The Week in Review: March 19, 2004

In the news... Click Commerce has announced its intention to acquire privately held competitor Webridge in an all-stock deal. Webridge provides of configurable extranet portal software for research institutions and industrial companies. The move would strengthen Click Commerce's products in the areas of Web-based process and compliance automation, and would extend its reach into markets in which Webridge has a presence. This is Click Commerce's second major acquisition in a year; the company purchased Allegis in March 2003. Air2Web has acquired European wireless software provider Wokup SA. As a result Air2Web plans to expand its operations to Europe and expand its SMS backbone. This acquisition gives Air2Web such marquee customers as Credit Lyonnais, Societe Generale, France Telecom, and Telefonica. Wokup's France office will serve as the headquarters for Air2Web Europe. Fidelity National Financial has announced the closing of its Aurum Technology acquisition. Fidelity, which provides products and outsourced services and solutions to financial institutions and the real estate industry, acquired Aurum for its strategic fit, as well as its more than 1,100 customers. Aurum provides outsourced and in-house information technology solutions for the community bank and credit union markets. The acquisition more than doubles Fidelity's community bank customer base, and its 600 credit union customers now make FNF one of the largest providers of technology-based business solutions to that market. IRM Corporation, which provides sales analytics and promotion management systems to the food and beverage industry, has signed a letter of intent to acquire Helm Software. Helm provides contract management systems, also for the food and beverage industry. The companies plan to close the transaction by mid-May. The terms of the deal will not be disclosed. Deals of the week... Russian telecom provider Vimpel-Communications has deployed Amdocs ClarifyCRM. According to Amdocs, the company is the first Russian wireless telecom to deploy an integrated CRM solution. With its customer data now centralized for billing and customer care, VimpelCom expects to improve handling and analysis of customer contacts from customers, and provided a higher level of service. Dendrite International has added three new Japanese customers. Wholesaler Astem K.K. will deploy Dendrite's new j-forceNET-WS solution to its sales force of more than 700 representatives. The deployment of will complement Astem's use of Dendrite's j-centreSYNERGY, a Web-based marketing and analysis solution. Fujimura Yakuhin K.K., also a pharmaceutical wholesaler, has selected j-centreSYNERGY to share sales information with top customers, to communicate promotional strategies to its representatives, schedule corporate sales campaigns, and to submit activity reports. Teikoku Medix will roll out Dendrite's j-forceNET sales effectiveness solution to its field force of more than 100 medical representatives. Hosted CRM provider NetSuite UK has signed a number of new customers throughout the United Kingdom, including Miglia Technology, Oyuna Cashmere, and Justoffbase.com. Blue Cross of Idaho has added Envision Workforce Management, a management application to forecast, schedule and manage agent workforce resources, into its current Envision solution. Envision Telephony provides contact center software solutions. Blue Cross of Idaho currently uses the Envision Click2Coach for quality monitoring and for creating and delivering training to its agents. With the addition of Envision Workforce Management, Blue Cross of Idaho adds the ability to predict and schedule the right number of agents with the appropriate skills needed to provide each call center's targeted service level. Global Tel*Link selected Surado CRM to replace its current customer service and support system. According to Global Tel*Link project manager Laura Florey, Surado CRM offered the most user-friendly application of the packages the company considered. Cognos has announced two new customers. Werner, a maker of climbing products, has standardized on Cognos ReportNetWerner is looking to Cognos to enable faster, more reliable access to critical sales, marketing, and inventory management data. Supply chain management firm UTi Worldwide has purchased Cognos EBI Series scorecarding, dashboarding, analysis and data integration as well as Cognos ReportNet for monitoring its supply chain performance. Callidus Software announced that LexisNexis U.S. has completed its integration of Callidus' TrueComp software. TrueComp replaces LexisNexis' existing compensation systems. SPL WorldGroup announced that Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) has selected its CorDaptix billing and customer care system. LCEC is planning to use the system to serve its 165,000 customers on the southwest Florida coast. Executive changes... NetSuite hired Dean Mansfield as vice president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Industry veteran Mansfield was more recently with Brocade Communications, where he was responsible for sales operations-international region, comprising EMEA, APAC and emerging markets. ClickSoftware Technologies, which provides service optimization solutions, announced the appointment of Steve Jacob as vice president of sales for North America. Current Analysis today announced that telecom industry veteran Raymond Keneipp is rejoining the company as senior vice president of research and analysis. He will report to Barry Gilbert, who has been promoted to COO.