September 2007 Archives

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Doris Day's "Secret Love:"

Information Resources, a vendor of information products for the consumer packaged goods, healthcare and retail industries, has announced that John Freeland, President-Worldwide Operations for Salesforce.com, will join IRI as President and Chief Executive Officer effective October 1.

He succeeds Scott W. Klein, who has served as President and CEO since January 2004 and is joining Symphony Technology Group as an operating partner while working with Freeland to ensure a seamless transition.

At Salesforce.com, Freeland was responsible for the company's Successforce portfolio of services and business alliances. Salesforce.com also had one of the most successful IPO’s in recent years during Freeland's tenure.

Prior to joining salesforce.com, Mr. Freeland was Accenture’s Global Managing Partner leading and growing its global CRM practice from $ 1.2 billion to $ 3.7 billion during his tenure. He was also responsible for launching Accenture’s Market Sciences unit and served as managing partner responsible for building Accenture’s global insurance practice into an $ 800 million business.

Romesh Wadhwani, IRI’s owner and Chairman of Symphony Technology Group, said IRI has performed well in the last four years since its acquisition by Symphony, and "we now need to supercharge our growth and profitability by driving new revenue… John has made a career out of doing this at Accenture and Salesforce.com and will do it again at IRI… in the end, it is all about delivering breakthrough insights that drive dramatic revenue growth and productivity for our clients."

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Sage Software has announced its keynote and featured speakers for Sage Summit, the company’s annual customer conference, taking place November 3-6, in Chicago.

The event is geared towards the small and mid-sized businesses who use Sage Software products and services.

Sage Summit will formally open with a joint keynote on Sunday, November 4th starting at 2:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, featuring Ron Verni, Sage Software CEO, named one of 2007’s “Top 100 Most Influential People” by Accounting Today magazine.

Nina Smith, Sage Software president, Business Management Division and Doug Meyer, Sage Software president, Industry & Specialized Solution Division will speak, as will Christopher Gardner, CEO of Christopher Gardner International Holdings, and the inspiration for the recent movie The Pursuit of Happyness.

Gardner will "articulate his keys to self-empowerment, beating the odds, and breaking the negative cycles that keep people from succeeding," according to Sage officials.

Additional speakers at Sage Summit include Rieva Lesonsky, Editorial Director of Entrepreneur magazine, Bob Scott, Editor-In-Chief of Accounting Technology magazine, Kevin Parker, Editorial Director of Manufacturing Business Technology magazine and Marshall Lager, Senior Editor of CRM magazine.

Lesonsky will host an interactive session in which attendees will discuss a variety of current issues and general business cases identified by the audience. During the session, Lesonsky will offer her suggestions and insights based on years of observing the ins and outs of what makes small businesses successful.

Lager will examine key issues and discuss what’s the best way to go -- hosted or on-premises, and what business owners might see over the next few years and what they need to do to maximize CRM in their own business.

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Now here's the kind of news you don't get just anywhere, pilgrim: The Management Board of RAO Unified Energy Systems of Russia has approved the Customer Service Standard for electricity companies. The Standard, the board says, is designed to improve efficiency of services provided to consumers of electricity during the period before RAO UES reorganization and in the post-reform sector.

To implement a customer-centric approach, RAO UES subsidiaries will launch a CRM system and create dedicated CRM divisions. Energy companies will create CRM training and development systems for their employees. There you go, problem solved.

The approved Standard specifies common requirements for the RAO UES subsidiary companies in customer relations, group officials say, including "the rules for providing personal and remote services, including those delivered via the Internet." In particular, energy companies' Web sites will have FAQ sections where users will be able to view the list of and rates charged for the services provided by the company, submit a request for services, ask a question, and submit comments or complaints.

"Such section will also contain information on the benefits and subsidies available to the low income and socially disadvantaged people," officials promise, adding that "the Standard also sets out the peculiarities of energy retailing, network and heating supply operations to households and other retail consumers, as well as information support and other aspects of customer services."

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Tech research firm Frost & Sullivan has issued a finding that communication services need to focus on CRM to attract greater consumer spending.

Conceding that "cost reduction" is perhaps the most compelling factor, Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst, Roopashree Honnachari says retailers are "increasingly realizing" that advanced features and functionalities provide "an enhanced communication experience that is becoming essential" in an industry with a highly mobile workforce.

"Apart from the need to provide convenience and flexibility to a mobile workforce, a strong focus on customer relationship management (CRM) and quick transaction processing as well as the move toward a centralized hub-and-spoke model of operations are other factors influencing retailer spending on communications services and products," Honnachari said.

Since delays in transactions could cause customers to shift loyalties to another store and result in lost sales, many retailers are giving top priority to improving customer flow and customers' overall store experience by streamlining payment processing, Frost & Sullivan found. Technologies that help in improving speed and efficiency and allow retailers to address customer demands more effectively are growing in demand in the retail industry.

"With retailers so strongly focused on CRM, there is increasing interest in CRM tools, which are all set to revolutionize the functioning of retail organizations," the research firm said. "CRM tools can be used to capture and analyze customer interactions with the retail outlet, study their buying patterns to help plan inventory management and gain insights into selling patterns of various stock keeping units."

Most importantly, the firm said, these tools help understand customer pain points, allowing retailers to find products that ensures customer loyalty and repeat business.

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Indiana Wesleyan University of Marion, Indiana is deploying a CRM product from Talisma -- specifically the Talisma Multi-channel CRM for Higher Education -- which, when coupled with Noel-Levitz' predictive modeling tool ForecastPlus, is expected to help the school "sharpen its enrollment and recruiting efforts," according to industry observer Dave Nagel.

The two technologies "will be deployed in such a way as to help the university focus its efforts on recruiting prospects that are most likely to enroll and that are desirable to the university based on various criteria," Nagel says:

"ForecastPlus will be used to process prospects and feed data about them -- including 125 variables that can predict enrollment behavior -- into the Talisma system directly. The Talisma CRM will then, according to the company, 'segment the identified top prospects and automatically initiate communication plans targeted to prospective students and deliver personalized messages.'"

If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/ for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored content.

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Kinks' Arthur:

SoftBrands, a vendor of enterprise application software, has introduced a new set of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools for hotels, which company officials say can be used to "centrally manage guest, travel agent and company profiles and communication across multiple properties."

Called Mosaik CRM, the applications join the existing Mosaik Business Intelligence decision support product. Mosaik CRM is marketed as a complete profile and customer relationship management product, including sales force automation, campaign management and loyalty program administration.

Mosaik CRM is closely integrated with SoftBrands Epitome .NET Property Management System and Core Central Reservation System. SoftBrands will sell, install and provide support for Mosaik CRM worldwide.

SoftBrands' Mosaik CRM is the result of a partnership between SoftBrands and Serenata Intraware AG, a Munich-based hospitality technology provider with experience in hotel CRM. Built on the Microsoft .Net architecture, Serenata NetHotel currently manages over 30 million profiles.

Steve Van Tassel, senior vice president and general manager, SoftBrands Hospitality, said the idea behind basing the offerings on the NetHotel suite from Serenata was to "build from a robust, scalable system provided by a proven partner."

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Denplan, a member of the Global AXA Group, has selected Softlab to implement CDC Pivotal CRM "as a mechanism for improving marketing performance and support consultants in helping dentists develop their practice," according to Denplan officials.

"As a trusted advisor, Softlab helped us select a product that can support our business objectives to maintain client retention rates and improve our market share," said Phil Metcalfe, Head of IT at Denplan. The group made the investment on the back of the growing popularity of private dental care payment plans and investment in new products and services to dentists.

"Using CDC Pivotal CRM, Denplan will now be able to map and consolidate dentist needs in one place," said Richard Earle, Client Services Director at Softlab.

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SpringCM, a vendor of on-demand document management and workflow products, has announced it has been selected by Stratus Technologies to deliver a contract lifecycle management system. The SpringCM Contract Accelerator for Salesforce.com enables Stratus'' sales teams to "collaborate, to share best practices and to streamline contract negotiation and approval processes," according to SpringCM officials.

