CRM Daily

Critical Links' Unified Communications To Be Exhibited

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:50:46 -0500

FAIRFIELD, NJ, USA, March 11, 2010 -� Critical Links, a global provider of unified voice, data, security and IT solutions for SMBs, announced today that it will showcase its edgeBOX UC (Unified Communications) platform at the Convergence Summit North 2010 in Manchester, UK on March 16-17.

Critical Links is a leading provider of UC platforms for Small and Medium Businesses and for service providers who want to bring managed UC services to SMBs. UC or Unified Communications is defined as communications technology (Voice, Video and Data) that is integrated with desktop applications such as presence, conferencing and unified messaging on an integrated software platform, and Critical Links' edgeBOX brings much more than this to SMBs through a converged voice and data platform and fully integrated applications such as edgeDESKTOP and edgeEXCHANGE.

This summit is organized by Comms Business, a leading magazine in the communications sector with its head office in Kent, UK. This event is expected to attract close to 2000 people this year. The summit was launched in 2002 as an annual educational platform addressing the issues of voice and data convergence and has since grown into a large exhibition that brings together voice, mobile and data resellers and major suppliers and vendors of convergence platforms and products.

"We are excited to bring our edgeBOX UC platform and its unique value proposition to the attendees at the Convergence Summit in London; edgeBOX has several new features that enhance business productivity for SMBs and remote management capabilities for service providers. We will demonstrate these at the summit" said Vasco Correia, head of EMEA sales at Critical Links. "We look forward to welcoming visitors to our stand so they can experience the power of our UC portfolio for SMBs and service providers".

The Critical Links' edgeBOX provides a Multi-Service Business Gateway...

TreeHouse Integrates with Oracle CRM On Demand

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:21:55 -0500

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah �- TreeHouse Interactive (www.treehousei.com), the technology leader in on-demand partner relationship management (PRM), channel sales force automation (CSFA) and demand generation solutions, today announced that Marketing View, the company's demand generation solution, now integrates with Oracle CRM On Demand. This integration allows customers to pass qualified leads into Oracle CRM On Demand and generate ROI reporting by campaign as sales leads evolve into viable opportunities and closed deals.

This integration gives Oracle CRM On Demand customers access to leading demand generation and marketing automation capabilities that leverage the strength of their Oracle system. Joint customers will be able to better manage leads and campaigns, as well as gain insight into program ROI. This new integration enables ANY size marketing team -- without the aid of an IT staff -- to launch sophisticated marketing on their own, tightly integrate it with Oracle CRM On Demand and get ROI reporting regardless of the sales model they use (B2B, B2C, or channel).

With the Oracle CRM On Demand integration, qualified leads are delivered through Marketing View landing pages, registration forms, Web contact forms and microsites as a result of related Marketing View email campaigns or social media efforts. Based on an agreed upon lead definition between sales and marketing, qualified prospects are then passed to Oracle CRM On Demand. Advanced logic can be applied to determine which answers or set of answers constitute a qualified lead. The lead information is then mapped to standard Oracle CRM On Demand fields. The integration is easy to set up and users can specify to what fields in Oracle CRM On Demand lead information is sent.

Marketing View will provide salespeople working in Oracle CRM On Demand a more detailed marketing history for every lead than was available before. Sales teams will be able to...

CA Expands Cloud Services with $350M Nimsoft Purchase

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:13:36 -0500

IT software behemoth CA has acquired yet another company as it moves to provide its emerging enterprise customers and managed-service providers with cloud-computing support. CA acquired Redwood City, Calif.-based Nimsoft, its fourth acquisition in the cloud-computing space, in a cash purchase valued at $350 million, CA announced Wednesday.

Nimsoft, a provider of monitoring systems used in data centers, is the fourth company that CA, formerly Computer Associates, has acquired in the past nine months. CA plans to integrate Nimsoft's assets into its cloud products and solutions business.

The acquisition, expected to close by March 31, will enable CA to tap into Nimsoft's more than 300 managed-service customers such as Hitachi, Barclays Capital, and Amway and its emerging enterprise customers (with revenues between $300 million and $2 billion).

