CRM Daily

2007-01-30T04:39:00.000-08:00

Latest Release of Epicor(R) iScala Empowers Global Organizations ...

IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Epicor Software Corporation (NASDAQ:EPIC) , a leading provider of enterprise business software solutions for the midmarket and divisions of the Global 1000, today announced the availability of Epicor iScala 2.3 -- the latest release of the company's tightly integrated end-to-end enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) solution. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040615/LATU008LOGO ) Global corporations and large local and regional companies worldwide in the hospitality, distribution, industrial machinery, pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods industries rely on Epicor iScala. Significant attention to international management reporting and cross-border trading requirements make Epicor iScala an ideal total business solution for multi- company, global deployments.

Read More

SAP Asia Pacific Reports Double-Digit 2006 Full-Year Growth

SAP Asia Pacific has achieved a double-digit annual growth with Asia Pacific 2006 software revenue growing 12 per cent year-on-year in constant currency to euro 391 million. Asia Pacific Q4 2006 software revenue grew nine per cent on a constant currency basis to euro 134 million. Software revenues in Japan increased 17 per cent on a constant currency basis to euro131 million for full-year 2006. Total revenues in Asia Pacific grew 15 per cent year-on-year in constant currency to euro 1.1 billion, resulting in SAPs second consecutive year of euro 1 billion revenue in the region. SAPs Global Core Enterprise Application Software market share increased 2.8 per centage points during 2006 as customers repeatedly chose SAP over competitor offerings, as per a statement issued by the company.Nearly 2,000 new customers selected SAP solutions in Asia Pacific in 2006equivalent to nearly one new customer every working hour.

Read More

Morse Extends Partnership With Autonomy

CAMBRIDGE, England, January 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU. or AU.L), a global leader in infrastructure software for the enterprise, today announced that it has expanded its existing relationship with strategic business and technology consultants, Morse Plc. Morse has chosen Autonomy as its preferred vendor for the provision of meaning-based computing technologies and information infrastructure software for the enterprise. The extended partnership builds upon a number of successful collaborations, which include several government projects in the UK. Moving forward, Autonomy and Morse will partner to deliver business-centric information management services focused on specific verticals in the UK such as telecoms, finance and government, maximising Morse's acknowledged expertise in these markets.

Read More

2007-01-29T04:38:00.000-08:00

The Ultimate in Service Automation: No Customer Required

It will all resemble something out of an episode of "The Jetsons," yet there is something luxurious and comforting about being free from the monotony of daily details. "Customers like the ability to get something without thinking about it, especially when it is a commodity they know they need and must have or use," says Esteban Kolsky, research director, customer service and support CRM practice for Gartner. Free Trial: Have a process driven sales team in 5 daysGive your sales team a tool that shows them the exact process to close more deals, presents them the most relevant job aids automatically, and offloads their data entry work so they spend more time selling. Try Landslide Sales Workstyle Management free, today. .

Read More

Infor Chosen by Swedish insurance giant Folksam

Swedish insurance company Folksam has chosen Infor CRM Epiphany to implement its five-year CRM vision. Infor, Alpharetta, GA, said Infor CRM Epiphany enables Folksam to implement an advanced user interface for a CRM strategy that began in 2003. Folksam, Stockholm, Sweden, offers a wide variety of insurance, savings and loan products, handles more than 18 million insurance contracts, has approximately 3,700 employees, and settles 600,000 claims every year from 100 offices throughout Sweden. Infor CRM is an integrated marketing sales and service program that focuses on meeting industry-specific needs of customers. It integrates customer information from multiple enterprise systems into a single view. Folksam and Infors initial phase focused on data warehousing, analysis and process development.

Read More

News Brief: Leading Postal Solutions Provider Selects mySAP(TM) CRM

WHEELING, Ill., Jan. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP - News) today announced that BOWE BELL + HOWELL (BBH), a leading manufacturer of document processing and postal solutions, will replace competing solutions with mySAP(TM) Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM) to help drive process efficiencies across its service organization and deliver a more intimate level of customer service. As postal legislation and the dynamics of the global marketplace continue to challenge mass mailing customers, BOWE BELL + HOWELL responds by delivering efficient, modularly designed, cost-effective document management solutions and services to help companies more effectively organize paper-based and digital mail communications. The company will roll out mySAP CRM initially within its North American service organization, and later extend the implementation through parent company operations worldwide.

Read More

2007-01-28T04:41:00.000-08:00

Who's News

Dan Drexel recently joined the Van Horn collision center team as a body technician/painter from Omaha, Neb., where he owned and operated his own collision center for 10 years. Drexel has a 20 years of collision center experience and is a Certified Du Pont Products painter. Jeremy King recently joined the collision center team as a body technician from Blairsville, Penn. King is a recent graduate of WyoTech Technical School, and has more than 2,500 hours of collision repair training. David Mintner has recently returned to the Van Horn automotive team, as the new Collision Center manager. Mintner was previously part of the dealership's service department, as a service consultant. Mintner has a 22-year background in automotive repair and rebuilding, and is a graduate of Rio Salado Community College in Tempe, Ariz.

Read More

Microsoft Hypes Up Windows Vista

For the first time in Microsofts history, were releasing an operating system built from the ground up with gaming as a core scenario. With a worldwide presence of over 200 million gamers of all stripes, were taking the worlds most popular gaming platform and making it easier, safer, and more fun for everyone, while delivering new technologies that will deliver the most powerful, most immersive, most innovative gaming experiences to the Windows platform. Unlike any OS before, were driving Windows Vista as a true gaming platform, complete with a broad marketing campaign that introduces the Games for Windows brand, complemented by ground-breaking branded titles from Microsoft Game Studios as well as from many of the worlds leading game developers. We are also investing in a more consistent brand presence at retail that will create a true category that will easy for the consumer to discover and navigate.

Read More

Retail Giant Embraces the Microsoft and Novell Alliance

Microsoft and Novell announced that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, became the latest customer to take advantage of the benefits of the new collaboration on interoperability between Microsoft Windows and Linux. The agreement has Microsoft delivering SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription certificates to Wal-Mart for use in Wal-Mart's IT infrastructure. The engagement among the three companies opens a host of other potential opportunities for both Microsoft and Novell to provide Wal-Mart with additional software resources and support, building on future joint research and developments in virtualization and interoperability. "Customers tell us every day that they need to operate a cost-effective IT organization and leverage the most they can out of their investments," said Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell.

Read More

2007-01-27T04:40:00.000-08:00

Sugar CRM a New Roadmap to Commercial Open Source Technology

Sugar CRM is commercial Open Source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for companies of all sizes, based on LAMP stack (Linux-OS; Apache-Web Server; MySQL-Database Server; PHP-Programming Language). Sugar CRM's functionality and intuitive user interface provides a gateway to all CRM applications thereby enabling corporates to migrate to SugarCRM to expand their customer base. Sugar CRM takes your business to a new level by integrating the enterprise server software sales model with that of a software-as-a-service model. It is available in both free and commercial editions. Free edition of SugarCRM is available and is best suited for small industries. These industries can download SugarCRM under the Mozilla Public License. This open source product offers all the basic customer-centric functionalities.

Read More

PacificNet's WAP Portal MOABC.com Wins "2006 Top Ten Most ...

BEIJING, Jan. 26 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- PacificNet, Inc. (Nasdaq: PACT - News), a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), mobile internet, e-commerce and gaming technology in China, today announced that its WAP portal MOABC (www.moabc.com) was ranked among the "2006 Top Ten Most Promising Internet Companies" in an industry peer ranking organized by Sohu.com Inc., Communications World Web (www.cww.net.cn) which is affiliated with China's Ministry of Information Industry (www.mii.gov.cn), among others. This industry event is held annually and this year the winners cover more specialized areas such as download engines, online games, video, classified information, search engines, media player software and more. Others among the prestigious list include www.xunlei.com, www.9you.com, www.nubb.com, www.qihoo.com, www.marry5.com, www.56.com, www.tianyaclub.com, www.baofeng.com, and www.tiancity.com.

Read More

Regional Manager - CRM

A Large National IT Company requires a Regional (CRM) Manager to provide leadership and direction to a team of Account Managers who maintain client satisfaction by monitoring and managing the delivery of consistent, continuous quality service. DUTIES: 1. Good understanding of the Retail Industry. 2. Act as an Account Manager to selected client. 3. Participate as a member of the management team in the development of software (southern region) business plans and budgets and implements them for the Account Management division. 4. Ensure that a competent well-managed team of account managers is in place for the designated accounts. 5. Ensures that the Account Managers deliver the agreed services in terms of the Project Charter and the SLA's.

Read More

2007-01-26T04:41:00.000-08:00

PacificNet, Inc. Announces Change of Auditors

BEIJING, Jan. 25 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- PacificNet, Inc. (Nasdaq: PACT - News), a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), mobile internet, e-commerce and gaming technology in China, announced today that the Company and its public accounting firm, Clancy and Co., P.L.L.C., have decided to terminate the relationship effective January 19, 2007. The audit committee of the company is currently interviewing and negotiating with several potential audit firms in connection with the upcoming audit for the year ended December 31, 2006. The change in auditors was driven by the rapid growth and business expansion of the Company (Company revenue climbed from less than USD$1M in 2001 to nearly USD$60M in 2006), whose operations and financial reporting requirements have outgrown the resources of its prior auditors.

Read More

In Davos, top business leaders call for progress in global trade talks

The International Business Council - a group of 65 international figures including Dell Inc. chairman Michael Dell, Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and Coca-Cola Co. chief executive Neville Isdell - declared its readiness to help the World Trade Organization's five-year-old Doha round of commerce talks, according to a statement obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. Other prominent figures on the list include Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. chairman Laurent Beaudoin, Nestle SA CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, British Airways PLC chairman Martin Broughton and Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein. "The current impasse in the Doha round threatens to undermine growth from trade liberalization," the statement said. "Trade is the most effective means we can offer to the members of the global community struggling to lift themselves out of poverty." The so-called Doha round has stumbled since its inception five years ago in Qatar's capital.

Read More

CSC Licenses Claims and Customer Service Insurance Systems to ...

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Jan. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC - News) today announced that Jackson National Life Insurance Company (Jackson) has licensed CSC's Claims Management Accelerator and Customer Service Accelerator systems. Jackson will use these solutions to improve service levels to its customers and increase productivity and efficiency in claims handling. The company is the first organization to license Claims Management Accelerator. With its rapid growth, including a 2005 acquisition of 1.6 million life insurance policies, Jackson aims to reduce its paper-intensive processes and improve automation. The insurer will retire its current in-house claims management system to implement CSC's Claims Management Accelerator at its Lansing, Mich., location. Integrating Claims Management Accelerator with Jackson's existing CSC insurance software -- CyberLife, VANTAGE-ONE and Repetitive Payment System (RPS) -- will help the company streamline its claims processes.

Read More

2007-01-25T04:39:00.000-08:00

Three Different Approaches to On-Demand CRM

If RightNow's primary calling card is customer service and NetSuite's is integrated ERP, Salesforce.com has sales force automation and the platform. These strategies have given each company plenty of elbow room to develop without encountering crushing competition that we once saw in the database wars. System Management for New the Enterprise EnvironmentEnterprise Architecture and IT best practices (ITIL) have demonstrated the benefits of an accurate, automated central repository (CMDB) describing of all of the enterprise's IT assets and their configurations. Click here for our white paper. .

Read More

European CRM Software Revenue Increased 9.7 Percent in 2005 Says ...

Fuelled by the renewed business focus on revenue and customer growth, total customer relationship management (CRM) software revenues (licence and maintenance) in Europe totaled .9 billion in 2005, an increase of 9.7 percent from 2004, according to Gartner Inc. While SAP and Oracle - following its acquisition of Siebel earlier this year - jointly held more than 50 percent of the total CRM software market, increasing adoption of on-demand solutions produced significant gains for SalesForce.com growing 86.4 percent in 2005. Microsoft, a recent entrant into the CRM market, experienced the fastest growth in Europe at 88.1 percent.CRM market growth in Europe was lower than the 13.7 percent increase seen worldwide in 2005 and lower than the 15.1 percent seen in the region in 2004. However, Gartner highlighted several factors that contributed to this and stressed that despite the lower revenue growth, there is actually more CRM business in the market.The picture in Europe is very fragmented, said Chris Pang, senior research analyst for Gartner.

Read More

2007-01-24T04:39:00.000-08:00

Sage Software Helps Drive Business for Ed Morse Automotive Group ...

PLEASANTON, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- January 23, 2007 -- Sage Software announced today another example of how it responds to the needs, challenges, and dreams of more than 2.7 million small and mid-sized business customers (SMBs) across North America with the successful deployment of Sage Accpac ERP (enterprise resource planning) at the Ed Morse Automotive Group of Fort Lauderdale, FL, a well-known automotive fixture in South Florida, with 20 dealerships and 23 franchises selling 14 different automotive brands to customers across South Florida and southern Alabama. With the assistance of Sage Software business partner NextLevel Information Solutions of Miami, FL, this deployment exemplifies how Sage Software and its network of more than 4,800 business partners across North America mutually deliver on its "customers for life" strategy, providing the business management solutions companies like Ed Morse Automotive Group need as they grow and change over time.

Read More

CRM - Customer Relationship Management Posted By : Syed Ali -

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a strategy employed at corporate level. For any company, it is the focus on the creation and maintenance of lasting and meaningful relationships with its customers. It can perhaps be described as a holistic approach of a company's philosophy where the emphasis is placed primarily on the customer. To simplify this process, there are a number of commercial software packages available. Two of the market leaders are GoldMine and ACT!. .

Read More

2007-01-23T04:39:00.000-08:00

InsideSales.com and the Mule Deer Foundation Participate in Joint ...

(openPR) - Springville, UT. – December 15, 2006 - InsideSales.com, a leading provider of on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) products and services, today announced planes to team up with The Mule Deer Foundation in hopes of increasing the exposure of both organizations. MDF will help InsideSales.com with a marketing campaign targeting small business owners who are looking for enhanced CRM technologies; while, InsideSales.com will help the Mule Deer Foundation promote events and raise funds. The two companies started working together in late 2006, when The Mule Deer Foundation used the InsideSales.com Hosted CRM Software with built in dialer to notify its members of their relocation. MDF was thrilled with the success that they experienced. Tony Abbott, former GM and consultant of the Mule Deer Foundation said: “We recently moved our headquarters and wanted to make sure that our members where aware of the move.

