We Blog CRM

Sage Software India closed its week with the announcement that Barco Electronic Systems has selected Sage Accpac ERP.

The ERP will be implemented by Delhi-based Partner Across Domain Solutions Private Limited. (Not a very catchy name there…) The application seeks to assist Barco in automating its financial and operational processes. Modules to be implemented include Order Entry, Inventory control, General ledger, Accounts Payable/Accounts receivable.

Al Osais International Holding Company, one of Saudi Arabia’s larger diversified businesses, has announced the selection of SAP for its ERP solution. First implementation will be in the construction firm Al Osais Contracting Company.

SAP’s Engineering, Construction and Operations Solutions will be introduced to Al Osais Contracting, a firm involved in various sorts of commercial and residential building construction projects. Al Osais services include site development, provision of infrastructure and utilities, structural steel works, marine works, plant civil works, surveying and drafting.

SAP released some statistics to go with the announcement, namely that SAP Arabia increased its market share from 30 percent in 2004 to 33 percent in 2005, outpacing the nearest competitor by some 10 percent. Total spending on software solutions in the “MENA region” reached $187 million in 2005, an increase of 16 percent year-on-year and is expected to be worth approximately $371 million in 2010.

Luxoft, said to be Russia’s largest provider of high-end IT outsourcing services, has announced an extension to its extant agreement with investment bank Deutsche Bank.

Luxoft President and CEO Dmitry Loschinin and Deutsche Bank’s Daniel Marovitz, COO of Technology for Deutsche’s Global Banking Division, finalized the agreement during the big CeBIT German-Russian IT Summit, which promotes cooperation between German interests and those of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Under terms of the agreement, Luxoft will provide development resources in Russia and the Ukraine to “enhance and further innovate” the CRM package Client First. Client First is currently used by more than 5,000 Deutsche Bank employees across Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region.

Luxoft was founded in 2000, and today has operations in Russia, Canada, the UK, and Ukraine. Luxoft boasts research and development centers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Dubna and Omsk, Russia; Kiev and Odessa, Ukraine; and Vancouver, Canada. Among Luxoft clientele are Boeing, Deutsche Bank, IBM, UBS, T-Mobile and Dell.

Over there in the United Kingdom, Graham Technology today announced the company had won a tender with Falkirk Council to “help the organisation improve the experience of its customers.”

Falkirk will be deploying contact centre CRM based on Graham Technology flagship product Ciboodle, a customer interaction software product.

Falkirk Council is a authority which provides all local government services for the Falkirk area. Covering 112 square miles, the council has a workforce of around 7,000 employees, serving a population of around 145,000.

Falkirk itself is probably most notable for its great bloody Wheel with a capital “W.” The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift – said to be the only one of its kind in the world – which opened in 2002. The contraption connects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal; a great tourist site, too!

Dystrick design, Inc., a creative design and communications agency, today officially announced the launch of the new GoldMine website.

Dystrick created the site for FrontRange Solutions, that provider of Customer Relationship Management, IT service management, and voice programs for the mid-market.

“Heightening the significance of the launch of the new site,” remind the Dystricksters, was the featuring by Microsoft of GoldMine Enterprise Edition as its mid-market sales and marketing solution with the January 30 release of Windows Vista. Microsoft has linked its Windows Vista website to the GoldMine ‘site.

“We are honored at the trust that FrontRange Solutions put in dystrick’s creative messaging, Web architecting, design and content development capabilities at such a critical point in their online strategy,” said dystrick managing director/COO Sean Sinatra.

And with a name like that, there’s a reason Mr. S. gets the last word in the press release.

NetSuite, Inc. representatives have announced that Linden Lab, best known as the creator of virtual world Second Life, has selected NetSuite to help manage its rapid growth.

What rapid growth? Well, in January 2007 alone, say the Linden Lab numbers, Second Life Residents converted their “Linden Dollars” into approximately $5 million. And Linden CFO John Zdanowski estimated that “Second Life has grown nearly seven-fold in the last twelve months.”

Reportedly key to Linden’s decision was the quickness of NetSuite implementation, as Linden needed a full install in about sixty days. NetSuite product provider Skyytek Worldwide implemented the program with Lindeners. Linden Lab has rebuilt its chart of accounts; migrated accounting operations; integrated NetSuite with its back-end systems; and implemented a paperless accounts payable process.

Second Life is a 3D online world with players from 100 countries. The Second Life Grid is a development platform created by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, which was founded in 1999 by former RealNetworks CTO Philip Rosedale to “create a revolutionary new form of shared 3D experience.” In 2006, Rosedale and Linden Lab received Wired’s “Rave Award for Innovation in Business.”

Based in Miami, Fla., Skyytek Worldwide lays claim to status as NetSuite’s largest independent solution provider in sales, specializing in business process engineering and implementation of on-demand ERP/CRM systems. Skyytek has been named NetSuite Partner of the Year two years running.

Strategic advisory firm ISM Inc. kicked off the week by releasing its annual Top 15 awards in CRM software, an honor quickly reported to industry media by most recipients and one which would appear to be hard-earned, indeed, with final score depending on a rigorous battery of tests (see below).

Unfortunately, there’s a fundamental flaw in these lists which make it appear as though ISM Inc. is, in fact, mainly producing PR material. See if you can figure out what’s wrong here.

Listed in alphabetical order, the Top 15 in the category of CRM Enterprise were:

• Amdocs CRM v. 6, Amdocs Limited

• C2 CRM v. 8.0, Clear Technologies, Inc.

