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CPM Marketing Group Inc., headquartered in Madison, Wis., is a pioneer in the development of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions, including database development, intelligent healthcare marketing systems and predictive market segmentation. CPM’s integrated solutions allow healthcare organizations to maximize their customer relationships through market analysis, strategic planning and targeted personal communications.

CPM Marketing Group introduces its Perceptual Profiles system, developed to enhance CRM campaigns through psychographics. Perceptual Profiles is an individual-based healthcare modeling system that defines how a healthcare message should be constructed to increase its effectiveness for a specific responder.

Perceptual Profiles is based on an individual’s beliefs of health and healthcare. CPM’s proprietary system is rooted in historic market research and completed through an innovative combination of database and survey research. Perceptual Profiles places individuals from a hospital’s CRM database into one of six segments which can determine messaging and match individuals with appropriate attributes that drive direct response messaging.

Perceptual Profiles can guide in the development of communication packages and increase response rate. Direct response is one of the best ways to achieve the conversion from need to action. The effectiveness of direct response is enhanced by matching message attributes to an individual’s psychographics. CPM’s system can help create a better message that resonates with an individual and cause them to take up an offer.

Tags: open source, CPM, news, CRM, software, CRM news, system

NetSuite Inc., the on-demand business-management software provider controlled by Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison, said Monday that the auction for its proposed initial public offering of common stock has begun. NetSuite is conducting the offering as a modified Dutch auction.

NetSuite is offering 6.2 million common shares in the offering. In previous Securities and Exchange Commission filings, NetSuite said the IPO is expected to price between $13 and $16 each.

Based on the anticipated price range, NetSuite would have a market capitalization of $773.6 million to $952.2 million. Assuming an offering price of $14.50 per share, the company expects to raise net proceeds of about $80.9 million from the IPO, after fees and expenses.

NetSuite plans to use the net proceeds to repay the outstanding $8 million balance on the company’s secured line of credit with its controlling shareholder Tako Ventures LLC. NetSuite said it may also use some of the proceeds to make acquisitions.

The underwriters have an option to buy up to 930,000 additional shares from NetSuite and a group of selling stockholders, including Chief Executive Zachary Nelson and Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Evan M. Goldberg. Goldberg, a former Oracle employee, started the company in 1998 with Ellison’s help.

Tags: news, NetSuite, IPO Auction, start, Oracle, CRM News

Salesboom.com is a leading industry provider of on demand Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) business software services to over 30,000 subscribers and 3500 customers in over 159 countries. Customers include LexisNexis, Transcontinental and Gannett Company. Salesboom SaaS solutions help SMBs improve Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service and manage Inventory, Accounting, and Human Resources processes, on demand.

Salesboom.com will offer Two-Factor Authentication Security to its customers. With phishing scams on the rise Salesboom.com’s new database security standards ensure that your CRM database security and integrity will never be breached by phishing scams.

Ever increasing pressure on internet database security has sparked Salesboom.com to take a proactive approach in order to maintain their flawless database security track record. Recently customer security became an issue with Salesforce.com when a phishing scam successfully retrieved an employee’s password granting them access to a Salesforce.com contact list. With access to this database phishers were able to contact clients of Salesforce.com to carry out their scam on them. This phishing scam and future occurrences could be avoided with implementation of Two-Factor Authentication Security.

Tags: CRM, news, open source, salesforce, salesboom, internet, database, security, CRM news

It is believed it is increasingly important for Microsoft to act more as a single company and for users to view Microsoft as offering a single strong value proposition based on 6 product businesses merging into one services offering. This is true, however, only if you assume that Microsoft’s still unspoken strategy is to become a services company.
The services approach is Microsoft’s strategy of the future because, hidden by the SEC segmentation but revealed by a 6 market taxonomy perspective, investors will see that Microsoft is already looking at Windows and Office as end games. It is looking at ways to change the IT user’s total experience to spur the next decade of Microsoft growth. In addition, we believe Microsoft will preempt the open source software (OSS) movement over the next decade—by joining it. The current price of $33 doesn’t fully reflect our expected long-term scenario for Microsoft.

Products covered in this report include:

- Vista
- AS/400
- Windows Server 2003
- BizTalk Server
- SQL Server
- Duet
- IBM Notes
- NetWeaver
- QuickBooks

Tags: open source, Microsoft, software, business, CRM, CRM news

Indian service providers, once considered the darlings of the outsourcing industry, today face challenges causing U.S. clients to question the benefit of sending work overseas. Also, as the value of the U.S. dollar drops in relation to the Indian rupee, some offshore providers feel compelled to raise prices, which negates the cost savings U.S. companies expect when offshoring I.T. work to India. And if smaller India-based offshore providers hope to compete with the IBM Global Services and Accentures of the industry, they must build global service delivery centers and expand their reach beyond their own geographic region.

