The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is one of the better musical parodies to be found outside of Weird Al Yankovic, himself the reincarnation of all-time master Spike Jones -- Cheech and Chong's "Born In East L.A."

Webcom, a vendor of quote-to-order enablement and a Certified Partner in Oracle PartnerNetwork, has announced that Triveni Digital, a subsidiary of LG Electronics is implementing the Webcom WebSource CPQ product to "simplify the quote-to-order process."

Triveni Digital works in the digital TV market. "With nearly every television station in the U.S. using one of our products and now concentrating on the next phase of our company's development, we needed a quote-to-order product flexible in delivering our product offerings to a diverse customer set through both direct and indirect channels," said Ralph Bachofen, Director of Product Management and Marketing at Triveni Digital.

Bachofen said Triveni "found the integrated Siebel CRM On Demand and WebSource CPQ product, and the implementation expertise of Webcom to be a potent combination in addressing those needs."

WebSource CPQ is designed to "help drive increased revenues and margins, increased customer satisfaction, reduced costs and improved productivity," company officials say. "Addressing the complexities raised by multiple product choices, sales hierarchy, discounting rules, pricing rules and multiple channels, companies can automate quoting, revisions and the approval process."

WebSource CPQ not only handles the traditional bill of material, routing and diagram generation tasks frequently associated with product configurators, but also addresses the guided selling, proposal generation and multi-level channel management tasks associated with sales configurators, company officials say.

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In yet another sign of the growing popularity of CRM for the public sector, the United Welsh Housing Association has signed a contract for Customer Relationship Management systems in order to, well, improve its customer service. Encouraging that government agencies are even thinking in those terms now, isn't it?

IBS OPENSystems will provide United Welsh with its OPENHousing, OPENFinancials, and OPENMobile software to "streamline document management, workflow processes and ultimately enhance the service provided to customers," IBS officials say.

IBS OPENSystems' software will go live in April 2008 and is expected to "generate efficiency gains across United Welsh's housing operations," agency officials say, adding that the product will "provide the 125 members of staff with a variety of enhancements from communication methods with customers and contractors, to superior streamlining of document management and workflow."

United Welsh is one of Wales' leading Housing Associations. They provide housing services to over 3,600 properties, providing "homes that people can afford to rent or buy." The organization also provides accommodation for older people through its Living+ scheme and for individuals with additional support needs.

Tracy Williams, ICT Manager for United Welsh, said the IBS product will "enable our staff to process documents such as invoices and bills more efficiently, whilst offering customers the ultimate service through our users' access to real-time data. Once the system is fully implemented, caller I.D. will be instantly recognized. The user will be able to view customer call history and details enabling requests to be dealt with more efficiently."

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Want to get in First Coffee? Just do some really cool thing for the community, like Altico Advisors, a Microsoft Certified Partner headquartered in Massachusetts, who's donating all proceeds from the Year End Class conducted every December for Microsoft Dynamics GP clients to the Central New England Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. You'll get a tip of the coffee pot.

"There are so many incredibly worthy causes that we could support. Choosing just one is always a difficult task. This year, once again, we chose an organization that is close to our hearts and has personal meaning for us," says Mike Kean, President of Altico Advisors. "My wife Susan and I have personally raised money for MS by participating in the annual MS Bike Ride -- cycling 150 miles over 2 days."

Altico co-founder and CEO Rich Maloney concurs: "This act of annual giving is another way of supporting the communities we serve. I'm proud to be part of a company that has its heart in the right place."

Central New England Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Program Director Judy Cotton sees the direct impact of the Chapter's efforts. "The programs we fund," Judy explains, "provide concrete support in the form of home care and modifications that allow people with MS to live independently and safely at home. But there are intangibles, too. You can't measure or put a price on emotional support."

Altico Advisors implements and supports business, financial, and customer management software products for mid-market companies throughout New England. Altico is a Microsoft Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) and CRM systems for manufacturing, distribution, software development companies and service organizations.

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The Bonadio Group accounting firm has released a business intelligence and performance management system aimed at CPA firms.

Using the product, "managing partners, firm administrators, executive committees, engagement partners and other types of supervisors can look at data combined from their company's financial, time reporting, scheduling, CRM and billing systems," Bonadio officials say.

P3 Advanced Performance Management Solution for CPA Firms includes Salient Corp.'s performance management software tailored to the needs of CPA firms. The system offers access to business data and multi-dimensional analytic capabilities across different practice management applications.

CPA firms can use it to compare and rank clients for purposes of profitability analysis and action, and prepare margin analysis by client, project, partner and team, Bonadio officials say. They can also do chargeable hours trending and capacity analysis, and review job statistics by individuals, teams, locations and partners.

Bonadio began working with Salient when it did fraud auditing for the New York State Medicaid system, according to Don Eichenauer, CPA, a partner with the Bonadio Group.

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Euroffice.co.uk has launched its newly branded online office supplies site -- www.euroffice.co.uk. There has been technology and functionality upgrade to the service, company officials say, and "the internal CRM systems have also been rebuilt."

The branding exercise, conducted by leading agency Branded, has been spearheaded by the recently appointed CEO, Simon Drakeford, who joined the company from T-Mobile UK where he led, developed and managed T-Mobile UK's online business.

Central to the branding activity has been a focus on better understanding attitudes amongst a broad range of customers towards office stationery and online purchasing --Euroffice.co.uk having achieved year on year growth of 49 percent since its launch in 2000 and a current customer-base of some 300,000 UK SME's.

"From the focus groups that were conducted, it became acutely evident that we all have strong -- often unexpressed -- attachments to the everyday items that surround us in the office," Drakeford said. "It is important that we learn to tap into this emotion in addition to just leading on price and service. We need customers to know that we love our products as much as they do."

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