We Blog CRM

Representatives of Kintera Inc. today announced the firm is incorporating LiquidScore (now that sounds like some serious stuff there) into Kintera Sphere CRM as an included service for all users.

Kintera’s social CRM platform Kintera Sphere CRM, promises to “provide a novel wealth score based on supporters’ liquid financial assets.” The score (and the ‘Score) thereby seeks to enable nonprofit organizations to more easily segment their supporter database by capacity to donate.

Kintera Sphere CRM with LiquidScore is said to be “the first in a series of announcements regarding Kintera’s data as a service strategy as the company makes analytics more convenient, integrated and automatic in its social CRM platform.”

Kintera Inc. is an online solution provider for nonprofit organizations. Kintera’s trademarked innovations include the Friends Asking Friends program and the software platform Kintera Sphere, and the firm claims over 15,000 accounts. Kintera Sphere includes the company’s recently launched social constituent relationship management system. Today, Kintera has signed contracts for social CRM that represent over 1.4 million constituent records.

Jum Jum! Jumsoft has announced the release of its customer relationship management application for small businesses, Relationship Version 1.0. (If you ask CRMchump, that sounds like a robot-in-love film.)

Relationship helps users organize and manage their contact information, titles, campaigns, and resources.The interface allows users to create groups for company contacts, customers, friends, business partners and others. Users can also use any criteria to create "Smart Groups.”

Relationship is a Universal Binary application, allowing it to run natively on PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.

Relationship 1.0 is priced at $39, and is available for download at the Jumsoft website.

With its annual conference to report full-year fiscal results, SAP AG unveiled its “new game changing approach to the mid-market.” First and foremost has SAP developing a hosted suite of business applications for the midmarket, in hopes of “attract[ing] an untapped segment of customers with the promise of faster implementation and lower ownership costs.”

Seeking to complement SAP’s extant portfolio for midsize companies, the solution will leverage a new “enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) by design” platform.

At the conference, SAP CEO Henning Kagermann sketched some plans to introduce the new midmarket solution with offers of “breakthrough innovations in faster, lower-risk implementation, continuous adaptability and easier user adoption.”

The solution is beginning initial market validation, and SAP plans to introduce more details about the product road map and its associated components at an event later in the current quarter, though speculation doesn’t have the product released until 2008.

Earlier this month, SAP introduced the enterprise SOA-based version of its SAP All-in-One solutions to appeal to its established base of midsize companies, which company numbers state make up almost two-thirds of SAP customers.

According to Kagermann, SAP will invest in an additional business model to support the introduction of the web-based product to reach the untapped market.

SAP formed a global SME unit in November 2006, headed by Hans-Peter Klaey. SAP Global SME is an organizational unit overseeing sales, marketing, operations and alignment of resources dedicated to serving the SME folks.

At the time of the unit’s formation, SAP stated that the formulation “reflects the evolution of SAP’s go-to-market model to serve customers in increasing numbers through a multi-channel approach” and that the company “is aggressively expanding its footprint in the segment by building its delivery channels and the world’s largest portfolio of business management software designed specifically to meet the market, industry and resource requirements of small and midsize businesses.”

Kagermann was quoted on the subject in Computer World thusly: "There is no such thing on the market now, and SAP is going to write a bit of software history.”

What’s that? “Show me the money,” you say? Sure thing!

Figures from SAP’s accounting folks included:

• Product revenues for the fourth quarter of 2006 were €2.2 billion (approximately $2.86 billion), an increase of 8 percent compared to the same period in 2005.

• Software revenues for the quarter were €1.3 billion (approximately $1.69 billion), an increase of 7 percent.

• Total revenues were €3.0 billion for the fourth quarter of 2006 (approximately $3.89 billion), an increase of 7 percent.

• Operating income for the fourth quarter of 2006 was €1.1 billion (approximately $1.4 billion), an increase of 10 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2005.

• The operating margin for the quarter was 36.6 percent, an increase of 1.0 percent. The adjusted operating margin for the quarter was 37.7 percent, an increase of 0.9 percentage points.

• Net income for the 2006 fourth quarter was €799 million (approximately $1.037 billion), or €0.66 (approximately $0.86) per share, an increase of 29 percent. Fourth quarter 2006 adjusted net income was €822 million (approximately $1.067 billion), or adjusted €0.67 (approximately $0.88) earnings per share, an increase of 28 percent.