Perfect Marriage or Bad Move

Nimsoft's reporting and monitoring technology has been used in public cloud services such as Google Apps for Business, Amazon Web Services, and Salesforce.com. Its technology has also been used in internal applications and in both physical and virtual server environments.

CA's new acquisition is only one piece to its larger cloud-computing puzzle. CA acquired Cassatt, NetQoS and Oblicore, and last month announced plans to acquire 3Tera.

While Nimsoft attracted a solid customer base, it was having difficulties keeping up with the fast-moving market. Nimsoft hired both engineers and salespeople, but not fast enough, according to CEO Gary Read.

"We were already hiring additional salespeople and engineers as fast as we could, but there is a natural limit to how rapidly you can scale a business without breaking those things that are important to us, customer satisfaction being the top of the list," Read said.

When he was approached by CA, Read said, he was hesitant to begin any talks. That changed once CA told Nimsoft executives that the company was committed...

Marketplace for Google Apps Targets Microsoft Office

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:54:27 -0500

With its mind in the clouds and an eye on rival Microsoft, Google on Tuesday launched an online application store for third-party programs that can be integrated with its online Google Apps office suite, with a single log-in and Google's universal navigation. The programs can sync with Gmail and Google's calendar, and use document-sharing features.

With 25 million application users and services for two million businesses, Google clearly hopes to reduce Microsoft's dominance in business-productivity software. Some 50 companies are offering applications in the initial Google Apps Marketplace inventory.

Early Arrivals

A random sampling on the marketplace Wednesday included EZAsset, a business asset-management tool; Manymoon for social productivity, project management, and task management; Fresh Books, a billing and bookkeeping utility; and eFax, an Internet fax service.

Google reportedly charges developers $100 for a listing, then takes 20 percent of sales.

The marketplace is intended for companies with their own domain, and Google Apps membership is required. A premier membership is $50, with an unlimited number of users per account. To lure customers away from the competition, the marketplace offers a tutorial on importing data from Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes.

Suite Deal

The Mountain View, Calif.-based Google previously had a solutions marketplace offering add-ons for programs. But Google Apps Marketplace will allow the company to generate revenue while also driving more interest in its online suite.

Google has increasingly battled for turf with Microsoft, recently introducing the Chrome operating system to challenge the dominant Windows. The software giant has taken the fight to Google's front door with its Bing search engine, which it hopes will soon be the default search window on Apple's iPhone.

Microsoft has announced cloud partnerships with Hewlett-Packard and Chunghwa Telecom and has other cloud projects in the works. The HP deal is a three-year, $250 million project to integrate Microsoft programs and HP hardware.

Cloud-computing...

Get BatchBook Social CRM Through Google Apps

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:45:07 -0500

Providence, RI, March 10, 2010 -- BatchBlue Software today announced it has added BatchBook, a social customer relationship management (CRM) solution, to the Google Apps Marketplace�, Google's recently launched online storefront for Google Apps� products and services. Designed for small businesses and entrepreneurs with active, growing contact networks, BatchBook is a customizable, web-based CRM tool that helps businesses organize their contact data and track social networking activity.

"BatchBlue is committed to integrating our social CRM technology with other small business solutions that we know will benefit our customers," said BatchBlue President Pamela O'Hara. "With the new Apps Marketplace, Google has made it easy for small businesses to build a network of solutions that work smoothly together. By adding BatchBook to the Marketplace, we are offering Google Apps customers the opportunity to easily, efficiently and effectively manage their growing network of customers, sales opportunities and social media communications."

BatchBlue Software's flagship product, BatchBook, solves a crucial need by providing small businesses and entrepreneurs with web-based CRM software to manage and track the contact information, communications and tasks for their greatest asset-their people network. With BatchBook, users have access to a robust, customizable contact manager that keeps Google contacts in sync while providing a single point of integration for all their contacts across the web.

