October 2007 Archives

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Grateful Dead's "Skull and Roses" album:

Microsoft has announced that Logos Bible Software, a vendor of Bible software in multiple languages, has selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM to replace its aging customer relationship management system with technology that integrates all customer data.

Logos, a $15 million company based in Bellingham, Washington, offers software used by members of the clergy, seminary students, missionaries and lay leaders in more than 180 countries. Its electronic Bibles, theological works, pastoral resources and other texts are available in numerous languages, including Greek, Hebrew and Latin.

The company chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM to "gain comprehensive new efficiencies not available with its previous CRM system, which required customer service representatives to navigate a number of unconnected databases to retrieve information," according to Microsoft officials:

"With the earlier system, agents had to call customers back because they needed to look for answers to questions in several different places." Microsoft's CRM technology will allow the service staff to collect all its customer information in one system. "This customized system empowers us to take charge of the growth of our business," said Andrew Skipton, chief financial officer at Logos.

Logos anticipates that the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM will offer faster, less-expensive training because it uses a familiar Microsoft interface, so "training can be carried out rapidly in-house with training costs expected to tumble as much as 75 percent," according to Logos officials.

Licenses for the previous system were so expensive, Logos officials said, that "only a limited number of employees had access to the application. For Microsoft Dynamics CRM, licensing costs will be 40 percent less than those of the other system."

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123Together.com, a hoster of enterprise-class messaging and collaboration products such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services v3.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, has announced that it is participating in Microsoft's Early Adopter Program for the next generation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, version 4.0, code-named "Titan", and selecting customers to receive early access to a hosted Titan product.

123Together.com gears its services to SMBs who want enterprises-class messaging and collaboration products "without the technical personnel needed to maintain the servers in house," company officials say.

As part of the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, 123Together.com has been given early access to Titan, and will be distributing it as a hosted service to a select group of customers tomorrow.

The most significant enhancement which 123Together.com customers will experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 as a hosted service, 123Together officials think, is, well, "the ability for them to use the application immediately." Customers were previously required to purchase an additional server solely for the use of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 and, as a result, incurred added costs and additional set up time.

With hosted apps customers to pay for only the number of users they have, remove the requirement for dedicated hardware and eliminate the need for any long term contracts. They can also usually get preconfigured customizable templates designed for specific industries, or develop their own workflows within the application. Microsoft, for example, is offering preconfigured templates for the manufacturing industry and the public sector and will make additional templates available over the next few months.

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Sears Holdings Corporation has announced that Louis Ramery will join the company as senior vice president, customer relationship marketing for Sears and Kmart. Ramery comes to Sears from Digitas, where he led the firm's global Marketing Capability, its Loyalty and CRM practice and served as a Relationship Leader on accounts.

Ramery will have overall responsibilities for developing and executing the Sears Holdings' relationship marketing strategies and programs, Sears officials say, and will report to Maureen McGuire, Sears Holdings' Chief Marketing Officer.

"Lou will be charged with helping to optimize our customers' experiences by developing and strengthening relationships between our brands and our customers," said McGuire.

Prior to his seven years with Digitas, Ramery served as executive vice president, marketing and planning for Brierley & Partners, a loyalty marketing agency, where he helped launch and was chief marketing officer for the Internet-based customer rewards program e-Rewards.

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RightNow Technologies has announced Australian availability of RightNow Higher Education, which combines its CRM product with its experience of "working with more than 100 higher education institutions in Australia and overseas," company officials say.

The new turn-key product is engineered to help institutions "recruit, retain, and engage more effectively with their students," according to RightNow officials.

Based on RightNow 8, the company's product for service, sales and marketing, RightNow Higher Education includes pre-configured guides or templates based on industry best practices. It is available under RightNow's software-as-a-service delivery model.

Higher education institutions consider recruitment of qualified students a top priority, one that is increasingly challenging given budget constraints, competition from other universities and colleges, and Internet-savvy prospective students that expect easy, immediate access to information.

After successfully recruiting students, universities and colleges then focus on retention. The theory behind much of the practice of CRM for higher education -- Campus Relationship Management? -- is that providing immediate, online access to a wide range of information is one way learning institutions can keep students and parents happy and strengthen retention rates.

RightNow Higher Education also includes analytical and reporting tools designed specifically for higher education, which allow organizations to keep track of their progress in achieving recruitment and retention goals.

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Britain's QPC has announced that it has completed an agreement with BT to provide workforce management for their enterprise customers. The Metropolitan Police, the UK's largest police service, will be the first customer to see IEX TotalView workforce management provided by QPC through BT to manage 1200 staff across three sites.

"We are delighted with the new partnership agreement," said Ruth Rowan, Head of Marketing & Propositions Global CRM of BT. QPC's range of products and services in respect to workforce management include consulting, engineering, support and professional services.

Initially for the supply of workforce management the partnership will also see BT look to take on further products from QPC including both capability management workforce optimization systems and contact management information systems.

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If you ever wanted a gruesome, real-life example of why it's so important to define project goals at the outset of a CRM deployment, look no further than the pitiful spectacle unfolding in London's High Court, where BSkyB is suing EDS for ridiculous sums for a failed CRM implementation -- but legal costs alone will be well over $75 million.

As industry observer Tony Collins relates, in EDS's opening statements, lawyer Mark Barnes said "the main problem with this project was that it was wholly unspecified. Sky knew it wanted a super-dooper CRM system but had little more idea of what it wanted or needed." Read and heed, pilgrim.

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 an extraordinary song by John McCutcheon, "Christmas In the Trenches," from the album Winter Solstice. It's a song about the bizarre Christmas Truce in 1914 on the Western Front, when German and English soldiers, under a spontaneous, informal truce, emerged from the trenches in No Man's Land, sang Christmas carols together, exchanged gifts, addresses and drinks and played a game of soccer:

RightNow Technologies and Demandware have announced their combined on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) and eCommerce product. The joint product provides multi-channel retailers and consumer brands with "integration between their online and offline businesses, improving customer experiences across channels," RightNow officials say.

"Customers increasingly expect not only a seamless buying experience across channels, but an integrated and unified service experience, whether online, via e-mail, or over the phone," explained Rob Garf, vice president and general manager of Retail Strategies at AMR Research, in a retail note published in October 2007.

The product allows clients "a consistent experience across the complete customer lifecycle, from awareness and acquisition through conversion and support -- regardless of how consumers interact with the company," RightNow officials say.

Jason Mittelstaedt, vice president of marketing at RightNow, said the new product will "give organizations many more ways to engage with consumers, which in turn increases conversion rates and fosters brand loyalty."

The new enterprise mash-up connects RightNow's service, marketing and sales applications with Demandware's Web platform and eCommerce services. RightNow will provide an in/outbound sales and service desktop, multi-channel customer service, marketing communications, and customer feedback capabilities.

Demandware will provide the eCommerce platform, including the online storefront, site search, guided navigation, product catalog and promotions, web development environment, user profiles and online content.

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Post Olympics 2008, "a new luxury train operator will begin year round services in China," say officials of Tangula Luxury Trains. The firm will offer passengers "exclusive rail journeys to remote regions of China with three trains carrying 96 guests each."

"How nice, Cof. And we care because…" CRM vendor Rescompany sees it as the perfect opportunity to "set foot into the Chinese market, as the reservation center will be established in Beijing," Rescompany officials say.

Being able to run the reservation process for such a unique train operation with requirements for packages, as well as handling overlapping inventory, proves the flexibility of the Resco's reservation software, company officials maintain: "In addition, the multi-language capabilities of Resco, including Chinese, will help to meet local documentation requirements for the authorities."

Rescompany Systems provides reservation and CRM software products to the travel and leisure industry. The software suite is built to support cruises, day cruises, wholesalers, tour operators, charters, individual excursions, holiday villages and package groups. Resco's Reservations and CRM are offered as one complete product or as separate packages. For the stand-alone CRM package interfaces are provided to existing systems to allow use of the available data.

And if you're interested: The northern route traverses the Tibetan plateau from Beijing to Lhasa (5 days/4 nights). The southern route travels from Beijing to Lijiang (5 days/4 nights) exploring the scenery of Guangxi and Yunnan provinces. (Four day/3 night journeys are available in the reverse direction on both routes).

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Hot Banana, the Web Content Management product from J.L. Halsey, has announced that it is now available on salesforce.com’s AppExchange marketplace.

The two-way integration between Hot Banana’s Web content management product and Salesforce means that "both sales and marketing get what they need in the format they want," company officials say: "Marketing maintains full control over Web forms and landing pages, while sales teams obtain lead generation data quickly and in their preferred format."

Users can build multi-level Web forms with CAPTCHA validation on basic Web pages or on advanced landing pages, set up Web analytics, lead source and conversion tracking and transfer the captured lead-generation data from the Web form to Salesforce.

This lead generation and data transfer capability is available out of the box and requires no additional programming or customization.

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QuickArrow, a vendor of SaaS Services Automation, has announced that Endeca has become their tenth client to complete integration certification on QuickConnect, the SaaS company's Web Services API. The process is designed to let users integrate QuickArrow with their organizations' existing front and back-office business applications.

Jeanne Urich, Principal with Adexta Consulting, said it is "imperative" that SaaS vendors "provide an industry standard Web Services infrastructure to allow their clients to build on-demand integrations with any existing on-premise applications. With this capability, SaaS companies can plug directly into a client's business process system."

QuickArrow provided Endeca with documentation, consulting, and a sandbox environment throughout the certification process, allowing them to design, build and test their integration. During the certification, QuickArrow also provided guidance on best practices and capacity analysis. Typically, clients can complete the certification process in six to eight weeks, QuickArrow officials say.

Louise K. Allen, QuickArrow's VP of Product Strategy, said QuickConnect is a standardized Web Services API which enables users to integrate QuickArrow with financial, CRM, expense, data warehouse, and other ERP applications.

QuickArrow currently has certified integrations to SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Concur, and Salesforce.com, and also has six additional clients in the certification process, with integrations including Great Plains, Softrax, Intaact and Microsoft CRM.

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Webcom, a vendor of quote-to-order enablement for the selling of complex products and services, has announced that Survalent Technology is deploying WebSource CPQ to "help automate, simplify, and accelerate its quote-to-order process," Webcom officials say. Survalent will use Webcom's SaaS (Software-as-a-Solution) delivery model to generate quotes, manage complex product configurations, and generate proposals.

Bill Rambo, vice president of marketing at Survalent, said WebSource CPQ is the perfect on-demand product for our business model, with features and functionality that set it apart from the competition, including robust integration to our CRM system from Salesforce.com."