• CMS/Oncontact V version 5.2, Oncontact Software Corp.

• ExSellence 5.0, Optima Technologies, Inc.

• Firstwave CRM v. 3.1, Firstwave Technologies, Inc.

• growBusiness Solutions v. 3.1, Software Innovation ASA

• Infor CRM

• mySAP CRM, SAP AG

• Onyx v. 6.0, Onyx Software Corporation

• PeopleSoft CRM, Oracle/PeopleSoft, Inc.

• Pivotal v. 5.9, Pivotal Corporation

• Salesforce.com

• Saratoga CRM 6.5.3, Saratoga Systems, Inc.

• Siebel 8.0, Oracle/Siebel Systems, Inc.

• Tibco Process RM v. 9.0, Tibco

• update 7.0, AG

In the category of CRM SMB, the 15 names in the envelope were:

• Ardexus MODE v. 5.5, Ardexus, Inc.

• C2 CRM v. 8.0, Clear Technologies, Inc.

• CMS/Oncontact V version 5.2, Oncontact Software Corp.

• Goldmine v. 7.0.3 & HEAT, FrontRange Solutions, Inc.

• Maximizer Enterprise 9.5, Maximizer Software Inc.

• Microsoft CRM 3.0

• NetSuite CRM v. 11.0 & NetSuite v. 11.0, NetSuite, Inc.

• Powertrak v. 8.02, Axonom, Inc.

• Relavis CRM, Relavis Corporation

• RightNow CRM v. 8.0, RightNow Technologies, Inc.

• Sage CRM 100/200 v. 6.0, Sage Software

• Sage SalesLogix v. 7.0, Sage Software

• Salesforce.com

• Salesplace 2006.3.2, Interchange Solutions

• SalesPage CRM, SalesPage Technologies, LLC

• Siebel CRM OnDemand, Oracle/Siebel Systems, Inc.

• StayinFront CRM v. 9.3, StayinFront, Inc. I

SM Inc.’s Top 15 awards were first bestowed in 1990. Testing takes place in the surely ultra-high tech ISM Software Lab at the firm’s Bethesda, Md. headquarters. Each software program is rated according to 217 selection criteria, including 103 business functions, 52 technical features, 36 implementation capabilities, 9 real-time criteria and 17 user-support features.

In the press release announcing the winners, a mysterious figure identified only as Goldenberg (Should you search the frankly not very pretty ISM homepage, you discover this is founder Barton Goldenberg, but CRMchump prefers the shadowy version) communicated that “The winners are to be praised for obtaining the Top 15 honor given ISM’s strenuous and comprehensive software selection process” and alongside announcement of the winners, it was duly noted that “With no ownership in or by a vendor, ISM’s software analysis is 100 percent unbiased.”

So, what’s the problem here? (Excepting the whole James Bond-like aura of Goldenberg and the Software Lab, of course.) Exactly sixteen companies took home a “Top 15” CRM Enterprise award and seventeen got a CRM SMB prize!

Why this would be so is never duly explained by the company, but a fairly non-taxing guess would involve ISM’s latest product, the 15th edition (one wonders if there have actually been thirteen or eighteen) of “The Guide to CRM Automation.”

Aside from ISM’s analysis of recent trends in CRM, each of these “Top 15” software products is analyzed. At prices of $730 and $895, how much do you think ISM stands to gain if a company such as, say, Oracle/Siebel, employing hundreds to whom these CDs could be marketed, is included?

I’m just saying is all…

Verticals onDemand, a provider of industry-specific on-demand CRM solutions via Salesforce.com, announced today that its first product suite – known as VbioPharma – will be tailored for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

Verticals onDemand co-chairman Mark Armenante, a long-time veteran of the industry, is quite enthusiastic today, saying “With both traditional industry players being recently acquired and the world moving quickly to the onDemand model, the opportunity has never been so great to rapidly create the next CRM industry standard.”

VBioPharma is being plugged as the “first integrated suite of sales, marketing, and service applications for global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies delivered through an on-demand platform.”

Primary features in VbioPharma include selling functionality for managed-care, specialty-care, and primary-care salesforces; call reporting, PDMA-compliant sampling, and signature capture on mobile phones and tablet PCs; aggregate spend, expense capture, and state compliance reporting; closed loop marketing and campaign management; medical information request and patient reimbursement support; and home office analytics.

VBioPharma is priced on a per user per month basis, though no specifics were offered in the announcement. General availability is planned for the second quarter of 2007.

FrontRange Solutions, a supplier of IT service management, voice application, and customer relationship management solutions for the mid-market and distributed enterprises, has announced the availability of the latest version of Heat Service & Support, a fully configurable help desk and customer support tool.

Heat 8.4.1 is now available to new customers and as an upgrade to current users. The latest version of Heat features performance enhancements to e-mail monitoring and business processing, additional configuration options when designing forms, and a snap to guide feature that accelerates creating edit sets.

Commit Business Solutions, a provider of management software for small- to mid-sized computer services and support businesses, is pleased to announce the launch of the latest version of its flagship software, Commit 4.0. Commit CEO Maayan Porat stated that “This version is our biggest release ever.”

Particularly touted in version 4.0 are an enhanced Commit-QuickBooks Link, a new asset management module, and two-way synchronization with Microsoft Outlook including support for Outlook 2007.

Commit 4.0 has reportedly also been tested on Windows Vista.