Stratus Technologies is hired to help ensure the continuous availability of information systems. Stratus's contract negotiation and new partner application processes were hampered by time-consuming manual steps that made optimal sales performance difficult to achieve, company officials say. With 20 to 40 contracts in process at any given time, sales teams had difficulty identifying which ones needed the most urgent attention.

Stratus determined that a document management system with salesforce.com integration would be the most cost-effective way to get the functionality it needed. In addition to automated workflow and document management, the ideal system needed to allow users to access the system through the familiar Microsoft Office interface, to ease adoption for users in the finance and legal departments who were not salesforce.com users.

"We needed a product that would help us streamline the process of getting from draft to final contracts and to prioritize opportunities, especially at quarter end," says Steve Parker, senior business development manager for Stratus.

"Organizations are looking for alternatives to traditional and often cost-prohibitive contract lifecycle management systems," says Dan Carmel, chief executive officer for SpringCM, adding "we provide value by combining data from SpringCM and the CRM system to help sales managers focus their efforts where revenue potential is greatest."

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First Coffee's very own Technology Marketing Corporation has announced that the Call Center Jobs channel, sponsored by CallCenterClassifieds.com, has been launched as the latest addition to the TMCnet channel program.

The channel "promotes effective call center job recruitment" products and includes an overview of CallCenterClassifieds.com's services, according to TMC officials. Visitors can also find resources such as feature articles and industry news. The channel can be found at: http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/call-center-jobs.

TMCnet's channels are micro-targeted information portals where readers can find topic-specific news, articles, feature stories and product reviews. TMCnet has created over 100 channels covering topics in the IP Communications, VoIP, IP telephony, CRM, call center and information technology industries.

Michael R. Maffei, President & CEO of CallCenterClassifieds.com, said TMCnet's "credibility and expertise in driving traffic" are expected to "reinforce our branding and distinguish CallCenterClassifieds.com as the call center jobs market leader."

CallCenterClassifieds.com launched on May 1st, 2007. The Phase One release will be followed by three additional phases over the next 6-12 months. CallCenterClassifieds is a subsidiary of the BrandonWayne Group, based in Nashville.

TMC officials say the site will not only provide job listings, but in the will continue to add an extensive array of additional services and programs for both job seekers and employers over the next 6-12 months.

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Certicom Corp. has announced that Vaultus Mobile Technologies has licensed Certicom's Elliptic Curve Cryptography technology to ensure the Vaultus Mobile Application Platform's security for mobile users.

This contract is an expansion of an existing agreement between the two companies that dates back to 2000, when Vaultus licensed Certicom's ECC technology to provide security for its Mobile Sales/Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and other mobile products for BlackBerry and Windows CE devices.

With the new agreement, Vaultus will extend its ECC license with Certicom to include Vaultus applications on BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile operating systems.

By implementing Certicom's Security Builder Crypto in VMAP, Vaultus is offering secure access to their enterprise applications, data and processes via BlackBerry, Symbian or Windows Mobile devices. Security Builder is a cryptography product optimized for small code size and includes a range of current and legacy algorithms for resource-constrained mobile devices.

Arvind Goyal, Chief Technology Officer at Vaultus, said his company has worked with Certicom over the years "because their comprehensive cryptographic suite allows us to select the features we need for our latest mobile applications."

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InsideSales.com, a vendor of on-demand Lead Management products, has announced that Ben Peterson has become the third member of the InsideSales.com Board of Advisors.

David Elkington, CEO of InsideSales.com, said Peterson "has been of great help to us even before officially joining our board."

Peterson was the founder and CEO of the online dating firm MingleMatch, bootstrapping his company which was acquired by publicly-held Spark Networks in 2005. He has expertise in online subscription models, advertising models, and social networking.

Prior to MingleMatch, Mr. Peterson was Senior Vice President of Business Development and Online Advertising Sales for MyComputer.com (what is now Omniture), and co-founder of Allegiance Technologies.

If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/ for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored content.

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Buddy Rich Big Band's Mercy, Mercy album:

With U.S. online retail sales for Q1 2007 totaling $31.5 billion, a study has revealed that "U.S. online retailers are failing in key areas of customer service, which has the potential to be devastating to the online retail market which is forecasted to reach $329 billion in 2010," according to Talisma officials.

Mystery shopping from April to June 2007, 34 percent of e-mails went unanswered by what Talisma officials describe as "100 of America's top online retailers," with just over 50 percent of responses providing accurate and complete information. The findings of the audit are highlighted in a downloadable report published by customer service and Customer Interaction Management (CIM) software vendor Talisma.

Talisma asked its targets "What credit or debit cards can I use to make payment," and "what are your shipment charges?" The audit then awarded each online retailer a score out of 100, based on a range of customer service criteria including speed of response, accuracy, completeness of information provided, and the personalization of interactions.

Ninety three percent of companies audited responded to phone queries within 30 seconds, but only five percent were able to communicate with personalized content -- by referring to caller ID or a customer profile. 51 percent of e-mails and 72 percent of phone calls answered provided accurate information.

Of the 230 million U.S. Internet users, Talisma officials say, "many are well versed with the use of chat, and prefer to communicate with online retailers that way.  However, only 30 percent of the audited retailers are able to accommodate that channel preference."  Even worse, they charge, for those customers who prefer to find information themselves before contacting customer service "a mere three percent of online retailers offer full-fledged Web self-service."

But every one of the audited companies provided access to phone-based customer service, with 95 percent providing it for free, and 96 percent provided access to e-mail.

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VeriWave, a vendor of wireless networking functional and performance analysis systems, has announced the integration of WiMix, what company officials call "the industry's first performance prediction tool for wireless Quality of Experience" with an open-air test methodology using VeriWave WT20 Traffic Generator/Analyzer units to load a wireless infrastructure network with traffic from thousands of users.

The test subjects the network to realistic conditions and reports end-user QoE for a wide variety of vertical deployments, such as healthcare, corporate offices, education facilities and retail outlets. This allows for the testing of control variables impacting end-user experience and performance of CRM applications, as well as e-mail traffic, Web browsing, audio and video file transfers and others.

Trapeze Networks, a launch customer for the test suite, is using the open-air test to replicate various vertical market environments and test the performance and scalability of its Smart Mobile wireless technology. Prior to deploying this methodology, Trapeze used dozens of laptops to attempt to create large-scale testing in its open-air labs.

The open-air test methodology combined with WiMix, VeriWave officials maintain, "offers the ability to evaluate a realistic network environment in a wide range of conditions, including complex traffic mixes encountered in various vertical industries, various types of security mechanisms and combinations of data, voice and video traffic."

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Autonomy Corporation, a vendor of infrastructure software for the enterprise, has announced that its contact center clients can now use an off-site hosted archiving product for storing, managing, and retrieving their critical customer call recordings. It provides customers with "a secure storage environment and direct access to their contact center audio files, enabling them to effectively meet regulatory compliance and eDiscovery requirements," Autonomy officials say.

Autonomy etalk's hosted archiving offering "addresses the growing need for secure, long-term, and high-volume storage required by large enterprise contact centers," company officials maintain. The center provides an unlimited amount of hosting space, supplying companies a place to archive, search, and retrieve voice and screen recordings via the integration of Autonomy etalk's Qfiniti recording system with the Autonomy ZANTAZ Digital Safe consolidated archiving Software as a Service.

Because the product "integrates directly with Qfiniti," company officials say, "users can immediately search, access, and play back their archived recordings through the Qfiniti interface." Integrations with Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook also enable consolidated archiving of all of an enterprise's data.

Qfiniti Explore can perform a conceptual and contextual search of all data in the hosted archive, including audio, video, and text-based interactions, letting users find relevant content for liability disputes, eDiscovery requests, and even trend analysis.

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SpeechCycle, a vendor of on-demand, voice self-service solutions for cable and telecommunication providers, has received the Rising Star distinction in the Deloitte & Touche USA LLP's Technology Fast 50 program for the New York Region. SpeechCycle has posted a none-too-shabby three-year average revenue growth of 1,808 percent.

