Red Herring, Sunday, November 1st, 1998.

Toronto-based Balisoft aims to lead the real-time online customer service market. Its first software product, Live Contact, released in March, gives Web merchants live text, voice, and multimedia contact with their customers on the Internet. Balisoft faces steep competition from big players like Lucent Technologies and Northern Telecom. But with a June infusion of $12 million in venture financing led by J.L. Albright Venture Partners, the company hopes to take at least a sliver of the nascent market being fueled by the growth in online transaction revenues.