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In what looks to have been a day of releases, yesterday also saw Entellium announcing the full availability of a new version of its CRM software designed for the small business known as Rave.

The hip-sounding name is actually reflective of an interesting progressive philosophy behind the product. Rave was developed using Gamer Influenced Design, an Entellium-grown concept that incorporates elements found in video games.

“Rave is CRM remastered for sales people,” stated Entellium president/CEO Paul Johnston. “After doing a great deal of research, we found that gamers and sales professionals are remarkably similar. Both play against the clock, score points and require a play-to-win mentality to succeed. Based on these similarities, there is a great deal that business software can learn from the gaming world related to product design.”

Excellent idea, dude. Really. In all seriousness, if this thing doesn’t sell like virtual hotcakes fast, CRMchump would be blown away.

Zap.

Founded in 2000, Entellium specializes in Customer Relationship Management software for small- and mid-size businesses and for enterprise departments. Entellium is headquartered in Seattle, Wa., and maintains a global research and development office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Cetova Corporation will launch its business performance software C-Plan at the Collaborate ‘07: Technology and Applications for the Oracle Community” shindig in Las Vega$ next week.

With an Excel-based interface, C-Plan enables users viewing and comparison of past data trends. C-Plan organizes within an approval hierarchy to direct the workflow for the submission of budget worksheets. The workflow also provides notifications for budget submissions, approvals and rejections, which permits users to track the progress of their budget cycle.

Cetova Corp. is a provider of business performance applications integrated with leading enterprise resource planning software applications including JD Edwards, Oracle and PeopleSoft. Cetova Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of GL Associates.

As ubiquitous as automobile dealerships themselves are new moves in the niche market of CRM solutions for car salesmen.

Reynolds and Reynolds closed out the week with the announcement of new integration between the company’s Power Customer Relationship Management application and Callbright’s Call Management System. Said integration seeks enable automobile dealerships to improve their CRM system’s efficacy, particularly in the areas of lead management and dealership call tracking.

Callbright has been tight with those in the automotive world, having recently been named the Diamond Award winner as the top provider in call tracking technology in Auto Dealer Monthly’s 2007 Dealers’ Choice Awards; the same publication rewarded Reynolds platinum awards for the third consecutive year for its CRM tools and dealership management systems.

Sign of the times: the folks at Callbright would also like you to take note that their solution actively integrates with Do Not Call lists.

Reynolds and Reynolds lays claim to status as the automotive industry’s “largest and most trusted provider of automobile dealership software, services, and forms.” The company has headquarters in Dayton, Ohio, and major operations in Houston, Texas; College Station, Texas; and Celina, Ohio.

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.

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.

Autologica S.A., a specialist in dealer management systems, announced plans to open an office in lovely San Juan, Puerto Rico in April. The publicly-stated cause promises “to help dealers in the region through their mix of software and specialized training,” but surely some Autologicians transferring there are none too depressed about the location.

“Our goal is to become the leading DMS for medium-sized dealerships, a segment that has trouble accessing a quality system due to the high costs that currently prevail in the market,” said Autologica sales manager Ana Drovandi. That and to enjoy the beach life, presumably…

“We already have several clients in the region and this office will help us serve them better, and also new dealers from throughout the Caribbean and Central America that we’ll be adding,” said Drovandi.

Founded in 1994, Autologica specializes in DMS and CRM software for automotive, construction and agricultural dealers. Among clients of Autologica’s dealer management system are Toyota, Renault-Nissan, Ford, GM, BMW, John Deere, Mitsubishi, and Isuzu dealerships. The system promises to be adaptable and “resolves vehicle importation inventory management; duty, tariff, tax handling; distributor vehicle management; multi-location inventory management and other functions.”

The folks at Sage Software closed their week with the release of announced of SageCRM version 6. Touted in version 6 are new user training tools including instructional feature tours and on-screen coaching; new data management features including expanded search queries and grouping functionality; and enhanced system administration capabilities. Enhanced Microsoft Outlook integration allows SageCRM to be used within the Outlook folder navigation pane or via a SageCRM toolbar in Outlook.

