May 2008 Archives

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is the ear-pinnin', roof-shakin', house-rattlin' J. Geils Band live on Blow Your Face Out. If there was a better live ticket anywhere -- anywhere -- in the '70s than Geils, First Coffee wasn't aware of it. The J. Geils Band is one nostalgia reunion tour First Coffee's impatiently awaiting:

 

CRM vendor NetSuite has appointed Per Jakobsen as its new vice president of product management. NetSuite officials say Jakobsen is expected to spearhead the strategy, initiatives and operations of product management relating to NetSuite's accounting/ERP, CRM and e-commerce software suites, as well as lead the company's product management team.

 

Jakobsen was vice president of products strategy at Salesforce.com from 2005 to 2008, where he headed the team responsible for designing and launching a new financial services CRM vertical. Prior to that, he was VP of services and operations at Ventaso.

 

Jakobsen spent 10 years at Oracle in Denmark and the U.S.

 

Evan Goldberg, founder, chairman and chief technology officer of NetSuite, said Jakobsen is "a first-rate technology professional with a proven track record in the enterprise and CRM software industry."

 

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More comments posted on First Coffee's post concerning the CRM practices of online retailer Caiman.com, this one from Caiman customer "J.A.:"

 

 

 

 

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The commercial training arm of the British Red Cross has signed up to MIG's Intelligent Marketing platform to employ digital marketing techniques to" increase sales of their nationwide first aid training courses," Red Cross officials say.

 

The commercial training arm delivers courses at over 170 centers and in company premises for more than 120,000 people per annum, representing a significant part of the U.K.'s work force.

 

It intends to reduce operational costs, Red Cross officials say, by "extended use of digital communications, including digital brochures, e-mail and text messages through the platform, which will integrate with its established CRM tool Consensus."

 

Red Cross officials describe it as "a strategic move away from traditional and reactive marketing to a more proactive approach," by which Red Cross officials "hope to build an ongoing relationship with both businesses and delegates."
 
Anne McColl, General Manager Red Cross Commercial Training, said the organization sees "both cost savings and increased intelligence from using digital marketing. We have invested significant amounts in the past in CRM products and we needed the products and expertise from MIG to help deliver a cohesive marketing program."
 
Conrad Morris Chief Operating Officer at MIG is leading the project and actively working with the team at Red Cross to develop the capability in house.

 

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From Caiman.com customer "Andy G:"

 

 

 

 

 

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Knova, a Consona CRM product and vendor of knowledge management products, has announced that Verizon Wireless has chosen Knova as part of several initiatives attempting to enhance the quality of service and support provided to all of its customers.

 

Verizon Wireless has been using Knova since 2003 to provide service and support to its customers via technical support centers and to customers via verizonwireless.com. Verizon Wireless uses Knova Contact Center and Knova Self-Service products.

 

Knova will be rolled out nationally to all Verizon Wireless customer care representatives.

Vernon Villasenor, associate director of Verizon Wireless customer service, said his company is using "the effectiveness and flexibility of the Knova system."

 

"I'm confident Knova's best-in-class technology will help Verizon Wireless achieve faster, more cost-effective service resolution," said Jeff Tognoni, CEO of Consona Corporation, the parent company of Knova.

 

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is the “Texas” playlist on the iPod. Lots of great stuff — Slobberbone, Todd Snider and Robert Earl Keen, Hayes Carll and Adam Carroll, Reckless Kelly and Charlie Robison, Lyle Lovett and Nancy Griffith, Jerry Jeff Walker and Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Darden Smith and, of course, George Jones.

 

Appirio has announced Appirio Contact Sync for Salesforce and Google Apps, described by Appirio officials as “a tool to select and sync contacts between Google Apps and Salesforce address books.”

 

This, the fifth product offering from Appirio for users of Salesforce for Google Apps, lets users sync contacts from these two products, “bringing together the business context of Salesforce with the ‘add-as-you-e-mail’ convenience of Gmail,” company officials say. 

 

The deal eliminates the need to enter and maintain duplicate data in different systems, and users can access their contacts, no matter which application they’re in. The product is available today on www.appirio.com/products, Salesforce.com’s AppExchange, and the Google Solutions Marketplace.

 
The other four Appirio offerings, featured last month during the Salesforce for Google Apps announcement, let Salesforce and Google Apps users synchronize calendars, collaborate on marketing campaigns, find and embed documents, and create and share customized CRM dashboards.

 

Using the Force.com platform and Google’s open APIs, Appirio officials say, the company will “enhance the product by adding more valuable features based on user feedback and suggestions.”

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According to British industry journal NMA.co.uk, digital agency Inbox has been appointed as e-CRM partner for Mothercare and Early Learning Center.

 

The appointment is part of a new strategic initiative for Mothercare, Inbox officials say, adding that Mothercare “aims to establish a comprehensive e-mail program for the ELC business, following its acquisition last year.”

 

Inbox, part of the Digital Marketing Group, won the account after a pitch against three unnamed agencies.

 

Inbox will be responsible for the development of a co-branded e-newsletter program targeting parents in the key stages of their children’s development with what Inbox officials say will be “relevant and engaging content.” It will also work on acquisition campaigns and the migration of customers signed up to special offers to other e-mail communications.

 

The campaign aims to build brand engagement and drive response rates and increase users’ propensity to buy.

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StayinFront, a vendor of enterprise-wide CRM applications, has announced that it has signed an agreement with AMAG Pharmaceuticals to deliver its industry-centric CRM product, StayinFront Pharma.

 

AMAG will deploy StayinFront’s flagship product, StayinFront Pharma 10, for its U.S. field sales representatives. AMAG is a biopharmaceutical company that uses its proprietary nanoparticle technology — you've got one too, right? — for the development and commercialization of therapeutic iron compounds to treat anemia and novel imaging agents to aid in the diagnosis of cancer and cardiovascular disease. (Draw deep breath.)

 

“We are looking forward to a long term relationship with AMAG,” said Ken Arbadji, vice president of Sales, StayinFront.

 

StayinFront has contracts with other life sciences, consumer goods, financial services, and business-to-business companies, with products implemented in over 20 countries in 12 languages.

 

Headquartered in Fairfield, New Jersey, StayinFront has offices in Illinois, the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, Australia, Singapore and — the office First Coffee would volunteer to work out of — New Zealand.

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Beijing-based software service provider Digital China BB Corporation recently announced that it will team with CRM Salesforce.com to “provide on-demand SaaS for their corporate clients in the Chinese market,” according to Ma Guang, chairman for Digital China BB.

 

In the meantime, with the help of its partner, the Beijing company will be able to offer more localized software services such as consultation, training and software implementation service to its customers.

 

Salesforce.com officials say they plan to take the cooperation as “a chance to tap into the growing Chinese market” and sell customer relationship management (CRM) services to “businesses of all sizes and sectors in the nation.”

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Blackbaud, a vendor of software and related services designed specifically for non-profit organizations, has announced that it is acquiring Kintera, a vendor of Software-as-a-Service products to the non-profit and government sectors.

 

Under the terms of the agreement, Blackbaud will pay an all-cash purchase price of approximately $46 million. Blackbaud expects to finance the deal with cash and borrowings from its credit facility.

 

Blackbaud's acquisition of Kintera is structured as an all-cash tender offer for all of the shares of Kintera at a price of $1.12 per share. The company is expected to formally launch the tender sometime next week and close on or around July 2.

 

Kintera’s principal offering is its online Sphere technology platform, which is used by such nonprofit organizations as American Lung Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Lance Armstrong Foundation and Sesame Workshop to manage online fundraising events and in 2007 processed over $400 million in online gifts.

 

The company also offers wealth profiling and screening services as well as an accounting software product, both similar to offerings of Blackbaud. With approximately 4,000 customers, Kintera reported $44.9 million in total revenue for 2007.

 

Marc Chardon, Blackbaud’s President and CEO, said the acquisition of Kintera is “expanding Blackbaud’s online offering… and further establishes Blackbaud as a partner for non-profit organizations.”

 

Chardon said the two compaines’ core capabilities are “complementary, and we expect to continue to offer a full range of products integrated with our suite of CRM products, including The Raiser’s Edge.”

 

Kintera’s “Friends Asking Friends” team fundraising and advocacy products are “well suited for organizations that use these programs to grow their base of supporters,” Chardon said, adding that Blackbaud’s NetCommunity offering is “suited for enriching the online experience of current donors enhancing the value of data that already exists in the CRM system.”

 

Kintera will continue to be led by its current President and CEO, Richard LaBarbera, a high tech industry veteran with more than 30 years experience with such vendors as Sybase, Siemens/Nixdorf, Storage Technology and IBM. Kintera operations will continue to be directed from their existing offices in San Diego.

 

Tim Williams, Blackbaud’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, said the acquisition is attractive from a financial perspective as well: “Subscription revenue was already the fastest growing source of revenue at Blackbaud and it was expected to become larger than license revenue at some point in the second half of 2008.”

 

With the acquisition of Kintera, Williams said, Blackbaud will “add another significant source of subscription-based revenue from an on-demand service offering.”

 

 

The news as of the second cup of coffee this morning, and the music is Tom Waits’ Orphans:

 

Intridea has announced the launch of “Acts As Community,” described by company officials as “the first social network custom-tailored to encourage communication and collaboration among users of the Ruby programming language.”

 

Through a number of tools and sharing methods, company officials say, Rubyists “can be more informed and learn from their colleagues in ways never before possible.” AAC is being introduced in conjunction with RailsConf 2008, which is being held May 29-June 1, 2008 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

 
Acts As Community provides an all-inclusive Ruby community for sharing and communications in which Merbivores (devotees of the Merb model-view-controller design method), Rails developers, and all Ruby users are welcome.

 

By joining AAC, IT professionals can “connect with other Rubyists, share experiences, ask questions, learn about new happenings in the Ruby community and find and post Ruby-related jobs.”

The Acts As Community social network provides benefits in such areas as Open-Source Projects, where users can plug in the URL of their GitHub project to create a full profile, including forums, a blog, and more for their open-source software (OSS) projects.

 

There are also Personal Profiles, where members can “show off their latest blog posts and OSS contributions in a fully customizable interface,” company officials say.

 

“As long-time active contributors to Ruby on Rails, directly and through our plug-ins, we’ve recognized firsthand the opportunities and innovation that come from interacting with our peers,” said Barg Upender, Intridea founding partner and director of strategic partnerships. “We’re happy to give back to the Ruby community, and are excited to see Acts As Community embraced so readily.”

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In what company officials say is a bid to widen its market coverage in the SME and Mid-market enterprise segments, business applications company Sage has signed a Partner agreement with Tasaa Netcom to offer Sage Accpac ERP in the Mumbai market.

