We Blog CRM

The folks from Pivotal Corporation announced today that Boca Developers, one of South Florida’s largest builders of luxury condominiums, has reported some favorable results following implementation of CDC Software’s Pivotal CRM for Home Building and Real Estate solution.

Boca Developers saw its annual sales jump from US $400 million in 2004 to US $600 million in 2005 and suffered those typical growing pains consisted with a booming firm trying to do business on outdated tech. Boca implemented Pivotal CRM to improve sales processes and create the marketing, sales and data infrastructure that would allow the company to expand and scale quickly and efficiently.

“Using Pivotal across the organization has not only saved time, it has also eliminated a lot of confusion and increased our confidence in terms of understanding our sales activity,” said William Davis, systems delivery manager of Boca Developers. Boca has also reportedly been able to accelerate and simplify the sales process.

Pivotal CRM for Home Building and Real Estate is an industry-tailored customer relationship management system designed to assist building and real estate firms better manage relationships throughout the customer lifecycle. The product was awarded IT Product of the Year and Best Sales, Marketing and Customer Service Automation product at the 2006 Innovative Housing Technology Awards.

Pivotal Corporation is a software unit of CDC Corporation that boasts of clientele of 1,800 companies all its own, including Farm Credit Services of America, WCI Communities, Premera Blue Cross, Qiagen, ESRI, AvMed Health Plans, Sharp Electronics Corporation, and CMS Cameron McKenna.

CDC Software is a provider of enterprise software applications designed to assist organizations in delivering a superior customer experience. The CDC Software product suite includes Pivotal CRM, c360 CRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform development tools, Ross enterprise resource planning, Ross supply chain management, IMI warehouse management, order management, Platinum China human resource solutions, and business analytics.

CDC Software now boasts more than 5,000 customers worldwide in the manufacturing, financial services, health care, home building, real estate, and wholesale and retail distribution industries. CDC Software is a division of CDC Corporation, a provider of enterprise resource planning and supply chain management software applications in addition to its CRM solutions.

Software solutions provider Webcom, Inc. has announced that A&D Technology, Inc., a supplier of powertrain testing equipment, is implementing the Webcom WebSource CPQ solution in its quote-to-order process.

With a web browser, WebSource CPQ allows salespeople, channel partners and consumers to configure, price, quote and propose products / services. Quoting, revisions, the approval process, as well as leverage guided-selling and self-service applications may be automated with WebSource CPQ.

Webcom, Inc. provides software solutions that seek to simplify the quote-to-order process for the selling of complex products and services. Companies employing Webcom products and services include Rockwell Automation, Danfoss, Corning Cable Systems, Verity, Grayhill and GE Industrial Systems. Founded in 1997, Webcom is a privately held corporation headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisc. with offices in the US and Europe.

A&D Technology is a provider of test cell integration products and services, including data acquisition and control systems, combustion analysis, rapid prototyping controllers, engine mapping and optimization software, data management systems, and dynamometers.

Representatives of Business Objects (love that name!) today announced the general availability of BusinessObjects Data Quality XI for Siebel Customer Relationship Management applications. The new solution is powered by Business Objects Data Quality XI Release 2 and seeks to provide a single, tightly integrated data quality platform that scales across operating and application environments.

Data Quality XI for Siebel CRM Applications offers a centralized business rule repository that assists companies in more easily creating and applying business rules enterprise-wide. By consolidating data from disparate sources and using a consistent data quality process, Data Quality XI for Siebel CRM Applications promises more reliable data quality and real-time access to information.

Business Objects is one of Oracle’s top ten global ISVs. Business Objects solutions are embedded by Oracle across all current PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, and JD Edwards World applications, and are resold by Oracle with PeopleSoft EPM. Business Objects is a business intelligence software specialist claiming more than 39,000 customers worldwide and over 80 percent of the Fortune 500. Business Objects has dual headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Paris, France.

