By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is an old friend, Aimee Mann’s Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse:

ProTrak International has announced today that Hamilton Lane recently completed the installation of the ProTrak Advantage Enterprise CRM system to “help manage their new and existing prospect, client and consultant relationships,” according to ProTrak officials.

Hamilton Lane, with over 80 employees, provides discretionary and non-discretionary private equity asset management services to investors from offices in cities such as Philadelphia, San Francisco, London, Tel Aviv, and Singapore.

ProTrak Advantage will help Hamilton Lane with third-party marketing, mass mail and e-mail communications, managing complex people and business-to-business relationships, integration with incoming and outgoing Outlook e-mail, sales analysis and management reporting requirements, and Pipeline and Opportunity management, which was configured to Hamilton Lane’s specific needs.

Olin Honore, vice president of Information Technology at Hamilton Lane, said ProTrak was the one vendor he found with the “feature-rich product, proven scalability, and professional service organization that was necessary to support our enterprise-wide deployment.”

“For over 19 years now, we have maintained our focus solely on investment management firms,” said Simon Koziel, President of ProTrak.

With over $9.5 billion in private equity assets under management and the oversight of an additional $70 billion in advisory assets, Hamilton Lane is also responsible for over $16 billion in commitments to non-U.S. funds, principally in Western Europe and the United Kingdom, as well as in Asia, Japan, and Australia.
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CRM provider SyncSite has announced the formation of a partnership with Dresser & Associates, a vendor of human resource management software, and a Sage Abra HRMS partner.

SyncSite ranks as the second largest Sage CRM product provider in the country, providing CRM consulting, technology products, and managed services to global mid-market companies, from three locations in the Southeast.

The partnership will allow both companies to expand their product offerings, providing new and existing customers with CRM and HRMS systems. Both SyncSite and Dresser & Associates focus on the Sage Software line of business software; SyncSite offers Sage SalesLogix, SageCRM, and SageCRM.com, and Dresser & Associates delivers products based on Sage Abra HRMS.

Dresser & Associates initiated the relationship “in response to requests” from its new and existing clients for CRM advice and products, company officials say, adding that “partnering with SyncSite allows us to offer our customers more value.”

Nicholas Kyriazis, vice president and partner at SyncSite, said, “after our initial meetings we found that our two companies share similar methodologies and philosophies regarding customer service, and we happened to serve the same geographic areas.”

Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama with regional offices in Georgia and Florida, SyncSite serves clients in the Southeast and across the United States and Canada.
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Zilliant, a vendor of price optimization and price management software for business-to-business companies, announced what company officials call “record results” for the first half of 2007.

Year over year sales for the period increased by more than 150 percent, reflecting overall market growth as well as Zilliant’s success in the manufacturing, distribution, and industrial service verticals, company officials say.

Industry analysts expect the rapid adoption of pricing technology to continue because of its bottom-line benefits. “Pricing management and optimization software is emerging as a key technology to help companies increase their revenue and margins,” said Robert DeSisto, vice president of CRM for Gartner, Inc., in its June 2007 “Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2007” report.

In addition to strong financial performance, Zilliant first-half highlights include two major product releases — two releases of its pricing suite, and two new pricing applications: ZPPS Deal Manager for Agreements, which provides decision support and process automation capabilities for sales agreements and contracts; and ZPPS Pricing Information Manager, which helps companies enrich product master data with pricing attributes and relationships.

The firm also added Walter Sharp as vice president of North American Sales and Andy Dvorocsik as vice president of Pricing Excellence. Dvorocsik joined Zilliant from Accenture, where he was a partner in their pricing strategy group.

Zilliant said it “continues to see strong traction in the U.K. and Europe,” closing deals and implementing pricing technology at manufacturers and distributors.
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Expanding its partner channel with an eye to mid-size companies and small businesses, SAP America, a subsidiary of SAP AG , has announced the introduction of seven new SAP All-in-One VARs, 26 new Business One partners, and expanded coverage for nine existing SAP Business One partners serving customers across the United States.

The new and expanded partnerships are intended to give SAP a bigger stake in the vertical industry requirements of midsize and small customers. The announcement was made at SAP Partner Summit, being held July 30-31, in Washington, D.C.

SAP Business One and SAP All-in-One products are pitched at small businesses and midsize companies, promising quick implementations, affordable pricing and flexible process alignment. By joining SAP PartnerEdge, members of the SAP partner channel receive training, product development tools and marketing opportunities.

“Initially joining SAP PartnerEdge to deliver SAP Business One to local small companies, we were quickly impressed by the company’s product expertise and its strong track record of creating new opportunities for its partners,” said Rob Delf, partner, Business Systems, Tryarc.

By using an enterprise SOA, SAP All-in-One partner products let mid-size companies “adopt innovations and hone micro-vertical processes over time,” minimizing the costs and disruption to ongoing operations, SAP officials say.
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CRM consulting firm Business & Decision Group has announced the completion of the Inforte acquisition. The terms of the takeover, agreed in May were ratified on July 26. The transaction was seen as a way for Paris-based Business & Decision to reinforce its presence in the United States, United Kingdom, and India. Moreover, this agreement enables the Group to establish itself in Germany.

For Inforte, known for its Business Intelligence and CRM domain expertise, the merger will enable the company to “attain a critical mass in order to carry out larger projects,” and “shared knowledge with the Business & Decision Group will lead to a new outlook on German and North American markets,” according to B&D officials.
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There’s an excellent profile of Oracle’s “secret weapon,” president Charles Phillips, by Mary Hayes, well worth a read. It tells how Phillips was plucked from Wall Street by Larry Ellison to three years ago, and how well the rather daring move has worked.

Lots of good stuff on how Phillips plans to steer the Oracle ship while Larry’s out racing his yacht. Money quote: “If you looked at the past 10 years and picked one executive who has really excelled in the IT business, it has to be Charles,” says customer Ralph Szygenda, CIO of General Motors. “He listens. He addresses problems.”

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