 

In addition to providing implementation services, Tasaa has also signed as a Development Partner of Sage to “provide industry specific products and locally relevant add-ons on the Sage Accpac ERP platform.” The Tasaa team has also built up skills on the Sage Business Intelligence tool, Sage Accpac Insight.

 

Tasaa officials say the partnership with Sage will allow Tasaa to offer “value added products to the Trading, Services and Manufacturing sectors.”

 

Sage India Managing Director Thomas Abraham said “we believe the team at Tasaa has the necessary skills and domain expertise to make this happen. Sage remains committed to the Partner model.”

 

Ameet Shah, Managing Director Tasaa Netcom, said the partnership with Sage “will help us move to the next level of providing business applications like ERP to our customers.”

...

 

Auto/Mate Dealership Systems has announced that it has completed the integration of GM’s Parts Workbench with its Automotive Management Productivity Suite. The new interface allows Auto/Mate dealer customers to place, access, track and modify GM parts orders via the Internet through the AMPS dealership management system.

 

“With almost half of a dealer’s operating profits come from its service and parts department, getting a new service like this up and running as fast as possible is critical for our GM dealership customers,” explains Mike Esposito, president of Auto/Mate.

 

Parts Workbench is a secure Web service designed to replace GM’s Rapid system for parts ordering with more features and functionality. It has separate interfaces designed to speed up the parts submission and delivery process, and eliminate artificial bottlenecks.

 

The interfaces include Daily Financial Invoice, which allows real-time retrieval of GM Service and Parts Operations invoices within the last 24 hours, and Parts Order Inquiry, which provides on-demand real-time retrieval of part orders status and gives dealers the ability to immediately query the GM SPO Host.

 

AMPS is a dealership management system with over 20 integrated modules, and supports an unlimited number of users, workstations and printers. It’s available as both an in-house and ASP product.

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Kicking the music up a notch, we have Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ surprisingly good — First Coffee has never had much use for Nick Cave beyond the scattered song here and there — album Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

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Metavante and Monitise Americas have announced that H&R Block Emerald Prepaid MasterCard cardholders will have access to mobile phone text messaging to check their balances and receive account reload mobile alerts.

 

H&R Block will pilot the text messaging capabilities made available by Metavante Mobile Financial Services, powered by Monitise Americas technology.

 

H&R Block’s Emerald Prepaid MasterCard marked what the Blocksters call “the largest launch of a prepaid debit card in the industry.” Monitise Americas is a joint venture between Monitise plc, a global specialist in mobile banking technology, and Metavante Corporation, a vendor of banking and payments technologies to financial institutions and businesses worldwide.

 

Calling the Emerald Card “a safe, lower cost and convenient way for customers to receive their tax refunds,” Kevin Morrison, H&R Block’s assistant vice president of card programs said the company is “continuing to explore ways we can provide improved account access and support.”

 

He said the company is looking to the Emerald Card to “build loyalty” while “meeting the specific support needs of our tax clients.”

 

In addition to text message balance inquiry, the Emerald Card offers payroll direct deposit, connection to line of credit, access to a savings account and a link to money transfer services.

 

This tax season, H&R Block issued 2.6 million cards usable for purposes beyond receiving their tax refund, such as loading payroll direct deposit and other funds.

 

“When banking services perform as advertised, they build relationships,” said Frank D’Angelo, group president, Metavante Payment Solutions. “The hope for reloadable prepaid cards has been equipping financial institutions to offer an alternative to checking accounts as an entry-level product and eventually transition non-traditional customers into traditional banking relationships.”

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Opera Software has announced that it will support Gears in its desktop and mobile browsers. The inclusion of Gears in Opera’s main browsing products “supports Opera’s vision of transforming the browser into a full platform for applications, regardless of device,” says the company.

 

“Opera will have full support for Gears on mobile when they launch this year,” said Charles Wiles, Product Manager for mobile Web apps at Google. “This marks the coming of age of the browser as the platform for application development on mobile devices.”

 

“The forthcoming Opera Mobile 9.5 with Gears will usher in a new era for the Web on mobile devices,” concurs Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. “Together, these products will create new ways to bring applications to life on mobile devices. Developers will be able to use this along with Opera Dragonfly to develop and debug compelling applications for any connected environment.”

 

 

 

The news as of the third cup of coffee this morning — we’re stoked on caffeine here folks, hope you are too, the day just seems to move about a second ahead of reality, doesn’t it? — and the music is still Mr. Coppertone Rum himself, Jimmy Buffett:

 

QuantumDigital, an online service provider for direct mail, on-demand digital printing and eMarketing products, has announced the addition of a new eMarketing application to its integrated marketing suite.

 

With this eMarketing platform, users can “personalize and tailor their online marketing efforts” through e-mails, company officials say: “The platform lets users distribute permission-based, opt-in e-mails with the added flexibility to populate pre-defined templates or upload custom HTML designs.”

 

In a recent survey conducted by QuantumDigital with its beta customers, 85.7 percent use the eMarketing platform to “communicate news and specials to current customers.” Gartner’s recent CRM Vendor Guide for 2008 noted that “E-marketing will continue to outpace the estimated $3.16 billion traditional marketing automation market, which is expected to grow at a 14.7 percent CAGR during the next five years.”

 

QuantumDigital’s eMarketing platform offers such features as a report that tracks each e-mail campaign and identifies how many e-mails were opened, how many were received and who replied. “Upon execution of a campaign,” company officials say, “the user will be provided with information that includes the number of e-mails sent and how many e-mails are left in their current subscription plan, which will help users to plan accordingly for future e-mail campaigns.”

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E-Zest (UK), a bespoke software development company, has launched its IT staff augmentation services for United Kingdom. E-Zest sells bespoke software development services.

 

The company already sells IT staff augmentation services to its North American clients. It now is offering similar augmentation services to the UK region, with later plans to cater to Western Europe. “Our staff augmentation services will enable clients in getting qualified and experienced workforce,” says Jay Deshpande, the company’s director. “Our staffing services are available at competitive pricing that will bring down a client’s overall development costs.”

IT Staff augmentation is a business product for companies who don’t have their offshore development centers to use on low-cost software development opportunities. Startups or medium-sized companies can “focus on acquiring new projects without worrying about staffing needs,” company officials say.

 

“Staff augmentation” gives a new platform for business expansion and growth of the companies. E-Zest provides staff augmentation services for SAP, Oracle, .NET 3.0/3.5, Microsoft SilverLight, Ajax, Ruby on Rails (RoR), JavaFX, JEE 3.0 and other open source technologies.

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Broadpoint, a telecommunications and network products company, has announced Errol Olivier as its new President and Chief Executive Officer.

 

Olivier comes to Broadpoint following his retirement from a 17-year career at satellite and telecommunications provider, CapRock Communications, where he served as president and chief operating officer.

 

“Errol brings depth and breadth of industry experience to Broadpoint,” said John Bolduc of H.I.G. Capital, one of Broadpoint’s key investors. Bolduc said Broadpoint will “continue to expand our offerings and increase our focus on the international market.”

 

As president and CEO, Olivier’s focus will be on growing Broadpoint’s U.S.-based telecommunications and satellite services, expanding international presence, and providing customers with reliable and seamless connectivity and support worldwide.

 

At CapRock, Olivier spearheaded the company’s return to private ownership, leading a buyout from owner McLeodUSA. He also previously served as the vice president of CapRock’s enterprise business group, managing sales and marketing for all of the company’s strategic markets.

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Jenzabar, which sells software and services for the higher education sector, has announced that social networking capabilities are available with Jenzabar’s Learning Management System.

 

The functionality “allows faculty members to incorporate social networking services into their online learning curriculum,” according to company officials.

 

The social networking phenomena, in the estimation of the Jenzabarbarians, offers “one of the newest ways to engage students and has had a global impact online learning initiatives.”

 

According to a national survey published in January 2007, conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project, “a social networking site is an online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users.” Think Facebook and MySpace, engaging tens of millions of users.

 

According to the survey, more than 55 percent of all online American tweens and teenagers use online social networking sites — as does this forty-something dad, keeping a toe in his kids’ world.

 

The functionality available on Jenzabar LMS allows faculty members to build links to social networking applications so that faculty members and students have the ability to interact on a social networking site within the content of an online course. Faculty members can also build course content on a social networking site using the Jenzabar LMS architecture.

 

Social networking services that are currently available on Jenzabar LMS are online chat, online messaging, and forums. In addition, Jenzabar will be focusing on making available additional social networking capabilities in the upcoming months.

 

“Technology will have an ever greater impact on the way students learn and the methods teachers use to teach,” said Robert A. Maginn, Jr., Jenzabar Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

 

Jenzabar LMS is integrated with Jenzabar’s Internet Campus Solution, a Web portal providing a single point of access to e-learning, online self-service, communication, and community building tools.

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Business IT Professionals, Concia Technologies and Microsoft are hosting Microsoft Across America. The firms will present technology products that provide “business products for small and mid-sized companies, including Windows Vista, MS Office and MS Dynamics CRM,” according to Biz IT Pro officials.

 

The event is on Wednesday, May 28th from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 pm at the Page-Walker Arts & History center in Cary, North Carolina.

 

The Microsoft Truck allows executives to experience technology first hand. Microsoft Certified Trainer, Steve Noe of Biz IT Pro and Allen St. Clair of Concia Technologies, will answer questions and demonstrate how products from Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and others work together to create a product that fits specific business needs.

 

Those who visit the truck will spend time “discussing their business and challenges they may be facing, experiencing how to take advantage of current technology to meet the goals of their business, discovering new Microsoft products and other technologies -- including remote access, wireless and mobile devices,” according to Microsoft officials.

 

“Allen St Clair and I are very excited to bring the Microsoft Across America Truck to Cary,” said Steve Noe, president of Business IT Professionals. “I am glad to have this unusual venue to share my expertise in MS CRM products with local businesses.” 

 

 

The news as of the second cup of coffee this morning, and we need music to keep us going through a long day here, something light yet compelling, fun yet something to sing along to without sounding brain-dead, lively but not tiring… ah, here we are, the Jimmy Buffett iPod Mix:

 

Boomi, a vendor of on-demand integration and StrikeIron, which sells products for delivering data over the Internet, have announced a partnership “focused on driving Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) adoption by enabling integration of StrikeIron’s Marketplace Web services into Boomi On Demand,” Boomi officials say.

 

Boomi users can now use business intelligence, CRM, e-commerce and financial products that StrikeIron offers with no additional coding required.

 

The StrikeIron Web Services Marketplace provides over 100 data services from technology suppliers. Using the Internet as a platform, StrikeIron supplies business users and enterprises with a single location for accessing data for integration into an application, mashup platform, product or Web site.

