David Needle

Waiting for customer support or wading through phone menus to talk to the right person is a hassle no one wants to deal with. Companies have added online chat to their mix of support services, but typically that service is used on desktop or laptop computers, not a mobile phone. Enter Salesforce.com’s LiveMessage for Service […]

The number three mobile carrier unwrapped High Performance User Equipment (HPUE) technology on Dec. 13 that is says will extend the coverage of its 2.5 GHz spectrum up to 30 percent. Specifically, HPUE closes the coverage gap between the carrier’s mid- and high-band spectrum. “It’s no secret that high-band spectrum doesn’t travel as far as […]

Intuit has opened its TurboTax online software platform to developers, a move it expects eventually will lead to a range of new financial services and products. The key word here is “eventually,” because Intuit is being picky about which developers get access to TurboTax. As part of its Dec. 13 announcement, Intuit specifically mentioned online […]

Smartphones, Drones, Tech Gadgets Abound at GetGeeked Show You could find everything from smartphones to electric skateboards for the geek in your life at the recent GetGeeked consumer device event in San Francisco. Music on the Go with the Clip Sport Plus Sandisk has a nifty portable music player for athletes or anyone on the […]

Fifth Generation or 5G technology is a way off from broad deployment, but AT&T is laying claim to what it believes is the first U.S. business customer trial in Austin, Texas. In collaboration with Ericsson and Intel, the carrier announced on Dec. 5 its first public 5G demonstration featuring streaming 4K HD video, real-time camera […]

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.—“More” was the operative word at an event here at Oracle headquarters Dec. 1 that focused on the software giant’s acquisition of NetSuite. “It’s important to say that we’re thrilled,” said Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd, who repeatedly insisted there was very little overlap between the two companies. Both Hurd and NetSuite executives on […]

Salesforce plans to help its customers upgrade the tools their channel partners use with the release of Lightning Partner Community, an adjunct to its Community Cloud platform. Currently, an average of 70 percent of sales come from channel partners, according to a study by Accenture. The problem is that most companies don’t have efficient connections […]

HALF MOON BAY, Calif.—The holy grail of sales is the satisfied customer, who not only buys your product or service, but is likely to come back for more and refer you to others. Technology designed to help companies capture sales is rampant, but can be overdone, said Joe Hughes, Ernst & Young principal-IT advisory digital […]

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. —Executives at an industry conference here debated the pros and cons of the internet of things, noting that device deployment decisions shouldn’t be driven by a desire to implement a trendy new technology. “IoT is a horrible term,” said Brian Katz, director of end user computing mobility strategy at VMware. “Putting […]

Zendesk, best known for its namesake cloud customer support software, is branching out with two new services: Zendesk Explore, which includes an analytics engine that functions across all of Zendesk’s products and can analyze data from all customer touch points, and Zendesk Connect, which combines historical data with individual customer actions and other digital interactions, […]