Welcome to a rainy Friday (rainy over the CRM week in review, in any case) and all the CRM news you need to start the weekend.
Apatar, a vendor of open source software tools for the data integration market, this week announced the official release of its new StrikeIron US Address Verification connector for the Apatar Open Source Data Integration toolset. The feature relies on United States Postal Service-certified technology to verify, correct, and enhance any address in the United States with live data. It "cleans customer data before it gets into CRM/ERP systems, databases, flat files, and RSS feeds by correcting extracted addresses, adding ZIP+4 data, specifying congressional districts, carrier routes, etc.," according to company officials.
Read the full article at http://opensourcepbx.tmcnet.com/topics/applications/articles/24436-apatar-intros-open-source-address-verification-tool.htm
Mindshift Technologies, which sells managed IT and VoIP
services, has acquired Burlington, Massachusetts-based Collaboration Online, a privately-owned vendor of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Collaboration Online does business under multiple brands such as GroupSpark and AgileWave CRM, selling hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Read the full article at https://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/analysis/articles/24430-mindshift-technologies-acquires-crm-vendor-collaboration-online.htm
Graham Technology has been acquired by international IT company Sword Group. "It is expected that the acquisition will help drive global uptake of Graham Technology's flagship customer interaction platform, ciboodle," Graham officials say. With offices in 16 countries, Sword employs over 2,000 people worldwide and has expertise in sectors including banking, insurance, energy and telecoms. Through the acquisition, Graham Technology officials say they expect to be able to use Sword's resources to "maximize" the company's geographic reach. Read about the acquisition at http://call-recording.tmcnet.com/topics/crm/articles/24242-crm-vendor-graham-technology-acquired-sword-group.htm
Solutions Force this week announced a partnership with Salesforce.com covering the Middle East region. The deal was announced at a recent CRM Essentials Workshop. ESolutions officials say the company can now sell "end-to-end products to the Middle East." The tie-up makes eSolutions Force, part of MDS Group, the strategic partner of Salesforce.com in the region, providing Middle East regional sales and marketing as well as implementation, training, coaching and support for Salesforce.com's on-demand CRM applications. Read the full piece at https://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/analysis/articles/24431-esolutions-salesforcecom-team-crm-the-middle-east.htm
Companies today are finding value in CRM software tools to help increase revenue and customer satisfaction. Salesforce Automation Systems offer the tools companies need to stay ahead in the marketplace. But with a number of options being offered by different systems, it can be difficult for purchasers to narrow down the key features they need.
To help,VendorGuru.com has begun offering "What to Look For When Buying Salesforce Automation Systems." The free guide discusses the five key areas to consider when purchasing new salesforce automation tools.
Read more about it at http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/crm-software/articles/24551-salesforce-automation-system-must-haves.htm
Self-service options are growing in popularity amongst American consumers, the latest research from NCR Corporation has found. Consumers are not only showing favoritism to businesses who offer "do-it-myself" options by choosing to do business with them, but are also strengthening their brand loyalty as a result. Read about the study at http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/ip-communications/articles/24544-study-finds-north-american-consumers-want-more-self.htm
CRM is one of those tricky solutions that can provide significant benefit to the organization, or it can cost a lot of money, sit on the server and never provide any benefit to the organization. The difference is in the approach taken from management and how the implementation is governed. Clate Mask, President of Infusion Software (News - Alert), recently posted a blog regarding the strengths of CRM software. In this blog, Mask noted that with any good technology, there is always a hidden benefit waiting for the right entrepreneur to profit from it. The hidden benefit in CRM lies within the personal value that it creates.
Read Susan Campbell's article at http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/marketing-software/articles/24478-crm-benefits-best-realized-when-implementation-encouraged-from.htm
That's all for this week, friends of CRM. Until next week!