By David Sims
[email protected]

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Smiths' Louder Than Bombs:

CRM vendor TechExcel, Inc., which sells what it calls knowledge-centric Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and support and service software, has announced it has opened an office in the UK to concentrate marketing and service to EMEA.

"Historically the UK has championed global efforts to optimize businesses and IT infrastructure with best practice approaches such as ITIL. We chose to join this rich heritage by establishing our European headquarters just outside of London," said Tieren Zhou, CEO and Chief Software Architect at TechExcel.

Zhou said the investment "reinforces our presence in the EMEA market where we already have a significant customer base."

Company officials say the addition of a UK presence means that the company can now "more effectively support the global customer base and distributors and resellers" by providing a true 24/7 environment. The company is also expanding its direct sales and channel sales development efforts to include EMEA and is actively building distributor and reseller partner programs to further extend its reach.

TechExcel's DevSuite helps enterprises ensure that all knowledge, from feature requests to design diagrams to resource planning, are shared across the various phases of the development lifecycle. The suite is comprised of core components including KnowledgeWise, a system that collects ideas, plans and features across a project based on environment and roles.

TechExcel sells CRM as an advanced product for managing marketing and sales automation and customer support.
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Microsoft CRM consultants InterDyn AKA, which sells accounting and business information systems, has announced that Peter Ward has joined the company as Business Collaboration Manager.

Ward will be responsible for leading InterDyn AKA's Business Collaboration Group focused on Microsoft's SharePoint 2007, Project Server 2007, Portfolio Server 2007 and Groove Server 2007.

Ward has 14 years of industry experience in consulting and project management. Ward holds a Bachelor degree in Business Information Technology from Kingston University, London.
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CACI International Inc. and Evolutionary Technologies International, Inc. have announced an alliance to offer clients services integrating data, especially on large systems integration projects.

Under the terms of the agreement CACI will serve as a premier reseller of ETI's systems integration tool, ETI SolutionV5, and both companies will pursue joint sales and marketing opportunities.

ETI Solution is a data integration tool designed to meet the needs of large organizations, both government and Global 1000, to use ETI to lower the cost and risk on integration projects. Extending and complementing existing data assets and tools already in place, ETI connects to virtually any data source, including mainframes, data warehouses, file systems, legacy databases, proprietary applications, and web services.

CACI currently uses ETI Solution as part of its ongoing development of an enterprise-wide system for the federal government, the Department of Defense Standard Procurement System, for which CACI serves as primary integrator. The SPS program combines multiple, separate contracting systems throughout the DoD into a single system. The system currently supports more than 18,000 deployed contracting professionals who purchase approximately $90 billion in DoD goods and services each year.

Evolutionary Technologies International, Inc. implements applications ranging from SOA, ETL, EAI, EII, CRM and ERP to compliance reporting and data warehousing.
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PacificNet's Epro subsidiary has been selected by China Unicom's Shanghai Branch to provide CRM consulting and call center training services.

According to China Tech News, under the project service agreement, PacificNet Epro will "enhance the CRM service level and telemarketing management capability of China Unicom's customer service center, called the 10010 Information Hotline," according to PacificNet officials.

This consulting project's scope covers a number of key areas including customer service and telemarketing management, development of outsourcing telemarketing programs, call center workflow design, business management, project Return on Investment, customer affinity, designing effective telemarketing scripts, and improving customer service agent capabilities.

Fei Jing Zhi, Manager of China Unicom's Shanghai Call Center 10010 Information Hotline, said the company hopes to work with PacificNet Epro "as our long-term CRM partner on future call center projects."
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And in a heartwarming example of Christmas cheer, Nichia Corp. has announced that it has issued patent infringement proceedings (HC-06C03955) in the London High Court (Patents Court) against the UK-based high street retailer, Argos Ltd., claiming patent infringement by Argos's white LED Christmas lights.

The proceedings, which include a claim for damages and a permanent injunction from future infringement, have been served on Argos.

The claim relates to the sale by Argos of white LED Christmas lights including the "120 White Multifunction LED Lights" sold in autumn and winter 2006, and "144 Multifunction White LED Crab Lights" sold last year.

Nichia believes that these products infringe at least two of its European patents.

The company's no stranger to the courtroom, as earlier this year they announced the settlement of its pending design patent litigation in the U.S. between themselves and Creative Technology Ltd, Creative Holdings Inc. and Creative Labs Inc.

On January 10, 2006, Nichia filed a Complaint in the Federal Court for the Northern District of California against Seoul Semiconductor Ltd. and its U.S. subsidiary Seoul Semiconductor Inc., as well as against Creative Technology Ltd and two of its U.S. subsidiaries, who had sold products which incorporated the LEDs manufactured by Seoul Semiconductor, alleging that they infringe 4 of Nichia’s design patents.

The parties have arrived at a commercial settlement which will be mutually beneficial.

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