Zor Gorelov, founder and CEO of SpeechCycle, said he's "always believed that the talent and business environment in New York is ideal for emerging new companies. We've been able to attract top technology talent from around the world. This combined with the rich resources that New York offers has helped us grow quickly."

SpeechCycle, a SaaS company, provides automated agents that help cable service providers enhance customer service. Founded in 2001, SpeechCycle has expanded its market reach to international markets. Last month, SpeechCycle was named winner of the Market Leader award in professional services by Speech Technology magazine.

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Salesboom.com, an SaaS CRM and ERP vendor, has announced Salesboom V9 will be released next month. The product will include "over 226 customer-driven upgrades to its flagship CRM and ERP SaaS Platform," company officials say. Highlights include AJAX drag-and-drop layout and workflow Studios, Order and Inventory Management, Web 2.0 mash-ups, and upgrades to the Web Services API.

Company officials point to five areas where the product has been upgraded, including workflow -- with a focus on upgrading the Time-based Workflow Automation Engine, Salesboom V9 can send real time Ajax alerts, performing Cross-Object creation and updates, and highlighting data rows and fields.

There are also custom tabs, objects, fields, layouts, views and reports, and dashboards can be created and managed via user-friendly drag-and-drop user interface. Salesboom can be integrated with legacy systems using the enhanced Web Services API, supporting REST and SOAP calls. Many Web 2.0 mash-ups are also included, such as Google Maps, Ebay, Skype, Weather, Shipping and News.

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Creative Manager has released version 8.4.4 of its flagship product, Creative Manager Pro optimized for Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and ready for Apple's upcoming Mac OS X Leopard. As a Web-based product, Creative Manager Pro's Ad Agency software had little to change to have it work with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The iPhone and iPod Touch are commonly used by ad agency managers to check on the work of the team, Creative Manager officials say.

Using the integrated Safari browser of the iPhone and iPod Touch, clients of Creative Manager Pro can review the status of projects and contact clients. Designers and other staff can also enter timesheets anywhere they can get use the iPhone and iPod Touch.

No installation or conversion is necessary, and all updates are at no cost to users of Creative Project Manager and Creative Manager Pro, company officials say. Client logins and vendor logins are always free.

If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/ for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored content.

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first cup of coffee this morning, and the music is The North Mississippi All-Stars’ Electric Blue Watermelon.

 

Perlego Systems, a vendor of “hosted mobile device lifecycle management,” has announced a partnership with Implement.com Corporation, which hosts Microsoft Exchange deployments. Perlego Horizons will be used by Implement.com to provide enterprise mobile IT management products.

 

Steve Schwartz, President of Implement.com, said Perlego gives his customers the ability to “quickly, easily and cost-effectively deploy strong mobile device management capabilities. We believe this new partnership gives us the competitive advantage we need.”

 

Administered over the air, Horizons provides tools for comprehensive smart device configuration capabilities, including remote management, data wipe, content delivery and device backup. Perlego’s hosted Web console provides distributors, carriers, VARs and enterprise IT managers with a system for end-to-end device management needs, including deploying applications and issuing patches.

 

“In the hosted services space, multi-tenancy is a must for companies looking to efficiently address the broadest possible market,” said Frank Costa, CEO of Perlego.

 

. . . .

 

QuickArrow, a vendor of SaaS services automation solutions, announced that OSI Consulting has selected its product to further automate and track services operations. Beginning next month, OSI will deploy QuickArrow to 450 consultants worldwide.

 

QuickArrow’s PSA product “streamlines processes by incorporating Project Management, Resource Management, Financial Management, and Advanced Reporting capabilities in a single product,” company officials say. OSI officials, for their part, say they expect “increased efficiency of projects,” and will use QuickArrow’s client access portal to “deliver real-time project visibility to and enable deeper collaboration with their clients.”

 

This is “a prime example of selecting a proven product rather than reinventing one,” said Meg Boring, OSI Consulting Vice President of Operations. “As our business continues to expand across North America, it’s imperative to have an online product to automate, consolidate, and manage our Professional Services.”

 

One factor in the selection process for OSI was the speed to value available with QuickArrow’s SaaS product, Kevin Bury, QuickArrow Vice President and COO said. “Waiting 6 to 12 months to install, assemble, and customize an on-premise product is difficult when organizations are expanding so quickly.”

 

QuickArrow’s PSA product integrates with various SFA, CRM, and financial applications, replacing homegrown products and labor-intensive spreadsheets to automate workflows and streamline operations.

 

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OpenAjax Alliance, an organization “dedicated to the successful adoption of open and interoperable Ajax-based Web technologies,” according to Alliance officials, has revealed what Alliance officials are calling “initiatives for secure mashups and mobile Ajax, as well as a new white paper on Ajax security.”

 

Ajax is behind the increasingly popular “mashup,” a Web site or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.

 

“Developing an Ajax-based ERP/CRM system for accountants and others accustomed to functionality and responsiveness in a traditional desktop application, we have focused on features and speed improvements,” said Espen Antonsen, System Developer, 24SevenOffice. “Cross-platform issues have in the past been marginalized due to time constraints. Now with new Ajax-toolkits emerging and the OpenAjax interoperability we can achieve cross-platform easier and quicker.”

 

The alliance has released a white paper titled “Ajax and Mashup Security,” summarizing how Ajax applications can be attacked and providing a set of best practice techniques to address each of the vulnerability areas. It’s available at www.openajax.org.

 

Simultaneous with finalization activities on OpenAjax Hub 1.0, the alliance has begun work on OpenAjax Hub 1.1, which will extend OpenAjax Hub to add support for secure mashups and to enable mediated Comet-style client-server messaging. As with OpenAjax Hub 1.1, the alliance will deliver both a specification and a commercial-quality open source reference implementation.

 

The secure mashup features of OpenAjax Hub 1.1 will isolate mashup components in secure “sandboxes” and use the OpenAjax Hub’s publish/subscribe features to achieve mediated cross-component messaging.

 

. . . .

 

Astadia Consulting, a vendor of on-demand consulting and a long-time Salesforce.com partner, has announced six new vertical industry products built on the Force.com platform and available via the AppExchange. The announcement was made at the recently-concluded Dreamforce ‘07, salesforce.com’s User and Developer Conference.

 

For construction, with McGraw-Hill Construction, Astadia has a service which integrates offerings from McGraw-Hill Construction with Salesforce on an automated basis.

 

There are two platforms for financial services — the Astadia Commercial Banking Platform offers local, regional banks and money center institutions a unified approach to managing client relationships across a broad range of banking products and services, with lending and treasury management coverage with expanded options for capital markets, trade banking, card services, leasing and private banking. And the Astadia Institutional Investor Platform allows broker and dealers to supply institutional clients such as fund managers and money managers with relationship data.

 

For higher education the Astadia Higher Ed Recruiting & Retention Platform provides institutions a tool to identify prospective students so they can be qualified, applications for admission processed, and the admitted student/institution relationship nurtured.

 

For the media, the Astadia Media Advertising Platform gives companies who sell ad space access to client and prospect information with automated ad order submission within Salesforce via custom systems integration with AdMark and other order insertion systems. And in telecommunications, the Astadia Telecom Platform enables wireless, wireline and DSL service providers’ ability to track customer accounts and subscribers, to facilitate the order and provisioning process, and to measure key industry metrics.

 

. . . .

 

Pharmaceutical industry observer EyeforPharma published an interview with Fonny Schenck, the 20-year veteran from Johnson & Johnson, who spent seven years pioneering award-winning programs in CRM and eBusiness integration, multi-channel optimization and SFE support. He is now leading the CRM practice at Across, based in Belgium.

 

Highlights include Schenck’s advice not to ignore the newly accessible e-voices of patients and physicians at your peril, and don’t use the old “we’re a different type of industry” to excuse the slowness in achieving CRM excellence. Read the whole thing.

 

CRM just a few years ago was still a visionary project for most pharma companies, Schenck said, a high-tech concept that could deliver better knowledge and access to customers. Now it is nothing less than a necessity. Yet many companies remain unable to shift the focus of marketing and sales teams from using CRM as a reporting tool to embracing CRM as a culture, thus missing the greatest potentials it can deliver.

