CRM’s Autonomy Info Gov, Qurius and Eiffel, Fineos and BT Insurance, SkySuite and NetSuite, CRM Study by Tier1

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CRM’s Autonomy Info Gov, Qurius and Eiffel, Fineos and BT Insurance, SkySuite and NetSuite, CRM Study by Tier1

By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz
 
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Elton John’s underrated double live album with his smoking mid-70s band, Here and There:
 
CRM vendor Autonomy has introduced Autonomy Information Governance, what company officials describe as an “information governance platform that automates real-time policy management based on forming a conceptual and contextual understanding of all enterprise information.”
 
Autonomy’s capability is being marketed as a step towards “reducing risks inherent in information” by “applying policy based on understanding what an e-mail, document or phone recording says instead of relying solely on its metadata,” company officials say.
 
In the wake of the amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, sub-prime mortgage and credit crisis and highly publicized internal fraud cases, organizations are “under increased pressure to consistently implement information policies for finding, holding and disposing of information in a timely manner,” Autonomy officials say.
 
Most global 2000 organizations “have defined and updated their information management policies,” they say, adding that “the complexities of implementing and enforcing these policies is challenging even the world’s leading companies.”
 
“Most organizations are under the misconception that their current technologies are enough; that is until they’ve had one really bad experience,” said Browning Marean, Partner, DLA Piper US LLP.
 
Autonomy Information Governance provides an environment to visualize and control policy-driven information in the organization through “a vendor-neutral infrastructure using more than 400 out-of-the-box data repository connectors that allow management in place and retrieval of e-mail, documents, audio, or video information across the entire enterprise,” company officials say.
 
“Developments in the global regulatory and legal environment are compelling many corporations to start taking a unified approach to IT governance, IT compliance, and IT risk management,” said Vivian Tero, Research Manager, Compliance Infrastructure, IDC.
 
. . . .
 
Qurius has obtained what company officials call a “significant assignment” from Dutch consultancy firm Eiffel -- in 2008 Qurius will implement a complete Microsoft Dynamics based platform.
 
Qurius has defined the PSO sector as one of its key growth markets for the coming years. Eiffel is a Dutch professional services organization working in legal, finance and process advisory.
 
The business software platform will be implemented for 400 users in total and consists of Microsoft Dynamics AX, CRM and SharePoint complemented with Assistance PSO for Microsoft Dynamics and an HRM solution. Qurius and Eiffel expect the system to be fully operable by end of 2008.  
 
Fred Hermans, CEO of Qurius, called PSO “one of our industry priorities where we can create a lasting distinctive capacity… where we aim for significant growth in the coming years.”  
 
Qurius has more than 1,000 staff members. Its headquarters is in Zaltbommel, the Netherlands and it has offices in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
 
. . . .
 
Fineos Corporation, a vendor of CRM and other products for insurance, bancassurance, and government, has announced that BT Insurance, a subsidiary of Westpac Banking Corporation in Australia, picked Fineos Claims to manage property & casualty lines.
 
Consumer credit claims for personal loan insurance and credit card repayment protection will also be managed by Fineos.
 
The software will be used to “streamline claims management operations at BT Insurance by automating processes, improving quality of customer service and enforcing best-practice rules,” according to BT Insurance officials.
 
Fineos officials say the company’s Claims product was selected in part for its “comprehensive case and claim management, integrated customer management and business process management capabilities,” describing traditional products as tending to “focus more narrowly on the claim rather than the claimant and the processes involved in managing the claim from start to finish.”
 
Michael Kelly, CEO of Fineos, called the deal “another strategic development for Fineos in the Australian market.”
 
BT Insurance Senior Manager Business Systems John Williams said Fineos Claims will “aid the customer experience by supporting the decision making capability of our claims team, improving our data quality and reducing processing times by automating claims management across the business.”
 
. . . .
 
Analysts at Tier1 Research report that since software as a service “can be a cost-effective delivery method for software functionality, it is rapidly gaining acceptance.” Nowhere has this adoption been more evident, they say, than in customer relationship management (CRM), which they describe as “a front-end customer-facing platform consisting of sales automation, marketing automation and customer service.”
 
While the on-premise enterprise CRM market has reached relative maturity and is expected to experience annualized growth of 6.2 percent through 2010, Tier 1 finds, the on-demand CRM market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 41.0 percent through 2010.
 
These findings are contained in a report released by New York-based T1R, whose officials describe it as “an independent research firm that analyzes the financial and industry implications of developments affecting public and private companies within the hosting, IT, communications and Internet sectors.”
 
“The global growth story for the on-demand CRM market is clearly an exciting one,” said Wesley Kennedy, Senior Analyst at T1R and author of the report. “And while the rising tide will lift all boats, it is evident that some boats will rise higher than others. Those companies that are levered to the fastest-growing sections of the market will clearly be the greatest beneficiaries.”
 
T1R analysts find that growth from European enterprises will be driven by the demand for point software applications as opposed to applications that can be integrated or are already integrated with other applications. Meanwhile, unlike the U.S. and Europe, many larger enterprises in Asia have not yet adopted a CRM platform -- either on-premise or on-demand.
 
“The on-demand value proposition will be much more compelling for larger organizations in Asia,” the report’s authors say, adding that as a result, analysts expect larger enterprises to lead the charge in terms of on-demand adoption, with smaller companies following suit 12-18 months later.
 
. . . .
 
California-based SkySuite is highlighting what company officials are calling “several useful new features and functionality” introduced in NetSuite Version 2008 Release 1.

For CRM, it’s auto-case closure notifications. For ERP, featuring work orders for assembly items; customer deposits balance and refunds; e-mail reports to groups; and employee level permissions. There’s also the option for a privately-hosted Web site. For CSV data import there’s support added for jobs and sales orders, and for Web services integration, support added for kit and assembly items.

“We research and test new NetSuite features before release,” says Skylar Wells, Chief Executive Officer of SkySuite. “We selectively recommend and implement new NetSuite features and functionality depending on the business process or use case.”

Based in Santa Monica, SkySuite was founded in 2000 and provides NetSuite professional services to small to enterprise companies around the world.
 
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