 

“With Boomi’s functionality and SaaS-based model, users can create products using data provided in the StrikeIron Marketplace, such as D&B or Gale business data or Cortera credit scores,” explained Bob Brauer, president and founder of StrikeIron. “This data can be integrated, using only a Web browser, with Boomi’s connections for NetSuite, Oracle E-Business Suite, Peachtree, Quick Books, Salesforce and SAP ERP.”

 

Boomi On Demand handles any combination of SaaS and integration with most on premises applications. Once integration processes are built, they are deployed via a lightweight, dynamic runtime engine called an “Atom.” Boomi Atoms are completely self-contained and autonomous and can be run on virtually any server.

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NewMarket Technology has announced “strong Latin America sales growth year-to-date,” including UniOne’s recent contract with $10 billion Anglo American.

 

UniOne, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, also has an office in Santiago, Chile, and focuses on providing Business Intelligence (BI) as well as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Business Performance Management (BPM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) consulting services throughout Latin America.

 

Anglo American, an existing client of NewMarket’s subsidiary UniOne, has chosen the consulting company to implement a multinational, multi-continent, Oracle Hyperion Planning project for Anglo American’s Base Metals division.

 

The project is being developed in Chile, but will be implemented across three continents: South America, Europe, and Africa, and in four additional countries, including Ireland, South Africa, Namibia, and Brazil. The project alone is valued at approximately $600,000 and is expected to be completed by the end of July.

 

Hyperion Planning is a budgeting and forecasting product from Oracle that integrates operational and financial planning processes. UniOne is an Oracle partner based in Latin America.

 

Anglo American, who reported 2007 operating revenues of $10.1 billion, is a mining concern whose core mining business is focused on industrial minerals, coal, base and ferrous metals, platinum and diamonds. Anglo American has operations and development projects in North and South America, Europe, Australia and Africa.

 

NewMarket Technology is currently working to consolidate UniOne into the company’s Latin American subsidiary. The Latin American subsidiary is a recent acquisition which is in the process of being brought current with its reporting requirements in order to move back to the OTCBB.

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CRM software vendor W-Systems has awarded Top Partner status to five of their most successful wMobile partners. Recognized are Ticomix of Rockford, Illinois, Relationship Automation of Los Angeles, Longbow Consulting Group of Beverly, Massachusetts, First Direct of Hopewell Junction, New York and The Trainers Advisory Network of Mississauga, Ontario.

 

W-Systems has announced over 50 new active partners for the wMobile Mobile CRM software product, company officials say, describing it as “a mobile telephone client for the GoldMine CRM system providing bi-directional interaction with the company’s organizational CRM system.”

 

The wMobile product is billed as allowing small and mid-sized organizations to adopt a mobile CRM product.

Mark Durrant, President of Relationship Automation, said, “Most systems we’ve implemented have been installed in an hour or so. It’s clear that they’ve put a lot of thought into making the system simple to use as well as powerful and have developed a system will actually be used.”

“As a small software developer, we count on the enthusiasm of our reseller partner to reach out customers,” says Christian Wettre, President of W-Systems.

W-Systems offer a variety of customer relationship management software applications.

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International Monetary Systems, a vendor of something First Coffee has admittedly never covered before but sounds like a pretty good idea, business-to-business barter services, announced the roll-out of its proprietary barter commerce management software, Trade Network Tracking System.

 

The TNT System is at the heart of IMS’s day-to-day operations, handling the processing of real-time B2B trade dollar transactions, managing client information and transaction histories, internal reporting, business intelligence, and CRM.

 

The TNT System is a database-driven, service-oriented architecture created on the latest Microsoft .NET Framework technologies, including the Windows Communications Foundation and Windows Presentation Foundation.

 

The TNT System “also benefits from the core functionality and established best practices of the company’s previous system, TradeWorks, for which IMS purchased the source code in 2007,” company officials said.

 

Nathan Alpert, IMS Chief Software Architect, said TNT “opens the door to barter transactions eventually being processed in real time through P.O.S. swipe card technology, consistent with our mission to make barter easy to use and bring its advantage to many more businesses.”

 

Founded in 1985, International Monetary Systems serves 18,000 businesses representing 23,000 cardholders in 50 North American markets. Its Trade Network Tracking System, enables businesses and individuals to trade goods and services online using an electronic currency known as trade dollars.

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Helio, an American mobile service provider, has selected RightNow Telecom, RightNow

Technologies’ on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) product for telecommunication companies.

 

Helio is “supporting its customer base by using RightNow on-demand CRM,” company officials say, from “relying on RightNow to gather and act on customers’ opinions to giving Helio contact center agents a way to provide information to customers.”

 

Following a service interaction, Helio uses RightNow to send customers a survey, so that they can rate their overall experience, including hold time and the agent’s professionalism and knowledge.

 

The product lets Helio modify survey questions, and “this flexibility has helped Helio increase survey response rates by 900 percent,” Helio officials say.

 

The RightNow knowledge base provides Helio agents with one, central repository of information regarding product updates, and previous customer inquiries, and helps train new employees by providing responses that they can access.

 

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is what is still the best album Bruce Springsteen ever did, containing his most inventive lyrics and most exuberant musicianship, shame it was his first — Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. He never quite recaptured the live wire excitement of that first album. Hey, some artists just peak early:

 

FW Stephens has announced that it has successfully migrated from its MYOB product to Advance practice management software from APS. In addition to Advance, FW Stephens implemented Advance CRM and Worksite Document Management software.

Company officials cited “strategic changes within the practice” involving “the restructuring of workflow practices” as reasons for the change.

 

“The practice had outgrown its previous system and we required a product that not only provided practice management methods but one that offered a suite of modules that addressed all the operational needs of the modern practice, including CRM and Document Management,” said Owen Skinner, Managing Partner for FW Stephens.

“The investment made in the APS platform — practice management, CRM, and document management software — ensures that, as a practice, we will no longer be required to review our systems after each significant growth cycle,” Skinner added.

The FW Stephens project saw Advance Practice Management, Advance Practice IQ, Advance CRM, Advance Vigilant and Worksite Document and E-mail Management modules implemented as an integrated enterprise product.

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CRM vendor RightNow Technologies, the pride of Bozeman, Montana, has introduced RightNow May ‘08, the latest version of its enterprise-class, on demand customer relationship management (CRM) product.

 

With new online chat capabilities, RightNow is offering what company officials characterize as “complete enterprise feedback management capabilities that cover customer contact points including phone, e-mail and Web, across service, marketing, and sales operations.”

 

RightNow May ‘08 also has multi-channel capabilities to capture the voice of the customer.

 

Customer feedback comes from satisfaction surveys conducted over the phone, via e-mail, on the Web, and now, with online chat. The product then gathers and unifies customer opinions and feedback. It can trigger a survey after an online chat interaction with a service agent, and feedback can be gathered from anonymous online consumers, such as someone who recently abandoned a shopping cart.

 

The product compiles results for trend analysis, and individual responses are included within customer profiles to enable future, more personalized service.

 

In its February ‘08 release, RightNow added topic monitoring capabilities that automate the review of customer sentiment by grouping or clustering common topics within unstructured text responses.

 

Last August, RightNow added emotion detection features to gauge customers’ opinions by applying an emotional rating to text-based customer communications.

 

Jim Davies, Research Director, CRM for Gartner, has said that “as customers are increasingly looking to engage with companies via multiple channels, vendors will need to respond by embedding multi-channel functionality into their products to support a

comprehensive feedback strategy.”

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InfoParc has announced the release AB-5-03-1 of the absoluteBUSY Web CRM software. Company officials say this upgrade includes “an improved sales module, enhanced tagging feature and improved compatibility with PHP-5, MySQL-5.”

 

The number of tags per line can now be configured on the fly, which allows a nice screen rendering also for large sets of freely defined tags. A Live Demo of the new release can be found on the Web site (www.absoluteBUSY.com).

 

AbsoluteBUSY is a Web-based CRM software for on-site installation — there is no hosted application. The software includes a smart contact manager, a task tracking module, a sales tracking module basic project tracking and reporting capabilities.

 

“Due to its simple architecture, absoluteBUSY is one of the fastest professional Web based CRM applications,” company officials say, adding that the system can either be installed on your company Internet/intranet server or at a Web hosting provider.

 

AbsoluteBUSY - Web CRM was first published in 2001. It’s described by company officials as “an application with a price range from €140 per user down to €60 per user, depending on the total number of seats. All fees are a one time payment, with no subscriptions and no recurring fees… AbsoluteBUSY is sold on a ‘try before you buy’ approach.”

 

It’s based on the open source software stack LAMP/WAMP (Apache Webserver, PHP scripting, MySQL database), available for all major server platforms, such as Unix, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS X, and Novell 6.5.

…

 

Cegedim and Skila have formed an alliance to co-market their products and services to medical and marketing teams in the life sciences industry.

 

The co-marketing alliance between Cegedim, a vendor of pharmaceutical CRM and healthcare industry data, and Skila, which sells integrated marketing and medical products, creates a suite of what officials of both firms call “knowledge and effectiveness products for global Medical and Marketing teams.”

 

The alliance seeks to meet what it sees as a growing need for pharmaceutical companies to “better understand their clients, streamline their global teams and business processes and ensure corporate transparency and internal medical and regulatory compliance,” Cegedim officials say.

 

The Skila products that will be co-marketed include iAdvocate, described by company officials as “technology and continuous services for building and managing relationships with thought leaders based on the exchange of actionable knowledge, need and collaboration,” and iLaunch, to help global launch teams centralize knowledge.

 

The Cegedim products that will be co-marketed include IcoMed, which measures physicians’ preferential attachment to products that they prescribe while evaluating the size and profile of their clientele, and OneKey, a healthcare professional database.

…

 

IBM has reached an agreement with ERI Bancaire to offer additional services in the area of Consulting, Support, Application Management and Hosting Services based around the OLYMPIC Banking System.

Following the acquisition of Unicible assets in June 2007, IBM created a Banking Competence Center based in Lausanne. BCC is a partner for financial institutions in Switzerland as a product partner in Consulting, System Integration, Application Management and Hosting.

 

One of the features of the development strategy is to work closely with major banking product software vendors in Switzerland. The company offers a range of services in Portfolio Management, CRM, e-Banking and Risk & Compliance, as well as infrastructure services such as User Help Desk, Server Management and Monitoring.

IBM and ERI Bancaire S.A. have worked together since 1989. ERI Bancaire S.A. is developing the OLYMPIC Banking System based on IBM hardware and software.

