The Future is Delivered (Again..At According To Optimistic Marketing-Press Release)

Microsoft and 24/7 Inc. Join Forces to Deliver the Future of Customer Service for Large Businesses
PRESS RELEASE
Feb. 7, 2012, 9:00 a.m. EST 

Microsoft and 24/7 Inc. announce agreement to combine the power of "Big Data" and natural user interfaces into a new enterprise cloud platform for customer service 

CAMPBELL, Calif. and REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Microsoft Corp. and 24/7 Inc. today announced an agreement to jointly bring the power of natural user interfaces (NUIs) and data analytics at cloud scale (Big Data) to enable the future of customer service for businesses. The agreement includes Microsoft merging its interactive self-service assets (clients, people and technologies) into 24/7 Inc. The agreement also includes an R&D partnership, long-term IP licensing and Microsoft taking an equity stake in 24/7 Inc.






Microsoft has pioneered the use of NUIs, including gestures and speech, across a broad range of devices, and the broad adoption of NUIs by consumers has changed the way people interact with technology, companies and one another. 24/7 Inc. is a leading innovator in harnessing the power of Big Data for customer service, using Internet-scale data and advanced analytics to help businesses predict customer preferences and deliver proactive, efficient and intuitive consumer experiences. With this agreement, Microsoft and 24/7 are combining technologies that span interactive self-service across mobile, Web and voice channels, Big Data analytics, and speech and conversational interfaces to create a next-generation cloud platform for customer service. The combined Predictive Experience (PX) platform will manage more than 2.5 billion speech and online self-service interactions annually, enabling large businesses to derive and apply insight and intelligence across these customer service interactions and delivery channels. With this combination, 24/7 Inc. will be positioned to generate total revenues of more than $250 million annually by delivering solutions and services that enable large businesses to anticipate consumer needs, simplify the consumer experience and learn from every consumer interaction.

"Microsoft is an industry leader in NUI and established natural, intuitive consumer experiences on mobile and entertainment devices," said Zig Serafin, general manager, Online Services Division at Microsoft. "From speech to touch to gestures, consumers expect and demand more natural and intuitive ways to interact with technology. This same demand will change how consumers interact with businesses, and it creates an inflection point for how people will expect businesses to provide customer service. "

Consumers today not only expect businesses to deliver service in more natural and intuitive ways but also expect these same businesses to be able to reach out and interact intelligently with them across a wide variety of channels, including on mobile devices, through social media, on the Web and even through the living room TV. This consumer expectation has created a key need for businesses to gather, analyze and gain insight by using Big Data to proactively anticipate and predict customer needs.

"The ability to exceed customer service expectations through Big Data analytics across all service channels offers unique value for businesses," said PV Kannan, CEO of 24/7 Inc. "By bringing Microsoft's interactive self-service technology together with 24/7 Inc.'s predictive consumer experience technology into one unified cloud platform, we will deliver solutions and services that truly enable businesses to differentiate through customer service."

Enterprises already working with Microsoft and 24/7 Inc. are applauding the solution and believe it will accelerate their ability to deliver more natural and intuitive customer service experiences, and this agreement will enable 24/7 Inc. to accelerate delivery of solutions and services for the future of customer service.

"24/7 Inc. and Microsoft are helping Avis deliver customer experiences in the way that customers want to be served," said Thomas M. Gartland, president, North America, Avis Budget Group. "We applaud the agreement between the companies that will harness the power of Big Data, apply advanced analytics to that data, and bring more intuitive experiences to customers. We see the future of customer service and are working together to lead the way."

"Today, consumers are engaging with businesses in more channels than ever with the proliferation of mobile devices and social media. As a result, their expectations of customer service are changing," said Daniel Hong, lead analyst of Customer Interaction at Ovum. "Enterprises that embrace these trends will uncover opportunities to deepen their relationships with customers and optimize their investments in customer-enabling technologies (such as self-service) across channels. We feel the PX platform, along with the partnership between 24/7 Inc. and Microsoft, creates opportunities for businesses to better anticipate their customers' needs, simplify their consumer experiences, and learn from every consumer interaction."

"United has been working closely but independently with 24/7 Inc. and Microsoft to improve customer service," said Martin Hand, senior vice president Customer Experience, United Airlines. "We believe this agreement will better position them to help us innovate across our service channels by leveraging Big Data and natural user interfaces. We look forward to working together to achieve our customer service goals

Additional Details

Microsoft will merge its interactive self-service assets (clients, people and technologies) into 24/7 Inc.'s PX solutions.

