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Microsoft Corp. told of a big deal to close out its week today: Sperry Van Ness, the commercial real estate investment brokerage firms, has chosen to build on its recently implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution with Microsoft Dynamics GP to create a Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning suite.

Sperry Van Ness, founded in 1987 and based in Irvine, Calif., sells commercial property by proactively marketing all listings to the brokerage and investment community nationwide. The firm has ballooned from seven markets into 150 since 2001, increasing its total staff to 1,400.

The firm leveraged custom-built applications based on Microsoft .NET, the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform and Microsoft CRM 3.0 to create an interactive mapping tool that assists its advisors in locating and showcasing properties. Sperry Van Ness numbers show that the solution saves the company 75,000 hours per year in creating property brochures and web sites, while integrating the customer contact database.

The Mission Viejo, Calif., office of Collins Computing Inc., proud winner of the Microsoft Business Solutions’ 2006 Sales and Marketing Partner of the Year, will implement the solution.

The headline of the piece is certainly an eye-catcher: “Why Small Business Are Scared To Invest In CRM Solutions” (all caps) reads the title of an article by George Ishee at Web Pro News.

Though unfortunately no hard biographical data is available on Ishee, the “Expert Author” writes authoritatively first-person stating outright that “What I have found is that most small business owners watch their cash like a hawk and they protect it with their life but they still need new clients.”

Ishee sees the CRM and Sales Force Automation game as requiring a bit of a difficult situation for the small-business implementer, because “there are few [CRM solutions providers] who can actually deliver results which is what the small business needs. …. Most CRM companies just don’t get it because it’s all about the results not about software or customization.”

According to Ishee, CRM / SFA software manufacturers and consultants are also handcuffed. They “have good intentions, but lack the complete understanding of all the skill sets required for a small business to be successful. … They are very good at some of the skills, but not experts at all of them, and that is what a small business owner needs.” Plus, “most CRM or SFA vendors (consulting firms) are in the pocket of one or more of the large software manufacturers. Manufacturers leverage the good will of consultants who direct you under the guise of consulting, as to which products you need to buy.”

Ultimately, Ishee espouses as affordable the systems from Salesforce.com, NetSuite.com, and, intriguingly, a small little company called Plum Tree Marketing. And here’s where the story gets depressing. Who might be listed as the “Principle” Consultant at Plum Tree Marketing? Got it in one: George Ishee. In other words, the “Expert Author,” actually a consultant, is asking his readers not to listen to consultants. Deal.

Turning on the old sales instinct, the “article” from this “author” soon turns transparent: “Remember, it’s all about one simple fact: You need to be making more money coming in vs. going out. Keep this in mind as you investigate the different solutions. Ask the vendors how they will accomplish this and demand they help you calculate a return on investment to make sure you can recoup your investment within 1 year.”

Over at the Plum Tree Marketing ‘site, Ishee’s “bio” states that “As President of PlumTree Marketing I can guarantee exactly that. Here’s my guarantee. If you run our solution 3 times a week for 1 year, and you don’t sell more that the cost of your investment for the PlumTree Activator solution, then I’ll buy it back and refund 100% of what you paid. The reason I can offer you this powerful guarantee is because I know it works when you use it.” Imagine that. Sounds a bit like an infomercial.

This writer would like to offer a few further suggestions to the small-business owner who would like to implement a proper CRM system. Considering trusting a larger more reputable organization despite the slightly higher price tags you might see there. (After all, there’s a reason you’ve heard of the Salesforce.coms of the world.) Beware the “consultants” and “experts” everywhere. And always double-check that information you read online.

CRMChump.org is affiliated with no solutions provider or consulting firm.

Teradata CRM is spreading in Europe this week, with implementation of the product recently selected in Spain and Norway.

Savings bank Caixa Galicia is the Iberian addition to the Teradata clientele. One of Spain’s larger financial services providers, the bank seeks to employ Teradata CRM portfolio to “better analyze and personalize communications with its growing multimillion-sized customer base.”

With the major implementation, Teradata further solidified their relationship with Caixa Galicia, who had earlier this year taken on solutions Teradata Warehouse and Teradata Value Analyzer.

Meanwhile, quite a bit further north, DnB NOR, Norway’s largest financial services group, also implemented Teradata Value Analyzer, with which it seeks to “extend the capacity and business value of its Teradata Warehouse.” Currently boasting some two million customers, DnB NOR puts heavy emphasis on its personalized services and products.

According to the Teradata release, DnB NOR’s purchase of TVA extends the value of the company’s Teradata enterprise data warehouse, improving the bank’s ongoing customer relationship initiatives.

