Epiphany's New CRM Apps Offer Instant Analysis
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Ziff Davis - Epiphany's new applications, which sit atop rival apps, don't delay in getting customer information into sales reps' hands. IBM weighs in with its support.
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(InfoWorld) - Salesforce.com on Tuesday unveiled a new version of its hosted customer relationship management service, which it said will add a new portal and workflow management capabilities and ease the process of writing and testing new custom applications. The new version of the service comes just days after Microsoft introduced its much anticipatedÂ entryÂ into the hosted CRM business. The 23rd version of the Salesforce.com service lets users access the company's proprietary Apex Code programming language to customize their CRM applications or write new ones to run on Salesforce.com servers, the company said. "Customers can write code that runs on our servers -- it's programming without software," said Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, in a statement. The company said that Apex Code is similar to the widely used Java language and that applications written using it can be accessed via Web standards such as XML or SOAP. The new version also adds what Salesforce.com calls Intelligent Workflow, which will allow users to add rules to business processes. A new on-demand Customer Portal can deliver Web 2.0 collaborative content to customers, the company said. The Intelligent Workflow capability will come in handy at Salesforce.com customerÂ Enviance, an on-demand environmental regulation compliance software provider based in Carlsbad, Calif., said Michele Hincks, vice president of marketing at the company. Enviance has been running Salesforce.com since 2004 for sales, marketing and customer service, but the workflow management capabilities have thus far been very rudimentary, she said. The workflow tool will allow the company to use custom fields help process new customers and perform other tasks, Hincks said. She also said she expects that marketing personnel at Enviance will be able to use Apex Code to custom-build applications, so they will no longer have to wait for IT programmers to get to such projects. "It seems it will be more usable," she said. "I can cut and paste code myself." Mike Epner, vice president of worldwide services and support at Borland Software, said that his firm will create several new applications to run on the Salesforce.com platform. In addition, Borland plans to use the new version's portal to deliver technical support content to Borland customers. "The new release continues the evolution from software as a service to platform as a service," said Denis Pombriant, analyst at Beagle Research Group LLC. "Platform as a service enables CIOs to concentrate less on keeping their infrastructures running while spending more time on deriving business benefits for their companies." The new version of Salesforce.com, called Summer '07, will be available in August.
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The Sugar Team is pleased to bring you the generally available (GA) release of Sugar Open Source 4.5.1.  SugarCRM is a complete CRM system for businesses of all sizes. Core CRM functionality includes sales force automation, marketing campaigns, support cases, project mgmt, calendaring and more. Built in PHP, supports MySQL and SQL Server.   For more information on this release, please see the Sugar Open Source 4.5.1 Release Notes http://www.sugarcrm.com/docs/Release_Notes/OpenSource_ReleaseNotes_4.5.1/toc.html).  Download Sugar Open Source 4.5.1 now! (http://www.sugarforge.org/content/downloads/)  New in Sugar 4.5.1  Here are some additions and improvements new with version 4.5.1.  Campaign Management  Campaign Wizard simplifies the experience of managing campaigns. The Campaign Wizard walks a marketer through a step-by-step process for setting up marketing campaigns. This expedites the process for marketers to design, develop and execute programs.  Campaign Manager with ROI Reports creates tracking URLs for online programs, records impressions and ad program cost information to provide a real-time ROI report based on the opportunity generated and closed by the campaign.  Automated Lead Capture lead capture forms to use on web sites thatcapture leads and automatically associate it to a campaign. The lead form wizard eliminates the need for technical expertise to link form fields to specific campaigns.  Module Loader  The Module Loader has been enhanced to allow you to download modules and upgrades from Sugar Exchange or from your local drive. You can also download new patches, themes, language packs, and dashlets.  -----------------  Upgrading to Sugar 4.5.1 Seminar on February 6 (https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/885896196)  Be prepared for the upgrade! Join us for an informational session that includes a walkthrough of the upgrade process on February 6, 2007, 1:00 pm US Pacific.  Space is limited. Reserve your seat now. This seminar will be recorded and available on Sugar University (http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/university/schedule) for your viewing. Sugar On-Demand users need not attend.  -----------------  We hope you enjoy the new functionality, improved performance and scalability and all the little usability improvements we put into the 4.5.1 release.  Cheers, The Sugar Team
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Etelos Systems Inc. has brought a beta version of a tool that can link its hoste CRM software and the Web-based suite of applications from Google Inc.
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The hosted CRM company's upcoming release will include a new framework for customizing online business software.
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Polarlake offers a free webinar on Wednesday, September 15, that introduces you to the challenge of applications integration using an &quot;incremental&quot; approach driven by business requirements, not technology limitations.
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Cisco Systems&#39; collaboration with Microsoft to target the SMB market is starting to bear fruit as the networking vendor Monday launched a new application that integrates Microsoft CRM with its VoIP platform.
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It's official: Salesforce CRM tools work with Safari on Mac OS X machines.
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With its Lotus Sametime line-up, IBM is attempting to use instant messenging and "unified communications" to reel in new customers from new places, ranging from small businesses to Microsoft Outlook mail environments. Will the strategy pay off?
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InfoWorld - SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. -- While the glitzy new consumer products may get most of the media attention at the Demo@15 show this year, enterprise applications were also well represented.
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Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) has revamped its sales-side CRM applications in version 11i.10 of its sales, marketing, partner relationship management and e-commerce application.
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Oracle Corp. plans to release the latest version of its CRM (customer relationship management) applications within the next two months, as part of an ongoing update of its E-Business Suite.
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Most industry observers agree that the CRM-software market is picking up speed this year and will continue to do so next year. And most also agree that venture capitalists have been waiting for several years to make their next moves regarding the startups they have backed through the thin years.
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Best Software is planning to introduce this month a new version of Accpac CRM, a hosted software application that it acquired last year from Computer Associates (NYSE: CA).
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Global Software, a developer of spreadsheet analytic tools, has added thre new customers and a distribution partner in recent weeks.
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Microsoft invites business users to preview its integrated performance management applications.
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Automating the sales process is one of the most important functions of a CRM system. In fact, much of today's CRM software has its origins back in the mid-'80s and early '90s, not as "customer relationship management" software, but instead as "sales automation" software.