Read More

Apex Code: Salesforce.com's Latest Weapon

Dan Farber, VP Editorial at CNET Networks, submits: In 2000, Salesforce.com (CRM) started selling a basic CRM solution delivered via the Internet. The company was swimming against the tide. Businesses, especially large enterprises, weren't disposed to giving up control of their applications and infrastructure to a startup with outspoken and sometimes bombastic CEO Marc Benioff, who proclaimed the "end of software." When the company launched in Februrary 2000, Benioff said, "Our objective is to put Siebel Systems out of business." More recently, Benioff boasted, "We will destroy Oracle (ORCL) and SAP (SAP) because they won't be able to respond to the innovation we are about to unleash." Trash talking aside, in the eight years since salesforce.com was founded, the idea of software-as-a-service–or the "Business Web" concept as pioneered by Benioff's growing team and prodigious marketing efforts–has taken root.

Read More

Delivering a personalised stay experience with excellence on a ...

The company identified the opportunity to grow its loyalty programme membership last year and launched numerous acquisition campaigns in its hotels, online, through marketing partnerships and in call centre. Jon Mamela, director - relationship marketing, Fairmont Hotels, recently interviewed by EyeforTravel.com's Ritesh Gupta ahead of CRM in Travel USA conference in San Francisco, said, "We had great success in engaging guests to enroll into Fairmont President's Club during the reservation experience at our call centre, as well as asking them to enroll during our stay. We've historically not pushed our loyalty programme in the face of our customers so taking a small step forward to raise awareness of the program in a tactful manner proved very successful." "In regards to our retention initiatives, our continued focus with Fairmont President's Club has been to deliver our of promise of a personalised stay experience, particularly for our most loyal members.

Read More

2007-01-22T04:39:00.000-08:00

XL Signs Major Five-Year Deal with Amdocs to Modernize Its Real ...

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Amdocs (NYSE: DOX - News), the leading provider of software and services to enable integrated customer management and the intentional customer experience(TM), today announced the signing of a major five-year contract with PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk. (XL), a leading mobile communications service provider in Indonesia and part of the TM group Malaysia, for the modernization of its real-time business support systems (BSS). Under the terms of the contract, Amdocs will also be the systems integrator for the deployment of the new Amdocs Billing 7, Amdocs CRM 7 and Amdocs Partner Manager 7 products, as well as provide the associated maintenance services over the five-year period. The Amdocs 7 suite will be officially launched on January 23, 2007. Amdocs' billing, CRM and partner settlement products have supported XL's explosive growth from 1.5 million subscribers in 2003 to more than 9 million today.

Read More

Commence CEO Caretsky Shares Change Management Plan for Distributors

(openPR) - One of the best ways that industrial organizations have found to make sure implementations “stick" is to have the management involved. When sales training is reinforced by management, the sales skills taught during training produced a 15% permanent increase in productivity. Management needs to be involved in more than a cosmetic fashion. A senior member of the management team needs to attend the training, and this same manager should inspect the sales activities for a period of time to make sure they continuously are consistent with the new sales skills introduced during the training. According to Larry Caretsky, President of Commence Corporation (www.commence.com/mfg/), “By implementing a formalized sales process, distributors and manufacturers are fundamentally changing the way people do their jobs on a daily basis.

Read More

CDC Corporation Announces Formation of US $100 Million CDC Mobile ...

BEIJING, Jan. 22 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CDC Corporation (Nasdaq: CHINA), focused on enterprise software applications, mobile applications and online games, today announced the creation of a US $100 million investment program whereby its business unit, CDC Mobile, will seek strategic investment opportunities in leading 3G content providers in North Asia and Europe as well as the creation of new original content for the 3G marketplace. CDC Mobile will initially target its investment program to the North Asian countries of China, Japan and Korea which cumulatively have more than 600 million mobile phone subscribers, and where Japan and Korea are already early adaptors of 3G, with more than 60% of Japan subscribers already using 3G handsets. CDC Mobile will seek to invest in and partner with innovative content providers that are leveraging the rollout of 3G infrastructure to develop new content distribution channels, mobile communities, and offer rich content that previously was not possible in a 2G world.

Read More

2007-01-21T04:39:00.000-08:00

CRM - Eliminate Complexity Layers

With on-demand CRM services it is possible to avoid the burden of complex application development and integration because they deliver multi-option,tightly integrated portal platforms for workplace collaboration. When developing a proprietary architecture, it is necessary to go through a process of creating and developing models, that are worked and reworked, discarded and/or refined until they satisfy the desired result. A list of some typical models are listed below and they constitute the 'layers of complexity' in application development. Concept Models Requirements Behavior (operational scenarios) Structure: system hierarchy, interconnection, interfaces Properties Analysis Detailed engineering models List of deliverables The process of bridging these layers together is complex and very difficult in trying to guarantee the exchange of underlaying data.

Read More

SaaS CRM Market Currently Favors Entrenched Software Providers ...

The market for on-demand CRM software is booming and creating plenty of room for growth for the established players in this space, according to a study by Tier1 Research (T1R), a division of The 451 Group. However, new entrants attempting to build a position in the on-demand SaaS CRM business at this stage of the game face several barriers to entry, including classic startup risks, financial risk and competitive challenges from entrenched players. .

Read More

2007-01-20T04:39:00.000-08:00

Finetix Investor Relationship Management Solution Now Available ...

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Finetix, a leading financial services IT consulting firm and salesforce.com http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange , the market and technology leader in on-demand business services, today announced the availability of Finetix Investor Relationship Management (FIRM) on salesforce.com's AppExchange. Finetix developed FIRM specifically for hedge funds to enable improved investor relationship management. FIRM provides hedge funds with a single view of investor-level data across all business areas, integrating marketing, operations, legal and accounting to improve compliance, collaboration and investor communication. Built on salesforce.com's Apex on-demand platform, FIRM is immediately available for a test drive and deployment at in the financial services category.

Read More

Gaining customer loyalty helps business

When customers can easily comparison shop online with a few mouse clicks, the notion of loyalty seems almost old fashioned. Your best customers are someone else's most sought-after prospects. Big companies have adopted a fancy term for addressing the problem, called "customer relationship management" or CRM. Massive amounts of time and energy are devoted to it, including countless Web sites, conferences, software products, online applications, magazines and books. The core of the issue, however, comes down to something small business owners have been good at for centuries: building customer loyalty. A loyal customer is doing business with you, not your competition. continued below .

Read More

2007-01-19T04:39:00.000-08:00

On-Demand Versus On-Premise CRM: Are There Performance Differences?

CRM systems play a vital role in a company's ability to succeed. However, selecting the right system is critical - long implementation times, running over budget, failed user adoption - all are results of choosing incorrectly. This paper on a recent CSO Insights research study, involving over 2,500 companies worldwide, reveals that On-Demand CRM systems are the deployment of choice. Companies selecting On-Demand CRM solutions over On-Premise CRM solutions realized faster implementation, lower overall costs, and a faster, more significant impact on their business. This white paper covers the following: The evolution of On-Demand and On-Premise CRM systems The time of deployment vs. ROI of On-Demand and On-Premise CRM systems The time needed to implement On-Demand vs. On-Premise CRM systems The costs associated with On-Demand vs.

Read More

FrontRange Announces GoldMine Plus Account 4.0 CRM Enhancement

Customer relationship management (CRM) applications are great in that they better equip a company and its employees to anticipate and respond to the needs and demands of the customer base. What these applications lack, however, is integration with accounting records. Too often, sales or customer service representatives have to waste valuable time accessing different applications and opening separate files to answer basic questions. .

Read More

Test Center Tracker: Rich CRM-y goodness

Salesforce to be reckoned with: It's been a while since Test Center Analyst dove into hosted CRM service Salesforce.com, but his latest look suggests it was well worth the wait. "The Winter '07 release offers plenty of updates that should put SFDC back in the spotlight and help it compete in the on-demand SFA space. A more flexible UI, improved workflow, and new server-side programming options greatly improve business opportunity," he writes. And you visual types especially should check out our slideshow tour of the product. Take my BlackBerry ... please! InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager pays tribute to the arguable king of mobile devices: the BlackBerry. It may not be as sexay as the iPhone and other gadgets unveiled at CES, but by golly, the thing does what you want it to: It pushes your e-mail messages to you reliably.

Read More

2007-01-18T04:39:00.000-08:00

SAP Launches Awards Program to Recognize Leadership and Excellence ...

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Siemens VDO Automotive and Wacker Chemical Corporation are the inaugural recipients of the new SAP Industry Leadership Awards. The awards program, which launches this year, recognizes SAP customers that demonstrate business process excellence through adoption and application of industry best practices. Award winners are selected based upon the highest average best-practices scores from the Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG) and SAP benchmarking and best practices surveys. The SAP Industry Leadership Awards are being presented to representatives of Siemens VDO Automotive and Wacker Chemical Corporation at the SAP Americas annual field sales kick-off meeting, being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 14-18. "We established the SAP Industry Leadership Awards to give recognition to those customers who are leaders in their field, and to show our appreciation for their commitment to the SAP solutions that help them achieve business excellence," said Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP Americas.

Read More

SAP to Demonstrate Retail Industry Leadership at National Retail ...

Demonstrating its ongoing success in the retail industry, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today provided details about the company's planned activities and announcements at the world's leading retail event – the National Retail Federation (NRF) 96th Annual Convention and Expo, being held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, NY, January 15-17. On Tuesday, January 16, Kevin Plank, chairman, CEO and president of Under Armour (NYSE: UA), and Bill McDermott, president and CEO of SAP Americas, will deliver a Super Session keynote entitled, “Inspiring a Trend." This session will focus on the phenomenal growth of the Under Armour brand and how it continues to inspire a new generation of athletes. Plank and McDermott will discuss how Under Armour, an SAP customer, is driving success across the retail supply chain and leveraging enterprise business solutions to support its growth and innovation.

Read More

JMsolutions Acquires the Business of DealerUps, Inc., Adding CRM ...

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla.-(Business Wire)-January 17, 2007 - JMsolutions (www.jmfe-jmsolutions.com), whose Web-based products and services are yielding automotive dealers impressive results, has acquired the business of DealerUps, Inc. - the highly endorsed automotive software company, which specializes in customer relationship management (CRM). The DealerUps(TM) CRM acquisition allows JMsolutions to expand its RetailSuite(TM) product offering of beginning to end integrated solutions, thus providing dealers with an array of technology products and services unmatched in the industry. With a state-of-the-art software system that tracks customer information and purchase preferences, the DealerUps CRM product supports the critical first stage in a dealer's sales process. JMsolutions is dedicated to providing superior solutions for dealerships that want to increase their effectiveness through process improvement and unique technology, lead management, desking software, consulting, and other services.

Read More

2007-01-17T04:41:00.000-08:00

Sub-editor - REED RECRUITMENT

The sub-editor is required to assist the editorial team to ensure the proper presentation of all outgoing content from the CRM as well as help organise the content required for requests coming into the CRM. The quality of all content produced must be ensured to be of a high standard, suitable for our clientele, and in keeping with the style guide. The position can be divided into five broad and overlapping areas: Quality control Maintain website content Ensure high standard of customer reports Assist with all newsletters Active involvement in content creation Sub-editors are expected to perform the following functions: Front line proofreaders for all daily submissions from analyst team First draft editing for newsletter content Close work assistance for customer reports Assist in website content insertion Ensure quality, correctness and style for all outgoing content - provide feedback to improve this Prioritise incoming work Due to the 24/7 running of CRM, sub-editors are expected to assist with content off hours .

Read More

Kirk Communications Selected by Drytek as Agency of Record

PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Kirk Communications, a leading public relations and integrated marketing agency, has been selected by Drytek as their agency of record. Based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Drytek is the nations leading provider of flooring solutions to the building industry. Drytek's building solutions include: fast drying, low-alkali and self leveling cement that enables the rapid assembly of floor systems, super lightweight systems for deep fills and where load limitations are an issue, sound control for floor-ceiling assemblies, fiber-reinforced self-leveling compounds for use in areas of high deflection and attractive, functional wear surface cements for use in home and retail environments. Drytek's self leveling products are all produced in the United States.

Read More

Salesforce unveils Apex development environment, tooling

Salesforce.com Inc has made its new development language, Apex, publicly available, along with some Eclipse-based tooling, as part of its bid to entrench its on-demand software service as a formal applications platform. Apex is a language designed specifically for Salesforce's multi-tenant, software-as-a-service on-demand environment. While it has some parallels with Java, the closer resemblance is to SQL. .

Read More

2007-01-16T04:38:00.000-08:00

SAP Demonstrates Strong Leadership in Store Solutions Space

NEW YORK, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Demonstrating its ongoing success in the retail industry, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced strong customer adoption of point-of-sale (POS) applications from the SAP for Retail solution portfolio. An increasing number of retail customers are choosing store solutions from SAP over competing vendor technologies, adding to SAP's leadership position in the retail software market. Among them is Jo-Ann Stores Inc., a leading national fabric and craft retailer, which has selected SAP(R) Transactionware General Merchandise (formerly Triversity Transactionware) to improve customer experience as well as store productivity through increased functionality and improved sales and customer data. The announcement was made at the National Retail Federation (NRF) Conference, being held in New York, NY, January 15-17.

Read More

Hotelier outlines CRM resolutions

Two leading hotel industry experts have outlined their "top ten CRM resolutions" for 2007, including plans to capture and protect customers' data more effectively. Max Starkov, chief eBusiness strategist, and Jason Price, EVP, of consulting firm Hospitality eBusiness Strategies said that customer relationship management (CRM) will be particularly important in the hotel sector during 2007 and recommend that hoteliers use the internet to their advantage. They suggest that hoteliers should make a pledge to "be relentless in obtaining customer information that can be used to better serve and satisfy guests and prospects", ensure it does not contain errors, add staff to the front desk and devise innovative programs to capture customer data and protect customer data and privacy, ensuring that it is never misused.

