The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is an unjustly overlooked Allman Brothers album, "Seven Turns" - whose title track is a personal favorite of TMCnet Editor Michael Dinan - and their studio high point between "Brothers & Sisters" and "Hittin' The Note":
From England comes the news that Serversys Limited, a Reading-based business systems company, has announced a merger with opportunIT Limited, a London Docklands-based CRM consultancy and software provider.
Since both Serversys Limited , established in 1999, and opportunIT, established in 1998, work the customer-focused business development side of the street, it was probably a logical move.
Serversys Director, Stuart Lawrence, said with the addition of opportunIT's director Steve Blunn to the Board of Directors, "joining Phil Catterall and I, Serversys will have one of the strongest management structures in the CRM market place today."
The idea behind the merger is to "provide the infrastructure" for both companies to "build on their current positions" in the CRM business, according to Serversys officials, adding that "it will also facilitate the growth of the existing hand-held software technology division of Serversys."
The merger is effective immediately, and the company will trade as Serversys Limited. It will operate out of both premises, London and Reading.
Serversys sells integrated CRM, customer service and custom-built management products to small and mid-sized enterprises across all industry sectors
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SprinxCRM has announced the launch of SprinxCRM Mobile optimized for BlackBerry smartphones, so if you have SprinxCRM you can now access your customer data and business products without having to overcome your BlackBerry addiction.
"As the amount of available and vital customer data has grown, so too has the demand for its immediate access," noted Radko Jelinek, Sprinx' Director of Sales.
SprinxCRM Mobile lets users "work with CRM contacts, events, and tasks in a mobile environment," according to the Sprinxers: "Managers, sales representatives, technical consultants, service technicians, anyone with designated clearance can now get access to information on their BlackBerry," company officials say, adding that "SprinxCRM Mobile is an on-line, real-time Web-based product."
The single-user, unlimited version is free to download, and, as a special promotion to introduce this new tool to corporate customers, SprinxCRM is offering a free trial or 90 days for as many as five users per company.
Sprinx Systems was founded in 1996 in the Czech Republic. Today it's a worldwide provider of CRM products and related business marketing applications. It's also a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
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Convergys Corporation has announced enhancements to its Real-Time Convergent Charging product in an effort, company officials say, to "improve scalability, reliability, and speed-to-market for communications service providers in their delivery of real-time services."
It's currently deployed in a number of service providers throughout the world, according to the Convergians, used for voice, data, and content services -- "regardless of payment type or contract status" -- in a single database. The enhanced version has pre-integrated network control capability, supports 3GPP standard network interfaces such as WIN, CAMEL, and DIAMETER and offers pre-integrated payment processing and Self-Care capability.
Since both Serversys Limited , established in 1999, and opportunIT, established in 1998, work the customer-focused business development side of the street, it was probably a logical move.
Serversys Director, Stuart Lawrence, said with the addition of opportunIT's director Steve Blunn to the Board of Directors, "joining Phil Catterall and I, Serversys will have one of the strongest management structures in the CRM market place today."
The idea behind the merger is to "provide the infrastructure" for both companies to "build on their current positions" in the CRM business, according to Serversys officials, adding that "it will also facilitate the growth of the existing hand-held software technology division of Serversys."
The merger is effective immediately, and the company will trade as Serversys Limited. It will operate out of both premises, London and Reading.
Serversys sells integrated CRM, customer service and custom-built management products to small and mid-sized enterprises across all industry sectors
...
SprinxCRM has announced the launch of SprinxCRM Mobile optimized for BlackBerry smartphones, so if you have SprinxCRM you can now access your customer data and business products without having to overcome your BlackBerry addiction.
"As the amount of available and vital customer data has grown, so too has the demand for its immediate access," noted Radko Jelinek, Sprinx' Director of Sales.
SprinxCRM Mobile lets users "work with CRM contacts, events, and tasks in a mobile environment," according to the Sprinxers: "Managers, sales representatives, technical consultants, service technicians, anyone with designated clearance can now get access to information on their BlackBerry," company officials say, adding that "SprinxCRM Mobile is an on-line, real-time Web-based product."
The single-user, unlimited version is free to download, and, as a special promotion to introduce this new tool to corporate customers, SprinxCRM is offering a free trial or 90 days for as many as five users per company.
Sprinx Systems was founded in 1996 in the Czech Republic. Today it's a worldwide provider of CRM products and related business marketing applications. It's also a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
...
Convergys Corporation has announced enhancements to its Real-Time Convergent Charging product in an effort, company officials say, to "improve scalability, reliability, and speed-to-market for communications service providers in their delivery of real-time services."
It's currently deployed in a number of service providers throughout the world, according to the Convergians, used for voice, data, and content services -- "regardless of payment type or contract status" -- in a single database. The enhanced version has pre-integrated network control capability, supports 3GPP standard network interfaces such as WIN, CAMEL, and DIAMETER and offers pre-integrated payment processing and Self-Care capability.
It also uses performance improvements within Convergys Infinys Rating and Billing Manager to "improve both application scalability and total cost of ownership," company officials say.
In other Convergys news, the company has signed a multi-year contract with NTELOS for the product. The firm is a vendor of wireless and wireline communications services to consumers and businesses. Convergys will provide network call control, rating and charging, balance management, and customer care for NTELOS' prepaid customer base as well as serving as a service bureau, providing platform hosting and management of the product.