Representatives of the above average-named WhatCounts, Inc. today unveiled version 6.0 of its e-Communications Suite. WhatCounts offers targeted email marketing tools, personalized content syndication via RSS, strategic coaching services, and interactive marketing using blogs, polls and surveys.

The firm also announcd that integration has been completed between the e-Communications Suite and solution partner Pivotal Veracity’s eDelivery Tracker for per-ISP inbox deliverability analytics.

The e-Communications Suite 6.0 is available through the WhatCounts hosted Web-based application or via the proprietary Broadcaster pre-configured hardware appliance. Founded in 2000, WhatCounts is a private Seattle-based company with offices across North America.

Oh, it’s all going to be about the Oracle this week…

The firm kicked off its Oracle OpenWorld 2006 party … i mean, show … i mean, well, the Oracle OpenWorld 2006. The exhibition of partners and clients opened on Sunday, proving that though The Almighty himself rested on the seventh day, Oracle does not. Oracle expects to draw 40,000 in the show’s four days.

And the big firm opened the big show in a big way, too. Oracle president Charles Phillips appeared with pro basketballer and Golden State Warrior Jason Richardson. The first big announcement of the four-day Oracle extravaganza? That the Warriors will in fact be hosting NBA games at Oracle Arena. Reportedly, Phillips even performed a crossover dribble. The Chump is skeptical, awaiting the appearance of said feat on YouTube.

Getting down to more tangible business, Phillips again discussed the ballyhooed “umbrella strategy” of Oracle, the firm’s description of Oracle’s business applications leveraging the Oracle technology stack. (Fusion is on the man’s mind.) Phillips introduced two products that “are taking advantage of the Oracle stack to improve the software ownership experience,” namely Configuration Support Manager and Oracle Accelerators.

Also speaking on Sunday, Oracle President Safra Catz presented a user community address speech at the fifth annual Oracle User Forum. Said Catz, “We are in a special moment [sic] in the company’s history, and Oracle can’t be successful if you’re not successful.”

The six primary Oracle user groups – the Higher Education User Group, Independent Oracle Users Group, Oracle Development Tools User Group, Oracle HMC User Group, Oracle Applications User Group, and Quest International User Group – were recognized for the “valuable education they offered to customers eager to understand and leverage the benefits of Oracle technology.”

In a sort of kicking off, Catz remarked that attendees would also benefit from a range of special interest group session, established for Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne users, that offered up-to-date information on upgrade plans articulated directly by Oracle’s development staff.

Catz concluded by addressing the user groups’ role in helping Oracle evangelize technology to the user community, including users, partners, and companies. Catz commended the worldwide user group community as Oracle’s most active and dedicated customers and applauded their commitment to share best practices and influence Oracle product direction.

Coverering the event is Barbara Darrow of CRN.com, who turned in a good piece explaining some of the strategizing going down with Oracle right now. Leads Darrow, “Oracle wants more partners to sell more of its diverse application set. Most notably the database giant … wants to turn up the channel effort on PeopleSoft and Siebel apps in the mid market.” Indeed, Darrow bases her assertion on a statement by Rauline Ochs, group vice president of North American alliances and channels for Oracle. (Love these Oracle titles!)

At the Oracle show, Ochs stated point blank, “We are recruiting PeopleSoft and Siebel resellers for [the customer] segment under US $100 million … We just opened up PeopleSoft for the first time to the channel—they’re not traditionally in the channel except in the public sector. We are also looking for Siebel resellers and are recruiting Fusion middleware resellers.”

Darrow sees changes at Oracle in Darrow’s remarks, in company diplomacy moves and in its technology releases. “Oracle,” she writes, "which has seen its share of channel conflict in the past has brought on board two other companies not necessarily known for their channel friendliness. It is for Ochs and Doug Kennedy, vice president of worldwide alliances and channels to fix that and they have had some success, several partners said.”

