CRM SaaS Uptake in Pharma, Pardot Prospect on AppEx, Salesforce in NY and SF, Customer Connect, Scgdomains CRM Txt, StayinFront and Salvation Army

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CRM SaaS Uptake in Pharma, Pardot Prospect on AppEx, Salesforce in NY and SF, Customer Connect, Scgdomains CRM Txt, StayinFront and Salvation Army

The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is but one of the many fine versions of the Grateful Dead's "Jimmy Row" to be had out there:

Datamonitor, which sells online data, analytic and forecasting platforms for key vertical sectors, asked 300 users of customer relationship management (CRM) technology in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies across North America and Western Europe to rate CRM vendors in five areas: product quality, customer support, service capabilities, vertical specialization, portfolio depth, and service levels.

Putting the survey responses with its own market research, Datamonitor points to an industry trend towards the on-demand delivery model. "Namely," Datamonitor officials say, "end users of such products are more satisfied with customer support and services provided by SaaS vendors rather than by traditional vendors."

The report states that "on-demand CRM vendors are making a lasting impact on the pharmaceutical CRM market. As such, Verticals onDemand is likely to play an important role in the new competitive landscape, offering an innovative product that seems to meet the industry's need like a glove."

Verticals onDemand, a vendor of Software-as-a-Service CRM products, is built on the Salesforce.com platform. Verticals onDemand's VBioPharma CRM application is available in four editions for pharmaceutical sales teams -- managed markets, specialty care, primary care, and KOL managers.

The Datamonitor report also evaluated offerings from Cegedim Dendrite, Oracle, Salesforce.com, and StayinFront. VBioPharma sells a suite of SaaS CRM applications designed specifically for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.



CRM consulting firm Customer Connect Associates has been selected by the New Horizons Charlotte computer learning center to deliver technical user training to Sunbelt. Sunbelt uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 in their day-to-day operations.

New Horizons chose Customer Connect due to the Cornelius, North Carolina-based company's experience with the CRM tool, the Customer Connecters say. Services that Customer Connect will provide include customization and integration of the most advanced areas of the Dynamics CRM application, reporting, and scripting.

Founded in 2000, Customer Connect Associates is a Microsoft Certified partner and a member of the 2007 Program Advisory Committee for the National Center For Database Marketing Conference.



Salesforce.com has announced that company executives will host two simultaneous events in New York City and San Francisco on Wednesday, December 5, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. PST, 1:00 p.m. EST.

One event will take place at The Pierre, and the other at The Four Seasons. Audio Webcasts of both events will be available on salesforce.com's site at http://www.salesforce.com/investor.



Scgdomains.com has announced a new enhancement to its Web-based e-mail product they're pitching as a CRM feature -- short message service (SMS) integration, "also called text-messaging service," they add helpfully for the clueless, whose money is reportedly as green as anyone else's.

The feature lets subscribers to scgdomains.com's Web-based e-mail send text messages, as well as standard e-mail. With the texting feature in scgdomains.com's Webmail, "moms can instantly send reminder e-mails to kids and text them at the same time so they don't forget homework."

Eric Buckley, the company's founder, said "there are a lot more services we are offering to better assist those with CRM needs in their business environment." Among those, in 2008 "we will begin offering a full SMS gateway service which integrates with your Web site and your customer database. This will allow business and Web site owners to reach their customer base with updates and important information regarding their accounts directly to their mobile phone."

Also, "sports fans can catch the latest scores and chide their friends who are at the game." Not that a person of your caliber would do that, of course. "All of this from your desktop," the scgdomainions say, "which means no clumsy thumbing in messages on your wireless phone anymore."

Here's how it works: scgdomains.com customers can access their Web-based e-mail accounts as they always have, but now a drop-down menu gives an option to select e-mail only, text message only or both. A cell phone field in the user's address book drives the feature. In addition, scgdomains.com includes a function that allows users to keep within the 160 character limit required by cell phone carriers for text messages.



CRM vendor StayinFront, has been selected by the Salvation Army to develop an integrated donor management product for its Australian eastern territory fundraising operations.

The CRM offering from StayinFront will be integrated with a number of The Salvation Army's existing systems, including Web sites, address validation software and various credit card gateways, to "streamline the processing of donations online and improve customer communication," say Salvation Army officers.

"Our organization is creating a more supporter-centric business model that will enhance its ability to provide quality care in a wide range of social welfare, rehabilitation, youth and family support situations," said John Herring, supporter relationship management program director, The Salvation Army.

By the way, if you're one of those people who just walk past the Salvation Army bell ringers and their red kettles this time of year and don't put at least something in from time to time, then you need to sit down and re-examine just why you're so freaking selfish.

The StayinFront product is designed to "organize the large volume of information that the nonprofit organization has accumulated in its years of providing food, clothing and temporary accommodation for thousands of homeless or displaced people," Army officers said.

"We have a proliferation of databases and information silos that we need to bring together into an integrated CRM product that will ensure we employ consistent methods of managing our valuable supporter data, and better understand our relationships with our supporters," said Herring.

The product comprises of StayinFront CRM Web, StayinFront Marketing Center, StayinFront Analytics and StayinFront Opportunity Management.



Pardot has announced that Prospect Insight, its marketing automation product, is now listed on the salesforce.com AppExchange, an eco-system for applications that integrate with the CRM product.

The product "maximizes efficiency for companies with multi-touch sales cycles by showing sales teams exactly where to spend their time and automatically nurturing existing leads," Pardot officials say.

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Feedback for CRM SaaS Uptake in Pharma, Pardot Prospect on AppEx, Salesforce in NY and SF, Customer Connect, Scgdomains CRM Txt, StayinFront and Salvation Army

1 Comment

To rate CRM vendors..it is quite interesting. Salesforce for sure it will be one among them. Who else? I am really looking forward to the results. Now there are many CRM vendors which we have not heard of but still doing good in CRM.

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