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Yesterday from the Sales 2.0 2010 conference in Boston, The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP) named ZoomInfo, a business information provider, the “Service Provider of the Year” in the SaaS, CRM, Productivity Tools category. The award is part of AA-ISP’s Inside Sales Professionals Leadership Summit 2010 awards.

ZoomInfo is one of the presenters at the 2010 Sales 2.0 Conference. The event is taking place today, at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel in Boston, MA.

ZoomInfo provides a sales information database on 45 million people and 5 million companies to use in conjunction with CRM. Businesses of all sizes use this information to find leads, collect more details on their customers, analyze prospective customers, and create highly targeted sales campaigns. ZoomInfo is a standalone SaaS solution that can integrate with several top CRM solutions, including Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle CRM On Demand, Salesforce.com, and Sugar CRM.

Says Sam Zales, president of ZoomInfo: “Arming an inside sales team with prospect intelligence on people and companies is essential to driving leads and creating a top-performing sales organization. It is a source of pride to be recognized by the AA-ISP awards for ZoomInfo’s unique role in helping inside sales professionals exceed their quota and, at the same time, create efficiencies within the sales operations environment.”

“It is an honor to recognize ZoomInfo as the AA-ISP Service Provider of the Year in
SaaS, CRM, Productivity Tools. ZoomInfo has proven its dedication to driving the inside sales industry’s performance, which is the AA-ISP’s mission,” states Bob Perkins, Founder and CEO of AA-ISP. “We are confident that ZoomInfo will continue to impact this fast-growing and exciting industry.”

A complete list of companies and individuals recognized by the AA-ISP will be published on its website at www.aa-isp.org.

ZoomInfo is a search engine on businesses enterprises and people. It gathers publicly available information from company websites, news feeds, and other online sources, and compiles all relevant data into a comprehensive directory. More than six million people search at the online search engine every month, and over 3,000 customers subscribe to ZoomInfo’s premium products.

Web-based customer relationship management (CRM) is the latest and most effective tool in the marketing world right now. Normal marketing campaigns just don’t cut it anymore. Vendors can miss out on a large portion of their revenue and customer base if they don’t understand or know anything about their customers. This is where CRM comes in.

CRM on the web usually consists of a database where vendors can write down customer information or details. This will help them determine a customer’s needs in the future. Web-based CRM software usually contains customer data, product information, buying patterns, and more. Salespeople or marketers will know more about what the customer wants or needs. They can use the CRM tools to customize product plans for customers because they will know a little bit about the customer and they will know what the customer previously purchased. Also, salespeople will be able to develop individualized relationships with the customers which will provide customers with the highest level of service. Web-based CRM is sure to increase your sales and help you get potential customers.

There are several advantages of using CRM software, particularly web-based software, because it is a convenient and efficient system. Vendors will not have to deal with files or lost papers. Everything is electronic and is on a general database. This database can be accessed from any location, not just from one computer. Times are changing- businesses are moving from paper-only to completely electronic systems. Using web-based systems is faster, more organized, and effective. It also saves money and the environment because businesses use less paper.

Web-based CRM software is one of the most effective sales and marketing tools because understanding your customer and their needs is key. Find out your business’s potential by taking to the next level and using web-based CRM. There are many CRM software trials that are free so you can see how it works and how it can help your business.

Microsoft Corp. is suing Salesforce.com Inc with the accusation that the customer relationship management (CRM) giant has infringed nine patents for ways to make software more efficient.

The complaint targets the customer-relationship management software that is the hallmark of Salesforce.com’s business. It seeks a court order that would prevent the San Francisco-based company from providing features that Microsoft claims it invented.

Salesforce.com, the biggest seller of internet-based customer relationship management software with $1.3 billion in sales last year, was founded in 1999 and offers software that businesses subscribe to and use over the web for running marketing campaigns and tracking sales leads. It competes against Microsoft’s Dynamics software in the CRM market.

“Microsoft has been a leader and innovator in the software industry for decades and continues to invest billions of dollars each year in bringing great software products and services to market,” said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel for intellectual property and licensing. Microsoft “cannot stand idly by when others infringe” our intellectual property rights, he said.

The complaint was filed in federal court in Seattle after more than a year of talks, according to Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker. The CEO of Salesforce.com, Marc Benioff, has said he wants customers and software developers to write online applications on his system, dubbed Force.com, much like the way personal computer programs run on Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

update CRM Inc, a European CRM solutions innovator, has launched its new update.revolution CRM suite to North America. update.revolution is an advanced cloud-based enterprise-managed CRM service designed specifically for the sales organizations of all sized in the life sciences market. This includes biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

update.revolution was launched in Europe earlier this year as an advanced customer relationship management technology deployed through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model and implemented with update software’s unique strategic revolution methodology which provides each customer with ongoing industry expertise at no extra cost.

