We Blog CRM

Attention Asia! The CDC monster is also making moves in North America.

CDC Software, that ever-active subsidiary of CDC Corporation and global provider of industry-specific enterprise software applications and consulting services, released figures today that showed its Pivotal MarketFirst marketing automation and lead generation solution had saved Sharp Electronics Manufacturing Corporation of America more than $1.6 million in operating costs since implementation.

Sharp Electronics’ numbers showed that Pivotal MarketFirst had shown some stunning improvement for Sharp, including reducing cost per lead from $76 to $8; saving an estimated $420,000 over four years by reducing advertising agency fees by using Pivotal MarketFirst to automate tasks; saving an estimated annual $70,00 in labor costs due to MarketFirst’s lead assignment capabilities; and additional labor savings of over $17,000 annually due to MarketFirst’s automatic lead response emailing.

Sharp Electronics currently uses MarketFirst for automated lead capture and rankings from its website, phone calls, trade shows, events, and inbound and outbound telemarketing; lead qualification and dissemination.

CDC Software is a provider of enterprise software applications designed to assist organizations in delivering a superior customer experience. The CDC Software product suite includes Pivotal CRM, c360 CRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform development tools, Ross enterprise resource planning, Ross supply chain management, IMI warehouse management, order management, Platinum China human resource solutions, and business analytics.

Pivotal Corporation is a software unit of CDC Corporation that boasts of clientele of 1,800 companies all its own, including Farm Credit Services of America, WCI Communities, Premera Blue Cross, Qiagen, ESRI, AvMed Health Plans, Sharp Electronics Corporation, and CMS Cameron McKenna.

CDC Software is buying again. The CDC Corporation subsidiary has announced the acquisition of Respond Group, Ltd. Respond is a European provider of software applications for customer service. CDC spokespeople enthusiastically reported that “Respond applications and [the] organization are highly complementary to CDC Software’s Pivotal CRM solutions.”

To CDC, Respond brings a clientele list that includes AXA Insurance, Barclays, and Aegon among others.

Pivotal Corporation is a software unit of CDC Corporation that boasts of clientele of 1,800 companies all its own, including Farm Credit Services of America, WCI Communities, Premera Blue Cross, Qiagen, ESRI, AvMed Health Plans, Sharp Electronics Corporation, and CMS Cameron McKenna.

CDC Software is a provider of enterprise software applications designed to assist organizations in delivering a superior customer experience. The CDC Software product suite includes Pivotal CRM, c360 CRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform development tools, Ross enterprise resource planning, Ross supply chain management, IMI warehouse management, order management, Platinum China human resource solutions, and business analytics.

CDC Software now boasts more than 5,000 customers worldwide in the manufacturing, financial services, health care, home building, real estate, and wholesale and retail distribution industries. CDC Software is a division of CDC Corporation, a provider of enterprise resource planning and supply chain management software applications in addition to its CRM solutions.

Meanwhile, in that fantastical corner of the world known as Papua New Guinea, the country’s largest retailer bank, The Bank of the South Pacific, is rolling out customer relationship management technology from US-based Fiserv CBS Worldwide.

The bank has licensed four Fiserv products, including the vendor’s multi-channel sales and service application Aperio, and Nautilus enterprise content management technology.

Next in Bank of the South Pacific plans is implementation of CBS Teller and CBS Data Warehouse. Fiserv Asia Pacific managing director James Fisher commented that the deal expands the company’s "global reach to banks across the world” for Papua New Guinea is so far far away.

China.com, a Hong Kong subsidiary of CDC Corporation, announced today its acquisition of five percent interest in Beijing Menlo Network Science Limited. Beijing Menlo owns and operates the Chinese online community Menllo.com.

Under the terms of the agreement, China.com will provide Menllo.com with strategic market coverage for one year. China.com will have the right to appoint a director to the Menllo.com board and holds the option to increase its holdings in Menllo.com.

Menllo.com is a platform that enables file-sharing of music, videos, journals, photos, and whiteboards; among changes promised to Menllo.com is the future availability of Menllo.com content on mobile phones via CDC Mobile’s 3G services.

Strategically speaking, the integration of CDC 3G services is key, as CDC mobile seeks to become “one of the first movers in integrating Web2.0 content with 3G services in China,” and the company brain trust figures that CDC Mobile can significantly increase its portfolio of high-demand content and therefore sources of revenue.

In January, CDC Mobile announced its $100 million 3G content partner program to target leading 3G content providers and aggregators in North Asia and Europe.

Internet service and video game company China.com. is a division of CDC Corporation. China.com has been established nationwide in thirty provinces and reportedly serves more than 5 million first-time visitors daily. The China.com network currently supports the company’s widely online games, portal business and hosting services for more than 1,700 Chinese businesses.

