By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is an Al Stewart iPod mix. Word is our boy’s at work on a new album with former Paul McCartney guitarist Laurence Juber. This is good news, as their last collaboration, Between The Wars, was Al’s strongest album since the Modern Times-Year Of The Cat-Time Passages run.

 

Vettro, a vendor of mobile products, has announced the appointment of two new senior vice presidents: George Moser will lead worldwide field operations and Tom Erdman will oversee worldwide marketing.

 

George Moser brings more than twenty years experience to Vettro, having served in senior management positions in high-growth companies and emerging start-ups. Prior to joining Vettro, he served as Vice President of North American Sales for SPSS, a vendor of predictive analytics software and products.

 

In his new role, Moser will be responsible for driving the strategic growth and direction of Vettro’s field sales initiatives and the entire sales organization -- including global sales, pre-sales, and general sales operations.

 

Tom Erdman joins Vettro from AT&T, where he served as Vice President of the Corporate Markets organization. He’s held sales and marketing leadership positions at a number of large carriers over the past 20 years including MCI and British Telecom. At Vettro Erdman will be responsible for the company’s global marketing strategy.

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NaviSite, a vendor of application products and hosting services, has announced its product for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Exchange Windows Server 2007, and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services.

 

This integrated offering from NaviSite, using the recently released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, “addresses the growing need for efficient interoperability — especially for mid-market enterprises,” the NaviSitians say.

 

NaviSite uses the integration capabilities built into Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services to offer a product for the “anytime-anywhere demands” today, company officials say.

 

This product uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 for additional scalability and cost-effectiveness. Companies may use NaviSite for this integrated service or selected elements for a predictable monthly fee based upon the number of users.

 

NaviSite, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for more than six years, has been managing Microsoft Dynamics CRM for customers since its original introduction with version 1.0. In addition, NaviSite participated in Microsoft’s Technology Adoption Program, part of the Microsoft Early Adopter Program for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, and the recently released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

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McGraw-Hill Construction, part of The McGraw-Hill Companies and a vendor of information products for the construction industry, has announced the launch of Network Express. The product is designed to provide project information from the McGraw-Hill Construction Network, built on the Dodge database, for integration with CRM systems.

 

The service also offers company data that has been cleansed of duplication, as well as leads generated from the McGraw-Hill Construction Sweets Network, media sites, and Target Leads/Spec Alerts.

 

“Many companies in the design and construction industry are investing in CRM systems. A CRM system is a great starting point, but to be successful you have to fill it with prospects and promising sales leads,” said Potoula Chresomales, vice president of marketing and product development for McGraw-Hill Construction.

 

Network Express “provides a daily feed of our construction leads from the McGraw-Hill Construction Network into any CRM system,” she added.

 

McGraw-Hill Construction has been in the industry for over a century. The Dodge database contains “over 90 percent of all construction projects in the U.S. and Canada with construction values of $500,000 or more,” McGraw-Hill officials say.

 

“Our goal is to make integration quick and easy, whether our customers want to integrate project leads into their home-grown CRM system, an off-the-shelf SFA tool, or a complex enterprise-wide CRM implementation,” Chresomales said.

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Ignify, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and vendor of e-commerce products, has announced that its flagship e-commerce platform will now integrate with all Microsoft Dynamics ERP product lines.

 

Ignify’s eCommerce platform will incorporate Microsoft Dynamics NAV, completing its support of Microsoft ERP products. Ignify eCommerce currently supports three of the four Microsoft Dynamics ERPs including Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Microsoft Dynamics SL.

 

In addition, the platform will also support Microsoft Dynamics CRM version 4.0. Support for both Microsoft Dynamics NAV and CRM will be available July 2008.

 

Ignify eCommerce’s platform provides e-commerce capabilities with integration into existing back office systems. Businesses using Microsoft Dynamic ERP can incorporate e-commerce data such as real-time traffic/sales reports, available inventory, cross-bundled promotions and shipping costs into a centralized system.

 

With the addition of Microsoft Dynamics CRM support, information on customer activities including meetings, telephone conversations, and address changes will synch with the company’s online operations. It allows CRM quotes to convert to Ignify eCommerce and ERP sales orders.

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SyncSite, a Sage SalesLogix National Business Partner, has announced an implementation of the CRM product Sage SalesLogix for BancorpSouth Equipment Finance, a division one of the southern United States’ largest banks, BancorpSouth.

 

BancorpSouth Equipment Finance’s sales associates “had been running a standalone copy of a popular contact management software package on their laptop computers,” SyncSite officials said, adding that “the separate databases meant that management had no visibility into the sales activities of the associates.”

 

The new system was able to consolidate the data from each sales associate’s laptop into a single new database, available to them anywhere and anytime. In addition, each sales associate has access to their own customer and opportunity data from their BlackBerry handheld devices, using Sage SalesLogix Mobile.

 

“Now management has the ability to see what opportunities are open, the estimated value of those opportunities, and what factors are affecting our ability to close those opportunities,” said Chris Davis, sales manager at BancorpSouth Equipment Finance. “Plus we require less administrative staff since the sales reps are able to access the tools they need on their own.”

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Proposal Software will debut its PMAPS 2007 Legal edition at the 22nd annual Legal Marketing Association Conference in Los Angeles this week.

 

PMAPS has a certified interface and the LexisNexis InterAction CRM client relationship management software used by law firms. InterAction sells CRM products for law firms and is used by 80 percent of the nation’s largest law firms (AmLaw100) and 30 percent of the United Kingdom’s top law firms.

 

Proposal Software has “an edition of its software specifically engineered for law firms,” said company CEO John A. Laurino. “PMAPS 2007 Legal is our second release and reflects a co-development effort with a major global law firm.”

 

According to Laurino, demands upon major law firms to respond to complex Requests for Proposals and Requests for Information are increasing in frequency. He said the PMAPS 2007 Legal edition lets law firms realize an average 50 percent improvement in work group results, creating best practices and immediate ROI.

 

The product also offers law firms a comprehensive proposal management product including tracking, custom reporting, work flow, Q&A searching, database maintenance, and proposal document assembly.

 

A third release of the PMAPS 2008 Legal Edition is scheduled for the 3rd Q 2008.