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Citing “demand for a hands-on experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM,” Microsoft certified partner Altico Advisors has launched a monthly “test drive” series for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Held the second Friday of every month, Altico’s series offers potential users an opportunity to walk through the basic sales, marketing, and service components of Dynamics CRM.

At Altico’s offices in Marlborough, Massachusetts, prospective users are promised a chance to “get under the hood of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.” The test drive has each user provided with a fully loaded version of Dynamics CRM 3.0 on a laptop computer, guided by a seasoned instructor who will help participants navigate through the application.

Test drives are available from 9:30-11am.

Cutting Edge Information has released a report on that nice niche industry, pharmaceutical CRM. Not so aesthetically-titled Pharmaceutical Customer Relationship Management: Developing and Improving CRM, the report seeks to identify and analyze the pharmaceutical companies recognized as leading the field in customer relationship management.

The sound-bite version of the piece, broken down into a 21st-century quick list format, states that organizations “on the cutting edge of CRM” share similar secrets of success in that all

• invest adequate resources at the outset of the initiative and provide sufficient investments annually to support the program;

• create an internal champion for CRM, through the structuring of a CRM department, team or ad hoc group;

• establish a centralized database to share knowledge across the company;

• define CRM and educate internal parties to ensure buy-in;

• understand target audiences and provide customized messages via preferred media touch points;

• recognize that CRM requires a long-term commitment, in terms of both resources and measurements; and

• improve their programs by continuously monitoring progress and industry advancements.

The report contains budget and staffing metrics for thirteen different customer relationship management programs. A summary of Pharmaceutical Customer Relationship Management: Developing and Improving CRM is available for free at the Cutting Edge website, but you’ll have to pay to get the whole thing.

OpenBox Technologies OpenBox, a developer of SaaS CRM, turnkey CRM and enterprise software, today (really: on Saturday. And it’s an American company) introduced Marketing Campaign Management version 9.0.

The application offers users centralized campaign management in which multi-stage campaigns including email, voice, fax, direct mail, tradeshows and telemarketing are created and tracked. MCM is web-based and built upon the OpenBox v9.0 platform, which comprises Microsoft’s .NET framework and uses XML and AJAX for maximum flexibility, interactivity, user-friendliness and speed.

MCM is available immediately. Additional OpenBox CRM modules include Service & Support v9.0 with IT Help Desk and Customer Service and Sales Force Automation v9.0. Demos and 30-day trials can be gotten at OpenBox.net.

The newswires and the public imagination is already full of this story, so here’s CRMchump’s take on the story brought to you by this blogger’s day job, a little news outlet we like to call Budapest Business Journal. Kudos and thanks to the online editor, the lovely Nora Szale.

The story: Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker is paying $6 billion to buy Seattle-based digital marketing firm aQuantive in its biggest-ever acquisition.

The all-cash takeover will allow Microsoft Corp. to expand into the highly lucrative internet advertising market that Google and Yahoo have targeted. AQuantive advises agencies and website publishers on putting adverts online, connecting buyers and sellers.

Google announced last month it would buy DoubleClick Inc., which competes with aQuantive in creating internet ads and measuring whether they reach their targeted audience.

Microsoft beat out other bidders for aQuantive, CFO Chris Liddell said on a conference call today. The $66.50 per share offer is 85 percent higher than Seattle-based aQuantive’s Thursday closing share price.

Sedona Corporation, a provider of Customer and Member Relationship Management solutions for the small- and mid-sized financial services market, today announced a new partnership with CU ink, Inc.

CU ink was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Norristown, Penna. CU now boasts a clientele of over 1,000 credit unions in the US and Caribbean, in services ranging from stationary provision to marketing consulting.

Under the new partnership, CU ink will market Intarsia, Sedona’s CRM/MRM solution, to its credit unions.

Boulder, Colo.-based Spectra Logic Corp., a provider of data archiving and backup, has chosen to implement Optegra’s VRO 360 for Manufacturing, an integrated solution designed specifically for manufacturers.

