InformationWeek Stories by Alison Diana

InformationWeek Stories by Alison Dianahttp://www.informationweek.comInformationWeeken-usCopyright 2012, UBM LLC.2012-03-06T13:32:00ZSiemens Suite Upgrade: Better UC In Cloud, Mobile DevicesOpenScape Unified Communications Suite version 7, due out in June, has "call swipe" feature that lets users switch phones in mid call with one flick.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232602106?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors  <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Top Technology Venture Capitalists" title="10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms</div>(click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div> Midsize and large enterprises increasingly are adopting unified communications and integrating them with their social media and mobile strategies to boost spur greater collaboration among employees, partners, and clients. Looking to take advantage of this trend, Siemens Enterprise Communications plans to unveil in June an upgraded version of its OpenScape Unified Communications Suite that streamlines mobile use of UC and further simplifies this capability. Ninety-one percent of organizations run IP-based UC solutions next to legacy PBX systems for communications, according to a ReRez Research <a href="http://www.siemens-enterprise.com/us/downloads/2012-enterprise-communications-survey.aspx"> study</a> conducted for <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600410/siemens-targets-north-american-unified-communications-market">Siemens</a> in January. Although those companies running IP-based systems save an average of 43% annually, organizations' adoption efforts are challenged by increased mobility and a skillset shortage, said Rick Puskar, senior vice president of global portfolio management, in an interview. [ Read how cloud and UC worked together for conventioneers: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/workgrouping_team_collaboration_workspaces/231900360?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Cloud, Unified Communications Improves Trade Show Logistics</a>. ] "Companies aren't doing a rip and replace. They're taking an interim step. Ninety-one percent have mixed environments," he said. "They don't want to bite off more than they can chew. They're thinking about their toe in the water. There's a way to wisely dip your toe in the water, and there's a way to more wisely dip your toe in the water." Cloud quickly is becoming integral to that first step, said Puskar. Organizations' embrace of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400439/one-way-to-fix-sharepoints-outlook-problem">mobile</a> is further spurring adoption of cloud, with 45% of those surveyed planning to implement this technology in 2012. Most midsize and enterprise companies planning to adopt cloud this year anticipate moving to private--not public--clouds, he noted. In addition to considering cloud, Siemens also recommends that businesses embrace IP-based communications; sensibly meld old and new technologies; and consider managed services in order to reduce stress on staff. Siemens also hopes that, within the next three months or so, enterprises consider implementing version seven of its OpenScape Unified Communications Suite, which includes features designed to ease some of these hurdles, said Puskar. Enhancements include increased scalability from 100 users to half a million users, he said. "It's pretty big, mind-boggling, how large it grows. But we're also taking care of those smaller midsize companies," Puskar said. The newer version also will include unified domains for presence, messaging, contact, and directory integration. This is designed to remove expensive communication distortion, reduce the total cost of ownership, and increase business productivity, agility, and effectiveness, according to Siemens. By melding its mobile UC and UC clients into a single client, the developer enhanced mobility by expanding its Call Swipe feature, thereby allowing users to switch phones--from office line to cell phone to home phone, for example--with one swipe of the hand, Puskar said. Other mobile capabilities include a new OpenScape Mobile client for iPad, iPhone, and Android tablets and smartphones; UC and SIP-based Voice over IP (VOIP) capabilities; secure calls encrypted with TLS/SRTP; and a public and enterprise app-ready store for choice, flexibility, and control. "By combining the two clients into one, we're now able to allow any device in your device settings--there's no charge per device--and regardless of where you're traveling, you can now gesture to any device, which is really cool," Puskar said. "I can move and change as often as I want, from device to device. We haven't forgotten about security. All calls are encrypted using TLS/SRTP." The suite also will support Apple Macintosh OS, in addition to its long-standing support of iOS, Puskar said. Several existing customers requested this ability as they adopt a bring-your-own-device policy, he added. It also integrates into Microsoft Outlook, so employees can access the UC suite from within the email application. As enterprises ramp up cloud adoption, service-level agreements play a major role in ensuring quality enterprise application performance. Follow our four-step process to ensure providers live up to their end of the deal. It's all in our <a href="http://www.networkcomputing.com/tech-center/publiccloud/download?id=189700007&cat=whitepaper&popup=true&download=true&cid=?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Cloud SLA</a> report. (Free registration required.) 2012-03-06T13:06:00ZHarmon.ie, IBM Partner On Microsoft Outlook IntegrationSocial email developer focuses on email-based collaboration tools for business users.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232602107?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Top Technology Venture Capitalists" title="10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div> Harmon.ie, a developer of social email software, on Tuesday revealed that it has partnered with IBM on a cross-platform product that provides Microsoft Outlook users with access to IBM Connections directly from within the popular email application. Since many business users spend much of their day working within Outlook, the integration with IBM’s social business solution increases productivity and encourages collaboration, said Jeffrey Schick, vice president of social software at IBM, in an interview. Because this social interaction occurs within their traditional email interface, employees don’t need to change their work habits, nor do they need special training to adopt IBM Connections via Harmon.ie’s <a href="http://harmon.ie/Company/PressReleases/press-release-mar-06-2011-1"> integration</a>, he said. "A huge wealth of clients are leveraging social technologies to connect people with people and people with information," Schick said. "You need to deliver these technologies in context of the way people work. We have wanted to deliver into the context of email social capabilities … [and] we also recognize we have to be a first-class citizen for folks who have deployed Microsoft technologies." Enter Harmon.ie, which has been integrating with Microsoft applications and has worked with IBM since 2008. Although many employees are comfortable with today’s collaboration tools such as wikis and social network sites, many others prefer to center their daily work around email, Yaacov Cohen, co-founder and CEO at harmon.ie, told The BrainYard. [ There's a lot to love about enterprise social networking--and a lot not to love. See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/232600828?