The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is the late, great Warren Zevon's live album Stand In the Fire, recorded during one of his brief bouts with sobriety:
Rancho Cordova, California-based Pearson, a vendor of education technology, has announced a milestone in its SASI Customer First Program today -- 70 school divisions in the state of Virginia are migrating from the SASI student information system to Pearson's iWeb-based platform, PowerSchool Premier.
Rancho Cordova, California-based Pearson, a vendor of education technology, has announced a milestone in its SASI Customer First Program today -- 70 school divisions in the state of Virginia are migrating from the SASI student information system to Pearson's iWeb-based platform, PowerSchool Premier.
Pearson officials say the SASI Customer First Program is designed to "reward the loyalty of its SASI customers and provide them with updated technology."
In a related announcement Pearson has introduced the SIF Agent for PowerSchool Premier from Edustructures, adding SIF 2.0 capability and SIF 2.0r1 certification to PowerSchool Premier. The idea behind this is to let Virginia PowerSchool users "enhance performance and access to student, staff, and enrollment data." The product, company officials say, is built to meet specific SIF-based state reporting requirements for the Virginia Department of Education.
"Our district needed something to make data-driven decisions," said Kevin Harrison, Data Manager of Bedford County School District, adding that with PowerSchool and the updated SIF component, "we are more equipped" to comply with the state reporting requirements of Virginia.
PowerSchool Premier is described by company officials as a student information system "designed from the ground up" as a Web-based product offering access to real-time data via a standard Web browser, on a Mac or PC.
Pearson's brands include Scott Foresman, Prentice Hall, Addison Wesley, Benjamin Cummings, PEMSolutions, Stanford 10, SuccessNet, MyLabs, PowerSchool, SuccessMaker, and many others.
In a related announcement Pearson has introduced the SIF Agent for PowerSchool Premier from Edustructures, adding SIF 2.0 capability and SIF 2.0r1 certification to PowerSchool Premier. The idea behind this is to let Virginia PowerSchool users "enhance performance and access to student, staff, and enrollment data." The product, company officials say, is built to meet specific SIF-based state reporting requirements for the Virginia Department of Education.
"Our district needed something to make data-driven decisions," said Kevin Harrison, Data Manager of Bedford County School District, adding that with PowerSchool and the updated SIF component, "we are more equipped" to comply with the state reporting requirements of Virginia.
PowerSchool Premier is described by company officials as a student information system "designed from the ground up" as a Web-based product offering access to real-time data via a standard Web browser, on a Mac or PC.
Pearson's brands include Scott Foresman, Prentice Hall, Addison Wesley, Benjamin Cummings, PEMSolutions, Stanford 10, SuccessNet, MyLabs, PowerSchool, SuccessMaker, and many others.
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Wichita-based BoldChat has announced the release of their research on the effectiveness of live chat technology, saying they've found "a direct correlation between live chat and a growth in sales for online retailers."
Company officials give the example that "once a shopper has used live chat, more than two-thirds will actively look for Web sites that provide it as an option."
Bravestorm President and CEO Steve Castro-Miller said the goal of the project was to "quantitatively examine the efficacy of live chat through the filter of prospective buyer behavior. We were interested to know, for instance, how much of a role it plays in boosting conversions. We also wanted to understand whether live chat could be tied to brand loyalty."
Bravestorm President and CEO Steve Castro-Miller said the goal of the project was to "quantitatively examine the efficacy of live chat through the filter of prospective buyer behavior. We were interested to know, for instance, how much of a role it plays in boosting conversions. We also wanted to understand whether live chat could be tied to brand loyalty."
To this end, Castro-Miller says, the survey was structured to get "honest feedback straight from online consumers, and we believe the results provide insight into the positive impact that live chat software can deliver for online retailers."
Here's how it was done: In January 2009, Bravestorm funded a blind survey of more than 250 regular Internet shoppers using an opt-in, third party panel. Out of this live chat research, the firm drew five conclusions:
Live chat is influential during the sales cycle. Respondents indicated that live chat positively impacts their likelihood to purchase. "In fact," study officials said, "58 percent of the entire sample said that if a site offered live chat, that fact alone would positively influence their decision to make a purchase."
Online merchants not offering live chat are missing desirable opportunities. Those that shop more frequently online and those that spend more -- measured either by the average amount they spend when shopping, or the greatest amount they've ever transacted in a single purchase -- are more likely to choose live chat in sales interactions and they rank its positive influence much higher than other groups, study officials said.