Read More

Amdocs Expands Relationship with Alltel to Enhance Mobile Content ...

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Amdocs (NYSE: DOX) , the leading provider of software and services to enable integrated customer management and the intentional customer experience(TM), today announced a multi-year contract extension to provide premium content services to Alltel's more than 11 million wireless subscribers. Alltel Wireless, America's largest network, will continue to use Amdocs' Qpass Digital Commerce solution to deliver premium content services to its customers and manage the customer experience. "Our relationship with Qpass enhances the overall customer experience we deliver to our subscribers," said Craig Kirklande, Director of Messaging Services of Alltel. "The Qpass platform gives Alltel customers the continued flexibility and convenience to customize content and make digital commerce purchases directly from their handset." Amdocs' Qpass Digital Commerce solution helps support and manage Alltel's premium content offerings such as ringtones, games and messaging.

Read More

2007-01-15T04:38:00.000-08:00

CRM Software Solutions Lead to Long-term Relationships Says ...

Busy professionals who want to begin the New Year right by developing and maintaining long-term, value-based customer relationships must select the right CRM solution. VendorGuru.com provides up-to-date information about industry leaders in CRM and telephony software solutions. (PRWeb) January 12, 2007 -- Busy professionals who want to increase their long-term competitive edge need to consider purchasing a customer relationship management (CRM) software solution in the New Year, says VendorGuru.com (http://www.VendorGuru.com). According to a 2006 George Washington University (GWU) School of Business Research Report, "The fundamental dilemma is finding out which CRM approaches have the greatest positive impact and result in building long-term customer value and thus financial impact." Dick Lee, vice president of a consulting firm that specializes in designing and developing customer-centric business strategies and author of "Strategic CRM: the complete implementation manual," stresses two important steps to successful implementation of a CRM software solution--developing customer-centric strategies and finding the technology that fully supports them.

Read More

Savaria Concord Improves Sales, Lead Distribution with Soffront CRM

Savaria Concord Lifts Inc., a North American accessibility company, has implemented Soffront CRM as an on-demand application to automate sales and lead distribution to partners. Savaria Concord Lifts provides home elevators, wheelchair lifts and stair chairs that facilitate mobility of people with special needs. The company reportedly doubled their business volume and the amount of leads they received after acquiring Concord Elevator, Inc. in 2005. .

Read More

PacificNet and Bellsystem24 - Japan's Largest Telemarketing Call ...

BEIJING, Jan. 10 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- PacificNet, Inc. (NASDAQ:PACT) , a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), mobile internet, e-commerce and gaming technology in China, today announced it has reached an agreement with Japan-based Bellsystem24 (http://www.bell24.co.jp/), Japan's largest telemarketing call center services provider, to set up a joint venture providing CRM consulting services in Shanghai, China. Bellsystem24 is Japan's largest telemarketing, call center, and CRM service company providing a variety of services for pursuing one-to-one marketing, such as call center, marketing solutions, media entertainment solutions, as well as pharmaceutical and medical support services. Bellsystem24 is based in Tokyo, Japan, and has over 5,000 clients, 27,348 communication service representatives and 33 offices throughout Japan.

Read More

2007-01-14T04:38:00.000-08:00

Neocase Software Selected as Finalist for 2007 SIIA CODiE Awards

Neocase Software, a world leader in customer service solutions, announced today that it has been named a 2007 CODiE Award finalist in the customer relationship management solution category. Neocase specializes in maximizing the productivity and quality of customer service operations through collaboration, knowledge management, self-service, partner centers and advanced workflow management combined with strict adherence to service level agreements (SLAs). Designed for quick implementation, ease-of-use, and optimized to work seamlessly alongside Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 sales and marketing suite, Neocase can be deployed either on-demand or on-premise. “Neocase brings innovative products to the CRM market, and we are honored that the SIIA has recognized the value of Neocase Software," said Philippe Gaillard, president and CEO of Neocase.

Read More

CRM Solution Provider Wins Five International Awards for Customer ...

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - London, Middx, United Kingdom, 01/11/2007 - avrion has won five separate awards, each for different aspects of customer relationship management (CRM) best practice - best customer care, best marketing, best sales, best implementation and best business achievement by maximizer software. .

Read More

FrontRange Announces GoldMine(R) Plus Accounting 4.0

DUBLIN, Calif.-(Business Wire)-January 12, 2007 - Responding to customer requests for tighter integration between front- and back-office data, FrontRange Solutions today announced the general release of GoldMine(R) Plus Accounting 4.0. This add-on to the organization's award-winning Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution allows users to draw information seamlessly from Inuit Inc.'s best-selling QuickBooks(R), and see it alongside the standard GoldMine data in order to gain a unified view of all transactions that relate to a given customer account. Updates can also be sent from GoldMine back to QuickBooks with ease. GoldMine Plus Accounting 4.0 solves a plethora of issues that result from organizations using separate systems to access customer, sales, accounting, and operational data.

Read More

2007-01-13T04:44:00.000-08:00

Immigration agency now offers online change of address service

The new online service will reduce processing time and improve customer service by providing immediate confirmation that USCIS has received the updated address information. Overall, test users found the new online form convenient and simple to use. This is the first phase of this online system. Phase two, which is projected to launch sometime in May, will include additional customer service features, including allowing applicants with a pending naturalization application to report their change of address online. Until then, those individuals should continue to contact USCIS by telephone at 1-800-375-5283 to report their change of address. Change of Address online is available on the UCSIS Web site at: http://www.uscis.gov/AR-11. .

Read More

Boston Scientific says CRM business rebounding (Reuters)

Reuters - Boston Scientific Corp. said on Monday it had fourth-quarter net sales of $489 million from its heart rhythm management products and announced a plan to reallocate research and development resources in the unit that will result in 500 to 600 job cuts in the current quarter. Reuters - Boston Scientific Corp. said on Monday it had fourth-quarter net sales of $489 million from its heart rhythm management products and announced a plan to reallocate research and development resources in the unit that will result in 500 to 600 job cuts in the current quarter. .

Read More

Boston Scientific says CRM business rebounding

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boston Scientific Corp. said on Monday it had fourth-quarter net sales of $489 million from its heart rhythm management products and announced a plan to reallocate research and development resources in the unit that will result in 500 to 600 job cuts in the current quarter. Boston Scientific said the plan would result in after-tax costs of about $70 million, which include change-in- control payments related to last year's acquisition of Guidant Corp. .

Read More

2007-01-12T04:41:00.000-08:00

SES Expands Beta At Anheuser-Busch Approved Supplier

MANILA, Philippines, Jan. 8, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) (PRIMEZONE) -- SES (Pink Sheets:SFWJ) CEO, Clarisa Rojo, today announced that SES has commenced a comprehensive beta test of all the modules of "Effective" SES's flagship CRM software suite at an approved supplier of Anheuser-Busch (NYSE:BUD), a world leader in diverse operations including beer, adventure park entertainment and packaging. .

Read More

Embrace These 15 Business Management Habits, Success Sure to Follow

RISMEDIA, Jan. 12, 2007-When you started your own company, your focus was on doing anything and everything to get it off the ground. Most likely, you spent day and night building the business, solving problems, working overtime to please customers. Now, you're proud to say that your venture is a success. But in all the hustle and bustle, you've likely let some small but critical details fall by the wayside. Unfortunately, says entrepreneurial expert Ty Freyvogel, those nagging little business practices that so often get overlooked are the same ones that can keep you a step (or two, or ten) ahead of the competition. "Being a really successful business owner is all about forming good habits," says Freyvogel, founder of EntrepreneursLab.com, a new site with a plethora of great business advice for any entrepreneur.

Read More

Stream Acquires Contact Center in Costa Rica

RICHARDSON, Texas, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Stream, a leading global outsourcing company, has announced the acquisition of a Supra Telecom contact center in San Jose, Costa Rica. Stream's Costa Rica facility will provide English and Spanish-language support for clients in North America, Latin America, and Spain. "The acquisition of this facility in San Jose is a logical step in Stream's strategic plan for growth," said Toni Portmann, Stream CEO and president. "The location complements our worldwide Smart Shore(SM) support strategy and has the unique ability to provide a nearshore solution for clients in both the Americas and Spain." The new site in Costa Rica supports Stream's Smart Shore(SM) methodology -- a consultative approach to site selection based on a given client's unique support needs.

Read More

2007-01-12T04:40:00.000-08:00

Sony chooses Pacificnet to develop e-commerce platform

Pacificnet, a provider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), mobile internet, e-commerce, entertainment and gaming technology in China, has been retained by Sony Hong Kong to provide e-commerce solutions. Terms and details were not released for competitive reasons. The Sony Style e-commerce platform by Pacificnet includes key internet applications such as mass multi-user online customer log-in registration, administration, MySony membership management, billing, sales and order reports, warehouse inventory management and backend ERP interface with SAP systems, firewall and load-balancing systems, Web+ application servers, credit-card security management and a shopping cart and payment system which enables customers to purchase products from Sony Style online, and make payment online using a credit card.

Read More

Technology, Not Rising Commodity Prices, Must Drive Future Growth ...

ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--While productivity gains in America's wholesale distribution industry have been driven in large part by rising commodities prices, future industry growth will require stepped-up investments in information technology, according to a new study sponsored by Lawson Software (Nasdaq:LWSN - News) and conducted by Pembroke Consulting. Of the 906 wholesale distribution executives surveyed in mid 2006 for the report, seven out of 10 are looking primarily to existing customers for growth over the next five years. But according to Adam J. Fein, Ph.D., president of Pembroke and lead author of the report, these distributors will need superior operational marketing execution to identify the best add-on sales opportunities with their current customers. "Identifying new sales opportunities at existing accounts must be uncovered using fact-based insights drawn from customer-level data analytics," Fein writes in the report.

Read More

1TouchSoftware Solutions Announces Enhanced Customer Relationship ...

Latest 1TouchSoftware eRMS Release Provides Restaurant Operators with Enhanced CRM Capabilities to Store, Analyze and Act on Customer Information. For Immediate Release FAIRFAX, Va./EWORLDWIRE/Jan. 11, 2007 --- 1TouchSoftware Solutions Inc. (1TouchSoftware), the leading provider of fully integrated Enterprise Restaurant Management Systems (eRMS), today announced the expansion of the 1TouchSoftware eRMS to include enhanced integrated customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities. New features amplify customer loyalty and retention, enhance the customer experience, and increase revenues. 1TouchSoftware has upgraded the 1Touch.pos front-of-the-house module with real-time CRM functions that improve the overall in-restaurant customer experience. The integrated features allow wait staff and managers to access and view customer preferences on the POS while those customers are seated and served.

Read More

2007-01-11T04:39:00.000-08:00

Oppenheimer Investment Management Selects Satuit Technologies as

Satuit Technologies, Inc., today announced that Oppenheimer Investment Management LLC., (OIM) has joined the rapidly growing list of asset management firms to select Satuit as its customer relationship management (CRM) provider of choice. OIM selected SatuitCRM following a thorough evaluation of a half dozen competing CRM solutions over several months. A key driver of the decision for OIM was the fact that, unlike other CRM solutions that proved to have limited reporting capabilities, hard to use configuration tools and were more costly, SatuitCRM was designed for the asset management industry with out-of-the-box functionality that closely mirrors the way the industry works. This enables OIM to quickly utilize the application resulting in a rapid Return-on-Investment (ROI). OIM also liked the on-demand solution provided with SatuitCRM that allows them to get up and running quickly and with little upfront resources of people or capital.

Read More

The Importance of Leadership in Driving CRM Adoption

Happy New Year to all readers! With the start of the year 2007, it is probably appropriate to talk about leadership - what is on top of the organizational chart - and its importance in driving adoption rate.Leadership is often a neglected subject of discussion when it comes to driving CRM adoption rate, yet it is one with the most impact if strong emphasis is put on it. Maybe it scares implementors and CRM practitioners to take this subject head on. It is a difficult and sensitive issue to address but nevertheless I will attempt to explain and share some useful experiences in getting the right amount of attention from the leaders to address this challenge.If the top is not straight, the bottom will be crookedAs the Chinese proverb goes "If the top is not straight, the bottom will be crooked." This famous Chinese proverb, which probably dates back thousands of years, holds the answer to driving higher adoption rate.

Read More

Siperian opens London office

Siperian Inc., a developer of an adaptive platform for master data management has opened a London office in order to better serve its European customer base. According to San Mateo, CA-based Siperian, existing global financial services and pharmaceutical customers as well as new European clients have chosen Siperians master data management solution solution, Siperian Hub, to support their global master data initiatives. The integrated platform helps organizations improve customer profitability, reduce operational costs and better comply with regulations. With industry analyst firm IDC predicting the worldwide master data management market will grow to $10.4 billion by the year 2009 and with the addition of several customers in Europe, Siperian accelerated the opening of its newest office to service the needs of those customers.

Read More

2007-01-10T04:41:00.000-08:00

Smart practices as the medium evolves

2006 gave consumers control of media and saw the rise of social commerce. With 2007 upon us, DM News spoke with several e-mail vendors to give readers tips and tricks to guide New Years resolutions. Jere Doyle, president/CEO at Prospectiv, Woburn, MA, said that building a house file is the most important thing to focus on in 2007 because its vital to know who your customers are. Todays customer is in control of all types of media, and getting consumers to tell you what they think and what they want is the key to giving them what they want, he said. Mr. Doyle suggested sending surveys, polls and questions to create a dialogue with customers. Collecting this data and keeping track of customer responses are the best way to know customers and yield valuable information for segmenting lists for future mailings, he said.

Read More

NuCO2 Inc. Announces New Strategic Growth Plan

STUART, Fla., Jan. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NuCO2 Inc. (NASDAQ: NUCO) , the largest supplier in the U.S. of bulk CO2 systems and services for carbonating fountain beverages, has adopted a new strategic growth plan designed to enhance shareholder value, achieve improved operating margins and profitability, reduce capital needs, heighten free cash flow and improve returns, it was announced today by Michael E. DeDomenico, Chairman and CEO. "Our decision to take this important action results from our assessment of the relative attractiveness of new business associated with each of our key market segments and the sales acquisition cost of new contracts. Over the past two years, we have implemented an expanded sales program targeting a broad base of customers. While we have been able to upgrade our personnel and processes, it has become increasingly clear that our individual customer profitability, along with the run-rate cost to win new business, can both be improved by a more selective approach to individual customer opportunities and market segments.

