A Slice of the Good Life: Introduction

Washington, D.C. Customer/Contact Center: AARP Labor of Love Twelve-year AARP veteran Ava Baker regularly works 12-hour days, yet she still finds time to volunteer in her community and to help her 85-year-old mother with chores and shopping. With her selflessness and compassion it is easy to see why Baker is a natural as director of customer service centers for AARP, one of the country's largest lobbying groups in Congress, representing the needs of 35 million Americans age 50 and over. More... Dallas Systems Integrator: Ascendix Technologies Great Teams Think Alike Driving north from Austin to Dallas along rain-soaked Interstate 35, travelers encounter three billboards for La Quinta Inn. The advertisements declare, "We won't rest until you do." A similar motto resonates inside the offices of Ascendix Technologies, a seven-year-old reseller and integrator in Dallas. So it's no surprise that La Quinta Corp. is Ascendix's newest customer. More... Philadelphia Customer/Marketing: Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Company Sales in the City Selling the attraction of a city and its surrounding countryside is not an easy task, especially when the city is crammed between some of the most popular tourist spots on the East Coast. But close partnerships and attention to detail can make that task a little easier. More... San Francisco Customer/Sales: SymphonyRPM Murphy's Law There's the well-known Murphy's Law that we are all reminded of when things go wrong, and then there is Steve Murphy's law. The lesser-known Murphy's law has more to do with things going right than going wrong. It mandates that all account executives at SymphonyRPM enter every piece of information for existing and potential customers into the company's CRM system from UpShot. More... New York Vendor: Oracle Corp. The Multitask Master As Nick Khoury starts out his door this morning, his eight-month-old daughter, Helena, gurgles unhappily at him. It is a milestone, the first time she expresses that she is sad to see him go. Helena's whimpers tug at Khoury's heartstrings enough to keep him home to steal a few extra moments with her, but a looming 9 a.m. conference call with a New York-- and two London-based coworkers forces him to stay on schedule. More... Rockford, IL Customer/Technology Specialist: Rapid Granulator A Solid Foundation An IT expert is to CRM what a foundation is to a house. At Rapid Granulator Systems Administrator Dan Tillery is that expert. Rapid Granulator sells machines that break down imperfect or otherwise waste-plastic parts from a factory line into small pellets suitable for reprocessing and recycling. Rapid uses Epicor Clientele CRM to track sales and sales opportunities for more than 2,000 plastics manufacturers in fields ranging from home products to auto parts and plumbing. Tillery keeps that technology grinding away. More... Boston Analyst: AMR Research Analyze This 7:45 a.m. Coffee in hand, Kevin Scott, senior analyst for applications, technologies, and services, strides off the elevator and onto the fourth floor. Like the streets outside the building, the offices of AMR Research are mostly empty when he arrives. Given his routinely packed daily schedule, Scott is happy to use this early morning time to get a jump on things like sorting through email, thumbing through research notes he'll use to write his latest alert, and double checking his appointment schedule for the day. More...