By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Beatles' Abbey Road:

Princeton Softech, a vendor of enterprise data management, has announced that Australian Newspaper Network, News Limited, has purchased Princeton Softech Optim Siebel Solution to manage continued data growth and improve operational efficiencies following a planned Siebel upgrade.

Optim's enterprise data management solutions help companies implement a proactive approach for faster, safer upgrades.

The News Limited newspaper network includes over 110 national, metropolitan, regional and community newspapers that reach into all areas of Australia and account for more than 70 percent of the country's circulation. Additionally, the organization has online and magazine divisions.

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Hootie & the Blowfish's "I'm Goin' Home:"

Customer Connect Associates, long affiliated with Microsoft, has become a Microsoft Certified Partner for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Connect officials say, adding that the "Certified Partner" designation recognizes "expertise and the total impact that Customer Connect has had upon the CRM marketplace."

Customer Connect President Geoff Ables said the company's goal is to reach the level of Microsoft Gold Certified "within the next twelve months."

Earlier this month Customer Connect Associates was retained by ClearWater Marketing to implement Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy and products.

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Industry observer Howard Dahdah in Sydney reports that Vodafone's CRM brownout was expected: "A customer relationship management (CRM) upgrade that caused Vodafone Group's pre-paid service to brown out for more than a week was totally foreseen," according to company officials.

Starting May 17, Dahdah said, the company was upgrading its Oracle's Siebel system handling its Australian pre-paid billing system.

So for over a week Vodafone couldn't provide such new products or services as voicemail or moving customers to new propositions, or change the rate plans or even churn customers to or from pre-paid phone accounts, Dahdah says, noting "there was no impact to the telecom company's post-pay business."

"This was scheduled as a piece of work. It was not as though we thought it would take a day and it has taken longer. It was certainly a nine-day brown out period that was factored in," Dahdah quotes Greg Spears, Vodafone's head of corporate communications as saying.

Spears added the work is part of the final phase of a three-year upgrade to the company's new CRM system.

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EMS-Cortex, a New Zealand-based IT company with worldwide offices and operations,  has announced Cortex 7.0 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is available through the Microsoft SPLA and provides "a good opportunity for hosters wishing to move into higher valued hosted services," company officials say.

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Elvis Presley's From Elvis In Memphis, the best actual album he ever released:

CRM vendor NetSuite, Inc. has announced that NetSuite is available wirelessly on mobile devices such as BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Palm Treo.

Third-party application developers Antenna Software, Explore Mobile and iEnterprises have extended NetSuite via NetSuite's SuiteFlex development and integration platform to meet the needs of wireless users, providing NetSuite customers with a variety of choices for mobile products.

Unlike stand-alone products typically targeted at only sales users, company officials say, NetSuite is an end-to-end business management software application in the SaaS industry that "allows all mobile users to perform their key business activities from accounts receivable, to quote and order management, to closing transactions and sales, to customer support and service."

Each of these end-to-end processes is now available to the mobile worker via their wireless device with NetSuite extensions from Antenna Software, Explore Mobile and iEnterprises.

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Slim Dusty's "A Pub With No Beer:"

Somehow missed the news a couple weeks ago when DataForceLEADS Version 2.0 was released, but it's the latest in the DataForce CRM suite of online sales tools designed to "enhance sales results" while making the user experience "simple and comfortable."

Using a technology called Data Grids, this new version allows the user to enter and edit information in one view similar to updating an Excel spreadsheet without the clicks and drill downs in traditional applications.

It has what it calls a simple user interface "designed to ensure 100 percent user adoption Ajax-XML architecture, including Data Grids for fast data entry and edits."

Data is exchanged between Excel spreadsheets and DataForceLEADS by a Copy and Paste feature, and a new layer of analytics blankets both the CRM tool and the Revenue Management module. Its project management allows editing and tracking of sales cycles, and the enhanced sales channel management has automatic lead and opportunity routing and updating, integrated sales forecasting ending and spreadsheet roll ups.

Jim Romano, DataForce founder and CEO, says the service is priced at only $20 per user per month with no ongoing service fees, and "complete and unlimited training is provided at no cost and also includes live chat, message boards and video demonstrations to support our clients."

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Overall, the largest portion -- fully 50 percent -- of software professionals expect to increase their IT development spending with Microsoft more than any other company, according to respondents of a recent Evans Data Corporation study.

In a study designed to clearly articulate the opinions and attitudes of software professionals, Microsoft ranked highest for expected increases in IT spending.

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Vivaldi's The Four Seasons:

Interesting news, that Google and salesforce.com could be joining up here to fight off Microsoft.

The Wall Street Journal, which notes any official confirmation or announcement could be a couple weeks off, said this morning the two firms are "discussing an alliance that could help them compete more effectively with Microsoft."

The companies are "still hashing out details of a potential partnership," but one possible outcome, speculates whoever the insiders were the WSJ talked to, is a "Web-based offering that integrates some of Google's online services such as email and instant-messaging with those of Salesforce.com."

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O2, a vendor of mobile services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom, and Vettro have recently announced a partnership to offer mobile enterprise applications for the business segment in Europe.

