Talisma Corporation (News - Alert), which sells Customer Interaction Management software, has announced annual revenue growth of 53 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2006. Talisma also enters 2008 with "the highest bookings backlog in company history," according to company officials.

 

Earlier in the year, Talisma released CIM 8.0, a customer service suite for interaction management that includes e-mail, chat, VoIP, phone, collaboration, and Web self-service. It incorporated "numerous enhancements" designed to improve customer service, including proactive capabilities in both Talisma Chat and Talisma VoIP.

 

Talisma also claimed some industry notice this year, including Deloitte (News - Alert) & Touche Washington State Technology Fast 50 Award and CRM Magazine Service Leader Award, as well as the Inc. 5,000 Award.

 

The company entered into partnerships in an effort to expand the breadth of its offerings.  Among these, a partnership with Autonomy (News - Alert) is intended to improve Talisma's Knowledgebase, delivering Meaning-Based Computing capabilities.  The partnership with Bucher & Suter is for integration between the Talisma CIM Suite and Cisco (News - Alert) ICM. 

 

Dan Vetras, President & CEO of Talisma, said in 2008, Talisma will "continue our mission to transform the industry by providing software that makes superior customer service the norm, rather than the exception."

 

Earlier this week Talisma appointed Saikat Maitra as the senior director of sales for its India and Middle East operations. Saikat will be based out of Bengaluru.

 

Maitra "brings with him over 17 years of rich and extensive experience in IT and product selling across locations," said Rajendra Mruthyunjayappa, managing director, Talisma, APAC. "His joining will significantly impact our India and Middle East initiatives towards the overall growth of Talisma Corporation."

Maitra said as companies are "surging towards customer relationship and service as a key strategy for growth," the demand for customer-centric products will increase.

He has experience from start-ups to large companies, and with front-end sales in markets like India, US, Germany and ME for ERP, CRM, application development and infrastructure management.

 

Last week Talisma announced the release of a white paper on what the Talismanians call "ten trends impacting retail banking contact centers."

 

The white paper explains how banks can use contact center technology "to outperform their competition," and is at http://www.talisma.com/21stcentury_whitepaper.

 

It includes such sections as "The Continual Rise in Online Customer Interaction Volume," "Protecting Your Customers' E-mail Security," "Leveraging The Web for Customer Self-Service," "Applying Customer Segmentation to Drive Revenue Growth" and "Considering Customer Value to Drive Strategic Decisions."

 

It highlights the requirement for retail banking contact centers to embrace the use of new communication channels such as VoIP, live chat and Web collaboration, and focuses on the emerging customer segment of Generation Y and the business opportunity they represent for banks as a new customer segment.