 

To find the best examples of effective CRM, Fonny says, you need to look outside the industry. He gives Tesco as “an excellent example of how to capture data and use it properly, creating personalized messages for its millions of customers that go beyond broad segments but really get at each individual,” according to EyeforPharma.

 

Schenck thinks many pharmacos are still only piloting more advanced CRM concepts such as segmenting customers based on attitude and preferences, and delivering customized messages. The life of a Pharma marketer is changing, he thinks, and to stay ahead of the game they will need to embrace business and customer intelligence, analytics and CRM: “These are necessary aspects to understand when moving from product-centric marketing to a more customer-centric approach.”

 

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the second cup of coffee this morning… actually, it being evening here in Istanbul, the news as of the first glass of wine, and the music is Dave Brubeck’s stone-cold classic Time Out, inspired in part by the 9/8 time signature used in Turkish music:

 

SugarCRM, a provider of commercial open source customer relationship management (CRM) software, has announced Softbank Technology has signed an agreement to distribute Sugar solutions in Japan.

 

The new partnership will service a broad range of customer needs by offering ASP services that use Sugar.

 

“We are constantly looking for ways to improve the service we give our customers. We looked at Salesforce, SugarCRM and Siebel, and ultimately decided to go with SugarCRM because of its superior functionality in relation to cost,” said Norikazu Ishikawa, President & CEO, Softbank.

 

Ishikawa said the company “saw the value of having access to Sugar’s source code, which allows us to make specific customizations to meet our needs and those of our customers.”

 

Softbank sells a range of products and services, including support for e-business operations and products for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of various types of networks and systems. The company has also deployed a 100-user subscription of Sugar Enterprise within its customer call center.

 

SugarCRM continues to increase its global presence — over 75 language packs and 400 extensions are currently available for SugarCRM’s global community of more than 2,000 commercial customers.

 

In January 2007, SugarCRM announced a strategic partnership with CareBrains, the Japan-based provider of open source software applications and support. Softbank joins SugarCRM and CareBrains as a J-Gold Partner to provide its partners and customers access to SugarCRM partner program benefits, which include special partner Japanese language packs, resell rights to Sugar commercial editions, and fully localized sales and marketing tools.

…

 

HP and Sage Software have introduced reference configurations designed to help simplify deployment of the latest release of Sage SalesLogix v7.2, which brings customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities to small to midsize businesses, according to Sage officials.

 

The new reference configurations align the key hardware, software and services components as well as best practices, which are needed to expedite the successful deployment of CRM products, company officials explain. The configurations provide customers with a choice of servers and storage systems based on their data requirements.

 

The Sage SalesLogix reference configurations are part of the HP Business Intelligence portfolio, and according to Sage, help channel partners by reducing the time spent determining what IT needs to purchase, minimizing configuration and deployment time through the use of best practices and limiting implementation risks, as the configurations have been sized and validated.

 

Additionally, the configurations provide room for growth, allowing resources to be allocated according to the changing demands of customers’ CRM systems and data warehouse environments.

 

“For organizations migrating from earlier versions or looking to use business benefits for the first time, the HP reference configurations for Sage SalesLogix can put them on the road to building a world-class CRM infrastructure,” said Urs Renggli, director, worldwide small and medium-sized business activities, Technology Solutions Group, HP.

 

HP reference configurations for Sage SalesLogix will be of particular value to companies that are jumpstarting CRM proof-of-concept and implementation projects, he said.

 

The reference configurations for Sage SalesLogix CRM systems include a choice of HP ProLiant or BladeSystem servers, a choice of direct-attached storage, HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Arrays and HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Arrays and management software — HP Systems Insight Manager, HP ProLiant Essentials and HP Business Technology Optimization software.

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Knouen Technologies, a vendor of information worker productivity products, has announced the release of Knouen OfficeSync for Siebel. Knouen officials say OfficeSync is used to let information workers — and hey, in the greater scheme of life, aren’t we all self-employed information workers, when it comes right down to it? — “access, manage and share information from enterprise CRM applications like Siebel through desktop productivity applications such as Microsoft Outlook.”

 

Knouen’s feature set does not require a customer to upgrade to the latest version of Siebel. Knouen OfficeSync’s powerful feature set allows information workers to bi-directionally synchronize Microsoft Outlook data, link e-mail and create Siebel items from within Outlook through an integration directly between Microsoft Outlook and Siebel CRM.

 

Knouen officials say this integration “eliminates laborious and error-prone duplicate data entry of critical customer sales information. Information workers also have a real time and at-a-glance view of sales performance through Knouen’s digital dashboard.” Users can collaborate between Siebel users using Microsoft Outlook either online or offline.

…

 

Well over two years ago First Coffee did a case study article about bad customer service, using Caiman.com as the poster child, based on First Coffee’s own bad experience with the company. It was an apt company to feature for bad customer service, as it’s generated far more responses than anything else that has ever been published, dozens of commiserating “me-too” comments and more coming in all the time. Here’s the latest:

 

 

 

 

 

Carolyn, you’re not alone, but this is the first time I’ve heard this variety of story about Caiman.com. Truly, the horror stories from customers of Caiman.com come in all the time. First Coffee heartily disapproves of bad customer service wherever it rears its ugly dragon butt, especially online, as it tends to depress the entire online economy. How this company, after the true life customer stories First Coffee has received, is still allowed to do business on such an otherwise reputable site as Amazon.com is beyond me.

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Jimmy Buffett's Living and Dying in 3/4 Time, for First Coffee's money the best album he's done:

Famed mime Marcel Marceau died over the weekend, so let's observe a moment of silence. Rimshot, groan. First Coffee detests mimes as heartily as the next guy, miming is a classic case of an art form being perfected early by a genius or two who made it look so easy (cf. Marcel Duchamp or the Sex Pistols) that hit spawned a horde of distinctly less-talented imitators, 98 percent of whom are utterly worthless.

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Here's a company who gets in First Coffee on name alone: IFS, the global enterprise applications company, has announced that First Milk, Britain's largest UK- farmer-owned business, has selected IFS Applications to provide "full integration of all critical business processes and optimize production across its cheese division sites nationwide."

In a deal worth $3 million, IFS Applications will be deployed in eight creameries and packing plants. IFS Applications will integrate First Milk's formerly disjointed business systems and processes, IFS officials say, including warehouse management, financials, forecasting and payroll, enabling centralized control of operations and providing a new level of visibility across the entire enterprise and supply chain.

Real-time reporting on cheese production, maturation, packaging and dispatch are expected to "enable First Milk to respond with much greater agility to inevitable variations in milk supply and customer demand," according to First Milk officials.

According to First Milk's Group Head of IT Alan Hutchison, IFS was chosen over SAP because IFS Applications is best able to handle the unique challenges of the cheese supply chain, especially product lifecycle management.

You scoff at the "unique challenges of the cheese supply chain," pilgrim? "The central challenge of cheese production is accurately forecasting demand 18 months out from actual delivery to customers, matching this with supply from farmers, and keeping track of the different maturation levels of thousands of tons of cheese," Hutchinson said. "In First Milk's case this challenge is even greater because most of our customers are major supermarkets, which only provide one day's notice for orders."

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Officials from both firms say the partnership between ConzultZone and Extentia aims to provide "a broad range of outsourcing services" related to business consulting, ERP and CRM implementation and corporate training to software vendors and enterprises in the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific region.

ConzultZone plans to expand its sales and marketing offices while its offshore development initiatives will be handled by Extentia. Extentia has "proven capability in offshore outsourcing services, including product engineering and migration, package implementation, customized applications and application and Web development," Extentia officials say.

The joint service offerings are designed to offer potential clients a value proposition of competitive pricing, domain expertise, and depth of package knowledge, combined with proven delivery capability and high quality management.

Extentia based in Pune, India, will help ConzultZone "deliver reliable SAP business consulting, and implementation and outstanding customer service to their clients worldwide," ConzultZone officials say. Anil Visal, Managing Director of ConzultZone, says ConzultZone has partnered with Extentia "for the implementation of SAP Business One and SAP All-in-One solutions primarily for the SME market segment."

