Latest CRM Software Industry News

EXS to build and manage reseller channel for Surado CRM

Riverside, CA, March 27, 2007 – Surado Solutions, the emerging innovator in customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, today announced that Enterprise Exchange Systems, Inc. (EXS) will be the exclusive Master Channel Distributor for North America including United States and Canada for Surado Channel Partners. Additionally, EXS is responsible for managing the growing Surado Channel Partner Program, which allows partners to resell Surado CRM product lines and provide related services. 

Surado Channel Partner programs provide a clear value to VARs and System Integrators looking to add CRM to their products and service offering.  Benefits include high profit margins, cooperative marketing opportunities, sales, marketing and implementation materials, training, certification and lead referrals.  And with Surado Customer Application Designer (CAD), partners will be able to create integrated custom applications for resale.

As the master channel distributor, EXS will provide Surado Channel Partners in North America a competitive edge by aligning them with an innovative CRM tool that reflects the latest technology and integrates other data segments throughout the enterprise.  EXS will also be responsible for all partner services including partner sign-up, support, training, certification and on-going partner development.

“This is an exciting time for Surado and its partners.  With the experience and knowledge EXS has in the CRM industry, Surado partners can expect a new level of service to help each one propel their business to new heights,” said Sundip R. Doshi, CEO of Surado Solutions, Inc.  “And the best part is that this relationship will ultimately serve our clients with the highest level of product and services.”

“Partnering with Surado to build their channel and distribute their product was a strategic move for us”, said Kate Schrader, President of Enterprise Exchanges Systems, Inc. As a VAR in the industry for the past ten years, and the host of CRM Talk Radio, I quickly recognized the strong position that the Surado product line is playing in this ever changing market.  The value to the resellers we select is high profit margins, expansion of their market and a product utilizing the latest development technology.  Surado CRM product offers any size company an enterprise product, and comes standard with features that other products add in at additional costs, thus bringing greater value to the reseller’s customer base.”  

For more information about the Surado Partner Program, call EXS at 1-800-892-4158.

Interview discusses Mr. Doshi’s latest whitepaper on Why CRM Matters for the Small Business Owner.
 
Riverside, CA, December 7, 2006 – Surado Solutions, the emerging innovator in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions, today announced that its CEO, Sundip R. Doshi was interviewed on CRM Talk Radio hosted by Kate Schrader on December 6, 2007.

The CRM Talk Radio interview focused on Mr. Doshi’s whitepaper entitled Got CRM? Small Business CRM Software Guide.  Items of interest for a small business owner included Why it (CRM) Matters, How CRM helps with Organization & Efficiencies, Reducing Operating Costs with CRM and Affording and Implementing CRM solutions.

CRM Talk Radio is the new global voice of customer relationship management available over the web. With guests ranging from the industry’s leading voices, organizations that deploy CRM tools, to the developers of technology, this live and archived talk radio show creates an objective source for sales professionals and management to realize CRM success. CRM Talk Radio broadcasts out of San Diego to a broad range of listeners including CRM vendors, consultants, practitioners and users.  To listen to the interview, please visit http://www.wsradio.com/crmtalk/.

Surado CRM announces support for ShoreTel Telephone Systems

Riverside, CA, October 25, 2006 – Surado Solutions, a company that provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for small to medium sized enterprises, today announced the support of Computer Telephony Integration with ShoreTel IP PBX telephone systems.

Providing out of the box integration is critical for any business using CRM systems today.  Towards that end, Surado continues to increase its integration feature set with third party applications and systems.  With CTI integration to ShoreTel telephone systems, when an incoming call is directed to an extension, Surado CRM CTI application residing on the computer is automatically alerted and pops up the Surado CRM Contact Screen for the person calling in. A variety of features are then available to the end user – To continue working on the Surado CRM system, to put the contact on hold or to transfer to another extension. A variety of configurations allow you to configure the system to automatically fill marketing related information including which 800# was called as well as tracking an activity – whether it is – called received, called transferred, etc.

