The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Creedence Clearwater Revival's last great album, Cosmo's Factory -- and what a great one it was:
The Long Reach Corporation has announced the next generation of its flagship product, info@hand, a Customer Relationship and Business Management (CRBM) System for small and medium-sized businesses.
The application blends Customer Relationship Management (CRM) features with extended business management capabilities for Order Management, Project & Resource tracking, Customer Service, and Human Resources, company officials claim.
Info@hand differs from conventional CRM products in that it offers key features that enable small and medium businesses to "capitalize on their ability to be nimble -- and outmaneuver larger companies," company officials say, adding that info@hand does this by "eliminating common small-business bottlenecks in finance and administrative areas."
It allows users to create quotes or invoices quickly for clients, and then synchronize them later into a familiar accounting system for tracking by administrative staff.
The product also offers comprehensive project management capabilities such as timesheets, project costing and invoicing; fully integrated customer service management with an automatic assignment mode that pairs cases with the most qualified technicians; and strong international support.
Info@hand is sold for a one-time customer fee of $250 per user, which includes specific software for mobile access (info@hand Mobile) and the Joomla-based info@hand Customer Portal (which allows clients to interact with a controlled subset of their account data within the CRM). Many other CRM products charge additional fees per customer linked via the portal.
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Callidus Software and Salesforce.com have announced the availability of the Callidus TrueComp Suite for AppExchange.
The Callidus TrueComp Suite for AppExchange is designed to "help companies of all sizes to align their sales objectives with business strategy," company officials say. Integrated into salesforce.com's on-demand platform, the TrueComp Suite for AppExchange is available for deployment on the AppExchange.
"The AppExchange is becoming an increasingly important platform for on-demand application integration," said Denis Pombriant, managing principal of the Beagle Research Group, LLC a CRM market research firm and consultancy.
The Callidus SPM product uses hard business data instead of sales forecasts. The TrueComp Suite for AppExchange puts aspects of the SPM process -- real-time sales performance management, analytics, quota and territory planning, incentive management and execution -- together in a single product.
The product's claimed benefits include planning of sales and incentive strategies, execution of sales incentive plans to ensure sales incentives are in line with latest corporate objectives, that they are spent accurately and wisely, and that less time is spent on administration and more on driving business performance.
…
Sage Software has announced that Coverall Cleaning Concepts, a commercial cleaning franchise company, has selected the Sage SalesLogix CRM product to manage its sales processes.
SyncSite, a Sage CRM Solutions Business partner, was selected by Coverall to implement Sage SalesLogix at its 23 regional support centers, including wireless laptop synchronization support for 110 field sales representatives. Coverall has 200 Sage SalesLogix users in all.
"We compared different CRM packages and found that Sage SalesLogix delivered the best fit for our industry and sales model," said Ivan Sosa, IT Director for Coverall Cleaning Concepts. The company next plans to have SyncSite integrate Sage SalesLogix with its in-house billing and customer service systems.
"Investments in technology have become a significant differentiator for us, which is not the norm for franchisors in the commercial office cleaning industry," explained Sosa.
…
Cloud9 Analytics, a vendor of on-demand analytic applications for Salesforce.com customers, has announced that it closed a $5 million round of Series A funding. InterWest Partners led the round, with participation from Leapfrog Ventures.
The financing will enable the company to bring to market a family of on-demand applications in the burgeoning Sales Performance Management (SPM) category, company officials say.
The idea behind Cloud9 is for sales teams to learn from the past and predict the future to accelerate sales cycles, uncover new revenue opportunities, promote team selling, and improve revenue predictability -- "all without IT involvement," company officials say.
The company also announced that industry heavyweight Bruce Cleveland, a partner at InterWest Partners, has joined its board of directors. Directly prior to joining InterWest Partners, Cleveland held senior executive positions at CRM leader Siebel Systems.
At InterWest, Cleveland concentrates on investments in the software and services sector with a focus on analytic applications and software as a service (SaaS). "This company will do for analytics what Salesforce has done for CRM" Cleveland said.
…
Dow Jones & Company has announced today a new platform capability that offers a range of flexible integration options for Factiva SalesWorks, their collection of company, industry and executive news and information designed specifically to help salespeople increase productivity.
The integration options are currently available in beta to Factiva SalesWorks customers. Organizations can use the platform to configure business information to deploy to a portal, intranet or CRM, or as a widget, to meet their specific business requirements.
The simplified integration capability uses Web 2.0 technologies, which allow organizations to focus less on complex Web services development and more on implementing sales intelligence.
Additionally, developers will be able to use JavaScript Object Notation and a Representational State Transfer-like model, a simple, lightweight data format better suited to Web development. By supporting JavaScript more natively, company officials believe, integration of rich business information and sales intelligence is "more accessible via client-side browser development as opposed to complex server-side development."
According to industry analyst firm, IDC, most business professionals spend upwards of 25 percent of their work week looking for internal and external information.
…
As part of a new pricing strategy, Zultys Technologies has announced a new U.S. price list and quotation tool covering its entire family of award-winning VoIP solutions.
Effective August 1, a new, simplified 2007 U.S. price list will combine all MX systems, phones and peripherals into one four-page document. Along with the new Z-Figurator quotation tool, these new sales tools will offer the promotional bundles and quantity discounts designed to give channel partners "flexibility and agility," according to Zultys officials. All necessary software enabling licenses are now automatically included with all interface cards and hard drives.
With the new Zultys sales tools, resellers have the ability to configure systems by identifying the number of users, CO circuits, and optional applications. This tool includes a discount and margin manager, as well as a capacity calculator that details the total port and user licenses enabled. This eliminates the possibility of under- or over-selling a Zultys product.