Pacific Net Inc., that beast of the east, made some headlines this week.

Happily (for PacificNet), the company announced that its WAP portal MOABC had been given a nod among the “2006 Top Ten Most Promising Internet Companies” in an industry peer ranking organized by Sohu.com Inc. Communications World Web.

The award seems a logical extension to MOABC’s award as one of the “2005 Most Promising Internet Investment Projects” by Sohu, and the Internet Society of China’s naming MOABC one of the “2005 Top 50 Internet Innovations” and “Top 100 China Internet WEB2.0 Enterprises” in March 2006.

The Sohu.com industry event is held annually and this year the winners cover more specialized areas such as download engines, online games, video, classified information, search engines, and media player software. And while it’s always swell to be recognized by your peers, the notice is of key importance to PacificNet, as Sohu.com is affiliated with China’s Ministry of Information Industry.

MOABC.com is a leading mobile internet portal in China, reporting 11 million registered users, 120 million daily page views and 1000 gigabytes of daily data traffic on one of Cathay’s top-ranked mobile internet sites, featuring mobile social networking, mobile games, and entertainment.

The free WAP portal provides mobile internet services such as news, mobile gaming and entertainment services, mobile blogs, mobile email, Avatar and virtual pets, mobile online dating, mobile instant messaging, virtual communities, mobile social communities and virtual showrooms.

Not so happily (for Clancy and Co. P.L.L.C.), news from PacificNet reported that the CRM company had dropped its public accounting firm, Clancy and Co., effective January 19. The audit committee of the company is currently interviewing and negotiating with several potential audit firms in connection with the upcoming audit for the year ended December 31, 2006.

Happily (for PacificNet), the change in auditors was reportedly “driven by the growth and business expansion of the company,” a growth that has seen PacificNet revenue balloon from less than $1 million in 2001 to nearly $60 million in 2006, and “operations and financial reporting requirements have outgrown the resources of its prior auditors.”

Finally, PacificNet president Victor Tong announced that the company had “installed a corporate-wide Virtual Private Network” (a.k.a. secure intranet) “that connects our various offices in China, Hong Kong, and the USA. PacificNet has also implemented a centralized accounting system and office automation intranet web sites for all subsidiaries and geographic locations.”

Beijing- and Hong Kong-headquartered PacificNet Inc. is an investor in and operator of companies that provide outsourcing, e-commerce, and value-added services in China, such as call centers, telemarketing, direct response television marketing, CRM, interactive voice response, mobile applications, and communications product distribution services.

PacificNet corporate clients include China Telecom, China Mobile, Unicom, PCCW, Hutchison Telecom, Bell24, SONY, TCL, Huawei, American Express, Citibank, HSBC, Bank of China, Bank of East Asia, DBS, TNT, and the Hong Kong government. PacificNet employs over 2,300 in China with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Macau, and branch offices in 26 provinces.

Amdocs today announced the signing of a five-year contract with Indonesian mobile communications service provider PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk for the modernization of its real-time business support systems. Under terms of the contract, Amdocs will also act as systems integrator for the deployment of Amdocs Billing 7, Amdocs CRM 7 and Amdocs Partner Manager 7 products, and will perform post-implementation maintenance services over the five-year period.

The Amdocs 7 suite will be officially launched on January 23. PT Excelcomindo (or XL for short) numbers show that the company has grown from 1.5 million subscribers in 2003 to more than 9 million at present.

The Amdocs products will be employed in driving enhanced integration across XL’s entire customer and service lifecycles. Amdocs also seeks to ensure consistent customer service across XL’s wireless, broadband internet and Internet Protocol-based voice.

Amdocs is a software and services provider that seeks to accelerate implementation of integrated customer management by the world’s leading service providers. Amdocs boasted revenue of more than US $2 billion in fiscal 2005 and has 13,000 employees in fifty-one countries around the world.

Ah, it’s been a few days since we’ve heard from the wonderful Clarisa Rojo and go-getting Philippines-based Software Effective Solutions Inc.

Today, Rojo et al bring the news that British Airways will be testing SES’s excellently named Effective CRM mobile module software for its Executive Club program mobile communications.

British Airways plans to test Effective Mobile’s suitability to upgrade and manage BA cellular communications for their upper-crusty members. The airline plans to use Effective Mobile to send information and special offers to Executive Club members and allow members to make their reservations on their mobile phones as well.

British Airways is the United Kingdom’s largest airline and the third largest overall in Europe. BA flies to over 550 destinations worldwide and reportedly offers more flights from Europe across the Atlantic than any other operator. In 2006, British Airways flew over 35 million passengers and was awarded the Skytrax Airline of the Year award.

