Comunicano

Canadian-based Fonolo named to Time.com’s “50 Best Websites 2009”

 TORONTO– Aug. 24, 2009 -- Fonolo, the Canadian-based company that makes it easier and less frustrating to call large companies, announced today that it has been named to Time.com’s list of “50 Best Websites 2009."

 

Since its founding in 1923, TIME Magazine has been one of the most authoritative and informative guides to what is happening in the worlds of health and science, politics, business, society and entertainment.  Time.com’s annual ”Best of the Web” list includes some of the most popular and influential sites on the Internet -- sites like Amazon, Flickr and Twitter.

 

“We are thrilled to be recognized by Time.com, one of the most recognizable names in news”, said Fonolo CTO Jason Bigué. “Time’s 50 Best Websites is an important ranking and being included on this list alongside some of the most recognizable and prestigious sites on the Internet is truly an honor.”

 

Fonolo offers several innovative services to help consumers manage the frustrations of dealing with large companies over the phone.  For anyone tired of navigating lengthy phone menus -- “Press 1 for this, press 2 for that” -- Fonolo’s “Deep Dialing” feature will be a welcome relief.  “Deep Dialing” allows users to visually navigate a company’s phone menu on a computer or mobile device and reach any point in that menu with a simple click. Fonolo then navigates the phone menu, rings the user’s phone and connects the two parties.

 

Fonolo’s free consumer service also includes features like call recording, “Quick Tones” -- a feature that ends the annoyance of having to “please enter your 10-digit ID number” and a comprehensive directory of more than 500 North American companies. In addition to its consumer service, Fonolo is now making its technology available to companies that want to improve their customer service experience.

 

Since unveiling it’s public beta program last December, Fonolo has received overwhelming feedback from consumers and has been recognized with numerous industry awards.

 

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About Fonolo

Fonolo, the company that makes it easier and less frustrating to call large companies, is privately held and based in Toronto. Fonolo has received numerous awards, including “Best New Product” from Emerging Communications Conference, “Judges’ Choice” from GigaOm’s Mobilize Conference, “Fierce15” from FierceVoIP, “Top Telecom Idea of 2008” from Springwise and was named a one of the “Top 25 Canadian IT Up and Comers” from the Branham Group.

 

For more information, visit www.fonolo.com. Investors are invited to write to investors@fonolo.com.

 

Phone Menus To Get Less Frustrating: Fonolo Adds Powerful Features for Consumers and Introduces New Offering that Lets Companies Add "Deep Dialing" to Their Own Sites

§         Free consumer service features updated interface, call recording and “Quick Tones”

§         Deep Dialing lets consumers skip phone menus of over 500 companies

§         New offering allows companies to improve their customer service without changing existing phone menus

TORONTO–July 14, 2009—Fonolo, the company that makes it easier and less frustrating to call large companies, announced today a major update to its award-winning  service. Fonolo also unveiled a new hosted offering aimed at companies, enabling them  to improve their customer experience and reduce call center costs by incorporating “Deep Dialing” into their own web sites.

Deep Dialing allows users to skip dreaded phone menus (also known as IVR systems) and get to the right person or department, ending the aggravation of “Press one for this, press two for that.” Fonolo’s free consumer service is now even more powerful.  Today’s release adds features such as call recording, “Quick Tones” and Deep Dialing access to more than 500 companies.

“Since the launch of our public beta last December, we’ve received overwhelming feedback from people that Fonolo makes it much easier for them to deal with large companies over the phone,” said Fonolo CEO Shai Berger. “Today, we’re taking a major step forward with a streamlined interface and powerful new features.”

Deep Dial to more companies, with less hassle

With Fonolo, callers can navigate a company’s phone menu visually and reach any point in that menu with a simple click. Fonolo then rings the user’s phone and connects the two parties. Fonolo continues to expand its directory, which now includes 500 North American companies.

New to this release, Deep Dialing is now available to consumers directly from Fonolo’s home page without the need to set up an account. Consumers can also Deep Dial directly from Android-powered mobile phones, using the “Fonolo for Android” application.

Enter ID numbers easily with Quick Tones

Fonolo now ends the annoyance of having to “please enter your 10-digit ID number.”  The new Quick Tones feature allows users to set up numbers they frequently use during calls (account IDs, frequent flyer numbers, etc.) in a personalized, secure list. When prompted by a company’s phone system, a single click will play back the digits as if the user had entered them manually.

Record calls for reference and peace of mind

Finally, consumers can hold companies accountable for what they say during a call. Fonolo users can now make audio recordings of their calls, storing them for later reference and peace of mind. After the call, recordings can be played back online or downloaded.