Live chat has a loyalty effect, particularly with desirable shoppers. In general, say study officials, "chatters choose the technology over other methods during the sales cycle."
Live chat may be even more critical to service companies than it is to e-tailers. Study officials contend that many site features which respondents indicated would influence their decision to buy are "not relevant to service-only companies, such as product images or product catalogue searching. The found live chat's importance to be "greater for service organizations such as law firms, accountants, and others."
Here's how it was done: In January 2009, Bravestorm funded a blind survey of more than 250 regular Internet shoppers using an opt-in, third party panel. Out of this live chat research, the firm drew five conclusions:
Live chat is influential during the sales cycle. Respondents indicated that live chat positively impacts their likelihood to purchase. "In fact," study officials said, "58 percent of the entire sample said that if a site offered live chat, that fact alone would positively influence their decision to make a purchase."
Online merchants not offering live chat are missing desirable opportunities. Those that shop more frequently online and those that spend more -- measured either by the average amount they spend when shopping, or the greatest amount they've ever transacted in a single purchase -- are more likely to choose live chat in sales interactions and they rank its positive influence much higher than other groups, study officials said.
Live chat has a loyalty effect, particularly with desirable shoppers. In general, say study officials, "chatters choose the technology over other methods during the sales cycle."
Live chat may be even more critical to service companies than it is to e-tailers. Study officials contend that many site features which respondents indicated would influence their decision to buy are "not relevant to service-only companies, such as product images or product catalogue searching. The found live chat's importance to be "greater for service organizations such as law firms, accountants, and others."
Retailers with live chat can improve results by following consumer-driven best practices.
Bravestorm, makers of BoldChat, offers live communication software including... guess what? That's right -- live chat, click to call and email management tools which enable businesses to take control over customer interactions and drive sales for businesses conducting sales and support online. Bravestorm's suite of offerings is designed with a flexible breadth of capabilities that allow clients to customize and manipulate the software to meet their specific needs. The company is headquartered in Wichita, KS, with customers around the world. For more information about BoldChat, please visit www.boldchat.com or call 1-866-753-9933.
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Chicago-based Model Metrics, a cloud computing technology firm and Salesforce.com partner, has designed and launched a new donation management system for One Acre Fund built on the Force.com platform. The new system automates One Acre Fund's donation process, saving hours of time for what its officials say is its "lean staff."
The Fund is a non-profit organization working to end hunger in Africa. It provides farm training, seed, fertilizer and market access to what Fund officials characterize as "the chronically hungry on the continent." The organization has earned accolades for its sustainable business model that helps the poorest of the poor in Kenya and Rwanda.
The Fund is a non-profit organization working to end hunger in Africa. It provides farm training, seed, fertilizer and market access to what Fund officials characterize as "the chronically hungry on the continent." The organization has earned accolades for its sustainable business model that helps the poorest of the poor in Kenya and Rwanda.
One Acre Fund Director of Operations Justin Dunham Burt called the system "completely cutting edge and unprecedented for a nonprofit of our size," estimating that it saves the organization "ten hours a week."
In addition to using the Force.com platform, the new donation management system also uses complementary cloud computing technologies from vendors, including Authorize.net to manage payment, billing and receipt provisioning for donors. Model Metrics officials say they built the integrations between these platforms "to create truly best of breed cloud computing" for One Acre Fund.
Prior to implementation of the new system, donation information was downloaded to an SQL database from One Acre Fund's Web site and manually processed. The new way, information automatically flows between the site, Authorize.net, and the donation management system on the Force.com platform for one-time and monthly recurring donations, eliminating the need to manually prepare charge files.
In addition to using the Force.com platform, the new donation management system also uses complementary cloud computing technologies from vendors, including Authorize.net to manage payment, billing and receipt provisioning for donors. Model Metrics officials say they built the integrations between these platforms "to create truly best of breed cloud computing" for One Acre Fund.
Prior to implementation of the new system, donation information was downloaded to an SQL database from One Acre Fund's Web site and manually processed. The new way, information automatically flows between the site, Authorize.net, and the donation management system on the Force.com platform for one-time and monthly recurring donations, eliminating the need to manually prepare charge files.