Read More

First Advantage Selects Cybertrust

Herndon, VA, USA, January 9, 2007 -- Cybertrust(R), the global information security specialist, has announced that First Advantage Corporation, a global risk mitigation and business solutions provider, has expanded its relationship with the company by selecting Cybertrust to monitor portions of its global security infrastructure. Under the terms of the multi-year deal, Cybertrust will monitor First Advantage's firewalls and monitor its intrusion detection system (IDS) and intrusion prevention system (IPS). First Advantage gathers, stores and processes sensitive information for many of its customers, which include businesses and consumers. As such, it is essential for the company to maintain a centralized, comprehensive view of its information technology (IT) infrastructure. The company has partnered with Cybertrust to expand visibility into its business units' systems, which will provide First Advantage with enhanced risk management capabilities.

Read More

2007-01-09T04:39:00.000-08:00

Zero36's Location-Based Filtering Technology Enables Implementing ...

LONDON, January 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Zero36 ( www.z36.biz ), a leading developer and distributor of Mobile Casino games, announced today that it has filed a patent for its location-based filtering system technology which enables legally accessing mobile casino games in locations where gambling is legal. The company's technology ensures that mobile network carriers adhere to the established legal guidelines for gambling while enabling land-based casinos to extend their activities to the mobile market. Zero36 currently has distribution agreements with many leading mobile network carriers to market their games in a non-gambling, play-for-fun mode. The company's technology now enables mobile carriers to upgrade their game portfolio and offer their users Zero36's mobile games in either play-for-fun or play-for-real-money mode.

Read More

Survey: Customers Want Flexible Return Policies

Return policies are becoming more important to shoppers, particularly as they cross channels more often, said KPMG's John Rittenhouse. "Consumers want to have a choice of returning an item bought online to a bricks and mortar store, or, for that matter, to be able to pick up something ordered online at a nearby store." Premium Domains Drive Online Business -- Find Your DomainFrom a recent small business survey: 61% said the Internet opened up new markets; 57% said it lowered the cost of doing business. Get online now and expand your customer base. Visit BuyDomains.com today to choose from 700,000 domains. .

Read More

Turning Leads Into Customers With CRM

In order to turn leads into customers, you need to understand exactly what the customers want and rapidly set the wheels turning to provide what is wanted in the minimum of time. This, of course, is a simplistic view, so let's have a look at more detail and how CRM can help achieve the desired end. A good CRM system will rapidly analyze every lead and quickly and automatically route it to the right person to handle it. The fully customizable rules in Microsoft Analytics CRM 3.0 allows you to so on the basis of area, product, cash volume or any other rule that you want to apply. You can also apply different rules to different products or customers so that every variable is optimized. The familiar Microsoft architecture enables this to be achieved easily and integrated with other Microsoft applications.

Read More

2007-01-08T04:42:00.000-08:00

Mamo joins Pinnacle Financial Partners

Mamo has more than 17 years of commercial lending experience. He most recently served as division manager and vice president for LaSalle Bank in Michigan. He previously served in commercial loan relationship management positions with Community Bank of Dearborn and Bank One. Mamo is a graduate of the University of Michigans business school.Brian brings a combination of commercial lending expertise and community banking experience that will help expand Rutherford Countys reputation for being a great environment for businesses, said Bill Jones, Pinnacle area executive for Rutherford County. Brian has a diverse lending background with a focus on real estate, manufacturing, medical and service industries. His trusted advisor approach to lending will give business owners here a good foundation for succeeding in their ventures.While in Michigan, Mamo was on the board of the chamber of commerce and worked with Habitat for Humanity.Pinnacle Financial Partners is the largest financial institution owned and operated in the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro MSA.

Read More

Epicor|CRS Moves Up the Ranks on the 2006 RIS Software LeaderBoard

IRVINE, Calif. and NEWBURGH, N.Y., Dec. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Epicor|CRS, the Retail Solutions Division of Epicor Software Corporation (Nasdaq: EPIC - News) -- a leading provider of enterprise business software solutions to the midmarket and Global 1000 -- today announced it has moved up to number six on the recently released 2006 RIS Software LeaderBoard published by RIS News, a leading publication focused on retail technology. The LeaderBoard, in its sixth year, assesses software vendors serving the retail industry in a head-to-head comparison based on retail executive evaluations to name the "best of the best" in retail software. Over 190 retailers participated in this year's LeaderBoard survey, evaluating 60 software vendors. Epicor|CRS ranked among the top ten vendors in the category for overall performance, one of the few categories in the LeaderBoard survey that can stand on its own.

Read More

2007-01-07T04:39:00.000-08:00

Fairchild - CRM PFC controller ICs feature industry-leading THD ...

New conduction mode (CRM) power factor correction (PFC) controller ICs specially designed to meet stringent stand-by power and harmonic regulations affecting ballast, notebook adaptors, LCD TVs and LCD monitors have been introduced by Fairchild Semiconductor. The FAN7529 and FAN7530 utilise a patent-pending variable on-time control method to achieve industry-leading Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) performance ( .

Read More

Revenge of the Software Customer

According to technology analysts AMR Research, more than 80% of customer relationship management (CRM) software deployments either don't add value, encounter user resistance, or fail outright. Such disappointment has made CRM customers vengeful and ready to support the growth of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market, which includes customer-relationship specialists such as Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) and RightNow Technologies (Nasdaq: RNOW). With SaaS, software is transforming from a product to an on-demand service, whereby software is delivered over the Internet in return for a fixed fee. Unlike the traditional software license model, there are either no up-front fees or very low ones. Soothed by the business case The business case for SaaS customers is soothing -- it's especially compelling for small and mid-sized businesses, which lack the infrastructure and large user populations of their bigger brethren.

Read More

Salesforce.com to Participate in 2007 Citigroup Software Investor ...

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) , the market and technology leader in on-demand business services, today announced that the company will be participating in the Citigroup Software Investor Field Trip scheduled for Thursday, January 11, 2007. Jim Steele, President of Worldwide Sales and Distribution, and David Havlek, VP of Investor Relations, are scheduled to host the event for salesforce.com at the company's global headquarters in San Francisco, CA. The planned 60-minute event is scheduled for 1:30 PM (PST) / 4:30PM (EST). The event will be webcast, and can be accessed at http://www.salesforce.com/investor. An archived recording of the webcast will also be available at http://www.salesforce.com/investor. About salesforce.com Salesforce.com is the market and technology leader in on-demand business services.

Read More

2007-01-06T04:41:00.000-08:00

Out At Home Depot

In the end it came down to the headstrong CEO's refusal to accept even a symbolic reduction in his stock package. Home Depot Inc.'s (HD ) board of directors wanted their controversial chief executive, Robert L. Nardelli, to amend his whopping compensation deals for recent years. After he pulled down $38.1 million from his last yearly contract, angry investors were promising an ugly fight at the company's annual meeting in May. Nardelli agreed to give up a guarantee that he would continue to receive a minimum $3 million bonus each year. But that's as far as he would go. When board members asked him to more closely tie his future stock awards to shareholder gains, he refused, according to people familiar with the matter. Nardelli has complained for years that share price is the one measure of company performance that he can't control.

Read More

A Hotelier's New Year's CRM Resolution

This reporter has always thought that the hospitality industry is a natural for CRM, especially after hearing the grisly stories of road warriors who end up standing at the front desk of hotels screaming. So it was highly refreshing to read in industry journal Hospitality Net that some people are starting to get it. .

Read More

DaimlerChrysler signs MoU with Maharashtra for Chakan facility

Mumbai: The state government of Maharashtra and DaimlerChrysler India Private Limited have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set-up DaimlerChrysler's new manufacturing facility in the Chakan MIDC area in Pune. The plant will produce the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, E-Class and C-Class for the Indian market. (See: DaimlerChrysler to set up plant near Pune) V K Jairath, secretary (industries) government of Maharashtra and Dr. Wilfried Aulbur managing director and CEO, DaimlerChrysler India, signed the MoU. Those who attended the signing ceremony included Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and industries minister Ashok Chavan along with Dr Thomas Weber, member of board of management of DaimlerChrysler AG, who heads Group research and the Mercedes car group, Dr Bharat Balasubramanian, vice president, group research and advanced engineering electrical / electronics and IT, processes, and Dr Wilfried Aulbur.

Read More

2007-01-05T04:39:00.000-08:00

Satuit Announces Another CRM Client

Satuit Technologies, Inc. has announced that Oppenheimer Investment Management LLC. has selected Satuit as its customer relationship management (CRM) provider of choice. A key driver of the decision for OIM, according to Satuit officials, was the fact that SatuitCRM was designed for the asset management industry with out-of-the-box functionality that "closely mirrors the way the industry works." OIM also liked the on-demand product provided with SatuitCRM that allows them to get up and running with relatively little upfront resources of people or capital. Another differentiator in the decision process, Satuit officials say, was SatuitCRM's detailed marketing reports that provide "a clear picture of marketing effectiveness allowing OIM to concentrate its institutional investment marketing and sales efforts to where it is most effective." .

Read More

Anheuser-Busch tests CRM suite

Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc., owner of Budweiser beer, will beta test a CRM software suite called Effective from SES Inc. Software Effective Solutions Inc.is a Makati City, Philippines-based software company. Its Effective suite includes customer service, inventory, marketing and sales, and mobile solutions modules. The company targets small and medium-sized companies as well as large telecom operators, mainly in the Asia-Pacific region. Following an agreement between SES and an approved supplier of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, SES is making preparations to implement several applications based on SES CRM suite as a trial in Anheuser-Buschs business units. The beta test will first be initiated with an approved supplier of Anheuser-Busch.

Read More

Open Solutions Signs Up Another CRM Client

Livonia, Mich.-based Co-op Services Credit Union has selected Open Solutions Inc.'s core enterprise platform, The Complete Credit Union Solution, and other complementary applications to address its data processing needs. The credit union has approximately $280 million in assets, 45,000 members and six locations. .

Read More

2007-01-04T04:41:00.000-08:00

IBM: ISVs from emerging markets play bigger role

The number of software developers in emerging markets, including China, India, Russia and Brazil, is rising faster than ever, and companies in these countries will play a more important role in the global software industry. "The number of software developers and engineers in emerging markets is now starting to exceed the number in the US and Western Europe," says Buell Duncan, IBM's general manager of ISV (independent software vendor) and developer relations. He estimates that there are a total of 15 million software developers worldwide. "The number of software developers is very indicative and shows the importance and influence these emerging markets have on a global basis," Duncan says. As a result, the IBM team that works with developers is putting a "disproportionate amount of focus on emerging markets," he says.

Read More

LXE to Demonstrate Adaptive Recognition & Information Assurance ...

LXE Inc., a leading manufacturer of rugged mobile computing solutions that improve the performance of supply-chain execution applications, announced today a demonstration of the next evolution in technology for logistics and supply chain execution – ARIA – at Promat 2007, to be held Jan. 8-11 in Chicago. ARIA represents a suite of mobile computing technologies designed to work in harmony, almost transparently, with warehouse operators in the execution of warehouse transactions. ARIA is designed to provide a technological platform for companies to develop new, more efficient processes that result in truly sustainable productivity gains. “Traditional auto-ID (AIDC) technologies and the supply chain execution systems they support are proven productivity boosters, but the relationship between the operator, the warehouse management system and the AIDC technology can be too structured at times," said Peter Fausel, LXE's senior VP of sales and marketing.

Read More

Forensic liquids firm confirms electronic conviction

Leading forensic security company SmartWater Technology, based in Telford, says it expects watertight electronic audit trails from its Syspro ERP system being implemented by McGuffie Brunton. SmartWater's manufacturers forensic products used to permanently mark items of value with a DNA-style liquid registered to the owner – spraying intruders as they enter homes or businesses. It's one of the most powerful criminal deterrents available, and is used by police forces and local authorities across the UK. With huge growth in adoption, the company needed new IT and went for McGuffie not least for its ability to provide a complete chain of electronic evidence to help convict burglars. That will be provided by Syspro's Lot Traceability module, which traces items, maintaining quality assurance and tracking expiry dates.

Read More

2007-01-03T04:39:00.000-08:00

SuperOffice signs product alignment deal with Orbis Software

Customer Relationship Management vendor, SuperOffice Software Ltd, today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with the Business Process Management (BPM) specialist, Orbis Software. The deal will see SuperOffice customers given direct access to a specially designed and priced version of the widely-used BPM Suite, TaskCentre. Tim Bennett, Sales Director for Orbis Software commented on this new .

Read More

Secret of My Success: Breaking News: A CRM Success Story

What problems were you facing? These surveys are helping us guide the strategic changes in our company. We're a 165-year-old newspaper company evolving into a multimedia organization in the 21st century, and internal change was called for in order to make significant shifts in the business strategy. Many of our products and audience are now digital--there was a big change in the culture of the newspaper and the skill sets within our employee base, so having a surveying tool that would provide us with direction and feedback was critical. We needed an accurate, secure surveying solution to measure both customers and employees to assist in the change of our corporate culture and to prioritize changes based on its findings. Ten years ago we launched Cincinnati.com. From the beginning, we used surveying solutions from various vendors, but we were unhappy with the majority of the tools we used.

Read More

Seven Ways to Make Money From Your CRM System

Can a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system really create profits for a company? A lot of people dont think so - over the years the media has reported quite a few companies (both big and small) that have tossed a significant amount of dollars down the drain on these kind of systems. But there have been plenty of successes too. In fact, during the 12 years weve been selling and implementing CRM products like GoldMine and Microsoft CRM weve seen some penny pinching business owners really get a lot of bang for their bucks. Heres how. The Lonely Old Quote: Tyler, who runs a parts distribution company had a big problem: one of out of every ten quotes his salesmen sent were never followed up! Sure, some of these opportunities may have been lost to others, but Tyler wondered just how many of these quotes couldve turned into a sale if someone wouldve just called the customer.

Read More

2007-01-02T04:38:00.000-08:00

North San Diego County Community News Briefs: Christmas tree ...

