The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Glenn Miller Orchestra's St. Louis Blues March:

 

Jingwei International, a technology services provider in China specializing in data mining and software, has announced that it has been selected by the China Circuit Championship, a motorsports racing company in China, to manage, create, and execute a wireless marketing campaign.

 

The company said it expects that the contract will generate approximately $1.5 million in revenues over the next five years, beginning in the current fiscal year.

 

Jingwei officials said the company has created an interactive campaign through its wireless interactive Customer Relationship Management system that enables a sponsor's products promotion through attracting customers to join their campaigns.

 

According to Regis Kwong, CEO, a result of this campaign, "CCC has been able to reach over 5.5 million consumers that were exposed to the CCC racing event while at the same time increasing brand recognition through Jingwei's CRM system."

 

Through this system and its access to the over 300 million data records of consumers in China, CCC officials say, they have been able to develop over 1 million members in a CCC Club which provides consumers access to various mobile interactive programs, scavenger hunt promotions and other activities.

 

CCC officials say the program will provide "a valuable source of information for the continued rollout of the interactive campaign over the next few years."

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Barloworld Equipment has implemented the Maximizer CRM product to manage its clients and increase the efficiency of its marketing campaigns.

"Barloworld has been a client of ours for some time, but operated in a segregated technology environment," says Mark Annett, national sales manager at Maximizer business partner and CRM specialist Camsoft Solutions.

 

He says the company, which recently celebrated an 80-year partnership with Caterpillar, had branches all over the country using the Maximizer product "but it did not have any inter-office connections. They approached us to connect these branches in order for the company to have a unified vision of its clients."

The implementation at Barloworld Equipment, which supplies Caterpillar equipment and support to customers in 11 countries in southern Africa that includes South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Angola and Zambia, as you might imagine did present a few challenges to Camsoft, Maximizer's certified business partner in South Africa.

Connecting the branches was important "to ensure that the data that resided at those offices were kept as up to date as possible," says Annett.

Maximizer CRM is also expected to provide an improved opportunity manager, which will allow for "the implementation of sophisticated sales methodologies through a streamlined interface that lets users change sales strategies at any point in the cycle," Maximizer officials say.

With the company providing customers in mining, construction, marine, electrical power generation, and other industries with integrated products that include new, used, and rental equipment options, running marketing campaigns and managing clients are priorities for Barloworld.

 

Barloworld officials say that when Barloworld Equipment started using Maximizer, it only had one person using it. "As our requirements from the CRM system increased,:" Barloworld officials said, the company rolled Maximizer to all its current users.

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It's rare that an artist or celebrity's death is a "tragedy," in the sense of them being cut down in their artistic prime, where you get the sense they still had a lot of good work ahead of them. Robert Johnson's death qualifies as tragic, as do those of Christopher Marlowe, Duane Allman, Charlie Christian, Evariste Galois, Len Bias, Charlotte Corday... so much unfulfilled promise, so much work left to do.

 

George Carlin's best work wasn't ahead of him, but he wasn't performing in name only, playing third-rate clubs with bad material à la Red Skelton. His Braindroppings books were bestsellers and as funny as he ever was. His death isn't quietly closing a "Where Are They Now?" file cold for 30 years, it's the death of a guy who probably would have done something next month to make you laugh. And that's a tragedy.

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Here's an example of one of the positive forces behind First Coffee's favorite avenues of CRM development, municipal CRM/311 systems:

 

Providence Mayor David Cicilline and e-government expert Darrell West are the featured presenters at the QScend Technologies annual user group conference in Providence, Rhode Island, this September.

 

The conference, titled "Advancing Citizen Service," will focus on ways municipalities can enhance e-government initiatives and service delivery to their citizens.

 

And frankly, you have to be somewhat impressed with Cicilline. As the mayor of a city rarely listed in the Top Ten American Cities To Live In, he's brought new investment into the city and overseen technology improvements to monitor key services delivery. More importantly for the long-term health of the city he's advanced government downsizing, decreased property tax levels and presided over decreases in violent crime rates.

 

And hey, there's now an Arts in the Park neighborhood program. Progress, folks.

West is the author of Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance and the author of numerous reports on the performance of national and international government Web sites. He'll speak about "Trends in Electronic Government." Beginning July 1, West will be vice president of the Brookings Institution, a non-profit public policy organization in Washington, D.C.

 

In addition to the keynote addresses, users of QScend's Municipal CRM/311 system and other Web-based e-government tools will have the opportunity for hands-on product training, peer-to-peer best practice sessions, and information on upcoming software features.

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Stoneware has announced the release and immediate availability of WebOS version 5.3. Stoneware officials call it "the next evolution of desktop virtualization."

 

The product provides "secure access to Web, Windows, and hosted applications all through a virtual Web desktop interface that runs inside any standard Web browser," company officials say.

 

The latest release of WebOS delivers services and features geared towards organizations beginning their shift towards "cloud" computing, company officials say. The integration of hosted applications such as Google Apps, Salesforce.com, and iTunes University "has been added to the list of features and services centering around the delivery of Web and Windows applications in a virtual desktop environment."

 

Stoneware's WebOS "is a desktop virtualization product that meets the needs of many organizations finding themselves in High User, Limited Capital environments," states Rick German, CEO of Stoneware, adding that "enterprises that are struggling to scale traditional desktop virtualization products will find Stoneware WebOS as an effective means of delivering virtual desktops to large numbers of remote and mobile users."

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Smart Transaction Systems, a provider of gift card and customer loyalty programs for merchants, has introduced an SMS text messaging services to its retail, restaurant and lodging customers.

 

The new service, Smart officials say, "allows merchants to create and manage text-enabled gift card and loyalty programs. The added dimension of text messaging keeps customers in the loop with real-time balances and special, members-only offers."

"The addition of text messaging capabilities to our gift and loyalty programs opens up a world of possibilities, particularly where customer loyalty programs are concerned," says Ray Clopton, President of Smart Transaction Systems. "Merchants can enable anything from simple, check-your-balance capabilities to special promotions that are tailored to the customer."

 

Clopton said the product can be used for spontaneous promotions to bring people in the door if they happen to be slow that day: "It's a powerful promotional tool, but it's surprisingly easy for a business of any size to manage."

STS officials say merchants are finding it much more difficult to get consumers to put another card in their wallets, so "to address this challenge, STS offers the option of cardless gift or loyalty programs. Merchants can allow their customers to register their mobile phone numbers instead of carrying traditional plastic cards."