CRM Live from Microsoft Events, ExactTarget, SalesCentric Partners, IBizInitiatives, Systime and JD Edwards, Salesforce on Forbes

David Sims : First Coffee
David Sims
| CRM, ERP, Contact Center, Turkish Coffee and Astroichthiology:

CRM Live from Microsoft Events, ExactTarget, SalesCentric Partners, IBizInitiatives, Systime and JD Edwards, Salesforce on Forbes

The news as of the first cup of coffee this morning, and the music is David Bowie's Station To Station, improved greatly on the iPod by substituting the live versions of both "TVC15" and the title track from 1978's Stage for the lumbering studio versions:

SalesCentric has launched a worldwide CRM Advantage Partner Program for implementers of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SalesCentric Relationship Charts. Under the program, partners will be able to use SalesCentric's marketing campaigns, events, lead qualification and sales optimization services. Companies can participate as Implementation, Hosting or ISV partners.

SalesCentric's Relationship Charts give Microsoft partners "competitive differentiation against other CRM products," according to SalesCentric officials, as they "help sales people visualize their customer or partner relationships."

The forthcoming Relationship Charts Enterprise edition will provide a visualization platform for ISV partners to build Microsoft Dynamics CRM based applications for all vertical sectors. Both editions are also available for Hosting providers.

SalesCentric has partnered with Televerde, a sales and marketing company working in customer acquisition for the high-tech marketplace. Televerde will add the SalesCentric CRM partner program to their Sales Optimization Suite and lead generation tool.

James Hooker, president and CEO of Televerde, said his company is "excited to be partnering with SalesCentric and to be a part of their CRM Advantage program."

"When sales people have relationships with key decision makers, they close more deals and discount less" says Matthew Crook, CEO of SalesCentric.



ExactTarget, a vendor of on-demand, e-mail and one-to-one marketing products, has announced that it will join the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Barnstormers Launch Tour as a national sponsor during March and April 2008.

ExactTarget will showcase its newest round of features with CRM 4.0 such as full integration with landing pages and microsites. It also supports workflows -- Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0's advanced business process automation based on Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation to streamline processes for marketers.

The Microsoft Rolling Thunder Launch Tour is a 22-city tour highlighting the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Each half-day event will provide attendees with product information about the new CRM 4.0 and its newest integrations. Interested parties should attend one of the following concerts -- er, session dates/locations:

March 6 - Atlanta and Orlando,
March 18 - Los Angeles and New York City,
March 20 - Boston and Orange County, California,
March 25 - Charlotte, N.C. and Kansas City,
March 27 - Indianapolis and Minneapolis,
April 1 - Dallas and Detroit (well, Southfield),
April 3 - Denver and Chicago (uh, try Schaumburg),
April 8 - Seattle and Philadelphia,
April 10 - San Francisco and Washington, D.C. and
April 17 - Phoenix.

"Our integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 lets users not only create, deliver and track e-mail campaigns, but to automate them," said Peter McCormick, Co-Founder and Vice President, Partnerships of ExactTarget.



Pegasystems, a vendor of Business Process Management products, has announced financial results for the year and quarter ended December 31, 2007. Total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2007 was $161.9 million, an increase of 29 percent, compared to $126.0 million in 2006.

License revenue for the year increased 44 percent to $51.1 million, compared to $35.4 million in 2006. Services revenue for the year increased 22 percent to $110.8 million, compared to $90.6 million in 2006.

Net income for 2007 was $6.6 million, compared to $1.8 million in 2006. During 2007, the company generated $25.3 million in cash flow from operations and ended the year with $150.0 million in cash and short-term investments.

Craig Dynes, Pegasystems' CFO, said the value of term license fees, "which will be recognized as revenue in future periods," increased from $14.2 million at the end of 2006 to $71.4 million at the end of 2007.

He said the firm expects revenue in 2008 to surpass $200 million. "However, given the instability of the current economic environment, revenue could vary by about 10 percent from our $200 million revenue guidance. We are forecasting net income in 2008 to be approximately $9 to $12 million, and cash flow from operations to be over $25 million."



Systime, an Oracle JD Edwards Certified Advantage Partner, was recently selected as the JD Edwards Global Implementation Partner for WireCo WorldGroup.

WireCo WorldGroup was in the market for "a cost effective ERP product," Systime officials say, adding that as part of the selection process, Systime provided a customer case study session which was followed by Proof of Concept performance, showcasing Systime's specialization in JD Edwards' implementations.

The end-to-end JD Edwards implementation project included Finance, Manufacturing, Customer Service, Production Scheduling, Inventory, Procurement, Transportation, Quality and Case Management. One of the highlights of the sessions was Systime's JD Edwards Global Roll-out case study across six countries including US, Canada, Mexico, China, Germany and Peru.



Salesforce.com has, once again, been named to Forbes' "Fastest Growing Tech Companies" list. With annualized sales growth of 85 percent over the last five years, Salesforce.com ranked second only to Google on the list of technology innovators.

"We are at the forefront of a sea-change taking place in the technology industry today as businesses of all sizes, in virtually every industry, all over the globe, are adopting Software-as-a-Service and now Platform-as-a-Service," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com.

Selection criteria for Forbes' "25 Fastest Growing Tech Companies" included a minimum of $25 million in sales over the last four quarters; 10 percent annual sales gains over the five previous years; profitability over the past 12 months; and 10 percent estimated annual profit growth for the next three to five years.

To view the list in its entirety, visit http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/01/24/fastest-growing-technology-tech- fasttech08-cx_jr_pm_0124fastintro.html.



Internet Business Initiatives of Lenexa, Kansas, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, has announced a program of service offerings for users of Microsoft's hosted CRM Live.

IBizInitiatives has created a presence at EasyCRMLive.com for its products for assisting organizations with their CRM Live installation. Catering to users who have been able to sign up for the service without any professional technology assistance, iBizInitiatives will provide focused, packaged customization products at fixed prices "that make the benefits easy for business people to grasp," according to company officials.

Jerry Weinstock, Chief Business Technology Strategist, said "we will speak to the users in business terms and offer them a menu of customization products that will reduce their risk, simplify the decision making process, and expedite the delivery of the CRM system to look just like they want it to."

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


Featured Events