Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integrates D&B Data for CRM
By: Sue Smith A new strategic agreement between Microsoft and Dun & Bradstreet will give Microsoft Dynamics 365 users easy, integrated access to D&B’s global database of company information. Their massive database includes details on more than 265 million businesses worldwide, which makes it particularly useful for B2B sales teams and customer relationship management (CRM). […]
Amazon Quietly Buys a Startup To Make Alexa Smarter
By: Paresh Dave Amazon.com Inc. acquired a Santa Barbara data analysis and search engine start-up in May to help improve its Alexa virtual assistant and other services, according to four sources familiar with the deal but unauthorized to discuss it. The previously unreported acquisition of Graphiq Inc. and its more than 100 employees has given […]
Sage acquires Intacct for $850 million
British ERP company Sage announces the acquisition of Intacct, a leading cloud-based financial software company The Sage Group announces that it has agreed to acquire Intacct Corporation, a leading provider of cloud Financial Management Solutions in North America. The total consideration is $850m to be paid in cash and rolled over Sage options. Intacct is […]
Partner-to-Partner (P2P) success, Part 1: The York Group on managing expectations
By: Dann Anthony Maurno Microsoft vigorously encouraged partner-to-partner (P2P) relationships at Inspire 2017 as a mechanism for building the Dynamics footprint worldwide. But in two sessions at Inspire, Harald Horgen made the startling claim that just 10 percent of ISV/reseller partnerships work, and asked “What other industry accepts a 90 percent failure rate?” Horgen is […]
Microsoft partner foresees tech roadmap for IoT with Dynamics 365
By: Dann Anthony Maurno The Internet of Things (IoT) has had fits and starts since the term was coined around 1999 to describe how machines in the supply chain, without human support, can capture data about things moving around the world. Even at that time, the concept was nothing new. But increased attention and accessibility […]
Salesforce claims you can set up customer service in Service Cloud update in less than a day
By: Ron Miller Salesforce announced an update to its Service Cloud today, which the company says enables non-technical administrators to build a customer service organization with connected services in less than day. That’s a bold claim, even for the marketing department, but the Service Cloud app builder has been built on top of the Salesforce Lightning […]
Sage Buys Intacct
By: Dennis Pombriant Sage’s Tuesday announcement of its agreement to buy Intacct prompts a multilayered look at the evolution of the cloud enterprise resource planning space. Both companies are partners with Salesforce and have products based on the Salesforce platform. Each is a member of the AppExchange, and both are situated in the broad cloud […]
Deployment methodologies, Part 2: Is agile, waterfall, or another best for Microsoft Dynamics projects?
By: Alan Earls Whether project management is driven by proprietary or generic methodologies, Microsoft Dynamics implementers rely on a host of approaches and tools to focus and manage each engagement and ultimately to deliver a working solution. “I suspect almost every company I have ever talked to wants to implement a vanilla phase one, at […]
Deployment methodologies, Part 1: The promise of a proprietary approach to your Microsoft Dynamics project
By: Alan Earls The idea of “out of the box” enterprise software can be a double-edged sword for firms that sell and deploy it. Customers are drawn to the promise of low-risk and low-cost implementations, but the reality of deploying software like ERP or CRM means that implementation projects remain complex and carry risk. Consultants offer […]
Salesforce Positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of the 2017 Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation for Eleventh Consecutive Year
Salesforce [NYSE: CRM], the global leader in CRM, today announced that for the eleventh consecutive year, Salesforce has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. as a leader in its July 2017 Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation (SFA). Placement was given to Salesforce for Sales Cloud. Sales Cloud empowers salespeople to sell faster, smarter and the […]