From Inc.com, June 13, 2008
Sage Software, a division of the Sage Group, has unveiled its new Sage MAS 90 and 200 ERP 4.3, the latest versions of the company’s flagship ERP products designed for small and midsize businesses.
* Paperless office capabilities
* Enhanced business intellignece functionality
* Eco-friendly features that also help reduce costs
Sage Software introduces ERP solutions. >>>
From SearchCRM.com, June 11, 2008
Sales Prospector, an on-demand sales collaboration tool from Oracle, is the latest of a number of social CRM applications Oracle has been demonstrating at events like OpenWorld and Collaborate.
“While CRM applications have traditionally been designed for management and reporting, the new applications will serve the sales end user, said Mark Woollen, vice president of CRM product strategy at Oracle. That requires a shift in the historical approach of Oracle.
Industry analytsts are asking if Oracle a traditional “top down” enterprise application company can shift to a “bottom up” technology.
“They’re trying to change,” said Sheryl Kingstone, director of customer-centric strategies for Boston-based Yankee Group. “Oracle has in the past been one of those behemoths. Now they own so much of the market they’re trying to reinvigorate. They’ve really bought into the Web.”
CRM in Action: ProfitLinc and Entellium
When Billy Shepherd took over leadership as executive vice president at ProfitLinc, he knew that managing telecom expenses and assets for his 
midsize company clients should have two common themes: simple and seamless. Telecom expenses are often one of the top three line items on a large company’s expense sheet, and ProfitLinc’s mission is to make telecom contract, invoice and asset management easy and worry free for their clients. This is why, when Shepherd took a look at ProfitLinc’s internal systems, he couldn’t justify the cumbersome, expensive CRM system in place at the time of his arrival.
Starting Over
To maximize the return on every dollar a client spends on telecom, ProfitLinc must pay critical attention to detail. Whether it’s reviewing contracts from many 
different carriers or maintaining accurate asset inventory for clients, the core of ProfitLinc’s customer service lies in its ability to keep every line item, every contract and every expense in perfect order. When Shepherd realized that fundamental CRM details were lacking in their current system, he turned to Entellium’s eSalesForce to start sales and marketing contact management anew.
“I conducted a direct-mail marketing campaign that I couldn’t run a simple report on without buying an additional application from a third party,” Shepherd said. “That’s when I knew it was time to make a change and start over with Entellium.”
The change was a good one for ProfitLinc. As a result, the company can now handle a wide range of reporting tasks. “The reporting is so simple,” he said. “I can administer and post information with ease.”
The intuitive nature of Entellium’s eSalesforce also caught Shepherd’s eye. “The ‘What Would You Like to Do?’ feature in eSalesForce keeps me on track when I’m moving through the system. When I’m done with one task, it takes me directly into the next without any guessing. It’s like ongoing training that I enjoy daily.”
The CRM Advisor
You ask the questions, and our resident CRM guru shares her wisdom.
This week’s question:
“The CRM vendors we are currently evaluating have been talking about opportunity relationship management. What is it and what value can it provide?”
A: Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions are highly effective at helping businesses manage clients throughout their lifecycle – from the time they first make contact with the company, until they “sign on the dotted line” and continue to interact with various members of the organization as they use its products and services. In most cases, these relationships become more multifaceted after a prospect is converted to a client, when multiple departments – such as sales, service, and accounting – interface with customers on a day to day basis.
By Clate Mask- President of Infusion Software
With any “good” technology, there is always a hidden benefit waiting for the right entrepreneur to profit from it. With CRM software, the hidden benefit lies within the personal value it creates. At Infusion Software, we encourage our employees to truly embrace the CRM. Within the first week of being hired (no matter what position they fill) they receive training on Infusion CRM and are encouraged to explore it until they are comfortable with each of the features. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been listening to my employees share stories of how they are using the CRM for their own benefit. These are just a few:
I will not be surprised when CRM systems have completely saturated businesses and start making their way into the homes of average consumers. Because of the extensive features CRM offers, the possibilities are endless for businesses, employees, and consumers alike.
By Lee B. Salz - President of Sales Dodo, LLC
Companies think that once the sales person agrees to join their company that the goal has been accomplished. The truth is that this is only one more step of the process and there is still much work to be done.
It’s a great day at Newman Industries today! For the last month, they have been actively recruiting a hot candidate to join their sales team. Today, Steven Harmon agreed to join them. They see him as a true rainmaker. The recruiter and sales manager share high-fives. Mission accomplished! Spike the ball in the end zone. The job is done! The competition was fierce for Steven, but Newman Industries won.
While Newman Industries was celebrating, Steven resigned his position with his present employer and enjoyed a celebratory dinner with his wife. That night, Steven lay in bed wondering if he made the right decision. He came to terms with his decision and looks forward to his first day at the company.