Fonolo helps companies improve their customer service

In addition to its consumer service, Fonolo is now making its technology available to companies that want to improve their own customer service experience.

Fonolo’s hosted service helps companies improve customer satisfaction and reduce call-center costs. What makes Fonolo’s approach so disruptive is that it does not require any changes to a company’s existing IVR or call center infrastructure.

“Companies have been contacting us to find out how they can make use of our technology. So today we are addressing their needs by unveiling a new product that will allow any company with a phone menu to provide a better experience for their callers,” said Berger. “When companies connect callers to agents more efficiently, they get happier customers and lower call center costs.”

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About Fonolo

Fonolo, the company that makes it easier and less frustrating to call large companies, is privately held and based in

Toronto

. Fonolo has received numerous awards, including “Best New Product” from Emerging Communications Conference, “Judges’ Choice” from GigaOm’s Mobilize Conference, “Fierce15” from FierceVoIP, “Top Telecom Idea of 2008” from Springwise and was named a one of the “Top 25 Canadian IT Up and Comers” from the Branham Group.

For more information, visit www.fonolo.com. Investors are invited to write to investors@fonolo.com.

Fonolo Honored Among This Year’s Most Promising Private Technology Ventures in North America

TORONTO–May 1, 2009—Fonolo, the company that helps consumers deal with large companies over the phone, announced today its status as a finalist of the “Red Herring 100 North America” award, a prestigious list honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures in North America.

The Red Herring editorial team selected the most innovative companies from a pool of 1, 200. The nominees are evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy and integration into their respective industries.

This unique assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the actual track record and standing of a company, which allows Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list an invaluable instrument for discovering and advocating the greatest business opportunities in the industry.

“This year was especially difficult,” said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. There were so many great companies producing really innovative and amazing products that we had a difficult time narrowing it down to 200. Now we’re faced with the arduous task of selecting the final 100. We know that this year’s crop will grow into some amazing companies that are sure to go far.”

For over 10 years, The Red Herring 100 North America award, open to private technology companies headquartered in North America, has been given to the top 100 tech companies based upon their technological innovation, management strength, market size, investor record, customer acquisition, and financial health. During the several months leading up to the announcement, hundreds of companies in the telecom, communications, security, Web 2.0, software, hardware, biotech, and clean tech industries sent in their submissions to qualify for the award.

The CEOs of the 200 finalists are invited to present their winning strategies at the Red Herring Conference in San Diego, where the Red Herring Top 100 will be  announced.

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About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company uniting the world's best high technology innovators, venture investors, and business decision-makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine; an online daily technology news service; technology newsletters, and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider's access to the global innovation ecosystem, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy.
For more information, visit www.redherring.com. 

About Fonolo
Fonolo, privately held and based in Toronto, helps consumers deal with large companies over the phone. Fonolo’s Deep Dialing feature allows users to skip the dreaded phone menus (also known as “IVR systems”) and get right to the point. With Fonolo’s Deep Dialing, users can navigate the call path options visually, on a computer or mobile device, then click to be connected directly, rather than plodding through the menus step-by-step. Fonolo’s Intelligent Call History feature tracks all the calls a user makes to a particular company, regardless of which phone is used, and automatically organizes them along with notes and recordings.

Contacts:
Deb Jones, for Fonolo
Deb.jones@comuncano.com
+1 856-363-9001

Red Herring:
Yvonne Caprini
ycaprini@redherring.com
+1 650 428 2900 x410

Deep Dialing, Or: How I Learned to Stop Wasting Time and Love Phone Menus

Please press “1” to continue reading this blog post.

Please press “2” to waste some more of my time and really annoy me.

Please press “3” to fire everyone who created phone menus that are an unbearable waste of my time.

Phone menus are a huge pain. Which is terribly ironic, because the companies that deploy these phone menus actually want to get their callers to the right service as efficiently as possible—both to help their customers and to minimize costs. Let’s call that 0 for 2. 

Enter Fonolo, which was unveiled a year ago to remedy this by helping consumers deal with large companies over the phone.

Fonolo invented a technology it calls “Deep Dialing” that lets you connect directly to the point you need by skipping past the annoying and time-wasting phone menu. You are presented an on-screen visual representation of the phone menu (at the Fonolo Web site or on a mobile application) where you find the exact spot  you need, and click.  Then Fonolo calls the company, navigates to the right point, calls you back on a telephone number you designate, and when you answer…you’re connected to that point.

Shai Berger, Fonolo’s CEO, recently spoke at eComm 2009 about his company and what it’s learning about IVR phone menus, caller behavior, and why—hopefully—carriers will someday have greater appreciation for the value of people's time.