Frank Guido, President, NTELOS wireless, said the Convergys product's "flexible rating capabilities and real-time service control" will assist with their prepaid offerings.
In other Convergys news, the company has signed a multi-year contract with NTELOS for the product. The firm is a vendor of wireless and wireline communications services to consumers and businesses. Convergys will provide network call control, rating and charging, balance management, and customer care for NTELOS' prepaid customer base as well as serving as a service bureau, providing platform hosting and management of the product.
Frank Guido, President, NTELOS wireless, said the Convergys product's "flexible rating capabilities and real-time service control" will assist with their prepaid offerings.
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Yes, there's yet another add-on for Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Welcome the CRM Internet Gateway, designed and developed by KWizCom Corporation .
CIG is marketed as a product to help with "saving employee work time, eliminating the potential for human error in data entry, preserving data within the organization, enhancing usability and bringing greater productivity to organizations." If any of those interest you. If you think you could use any of those at your company, that is.
Anybody with experience using CRM has to like KWizCom's utterly dead-on diagnosis of how it usually works: "The technical elements of the system are put in place and then workers are trained in using it and making it part of their day to day workflow. At some point in the midst of this process users come up against a veritable brick wall. Suddenly the realization dawns: the CRM that so much was invested in is a stand-alone entity. Input is received from users, meaning that they are responsible for the upkeep of the database and using the information in it."
Does this sound like your company? Thank you, I see that hand.
What this new gateway product is basically designed to do is allow integration between Web site forms -- or any other Web system -- and Microsoft CRM 4.0. It lets users link multiple Web forms to Dynamics CRM, create any type of CRM entity (case, lead, customer, whatever) and run workflow rules in Dynamics CRM.
Organizations can now link their corporate website to the CRM so that, for example, when potential clients fill out an enquiry via the website their "contact us" form is not, as is the standard, submitted to a general "info@" e-mail inbox and lost for all eternity, but instead automatically becomes a CRM entity. The data submitted by the potential client automatically populates the correct fields in the CRM and becomes, for example a "New Lead".
What this new gateway product is basically designed to do is allow integration between Web site forms -- or any other Web system -- and Microsoft CRM 4.0. It lets users link multiple Web forms to Dynamics CRM, create any type of CRM entity (case, lead, customer, whatever) and run workflow rules in Dynamics CRM.
Organizations can now link their corporate website to the CRM so that, for example, when potential clients fill out an enquiry via the website their "contact us" form is not, as is the standard, submitted to a general "info@" e-mail inbox and lost for all eternity, but instead automatically becomes a CRM entity. The data submitted by the potential client automatically populates the correct fields in the CRM and becomes, for example a "New Lead".
The benefits should be fairly obvious: This reduces the need for data entry and attendant human error, as well as freeing employees to focus on higher level tasks, such as poring over their March Madness brackets.
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Okay, top this in the Didja Ever Think That'd Be An IPhone App: Knowledge Factories has announced the first public release of Mandarin FastTrack 1.0 that works with the iPhone. It's defined as "an effective and flexible conversation Chinese learning tool as well an easy-to-use English-to-Chinese dictionary and translator."
See, you don't have enough to do with your iPhone as it is, you need to use it to learn Chinese.
The vendor reaches for hyperbole in calling Chinese "the must-have language of the future," but are accurate in calling it "a definite advantage in a career in a global market." Mandarin FastTrack uses what they call "cognitive design" to help learners reach "at least conversational level."
The vendor reaches for hyperbole in calling Chinese "the must-have language of the future," but are accurate in calling it "a definite advantage in a career in a global market." Mandarin FastTrack uses what they call "cognitive design" to help learners reach "at least conversational level."
Perhaps a bit more realistically, the program can also be a talking English-to-Chinese dictionary and translator when traveling to Chinese-speaking regions.
The program content includes phonic lessons and exercises of all 21 initials and 36 finals, 1000+ words, terms, and short phrases in 16 categories, and two adjustable learning evaluation quizzes. Each learning item is "equipped with human audio model for listening practice," company officials say, adding that the recorder and playback functions are also built in each item for speaking practice: "In addition to the unlimited listening and speaking exercises, two quizzes of terms and phrases with adjustable size of contents put together all learning items of the program for learners to recap and evaluate their learning."
The program content includes phonic lessons and exercises of all 21 initials and 36 finals, 1000+ words, terms, and short phrases in 16 categories, and two adjustable learning evaluation quizzes. Each learning item is "equipped with human audio model for listening practice," company officials say, adding that the recorder and playback functions are also built in each item for speaking practice: "In addition to the unlimited listening and speaking exercises, two quizzes of terms and phrases with adjustable size of contents put together all learning items of the program for learners to recap and evaluate their learning."
And don't worry: You can always go back to the last item when their learning was interrupted and check which items are completed.
There's a free Lite version, and Mandarin FastTrack is available now for $18.99 -- "a price of a pizza," company officials say, adding that they're also developing the BlackBerry versions which should be available from May 2009.
There's a free Lite version, and Mandarin FastTrack is available now for $18.99 -- "a price of a pizza," company officials say, adding that they're also developing the BlackBerry versions which should be available from May 2009.