“From a product development standpoint, our team is constantly focusing on two areas –bringing never before seen innovative solutions to the market and continuing to expand our out of the box integration with popular third party applications” said Sundip R. Doshi, Surado CRM CEO.  “As more and more businesses move towards an IP based telephone system, having tight integration between telephone systems and CRM applications are critical to improving productivity and a higher level of end user experience.”
Telephone systems are critical to business operations and many organizations require a reliable communication 24/7 with 99.99% up time.  One such organization is a professional law corporation located in Irvine, California.  “As we continue to expand our operations serving more clients than ever before, it became critical that we upgraded our telephone and customer relationship management systems to provide better customer service.” said the Director of Internet Technologies.  “Because Surado CRM offered one of the best CRM features in the marketplace coupled with ease of use and ShoreTel continues to be the fastest IP based telephone systems with great features and customer service, it was an easy decision when we learned that both of these products provided seamless integration.  Now, our calls are handled much more professionally and efficiently while all communication is tracked in our Surado CRM system.”

Surado plans to release seamless integration to other popular IP based telephone systems in the next year as demand for CRM and CTI continues to increase.

Surado Rated #1 in 4 out of 6 categories when compared to other Leading CRM Vendors in the B2B market space
Riverside, CA, September 6, 2006 – Surado Solutions, the emerging innovator in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for small to medium sized enterprises, today announced that Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) completed their extensive review of Surado CRM covering core areas of CRM as well as Surado’s innovative CRM solutions.  Surado CRM scored the highest rankings in all core CRM functionalities — Sales Force Automation, Customer Service and Support, Marketing Automation and Partner Management. 

The review by TEC aimed to provide CRM project managers an overview of solutions prior to making a CRM investment covered key components of CRM including contact and account management, sales management, marketing management, customer service/ support and integration. 

Surado has always distinguished itself by providing more innovative out of the box solutions.  TEC made it a point to cover these features which include Custom Screen Designers, Project Management with Integration with MS Project Manager, Organograms (Organizational Charting) and Dynamic Workflows.

“SMBs seeking CRM solutions should consider adding Surado 5.0 to their list of applications for evaluation for its ease of use (which may lead to a quicker and higher adoption rate, a key factor in any successful implementation). Its feature-rich quality and comparatively lower cost allows Surado 5.0 to have higher value per functionality” said Osman Baig and Shahid Hannan of TEC.  “Surado CRM 5.1 provides functionality for power users and enterprise system administrators who need the capability to create sophisticated custom screen and work flows with “programming” level control. The areas of custom screens, integrated work flow, and automated business rules have gone through a major overhaul compared to Surado 5.0, with over 100 new functions. Users will now be able to consolidate other stand-alone applications developed in Microsoft Access or other databases to be fully integrated as part of the Surado CRM system.”

The complete article is available at www.technologyevaluation.com  and is titled A Customer Relationship Management Solution Aims To Cover all the Bases, first published on August 17, 2006.

“The TEC article is a testimonial of Surado’s diligent focus on providing the best of product and services” said Sundip R. Doshi, Surado CRM CEO.   “We are pleased to see that Surado tops other leading CRM vendors when it comes to core CRM functionality.”

About Technology Evaluation Centers, Inc.

Technology Evaluation Centers Inc. (TEC) is the impartial advocate for end users and purchasers of enterprise software solutions. It has aided IT professionals with software selection since 1993.

For more information, please visit www.technologyevalution.com

Features include Next Generation Custom Application Designer, My Preferences, and over 150 new functionalities to helping SMBs Keep Customers for Life.
Riverside, CA, August 30, 2006 – Surado Solutions, the emerging innovator in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for small to medium sized enterprises, announced today the roadmap for the next major release of its CRM product line, including the next generation of application design capabilities in Surado CRM 5.1.

Going beyond traditional CRM, Surado CRM 5.1’s Custom Application Designer (CAD) allows organizations of all sizes to Design, Test and Deploy custom applications within Surado CRM.  Surado CRM CAD caters both to small business owners who want to create industry specific applications in house as well as enterprise development teams who want to develop applications that extend and leverage the features and functionality of traditional CRM software. 

A small recruiting company already plans to use this feature to develop a custom placement wizard that matches the best applicants to available positions based on various criterion including experience, qualifications and other custom fields working in concert with datasets already held in Surado.  Another Surado client plans to use this feature to develop large scale applications including a healthcare application that tracks patient eligibility, claims adjudication, provider relations and over 50 custom screens – all seamlessly integrated with Surado CRM core functionalities to improve patient services.  Because of the extensibility of the development platform, Surado foresees many vertical applications being developed by its current customers as well as partners around the world.

“The 360 degree view of the customer is to ensure that all data relevant to your customer is easily accessible in one place.  With the upcoming release of Surado CRM 5.1 and more specifically Surado CRM CAD, our users can now bridge the disconnect between CRM data and industry specific information by developing custom applications right within Surado CRM.” said Sundip R. Doshi, Surado CRM CEO.  “I am in awe and so will be our clients and partners.”

