By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

The news as of the second cup of coffee this morning, and the music is Flogging Molly's Drunken Lullabies:

Maximizer Certified Business Partner and Customer Relationship Management specialist, CRM4Business, has "joined forces with VIP Technologies," which sells telephony products, to supply bundled CRM and telephone systems.

Company officials expect it to appeal in particular to organizations running outbound and inbound telesales operations.

"From as little as seven pounds per day, customers will be able to implement a new, fully integrated Maximizer CRM and phone product," which "saves on call time and ensures notes and forward schedules are completed," company officials say.

Outbound calls are generated hands free from within Maximizer software, which initiates automated workflow for note taking and next actions, while inbound calls automatically retrieve and forward the relevant company/contact details. This is a must for any volume of telephone sales activity as it streamlines the process and is more efficient compared to separate functionality of CRM and phone systems alone.

James Bogue, Managing Director of CRM4Business, calls the deal a "logical step for our customers," as "linking telephone and CRM products together means real time savings with efficient telephone sales activity."

Often a new or upgraded CRM system goes hand in hand with investment in a new phone system, Bogue says.

. . . .

Radiant Systems has announced that the retail distribution channel continues to expand with the recent addition of four new resellers who will sell and implement the Radiant retail products, including CounterPoint software and Radiant hardware.

One Step Retail Solutions, a retail service provider in the United States, executed its Radiant partner agreement in June and has completed sales and technical training. Now fully certified, OSRS is working with the Radiant retail team on proposals.

"The strength, quality and versatility of the CounterPoint software, coupled with the Radiant team's knowledge of industry operations and demands, led us to partnering with Radiant," said Scott Kreisberg, CEO of One Step Retail Solutions.

The Radiant retail division's global distribution channel, in the second quarter of this year, signed three additional dealers: Canadian Retail Solutions, located in Calgary, Cognitive IT Solutions located in the Philippines and Guam and RVP Business Systems, located in Boise and Salt Lake City.

The new partners began selling the CounterPoint software and Radiant hardware product lines to their retail customers in July.

"As we continue to expand into new markets with the Radiant retail product, it is important to partner with retail technology resellers to ensure that retailers have increased accessibility to our products and customer support," said Chris Lybeer, president of the retail division at Radiant Systems.

Radiant Systems offers specialty retailers hardware built specifically for the retail environment, integrated e-commerce, and local partners providing support.

CounterPoint  software delivers a retail management product that includes robust inventory management, touchscreen point of sale (POS) ticket entry, built-in customer relationship management (CRM), automated purchasing and reporting.

. . . .

Integration Technologies, a vendor of on-demand Solutions Integration, has announced the availability of the InterWeave Payment Processing Gateway in the Integrated Supply Chain Solutions offerings for InterWeave customers.

The gateway and Merchant Account Solution is for "any customer using CRM, e-commerce or catalog businesses accepting credit cards, e-checks or ACH transactions as part of their selling process," said Bruce Magown, Chairman of Integration Technologies.

The gateway component automates card authorizations and transactions directly to a bank or credit card network from CRM applications like Salesforce.com, e-commerce applications or e-commerce Web sites, Magown said, adding that "card purchases can be approved and transacted in real time online from the CRM opportunity object while the customer is on the phone. Credit cards or ACH transactions can also be processed in batch runs at end of day."

IPPG will be available in the InterWeave Customer Portal. Users register, select the applications for integration, select the combination of objects and flows "and generate your product," company officials say, adding "this is configuration management -- not programming."

. . . .

Convio, a vendor of constituent relationship management software and services to nonprofit organizations, has announced record revenues of $14.7 million for the second quarter of 2008, a 35 percent increase over the same period last year.

Generating $1.3 million in operating cash flow, the company produced positive cash flow from operations for the third time in the last four quarters and also achieved profitability on a non-GAAP basis in the second quarter.

"We are pleased with our growth, record revenues, cash flow and profitability during a challenging economic period," said Gene Austin, chief executive officer of Convio.

During Q2 2008, Convio's subscription and services revenue grew by 30 percent over the same period last year driven, company officials say, by increased demand from new clients, renewals of clients and selling additional modules and services to existing clients.

Usage revenue for the period grew by 62 percent over the same period last year driven by significant new fundraising events and overall growth in existing events.

With the combination of new clients, addition of significant new events and organic growth in the existing client base Convio processed $377 million in online donations on behalf of clients during the first half of 2008 -- a 100 percent increase over the same period a year ago, company officials said.

Convio's non-GAAP income from operations for the quarter ended June 30, 2008, which excludes stock-based compensation expense and amortization of intangibles arising from the acquisition of GetActive Software, Inc., was $114,000. This compares with non-GAAP loss from operations of $1.4 million in the same period last year.

. . . .

Gadget Pro, described by company officials as "India's first exclusive gadget catalog," has, in character, launched what company officials call "the first ever loyalty program for gadget shopping." Makes sense.

"Gadget Pro is inviting customers to be members with them," called Pro Buyers. "Members to this program get a personalized membership card and number. Members can earn points while shopping from Gadget Pro or from their portal www.valuestore.in," company officials say.

Members -- Pro Buyers -- get various other privileges like special price reductions, member-only products and offers, first priority for latest and limited stock gadgets and more.

All members also get a 3 year subscription to the Gadget Pro catalog. The membership fee including the 3 year subscription is offered at Rs.750/- for 3 years.

Suraj Juneja, the company's managing director, says that a CRM or a customer relationship model is "extremely important" in most industries today, and "especially in a business of consumer electronics, wherein most products are standardized."

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