It’s 8:28am when Steven arrives for his first day at Newman Industries. He is excited while also apprehensive. When Steven walks into the office and introduces himself to the receptionist, he is surprised to hear, “Oh, I didn’t know we had a new person starting today. Who did you say you were here to see?” Steven brushes this off as it is not completely foreign for the receptionist not to be notified about a new employee joining a company.
The receptionist calls around and tells Steven that he is in the right place, but his manager Jamie has not arrived yet. Steven sits in the lobby as person after person walks by without saying a word.
By Jason Kort - Director of Marketing, SoftVu
Most salespeople tend to focus on the high-probability “hot leads” that recently came in the door. They don’t have time to stop and sweep through a list of aged leads on a regular basis. SoftVu recently completed a “meta study” compiling four years worth of data across 38 clients to quantify what we already knew—when you ignore aged leads, you’re throwing away money. Here’s a quick look at results for a typical lender. In general, our findings show that:
The simple message is, “Stop ignoring aged leads!” But, how you go about doing that is not quite so simple. There are three primary takeaways here…
One solution to this problem is a consistent lead nurturing campaign that can be automated to…
Learn more, please visit Business-Software.com’s marketing automation vendor showcase for SoftVu.
CRM In Action
In Orlando’s highly competitive vacation market, it’s not good enough to have great values in home rentals—you have to deliver the best customer service, too. For Florida Leisure Vacation Home Rentals and Sales, delivering the level of service they wanted was becoming increasingly labor and time intensive.
Florida Leisure manages an inventory of more than 65 privately owned, luxurious 3-7 bedroom homes all,with private heated swimming pools. Unlike the typical time-share or villa setting, Florida Leisure’s properties are spread out over 4 or 5 of the most desirable neighborhoods in Orlando surrounding Walt Disney World and other tourist attractions.
The company manages rentals when the homeowners are not using the properties or if they rent them out themselves, so maintaining excellent communications with the owners and maintaining an up-to-the-minute database of availabilities is critical.
Poor Access to Information
As Florida Leisure gathered more information about their owners and renters, they found it increasingly difficult to produce reports that provided the access they needed to the data.“We had been using Access for our database, and it just wasn’t working out for what we needed,” said Florida Leisure Marketing Director Cathy Goonen. “We have an online booking engine through Rent One Online, so our customers can either go through our Web site to book homes directly or they can call us and we will place the reservation through Rent One Online.
“We take that information and put it in a backup database so that we can capture customer information and history to use for marketing purposes and customer service. We were trying to do that via Access and it just wasn’t giving us the information we needed.
We weren’t able to sort it the way we needed it, we weren’t able to get the reports we needed and it wasn’t user friendly at all.” Goonen began to search for a new solution that would give them the reporting and data retrieval they needed to manage their business.
She reviewed five server- or Web-based solutions and settled on Entellium eSalesForce. “We’re a small office with 65 homes, and we’re responsible for all the administrative work, training and follow up. We needed a tool that could automate a lot of the reporting that we were trying to do by hand. Of all of them that I checked out, Entellium was by far the most user friendly. It was the easiest for us to understand and integrate existing information from the Access system.” Read more »
We Don’t Need CRM!
Mention the prospect of a CRM system to a sales team that is not automated and your suggestion may not be greeted with excitement.
In fact, some sales representatives believe that the primary purpose of CRM is to enhance sales management functions such as performance reporting and forecasting, and that it does little to make the day-to-day activities of the sales force easier and more effective.
Others may perceive CRM to be too complicated, and fear that the system will add a new layer of complexity to their jobs. Or they may fear that the tracking of their activities will reveal inadequacies.
But, for many businesses, CRM has clearly demonstrated its ability to provide immediate value to the sales force by improving their ability to sell, and significantly increasing their success rates. In fact, a recent survey conducted by research firm CSO Insights found that almost 72% of firms surveyed indicated that CRM was having a positive affect on sales force performance.
Email Marketing Resources
Looking for some insight into email marketing strategies that work?
Want to learn more about the latest and greatest email communication trends?
The Web can be a valuable resource for today’s marketers, and these sites provide a wealth of timely and up-to-date information about this important aspect of customer outreach.
ClickZ
The Internet’s largest resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference.
About.com
A compilation of articles and other resources about the newest tried and true email marketing tips and secrets.
iMedia Connections
This trade publisher and event producer serves the interactive media and marketing industries. Their site contains a variety of information channels, including one that highlights email techniques.
Marketing Sherpa
A research firm that specializes in tracking and reporting on today’s most effective strategies in all aspects of marketing.
BeRelevant
An online blog that discussed best practices in email marketing.
Email Marketer’s Club
A social network for email marketers across the globe.
