The new acquisition furthers Rimini Street’s mission to redefine enterprise software support by enabling accelerated support team growth and expanding Rimini Street’s pool of highly experienced and trained Siebel specialists.

Go to: Rimini Street Announces Acquisition of CRM and ERP Consulting Firm Sidney Blue, LLC

MicroStrategy will support multiple business intelligence applications for Micro Center, with applications to include analysis, marketing and category management functions. “The MicroStrategy platform has the flexibility and scalability we need to support our multiple business intelligence applications,” said Micro Center IT director Misty Kuamoo.

MicroStrategy CEO Sanju Bansal stated in press material that “Our ability to provide insightful reports on critical data – drilled down to the customer-transactional level – has proved to be invaluable to our retail clients.”

The move was precipitated by the desire to augment its AppExchange platform with mobile functionality. Indeed, soon after the announcement of acquisition came the presentation of AppExchange Mobile, a product specializing in mobile development. Salesforce.com product marketing vice president Kendall Collins stated that the technology enables more than 60 applications based in AppExchange.

Salesforce.com is trumpeting AppExchange Mobile as the next evolutionary step in mobile applications. “Mobile applications have under-delivered,” Collins opined. “People have been able to email [but] haven’t been able to run business applicatons.” The mobile platform is touted for its solutions. According to Collins, an application can be written on the AppExchange platform and can be instantly run on mobile technology.

The relationship between Sendia and Salesforce.com had been tight for some time before the buyout, with crossovers of stock and service. No layoffs have been announced, and current customers of either company will be unaffected. AppExchange Mobile is available now.

Satuit’s staff grew by forty percent during 2005 with plans for 2006 staff growth of thirty percent. With the announcement, Satuit reminded that four high-level positions are currently open in business development, account management, IT / infrastructure, and software development. Now that Satuit has established itself as tops in growth, newfound confidence flows in the words of its employees. “The significant growth that Satuit has, and continues to experience, is a direct reflection of the maturity on the CRM market space,” says Satuit Technologies chief executive officer Karen Maguire. “Satuit’s unique CRM product built for investment professionals, by investment professionals, has put us in the right place, at the right time, with the right product.”

Founded in 1994, Satuit Technologies, Inc. produces sales force automation (SFA) and client relationship management solutions for the professional investment market. Through the SatuitCRM system, the idea is to enable asset management and hedge fund companies to increase sales, better serve their clients, master information-intensive business relationships, and reduce costs. Satuit opened offices in the UK and expanded its US office space during the first quarter of 2006 and the firm now serves clients in thirteen countries.

The complete management information system implement represents a changeover from the LEIFHEIT’s German field sales staff use of a CRM system for sales and revenue analysis. The combination of central repository and local databases on each salesperson’s laptop was found slightly inefficient in the long-term planning sphere; the LEIFHEIT brain trust ultimately selected the OLAP module of the Corporate Information Mall solution developed by Antares. LEIFHEIT’s MIS is based on arcplan Enterprise and includes OLAP technology and predefined data models and input forms for analyses and reports.

The data are updated automatically on a daily basis and centrally stored in a SQL Server database. LEIFHEIT AG supplies non-electrical household appliances, bathroom accessories and textiles in Europe under brand names such as Dr. Oetker Bakeware, Kleine Wolke, LEIFHEIT, Meusch, Soehnle, spirella, and Dr. Oetker Bakeware.

Headquartered in Nassau, LEIFHEIT employs 1,600 and boasted turnover of €296 million (approximately US $381.5 million) in 2005. Founded in 1993, arcplan is a provider of process-centric business intelligence software. Arcplan has headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany and Philadelphia, Penna. Arcplan’s clientele of 2,500 customers and 300,000 users worldwide includes Bayer, DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Bank, Schering and Office Depot.

Retail Intellect for AppExchange seeks to assist retailers in integrating ERP systems to the Salesforce suite of on-demand customer relationship management applications.

Tango Consulting first showcased Retail Intellect for AppExchange last week at the National Retail Federation 96th Annual Convention and Expo.

Katherine Carol is the founder of Tango Consulting and the author of “Tango: Dance of Self-Discovery – Fun & Simple Steps to Passionate Partnerships and Soulful Living” Carol is an international business and organizational coach and consultant whose strategy focus on teaching companies “what matters most –Trust, Ethics, Values-Based Leadership and Management – blended with a passion for work and life.”

The Tango transformational process unleashes the pent-up potential boxed in by limiting belief systems, old-school business practices and fear. The approach is based on the quality improvement movement, “recapturing the notion of building corporate citizenship, elegant yet simple solutions, great tools and clear intentions (outcomes for or clear focus-some alternatives, not necessarily better ones) in the workplace and life.” Huh.

Deloitte has been listed by the analyst firm in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner’s "Magic Quadrant for CRM Service Providers, North America" report. Deloitte also bagged a spot in the "Visionaries Quadrant for Business Intelligence Implementation."

To be named to a Gartner Magic Quadrant, a given firm must pass a set of evaluation criteria, including ability to execute, overall viability, sales execution/pricing; market responsiveness and track record, marketing execution, customer experience, operations, completeness of vision, market understanding and strategy, sales strategy, offering, or product, strategy, business model, vertical/industry strategy, innovation, and geographic strategy.

SageCRM also promises to enable bi-directional front- and back-office integration with software such as Sage Accpac ERP, as well as integrations with Sage Pro ERP, Sage MAS 90 ERP, Sage Timberline Office, and some third-party back-office systems. SageCRM v6 also adds support for the telephony server application programming interface and for computer-supported telecommunications applications.

SageCRM is available for $595 per user for on-premises licensing and $69 per user per month for on-demand SageCRM.com deployment.

Sage Software is a provider to more than 2.6 million small- and mid-sized business customers in North America. Sage products support accounting, operations, customer relationship management, human resources, time tracking, merchant services and the specialized needs of accounting practices and the construction, distribution, manufacturing, nonprofit and real estate industries. Sage Software is a subsidiary of The Sage Group plc. Formed in 1981, Sage was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now has 5.2 million customers served by 13,000 employees worldwide.

Advancements in Avaya Interaction Center especially touted are new customization possibilities offered for context-based toolbars, communication controls, contact history and other informational displays; these can in turn be embedded within extant enterprise applications such as CRM and customer database applications. The software development kit for Interaction Center is based on Microsoft and JAVA tools.

As part of the deal, Westside BMC also gets access to the Infor Learning iCenter, an online training system in Infor solutions. Schedule iCenter is included in the package as well, a program which should enables Westside to schedule deliveries, manage driver and trucking resources, and analyze the costs associated with these activities. Infor bills itself as the largest global software provider focused on delivering world-class enterprise applications to select verticals in the manufacturing and distribution industries.

Infor delivers solutions dealing with problem areas such as supply chain planning, enterprise asset management, relationship management, demand management, ERP, warehouse management, and business intelligence. Infor today boasts over 3,100 employees in 50 offices worldwide and a clientele list of 24,700 in over 100 countries. Westside BMC is one of the largest building material distributors in California. The company has 150 employees in five locations.