Based on Surado’s innovative design, Surado CAD provides a User Interface to develop sophisticated screens, fields, business rules, work-flows and integration to other applications.   For Power Users, Developers and Integration Partners, Surado CAD also supports UI based scripting, a scripting language and the calling of stored procedures to further extend its functionality. 

“Initial feedback from our customers using Surado CRM 5.1 Beta is one of amazement!  They are used to Surado providing new features and functionality but now we are allowing them to be more in control of developing and managing other operational databases while seamlessly integrating into core functionalities of CRM” said N. Khan, Surado’s Director of Product Development. “By leveraging Surado’s features in Custom Screens, Work Flows, Dashboards and Automated Business Rules, system administrators and/or corporate developers can now automate day to day operations at a fraction of time and cost.  There is no doubt Surado CRM CAD will increase ROI while reducing integration nightmares and disparate information silos for system administrators.”

In addition to Surado CRM CAD, Surado CRM 5.1 will also bring other new features including the ability for users and groups to create their own preferences for pull down pick list.  This allows for individuals and departments to have their own sets of Activity, Sales, Marketing Source, Contact Types, Attachment Locations and more.   My Preferences feature increases efficiency because it streamlines pull-down options to only those that pertain to your job function. 

Other features in Surado CRM 5.1 include additional features in Work Flows, Project Manager, Automated Business Rules, Enhanced Administrator Level functions and many more other enhancements.

Surado Announces Up Coming Features, While Giving Back to Community

Riverside, CA, June 5, 2005 – Surado Solutions, the emerging innovator in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, today announced that it is celebrating its 11th Anniversary by giving back to the local community and new product announcement.

Surado is celebrating its corporate anniversary through a charity event. As it does each year, Surado employees, friends and families turned out in force on June 3rd to work together on its selected project. This year’s event, coordinated through “Ronald McDonald House Charities,” Provide a “home away from home” for families of seriously ill children receiving treatment at nearby hospitals. Since that time, more than 10 million families around the world have benefited from the comfort provided by a Ronald McDonald House.

Past Surado volunteer projects have ranged from Habitat for Humanity Projects to tutoring at-risk youth through The Coalition for Common Grounds “Cops and Clergy” Program, to reading to children in the Pediatric Ward at Loma Linda University Medical Center to renovating a home through Hands-On Riverside County to Graffiti Eradication in the City of Riverside.

“Although Surado Team members actively give as individuals throughout the year, the Surado Charity Day provides us with an opportunity to work together as a team to symbolically give thanks for our success,” said Sundip R. Doshi, Surado’s CEO. “The community has supported us throughout the years and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to give back to the community in which we live.”

Surado plans to announce the next generation innovative features and functionality early next quarter. Once again, this release will push the standards in CRM to a new level.  Surado CRM Suite currently includes Dashboards, Interactive Workflows, Organizational Charts, Integration with MS Project Manager and Other MS Office applications out of the box.  This is in addition to the standard CRM functionality; Contact and Account Management, Sales Automation, Marketing Automation and Customer Service.

Surado CRM’s Latest Revision adds Organizational Chart as a Standard Feature

Riverside, CA, April 24, 2006 – Surado Solutions, a company that provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for small to medium sized enterprises, today announced the release of its latest revision of Surado CRM 5.0 with increased features and ease of use.

Once again, Surado CRM continues to innovate and bring new features and functionality to its Surado CRM 5.0 and Surado Small Business CRM 5.0 product lines. With this new release, users will now be able to create and/or view unlimited Organograms or Organizational Charts.   With this features, users will now be able to see the traditional hierarchy view of the Parent Company, Accounts, Departments and Contacts within an organization in addition to Organizational Charts belonging to their customers. 

“In business today, you must have a clear picture of your Accounts.  With Organograms, our customers will be able to track information about their customers at a whole new level.  The ability to view multiple versions of the organizational chart, each depicting a different business unit and/or simply the management team will allow any user to get a much better 360 degree view of their customer,” said Sundip R. Doshi, Surado CRM CEO.  “It is exciting that once again, Surado is in the forefront of innovation within the CRM market.”

Surado CRM Organizational Chart provides the ability to display contacts within the organization as well as other relationships including but not limited to partners, suppliers, alliances, contractors, and any other customized relationship.  Ease of use functionality includes color coded differences between contacts within the organization and relationships and the ability to launch any contact or relationship with a simple click directly from the Organizational Chart.

