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BEST OF ECT NEWS Microsoft's Strategy May Change Shape of CRM for...
CRM Buyer - Dec 25, 2005
We wanted to make it intuitive, make it seamless, but then can still answer the needs of the first wave, for analytics and trends data," she said. Familiar InterfaceMicrosoft CRM 3. 0's interface was designed to mimic Outlook. The software also includes close ties to Office software, which means much less training time in companies whose employees are already using Microsoft products. In other words, what Wardley termed the "Microsoft effect. "This is the effect that has taken place before with Microsoft and it's somewhat true," she said. "If you have the Microsoft stack, adding more products is beneficial because you're leveraging your existing products and expertise.
http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/48012.html
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Mobile Supports Windows Mobile 5.0
Geekzone - Dec 23, 2005
0 compatible with Windows Mobile 2003, Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition and Windows Mobile 5. When working with Microsoft CRM the client offers a rich customer and opportunity management functionality. The application is a. 0 thick client and works in both connected (Wireless, cellular data or cradled) and disconnected modes.
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=5641
CRM Mobile - mobile client for Microsoft CRM 3.0 - coming soon
msmobiles.com - Dec 25, 2005
Microsoft is often accused of making too much software in various areas of business, and thus killing any possible competition. However intead of waiting for some company to bring immature solutions to Windows Mobile, sometimes it is good that Microsoft is doing some software itself:
CRM Mobile is a mobile client for Microsoft CRM 3. 0 and it is NOT released as of yet!!! It is a. 0 based thick client and works in both connected (Wireless WAN (GPRS\EDGE) or cradled) and disconnected modes.
http://msmobiles.com/news.php/4719.html
Investors May Want to Join Quest
thestreet.com - Dec 22, 2005
Microsoft's new version of SQL Server, its first major upgrade in five years, could lead to an upgrade cycle for related tools, which would benefit Quest, as should the release of Windows Vista next year. Quest has made several acquisitions this year that bring it into new, yet related, markets. Vintela, which it bought in July for $77 million, allows certain existing Microsoft products to be used in environments outside of Windows, including Unix, Linux, Java, and Mac. Imceda, acquired in May for $64 million, expands Quest into backup and recovery for databases.
http://www.thestreet.com/p/_tscs/rmoney/software/10258803.html
2005's top 10 stories in CRM and customer data
SearchCIO.com - Dec 26, 2005
The deal brings together workforce management and unified contact center applications -- resulting in one formidable contact center heavyweight. After a long (too long?) wait, Microsoft delivers on CRM 3. 0 -- Microsoft skipped over 2.
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid91_gci1154734,00.html
When Web Services Go Bad
WebProNews - Dec 23, 2005
When they go away, as Salesforce. 18,700 customers of the hosted CRM service found themselves without application availability for over eight hours. com blamed a faulty database for the issue while repairing the service. A failover that is supposed to take place when this happens to keep the service running didn't happen... Without that redundancy, web services can and do go away, especially as more users crowd into the system. Six Apart had that problem recently with its Typepad blogging service, a problem that persisted for months. Web services may offer alternatives to PC-based applications, but until they reach a point of reliability greater than 99 percent, Microsoft doesn't have any reason to worry about its desktop businesses, especially Office. ---Email the author here.
