How's it going?
Salesforce pitches to become the 'iTunes' of enterprise apps
Register - Jan 17, 2006
Their introduction follows last year's outage in the Salesforce. com service that Benioff said was due to a bug the company hadn’t “seen before. ”Benioff believes AppExchange helps maintain Salesforce. com's lead over CRM rivals Oracle and SAP and aspiring player Microsoft. All three have spoken of separately providing their own hosted CRM services and integrating their underling software architectures. In a pointed stab at the trio, Benioff said: "A lot of companies are not here. They are still back talking about stacks of applications, delivering it on old technology and delivering stacks on old CDs.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/17/salesforce_appexchange_launch/
Microsoft to Phase Out Windows Media Player for Mac
MacNewsWorld - Jan 13, 2006
Despite a new agreement announced at Macworld -- a five-year deal under which Microsoft will develop new versions of Microsoft Office for PowerPC as well as for the new Intel-based iMacs -- the software giant has been withdrawing development support for many Mac products, King told CRM Buyer, such as Internet Explorer for Mac and MSN for Mac. "The argument Microsoft typically makes is that these decisions are revenue-based," he said, meaning Mac has provided Microsoft with less and less revenue over time. iTunesThe decision to pull back from Windows Media could be a reflection of this reality, he said. "It is conceivable that Mac users simply aren't interested in it and they prefer Mac's own media software.
http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/8HJeVs0xQY07Bu/Microsoft-to-Phase-Out-Windows-Media-Player-for-Mac.xhtml
Microsoft updates software for call centers
InfoWorld - Jan 18, 2006
The new software now can integrate Citrix-based applications into the unified interface, he said. In addition, Microsoft has added a new agent desktop workflow that helps an agent through the process of serving a customer, Thirumurthy said. "Typically, an agent will go through five or 10 applications, such as CRM [customer relationship management], billing and order entry," he said. "This walks them through that process. They don't have to remember every task, every workflow, everything they need to do and in what order. "A typical deployment of CCF, which costs $100 per user seat and is available now, also requires licenses for Microsoft's Windows Server and SharePoint Portal Server software, Thirumurthy said.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/01/18/74299_HNmicrosoftcallcenter_1.html
The Major CRM Players
CIO - Jan 15, 2006
SalesNet: Focused on sales-force automation. On-Demand and On-Premise CRM Kana: Focused on customer service and service-resolution management. Microsoft: Provides sales-force automation, marketing automation, and service and support functionality predominantly for small and mid-market companies. Currently offers on-demand solutions only through its partners. RightNow: Provides functionality for customer service, sales-force automation and marketing automation. Siebel CRM (now owned by Oracle): Provides a suite of solutions for marketing automation, sales-force automation, call center and service, self-service and e-billing, customer-order management and partner management. Siebel’s on-demand solution provides functionality for contact center, sales-force automation, marketing automation, and service and support... Currently offers on-demand solutions only through its partners. RightNow: Provides functionality for customer service, sales-force automation and marketing automation. Siebel CRM (now owned by Oracle): Provides a suite of solutions for marketing automation, sales-force automation, call center and service, self-service and e-billing, customer-order management and partner management. Siebel’s on-demand solution provides functionality for contact center, sales-force automation, marketing automation, and service and support. On-Premise CRM Only mySAP CRM: Includes functionality for marketing, sales, service, e-commerce, contact center, and channel management. Onyx: Provides marketing automation, sales-force automation, service and support, contact center, partner-relationship management and customer-performance management. Oracle: Has basic functionality for sales-force automation, marketing automation, and service and support.
http://www.cio.com/archive/011506/on_demand_sidebar.html
Dear Subscriber to TheStreet.com Stocks Under $10,
thestreet.com - Jan 13, 2006
Now let's take a look at the portfolio and some of the
moves we made this week. One quick note: Ones are stocks we would buy now, while
Twos are stocks we would buy only on a pullback from
current levels. And as a reminder:
-- A Game Breaker is going to change the landscape of an
industry, as Intel, Microsoft and Wal-Mart did in their
sectors. Investors can make big money in these stocks by
getting in before the crowd. -- Inflection Point stocks have a broken business model
that's on the mend but has yet to be recognized by the
market. Investors who recognize a turnaround early can
pocket strong returns. -- Stealth Stocks are often unknown names to the general
public, but can be hugely profitable investments,
especially when they score well in the Alpha component of
our proprietary rating system... This is a common practice among
soon-to-be acquired software companies as salespeople want
to lock in as many commissions as possible before the
transition takes place. Also, we believe the on-demand
segment of the CRM market continues to grow at a double-
digit percentage clip, which will benefit RightNow's
future sales and cash-flow results. Even so, shares are a
full 58. 50% above our cost basis, so we will wait for a
pullback to $15 to make a purchase. A move closer to $22 a
share would likely prompt a sale.
