rlebherz wrote: Alf,
Interesting article. I think the Cloud services and cloud infrastructure lines are a bit blurred, but I agree with most of what you are saying.
Dont underestimate the SLA's role in accountability. For companies that have dynamic requirements and no down time can be afforded, make sure you have very tight SLAs. For example, OpSource provides a 100% SLA in the cloud and 100%SLA around production application environments. Now 100% is ideally perfect, it comes down to accountability, yo...
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- America's Vacation Center (AVC), one of the leading travel agencies in the nation, today announced the release of Agent Power(TM) 5.0, an upgrade to its industry-leading Web-based software that provides AVC agents with access to book live inventory, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), automatic commission tracking, and more.
Designed from suggestions by AVC travel agents, employees, and suppliers, Agent Power 5.0 is faster and more reliable than ever before, with a completely new interface and more robust feature set. Agent Power 5.0 offers upgrades to its Enterprise Instant Messaging system, a calendar that has a unified view of both customer follow-up and training items through America's Vacation Center University(TM) (AVCU), and My AVC Buddy, a tool that enables world-class customer service even when an agent is on vacation or out of the office.
"At AVC, we are dedicated to improving the overall customer experience. We support this goal with Agent Power 5.0 by making constant advances to help our agents work more efficiently and effectively," said David Anderson, chief information officer of AVC. "AVC is leading the host agency sector with the most innovative, cutting-edge technology in the industry. Agent Power is a considerable reason why AVC agents are making 10 to 20 times more than the average home-based agent, and with the enhancements in Agent Power 5.0, agents will be more productive than ever."
In addition to helping travel agents become more efficient, Agent Power 5.0 also serves as an online community. AVC agents around the world can communicate with other agents or AVC headquarters 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Agent Power 5.0 offers community forums, an online knowledge base, Webinar tutorials, and more, providing outlets for agents to ask questions, provide and receive advice, and constantly learn how to improve as a professional travel agent.
Since Agent Power 5.0 is a Web-based application, the upgrade process is seamless. When agents log-in to Agent Power as usual, they will be instantly directed to the new version. For travel agents interested in affiliating with AVC and using the Agent Power 5.0 software, AVC offers data migration services to import customer data from other CRMs, eliminating the loss of pertinent information or unnecessary time spent inputting data.
Consumers interested in booking their next trip with America's Vacation Center, an American Express Travel Representative, should call 800-753-1463 or visit http://www.americasvacationcenter.com/. Professional travel agents interested in taking their business to the next level by affiliating with America's Vacation Center should call 800-521-2597 or visit http://www.joinavc.com/.
About America's Vacation Center (AVC):
With more than 40 years of experience and a half-million customers served, America's Vacation Center(r) (http://www.americasvacationcenter.com/) is one of the top travel agencies in the American Express Travel Representative Network. AVC is a leading seller of cruises and vacation packages from suppliers such as American Express Vacations, Carnival Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Royal Caribbean and more. With hundreds of independent travel specialists, AVC is America's Leading Host Agency(TM) (http://www.joinavc.com/), providing technology, support and Live Leads(TM) to travel agents worldwide.