April 4, 2005

CUSTOMER WINS Nissan North America has selected Hyperion Planning, a provider of BPM software, to track and monitor business plans and workflow management capabilities. Nissan North America anticipates 150 users of the new software in the finance department of its various subsidiaries in the United States and Canada. Hyperion Planning is a Web-based planning, budgeting, and forecasting solution. StayinFront will provide Chester Valley Pharmaceuticals with CRM software and support for its sales force and managers. Chester Valley selected StayinFront Visual Elk 9.2 for its sales force and StayinFront Panaorama, a real-time data analysis tool, for its managers. Outtask, a provider of corporate travel and expense solutions, will implement Parature's Customer Support Solution for its growing customer base. Outtask serves customers in 84 countries worldwide. Customer Support Solution will provide Outtask with a customer Web-based portal, knowledge base, trouble ticket submission, report functionalities, and an integrated contact management tool, according to the company. IN THE NEWS Global Knowledge, a provider of training and enterprise learning services for IT, has partnered with Oracle. As a partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork, Global Knowledge will allow Oracle to effectively outsource customer education programs with a combination of training services, technology, and infrastructure. Gartner has completed its acquisition of META Group, an IT research and consulting firm. Under the terms of the transaction META Group shareholders will receive $10 per share, or approximately $168 million in cash. NEW PRODUCTS Ardence announced the availability of Ardence 3.3 for call center desktops, servers, and Windows embedded environments. In addition to a number of key enhancements provided in Ardence 3.3, the company also unveiled a High-Availability Option for its Ardence Desktop and Ardence Server editions to insure uninterrupted system and application accessibility within the call center. Ardence 3.3 will be released in three editions, Ardence Desktop Edition, Ardence Server Edition, and Ardence Device Edition. Apollo Data Technologies has released Predictive Analytic solution, a marketing, sales, and forecasting software package. Predictive Analytic is designed to uncover consumer patterns, segments, and behavior through information obtained via transactional, behavioral, call center, and geodemographic data. Related articles: Emerging On-Demand Players Join Traditional Providers to Lead CRM Innovation Is "Relationship Starvation" Choking Consumer-Driven CRM Success?