Coast Waste Management in Carlsbad and Waste Management of North County in Oceanside will recycle Christmas trees after the holiday season at no extra charge. Waste Management customers in North County can recycle trees for free by placing them at the curb on the scheduled pick-up day. Trees will be picked up for recycling during the two weeks after Christmas. All decorations, including ornaments, tinsel, lights and the tree stand must be removed; if the tree is taller than six feet, it must be cut in half. Flocked trees cannot be recycled, but will be collected if cut into four-foot sections and placed in the regular trash can.Trees collected in the curbside program will either be mulched for reuse or used as "alternative daily cover" at local landfills. MOPS group to meet .

Read More

Boutique FX providers up customer bases

Australian boutique foreign exchange providers are announcing record profits and increased customer bases, as their market share of small to medium businesses (SME) increases at the expense of banks. Recent figures from market research company East and Partners show that the market share for boutique FX providers in the SME segment - with $5 million to $20 million turnover - was increasing. Independent foreign exchange risk management company HiFX said foreign exchange used to be the domain of the banks, but a lack of personal service saw SME's step away. Managing director Brett Finnigan said HiFX's customer based had increased by 600 to 800 businesses per year. .

Read More

2007-01-01T04:39:00.000-08:00

Neocase signs on new Microsoft CRM partners

Neocase Software recently forged new partnerships with 12 CRM and Microsoft resellers, who have joined Neocase's partner program and will offer the vendor's software either as a stand-alone licensed application, via an on-demand service model, or as a bundled offering with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. Neocase, a San Francisco-based customer service software maker, entered the U.S. market a year-and-a-half ago after being primarily focused on EMEA, with some presence in Latin America and Asia as well. After moving into North America, the vendor has experienced extensive growth in the last six months, said Tara Ryan, Neocase's senior vice-president of marketing. So far, Neocase has signed on close to 30 resellers, 75 per cent of which are Microsoft partners, with the remaining 25 per cent being CRM value-added resellers (VARs) and consultants.

Read More

Applications: SaaS breaks down the walls

The one major exception to business as usual in the enterprise software arena for 2006 was SaaS (software as a service), which under the de facto leadership of Salesforce.com demonstrated that a hosted service can offer the kinds of capabilities once reserved for the giants of the enterprise software industry. .

Read More

CRM PFC controllers offer 'best' THD level

Fairchild Semiconductor has introduced critical conduction mode (CRM) power factor correction (PFC) controller ICs designed to meet stringent standby power and harmonic regulations affecting ballast, notebook adaptors, LCD TVs and LCD monitors. The FAN7529 and FAN7530 use a patent-pending variable on-time control method to achieve total harmonic distortion (THD) performance of 'Best' THD performance "Fairchild's FAN7529 and FAN7530 PFC controllers offer designers the best THD performance on the market, an important consideration since government regulations specify that manufacturers must reduce harmful noise that can affect system reliability," said CJ Kim Fairchild's product manager, power conversion product line. "Fairchild uses a unique variable on-time control method based on ZCD winding voltage to achieve less than 10 percent THD at 25 percent of the full load.

Read More

2006-12-31T04:37:00.000-08:00

Add new comment

For the past month I've been building and playing with Leonard 'paniq' Ritter's Aldrin, a music production system that combines a tracker-style composition interface with audio synthesis and processing modules called machines. Users of the famous Buzz music software will probably recognize Aldrin's design at once. In fact, it may be fair to describe Aldrin as Leonard Ritter's interpretation of the original Buzz. For my last blog entry in 2006 I'll take a brief look at the latest public version of Aldrin, then we'll discover just what makes its creator tick in a rather lengthy interview with Leonard Ritter himself. Leonard is a thoughtful and articulate fellow, I hope you enjoy his responses and comments as much as I did. Introducing Aldrin Figure 1: Aldrin I downloaded and compiled Adrin 0.7-2 on an AMD64 machine running 64Studio 1.0.

Read More

China Telecom Selects PacificNet Epro for CRM Telemarketing Services

BEIJING, Dec. 29 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- PacificNet, Inc. (Nasdaq: PACT - News), a leading provider of CRM and telemarketing services, ecommerce, gaming and mobile internet services in China, announced today that its PacificNet Epro subsidiary has been selected by China Telecom's (NYSE: CHA - News) Xinjiang Branch to provide CRM consulting and call center training services. Under the project service agreement, PacificNet Epro will enhance the CRM service level and telemarketing management capability of China Telecom's customer service center called the "10000 Information Hotline." This comprehensive consulting project's focus covers a number of key areas including customer service and telemarketing management, development of outsourcing telemarketing programs, call center workflow design, business management, project Return on Investment (ROI), customer affinity, designing effective telemarketing scripts, and improving customer service agent capabilities.

Read More

2006-12-30T04:44:00.000-08:00

Customer Privacy in On-Demand CRM

Since privacy preferences may vary according to different regions and customer groups, an on-demand system needs to be able to accommodate those needs. "Sometimes privacy is legislated, but other times it's a matter of customer choice," says Oracle's Grant Emeny-Smith. "Being able to tailor the context in which you're transacting is key." Tripwire is offering a 64-page book with technical and legal guidance on improving security, compliance, IT operations and IT audit: The Prescriptive Guide to Operational Excellence. Download a free pdf copy of the Guide. .

Read More

2006 in Review: Salesforce.com

With about $500 million in revenues, Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) is the leader in the Next Big Thing in its industry: on-demand software. Basically, this uses the Internet to deliver software as a service. Salesforce isn't the only company enjoying success with on-demand. Other companies -- such as RightNow (Nasdaq: RNOW), NetSuite, and Taleo (Nasdaq: TLEO) -- are also seeing lots of traction. Still, it was no surprise that 2006 was a banner year for Salesforce. Let's take a look at why. Play-by-playIn the fiscal fourth quarter, Salesforce posted a 67% increase in sales to $91.1 million. Net income was $5.9 million, or $0.05 per share, which was up from net income of $3.6 million, or $0.03 per share, in the same period a year ago. As for the fiscal first quarter, sales increased 63% to $104.7 million.

Read More

2006-12-29T04:40:00.000-08:00

BIS at CBOP

Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBOP) won the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform of the Year Award at Technology Senate 2006. The bank is in the process of implementing a total solution of enterprise data warehouse, data quality, analytics, business intelligence and customer intelligence. This solution is based on SAS 9.x and Banking Intelligence Solution (BIS). By implementing this solution CBOP will gain access to insights and analytics about its customers enabling efficient service. Three million customers to satisfy .

Read More

Automation With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0

Sales and marketing personnel are best employed in sales and marketing rather than carrying out repetitive administrative tasks. This is particularly true of small and medium sized businesses with limited personnel resources and the need to focus on customer contact in order to maintain and expand the customer base. Automation with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can be invaluable in such cases and provide very rapid return on investment. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 in particular is eminently suited to a high degree of automation and allows employees to more easily and more effectively use existing customer and account data to integrate marketing and sales efforts. The automation tools provided by Microsoft CRM automate routine tasks such as direct e-mails, communication management and the management of a variety of sales processes.

Read More

Independent Research Firm Cites Siperian as a Leader in Customer Hubs

SAN MATEO, Calif., Dec. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Siperian -- a developer of an award-winning, adaptive platform for customer-centric master data management -- today announced that the company was ranked a leader among a select group of organizations that Forrester invited to participate in its December 22, 2006, Tech Choices "The Forrester Wave(TM): Customer Hubs, Q4 2006." In this evaluation, Siperian placed in the top three for over-all strategy and earned top scores for its best-in-class hierarchy management, data model flexibility and strong data stewardship. According to Forrester's comprehensive evaluation, Siperian rated among the top three in seven of the ten current CDI offering categories. .

Read More

2006-12-28T04:37:00.000-08:00

Previewing 2007: Salesforce.com

In the late 1990s, Marc Benioff co-founded Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), which would pioneer a new approach to enterprise software: on-demand applications. Instead of installing CD-ROMs on desktops and servers, a customer could now access and install new software from the Internet. It also helped that the company used a subscription model to sell its software, instead of requiring large up-front license payments. For the most part, the formula has worked, and Salesforce is now the largest on-demand software company. Revenues were $130 million in the fiscal third quarter, and there are roughly 556,000 subscribers. But what about 2007? Challenges to overcomeTo keep growing, Salesforce.com will need to continue to snag big-time customers.

Read More

Best Buy bolsters field technicians, business consultants with ...

Best Buy Co. Inc. has selected multiple Microsoft technologies to help its field technicians and consultants increase productivity, better understand and serve consumers and small businesses and develop stronger relationships with its customers. The Minneapolis, MN-based consumer electronics and computer retailers Geek Squad service team, a group of more than 11,000 specially trained agents who solve computer problems for customers by visiting their homes and small businesses, is now using 3,000 Windows Mobile-powered Smartphones to schedule and route customer service calls to improve communication and collaboration capabilities and to access Internet-based technical content. In addition, Best Buy For Business a growing unit of more than 1,000 consultants who sell, implement and support solutions for small-business customers is now using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 in-house as part of a solution for supporting its complex sales cycle.

Read More

CRM Holdings, Ltd. Subsidiary Majestic Insurance Company Receives ...

HAMILTON, Bermuda, Dec. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CRM Holdings, Ltd. ("CRM", "the Company") (Nasdaq: CRMH - News), a leading provider of a full range of products and services for the workers' compensation insurance industry announced today that its recently acquired subsidiary, Majestic Insurance Company ("Majestic") has received licensing approval to operate in the state of New York. Majestic has been granted a license to do business in New York by the New York State Insurance Department effective December 18, 2006. Majestic currently writes workers' compensation insurance under various state acts and the U.S. Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act in fifteen other states, and operates primarily in California, Arizona, Alaska, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Most recently in November 2006, Majestic was upgraded to an A- rating (Excellent) by rating agency A.M.

Read More

2006-12-27T04:40:00.000-08:00

Making CORESense of Online Retailing

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that manages virtually every aspect of a company's business can deliver huge productivity benefits and other efficiencies, but it's well out of the reach of most small businesses mainly because it's too expensive and a bear to implement. However, small firms can reap many of the same benefits using all-in-one software-as-a-service (SaaS) products such as the solution COREsense, Inc. offers retailers. Unity Electronics, a multi-channel online computer and consumer electronics retailer with annual revenues just under $10 million, has been using the COREsense solution for four years now. President and CEO Russ Hedgpeth says the product helped his company reduce by half the time it takes staff to process orders and increased order throughput by 50 percent.

Read More

Barreling Through The Web 2.0 World

The Web 2.0 extravaganza in 2006, with all of the blogs, wikis, mashups and social networks, redefined the way consumers exchanged information. Perhaps more importantly, the same participatory technologies sowed seeds for new enterprise opportunities in 2007. Over the next several months, analysts and technical experts predict, blogs, wikis and mashups will have a profound influence over the way businesses collaborate in the global enterprise. But not without some trial-and-error. Policing the corporate blogosphere Look for changes to blogs and wikis, those personal Web sites created and edited by authors. Typically, one person authors and edits a blog while multiple people create content and edit wikis. Gartner analyst Gene Phifer said corporate blogs and wikis will feature service level agreements (SLA) that determine who may or may not alter, edit or contribute to them.

Read More

2006-12-26T04:46:00.000-08:00

Software helps small outfits manage clients

As more software companies turn to the Internet to deliver applications and host data for their clients, small-business owners are finding it more affordable to invest in products that do everything from track their sales to automate their marketing campaigns. Customer relationship management software, or CRM, has long been used by large businesses to manage tasks related to turning marketing efforts into sales opportunities. But for small businesses, it was just too expensive. .

Read More

Review: Sage Act 2007 CRM software

Readers are reminded that the opinions expressed, and the results published in connection with reviews and/or laboratory test reports carried out on computing systems and/or related items are confined to, and representative of, only those goods supplied and should not be construed as a recommendation to purchase. .

Read More

Banks top CRM software spending

Manufacturing and financial services companies will be the big spenders on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) in the short term. European banks, along with transport, communications and utility companies have the highest CRM penetration but will continue to offer the best opportunities for CRM vendors, driven by a high rate of new implementations and upgrades, according to research by analyst house IDC. silicon.com Financial Services Get the latest financial services news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the FS newsletter today! By contrast, manufacturing remains the industry with the richest pickings for ERP vendors in Europe - despite its already large installed base. Manufacturing has the highest share of companies building or implementing a new system, with just over half of manufacturers planning to invest in the next 12 months, the analysts said.

Read More

2006-12-25T04:42:00.000-08:00

Changing times at HCL

Forthright, lucid and imaginative. That would describe Vineet Nayar, President, HCL Technologies. Nayar spent an hour with eWorld, the second time this calendar, to spell out how the transformation journey he, and his company, embarked on in April 2005, is changing phase, and, gear. Excerpts from the chat: Is there a structural change in the nature of the animal that is Indian IT software services? There are three aspects to this, from HCL Tech's point of view. First is, we started this transformation journey in April last year - that is the reason you are seeing the growth numbers of HCL to be among the fastest growing companies in IT. We looked at the application industry on a stand-alone basis. It faces threats from various fronts: First, is the threat of commoditisation, by packaged-application vendors such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft, which are developing packages where you normally use custom applications.

Read More

Wishing for lots of PR presence

From understanding what is and isn't possible from a do-it-yourself marketing program, to embracing the vigor and awe of youth, marketing executives believe their clients and peers have much to learn. And Santa, hope you tossed in a spam-free inbox while you were at it. See the news through the trees News isn't just the bold headline. In most businesses, it happens quietly every day. Thomas Cutler wishes his clients would see and recognize those smaller newsworthy events. New deals and customer signings, a company's expansion into a larger building or new markets, even a community service event -- each is notable and newsworthy, and each "merits announcements, press releases, and sharing." "In the world of marketing communications, the result builds the brand, a reputation, an image, a story, a history," said Cutler, president of TR Cutler Inc., a marketing firm for the manufacturing industry.

Read More

2006-12-24T04:38:00.000-08:00

A Look Back at CRM in 2006

The fact is that and there are documented Salesforce customers who are now buying the development and deployment technology without regard for the CRM components. A marketplace is emerging for on-demand applications, development, and deployment services. With a viable market in place, traditional vendors will continue to feel the heat. Free Direct Marketing ListsConsumer and business lists with targeted leads to help you grow your business. .