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Our Love-Hate Relationship With Enterprise Social Networking</a>. ] According to a <a href="http://harmon.ie/blog/02-27-2012 ">uSamp survey</a>, 78 percent of respondents were more willing to use collaboration and social business tools if they were accessible through an email environment. The report also found that almost 90 percent of those polled publish documents and/or emails on a collaboration platform when they can do so from within email. "This social-for-all strategy, this people-centric approach to social, will enable Harmon.ie and IBM to deepen penetration into existing accounts," Cohen said, noting that it will also allow the companies to reach out to new prospects. "Social is being served on a silver plate to mainstream business users." IBM and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400439/one-way-to-fix-sharepoints-outlook-problem"> Harmon.ie</a> are involved in joint sales and marketing initiatives, Schick said. "We definitely are embedding the Harmon.ie technology in our solution set, so that as we sell into an organization that has Microsoft technology, we really show them we have excellent integration characteristics," he said. "With that said, Harmon.ie does other things. That presents an opportunity for Harmon.ie to expand their footprint of some of the other technologies they build. They’ve been very aggressive in partnering their sales teams with ours." Harmon.ie is also pursuing new accounts through the release of an upgrade to its freemium software, which includes additional capabilities, such as document updates. According to Cohen, this feature eliminates the need for endless emails to check on the status of a document since the software automatically informs users about any changes to the document, its whereabouts, and other details. The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>. 2012-02-22T12:35:00ZWrike Adds Workload View To Project Management SoftwareManagers can view assignment distribution to make better use of employee resources, resolve scheduling conflicts.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232601266?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Top Technology Venture Capitalists" title="10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms</div>(click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>Project management software developer Wrike Wednesday added a workload view to its eponymous software, allowing managers to clearly view how assignments are distributed in order to allocate resources, detect and resolve schedule conflicts, and reorganize assignments to optimize performance. The workload view is shown as an interactive timeline that pictures tasks grouped by team members. Overlapping assignments on an employee's schedule are highlighted so managers can quickly see and resolve the conflict by rescheduling tasks, changing their duration, or reassigning by dragging and dropping them on the workload view chart. Managers can also dispense unassigned tasks from the timeline; the software immediately notifies employees via email and the Wrike Activity Stream. "It's very important that the workload is level," Andrew Filev, CEO of <a href="http://www.wrike.com/">Wrike</a>, told The BrainYard. "This feature, for the companies that need it, can generate a lot of savings or even additional profits." The workload view allows companies to ensure all employees are working at full capacity, he said, while making sure none are being overly burdened. This can be especially important at firms that bill by the hour in industries such as professional services, design, and consulting, Filev added. [ Learn more about <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231900023/wrike-simple-social-project-management?itc=edit_in_body_cross"> Wrike: Simple Social Project Management</a>. ] Wrike continuously upgrades its software as a service (SaaS) product, preferring to add features at a steady pace instead of offering one major release every <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232601097/18month-rollouts-nothing-to-brag-about">year or two</a>, he said. But the company, which caters primarily to small and midsize businesses (SMBs), recognizes that not all customers want every <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600005/project-management-gets-lean">project management</a> capability. Wrike makes it easy for clients, which do include some enterprises such as UNICEF and eBay, to pick and choose, said Filev. "We wanted to make a solution that makes it easier to manage the chaos," he said. "One of the key differentiators is trying to bring enterprise-quality features in a very digestible, easy to use way. We mostly sell our products online. [Users] mostly start the tool, and they get it. That's a very big difference when it comes to collaboration. It's much easier to use. You don't have that expensive learning curve. We have all sorts of nice features they can choose to use." For example, teams can merge emails into their planning processes, and Wrike's Dynamic Timeline allows managers to see a real-time picture of multiple projects. The software's Flexible Structures feature lets management coordinate every detail of each project, while the application's automatic, daily emails and task reminders boost productivity, according to the developer. <a href="http://www.studioedesigngroup.com/">Studio e Design Group</a>, a Farmingdale, N.Y.-based design firm that specializes in designing and building corporate cafeterias, eateries, and high-end restaurants, had used ugly, unmanageable spreadsheets to try and keep tabs on the multiple, complex projects it had in place across the country, said Ivan Weiss, executive VP, in an interview. "Because of the design nature of our business, we do a lot of multi-tasking. We have different teams within our company working on a different project. We may have three or four people working on a design project and they pass information back and forth," he said. "From a management perspective, we were struggling with knowing what was going on, who was doing what, and really keeping a handle on it. Before Wrike, we had a basic spreadsheet and weekly meetings." Attendees spent meetings updating the spreadsheets instead of discussing more pressing--and revenue-generating--topics, Weiss said. "Instead of being a week ahead, we were always a week behind," he recalled. Studio eDesign, which works with a solution provider and has one, part-time IT person in-house, took advantage of Wrike's free trial period, and then purchased the software. Unlike a customer relationship management program the company had tried two years ago, Wrike was easy to use and didn't require much upfront work because of its tight integration with email and Google Apps, said Weiss. "It kind of lets you use it as much as you want. It didn't take any time away from working," he said. "I telecommute a lot and people on my team travel a lot; because it's Web-based, we can connect anywhere." Sign up for the <a href="http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=395990&s=1&k=9CB44D6F5DC57C7EF54010A379590DAF&partnerref=IWKPREM">Reinventing Business</a> With Next-Generation Social Collaboration In The Cloud Webinar to see how companies are approaching social business and embracing the spirit of collaboration and community to deliver unprecedented return for the time invested. It happens March 1. 2011-10-12T10:30:00Z15 Tech Venture Capitalists Worth Knowing Venture capitalists, whether part of a firm or independent angel investors, play an important role in financing tech innovation. These movers and shakers dominate venture funding.http://www.informationweek.com/news/231500202?