• Product revenues increased to €6.6 billion (approximately $8.5 billion) for the year ending December 31, 2006, an increase of 11 percent.

• Software revenues increased 10 percent to €3.1 billion (approximately $4.0 billion) in 2006.

• Total revenues were €9.4 billion (approximately $12.2 billion) for the year, an increase of 10 percent compared to the same period last year.

A full replay of SAP’s earnings conference is available at www.sap.com/investor.

SAP currently claims more than 38,000 customers in 26 industries (including high tech, retail, financial services, healthcare and the public sector) in more than 120 countries.

Independent software vendor Compass Technology has launched a channel partner program to distribute its end-to-end fundraising software suite for nonprofits. This suite comprises Compass CRM for Fundraisers; Compass Analytics for Fundraisers; and Compass Personalized Marketing for Fundraisers.

Compass is specifically recruiting current Microsoft partners. Compass channel partner program manager Susan Turner, formerly of Sage Software’s Nonprofit Solutions Division, is spearheading outreach and recruitment in the program. Turner’s curriculum vitae is also decorated with memberships in the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Austin (Texas) Association of Women in Technology.

The first partner training and authorization class will be held in Virginia Beach, Va. in mid-April. Compass will train partners in sales, consulting, and implementation, with each partner promised its own Compass Account Manager to assist in meeting needs, sales development, and revenue forecasts.

Compass offers end-to-end solutions for nonprofits built on Microsoft technology, with Compass CRM for Fundraisers claimed to be “the only complete fundraising and donor management software running entirely in Outlook and built on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 platform.” Compass is a Microsoft gold certified partner and has offices in Washington, D.C.; Pittsburgh, Penna.; Nashville, Tenn.; Virginia Beach, Va.; and Chesapeake, Va.

iCentera, a provider of on-demand CRM portals for sales, partner and customer communications, today announced the release of iCentera 4.1. iCentera’s amazingly named “Portals for Mortals” seek to enable the creation of customized and branded portals for any internal or external audience “in minutes.”

Customization of iCentera portals with a variety of internet applications such as Google calendars, maps, blogs, forums or RSS feeds is now possible. iCentera is designed as a vehicle for dynamic content, two-way communication, collaboration and relationship building with multiple audiences through marketing event portals, sales intranets, and key account portals.

Touted in iCentera 4.1 are enhanced Web 2.0 capabilities. More specifically, included within the program are goodies such as the following.

• Application mashups, which allow custom portals by embedding any on-premise application or web application;

• Web 2.0 Functionality, which promises to securely deliver multiple Web 2.0 features such as blogs, RSS feeds, configurable portal pages and “functionality widgets”;

• increased collaboration and communication features; and

• deeper CRM Integration, i.e. support for deeper integration with CRM such as salesforce.com’s with the ability to embed iCentera “applets” within.

Pricing for internal users runs from $20-$100 per subscriber per month. Founded in 2003, iCentera is a provider of on-demand CRM portals that drive marketing, sales and customer communication and collaboration. iCentera subscribers number over 65,000 at more than 5,000 portals. Customers include ADC, American Locker, Andrew Corporation, The American Marketing Association, Sage Software, Harris Interactive, SPSS, Secure Computing, and VNU Global Media.

Ascendix Technologies today announced the certification of its Real Estate Advantage software for “Microsoft Dynamics CRM V3.0 Test for ISV Solutions.” The certification milestone was administered by VeriTest.

The program identifies applications that successfully integrate with Microsoft Dynamics CRM V3.0. The testing and verification program ensures that applications integrate with CRM V3.0 in a supported manner, maintain the program’s stability, do not restrict core functionality, and continue to function when service packs or upgrades to the base product are applied.

VeriTest also confirmed that Real Estate Advantage adheres to all published specifications as outlined in the CRM V3.0 Software Development Kit.

Developed on the .Net 2.0 framework by AdvantageWorks, the R&D division of Ascendix Technologies, Real Estate Advantage integrates with Microsoft CRM and seeks to assist commercial real estate companies in managing assets, leases, tenants, vendors and prospects in marketing, service, sales and support functions. The solution leverages Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Word, MapPoint and SharePoint.

Ascendix will be unveiling Real Estate Advantage through a series of regional product launch events, with locations tentatively set for Dallas, Irvine, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and Boston. The first launch event is slated for February 6 in Dallas at the Microsoft offices in Las Colinas.

Ascendix Technologies, Inc., a Microsoft gold certified partner, is a privately held corporation located in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1996, the company is focused solely on the implementation of CRM systems for companies in both the mid- and enterprise market space.