"We are very excited to have BatchBook in the Google Apps Marketplace," says Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead for Google Enterprise. "Through the Google Apps Marketplace, software vendors like BatchBlue are helping us build a rich ecosystem of integrated apps that work seamlessly with Google Apps, allowing IT administrators to leverage the benefits of cloud computing and extend Google Apps to meet more of their business needs. We are happy to offer BatchBook to the millions of Google Apps users who have embraced the cloud."

The Google Apps Marketplace...

Bing Bangs Out More Market Share at Yahoo's Expense

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:47:59 -0500

The search-engine wars are alive and well -- and Bing is the beneficiary again. Microsoft's so-called decision engine grabbed 11.5 percent of the U.S. search market in February, according to comScore.

Although that's only a slight increase over January, when Bing boasted 11.3 percent of the search market, it's an incremental improvement Microsoft is glad to see for its less-than-a-year-old engine.

But it's not all good news for Microsoft, if it cares anything about its newly approved partner's standings. Yahoo's bleeding led to Bing's gains. Yahoo's U.S. search market share dipped from 17 percent in January to 16.8 percent in February, comScore reported.

Bad for Bing?

Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, parsed the data. He noted that Bing continues to grow its user base, although it seems to have slowed a bit. Meanwhile, Google is unaffected.

"Those feeling the competitive pinch of Bing appear to be Microsoft partner Yahoo and the two smaller major search providers, Ask and AOL. The irony of Bing's success, partly at Yahoo's expense, is that Microsoft hasn't seen any growth in the combined share of Bing and Yahoo, which has remained largely flat," Sterling said. "The Yahoo search slide has now been going on roughly a year, and it has to be a matter of concern to the company. However, it's not immediately clear what they can do to arrest it."

Jeffries & Co. analyst Youssef Squali also noted the shifting fortunes between Bing and Yahoo. In a research note dated March 10, Squali noted how Bing has added 350 basis points of growth since its June 2009 launch. Meanwhile, Yahoo has shed about 330 basis points since May 2009.

"While the share losses have been exacerbated by the ongoing rollover of tool-bar partnerships (with HP and Adobe), we continue to believe that it is critical for Yahoo to...

The Business Role of Interim Executives

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:12:43 -0500

When 35-year-old Tone Software recently acquired a competitor, it had one of those "good problems" in business -- a flood of global interest in its software programs, which underpin communications and network infrastructure. "We didn't know how to handle the influx and how to take advantage of it" with current sales staff, says Shirley Balarezo, who was promoted to president 18 months ago after 13 years at the 50-employee Anaheim [Calif.]-based company.

Balarezo contemplated hiring a sales consultant to help her staff put together a global sales message. Then she attended a regional technology workshop hosted last September by Irvine [Calif.]-based Cerius Interim Executive Solutions.

She was persuaded to bring on one of Cerius' interim executives to act as vice-president of sales at Tone Software. Although the cost was high -- $1,500 a day -- gaining an outsider's perspective has been invaluable, Balarezo says. "He is a very experienced sales executive who has no biases about our company or product, no favorites, and no political gamesmanship. He's able to just give pure, top-notch strategic advice on how to sell our products."

Unlike consultants, interim executives work within a company, filling a position that has gone vacant due to an employee leaving, dying, or being dismissed. They can fulfill as many as three functions: Stepping into a job that needs doing, helping to interview and choose a permanent replacement, and diagnosing and implementing important internal changes.

'An Inherently Stressful Environment'

James Phelps, who offers interim executive services through his Minneapolis-based SeaChange Consulting, says small- and medium-size businesses get the most out of the arrangement when they are open to all three. "They get the biggest benefit if they look at it as an opportunity to not just bring in a caretaker but also to solve nagging, inherent problems they have faced over the...

Do You Really Want To Move Up the Corporate Ladder?

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:32:09 -0500

Contrary to popular wisdom, not every employee wants to move up the ladder. This applies not only to those entering management for the first time but also to such professionals with strong technical skills as designers, engineers, and scientists. And yes, it's also true of very senior executives -- including those being considered as the next CEO.