As part of the agreement, O2 is also deploying Vettro 360 for Sales & CRM to its own field sales organization as part of "a joint effort to embody the best practices of mobile application deployment, training, and usage," according to Vettro officials.

Vettro has been accepted to O2's Preferred Partner Program in the UK. This agreement makes Vettro one of only a handful of application partners to have been accepted to O2's program, and enables its entire Vettro 360 suite of mobile applications to be sold directly by O2 sales personnel.

The Vettro partnership is expected by O2 officials to strengthen O2's portfolio of offerings targeted to a growing population of mobile workers, and is intended to help corporate customers deploy mobile applications for field service, sales, IT service management, and pickup and delivery.

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Ol' Blue Eyes's Songs For Young Lovers:

According to a report recently published by research firm Cutting Edge Information, new CRM initiatives for the pharmaceutical industry track interactions with different audiences and help companies better understand their key customers.

"When it comes to drugs, mass marketing techniques that serve other industries often fail to create lasting customer connections," the report finds. Instead, companies turn to more direct, personalized communications to build relationships with doctors and patients.

Cutting Edge Information identified several reasons why some pharmaceutical companies are leading the field in customer relationship management. Organizations on the cutting edge of CRM tend to share seven core principles of success: They invest adequate resources at the outset of the initiative and provide sufficient investments annually to support the program, create an internal champion for CRM through the structuring of a CRM department, team or ad hoc group and establish a centralized database to share knowledge across the company.

They also define CRM and educate internal parties to ensure buy-in, understand target audiences and provide customized messages via preferred media touch points, recognize that CRM requires a long-term commitment, in terms of both resources and measurements and improve their programs by continuously monitoring progress and industry advancements.

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Suite:                                                                                                         

Sage Software has announced that we savants here at Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC)'s Communications Solutions have named the ACT! by Sage Premium for Workgroups 2007 (9.0) contact and customer management product a 2006 Product of the Year Award winner.

TMC recently honored the most innovative products and services brought to market in 2006 as part of its seventh annual Communications Solutions awards program, recognizing "vendor vision, leadership, and attention to detail in business application development."

ACT! Premium for Workgroups 2007 was released in September 2006.

"This award speaks directly to the granular level of detail we build into the total ACT! product," said Joe Bergera, senior vice president and general manager for ACT! and Sage Software Global CRM.

ACT! Premium for Workgroups is now being featured with Product of the Year award winners on the Communications Solutions Web site ( www.tmcnet.com/comsol).

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is an old favorite here at the sprawling campus of First Coffee, Duke Ellington's Blues In Orbit:

WealthCraft Systems Inc. and Decillion Solutions Group have announced that they will partner in Asia to market WealthCraft's total wealth management product, including Advisor Workbench, Atoms Order Management, and Atoms SWIFTNet Funds Gateway.

The full product suite, integrated with Microsoft CRM, is a software system specifically designed to offer financial institutions and financial managers an automated product to "enhance the delivery of wealth management services," according to company officials.

WealthCraft CEO Kelly J. Tallas said given the current Asian economic environment, "the number of wealthy individuals is growing dramatically, and according to a Merrill Lynch world wealth report for 2005, personal wealth in Asia is estimated to reach $10.1 trillion by 2009."

Wealth management firms, Tallas said, need consolidated, multi-channel wealth management platforms to integrate all the components required for managing client portfolios, letting them improve advisor/ client communication and "therefore increase client satisfaction."

Tallas said Decillion's experience providing business products for financial institutions throughout Asia and its awareness of the SWIFTNet system, when combined with WealthCraft's product, "offer a synergistic opportunity for both companies, enabling us to achieve much greater market penetration in a much shorter time span than either company could achieve alone."

WealthCraft and Decillion anticipate beginning their new partnership with the first of a series of SouthEast Asia business focus seminars, sponsored jointly by WealthCraft, Decillion and Microsoft, to be held in Singapore later this spring.

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is an iPod mix of ABC:

Industry observer Melanie Badenhorst puts the matter plainly when she writes "As a CRM practitioner, I'm tired of reading articles about why you need CRM, and why companies aren't getting the benefit, and how to really do it."

Amen. I remember a pastor I had once told of a man who attended a church he pastored in Africa years ago. The man, who the pastor knew lived quite close to the church, would come to a service and listen most attentively to the sermon -- sit in the front pew (always available), take notes, strain to catch every word, nod at the good points and ask the pastor a question or two on his way out.

Then the man would disappear for weeks. Months.

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is a Miles Davis Twofer -- Kind of Blue and In A Silent Way:

Ascendix Technologies has announced the availability of its Real Estate Advantage CRM offering in a hosted model. It's being pitched for situations where an on-premise installation of Real Estate Advantage is not possible or desirable, so hosting options have been made available and are packaged in two different offerings.

Wes Snow, President of Ascendix Technologies, puts it a bit more precisely: "Commercial real estate companies now have an industry-specific choice as opposed to salesforce.com to manage their business in a hosted environment."