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20051223WhenWebServicesGoBad.html
10 Tech Trends to Look for in 2006
thestreet.com - Dec 22, 2005
And if CEO Patricia Russo is ousted (no doubt with a $50 million-plus severance package), don't be surprised. BlackBerry will fall: Forget Research In Motion's (RIM:NYSE) patent troubles with NTP. By using Windows in the Treo 700, Palm (PALM:Nasdaq) declared war on the BlackBerry by teaming up with Microsoft, which wants to destroy RIM in mobile email anyway. Plus, subscriber growth is slowing, and the new BlackBerry designs simply aren't very cool and have little appeal outside the business world. And then, of course, there's Nokia and Samsung, and Motorola in the fray, too. The smartphone market will get bigger, but RIM will feel some real pain in 2006, even if it emerges victorious in the NTP suit (which is not certain by any means). The consumer will rule: Except for the absolute hottest products, the Internet has broken down all long-held notions of pricing power... With little real growth for large companies, they constantly throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks, ensuring that competition will always be high and pricing power weak. In addition, we will see more innovative products like the Slingbox, keeping the big companies on their toes and consumers happy. Bad for cable and the telcos, great for us!On-demand to get bigger: With the emergence of on-demand software from companies such as Salesforce. com (CRM:NYSE) and Microsoft's plans to put its apps on the Web, you have to believe competitors will follow. Quite simply, on-demand software rocks. My financial application of choice is Capital IQ, partially because I can access it from any Web connection in the world. How to make money from this? If Salesforce.
http://www.thestreet.com/p/pf/rmoney/marketcommentary/10258610.html
Analysis: Windows Live Needs Friends
PC World - Dec 23, 2005
To successfully compete with Web 2. 0 rivals, Microsoft must develop an ecosystem of partners that uses its Web-based Windows Live services to develop and market new applications, according to a new report by Summit Strategies. The report, published earlier in December and written by Summit President and Chief Research Officer Tom Kucharvy, posits that Microsoft must turn... Its AppExchange feature, which will be a part of its Salesforce. com Winter '06 release due out in mid-January, encourages partners to use the Salesforce. com service as a development and marketing platform by allowing software vendors to offer wares as tightly integrated, hosted CRM add-ons. Microsoft Learns Quickly Its Web-savvy competitors may be ahead of them, but that's not to say Microsoft is oblivious to the need to take on partners to help drive its Windows Live strategy, Kucharvy said. For example, the company. That's a good start, Kucharvy said.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,124068-page,1/article.html
Chris Kraeuter On Information Technology
Forbes - Dec 27, 2005
Next stop on the offshoring express train: Estonia and its Baltic cousins. Watch List -- Marc Benioff. Gets to really prove if his Salesforce... The Bold Prediction Thin client computing gets fat this year as more and more companies pull data and applications from employee computers--notebook or desktop--back into the network, enabling safer, faster, more flexible computing. Long a dream of data-center wonks, multiple technologies from the likes of VMWare, Advanced Micro Devices, IBM and Salesforce. com converge in 2006 to make this the year that virtual computing takes over the work landscape. Application processing on your puny computer be gone.
http://www.forbes.com/2005/12/12/information-2006-predictions-sneakpeek_sp06_14_ckraeuter_information.html?partner=yahootix
Software shifts gear Upstarts try to outrun high-tech 'dinosaurs&#...
San Francisco Chronicle - Dec 25, 2005
He said for a big company to adapt an on-demand model, it would need to overhaul its technology, its financial structure -- even its corporate culture -- and cannibalize its existing business in the process. The task may be daunting, but Oracle, SAP and Microsoft aren't just any dinosaurs. They've become wealthy by being nimble enough to adapt to changes the tech world throws their way. The Internet was supposed to seal their doom -- and yet they've grown bigger than ever. "Our research and development budget more than dwarfs all of these companies probably put together," said Oracle's Hummel. "We're putting a lot of those R&D dollars into the delivery of software... com's Benioff boasts that his clients include Nextel, Kaiser Permanente, Symantec, Staples, Cisco and Merrill Lynch. When the software firm Sybase sought to change some of its own internal operations about three years ago, "We looked at several technologies out there," said Thomas Volk, an executive vice president of Sybase. It was using Siebel Systems for its customer relationship management software, known as CRM, which handles a company's sales and customer service operations. As Sybase investigated and tried out Salesforce. com, Volk said, it found that the software "gives us the flexibility we want and the functionality we need. We could integrate our own needs at lower costs than the previous system. " And by putting all the data at a remote site -- what Arena's Topolovac calls "in the cloud" -- users everywhere can access the system easily.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/25/BUGLLGC4Q41.DTL
CRM Week in Review from TMCnet
TMCnet - Dec 30, 2005
Some of the best practices that Band recommends include defining objectives and processes first before applying technology; technology can sink CRM programs; and people challenges are the toughest problems. The paper is said to be worth every penny and can be found at... The issue with metadata is there is no way to control it once documents leave the Windows system or enterprise network. While Microsoft is releasing certain measures to assist in the extra security needed, analysts are suggested that more is needed to ensure sensitive documents and information are protected.