“While it is less expensive than operating solely in the U.S., the cost of doing business in India has become more onerous because the demand for talent there is so high now that workers want more money and staff turnover has increased,” says Mindy Blodgett, research analyst at Yankee Group.

Foreman attributed the problems he experienced with high staff turnover as well as an increase in jobs for Indian workers at U.S.-based companies such as IBM. “The attrition there was uncontrollable and we also had issues with the quality of staff available to us. Add onto that customer complaints and language barriers and the situation becomes a time and resources drain,” he said.

Despite the cost increase WatchGuard will inevitably incur by locating those positions back in the United States or in the Philippines, Foreman said the company and its customers will benefit long-term. “We want to maintain our customer loyalty. The India support is not what our customers have come to expect for mission-critical equipment,” Foreman said.

In response to such scenarios, India-based offshore providers are establishing facilities in more diverse geographic regions. For instance, Wipro, India’s third-largest outsourcer behind Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys Technologies, in 2007 set up its first U.S., or onshore, development center in Altanta, and also established a near-shore location in Monterrey, Mexico.

And the creation of outsourcing facilities closer to home doesn’t mean U.S. companies will stop sending work overseas to India. More likely, U.S. clients will engage in blended contracts in which the customer-facing processes or services are outsourced to a nearshore location while back-office functions continue to be sent to India-based facilities.

Tags: news, outsourcing, closer, CRM, CRM news, software, facilities

Oncontact Software, the experts in mid-market customer relationship management (CRM), launched its new, interactive Web site featuring fresh, contemporary imagery, CRM industry resources and an online software demonstration. The new Web site also highlights Oncontact’s “Run With It” ability, which enables users to access their important business information any way they want it, whether its Web, network or sync-based.

Oncontact Software develops award-winning .NET CRM software for mid-market companies.
Oncontact Software is a privately held company with a presence throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Middle East. Oncontact Software’s products are available through its corporate headquarters in Wisconsin and an international alliance of value-added resellers, system integrators and distributors. Oncontact Software has over 600 customers worldwide, including Prudential, Foremost Insurance and Carfax.

“Our new Web site is designed to complement our solution offerings in an easy to use, interactive format,” said Jon Zimmerman, president, Oncontact Software. “It also provides a wealth of industry information and advice to provide organizations the critical information they need when deploying a CRM solution.”

In addition to the online demonstration, Oncontact’s Web site features case studies, a library of white papers and a complimentary Forrester Research report. The site also features a CRM blog offering tips and trends to improve business efficiency.

“Our site is not only designed to inform about our solution, but to educate as well,” Zimmerman added. “Our goal is to provide businesses with the industry information and tools they need to maximize their CRM capabilities to stay ahead of the competition and drive results.”

Tags: news, CRM, CRM News, Oncontact, software, lauches, interactive, web site

Rimini Street is the leading independent provider of enterprise software support services. The company is redefining the market with an innovative, next-generation support program that enables Siebel, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards licensees to remain on their current software release without any required upgrades or migrations for ten years or more. In addition to a higher service-level commitment, Rimini Street provides customers with an average savings of more than 50% in annual support fees when compared to Oracle.

Rimini Street, Inc., the leading independent maintenance and support provider for Siebel, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards (NASDAQ:ORCL) software, announced its clients are saving millions of dollars in annual support and upgrade costs by extending the lifespan of their current enterprise software releases for three, five, or even ten years or more. Rimini Street Support enables software licensees to avoid costly upgrades by leveraging their existing software releases ranging from brand new to more than a decade old and receiving full support, including tax and regulatory updates, 24×7 with 30 minute guaranteed response. In contrast, software support policies from vendors like Oracle and SAP require their support customers to continually upgrade to new releases or face increasing annual penalty fees and eventual termination of new update service for their older, stable releases.

The City of Flint, Michigan is using Rimini Street Support to leverage its stable, decade-old PeopleSoft 7.5 release to smoothly support city human resource and payroll operations. Originally debuting in September of 1997, PeopleSoft Release 7.5 turned ten years old this year and is a clear example of how enterprise software coupled with Rimini Street Support can deliver significant annual IT cost savings, a better value, and a strong return on existing software investments.

