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The Live Chat space this week was full of live chat purchasing strategies, communication product enhancements, software launches, and much more.

According to a BoldChat white paper, there is more than one option of live chat solutions available, with many vendors offering a variety of products, and the cheapest option isn't always the best. So, it’s important to make sure the value of the live chat product matches up to the cost.

First, BoldChat advises that you understand how fast a solution can be up and running and whether that solution will affect business processes. Also, check to see what other types of customers the vendor has serviced as the live chat vendor should have plenty of experience in dealing with similar industries, which can be a great asset for configuring regulation issues. Then, make sure the vendors that make the final checklist have excellent support services that will available 24 hours a day in case of emergency.

Moreover, choose a vendor with a live chat product that allows flexibility to make changes without hassles. Finally, make sure the company actually needs a live chat solution. It shouldn't be a replacement for human interaction as live chat is best used for situations where the customer prefers that type of interaction.

In other Live Chat news, DecisionPoint Systems, Inc. has enhanced instant voice communication between its employees by adding to the functionality of its Grapevine product. The provider of enterprise mobility and RFID solutions upgraded its Grapevine cloud-based product with the addition of Instant Locate and Instant Alert that enabling instant voice communication between employees regardless of where they are located.

With Instant Locate, the location of users can be identified as it is a location based service for GPS- enabled devices. The solution can also be used to reach out to users that are in selected geographical areas. The location is updated every 10 minutes so that at any time the exact location can be identified. Instant Alert claims to be a lone worker SOS feature that works in conjunction with Instant Talk.

"The advanced features available on a SaaS (News - Alert) basis were introduced to meet our customers' needs for greater functionality, adding to the benefits of Grapevine's instant communication with any of their associates anywhere in the world,” said Brent Felker, vice president, field mobility solutions at Decision Point Systems.

Finally, Message Systems, a provider of messaging technology and solutions, announced the launch of Customer Conversation Hub, an on-premises software solution designed to help enterprises manage customer messaging operations from a single point of control.

Customer Conversation Hub enables large enterprises to carry on interactive dialogue with their customers across the full range of messaging formats such as e-mail, text messaging and more. This allows companies to orchestrate customer communications based on real-time insight, so they can engage customers more effectively.

George Schlossnagle, president and CEO at Message Systems, said, “The Customer Conversation Hub is the fullest realization of our vision for using intelligent digital messaging to drive more effective customer engagement, higher revenue and greater business value.”