The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is an old favorite here at the Manhattan penthouse suite of offices for First Coffee: David Bowie's Station to Station. Never has cool, detached decadence sounded so good, so... emotionally appealing, especially if you substitute the live version of the title track from Stage for the studio cut:
NetSuite, no doubt timing the announcement for the middle of the Sapphire SAPfest, has announced some of "the latest" companies to select NetSuite over software provided by SAP.
NetSuite, no doubt timing the announcement for the middle of the Sapphire SAPfest, has announced some of "the latest" companies to select NetSuite over software provided by SAP.
Distribution Video & Audio, GestureTek and Schaeffer Oil are now using NetSuite's enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and e-commerce offerings "in a single on-demand application... at a fraction of the cost and administrative overhead of SAP," company officials say.
Guess their invitations to Sapphire got lost in the mail.
The NetSuite officials gleefully cite "new research from Macro 4, a UK-based global software company," claiming to find "a high degree of risk and complexity involved in most major SAP upgrades," including "the bulk of historical data clogging up their systems... the time that upgrades consume, the complexity involved and the staffing resources involved." They also fail to pass up the opportunity to remind you of the July 2008 report by Forrester Research finding the tipping point toward SaaS adoption is "the upgrade and application management requirements of on-premise" products, such as... oh, to pick a random example... SAP.
NetSuite claims that by providing ERP, CRM, and e-commerce in a single product, companies get a feature set "offered by legacy software developers, including multi-language, multi-currency international operations, full controls and compliance enforcement, and a 360-degree view of customers and prospects."
The NetSuite officials gleefully cite "new research from Macro 4, a UK-based global software company," claiming to find "a high degree of risk and complexity involved in most major SAP upgrades," including "the bulk of historical data clogging up their systems... the time that upgrades consume, the complexity involved and the staffing resources involved." They also fail to pass up the opportunity to remind you of the July 2008 report by Forrester Research finding the tipping point toward SaaS adoption is "the upgrade and application management requirements of on-premise" products, such as... oh, to pick a random example... SAP.
NetSuite claims that by providing ERP, CRM, and e-commerce in a single product, companies get a feature set "offered by legacy software developers, including multi-language, multi-currency international operations, full controls and compliance enforcement, and a 360-degree view of customers and prospects."
For those companies "already deeply reliant on SAP products" looking to switch to SaaS," NetSuite OneWorld for SAP offers integration for subsidiaries and corporate divisions which need their own capabilities "while maintaining transparency with the central system of record."
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NetSuite has also announced plans to hold an online NetSuite Career Fair for former Sage UK employees and Sage UK employees who were recently offered voluntary redundancy by Sage management. According to reporting in The Times cited by NetSuite officials, Sage would cut a further 600 positions this year, on top of cutting 400 staff last year.
About a fifth of the 1,000 jobs lost in 2008 and 2009, from Sage's 14,500-strong global workforce, will be made in Britain as part of a drive to reduce annual costs by an estimated £50 million.
NetSuite's European headquarters is in the UK. The vendor says it plans "continued expansion" of its workforce in the UK and across Europe. For information about the Career Fair, visit http://www.netsuite.com/careerfair .
NetSuite attributed the voluntary redundancy to "the declining demand for on-premise software," as well as "the company's poor rate of organic growth." According to IDC's 2009 software forecast cited by NetSuite officials, Software as a Service will experience over 40 percent growth while on-premise ERP will have less than one percent growth in 2009. NetSuite officials tout the fact that they have only "a single code base to maintain."
NetSuite's European headquarters is in the UK. The vendor says it plans "continued expansion" of its workforce in the UK and across Europe. For information about the Career Fair, visit http://www.netsuite.com/careerfair .
NetSuite attributed the voluntary redundancy to "the declining demand for on-premise software," as well as "the company's poor rate of organic growth." According to IDC's 2009 software forecast cited by NetSuite officials, Software as a Service will experience over 40 percent growth while on-premise ERP will have less than one percent growth in 2009. NetSuite officials tout the fact that they have only "a single code base to maintain."
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This release has new features across the Service Cloud, the Sales Cloud and the Force.com platform, company officials say, adding that the real time cloud infrastructure lets Salesforce.com "deliver approximately three major releases a year." One of the major new features touted in the release is the ability for customer service agents to collaborate in real-time with third party service partners on a single version of every case, giving everyone access to the same information.
The advantage of this is that "it lets customers run their business, not their software," according to media-shy Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO at Salesforce.com. Taking a leaf from NetSuite's SaaS-style hit-em-where-it-hurts line of promotion, Benioff says that Salesforce.com can provide "the latest innovations to all of our customers, without the hassles of upgrades and maintenance." He characterized Summer '09 as a "major product breakthrough at no additional cost."
Sheryl Kingstone of the Yankee Group, current holder of the Most Quoted CRM Analyst Alive title, calls Summer '09 a "revolution to the Service Cloud," since "now, in just a few clicks, companies can share case information in real-time with their partners, maintaining the validity of their own business processes while ensuring that customers receive the best service, regardless of which company they contact first."
