FYI: The DynamicsExchange CRM AnswerCenter Wiki is here.
It's described by its developers as "filling a gap in bringing Web 2.0 and Social Web technologies to the time consuming trouble-shooting aspects of implementations and eases the ongoing education of users, and administrators."
Like a normal wiki anyone can use or contribute new posts or edit posts. The Wiki has a posting approval process to keep out objectionable unrelated content or inappropriate self-promotion. Most contributions come from technology communities where issues are discussed and not necessarily resolved, but in the CRM AnswerCenter Wiki only a precise question and the concise answer are posted, its developers say, "saving substantial time on the current multiple searches and reviews, posting and waiting, and searching more."
The Wiki is optimized for easier search and advanced search functionality to reduce time to answer.
DynamicsExchange.com has been in development for over a year by Microsoft's Dynamics CRM Gold Partners, according to the Microsofties, and still in beta, is described by them as "dedicated to the deployment of better tools for the access, review, implementation, support, purchase, development, and maintenance of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM enterprise software platform."
The new community site is said to benefit from the latest Web technologies and philosophies and, most importantly, independence from Microsoft having sole responsibility for global community wide knowledge, product, and service availability. Contributing and accessing anything on DynamicsExchange is free, even partner recognition advertising.
The president of a founding partner of DynamicsExchange.com, Darryl Henderson, says that since this is a beta announcement "we're not ready for a rush of users just yet, just more partners to provide usability feedback and contribution, including their promotional content."
The partner portal is scheduled to enter beta by the end of January, allowing all partners access to community visitors.
Boomi has announced that Ingres Corporation, a vendor of open source database management software and support services, has selected Boomi AtomSphere for its Software-as-a-Service integration technology.
AtomSphere will be used to integrate internal business applications including finance, human resources and analytics for Ingres, according to the Ingressors. The company has adopted a strategy of using only SaaS and open source products for its internal business systems.
So the company needed a SaaS integration product for its portfolio of SaaS and open source applications. Doug Harr, CIO at Ingres, said Boomi was "a natural choice," as it "epitomizes the value of SaaS and true multi-tenant products. Just a few years ago, we would have had to pay $100,000 or more for an enterprise grade integration platform like this or spend tens of thousands on writing custom code."
After implementing its initial integration processes Ingres is eliminating manual processes, duplicate data entry and data synchronization errors.
Bob Moul, Boomi's president and CEO, said working with Ingres "is a natural fit as our views and strategies on using pure SaaS technology are perfectly aligned.
DataForceCRM, which makes sales lead management software and CRM software, is coming out with a promotion guaranteeing results or "customers get money back, no questions asked," company officials say.
"CRM users have struggled with low return on high per user costs," according to DataForceCRM officials, who add that in their view, "a great product, offered for a fair price, will add value and win market share."
Hard to argue with that logic. Company officials say most online CRM is priced at $65 per user per month or higher these days - "and the buyer of CRM often needs other modules that jack the cost even higher." DataForceCRM is offering Enterprise CRM for ten bucks per user per month, guaranteeing results "or your money back."
Each client is set up a dedicated server for flexibility, security and performance, company officials say, adding that campaign creation and tracking are provided "to make sure marketing spend is invested wisely. Rich e-mail and mail merge features are provided" as well.
There are Lead and Opportunity Management modules, and the Customer Support feature includes trouble ticket tracking and a customer portal in the user pricing. There's also order management, which company officials claim is "not available in most CRM, including partner and vendor management, quoting, orders, invoicing and PO generation."
Lots of other features as well, including Outlook and Office plugins. The company sells a commission and revenue module for manufacturing companies and manufacturer's representatives to import and track point of sales data and commission data including orders and shipments as well.
Convergys Corporation has announced that long-standing client Vivo has extended its five-year partnership with Convergys with a new two-year contract to provide production operations support.
The vendor's consulting and services team is also working with Vivo on two other projects aimed at "growing Vivo's national footprint" and "ensuring the operator's ability to support future growth." Vivo is a wireless carrier in the southern hemisphere with more than 43 million subscribers.
Under the terms of the two-year contract extension, Convergys will continue to manage its product in the production environment, supporting postpaid subscribers with provisioning, activation, customer care, dispute resolution, finance, collections, rating and billing, usage, customer interfaces, and the launch of new products and services.
"Vivo remains focused on its goals of serving its customers well while growing its business in the competitive Brazilian market," said Jean-Hervé Jenn, Convergys President International.
Vivo offers phone calls all over the country, according to Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações. The firm also develops projects like the pioneer program of recycling cell phones, batteries and accessories, which since its launch has collected more than 1.5 million items.
Through the Instituto Vivo, the company invests in initiatives geared to the cause of socio-cultural inclusion of persons with disabilities and education.
Xactly Corporation, a vendor of on-demand sales performance management, has announced what company officials are calling "the third straight year of record revenue, with significant gains in customer growth."
In the 12 months ending December 31, 2008, Xactly claims more than 140 percent increase in recurring revenue and an 87 percent year-over-year increase in total revenue. The company also added to its customer base, with a third of existing customers adding new modules or subscribers, and increased its total number of subscribers by 84 percent.
Christopher Cabrera, president and CEO, Xactly, said the company had a renewal rate of 90 percent, adding that "more than one third of our customers added subscribers or additional Xactly modules in 2008."
In 2008 the vendor secured $30 million in new financing, launched the fourth generation of its flagship Xactly Incent on-demand sales compensation management application and introduced an application for using non-cash incentives, called Xactly Rewards.