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Interactive Intelligence, a vendor of business communications products, reported "record results" for the quarter and nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2007.

For the third quarter, revenues in 2007 were a record $28.7 million, up 29 percent over revenues of $22.2 million in 2006. Operating income for the third quarter increased 23 percent to $2.1 million in 2007 from $1.7 million in 2006, which included stock-based compensation expense of $812,000 in 2007 and $451,000 in 2006.

Diluted earnings per share for the third quarter were $0.13 in 2007. EPS in the same quarter last year were $0.36, including a non-cash income tax benefit of $5.0 million, or $0.26 per share, recorded to reduce the valuation allowance for deferred tax assets.

For the third quarter, non-GAAP net income was $3.3 million in 2007, or EPS of $0.17, compared to non-GAAP net income of $2.2 million in 2006, or EPS of $0.12. Cash and short-term investments as of Sept. 30, 2007 totaled $34.4 million.

If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/ for the fully-linked version. First Coffee^SM 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 an odd album, Dire Straits' 1980 effort Making Movies. When it hits me right now is that it's one of the best albums I've ever heard. Other days it's average, even tepid, and I can't make it through "Tunnel of Love," which today happens to sound like one of the greatest guitar songs ever recorded:

 

I-Vision Technology has announced the launch of its Abu Dhabi-based contact center for outsourcing operations. The company considers itself "the first and only provider of inbound and outbound CRM outsourcing services in Abu Dhabi, which is considered to be the richest city in the world."

 

Established in 2000, IVT provides IT and security products. The United Arab Emirates-based company recently created a division, I-Vision Contact Center, in order to offer outsourced services in the GCC region with a specific focus on IT, banking and telecommunications. The new contact center facility uses Altitude Software technology.

I-Vision currently manages outbound telemarketing campaigns on behalf of a major financial institution in the Middle East, as well as customer service operations for an IT products provider in the UAE. The outsourcing company is today able to handle various business campaigns including lead generation, inbound customer service, help-desk, appointment scheduling, market research, surveys as well as client retention.

Hamdan Sayah Al Mazrouei, I-Vision Technology Group Chairman & CEO, says the move "enables us to broaden the delivery of services to our customers, and ideally position our CRM outsourcing operations in the Gulf region."

 
Riadh Boukhris, Altitude Software Vice President Middle East and North Africa, said the agreement with I-Vision "strengthens our number one positioning in the Middle East & North Africa region for that vertical segment, which is approaching a 90% market share in some GCC countries such as Saudi Arabia."

 

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If you're in Turkey today, happy Cumhuriyet Day.

 

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Following its summer series of free, online Webinars focused on selling advertising, Matrix Solutions, a vendor of sales management software products for the media sales industry, announced its Fall Webinar line-up.

 

Gary Crawford, New Business Development Manager for Matrix Solutions, has more than 13 years combined media and sales experience and will present the two Webinars.

The first, "Sell Successfully: The Sure Way to Find, Grow and Keep Your Business," gives sales managers "insights on developing an effective strategy for new business from the beginning in order to build lasting relationships with clients," according to Matrix officials.

 

The second, "Insights into Account and Business Planning to Transform Your Sales Team," focuses on how sales managers can "transform their sales staff and improve their sales efforts by utilizing the right sales team management tools and techniques in their sales strategy."

"Sell Successfully: The Sure Way to Find, Grow and Keep Your Business" airs Thursday, November 1, at 12:00 p.m. in the Eastern US. "Insights into Account and Business Planning to Transform Your Sales Team" runs Thursday, December 6, at noon.

Register at http://matrixplus.com/media_center/webinar_intro.asp.

 

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If you're in New Zealand today, happy Marlborough Anniversary.

 

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CDC Games, a business unit of CRM vendor CDC Corp. and a provider of the "free-to-play, pay for merchandise" model for online games in China, announced that CRM veteran Jeffrey Longoria has been appointed as president of CDC Games International.

CGI, a subsidiary of CDC Games, was created to launch new games internationally and to position CDC Games as a global publisher of online games.

Longoria takes the position of president of CDC Games International, moving over from CDC Software, a sister company in the CDC family. At CDC Software, Longoria most recently served as senior vice president of strategic alliances.

 

Longoria came to CDC Software through the acquisition of c360 in May 2006. At c360, a global provider of CRM add-on products, industry-specific CRM solutions and CRM
development tools for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Longoria headed sales, where he and his team grew sales 173 percent in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the first quarter of 2006 through a distribution network that now totals more than 700 authorized partners.

Longoria will work from the Atlanta office, the headquarters of CDC Games USA, a business unit of CDC Games International.

 

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JasperSoft officials say the next upgrade of the company's open-source business intelligence suite, due out November 1, will "improve the ability for users to create their own customized reports."

JasperSoft has "found that the end users of a BI system often need a developer's help to create more complex reports," said Paul Doscher, JasperSoft's CEO. "That takes time away from the developer that could be used to work on other IT projects… the last thing the developer wants to do is develop reports."

With the new release, Business Intelligence Suite 2.1, JasperSoft has expanded the ability for someone in the accounting department to customize their own BI Web portal to generate new kinds of information, Doscher said. Previously, end-users could build simple reports, but "we want to make this more sophisticated."

 

For example, an accounts payable clerk can drag and drop elements within the BI Web portal to produce a report showing which customer has the most receivables. Previously, that job would have required the clerk to dictate to the developer what kind of report is needed, and the developer would build it, Doscher said.

JasperSoft has also expanded the range of calculations the software can perform, he said.

JasperSoft's open-source BI tools are integrated by developers for use with other applications and even hosted CRM (customer relationship management) services such as Salesforce.com and SugarCRM. Customers set up their customized charts and graphs that give information about their business through a Web portal or another application.

 

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Interactive Intelligence moved up 21 places this year to rank 209th among the world's 500 largest software and services suppliers. The CRM vendor increased its position in Software Magazine's 2007 Software 500 ranking by posting 2006 revenues of $83.2 million, up 32 percent from revenues in 2005.

 

Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO Donald Brown said the company's growth last year was "fueled by our voice over IP components, which helped us attract many more large enterprise customers."

The Interactive Intelligence unified communications software suite, first released in 1997, was designed to eliminate the cost and complexity introduced by product portfolio vendors. The company's software is marketed primarily to contact centers and enterprises seeking lower costs.

Financial information for the 2007 Software 500 was gathered by a survey prepared by King Content Co. The 2007 Software 500 25th annual ranking was published in the October issue of Software Magazine and can be accessed online at http://www.softwaremag.com.

 

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is a Beatles mix:

 

Soffront Software, Inc., a vendor of mid-market CRM software, announced that VoicePlus has adopted Soffront CRM to "track service tickets more effectively and invoice with greater accuracy and detail," Soffront officials say.

 

VoicePlus sells call processing systems and custom applications to various types and sizes of business.

VoicePlus selected on-demand Soffront CRM because "it offered a robust, Web-based product at an attractive price," according to Brad Eickman, VP of Operations, VoicePlus. "We wanted a product that allowed us to access and view our ticketing software from anywhere," he explained. "We also needed a system that could be easily customized to meet all of our needs, now and in the future."

 

Through the use of Soffront's Customer Portal, VoicePlus customers can access the Soffront application directly from the Web site. "Our customers can open tickets via the Web, in addition to the normal technical assistance call," said Eickman. "This capability gives them more options and allows us to provide even better customer service."

 

Manu Das, founder and president of Soffront, noted that Soffront CRM is popular with mid-sized businesses, offering on-demand, on-site, or host-to-purchase options, floating or named seats.

 

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I don't know if it was intended as a joke, I'd like to think it was – there’s far too little humor in the CRM world as it is -- but LogicBright CRM, decrying "the obesity epidemic" raging on and costing "billions of dollars annually" is "fighting the software obesity war (SOW)," pitching a "faster, lighter contact and lead management system."

Most enterprise software is "too complex and expensive to be useful to a small business," explained Steve Schmidt, president of LogicBright. "We trimmed a little fat here and there, and what we have is simply a better product for small businesses."

Since LogicBright CRM is software as a service (SaaS) it doesn't require small businesses to fork over large amounts of money on computer hardware to run it, Schmidt said, adding that the product is "100 percent Web-based" and has "only the features small businesses have requested."

Still in Beta, LogicBright has attracted several partners that plan on offering it as a service to their customers, Schmidt says.

 

According to technology market analysts at Forrester, the CRM market is set to hit nearly $74 billion in sales in 2007.

 

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Industry observer Leo King, reporting from England, writes that lawyers for CRM vendor EDS said in court this week that a $90 million CRM project for BSkyB was "too poorly defined for the IT provider to have committed fraud when pitching for the contract."

 

BSkyB is suing the vendor for a ridiculous $1.5 billion, saying EDS misrepresented its abilities and resources when bidding for the contract. The vendor delivered late, and BSkyB figures it lost $1.5 billion in benefits and damages as a result.

 

EDS contends that okay, it "failed to deliver on several aspects of the deal, and was partly to blame for the project being poorly specified further down the line," as King says, but charges that BSkyB's project requirements "remained unclear until at least three years into the contract, by which point Sky had taken over the project management."

 

EDS says its failures were "not due to any intent not to perform."

 

King records Mark Barnes QC, giving EDS's opening statement, saying "Sky knew there was considerable uncertainty about the amount of work involved, and hence the cost, and so employed EDS on a time and materials basis."

 

"Barnes said that three years into the contract, during 2003, the project specifications remained so unclear that Sky had to set up a special team in order to define the exact requirements of the project," King writes.

 

The crux of the issue is EDS's contention that Sky was wrong to "construe as contractual obligations statements that EDS made during its sales pitch, owing to the standard Entire Agreement Clause [LINK] in the contract which exempted such statements," King reports.

 

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Optimal Solutions, a Dubai-based ICT vendor, has been awarded the implementation of eXensys ERP product for Oman United Insurance Company.

 

This project encompasses the implementation of a companywide ERP system that will "enable better decision making and faster response to market demands and changing customer needs," Optimal officials say.

 

OUIC officials say they will use eXensys ERP to integrate Financials, Inventory, Procurement and Sales & Distribution and Services modules to "streamline its processes and prepare the company to address the growing business challenges."

Mr. Debojit Das, General Manager at Optimal Solutions, said the deal "kick starts our initiatives to be a dominant ERP player in the Oman market."