(“Awards! They do nothing but give out awards! I can’t believe it. Greatest, greatest fascist dictator, Adolf Hitler!” –Woody Allen, “Annie Hall”)

SES Inc. is a Philippine-based software company providing enterprise software to small enterprises, medium-sized enterprises and telecom operators in functions such as workforce management, call centers, and resource management. Effective CRM is a Customer Relationship Management tool specialized for the current and future needs of small enterprises, medium-sized enterprises, and large telecom operators in the Asia Pacific region.

Now here’s a big hunk of news for CRMchump to report, indeed.

PacificNet, Inc., a major player in the Customer Relationship Management, mobile internet, e-commerce and gaming technology markets in China, today announced its joint venture with Japan-based Bellsystem24, reportedly Japan’s largest telemarketing call center services provider. The result of combined efforts will be a CRM consulting services in Shanghai, China named in a vaguely creepy newspeak way “BELL-PACT Consulting Limited.”

Aggregate investments in this joint venture will be made in phases and may reach US $643,000. The joint venture will principally offer CRM call center consulting and training services; technical and business consulting services; network product sales; software development; system integration; and value-added services.

“We believe that there are compelling synergies between the two companies,” said PacificNet president Victor Tong. Yes, the synergy between lots of money and lots of money is quite compelling…

Bellsystem24 is Japan’s largest telemarketing, call center, and CRM service company providing a variety of services for pursuing one-to-one marketing, such as call center, marketing solutions, media entertainment solutions, as well as pharmaceutical and medical support services. Established in 1982, Bellsystem24 has become the largest telemarketing call center services company in Japan, with over 5,000 clients, 27,348 communication service representatives, and 33 offices in Japan.

Beijing- and Hong Kong-headquartered PacificNet Inc. is an investor in and operator of companies that provide outsourcing, e-commerce, and value-added services in China, such as call centers, telemarketing, direct response television marketing, CRM, interactive voice response, mobile applications, and communications product distribution services. PacificNet corporate clients include China Telecom, China Mobile, Unicom, PCCW, Hutchison Telecom, Bell24, SONY, TCL, Huawei, American Express, Citibank, HSBC, Bank of China, Bank of East Asia, DBS, TNT, and the Hong Kong government. PacificNet employs over 2,300 in China with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Macau, and branch offices in 26 provinces.

PacificNet Epro a provider of outsourced call center, telemarketing, CRM, VAS and IVR services in greater China in the areas of outsourced call center services, training and consulting services, and call center management systems.

The daily sale for fast-moving Filipino firm SES today involves Comverse. Ubiquitous SES CEO Clarisa Rojo announced today that Comverse had selected SES’ Effective CRM.

Comverse bills itself as the world’s leading supplier of software and systems enabling network-based multimedia enhanced communication services, will be implementing Effective for its marketing and sales operations in the Far East; numbers show that the company provides software and systems to over 400 wireless and wireline telecommunications network operators in more than 100 countries. Specifically to be addressed by the Effective suite are handling and follow-up of marketing leads, proposals and customer relations.

SES Inc. is a Philippine-based software company providing enterprise software to small enterprises, medium-sized enterprises and telecom operators in functions such as workforce management, call centers, and resource management.

SES CEO Clarisa Rojo is again in the industry news today, announcing the imminent launch of beta testing for SES flagship product Effective CRM at Anheuser-Busch. The Effective suite includes modules for customer service; inventory; marketing and sales; and mobile solutions.

Following an agreement between SES and an approved supplier of Anheuser-Busch, SES is making preparations to implement several CRM applications in Anheuser-Busch business units.

Said Rojo, “A beta test on the site of this renown, world-class company signals a promising step forward for Effective,” adding that “Anheuser-Busch constantly strives to enhance the experience it provides to its customers…” (“Strives to enhance the experience,” eh? Perhaps the company would be better off striving to brew a drinkable beer.)

“We are very confident that Anheuser-Busch will reap the benefits of the application based on Effective SES CRM infrastructure within a very short time,” said Rojo, “and the trial will pave the way for a comprehensive implementation in Anheuser-Busch’s divisions worldwide.” Well, we’ll be sure to keep an eye on the success of this program at CRMchump.

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch produces the two best-selling beers in the world, Budweiser and Bud Light; operates twelve breweries in the United; States and has operations around the globe. Anheuser-Busch beer sales make up 48.8 percent of the U.S. market.

To be fair, though, company PR reminds us that the company is more than a beer maker: one subsidy is a top U.S. manufacturer of aluminum cans as well as America’s top recycler of said tins. Anheuser-Busch also has interests in malt production, rice milling, real estate development, turf farming, metalized and paper label printing, bottle production, transportation services, and adventure park entertainment.

SES Inc. is a Philippine-based software company providing enterprise software to small enterprises, medium-sized enterprises and telecom operators in functions such as workforce management, call centers, and resource management.