The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Diane Burch's Bible Belt. First Coffee tried this a week or so ago, found it okay but rather samey, so in the interests of fairness and objectivity we're trying it again. She has swell pipes, that's for sure, but the songs aren't strong across the board and the arrangements aren't all that great. The bottom line is here's a talented singer in need of better material:

Want your employees to experience a significant increase in work-life flexibility, productivity and overall satisfaction? You might want to consider letting them work remotely.

Cisco has announced the findings of its Teleworker Survey evaluating the social, economic and environmental impacts associated with telecommuting at Cisco. The study, Cisco officials say, found the improvements mentioned above.

You'd be in good company, too, as more companies are experimenting with various telecommuting strategies to save costs and retain top talent. Cisco's study found that it lets people work together no matter where they are located, as well. And it doesn't necessarily hurt the bottom line: Cisco's Internet Business Services Group, the company's global strategic consulting arm, found that allowing employees to telecommute and telework has generated an estimated annual savings of $277 million in productivity as well. 

And you can't overlook the goodwill allowing employees the remote option generates. "As a working mother of three children, I know firsthand the benefits of Cisco Virtual Office," says Carina Reyes, manager, Operations, Cisco. "Through voice and video, I remain engaged and able to lead global teams and programs and avoid back and forth trips to the office... juggling early-morning Europe calls, midday doctor's appointments and evening Asia meetings. My family and I feel fortunate that I work for one of the best companies today that enables true work-life navigation."

Cisco used the occasion of the study to tout its enterprise-class remote connectivity products, such as Cisco Virtual Office and Cisco OfficeExtend, and virtual collaboration tools like Cisco WebEx.

The study looked at almost 2,000 company employees, finding that Cisco employees spend about 63 percent of their time communicating and collaborating. Forty percent of Cisco employees say they are not located in the same city as their manager, and across the board the average Cisco employee now telecommutes 2.0 days per week. Sixty percent of the time saved by telecommuting is spent working and 40 percent is spent on personal time.

Approximately 69 percent of the employees surveyed cited higher productivity when working remotely, and 75 percent of those surveyed said the timeliness of their work improved -- 67 percent of survey respondents said their overall work quality improved when telecommuting. And Cisco employees reported a fuel cost savings of $10.3 million per year due to telecommuting.

And 0.01 percent of all remote workers admitted to "Facebooking when I should be working." Which means, of course, that approximately 94.99 percent lied about it.
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OpenLogic, which sells enterprise open source software, has announced the results of what company officials characterize as an "informal" survey, finding that enterprise acceptance of open source software is increasing -- while 60 percent of enterprises using open source lack effective means to track what open source software is installed.

Company officials polled a variety of executives -- "more than half of them from Fortune 500 companies," they say -- on how their corporations identify and manage open source usage. They found 18 percent of respondents "preferred" open source software, while a healthy 41 percent think open source software is "on equal footing" with proprietary software. But most respondents admitted that they have no automated way to track what open source software is used inside their organization, "either because they don't have any formal inventory processes or because they rely on self-reporting."

None of the executives polled said usage of open source was flatly not allowed at their companies. Twenty-nine percent said their company policy was that open source was to be used only if no other solution existed, and twelve percent said open source was allowed when it was "superior to other solutions." 

OpenLogic provides a library of open source software, with what company officials say are "hundreds of the most popular open source packages via OpenLogic Exchange, a free Web site where companies can find, research, and download certified, enterprise-ready open source packages on demand."

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Exploria SPS has announced the introduction of what company officials say is an "integrated, SaaS-architected closed loop marketing application" designed to let pharma sales reps customize messaging to physicians via a live or remote detail setting.

Exploria SPS President Richie Bavasso says the advantages of the product are generally those of SaaS itself: "No server hardware to purchase, optional software install on a mobile device, implementation measured in weeks or months, no upgrade costs, incredible speed and flexibility, and empowered and excited end-users... a multi-channel continuous loop marketing program within a flexible SFA or CRM system gives sales teams the power to create individual customer details that they can deliver to individual doctors using various media that can be optimized every day to incorporate new information."

Many companies desiring investment in CLM are "put off" by the hardware and software investment in arming and supporting a field force with the traditional client server model, Bavasso contends.

SaaS, which we used to call Application Service Provider software, does have a lot to like: You get your software from the vendor, who takes care of the hosting and operation (either independently or through a third party), all you have to do is use it over the Internet. Upgrades? No problemo. SaaS apps are usually more flexible as well. 