http://www.thestreet.com/k/su/_googlen/archives/200601131653.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=SU&cm_ite=003966
Scottish city takes on Novell's GroupWise
InfoWorld - Jan 13, 2006
It has also had to deal with IBM's Lotus Notes, which has a hold on the high-end of the market, said Eric Woods, government practice director for Ovum Ltd. "Novell has had to try and maintain a position in that space the two giants have been fighting over," Woods said. Local governments tend to allocate funds first for front-line CRM (customer relationship management) programs that can improve delivery of services to their customers, the taxpayers, Woods said. But they are increasingly looking toward productivity software, albeit on a slower scale than their private-sector counterparts, he said. The council budgeted about £500,000 (US$883,000) for the first year of the upgrade, including implementation and consulting, officials said. GroupWise was the cheapest of the four software packages as far as total cost of ownership, Storr said. The council signed a five-year contract with Novell last February.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/01/13/73901_HNscottishgroupwise_1.html&source=searchresult
A blast from the dot-bomb past
BusinessWeek - Jan 13, 2006
It did about $45 million in revenues last year and is growing at about 20%--largely due to successful mobile services and mobile gaming. The software business is an amalgam. It has software development services in China and has rolled up a handful of medium-sized enterprise software companies, including, Pivotal, in the CRM market, Ross, in ERP, and a majority interest in IMI, a supply-chain specialist. It produced about $200 million in revenues last year--about a 10% growth rate. CDC Software is attempting to add to its portfolio--a down-market version of what software giant Oracle Corp. And that's what led it to Onyx, a small, Seattle company that specializes in CRM.
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2006/01/a_blast_from_th.html
Smooth Sailing for SAP
thestreet.com - Jan 25, 2006
In fact, SAP guided to stronger-than-expected revenue growth, offsetting the impact of its higher investment," wrote JMP analyst Patrick Walravens. Like Microsoft, which flirted with the idea of buying the company two years ago, SAP will be launching a basket of new products in 2006, including a new version of its hosted software suite, aimed at competing with hosted offerings by Oracle and Salesforce... In fact, SAP guided to stronger-than-expected revenue growth, offsetting the impact of its higher investment," wrote JMP analyst Patrick Walravens. Like Microsoft, which flirted with the idea of buying the company two years ago, SAP will be launching a basket of new products in 2006, including a new version of its hosted software suite, aimed at competing with hosted offerings by Oracle and Salesforce.
http://www.thestreet.com/tech/software/10264051.html
Dear Subscriber to TheStreet.com Stocks Under $10,
thestreet.com - Jan 20, 2006
Now let's take a look at the portfolio and some of the
moves we made this week. One quick note: Ones are stocks we would buy now, while
Twos are stocks we would buy only on a pullback from
current levels. And as a reminder:
-- A Game Breaker is going to change the landscape of an
industry, as Intel, Microsoft and Wal-Mart did in their
sectors. Investors can make big money in these stocks by
getting in before the crowd. -- Inflection Point stocks have a broken business model
that's on the mend but has yet to be recognized by the
market. Investors who recognize a turnaround early can
pocket strong returns. -- Stealth Stocks are often unknown names to the general
public, but can be hugely profitable investments,
especially when they score well in the Alpha component of
our proprietary rating system... 65, 300 shares,
5. 02%, Stealth Stock): RightNow is an emerging company in
the customer relationship management (CRM) space. On
Wednesday, research firm ThinkEquity Partners LLC raised
its target price on RightNow to $25 a share from $17 a
share. The research analyst believes the macro outlook for
on-demand software spending is strong, and RightNow's
sales representatives are now more upbeat on fourth-
quarter performance. In addition, RightNow's strong
product portfolio, which includes voice recognition CRM
support, provides the company with a competitive advantage
and is setting up strong cross-selling opportunities for
RightNow. We believe the company will report strong
earnings results in February.
http://www.thestreet.com/k/su/_googlen/archives/200601201723.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=SU&cm_ite=003966
Bye.
