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Group 1 Software, Inc. today announced its teaming with Microsoft Corp. and CIO Magazine to present an educational webcast entitled “When Bad Data Happens to Great CRM Systems.”

(Time out. The book that spawned a million other references and names, Harold S. Kushner’s “When Bad Things happen to Good People,” was first printed in 1981 and has surely been mostly forgotten by folks who create, say, webinars. Can we all agree to stop riffing on this hackneyed theme now?)

“Bad Data” is now available for viewing at the CIO Magazine website and is described as discussing “the role of data quality for businesses of all sizes, particularly as it relates to Customer Relationship Management.” The webcast promises to explore key business issues surrounding data quality and CRM; the direct impact of data quality on large enterprises, mid-market, and small and medium businesses; emerging trends, such as Customer Data Integration and Master Data Management; and globalization together with its concomitant compliance regulations.

Moderated by Bob Melk, vice president and associate publisher for CIO, the webcast features players such as Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM; Bernie Gracy, vice president of global strategy, product management and marketing for Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software; and, Jill Dyche, business consultant and co-founder of Baseline Consulting.

Group 1 Software is a division of Pitney Bowes specializing in consolidating, cleansing and enriching corporate data, and generating personalized business documents for multi-channel delivery, customer care and efficient business processing. Group 1 Software solutions are employed by over 3,000 organizations in industries including insurance, financial services/banking, GIS/mapping, government, mail services, retail, telecommunications, and utility. Among Group 1 clientele are Entergy, ING, L.L. Bean, MapQuest, Microsoft, Safeco Insurance, Wal-Mart and Wells Fargo.

It’s not often we get to announce a book-related news piece here at CRMchump, but this month we can report the updated and expanded version of “Call Center Management on Fast Forward: Succeeding in Today’s Dynamic…”

And, well, that’s where the first update takes place. In the original 1997 version of the book, the subtitle read “Succeeding in Today’s Dynamic Inbound Environment,” whereas the 2006 edition has us “Succeeding in Today’s Dynamic Customer Contact Environment.” Good to know things are still dynamic, though. And second most conspicuous change right on the cover is the switch from co-author credit in the first edition shared by Brad Cleveland and Julia Mayben to Mr. Cleveland solo.

Cleveland is the president of CMP Technology’s International Customer Management Institute, and “Call Center Management on Fast Forward,” whatever the subtitle, was a highly influential book getting lots of praise from press and insiders.

Slightly more informally, just checking out amazon.com reveals a ton of solid reviews of the product. One Tom Tarrani of Deltona, Fla., by trade an “IT consultant who sets up processes and procedures for service delivery,” compliments Cleveland/Mayben’s book thusly: “This book is written for call center managers, yet should be required reading for IT help desk managers and staff. …

“This book … contains a wealth of information that should be carefully read by IT help desk professionals who want to implement a world-class operation.

“Some things that set this book apart are the sections on quality and productivity, and new technologies. The authors go well beyond how to effectively manage call centers by discussing how to integrate new technologies and exploit technology to provide the best possible service. I also liked the section on characteristics of best managed call centers - the information provides an effective roadmap to excellence and benchmarking tool.”

You get the idea; it’s a good read. ICMI claims the book is “The industry’s #1 selling book on call center management [and] the most comprehensive source available on running a call center…” Addenda made in the second edition include pages devoted to recent trends in customer expectation, technological updates, and case studies involving firms such as Wells Fargo, Starbucks, and Aetna.

"Call Center Management on Fast Forward" is available at amazon.com for the already-reduced price of $26.37.

The International Customer Management Institute is a provider of consulting, training, publications, events and professional membership services to call centers.

CMP Technology is a marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. CMP Technology is a subsidiary of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion.

A bit of a strange announcement today from Altara out of Basking Ridge, N.J. According to the CRM Directory, the business technology solutions provider/gold-certified Microsoft partner has announced CRM Delivers, “a seminar focused on technology solutions that automate and streamline financial and customer relationship processes.”

Explicitly states Altara’s release: CRM Delivers will be held on December 12, 9am-1pm in the Microsoft office at 194 Wood Avenue South, Iselin, N.J. The presentation will explore how businesses can reach new levels of customer intelligence using customer relationship management solutions, etc.” Those wishing to attend must register beforehand, and can do so online at www.altara.com/crmdelivers or by calling 908.992.3104.

