We Blog CRM

Sophos announced today that Asian CRM biggie CDC Software has selected Sophos to protect all tiers of its network against viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware, adware, potentially unwanted applications, and hackers. (Guardian at the proverbial virtual gates, eh?)

Under terms of the agreement running until 2010, up to 2000 CDC Software employees will be protected at the endpoint with Sophos Anti-Virus. Sophos’ PureMessage promises to disinfect and/or quarantine viruses, spyware, Trojans and worms in both incoming and outgoing email.

Microsoft was able to put one in the win column today, as St. Petersburg, Fla.-based financial services firm Raymond James Financial, Inc. announced the selection of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Raymond James is now recommending that its nationwide network of 4,600-plus financial advisors adopt Microsoft Dynamics CRM as its primary customer relationship management tool. Raymond James will initially offer 3,000 Microsoft Dynamics CRM licenses, but plans to increase the number to more than 5,000 within the next three years.

Raymond James Financial is a diversified holding company providing financial services to individuals, corporations and municipalities through subsidiary companies. Its three wholly owned broker/dealers, Raymond James & Associates, Raymond James Financial Services, and Raymond James Ltd., employ more than 4,600 financial advisors serving 1.6 million accounts in 2,200 locations. Total client assets represent approximately $195 billion.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the Continent, Blyk network announced a plan that would theoretically allow mobile-phone users in that valuable ages 16-24 demographic to “Make mobile calls for free in return for receiving adverts.”

Heavy hitters such as Buena Vista, Coca-Cola, I-play Mobile Gaming, L’Oreal Paris, StepStone and Yell.com mobile have already gotten on board the Blyk network, which is claimed to be the first pan-European ad-funded mobile network.

Blyk representatives are aiming to “pioneer creative ad formats and a sophisticated CRM profiling system” and the campaign’s impact among Euro consumers will be tracked in real time. According to Blyk PR, “Member profiling will enable brands to build a dialogue with highly targeted young consumers who it is hoped will welcome the interaction and information.”

Commercials on the mobile phone … sheesh, what’s next?

World-famous producer of good ol’ American blue jeans, Levi Strauss, has announced deployment of CRM to develop a loyalty strategy in Europe. Ultimately, the goal is “to build stronger relationships with the brand’s core target of 15-24 year-olds.”

The CRM program will first be launched in Italy this year and gradually rolled out across Europe and will be managed by direct-marketing advertising agency Stephens Francis Whitson. Among Stephens Francis Whitson’s clientele are More Th>n, House of Fraser, Callaway Golf Europe and O2 and ebookers.

Access Business Technologies kicked off the workweek announcing the launch of its PowerSite product, software that provides websites for mortgage companies desiring an effective web presence.

PowerSite promises “all of the needed tools and content to quickly launch a web-presence for mortgage companies,” including mortgage calculators, customer advice and mortgage terminology as components in the standard version.

Also included are borrower loan applications that integrate directly with ABT-hosted LOS and CRM systems, and the touted “Loan Officer Portal” feature. The portal provides access to the loan officer’s business tools directly from a PowerSite website. A complete training course for PowerSite is provided by ABT upon subscription.

Access Business Technologies is a provider of managed hosting services, integration, reporting and professional services solutions for the mortgage industry.

Applix, Inc., producer of performance management applications, and UFIDA, China’s largest software company(!), today announced a partnership that seeks to “enhance strategic business analytics functionality in UFIDA’s U8 Management Solution.”

Under terms of the agreement, UFIDA will integrate the Applix business analysis and reporting application as the business performance management engine of UFIDA ERP U8. UFIDA ERP U8 is designed for small- and medium-sized enterprises, and Applix BPM features and functionality to be incorporated include reporting and analytics.

“There is a growing market for fully integrated BI/BPM solutions in China and throughout Asia, marking a significant opportunity for Applix,” said Michael Morrison, Applix, Inc. chief operating officer.