Fund officials say they also appreciate the reduction in time spent updating donor and donation information, the smaller time frame between payment submission on the Web site and credit card processing and the "significant reduction in time required to respond to donors, update credit card information and provide year-end tax information."
Model Metrics donated half of the project fee to the One Acre Fund as part of its corporate giving initiative modeled after that of Salesforce.com. The Salesforce.com Foundation lays out a 1/1/1 model whereby it contributes 1 percent time, 1 percent equity and 1 percent product to its communities.
Model Metrics donated half of the project fee to the One Acre Fund as part of its corporate giving initiative modeled after that of Salesforce.com. The Salesforce.com Foundation lays out a 1/1/1 model whereby it contributes 1 percent time, 1 percent equity and 1 percent product to its communities.
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A "significant proportion" of India small and medium businesses, defined as those with up to 999 employees, are suffering right along with everyone else, with tighter cash flow and sharp declines in revenues brought on by cancelled orders or investment plans. Inventory constraints are another problem bedeviling SMBs in India, many are awash with excess products.
These are some of the findings in AMI's latest quarterly tracking study, 2009 Q-1 India SMB: "Impacts of a Game-Changing Economic Downturn: How to Market Effectively & Stay Competitive." The study tracks Indian SMBs during October - December 2008.
Working off the assumption that PC shipments within any country have a very close relationship with GDP and other economic indicators AMI forecasts, based on the current economic situation and India SMB spending in the last three months, that over the next three months "almost 23 percent of SMBs in India are likely to invest in basic IT products such as desktops." This is, AMI analysts say, a marginal drop from the purchases of the last three months.
Other consequences foreseen are lower employee hiring rates and a near-freeze in the addition of branches.
The study finds, probably not surprisingly, that India SMBs are adopting a wait and watch policy for new technology adoption. AMI's research finds that most have not cancelled or shelved their new technology adoption and purchase plans, but simply postponed them: "Future PC purchases by India SMBs are likely to be driven by enhancement of compliance requirements and adoption of various PC-based applications, e.g. accounting software."
Recommended for vendors seeking to sell to this market is identifying new bundling opportunities to repackage the offerings (hardware, software and/or services) into more complete IT packages that provide value-addition to customers yet enable significant cost cutting: "The 'pay as you use' model is gathering momentum since OPEX is being preferred to a greater extent than CAPEX. AMI's quarterly tracker survey finds that "significant proportions," over 17 percent, of SMBs indicate that they would be "very likely" to invest in software applications if they are available on a flexible monthly, per-user payment structure.
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Houston-based The Planet, an IT hosting vendor, has announced the general availability of its new Storage Cloud service. Customers can choose from an on-premise local node in The Planet's Dallas D2 data center, or from locations on the East or West Coasts, Europe or Asia, through its partnership with Nirvanix. The company also offers Storage Cloud options for organizations that do not require hosting.
Houston-based The Planet, an IT hosting vendor, has announced the general availability of its new Storage Cloud service. Customers can choose from an on-premise local node in The Planet's Dallas D2 data center, or from locations on the East or West Coasts, Europe or Asia, through its partnership with Nirvanix. The company also offers Storage Cloud options for organizations that do not require hosting.
Coupled with a server hosted at The Planet, customers get on-premise Network Attached Storage with the access and usage-based billing features of Storage Cloud. All Storage Cloud customers with servers hosted at The Planet are connected through its network. The service is being marketed as a way for customers to "eliminate the hassle of managing two separate invoices, one for on-premise file storage and another for cloud-based offerings," since The Planet Storage Cloud provides both services in a single account.
It isn't completely unknown for cloud storage platforms to surprise customers with inflated invoices due to unexpected and hidden transactional fees. Rob Walters, general manager for The Planet's Storage and Data Protection business, touts what he calls The Planet's "no-surprises philosophy" in avoiding such scenarios.
Pricing starts at 25 cents per gigabyte, with discounts as customers use more. It isn't out of line for other hosting companies to charge between 60 cents and $1 for equivalent NAS-type products. The Planet says bandwidth charges are incurred only for outbound-transactions, and all uploads to The Planet Storage Cloud node are free. The firm provides customers a single account for managing both their hosted environment and storage cloud platform, and the Storage Cloud platform is accessible through CIFS, NFS, FTP and HTTP, as well as an extensible API streamlining integration.
