American operations North American operation Surgical oncology Radical surgery of a 'frozen pelvis', consisting of radical en bloc resection of the uterus and urinary bladder. See 'Frozen pelvis.'. Cf 'All-American' and 'South American' operations. by opening an office in Toronto, Canada. The company has appointed four local distributors in Canada, which is the largest call center market outside of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . These include Norstan Canada, OmniSales, Pyderion Contact Technologies and Stevens Communications. Other international expansion efforts included the release of Blue Pumpkin's Japanese-language version of its PrimeTime Enterprise software product into the Japanese call center market and the opening of its Asia/Pacific operations office in Sydney, Australia. Asia/Pacific distributors include Isolectra, IT Partners, Premier Technologies, Zeacom, Continuous Technologies and Omron Software. The company continues to keep pace with the needs of the modern contact center through PrimeTime Email, the first in a series of multi-media technologies created to address the rapidly changing workforce management solution. Workforce management solutions have traditionally focused solely on the impact of phone calls when optimizing schedules. PrimeTime Email is the first technology specifically designed to address the complexities of email-driven customer service. Optional modules, that will be in the fully integrated multimedia product line to be introduced in mid-2000, include fax, web chat, voice-over IP and callback An authentication technique that calls the sender back. After connection is made, the receiving side breaks the connection and calls the sender to ensure that the logon was made from the authorized computer. Callback prevents a stolen ID and password from being used on a different machine. requests. PrimeTime products continue to be utilized in a broad spectrum of industries. The principal customers are in telecommunications, financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. , outsourcer, consumer goods consumer goods Any tangible commodity purchased by households to satisfy their wants and needs. Consumer goods may be durable or nondurable. Durable goods (e.g., autos, furniture, and appliances) have a significant life span, often defined as three years or more, and and healthcare. E-commerce and software/hardware continue to be strong growth sectors as expansion into these industries increases. Blue Pumpkin received numerous industry awards for the PrimeTime product line. The product line was awarded Call Center News Service &uot;Hot Pick&uot; for 1999, Irish Call Center Award for the best new product or service, and the Voice Europe Award 99 for the best call center solution. PrimeTime Enterprise received CTI (Computer Telephone Integration) Combining data with voice systems in order to enhance telephone services. For example, automatic number identification (ANI) allows a caller's records to be retrieved from the database while the call is routed to the appropriate party. Expo Fall 1999 Best of Show Award, 1999 Call Center Solutions Product of the Year and Call Center Solutions Editors Choice. PrimeTime Skills was awarded the Communications Solutions Product of the Year. Blue Pumpkin PrimeTime Blue Pumpkin PrimeTime products are robust workforce management software packages designed to optimize the forecasting and scheduling of agents in customer contact centers by ensuring the right agents with the right skills are in the right place at the right time. Awarded Product of the Year and Editor's Choice honors from Call Center, Call Center Solutions and CTI magazines, the PrimeTime family of products provide powerful &uot;what-if&uot; analyses to predict how call volume and staffing changes will affect customer contact center operations. Blue Pumpkin PrimeTime products are network-enabled, and users are able to designate any Windows 95 or NT PC as a server. With PrimeTime, customer contact centers reduce overstaffing costs and increase revenues by capturing previously lost sales. About Blue Pumpkin Software, Inc. Blue Pumpkin Software is a market-leading provider of workforce management solutions for multimedia customer contact centers. Blue Pumpkin develops, markets, and supports the award-winning PrimeTime suite of products designed to help companies guarantee superior customer service across a variety of contact media, including phone and email. Blue Pumpkin provides the tools necessary to efficiently schedule and manage contact center personnel, ensuring that the right person with the right skills handles customers interactions. Blue Pumpkin Software is headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices around the world. Global leaders in the financial services, e-commerce, telecommunications, and retail goods &services industries depend on Blue Pumpkin solutions. Current customers include ADP (1) (Automatic Data Processing) Synonymous with data processing (DP), electronic data processing (EDP) and information processing. (2) (Automatic Data Processing, Inc., Roseland, NJ, www.adp. , eToys, Airborne Express Airborne Express (IATA: n/a, ICAO: ABX, and Callsign: Abex) was an express delivery company and cargo airline. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, its hub was at Wilmington, Ohio. , Apple Computer, AT&, Verio, KitchenAid, Drugstore.com, Carlson Wagonlit Carlson Travel Network Carlson Travel Network can trace its origin back to a travel agency that was founded by Ward Forster in the United States in 1888 and named Ask Mr. Foster. Travel and PeopleSoft. For more information about Blue Pumpkin and its products, please visit http://www.blue-pumpkin.com or call 650/429-6300. |
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