SageCRM also promises to enable bi-directional front- and back-office integration with software such as Sage Accpac ERP, as well as integrations with Sage Pro ERP, Sage MAS 90 ERP, Sage Timberline Office, and some third-party back-office systems. SageCRM v6 also adds support for the telephony server application programming interface and for computer-supported telecommunications applications.

SageCRM is available for $595 per user for on-premises licensing and $69 per user per month for on-demand SageCRM.com deployment.

Sage Software is a provider to more than 2.6 million small- and mid-sized business customers in North America. Sage products support accounting, operations, customer relationship management, human resources, time tracking, merchant services and the specialized needs of accounting practices and the construction, distribution, manufacturing, nonprofit and real estate industries. Sage Software is a subsidiary of The Sage Group plc. Formed in 1981, Sage was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now has 5.2 million customers served by 13,000 employees worldwide.

Skyline, the Minnesota-based manufacturer of trade show displays, has announced a mammoth strategic initiative to standardize its customer relationship management systems across its dealer channel of 140 in 45 countries with FrontRange Solutions’ GoldMine CRM application.

Skyline touted “GoldMine software’s combination of functionality, configurability and affordability, as well as its worldwide network of support” as integral to the selection.

First Direct Corp., a FrontRange Solutions partner supporting all FrontRange/GoldMine products, created a configured GoldMine template for Skyline dealers; Skyline is currently in the process of the GoldMine rollout, with “several” dealers having gone live thus far.

Software and solutions developer FrontRange Solutions now claims a clientele of over 130,000 companies and more than 1.7 million seats worldwide. FrontRange corporate clientele includes Coca-Cola, Shell Oil, Prudential Securities, Electricite de France, Mack Trucks, Campbell Soup, Avaya, Bechtel Corp, Bank of America, and the Turner News Network.

Sales Simplicity Software has announced some nice numbers indeed: namely, 35 percent year-on-year growth in 2006. Sales Simplicity is a sales automation, contact management, and CRM tool for production homebuilders.

In tandem with the announcement of past results, Sales Simplicity representatives stated that the firm had already seen enough sales activity in the first three weeks of January that the company “will easily double the company’s size again in 2007.” Commenting upon the sweet 2006 the company had, officials stated that the success was “that much more remarkable … given the current slowdown in the home building sector.”

With the current interest that Sales Simplicity is generating among builders, Sales Simplicity hopes to “move dramatically up-market in 2007, with the addition of marquee customers among the Builder 100.”

Pre-integrated into BuilderMT-Timberline, JD Edwards, Corrigo, Punchlist Manager, Builderfinish, FAST, and Envision, Chandler, Ariz.-based Sales Simplicity now counts over 175 builders as clients.

TICKETsage, Inc. announced the release of TicketVERIFY this week. The program is a “revolutionary” (you know that’s the company’s word) anti-scalping product designed to improve venue security by detecting the unauthorized resale or transfer of live event tickets in – get this – as little as two seconds at the point of entry.

TicketVERIFY hits the market after a reported five years of development. (“We saw a need back in 2002 and have been working to perfect [the technology] since,” said Stephen Cassar, TICKETsage president/CEO.) Developed to tighten security loopholes in unauthorized resale channels, the TicketVERIFY product uses a combination of patent-pending software, processes, and hardware to detect resold or transferred tickets.

TicketVERIFY is touted as a solution to venues and ticketing companies wishing to control the unauthorized resale of tickets and who may currently be forced to cancel tickets en masse or resort to legal action in cases of suspected mass forgery.

Fayetteville, Ark.-based TICKETsage was founded in 1999 with a mission statement stating the desire to “address the limitations of legacy ticketing systems.” TICKETsage can also lay claim to creating a true 64-bit architecture.