Extentia offers its expertise on .NET implementations and interfacing with SQL Server and other database servers, and ConzultZone brings SAP business consulting experience. "This venture will be complementary to both companies' existing competencies and will prove to be a win-win situation for both of us and our customers," Visal says.

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Today's birthday is F. Scott Fitzgerald, born in 1896. By 1940, the last year of his life, he had written four novels, and was working on a fifth (no gin jokes, please). That year his novels sold -- combined -- 72 copies. His royalties for the year totaled $13. Today The Great Gatsby, which didn't even sell out its first printing in 1925, sells 300,000 copies yearly and is one of the very, very few novels First Coffee reads regularly.

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Awright maggots: Adventos, a technical consulting firm, has announced its 2007 - 2008 Microsoft certification boot camp, including .NET 3.5, SharePoint and CRM.

As a Microsoft Gold Partner and Partner for Learning Solutions, Adventos boot camps are designed to streamline the certification process and increase every student's skills and knowledge on leading Microsoft technologies. Delle Donne, Adventos' CEO, called the event a "high end certification boot camp."

The next boot camp is the Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD): Web Developer Boot Camp. It will be held from December 1 - 9, 2007 in Denver. Highlights of the boot camps include its being led by a Microsoft Certified instructor, instruction and testing performed on site using the Adventos mobile computer lab, extensive course materials and labs provided to help students pass the tests, and a five-mile run with full field pack over black diamond terrain during a snowstorm while under heavy enemy fire to retrieve live ordnance.

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PacificNet, a vendor Customer Relationship Management (CRM), mobile internet, e-commerce and gambling technology in China, has announced that its PacificNet Games subsidiary has signed an alliance partnership agreement with casino management system provider Advansys.

Through this partnership, PacificNet Games will deploy Advansys products in multiple Asian markets, customize existing products to meet local gambling requirements and co-develop new casino management systems for Asian casinos.

This summer, Advansys launched SlotScanner Ticketing, which is used for the management of Ticket-In, Ticket-Out slot operations in place of traditional coins. Ticketing is evidently popular with players who value the privacy of their play, simplicity of use and instant transfer of credits from one machine to another. It's also big among casino operators who want to increase the profitability of their slot floor by reducing or eliminating hopper fills and decreasing labor costs.

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Nexedi, the creator of ERP5, and ERP5 International partners have announced that ERP5 Express, an open source ERP, has been released, called "ERP5 Express."

"With ERP5 Express, small organizations can have the power of ERP5 in less than 5 minutes for 15 € per month. It is an all-in-one, no-stress, no-thrill product which includes hosting, configuration, support and a knowledge database. It has been designed with simplicity in mind for organizations with standard requirements and configurations," says Yoshinori Okuji, CTO of Nexedi.

"Because ERP5 Express is fully based on the same source code as ERP5, ERP5 Express customers may later evolve towards the ERP5 Enterprise solution and meet growing business needs or complex requirements." adds Thierry Brettnacher, VP Consulting.

Jean-Paul Smets, CEO of Nexedi, says ERP5 "has been used by a central bank as well as in the aerospace industry, apparel industry, government agencies and hospitals to implement complex projects."

Kristian Rother, VP Marketing, said ERP5 Express is "ready for immediate use. As part of our debut campaign, Nexedi offers free training to the first 10 early adopters and extended support during 6 months to the next 10 adopters of ERP5 Express."

If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/ for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored content.

The news as of the second cup of coffee this morning, and the music is The Clash's Give 'Em Enough Rope:

Microsoft has released a pair of Windows Vista updates, one of which is "specifically a performance booster for the new operating system," according to company officials. This move shows that, as would be expected, performance remains a top concern for computer sites, and especially for CRM, dependent on high-speed database access.

Issues addressed by the "performance booster" update are speed of wake-up from hibernation and quicker time calculation for the movement of large files.

Performance problems generally can have many sources, Microsoft officials say, including insufficient memory, outdated chipsets, and poorly-written applications. A prime source of poor performance, however, is disk file fragmentation. It can cause such performance issues as slow boot-up, sluggish Web browsing, slow application loading and delayed file access.

Server fragmentation issues can, of course, cause further-reaching issues due to the high-volume constant access of server data. "High-speed access to databases and CRM applications is obviously crucial both for company personnel and, today through the Web, directly by the public. CRM applications, once only used for internal employees on the phone, now interface with Web applications so that customers and even employees can interact with the company online," Microsoft officials say.

Databases such as SQL must be instantly responsive, as these interface with the Web as well. But because of exponentially increasing disk capacity, as well as ever-increasing file sizes, fragmentation occurs at higher-than-ever rates. Hence it is not only important to employ a defragmentation product if you're running CRM technology, Microsoft officials say, but "particular attention should be paid to the defragmentation technology as well, especially in regard to site volume and requirements."

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Fairsail has announced the availability of a comprehensive application for Human Resource Management, built on Salesforce.com's on-demand platform.

First revealed at Dreamforce '07, salesforce.com's annual user and developer conference, Fairsail will "open up a completely new area of on-demand applications integrated with Salesforce," Fairsail officials say, offering "companies of every size" a set of integrated human resource management tools running natively on the Force.com platform.

Fairsail's modules include performance management, talent management, succession planning, competency assessment and 360 feedback, as well as "personal development planning."

Fairsail is built entirely on the Force.com platform and is available in two editions. There's AppExchange Edition for existing Salesforce CRM users, and for companies or departments not using Salesforce CRM, Fairsail is available as a stand-alone application run on Platform Edition.

Colin Cooper, founder and CEO of Fairsail, said "I've delivered customized HR web
applications for the past ten years, and previously client/server applications to blue chip companies worldwide. With the AppExchange and the Force.com platform, salesforce.com has changed the landscape. We can now concentrate on the application functionality without having to worry about infrastructure and delivery."

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Always nice seeing news from the old hometown -- Richmond, Virginia-based 48 Fill has developed new online Contact Resource Management (CRM) and Human Resource Management (HRM) tools for general release. The customizable CRM/HRM is "easy to use and accessible 24/7/365," company officials say, and requires no hardware or software. Browser-based, it uses point-and-click interfaces through your existing browser.

"The 48 Fill CRM/HRM provides instant accessibility to leads and contacts for your sales force and human resource employees, and it offers superior clean leads from lists, Web sites and trade shows," company officials say.  "It helps you track prospective customers and employees by automatically updating a global database, providing real-time updates."

Because it was designed to work in any environment from office and home visits to trade shows and fairs, the 48 Fill program is available in both desktop and mobile (mCRM and mHRM) formats. The mCRM/mHRM allows users of any PDA or cell phone with Internet capabilities to use it.

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Recently industry observer Barney Beal reported on a speech given by Scott Nelson, managing vice president with Gartner, who gave a speech at Gartner's CRM Summit, where Nelson pointed out that in the early days of CRM, Gartner research revealed 60 percent of CRM projects were viewed as failures -- "80 percent for sales automation projects," but that such days are over.

But hey, people shouldn't focus on failure rates, Nelson said. "This issue of failure and CRM has become a real problem… So many people were focusing on failure rates that the CRM space wasn't as robust as it had been. That's not the point of talking about failure. CRM doesn't exist in a vacuum."

So what does Gartner do to swing the focus away from failure? Issue another media advisory warning that enterprise IT architecture initiatives risk failure if they are unable to demonstrate value to the business: "Gartner analysts predict that by 2010, 40 per cent of existing enterprise architecture programs will be stopped due to poor execution," company officials say.

Failing to set the right expectations and get commitment from program stakeholders -- including senior executives within the organization, IT managers and the wider architecture community -- are the most common reasons for program termination, Gartner research found.

Richard Buchanan, managing vice president at Gartner, said when companies fail, "it is because they don't have the strong leadership necessary to bring the enterprise architecture program together as an integrated portfolio or the right skills to do the strategic analysis."

