Spencer to AT&T Wireless: Get an mLife

The sports-minded mouser last week noted Super Bowl marketing hype may have backfired a bit for AT&T Wireless mLife site. According to Jupiter Media Metrix, the site received 681,000 unique visitors on Super Bowl Sunday—a big leap from the measly 34,000 visitors the day before.

The surge was apparently more than the site could handle. The Kitty and some of his cronies fielded notes from readers who claimed they were unable to access the site during the game. One Tabby tattler included an attachment of a technical difficulty notice he had received while trying to access the site that contained several phone numbers for those requiring immediate assistance. One number connected callers to a Wal-Mart pharmacy.

This prompted the Puss to ponder some things. First, wouldnt an e-business, especially a company such as AT&T Wireless, which hosts its own Internet content, have been fully prepared to cope with the traffic that a Super Bowl advertisement may bring? Second, why are people trying to access a site about wireless technology when they should be watching the Super Bowl?

(Katt note: Nevertheless, eWeek did A-OK by this announcement; our crack news team was the first to break the mLife mystery. The story alone was visited by 20,000-plus on Super Bowl Sunday.)

Heres one for the "finally someones getting ROI from a CRM system" file: His Hirsuteness noticed that the New England Patriots and World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks have more in common than beating the odds. Both are being touted by Onyx Software as users of its CRM software, mainly for customer service and marketing. However, the Furball doesnt expect this Onyx factor to come into play in the NHL playoffs this spring. The last-place Anaheim Mighty Ducks are the only NHL team using Onyx.

The Kitty set aside his plaid sportscasters jacket when he received a tip that Cisco may be investing a big pot of money—about $10 million—in a vulnerability assessment company called Vigilante. Cisco has been trying to build up its security biz, and a Tabby tattler claims this may be a prelude to Cisco eventually buying the company outright.

The Katt was still licking some Super Bowl Sunday salsa residue off his carcass when he noticed that Aprisma—the former Spectrum management software group from Cabletron—had to pull back its IPO last week. It seems the SEC may be investigating accounting practices at the parent company.

Me-ouch.

Spencer F. Katt can be reached at spencer_katt@ziffdavis.com.