Uncategorized

When two companies merge, there is a seemingly endless list of factors to consider. However, while companies are committed to dedicating ample time and resources to align the operational combination of the two entities, it's all too easy to become overly engrossed in the nitty-gritty and lose sight ...

To many, sales is an art form, one that takes years or even decades to master. If you head to your local bookstore or search Google for "sales," for example, you'll find a myriad of books, training classes and podcasts teaching sales techniques "guaranteed" to help you make your quota. Some stress t...

Avaya has made a significant upgrade in three self-service offerings that it introduced at the beginning of last year. Introduced at SpeechTEK 2007 in New York City, the three products are Avaya Voice Portal 4.0, its flagship self-service software; Interactive Response 3.0, a self-service platform; ...

Wells Fargo has fixed a computer problem that left many of its Web banking customers unable to access their accounts over the weekend. The problems were first discovered Sunday afternoon, and the bank said all services had been restored as of early Tuesday, though some information was expected to ta...

Sage Software released a new version of its long-standing ACT! application -- a release timed to coincide with the application's 20th anniversary. The biggest change in this application is the introduction of a Dashboard -- a popular type of user interface -- as well as new productivity enhancements...

While use of on-demand Software as a Service is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years, organizations for a variety of reasons continue to prefer in-house application development and on-premise deployment to support a range of key business functions and processes, as is discussed in Part 1 o...

Dell and SAP are collaborating to offer retailers an easier way to buy computer hardware and SAP for Retail. It is offering hardware certified to be used on SAP for Retail, specifically, Dell's Retail OptiPlex 745 POS systems and Dell PowerEdge servers. The end result is that a customer can order a ...

What does marketing resource management mean to you? Does it mean the same thing to your coworker? Your competitor? The vendors who sell these solutions? The acronyms used to define the marketing automation space -- MRM, MOM, EMM, DAM, etc. -- have undeniably become so ambiguous that it's not unc...

Software as a Service pioneer Salesforce.com exceeded analyst expectations for its second quarter, registering net income of $3.74 million -- a 3 cent per share increase -- and revenue of $176.6 million. The Street had been expecting it to bring in just $174 million in sales. Total revenue for the q...

From all indications, the Software as a Service model of developing and distributing applications is gaining traction and is poised for a phase of rapid growth, whether it be in small and medium-sized businesses or large-scale enterprises. Estimated worldwide revenue for on-demand CRM applications i...

I'd like to continue on the idea of modernizing our sales processes. Part of this modernization has been the focus on de-spreadsheeting selling. As we all know it started with sales force automation, or SFA, but the trend is alive and well and, if anything, gaining momentum. It's hard to believe th...

Google may be No. 1 in terms of overall usage of its search engines. However, it appears to be falling short in one very important, non-tech metric: customer satisfaction. For the first time, Yahoo has overtaken Google to claim the top spot in this area, according to the University of Michigan's Ame...

IBM upgraded the functionality in its RFID technology tailored for the pharmaceutical industry that it introduced in December. The company's WebSphere RFID Information Center version 1.1 will now help pharma companies comply with the ePedigree laws going into effect in California and elsewhere. The ...

ReachForce, an on-demand provider of marketing databases, is making the jump into a related software niche. Last month, it made available on a limited basis Fountainhead, an on-demand marketing predictive campaign engine customized for the Salesforce.com portfolio of products. Next month, according ...

Companies are increasingly faced with the challenge of how to leverage the large amounts of data available in the contact center. The data is accumulated through customer management systems -- CRM, SFA, ERP and order fulfillment -- and interactions with the customer. Even though providing consistent...