 

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On-demand CRM vendor Salesforce.com announced that its chairman and CEO, Marc Benioff, will speak at the Nikkei Global Management Forum this Tuesday, October 30, at 3:40 p.m. (JST) at the Tokyo Prince Park Tower Hotel.

 

It's a fairly big deal -- more than 500 senior executives are expected to attend what is the most highly rated business conference in Japan.

 

Benioff will be speaking alongside Paul Otellini, President and CEO, Intel; Glenn Tilton, CEO UAL and United Airlines; Jeffery Kindler, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer; Tsuneji Uchida, President and COO, Canon and Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, President and CEO, Nokia, among others.

 

The theme of the NGMF 2007 is "Corporate Management Challenges New Targets." In addition to presenting how Software-as-a-Service enables innovation and business success for companies of all sizes, Benioff will take part in a "fireside chat" with senior staff writer Waichi Sekiguchi from The Nikkei in the final conference session titled "Innovation: The Key to New Markets."

 

Let's hope the FDR resonances don't go much beyond fireside chats.

 

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Noble Systems Corporation, a vendor of contact center technology, announced the addition of John Simpson to the position of Chief Technology Officer - Collections Solutions.

 

Simpson is expected to work with NSC's product development to "build new opportunities and to oversee the company's increasing presence within the collections marketplace," Noble officials say.

 

He has more than 12 years of experience in the collection industry, as both a technology vendor and as a technology user in collections environments. Prior to joining NSC, he served as Chief Technology Officer of Nationwide Credit, a global call center and receivables management firm.

 

Simpson also worked as a consultant for Melita International, helping clients implement dialer technology into their operations and stream their process by means of automation.

 

As CTO - Collections Simpson is tasked with focusing on technologies to "aid many of the challenges facing collections organizations," Noble officials say.

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama's There Will Be A Light:

CDC Software, a subsidiary of CDC Corporation and a provider of industry-specific enterprise software applications and business services, has announced recently that it has added four new products and "enhanced most of the existing products in the Core Productivity Pack of c360," a suite of industry products and development tools for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform.

CDC Software will be demonstrating their new products, at the Microsoft EMEA Convergence Conference October 23 - 25, 2007 in Copenhagen. C360's Core Productivity Pack is being released in conjunction with Microsoft CRM version 4.0. The new products were designed "using customer and partner feedback," CDC officials say, "with a focus on increasing CRM usability."

The pack for CRM 4.0 now includes four new products -- the c360 Explorer CRM Search Engine which "indexes and organizes all Microsoft CRM records and attachments," and uses Microsoft Office SharePoint search to provide keyword search across CRM and SharePoint, and c360 SharePoint/Microsoft CRM integration which "bridges the gap between Microsoft CRM and SharePoint by enabling automatic creation of a SharePoint site for every required CRM entity," company officials say. Basically it allows CRM and non-CRM users to share the same documents.

There's also c360 Relationship Exploration and Charting, providing an automatic, relationship tree display of all relationships for every CRM record, and the c360 Record Editor, which can edit individual records in any CRM view without opening the individual records using a Microsoft Excel-like editing of CRM records.

There are also upgrades to existing products within the c360 Core Productivity Pack for Microsoft CRM 4.0, including the c360 Console, which allows Microsoft CRM users to design their CRM workspace in virtually any way they like.

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Intelliworks officials say that nine higher education programs have chosen to use Orion from Intelliworks since the product's launch in late July, "resulting in 100 new users in the product's first 100 days."

New customers include The University of Pennsylvania, California State University-Sacramento, Northeastern University and Northwestern University, among others.

"With its fast deployment, ease of use, and affordable pricing structure, Orion provides compelling value to any individual and team to take control of their CRM needs," said Diane Raymond, director of admission for Intelliworks client New England College.

The Orion product is used to manage recruiting, outreach, and communication activities without an up-front IT investment, a long implementation cycle, or extensive training. Orion uses Software as a Service (SaaS) as its deployment model.

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The Dallas Cowboys Football Club of the National Football League has chosen a team of integrated Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, to consolidate customer information from its broad range of businesses into a single integrated database, Microsoft officials say.

The Dallas Cowboys team also is designing, developing, constructing and implementing the new Cowboys Stadium that will become its home in 2009. Among the enterprise's businesses are retail pro shops which sell Cowboys merchandise, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, a medical MRI center, and oil and gas companies.

"Oil and gas companies?" This is Texas, my friend.

The football team previously used Microsoft Dynamics NAV as its accounting system, but the rest of the enterprise businesses were using a jumble of desktop databases, spreadsheets and pen-and-paper methods for their operations.

The Cowboys evaluated a number of enterprise resource planning systems, including those from SAP, Oracle Corp., JD Edwards and PeopleSoft, before choosing Microsoft Dynamics AX as the foundation for its infrastructure and Microsoft Dynamics CRM to spearhead its plans to create a single view of its customers.

The team's new technology also incorporates the Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System to provide centralized control for all its retail stores, Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 for routing forms and for intranet communication, as well as Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management system.

The Cowboys organization plans to migrate most of its businesses to Microsoft Dynamics AX. Concession sales and other revenue streams will be consolidated within the Microsoft Dynamics AX accounting functions.

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PacificNet, a vendor of gambling and mobile game technology, e-commerce, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in China, has announced it has filed the amended Annual Reports on Form 10-K/A with the SEC containing re-audited financial statements with respect to fiscal years 2004 and 2005.

PacificNet's annual report may be viewed at the SEC Web site at: http://sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000815017.

"We are happy to announce the filing of our amended 10K annual report," said Tony Tong, Chairman and CEO of PacificNet. "The completion of the re- audit allows the management team to fully focus our efforts on executing our business plan."

As previously announced, the company's prior independent public accountants have withdrawn their audit reports regarding the company's financial statements for the years 2004 and 2005 resulting in the NASDAQ Listing Qualification Panel's decision to commence delisting proceedings with respect to PacificNet's common stock.

The NASDAQ Listing Qualifications Panel had granted the company's request for continued listing, subject to the condition that on or before September 27, 2007 the company re-file the above years form 10K or face a determination by the NASDAQ Listing Qualifications Panel whether or not to grant continued listing.

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Opera has released Opera Link, so now, according to company officials, "wherever you are, whatever Opera browser you use, or whichever device you use Opera on, you can instantly access your bookmarks, Speed Dial, and personal bar. Say goodbye to the tedious hassle of entering text in your mobile phone to visit your top sites and say hello to a new level of convenience from device to device."

Opera Link forms a key cornerstone of two beta products just released, company officials say: "Opera Link is supported in the Opera 9.5 beta and the newest beta of Opera Mini 4," a mobile Web browser. There is also a Web interface for users of any browser, and the Opera Web browser for PC/Mac/Linux and Opera Mini are available free.

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Scotland's Graham Technology has announced that West Dunbartonshire Council has deployed its ciboodle customer interaction platform. The new system was demonstrated to an audience of government and public sector officials at a special launch event in the council's contact center in Clydebank.

The software deployment addresses the Scottish Government's Modernizing Government initiative, which has the objective of introducing business processes that will eventually deliver 80 percent of core service requests by citizens at the first point of contact.

The first phase of the deployment has delivered the ability to handle service requests including council tax, benefits, housing allocations and rental accounting, among others, including grants and allowances by the integration of back-office systems.

With ciboodle, the council's contact center now provides customers with a single point of contact for all enquires related to the above areas. The software also improves access to customer contact history.

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 an iTunes mix of one of the greatest and most fun country singers ever, Australia's Slim Dusty:

 

Mondo A/S, a Denmark-based provider of Microsoft-based products and services, announced an agreement with Sales Performance International, a sales performance improvement firm, to deliver SPI's Solution Selling Methodology as an integrated plug-in for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

 

The new plug-in will "enable any organization using Microsoft CRM to implement SPI's methodology for boosting sales effectiveness," Mondo officials said. The product will be available in the fourth quarter 2007 for any organization using Microsoft CRM either on-premises or via Mondo's hosted Microsoft CRM offering.

 

The Solution Selling Suite of methodologies is an end-to-end sales training and professional development program for sales professionals, managers, and marketers. The suite is used for management, planning, sales execution, and sales tool tasks.

 

Lars Munch Johansen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Mondo A/S, said Microsoft Dynamics CRM users can use this product with Mondo's Solution Selling Plug-in for Microsoft CRM.

 

Jon-Paul Roy, SPI's Director Global Channels & Operations, noted that many CRM implementations fail to produce measurable improvements in revenue because "the focus is on selling products rather than selling value. We are very pleased to be working with such a well-established and well-respected Microsoft Business Partner to enable our product for Microsoft CRM customers."

 

Mondo A/S was established in 1994 and has offices in Copenhagen, Arhus, Pakistan and The Ukraine. In October 2006, Mondo A/S became a publicly listed company on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, traded under the symbol MONDO.

 

. . . .

 

EnterpriseWizard announced the release of Version 2.0 of its flagship EnterpriseWizard adaptive CRM application, described by company officials as "an out-of-the-box, browser-based, end user-customizable J2EE product for issue tracking, helpdesk, customer support, sales, email and marketing automation."

 

The new edition allows business managers to "automate department workflow without IT assistance, extending the on-the-spot customization capabilities provided by the product's adaptive CRM engine," company officials said.

 

The upgrade lets information from a user's PC be captured automatically when a job ticket is submitted, for insight into the user's computing environment and possible problem areas. It provides an improved full-text search engine that searches both the file database and the text of attached files; and offers a variety of other enhancements designed to strengthen the support operation.

 

Colin Earl, CEO of EnterpriseWizard, said the "improved drag-and-drop workflow editor lets the manager define, automate and enforce workflow processes without the need for IT help."

 

Company officials said clients have adapted the system for Sarbanes-Oxley and government regulation, project and time management and change management.

 

EnterpriseWizard can be deployed as a hosted SaaS application or moved to a shared or dedicated in-house server with just six mouse clicks. The application is available by visiting www.enterprisewizard.com.

 

. . . .

 

Pika Technologies, a vendor of media-processing hardware and software, has announced the release of its Appliance for Linux, the second member of Pika Warp, its new Appliance family. It provides Linux computer telephony application developers with what Pika officials describe as "a smaller-sized and lower-cost alternative to traditional off-the-shelf computers and plug-in board network connectivity."

 

The Appliance for Linux is equipped with the latest version of Pika's host media processing software.