http://news.tmcnet.com/news/2005/dec/1249108.htm
Windows, Linux tussle with Unix
ZDNetIndia - Dec 27, 2005
Indian enterprises have predominantly used RISC-based servers for mission-critical deployments. Moreover, Linux going 64-bit on x86 and Itanium before Windows didn't really spur the adoption of Windows Server 2003. While Microsoft would like to take the fight to the Unix camp, it will have to deal with Red Hat and Novell first. 64-bit platforms are irresistible for software vendors as all
mission-critical applications run on them. Microsoft has been a late entrant
here. Thanks to aggressive marketing, it is gaining acceptance in the enterprise
segment. Demand for the Itanium-Windows combination is picking up... "
Informs Kamal Dutta, Country Manager, Business Critical Servers, Hewlett
Packard, India, "As Microsoft has introduced a 64-bit edition of the Windows
Server, two opportunities emerged. The first is a shift from RISC-based
platforms and the second is the existing 32-bit customers moving to 64-bit and
continuing with the Windows family. " He feels that this provides an ambitious
path for SMBs which can now shift from 32 to 64-bit and deploy applications like
SAP, SCM and CRM. Mindtree Consulting is among those that shifted to Windows Server 2003. "We
have been running Microsoft software for a long time. All our divisions run on
their software so it was just a shift from 32 to 64-bit within the same family,"
says Anand Rao Ladi, GM, R&D, Mindtree. Further, if Microsoft had not come out with a 64-bit version of its software,
Mindtree would have had to look for some other platform.
http://www.zdnetindia.com/insight/software/stories/132048.html?s=1
The year in software: Oracle rules the roost
ARNnet - Dec 28, 2005
'SaaS' takes off
The awkwardly named "software-as-a-service" or "on-demand" movement doesn't have a good buzzword, but it does have a lot of interested buyers. Pioneer Salesforce. com increased its revenue more than 80 percent for the first nine months of the year, as the subscriber count for its hosted, subscription CRM (customer relationship management) service grew to more than 350,000. A swarm of startups have flooded the market with on-demand offerings, and every top-tier vendor has developed a strategy -- with varying degrees of success -- for countering Salesforce. Industry giant SAP says it will have an on-demand product some time next year. Siebel offers a cautionary tale, though... estimates that 77 percent of large enterprises will be actively implementing SOAs by the end of this year. But don't expect simplification from the SOA trend, analysts warn: building an IT system from components gives an IT manager flexibility, but it also means every one of those components has to be maintained. Microsoft comes (a)Live
Twenty-seven-year-old Microsoft has navigated many rocks and waves in its decades at the vanguard of software. Ray Ozzie's now famous memo about "The Internet Services Disruption," sent in October to Microsoft managers, outlines the company's thoughts as it works to adjust to the new "seamless model of connectedness" made possible by standardization and technical advances. Ozzie exhorted all of Microsoft's divisions to map out their plans for putting services at the heart of Microsoft's forthcoming products. Spotting the iceberg is easier than turning the ship, though. Microsoft's underwhelming launch of Windows Live, its platform for blending a collection of consumer-focused online applications with content and applications from a user's PC, illustrated how far it lags behind Internet innovators like Yahoo Inc.
http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;957386506
Contour Components Released New OLAP Component ContourCube 3.0...
PR Web - PR Web (press release) - Dec 24, 2005
Application powered with ContourCube allows users to create numerous nice-formed screen and printable reports in a minute. User can interact with data: slice and dice, drill down and roll up, pivot with sub-second response times and without additional server. ContourCube sells in the international market since 2002 and had been incorporated into hundreds of ERP, CRM, analytical applications, web sites, and report distribution solutions deployed to over 50 000 workstations. Home page of ContourCube:.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/12/prweb325471.htm
XMLAW Announces Availability of SPxConnect WorkSite Module Service...