"The programs that don't succeed are those inaccurately defined internally as isolated engineering projects," such as integrating an enterprise resource planning product with CRM, he said.

Beal reports more gloom 'n' doom from Nelson's address: "Organizations are going to see a shortage of manpower in coming years," Beal reports Nelson as saying. "Through 2008, 25 percent of CRM projects will be cancelled or postponed because of the skills shortage in consultants and systems integrators. Analytics skills particularly will see a significant skills shortage, and many marketers are unprepared to capitalize on Web 2.0."

Because of the shortage, Beal writes, "CRM buyers should anticipate that CRM consulting fees will rise, Nelson said, and they should adjust their budgets accordingly."

But hey, don't focus on all that failure Gartner keeps detailing and expounding upon. Be happy. Actually, to avoid failure -- without focusing on it, now -- Gartner recommends that enterprise architecture programs include the following three key dimensions:

--Support business change. Successful enterprise architecture supports business change across multiple programs, business units and companies and delivers value explicitly linked to business strategy, Gartner research found.

--Focus on strong leadership and human behavior. The role of the enterprise architect is no longer just about providing, designing and implementing hardware and software systems for a company, but to serve workers in and out of the organization's wider ecosystem.

--Include effective metrics. Gartner advises enterprise architects to use metrics including financial efficiency and business effectiveness to measure the program's impact on the business.

If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/ for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored content.

The news as of the first cup of coffee this morning, and the music is Adam Carroll's album Far Away Blues:

CDC Software, a wholly owned subsidiary of CDC Corporation, has announced that The Ohman Group, an investment bank in Sweden, has chosen the Pivotal Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite of software applications to "create a single view of client activities, streamline access to all client information, and improve cross-departmental communication and coordination," according to CDC officials.

Ohman chose Pivotal CRM for "its functionality specifically designed for the financial services-industries," CDC officials say. Ohman officials say they expect their employees now to be able to develop deeper insight into their clients' needs, preferences, and influencers, and have access to tools that will help them improve team collaboration and client service, as well as track performance.

"Previously at Ohman, information was stored in a variety of databases and systems resulting in different departments being unable to easily access or collaborate on client information," said Pontus Barrne, CFO, The Ohman Group. With Pivotal CRM, "we anticipate having a holistic view of all relationships and their mutual influence which will enable us to offer customized products and information when they are needed."

The Ohman Group is an investment bank that has been a part of the Swedish financial market since 1906 and a member of the Stockholm Stock Exchange since 1911. It offers a broad cross-section of financial services, including securities trading and asset management.

…

TargusInfo, a vendor of On-Demand Lead Verification services, has unveiled LeadConversion Advisor services for enterprises "intent on improving their bottom line through more effective marketing and sales," company officials say.

First Coffee is waiting for the day somebody names a lead conversion product Alchemist.

Available today, LeadConversion Advisor services gauge the potential value of a sales lead collected from online sources, which lets companies prioritize these leads.

The Vienna, Virginia-based firm unveiled its latest service on the first day of the company's two-day Online Lead Quality Summit at the Palms Hotel and Casino. One wonders how many misguided metallurgists showed up -- and stayed for the nice locale.

The product integrates with customers' existing CRM software and tools, company officials say.

"Too many companies are focused on lead quantity and merely filling the sales funnel," said Gartner Research Director Gareth Herschel. "As a result, they spend the same effort on each lead whether it results in a closed sale or not. Companies need insight into the quality of the leads so they can focus on the most promising ones first."

In an early trial, LeadConversion Advisor services showed a major automotive company that 75 percent of its conversions were coming from only 55 percent of its leads.

The idea behind LeadConversion Advisor is that agents work the best leads first, and can assign leads to specific salespeople or channels, for example routing the highest-value leads to the highest-performing agent.

It also lets companies rate offers based on prospect segments, perhaps making phone calls to "gold" prospects and sending direct mail to "bronze" ones. See? Name it Alchemist.

"If you don't prioritize your leads, you can lose five potential gold customers in the time it takes to talk to one prospect who, based on his or her profile, would probably never convert," said Paul McLenaghan, TargusInfo Director of Market Development, Interactive Markets.

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NetSuite, an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) vendor for SMBs, has announced that manufacturer Asahi Kasei Spandex America Inc (AKSA) has automated its key back-office operations with NetSuite ERP, replacing its SAP software.

Asahi Kasei Spandex America Inc is a subsidiary of Japan's Asahi Kasei Group. With U.S. headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina, AKSA develops and produces brand fibers for nearly all fields of applications of textile production. It sells the Roica and Dorlastan brands, which are woven into fabrics used around the world.

With NetSuite, AKSA officials say they have achieved "the detail and transparency in customer analysis and financial reporting" it desired to manage its business in a timely fashion. Company officials say NetSuite has helped the company reduce its IT costs, including consultant fees and infrastructure as well.

Key to the implementation was the customization technology found in NetSuite, according to NetSuite officials. The NetSuite-Asahi Kasei team used NetSuite's SuiteFlex functionality, and in particular the combination of NetSuite's SuiteScript and SuiteTalk "to address key requirements unique to the textile production industry."

David Stover, Chief Financial Officer of AKSA's operations in Charleston, said that while SAP requires specifically trained individuals to operate the system successfully, "I needed a system that emphasizes ease of use, intuitive processes and one that can be managed with minimal effort."

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PacificNet, a vendor of gambling and mobile game technology, e-commerce, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in China, has announced that its subsidiary, iMobile, has signed a new agreement with Motorola (China) to become an authorized distributor of MOTO accessory products in the South Region of China -- Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi and Hainan, to be exact.

IMobile has allied with two major regional distributors, Guangzhou Sono Communication Technology and ShenZhen JianKun Technology and formed an alliance under the name "iPACT."

Early this month PacificNet iMobile and Motorola (China) jointly organized a strategic meeting for the South Region at the LiuHua Hotel Exhibition Centre in the city of Guangzhou, inviting over 100 mobile industry representatives and guests from major retail channels in the region to participate.

During the meeting, PacificNet officials say, senior officers of Motorola (China) communicated the new strategies of the MOTO accessories business to the participating guests as well as the new product releases of MOTO in the coming quarters. The highlight of the day featured the new MOTO Bluetooth H555 Headset, exclusively distributed by iPACT in China, and other new products showcased in a catwalk model show during the event.

iPACT also gave a presentation on MOTO after-service providers, MBS channels and new distributors for the South Region while promising to fully support and cooperate with MOTO in the implementation of the new strategies.

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eGain Communications, vendor of customer service and contact center software for in-house or on-demand SaaS, has announced that a prescription management and pharmaceutical services firm has chosen eGain OnDemand, the hosted version of eGain Service suite, for customer service.

The company will implement an eGain-powered multichannel customer interaction hub, starting with eGain Notify for outbound 1-on-1 notifications through secure e-mail, SMS and voice.

Prescription and related services often involve multiple steps that are triggered by the passage of time as well as the progression of tasks relating a specific customer service transaction such as a drug refill and even the life stages of participating members. If participants are not notified proactively about the status of their transactions, they contact the customer service organization, sometimes repeatedly. This drives up customer frustration and service costs for the business.

If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/ for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored content.

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is George Jones's Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?:

Sage Software has announced the general availability of Sage PFW ERP 5.6, which company officials are describing as "a major new version of this business management system that features key, customer-focused enhancements within its core business management, distribution and manufacturing modules."

Sage PFW 5.6 provides businesses with interface updates, efficiency enhancements, and performance optimizations for "a better, more intuitive user experience," company officials say.

The software is geared towards small and mid-sized companies with up to $150 million in revenue, companies with subsidiaries outside the United States, as well as import/export companies, which can use the product's multi-currency capabilities.

The product features a scalable, three-tier architecture with tight security control, which delivers better productivity for users and improved overall system performance.

Updates include New Vendor Status, Customer Status, Order Hold Features, designed to "help business owners better manage the status of their vendors and customers, and reduce data entry errors. Version 5.6 also provides extensive visibility into customers' credit histories with its new credit tracking fields and calculation capabilities," Sage officials say.