 

The agreement was signed on April 1, 2008, and company officials see it fitting current markets needs for more end-to-end and integrated products.

 

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Lewis Family's great gospel bluegrass song "Keep On the Firing Line:"

 

StraightThrough CRM Solutions has changed its name to Tier1CRM. The change represents the company's "expansion of its business focus from providing financial services CRM products to serving various other market segments, including the retail, high-tech and public sectors," company officials say.

 

The company's niche is selling on-demand CRM products. It's a Premier Consulting Partner of Salesforce.com. By broadening its focus, Tier1CRM figures it can tap into a larger marketplace; as of January 31, 2008 Salesforce.com had over  41,000 customers.

 

Mark Notten, CEO of Tier1CRM, said Salesforce.com's Force.com platform-as-a-service is "effectively an on-demand operating system platform to us."

 

Tier1CRM wants to sell on-demand CRM business products to its clients. "Speed, usability, flexibility and integration are the four keys to success in our users' world," said Mario Lollino, Tier1CRM's Vice President of Product Strategy.

 

The existing StraightThrough ACE product line is now available on Salesforce.com's AppExchange. "StraightThrough ACE is being rebranded as 'Tier1ACE'," Lollino said, adding that the product suite is "being adapted to other areas of financial services such as Retail Wealth Management, as well as to other industry sectors."

 

StraightThrough, the original parent company of StraightThrough CRM Solutions led by financial services industry veteran John Wherry, will continue to provide products to the investment management industry, and will retain the StraightThrough brand and Web site (www.StraightThrough.com). Tier1CRM is a privately held company with offices in Toronto and New York.

 

. . . .

 

Zend Technologies and Parallels have announced that they will collaborate on products to let hosting providers sell PHP applications through Parallels control panels and server virtualization offerings.

 

Officials of both firms say the companies will deliver "product interoperability and integration, define packaging and distribution standards," and pursue "joint marketing initiatives."

Zend products will be certified with the Application Packaging Standard, a new application packaging format designed to help implement software as a service. Using the APS standard, hosting providers will be able to configure technology stacks based on Zend products to enable PHP products for Web applications.

The APS standard is already supported by more than 100 PHP applications for uses "from blogging and collaboration to content management, ecommerce and CRM," said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels, who said the Parallels-Zend partnership grows the channel for PHP application vendors.

With thousands of Web applications available for individual and business use, PHP is a technology for hosting companies to support, said Mark de Visser, chief marketing officer, Zend Technologies.

 

Zend and Parallels will have an APS-compliant Zend Framework and an updated version of Zend Optimizer later this quarter. Over time, the companies plan to release new versions of all Zend products that support the APS standard, officials of both firms say.

 

. . . .

 

Sprinx Systems, a CRM consultant and product vendor located in the Czech Republic, is now a member of the Salesforce.com network of independent software vendors, Sprinx officials say, adding that "this extends its portfolio of CRM products for which it is certified."

Sprinx Systems is the first Salesforce.com AppEchange ISV Partner in the Czech Republic and is part of 400 selected AppExchange ISV partners of Salesforce.com in the world.

"We are very pleased with this cooperation as it enables Sprinx to further strengthen its position in the international CRM sector with Salesforce.com presence," said Radko Jelinek, Sprinx Director of Sales.

Sprinx Systems sells business administration systems focused primarily on customer relationship management (CRM), company officials say, adding that the company has been in business since 1996.

 

. . . .

 

With the United Arab Emirates economy doing well and the worldwide IT spending growth among SMBs set to increase by 7 percent this year, vendor Emirates Computers, betting on what company officials call "a great uptake of technologies targeted at the SMB sector," held an event for Small and Medium businesses in association with its partners Cisco and 3M.

At the event, which was held at Murooj Rotana last week, Emirates Computers, Cisco and 3M showcased communication products targeted at the SMB sector.

"Small and medium businesses across the Middle East continue to adopt IT and telecommunications products, and are on track to invest more in information and communications technologies in 2008," said Talal Sabih, Cisco product manager at Emirates Computers. "As SMBs in the Middle East increase their levels of investments in IT, and specifically communications, IP telephony and unified communications are essential."

Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Businesses, one of the showcased products, lets users "unify the benefits of voice, video, mobility, and messaging on a single platform," eliminating the need for multiple servers to run each application.

Combining the applications on a single platform simplifies the installation, support, and ongoing management of the system, while reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO).

It also integrates with existing desktop applications such as calendar, e-mail, and customer relationship management (CRM) programs.

The easy-to-manage product supports up to 48 users in flexible deployment models based on an SMB setup's needs.

Meanwhile, embedded in the Cisco IOS Software that provides call processing for Cisco Unified IP phones, the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 4.x enables the large portfolio of Cisco access and integrated services routers to deliver a comprehensive set of features commonly used by many businesses.

 

. . . .

 

SNS, a supply chain services provider, in partnership with Boomi, has announced signing a contract for the implementation of a B2B integration product for Alliance Boots, a pharmacy-led health and beauty group in Europe.

 

Alliance Boots chose Boomi Visual Integration Platform to "ensure the synchronization and data integrity" of their CRM database, as well as those of other applications.

The Alliance Boots health and beauty group comprises approximately 3,000 retail outlets, including associates, of which approximately 2,700 have a pharmacy. There's also a wholesale network of over 380 depots, including associates, for over 125,000 outlets.

With a project of this size and the number of different applications to be integrated, the choice of the integration layer application was a big issue, SNS officials say. The integration product will be deployed at all sites, with France as a first go-live.

SNS has done different integration projects around the Gulf and Middle East and was involved in several projects in Europe using the Boomi integration tool, among others.

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is one of the best albums to listen to while working, Traffic's Welcome To The Canteen:

 

NGenera Corporation has announced it has acquired Talisma, a Bellevue, Washington-based provider of Customer Interaction Management software products.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

 

"We're taking content and processes from customer interaction software and mashing that with Web 2.0 collaboration tools," said Steve Papermaster, nGenera Chairman and CEO.

 

"The manufacturer-centric model of product innovation is dead," said Don Tapscott, Chairman of the nGenera Innovation Network and author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. "In Wikinomics I describe how Best Buy's customer service arm, Geek Squad, designs an award-winning flash drive after seeing how customers really use the product."

 

Last month, nGenera launched its nGen Customer product offering, described by company officials as a composite of Web 2.0 collaboration tools and SaaS applications "plus integrated advisory programs." Company officials say nGenera will incorporate the full Talisma CIM suite of applications "as a set of composite on-demand apps into the nGen Customer offering."

 

Talisma's feature set will be extended with nGenera's Web 2.0 collaboration tools -- blogs, discussion threads, wikis, interest groups, organizational structures like tag clouds, polling, Web monitoring, and analytics. These combined capabilities will be used partly to "harvest new product ideas," nGenera officials say. 

 

Current Talisma customers will receive "uninterrupted" service, nGenera officials say.

…

 

Patni Computer Systems has launched "Patni atoms," described by company officials as an offering for communications service providers "to set up core customer- and partner-facing business processes under one consolidated operational model."

Patni atoms is a platform designed for providers needing to provision new converged services. "In the case of a start-up operator in high growth markets, atoms enables the licensing of the systems required to ramp up service delivery in a short period of time," company officials explain.

 

The platform also "accelerates the business transformation program for existing operators and provides a blueprint for future operating models," company officials say, adding that Patni recently acquired intellectual property from Carphone Warehouse "that formed the basis of atoms."

"The product we have co-created has enabled us to complete the first phase of our planned roll out at Carphone Warehouse," said Simon Post, Chief Technology Officer of Carphone Warehouse. "The product will help us manage growth."

Software providers of CRM, billing and product catalog are wrapped in a business process framework powered by the TIBCO platform.

"Patni atoms is a modern take on convergence, applying 'joined up thinking' to the operators' business model," said Colin Orviss, Senior Vice President of Patni Telecoms Consulting. "With the ability to integrate across multiple and discrete platforms at a business process level, Patni atoms takes advantage of newly available integration technologies."

…

 

Opera Software has released the Opera Widgets SDK beta, letting Web developers deploy Web applications on any device, company officials say.

 

The Opera Widgets SDK is based on open, W3C-set standards to employ common Web technologies such as HTML, CSS and media queries, JavaScript and Ajax, in creating Web apps. The SDK has an emulator, libraries, documentation and Opera Dragonfly for debugging. It's available at: http:/www.opera.com/widgets/sdk.

 

Christen Krogh, Chief Development Officer, Opera Software, said features of the Opera Widgets SDK beta include a widget emulator, which lets users "experience how widgets should appear and function across TV, computer and mobile screens."

 

There is also Opera Dragonfly, which can use "the latest cross-device developer tools for easy debugging." Today the Opera Widgets repository contains over 1,200 widgets for desktop, mobile phones and devices such as ARCHOS portable media players. These widgets include games, news feeds, information widgets for travel and weather, as well as Web developer tools for color pickers, pixel rulers and others.

 

Jill Aldort, Senior Analyst of Consumer Mobility Applications, Yankee Group, said "demand to access information, content, and communities while mobile, is high enough such that having a full Web browsing experience is becoming a requirement for mobile phones and devices."

 

Opera Widgets SDK beta is supported by Opera 9.5 and above.

…

 

Epicor Software, a vendor of enterprise business software products for the midmarket, has announced the third annual Non-Profit and Local Government Special Interest Group Meeting in Atlanta, happening today.

 

In the two-day conference, non-profit organizations will work on applying technology in ways to serve their constituents. The agenda includes presentations from Epicor customers and Epicor team members on such topics as increased visibility, cost control, and operational efficiencies.

Conference meetings are built around input from users and will focus on topics specific to the non-profit and special interest groups of Epicor Software.

…

 

Boomi, an on-demand integration vendor, has announced a partnership with CRM manager to help integrate Salesforce.com implementation projects.

 

CRM manager sells implementation and consulting services for Salesforce.com clients. It's using Boomi On Demand for integrating Salesforce.com with other software-as-a-service and on-premise applications.

 

In addition, CRM manager is using Boomi On Demand to integrate its own financial applications with Salesforce.com.

 

Boomi On Demand is designed to remove the integration barrier to SaaS adoption. It's an SaaS application itself, and integrations are built and deployed on the Web with drag-and-drop.

 

Boomi On Demand is an on-demand integration product delivering integration services without the need for hardware appliances, software packages or coding, company officials say. For consultants like CRM manager, Boomi On Demand also provides centralized management of all their customers -- they can "build, deploy and manage their customers' integrations directly from the Web," company officials say, "eliminating the need to visit or 'remote into' customer sites.

 

CRM manager resells Boomi On Demand through its consulting and support program that manages customers' Salesforce.com applications.