Darrow also figures Oracle to be bridging “traditionally different sales models for its technology products and its applications. Oracle has long fielded both a partner and direct-sales strategy for databases and middleware. Applications have typically sold direct, although partners get referral fees on new business the bring to the table. Last year, Oracle authorized Avnet and its affiliated VARs to sell applications as well.”

One more key release hit the airwaves early today vis-a-vis Oracle. LegacyMode, LLC today announced it is extending its flagship offering, LegacyMode for PeopleSoft, to the entire Oracle application product portfolio including the e-business suite.

Citing strong demand in the PeopleSoft market, LegacyMode promises to provide patches, fixes, regulatory updates, and general software support and maintenance services to the entire Oracle Applications product set.

LegacyMode also unveiled its “Fractional Maintenance Stream Ownership for Support Professionals” program. Explains LegacyMode founder / CEO D.L. Daniels, “This is our way of giving back to the support industry professionals who have spent the last ten years deploying and customizing these critical systems. It’s an annuity for enterprise application support professionals.”

LegacyMode for Oracle Applications is now available. Prices start at US $50,000.

Barbara Darrow’s “Oracle Wants PeopleSoft, Siebel Partners For SMB Apps Push” can be read at CRN.com.

“Oracle watchers,” as Ms. Darrow excellently refers to them (though not The Chump, he can assure you), can follow the proceedings of Oracle OpenWorld 2006 in lovely San Francisco through posted “dailies” on the firm’s homepage.

(The sound of The Chump hammering this message to the virtual space that is CRMchump.org…)

ATTENTION:

Beagle Research is accepting nominations for its 2007 CRM WizKids Awards, an awards program recognizing CRM users and their vendors. Qualifications for nomination include “front office software vendors offering applications and solutions that extend the reach of CRM, including those not currently considered as within the mainstream of CRM. Solutions should involve business processes that directly touch the customer.”

Deadline for nominations is 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (geez, they’re serious about this) on November 30.

Beagle Research Group analysts and executives will evaluate the entries and score them according to standard metrics. The top rated solutions vendors will be contacted and asked for permission to interview their referenced customers. Beagle Research analysts will interview the customers and write case studies that will reflect their findings. The case studies will be collected into a Beagle Research Group report to be published in the first quarter of 2007.

Previous WizKids winners include Communispace and Charles Schwab; BlueRoads and Avaya; Rearden Commerce and Borland Software; Knowlagent and Coca-Cola; Five9 and XACTtelesolutions; ShareMethods and JMJ Associates; RightNow and NCsoft; Eloqua and Endeca Technologies; and Salesforce.com and BackBone Software.

To nominate, click here. Beagle Research Group is an advisory firm founded by Denis Prombriant, once named one of the most influential people in CRM by CRM magazine. The mission statement of Beagle reads, “We like to identify emerging companies that promise to change the way enterprise computing will be done and help them get the attention the deserve.”

Beagle Research Group is named for the HMS Beagle, “the ship that carried Charles Darwin around the world on a research mission that lead to the theory of biological evolution.” Nice.

The Reynolds and Reynolds Company and First Advantage CREDCO have announced their teaming to deliver pre-qualified consumer prospect leads to automobile dealerships in the U.S. It is hoped that, with the leads, dealerships can efficiently target in-market customers and sell more cars.

Under terms of the agreement, Reynolds will provide a certified data interface that offers direct access between flagship CRM solution, Contact Management, and CREDCO’s Lead Prospector Solutions, a suite of integrated consumer leads for automotive dealers. Reynolds will also provide a certified data interface to those customer relationship management providers in the Reynolds Certified Interface program.

First Advantage CREDCO’s Lead Prospector Solution seeks to provide dealers with high-quality consumer prospects from a broad consumer lead base that includes internet, demographically-targeted, bankruptcy and subprime leads. Dealers can have the leads delivered directly to the Reynolds contact management application.

