Archive for the 'CRM Software' Category

Oncontact Software Honored with ISM’s Top 15 CRM Award for Enterprise and Small & Medium Business Categories

Sunday, May 28th, 2006

Oncontact Software Receives Top 15 Award for Eighth Consecutive Year

CEDARBURG, WIS & BETHESDA, MD. (February 27, 2006) – Oncontact Software, a leading provider of .NET customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for mid-market companies, announced today that both of its CRM product lines, Oncontact V and Client Management Software (CMS) have been selected by ISM Inc., Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategic advisors, for both the Top 15 CRM Enterprise and the Top 15 Small & Medium Business Software Award for 2006. This is the eighth consecutive year that ISM has selected Oncontact Software to ISM’s Top 15. Further, this is the third consecutive year that Oncontact Software has been honored with both the Top 15 Enterprise and the Top 15 Small & Medium Business Software Award.

“The Top 15 CRM Awards, which serve as the standard for comprehensive CRM software, have evolved since 1990—when ISM began the Awards—to be the industry benchmark,” said Barton Goldenberg, founder and president of ISM. “The software industry is meeting the demands of the digital generation with self-service applications and Web-enabled CRM packages.”

Oncontact V and CMS were both chosen after intensive testing by the ISM Software Lab at its Bethesda, Maryland based headquarters. Each package was rated according to 217 s election criteria, including 110 business functions, 49 technical features, 36 implementation capabilities, 5 real time criteria and 17 user-support features.

“Oncontact Software is once again very honored to be awarded ‘Top 15′ recognition in both the Enterprise and the Small & Medium Business categories from ISM. In 2006 Oncontact Software is especially honored to achieve the rare feat of receiving this top award for both of our CRM product lines – our .NET system, Oncontact V and also our CMS product line. For eight years running, Oncontact Software has demonstrated our continued commitment and leadership in the CRM marketplace,” said Jon Zimmerman, president of Oncontact Software.

“Oncontact Software is to be praised for obtaining the Top 15 honor as ISM’s software selection process is strenuous and comprehensive,” said Goldenberg. “Oncontact Software is among the leaders of the CRM industry.”

The Top 15 selections are featured in ISM’s 14th edition of The Guide to CRM Automation and in a Top 15 CD available at ( www.ismguide.com).

Another CRM Vendor Gets Acquired - RightNow Buys Salesnet

Sunday, May 28th, 2006

RIGHTNOW ACQUIRES SALESNET TO ACCELERATE DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SOLUTIONS

RightNow Acquires Significant Sales Automation Expertise

BOZEMAN, MONT. (May 22, 2006) - RightNow® Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: RNOW) today announced the acquisition of Salesnet, Inc., an on demand software firm focused on sales workflow automation. The acquisition will accelerate RightNow’s customer experience management development efforts by combining RightNow’s patented knowledge foundation with Salesnet’s sophisticated workflow engine. With the acquisition, RightNow adds 26 employees and a dozen off-shore development contractors with a long history of delivering sales automation solutions to mid-market and enterprise customers, including deployments of up to 2500 users.

“Our acquisition of Salesnet brings substantial sales workflow domain expertise to our business, accelerates our roadmap by more than a year and adds hundreds of customers to our client base,” Greg Gianforte, founder and chief executive officer at RightNow, said. “RightNow will continue to build out its capabilities to offer organizations solutions and expertise to create a competitively differentiated customer experience throughout every customer interaction channel.”

Jonathan Tang, president and co-founder of Salesnet, will become vice president of sales solutions at RightNow. “This is a great opportunity for Salesnet customers. Joining RightNow will enable us to extend and realize our vision much more quickly. RightNow’s strategy and roadmap is a direction that provides our customers a significant long-term competitive advantage,” said Tang.

Salesnet was an early pioneer in on demand sales force automation with particular expertise in successfully implementing sales methodologies in sophisticated environments. Salesnet brings to RightNow an increased domain expertise in customer facing sales functions, as well as significant vertical expertise in financial services and business-to-business.

“Salesnet excels in providing users with the sophisticated tools needed to handle more complex selling environments,” Denis Pombriant, managing principal at Beagle Research Group, said. “When customers need to move beyond simple contact management to standardize practices for sales forces across geographies and divisions, they look to Salesnet. The combination of RightNow and Salesnet will create a powerful solution set for small and large organizations that see value in leveraging a patented knowledge foundation with a sophisticated work-flow engine in the sales channel to deliver superior customer experiences.”

RightNow will support Salesnet’s existing customers and provide a seamless upgrade path to much broader customer experience management solutions. Initial integrations between the Salesnet application and RightNow applications will be completed this summer with all major features expected to be included by summer of 2007. Rich Perkett, chief technology officer and co-founder of Salesnet, will join RightNow as a director of product development, responsible for the integration and expansion of Salesnet’s technology into RightNow’s solution.