Getting Right to the Point

To get consumers right to the point they want, Fonolo has built a map of more than 500 company phone menus. To do this, Fonolo developed a spidering system that’s analogous to what Google does with Web space—it spiders phone space. To map a phone tree, Fonolo’s server calls the company using fancy voice recognition and automated dialing technologies it has developed.

Fonolo regularly goes through all the menus, which can frequently change, and has developed technology that validates the path in real-time, just in case the menu changed since the last time it checked (which may be as little as an hour ago). So Fonolo knows it’s always connecting you to the right spot.

Fonolo has now mapped more than 500 companies in North America in its database, with almost 15,000 nodes. And it’s a very interesting dataset. Among those organizations that don’t get their callers right to the point—the most clueless bunch that Fonolo has so far discovered—are five companies with more than 100 nodes (the worst offender is the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, weighing in at 194 nodes), 20 companies with more than 400 words of text in their menu trees (the current record holder is American Airlines Cargo with 1,687 words), and 10 companies that use the phrase “Please listen carefully as our menus may have changed,” even though their menus haven’t changed in half a year or more. 

Companies Like This, Too

As Berger says, “If you’ve read the press coverage of Fonolo, it’s all about how we defeated those evil companies. But we’ve actually learned that it’s not confrontational at all.” That’s because Fonolo’s deep dialing takes the investment those companies have already made in IVR technology and increases the value without any additional work on the companies’ part.

Companies really like having an easy way to get more value out of something they have to do anyway.   In fact, Fonolo learned that there’s a quantitative improvement tied to Fonolo. A surprisingly high percentage of callers (30 percent-50 percent) “mis-navigate,” and this kills the companies’ cost metrics—because when a caller is connected to the wrong agent, it wastes agent time, and there’s a strong incentive for call centers to avoid that.

This means that there’s a strong case for carriers opening up to this kind of service, because there’s value in bridging the world of Web navigation with voice navigation, and thereby helping companies create an interface for routing callers to the right spot as efficiently as possible. 

Shai Berger can be reached at Shai@fonolo.com or at +1 416-366-2500. Fonolo is based in Toronto.

 

eCOMM 2009: COMUNICANO CLIENT PRESENTATIONS

This collection of presentations from eComm 2009 indicates the diverse expertise of our clients. From "deep dialing" to CRM over voice, from video on the iPhone to cloud telephony -- there's something for everyone's taste in tech.

Fonolo: Shai Berger's Presenation at eComm09

View more presentations from ShaiBerger.

Mobivox: Peter Diedrich’s Presentation at eComm 2009

View more presentations from eCommConf.

Global IP Solutions: Jan Linden’s Presentation at eComm 2009

View more presentations from eCommConf.

Alec Saunders’s Presentation at eComm 2009

View more presentations from eCommConf.

FONOLO GIVES CONSUMERS RELIEF FROM PHONE-MENU FRUSTRATION FOR MORE THAN 300 NORTH AMERICAN COMPANIES

 

• “Deep Dialing” Allows Consumers to Connect Directly To the Person or Department They Need
• Free Service Now Available to Public for Beta Testing

TORONTO–Dec. 10, 2008—Fonolo, the company that makes it easier and less frustrating to call large companies, is now offering its ground-breaking, Web-based service for free to the public for beta testing. Fonolo puts an end to the aggravation of “press 1 for this, press 2 for that.”

Fonolo offers several innovative services to help consumers deal with large companies over the phone. “Deep Dialing” allows users to visually navigate a company’s phone menu on a computer or mobile device and reach any point in that menu with a simple click. Fonolo then navigates the phone menu, rings the user’s phone and connects the two parties.

But we all know that it often takes more than one call to resolve a consumer issue. Fonolo’s “Intelligent Call History” solves the problem of keeping track of all the calls a user makes to a particular company, regardless of which phone is used. Fonolo automatically organizes them along with notes and recordings.

“We are thrilled to open the doors to the general public in time for the holiday season and offer consumers a better way to reach the hundreds of companies in our database,” said Fonolo CEO Shai Berger. “Two of Fonolo’s most popular categories are travel and consumer electronics, so we expect a great deal of activity during the next month.”

Fonolo’s database currently includes more than 300 North American companies, including airlines, car rental companies, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies and major retailers. And because these companies change their phone menus frequently (“please listen carefully, as our options have changed…”), Fonolo constantly monitors these menus for updates.

Fonolo has been in private beta testing for the past eight months, during which time it has received numerous awards, including “Best New Product” from Emerging Communications Conference, “Judges’ Choice” from GigaOm’s Mobilize Conference and “Fierce15” from FierceVoIP.

“The overwhelming response tells me that we’re addressing a pain point felt deeply by a wide range of people,” said Berger. “We’re sure that consumers will love Fonolo.”