 

With the expansion of Pika Warp, the company continues to sell products for the Linux open-source development space. The inaugural product, the Appliance for Asterisk released last month, is purpose built for the Asterisk open-source communications platform, the Pika Appliance for Linux "extends the benefits of the Appliance to the general Linux developer community," company officials said.

 

The product "allows IP/PBX, Integrated Voice Response, predictive dialing, appointment reminder and other Linux-based CT applications to be deployed on a cost-effective and reliable technology platform," according to Pika officials.

 

Terry Atwood, vice president of sales, marketing and customer care at Pika, said by taking the features of a standard off-the-shelf computer, adding some basic telephony features and packaging them into a "small, low-cost, very reliable embedded appliance with an open-source architecture," application developers can "more effectively deliver their Linux-based products to small- and medium-sized business customers."

 

The appliance is an out-of-the-box embedded computer product that allows developers to deploy Asterisk and other Linux-based application with telephony features, optimized for the small- and medium-sized business environment. The appliance is designed to address businesses with requirements for up to 100 phone lines.

 

Pika Warp is customizable, and is compatible with VoIP and analog trunks and telephones. On the VoIP side, the unit can accommodate up to a combination of 100 IP trunks and telephones. Each unit comes equipped with one analog telephone port for portable phones, fax machines and answering machines, and can be expanded with up to eight additional analog ports to be used for either FXO trunks or FXS stations/telephones.

 

Pika Warp, the appliance for Linux will be generally available in February 2008.

 

. . . .

 

Oncontact Software, a vendor of .NET based customer relationship management (CRM) software systems for the mid-market, and Sales Progress, a vendor of technology-based sales and customer service learning systems, announced a partnership for Oncontact’s .NET CRM products with the on-demand SalesScoreboard.NET assessment system from Sales Progress.

 

Under the terms of the agreement Oncontact Software will recommend Sales Progress’s line of assessment systems, called SalesScoreboard.net, to its prospects, customers, and throughout its distribution channel.

 

SalesScoreboard.net a CRM on-demand self-assessment system where corporate management can gauge the obstacles and objections a company’s sales and service representatives are facing in real time. Users of the SalesScoreboard.net system can answer questions online from management about common objections or obstacles they are facing during their day from customers and prospects, and the system will collect and analyze this data.

 

This data is fed into the analytical tools included with the SalesScoreboard.net system to give management a return on what is happening in the field in real time.

 

. . . .

 

Scribe Software, a vendor of data integration and migration tools, has announced the planned release of its Scribe Adapter for Dynamics NAV. This product "extends the capabilities of Scribe Insight to Dynamics NAV, providing partners and customers with powerful and flexible data integration and migration without having to write a single line of code," company officials said.

 

Microsoft Dynamics customers use Scribe Insight for integrating applications with a variety of systems. "We have been using the Scribe Insight tool to provide our Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Dynamics GP customers with integrations," stated John McKeague, Tectura GP and CRM practice lead, a Scribe Elite Reseller.

 

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Tom Waits’ Alice:

 

Çedilla Systems, a British vendor of Microsoft Dynamics-based software and part of Qurius NV, has announced it has supplied and installed a Microsoft Dynamics CRM based system for Genesis Communications, formerly part of the Dixons Stores Group.

Genesis is an independent business mobile and data service provider claiming over 28,000 business accounts and 125,000 handset subscribers, and a business dating back more than 10 years. It has partnerships with manufacturers and network providers.

Genesis will use the Dynamics CRM product to “consolidate all of its new business and sales information,” company officials say, adding that “this information was previously scattered across Genesis’s multiple UK sales territories and regional sales consultants.”

 

Genesis also has rather ambitious growth plans concerning acquisition of new customers and the provision of a growing portfolio of services — “the new CRM will be a key factor in achieving these goals,” Genesis officials say.

Adam Spurr, Sales & Marketing Director at Genesis Communications, said his company chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM from Çedilla partly because “we needed that system to be easy to work with — a familiar environment, which made Microsoft Dynamics CRM a clear choice thanks to the way it integrates with other Microsoft applications, particularly Outlook.”

…

 

Sage Software has announced the availability of Sage Accpac Insight 5.4, a new version of its analysis and business intelligence tool for small and mid-sized businesses.

 

Designed for use and integrated with Sage Accpac ERP1 (enterprise resource planning), Accpac Insight uses key business data contained within Sage Accpac ERP.  Company officials describe it as “ideal for employees in remote offices and disparate departments,” as it lets users “capture and integrate information into reports and distribute them across a company on demand.”

 

Version 5.4 has more sample reports to choose from, more ERP data to access, and more queries for analysis, Sage officials say, adding that it is “easier to use and navigate than previous versions, with an improved wizard-driven report design, and simplified processing of sales data with many functions now incorporated into fewer modules.”

 

Company officials highlighted the new report design wizard, with custom criteria filters offering “greater flexibility and control to extract the specific types of data users want to generate various reports for.” Cross-module drill-down is also now available, along with customizable screens, custom ribbons for Microsoft Excel 2007, and the ability to type in whatever values are desired, instead of having to pick from a pre-populated list.

 

Sage Accpac Insight 5.4 starts at an SRP of $1,000, and is now available from authorized Sage Accpac business partners across North America.

…

 

Jenzabar, a vendor of software for higher education, has announced a new corporate direction aimed at “strengthening the customer business processes that are critical to their institutional success,” according to company officials.

 

The corporate strategy concentrates on developing the financial backbone of Institutions of Higher Education by increasing the rate of enrollment, retention, and advancement through consultative services that support Jenzabar technology products.

 

Based on Jenzabar’s experience in higher education, company officials say, the company is “focusing on generating revenue and improving operational performance for customers.” To do so they concentrated on three key areas they see driving “significant results for colleges and universities: enrollment, retention, and advancement (ERA).”

 

Because the ERA success affects financial and operational achievement as well, Jenzabar officials say they will offer “more than technology products, but also a consultative approach to utilizing technology products to improve campus business processes.”

…

 

Opera Software and KDDI, a Japanese 3G operator, have announced that Opera Widgets will be shipped on Toshiba W56T, Sony Ericsson W54S, and Sanyo W54SA handsets from KDDI.

 

Branded as “au one Gadget” by KDDI, Opera’s Widget technology lets users “improve and personalize their browsing experience,” company officials say. This is the first time Opera Widgets have shipped on mobile phones.

 

Opera Widgets are small and often simple-purpose applications built using open Web technologies. Users can select their favorite widget, and install it on devices that support Widgets. Opera Widgets provide instant access to services such as RSS feeds, game results, weather, traffic information, stocks, news, SNS, and more.

 

The au one Gadget is a Web application made with open standards. Users can download their favorite Gadget to their handsets to run on the device’s idle screen. Handsets with au one Gadget functionality will be released in December.

…

 

At Microsoft’s Convergence 2007 Copenhagen customer event, Microsoft officials say hosting firms from around the world “committed to delivering on-demand customer relationship management (CRM)” products based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, formerly code-named “Titan,” due out later this year.

 

These new partners join what Microsoft officials call “an extensive range of existing partners around the world that deliver on-demand products for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning (ERP) products.”

 

Microsoft has also announced that it plans to lower the subscription licensing fees paid by its global hosting partners for Microsoft Dynamics CRM by approximately 40 percent. Microsofties say the price reduction is “consistent with Microsoft’s long-standing strategy to deliver more affordable CRM technology through on-premises and partner-hosted deployments as well as the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live service.”

 

Dynamics CRM 4.0 offers a platform that is multi-tenant and scalable, and supports multiple languages and currencies. By using a single code base for on-premises and on-demand deployments, customers are able to choose whichever model suits their business and IT needs, and to change their option over time if their needs or preferences change.

 

The software giant has a ticklish problem to deal with — it wants to develop its hosted applications, but needs to keep its huge partner community happy. Companies are generally resistant to using third-party hosted CRM, and many analysts see the significant price cut as a way of luring such reluctant customers to Microsoft’s on-demand CRM.

…

 

InQuira, a vendor of software for search, knowledge management and analytics, has announced that Serena Software will be implementing the InQuira Customer Experience Platform to “power its search and knowledge management initiatives.”

 

More than 15,000 organizations use Serena’s products, company officials say, adding that “the recent launch of Serena Mashup Composer puts an entirely different demand on customer service.” Targeting individual users looking to create business mashups, Serena officials anticipate “both exponential growth and an increasing reliance on online support within its customer base.”

 

“We need to provide our customers with the type of online customer service they are accustomed to getting from industry leading consumer companies,” said Peter Sianchuk, vice president of worldwide support, Serena Software.

 

InQuira Information Manager provides a content authoring, editing, review and publishing environment for the information management lifecycle, so Serena can manage and maintain its knowledge base.

 

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is a Weird Al iPod mix:

 

Salesforce.com Foundation, the philanthropy outreach of Salesforce.com, announced the successes that educational institutions have achieved using donated licenses of Salesforce.com's on-demand CRM technology through the One Percent Product Donation Program.

 

Bronx Lab School, the Knowledge Is Power Program, Resources for Indispensable Schools and Educators, San Jose Education Foundation and USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences are among the more than 2,500 nonprofits and educational institutions around the world using Salesforce.com technology as a result of the program.

 

"The same on-demand CRM technology used by the private sector can have a profound effect at educational institutions by giving teachers and administrators next generation tools to track student performance," said Suzanne DiBianca, executive director of the Salesforce.com Foundation. "The mission of educational institutions to reinvent their learning institutions using the latest Internet technology goes hand in hand with the Salesforce.com Foundation's mission to redefine corporate philanthropy."

 

DiBianca cited the example of 30 new small schools within the New York City Department of Education who have built a data portal using donated Salesforce.com licenses in order to access accurate and real-time student information. The schools customized the system to match school-specific programs such as attendance and grade tracking, and today there are 800 users across the 30 schools using the data portal.

 

"The Salesforce.com Foundation has given the Bronx Lab School and other like-minded schools the innovative tools we need to better serve our missions," said Marc Sternberg, principal, Bronx Lab School.

 

The Salesforce.com One Percent Product Donation Program donates 10 licenses to qualified nonprofits. Additional licenses are offered at an 80 percent discount.

 

. . . .

 

One wonders about the wisdom in moving to California these days, but intrepid Opera Software has bravely planted its flag in Silicon Valley. "Among partners and customers in Mountain View," company officials say, Opera is "set to advance its efforts in enabling a universal Web experience with a new office in the heart of the tech industry."

 

Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and with nine satellite offices, Opera Software has grown with the increasing business opportunities for Web use on various devices. Company officials say the Opera browser's small size and portability make it "the browser of choice" for manufacturers of device segments, such as Nintendo, Motorola and Samsung.

