August 23, 2005

NEW PRODUCTS Salesforce.com has announced the availability of the AJAX (asynchronous Java and XML) Toolkit for Sforce--Smashforce--allowing for integration from popular consumer Internet services with Multiforce- and Sforce-based enterprise apps. Available immediately for free download in beta, the final release of the toolkit is planned for the company's Dreamforce '05 User and Developer Conference in September. Using the toolkit companies can create new mashups with Salesforce.com that use Google Maps to show the previous day's leads directly on a map, leverage Skype's VoIP service to connect with their contacts, or create customizations for their forms and workflows. Pegasystems released its Retail Banking Industry Framework, which provides prebuilt functionality, features subledger accounting and adjustment capabilities, solution-design models including organization units, and best-practice flows, and preconfigured data structures. Symantec announced that it will provide users of Intel desktop motherboards with online security protection from adware, spyware, and other Internet security threats. Intel will make Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition available to system builders and VARs who comprise the Intel dealer network. Intel dealers can preinstall the offering, which automatically detects and removes adware and spyware. Nsite has announced the availability of Process Builder, a feature that helps sales and service organizations adhere to regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley. Process Builder, which features Nsite's predictive routing engine, provides the ability to predefine business rules and can adapt to changes in business processes. IN THE NEWS CDC announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter of 2005 under U.S. GAAP, reporting revenues of $64.6 million, an increase of 44 percent from $44.9 million in Q2 2004. Second quarter 2005 gross profit was $36 million, up 39 percent from $25.9 million in Q2 2004. Net income was $36,000 compared to a net loss of $2 million in Q2 2004. Basic earnings per share was less than 1 cent compared to loss per share of 2 cents in Q2 2004. WSO2, a company started by the leaders of the Apache Web Services Project, announced the creation of Synapse, a project centered on creating a Web-service mediation framework. The open source implementation provides a framework to intermediate between two or more Web services. WSO2 is joined by companies including Blue Titan, IONA, Infravio, and Sonic Software. These companies will build a set of components that work together with Axis2 and other Apache/open source projects to create a flexible transformation, management, and routing system. Infravio will donate code from its X-Broker product. ON THE MOVE Kintera has named Kelly Herrick vice president of education. Herrick's more than 12 years of software product training experience includes his most recent position as the director of global learning services at Salesforce.com. Millennium Business Solutions (MBSG) has added Susan Denniston, Jeffrey Mackie, and Ademar Nunes to its CRM and Sales Force Automation team as CRM implementation specialists. Denniston joins with more than 20 years' consulting experience in systems development and integration. Mackie joins with more than 15 years as a designer, implementer, systems analyst, and project manager implementing enterprise business systems. Nunes has more than six years' experience designing, implementing, and managing large enterprisewide SFA and CRM solution projects. CUSTOMER WINS Apropos Technology has announced that Cardiff, the capital of Wales, has selected its contact center communications management software to improve its Connect to Cardiff contact center. Prior to Apropos' Interaction Management Suite, which is resold as Mitel Commander by partner Mitel Networks and runs on the Mitel 3300 Integrated Communications Platform, its voice messaging system, Cardiff Council, the capital's local authority, maintained 400 separate phone numbers for accessing 128 government services. The system's routing functionality, however, requires just one main phone number. Related articles: To Open Source or Not to Open Source Blue Cross Blue Shield--Rhode Island Improves its Bedside Manner CRM united the company's information, which was had been housed in different systems. Salesforce.com Gives It All Away