See what’s missing? What, no webcast? Really? Is Altara waiting for a sell-out crowd before announcing a free broadcast? But why do they care if admission to CRM Delivers is free? Can somebody enlighten me as to this omission? Please do.

Altara is a business technology solutions provider for mid- to enterprise-level project-based companies. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, Altara also has offices in Wayne, Penna., and Minneapolis, Minn. Through Altara’s Strategic Network of Altara Partners (a.k.a. SNAP) program, Altara provides global service with offices in New York, N.Y.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Chicago; and Reading, U.K.

A firm called LINKdotNET is attempting to make a big play in the CRM industry of the “Middle East and North Africa region,” launching what is self-promoted at the region’s “first hosted CRM solution.” Representatives of the firm announced today that LINKdotNET “will be offering Customer Relationship Management solutions in a way that makes them far more accessible to small and medium businesses in the region.”

LINKdotNET’s hosted CRM promises to be “the first in the region to offer the sophisticated customer acquisition and retention tools that come with current CRM solutions…” LINKdotNET pledges all the standard advantages of CRM: cost-efficiency, scalability, quickness of deployment, automation of workflow, and such. Check it out for yourself at (what else?) www.link.net.

LINKdotNET is a subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Holding Company, a large-scale integrated telecommunications services provider in the Middle East region. LINKdotNET has regional offices in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Islamabad, Pakistan. The company employs over 800. As firm PR would have it, “LINKdotNET is, in brief, the Region’s powerhouse that provides, maintains, develops and promotes internet solutions and services.”

Analyst firm Financial Insights recently released a report entitled “CRM Resurgence in Asia: Which Banks lead the Charge?” and boy, is Unica Corporation please.

Unica, a global provider of enterprise marketing management solutions, was able to take pride in two of its customers featuring in the report. The Unica customers highlighted were HDFC Bank and OCBC Bank, cited as examples of financial services organizations in the Asia Pacific area which are achieving measurable and verifiable benefits from deployment of CRM-related technology; both banks use Unica’s Affinium EMM software.

Naturally (indeed, to say such is nearly a cliché) the report reads “spending on CRM-related technology by Asia’s leading banks is expected to show strong growth.” Financial Insights notes a growing focus on optimization of marketing.

Via use of event-based marketing and integrated analytics, says Unica PR, “HDFC Bank and OCBC Bank both realized success by increasing their market share, acquiring profitable customers and boosting customer loyalty [with] Affinium, Unica’s signature EMM solution.”

HDFC Bank is India’s second largest private sector bank and deployed Unica’s Affinium software to design, optimize, execute and analyze its marketing programs, i.e. capturing a complete view of its customers across channels; this bank has increased the number of campaigns it executes by more than 500 percent.

OCBC Bank in Singapore completed a full implementation of the Affinium suite to coordinate, manage, optimize, execute and measure customer communications across channels including event-based marketing, sales and customer service back in 2005; OCBC achieved a more than 40 percent conversion rate with event-based marketing initiatives.

A complete copy of “CRM Resurgence in Asia: Which Banks lead the Charge?” can be had from the Unica website.

Unica Corporation is a global provider of enterprise marketing management software and is exclusive sponsor of The Marketers’ Consortium at http://unicashare.typepad.com; Unica clientele now numbers over 400 companies worldwide. Founded in 1992, Unica is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, with offices in the United States, Australia, France, Germany, India, Singapore, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Financial Insights provides independent research, custom consulting, and detailed multiclient studies on the technology issues in the financial services industry. Financial Insights is an IDC company with headquarters in Framingham, Mass.

The UK’s CRM upgrade continues. The council of lovely Caerphilly, Wales has announced their award of a £500,000 (approximately US $947,000) three-year contract to Northgate Information Solutions to upgrade its current customer services solution.

Under terms of the agreement, the Northgate Front Office CRM system, intelligent call routing, and knowledge management applications will be implemented; Northgate’s CallTouch and the RightNow knowledge management system will also be introduced. Front Office will be integrated with Caerphilly council’s extant back-office systems.

FrontOffice CRM seeks to assist the council in improving transactions with customers, tracking progress of queries, reviewing performance and streamlining business processes. CallTouch is designed to handle calls more efficiently through intelligent call routing, which matches caller demands to the best available answering resource, and CRM that enables an efficient response to a caller’s request.

RightNow captures information on a daily basis and “can be shared and used across the whole council in the form of an organic online knowledgebase of FAQs.” Phase one of the project has an announced completion date of March 2007 and will include services in environmental health, highways, public services and central recruitment; thirty employees will reportedly be using Front Office in this phase.