In this particular case, customizing applications to accommodate the needs of all of the pharmaceutical sales teams -- primary care, specialty care, managed markets, and KOL managers, to name a few -- is relatively easy and inexpensive, Exploria officials say: "Technically speaking, this is made possible because the metadata layer allows for customization yet the program is shared over the Web with the whole group so any changes can be shared with all the appropriate users in a matter of minutes." Try that with an in-house IT staff you can afford.

With this latest Exploria offering, Bavasso says, "customers can create new workflow policies and permissions, change validation rules, design and drop in their own customer facing viewer which will be automatically tracked in the platform, add users, change territory definitions, change hierarchies, and easily integrate to the latest CRM offerings. Compare this to a traditional client/server or hosted CRM application that requires at least five to ten steps and three or more months to accomplish these same types of changes."
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We believe in catering to most all tech marketing needs here at First Coffee, so this part's for nanomedicine: A report titled "Nanomedicine: A Global Strategic Business Report" has been announced by Global Industry Analysts, covering "major market dynamics, trends, issues, and competition pertaining to the market." 

Quick primer: Nanomedicine is the part of nanotechnology dealing with the capability to change the course of treatment of life-threatening diseases. 

Nanomedicine's great advantage is that it minimizes adversities associated with standard therapeutics. In other words, it's a safer and more efficient means of treatment in many cases. It includes nano drug delivery, nanoanalytical contrast reagents, nanobiomaterials, and nanopharmaceuticals, which have been "surging at a stable rate." That's from company officials, but what a great phrase: surging at a stable rate. "Captain, the waves are surging -- but at a stable rate." "Steady as she goes, bosun."

In recent years implementations of several programs by the industry have bridged the gap between outcomes of clinical research and commercial products. "As a result, the present nanobiomaterial product pipeline poses a healthy picture with numerous novel products for use in health care applications, primarily in the form of coatings," according to the report's authors.

Drug delivery market represents the largest application area, while the Biomaterials segment represents the fastest growing application segment for nanomedicine over the years 2006 through 2015.

The nanomedicine market's major market participants include the likes of Abraxis BioScience Inc., AMAG Pharmaceuticals Inc, Arrowhead Research Corporation, Crucell N.V., Flamel Technologies S.A., Elan Corporation Plc, Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Life Technologies Corporation, Nanosphere Inc., Nektar Therapeutics, Novavax Inc., Oxonica Plc, Par Pharmaceutical Companies Inc., Starpharma Holdings Limited, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc., among others.

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Global Wireless Solutions has reported "dramatic growth" this past year in the demand for drive tests by wireless carriers as the number of mobile subscribers and demand for advanced broadband applications, like mobile video, continue to grow. 

We're talking a growing market even in the economic downturn, too. Mobile usage is growing significantly according to anyone's numbers -- just to pick one, the top 10 U.S. mobile operators added nearly 3.5 million net retail subscribers in the first quarter of 2009, which brings the total subscribers to 278 million, according to "1Q Wireless Gross Subscriber Additions: Prepaid Carriers Continue to Grow," a recent report from IDC.

GWS officials say they've recently reached a milestone of sorts by driving more than 4 million miles around the U.S. to collect data and analyze how well wireless networks perform. Friends, that's going the extra mile a few million times. This "made it possible for GWS to build a third-party database of network performance statistics," company officials say, adding that the benchmarking data gathered, compiled and analyzed by GWS "gives its customers an unbiased view of their own network performance, as well as competitors' networks, as experienced by subscribers."

The company's test equipment products enable comparisons of wireless networks that use different voice and data access protocols, including GSM, UMTS, HSPDA and CDMA. The company has built on this experience to develop testing systems for upcoming 4G networks, with capabilities for assessing WiMax performance, officials say.

"Competitive and economic pressures, as well as more mobile users using sophisticated smart phones, have combined to make wireless carriers realize that it is even more critical now to know exactly how their networks perform in the field. That is the best way for them to ensure customer satisfaction and exceed expectations," says Paul Carter, president of GWS. "The drive tests we perform for wireless carriers are vital for benchmarking and measuring quality of service so they can take the necessary action to correct weaknesses in their network."

In other news GWS has introduced TroubleSpots, a free iPhone coverage application available on iTunes that lets the phone's users report, in real time, when they experience areas of no wireless network coverage, dropped calls, failed call attempts failed data service and view their reported incidents.