The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Thelonious Monk's Brilliant Corners:
First Coffee finds it difficult to read, much less understand, jazz criticism, most of which assumes the reader possesses a working knowledge of Mixolydian scales, as opposed to rock criticism, which assumes the reader possesses a working knowledge of beer.
Talking about a record's "arithmetical chord progressions" or "ironic precision" leaves me rather confused, and I'm not sure exactly what's being referred to by "incorporation of the celeste," unless that's a glockenspiel-type instrument I haven't heard of yet, and I take it that "the alpha and omega of post-World War II American jazz" is a compliment, but what it means I can't say.
I do know, however, that Brilliant Corners is one of the best musical discoveries I've made since, oh, Louis Jordan or Peter Wolf.
Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, has introduced Factiva SalesWorks for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 for Microsoft Certified Partners participating in the Factiva Partner Program. Factiva SalesWorks is a global collection of company, industry and executive news and information.
Directly from within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, users can view a snapshot of a particular company or executive, allowing them to identify and qualify prospects quickly. Factiva SalesWorks can also be integrated into such environments such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services, Office Outlook 2003 and Office Word 2003.
Factiva has developed more than 15 Factiva SalesWorks components for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies that facilitate the delivery of content in context. It's integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 as a way for salespeople to "find and understand information critical to the sales process," said Greg Gerdy, vice president of channel marketing, Factiva: "As a result, salespeople spend less time looking for data."
The product is being billed as extending the consultative role of Microsoft Certified Partners, while increasing selling opportunities and extending their market reach. And "combining Factiva SalesWorks content with a customer's important CRM information promotes greater adoption of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0," according to Gerdy.
Quilogy, a Microsoft Gold-Certified Partner, has become the first national systems integrator to offer SalesWorks.
"Marketplace reception of Factiva SalesWorks has been very strong," said Alan Groh, chief technology officer for Quilogy, who said the value customers see in integrating Factiva SalesWorks' premium business news and information into Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is "to help increase adoption of their technology investment."
Factiva is a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, claiming a collection of more than 10,000 "authoritative sources," including the "exclusive combination of The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Dow Jones and Reuters newswires and the Associated Press, as well as Reuters Fundamentals and D&B company profiles.
Riverside Consulting Group, Ltd. has announced the launch of a new offering for Software as a Service. With the announcement of new pricing for Microsoft Dynamics ERP software, Riverside Consulting is offering a hosted ERP platform for small and medium business on the Microsoft Dynamics GP suite.
This, Riverside officials say, opens "once costly ERP and Accounting software to the smallest of businesses for reasonable price." It dovetails with Bill Gates's statement that “if we're going to empower people in the best way possible, we've got to get into actual business processes, into the business roles."
The expansion of the enterprise-grade ERP system from its traditional home in the large enterprise space to now include the small and medium business space opens competition for Microsoft with companies such as Peachtree and QuickBooks. Microsoft's hoping it does better than it has in fields such as personal finance, where Intuit has regularly kicked its butt.
Such offerings are now possible through the addition of the Microsoft Dynamics GP suite to the Service Provider License Agreement sponsored by Microsoft, as this special agreement allows a hosting service provider to sell licenses to customers on a monthly subscription rate, as opposed to other license arrangements that require a large up-front investment for a perpetual license.
“The SPLA has saved the software as a service market,” believes Diane Silva, Chairman of the Board for Riverside Consulting.
Riverside Consulting Group, while no longer the only company in this market space, was one of the early pioneers in the ERP SaaS marketplace. Located in Riverside, Illinois, the company was founded in 2002 and provides ERP and CRM products built on the Microsoft platform.
In 2005, Joe Johnson was tapped to expand the business into the hosted application market. Johnson, once the youngest business owner in Illinois, built his company, JMDN.net, into one of the largest Fox Valley consulting firms before selling the company at the young age of 17. He now serves as Chief Technology Office of RCG and manages the company’s hosting unit.
Desktopsites Inc. does access serverware for small and mid-size businesses, and has announced the addition of CyberQuest Systems Ltd. to its Konect Reseller Partner Program.
Syed Ali, CRM Specialist at CyberQuest says that while the market for IT products and services is growing substantially for small and mid-size customers, "it has been a struggle to add quality and affordable new products to serve this market as well as the enterprise market."
“Our new partners are demonstrating an increasing interest in not only provisioning Konect to our target market of small and mid-size customers but also with larger enterprise customers,” said Alex Bethlehem, President and CEO of desktopsites.
Desktopsites sells on-demand application publishing serverware products for small and mid-size businesses globally. Its Konect product enables companies to extend network resources and publish applications.
CyberQuest Solutions says its goal is to be a global IT leader in the areas of CRM and project management.
Connextions Inc. has announced the appointment of Albert A. Prast as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer. Prast, who most recently served in a similar capacity for Rotech Healthcare Inc., will be responsible for all IT-related services at Connextions and at Connextions Health, the company's healthcare services operation.
"Our proprietary CRM platform enables our clients to provide superior service and drive sales by integrating customer interactions, automating contact center activity, and using customer data to strengthen loyalty and retention," said Connextions Founder and CEO Jack LeFort. "The strategic direction of our technological and CRM capabilities aligns perfectly with the evolution of Consumer-Driven Healthcare in the United States, which increasingly will assign all aspects of healthcare-related decision-making to individual consumers."
LeFort said the addition of Prast "better enables Connextions to expand and refine our IT platform capabilities; to address an even more sophisticated range of CRM needs; and to capture the significant market opportunities emerging in CDH."
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