Optegra, Inc. a global consulting company focused on delivering high-value solutions in the customer relationship management marketplace, assisted Spectra Logic with the implementation of Infor CRM Epiphany for Sales. Spectra Logic uses the Infor Baan ERP 4C4 Enterprise Resource Planning system to manage their operations.

VRO 360, is built on Infor CRM Epiphany, and involves integrated Customer Relationship Management and Enterprise Resource Planning technologies such as Baan, SX Enterprise and BPCS, to the Infor CRM Epiphany Sales platform together with Microsoft Outlook desktop and custom web portlets.

Spectra Logic will use Optegra’s VRO 360 for Manufacturing in streamlining its sales process for both direct and channel sales efforts in areas such as lead distribution and management; account and contact management; opportunity and forecast management; and order management.

Optegra is an Infor business partner with more than four years experience in implementing the Infor CRM Epiphany solution set in the manufacturing, healthcare, insurance and high-tech industries.

iMagicLab LLC., an on-demand customer relationship management solutions provider, has announced the launch of iLeadTools.com to “power internet sales for small franchised dealerships and independent auto retailers.” iLeadTools.com is based on iMagicLab’s DealerCRM technology.

iLeadTools.com internet Customer Relationship Management seeks to allow auto dealers to measure their business and consolidate their online lead, showroom prospect and sales databases in one marketing system.

Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte, and IBM Global Business Services were named the leaders in Gartner’s prestigious "Magic Quadrant for CRM Service Providers, North America, 2007."

While market share and strong revenue numbers continue to propel North America-based CRM providers, Asian providers like Infosys and Wipro are steadily making inroads into the CRM market as vertical expertise, cost savings, and CRM domain know-how continue to propel revenue rates above the market average, according to the report.

Some highlights in the report included:

• Of the leaders, Accenture continues is a pace-setter; the report cites the provider’s higher-than-average growth rate in North America and its industry depth and process-specific focus in CRM.

• IBM Global Business Services lead all providers in completeness of vision. Gartner noted IBM’s breadth of CRM-specific expertise and technology/application services as attributes clients have found impressive.

• The Capgemini acquisition of Kanbay was noted for bolstering its financial services sector and received good marks for its industry expertise and business consulting.

• Deloitte got high praise for its development and integration of methodologies that link the use of CRM software to business objectives.

The challengers quadrant featured many providers headquartered in Asia, including Cognizant, Hitachi Consulting, Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, and Wipro Technologies.

Overall, reported study authors, the market experienced annual growth of 9.2 percent in 2006, a notable increase over 2005’s 6.2 percent.

The old bugaboo is still there, though, as report authors note that "CRM solution implementation services are often the most expensive components of a CRM solution implementation.”

As a result, the trend of leveraging global delivery models when shopping and purchasing consulting services continues. A recent Gartner study of 149 CRM initiatives in North America revealed that 46 percent of projects involve the use of offshore resources, up from 33 percent from a similar study in 2006.

A big win in the Middle East came to Frontliners this week, as Saudi Arabia’s National Flight Service selected Frontliners and Altitude software to deliver contact centre outsourcing services for airline Air Arabia.

A specialized multilingual team of experienced customer service agents has been promised to handle Air Arabia inbound calls, and all agents have reportedly been fully trained on the Air Arabia offering.

Employed by Frontliners, Altitude uCI is a platform-independent contact centre solution with a universal queue and full blended support for voice (i.e. inbound handling and outbound dialling), IVR, email response management, web collaboration, and web chat. Altitude uCI was deployed at Frontliners’ contact centre in October 2005.

Eloqua Corporation, a supplier of automated demand generation applications for business-to-business marketers, today announced that first quarter 2007 revenue was the highest in the company’s history.

In Q1 2007, Eloqua more than doubled the amount of revenue year-on-year against 2006. The company also closed a sweet 111 percent of its revenue target for the quarter, signed on 36 new customers and announced the Winter 2007 release of the Eloqua Conversion Suite platform.

Eloqua Conversion Suite is an on-demand solution that integrates functions such as email, direct mail, website analytics, campaign analytics and sales force automation.

Eloqua Corporation is headquartered in Toronto with offices throughout North America and in London. Among company clientele are Sybase, Seagate, Nokia, MySQL, Administaff, and Nuance.