Sage PFW 5.6 will be certified on the new Microsoft operating system, supporting the Vista Business and Ultimate editions.

Market researchers worldwide expect the use of online data providers and online access panels to increase in the next twelve months, according to The Online Research Barometer, a survey conducted by Greenfield Online-Ciao Surveys, a vendor of Internet survey products.

Study results indicate that 82 percent of market researchers surveyed in North America and 87 percent in Europe are predicting their use of online respondent providers will increase in the next twelve months. This compares with 76 percent and 85 percent, respectively, when Greenfield Online-Ciao Surveys completed its last Online Research Barometer in November 2005.

Albert Angrisani, president and CEO of Greenfield, said with B2B research commanding 34 percent and 25 percent of market research efforts in North America and Europe, respectively, "this confirms that our strategy to focus on growing our B2B practice is right on target."

The two most important reasons for conducting market research online remained time, mentioned by 81 percent of North American market researchers and 78 percent of Europeans, and competitive pricing (76 percent and 75 percent, respectively).  North Americans were particularly interested in access to complex target sample groups (62 percent). Europeans are particularly interested in the ability to access respondents internationally (57 percent).

However, across North America and Europe the ability to recruit large sample groups, as well as the ability to use multi-media elements in questionnaires were also cited as important considerations for the use of online research.

This survey was conducted by Greenfield Online-Ciao Surveys among 289 marketer researchers globally during the period July 31-August 24, 2007. The margin of error for a sample this size is approximately +/-5.8 percent.

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Pika Technologies, a developer of media-processing hardware and software, has announced the release of its Pika Appliance for Asterisk, which company officials describe as "a smaller-sized and lower-cost alternative to traditional off-the-shelf computers."

The new appliance is purpose built for the Asterisk open-source communications platform.

Pika’s expertise in telephony voice-processing and a selection of its components come together in the Pika Appliance for Asterisk. This unit provides developers with an out-of-the-box embedded computer, Pika officials say, that allows them to deploy Asterisk with traditional and next-generation telephony features optimized for the SMB environment.

Typically, companies that design and manufacture multi-line business telephone systems use specialized, purpose-built hardware called key service units, or KSUs, to run their software, provide power, manage the system and switch calls. These KSUs contain many telephony-based features that are not available in off-the-shelf computers typically used to deploy Asterisk. Many of these KSU features, like power-failure transfer, audio input for music-on-hold and audio output for paging, are standard market requirements.

The Pika Appliance for Asterisk is designed to bring application developers the functionality of a KSU at an attractive cost in a smaller footprint. The Appliance is compatible with VoIP and analog trunks and telephones.

Pika Appliance for Asterisk has up to 100 IP trunk/station ports, one FXS port standard in every unit, up to 8 additional analog FXO/FXS ports and traditional telephony features, among other features.

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Experian has released the latest version of Tallyman, its specialist debt management system, to "help its customers tackle the problems caused by growing numbers of consumers encountering financial difficulties as economic conditions become more difficult," company officials say.

Tallyman, part of the suite of products offered by Experian's Decision Analytics business, is used to manage customers who have fallen into arrears with their payments by organizations that grant credit to consumers, including banks, building societies, loan providers, credit card companies and debt collection agencies, as well as organizations that provide consumer credit as part of their business model, such as retailers, utilities and communications companies.

Companies using Tallyman include British Gas, Orange, Vodafone, ABN AMRO, Severn Trent Water, Welsh Water, EDF Energy, Scottish Power and power.

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Convenos, a vendor of collaborative Web conferencing products, has announced that since joining the Salesforce.com AppExchange, two out of three businesses that found Convenos Meeting Center on AppExchange, purchased its Web conferencing and collaboration tool.

Company officials appear to be pitching the product to small and medium size businesses worldwide, who use it as a product for their Web conferencing and collaboration needs.

"Based on a recent customer relationship survey conducted by Salesforce.com, Web conferencing was among the top essential services requested. Convenos' product is highly relevant to our customer base," said George Hu, CMO, Salesforce.com.

Convenos Meeting Center is used to conduct sales calls, train customers, conduct online seminars, workshops and collaborate in real-time across geographies and time zones -- "for less than the cost of a tank of gas," officials say.

Convenos Meeting Center is integrated with Salesforce.com, allowing users to launch and schedule meetings right from the Salesforce application. Convenos Meeting Center customers who use integrated audio options such as Skype and High Speed Conferencing by Vapps can also use free audio against the traditionally high telephony charges associated with other Web conferencing products.

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Today is Talk Like A Pirate Day. Celebrate accordingly, mateys. First Coffee's off for some rum. What's that? "Talk," not "Drink?" Avast there, ye scoundrel!

If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/ for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored content.

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is It’s A Beautiful Day’s absolutely blazing live album Creed Of Love. It almost convinces you that the violin is a rock ‘n’ roll instrument — at least a violin in David LaFlamme’s hands:

 

On-demand CRM vendor Salesforce.com has unveiled Salesforce Winter ‘08, which will expand Salesforce from four to six major application product lines with two new applications — Salesforce Content and Salesforce Ideas.

 

Marc Benioff and other company officials unveiled the new product at Dreamforce 07 in San Francisco.

 

These two new applications will “deliver Salesforce to every employee in the enterprise and empower customers to take advantage of the wisdom of crowds,” Salesforce.com officials said, adding that “the 24th generation of Salesforce will further extend salesforce.com’s leadership in the CRM market by using the Force.com platform to bring Web 2.0 community-based technologies to the entire suite of Salesforce CRM applications.”

 

The Salesforce Winter ‘08 release will expand the Salesforce product line from the original four CRM applications of Salesforce SFA, Salesforce Service & Support, Salesforce Marketing and Salesforce Partner Relationship Management to include Salesforce Content and Salesforce Ideas.

 

Salesforce.com officials, who claim to have “created the Software-as-a-Service category,” now say they have “created the Platform- as-a-Service category,” and are “the first multi-application, multi-category company in the on-demand industry.”

 

Salesforce Content gives users Web 2.0 technologies to deliver Content Management-as-a-Service. “By using the wisdom of crowds and the contributions of every employee, Salesforce Content brings the power of on-demand to the unstructured data within an enterprise,” company officials say. Using Web 2.0 technologies such as tagging, subscriptions and recommendations, Salesforce Content lets users manage their documents and unstructured data directly in the Salesforce application and improve productivity and effectiveness across the board.

 

And Salesforce Ideas brings “the wisdom of crowds to businesses” by letting online communities to submit, discuss and promote ideas. It’s the application behind salesforce.com’s own live community IdeaExchange and the Salesforce-powered Dell IdeaStorm.

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Emovendo, a vendor of online customer acquisition technologies, has announced the availability of PageVester for salesforce.com’s AppExchange marketplace. PageVester helps marketers create, via a single interface, free landing pages with Google Page Creator and add Web-to-Lead forms.

 

Combined with Salesforce for Google AdWords, marketers have clear visibility over their campaigns’ effectiveness. It’s built on the Force.com platform. The announcement was made today at Dreamforce ‘07, salesforce.com’s User and Developer Conference.

 

With PageVester, marketers can create landing pages with Google Page Creator and fill the gap between their Google AdWords campaigns and Salesforce with a couple of clicks and without IT involvement. This mashup combines the functions of three applications: Google Page Creator, Salesforce Web-to-Lead and Salesforce for Google AdWords. The combination of these applications allows marketers to easily create landing pages, generate leads in Salesforce and track exactly which leads are generated by which ads and through which keywords.

 

“Too often, the implementation of an appropriate Web-to-Lead strategy requires IT involvement and is very time and budget consuming which is a major obstacle,” said Alexandre Pelletier, founder and CEO at Emovendo. “PageVester is meant for those marketers that need to activate Web-to-Lead functionalities and track their marketing campaigns with minimal resources.”

…

 

And Informatica Corporation , a vendor of data integration software, announced its newest addition to Informatica On Demand services at salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference, Informatica Data Quality Assessment for Salesforce.