PR Web - PR Web (press release) - Dec 26, 2005
The Module requires minimal configuration and can be deployed in minutes. The included model application can be used immediately as a fully-functional alternative to Interwoven’s WorkSite Web and offers significant savings when compared with similar offerings from Interwoven and other providers. SPxConnect is designed exclusively for Microsoft SharePoint environments, including Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. The WorkSite Module is part of the SPxConnect line of products which integrate multiple enterprise systems and custom-built applications in context to build rich, compelling and unique portal applications. SPxConnect WorkSite Module v3. 0 sp1a is available for existing customers by contacting. A fully-functional evaluation version of the software can be obtained by contacting... About XMLAWXMLAW is the leading provider of SharePoint-based products and services to the legal market. SPxConnect, XMLAW’s flagship product, provides quick creation of dynamic and integrated SharePoint collaborative workspaces with real-time, feature-rich access to practice, client and matter information. SPxConnect provides application and search integration with legal systems such as document management, practice management and CRM as well as custom-built applications.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/12/prweb325810.htm
AGIS reaches landmark 100th ERP customer
AME Info - Dec 27, 2005
Currently, the leading ERP firm implements leading solutions including Microsoft Axapta, Microsoft Navision and Sage ERP. Apart from ERP solutions, AGIS also has established a strong foothold in several vertical solutions including retail, hospitality and networking solutions. Speaking on the achievement of the landmark figure, Manjeet Singh, Regional Manager, Algosaibi Information Systems remarked:
'We are delighted on reaching this important milestone at AGIS. Through reaching a portfolio of 100 ERP customers, we have definitely built niche advantages of expertise in different industries, including manufacturing, shipping, retail, hospitality, financial services and others... The growth has been driven by our strong end-to-end solution strategy, founded on robust applications and industry-based expertise. We look forward to a continued, upward trend in 2006,' concluded Singh. With a total of over 250 customers, AGIS' portfolio of products includes ERP solutions, CRM solutions, retail systems, property management systems, business intelligence and networking solutions. Headquartered in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, the firm has 6 branches across the Middle East and is planning to expand quickly across the region.
http://www.ameinfo.com/74834.html
2005'S IT WINNERS AND LOSERS
SearchCIO.com - Dec 26, 2005
The database giant went on a shopping spree in 2005, swallowing up security, retail and application vendors. On the CRM front, vendors that have been battling Siebel for years -- like SAP and Saleforce. com -- can count themselves winners, as Oracle and Siebel get distracted by the chaos inherent in acquisitions. But that may not last long. Cisco Systems: Another year, another dominant performance. The networking giant continues to lead all major networking markets and is raking in the profits.
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid19_gci1154260,00.html
Software Should not Cost You an Arm and a Leg
LXer - Dec 31, 2005
Besides, valuable feedback is received from the customers. Eventually, most of the business solutions companies are earning their main income from services, not from products, for quite some time now. Big companies, like Microsoft and Oracle are offering free software products for their database engines. They too have understood that fighting with piracy does not make much sense. In 2006 whole range of software packages, including CRM ( Customer Relationship Manager ), is going to be released using the same method. Currently available software products licencing stays the same until the autumn of 2006 when whole company licencing policy is reconsidered. As small businesses grow, they need the software to be customized, according to their specific needs, sooner or later... Big companies, like Microsoft and Oracle are offering free software products for their database engines. They too have understood that fighting with piracy does not make much sense. In 2006 whole range of software packages, including CRM ( Customer Relationship Manager ), is going to be released using the same method. Currently available software products licencing stays the same until the autumn of 2006 when whole company licencing policy is reconsidered. As small businesses grow, they need the software to be customized, according to their specific needs, sooner or later. First free product named DABE FreeSales 2005 is already out and available at.
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=50936
Have a nice day!