Read More

Japan's SMB's to spend 138 Million $ on SaaS

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is gaining ground among small businesses (SB:1-99 employees) and medium businesses (MB:100-999 employees) in Japan. Total spending on the hosted applications among Japan SMBs will increase from $112 million in 2005 to $138 million in 2006, up by 23%. On the adoption base, Japan SMBs using at least one type of application via SaaS model will grow by 20%, from 13% of PC SMBs to 15%. overall enterprise software applications adoption among Japan SMBs are lower than their US counterparts. For example, the adoption of CRM among Japan SMBs is 0.6%, roughly a fourth of the rate of their US counterparts. ERP penetration among U.S. SMBs is 1.3 times higher than their Japanese counterparts. High cost and risk are barriers for SMBs to deploy such applications. However, SaaS encourages SMBs to deploy new applications at lower cost than in-house deployment and lessens risk of developing inappropriate systems which end up unused.

Read More

2006-12-18T04:41:00.000-08:00

TeleTech Expands Relationship With Leading Business Services Provider

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TeleTech Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTEC) , a leading global business process outsourcing (BPO) provider, today announced that a current business services client has significantly expanded its strategic agreement with TeleTech to provide customer management and digital subscriber line (DSL) support to a key segment of the client's customer base. The client, a Fortune 500 business services provider, first began working with TeleTech in 2002 and the business has continued to grow since that time. Under the expanded three-year agreement, valued at more than $100 million, TeleTech will continue its current support of inbound DSL inquiries for customers nationwide. In addition, TeleTech will also offer lifecycle customer management services, in Spanish and English, using its global best practices across multiple near-shore and offshore sites.

Read More

SIA signs up with Salesforce.com

Singapore Airlines is part of a growing list of big businesses that are turning to on-demand software. On-demand customer relationship management (CRM) vendor Salesforce.com announced last Thursday that it had signed up Singapore Airlines (SIA), which will use Salesforce's marketing and sales force automation services to facilitate collaboration and information sharing among its home office-based sales representatives. .

Read More

SAP Continues to Lead Middle East Enterprise Software Market

SAP Arabia has announced that independent research firm, IDC, has named SAP as the leader in the Enterprise Applications Software (EAS) market in the Middle East and North Africa region with 33.1 per cent market share in 2005. In its report, entitled Arab Middle East and North Africa Software Solutions 2006 2010 Forecast and 2005 Vendor Shares, IDC found that in 2005, SAP Arabia increased its market share from 30.2 per cent in 2004 to 33.1 per cent in 2005 while its nearest competitor has a market share of 23.3 per cent. Total spending on software solutions in the MENA region reached $187.35 million in 2005, representing an increase of 16 per cent year-on-year and is expected to be worth around $ 371.08 million in 2010. Saudi Arabia was the largest market with 43.9 per cent share and the UAE second with 26.8 per cent share of the regional market in 2005.

Read More

2006-12-17T04:39:00.000-08:00

Mobile Enterprise Application Market will reach $3.5 Billion by ...

An IDC study forecasts strong growth for the worldwide mobile enterprise application (MEA) market. "Vendors and organizations alike must recognize that MEAs are not just about mobilizing a particular application, but rather delivering a set of composite applications based on the mobile workers business processes," said Stephen Drake, program director of IDC's Mobile Enterprise research. According to the IDC study, the mobile enterprise application market reached $1.2 billion in 2005 and IDC forecasts that this market will grow to $3.5 billion in 2010, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23%. IDC believes the following factors are driving and impacting this emerging market: Varying requirements for application functionality and data based on employee role and time criticality; Ability for carriers, device manufacturers, ISVs, and systems integrators to provide packaged solutions to end-user organizations; Sophistication of organizations as it relates to mobility, and; Horizontal deployments across organizations that drive collaborative, customer relationship management (CRM) applications.

Read More

Commence Industrial CRM Profiled by Leading Manufacturing Journalist

Tinton Falls, NJ, December 15, 2006 --(PR.COM)-- According to Larry Caretsky, President of Commence Corporation (www.commence.com/mfg./), "There is rarely one central database of customer information that can be accessed and shared among the people who need it to efficiently do their jobs. As a result, acting less like a team, these people act independently when conducting business and are far less effective."Caretsky, noted in the feature article that "CEOs of these companies often share how their new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system provides them all the information they need, but fail to recognize that ERP systems provide information after the sale, not before or during the sales process. ERP systems provide no value for improving the efficiency of how to sell and service customers.

Read More

CRM system deployment takes proper planning

The deployment of any CRM system takes proper planning. In order to Assist customers during this process, Commence has developed STEP, (Strategic Targeted Execution Process). A proven methodology for the successful implementation of the Commence CRM solution. STEP is the result of more than a decade of experience in providing High quality business solutions to small and mid-size businesses. By Working with hundreds of companies around the world, the company Acquired the knowledge and skills necessary to design and deliver Business solutions that are easy to implement and easy to use. This Has allowed customers to realise the maximum value from products and An immediate return on their investment. STEP outlines the key areas of responsibility, resource Requirements and timeframes for implementation.

Read More

2006-12-15T04:39:00.000-08:00

Outgrowing Your Bank

When your business growth exceeds your loan limit, it may be time to find a bigger lender. If so, take the time to explore all your options. At a previous job, I remember looking through customer files and stumbling upon records of a small company that was launched as a start-up close to 50 years ago. Today, it is a well-known technology company trading on the NYSE. My bank had financed some of the company's start-up costs. However, within just a few years the financing needs of that company increased to millions of dollars and the bank was no longer able to support it. Many of my former customers have experienced similar situations, and many small-business borrowers will continue to run into this in the future. On one hand, it is great news that your business is growing by leaps and bounds.

Read More

Siperian Offers Uniquely Adaptive Software Platform for CDI and MDM

Denver, CO (FV Newswire) - Anurag Wadehra, Vice President, Marketing and Product Management at Siperian, in an exclusive interview with Ron Powell and the Business Intelligence Network (www.BeyeNETWORK.com), describes their adaptive software platform for customer-centric master data management (MDM). During this insightful discussion Mr. Wadehra explains the various customer data integration (CDI) and master data management (MDM) styles currently available and how companies should review each of these offerings carefully to ensure they are capable of improving customer relationship management and analytical processes, adhering to regulatory compliance and addressing privacy concerns. "In order to build a long-term business case, IT professionals need to follow a systematic process for assessing the comprehensive ROI of a customer-centric master data management platform and to identity an architecture that can deliver this ROI in measurable stages throughout the MDM life cycle," says Anurag Wadehra, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management, at Siperian.

Read More

Keep customers happy, retailers told

RETAILERS have been warned to take care with customer service or it could cost their bottom line significantly. With Christmas rapidly approaching, the top concerns of customers are whether product is in stock and staff are well-informed, says market researcher ACA Research. The Christmas shopping period was also renowned for staff being overworked, but ACA Research said if staff were friendly and helpful customers were far more likely to open their wallets. The research, done for communications service provider Fujitsu Australia, found 74 per cent of respondents said they would be more likely to increase their level of spending with a retailer with whom they had an exceptional experience. Some 91 per cent said they would recommend the retailer to a friend.

Read More

2006-12-14T04:37:00.000-08:00

CRM Exec Wendy Lea Named To Metallect Board

CRM veteran Wendy Lea was appointed today to the board of directors of Metallect. "With more than 20 years of sales and marketing strategy and alliance expertise for venture-backed startup companies," Metallect officials said, "Lea will serve as a key contributor to Metallect's strategic growth plans." .

Read More

SugarCRM Sweetens Starbucks, Replaces Salesforce.com at Sterling

Commercial open source CRM provider SugarCRM, "not necessarily viewed on par with salesforce.com, yet," according to company officials, nevertheless sees itself "on a similar growth path." The company has announced a new client in Starbucks Corporation. Starbucks is using Sugar Professional On-Demand to manage the front-end of their HR applicant-tracking process. SugarCRM officials say. Feel free to insert your own "cream or sugar?" joke here. .

Read More

Patni Computer Systems partners with Sage Software for ...

India, New Delhi, December 11, 2006 — Sage Software India announced the appointment of Patni Computer Systems Ltd as Business Partner for positioning and implementing Sage CRM SalesLogix solutions in India. With more than 300,000 users at over 7,300 companies, SalesLogix is the CRM leader for mid market companies and enterprises worldwide. SalesLogix delivers easy-to-use and integrated sales, marketing, customer service and support automation solutions that can be tailored to an organization's unique customer acquisition, retention and development processes. Sage Software India – Managing Director, Mr. Thomas Abraham stated that “SalesLogix has over 45 customers in India across a number of verticals. With the Patni Computer Systems partnership, we hope to bring in world-class consulting expertise in the CRM space to Indian customers".

Read More

2006-12-13T04:40:00.000-08:00

PacificNet Games to Deliver Multi-Player Electronic Gaming ...

BEIJING, Dec. 12 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- PacificNet Inc. (Nasdaq: PACT - News), a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), mobile internet, e-commerce and gaming technology in China, announced today that its PacificNet Games Limited (PacGames) subsidiary has been selected by Casino Lisboa, one of Macau's leading and most historic casinos, to provide multi-player Electronic Gaming Machines (EGM). Phase one implementation includes 120 multi-player electronic gaming machines. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed for competitive reasons. Casino Lisboa is one of the most famous casinos in Macau, People's Republic of China. The original Casino Lisboa main complex and 12 story round hotel tower were built in the late 1960s by Dr. Stanley Ho, Teddy Yip, Yip Hon and Dr.

Read More

Virtual research firm hits town – from across Tasman

Global trends in technology are important to both vendors and IT users but they don't always translate into local requirements. So when former Gartner man Nick Bowman set up his own research company, IBRS, in Australia four years ago, he decided on a very localised research agenda. "I'd learned in my ten years in the business that organisations want affordable research and that they are starved of local content. When Gartner bought Meta Group it created a real gap in the market. A lot of CIOs were really annoyed about the Meta purchase because it took away that second opinion." Bowman was joined by two former Gartner analysts and today has a team of ten. They include John Hislop, who established Gartner in New Zealand in the 1990s, and Colin Boswell, who also worked for Gartner.

Read More

Internet, mobile marketers unite to protect consumers

THE biggest players in the digital market space have finally banded together to protect Filipino consumers from the proliferation of unwarranted, relentless and "spammable" con artists in the mobile media and on the Internet. Fifteen companies and organizations have launched the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (Immap), envisioned to become "the premier marketing association for Internet and mobile organizations in the country." Sun.Star Network Online's 12th Asean Summit Watch They were sworn in as members of the founding Immap board by Matec Villanueva, chair of the Advertising Board of the Philippines, in a ceremony held at Bedspace, Greenbelt 3 in Makati City on November 29. "Marketing companies in developed countries like the United States have already been talking about being interactive for years now.

Read More

2006-12-12T04:39:00.000-08:00

One must remember to ponder sustainability

For all of us, the holiday season ahas started. For many of us in business, this is also means that we are in the midst of the budget and planning season. Both reflect an opportunity for new starts, within the context of ingrained legacy decisions we have made. We can strategize on the promise of a fresh beginning that a New Year may offer, but must juxtapose those plans with where and who we are today - at individual and organizational levels. .

Read More

Oracle releases Siebel CRM for SMEs

Oracle has unveiled a scheme to promote its Siebel CRM products to small and medium-sized enterprises. Following its acquisition of Siebel last year, Oracle has refined its CRM offerings, which also include CRM capability from both its PeopleSoft buy and the CRM module in its E-Business Suite. The new offering takes the Siebel CRM product into the SME market and is available in on-premise, hosted and hybrid versions. It will be sold through the reseller channel. Oracle Asia-Pacific CRM president Will Bosma says that while the adoption of hosted CRM — through providers such as Salesforce.com — is growing, some users are reluctant to have sensitive data housed in a hosted format and are thus still choosing on-premise CRM systems. He cites Gartner research which predicts that by 2010, 75% of all CRM applications will still be on-premise.

Read More

Preludes to a Customer Kiss

Getting closer to customers seems like a no-brainer - but it may not make you any more profitable than you were before. The key is to take it slow In January 2005, one of the most resolutely product-oriented companies in the world, semiconductor maker Intel, announced it was reorganizing itself around its customers. No longer would the firm simply announce new chips and expect customers to adopt them. Instead, it would focus on the bundling of processes, ancillary chips and software into platforms tailored to five customer segments. Intel is far from alone. Organizations have been steadily evolving toward closer alignment with customers. But the changes required by this evolution are disruptive in the short run and add coordination costs in the long run. These countervailing pressures are a warning to CIOs that while closer customer alignment may be correct, it is not sufficient to support a wholesale shift in strategy and organizational structure.

Read More

2006-12-11T04:41:00.000-08:00

Review: Mamut Enterprise E5 software

Readers are reminded that the opinions expressed, and the results published in connection with reviews and/or laboratory test reports carried out on computing systems and/or related items are confined to, and representative of, only those goods supplied and should not be construed as a recommendation to purchase. .

Read More

Does Technology Make Managers Lazy?

Technology does not replace the need for good management. Without such management, technology can create more problems than it solves. It's hard to resist the easy option. Buy this customer relationship management (CRM) software, and you will efficiently and cost-effectively be able to manage your customer relationships. Buy this content management software, and you will be able to efficiently and cost-effectively manage your content. Software does not manage. People manage. Software is a tool that can help you manage better, but it is not a manager. It is not strategic. Before you can manage customer relationships, you have to have relationships with your customers. .

Read More

Stepping up the wooing

In case you are shaking your head incredulously, we are talking of teams comprising employees of Perot Systems Business Process Solutions India at a recent match. Such matches, including cricket, volleyball and KhoKho, have been a routine activity in the company for the last three years. Attrition is a problem tech companies are constantly grappling with. IT companies face between 15 and 20 per cent attrition a year while BPO companies face up to 60 per cent. Companies today offer a host of measures to curb attrition transportation, flexible work timings, regular appraisals, rewards and recognition for good work, cafeteria and gym facilities, even paid holidays. But these measures are fast becoming more the norm than exception, hence going that extra mile, such as the Perot Systems initiative, has become a necessity.