And the Teradata reach has extended well beyond Europe. Recent additions to the happy Teradata CRM family include the Commercial International Bank in Egypt, which is leveraging an ATM network as an integrated direct marketing channel. In Brazil, bank Banco Bradesco is employing Teradata’s reference base for advanced event-triggered marketing. Teradata PR material also notes an unnamed large American retail store chain implementing an unnamed Teradata closed-loop solution in its point of sale network.

You can play with Teradata Analyzer here.

Teradata Warehouse provides integrated and extensible technology and services for a single application-neutral repository of current and historical data. The latest version is 8.2 and includes features such as high-performance parallel database technology, a full suite of data access tools, management tools and data mining software.

Founded in 1981, Teradata is a division of NCR and specializes in solutions for the data warehousing market. Teradata clientele numbers over 800, and the firm boasts over 1,200 implementations. Industries particularly into Teradata include telecommunications, retails, airline, transportation logistics, commercial banks, and savings banks.

Business intelligence specialist QlikTech has announced an addition to the Sage portfolio: An updated version of its BI snap-in for SalesLogix customers. The company has signed an agreement for Chase International to distribute its I-Reports 2.0 product, which provides real-time reporting for Sage CRM SalesLogix. Some 750 or so companies running SalesLogix in the UK alone, report the QlikTech folks. Said Jason Bissell, QlikTech UK channel manager: “It’s an area where Sage doesn’t have a [directly comparable] offering.”

In the announcement of this “gap filling,” Sage representatives reported that their firm plans to “close the window of opportunity with a new business intelligence product scheduled to be commercially available in the spring and based on code acquired with the purchase of IntelligentApps two years ago.” This product will reportedly represent a new dashboard front-end which can be used to mine data from Sage and non-Sage sources. Sage plans to later make the dashboard its BI front-end to other lines.

How ubiquitous is the reach of CRM technology? The stuff has gone so far as to play a part in the distribution of that most Scottish of all Scottish cultural artefacts, the kilt.

A company known as Lochcarron recently found itself in need of a CRM system. You see, while Lochcarron manufacturers the ultimate Scottish gear, their customers inhabit such “exotic” lands as the United States, Canada and Japan, presenting something of a poser for what Lochcarron owner calls “definitely an SME.”

“Despite the spread of the business,” says Lochcarron IT director Chris Turner, “we are still definitely an SME, and so we have to take a different approach to technology.” As IT head of a small company, Turner says, to get information on high-tech systems, “I rely on trade papers, word of mouth and the internet – we can’t afford analyst services and the vendors aren’t generally interested in coming out to see us in the middle of nowhere.”

Lochcarron rolled out Lotus Notes and a CRM application from local technology firm Kelros. Turner praises the system: “We have definitely seen a reduction in phone calls between the offices, and customer queries are dealt with a lot faster … Even without the CRM system, we have the benefit of a single, global email infrastructure which is more reliable and easier to maintain.”

As for Kelros, finding a niche supplier in a niche market is no new news: Recent sales have gone to a car manufacturer, a medical equipment manufacturer, a small U.K. airport, a jeweller, a supermarket chain, and a bakery.

Founded in 1996, Kelros is an IBM premier partner focusing on Lotus Domino and WebSphere Portal products and services. Kelros provides off-the-shelf applications, consultancy, development, training and IBM licenses through Passport Advantage.

The conquest of the United Kingdom by CRM, one council at a time, continues. The latest to line up to help put Britain in the 21st century is the Aberdeenshire Council, which plans to integrate customer relationship management software with the council’s telephony systems and to link to functions such as revenues and benefits, housing, planning, building control and its local property tracking gazetteer.

In theory, the system will track individual requests and enquiries by citizens to make sure they are dealt with, give council bosses more extensive performance management information with which to monitor customer satisfaction.

The Aberdeenshire contract was given to Northgate Information Systems, who was in the industry news just last week for extending its reach into Wales, with the Caerphilly council announcing their award of a £500,000 (approximately US $947,000) three-year contract to the company.

Under terms of the agreement, the Northgate Front Office CRM system, intelligent call routing, and knowledge management applications will be implemented in Caerphilly. Phase one of that project has an announced completion date of March 2007 and will include services in environmental health, highways, public services and central recruitment.

Northgate CRM software is currently used in UK customer service for over 8 million citizens. Founded in 1969, Northgate Information Solutions employs 3,300, and other concomitant statistics are more impressive. In the UK, Northgate works with four out of five local authorities and every police force. Its systems are used in the management of over 1.5 million local authority and housing association properties; in the administration of more than £17 billion (approximately US $32.2 billion) in revenues and benefits; and in electoral administration systems covering over 18 million people.

Judging by sheer names alone, the teaming of QuestionPro and CRMGuru.com seems like a match made in heaven.