Fonolo’s services will remain free of charge throughout the beta testing period.

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About Fonolo
Fonolo is privately held and based in Toronto. The service is currently in beta testing. Interested investors are invited to write to investors@fonolo.com. For more information, visit www.fonolo.com.

Download Fonolo Press & Awards

THREE COMUNICANO CLIENTS AMONG "FIERCE 15"

Fonolo, Ifbyphone, Truphone Named to 2008 List

Comunicano is fiercely pleased to announce that three of its clients have been named to the annual FierceVoIP “Fierce 15” list for 2008: Toronto-based Fonolo, Ifbyphone in Chicago and Truphone from the U.K.

To us, the Fierce 15 list stands out from many industry awards in that a company’s innovation and creativity are as recognized as its financial success. The difference is that the Fierce 15 looks, as we do, toward what's next, not at what's already a success.

We’d like to offer our congratulations to Fonolo, Ifbyphone and Truphone and send a big, fierce “thank you” to FierceVoIP and its editorial team for providing an opportunity for today’s top VoIP companies to demonstrate the vision and technical wizardry that sets them apart from the crowd.

Read more about how the Fierce 15 were chosen and view the profiles for Fonolo, Ifbyphone and Truphone.

FONOLO ON ABC NEWS TECH BYTES

Fonolo is featured on ABC News Tech Bytes for Sept. 26. Catch it here (at 1:13), right after the Google phone/Visa story. And just for kicks, stick around for the personal air-bag story, too...

FONOLO WINS JUDGES’ PRIZE AT GIGAOM’S MOBILIZE CONFERENCE

Update: View Fonolo's winning presentation, courtesy of GigaOM. Fast-forward to Fonolo at the 54-minute mark if you don't have time for all the Launch Pad presentations.

Attendees clamor for ‘Deep Dialing’ and ‘Intelligent Call History’ services from Toronto-based company

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 19, 2008 -- Fonolo, the company that helps consumers call large companies with less frustration, has been awarded the Judges’ Prize at Mobilize 2008, GigaOM’s conference on the future of the broadband mobile Web.

The judges’ scores at the conference’s high-profile Launchpad segment placed Fonolo best among the 13 innovative new companies evaluated. Fonolo was the only company to receive a perfect score from a judge.

Excitement over Fonolo was best expressed by judge Nagraj Kashyap, Sr. Director, Qualcomm Ventures, who exclaimed “I love the app, this is the first thing I’m going to do when I get home.”

The four-minute presentation showcased Fonolo’s innovative new iPhone application. “Deep Dialing” directly from the iPhone allows users to skip through phone menus of large companies and navigate immediately to the information they require.

“The appeal of Fonolo is truly universal” said Fonolo founder and CEO Shai Berger. “We’re thrilled that our concept resonated with so many people at Mobilize. Tonight’s recognition underscores the fact that people are frustrated with phone menus.”

The Deep Dialing process is simple: Users find the particular company they want to contact, visually scan through the phone menu and click on the appropriate link. Fonolo then dials the company, navigates the phone system and calls the user’s phone. The user answers and is connected to the desired point in the phone menu.

Fonolo’s services are powered through proprietary technology that automatically “spiders” phone systems, thus building and maintaining a database of the numbers that consumers typically call. This “map of phonespace” is a dataset that has never been built before.

Fonolo further helps consumers by providing an “Intelligent Call History” which automatically tracks calls made to a given company, complete with recordings and user notes, regardless of the phone used.

Named “Best New Product” when it was unveiled at the Emerging Communication Conference in March, Fonolo is currently in private beta.

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About Fonolo

Fonolo helps consumers deal with large companies over the phone. Fonolo’s Deep Dialing feature allows users to skip the dreaded phone menus (also known as “IVR systems”) and get right to the point. With Fonolo’s Deep Dialing, users can navigate the call path options visually, on a computer or mobile device, then click to be connected directly, rather than plodding through the menus step-by-step. Fonolo’s Intelligent Call History feature tracks all the calls a user makes to a particular company, regardless of which phone is used, and automatically organizes them along with notes and recordings.

Fonolo is privately held and based in Toronto. The service is currently in closed beta testing. For more information, visit www.fonolo.com.

SHAI BERGER ON CBC RADIO ONE

Fonolo's Shai Berger was a guest on today's season premiere of "Spark," a very cool CBC Radio program that offers "ongoing conversation about technology and culture." If you're within reach of CBC Radio One, you can catch a rebroadcast of Shai's interview with Spark host Nora Young on Saturday, Sept. 6, at 4 p.m. Or better yet, check out the podcast anytime.