He’s not kidding: Analyst firm IDC forecasts that total sales in China figure to almost double within three years to nearly $2 billion by 2009.

Logix Microsystems closed its week with the announcement of a partnership with Salesforce.com to deliver on-demand business/CRM software as a service offering through the group company Logix Consulting Global.

Logix will provide strategic business consulting, implementation, and maintenance services to customers on Salesforce solutions including the AppExchange platform.

The Logix initiative is supported by a team of 300 CRM and ERP implementation professionals worldwide. Logix Consulting is a leading implementation partner of Salesforce.com; Logix provides CRM implementation services to clients in the USA, Middle East, India and the Far East.

DataFlux, a provider of data quality and data integration software, announced that DSM Nutritional Products has implemented DataFluxtechnology to classify its internationally coded spend and materials data.

The DataFlux technology is being used to implement a “ecl@ss” classification validation solution, which seeks to facilitate optimisation of corporate purchasing and to maximise the value and efficiency from DSMNutritional Products’ extant SAP R/3 systems.

The DataFlux Data Quality Integration Platform is used within DSMNutritional Products to validate code and standardise spend and materials descriptions by allowing business users to set coding rules using an interface. The DataFlux technology is used to maintain one consistent and reliable data source of master data within a reference database.

DSM Nutritional Products is said to be the world’s leading supplier of vitamins, carotenoids and other chemicals to the feed, food, pharmaceutical and personal care industries. The business reported sales of approximately €2 billion ($2.66 billion) last year.

Parent company DSM is active worldwide in nutritional and pharma ingredients, performance materials and industrial chemicals for applications such as human and animal nutrition and health; cosmetics; pharmaceuticals; automotive and transport; coatings; housing; and electronics. The group has annual sales of over €8 billion (approximately $10.635 billion) and employs some 22,000. DSM is headquartered in the Netherlands, with locations in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Infor announced this week the company’s new “Mobile Order Management” (a.k.a. – you got it – MOM), a product that seeks to enable field sales personnel in the distribution industry to process orders remotely using a PDA, laptop or any other mobile device. MOM is designed to integrate with any ERP system, regardless of vendor.

Using MOM (which isn’t very nice if you think about it), field reps can remotely inquire about the status of an order; add, change or remove charges, line items and order line level comments; and search for customers and ship-to addresses. Other features include the ability to perform manual price overrides, and apply a discount or mark-up percent.

“Ours is a service-driven business and our employees need quick access to inventory and order information to meet customer demands,” said Bruce Streiff, Crest Industries CFO, explaining why they wanted to work with MOM.

And once again, CRMchump has to give props to the ever-witty David Sims over at TMCNet’s First Coffee blog for his closing line, which cannot be topped: “Additional modules complaining that you don’t call her often enough, telling you how to raise your kids, witching about your husband or wife, asking why don’t you move closer and reminding you that ‘you used to do that when you were that age’ optional.”

(Blogger’s note: I believe Sims knows that “to witch” is not a proper verb … perhaps he meant something else…?)

UDS Group, Inc., a producer of delivery management solutions today announced its new strategic partnership with DevStudios International, Inc. DevStudios is described in press material as “a leading technology company operating in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.” Vague enough for ya?

This new partnership seeks to allow UDS “unlimited rollout capabilities” while eliminating costly onsite equipment installations. UDS representatives showed particular interest in DevStudios’ recent completed development of a remote print agent dispatch module for use in the UDS call center application.

Headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, DevStudios – slightly more concretely this time – is a software development company specializing in “increasing the agility of small and medium size organizations.” (I didn’t say it was free of vaguery…) DevStudios was named as one of Canada’s 100 fastest-growing companies in PROFIT Magazine. DevStudios is a Microsoft gold partner and winner of the 2004 Microsoft Canadian IMPACT Award.

Universal Delivery Solutions offers a delivery-orientated customer relations management product for retail product and food services. UDS is headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., and employs more than twenty.