“Salesnet’s products continue to be a key factor to our sales success. We are excited to see a market leader like RightNow acquire Salesnet to further enhance customer value and long term investment in the platform,” said O. John Groebl, IT project manager for American Express Incentive Services. “We look forward to having the ability to roll out a full complement of customer experience management capabilities offered as a result of RightNow’s acquisition. This is a positive development for us and re-affirms the selection we made with Salesnet.”

Under the terms of the acquisition, RightNow has acquired Salesnet through an all-cash merger. RightNow expects the transaction to be neutral to cash flow from operations and dilutive to GAAP EPS in 2006. Salesnet’s corporate office in Boston will become RightNow’s Boston office and will continue to include development, sales, marketing and support functions.


Salesboom Unveils Version 8

Saturday, May 27th, 2006

Wednesday, May 3, 2006 — Halifax, NS, Canada

Salesboom.com, industry leader of pre-integrated on demand CRM and ERP unveiled Salesboom Version 8. Packed with new AJAX and RIA features to save users time, v8 also includes Human Resource Management, Employee Management, Commissions and Expense Management, unlimited custom tabs and fields and over 120 new features. Building on our all inclusive Software-as-a-Service that includes pre-integrated front and back-office software on demand, Salesboom v8 stretches the boundaries of business computing by delivering an offering not yet seen in the on demand CRM space. Salesboom v8 will be a no cost, seamless upgrade for all current Salesboom customers, registered 30-day web trial users.

Much work on v8 also went into upgrading the customization and Integration capabilities of the on demand platform that powers Salesboom CRM. “I would be lying if I told you this release was not our biggest release to date, with v8 we feel we have built the foundation to graduate Salesboom to new heights.” Our partners and customers are ecstatic says Rami Hamodah, President and Co-founder of Salesboom.

Adding Rich Internet Application (RIA) components as part of the CRM makes Salesboom more intuitive and time saving for users, which increases adoption of the CRM. With many new features such as Salesboom Suggest, Contact and Lead Rolodex, and AJAX Calendar Salesboom users are empowered with greater control and maneuverability of information while cutting down on navigation time and page refreshes. “With v8 one of our main goals was to orient our products to look and feel more like a desktop application, providing our users with greater fluency of movement and data control”, commented Troy Muise, CEO and Co-founder of Salesboom. Our customers are the guiding light, and we are proud to fulfill their requests such as Expense Tracking, HR, Employee Management, Mass Data Management, and enhanced Mail Merge features that will further simplify our users day.

Leading Analyst Firm Positions Oracle’s Siebel CRM Applications in Leaders Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Center

Saturday, May 27th, 2006

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.   27-MAR-2006  Oracle today announced that its Siebel CRM applications have been positioned in the Leader Quadrant of the 2006 Gartner Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Customer Service Contact Center Magic Quadrant.1

The annual Gartner Magic Quadrant provides guidance for organizations that are seeking to purchase, replace, or upgrade a customer service and support (CSS) solution. Gartner’s Magic Quadrant positions vendors in a particular market segment based on their completeness of vision and their ability to execute on that vision.2 According to Gartner, Leaders in this category demonstrate customer service, support market strength and have the ability to affect market trends in all the categories of criteria on which they are evaluated.3

“We believe Siebel’s placement as a leader in this Gartner Magic Quadrant is recognition that Oracle offers the most comprehensive service suite in the market, and delivers proven capabilities for contact center and service organizations,” said Oracle Vice President of Service Products, Mike Betzer. Now that Siebel CRM is part of the Oracle CRM product family, we are committed to protect Siebel customer investments and extend a superior ownership experience through new offerings, such as our industry-leading Lifetime Support Policy.”

Siebel Meets Extensive Criteria for Leader Position in Quadrant
Gartner’s Magic Quadrant positions vendors in a particular market segment based on their vision and ability to execute that vision. Gartner conducted a thorough evaluation of select customer service contact center vendors using criteria including4:

* At least 15 customer references for customer service and support (CSS) functionality in the contact center
* At least five new customers for CSS in the past four quarters
* Must have generated at least $10 million in revenue for CSS in the past four quarters
* Sufficient professional services to fulfill current and future customer demand during the next six months, and at least enough cash to fund a year of operations at the current burn rate
* A customer base and operations on at least two continents
* Technology supports extension to cross-channel customer service without the need to code in a new development environment
* The software provider is moving markets based on its software and strategy
The full 2006 Gartner CRM Customer Service Contact Center Magic Quadrant report can be found at the following URL - http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/oracle/137921.html

About The Magic Quadrant
* Magic Quadrant Disclaimer

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted March 1, 2006 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose

Salesforce.com Offering 20% of on Unlimited Edition

Saturday, May 27th, 2006

Salesforce.com is running a promotion until 6/30 offering a 20% discount of list price for their Unlimited Edition. The Unlimited Edition from salesforce.com is the edition that comes with the most features. Please visit Salesforce.com for more info on the promotion.