By David Sims

David at firstcoffee d*t biz

 

The news as of the second cup of coffee this morning, and the music is Townes Van Zandt's Rear View Mirror. Everybody thinks this guy's one of the greatest songwriters of the past however many years, First Coffee finds him moderately enjoyable, but outside of a couple songs -- notably "Pancho and Lefty" nothing all that special:

 

Salesforce.com has announced that Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division selling product lifecycle management software and services, has adopted Salesforce Partners.

 

In addition to rolling out Salesforce Partners to more than 1,200 partner sales representatives, Siemens PLM Software has also deployed Salesforce SFA for more than 1,000 internal sales staff.

 

"Making it easy for our partners to do business with us increases their productivity and profitability," said Kerry Grimes, vice president, Mid-market and Global Channel Sales, Siemens PLM Software. "With Salesforce, we were able to create a single global product that provides both our direct and indirect sales representatives with access to information."

 

Working with Salesforce.com professional services, Siemens PLM Software deployed Salesforce SFA and Salesforce Partners to more than 2,000 users in 60 countries around the world in less than 100 days. The company used the Force.com Platform-as-a-Service to further customize its Salesforce product for its particular business needs.

 

The portal lets partners access sales and marketing information and materials directly from the opportunity or account record, a function intended to improve account and opportunity collaboration and "further support deal registration," company officials say.

 

There is also custom import/export functionality for partners to work off-line with leads and opportunities when integrating with their own contact management or CRM systems.

...

 

EGain Communications Corporation has announced financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended June 30, 2008.

 

Total revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008 was $6.7 million, an increase of 24 percent from the comparable year-ago quarter. License revenue was $721,000, an increase of 124 percent from the comparable year-ago quarter.

 

Support and services revenue was $6.0 million, an increase of 18 percent from the comparable year-ago quarter. Total revenue for the fiscal year 2008 was $30.1 million, an increase of 34 percent from the prior year. License revenue was $6.6 million, an increase of 93 percent from the prior year. Support and services revenue was $23.5 million, an increase of 23 percent from the prior year.

 

Gross margin for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008 was 57 percent compared to 51 percent in the comparable year-ago quarter. Gross margin for the fiscal year 2008 was 61 percent compared to 59 percent in the prior year. Total operating costs and expenses for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008 were $5.2 million, a decrease of 3 percent from the comparable year-ago quarter. Total operating costs and expenses for the fiscal year 2008 were $21.1 million, an increase of 7 percent from the prior year.

 

Net loss on a GAAP basis for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008 was $1.9 million, or $(0.12) per share, compared to a net loss on a GAAP basis of $2.9 million, or $(0.19) per share, for the comparable year-ago quarter. Net loss on a GAAP basis for the fiscal year 2008 was $4.1 million, or $(0.27) per share compared to a net loss on a GAAP basis of $7.7 million, or $(0.50) per share for the prior year.

...

 

Javien Digital Payment Solutions has announced that CyberSports, a company that creates and operates 3D virtual multi-player multi-sports worlds, has selected the Javien Total Commerce Solution to "support players' online game subscriptions and in-game payments of virtual goods."

 

Working with Javien, partner Game Center Group, will be providing CRM support for CyberSports.

 

"We evaluated several payment providers and found that Javien's technology offered the fullest menu of both merchant and customer support tools," said George Scotto, Chief Customer Officer for CyberSports.

 

Javien's micropayment technology is used in CyberSports's Football Superstars platform, enabling high volumes of small in-game transactions. The Javien Total Commerce Solution supports a variety of international billing options.

 

CyberSports will launch Football Superstars, billed by company officials as "the first massively multi-player online game to recreate the game of soccer and emulate its associated lifestyle" for thousands of individual players, appealing to both casual and hardened gamers alike.

 

The game will allow players to participate in pickup soccer games, manage their own teams, and even grow their "celebrity status" among other players by avoiding online paparazzi and spending free time in the game's posh clubs and restaurants.

 

First Coffee wonders if it will also teach players how to flop and cry for fouls and fake injuries to try to get opponents carded, which seem to be required skills of all soccer players, one reason First Coffee rarely can watch a full match -- having whining children here at home there's little reason to make time for that sort of thing on TV. Well, that and the fact that soccer's boring, of course.

...

 

Christian Aid, a grant giving organization in the UK, has awarded interactive marketing and technology consultancy Ascentium Corporation a contract to manage its business process re-engineering project.

 

Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, MOSS 2007 and Office 2003, Ascentium will create "The Promise Solution," a program that will enable Christian Aid to compete for funding and demonstrate returns on donations, rather than merely save cost.

 

Described by Ascentium officials as "one of the largest projects underway in the not-for-profit sector," The Promise Solution is meant to focus on and improve the charity's grant management activities for projects and work programs undertaken by Christian Aid, as well as by its partners worldwide.

 

The project is intended to ensure that Christian Aid works with Partner organizations in a more consistent, efficient and effective way.

 

Ascentium is a Microsoft partner for MOSS and CRM, claiming "the largest dedicated CRM practice in the world." When used in conjunction with one another, "the two products prove to be innovative in the field of software development," according to the Ascentiumians.

...

 

Pyxis Mobile, a vendor of wireless applications for the financial services industry, has announced that AIC Limited has selected their software in support of their regional sales group.

 

AIC's implementation of the mobile application includes bi-directional access to both Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and sales tracking tools for their sales and sales management professionals.

 

With its Head Office in Burlington, Ontario, AIC is one of Canada's largest privately-held mutual fund companies with assets under management exceeding $6 billion.

With their implementation of Pyxis Mobile, AIC is "taking a multi phase approach by extending their CRM and sales data initially, and then adding future application enhancements to expand capabilities and information for their wholesalers," company officials say.

 

AIC used Pyxis Mobile's configurable wholesaler application to power two business workflows -- "sales directors gain wireless access to their individual territories, while regional VPs have visibility across all territories they manage," company officials say, adding that the common screens for each group are shared, while workflow-specific screens are accessible only by users from that group.

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