 

"Today, the industry and consumers are realizing the value of using the same services wherever they are," says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "Our presence in Silicon Valley will allow our business relationships and Web development initiatives to deepen with closer collaboration."

 

Opera currently sells a Web browser and browser-based products for the desktop, mobile, devices and vertical markets. Opera officials say they see the convergence of Web services among various device types as "an opportunity" for the company's portable-browser core. Opera intends to further its cooperation with U.S. operators and device manufacturers to directly provide its mobile Web-browsing to the American market.

 

Opera Software opened its first U.S. office in 2005 in San Diego.

 

To announce Opera's arrival in Silicon Valley, the company chose a San Francisco venue, the Rickshaw Stop, to host its next product launch party. The doors will open to the "Rock Opera" event at 7:00 p.m. (PST) on Thursday, October 25, 2007.

 

. . . .

 

U.S. Auto Parts Network, an online vendor of aftermarket auto parts and accessories, announced that Josh Berman, MySpace Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer and Jeffrey Schwartz, the former Chief Executive Officer of Autobytel have joined the Company's Board of Directors.

 

Robert Majteles, Chairman of the Board, said together with the recent addition of Barry Phelps, "we believe we have completed the process of building a strong, public company Board of Directors and we look forward to serving our shareholders well."

 

Berman is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of MySpace.com. Under Berman's leadership, MySpace has grown exponentially since its launch in 2004, with an average of 300,000 new users signing up daily and 115 million current active users worldwide. Berman has also co-founded and managed ResponseBase Marketing, where he was COO and CFO, and Xdrive Technologies, where he CFO.

 

Schwartz brings eight years of automotive marketing experience to the Company's Board of Directors. He currently serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vertical Passion Media, a media and marketing company focused on classified listings, content and community in the motors category.

 

From 2001 to 2006, Schwartz served in various senior executive positions at Autobytel, including President and CEO, and most recently as Director and Vice Chairman. Autobytel is an automotive marketing services company, selling various marketing, media, and CRM products to its 25,000 dealer franchises and major automotive manufacturers.

 

. . . .

 

FTS, which sells business control, billing and CRM products for service providers, announced the installation and implementation of Leap Billing, an end-to-end billing and customer care product, at Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel).

 

Camtel is Cameroon's national telecommunications provider, providing telephony services including national and international telephony, Internet services, leased lines, satellite communications, and wireless CDMA.

 

Camtel officials say they'll use Leap Billing to sell new services to its customers while "benefiting from creative billing schemes." The key benefit to the customer, as Camtel officials see it, will be "a single, unified bill that outlines the different services they

have used from across the package that they subscribe to." The bill details the services that they have been charged for, from wireline telephony and internet services to wireless CDMA usage.

 

The Customer Management product also provides all of Camtel's customers with a single

point of contact for all their queries. David Nkoto Emane, Camtel's Director General, says in addition to "the new services we are able to provide," Leap Billing also "improves our subscriber-facing activities… On top of this, we saw an immediate RoI as the system allows us to improve our revenue collection."

 

. . . .

 

BroadSoft, a vendor of VoIP application software, announced a mash-up of its BroadWorks VoIP application platform with Salesforce.com. The joint product will let users integrate the BroadWorks VoIP platform directly into Salesforce.com's customer relationship management (CRM) applications, allowing users to access click-to-dial, recorded-call logging and other advanced voice features.

 

By introducing a computer telephony integration connector for the BroadWorks platform, Salesforce users can integrate with the BroadWorks-based phone system, so they can use their carrier-grade VoIP calling features, such as call control, call hold and call transfer, in conjunction with the CRM features in Salesforce.com.

 

Additionally, BroadWorks end-users can automatically capture and manage detailed logs of all calls from within Salesforce.com to track interactions with customers. The integration also automatically opens a caller's Salesforce.com contact record when the user receives an incoming call.

 

Telecom service providers can now offer the BroadSoft-salesforce.com integration as a value-added service. The BroadSoft-salesforce.com product is now available for service providers on a free trial basis.

 

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Miles Davis' Kind of Blue:

Dealer Specialties, a division of Dominion Enterprises and vendor of data and photo collection, inventory management and data distribution services, has announced it has teamed with Best Bid Motors, a start-up automotive auction site, to offer dealers what it calls "low-cost alternative for auctioning their inventory."

As part of the exclusive agreement, Dealer Specialties' dealers will automatically get free listings on the auction site, and will have the opportunity to manage and sell inventory, as well as create an online customized auction store.

Brian Page, General Manager of Dealer Data Services at Dealer Specialties, says the partnership "provides our dealers with the value of having yet another channel for free distribution of their inventory."

Launched in the fall of 2007, Best Bid Motors provides a portal for dealers to actively participate in an auction site under one of their subscription plans. An aggressive Internet marketing campaign promises to raise consumer awareness of the site as well as dealer participation.

Once dealers are registered with the site, Best Bid Motors can upload and manage auction inventory including detailed specifications, photos and Vehicle Videos. Best Bid Motors also offers dealers a customized, virtual storefront option featuring their brand information, logos and more.

Dealer Specialties will begin feeding dealer listings and inventory information to the Best Bid Motors web site beginning in November.

…

For the second consecutive time, CRM vendor NSB Group has been ranked as the number one supplier of POS software to the top specialty softgoods retailers, according to the IHL Consulting Group in their recent report, "A Retailer's Guide: POS Software for Softgoods Retailers."

The research report evaluated vendors of POS software installed among the top 250 North American retailers in the specialty softgoods space, and ranked the top 5 according to such criteria as "total number of vendor accounts among the leading 250 softgoods retailers" and "estimated number of POS systems running the vendor's software based on store count and lanes per store data."

Greg Buzek, President of IHL, noted NSB's "customer base, years of retail experience, multiple implementation models, and close Microsoft partnership."

David Henning, CEO for the NSB Group, said his company has been working with retailers in this space for 35 years.

The Connected Retailer Store Solution is a store automation system with multichannel retailing capabilities, touting "improved employee productivity, and increased levels of customer service." The product is billed as a tool to help retailer "respond rapidly to changing business needs without jeopardizing the upgrade path to future releases, ensuring a long-term favorable cost of ownership."

…

LivePerson, a vendor of online engagement products that facilitate real-time assistance and advice, has announced the adoption of its Timpani Voice product by "several customers," including Bell, Canada's largest voice, data and wireless communications company, Qwest and others.

Described as "an enterprise click-to-call product that proactively introduces the voice channel to targeted visitor segments based on behavioral events," Timpani has a proactive chat platform which includes enterprise-level voice capabilities.

Using Leveraging LivePerson's business rules engine fits with ActiveAnalytics' data mining technology, which analyzes online visitor behavior and predicts which visitors are most likely to convert if engaged by an agent.

Bell has deployed Timpani Voice across multiple lines of business, including wireline, Internet, digital voice, and long distance; customers who visit the Bell Web site to cancel or move their service to a new location receive invitations to speak with a Bell representative.

"Timpani Voice has saved us close to 70 percent of customers who had expressed a desire to cancel service," said Parth Shukla, Director of Interactive and Multi-Channel Marketing for Bell. "Enabling consumers to remain online and do business with us in their channel of choice reinforces Bell's multi-channel service options and increases customer satisfaction."

After effectively using LivePerson's click-to-call technology to retain customers, Bell has since deployed the product in areas where the company experiences a high level of complexity and fall-out for online fulfillment, including move center and multi-product bundles.

Offering invite-to-talk and click-to-talk applications, Timpani Voice features computer telephony integration options and is compatible with both conventional telephone service and talk by PC for site visitors.

…

Online recruitment company The IT Job Board has announced the results of its latest Skills in Demand report, finding that ERP/CRM skill demand have stayed the same year on year with over 7,000 positions currently being advertised.

Demand in help desk positions has increased by 45 percent compared to the same period last year, and demand for IT project managers has risen by 35 percent compared to the same period last year.

The survey found that developers positions have increased "only slightly" at 10 percent compared to the same period last year.

Adam Stokes, Operations Manager at www.theitjobboard.com, called the demand in help desk roles "great news for graduates and junior candidates, as these types of roles provide a launch platform for their IT careers."

Stokes said how "interesting it is how strong the ERP/CRM market still is -- there still seems to be a high demand for these applications, and the combination of continued demand plus the lengthy  implementation schedules mean there's a real shortage of candidates with these skills in the market."

A growth in the demand for Project Managers is usually an indication that there is a growth in new projects being scheduled that need recruiting for, Stokes explained, but added "the relative inactivity in the Developer market might suggest that the apparent increase in IT projects may not be something to get too excited about.  There is a cyclical element to project management recruitment, as IT systems naturally age and need replacing."

…

Oracle has announced that the Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) has gone live on the Oracle E-Business Suite "in order to enhance customer experience and improve operational efficiency," Oracle officials say. This customer relationship management (CRM) centric product serves as an integrated platform for all Economic Zones operations in line with Dubai World's enterprise application strategy.

Salma Hareb, CEO, Jafza and Economic Zones World, said they needed a product that could "scale with our growth and be flexible in adapting to varied requirements of the different economic zones and logistics and industrial parks in our portfolio, while enabling a consistent business process model."

Hareb added that in his opinion the introduction of about 100 additional eServices will result in "exceeding 90 per cent e-enablement of Jafza's customer services."

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

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is the cool "Preview All" feature on Amazon.com for Radiohead's OK Computer… okay, listened to samples of all songs, nah, too self-consciously weepy. We'll have David Bowie's Aladdin Sane, then, Godfrey, nice and loud:

Centerbase 2007, the latest version of the Centerbase CRM software system, from Dallas-based Centerbase is now available. Company officials say it's been upgraded with improved form designer function and flexible customization.

Centerbase was specifically created to provide small and medium-sized businesses the "functionality and competitive edge of full-featured enterprise-capable CRM systems," according to company officials.

But the key word for this release is "flexibility," as company officials say the 2007 edition "responds directly to the customers' expressed need for flexibility." Centerbase Founder and CEO John Forbes underlined this with his comment that with Centerbase 2007, "we have created an affordable, flexible product that can meet not only the known CRM needs of today but the unforeseen CRM needs of tomorrow."

The product is available via a newly upgraded 30-day free trial format, available at www.centerbase.com. The trial provides a fully-functioning hosted personalized database system, preset to accommodate 10 users, which businesses can download. The trial version is identical to the full version of Centerbase, Forbes says.