CRM providers in the Reynolds Certified Interface program will be able to request the standard interface to CREDCO’s Lead Prospector Solutions.

Since 1991, Reynolds and CREDCO have enjoyed a successful business relationship based on CreditMaster, First Advantage CREDCO’s credit services brand.

Reynolds and Reynolds was founded in 1927 and today assists in 15,000 dealers worldwide. In the U.S. and Canada, Reynolds provides solutions including web and customer relationship management solutions, e-learning and consulting services, documents, data management and integration, networking and support and leasing services. Internationally, Reynolds serves dealers in more than 35 countries through retailing solutions and consulting services.

First Advantage CREDCO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Advantage Corporation, and is a leading provider of specialty credit reports and services to the automotive industry. First Advantage is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Fla., and employs over 4,100.

The Chump was tipped off by the nice folks at Enterprise Decision Management – a Weblog to Enterprise Software Journal’s in-depth look at Avent’s recent problems with rules management.

Avnet is one of the largest distributors of computers and electronic components in the world and brought in US $13 billion in revenue last year. What kind of problems could they have? Well, even an Avnet can have problems with its vendor incentive programs.

To cut to the chase, Avnet selected Fair Isaac’s Blaze Advisor business rules management system “to address the issue, and then built an online rebate management application with it. The results have been dramatic: changes that took weeks can usually be done within days.” The rollout took about three months from scratch to completion of an online rebate management application.

Avnet has reported a four percent earnings increase from supplier rebates and incentives, and the investment in Blaze was thus paid for in two months. An Avnet spokeswoman touts Blaze Advisor for its ability to interface with tools and technologies including Java and Oracle; ease of use for developers; and simplicity in making business-rule changes.

Reports ESJ: “The network infrastructure at Avnet includes IBM Regatta servers running the AIX operating system; Oracle 9; and Java on IBM’s WebSphere application server.”

The writer of the piece, entitled “Case Study: Rules Management Solution Powers Customer Incentive Program” is Linda Briggs, founding editor of Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine and a former senior editorial director at 101communications.

The entire article can be read at ESJ.com.

IT infrastructure service provider SAVVIS, Inc. and Entellium have teamed up to run the Entellium suite of hosted customer relationship management solutions.

Under terms of the agreement, SAVVIS will provide a hosted computing infrastructure to underpin the delivery of Entellium’s CRM solutions. Entellium data will be protected by SAVVIS managed security services and audited and tested by SAVVIS professional services team.

SAVVIS managed hosting promises complete IT infrastructure as an outsourced service, with computing, storage, network, and security elements combined into individually tailored solutions.

Founded in 2000, Entellium is an on-demand CRM software provider which specializes in small- and mid-sized companies. Formerly headquarterd in Malaysia, the Entellium board now calls Seattle, Wa. home. Entellium was noted as the recipient of the Frost and Sullivan 2005 Customer Service Leadership award for outstanding service to its customers. Entellium’s main desktop and server application is eSalesForce, a web-based CRM application.

Oracle closed out the business week with a headline grabber, announcing the general availability of Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise On Demand and Oracle On Demand for Siebel CRM. In addition to giving customers choice and flexibility, these new services further expand the Oracle On Demand portfolio of industry-leading Software as a Service and managed applications offerings.

And commenting on these products is once again Sheryl Kingstone, director, Enterprise Applications and Mobility Strategies, Yankee Group: “These new offerings expand the Oracle On Demand portfolio and give customers both flexibility and choice of deployment models, while helping assure Siebel and PeopleSoft users that Oracle will continue to support their investments.”

The latest Oracle On Demand services promise comprehensive enterprise functionality and deep industry expertise. PeopleSoft Enterprise On Demand applications include those for functions such as human resources, finance, IT, procurement, marketing, services and sales.

Oracle On Demand for Siebel CRM and Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise On Demand are available now with pricing starting at $150 per user per month. “Terms, conditions and restrictions,” as they say, “apply.”