Posted: 1/2002

E-Channel

NEWS BRIEFS

* Surefire Networks Inc. has released
"loopquotes.com," a website for agents designed to facilitate customer qualification and the deployment of local loops and T1circuits. The automated portal gives agents instantaneous access to back office information, the company says. “Utilizing this tool has been extremely beneficial in getting back to the customer with timely and pertinent information,” says William
Patchett, Surefire’s president.

* Atlanta-based FrameRelay.Net has gone live with “Lynxity,” an e-commerce marketplace designed to field online leads for frame relay, ATM and VPN services to pre-qualified salespeople. Customers enter their needs and parameters online, and are routed automatically to the appropriate salesperson for quoting, installation and support. The portal uses a comparison-shopping environment and can return up to three quotes from either agents or direct carrier representatives, depending upon user requirements.

* MindArrow Systems Inc. has launched “MindArrow Commerce,” a digital marketing platform for creating, delivering, tracking and managing rich media e-mail marketing campaigns. It includes a patented technology that allows online and e-mail ads to function as the point of purchase. E-commerce transactions are conducted without leaving the e-mail message or pop-up ad and without visiting an external website.

* Verizon has re-launched its website as a full e-commerce channel for residential and business customers. The website took nine months to redesign. The result integrates 70 core legacy systems and thousands of web pages to create a one-stop shop for information and transactions. The new design lets visitors order new service, pay bills, enter and track trouble tickets, choose phone numbers and sign up for long distance, among other services.

“Our site now offers an interactive channel for doing business with virtually every one of our business units. Our mission was to create a site for interaction between our customers and the company, whether for purchases or to do research about bills, bargains and bundles,” says Shaygan Kheradpir, president of Verizon’s e-business group.

* Lightbridge Inc. signed an agreement with VeriSign Inc. to provide user authentication capabilities for mobile commerce transactions.
VeriSign, a digital anti-fraud provider, will integrate LightBridge’s mobile solutions with its own authentication service bureau, designed for online

shopping. The system will target the service providers and enterprises deploying

m-commerce applications.