Dow Jones today announced details of plans to enhance Factiva SalesWorks for salesforce.com’s AppExchange in order to use features now available in Salesforce Winter ‘07. The updated version of Factiva SalesWorks for AppExchange will be available in March 2007 on the AppExchange.

Factiva SalesWorks enhancements for salesforce.com’s AppExchange allow users to generate lists of company or executive leads from within the Salesforce interface. Companies can be filtered by location, industry or company ownership, and executive information can be sorted by job title, company location and industry. Users are also promised access to the latest news, financial report or stock price that can be surfaced within an account or prospect record.

Factiva SalesWorks provides content from news providers such as Dow Jones and Reuters; business information comes from sources including Reuters Fundamentals, D&B, Datamonitor, ZoomInfo, Hemscott, Standard & Poor’s, Mergent, Investext, Thomson Financial, Jobson’s, Marquis Who’s Who, Freedonia, IBISWorld Business Information, and MarketResearch.com.

Dow Jones & Company is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes Dow Jones Newswires, Factiva, Dow Jones Licensing Services, Dow Jones Indexes, and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Its Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones provides news content to CNBC and to radio stations in the U.S.

Perhaps its first in 2007, Oracle announced a “strengthening of position in the embedded database market” with the acquisition of open-source database vendor Sleepycat Software.

Sleepycat’s Berkeley DB is part of open-source products including the Linux operating system, the BSD Unix OS, Apache Web server, OpenLDAP directory and the OpenOffice productivity suite.

With the addition of Sleepycat’s embedded database product portfolio, Oracle seeks to provide “enterprise-class support” together with its Oracle Lite for mobile devices and TimesTen for high-performance in-memory database applications.

First developed in 1991, Berkeley DB is the core version of the Sleepycat embedded database, but the open-source vendor had also begun offering Java and XML versions of its database in recent years. Berkeley DB is complementary to Oracle’s other embedded databases, but differs in having no SQL layer and is able to store data in memory or on disk.

Berkeley DB release 4.5 was released in September 2006, and is touted for the ability for users to upgrade or patch a replicated Berkeley DB without having to take the entire system down, multi-version concurrency controls to handle simultaneous multiple database changes, and a replication framework.

At that time, Oracle representatives reported that Oracle research and development was investigating opportunities to get Berkeley DB to work with the Oracle product portfolio, but offered no concrete results.

Oracle also plans a refresh of Berkeley DB XML shortly.

It wouldn’t be Monday without Oracle news…

The Big Company today announced that Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, the leading chain of boutique hotels and chef-driven restaurants throughout North America, has selected Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. Kimpton currently operates 43 hotels and 44 restaurants, and will rely on Oracle product to manage growth, consolidate business processes through improved integration and automate reporting.

Kimpton executives recently decided to standardize all business operations on a single instance of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. Kimpton hopes to acheieve a scalable business platform capable of supporting company growth and customer service. Kimpton will also be employing Oracle product in streamlining profitability, forecasting budget performance for various projects, managing construction and property requirements, and controlling of real estate portfolios.

Hitachi Consulting was employed as consultant in the Kimpton software selection process and to team with Oracle to implement JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. The implementation project began in November 2006 and is expected to go live with Kimpton’s various properties in the United States in July 2007. The project team is a blending of Kimpton key users and IT resources, Hitachi Consulting functional and technical experts, with support provided by Oracle Consulting Services.

Amdocs today announced the signing of a five-year contract with Indonesian mobile communications service provider PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk for the modernization of its real-time business support systems. Under terms of the contract, Amdocs will also act as systems integrator for the deployment of Amdocs Billing 7, Amdocs CRM 7 and Amdocs Partner Manager 7 products, and will perform post-implementation maintenance services over the five-year period.

The Amdocs 7 suite will be officially launched on January 23. PT Excelcomindo (or XL for short) numbers show that the company has grown from 1.5 million subscribers in 2003 to more than 9 million at present.

The Amdocs products will be employed in driving enhanced integration across XL’s entire customer and service lifecycles. Amdocs also seeks to ensure consistent customer service across XL’s wireless, broadband internet and Internet Protocol-based voice.

Amdocs is a software and services provider that seeks to accelerate implementation of integrated customer management by the world’s leading service providers. Amdocs boasted revenue of more than US $2 billion in fiscal 2005 and has 13,000 employees in fifty-one countries around the world.