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsThere are tales of venture capital success, including the early dollars that funded Apple, Amazon, and Facebook. Then there are stories VCs may tell less often, of money that disappeared as programming and reality never met, or marketers who couldn't turn dreams into consumer spending. And then there are the ones that got away--the companies that knocked on the door, only to be rejected and, subsequently, evolve into another VC's big hit. No matter who is doing the telling, however, venture capitalists are spending: Last year, the top 30 VC firms spent an aggregate deal value of $8.67 billion, according to CB Insights. Although venture capital funding dropped to a five-quarter low of $5.4 billion in the third quarter of last year, with 715-plus deals, deal activity recorded its second-highest tally in eight quarters, CB Insights found. The lack of any megadeals hurt the average amount, the report said. Early-stage funding for Internet companies was the strongest in the last quarter than it's been over the past five quarters, according to the study. "The primary reason for optimism is the quarter's deal strength indicating venture investors are opening their proverbial wallets," the report said. "The emergence of seed VC deals across a variety of sectors, not just Internet, also indicates a healthy early-stage investment environment." Social media continues to garner a lot of attention from venture capitalists, as consumers' thirst for communication and sharing continues apparently unabated. Several investors also are supporting green technologies, both here and abroad, while others are investing in healthcare enterprises. Consider our list of today's intriguing technology VCs--and the innovations that they've backed.President Barack Obama tapped John Doerr for advice. And so have countless hopeful business executives, programming whizzes and MBAs in Doerr's three decades as a venture capitalist at <a href="http://www.kpcb.com/">Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers</a>. <a href="http://www.kpcb.com/team/index.php?John%20Doerr">Doerr </a> led early investments in household names such as Amazon, Google, and Netscape, as well as Zynga and the two-year-old $200 million iFund for iPhone developers. But technology start-ups are not the only thing near-and-dear to Doerr's heart. The VC also is passionate about green tech innovation, a "third wave" of disruptive mobile and social ventures, and is backing entrepreneurs working on global warming, job creation, public education, and global poverty/health, according to his company profile. Recently, Doerr informed the Amazon board that he would not run for re-election. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>Tim Draper, managing director of <a href="http://www.dfj.com/">Draper Fisher Jurvetson</a>--serves on the board of Glam, Kyte.tv, Meebo, ShareThis, SocialText, Wigix, and DFJ Plug 'N Play--in addition to investing in Skype, Overture.com, Baidu, Parametric Technology, Hotmail , PLX Technologies, Preview Travel, and Digidesign. <a href="http://www.dfj.com/team/TimDraper.shtml">Draper</a> has served on the California Board of Education; is the course creator and Chairman of BizWorld, a 501c3 organization built around simulated teaching of entrepreneurship and business to children;, and serves on the Harvard Business School Board of Dean's Advisors. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>Guy Kawasaki, managing director of early-stage venture capital firm <a href="http://www.garage.com/">Garage Technology Ventures</a>, and former fellow at Apple, also is a prolific author, writing having written nine books, including his newest offering, Reality Check. In addition, <a href="http://www.guykawasaki.com/about/index.shtml">Kawasaki</a> is co-founder of Alltop, "an online magazine rack." Garage Technology invests in companies involved in software, services, clean technology, and material sciences (not life sciences). Kawasaki, with partners Henry Wong and Joyce Chung, have invested in companies such as Business Layers, Case Stack, WhiteHat Security, Tripwire, Cisco-acquired Psionic, and Pandora. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>Having provided management consulting for companies such as Apple and Boeing and launching her own Software as a Services (SaaS) company, Cindy Padnos believed the time was right to enter the world of venture funding, and so she founded <a href="http://www.illuminate.com/about/">Illuminate Ventures</a>. Before founding Illuminate, Padnos was one of three investment professionals responsible for allocating the firm's $140 million fund. Like many VCs, Illuminate focuses on early-stage, high-tech investing, but the company also likes to support women in business. Illuminate's portfolio includes Bright Edge, CalmSea, Red Aril, Wild Pockets, and Xactly. Padnos serves on the advisory board at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business, where she received her MBA. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>Michael Moritz, a partner at <a href="http://www.sequoiacap.com">Sequoia Capital</a>, was one of the earliest investors in what became the dot.com boom--and he has continued to parlay his financial acumen into Web 2.0 start-ups. The Welsh-born Moritz was an early investor in Yahoo and Google, and sits on the boards of businesses such as 24/7 Customer, Agile Software, Flextronics, Google, Red Envelope, Saba Software, WebVan, and Yahoo. Recently, Sequoia has sunk funds into social media, and healthcare-related businesses such as Jive Software, AirStrip Technologies, and Evernote. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>Ram Shriram, who was born in India, is founder and managing partner of <a href="http://www.sherpalo.com/ ">Sherpalo Ventures</a>. He, who worked at Amazon after founding and selling database technology firm Junglee to Amazon in 1998. <a href="http://www.sherpalo.com/about/meet_ram.php">Shriram</a a> is on the board of 24/7 Customer and Google, and <a href="http://www.sherpalo.com">Sherpalo Ventures</a> has supported businesses such as Netscape, Tellme, Plaxo, Mint, Amazon, and Google. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>With a 40-year career in private equity and $35 billion under management, <a href="http://www.greycroftpartners.com/author/alanparticof/">Alan Patricof</a> of Greycroft LLC has plenty of doors open to him. Patricof, who serves as a board member of both the New York Small Business Venture Fund and New Jobs for New York Association, as well as the Board of Trustees of Columbia University Graduate School of Business, also sits on the boards of TechnoServe, Trickle Up Program, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), and the Global Advisory Board of Endeavor. He also is a board member of the Millennium Challenge. As founder and managing partner of <a href=" http://www.greycroftpartners.com">Greycroft</a>, Patricof and his team have built a portfolio that includes Apple, AOL, the Huffington Post, Joyent, Sportgenic, HealthPlanOne, and Sometrics. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>Esther Dyson, who some have called the most powerful woman in computing, is principal of <a href="http://www.edventure.com">EDventure</a>, and sits on the board of several organizations, including Boxbe, 23andMe, Yandex, Meetup, and Eventful.com. "I spend most of my time exploring new space, health care and IT start-ups and technologies, writing about them and actively (and with full disclosure) investing in some of them," she said in her LinkedIn profile. "I love what I do and I love all the travel it entails!" Dyson's investments include Fluidinfo, Yandex, and Personal Genome Project. Many of her current investments involve areas such as space, healthcare, and genetics, and she is a founding member of Space Angels Network, a network of accredited investors focused on aerospace-related opportunities. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>Mike Maples' $25,000 personal investment in Twitter four years ago, has multiplied more than 25 fold--and his once apparently ill-fated venture capital career is blossoming. Maples, 42, headed to Silicon Valley from Texas after stints at Tivoli Systems, Silicon Graphics, and co-founding Motive--a broadband software company, eager to become a venture capitalist. But none of the six companies he met with would hire Maples, so he used his own money to invest in start-up businesses. However, <a href="http://floodgate.com/mikemaples.html">Maples</a> did not jump at the chance to invest in Zynga, developer of the popular Farmville games. With successes such as Twitter, Digg, and text book rental firm Chegg notched on his belt, doors once closed now open for Maples. Maples, who is managing partner of <a href="http://floodgate.com/">Floodgate</a>, sits on the board of Dasient, Swifftest and ModCloth. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>One of the investors behind Google, PayPal, Twitter, and Facebook, Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway has spread his wings to the East Coast, backing about 10 Big Apple start-ups, including Foursquare, Stack Overflow, and BankSimple. Since his first Internet investment in 1994, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224701613">Conway</a> has provided seed money and critical introductions to many companies that make the web hum. The investment he regrets not making? Salesforce.com, according to one report. Now good friends with Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, the top executive at the cloud CRM provider frequently brings up the blown opportunity, Conway told the The Wall Street Journal. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>Arguably the most colorful member of the VC community, Mark Cuban is well-known outside the often tight-knit world of financiers, in part due to his ownership of the NBA Dallas Mavericks, his headline-making role as a dot-com billionaire, and his willingness to share his opinions. In 1983, Cuban founded MicroSolutions and developed it into one a of the leading systems integration firms in the U.S., before selling it to CompuServe in 1990. Later, Cuban became president of Radical Computing, a venture capital and investment company specializing in high high-technology companies. In 1995, Cuban co-founded Broadcast.com, which Yahoo acquired four years later. Although not a formal venture capitalist, Cuban has said he would create his own stimulus plan for fellow entrepreneurs. "I will invest money in businesses presented here on this blog. No minimum, no maximum, but a very specific set of rules," he wrote on his <a href=" http://blogmaverick.com/2009/02/09/the-mark-cuban-stimulus-plan-open-source-funding/">blog</a> last year. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>In 1999, brothers Alexander, Marc, and Oliver Samwer founded Alando.de, which became the market leader of Internet auctions in Germany. The brothers later sold to eBay and worked for the online auction giant, turning eBay Germany into the most profitable international site of eBay worldwide. A year later, the <a href="http://www.europeanfounders.com/business-angels-alexander-samwer.html">trio</a> founded Jamba! AG, which became the market leader for wireless content, such as music, pictures, games, and videos for mobile phones. In 2004, Verisign acquired Jamba! AG and, then two years later, News Corp. acquired 51% of the company. As <a href="http://www.europeanfounders.com/business-angels.html"> European Founders</a>, the brothers leverage their expertise to work with early- and later-stage investments in technology companies, especially with an Internet, software, or wireless focus. To date, <a href="http://www.europeanfounders.com/business-angels.html">European Founders</a> has invested in businesses such as LinkedIn, Facebook, HomeAway, and Sport1. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>Andrew Chung, a principal at <a href="http://www.lightspeedvp.com">Lightspeed Ventures</a>, covers the clean-tech, Internet, and software sectors, as well as education, genomics, and bioinformatics. <a href="http://www.lightspeedvp.com/TeamMember.aspx?m=34">Chung</a> chairs the Cleantech Advisory Board for The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), serves on the Advisory Board for Stanford Energy Crossroads, and is an advisor adviser for the Clean Tech Open. With operations in the U.S., China, India, and Israel and capital commitments of more than $2 billion, Lightspeed Ventures has invested in a host of companies. Its portfolio includes Apptera, DoubleClick, GreenTech Media, Kongregate, Playdom (Disney), and Serious Business (Zynga). The firm launched the Lightspeed-Gemini Internet Lab, a joint initiative with Gemini Israel Funds to seed Israel-based Internet companies. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>Vinod Khosla founded the Khosla Ventures in 2004, after his time as a general partner at Kleiner Perkins and founding Sun Microsystems. Although Khosla's firm continues to invest in technology start-ups involved in the Internet, computing, and mobile <a href="http://www.khoslaventures.com">Khosla Ventures</a> also is looking to partner with entrepreneurs involved in "breakthrough scientific work in clean technology areas." Companies that have received funds include AppNexus, Evolv, MokaFive, K2 Network, and ZocDoc. Khosla is a charter member of TiE, a not-for-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals founded in 1992 that now has more than 40 chapters in nine countries. A native of India, Khosla is a founding board member of the Indian School of Business, and he supports many microfinance organizations in India and Africa. In addition, Khosla recently lured former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to work as a public policy adviser to the firm's portfolio of green portfolio companies. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>A two-time entrepreneur and client of GRP Partners, Mark Suster joined the firm in 2007. The British native also joined the boards of several businesses, including Ad.ly, Bedrock, Burstly, GumGum, and Ring Revenue, and is a board observer of Qualys. Since 1982, <a href="http://www.grpvc.com">GRP</a> has built its capital, and now manages more than $1 billion on behalf of more than 150 limited partners in North America and Europe. Its portfolio includes Overture Services, acquired by Yahoo; Bill Me Later, acquired by eBay; lastminute.com, acquired by Travelocity, and Starbucks. <a href="http://www.grpvc.com/team/mark-suster/">Suster</a> founded Koral, later acquired by Salesforce.com, and founded BuildOnline, which was bought by SWORD Group of France. RECOMMENDED READING: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229200081">IBM To Invest $150 Million In U.S. Entrepreneurs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229200097">Healthcare Software Venture Funding Jumps 19%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231002768">VC Investments In Health IT Jump 27%</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/225800005">VC Funds Slump To 7 Year Low</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/229201160">15 Influential Tech Board Members</a>2011-05-17T13:00:00Z14 Leading Social CRM ApplicationsSocial CRM is a double-edged sword. It gives businesses a tremendous opportunity to easily communicate with consumers, rapidly answering questions and responding to concerns. But it also gives companies more chances to slip-up or to be perceived as being unresponsive or uncaring. That is why a growing number of organizations are stepping beyond the confines of traditional customer relationship management and incorporating social media into the next wave of CRM implementation.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400189?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsSocial CRM offers great opportunity for reaching out to prospective customers -- not just deflecting dissatisfied ones -- using the power of consumers' personal networks to learn more about clients, their passions, and the way they like to shop, communicate, and share information. Businesses can use social media for brand auditing, to stay aware of a marketing campaign's success or failure, like the Gap's speedy response to the public's mostly negative response to its newly launched -- and quickly canned -- logo last year. Companies should align their social CRM strategies with existing CRM implementations, said Ray Wang and Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group in a <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/social-crm-the-new-rules-of-relationship-management">report</a> last year. "Social CRM does not replace existing efforts -- instead it adds more value," they wrote. "In fact, social CRM augments social networking to serve as a new channel within existing end-to-end CRM processes and investments. Social CRM enhances the relationship aspect of CRM and builds on improving the relationships with more meaningful interactions." Some developers, coming from a heritage of developing CRM applications for years, are now adding social media capabilities to their products. Other vendors, newer to the market, are starting out from the ground up with social media-enabled CRM products. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>When it acquired Siebel in 2005, Oracle purchased the developer's on-premise and hosted CRM applications. The <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208403087">CRM software</a> has succeeded, in part, because it is intuitive, due to its user interface, which increasingly has incorporated and mirrored that of social media. Oracle also developed add-on tools, such as its <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212002046">Gadgets for Sales</a>, which can be used by corporations and their clients. Gadgets for Sales, for example, includes a mashup of account management data from the Siebel CRM or the Oracle CRM On Demand systems, plus Internet-based data; search and interaction with contacts from the Siebel CRM or Oracle CRM On Demand application; and a desktop-based search tool to search the data and content in Siebel CRM application. Oracle CRM On Demand starts at $75 per user, per month, with higher fees for a dedicated version. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>Salesforce.com created a splash in the social CRM market with its Sales Cloud and Service Cloud applications for sales and customer service. <a href="www.salesforce.com">Salesforce</a>, which debuted its first product in 2001, now has more than 92,300 customers, the company said. The service cloud, available for a 30-day free test drive, includes the developer's Chatter messaging platform, integration with social media such as Twitter and Facebook, and the ability to integrate with live chat. Pricing ranges from $65 per user per month for the professional edition, to $135 per month per user for the enterprise edition, and $260 per user per month for the unlimited edition. There is no limit on the number of users for any edition. Because of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000326">Salesforce's</a> worldwide success, rivals are aiming squarely at its customer base. Microsoft last year began offering existing Salesforce clients discounts if they moved to Microsoft's CRM product and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP</a> in March took the wraps off SAP Sales OnDemand for SMBs, designed for the same customer base that Salesforce serves. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>SAP, another veteran of the CRM market, also has adapted to the new landscape by incorporating social media into its family of CRM offerings. In 2010, for example, the developer unveiled social media packages -- Twitter Customer Service, Twitter Marketing Campaign, and Target Marketing via Facebook -- for <a href="http://www.sap.com/usa/solutions/business-suite/crm/index.epx">SAP CRM</a>. As part of the SAP BusinessObjects family, SAP CRM is accessing some of that software suite's functionality, such as its preconfigured dashboards, reporting capabilities, and analysis tools. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a> In October 2010, Lithium Technologies released its newest social CRM software, the Lithium Social Customer Suite. The <a href="http://www.lithium.com/events/press-releases/2010/lithium-technologies-announces-new-social-customer-suite">software </a> integrates Facebook, Twitter, the entire social Web, and branded communities, allowing customers to engage customers in multiple mediums of their choice; identify, nurture, and reward their most vocal consumers, and measure ROI, according to the developer. Simultaneously, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=179102700">Lithium Technologies</a> took the wraps off Lithium Awareness, Lithium Commerce, and Lithium Service, three add-on applications designed to increase a company's reach and engagement, drive revenue, and provide enhanced service, Lithium said. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>RightNow Technologies felt the time was right in November 2010 to begin offering its RightNow CX for Facebook, which lets companies interact and monitor consumers' interaction with their businesses, via Facebook integration with the developer's <a href="http://www.rightnow.com/cx-suite.php">CX CRM suite</a>. The software, in use by many government agencies such as <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218452">NASA</a>, is available in multiple editions such as chat, standard, enterprise, and enterprise contact center suite. One customer, Drugstore.com, found that order-conversion increased 25% -- and the size of the order increased -- after consumers spoke to an agent via RightNow's Live Chat feature, according to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223200018">RightNow</a>. "Customers were not only placing more orders after chatting with agents. They were purchasing products that agents had discussed and suggested to them," the developer said, citing <a href="http://www.rightnow.com/resource-slides-s-drive-revenue-with-rightnow-cx.php">Drugstore.com</a>. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>Microsoft unveiled Dynamics CRM 2011 in February as both an on-demand and on-site offering, offering customers a free 30-day trial of the software. Microsoft is migrating its Social Networking Accelerator into Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the developer <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2011/03/01/update-on-the-future-of-the-microsoft-dynamics-crm-accelerators.aspx">announced</a> in March. Previously available as add-on capabilities, these features now will be completely integrated into Microsoft's CRM system. "In addition to the migrated accelerators, Microsoft Dynamics Labs will publish new solutions to demonstrate additional capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 or provide a starting point for some innovative CRM extensions," said Palak Kadakia, program manager, on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM blog. Customers already are benefiting from the software's new features, including its expanded social media capabilities, she said. Since switching from Salesforce.com to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000840">Microsoft Dynamics</a> in 2009, Century Payments has saved $300,000, said Scott Harlow, vice president IT and security at the electronic payment services firm. Microsoft aggressively is competing with Salesforce, offering promotional pricing of $34 per user per month; Dynamics CRM Online pricing increases to $44 per user per month once the one-year promotion expires, the company said. "We now have the freedom to change aspects of our solution quickly and on the fly, without the added time and expense of external developers and resources," he said. "With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we've seen immediate results and now have an enterprise platform that will scale and adapt with us as our company continues to expand and evolve." See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>NetSuite CRM+ includes Web-based sales force automation, marketing automation, customer support and service, and customization capabilities. The application also is integrated with order management, fulfillment, and financials, as well as mobile devices such as the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile, <a href="http://www.netsuite.com/portal/products/crm/main.shtml">NetSuite </a>said on its Web site. The software allows sales reps to view social information tied to sales leads, thereby making a sales force more efficient and productive, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300097">NetSuite</a> said. Primarily used by SMBs, NetSuite CRM+ also integrates with third-party apps such as HubSpot, which in February <a href="http://www.hubspot.com/blog/?Tag=CRM">unveiled</a> its new integration with NetSuite CRM and NetSuite Ecommerce. These partnerships allow NetSuite to further expand its capabilities in areas such as social media, NetSuite said. "Companies want to leverage search, social media, and all these new ways to generate leads but don't want to use or integrate 10 different tools. We feature HubSpot as our only marketing partner on SuiteApps because it is a comprehensive marketing solution and integrates well with NetSuite," said Raghu Gnanasekaran, senior director of product development for NetSuite's SuiteCloud Developer Network, in a statement. