Never Memorize Passwords Again

A weekly look at the latest products and services designed to help you run a better business.

Now that we can do virtually everything online -- shop, bank, communicate -- most people have a laundry list of passwords to access their multitude of personalized accounts. For those of us with imperfect memory, it can be easy to forget which magic word will grant access to each site. A new software program may keep you from ever again being locked out of your shopping cart, banking site, or personalized news site.

Actioneer, a Cambridge, Mass.-based software firm, has developed a password-management system, which requires users to remember only one master password. After the user enters a single password, the Invisible Password Manager securely provides access for all other password-protected login sites.

The Actioneer system automatically extracts needed user names and passwords from triple-DES encrypted storage. Because users are not entering individual passwords via the keyboard, the Invisible Password Manager can help prevent identity theft by keyloggers and snoopers.

The Invisible Password Manager, which can be used on a desktop, laptop, or carried around on a USB thumb drive, is free.

Eavesdrop on Your Customers

Are your customers enraged by your interactive voice-response phone system? Do they give up in frustration before getting the information they need? In a self-service environment, it can be difficult for managers to ascertain how well customers react to the company's service protocols. Newly updated software from ClickFox, an Atlanta-based software company, can help companies make the most of their websites, interactive kiosks, and phone-response systems.

ClickFox has added audio clip playback to its Customer Behavior Intelligence Software. The software, which allows businesses to monitor how customers interact with self-service environments, now lets managers hear how customers respond to call center recordings that require speech-recognition prompts. In addition, managers can use the tool to monitor customers' interactions with call center agents.

The software also lets managers analyze trends in customer behavior and customize the system to alert them when thresholds for critical metrics, such as customer wait-time, have been exceeded.

35 Million Job Candidates at Your Disposal

If you are unimpressed with the applicants who respond to your help-wanted ads, and you need to hire someone with specialized skills, your best bet might be to poach someone from another company. But how do you find the people whose skills and experience might be a good match for your company? PeopleSearch features a database of employee profiles, contact information, work histories, and biographical overviews.

PeopleSearch, developed by AIRS, a recruitment and sourcing technology company based in Wilder, Vt., now has 35 million profiles of individuals at more than 900,000 companies, thanks to a partnership with San Mateo, Calif-based Spoke Software.

Through PeopleSearch, hiring managers can search for prospective candidates by selecting profiles that meet key requirements such as the employee's title, company, number of employees, and geography.

AIRS PeopleSearch costs $995 per user.

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