CRM Co. Customer Effective and Microsoft, Taylor Buys Interprise, EDLink, AT&T and Microsoft, Nexient and Varicent, CDC Results

 

By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is "Power in the Blood" by Andraé Crouch & The Disciples, great live gospel music:

 

Customer Effective, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and implementer of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, has announced that it has earned the 2008 Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle distinction, placing it in "the upper echelon of Microsoft Dynamic's value added resellers and independent software vendors," company officials say. 

 

According to Microsoft officials, member companies of the Inner Circle consist of the top one percent of all Microsoft Dynamics Partners worldwide, based on sales and new customer adds. Circle members are given opportunities to attend executive retreats and increased interaction with Microsoft executives.

 

Inclusion in Microsoft's Inner Circle also automatically confirms Customer Effective's membership status in the Microsoft President's Club, which recognizes the top five percent of Microsoft Dynamics partners worldwide for fiscal year 2008.

 

Scott Millwood, CEO of Customer Effective, said since 2002, Customer Effective has done projects for the Microsoft CRM Platform. The company sells business process automation, collaboration products and has engaged in "hundreds" of Microsoft CRM implementation projects.

 

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Interprise Software Systems International, a vendor of software products for businesses, has been acquired by the Services and Technology Division of Taylor Corporation, a privately-held company selling business and personal communications products, technologies and services.

 

As part of the acquisition, Interprise was renamed Interprise Software Solutions, Inc. Additionally, Interprise Solutions, LLP entered into a long-term agreement to be the exclusive distributor of Interprise Solutions in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland regions.

 

Gary Harrison, president of Interprise Software, said as part of Taylor, Interprise "has access to significantly more resources and expertise than before."

 

The company's flagship product, Interprise Suite, is a customizable Smart Client-based application providing a view of a firm's customers through enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, accounting, e-commerce and point-of-sale tools.

 

Interprise Software Solutions is headquartered in North Mankato, Minnesota, with offices in Los Angeles, and development centers in Cebu, Philippines and Makati City, Philippines.

 

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After running Electronic Direct Mailer service for more than a year, eDLink has moved to develop an e-mail marketing software platform with CMS capability.

     

"Today customers are more IT savvy than in the past. With the newly introduced CMS enabled EDM application, customers may now create their own list of subscribers, design newsletters and send out the html newsletters any time they like", said Byon Ong, IT Manager of eDLink.

As unsolicited bulk e-mail sending is not legal in Singapore, many local companies are not able to reach potential customers as most do not have a large list of subscribers. eDLink customers may tap on a large database of voluntary subscribers provided by eDLink.

"Customers are often unaware of how EDM actually works, and most think that they can send out HTML newsletters from their Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook. Yet a professional EDM campaign is much more elaborate," Ong said, adding that often "a back-end CMS platform has to be included, with subscriber management function and report generation capability."

In Singapore, Ong said, "not many SMEs are using EDM as a marketing tool. Some companies using EDM haven't heard how EDM actually can contribute in CRM."

 

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AT&T has joined the Microsoft Partner Solutions Center as a vehicle to demonstrate its mobility expertise and technologies to Microsoft and other enterprise customers.

 

AT&T officials say that by joining the MPSC, AT&T will be "able to develop and demonstrate its products in the MPSC briefing centers," and will have "the ability to provide on-site customer briefings, design sessions, proof of concept engagements and training," customized for specific customer needs.

 

Involvement with the MPSC enables Microsoft's multiple lines of businesses and customers to test out applications wirelessly enabled over the entire suite of Windows Mobile 6.0 and Windows Mobile 6.1 devices, such as Mobile Device Manager, TeleNav Track, WiFi and simultaneous voice and data using Windows Mobile 6 with tethering.

 

The venerable telephony firm maintains a full-service retail store in the MPSC that allows Microsoft campus employees access to Windows Mobile-based phones, accessories and services.

 

The MPSC is a 21,000-square-foot facility located in building 25 on the Redmond campus of Microsoft and features Hyper-V technology laboratories, partner showcase labs, an executive technology briefing room and partner offices for building, testing and designing network products.

 

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Varicent Software, a vendor of sales performance apps, has been selected as the SPM product for Nexient Learning, a Canadian corporate training and consulting company.

 

Nexient is implementing SPM "as part of a larger customer sector strategy aimed at improving sales and service effectiveness," company officials say. The company has grown through acquisition, and has disparate sales systems and compensation strategies.

 

The company's management and sales reps are "challenged" by the lack of visibility and transparency into sales activity across the entire organization, company officials admit.

 

Nexient has implemented a standardized approach to the sales roles, customer coverage, and sales reporting across its business, and needs technology to support process improvements. Varicent SPM is expected to help "unburden sales management and sales representatives from manually tracking and calculating activities," company officials say, adding that "ultimately, consolidated and segmented performance reports will improve sales effectiveness."

 

The Varicent SPM product pulls source data on sales from Salesforce.com and Training Partner, calculates the incentive earnings, and displays it in personalized dashboards.

 

"Our evaluation of sales performance management consisted of two parts," said Donna de Winter, CEO, Nexient Learning. "First, we examined building our own incentive compensation management product. Second, we looked at currently available software."

 

Varicent SPM is an open-architected product that can link into numerous source systems such as CRM, general ledger, payroll, ERP and more. Fully deployed, it will integrate with different source systems and BI products, including Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007.

 

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CDC Corporation, a global CRM and enterprise software and new media company, has announced preliminary revenues for Q2 2008. Based upon preliminary financial information, CDC anticipates total revenue for Q2 2008 to be between approximately $107.3 -108.5 million, which would represent an increase of 9-10 percent from $98.3 million in Q1 2008 and would be a record second quarter for the company.

 

This anticipated revenue range for Q2 2008 exceeds the Wall Street consensus estimate of $102.9 million. This includes license revenues of approximately $14.2 - $14.7 million, up from $12.3 million in Q1 2008, and higher than the consensus estimate of approximately $13.0 million.

 

CDC Corporation also anticipates an improvement in its adjusted net income and in its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, including stock based compensation, for Q2 2008 compared to Q1 2008.