Telecom provider looks to sales info/communications system

ICG Communications has inked a deal with BackWeb Technologies to empower its sales force with BackWeb Sales Accelerator.

"Being able to communicate time-sensitive, business-critical information to our sales force is paramount to our ability to maintain a competitive edge," said Vince DiBiase, senior VP of sales for ICG. "With BackWeb, we now have a priority information delivery system that will enable us to disseminate critical information to our extended sales force in a timely and efficient manner."

DiBiase and ICG were motivated to find a more efficient alternative to the companies existing e-mail system for alerting its sales force of product alerts, sales promotions and other time-sensitive updates.

According to ICG, it evaluated several products but selected BackWeb for its ability to proactively update each sales representative's PC with documents with "efficient and effective" delivery and notification.

Sales Accelerator is an application suite that tailors BackWeb's information push technology to sales force applications. The company recently announced a similar product geared towards service departments, BackWeb Service Accelerator.

The underlying technology in both products permits users with publishing rights to post information, which all users can access. Publishers can also send out a "flash," a graphical icon that pops up on users' screens--regardless of the current applications being used--to alert them of time-sensitive information.

Financial details of the ICG deal were not released, but DiBiase said, "We expect the end result to be an increase in revenue and enhanced customer satisfaction.