 

"Our partners are realizing the benefits that delivering integration on demand can bring their customers," explained Bob Moul, Boomi's president and CEO. "Since a majority of our on-demand growth will be through the partner community, we've been actively building our channel partnerships."

 

Boomi's application is based on its Visual Integration Technology. No coding is required, company officials say, and "once integration processes are built, they are deployed via a lightweight, dynamic runtime engine called an atom"

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers:

 

CRM vendor Sedona, which sells primarily to the small and mid-size financial services market, today announced that Mid-Illini Credit Union has selected Sedona's technology and services to implement and deploy its member relationship management system.

 

Established in 1940 and based in Bloomington, Illinois, Mid-Illini Credit Union is a non-profit, member owned credit union serving over 7,000 members.

Tom Stewart, President of Mid-Illini, said that using an MRM product would help the company "gain a better understanding" of their members' objectives and needs, allowing the company to "provide the right product and service, at the right time, to each of our members."

 

Sedona's CRM/MRM product, Intarsia, is designed and priced for "the multiple lines of business of small to mid-size banks and credit unions," company officials say.

…

 

"The jury may still be out on whether the UK really is heading into a recession, but there is no doubt that the economy is slowing down across EMEA and that spending on IT will be hit,." So says officials of Maximizer Software, referencing a recent AMI-Partners Research study.

 

One segment that is predicted to grow is Customer Relationship Management (CRM), with AMI-Partners Research estimating that the global CRM market will increase at an average annual rate of 13 percent from 2007 to 2012, to reach $3.7 billion in 2012 -- and that's despite the current financial downturn.

 

Vivek Thomas, Managing Director, Maximizer Software, believes that CRM is increasingly being seen as a valuable tool not just in helping organizations to win new customers and keeping them satisfied, but also delivering on business goals when times are tough.

 

"Even during boom times, CRM should be at the heart of an organization's business development and growth strategy, and is vital in an uncertain economy," says Thomas. "Gaining new customers is imperative but must not result in neglect of the existing business base. CRM's ability to focus on best practice and optimize customer relationship processes is invaluable."

…

 

CDC Corporation, a CRM vendor and new media company, has announced its intent to implement a new 10b5-1 trading plan to repurchase additional CDC shares after the company's trading window opens.

 

Additionally, China.com, a majority-owned subsidiary of CDC Corporation, has recommended that its minority shareholders approve a plan to acquire up to $10 million of CDC shares. The shareholder vote is expected to take place on Tuesday, May 27.

 

Also during 2008, China.com has repurchased approximately 19.6 million of its own shares, which trade on the Growth Enterprise Market of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. Shares of CDC Corporation that are purchased by its subsidiaries are not included as part of the company's authorized repurchase program.

 

Since January 1 2008, CDC Corporation management has purchased a net amount of approximately 319,112 shares of the company.

 

"As we have said before, we believe our shares are undervalued by the investment community," said Peter Yip, CEO of CDC Corporation.

…

 

Research published in London has found that the analytics sector, "originally hyped to provide complete transparency, measurability and accountability for online business is failing to deliver," say study officials.

 

In a joint study of over 700 UK businesses by E-consultancy and Lynchpin, results have shown that over 80 percent of businesses do not tie online analytics to business strategy. 55 percent say they tie in CRM / customer profiling information with Web analytics.

Analytics is a multi-million pound industry with the price tag for analytics software in a large corporation starting at £50,000. As the free tools market place hots up with Yahoo!'s recent acquisition of IndexTools in response to the launch of Google Analytics, this report could be taken as a wake up call for the analytics industry.

Andrew Hood, managing director of Lynchpin, charged that "analytics' reputation is in tatters. Millions have been invested by large corporations around the world in analytics software that does not give business the answers it promised."

Saying there is "a massive disconnect" between the analytics market and what business needs," Hood challenged the analytics sector to "address this issue" and "provide the business consultancy and online strategy needed."

The report, produced in partnership by E-consultancy and Lynchpin, is billed by its authors as "the first study into the UK analytics sector," and will be produced annually. It is intended that this will benchmark the development of the embryonic analytics sector "which did not exist four years ago," they say.

82 percent of companies have not have a finalized internal strategy that ties data collection and analysis to business objectives, the study found, adding that "56 percent say they are 'working on this', while a further 22 percent say that they don't have such a strategy."

Only 25 percent say their Web analytics 'definitely' provide actionable insights, and fully 58 percent say that "half or less" of their Web analytics data is useful for driving decision-making.

The real headscratcher is how much money's going out the door on this non-ROI stuff: "Spending on technology accounts for 45 percent of company spending on Web analytics compared to 18 percent for consulting and services and a further 36 percent on internal staff," the study found.

Of course, 66 percent use the free Google Analytics tool, making it the most widely used Web analytics tool.

…

 

Tealium, a vendor of Web analytics consulting, has announced the availability of WebToCRM, a product designed to integrate Web behavior data into CRM platforms.

 

WebToCRM provides online marketers with a tool to capture their online marketing information such as campaign names, keywords, banners, messages, and others into their CRM platform. It's designed to work independently of such analytics tools such as Google Analytics, IndexTools, Omniture, Coremetrics, WebTrends and others.

 

It can integrate this information into CRM platforms, company officials say, including Salesforce CRM, SugarCRM, NetSuite or internal databases, for "a real-time tool that can integrate marketing campaign parameters from any Web analytics to any CRM upon Web lead capture."

 

Ali Behnam, co-founder of Tealium, says "once an expensive proposition only available to companies with deep IT investments, WebToCRM provides a real-time integration that is completely independent of Web analytics or CRM platforms."

 

The product is available in three different editions. The Free edition lets companies integrate their online marketing parameters into CRM products. The Plus edition, priced at $2,500, lets customers integrate their online campaign metrics and Web behavior data points such as engagement metrics into their CRM or customer databases, which can in turn be used for lead scoring.

 

A Custom Edition lets clients choose additional data points specific to their business needs.

 

WebToCRM is available immediately. Visitors can configure and download the Free edition of WebToCRM from the Tealium web site at the WebToCRM Page.

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music… let's see, we need something to inspire us, fit the mood here on a lovely Friday morning… ah, yes, here we are -- Flogging Molly's Drunken Lullabies:

 

IncorTech, a California-based technology consulting firm, has announced finalized agreements with apps vendor Deltek as a "new business partner."

IncorTech sells business software and service products from entry level accounting and contact management software products and integrates ERP, accounting, professional service, distribution, manufacturing, CRM and HRMS products.

The firm will be adding the Deltek product suite to their current list of offerings and will become a fully integrated Deltek partner.

Steve Birdwell, President for IncorTech, explaining the move, said that Deltek provides products and support "built around the specific needs of our growing customer base."

Taylor Macdonald, Vice President, Worldwide Channels and Sales Alliances for Deltek, said the company sees the deal as "achieving market expansion by partnering."

…

 

Stockholm-based Tacton Systems, a vendor of sales and product configuration software, has announced that MP Engineering has signed a reseller agreement for TactonWorks whereby Tacton Configurator is embedded in SolidWorks as an add-in product.

 

TactonWorks generates quotations for order processing in manufacturing. The agreement covers sales in Sweden.

 

MP Engineering is a SolidWorks reseller in the Nordic region, with close to 1,600 customers. MP Engineeering provides industry expertise and products for the development process, providing software within CAD, CAM, PDM and analysis.

 

Tacton officials say MP Engineering extends their portfolio by adding Knowledge Based Engineering Solution with TactonWorks.

 

TactonWorks markets to manufacturers with a need for order-specific customization of product design, e.g. engineer-to-order, assemble-to-order, or configure-to-order, where rules can define what is a valid design for the customer's requirements.

 

"This means that our customers' design process can become even more efficient. Tacton Configurator automates parts of the process, and works smoothly and easily with SolidWorks, which is needed for the big-picture thinking," said Martin Poulsen, CEO of MP Engineering AB.

 

Tacton Configurator Solution is used for the selling of customized products whether online or from a PC at the point of sale. It can be integrated with any existing system and has standard integrations with leading e-Commerce, ERP, CRM, PLM and CAD systems.

…

 

Torex, a software vendor for the retail industry, has selected Astea International's service lifecycle management application, Astea Alliance, for "visibility and control of its service supply chain," according to Torex officials.

 

Astea says that its product helps Torex have visibility of every interaction that takes place with the customer, from the initial customer call to the closing of work orders, customer invoicing and product replacement. The suite integrates business processes for contact centre, field service, depot repair, logistics, professional services and sales and marketing.

Mark Comer, managing director of the EMEA region at Astea, said that by partnering with Astea, Torex will "break down the traditional barriers between departmental and enterprise systems." In his opinion, Comer said, "an integrated approach that ties call centres, depots, field service, sales and office personnel together provides the most value to customers."

 

Graeme Cooksley, president and COO of Torex, said it is "imperative" that Torex has "a common business product platform to meet our growth plans." He said Astea is "a cornerstone for our global applications product stack," which will in due course be "integrated with our CRM and financial systems."

…

 

Microsoft has announced that American of Martinsville, a Virginia-based contract furniture manufacturer, will integrate Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to automate its current manual processes.

 

American of Martinsville designs and produces furniture for the hospitality, healthcare and senior-living markets. In other words, it's not that long until you and First Coffee are both regular users of their products.

 

Microsoft Dynamics AX is described by company officials as "an adaptable business-management product that provides industry-specific functionality for midsize and larger organizations." The furniture producer will use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to automate its quoting process, project management and customer communications.

 

The two Microsoft Dynamics products will be integrated so that workflow for the front-end and back-end operations of American of Martinsville runs from the order-entry phase all the way through design, master planning, production and delivery.

 

Before choosing Microsoft, American of Martinsville had also evaluated products from SYSPRO, Sage Software, SAP AG and Infor. The company selected Microsoft to replace its 28-year-old Unisys mainframe system with applications developed in-house. The furniture design process wasn't even connected to manufacturing and delivery.

 

American of Martinsville is implementing a number of Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 modules, including financials, e-banking, planning and scheduling, order management, shipping and warehousing, purchasing, inventory, multicurrency and multilanguage capabilities, Enterprise Portal, and field service. For Microsoft Dynamics CRM the company is implementing modules for project management, quote management and customer communications.

 

American of Martinsville produces a large percentage of its products in China, and the Microsoft products let the company use Asian currency and the Mandarin language when managing projects that the company produces in China. All the data in the system can be retrieved directly, through the Web, in reports or through the Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server for business analytics.