QuestionPro is a provider of online survey services and CRMGuru.com is reportedly the world’s top online community focused on Customer Relationship Management. The teamup hopes to “jointly create opportunities to highlight ways that technology can help businesses glean critical insights necessary to drive sales and measure customer satisfaction.”

A tad more specifically, the two companies will jointly develop a set of online tools to help CRMGuru members assess and improve their CRM initiatives. The tools are expected to be unveiled in early 2007.

QuestionPro currently offers a set of tools for conducting online surveys, offering features for developing surveys including branching, randomization, extraction, and compound branching. QuestionPro’s integrated emailing system gives the user the ability to send mass invitations and track response rates. QuestionPro’s largest recent claim to fame was its achievement of certification status with salesforce.com’s AppExchange.

The CRMGuru.com website is a community development that seeks to assist business leaders with Customer Relationship Management initiatives, through articles, discussion, newsletters, reports and online events. CRMGuru.com reportedly serves more than 300,000 newsletter subscribers and site visitors monthly from 200 countries worldwide.

Check this one out: A story involving a larger, near-dominant firm making a big deal whilst nearly simultaneously swallowing two smaller companies by buyout … and it’s not Oracle!

Nope, this time Vodafone is the company laying out the big bucks, for Aspective and Isis Telecommunications Management; the former is a UK-based consultancy specializing in the mobilization of CRM and salesforce applications, while the latter is a provider of customer services, fleet management and managed services to the enterprise market.

The aforementioned agreement was signed with Fiberlink, is of the three-year variety, and features a teamup to provide secure remote access services to mobile workers.

Vodafone brass sees the moves as part of the company’s strategy for 2006 to “become a total communications provider and to move away from its role as a mobile connectivity provider.” With Aspective, Isis and Fiberlink on board, Vodafone officials proclaim the company can now bring added capability to applications, service and access, respectively.

Maximizer Software Inc., a provider of customer relationship management and contact management solutions, today announced that PunchStock has selected Maximizer Enterprise for integration to its Microsoft Dynamics ERP system. PunchStock is a leading resource for imagery acquisition for the advertising and design industry.

PunchStock is currently experiencing what firms inevitably call an “exciting period,” with the company moving into new office and making “significant” additions to its product line. Maximizer PR pointed out that, in making the switch to a unified CRM system, PunchStock passed on Salesforce.com, Sage Software, “and many others.” PunchStock reportedly selected Maximizer Enterprise for its potential to integrate with Microsoft Dynamics.

Via tight integration of Maximizer Enterprise to PunchStock’s extant Microsoft Dynamics ERP system, PunchStock seeks to automate many routine tasks; to manage website inquiries and incoming phone inquiries; to streamline the quoting and invoicing process; and to order management.

Headquartered in Madison, Wisc., with offices in Seattle, New York, and London, PunchStock is a leading global provider of imagery used by artists, graphic designers and advertisers. PunchStock owns some 1.5 million rights-managed and royalty-free images.

Maximizer Software promises to provide a technology platform that assists businesses in the ability to manage the sales, marketing, customer service and customer support. Maximizer Software Inc. has a catalogue of over 7,500 Maximizer Enterprise customers and over one million Maximizer users now use Maximizer solutions. Maximizer clientele includes Siemens, Ipsos-Reid, Nestle Clinical, Ericsson, HSBC, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, William Mercer, and Bank of New York.

Customer Operations Performance Center Inc. has announces the launch of the Customer Contact Center Leadership Chapter of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals. IAOP is a membership-based organization of some 400-plus organizations focused on outsourcing as an industry and as a management practice which provides services including networking, research, training, and certification.

The Customer Contact Center Leadership chapter will operate under charter from IAOP. Key areas of focus will include operations management; performance improvement; contact center and business process outsourcing strategy; vendor selection; and vendor management.

Knowledge exchange facilitated by the chapter promises to include global best practices in strategy, processes, people and technology, continuous improvement (e.g., Six Sigma), KPIs and metrics, benchmarks, and targeted functional areas.

The inaugural meeting of the Customer Contact Center Leadership Chapter of IAOP will be held via webinar on December 12, 2006 from 11am to noon, Eastern Standard Time. Cliff Moore, COPC Inc. chairman and co-founder, will serve as chair and discuss overall outsourcing and off-shoring trends observed for multinational companies.

Founded in 1996, Customer Operations Performance Center Inc. bills itself as “the world’s leading authority on operations management and performance improvement for buyers and providers of customer contact center and business process outsourcing services.” Today, COPC Inc. has clients in fifty countries, with customers including Accenture, Apple, BT Group, Bertelsmann Arvato, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cable & Wireless, Citigroup, Convergys, Genpact, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, NTT, Sony, Telefónica, Telstra, and Wipro.