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>Another long-time member of the CRM developers' club, Sage has transitioned into the world of social media by embracing the cloud and Amazon's vision, and creating social networking capabilities both in-house and via relationships with third-party developers. In May 2010, Sage <a href="http://www.sagenorthamerica.com/CRM/Newsroom/Details/SNA%20Corporate/2010/05/Sage%20Launches%20Cloud%20Computing%20CRM%20Suite%20For%20Small%20And%20Midsized%20Businesses">released</a> its new Sage SalesLogix Cloud CRM software, built upon the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/fabrics/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000873">(EC2)</a> infrastructure. The software, which supports Windows Mobile and includes an offline synchronization feature, is enhanced by Sage's network of application developer partners. The most recent version of Sage CRM includes many built-in social media capabilities such as an interactive dashboard that tracks RSS feeds, calendar, and task lists, and integration with LinkedIn and Twitter, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229201151">Sage</a> said. Sage On-Demand CRM is available for a free 30-day trial. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>Zoho offers an on-demand CRM software, designed for smaller businesses, which integrates with the company's other applications, as well as products such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office, and Google Gmail. The Web-based product includes CRM analytics via reports and dashboards; inventory management; customer service and support capabilities; marketing automation; sales force automation; Web forms; workflow tools; security features, and integration with social media sites, <a href="http://www.zoho.com/crm">Zoho</a> said. The software is free for small firms with up to three users; the professional edition costs $12 per user per month, while the enterprise edition has a price tag of $25 per user per month. Add-ons cost extra, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228702010">Zoho</a> said. "Although Zoho CRM is free, it offers great value and they also have an invoice component as well. There are some add-ons like Outlook integration, Google Apps integration and email marketing that will cost a few dollars per user, but, it's very reasonably priced for the functionality you get," said John Joyce, founder of the Small BizNest, on Zoho's Web site. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>The Jive Engage Platform addresses multiple markets: social collaboration, community software, and social media monitoring. The developer, therefore, is competing with long-established CRM vendors newer to the social media market, as well as CRM developers who are targeting the market solely from a social media perspective. "Most social software vendors think that internal collaboration, external communities, and social media are different things. They are not," said Jive on its <a href="http://www.jivesoftware.com/products/platform">Web site</a>. Cloud-based Jive Engage lets employees start and participate in discussions; create and share collaborative documents; post videos; preview and post comments on Office documents; gain access via mobile devices; synchronize edits; share status updates; and post ideas to the community. The software's built-in reward system encourages employees to proactively help customers, according to Jive. Employees connect to customers via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/data_centers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000750">Jive</a> said. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>BatchBlue offers Batchbook CRM to let users track their business, personal, and social networking contacts and share them with the rest of their team by creating a contact database anew or importing contacts from an existing system such as Twitter, Flickr, and LinkedIn. The software also is accessible via mobile devices, such as Android and iPhone. BatchBlue also teamed-up with third-party developers including FreshBooks, MailChimp, and Shoeboxed for additional capabilities, the company said. The software is available at an assortment of price-points. The <a href="http://batchblue.com/signup">Navy Blue</a> offer, for one user, costs $14.95 a month, while the highest-cost Indigo offering lists for $149.95 for up to 50 users per month. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>SugarCRM recently unwrapped new social CRM features for Sugar 6, the latest iteration of its software. In addition to a new iPhone app, the latest software includes SugarCRM for LotusLive; support for 14 languages; a Twitter connector; and one-click actions, the <a href="http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/products/new-in-sugar.html?lsd=hptop">developer </a> said. SugarCRM offers a 30-day free trial, and hosts an on-demand Webcast outlining its social media emphasis. For example, customers now can schedule, manage, and start LotusLive meetings directly from within SugarCRM; attach notes and documents to an account, contact, opportunity, or support case inside SugarCRM and share them with the customer or prospect via LotusLive, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228200854">SugarCRM</a> said. Today, more than 50,000 businesses use SugarCRM, according to the company; the majority -- or 80% -- are SMBs, while the remaining 20% have revenue of more than $500 million.About 20 million end-users support clients around the world with the help of Parature Customer Service Software, coupled with its array of about 16 add-on modules. The Web-based <a href="http://www.parature.com/customer-service-software.aspx">software</a> integrates a customer portal, knowledgebase, ticket system, and modules into a system designed to let businesses support clients across all mediums. Parature offers a free 30-day trial for its hosted software; contact the company for pricing. One module -- Parature for Facebook -- allows companies to communicate with clients via the popular social networking site, and monitor Facebook wall conversations, posts, and comments in real time. In addition, Facebook page administrators can let fans search your knowledgebase, submit tickets, and chat with customer service agents, Parature said. In February, Parature client TradeKing launched a dedicated support tab on <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219587">Facebook</a>. TradeKing clients now can visit the Facebook page to initiate a live chat session, send an email query, or open a service ticket, said Dave Dusseault, vice president, brokerage operations and customer service, at the online broker-dealer. "We believe the key to great customer service is delivering fast, friendly, and knowledgeable support through the most relevant channels, including the traditional channels such as phone and email and not-so-traditional such as Facebook," said Dusseault. "We've seen first-hand through our Trader Network what a powerful tool social media can be in enhancing client education, engagement, and satisfaction." See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>Startup Nimble debuted its social CRM software to public beta in February. The software allows users to connect their calendars, contacts, communications, and social conversations from tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google, according to <a href="http://www.nimble.com/what-is-nimble"/>Nimble</a>. Created by <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Jon Ferrara</a>, the founder of GoldMine, the standalone Nimble Contact software is free; the application is designed to scale as companies grow, and Nimble plans to release more functionality in the months ahead, the company said. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">Social CRM Rush Projected For Enterprises</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300161">Salesforce Announces Social Savvy Service Upgrade</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218792">Constant Contact Buys Social CRM Develop</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229100015">Firms Integrating Social Media With CRM</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228801005">To Change CRM, Embrace The Social Cloud</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300188">Facebook Becoming Ultimate CRM System</a>2011-04-15T18:01:00ZTop 20 Enterprise Laser PrintersDemand for networked color laser printers continues to grow. They offer high-resolution, crisp text, and vivid colors, and are playing a greater role in businesses. But they face challenges: high-performance and lower cost inkjet printers and a weak economy that caused companies to look for ways to cut print costs or allocate those costs to departments. And there's still a big market for black and white printers. Most printers now meet Energy Star standards, which means energy efficiency isn't an effective sales pitch. So vendors have turned to features such as faster first page printing, better management tools, automated two-sided printing, and software that automatically turns the printer off after a pre-determined idle time.http://www.informationweek.com/news/229401632?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsEnergy efficiency, once a differentiator for vendors, became the norm, as all first- and second-tier vendors appeared to consistently meet <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/roi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219700071">Energy Star</a> standards. However, some printer manufacturers include other tools and capabilities--such as speedier time to first page, management tools, automated two-sided printing, and software that automatically turns the printer off after a pre-determined idle time--to further reduce energy usage and costs. Once out of the price range of smaller departments and enterprise workgroups, even networked color laser printers can now be found throughout a corporation thanks to lower prices of both the hardware and toner. Demand for color models continues to grow, according to several research firms. "Color laser devices will start to cannibalize monochrome laser printers, but they are not expected to overtake monochrome printers in this forecast period. Color pages will continue to penetrate the office environment as prices decline and users are educated about the benefits of color. However, to become a successful player in this segment, vendors will need to increase their focus on aftermarket costs of color printing," said Akia Ramsay, senior research analyst, printers and peripherals at IDC, in a <a href="http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=6060294">report</a>. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>The Lexmark E462dtn features a compact design, yet its two 250-sheet paper input trays and 50-sheet multi-purpose feeder allow it to hold plenty of paper. The laser printer is designed for workgroups and includes an Eco-Mode and an instant warm-up fuser to save money and the environment. The device features numeric pad for confidential printing, early-warning alerts for low toner, and customizable operator panel messaging, according to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228200309">Lexmark</a>. The <a href="http://www1.lexmark.com/products/view/Printers/Lexmark-E462dtn/catId=cat10006-category&prodId=5580-product">Lexmark E462dtn</a>--which comes with 64 MB of standard memory, upgradable to 576 MB--is compatible with Macintosh, Windows, and Linux, and includes a one-year exchange warranty. When operating, the Lexmark E462dtn creates about <a href="http://www.ehow.com/facts_7568637_52-dba.html">52 decibels</a>of volume, or about the same level of sound as a hair dryer. Price: $598 Paper capacity: 550 sheets Paper trays: Two, plus one multi-purpose feeder Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 80,000 pages B&W print speed: 40 ppm Color print speed: N/A (black and white model) Max. print resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi Time to first page: 6.5 seconds Environmental features: Eco-Mode, instant warm-up fuser, Energy Star Designed for: Enterprise workgroups See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>Hewlett-Packard provides businesses with an array of laser printers, including this smaller model, designed for enterprise workgroups. The <a href="http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/product_detail/CE528A%2523ABA?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN">HP LaserJet P3015dn</a> includes automatic two-sided printing to reduce paper waste and costs, and the hardware's Instant-on Technology provides a warm-up time that's up to 50% faster from low-power mode, and provides up to 50% in energy savings compared to competitive laser printers, according to testing by Quality Logic for HP. Businesses can transform the 35-pound HP LaserJet P3015dn into a wireless printer by purchasing an add-on hardware accessory from <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227500337">HP</a>. Price: $899 list, minus $450 rebate Paper capacity: 100 sheets Paper trays: Two Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 100,000 B&W print speed: 42 ppm Color print speed: N/A (black and white model) Max. print resolution: 1200 x 1200 Time to first page: 7.5 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Office workgroups See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>Designed as a day-to-day printer for teams within corporations, the Samsung Color Laser Printer CLP-315W includes Samsung's No Nois technology, designed to reduce both the device's at-rest and printing sound, and the cost of its replacement toners, according to Samsung. The wireless laser printer is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux computers, and weighs about 24 pounds, said Samsung. The Laser Printer CLP-315W can handle several paper types, including envelopes, card stock, transparency paper, and regular paper. Price: $249.99 Paper capacity: 150 pages Paper trays: One Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 20,000 B&W print speed: 17 ppm Color print speed: 4 ppm Max. print resolution: 2400 dpi Time to first page: 13 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Workgroups, lobbies, mobile workers See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>Xerox, which manufactures many of the large and industrial-strength printers found in high-volume printing departments around the corporate world, also offers devices for departments, conference rooms, and business centers. The company's new <a href="http://www.office.xerox.com/printers/color-printers/phaser-6500/enus.html">Xerox Phaser 6500</a>, which can handle paper sizes up to 8.5 x 14 inches, includes 256 MB memory standard that is upgradable to 768 MB. To save energy and print costs, the model can skip blank pages and will fit-to-page. The device also features Personal Print, Proof Print, RAM collation, Saved Print, and Secure Print offerings. Price: $399 Paper capacity: 150 sheets Paper trays: One; one optional Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 40,000 B&W print speed: 24 ppm Color print speed: 24 ppm Max. print resolution: 600 x 600 dpi Time to first page: 12 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Office workgroups See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>While it doesn't look a general-office laser printer, the Pitney Bowes DP40S printer is designed specifically for departments and businesses that create and produce promotional materials. Enterprise marketing departments, as well as advertising businesses and other creative businesses, are the target audience for this device, which prints at a 1200 dpi on an array of materials--including glossy, matte, and card stock--and a wide variety of sizes, up to 13" x 47". The <a href="http://www.pb.com/equipment/Printers/Document-Printers/DP40S-Color-Printer.shtml">Pitney Bowes DP40S</a> can handle up to 500,000 envelopes and 150,000 documents each month, the vendor said. Price: Contact company for <a href="http://info.pb.com/USMcontact/?