24/7 Inc. and Microsoft will forge an R&D partnership moving forward, and 24/7 Inc. will utilize Microsoft Tellme speech and natural language technologies for natural user experiences in customer service. 24/7 Inc. will also be integrating its solutions with Windows Phone, Bing and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft and 24/7 Inc. have also agreed to a shared technology road map and a long-term IP licensing agreement that provides broad coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio for speech-related technologies.

Microsoft will take an equity stake in 24/7 Inc.

About 24/7 Inc.

24/7 Inc., ( www.247-inc.com ), the intuitive consumer experience company, provides software and services that make life simple for consumers to connect with large companies to get things done. 24/7's software helps companies anticipate what consumers want, simplify interactions, and learn from those interactions so that future experiences get better all the time. 24/7 is based in Campbell, California.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft MSFT +0.41% is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Startup Soraa lights up with 'LED 2.0'

by Martin LaMonica February 7, 2012 4:30 PM PST



Soraa CEO Eric Kim holds the company's first LED light fixture using its 'GaN' on 'GaN' technology.(Credit: Soraa)

To build a better light fixture, startup Soraa started right at the foundation with a different kind of LED chip inside.

The Fremont, Calif.-based company tomorrow will come out of stealth mode and launch its first product, a spotlight which uses efficient LEDs (light emitting diodes). The MR 16 bulb replaces a 50-watt halogen and uses 12.5 watts and it offers a better beam and light quality, said Soraa CEO Eric Kim.

The bulb from Soraa, which has raised more than $100 million in venture capital, is the first in a planned line of LEDs for general lighting and lasers for projector displays.

The company was founded by a team of scientists renowned for their contributions to LEDs and lasers, notably Shuji Nakamura from University of California at Santa Barbara. In 2008, investor Vinod Khosla approached Nakamura and his colleagues Steven DenBaars and James Speck to commercialize research they had done on new materials for LEDs.


Soraa's LEDs are made with an active material layer of gallium nitride and a gallium nitride substrate. Having a single material leads to LEDs that can take more current and thus produce more light on a package of a given size. It also means that there's less wasted heat, which can degrade the life of LED lighting.White LEDs use gallium nitride (GaN) as the active semiconductor material that gives off light when current is passed through it. Most companies make LED chips where a gallium nitride crystal is grown over a substrate of sapphire or, in the case of Cree, silicon carbide.

For the most part, the LED industry has tried to bring down the cost of LED lighting by scaling up manufacturing, Kim said. Competitor Bridgelux intends to make crystals on a silicon wafersto take advantage of existing silicon manufacturing equipment.

Kim said that the performance improvement that comes from the new material will help bring costs down quicker than ramping up volume production with existing materials. That will make LEDs more compelling for general-purpose lighting.
 A gallium nitride on sapphire LED (seen above) has a lattice mismatch between the active material and substrate, compared to the gallium nitride on gallium nitride construction (below). Both images were taken with an electron microscope.(Credit: Soraa)

"When you have a very tight lattice match, light generation happens far more efficiently," said Kim who joined the company in 2010 after working at Intel and Samsung. "It really leads to LED 2.0 and a whole new disruptive technology curve."

Rather than supply LED lights sources to light fixture makers as is common in the lighting industry, Soraa is making its own LED fixtures as well. Being vertically integrated allows it to come to market faster with a light bulb and ensure supply of needed components for its LED chip platform.

Soraa's initial focus is commercial customers who use MR16 bulbs, which are typically used in restaurants, retail outlets, and museums. But it intends to make a set of products designed as replacements for existing bulbs, including those for consumers.

An executive from Soraa competitor Cree agreed that having the same active material as the substrate in an LED does lead to good efficiency, but the main limitation in this case is cost.

"A GaN (gallium nitride) wafer would be on the order of 50-100 times more expensive than an equivalent sapphire wafer. So while the wafer cost doesn't matter too much in the world of GaN-on-sapphire LEDs, it definitely would be a major expense for GaN-on-GaN," said Cree product marketing manager Paul Scheidt

Kim declined to say how much its new bulb cost, but said that the MR16, which will be available this quarter, will offer a payback in under a year, a benchmark it intends to target for future lighting products.



Martin LaMonica

Martin LaMonica is a senior writer covering green tech and cutting-edge technologies. He joined CNET in 2002 to cover enterprise IT and Web development and was previously executive editor of IT publication InfoWorld

SOURCE:http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57372704-76/startup-soraa-lights-up-with-led-2.0/?tag=txt;title