By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz
The news as of the second cup of coffee this morning, and the music is Uncle Tupelo's No Depression. Jay Farrar's later band Son Volt had one great album, Trace, but outside of that, this is pretty much all the Jeff Tweedy or Farrar one really needs:
Maximizer Software, a vendor of CRM products, has announced the appointment of a new certified business partner in Turkey -- E&M Computer and Engineering.
Established in 1991, E&M Computer and Engineering provides IT consulting, service and support to over 60 small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). E&M works with application implementation, hardware and software sales and networking systems.
Mithat Altac, CEO at E&M Computer and Engineering, said Maximizer's expertise in the SME market "and their 20 plus years of experience in the CRM field, coupled with our knowledge of Turkey's SME marketplace, gives us a detailed understanding of the business requirements and opportunity for growth in this sector."
The first customer of the partnership is Alarko Real Estate Development Company, a subsidiary of Alarko Holding Group, which has over 6,000 employees.
Built on a Web-based architecture, Maximizer CRM offers sales, marketing, and customer service users and managers access to customer information via desktop, Web, or mobile device.
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Consumers plan to spend an average of $100-$250 online over the next 90 days, according to eBillme's "Online Spending Index," a quarterly survey examining consumer online spending.
The eBOS Index, conducted by Javelin Strategy and Research, and to be released quarterly by eBillme, polled 1,600 consumers to measure projected online spending for the quarter and the influencing factors including the economy, available payment options, security, and financial control.
This quarter, the Index also polled consumers about their online spending for back-to-school shopping, finding that 48 percent of consumers are delaying purchases due to uncertainty in the economy, and 32 percent of consumers are willing to spend more if they could purchase online with cash revealing a general shift towards cash preferences.
Female consumers indicated a five percent decrease in credit card sentiment further indicating a shift towards cash. "Consumer spending online is an indicator for consumer preferences, attitudes, and offline trends in society," said Marwan Forzley, President and CEO of eBillme.
Forzley said the Index results show "a significant shift" in consumer behavior, especially among female consumers. "We have noticed that as compared to men, a higher percentage of women are concerned with fraud, identity theft and the economy. In fact, 38 percent of women said that they would purchase more online if they could control their finances and pay using cash," he said.
This quarter's Index also found that18 percent of consumers plan to shop for back-to-school purchases online, with females and 18-24 year olds representing the majority.
Forzley said he "looks forward" to releasing this data quarterly to provide a snapshot of consumer online shopping activity and "track the various trends that will be uncovered."
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Micros Systems, a vendor of information technology products for the hospitality and retail industries, is pleased to announce that WorldHotels has selected the Micros Opera Property Management System as its preferred PMS product and will exclusively recommend the Opera PMS product to its almost 500 member hotels.
The WorldHotels portfolio includes properties worldwide, and "required a technology partner that was also truly global," company officials say.
"Presenting our portfolio with a technology partner is a huge benefit to our hotels," stated Michael Ball, CEO of WorldHotels. "As we increase our global brand awareness, we will require a standardized PMS platform to use more CRM capabilities."
Kaweh Niroomand, President of Micros EAME, said Micros offers local service
and support in over 130 countries, and that "build all our products, including Opera,
with the global community in mind, offering multi-lingual, multi-currency
products."
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IDC's Market Intelligence Advisory Practice has released a new study: Market Intelligence Advisory Best Practice Series: MI Portals That Provide On-Demand Intelligence.
The report, based upon interviews with market intelligence executives at technology firms and portal vendors, provides conclusions and case studies on the management of MI portals and their increasing importance within technology firms.
IDC finds that the new generation of MI portals will be enriched with Web 2.0 technologies to move the MI portal from a simple self-service model to a dynamic Web tool. The future state-of-the-art MI portal will engage users more collaboratively and more frequently.
Laura Curtis, director of the IDC Market Intelligence Advisory Practice, said based on the findings, "market intelligence executives should transition their market intelligence portal into a core strategic product for delivering information on demand to all functional areas of the organization."
Today, Curtis continued, MI executives are facing a more complex competitive environment in which products selling, bundling, channel dynamics, and global competition requires more rigorous and complex market and competitive analysis. As a result, "the MI portal must be optimized to service many constituents with precise and tailored content to ensure they are meeting the requirements of the whole company."
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Reva Systems, an RFID network infrastructure provider, and Sirit, a vendor of radio frequency identification readers, tags and embedded modules, have announced that Swiss retailer Manor AG is deploying Reva's Tag Acquisition Processor products and Sirit's INfinity 510 RFID readers.
Manor officials say they want to enable RFID operations at stores and distribution centers, as well as use RFID to "improve warehouse inventory processes, outbound shipping accuracy and inbound store receiving practices."
Reva's RFID network infrastructure manages Sirit's readers, providing an enterprise RFID architecture to support current and future programs. The implementation is being managed by Rodata AG, a systems integrator headquartered in Switzerland.
Manor's RFID program encompasses its distribution centers in Hochdorf and Möhlin, Switzerland and the department stores around the country serviced by the centers. Manor is using case and transport asset tagging for apparel and general merchandise at both warehouses, and is working with several suppliers to pre-tag inbound shipments.
In the warehouses, mixed pallets of goods are built and RFID case tags are read while being shrink-wrapped for shipment. Manor also uses RFID to ensure the correct merchandise is loaded on the assigned trucks and shipped to the proper store locations.
Once shipments arrive at the stores, goods are checked in using RFID readers. Manor officials say they expect to see "improved inventory accuracy, better labor efficiency and shorter replenishment cycles" due to these RFID enhanced processes.
Manor uses Reva TAP appliances and Sirit INfinity 510 readers in both the stores and distribution centers. Workflows that facilitate the tagging, verification, advanced ship notice comparison and real-time handling processes are hosted locally on the Reva TAPs.
As tags are read by the Sirit INfinity 510 readers and their locations determined by the TAPs, the data is passed to an Oracle backend system which is responsible for orchestrating business processes.