SaaS-based CRM solution, update.revolution, is hosted on the IBM cloud to provide life sciences companies with a cost-effective, hosted platform for managing the core of their revenue generation: sales. It requires no up-front investment and provides an all-inclusive ongoing development and consulting methodology that provides long-term cost predictability.

The update.revolution methodology begins with an in-depth assessment phase through which the update CRM Principal determines the customer’s goals using a proprietary computer-supported analytics system and specifies which industry processes and modular functions are required. This assessment helps ensure better results in adoption and compliance in the near term and protects the evolution of the platform in the long term as users get comfortable and information requirements grow.

update CRM’s SaaS model is available in three service levels: 90°, 180°, and 360°. Among other things, the service level selected influences the degree of customization and the frequency of the adaptation cycles in the ongoing enhancement. update CRM customers are not charged for costs associated with operation, maintenance, and support.

Typical provisioning results in a functional system up and running within 20 days, with additional functionality, modules and customizations made on an ongoing basis.

The CRM industry is evolving very quickly. Once upon a time, there were only a handful of choices for CRM software but now one can find almost endless choices. New features are included almost on a daily basis and new products and versions are released regularly. Web-based CRM enjoys high demand among small to medium-sized businesses.

Web-based CRM systems are gaining popularity over installable ones and the new trends reveal that many medium and big firms are also moving towards web-based solutions. Many installable CRM providers are now offering web-based versions of their software.

What are some reasons for the success of web based CRM?

There are no installation costs. Installing an on-premise solution consumes a significant portion of a company’s budget. Expense is involved in creating networks, creating databases, programming software and configuring them, maintaining databases and creating backup procedures, staffing IT posts and hiring people and so on. But web-based systems do not need any of these. Users need only pay a small fee at the end of the month.

They offer always up-to-date systems. Unlike on-premise systems, software updates are not needed, nor the purchase of a newer version of the solution to get the latest features. Most CRM providers are keen to include new features free of cost.

They are backed with the latest data security protection. Web-based CRMs come with powerful database hosting services that use the most updated anti-virus and anti-hacking tools which usually cost thousands of dollars if you want them locally. The databases are constantly backed up.

They are easily accessible anytime, anywhere. As the data and software are hosted remotely, one can get the same functionality anytime, anywhere. Most on-demand CRMs also have mobile and wireless versions.

Web-based CRM systems are simpler and easier to operate than a traditional system. Even if there’s the feeling that the software is not working for you or is hard to customize, you can switch to a new provider painlessly and almost without any loss of money.

Last but not least, CRM providers offer free trials as an excellent option to review their systems and get familiar with them. With all these helpful options for deciding on the right web-based CRM for your company, evaluating all possible aspects of the solution is a cinch.

Paris-based company, Silentale, is opening up their services for public consumption. Silentale, the self-proclaimed “Dropbox for communications”, is a personal CRM system. The system gives users access to searchable backup of contacts, messages and attachments across various communications channels, including email and social media networks. The interface is simple to use and intuitive, facilitating the process of retrieving and managing information in your browser. Silentale was designed to bridge the gap between electronic communication mediums and eliminate fragmentation.

No longer in private Beta mode, the CRM solution comes with two options, a free and paid version.  The free version, not quite as fancy as the premium of course, provides users with 5 account services and 6 months of message imports. The premium offer which is being rolled out on June 1st, offers up to 10 accounts and the ability to import 2 years of messages for $49/year. For businesses, Silentale offers a $99/year premium plan that supports 20 accounts with unlimited import capabilities.

Since launching in private beta, the company claims to have processed over 50 million messages and 10 million contacts. The company is aiming its marketing efforts at individual users, but private beta testing has shown that individual users only archive data from an average of 4 accounts, which would fall within the free version. The data suggests that perhaps the company should focus on targeting businesses and enterprises, instead of individual users.

The company offers an API for third-party developers as well as Firefox add-ons that show a contact’s information and the latest messages exchanged while viewing an email from the contact or browsing their profile on social media websites. Additionally, the company has announced plans to launch iPhone, Android and Outlook plug-ins soon.

Organizing sales leads just got easier with the new plugin from Salesforce. Websites that accept Salesforce leads usually run on WordPress. The process used to consist of checking your email and then copy-and-pasting the information back into the Salesforce system. With the new Salesforce for WordPress plugin, data will automatically be added into your Salesforce account. No emails required. Besides, copy and paste is so passé.

The plugin will alleviate the pain of manual entry while optimizing productivity. To get started, place a sign-up form on any WordPress post or page and Salesforce will do the rest. Downloading the plugin might be the most demanding part of the whole process.