 

With its old technology, company officials say, when working with its Shanghai logistics office, American needed to recompile spreadsheets and enter them into the home-office system. With Microsoft Dynamics AX Shanghai personnel will be able to enter information into the system directly through the Web or terminal services.

…

 

VinSolutions.com has announced enhancements to its MotoSnap CRM system for dealers who want to highlight their higher grossing Carfax 1-Owner vehicles through e-mails and

e-brochures.

 

Using the product, Carfax-subscribing dealers can identify any Carfax 1-Owner car for potential buyers, turning inventory faster and for more money.

 

Adding this new feature to our CRM system, said Doug Kinney, VinSolutions.com's CEO, means that "on top of the free Carfax Vehicle History Reports already available to

their customers, they also get to use Carfax's 1-Owner vehicle logo on their Web sites. We're making it as easy as we can for used car buyers to target our clients' dealerships."

Last year, for the first time in automotive history, Internet use surpassed all other shopping methods for vehicle location, with nearly one in four late-model used car buyers using the Internet to locate the vehicle they purchase.

 

Larry Gamache, communications director at Carfax, said recent studies show that "cars sell three days faster online when a free Carfax Vehicle History Report is included and consumers will pay up to 15 percent more for your Carfax 1-Owner vehicles."

The news as of the second cup of coffee, and the music is It's A Beautiful Day's Live In Seattle:

 

NetSuite has announced the release of NetSuite OneWorld Software Company Edition. This latest offering, company officials say, gives users "the ability to run and manage integrated end-to-end software business processes spanning global operations."

 

This new edition includes all the capabilities of NetSuite OneWorld -- announced in April 2008 -- which lets companies run global operations in real-time, and includes features such as renewals automation, revenue recognition, complex commission management and multi-tier channel management.

To address accounting and reporting requirements, historically many software companies have purchased multiple applications to run their software business operations. "This fragmented approach typically is costly, can lead to a higher rate of errors in calculating financial results, and can result in less favorable customer experiences, particularly at the time of renewal," NetSuite officials say.

 

NetSuite OneWorld Software Company Edition can "cater to any business model, from subscription billing to traditional software licensing," company officials say.

 

Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite, said "we know how a global software company works because we are one, and we have been successfully using our own software to operate our business for the past 10 years."

The product is pitched as delivering "deep and locally or nationally appropriate functionality" -- currency, taxation, language, reporting, revenue recognition, dashboards --  with "real-time subsidiary management and business consolidation capabilities."

 

For the renewal process, the NetSuite product has installed-base tracking capabilities from multiple license types for systems, users, environments and modules, to maintenance agreements, customer support terms, start and end dates, contract statuses and monitoring of end-of-life, upgrades and downgrades.

 

Available now, OneWorld begins at a base price of $4,998 per month, which includes renewals management and multi-tier channel management functionality, along with vertical-specific dashboards and best practices. Commissions functionality (Incentive Compensation) is an add-on module at $299 per month.

…

 

BigMachines, a vendor of on-demand configuration and proposal software, has announced the availability of BigMachines Lean Front-End 8.2.

 

The latest version of BigMachines on-demand software will upgrade existing customers as part of their subscription and support agreements at no additional cost.

 

New features include interface elements such as the ability to scale configuration input fields on-the-fly in arrays, drag and drop quotes into folders, auto-complete fields based on partial data input, expand and collapse groups, auto-fill dates from calendars, resize columns on the fly, among other functions.

 

The product "enhances automated transaction reports that enable customers to proactively track and manage user adoption," company officials say, adding that BigMachines "invested substantial development resources to upgrade its core technology platform."

 

The tool can now be used to not only deliver quotes and orders, but generate and manage sales contracts.

 

"BigMachines gathers customer feedback throughout the year, and especially at our annual BigIdeas customer and industry forum, where customers provide input and vote on our product roadmap for the coming year," said Godard Abel, CEO, BigMachines.

 

BigIdeas 2008, BigMachine's annual customer and industry forum will be held October 5-7, 2008 in Chicago. Industry experts, BigMachines customers, and business partners will attend.

 

BigMachines' reporting capabilities integrate to most CRM and ERP systems, including those from Salesforce.com, Oracle, and SAP.

…

 

Salesforce.com has announced that it is building its first international data center in Singapore, which is expected to go live before the end of year.

 

In addition to the data center infrastructure, Salesforce.com also announced plans to establish a Network Operations Center in Singapore to implement 24x7, follow-the-sun monitoring of the company's data centers in North America and Singapore. To support this, it is investing in additional facilities and headcount at its Asia Pacific headquarters.

 

Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, Salesforce.com, called said it will be "the first data center outside of the U.S."

 

Salesforce.com's Asia Pacific customer base doubled over the last 12 months, company officials say, adding that customers in the region include AAPT, Acer, Amcor, CGU Insurance, Challenger Financial Services, Datacraft, Flight Centre, Hang Seng Bank, Mizuho Private Wealth Management, Ottagi, Ramco, SPH Search, VSNL and Telecom New Zealand.

 

"The growth that we are experiencing in Asia Pacific, combined with a technically literate and multi-lingual talent pool, make Singapore the perfect location for our first data center outside of the U.S.," added Benioff.

…

 

Opera has announced the availability of Opera Mobile 9.5 on the new HTC Touch Diamond. The customized HTC-specific version enables what Opera officials describe as "easy one-handed viewing and effortless navigation."

 

The HTC-specific version of Opera Mobile 9.5 introduces an intuitive user interface and includes features such as page viewing and panning letting users scan and navigate pages while Opera Zoom lets them "dive into the page and get closer to the content they want." Turning the device sideways automatically rotates the Web page view from a portrait to landscape view.

 

Opera Mobile 9.5 has improved tabbed browsing, as well as productivity tools like the ability to save pages for offline browsing, Web address auto complete and password manager.

 

Other features include landscape mode, the ability to call a phone number directly from Web page, history and bookmarks.

 

The HTC Touch DiamondT will be available to customers across all major European carriers in June. It will be available later this quarter in Asia and the Middle East. The North American and Latin American versions of the Touch Diamond will be available in the second half of 2008.

…

 

Salesforce.com has announced results for its fiscal first quarter ended April 30, 2008, with first quarter revenues "up 52 percent year-over-year, and well above guidance," according to CEO Mark Benioff.

 

Total Q1 revenue was $247.6 million, an increase of 52 percent on a year-over-year basis and an increase of 14 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Subscription and support revenues were $225.3 million, an increase of 53 percent on a year-over-year basis and an increase of 15 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

 

Q1 GAAP diluted earnings per share were approximately $0.08, including approximately $18 million in stock based compensation and approximately $1.3 million in amortization of purchased intangibles related to previously announced acquisitions. 

 

Net paying customers rose approximately 2,600 during the quarter to approximately 43,600. Compared with the year ago quarter, net paying customers have grown by approximately 11,300.

 

Cash from operations for the fiscal first quarter was approximately $84 million, up 128 percent year-over-year, up 4 percent from Q4, and a company record for the 3rd consecutive quarter. Total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities finished the quarter at approximately $751 million, up about $303 million from the year prior.

 

Revenue for the company's second fiscal quarter is projected to be in the range of approximately $258 million to approximately $259 million. The company is raising the full year revenue guidance it provided on February 27, 2008, with revenue now expected to be approximately $1.060 billion to approximately $1.065 billion.

…

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and while it's difficult saying what Tom Waits's best song is — "Hold On," "I Don't Want To Grow Up," "Downtown Train," "I Wish I Was In New Orleans" — First Coffee thinks it's awfully hard to top "On the Nickel:"

 

Intelestream has announced the release of StaffingCRM, what company officials describe as a customizable staffing and sourcing vertical product based on the SugarCRM open source platform.

 

The product, designed for agencies, delivers automation for business development, sourcing, and recruiting functions all in a single system. "Customization capabilities

are virtually limitless," company officials say, "as the StaffingCRM product is  based on an open source platform."

 

StaffingCRM provides "automation scenarios" across a staffing agency value chain, company officials say, adding that "the product aids several workflows including sourcing professionals conducting research, recruiters presenting opportunities to prospective candidates, and business development professionals focusing on client acquisition."

 

The product uses what Intelestream officials describe as "proven best-practice sales pipeline concepts," and applies them to the recruiting process. A Customer Relationship Management software core competency is managing human relationships.

 

. . . .

 

Microsoft has announced that Pacific Northwest Publishing and its affiliate company, Safe & Civil Schools, both of Eugene, Oregon, have chosen Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 to integrate their accounting, scheduling, customer service and marketing capabilities.

 

The Microsoft Dynamics products will replace the organizations' Intuit QuickBooks software and a paper-based system augmented by electronic spreadsheets. Safe & Civil Schools provides behavior-management training nationwide, Pacific Northwest Publishing publishes books and other materials used in the program and sold separately.

 

Officials of both companies say they will use Microsoft CRM to expand their marketing efforts and automate their paper-based systems for tracking projects with school districts.

 

The organizations work with school districts throughout the United States, and "much of the scheduling of training and consulting sessions has been handled by one person with her own paper-based file system and intricate electronic spreadsheets," Pacific officials say. Pacific Northwest Publishing and Safe & Civil Schools were looking for a way to automate these processes.

 

. . . .

 

 

This is the fourth award Cypress' C4 IP product has received this year for innovation in the communications industry.

 

"Cypress Communications has demonstrated a commitment to quality and to the further development of the unified communications industry through its comprehensive hosted VoIP and unified communications product, C4 IP," said Tom Keating, CTO and TMC Labs Editorial Director at TMC.

 

C4 IP is an enterprise-class hosted VoIP and unified communications product that features integrated voice and data access, desktop phones, soft phones, unified messaging and cutting-edge multimedia applications such as Microsoft Outlook integration, collaboration, real-time presence, chat, as well as audio, video and Web conferencing.

 

Frank Grillo, executive vice president of marketing at Cypress Communications, said with C4 IP, "we've bundled the unified communications technology with a hosted delivery model and managed it all 24/7 — the user's phone, the LAN/WAN and the private VoIP network."

 

The TMC Labs Innovation Award recognizes products that demonstrate "raw innovation, unique features, and significant contributions toward improving communications technology," according to TMC officials.

 

2008 TMC Labs Innovation Award winners can be found in the May 2008 issue of Unified Communications magazine.

 

. . . .

 

Andy Ross, a former Salesforce.com senior manager and a founding member of salesforce.com's corporate sales services group, has joined Model Metrics as Director of Corporate Sales. Model Metrics is a Software-as-a-Service technology and services company.

 

Ross is tasked with leading the mid market sales efforts for Model Metrics. He is the latest in a number of Salesforce.com veterans to join Model Metrics. At Salesforce.com, he joined in 2001 and took part in its creation of the Software-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service industries.