“We look forward to driving even more value and a longer lifespan out of our stable PeopleSoft 7.5 release,” said Tom O’Brien, Database Administrator, The City of Flint Michigan. “Rimini Street’s knowledgeable staff, responsive service, and high quality tax and regulatory updates continue to provide us the support we need to keep our PeopleSoft 7.5 release operating smoothly. Additionally, we have saved over 50% on our annual support costs and have been able to avoid several costly upgrades that were required under the vendor’s support program in order for us to remain eligible for support. Rimini Street is a strategic IT partner for the City of Flint, and we couldn’t be happier with the service and results.”

Siebel CRM 6, initially introduced as Siebel eBusiness 2000, is nearly eight years old and continues to provide value for many licensees, including Rimini Street client Wenger Manufacturing.

“Wenger Manufacturing has been running Siebel 6 for almost 8 years now and we have not found any business need to upgrade,” said Jesse Mitchell of Wenger Manufacturing’s IT Group. “Siebel 6 continues to meet all of our business objectives, and after years of paying high annual maintenance fees we switched to Rimini Street Support. Rimini Street provides the annual support services we need to keep our mission-critical Siebel 6 system operating properly, and we are saving more than 50% over what we were paying Siebel and Oracle in annual support costs and we are not required to upgrade. Rimini Street has allowed us to redirect annual cost savings and resources to other important IT projects.”

Many other Rimini Street clients are running newer software releases such as PeopleSoft 8.9 and Siebel 7.8 that were just made available in recent years, and Rimini Street Support is designed to help keep these releases running smoothly and delivering strong returns to clients well into the next decade.

“Enterprise software today is more stable than ever and current releases can run business operations through 2020 and beyond with the right support program,” said Seth Ravin, president and CEO of Rimini Street. “As more and more organizations come to understand that the enterprise software releases developed over the last decade are going to be the stable and mature releases that carry them into the next decade and beyond, the focus is clearly shifting to cost savings and driving stronger returns out of existing enterprise software investments.”

Tags: Rimini Street, clients, saving, software, news, CRM, case studies

If you run a small business, you know how important customer relationship management, or CRM, can be to your bottom line. And you know it can be a bit daunting. Well, not with GoldMine and GoldMine 8 For Dummies!

GoldMine is business software designed to help you organize your contacts, track activities, schedule appointments, create reports that tell you how you’re doing, and make accurate business projections. GoldMine 8 is completely revised to make it more useful than ever, once you get the hang of it.

That’s where GoldMine For Dummies comes to the rescue! Written by an authorized GoldMine trainer, this guide shows you how to:

- Set up GoldMine 8 and customize it for your business

- Create, view, and update customer records

- Schedule activities and manage leads

- Monitor your marketing efforts and see what’s working

- Predict sales based on past results

- Work with GoldMine’s e-mail system

- Organize and distribute information

- Access GoldMine from outside your office

- Integrate GoldMine with your company Web site

Even if you’ve used a previous version of GoldMine, you’ll find some big changes in this newest revision, but GoldMine 8 For Dummies makes it easy to get up to speed. When you’ve read this book and discovered how GoldMine can help you keep track of your clients, reduce costs, and improve efficiency, you’ll think you’ve hit the motherlode!

WHAT THE BOOK COVERS: navigating GoldMine, setting up preferences, creating and viewing customer records, using filters and SQL queries, scheduling activities, sales forecasting, connecting to Word documents and templates, using Outlook with GoldMine, remotely accessing your GoldMine data, creating new labels and fields, linking GoldMine to your Web site, and more.

UPDATED COVERAGE OF THE NEW VERSION: This new edition will have approximately 40-50% new content, covering the new features and enhancements made in the latest version of GoldMine.

SERIES FEATURES: Information presented in the straightforward but fun language that has defined the Dummies series for more than fifteen years.

Tags: Goldmine 8, Dummies, CRM, CRM News

Founded in 2000, Selltis has a broad range of domain expertise in delivering CRM software to support the needs of technical and industrial sales organizations. The company’s software is widely used by leading manufacturers and distributors serving a range of vertical markets, such as electrical, power generation, process control, among others.

Selltis, LLC, a provider of on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) software for end-to-end sales process automation, announced that it has received venture funding from Advantage Capital Partners and Enhanced Capital Partners.

“We are not just bringing to market a new product but truly shaping a new mindset within SFA/CRM to empower customers to ‘link the way you think’ through a complete sales process automation tool,” said David Erath, CEO, Selltis, LLC. “The continued support of our funding partner Advantage Capital along with new investment from Enhanced Capital gives us the resources to continue to market our new platform to existing and prospective customers.”

