The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Leo Kottke's One Guitar, No Vocals. It's a fine album for someone who doesn't like jazz (First Coffee does, but we're just saying) and who wants good music at work that's not soporific wallpaper:

ILinc, which sells Web and video conferencing software and services, has announced that iLinc for Salesforce had been named the "App of the Week" by Salesforce.com.

 

This is a designation given to a Software-as-a-Service application that integrates with the Salesforce CRM platform. You can get it from the Force.com AppExchange.

 

The software vendor noted that iLinc for Salesforce app integrate Webinar data with existing Salesforce CRM data, with the ability to launch virtual meetings directly from Salesforce Lead and Contact records was also a key feature.

James M. Powers, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of iLinc, described the product as combining a Web conferencing platform with real-time data management, letting companies deliver "high-impact Webinars, sales demos and product training sessions while keeping the sales and customer support teams informed."

The idea behind this, company officials say, is that by moving Webinars and online training sessions to the iLinc platform, customers get to integrate two business systems as well as "the visibility into online event intelligence that they need."

Built using the Force.com platform, as well as the native Apex and Visual Force languages, iLinc for Salesforce is available for test drive and deployment on the AppExchange.

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Here's a rhetorical question if First Coffee's ever heard it: "Many of us get frustrated when dealing with contact centers - but do you ever find yourself swearing at the agent, or simply hanging up?"

 

We'd like to see the honest hand of anyone except our dear saint of a mother (mutterings after hanging up pleasantly don't count) who can truthfully -- truthfully -- answer "no." Now we find that's maybe because First Coffee's mother isn't Scottish. Or Welsh.

New research by Corizon reveals that among Brits, "Scots are the most likely to use 'inappropriate language' when talking to a contact center agent (15 percent), while the Welsh are the most prone to hanging up in frustration (49 percent)." 

Corizon describes its business as "bringing together elements of other software applications in 'enterprise mashups'" for contact centers.

Conducted during August 2009, the study of 90 contact center managers and 2,100 consumers found that Scots are the most likely to use inappropriate language (15 percent), followed by Londoners (12 percent), and that 18-30 year-olds are the most likely age group to use inappropriate language. First Coffee supposes that a "London-dwelling 23-year old Scot!" is a term of particularly scathing opprobrium among call center agents.

 

Welsh people are most likely to hang up on an agent (51 percent), followed by Easterners (49 percent), while Midlanders and Southerners are most likely to hang up before speaking to an agent (61 percent each).

First Coffee would have guessed the Irish for most likely to use inappropriate language -- and they very well may be. Based on First Coffee's recent trip to the Emerald Isle he would have no problem believing that the only reason the Irish don't rank first is because nobody can tell what the heck they're saying when they're riled up.

Men are more likely than women to use inappropriate language (12 percent compared with 7 percent) -- shock shock there -- but in a genuine surprise, women are more likely than men to hang up before speaking to an agent, although not by much -- 60 percent compared with 57 percent.

 

The survey, a joint project of Corizon and YouGov, found that there is, to use the technical term, "plenty" of frustration with contact center technology, at both ends of the telephone line -- nearly 75 percent of contact center managers said their agents use an average of five different software applications in a typical working day, with one claiming to use as many as eighteen. That's right -- 18.

 

Corizon is headquartered in London. They presumably avoid hiring 18-30 year old Scots who live locally to man the phones.
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Staying on the Salesforce and British themes today, Admiral Technology officials say they're focusing the company's attention on the Small and Medium Sized Business (SMB) market by providing enterprise class consulting to the Salesforce.com community "without attracting the traditional software consultancy price tag."

 

First Coffee saw where the New England Patriots poleaxed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 35-7 at London's Wembley Stadium yesterday, evidently in an effort to show Brits that we Americans can offer sporting events as dull as 1-1 soccer ties as well, maybe that's where all this Anglophilia comes from.

Is First Coffee the only one who thinks it rather droll that the NFL sends a team named "New England" to Ye Olde England, and one named the "Patriots," defined as "the guys who kicked you out of America?"

In announcing "RapidForce," which Admiral describes as "a range of fixed fee, fixed scope implementation and support packages to bridge the gap between the desires of companies to improve their customer relationship management (CRM) strategy," company officials say it comes in "a number of formats, starting with a One Day Quick Win option."

Nigel Fisher, Director at Admiral Technology, says their Bronze, Silver and Gold packages "reflect the different editions of Salesforce.com," touting their "predictable outcome and cost."

 

With more than 16 years in the European JD Edwards community, Nigel Fisher launched Admiral Technology to "concentrate on Software-as-a Service," he says: "It is clear that management have a desire and a need for alternatives to traditional on-premise software solutions to run their businesses. The current economic climate means that everyone wants to generate and hold on to as much cash as they can."