There's the "subscribe/host" option. "If it is desirable to follow more of a Software as a Service model, the Subscribe/Host product has been provided," company officials say. They say the advantage with this product is that "there is no ownership of Real Estate Advantage but rather an annual subscription to this service that grants the company rights to use the product over the contracted period of time."

Naturally this option is targeted to those companies with tight constraints on cash, or those with minimal investment in technical infrastructure.

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring:

Congratulations to Nicholas Sarkozy, the president-elect of France. I must confess, First Coffee was rather hoping to see Mlle Royal elected, it would have been such evil fun to watch France as a serious country go swirling down the ol' porcelain pony.

But in electing Sarkozy the French have shown a realism First Coffee frankly doubted they had, an acknowledgment that Socialist delusions are worthless in reality, so maybe the place is salvageable after all. Of course it remains to be seen how much opposition trade unions, "students" and "youths" throw up.

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is… well there I was noodling around on iTunes last night, desultorily buying a bit of this and a little of that, when I see the entire old Elvis Costello catalogue is now available for download.

Baby! Let's have My Aim Is True, This Year's Model and Armed Forces just for starters, ruthlessly plunder Imperial Bedroom, Get Happy!! and King of America, might dip into Blood and Chocolate or Almost Blue, Trust, Spike or Goodbye, Cruel World soon… I told my wife to be sure to tell me when she's sick of hearing it around the house.

How did I manage to live so long without this on the ol' iPod? Anyway, the music this morning is what will soon be the gloriously overplayed Mr. Declan MacManus… what, you didn't think his real name was "Elvis Costello," did you? That'd be child abuse:

Blackbaud, Inc.'s CEO Marc Chardon has announced that the company has released its technology platform, code-named Infinity, along with two new products for nonprofits' information management.

Released to selected customers in March, Blackbaud Direct Marketing, formerly code-named "Bullseye," and Blackbaud Enterprise CRM, formerly code-named "Galileo" are billed by company officials as combining "the strength of the company's knowledge of the nonprofit sector with its technology platform."

Blackbaud has been selling products to the nonprofit IT market for about twenty-five years.

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Surfaris' immortal "Wipe Out:"

This week, at its first-ever Global Developer Conference, SugarCRM Inc., a provider of commercial open source customer relationship management (CRM) software, will announce the availability of Customer Self-Service Portal and Knowledgebase for Sugar Professional and Sugar Enterprise customers. 

"CRM is moving beyond the four walls of the enterprise," said John Roberts, CEO of SugarCRM, adding that a Customer Self-Service Portal and Knowledgebase "give companies the ability to expose key elements of their CRM to customers to serve them more effectively and at a lower cost." 

The portal is being pitched as providing self-service capabilities to customers and prospects for key marketing, sales and support activities. The new functionality includes case self-service, where customers can log cases, upload relevant information, and track cases to resolution without ever having to pick up a phone, as well as account updates, which allows customers to update account, contact, billing and shipping address information in one single location.

There's also a knowledge search for customers to search for resolutions, with access to FAQs written and managed within SugarCRM, and "Sugar Studio Integration," where customizations are managed within Sugar Studio for easy layout changes, custom fields, history and revision tracking.

SugarCRM officials say there is also a Wikified user interface for managing non-technical content, including posting, linking, editing and deleting content, supplemented with workflow approvals so the content staging process includes managerial review for posting of new content; includes audit tracking for revision.

The new portal will be available in mid May. SugarCRM will post pricing details later this week.

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Talisma Corporation, a vendor of Customer Interaction Management (CIM) products, has announced the release of Talisma CIM 8.0, the latest version of their customer service, sales, and support suite. 

Talisma CIM 8.0 includes "many updates," company officials promise, with the most significant, in the company's opinion, being the addition of "proactive capabilities in the two new CIM products Talisma Campaign and Talisma VoIP, and the existing Talisma Chat."

Talisma Campaign, a multi-channel management and tracking application, lets businesses provide a more personalized customer experience -- the product's Real-Time Offer Engine sends customers tailored offers, either directly online or via a customer service agent, that reflect their profile, historical data, and current activity on a Web site. 

Businesses using Talisma Campaign should be able to cut down a bit on inbound e-mails and telephone calls by alerting customers of product updates, billing notifications, and profile updates. 

With the addition of Talisma VoIP companies now have the ability to offer Web site visitors instant access to a live agent through Voice over Internet Protocol technology. By using voice communication, company officials maintain, businesses will be able to "expand their global reach, and customers will only have to click a button on the site to establish a voice connection with an agent directly through their computer."

Additionally, when using Talisma VoIP combined with other CIM channels such as chat or Web collaboration in more complex service engagements, the customer experience is further elevated. 

John Ragsdale, Vice President of Research for the SSPA, in a comment sure to warm the cockles of Talisma's heart, said "I would go so far as to say that Talisma's product is elegant."

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Kapow Technologies has announced that Switzerland-based Sita, a vendor of IT and communications products and services to the air transport industry, has deployed the Kapow Mashup Server to integrate various applications, including Siebel CRM, into a single portal.