The Service Cloud, Salesforce.com officials say, brings together cloud computing platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter "with traditional contact center channels like phone, e-mail and chat to capture every conversation and use every community expert in the cloud."
Sheryl Kingstone of the Yankee Group, current holder of the Most Quoted CRM Analyst Alive title, calls Summer '09 a "revolution to the Service Cloud," since "now, in just a few clicks, companies can share case information in real-time with their partners, maintaining the validity of their own business processes while ensuring that customers receive the best service, regardless of which company they contact first."
The Service Cloud, Salesforce.com officials say, brings together cloud computing platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter "with traditional contact center channels like phone, e-mail and chat to capture every conversation and use every community expert in the cloud."
Some features introduced for the Service Cloud with Summer '09 include the ability for customer service agents to trigger an e-mail alert to the appropriate person based on a change in the comments section of a case for them to respond to customer requests and issues. It also gives sales reps and managers "more powerful analytic tools," including new displays, colors and two entirely new chart types. And colleagues that sales reps bring in to assist in closing a deal will now have access to the deal information in the opportunities tab with Summer '09.
Salesforce.com's Summer '09 release is currently scheduled to be available to all 55,400 Salesforce.com customers in June 2009. Customers who purchase Salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Please visit for more information.
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Miller Heiman has announced the newest version of its sales planning and communication software, Sales Access Manager, for Salesforce.com subscribers, saying it has "improved visibility" to data for organizations operating with a Salesforce.com customer relationship management system using Miller Heiman's tools.
The update to Miller Heiman's Sales Access Manager sales process enablement tools, company officials say, provides quicker access to best practices from past worksheets and the ability to include any data into Salesforce.com reporting and dashboard systems, according to company officials: "Managers will notice a new feedback section and an additional field for review comments." The software populates both the CRM and the planning tools.
The enhanced software includes direct access to Miller Heiman's concept reinforcement modules, designed to provide reminders and best practices for program concepts to help support understanding and promote proper application. "For our clients who are using Salesforce.com, Sales Access Manager offers a way to increase their organization's adoption of both the sales process and CRM," says Aliena Martinez, senior director of products for Miller Heiman.
Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, Miller Heiman has additional corporate offices in the United Kingdom and Australia and offers programs worldwide in 15 languages.
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SprinxCRM has announced the launch of SprinxCRM Mobile for Windows Mobile.
"With a vast array of smartphones currently in use, we understand the need to make our mobile CRM as accessible as possible by achieving compatibility with as many instruments as possible," says Radko Jelinek, Sprinx' Director of Sales.
SprinxCRM has announced the launch of SprinxCRM Mobile for Windows Mobile.
"With a vast array of smartphones currently in use, we understand the need to make our mobile CRM as accessible as possible by achieving compatibility with as many instruments as possible," says Radko Jelinek, Sprinx' Director of Sales.
SprinxCRM Mobile officials say "marketing managers, sales representatives, technical consultants. . . indeed, anyone with designated clearance can now access information on their smartphone equipped with Windows Mobile." The product is an on-line, real-time Web-based tool."
Company officials say they will feature demos and free versions of SprinxCRM Mobile for Windows Mobile, SprinxCRM Mobile for BlackBerry Smartphones, Sprinx in Sync with Microsoft Office Outlook and "other products comprising their suite of CRM" at Interop Las Vegas.
Sprinx Systems was founded in 1996 in the Czech Republic, and is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
Company officials say they will feature demos and free versions of SprinxCRM Mobile for Windows Mobile, SprinxCRM Mobile for BlackBerry Smartphones, Sprinx in Sync with Microsoft Office Outlook and "other products comprising their suite of CRM" at Interop Las Vegas.
Sprinx Systems was founded in 1996 in the Czech Republic, and is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
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SAP AG and Research In Motion have announced the availability of a product that provides customers with access to the SAP Customer Relationship Management on BlackBerry smartphones.
SAP AG and Research In Motion have announced the availability of a product that provides customers with access to the SAP Customer Relationship Management on BlackBerry smartphones.
The new BlackBerry Sales Client for SAP CRM is now available from RIM, giving sales reps access to customer information in SAP CRM with basically the experience they get from BlackBerry smartphones. Officials of both firms say the product uses the security, management capabilities and efficiency of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution, as well as "a number of innovations for mobile CRM."
Instant Access to Up-to-Date Information - In just one or two clicks, users can gain access to up-to-date client information from a BlackBerry smartphone, including contacts, sales leads and logged activities. This seamless and intuitive CRM experience is made possible through deep integration between the SAP CRM application, the BlackBerry Sales Client for SAP CRM and core BlackBerry smartphone applications.
It can push customer data updates in the SAP CRM system to the user, as well as push sales leads to the sales representative's BlackBerry smartphone inbox with one-click access. Needless to say it enables people's CrackBerry habits by providing contacts and account information continuously on them as well, and a local cache system allows access to certain information even if the user is outside of network coverage. Securitywise, it has end-to-end encryption for customer information, whether stored on a BlackBerry smartphone, in transit or in the SAP CRM application. IT administrators can also deploy the BlackBerry Sales Client for SAP CRM to users over the air.