Among the flexible upgrades in this version are capabilities for preset and customizable forms adaptable "to any industry," as well as drag and drop fields within forms, editable field type, the ability to delete unused fields from any form and reset tab order for entering data into fields.

The product is also pitched as offering "data access that is ten times faster than previous versions, and makes use of a Windows-based design, so it is easy to adopt and learn." It is available in both a hosted edition developed for smaller businesses with limited IT resources, as well as an edition which can be installed on a company's systems.

…

According to The Writer's Almanac, today in 1892 the World's Fair in Chicago was formally dedicated. The Chicago World's Fair was the place where most Americans first saw not only electricity used on a large scale, but postcards, fiberglass, the zipper, the ice cream cone, Cracker Jack, Quaker Oats, Shredded Wheat, belly dancing, spray paint, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Ferris wheel.

…

According to "Eastern Europe ICT and Outsourcing Market (2007-2011)," a new market research report published by research company RNCOS, the Eastern European ICT (Information and Communications Technology) is believed to be among the largest growing segments all over the world.

And software emerged as the strongest market within the industry in 2006 by growing to around $3.6 billion, and is expected to surge by around 11.6 percent this year. The total ICT industry nearly touched $61 billion in 2006 and is predicted to reach almost $71 billion in 2008.

The report has outlined "system segment" as the fastest growing one within the software sector, fueled by infrastructure software, subsuming Web services and middleware. The increase in "application software" remained moderate as the demand for CRM and ERP dipped in 2003.

A major part of this growth in the software and services segment stemmed from "large-scale projects in government administration, manufacturing, telecommunications, and banking/financial services," the report found.

The report also calls Eastern Europe an "attractive market" for both domestic and foreign players. It puts forth the EU accession as the important factor which is drawing more international IT players to make investments in the software industry of Eastern Europe.

Of course Eastern Europe is also emerging as a sought-after destination for software outsourcing as it provides low-cost outsourcing services and a large skilled workforce.

The report's data is given at country level, including Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Poland.

…

IT services vendor Cognizant Technology is looking to upgrade its capabilities in the life sciences segment by acquiring New Jersey-based marketRx, provider of analytics and software services to global life sciences companies, for $135 million, according to a report in the Indian trade journal Business Standard:

"The company has signed the agreement to acquire marketRx in an all-cash deal. The transaction may be concluded in the fourth quarter of 2007. The acquisition will be funded through the company's current cash reserves."

The acquisition "expands our capabilities in the analytics segment and broadens our service offerings in the life sciences industry, while providing strong synergies with our existing business intelligence/data warehousing and CRM services," said Francisco D'Souza, president and chief executive officer of Cognizant.

The acquisition will bring in a client base of 75 life sciences customers, including the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies and four of the top five biotech companies, Cognizant officials say.

…

HR Technology Advisors, a national, independent human resources and benefits technology consulting firm and reseller, in a joint venture with Microsoft Partner T.H.G. Sales Automation has taken Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Professional and adapted it to fit the business needs and workflows of the Employee Benefits Brokerage firms.

In addition to core functionality integrated into Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows brokers to track group benefits, pension, and individual policy information, manage service issues, monitor prospects and renewals, conduct mail merges, automate their own unique internal workflows and more.

"As our benefits brokerage clients' businesses become more complex, HRT's customers will now have access to a CRM system designed to be a natural extension of Microsoft Office and Outlook," says Don Rowe, Principal, HR Technology Advisors.

In addition to the Outlook integration, the Microsoft CRM for Benefit Brokers system integrates with handheld devices and Microsoft SharePoint. Brokers will be able to buy the system and host it themselves or lease it with third-party hosting. Users can access the system from their desktop inside of Outlook or independently via the Internet.

HR Technology Advisors focuses entirely in the HR & Benefits technology marketplace. It does not manufacture or build technology, but matches vendors with clients. T.H.G. Sales Automation implements CRM products on a global basis.

…

Avidian Technologies has relocated its offices in Bellevue, Washington to Redmond where it will have a much larger facility and be able to expand its sales & marketing, customer support and development teams, company officials say.

The company is known for its Prophet Outlook CRM Software business products in areas like sales force automation and contact management. The system is designed for use in Microsoft Outlook and can be integrated with other capabilities.

The popularity of the Prophet Outlook CRM Software has grown dramatically in recent years causing the company to continue to grow. The new location is necessary to accommodate that growth, company officials say.

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 Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys' “The Ballad of Charles Whitman.” Everybody sing along — “There was a rumor, about a tumor…”

 

Callidus Software, a vendor of Sales Performance Management products, has announced its commitment to developing several native, Web 2.0 Software-as-a-Service applications on salesforce.com's Force.com platform.

 

These applications will “extend the reach of the Callidus sales performance offerings to all salesforce.com customers with particular emphasis on small and medium enterprises,” the company's traditional market, according to Callidus officials.

 

The new on-demand platform, which was announced in September during salesforce.com's Dreamforce 2007 conference, will let Callidus customers deploy an array of sales performance management products at a lower cost. Callidus will unveil more details about its Force.com initiative in November.

 

Clarence So, senior vice president of marketing at salesforce.com, promised that Callidus' native SPM offerings “will be tightly integrated with our CRM products and will provide salesforce.com customers with a compelling offering.”

 

Earlier this year Callidus announced the availability of its TrueComp Suite on salesforce.com's AppExchange. That gave salesforce.com customers access to Callidus' SPM suite of products. Delivering its products on Force.com “enables Callidus to maintain its laser-like focus on building SPM products and features without having to divert development resources to platform capabilities such as security, multi-tenancy, multi-language and multi-currency,” company officials say.

 …

 

Salesforce.com has received two top honors at the Business Software Satisfaction Awards, namely Best Small Business CRM Software and the Best On-Demand CRM Software awards, “beating competition from Microsoft,” as Salesforce.com officials are always careful to note.

 

The awards are judged on “ease of use, reliability, functionality and value for money,” Salesforce.com officials say.

 

Woodson Martin, vice president, EMEA marketing, Salesforce.com, prefers to see the awards as validating the whole notion of SaaS itself: “The awards are also a confirmation of how seriously people are taking Software-as-a-Service and the cultural change in buying habits we have seen in recent years.”

 

While salesforce.com is best known for its Software-as-a-Service CRM applications, company officials stress that it has recently redefined itself as a multi-application, multi-category company. Last month Salesforce.com introduced the Force.com on-demand platform, which company officials hope will be “a new way to create and deploy business applications that makes companies and developers successful by letting them focus on what their applications do, rather than the software and infrastructure to run them.”

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Students as customers is the new meme in higher education these days, and keeping students enrolled is one of the top challenges of higher education. Hobsons, a company that describes its services as helping colleges and universities “elevate their enrollment strategies,” has developed what it calls “a comprehensive product designed to identify, engage, assess, and coach students through to graduation.”

 

Not much different from holding a customer's hand through the sales cycle, is it?

 

The company has launched Hobsons Student Retention Solutions, a group of services that not only provide a software system (EMT Retain) to help with the technical management of student retention, but also “a complete advising package that guides schools through their entire retention program.”

 

Hobsons Student Retention Solutions provides a customizable suite of services for institutional use, “regardless of the phase the institution's retention efforts are in,” company officials say: “The product includes retention assessments, predictive modeling, personality testing and change management, technology, and achievement coaching.”

 

Retention Assessments provide an evaluation of current retention efforts. Predictive Modeling provides a model that uses historical data to predict behavior, thus providing the ability to target efforts, and Achievement Coaching provides one-on-one coaching for high-risk students.

 

At the heart of the product is EMT Retain, a Web-based Communication and eCoaching system that optimizes campus communication to target at-risk students. “With one-third of students enrolled in higher education dropping out of college each year, there's no question student retention is a real problem facing higher ed,” said Craig Heldman, president of Hobsons U.S.

 

Exacerbating the problem is the fact that only about half of schools have identified an individual or department to address retention issues, Hobsons officials say, and slightly fewer than half of schools have established goals to improve student retention.

…

 

Continuing our CRM for Higher Education theme, CRM developer Intelliworks has announced a partnership with InsideTrack to deliver a combined product for student recruitment and retention.

 

InsideTrack provides “student coaching” services to higher ed, providing guidance services to students to help them manage their academic careers. The company's coaching system combines in person counseling and Web-based collaboration tools, officials say.

 

Intelliworks is the developer of Orion, a constituent relationship management system — another rich field being mined by CRM, constituents such as voters. And of course the beauty there is you don't even need to change the acronym. It includes contact management, marketing, event management, and analytics capabilities designed specifically for colleges and universities.

 

Intelliworks officials say InsideTrack will use Orion to manage its recruitment and enrollment coaching services.

…

 

TouchStar, a call center technology provider, and ServiceFirst, a vendor of hosted service industry software, have announced a new partnership for a product to unify field service, sales, and office personnel to “increase revenue, efficiency, and overall service quality.”

 

The offering is tailored to the needs of field services businesses such as HVAC, plumbing, electrical, pool and spa, irrigation and landscaping, security and alarm, refinishing, and telecommunications.

 

“Service organizations now have the capabilities of full on-site systems at a price point that is appropriate for small and medium sized businesses,” company officials say, adding that “the combined offering includes tools to drive revenue, simplify dispatching, match the technician's skill sets, and check parts availability. This helps ensure a positive experience for the customer while growing the service business.”

 

Brian Smits, TouchStar's Global Director of Marketing, said the product provides service companies with service call reminders, intelligent screen pops with customer information and service history, automated service order entry, call flow management, complete customer service center reporting, and cross sell and up sell outbound campaigns.

 

Chuck Simmons, CEO of ServiceFirst, said by using the product businesses can “access the powerful tools available for every part of their operation, and do so remotely without the large traditional license and integration services investment previously required.”

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You read it here first: England upsets South Africa tomorrow.

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Charles Mingus's Mingus Ah Um, an album that sounds a little bit better each time it's played:

Infusion Software, vendor of customer relationship management (CRM) software for small businesses, has announced it has secured funding of $9 million from MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. It's Infusion's first round of venture financing.

Company officials say they'll use the financing to "accelerate customer acquisition via increased sales and marketing efforts" and "enhance its CRM software built specifically for true small businesses," which Infusion defines as "owner-run organizations with 2-50 employees that have grown organically."

The salient difference between TSBs and other small businesses, Infusion officials think, is that "these businesses do not have layers like larger organizations, and thus automation of business processes via easy-to-use technology is highly desired."

