We Blog CRM

Customer Effective, a Microsoft gold certified partner and provider of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, announced a couple of successes this week in CRM implementations.

First up was Formetco, with which Customer Effective interfaced system with Microsoft Great Plains. Customer Effective also provided user training.

Formetco will be employing the CRM in schedule adherence, resource allocation, progress reviews and budget management. The agreement between Formetco and Customer Effective is ongoing, with Customer Effective continuing to work with Formetco to fine tune key performance indicators and dashboard reporting.

Customer Effective also announced its delivering of CRM to improve the customer service needs of Independent Purchasing Cooperative Inc.

IPC manages a value-based food service supply chain for over 24,000 Subway outlets in the United States and Canada. Customer Effective was selected as an expert to develop, deploy and manage a fast-track CRM implementation for IPC.

Chosen for their successful CRM implementation and support services record, Customer Effective led the project which included integration with an existing in-house membership database application IPC uses for tracking all franchise information. As a key component of the implementation, Customer Effective provided comprehensive user training and post-deployment support.

IPC uses CRM to track customer calls, emails and questions from initial inquiry through resolution.

Founded in 1968, Formetco is a full service supplier for the outdoor advertising industry.

Headquartered in Greenville, SC, Customer Effective is a specialist in customer interaction solutions based on the Microsoft Customer Relationship Management platform. The company has been engaged in over 200 Microsoft CRM implementation and development projects.

IPC is an independent Subway franchisee-owned and operated purchasing cooperative. IPC negotiates the lowest costs for purchased goods and services for Subway outlets.

NetSuite, Inc., that large on-demand vendor of integrated business management application suites for small- and medium-sized businesses, went revamping this week with the launch of NetSuite 2007.0.

The new NetSuite is touted for “a myriad of new features that make automating complex operations and processes simpler for growing and mid-sized businesses.” The foci, say the NetSuitees, are on three functional areas:

? ERP, or as NetSuite insists, “Easy ERP.” The new NetSuite includes virtual assistants for multi-dimensional product configuration and transactional form layout in the hopes that ERP will become deployable by “mere mortals.”

? Global CRM and “partner relationship management” (or – you guessed it – PRM). Orders, forecasts, quotas and commissions can now be managed on a per-country basis in local currency.

? Suite analytics. NetSuite 2007.0 adds new business intelligence capabilities including detailed scorecards, and incorporation of “Excel-like custom formulas.”

NetSuite 2007.0 is available in the standard NetSuite service, with no additional charge and will be rolled out to customers from June to August. NetSuite starts at $499 per month and $99 for each user per month.

Schwab Performance Technologies today announced, believe it or not, “a new relationship with CRM Software.” Said commitment will include a transition of existing PortfolioCenter Relationship Manager clients to CRM Software’s Junxure. SPT will continue to provide technical support to advisors throughout the transition period, which will be completed on June 30, 2008.

The reasoning behind the agreement was that Junxure has a similar interface to PortfolioCenter Relationship Manager, but with additional features including an actions dashboard that shows a high level view of pending actions; a global email wizard that makes it easier to send rich-text emails; and user rights and rules that allow advisors to limit user access. Junxure clients also have access to online videos, training classes, and an online support forum.

Founded in 1985, Schwab Performance Technologies is a subsidiary of The Charles Schwab Corporation and a provider of portfolio management and accounting solutions to more than 3,000 independent financial advisors and investment managers.

NetSuite’s got a reason to boast today; in fact, it’s got three reasons.

For the third year running, NetSuite has scored a perfect five-star rating for its NetSuite Small Business product offering in a detailed product review conducted by The CPA Technology Advisor.

The CPA Technology Advisor evaluated eight accounting software packages based on the following areas: ease-of-use/basic functionality; core features/expandability; reporting and management functions; audit trail; integrity and accountant control tools; import/export/integration; help and support options; and relative value.