Subscription-based products, he says, fit this bill since they "do not require capital intensive investments in architecture and support personnel."

And of course the fact that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' owners, the Glazer family, also own Manchester United is purely a coincidence.

As Fisher observes correctly, SMB's face a lot of the same problems and issues bigger companies do with CRM-related issues, and Fisher thinks they may even have an advantage: "They can make the decisions and take the actions to get things done. They are often more flexible and less bureaucratic and this in itself makes them more responsive."

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Net-Results, a company with no discernible overt connections to Salesforce.com or Britain, in the business of selling sales and marketing software products, has released the 2.4 version of its proprietary marketing automation platform.

 

Company officials say it uses social media applications to help convert prospects and leads into customers.

The product's tracking capability and incorporation of social networking tools "allows users to understand the interests and focus of prospects at an individualized level while maintaining the service's trademark usability," company officials say, referring to the fact that its Visitor Center and Contact Profiles now include integration with such apps as Twitter, LinkedIn and Jigsaw.

"The Net-Results platform is all about listening to prospects and customers, understanding, and responding intelligently," says Net-Results Founder and CEO Michael Ward. 

As described by company officials, the product "listens" as prospects and customers interact with Web sites and marketing campaigns i"n real time, providing actionable information at the individual level."

 

One of the benefits of the 2.4 release, they point out, is that users can hit a given prospect's LinkedIn profile and recent Twitter updates, thereby finding out all about how funny their cat is, what they're watching on TV, having for dinner and how many times they laugh out loud in any given 20 minutes.

Founded in 2003, Net-Results' product starts at $99 per month.

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Oh here we go, back to Old Blighty: From London comes the news that CRM vendor StayinFront has announced that Euphony Communications, a telecom vendor, has deployed the latest version of its flagship product, StayinFront CRM 11, across their European offices.

Euphony initially launched StayinFront CRM 11 in its Benelux operations. Evidently things went well enough there -- hey if it flies in Belgium it'll fly anywhere -- to where Euphony has adopted StayinFront CRM 11 as the platform for sales and customer service management throughout their operations.

Euphony's core business is the resale of land line (CPS) telephony, Internet access (dial-up and ADSL), pre- and post-paid mobile, and energy services, such as gas and electricity. The company likes to focus on residential consumers and the small business sector in Ireland, U.K., Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal and the Czech Republic.

The StayinFront CRM system has also been integrated with Euphony's back-office systems that manage provisioning, billing and finance, according to company officials.

Nigel Huxtable, vice president, Sales EMEA of StayinFront -- "Nigel" does appear to be a fairly beloved name over there, doesn't it? -- says Euphony benefits from the fact that StayinFront CRM 11 combines CRM and analytics into one system making business intelligence data readily accessible, "without the monetary investment and time requirements of configuration."

Headquartered in Fairfield, New Jersey, StayinFront has offices in Illinois, the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand.

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It's a well-established policy here at First Coffee that if you're a tech firm doing something good to "give back to the community," as the saying goes, we'll give you a bit of a shout-out here. To that end, then, a tip of the coffee pot to Tahitian Noni International, whose sales and service operators have been raising money to help Community Action Services of Provo, Utah, which offers local food bank services for Utah, Wasatch, and Summit counties. 

Many groups do special projects to help people in need around Christmas, so in October they tend to stock up, "leaving donations in October far short of what food banks need," according to Tahitian Noni officials.

What is "noni," you ask? First Coffee didn't know either, but according to What Is Noni? it's a natural white fruit about the size as a potato which "has a bitter taste and doesn't smell good."

 

But it's useful as a dietary supplement, evidently, and TNI was founded to "introduce the benefits of noni to the world outside Tahiti," according to company officials. The company itself was founded by two food research scientists in 1995. Headquartered in Provo, it has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Germany, Tahiti, Japan, and China and sales offices in more than 30 countries worldwide.

So the sales and service agents at Tahitian Noni International have been holding special activities for the last three months to benefit the local charity. August was their "money war" spare change challenge, company officials say, "where they gathered over a thousand dollars in mostly quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies."

In September, they raised an additional one thousand dollars by holding seven separate fundraising lunches at Tahitian Noni International Corporate Headquarters. October was "toilet paper" month, where they had over 1,000 rolls of toilet paper donated to the cause.

 

And it worked, we're happy to say. The money raised purchased 120 jars of peanut butter, 1,752 cans of food (vegetables, fruits, soups, tuna, beans and the like), 90 gallons of powdered milk, 90 quarts of juice, 117 boxes of cereal and 152 boxes of mac and cheese.

 

Hey toss in a few cases of beer and ramen noodles and you have a college student's yearly diet.

As well as the 1,037 rolls of toilet paper.

All of the articles were delivered to Community Action Services in Provo, but they're not done yet: "Sales and service agents are now looking at how they can help during the upcoming holiday season as well."