Salesforce and Model Metrics, Oracle Middleware, Sofia Works and Teach First, InsideSales and LRM, Kintera Results, eLoyalty Results

May 8, 2008

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is a grand old good-time rock record, The Best of The Faces: Good Boys… When They’re Asleep:

 

The Salesforce.com community, assembled in London for the Dreamforce Europe conference, today saw Model Metrics’ use of the new Visualforce technology on the Force.com platform to create custom user interfaces for the Apple iPhone.

 

Model Metrics developers used Visualforce to customize the Salesforce interface specifically for the iPhone, making Salesforce “look and function just like native iPhone applications,” Model Metrics officials say, including touchscreen functionality that iPhone users are accustomed to.

 

Salesforce.com and Model Metrics demonstrated it during Marc Benioff’s keynote address at Dreamforce Europe yesterday in London.

 

The iPhone application demonstrated by Model Metrics uses a scenario at an automotive dealership between a potential customer and sales agent. The sales agent is able to customize model, colors and options on the spot in the middle of the showroom floor, look for inventory at his location and other dealerships, and begin the purchasing process immediately via the iPhone. Information captured on the iPhone is reflected in the native Salesforce interface.

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Oracle officials say the software vendor has previewed additional planned feature enhancements of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g.

 

Based on feedback and testing, the latest preview of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g includes planned features intended to provide Java developers with a unified design and development experience based on new open standards for Java, SOA, AJAX, Web 2.0 and Security, as well as to “help reduce the time, effort and cost of developing Rich Enterprise, Web and mobile applications,” company officials say:

 

“The preview showcases planned performance and manageability improvements, as well as tighter integration between various Oracle Fusion Middleware components.”

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London-based Sofia Works, a vendor of on-demand software as a service (SaaS) business products, has announced an advanced recruitment management system for the non-profit sector based on Salesforce.com technology.

 

A Salesforce.com Select Consulting Partner, Sofia developed it for the independent charity Teach First. Using Salesforce.com Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology, the system lets the organization manage, record and evaluate the end-to-end graduate recruitment process.

 

Teach First attracts, selects, trains, places and supports graduates to work in challenging schools and for employers after the two-year program. The company needed to replace its existing custom built recruitment management system to accommodate growth.

 

James Darley, Director of Graduate Recruitment at Teach First, said “we now have a product that supports our candidates from initial registration of interest through application to the final hiring decision process.”

 

Graduates can register their interest in a “sister,” non-Salesforce.com system, which shares this data with the live Salesforce.com environment at the moment of application. The recruitment process is then recorded stage by stage by Teach First staff with field-based workers able to remotely manage and update information via the Internet.

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InsideSales.com, a vendor of “Lead Response Management” products, has announced the release of ResponseDealer, a suite of on-demand technology products designed to help automotive dealerships respond to leads and use dialer and call center technology.

 

This announcement comes after a full year of testing on site with Jim Click Automotive Group, recently ranked #40 in the Wards Top 100 Mega-Dealers in the United States.

 

Dave Elkington, CEO of InsideSales.com, said automotive has “always been at the forefront of innovation and early adoption of new technologies.”

 

The product gathers Web leads, inbound calls, and online inquiries from dealer and manufacturer sites and routes them to an inside sales representative, whose job is to respond and invite them to visit the dealership, rather than trying to sell them like the usual car salesperson does. The lead is then entered in the lead management database.

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Kintera, a vendor of software as a service to the nonprofit and government sectors, has reported financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2008.

 

Revenue for the first quarter 2008 was $8.9 million, compared to $10.7 million for the same period last year. On a GAAP basis, net loss for the quarter was $4.3 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, which is an improvement of 48 percent or $0.10 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $8.3 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, for the same period last year.

 

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation expense and restructuring charges was a loss of $2.5 million, or $0.06 per share, in the first quarter of 2008, compared to a loss of $3.8 million, or $0.09 per share, in the first quarter of 2007.

 

This is an improvement of approximately 33 percent or $0.03 per share year-over-year.

 

“We believe our unified software as a service platform, which includes events, marketing, and donor management, will help fuel our growth, expand our existing relationships, and attract new organizations to Kintera,” said Richard N. LaBarbera, Kintera CEO.

 

The company also announced a restructuring plan which includes a 14 percent reduction in resources targeting an excess of one million per quarter of savings by the third quarter. The expected charge is $450,000.

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CRM vendor eLoyalty Corporation has announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 29, 2008.

 

For the first quarter of 2008, total revenue was $23.9 million and the net loss was $4.2 million. The net loss available to common shareholders was $0.49 per share.

 

ELoyalty realized “Adjusted Earnings” of $0.7 million for the first quarter of 2008. Adjusted Earnings is a non-GAAP measure.

 

Highlights for the first quarter of 2008 include six percent sequential increase in Services Revenue, 11 percent sequential increase in Total Revenue and $719,000 of Adjusted Earnings, with $2.5 million sequential improvement in Adjusted Earnings.

 

During the second quarter, the Company expects lower CRM consulting revenue due to budget pressures at several large consulting accounts and to experience the one-time impact of a contract modification on one of its Behavioral Analytics contracts.

 

Based on these factors, the company currently expects to achieve second quarter Services revenue of $19.0 million and not exceed or fall below the target by more than 5 percent.

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The Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG), the world’s largest customer-run community of SAP professionals, announced today it has launched a series of new Benchmarking and Best Practices initiatives through its continued collaboration with SAP America, Inc. The announcement comes as part of activities surrounding the 2008 ASUG Annual Conference and the SAPPHIRE 2008 Orlando conference taking place this week in Orlando, Florida.

 

 

 

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