"Infusion's approach to CRM technology, strong customer traction among small businesses, and management team have enabled the company to capture a notable share of what we believe to be a very significant market opportunity," said Nancy Schoendorf , MDV general partner and an Infusion Software board member.

Infusion Software's product, Infusion CRM, is Software-as-a-Service which centralizes, organizes and automates lead generation, lead conversion and client fulfillment. Infusion CRM was developed to provide a centralized customer management system with modules including e-commerce, lead capture, e-mail marketing, click tracking, billing and collections and other functions of sales, marketing and customer service.

Clate Mask, President and CEO of Infusion Software, said the investment "allows us to accelerate our plan to revolutionize the way small businesses drive and manage their growth."

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Q4 Sales has introduced a new CRM service called Customer Revenue Transitions that looks at how a company's best customers move -- and spend -- over time and what it means to the bottom line.

"We have licensed a successful software tool that quantifies market opportunity and identifies key segments by value," said TJ McCue, president of Q4 Sales.

Many companies talk about the Pareto Principle -- the famous 80/20 rule, McCue says, "but few really know which customers spend the most and how that changes over time. The changes may signal a need to change marketing spending accordingly."

McCue said his company is "also finding interest by our clients in 'Benchmarking Clubs' where we have companies in the same industry, but noncompetitive geographic markets, who want to aggregate customer profiles and find that 'best customer.' Customer Revenue Transitions does that. And it is a lot of fun because we learn things that each company can use to grow its business."

Customer Revenue Transitions is a service for the SME space starting at $2,200 for a basic assessment. It can be completed in as little as two to three weeks.

…

Wrapped Apps Corporation, which sells a Service Delivery Platform, has announced that it has become a partner on salesforce.com's AppExchange. Wrapped Apps provides Independent Software Vendors and service providers with a platform "for faster on-demand deployments and reduced costs," company officials say.

The Wrapped Apps SDP is available in two categories on the AppExchange: Integration & Data Management: Application Integration & Mashups and Industry Solutions: Software.

Clarence So, senior vice president of marketing, Salesforce.com, said Wrapped Apps' service "can be used in conjunction with the Force.com platform to help ISVs who have already invested time and resources in developing traditional software applications go on-demand."

The Wrapped Apps Service Delivery Platform can usually bring applications onto the AppExchange within 30 days. It addresses a range of technical issues for on-demand deployment, streamlining the on-demand process for ISVs.

Force.com is the on-demand platform for business applications. It allows applications to be easily shared, exchanged and installed via salesforce.com's AppExchange marketplace.

…

Etelos has announced that it has formalized a partnership with Web development firm BluCapp as a Premier Development Partner. According to terms of the deal, BluCapp is expected to create, develop and enhance future versions of Etelos CRM for Google Apps, and BluCapp will take advantage of the Developer Edition of Etelos CRM to release its own version of the application.

"Taking an existing CRM product and building from its base of success is a great example of how the Etelos Ecosystem benefits a Web developer," BluCapp CEO Robert Thordarson said. "Being able to use the Etelos Marketplace to manage the deployment of the application ensures that BluCapp's CRM will be easy for businesses of any size to implement."

By using the Etelos Marketplace, BluCapp is expected to be able to distribute the application to most any business on demand. BluCapp also expects to manage licensing, billing and support content through the Etelos Marketplace.

The Etelos Marketplace provides an online storefront that gives businesses the ability to choose an on demand application and install it unto the hosting environment of their choice.

"BluCapp has a great vision for the future of CRM," Etelos Founder & CTO Danny Kolke said, adding that the partnership between BluCapp and Etelos is expected to give business users "customizable, on-demand applications that they can place in the hosting environment of their choosing."

BluCapp is expected to release its first version of its branded application in their storefront in the Etelos Marketplace by the end of 4Q 2007.

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This is kind of eerie: European Broadcasting giant BSkyB is suing IT consulting firm EDS for over $1.5 billion for "allegedly miss-selling a customer relationship management (CRM) project that failed," according to industry observer John Kennedy, writing in the Irish trade journal SiliconRepublic.

Easily one of the largest such IT cases in history, Kennedy reports, it centers around BSkyB's allegations of deceit, negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract by EDS.

"The scale of the claim," Kennedy writes, "contrasts sharply with the value of the original contract [$98 million] and is believed to be based on profits allegedly lost."

BSkyB selected EDS in 2000 as systems integrator for a CRM project that it won ahead of PricewaterhouseCoopers, he says, and explains that "the broadcaster alleges EDS failed to use any recognized form of time and cost estimation when tendering for the work and just produced a reflection of what it thought BSkyB wanted."

In other words, "it is being alleged that EDS put forward a sales pitch that it knew was misleading."

The contract was terminated in January 2003 and BSkyB began the legal action against EDS in 2004.

Kennedy reports that EDS said it will refute BSkyB’s allegations through the course of the trial and defend its position.

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The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Traffic's Welcome to the Canteen live album, one of the best workplace albums First Coffee's heard:

Satuit Technologies has launched a new training program designed to expand SatuitCRM end-user expertise and product adoption. Company officials describe the company's new "Train the Trainer" program as focusing on "investment management CRM best practices" training.

Its purpose is to create in-house SatuitCRM experts among customers who train their internal users. The two-day course was offered in September, with plans to repeat the training each quarter.

SatuitCRM is pitched to the professional investment market. The "Train the Trainer" program gives power users an opportunity to "discuss software usage issues unique to their industry, such as how to track client requirements for account reporting, how to manage compliance issue,; how to manage the sales pipeline or how to run a marketing campaign," company officials say.

Attendees have described the course as user-oriented, and say course content supplemented information presented in Satuit's System Administrator course, which provides system administrators with advanced training on SatuitCRM's database architecture, configuration tools, security functions, integration with Web services and data import wizards.

…

Phase 2 International, a vendor of hosted applications, has announced the launch of its first series of customized and integrated hosted business applications. The initial selection of commonly-used software is "geared in price and functionality towards the needs of small-to medium-sized businesses (SMB)," company officials say.

The new offerings, whether stand-alone or integrated, include Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft Live Communicator. The company also hosts ShareCAD for AutoCAD, a sharing network for AutoCAD documents.

Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, offers subscription-based access to applications. Accordingly, Phase 2 clients do not require upfront software license and hardware installation costs, nor IT staff to implement and maintain network systems. With SaaS, monthly subscription fees fit easily into even a small business budget.

Hosted business applications can be accessed from anywhere with a Web browser; without the need for downloads or special tools. They're popular with distributed teams needing to access centralized information for sales, products, services, accounting and other information that drives business.

Honolulu-based Phase 2 officials say their hosted applications can be accessed within hours of purchase for basic applications, and a few days for customized applications.

Phase 2 is currently offering six hosted products for businesses that can be integrated and bundled according to customers' needs. Phase 2 is planning to expand its portfolio of applications in the near future.

…

Now that Microsoft has announced the worldwide availability of its unified communications software, analysts say it will help streamline workplace communications and could reduce the cost of the average corporate voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) system by half.

What else can you expect? According to the ARC Advisory Group, the release includes the following:

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Software that delivers VoIP, video, instant messaging, conferencing and presence within the applications you probably already know and use, such as Microsoft Office system applications and upcoming versions of Microsoft Dynamics ERP and the Microsoft CRM release due later this year.

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007: Client software for phone, instant messaging and video communications that works across the PC, mobile phone and Web browser.

Microsoft Office Live Meeting: The next version of Microsoft’s advanced conferencing service that enables workers to conduct meetings, share documents, use video and record discussions from virtually any computer.

Microsoft RoundTable: A conferencing phone with a 360-degree camera that captures a panoramic view of meeting participants, tracks the speaker and can record meetings. No more falling unobtrusively asleep on conference calls.

Service pack update of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. The e-mail, voice mail, calendaring and unified messaging platform

Microsoft also unveiled Unified Communications Open Interoperability, a telephony system qualification program, to "give customers the assurance that Microsoft unified communications software works with their telephony systems," ARC officials say.

Bob Mick, ARC Advisory Group, said "from a group and team perspective, Microsoft is in a prime position to have a high impact, because of the popularity of their Office products."

…

Telrex, vendor of the CallRex suite of IP call recording and contact center products, has announced support for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. The support means customers can record phone calls for regulatory compliance, dispute resolution, training and security.

"The ability to record and monitor calls has become a standard business practice for most every business today," said Bob Cordes, VP Product Management at Telrex. He said that via his company's "strategic relationship" with Microsoft, "more business customers will be able to deploy Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 because they will be able to record and monitor calls using CallRex software."

CallRex is all software and runs on standard Windows-based servers. It enables call recording, triggered call recording, on-demand call recording and live monitoring from anywhere on the network. It lets recorded calls be linked with business applications such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM to create a comprehensive history of interactions.

…

According to a recent study conducted by Microsoft Canada, Canadians say the lack of emotion in e-mails frequently causes conversations to be misinterpreted.

While more than one-quarter of Canadians say they use e-mail to conduct business, 32 per cent say they have had an e-mail misinterpreted, and 66 per cent say they need to spend time explaining the context or tone of a message to a colleague after sending.

Canadians spend at least 30 minutes a day re-reading messages to ensure tone and context are accurately communicated, the study found: "As well, 67 percent of respondents admitted that they follow-up on important e-mail messages with a phone call."

Warren Shiau, Lead Analyst, IT Research, Strategic Counsel, said the majority of respondents "indicate they feel a need to use expressive tools like emoticons and Caps Lock in business e-mails to make sure the right message gets across."

Reflecting a national characteristic Canadians are concerned how their e-mails are perceived by others, with 83 percent rereading their notes before sending. 89 percent say the phone and face-to-face are more effective ways of communicating important issues.

72 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they would be more likely to call the person if they could determine whether they were available to take the call.

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The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is a blistering "Sweet Home Chicago" by Barry Goldberg, Harvey Mandel and Dylan's legendary guitarist Mike Bloomfield. Jewish blues rock!

VoiceObjects, a vendor of adaptive self-service phone portals, has announced that Volkswagen Financial Services AG has deployed a new, personalized self-service voice portal from VoiceObjects which has increased customer satisfaction.

The VoiceObjects phone application server software suite lets VWFS manage increasing call volumes -- "within weeks after deploying the new voice portal," VWFS officials say, "VWFS customers benefited from unprecedented levels of personalized self-service, and more than 90 percent of them report being very satisfied with the new system."

