The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is the soundtrack to the movie version of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Broadway musical Showboat. When the show appeared on stage in 1927 it was the first time white and black performers had appeared together on stage as equals, singing with each other.

 

It's regarded by many as the most important musical in the history of American theater. For my money it's got the best song in Broadway's repertoire, "Ol' Man River," and I'll take William Warfield's version on this the 1951 soundtrack. Yes Paul Robeson Jr. has the better voice and owns the song; Warfield's is the better arrangement:

 

EDL Consulting, an integrator working with CRM and other products, has announced the launch of integrated customer care for Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems.

 

Citrix Online now has the ability to consolidate all of their customer interactions within Salesforce.com and manage the activities required to provide a quality customer experience.

 

The objective of the initiative, company officials say, is to streamline the support process for Citrix Online's eCommerce customers through case management using Salesforce.com's Customer Service app, automated call distribution via Interactive Intelligence, customer satisfaction surveying using Vanguard Vista and enterprise integration using Oracle's Fusion product back to Citrix Online service delivery platforms.

Tim Maskrey, Sr. Manager Service Operations, Citrix Online Division, said the project went to a go live in ten weeks.

 

The infrastructure put in place allows agents to recognize customers requesting support and is intended to provide visibility into support and operational data agents use on customer issues. EDL put in place a product that lets agents modify certain support parameters for customers and keep a history of the changes for further reference.

 

Citrix Online is based in Santa Barbara, California, with satellite offices and data centers around the world. Customers, so company officials claim, include "100 percent of the Fortune 100 companies and 99 percent of the Fortune Global 500." One wonders who the brave holdout is.

The company's annual revenue in 2007 was $1.4 billion.

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Company officials say they've been working to expand their services and products with new offerings that bring a number of resources for small businesses - being able to host small business Web sites, host small business e-mail, set up and maintain small business networks and computers.

Offering what company officials say is "immediate availability of new CRM and business management software," AIO offers either hosted or on-premises products.

 

AIO stands for All In One.

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Rangam Consultants has have attained Gold Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program, with listed competencies in Advanced Infrastructure Products and Custom Development Products.

 

Gold Certified Partner status recognizes "expertise and impact in the technology marketplace in each of these fields," according to the Rangamians. As a Gold Certified Partner, Rangam has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies. Partners receive benefits, including access, training and support.

The consultancy is a multiple service provider in the information technology, scientific and engineering fields selling technical and non-technical staffing and consulting services to support information processing, ERP/CRM, scientific research, records management, network monitoring, data recovery, environmental, health and telecommunications support services.

 

It claims "various government and Fortune 500" clients.

"Customers are looking for partner companies that can bridge the gap between their business demands and technology capabilities," says Allison Watson, vice president of the Worldwide Partner Sales and Marketing Group at Microsoft. "Microsoft recognizes Rangam Consultants as a new Gold Certified Partner for demonstrating its expertise providing customer satisfaction using Microsoft products and technology."

As one of the requirements for attaining Gold Certified Partner status, companies have to declare a Microsoft competency. These competencies are designed to help differentiate a partner's capabilities with specific Microsoft technologies to customers looking for a particular type of product.

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Leo Software, a vendor of property information management and reporting systems for commercial real estate, has announced a distribution agreement with Strategies Group of Suwanee, Georgia.

Strategies Group sells to real estate and construction companies throughout the Southeast, offering accounting and business software products including Sage Timberline Office, Sage Master Builder and Sage CRM Solutions.

 

Strategies Group will sell and support Leo Software both as a integrated application with the Sage Timberline Office commercial real estate accounting system and as a standalone product that may be integrated with any real estate application.

Craig Trussell, Strategies Group vice president, sales and marketing, said "there's really nothing else like Leo available for property management and leasing companies."

Leo Software is an online property information management and reporting system focused on the issues of vacancy management and tenant retention. Its Stacking Plan feature visually summarizes a building's leasing status in one view that links to a variety of information and documents associated with the building and specific suites.

 

Basically the software flags critical dates and upcoming events such as notifications, impending changes, options or obligations in leases. It also creates lease abstracts, event calendars, marketing materials in the form of micro sites, and a variety of management reports.

Strategies Group claims over twenty years of experience and 1,700 active clients throughout Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas. It offers products including Sage Timberline Office, Sage Master Builder, Sage CRM, Sage Accpac ERP and Deltek Vision.

 

Leo Software is headquartered in suburban Chicago.

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Teleperformance, a vendor of CRM and outsourced contact centers, has announced the grouping of its activities in France.

 

In November 2008, the project was presented to the staff representative bodies of the companies concerned: Cash Performance, Comunicator, Infomobile, TechCity Solutions France, Teleperformance France, Teleperformance Midi-Aquitaine, Teleperformance Nord, Teleperformance Rhone-Alpes.

 

The new entity will be called Teleperformance France.

 

The operation is being performed via two distinct legal operations carried out simultaneously: All of the companies listed above were merged under one single management structure, while four operational companies were created and set up on a regional basis: Teleperformance Nord-Champagne, Teleperformance Centre-Est, Teleperformance Centre-Ouest, Teleperformance Grand-Sud.

 

And if you flunked French in high school, as First Coffee did, take an educated guess what they mean. Me, I'll go for the Champagne.

 

The reasons given by company officials for the set-up of this new organization include the abilities to serve customers better, present companies with new products, provide employees with new prospects and strengthen Teleperformance's position in the French market.

 

Since its creation in 1978, Teleperformance has generally preferred to grow by multiplying its geographic locations and by expanding its skills. Company officials say teleperformance now has over 20 percent of the market share in France.

 

By grouping its contact centers within four new entities, company officials say, Teleperformance France hopes to increase its internal mobility, facilitate the sharing of expertise and improve its execution speed.

 

This new organization will have no impact on employment, company officials say, adding that it will, in fact, "open up new career prospects for employees." The firm currently lists over 12,500 employees dedicated to the French market.

 

In 2008, the Teleperformance Group achieved $2.6 billion in revenues. The group operates nearly 79,800 computerized workstations, with more than 88,000 employees across 248 contact centers in 46 countries using 66 different languages and dialects.