January 7, 2005

NEWS Oracle has completed its acquisition of PeopleSoft, ending a nearly two-year acquisition saga and making PeopleSoft a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle. PeopleSoft stockholders have tendered more than 97 percent of the company's stock, surpassing the 90 percent Oracle needed to sidestep a shareholder vote. FreeCRM.com, a multiuser, on-demand CRM software solution, has announced its customer base has surpassed the 13,500 mark. FreeCRM.com's parent company, CRM ASP, provides private label and cobranded CRM Web sites, licensed software, CRM application hardware devices, and CRM consulting services. Acxiom has acquired SmartDM, a direct marketing agency that services midsize companies. The acquisition will combine Acxiom's information management abilities with SmartDM's capacity to integrate email, direct mail, and call center marketing activities. eOn Communications, a unified voice, email, and Web-based communications systems and software provider, has announced that it plans to acquire Aelix Systems, an IP-based telecommunications systems and applications developer. Ten thousand eOn shares are expected to be issued upon closing the acquisition, expected during the first calendar quarter of 2005. Up to an additional 215,000 shares will be issued over six quarters after the closing date if Aelix Systems attains specified product release schedules and eOn meets specified product revenues. Yale School of Management (SOM) has announced that it is opening the Yale Center for Customer Insights (YCCI) to examine customer behavior. The center will be codirected by Ravi Dhar, professor of marketing at Yale SOM and professor of psychology at Yale University, and Dick R. Wittink, the George Rogers Clark professor of management and marketing at Yale SOM and editor of the Journal of Marketing Research. YCCI's first major research project, which is in conjunction with IBM, focuses on the difference between selling products and selling solutions. NEW PRODUCTS Toshiba Business Communications Division has launched its SmartApplications for the Strata IP-CTX. The tool, which is geared toward SMBs, combines Smartphone, a PC softphone that provides users with real-time on-screen information like caller ID, call waiting, and call history, with SmartConnect, a CTI software tool. SmartApplications allows customer information and sales data to be automatically retrieved and viewed with each incoming call. CUSTOMER WINS VocalData, a hosted IP-telephony solutions provider, has announced that One Connect IP, a New Mexico-based local IP service provider, has deployed its application server to support direct and wholesale hosted Voice over IP services throughout the state. By deploying Tekelec's (VocalData was acquired by Tekelec in September 2004) server, the company can provide unified messaging, user-scheduled conferencing, click-to-dial, and Web-based user control over services. Related articles: How Well Will Oracle Manage PeopleSoft's Customer Relationships? Software as Service Is Evolving Slowly But Surely Market Watch: Database Marketers Mine for Perfect Customer Segmentation