Read More

2006-12-10T04:36:00.000-08:00

CRM Vendor Sage Acquires Intellectual Property From VerticalFalls

Sage Software has announced the acquisition of intellectual property from VerticalFalls Software, Inc., a financial services industry solution provider based in Reston, Virginia, that will enable Sage Software to deliver what company officials are calling "a compliance and document tracking" product based on its ACT! by Sage product. .

Read More

Salentica Systems first CRM partner to join Microsoft’s

Salentica Systems Inc., a leading provider of Client Management Systems and software solutions, based on Microsoft CRM 3.0, for financial services firms announced today it has been named as a member of the Insurance Value Chain (IVC) program. Highlighting this honor, Salentica will be participating in the Microsoft Insurance Executive Forums being held in Hartford Conn. and New York, NY Dec. 11 and 14, 2006, respectively. Salentica's CRM products, purposely built for the financial services market fits within the core philosophy of Microsoft's Insurance Value Chain. Microsoft and the Insurance Value Chain partners' mission is to create composite applications around common insurance workflows – all in an effort to alleviate post-purchase integration hurdles on the part of the insurance customers.

Read More

CRM News for 5 December: Axentis, Hotels.com, Oracle, Plantronics ...

Hotels.com is launching a new digital marketing campaign www.hotelgiveaway.com -- to promote their range of hotels, particularly those in the premium category, according to company officials. Martin Allen, CRM Manager at Hotels.com, said: "This project marks Hotels.com's first viral campaign. We want to see what we can do with the activity to create engaging marketing activity that delivers our marketing messages whilst providing compelling incentives for our users to get involved with the brand." .

Read More

2006-12-05T04:38:00.000-08:00

Software facilitates device relationship management.

December 4, 2006 - Axeda DRM v4 features user interface with integrated search capabilities, instant web alerts, and alert escalation capabilities. Also included, Axeda Global Access Server automatically directs target device to nearest server with most session capacity and enables global customers to work locally to accelerate diagnosis and resolution of product issues. Software also offers support for ad-hoc queries without requiring knowledge of data location or structure. .

Read More

SAP Continues to Deliver on the Value of Enterprise SOA

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Continuing to deliver on its commitment to enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA), SAP AG (NYSE: SAP - News) today announced the availability of the first SAP enhancement package for mySAP(TM) ERP and disclosed further details of innovations being delivered under its evolved road map for mySAP ERP. The first enhancement package is now available to customers running mySAP ERP 2005 as part of their license and maintenance agreement. This first enhancement package makes SAP one of the first vendors to fully leverage enterprise SOA for both software design and delivery. Customers can now consume new functionality and enterprise services in a continuous fashion, allowing them to drive business process innovation while maintaining the stability of their core enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Read More

SAP Ecosystem Comes Together to Drive Collaboration and Innovation ...

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Building on its long-standing experience developing and driving technology solutions for the mill products industry, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP - News) today announced the formation of its next industry-focused collaboration effort, designed to bring together customers, partners and SAP to address the unique challenges of the forest and paper industry. Based on the success of its industry value networks (IVNs) for the chemicals, consumer products, high tech, public sector and retail industries, SAP today launched the IVN for mill products. The IVNs are industry-relevant ecosystems that bring together independent software vendors (ISVs) and systems integrators (SIs) with SAP and executives from leading customer companies to solve customers' most pressing business challenges through the creation and continual improvement of end-to-end business processes.

Read More

2006-12-04T04:57:00.000-08:00

SaaS in the Asian Context by Springboard Research

Springboard Reseach has recently publised a report titled "The Software as a Service Market in Asia Pacific, 2005 to 2008: Executive Overview". Its a report that as the name suggests covers the SaaS market in the Asian market.Report is based on a survey of 210 CIOs and IT decision-makers at small and medium enterprises in Australia, China, India, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore helps to contribute to this executive overview.The report is accessible at the site. Below are excerpts from the report: Our review of the Asian SaaS market revealed a particularly dynamic, promising and exciting corner of the IT market. Many segments of the market are doubling in size every year, and the pace of strategic experimentation is astounding. The SaaS Market is Here to Stay: Unlike many hot IT industry buzzwords that come and go, all evidence we gathered points to the long term staying power of the SaaS model.

Read More

Subex Azure Unwraps Integrated Platform for Revenue Operations ...

Bangalore based telecom software company Subex Azure has successfully integrated its RevMax suite of revenue maximisation products to enable the 'Revenue Operations Centre (ROC)'. Through its existing product lines, product lines acquired from Azure Solutions and the introduction of its new Risk Management solution, Subex Azure claims to offer an integrated suite of solutions needed to monitor and manage the entire revenue lifecycle. According to the company, the RevMax suite includes stand-alone, full functional modules for Revenue Assurance, Fraud Management, Interconnect Billing, Risk Management, Inter-party Settlement and Route Optimisation. Importantly, these modules form an integrated system that will help telecom operators capture lost revenue and deliver more value to customers, investors and partners.

Read More

Online Casino Customer Service to Answer the Call

Online casinos are expected to top 10 billion dollars in betting and tens of millions of online gamblers this year. With these numbers, the online casino sites' customer service centers must be receiving quite a few calls. As a matter of fact, online casino sites invite players to contact their help desks for any issue from help signing up for a payment method at the online casino cahier to problems operating a game.The topic of customer service at online casino sites has received the focus of the professional journal CRM Today recently. The journal reported of an independent, professional survey by a customer service company of the 100 most popular online casino sites in the United Kingdom. The survey, though it reported improvement in the service given to gamblers at online casino sites, said it is not on par with industry standards for player service.The survey looked into the online casino sites' responses to questions on the legal status of Internet gambling.

Read More

2006-12-03T04:38:00.000-08:00

IFS Applications(TM) 7 Wins 'Management Information Product of the ...

LINKOPING, Sweden, Nov. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- IFS has reinforced its position as a key business systems supplier to the construction industry, winning Construction Computing's prestigious Hammer Award for Management Information Product of the Year for IFS Applications 7. Voted by Construction Computing readers, the approach and benefits of IFS Applications were demonstrated in its implementation at Hertel, a leading provider of multidiscipline support services. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030320/IFSLOGO) "With the IFS system, our staff have more timely and accurate information, and find it easy to learn and easier to find and analyze data," said David Redpath, IT Manager for Hertel UK. "In addition, Hertel has been able to grow its business by over 25 percent without increasing the level of support staff since implementing IFS Applications." IFS Applications 7 adds to the integrated support for business processes that manage the complete construction lifecycle, including scope, tender, approval, award, procurement, payments, cost control, project delivery, handover, and ongoing maintenance and facility management.

Read More

Software targets sales, marketing, and service enterprises.

November 29, 2006 - Compatible with 2007 Office and Windows Vista, Microsoft Dynamics(TM) CRM enables users to access roles-based CRM capabilities through Outlook, Internet Explorer, and wide range of mobile devices. Software provides data analysis and decision making capabilities and also allows for storing voicemail messages in Outlook that are automatically tracked. Available in 18 languages, software suits small, midsize, and enterprise customers around the world. .

Read More

NewsFactor Network Sites:

I remember a particularly unpleasant conversation with a Sun executive about a year ago. The introduction of our "eco-responsible" Niagara systems had just blown up a $250,000 purchase order from a big customer, replaced by a $25,000 Niagara (sorry, T2000) order. "You're killing me," he said, "are we trying to shrink or grow this place?" What followed were some choice words about headquarters being out of touch with the field, not understanding real world challenges, pricing going in the wrong direction, etc. And frankly, pricing Niagara was a big bet - putting a price on innovation is an art, not a science. And lest you ask... yes, we're trying to grow, not shrink. But there's an interesting phenomena in the computer marketplace, which strikes some as counterintuitive: if you double the performance of a machine, customers don't buy half as many, they tend to double their order.

Read More

2006-12-02T04:37:00.000-08:00

Making CRM Accessible

I talk a lot about building relationships with customers on their terms. Many of my columns focus on the different ways to interact with customers that make sense to them: understanding cultural differences, channel preferences, and language usage. What I haven't covered yet are ways to make customer interactions easy to understand for people who have visual or aural impairments. In making the changes we'll discuss today, you'll not only be making it easier for those customers to interact with you, but you'll also make your Web site and e-mail campaigns easier to understand for all your customers. Accessibility Is Actually Good Design In its simplest terms, "accessibility" means designing and coding your Web site and e-mail to be understandable by people with impairments and technologies that assist them.

Read More

Producer/Web Developer

Successful digital direct marketing agency specializing in permission based multi-format email dm campaigns, seeking a Producer/Web Developer experienced in end to end development and deployment of email campaigns, web based applications and microsites based on creative briefs, and development of CRM customer databases. The role involves building HTML templates, managing campaign databases, building HTML/PHP landing pages, integration of online campaigns with database scripts and effective campaign reporting. Essential skills therefore are experience in HTML/CSS, Photoshop and prep of web graphics. Also application development in PHP, PERL or CGI including Database integration. The position requires a team orientated, results driven digital professional with proven success in a web production role and ideally gained within a digital agency environment.

Read More

2006-12-01T04:39:00.000-08:00

KEYRUS Creates Data Models and Databases Quickly and Efficiently ...

BACKGROUND: KEYRUS is a worldwide leader in the creation of data warehouses and business intelligence. KEYRUS provides a wide range of solutions covering both technology infrastructures and applications in four main areas: business intelligence and data warehousing, customer relationship management (CRM)/interactive marketing, I*Net solutions (Internet/intranet/extranet) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. .

Read More

Where Have All The Railcars Gone?

The amount of freight carried by rail continues to increase, thus further straining the rail infrastructure in many countries. Feeling the pain of unanticipated transportation delays, chemical manufacturers and producers of agricultural products are anxious to have more visibility into their rail operations. SAP Railcar Management has provided this visibility for a number of customers. This led to increased efficiency and cost savings in railcar operations, planning, leasing, and maintenance. Imagine keeping track of thousands of railcars moving six million tons of nitrogen, phosphate, potash, and other fertilizers annually to hundreds of customers all over North America. Where is each individual rail car? Is it on time delivering goods to customers? When will it be available to carry another shipment? Agrium: reducing on of the largest expenses Canadian-based Agrium – one of the world's foremost suppliers of agricultural nutrients – implemented SAP Railcar Management in order to answer these questions and also manage its fleet of railcars that deliver fertilizer throughout North America.

Read More

FSV Payment Systems Opens Jacksonville Operations Center, Bringing ...

HOUSTON, TX -- (MARKET WIRE) -- December 01, 2006 -- FSV Payment Systems, a leading provider of stored value and prepaid card solutions, today announced the opening of its Jacksonville Operations Center. Located at 6410 Southpoint Parkway, the new Operations Center will house FSV's customer service group, human resources, IT development, client relationship management and some executive offices. FSV expects to bring 50 new jobs to the Jacksonville area within the next six months. The Jacksonville Operations Center serves as an important and strategic companion location to FSV's Houston corporate headquarters, according to FSV President and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Palmer. "We are pleased to open our new Operations Center in Jacksonville," Palmer said. "Jacksonville provides us with a dynamic and friendly business environment with incredibly skilled and talented employees who have had great exposure and experience in the financial services industry." As part of the expansion, Palmer said he has selected FSV Chief Operating Officer Chuck Kreiger to be the senior FSV executive in Jacksonville.

Read More

2006-11-30T04:37:00.000-08:00

Scottish Council deploys CRM software

The West Dunbartonshire Council in Scotland is working with Graham Technology, a business software and services provider, to provide customer relationship management capabilities for its contact center. The project directly addresses the Scottish Executive's Modernizing Government initiative, which aims to introduce business processes that will deliver 80 percent of core service requests by citizens at the first point of contact. Reengineering many of the West Dunbartonshire Councils business processes to become more streamlined will be a significant part of the project. This exercise will have a significant impact in improving the efficiency of the organization, ensuring that it is providing the best value to its citizens. Glasgow, Scotland-based Graham Technology's flagship software product, ciboodle, will provide the council's contact center staff with a central interface for inquiries concerning council tax, housing benefits, housing allocations, rental accounting and housing repairs.

Read More

UK Online Casino Sites Need Better CRM

The professional journal CRM Today reports that with online gambling set to exceed GBP 5.2 billion this year, and 76 percent of the UK's 29 million internet users betting on a regular basis, customer service levels at British online gambling sites could be a lot better. Supporting the view, which is sure to resonate with many online gamblers, is an independent audit by customer service specialist Talisma, of the 100 most popular UK online gambling sites which has revealed that despite the success of the industry, many of the websites are failing to deliver acceptable levels of player service. The recent introduction of the US anti-internet gambling bill, which restricts the accessibility of online gambling financial transactions to US residents, has created confusion into the legality of online gambling in other countries.

Read More

Going End-To-End with CRM

Implementing an end-to-end CRM system takes planning and a shared goal, but the actual technology doesn't have to involve particularly heavy lifting, says Oracle's Mark Woollen. Many CRM vendors have added integration tools over the last few years, and can work with companies to create customized end-to-end strategies. .

Read More

2006-11-29T04:38:00.000-08:00

Salesforce.com Unveils Integration Tools For Back-Office Systems

Salesforce.com introduced tools to integrate its customer relationship management service with enterprise resource planning systems, Oracle 11i, and technology from 25 partners. By Antone Gonsalves InformationWeek Nov 27, 2006 07:38 PM Salesforce.com on Monday unveiled integration tools for connecting its on-demand customer relationship management application to back-office systems. ApexConnect is a family of technologies that extend the company's Apex platform into subscribers' IT systems. "Think of ApexConnect as a family of technologies that address our customers' diverse integration needs," Ariel Kelman, senior director of platform product marketing at the San Francisco company, said. Among the latest capabilities in ApexConnect is ConnectOut, an application-programming interface for outbound messaging.

Read More

Sage Software's Sage MIP Fund Accounting Helps Hundreds of ...