In praise of NetSuite, CPA Tech Advisor said, “Not everybody has the same definition of ‘small business,’ which is evidenced by the remarkably strong capabilities of the NetSuite Small Business system. It is not geared for a mom-and-pop store, but rather for small enterprises – those with needs that are not easily met by traditional off-the-shelf accounting systems. From complex inventories to multiple geographic locations, e-commerce needs or more detailed supervision of CRM or shipping concerns, NetSuite offers these businesses a comprehensive toolbox that is as impressive for its capabilities as it is for its customization options and usability. For those companies who need its robust capabilities, NetSuite Small Business definitely delivers.”

NetSuite’s PR folks were proud to announce that Small Business beat Microsoft Office Professional 2007 and other small business accounting applications for the five-star rating. NetSuite’s product offerings include NetSuite, NetSuite Small Business, NetSuite CRM and NetSuite CRM+.

Rescompany Systems has just been awarded the contract to provide Seattle-based Majestic America Line with all its CRM needs. Majestic America Line represents Rescompany’s first move into the North American market.

Majestic America Line, formed through the combination of American West Steamboat Company and the vessels of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company, is said to be the premier river and coastal cruising company in the United States.

Rescompany Systems provides reservation and CRM software solutions to the travel and leisure industry. The RESCO software suite is designed to support cruises, day cruises, wholesalers, tour operators, charters, individual excursions, holiday villages and package groups. Rescompany has local offices in Sydney, Salzburg and Vancouver.

“Do you think we’re gonna sell out? I say if we do we get the hell out.” – Public Enemy, “Bring the Noise”

Now this is the way blogging should work. Disturbed by rumors that Linux-based platform provider Ubuntu was in negotiations with Microsoft vis-à-vis a new collaboration agreement, Ubuntu Foundation Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life Mark Shuttleworth took matters into his own hands at his blog Here Be Dragons.

The key point of the Saturday entry was put in bold, so that no mistake would be made: “We have declined to discuss any agreement with Microsoft under the threat of unspecified patent infringements.”

It is unclear where rumors of a Microsoft/Ubuntu collaboration came from, but they seem a logical outgrowth of a couple of news items from the big company as of late. About one week ago, Microsoft and Linux platform provider Xandros Inc. signed such an agreement calling for technical, business, marketing and intellectual property commitments.

The deal was the latest in a series for Microsoft, which also made agreements with Linux platform and open source software providers including Novell Inc., JBoss, XenSource Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Zend Technologies Inc.

A mid-May declaration by Microsoft legal counsel Brad Smith set off a nice buzz of paranoia and was well captured by Roger Parloff of Fortune:

“The Redmond behemoth asserts that one reason that free software is of such high quality is that it violates more than 200 of Microsoft’s patents. And as a mature company facing unfavorable market trends and fearsome competitors like Google, Microsoft is pulling no punches: It wants royalties. If the company gets its way, free software won’t be free anymore.”

Well, countered Shuttleworth, “Allegations of ‘infringement of unspecified patents’ carry no weight whatsoever. We don’t think they have any legal merit, and they are no incentive for us to work with Microsoft on any of the wonderful things we could do together. A promise by Microsoft not to sue for infringement of unspecified patents has no value at all and is not worth paying for. It does not protect users from the real risk of a patent suit from a pure IP holder…”

For now, it appears, Ubuntu appreciates independence.

Hey, this one’s a surprise, at least for me – I mean, i didn’t even know they drank Pernod in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, StayinFront, Inc., a provider of enterprise-wide customer relationship management applications, decision support tools, data services and e-business systems, has announced its a new multi-year contract with Pernod Ricard Hong Kong Limited.

Pernod Hong Kong is the company’s regional office and supports markets across Asia, including the Gulf states, India and Japan. Pernod Ricard itself is the second-largest wine and spirits company in the world and number one in Asia with a well-stock liquor cabinet which includes Chivas Regal, Kahlúa, Malibu, The Glenlivet, Jameson, Beefeater, and Stolichnaya.

Pernod Ricard’s rollout of StayinFront CRM will begin in China for 300 users; StayinFront CRM will be replacing the existing in-house solution.