Salesfoce created this helpful video to explain:

Salesforce WordPress Plugin

The WordPress-to-Leads plugin is the first “Consumerprise” play for Salesforce. Consumerprise is the word used to describe converging market requirements from two historically separate market segments. This is one of many steps Salesfoce is taking to simplify web engagement and make Salesforce “as easy as Wikipedia to source data, as easy as iTunes to buy data and as easy as Facebook to stay updated as the data changes,” as Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce said.

VMforce, the love-child of VMware and SalesForce.com, was unveiled today. Both VMware and SalesForce are leaders in their respective cloud computing sectors. VMware is known for their virtualization, while Salesforce for their software-as-a-service (SaaS). The convergence of the cloud computing software vendors will provide an integrated cloud platform with appeal to Java programmers. Java Applications can now be built and distributed in the cloud, which should eliminate deployment issues.

Pre-Salesforce partnership, VMware acquired SpringSource, a Java Application Infrastructure and Management Provider. VMforce enables Java experts to build applications on Salesforce.com’s infrastructure and link applications to Salesforce’s database and services. “Java has emerged as the leading enterprise language of choice,” Jerry Chen from VMware explains.

VMforce is significant because it gives Java developers the ability to build apps in the cloud, an option that was previously limited. With VMforce, cloud-based applications can reach the 6 million Java developers in their community. With Salesforce, developers can use the cloud-based platform to run and operate Java business applications.

The integration of Salesforce and VMware illustrates the importance of cloud services and how the competition to supply cloud services is heating up. Microsoft is also in the process of tapping into the cloud service market with Azure.

Cloud services are not only gaining in popularity, but in capability as well. VMforce is a genius creation because it allows Java developers to produce applications “that are pre-connected to the Force.com database services, search, and analytics. They will be running on the Force.com platform with all its security provisions as trusted applications,” explains Ariel Kelman from Salesforce.com.  Blog CRM is excited to see what exciting new applications will drive the success of VMware as an organization. Stay tuned!

Microsoft announced that the Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift Europe BV (MCFE) Company was awarded with the Gartner CRM Excellence Award for Efficiency for its customer relationship management (CRM) project.

MCFE, a Netherlands based company that manufactures, sells and distributes forklifts and corresponding parts, was able to streamline their order entry and processing, IT support requests, and vendor communications. By using xRM by Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the forklift distributor was able to develop a CRM framework that would result in a decrease in time for it to customize business applications from 35 to 10 days, and a reduction in development costs by 60%.

“Businesses need to deliver essential line-of-business applications more quickly and at a lower cost,” said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “We are honored that MCFE is recognized by Gartner and to 1to1 Media for its project. This implementation is just one example of how our customers are unlocking new value from their existing Microsoft investments and delivering business solutions that are easy to design, easy to manage, and, for their users, easy to use.”

MCFE isn’t the only business to turn to Microsoft’s xRM program to solve their development framework and customer success needs.

A few xRM customer successes:

CAPTRUST Financial Advisors

Comag Marketing Group

Melbourne Business School

The North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety

ValMark Securities Inc.

Microsoft’s Dynamic Business Program is helping companies optimize their business development process and reach their full potential through flexible but relevant applications.

Today, RightNow Technologies made a big move in encouraging CRM users to take up cloud platforms with the RightNow Cloud Services Agreement (CSA)—a client-focused approach to solution licensing. The overarching goal is to eradicate the hidden costs, intense maintenance bills, and shelfware often involved in current SaaS contract, filling in gaps to make contract negotiation simpler. In addition, RightNow is implementing a “Cloud Challenge”—their call to other vendors to “engage with clients like true cloud vendors, not on-premise vendors in cloud clothing,” says CEP Greg Gianforte.

The specifics of the RightNow CSA promise quicker implementations and innovations, and more customizable programs that allow users to pay based on usage and the number of users rather than choosing from a few pre-packaged plans. The present terms state that new RightNow users will be offered the CSA, and current customers will receive the offer when their present contracts are up for renewal; those new customers signing contracts under the CSA will be able to determine their renewal charges in the first contract. New users can also try RightNow CX, their flagship CRM product, for a 90-day trial with unlimited capacity.

And the RightNow CSA aims to bring tangible savings to customers. Allowing users to purchase only what they need are RightNow’s “seat months.” Seat months can be adjusted each year, are intended to do away with shelfware, and the concept will be especially helpful to users with seasonal businesses. Also pleasing to potential customers: RightNow pledges to return portions of a user’s subscription fees if the platform fails to meet service-level agreements (SLAs). As RightNow is promising cash back for SLA failures, they’ve fortified their SLAs, and therefore strengthened their product.

It’ll be interesting to see how other cloud vendors respond to RightNow’s developments. While announcing RightNow’s new cloud pricing model and the Cloud Challenge, Gianforte claimed that 30% of Salesforce.com CRM seats are shelfware. Things can sometimes get dicey when aggressively challenging your competitors like this, but it seems all in the spirit of better business, and we’re curious to see how it shapes SaaS CRM products.