The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is chosen for a morning like this, when you need something to get going, the high-energy album keeping you pumping out the work through a tired patch... yes, the ultimate First Coffee work album, makes a slow day peppy and gets a peppy day grooving... Sinatra's Swingin' Session by the Chairman:
We'll give you the condensed version: Revel Consulting, a Kirkland, Washington-based business and IT consulting firm, has been selected by Reader's Digest to integrate a software-as-a-serviceproduct with the company's current customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.
Reader's Digest selected Revel based on the firm's past successes in SaaS implementation as well as Revel's "pure consulting" approach to business.
"The combination of Revel's industry expertise in SaaS and direct access to their senior consultants made the difference," said Kelly Kolb, Director of Business Intelligence for Allrecipes.com (Food & Entertainment group of Reader's Digest). "We needed a team with experience integrating different tech platforms into Salesforce.com in a way that meets our business needs."
Kolb is presumably not a twin to Kevin Kolb, the quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles.
According to the agreement, Revel will define and then implement an enterprise-wide product for the sales and marketing data of Reader's Digest's Food & Entertainment group, including such properties as allrecipes.com, Every Day with Rachel Ray and Taste of Home. Using the infrastructure of the industry-standard CRM tool Salesforce.com, Revel officials say they will focus on designing a hosted CRM product which, according to Reader's Digest officials, will allow the publisher to access information to improve decision-making.
"The challenge will be to harness data collected from a number of different sources, such as Web, direct mail and e-mail marketing, on four technology platforms and aggregate it into a single Salesforce.com view," said Joseph Sedmak, Revel's Founder and President.
Revel has developed a specialty in helping companies implement SaaS products. The company was named by Inc. Magazine in 2008 as the fifth fastest growing services company and the 48th fastest growing company in the U.S.
SaaS, software deployment in which applications are hosted off-premise, is a rapidly expanding industry. According to a recent Gartner Press Release, global revenues for SaaS will exceed $6.4 billion in 2008, a 27 percent increase over 2007 revenues of $5.1 billion.
Revel was founded as CRM Consultants, Inc. by Joseph Sedmak.
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Management would like to invite readers looking for news about Confocal Raman Microscopy, the process which measures minute shifts in the frequency of photons that interact with the atomic bonds of a crystal, to follow the link, as this CRM column is a Customer Relationship Management column. Thank you.
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Opera Software has released the final version of its Opera Mini 4.2 for mobile phones.
Company officials claim trials show this version gives more than 30 percent speed improvements for users in the US, due to the addition of a new Opera Mini server park in the United States.
This release also marks Opera Mini's official availability on the latest version of the Android mobile platform. Opera Mini, according to the Operaticians, is "the first Web browser alternative on Android." A technical preview of Opera Mini was previously released for an earlier version of Android in April 2008.
Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software, says their support of the Android platform "helps fulfill our mission to be available on more platforms, for more devices and reach more users, anywhere in the world."
Opera Mini 4.2 adds more language versions and skin selections. Data is compressed before it is sent to the phone in an effort to keep end-user costs low, company officials say, "since the data delivered is kept to a minimum."
Languages include the recently added Amharic, Armenian, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kirghiz, Lingala, Marathi, Malayalam, Mongolian, Oriya, Punjabi, Pashto, Sinhala, Tajik, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Uzbek, Khmer, Kashmiri, Lao and Turkmen.
Be honest now - how many of those 24 languages did you know existed? First Coffee got 18.
The product includes Opera Link support for notes, allowing users to sync their notes between the PC and Opera Mini. Opera reports that 21 million unique users browsed five billion pages in October 2008 alone, "totaling a 490 percent increase since October 2007."
People using the Sprint Instinct can upgrade their firmware and download Opera Mini at the link.
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We interrupt this column to remind readers that this is a Customer Relationship Management column, as noted above. Those inquiring about the Christian Rugby Mission in Fiji's 10s rugby tournament, organized with the aim of helping youths paralyzed from rugby and orphans, please hit the link and support this worthy CRM cause. Thank you.
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Ignify, a Microsoft Gold Partner specializing in CRM and other products for the mid-market, has been put by Deloitte L.L.P. on the Technology Fast 500 list.
To determine the fastest growing companies, Ignify officials say, Deloitte calculated the revenue growth percentage over five years (2003-2007), with Ignify's total growth at 1983.23 percent or an average of 123 percent per quarter.
The vendor has also recently announced expansion into the Chicago region, recruited more team members at its Nashville office, added new customers to its roster such as Clipper Corporation and started new enterprise projects at existing customers such as Rand McNally.
The Fast 500 ranks the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications and life sciences companies in North America as compiled from Deloitte's regional North American Fast 50 programs, where nominations submitted directly to the Fast 500, and public company database research. Companies are selected based on percentage revenue growth from 2003 to 2007.
Entrants must own proprietary intellectual property or proprietary technology that contributes to a significant portion of the company's operating revenues, or devote a significant proportion of revenues to the research and development of technology. Using other companies' technology or intellectual property in a unique way does not qualify.
Base-year operating revenues must be at least $50,000 or $75,000 Canadian, two hub caps and a hot toddy. Current-year operating revenues must be at least $5 million. Companies must be in business a minimum of five years, and they must be headquartered within North America.
Ignify attributes the company's growth to several key elements, including the ability to execute enterprise ERP, SharePoint and CRM implementations using both onsite and offshore resources, as well as the success of its flagship e-commerce platform, Ignify eCommerce.
As a Microsoft Gold and Sage Certified Partner, the Ignify eCommerce platform integrates with all Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Sage ERP product lines.
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In response to reader inquiries, management would like to clarify that this is not a Crew Resource Management column, anybody wanting CRM news from the Dubai Helishow 2008 please follow the link. Thank you.
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Open Solutions, a vendor of technologies for financial services providers, has announced a reseller agreement with Panini, a distributed capture technology provider.
Open Solutions will use Panini's Vision X check scanner to offer a product for remote deposit and branch image capture to its bank and credit union clients.
Tim Clewley, senior vice president and general manager, Open Solutions Imaged Payment Technologies Group, says the vendor's clients "have embraced distributed capture technology and our products, combined with Panini's, help position them more competitively in their respective markets."
Open Solutions' IseDeposit and ISBranch products, along with the Panini Vision X, allow financial institutions and corporations to electronically process and depositing checks.
According to Ron Young, Open Solutions' VP, product strategy and management, "our clients have invested in our remote deposit and branch capture products," and with Panini's check scanners they can use Check 21.
Founded in Turin, Italy, Panini has been in business for more than sixty years. Panini North America, a wholly owned subsidiary, sells check capture products.