Also from StayinFront land comes the news today that Biovail Pharmaceuticals Canada has implemented StayinFront Pharma 9.3 for its sales, marketing and management teams.

Biovail Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the formulation, clinical testing, registration, manufacture, and commercialization of pharmaceutical products utilizing advanced drug-delivery technologies.

Biovail Pharmaceuticals has deployed products from the StayinFront CRM Life Sciences suite, including StayinFront Pharma Companion for Windows Mobile; StayinFront Marketing Center for direct marketing and medical education event marketing support services; and StayinFront Analytics. Biovail Pharmaceuticals is also using StayinFront Pharma 9.3 to integrate sales and marketing initiatives.

Accenture has released its eighth Leadership in Customer Service: Delivering on the Promise global research report and, among the 22 countries surveyed, standing at the winners podium are Singapore, Canada and the United States. The report examines the customer-service challenges, maturity and practices of governments around the world.

Countries included in the report are Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United States, and United Kingdom. In a departure from tradition, this year’s rankings incorporate direct citizen feedback to “assess more accurately the quality of government service delivery.” Input on criteria such as the user-friendliness of customer-service channels, quality of online services accessed by citizens, and overall citizen satisfaction ratings were factored in.

Accenture analysts also interviewed 52 government executives in 17 countries to understand their visions for the future, their current priorities and lessons learned.

Speaking on the report results, David T. Roberts, executive director of Customer Relationship Management in Accenture’s Government operating group, said that “Each [of the top three countries] continues to evolve its customer service strategies with an eye toward continuous improvement in each of the four key areas we identified in this year’s report: knowing the customer, making the connections, aligning your people, and not doing it alone. Moreover, Singapore and Canada do the best job of educating their citizens on their customer service initiatives, which results in more favorable citizen perceptions.”

The top of the table reflected some changes from the last Leadership in Customer Service report taken in 2005. Singapore grabbed the top spot from its no. 3 ranking in 2005, which report authors ascribed at least in part due to the inclusion of citizen input. Denmark, Sweden and Finland saw a bump from the effect as well, moving up to positions 4-6, as opposed to 5-7 in 2005.

Canada and the United States both dropped a spot and, while Canada’s fall was due primarily to Singapore’s rise, America’s fall from no. 2 to no. 3 revealed some trouble there. The United States’ drop was attributed to citizens’ perception that customer service has not improved in recent times: While 79 percent of Singaporean respondents believe their customer service has improved over the past three years, just 41 percent of US respondents say they believe that government customer service has gotten better.

The American survey also produced another significant result. In 20 out of 21 countries, citizens felt private-sector business was doing a better job than government in developing online services, with Singapore the only country where citizens felt the opposite was true. The largest gap in positive perception was in the United States, where 65 percent of respondents said private-sector business was doing a good or excellent job in developing online services, while only 38 percent said the same about government.

According to good ol’ First Coffee over there at TMCNet, Lumen Software, a vendor of CRM and commercial open source Saas solutions, has announced it will be employing the PostgreSQL-supported LAPP stack for its open source development platform Lumenation.

After consideration of PostgreSQL and MySQL, which is part of the LAMP stack, developers at Lumen found that the PostgreSQL database offered “a higher level of functionality and handled large amounts of data and traffic better than the alternatives.”

PostgreSQL is freely available for commercial purposes.

SugarCRM Inc., those large specialists in commercial open source customer relationship management software, today announced the opening of its new Northeast regional office in New York. Fifteen-year IT sales and consulting veteran Cameron Jackson will serve as regional vice president of corporate sales to “bolster relationships with its community of customers, partners and developers in the northeastern US and Europe.”

Jackson has been with SugarCRM since 2004. Previously, Jackson was a corporate account executive at Microsoft Corp.; prior to Microsoft, he honed his sales, marketing and advertising skills in a number of senior marketing positions in the high-tech industry.

The New York location represents Sugar’s continued trend of growth and regional expansion. Two months ago, Sugar opened its southeast office in Atlanta, which followed the launch of Sugar Europe in Dublin, Ireland, in March.