Other Surado CRM enhancements includes the ability to create HTML E-mail templates and E-mail Preview Screen prior to sending, Integration enhancements to Intuit QuickBooks, Contact Alerts, Data Exchange (Import/Export) enhancements, Reporting enhancements and much more.

Best Business Software for 2006
Riverside, CA, May 8, 2006 – Surado Solutions, the emerging innovator in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for small to medium sized enterprises, today announced its coverage in Entrepreneur magazine.

The Entrepreneur article entitled, “APPS for SMBs – Entrepreneur’s Complete Guide To Software” written by Liane Cassavoy showcased best business software for 2006 in various categories including Financial, Business Plan, Communications, Database, Desktop Publishing, Security, Office Suites and Web Software.  Surado Small Business CRM was one of eight products that were showcased under the Contact/CRM category.

Liane Cassovoy was quoted in the article saying “Don’t Get Left Behind – Try out these new software solutions for your business.”

Riverside, CA, April 5, 2006 – Surado Solutions, the emerging innovator in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for small to medium sized enterprises, today announced that its CEO, Sundip R. Doshi accepted an invitation to be an Adjunct Professor for the ITTN Program managed by the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship (IECE) in California State University, San Bernardino.

After five years of development, California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) has established a program to train students from historically black colleges and universities as future entrepreneurial leaders.  With initial funding of $1.3 million from the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) through the support of California Rep. Jerry Lewis (R- Redlands), the Integrated Technology Transfer Network (ITTN) fellows program is designed to train minority science students to take the lead in developing innovative solutions to pressing government and societal problems.

Mr. Doshi’s developed the curriculum and will teach Managing a Growing Business, one of six courses offered by the Program.   “Coming from a family of entrepreneurs and having started and managed several companies over the last 20 years, I am excited to be part of the ITTN Program.  It allows me to give back to the university and community that has helped shaped successful careers for me and countless others” said Sundip R. Doshi, CEO of Surado CRM. 

Surado CRM’s Never-Before-Seen Interactive Workflow Saves Time and Money!

Riverside, CA, November 30, 2005 – Surado Solutions, a company that provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for small to medium sized enterprises, today reported strong customer response to its interactive workflow functionality, new to Surado CRM 5.0 released only months ago.

“Surado Interactive Workflow was critical to our ability to close a recent million dollar contract in the public sector,” said Sundip R. Doshi, Surado’s CEO. “It all comes down to ROI–organizations are embracing technology that enables them to increase efficiency, reduce costs, standardize processes and better leverage their legacy systems.”

Surado CRM Interactive Workflows provide unprecedented features and ease of use to improve efficiencies throughout an organization. While many vendors define Process Automation as workflow, Surado CRM Interactive Workflows takes traditional workflow to the next level by allowing users to not only create visual flowcharts of processes but also to drag-and-drop objects, create links between multiple objects and use objects to launch windows or other applications.

An IDC study reveals that “knowledge workers spend 15-20 percent of their time actively looking for specific information; however, these searches are successful less than 50 percent of the time.” Considering time spent on unsuccessful searches, IDC’s study found that “these unsuccessful searches could cost a company approximately $6,000 per worker, per year.” A small business with ten knowledge workers would be losing $60,000 per year while a larger organization employing 1,000 such workers would be losing $6 million per year.

Surado CRM 5.0 Interactive Workflow simplifies and shortens both training and execution time by putting what you need in front of you, when you need it, so you can carry out processes with minimal effort. Users will execute processes in the right order by double clicking on icons which launch data entry screens, integrated desktop applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Project; and/or other back office or other third party applications such as financials, industry-specific databases and more. Interactive workflow can also facilitate automated and manual process activities, decision points and business rules, parallel and sequential work routes, as well as managing exceptions to the normal business process.

Benefits of Interactive Workflows:
Improved Efficiency (eliminate steps, standardize operating processes)
Better Process Control (provide audit trails and standardize work methods)
Improved Customer Service (increase process consistency and predictability)
Flexibility (re-design processes as business needs change)
Business Process Improvement (enables streamlining and simplification)
Improved Productivity (employees work faster and smarter)
Simple Training Tool (GUI interface, checks/balances enable faster training)
Reduced Operating Costs (efficiencies reduce training time and errors)
Higher Customer Satisfaction (consistent end-user experience increases customer retention)
Workflows can be created for individuals, for use within a specific group of users (divisions, departments, user groups, etc.) and between groups of users.