AUSTIN, TX -- (MARKET WIRE) -- November 27, 2006 -- Sage Software announced today that healthcare and health-related organizations across North America are continuing to choose its award-winning Sage MIP Fund Accounting software for nonprofit financial management. To date, more than 850 healthcare and health-related organizations count on Sage MIP Fund Accounting to track and report on multiple funds, across multiple budget periods, to help them meet reporting requirements and demonstrate accountability to their constituents. "Based on our needs surrounding cost and system flexibility and functionality, Sage MIP Fund Accounting was the best financial management system choice for us," said Beth Smith, director of finance at Crider Center for Mental Health, a community mental heath center serving the needs of the Missouri Counties of Lincoln, Warren, St.

Read More

2006-11-28T04:40:00.000-08:00

CRMSoft: Powerful CRM Tool offers 60-day free trial

2006-11-16 17:07:50 - CRMSoft announces its 60-day free trial; the first and only extended free trial offer in the LiveChat market today. Canton, Mi - November 17, 2006 -CRMSoft, a provider of a total CRM solution for all small to medium sized businesses, recently announced their 60-day free trial offer of their free trial plan that includes what they say separates them from all other LiveChat services out there - software-free chat consoles. CRMSoft is the first of its kind to offer .

Read More

Federated Farmers boosts member input with CRM

Federated Farmers provides a range of services, and a powerful lobbying voice, for 18,000 member farmers and rural families throughout New Zealand. A recent success is the exclusion of farm dogs from the compulsory dog-chipping legislation. But the organisation still needs chips and, more importantly, software to run on them, to help monitor and coordinate the views of its members and deliver advice to them. A nationwide team of field officers regularly visit farmers with a focus on recruitment and retention, as well as hearing and responding to their concerns. Members' views are canvassed by staff and elected representatives who formulate submissions to influence local and central government decision-making. With growth in terms of both members and areas of responsibility, however, the group was struggling to coordinate member views, and communicate relevant updates on policies and debating points in return.

Read More

Financial Insights Spotlights Unica Customers as CRM Innovators in ...

Unica(R) Corporation announced that two of its customers have been featured in a recent report issued by analyst firm Financial Insights, an IDC Company. The report spotlights HDFC Bank in India and OCBC Bank in Singapore as examples of financial services organizations in Asia Pacific that are achieving measurable and verifiable benefits from their deployment of CRM related technology. Free report. .

Read More

2006-11-27T04:47:00.000-08:00

Positive on Sobha Developers’ future prospects: Finquest

The Bangalore-based Sobha Developers, SDL is open for subscription with a public issue of 88,93,332 equity shares of Rs 10 each through book building process in the price band of Rs 550 - 640 per share. The issue comprises a reservation of upto 8,89,300 equity shares for SDL's permanent employees and a net issue to the public of 80,04,032 equity shares. It constitutes 12.20% of the post-issue paid-up capital of the company. The issue closes on November 29. The Finquest Securities report on Sobha Developers IPO: Business Overview Sobha Developers is a real estate development and construction company, which has major focus in residential and contractual projects. As of June 30, 2006 the companys land reserves comprise of 2,592.83 acres and its land arrangements comprise of 3,456.19 acres of land.

Read More

demonstrate against peace talks with ETA

More than 120,000 people took to the streets of Madrid on Saturday in protest at the talks with the Basque terrorist group ETA. All the top members of the Partido Popular were at the head of the march which was organised by the Association of Terrorism Victims AVT. The demonstrators consider that the policy of the Zapatero government amounts to a surrender to ETA. PP leader Mariano Rajoy called for what he called the truth of Zapateros promises to ETA to be made public. The demonstrators say they will start what they called a civil rebellion. Zapatero in reply has called for respect for the victims of terrorism and that he would continue to work towards the goal of no more victims. He has also reminded the Partido Popular that when in opposition the Socialist party never once criticised the anti-terrorism policies of the Aznar government.

Read More

Oracle releases CRM range for SMBs

Oracle New Zealand has released a new range of customer relationship management options to help small and mid-size businesses compete with larger 'customer-centric' organisations. The range comprises on premise, hosted and hybrid deployments, as well as industry-tailored options. Customers can chose either Siebel CRM Professional Edition On Premise, Siebel CRM On Demand hosted or a hybrid solution comprising the best of both. Oracle says the advantages of its CRM offerings are that they are tailored to the needs of sectors, can be deployed quickly and affordably, and can also be scaled easily through a transparent upgrade path. "It's no secret that the business and technological issues confronting SMBs are even more challenging than enterprises, because many SMBs face the same level of complexity, but have to work with limited resources and tighter budgets," said Will Bosma, vice president, Customer Relationship Management for Oracle Asia Pacific.

Read More

2006-11-26T04:34:00.000-08:00

BEST OF ECT NEWS CRM in the Retail Sector

CRM captures transactional data collected through proprietary payment tools and point-of-sale software. Now retailers are marrying the "what" of behavioral data to the "why" of attitudinal data. "They know what's happening and the emotional triggers behind the activity," says marketing consultant Mike Capizzi. Email communications are critical business tools that carry a number of risks. MessageLabs free 7 day email audit can help organizations to evaluate their own exposure to these risks. The audit will tell you exactly how your business is faring in the battle against viruses. Learn more. .

Read More

Getting New Reps Up to Speed with CRM

We asked experts in customer relationship management for some top tips for getting new reps on the right track with CRM. Mike Betzer, VP of service CRM at Oracle, advises "Let the customer get off the phone and be thrilled. It's easier to retain a customer than a get a new one, so teach the rep to solve their problem, not just handle the call." .

Read More

A CRM Thanksgiving: Optimism and Gratitude

It's not just Microsoft Dynamics, though, that is feeling confident about what 2007 has in store. The rest of the industry is as well. An informal and decidedly ad hoc survey conducted by CRM Buyer over the last day or so, which asked vendors and customers in this space what they are most thankful for, would seem to confirm their overall optimism toward the future. Neocase, a world leader in customer service solutions, maximizes the productivity and quality of customer support through collaborative offerings including, self service, knowledge management, partner centers and advanced workflows. Download now, the CRM Mastery briefing report on Neocase Software. .

Read More

2006-11-26T00:58:00.000-08:00

Vodafone Plans to Buy Aspective, Isis and Fiberlink Communications

UK based telecom carrier Vodafone has signed a conditional contract to acquire Aspective, a consultancy which develops enterprise applications such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), for mobile platforms. The company has also bought Isis Telecommunications, a company that provides customer services, fleet management and bespoke managed services to the business market but unrelated to Aspective. Vodafone also signed a partnership with Fiberlink Communications, a provider of mobile working.Vodafone will offer Fiberlink's Extend360 Mobility Platform, which offers secure cellular access to corporate Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), in a bid to provide added access capability. Kyle Whitehill, director of Vodafone UKs enterprise business unit, said, "We are focused on developing our capability in three core areas: applications, access and service."In the next three years Vodafone aims to move from being pure play mobile network operator to position itself as an integrator of seamless communications, he added.

Read More

Enterprise network: Problem-solver seeks solution

IN a market where every company trumpets its products as the next big thing, how do you communicate the fact that you believe your product really is? Thats the conundrum facing Datakraft, a firm set up in 2004 on the back of software so good it can create commercial applications 20 times faster than its rivals or so its creators say. .

Read More

CRM Vendor FTS Takes Road Show To Hamburg, London

2006-11-16T05:06:00.003-08:00

FTS, an Israeli company trying to own the "Business Control Layer" buzzword, in partnership with Cisco Systems and analysts Yankee Group (News - Alert) will demonstrate "how service providers can improve revenues and increase customer satisfaction using the Business Control Layer" in Hamburg and London next week. .

Read More

HelpIT Releases MatchIT API For CRM Data Help

2006-11-16T05:06:00.002-08:00

Charging that "most CRM, ERP, web and data warehouse systems fail and in many cases are simply incapable of addressing the problem of data quality," helpIT systems President Robert Heidenreich says the data cleansing vendor has released matchIT API , a customizable plug-in component for point of capture, duplicate detection/prevention, and lookup. .

Read More

CRM News for 6 November: CDC, Liferay, Pramati, JDA, Charlotte ...

2006-11-16T05:06:00.001-08:00

China.com, an ISP in China and a Hong Kong listed subsidiary of CRM vendor CDC Corporation, has announced its Web 2.0 Developer Program, which includes $20 million allocated for investment in selected web development partners. China.com will seek to establish strategic relationships with leading local Web 2.0 companies to accelerate the development of innovative products and services targeted specifically for the China market. .

Read More

Clickpoint Software Releases New Mortgage CRM Software

2006-11-15T00:34:00.000-08:00

Tustin, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/14/2006 -- 4 Real Investment, Inc, a lead management software and services company, today announced their first end-user Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application. Lead-based CRM solutions have provided tools necessary to manage leads through an often complex and technical interface. In addition, existing systems usually require technical experience in order to import, export and manage third-party relationships. Clickpoint Software provides an easy-to-use interface designed after programs you are already familiar with and has automated most of the technical processes. We have been in the lead management business for years and know and understand the issues lead sales and management professionals have. Our system provides one of the easiest interfaces on the market with the most powerful lead management, integration and reporting tools available.

Read More

Salesforce.com Hits New 52-Week High

2006-11-14T00:48:00.000-08:00

Salesforce.com (CRM) shares climbed to a new 52-week high on Nov. 13, as investors anticipated the software company's third-quarter earnings announcement scheduled for Nov. 15. The San Francisco-based company, which provides on-demand customer relationship management software, has managed to generate market optimism recently. The stock gained 4.3% to close at $44, after touching a high of $44.58 during trading on the New York Stock Exchange. This is a change. Wall Street had been worried about salesforce.com's financial performance after the company's website suffered outages in early 2006. Since remedying that situation, Salesforce.com's stock has climbed from a 52-week low of $21.64 on July 14. Meanwhile, the company will announce its earnings during a strong point for the industry.

Read More

Granular data lead to precision marketing

2006-11-13T00:36:00.000-08:00

Unisys Corp., the technology services company, takes database marketing to its logical conclusion in its latest marketing campaign. The Blue Bell, Pa.-based company launched its "Security Unleashed" campaign last month. Although the effort includes branding advertisements in publications such as The Economist, Fortune and Washington Technology, the centerpiece of the campaign is a database marketing initiative: a highly targeted mailing to a few hundred key prospects. .

Read More

Maximizer Launches SMB CRM Solution to Rival Sage

2006-11-12T04:05:00.000-08:00

CRM vendor Maximizer, is all set to wage war with Sage for the SMB market, announcing a "number of product enhancements and special offers," company officials say, aimed at "providing small businesses with a superior alternative to Sage Software's popular contact management product ACT! 2007." The new entrant into the Maximizer 9 family is MaxMobile, a native application for the Windows Mobile platform. The new application aims to enable small business owners to access their customer data using Windows Mobile-compatible wireless devices such as the Palm Treo 700w, Dell Axim X51 series and the HP iPAQ, the company said.Maximiser is perhaps making a bold claim when contrasted with Sages prominent position in the market, however, the company has outlined what it says is significant areas where Maximiser 9 trumps Sage.

Read More

The Atlanta Chapter of the Customer Relationship Management ...

2006-11-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

ATLANTA, GA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- October 30, 2006 -- The Atlanta Chapter of the CRMA (Customer Relationship Management Association) is proud to host "Leveraging Social Networks and Emerging Technologies for Sales, Marketing and Customer Relationships." The event will be held on Wednesday, November 1st, 7:30am - 9:30am at The Ashford Club. Breakfast will be served. Register Now This event will focus on consumer generated media like blogs, search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), podcasting and RSS which are evolving into viable CRM strategies. Learn how experienced B2C and B2B CRM practitioners and marketers are justifying social networks and other emerging channels as part of their CRM and integrated multichannel marketing strategies by developing proven business cases and ROI models.

Read More

TalkTalk is NetSuite on CRM

2006-11-09T05:26:00.000-08:00

TalkTalk, the home phone and free broadband arm of Carphone Warehouse, has signed a deal with on-demand CRM vendor NetSuite. The deal will see 1,300 Carphone staff using NetSuite's CRM+ package in order to track customer orders and subscriptions and better resolve customer service issues. Find out more about software as a service: Read our Cheat Sheet now Carphone Warehouse has admitted it was caught off-guard by the consumer clamour for its broadband services and said this deal will enable it to get on top of that demand. Matthew Peers, IT finance director for Carphone Warehouse, added that the on-demand model will allow that to happen without the lengthy installation and rollout associated with other CRM offerings from larger players.

Read More

Mastech Selects and Implements Bullhorn Front Office Staffing And ...

2006-11-09T02:58:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles, CA (FV Newswire) - Bullhorn, the global leader in On Demand staffing and recruiting software, today announced that Mastech, a leading North American information technology consulting firm and $130 million subsidiary of iGate Corporation (NASDAQ: IGTE), has selected and implemented Bullhorn's integrated front office software to drive its sales and recruiting efforts in all of its U.S. offices. "Bullhorn is the single platform we use to run our entire front office operations," said Mitesh Ashar, Director of Technology for Mastech. "We use Bullhorn for every aspect of our sales and recruiting efforts including: prospecting, selling, account management, sourcing, screening, recruiting and tracking candidates. The integrated functionality and flexibility of Bullhorn enables our recruiters to be more effective and productive, and Bullhorn's web-based, On Demand technology fits the needs of our rapidly expanding global recruiting efforts." Bullhorn's integrated, real-time front office solution has replaced five different disparate business applications formerly in use at Mastech.

Read More

Cross-industry increase of CRM software use: IDC report

2006-11-09T02:49:00.000-08:00

The manufacturing, communications and media, and healthcare industries show the strongest growth in customer relationship management software over the next five years, with compound annual growth rates of 8.1 percent, 8.0 percent, and 7.2 percent, respectively. This was a key finding from a research study recently published by Framingham, MA-based market intelligence firm IDC. The report, Americas Customer Relationship Management Software 2005 Vendor Shares: Top 10 Vendors by Vertical Market, said CRM firms that have penetrated into these industries will have the greatest future growth potential in CRM software. The report also offered its analysis of the top 10 CRM vendors in eight vertical markets for the Americas: communications and media, financial services, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail/wholesale, utilities and other industries.

Read More