 

Adam Caplan, Chief Executive Officer of Model Metrics, said the company "continues to expand on many fronts, including new regional locations, market segments, and product and service offerings," and that Ross will "help lead these initiatives." 

 

Previous to Salesforce.com, Ross sold advertising for the Industry Standard in San Francisco, and began his career as a high school English teacher in Milwaukee.

 

At the Dreamforce Europe keynote address in London in May, Caplan and Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff demonstrated Model Metrics' use of Visualforce technology to create custom user interfaces for the Apple iPhone.

 

. . . .

 

I.B.I.S., a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner based in Norcross, Georgia, has announced a fixed fee, packaged service offering for Microsoft's Customer Relationship Management software product.

 

"The market is looking for implementation options and having a fixed fee package is very compelling for an organization who wants to manage a fixed scope — fixed price engagement," said Lee House, President of I.B.I.S.

 

I.B.I.S. has focused on four specific Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation offerings which are based on a client's business lifecycle -- Better CRM, designed for clients who want to use Dynamics CRM out of the box and only have a desire to be trained; CRM in a Box, created for clients who want to deploy a pre-configured, best of breed CRM product; CRM My Way, a product for businesses that want to deploy custom Sales, Service, Marketing or a combination of the three and XRM, created for businesses that will use Microsoft CRM as a platform. An example might be a company using MSCRM as a tool to manage recruiting.

 

. . . .

 

LogicBright CRM has introduced a monthly payment option in addition to the industry-standard annual payment option. Company officials say customers now have the option to pay month-to-month "with no contract and no hassles."

"We are breaking with the CRM industry practice of holding clients hostage with long-term service agreements. Effective immediately, our clients may invest monthly in their CRM, automatically spreading their investment over time," said Steve Schmidt, President of Tekniq Data Corporation, when asked about the recent change.

The monthly payment option for LogicBright CRM is $25 per month, per user. The annual payment option is $240 per year, per user. LogicBright's 30-day money-back guarantee remains in place.

LogicBright CRM, by Tekniq Data Corporation, is a Web-based contact management system to sell CRM to small and medium businesses. Data management features are wrapped in an interface encouraging use of the system with minimal training.

 

LogicBright is offering a 20 percent discount on the monthly subscription plan for signups through May 31st, 2008. Using the promo code "LB01YR20" during checkout, the monthly subscription rate is $20 per month, per user, for the first year.

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the second cup of coffee this morning, and thank the sometimes inspired vagaries of iPod shuffle for producing this gem — out of 4,777 options ranging from jazz to classical to spoken to children's music to hip-hop rap, the last two songs just happen to be from the two of the three best double albums released in rock's entire history: "Hip Shake" from The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street, and currently "Long, Long, Long" from The Beatles' White Album. If we get something from Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde next we'll hit the trifecta… and it is… Louis Jordan's "(You Dyed Your Hair) Chartreuse." Oh well. At least it's from a double album.

 

Hoboken-based eglue, a vendor of customer interaction management software products for the enterprise, has announced that noted industry figure Martha Rogers has joined the company's board of directors, effective May 1.

 

Recognized for the past decade as an expert on customer-based business strategies and growing customer value, Dr. Rogers is an author, in-demand speaker and founding partner of Peppers & Rogers Group, now a division of Carlson Marketing Worldwide.

 

Business 2.0 magazine recently named Rogers one of the nineteen most important business gurus of the past century. The World Technology Network has called her "an innovator most likely to create visionary ripple effects." Accenture's Institute for Strategic Change has ranked her among the Global "Top 100 Business Intellectuals." And she is a proud recipient of the coveted First Coffee Tip O' The Pot award.

 

"Customer-minded corporations have figured out that to make relationships with customers last, it is important that they build and nurture these relationships with every interaction," Rogers has said. "Companies are now realigning their objectives around just that — their interactions with customers."

 

"We are thrilled to welcome such a highly regarded industry expert to our board of directors," says Dror Pockard, eglue President and CEO. "Combined decades of CRM experience and collaboration with foremost industry players have justifiably established Martha Rogers as the leaders of customer experience."

 

A privately-held company founded in 2001, eglue is headquartered in Hoboken with offices in the United Kingdom, in Spain and in Israel. Recipient of the 2007 Product of the Year award from Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine, eglue caters to Fortune 500 companies worldwide and is backed by such international VCs and private investors as Giza, Cedar and Evergreen.

. . . .

 

First Coffee must be psychic: Two songs after Louis Jordan, the iPod plays "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again." Go ahead and look up what album it's from and which son of Hibbing, Minnesota wrote it. As Dave Barry would say, I swear I'm not making this up. Okay, let's see if I can really do this… what would #4 be… okay, let's have something from The Clash's London Calling before we're done for the day.

 

. . . .

 

Broadchoice has announced the introduction of an on-demand platform that lets marketers "improve the effectiveness of online initiatives based on the behavior and preferences of the target customers, partners, and prospects who use them," company officials say.

 

The product works with existing customer relationship management (CRM) and sales automation systems, so marketing-generated leads can fill the sales pipeline.

 

The Broadchoice Web Platform is described by company officials as a product to engage "community will" into Web-based marketing by "integrating metrics and analytics of actual target customer interaction through the Broadchoice Engagement Engine."

 

A company's customers, partners and employees can connect with each other through the

Broadchoice platform to collaborate and share content. The platform can be deployed within an hour, Broadchoice officials say.

 

The product lets companies offer self-provisioned on-demand service at a price of $1 per active registered user, regardless of the number of sites created or the amount of Web content deployed. Company officials say it "simplifies marketing and sales departments' ability to develop and launch online programs to collaborate with their corporate community -- customers, partners, and prospects — in personalized environments."

 

"The holy grail for most marketing professionals is to know what prospective customers really think and which campaigns are working," said Steve Asche, senior marketing director, Trapeze Networks. Using Broadchoice, Asche says, leads are "dropped directly into Salesforce.com."

 

"The current marketing value-chain is fraught with waste and inefficiency because companies don't have the business tools to show them in real time what's working and what needs adjustment," said Sergio Zyman, former CMO of The Coca-Cola Company and the author of The End of Marketing as We Know It, among other books.

 

The Broadchoice Web Platform is currently available as an on-demand software service.

 

. . . .

 

CRM analytics vendor Database Mining Lab has introduced a supply chain business intelligence product described by company officials as designed to "help companies analyze their supplier performance through scorecards, dashboards and data reporting."

 

The tool's geared to the director of the company's supply chain or logistics to help their team analyze aspects of the supply chain. It can specify and track goals against budget and let management use interactive dashboards in real time.

 

"With this product, companies will be able to analyze their delivery performance down to the customer level, monitor productivity and their related costs, review cost to budget and make sound business decisions based on 'on the fly' spend analytics" says Ambar Kumar, Director of Consulting Services at Database Mining Lab.

 

The Database Mining Lab product integrates with existing corporate financial, procurement and other operational systems. Corporate data is consolidated from systems throughout the organization into an integrated database for efficient data mining. Business data is converted into key performance indicators and presented in the form of an interactive scorecard on a dashboard with drill down capabilities.

 

. . . .

 

Oooooh: The iPod's playing "V. Thirteen," by Big Audio Dynamite, the band formed by ex-Clash guitarist Mick Jones. So close.

 

. . . .

 

IVoice has announced that it has redeemed $4,796,510.00 million in Secured Convertible Debenture Notes previously issued to Cornell Capital Partners, LP. After repayment, there is currently $1,250,000.00 million plus accrued interest outstanding. 

 

"We believe the redemption eliminates expensive debt that had the potential to be dilutive to shareholders," said Jerry Mahoney, CEO of iVoice. "The repayment of this debt improves  our balance sheet and reduces an overhang in our stock." 

IVoice officials recently determined that "the best way to create shareholder value,
separate and apart from the operating performance of iVoice," is to spin off previously wholly-owned subsidiaries of iVoice to its shareholders by distributing shares of these subsidiaries in the form of a special dividend.

 

To date, iVoice has spun off Trey Resources, iVoice Technology, SpeechSwitch and Thomas Pharmaceuticals.

 

Company officials say the common stock distributions are "part of a broader strategy relating to the transition of iVoice into a company focused on the development and licensing of proprietary technologies."

 

The company is searching for potential merger candidates with or without compatible technology and products, which management feels may make financing more appealing to potential investors. 

 

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Motown's best album -- Marvin Gaye's What's Going On:

 

Bungee Labs has announced that companies can now use Bungee Connect platform-as-a-service to extend the user experience around SugarCRM implementations, as well as integrate with other on-premise and on-demand SaaS applications and CRMs, including those from NetSuite, Oracle and Salesforce.

 

Web applications and user experience enhancements built with Bungee Connect can "improve productivity and adoption without traditional software development, licensing and delivery approaches," Bungee officials say. Bungee Connect sample reference applications and source code for extending SugarCRM, NetSuite, Oracle CRM and Salesforce are available at www.bungeeconnect.com/crm.

"Productivity is diminished by gaps in functionality, missing interconnectivity and weak user experiences as employees work within existing CRM implementations and between multiple applications," said Lyle Ball, vice president of marketing, Bungee Labs. "The Bungee Connect platform can be used to spackle these cracks by creating Web apps without investments in development projects, software licenses and infrastructure."

Companies use Bungee Connect to build Web-based applications with desktop-like user experiences, then deploy them on the Bungee Grid multi-tenant grid infrastructure or on Bungee Application Servers running on self-managed infrastructure.

 

With Bungee Connect federated hosting, SugarCRM and Oracle CRM users "can comply with infrastructure operating requirements by hosting Bungee-powered applications in the same manner they host SugarCRM or Oracle CRM," Bungee officials say.

 

. . . .

 

SAP AG has announced that Bayer MaterialScience, a division of Bayer AG and a producer of plastics, has selected the latest version of the SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) application, SAP CRM 2007.

 

The "simplicity of the user interface" and general value of an integrated business process platform were factors that led to the selection, Bayer MaterialScience officials say. The announcement was made at Sapphire 2008, SAP's customer conference in Berlin.

 

As part of an initiative to "modernize its technology landscape," Bayer officials say, Bayer MaterialScience is currently replacing outdated legacy systems with standardized software. The company will integrate the SAP CRM application into its existing SAP Business Suite family of business applications.

 

Currently, the software is being piloted in a three-month project, and will be rolled out to employees worldwide.

 

Kurt De Ruwe, CIO, Bayer MaterialScience, said after a roll out to approximately 2,500 users throughout the company "800 will access SAP CRM directly from their mobile devices."