Whether you are offered the opportunity to move up or are considering your next career move, it's useful to think about what you really want to achieve in your career. As an executive coach, my job is to help men and women fulfill their leadership potential. Sometimes the best way to do that is to stay put. It is a tough decision to make. It will have momentous consequences. For a manager, deciding that you don't want to be promoted may mean that you stay where you are in that company. You may be excluded from consideration for promotion for the immediate future.

On the other hand, the best thing could be to remain where you feel you are doing your best work. It is for this reason that those with technical competencies frequently opt out of management; they love practicing their skills without administrative responsibilities.

Let's say you have been given an offer you're unsure about. One way to deal with it is to play the end-state game; pretend that you have accepted the job and are now the head of marketing, purchasing, or even that you are running the whole show as CEO.

What If You Take Promotion?

Imagine what your life is like now that you are a more senior leader. Consider what is different as well as what is not. More important, you need to delve into yourself to see if this new position fits you. Here are some questions you can use...

LifeLock To Pay $12M To Settle False Claims Case

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:15:03 -0500

LifeLock Inc. -- an identity theft protection company that backed its guarantees by putting its CEO's social security number on the side of its trucks -- will pay $12 million to settle claims it misrepresented its services, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

LifeLock will pay $11 million to the FTC to cover the cost of customer refunds, and another $1 million to the attorneys general of 35 states, the agency said. The FTC said LifeLock made false claims about its ability to prevent identity theft, as the services provide no protection against misuse of existing accounts, which is the most common type of identity theft, or medical or employment identity theft.

The agency described the agreement as one of the largest FTC-state coordinated settlements on record.

In a telephone interview, LifeLock CEO Todd Davis said the company was not acknowledging any wrongdoing. He said all of the company's current advertising and infrastructure have been cleared by the FTC.

The FTC said LifeLock overstated its ability to prevent new account fraud, which accounts for about one out of every six identity thefts. The Tempe, Ariz., company responds to suspected identity theft by placing fraud alerts on accounts, but the FTC said those alerts do not provide absolute protection and they can be foiled by identity thieves.

"There's still nothing that can stop all identity theft," Davis said. "We still have that same position. No one can stop all identity theft."

The agency said LifeLock misrepresented its own data security procedures. The company allegedly deceived customers in its ads by saying all its data was electronically encrypted and that highly secure procedures are used to protect the confidentiality of its customers. The FTC said claims that only authorized LifeLock employees would have access to customer information, and then only on a "need to know" basis, were also...

Microsoft Highlights Assistive Technology for Seniors

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:13:20 -0500

Not even the vibrancy of the city that never sleeps could get lifelong New Yorker Milton Greidinger to leave his home. Chronic illness kept Greidinger, 86, from participating in outside activities. Loneliness set in. "I was just waiting for my time to finish," Greidinger says.

Now Greidinger, a former department store salesman, has revived some social interests with the help of a private-public partnership between Microsoft and the City of New York that introduces seniors to computer, video, and Internet technology in their homes. The program, known as the Virtual Senior Center, uses technology to fight social isolation and give older, homebound New Yorkers better access to community services.

Working with the Benjamin Rosenthal Senior Center in Flushing, Queens, Microsoft equipped a group of seniors, aged 67 to 103, with a range of technology gadgets and assistive technology to help them function.

For New York, as with cities facing budget shortfalls across the country, a private-public partnership may be a cost-effective way to deliver higher-quality services to a rapidly aging population. "We want to make New York City the most age-friendly city in the nation," says Marah Rhoades, Assistant Commissioner of New York's Department for the Aging.

Microsoft's Model for Urban Seniors

New York City is home to 1.3 million seniors. About 20,000 need a range of services, from home-delivered meals to medicine dispensing. The city's 60-and-over population is set to jump 50 percent in the next 25 years, according to the Department for the Aging. In fact, the expected rise in the number of people 65 and older will outpace the total population increase in every state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Redmond [Wash.)-based Microsoft can use such partnerships to bring its software and services to a wider range of customers. "Even in a large city like New York, people can...