The Long Reach Corporation has announced the next generation of its flagship product, info@hand, a Customer Relationship and Business Management (CRBM) System for small and medium-sized businesses.
The application blends Customer Relationship Management (CRM) features with extended business management capabilities for Order Management, Project & Resource tracking, Customer Service, and Human Resources, company officials claim.
Info@hand differs from conventional CRM products in that it offers key features that enable small and medium businesses to "capitalize on their ability to be nimble -- and outmaneuver larger companies," company officials say, adding that info@hand does this by "eliminating common small-business bottlenecks in finance and administrative areas."
It allows users to create quotes or invoices quickly for clients, and then synchronize them later into a familiar accounting system for tracking by administrative staff.
The product also offers comprehensive project management capabilities such as timesheets, project costing and invoicing; fully integrated customer service management with an automatic assignment mode that pairs cases with the most qualified technicians; and strong international support.
Info@hand is sold for a one-time customer fee of $250 per user, which includes specific software for mobile access (info@hand Mobile) and the Joomla-based info@hand Customer Portal (which allows clients to interact with a controlled subset of their account data within the CRM). Many other CRM products charge additional fees per customer linked via the portal.
…
Callidus Software and Salesforce.com have announced the availability of the Callidus TrueComp Suite for AppExchange.
The Callidus TrueComp Suite for AppExchange is designed to "help companies of all sizes to align their sales objectives with business strategy," company officials say. Integrated into salesforce.com's on-demand platform, the TrueComp Suite for AppExchange is available for deployment on the AppExchange.
"The AppExchange is becoming an increasingly important platform for on-demand application integration," said Denis Pombriant, managing principal of the Beagle Research Group, LLC a CRM market research firm and consultancy.
The Callidus SPM product uses hard business data instead of sales forecasts. The TrueComp Suite for AppExchange puts aspects of the SPM process -- real-time sales performance management, analytics, quota and territory planning, incentive management and execution -- together in a single product.
The product's claimed benefits include planning of sales and incentive strategies, execution of sales incentive plans to ensure sales incentives are in line with latest corporate objectives, that they are spent accurately and wisely, and that less time is spent on administration and more on driving business performance.
…
Sage Software has announced that Coverall Cleaning Concepts, a commercial cleaning franchise company, has selected the Sage SalesLogix CRM product to manage its sales processes.
SyncSite, a Sage CRM Solutions Business partner, was selected by Coverall to implement Sage SalesLogix at its 23 regional support centers, including wireless laptop synchronization support for 110 field sales representatives. Coverall has 200 Sage SalesLogix users in all.
"We compared different CRM packages and found that Sage SalesLogix delivered the best fit for our industry and sales model," said Ivan Sosa, IT Director for Coverall Cleaning Concepts. The company next plans to have SyncSite integrate Sage SalesLogix with its in-house billing and customer service systems.
"Investments in technology have become a significant differentiator for us, which is not the norm for franchisors in the commercial office cleaning industry," explained Sosa.
…
Cloud9 Analytics, a vendor of on-demand analytic applications for Salesforce.com customers, has announced that it closed a $5 million round of Series A funding. InterWest Partners led the round, with participation from Leapfrog Ventures.
The financing will enable the company to bring to market a family of on-demand applications in the burgeoning Sales Performance Management (SPM) category, company officials say.
The idea behind Cloud9 is for sales teams to learn from the past and predict the future to accelerate sales cycles, uncover new revenue opportunities, promote team selling, and improve revenue predictability -- "all without IT involvement," company officials say.
The company also announced that industry heavyweight Bruce Cleveland, a partner at InterWest Partners, has joined its board of directors. Directly prior to joining InterWest Partners, Cleveland held senior executive positions at CRM leader Siebel Systems.
At InterWest, Cleveland concentrates on investments in the software and services sector with a focus on analytic applications and software as a service (SaaS). "This company will do for analytics what Salesforce has done for CRM" Cleveland said.
…
Dow Jones & Company has announced today a new platform capability that offers a range of flexible integration options for Factiva SalesWorks, their collection of company, industry and executive news and information designed specifically to help salespeople increase productivity.
The integration options are currently available in beta to Factiva SalesWorks customers. Organizations can use the platform to configure business information to deploy to a portal, intranet or CRM, or as a widget, to meet their specific business requirements.
The simplified integration capability uses Web 2.0 technologies, which allow organizations to focus less on complex Web services development and more on implementing sales intelligence.
Additionally, developers will be able to use JavaScript Object Notation and a Representational State Transfer-like model, a simple, lightweight data format better suited to Web development. By supporting JavaScript more natively, company officials believe, integration of rich business information and sales intelligence is "more accessible via client-side browser development as opposed to complex server-side development."
According to industry analyst firm, IDC, most business professionals spend upwards of 25 percent of their work week looking for internal and external information.
…
As part of a new pricing strategy, Zultys Technologies has announced a new U.S. price list and quotation tool covering its entire family of award-winning VoIP solutions.
Effective August 1, a new, simplified 2007 U.S. price list will combine all MX systems, phones and peripherals into one four-page document. Along with the new Z-Figurator quotation tool, these new sales tools will offer the promotional bundles and quantity discounts designed to give channel partners "flexibility and agility," according to Zultys officials. All necessary software enabling licenses are now automatically included with all interface cards and hard drives.
With the new Zultys sales tools, resellers have the ability to configure systems by identifying the number of users, CO circuits, and optional applications. This tool includes a discount and margin manager, as well as a capacity calculator that details the total port and user licenses enabled. This eliminates the possibility of under- or over-selling a Zultys product.