 

The latest version of SAP CRM was launched in December 2007. Approximately 250 customers are currently using it, SAP officials say.

 

. . . .

 

BigMachines, a vendor of on-demand sales configuration and proposal software, has announced that it has successfully completed the Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 (SAS 70) Type II audit, which assesses the operational effectiveness of internal controls within service organizations.

 

SAS 70 is a widely-recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which sets standards for auditors to use in order to fairly and objectively assess the internal controls of service organizations.

 

BigMachines recently completed its SAS 70 Type II audit, which assessed the suitability of design and operational effectiveness of the company's controls that had been placed in operation for the stated period. The vendor apparently demonstrated that its control objectives were well-designed and that the company has the right processes in place to meet those control objectives.

 

Mei-lin Cheng, VP of Customer Services at BigMachines, said completing the SAS 70 Type II audit "provides further validation and assurance to our customers."

 

"Being a public company with an expanding customer base, it's very important that the companies we work with have safeguards in place to protect the security, privacy and sensitivity of our customer data," said Rick Parkinson, Chief Information Officer, ShoreTel.

 

BigMachines sells products for sales for direct and indirect channels. Its Lean Front-End suite includes sales configuration, guided selling, pricing, quoting, proposal generation, contract and order management capabilities. The product automates sales processes from opportunity to order and integrates with CRM and ERP systems.

 

. . . .

 

VinStickers, a vendor of automotive CRM, ILM, and inventory control services, has sold its on-the-lot services to CDM Dealer Services, a Kelley Blue Book company.

 

VinStickers selected CDM, an automotive data collection and online marketing service, because of "their reputation for excellence," said Doug Kinney, CEO of VinStickers, LLC, adding "we're confident CDM will provide that."

 

VinStickers and CDM jointly notified the dealer body affected by the sale in mid-April. The two companies worked in tandem throughout the remainder of the transition period, and on May 9 CDM completed the transition of services.

 

Mike Romano, chief operating officer for CDM and senior vice president of dealer sales and strategy for Kelley Blue Book, in describing the reasons for the deal, said simply "we are committed to providing class-leading services that help dealers sell more cars online, faster."

 

VinStickers entered the automotive market several years ago as an on-the- lot service company, but early in 2007 its primary focus shifted to Internet software development. Doing business as VinSolutions.com, the company's focus is now centered on its Internet-based MotoSnap CRM, ILM and inventory control products.

 

CDMdata sells proprietary hardware and software products for inspection, valuation, distribution, marketing and Internet sales processes. CDM's flagship product is the DigitalLot, which provides automotive dealers with the hardware and software they need to manage the collection and distribution of automotive information over the Internet.

 

. . . .

 

Parallels and Smart Online have announced that Solar VTG, a Parallels partner, will add the Onebiz suite of SaaS applications to its product platform.

 

The small business software tools from Smart Online's Onebiz application "aligned with our enterprise class hosting products" let Solar VTG offer better turnkey business management products, said Ross Brouse, CEO of Solar VTG.

 

Onebiz applications, powered by Smart Online and offered through the Parallels Automation systems, are designed for the small business end user and include CRM, as well as such apps as Accounting, Human Resources and Sales Force Automation.

 

The Onebiz suite of SaaS applications is "a natural fit" for hosting providers looking for "additional revenue or added customer value" without having to purchase or develop it themselves, said David Colburn, CEO, Smart Online.

 

Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels encouraged "all hosting providers to follow Solar VTG's lead and explore the benefits of SaaS."

 

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch, since it seems to fit the mood around First Coffee headquarters so frequently:

 

Escalate Retail has announced that the company is launching a retail CRM Webinar series in conjunction with Retail TouchPoints, a publication covering best practices for retail.

 

The initial 30-minute Webinar, "Best Practices on Clienteling in the Store," according to company officials, will focus on how "retailers such as Sephora and Brooks Brothers" are automating their customer books using Retail CRM and Clienteling.

 

"Research shows that an overwhelming majority of retail executives have prioritized the customer experience as one of their top strategic priorities," said Andrew Gaffney, founder and publisher of Retail TouchPoints. "Arming store associates with the right sales intelligence tools is a crucial component of a successful CRM strategy."

 

David Bruno, Director of Product Marketing for Escalate Retail, said in his opinion there is "a significant spike" in interest in retailers looking for tools that "help them get closer to their core customers." For a few years now, retailers have been experimenting with customer segmentation and trying to expand their loyalty programs, said Bruno.

The free Webinar will be held Wednesday, May 21, from 2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. EST, and all attendees will receive a free white paper illustrating the ROI of Clienteling. To register, visit: http://pages.retailtouchpoints.com/RetailCRM.html.

 

. . . .

 

Mainline Information Systems and Cornerstone Systems have announced an agreement in principle for Mainline Information Systems toacquire Cornerstone Systems. This transaction will join two "True Blue" IBM Premier Business Partners.

 

Rick Kearney, President and CEO for Mainline, said the acquisition "allows us to combine experience, the expertise of System z technical professionals," along with nearly 700 employees.

 

Herb Chittum, President of Cornerstone, said "expanded local technical coverage and more extensive customer care and support" will result from the deal.

 

While this acquisition is centered on combining the two companies' System z (mainframe) product practices, Mainline and Cornerstone have both built partnerships with IBM and sell technology encompassing the entire IBM System Server and System Storage product lines, including entry-level and midrange platforms.

 

"Over the years, the death of the mainframe has been predicted many times," said Kearney, adding that "the mainframe remains a part of our core offerings. So bringing together two system z partners is a natural fit." Kearney added that the deal should be completed in a month or two, and that Mainline and Cornerstone's existing operations and locations will remain intact.

 

. . . .

 

Salesforce.com has announced that Canon Marketing Japan has deployed Salesforce.com's mobile product to 1,100 users.

 

The Canon Group's subscribers throughout Japan can confirm or update opportunities and sales activities in their spare time from virtually anywhere without logging on to their laptops, company officials say, adding that Canon sees the number of mobile users growing as the company expands its Salesforce subscriber base to 4,000 by the end of the year.

 

Canon MJ had been using disparate SFA systems on a departmental basis since 2005. The company decided to consolidate its systems in October 2007. Canon MJ integrated 22 different systems using Force.com Platform-as-a-Service. The company went live with its integrated Salesforce system in February 2008.

 

"We don't carry around laptops anymore," said Hiroaki Sasaki, director of business products administration at Canon Marketing Japan Business Products Company. "We can do most of our work on a single handset anytime, anywhere."

 

. . . .

 

Third Lane Technologies has announced a suite of new capabilities for the Thirdlane PBX software appliance and Thirdlane PBX Manager GUI. The newest version of the company's open management platform for Asterisk, Thirdlane PBX 6.0 "adds features for hosted IP-PBX providers, VARs and end users," company officials say.

Thirdlane PBX "enhances Asterisk management without limiting its capabilities," says Third Lane's Founder and CEO Alex Epshteyn, adding that a GUI and new features like multi-site management, CRM integration and enhanced device auto-provisioning make Thirdlane PBX a "mature, feature-rich and flexible system."

Thirdlane — I know, the product and company's names are stylistic variations of one another — offers management of the open source Asterisk PBX while giving system integrators access to the Asterisk feature set for building telephony apps. VoIP service providers also get PBX Manager's multi-tenant capabilities for managing multiple virtual hosted Asterisk PBXs for small businesses.

"With the multi-tenant edition, customers can start with a hosted system," said James Sturtevant, CEO of Sigma Networks, a Sunnyvale, CA supplier of hosted and on-premises IP-PBX and networking systems. "When they grow, all they have to do is install an on-premises PBX, they can use the same phones," he added.

Thirdlane PBX 6.0 also has CRM Integration with pre-configured connections to popular CRM products and search engines, plus the ability to custom-configure screen pops with any Web-based CRM.

 

. . . .

 

Ballance Agri-Nutrients, a New Zealand fertiliser manufacturer and distributor, has selected SAP to provide enterprise applications to replace its legacy system. The deal includes SAP ERP, Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

 

When it came time to upgrade Ballance's existing legacy system, which had been heavily customised over the years, the company decided a packaged approach would be better. "We are looking to future-proof our business with this implementation," said Elizabeth Harper, corporate services general manager at Ballance.

 

Harper said IBM is their implementation partner. The deal includes a number of SAP NetWeaver licences as well as SAP NetWeaver Process Integration and SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe. SAP NetWeaver PI is SAP's implementation of SOA middleware.

 

Ballance joins a number of companies in agricultural and rural services in New Zealand, the #1 dairy exporting nation in the world, using SAP products. These include RD1, Gallagher Group, Livestock Improvement, Dexcel (DairyNZ) and Dupont New Zealand.

 

Ballance will also implement SAP CRM, and SAP SCM is expected to streamline Ballance's supply chain, including improved demand planning and forecasting and optimised logistics and distribution.

 

. . . .

 

In another bit of SAP news Richmond, Virginia-based AMC Technology has announced that seven additional Connectors for its MCIS 5.2 product achieved "Certified for SAP NetWeaver" status from SAP for the interaction center capabilities integrated with the SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) application.

 

The certified connectors include six connectors that integrate with SAP CRM via the SAP integrated communications interface. Also certified is the AMC MCIS Telephony Channel 5.2 connector that integrates with SAP CRM via the SAPphone interface.

 

Anthony X. Uliano, President/CTO, AMC Technology, said the company's partnerships with Aspect, Avaya, Cisco, Envox and Nortel "have also been strong," and promised AMC will "continue to develop products" for CRM.

 

. . . .

 

Equisys, a British vendor of software products for document production and delivery and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, has announced that Zetadocs for Microsoft Dynamics NAV has achieved Microsoft Dynamics certification.

 

Company officials say Equisys is the first Britain-based company to achieve certification for Dynamics NAV. Microsoft UK's NAV Product Marketing Manager, Steve Farr, said certification confirms that Zetadocs for NAV meets Microsoft standards for partner developed software products and is recommended by existing users.

 

Zetadocs for NAV claims savings for accounts departments in areas such as the costs of printing and mailing invoices or statements -- "the production of just 1,000 paper based invoices per month can amount to annual costs of over £12,000 based on the cost of postage, materials and the time spent producing the documents," company officials say.

 

Equisys officials also point out that "most businesses also retain paper copies of financial documents, spending up to £500 rental space per filing cabinet to provide day-to-day access and adhere to compliance regulations."

 

Chris Oswald, CEO of Equisys, says Zetadocs for NAV users can convert batches of NAV documents into print quality PDFs and send them via e-mail or fax, depending on a customer's preferences. It also automatically stores orders, statements and invoices in Microsoft SharePoint Server so any authorized user can access them.