Advantage Capital Partners is an innovative group of venture capital partnerships with more than $800 million under management. Founded in 1999, Enhanced Capital Partners is a national investment firm with over $400 million under management specializing in investments in small and mid-size companies.

About Enhanced Capital Partners

Founded in 1999, Enhanced Capital Partners is a national investment firm with over $400 million under management specializing in investments in small and mid-size companies. Enhanced Capital provides a range of investment options to promote the growth and expansion of businesses. Our flexibility and practical investment approach can make the difference in maximizing the growth potential for a company poised for rapid growth. Enhanced Capital’s team members have extensive experience working with high growth businesses and a proven track record for helping our portfolio companies realize their full potential.

About Advantage Capital Partners

Advantage Capital Partners is an innovative group of venture capital partnerships with more than $800 million under management. Established in 1992, the firm has grown from its origins in Louisiana to include offices in Missouri, New York, Texas and Washington, D.C. From the start, Advantage has raised private funds to invest in states and communities undeserved by traditional sources of risk capital. The firm has built a strong track record of public-private partnerships with state and federal organizations, facilitating the flow of billions of dollars of investment capital into these communities. In conjunction with such efforts, Advantage provides equity and debt capital – along with value-added counsel and other support – to promising operating businesses that have the potential for excellent investor returns as well as significant community impact. The firm uses this dual bottom line to measure its success.

About Selltis, LLC

Selltis, LLC is a provider of on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) software for end-to-end sales process automation. Specializing in the needs of technical and industrial sales organizations, Selltis manages all aspects of the customer and partner relationship lifecycle. Built on the company’s unique, “many-to-many” data linking Hyperrelational technology, the Selltis Sales platform allows industrial sales teams to “Link The Way You Think.” Selltis customers include leading specialized manufacturers, distributors and technology companies such as Toshiba Plant System & Services Corporation Power Systems Division, Waukesha-Pearce Industries (WPI), Ashcroft, General Sports Venue, Falk Renew Prager (Division of Rexnord), Contech Bridge, Pratt & Whitney (a division of United Technologies), Texas A&M School of Industrial Distribution, Detronics (a division of Kidde), WIKA, ITT Industries, Colder Products, Kidde Fire, Asbury Carbon, Hansen Transmission, Milwaukee Valve, and American Lewa.

Tags: CRM, CRM news, Hosted CRM, new version, Selltis, software

Product lifecycle management software developer PTC plans to buy CoCreate Software for $250 million. PTC plans to broaden its portfolio of PLM and CAD (computer aided design) products to include an impressive suite of modeling tools that offer product development capabilities, like: engineering calculations, dynamic publishing, visualization, high-speed machining, and enterprise content and process management. PTC, of Needham, Mass., will integrate CoCreate’s modeling software into its Product Development System.

CoCreate Software logo

In addition to announcing the acquisition, PTC reported its fourth quarter 2007 revenue, up 9 percent for the same year-ago period, to $266.7 million, and full year revenues, up 10 percent from 2006, to $941.5 million. PTC said fourth-quarter license revenues grew 14 percent from the same year-ago period, to $96.1 million. Total license revenues for the fiscal year were $296.1 million, up 12 percent from 2006.

CoCreate has about 5,000 customers, including the likes of: Agilent, Canon, Fisher Controls, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Olympus, and NEC. CoCreate also has 280 employees and annual revenues of about $80 million.

PTC logo

PTC President and CEO C. Richard Harrison said in a statement: “As experts in product development, we are constantly evaluating technologies that address the business challenges of our customers. This acquisition is compelling as it enhances PTC’s product portfolio while also contributing in a meaningful way to earnings and operating margin. We are committed to protecting and enhancing the investment that these customers have made in CoCreate solutions and we plan to also offer additional complementary PTC solutions in order to bring them even more value.”

The CoCreate acquisition is another step in a rapidly consolidating PLM portfolio. In the last year and a half, Dassault bought MatrixOne, Siemens bought UGS and Oracle bought Agile Software. And while there is a boatload of smaller PLM vendors in the market, the major players have consolidated to three: PTC, UGS (itself a compilation of acquisitions) and Dassault. Now ERP (enterprise resource planning) giants SAP and Oracle are in the game, too, increasing competition even more.

Tags: CoCreate, PLM, software, CRM News, ERP, SAP, open source