Front Office is currently used in UK customer service for over 8 million citizens, but this deal represents Northgate’s first in Wales.

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.

CRMSoft, a CRM solution provider for the small- to medium-sized business set, have announced a sixty-day free trial offer of their free trial plan that includes software-free chat consoles. According to the company, such a risk-free trial offer is “the first of its kind.”

Features touted in CRMSoft include instant message and email notification of dropped chat and chat on queue; a web call-back system; live support agents online; a customizable chat solution; and real-time agent performance reporting.

To sign up for the free sixty-day trial of CRMSoft, go to www.crmsoft.com. Or click here.

Loyalty Lab, Inc. representatives have announced that specialty retailer Brookstone has launched its new loyalty marketing initiative using the Loyalty Lab Customer Relationship Manager Suite. The Loyalty suite will also power all of the retailer’s marketing email communications.

Brookstone has some 306 outlets and seeks to pilot the "Brookstone IN Rewards" loyalty program (by invitation only) with Loyalty Lab. Loyalty Lab’s on-demand solution will be implemented in Brookstone’s extant systems in shops, online and call center.

San Francisco, Calif.-based Loyalty Lab is a provider of on-demand relationship and retention marketing solutions for consumer brands. Loyalty Lab’s flagship Customer Relationship Manager Suite provides retailers and service companies with integrated and on-demand email, campaign management, loyalty programs, and incentives from a single desktop. Loyalty clients include Smith & Hawken, 1-800-flowers.com, the Nederlander Organization, Pfaltzgraff, and Bally Total Fitness.

Brookstone, Inc. is a product development and specialty retailer that operates 306 branded stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, mostly in regional shopping malls and airports. The Company also operates one store under the Gardeners Eden Brand, and a direct marketing business that includes the Brookstone product line, the “Hard to Find Tools” catalogs, and an e-commerce website at www.brookstone.com.

EDS today announced an agreement to acquire Global Enterprise Management Solutions, LP. Based in Irving, Texas, GEMS is a provider of SAP enterprise management and customer relationship management solutions. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close before 2007.

GEMS is a certified SAP value-added partner serving clients primarily in the IT services, assembly/manufacturing, logistics and transportation industries. GEMS offers IT solution development, implementation consulting and solution reselling services for clients looking to deploy SAP.

Key elements of the acquisition include GEMS’ mService Solutions and Accelerated Data Migration tools, which are prepackaged mySAP All-in-One software solutions that can be deployed quickly at client sites. GEMS will also bring to EDS an additional employee base technically skilled at NetWeaver, as well as other business application competencies including ERP, CRM, PLM and SCM.

As part of the acquisition, approximately 150 GEMS employees in Dallas, India and Germany will transition to EDS, including development staff, SAP consultants and technology architects.

EDS is a global technology services company that stakes a claim as having “founded the information technology outsourcing industry more than forty years ago.” Today, EDS delivers a portfolio of information technology and business process outsourcing services to clients in the manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, communications, energy, transportation, and consumer and retail industries.

SugarCRM Inc., provider of commercial open source customer relationship management software, today announced the availability of Sugar FastStack, a software support and delivery service for the comprehensive open source software solution which includes Sugar software, the Apache Web Server, PHP and the MySQL database. The solution is available for $499 at www.sugarcrm.com.

Sugar FastStack installs Sugar Professional or Sugar Enterprise along with the rock-solid open source platform consisting of the Apache Web Server, PHP and MySQL database. Sugar FastStack can be installed on all major operating systems, including Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

SugarCRM support is included for the entire FastStack solution. Sugar FastStack is purchased in conjunction with Sugar Professional On-Site ($275 per user per year) or Sugar Enterprise on-Site ($449 per user per year). The Sugar FastStack installation process walks the user through with a wizard program.

The growing popularity of SugarCRM is oft-mentioned among the press corps, with downloads doubling from 400,000 to 800,000 in six months and a Microsoft partnership highlighting its growth. Since that time, Sugar Open Source has been downloaded over 800,000 times in 41 languages. More than 5,000 developers have contributed over 220 extensions to a community of over 15,000 members. SugarCRM today serves over 800 commercial customers.

SugarCRM is a provider of commercial open source customer relationship management software for companies of all sizes, offering deployment options in on-demand, on-premise and appliance-based formats.