 

The tool uses pre-defined rules to analyze account, contact, lead, and opportunity information in Salesforce in order to identify missing, invalid, and duplicate data. It “identifies inaccurate data so that companies may take further action in correcting false or missing information,” company officials say.

 

This software-as-a-service application is delivered by Informatica, and requires no installation of hardware or software by the customer. The service is available via a 30-day trial at http://www.informaticaondemand.com beginning October 6, 2007.

 

“Bad data is a universal challenge that plagues all application customers regardless of size,” said Ron Papas, general manager, Informatica On Demand. “By using Informatica Data Quality Assessment, every salesforce.com customer and business user can qualify data — without having to make a significant investment in IT support or maintenance to handle this task.”

…

 

Yes, friends, there is CRM life outside of Dreamforce: SAS, a CRM business intelligence vendor, has announced the SAS Real-Time Decision Manager to help marketers “coordinate interactive marketing across multiple channels.” The product, part of SAS’ customer intelligence suite, uses analytically-driven decision logic and ships in December 2007.

 

Calling it “predictive analytics applied in real-time,” SAS officials say the product “is designed to provide the intelligence that drives the personalized experience.” When it receives a decision request from an operational system, it combines all available customer data with SAS Analytics and business logic in real-time “to determine the best response for the customer, such as making a recommendation on a customer’s eligibility to receive a particular offer.”

 

It can also score a customer’s propensity to buy a certain item, or calculate a customer’s credit worthiness based on the latest transactional information.

 

For example, a customer calls a financial institution to check his account balance and inquire about the minimum balance necessary to avoid a penalty. Based on this new input and the customer’s past behavior and transactional history, the decision flow determines that this customer has a high probability of leaving for a competitor.

 

But other factors indicate that his profitability is above average and he shows great potential for future returns. Based on this, the decision flow returns a recommendation to make an offer that will increase the probability of retaining this customer. Thus is the call center representative armed with the best possible information to act upon.

…

 

CRM vendor Infor has announced a partnership with Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation, in which Teradata will license the Infor CRM Epiphany Inbound Marketing product and deliver it as a component of the Teradata Customer Relationship Management (CRM) portfolio.

 

The result is what Infor officials call “a data warehouse-driven CRM product that enables personalized, relevant offers to customers via online, call center and in-store channels.” The product will be marketed as Teradata Next Best Activity.

 

Infor CRM Epiphany Inbound Marketing is part of a closed-loop CRM product set from Infor that also includes Sales, Outbound Marketing and Service, and provides analytics and personalization capabilities. Teradata Next Best Activity merges these inbound capabilities with customer information, from historical and real-time interaction data, to provide a 360-degree view of the customer.

 

Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation, sells enterprise data warehousing, analytic applications and data warehousing services.

 

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is "Fields of Athenrye" by The Malleys, from the album The Songs of Celtic: Green and White Anthems, Vol. 2:

You know, the worst thing about O.J. getting arrested in Las Vegas is how much time it'll take away from his finding the killer of Nicole and Ron.

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PluraPage, a hosted eMarketing software company based in Herndon, Virginia, has announced the launch of PluraPage Basic, available for free to salesforce.com software users. The product is a scaled-down version of the company's proprietary technology PluraPage Landing Pages, a tool that lets users create personalized landing pages on the fly for lead generation and conversion efforts.

"This is a special offer that solves the internal resource issues for Salesforce users and marketers who want custom, hosted landing pages to enhance their programs," said Joseph Rizzo, CEO of PluraPage, while exhibiting at the salesforce.com Dreamforce meeting in San Francisco. "We are giving the marketer complete control over the look, feel and quantity of landing pages without requiring them to have a background in IT or computer programming."

PluraPage is a salesforce.com partner making PluraPage software available to Salesforce users for free through the Salesforce AppExchange. PluraPage Basic will now host landing pages for the end user at no cost to Salesforce users.

A recent survey on "Improving B-to-B Lead Management" by Forrester Research concludes more than half of the marketing people surveyed are "using piloted microsites," such as PluraPage, which help B-to-B marketers "publish buyer-friendly mini-sites without specialized Web skills or IT intervention."

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Saaspoint, a specialist Salesforce developer and implementation consultancy, has announced the availability of PropertyPoint on salesforce.com's AppExchange marketplace. Built on the Force.com platform, PropertyPoint is immediately available for test drive and deployment at www.salesforce.com/appexchange.

PropertyPoint is a real-estate sale/lease management application that can be used in conjunction with Salesforce CRM or as a stand-alone application. In addition to managing real estate accounts and contacts, PropertyPoint can match properties with prospects seeking to buy or rent real estate.

Its LIVE!Search function matches properties once details of a requirement are updated or viewed. The LIVE!Search is configurable as additional custom fields are added.

"All data is immediately available for reports and dashboards and can be integrated with other external systems using the Salesforce API," said Andy Clark, technical and AppExchange services manager, Saaspoint. "With optional links to Google Maps, it provides built-in mapping capabilities, allowing plot lists of properties or do a property search from a special 'Property Map' tab."

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Considered Sales, creator of Considered Sales CRM, a goal and progress-oriented CRM tool for small business, has announced the release of version 2.0 of their online CRM application, cleverly named Considered Sales.

The online application can manage multiple sales opportunities, an improved interface, simplified call tracking, and a refined sign up process, company officials say.

Considered Sales version 2.0 also features a revised interface, based on the latest Web 2.0 technologies, that delivers both ease of use and faster loading speeds. Kenny Foisy, lead developer, said with the latest improvements, "we are seeing loading times nearly twice as fast, making the interface feel comparable to desktop applications."

Considered Sales version 2.0 is now being offered for only five dollars for the first month of use, and $24.95 for each month, per user, thereafter. The new version of Considered Sales can be found online at www.consideredsales.com.

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Continuing with the news from Salesforce.com's Dreamforce, ShareMethods has announced that JMJ Associates, a global consulting firm, has selected ShareOffice for AppExchange for a deployment across the United States, Europe and Asia.

ShareOffice combines an online office based on open Internet standards with enterprise document management on-demand bringing product categories together into an Office 2.0 application for the first time.

Bob Allbright, the Americas regional marketing and sales manager at JMJ Associates, said the end result has been "a reduction in proposal issuance time of 30 percent to 50 percent, and elimination of a lot of stress on the people involved in the proposal generation process."

With ShareOffice, collaborative teams can create, edit, and share documents and spreadsheets online, and can automatically generate common sales documents such as proposals, contracts, quotes, and customer letters in a single browser interface using customer data from Salesforce. Marketers can create, manage and share marketing documents online such as newsletters, press releases and product brochures.

ShareOffice is the first commercially available product developed based on OpenSAM, an open simple AJAX mashup, www.opensam.org. OpenSAM is a consortium of software as a service application vendors and a set of AJAX programming recommendations based on open standards that allow multiple online applications to integrate.

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And at Dreamforce the Access Data Corp., a vendor of enterprise sales reporting and data management services for the financial services industry, has announced the availability of SalesVision for salesforce.com's AppExchange.

SalesVision's on-demand enterprise offering includes business applications for sales reporting, 22c-2 shareholder compliance monitoring, compensation tracking, and Salesforce data integration. Deployed on the Force.com platform, SalesVision is immediately available for test drive and deployment at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange.

"Many of the leading asset management firms in the country already use SalesVision and Salesforce CRM to provide sales reporting and client relationship management across their business enterprise," said Frank Polefrone, senior vice president of product development for Access Data. "By joining salesforce.com's popular AppExchange, we are making it even easier to deploy, integrate and manage our combined offering to clients."

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And today's Literary Corner comes courtesy of The Writer's Almanac, which notes that today is the birthday of Ken Kesey, author of the great novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, one of the very few great novels which has also inspired a great movie. Offhand First Coffee can't think of another one… well, maybe The Graduate.

Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado in 1935. He was a champion wrestler in high school and voted most likely to succeed. So he married his high school sweetheart and planned to go to Hollywood to be an actor, but in a fateful decision, accepted a fellowship in creative writing at Stanford. Not that anybody learns to write great novels in academia, but while there, as par