VWFS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen AG. The subsidiary was founded to address the growing breadth, depth, and internationalization of Volkswagen's financial services operations and coordinates the worldwide financial services activities of the Volkswagen Group and its subsidiaries.

Previously, all VWFS customers desiring over-the-phone service were directed to a single contact number served by call center agents. Lack of segmentation led to long hold times for even the simplest inquiries. The new VoiceObjects self-service banking voice portal lets callers first use a self-service voice portal before reaching an agent: "Interactive dialogs and flexible menus help callers get the information they need quickly," VoiceObjects officials say.

Despite increasing call volumes, wait times have decreased and agents have more time for value-added consultation, cross-selling, and up-selling, Volkswagen officials report.

…

Astea International, a vendor of service lifecycle management software, have embedded their FieldCentrix service management and mobility product, both on-demand and on-premise, into Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Already a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, with competencies in Independent Software Vendor and Software and Mobility Solutions, as well as a Microsoft Dynamics partner for Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics AX, Astea has expanded this partnership to now include Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

This means Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers will be able to access the Astea product without ever leaving the Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Astea is developing channel sales strategies, create "go-to-market" campaigns, and assist partners in penetrating the market. With FieldCentrix for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, channel partners now can reach FieldCentrix for Dynamics CRM, already embedded within Dynamics CRM.

The acquisition of FieldCentrix, Astea officials say, "complements its existing portfolio with mobile field service execution products."

John Tobin, President, Astea International, said the market is "already experiencing the growing demand for service management products as more and more companies begin to view service as a profit center rather than a cost center as well as a competitive differentiator."

…

IP PBX provider Switchvox, recently acquired by Digium, has announced new functionality for its "Switchvox SMB" IP PBX system, designed for small- and medium-sized businesses.

The new Version 3.0 software adds support for real-time sales and customer service applications, SugarCRM and Salesforce.com, as well as integration of Google Maps into the company's Switchboard Web-based call control panel.

The product's Switchboard application works with a telephone, "making it easy to connect and route telephone calls with a simple point and click, but also to record calls, view the status of other extensions and manage e-mail," company officials say.

With Switchboard, any number of "panels" can be displayed and shifted around on the user's screen depending on the options set up by the system administrator. Panels for SugarCRM or Salesforce.com can be added to automatically "pop up" customer history records for an incoming call.

Additional Version 3.0 improvements include an upgraded operating system for higher call capacity -- 200 simultaneous calls. Switchvox SMB's most basic hardware platform is a tower PC with a 2.4 GHz processor, 80GB hard drive and 512MB RAM, appropriate for up to 24 simultaneous calls.

Switchvox SMB is priced starting at $2,495 and complements the company's more basic Switchvox SOHO introduced in February 2005.

…

The Word & Brown General Agency has announced that it is distributing AgencyPro, "an annual $2,700 value," to licensed health insurance brokers throughout the state of California.

John M. Word III, co-founder of the Word & Brown Companies, parent of the Word & Brown General Agency, said AgencyPro "goes far beyond any customized CRM program for Brokers by offering RFP development, robust Quoting, Policy Management, Commission Tracking and more, all with just a couple of keystrokes."

AgencyPro is a Web-based agency management program for brokers and agents in the health insurance industry. For Word & Brown registered brokers, registering with AgencyPro automatically uploads their quote and sold case history, allowing them to synchronize with Microsoft Outlook and their PDA.

In 1985, Word & Brown launched a quoting system that allowed brokers to compare different health plan rates side by side, "revolutionizing the way licensed brokers presented healthcare to California employers," company officials said.

AgencyPro is described by company officials as a program available to brokers that centralizes a broker's computer programs, contact information, files, quotes, censuses, policies and benefits details, commission entries and more, into one secure program designed specifically for brokers.

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Fujitsu Consulting India has announced the official inauguration of its new offshore development centre in Noida, its fourth in India since the launch of its operations in 2001. The new center "underpins Fujitsu Consulting’s commitment to developing its operations in India business," company officials say.

This new facility is intended to help support a growing global client base and what Fujitsu officials see as "an increasing demand for hybrid global delivery services."

The company plans to add service capability related to Software-as-a-Service from its operations in India. This represents a new competency that it has added as a result of its recently announced acquisition of Okere, a New York City-based consulting and IT services company that serves enterprise-scale clients with CRM products based on SaaS delivery model.

This $10 million facility has approximately 100,000 square feet of office space with a capacity to seat up to 1,200 staff. The new center is expected to enable the company to expand its professional staff and respond to increased demand for software application development and implementations, quality assurance and sales support services for clients in India, the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and other Asia-Pacific markets.

With the addition of this new facility in Noida, the company now has more than 220,000 square feet of office space in four locations throughout the country with plans for an additional 100,000 square feet over the next 12 months. By 2009 Fujitsu Consulting India expects more than 100 percent growth in its employee base in India.

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The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is INXS's The Swing:

Cipher Dynamics IT Services and OutsourceWorld, a conference company, have announced a partnership designed to "strengthen Cipher's commitment to worldwide business procurement, procedure and practice," company officials say.

The pairing will come together at the end of October. Cipher, headquartered in New Delhi, India, with offices in the United States, sells Microsoft Dynamics CRM-based products as well as other products and services, including Microsoft's AX, Dynamics GP and Business Intelligence products.

"Cipher offers a unique onsite offshore delivery model with a local presence," said Rinku Wadhwani, COO, Cipher, including what he called lower development costs, "without sacrificing quality by providing a blend of local and offshore resources optimized for the client's specific needs, reducing the effective cost of the product without sacrificing quality or local relationships."

Cipher focuses on the mid market, a segment of the market that has traditionally not received attention from global outsourcing players. Cipher and its sister company, Media Aspects, offers a consolidated business product for media companies, named DynamicsADvantage, to "allow them to consolidate disparate systems, leverage Microsoft technology, and make integration and reporting easy," company officials say.

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Magic Software Enterprises, a vendor of enterprise application products, has announced a grant of its iBOLT and eDeveloper software to Penn State University, to be used on more than 120 servers for courses beginning with the fall semester 2007.

Penn State students will have access to the Magic iBOLT business integration product in courses "designed to show how disparate computer software can work together, integrating business processes," according to Magic officials.

IBOLT is intended to help Penn State University students learn to solve common business systems problems, such as duplicate data entry, lack of information, and cumbersome interfaces, school officials say. The iBOLT suite from Magic falls into a category of software known as business process management and is commonly used for enterprise application integration.

Dr. Alan Peslak, a computer scientist at Penn State who has conducted research into the economic and societal impact of information technology, says the software from Magic Software will be used as an integration platform: "Students will develop and deploy business process integration products using the iBOLT Business Integration Suite. IBOLT is planned to enhance our IST Integration and Application Option."

The major types of business applications to be studied include Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, and Supply Chain Management software.

…

CorraTech, an open source software vendor, has announced the launch of a new open source project, OpenSuite, designed "to overcome open source application integration challenges" for CRM and other applications, company officials say.

The product allows business process and data integration across open source applications and proprietary IT systems by providing a virtual suite of open source software.

The adoption and use of open source software by enterprises is widespread and continues to increase. For most organizations, integrating multiple open source applications with each other and within existing proprietary IT environments is a challenge. Although independent software vendors and community projects support integration and interoperability efforts with open source applications, most focus on providing the hooks for other applications to connect.

OpenSuite bills itself as "the glue required to make independently developed open source applications act as though they were designed to operate as an integrated suite." Ron Bongo, CEO of CorraTech, said "it has become apparent to us that in order for open source applications to deliver enterprise value, they need to operate more like a suite and more freely share business processes across the IT environment."

In addition to CRM, OpenSuite provides packaged integration across such open source applications as enterprise resource planning, content/document management, messaging and project management.

The OpenSuite platform takes a service-oriented approach and supplies server-to-server middleware layer functionality. The platform is distributed with a number of packaged business processes called Business Process Packs, which represent logical flows of user actions. These packs consist of reusable functions combined to create cross-application workflows that allow users to navigate between applications, as well as add new functions and productivity improvements to applications.

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Autonomy Corporation has announced that version 6 of both its Enterprise Archive Product and Introspect software are now powered by IDOL. Autonomy Zantaz sells the Proactive Information Risk Management products.

Information Risk Management is "the act of mitigating the risks endemic to the everyday production of excess amounts of data through intelligent archiving, automated policy management and advanced eDiscovery," according to Autonomy officials.

The offerings include media restoration, consolidated archiving, advanced electronic data discovery, review, production, real-time policy management and analytics.

It's all based on one common platform -- Autonomy's Intelligent Data Operating Layer. IDOL automates the understanding and processing of all sources of operational information including e-mail, instant messages, files, applications, voice and video.

The explosion of unstructured information such as e-mails, documents, instant messaging, audio, video, blogs and Web pages, Autonomy officials believe, "has introduced new challenges and potential threats to organizations regarding business operations, regulations and litigation preparedness. Regulatory changes mandate that all electronic information is discoverable and therefore organizations are now required to apply retention policies to far more than just e-mail."

In the report "Abysmal: The State of Retention Management" (Forrester Research, Inc., July 2007), Barry Murphy writes that the gap between where organizations are today and where they should be is "enormous. As a result, eDiscovery costs are high and repetitive. But the days of stakeholders looking the other way as legal teams spend millions of dollars per month on eDiscovery are over."

Organizations are beginning due diligence on ways to more effectively conduct eDiscovery, and to better achieve overall information management, Murphy says: "In some cases these initiatives are led by IT, in other situations they are led by legal, and once in a while, they're led by the business. In reality, it must be a combined effort."

…

Loyalty Lab, a vendor of on-demand CRM for consumer brands, and Harte-Hanks, a direct and targeted marketing company, have announced a relationship designed to "expand the range of loyalty and relationship marketing capabilities available to marketers, particularly in retail markets," according to Loyalty officials.

"By aligning with Loyalty Lab, we will be able to anchor our extensive portfolio of loyalty program services using Loyalty Lab's Customer Relationship Manager software," said Frank Harvey, corporate officer and vice president, Harte-Hanks.

In time, Harte-Hanks also may choose to integrate its Postfuture e-mail, data management and Allink suite of database marketing products with Loyalty Lab to provide a platform for marketers to "identify best customers, communicate with them using integrated, multichannel messaging, and manage loyalty campaign activity," Loyalty officials say.

"Harte-Hanks is a recognized leader in loyalty marketing and CRM, with long-standing relationships with many on the nation's top retailers," said Mark H. Goldstein, CEO of Loyalty Lab.

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