&tracking=model_name=null%3Cbr%3EProgramID=null&pss_selection=DP40S-Color-Printer">quote</a> Paper capacity: 5,000 sheets 20 lb bond, or 1,000 envelopes Paper trays: One Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 500,000 envelopes and 150,000 pages B&W print speed: 40 ppm Color print speed: 36 ppm Max. print resolution: 600 x 1200 dpi Time to first page: 9 seconds Environmental features: N/A Designed for: Creators of promotional material See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>With the Dell 5130cdn, the vendor is targeting large workgroups in departments or enterprises that need a color laser printer workhorse for their print needs. The <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/peripherals/printer-dell-5130cdn/pd.aspx?refid=printer-dell-5130cdn&s=biz&cs=555">Dell 5130cdn</a> prints-out letter-sized pages at up to 47 ppm in both mono and color, and delivers a first print-out in up to 8.5 seconds for black-and-white documents. The vendor's ColorbyDell technology uses its print engine, image-enhancement algorithm, and toner technology to generate high-quality output, according to Dell. Administrators remotely can define individual users' color-printing rights and set volume limitations to reduce costs, while users control the printer itself via a an LCD panel and five-way cursor keypads. Price: Approximately $1,288.99 Paper capacity: 150 sheets Paper trays: One; optional 1x 1100+2 x 550-sheet paper tray Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 110,000 pages B&W print speed: 47 ppm Color print speed: 47 ppm Max. print resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi Time to first page: 8.5 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Enterprise departments See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>Offices with frequent visitors or mobile employees may be interested in the HP LaserJet P1102w, a plug-and-play laser printer from Hewlett-Packard. The <a href="http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2010/plugandprint/pdf/LaserJetProP1102w_3.30.10.pdf ">HP LaserJet P1102w</a>, part of HP's "Plug and Print" family of products, also lets users reduce paper waste through its implementation of HP Smart Web Printing, which requires Internet Explorer. Since it's not designed as an office workhorse, the printer includes an auto on/auto off power feature to save energy, and leverages HP's Instant-on technology to fire-up fast. Users can choose either HP FastRes 1200, which provides the best print quality setting for this device, or HP FastRes 600, for speedier printing. Price: $149.99 Paper capacity: 150 pages Paper trays: 2 Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 5,000 B&W print speed: 19 ppm Color print speed: N/A (black and white model) Max. print resolution: 600 x 600 Time to first page: 8.5 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star, Instant-on technology Designed for: Mobile workers, visitors, lobby See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>Canon offers a number of laser printers for business users, including the Canon imageRUNNER LBP5970, a color model. The <a href="http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/office/products/hardware/printers/desktop_laser_beam_printers/color_imagerunner_lbp5970#Features">imageRUNNER LBP5970</a> uses a four-in-one laser beam to create 1200 dpi output in super fine mode or 600 dpi in fine mode. The device includes Canon's UFR II Print Controller, a proprietary architecture designed to generate faster output for complex documents that include images, graphics, and text than PCL or PS page description languages, according to Canon. The printer's Rapid Fusing system enables the printer to begin working with no warm-up time, and a reduction in energy-consumption and heat-generation, Canon said. Price: About $2,879.00 Paper capacity: 90 sheets Paper trays: One; Optional: 550-Sheet x Up to 3 Paper Cassettes Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 80,000 pages B&W print speed: 31 ppm Color print speed: 30 ppm Max. print resolution: 1200 dpi Time to first page: Immediate Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Workgroups See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a> With its FS-1370DN ECOSYS laser printer, Kyocera Mita is targeting the needs of busy workgroups that also are looking to save on printing costs. The FS-1370DN includes two-sided printing, long-life printing supplies, and a 300-sheet paper supply to minimize the time spent restocking. Warm-up time takes 20 seconds or less from the main power turning on, and 15 seconds or less from sleep mode, said Kyocera Mita. The printer is compatible with Kyocera's management utilities suite, designed to simplify the support and management of multiple networked printers throughout an organization or department. Price: About $328 Paper capacity: 300 sheets Paper trays: One; optional two 250-sheet paper feeders Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 50,000 B&W print speed: 37 ppm Color print speed: 23 ppm Max. print resolution: 1200 x 1200 Time to first page: 7 seconds or less Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Workgroups See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>The Samsung CLP-620ND includes a 700 MHz CPU and 256 MB of memory so users can easily process, store, and distribute their print jobs. The laser printer also includes Samsung's Easy Color Manager technology, designed to enhance color output. The Samsung CLP-620ND includes a power-saver model that reduces energy-consumption by up to 80%. Price: $571 list, $299 retail Paper capacity: 250 pages Paper trays: One Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: N/A B&W print speed: 25 ppm Color print speed: 25 ppm Max. print resolution: 9,600 dpi Time to first page: 13 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Enterprise workgroups See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>The Okidata C9650hn laser printer gives businesses the flexibility to printout media on an array of paper sizes such as tabloid-size newsletters and brochures, ad layouts, large illustrations, banners or specialty media. The printer, part of <a href="http://www.okidata.com/mkt/html/nf/ColorPrinters.php?sku=C9650series">Okidata's</a> C9650 series, includes OKI Printing Solutions' High Definition Color Printing technology and Color Matching software, plus Auto Color Balance designed to make certain that color output remains accurate and consistent, according to the developer. The Okidata C9650hn is equipped with Job Accounting software that tracks color and black & white pages, the types and quantities of paper used, and a record of printing activity by individual or department. Price: $4,099.99 Paper capacity: 760 Paper trays: One; two add-on options Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 150,000 B&W print speed: 40 ppm Color print speed: 36 ppm Max. print resolution: 1200 x 600 Time to first page: 9 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Departments, printers of specialty media See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>HP addressed the needs of power-hungry, print-seeking business users with its HP LaserJet CP6015, designed to handle everything from letter-size documents all the way to output that measures 12.6 x 36 " and weighs up to 58 pounds. The printer, which ships with all supplies preinstalled, includes HP's Advanced Auto Navigation, designed to easily clear paper jams, while HP Web Jetadmin, which includes new features such as color access control, allows remote maintenance, <a href="http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA1-6965ENUC.pdf">HP</a> said. Businesses can control color printing costs by assigning color-printing rights to individuals or departments. Price: $4,199 Paper capacity: 2,100 sheets Paper trays: Up to five Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 175,000 pages B&W print speed: 40 ppm Color print speed: 40 ppm Max. print resolution: 1200 x 600 Time to first page: Less than 11 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: High-volume networked printing and marketing materials on diverse media types and sizes; advanced finishing options See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>Okidata is looking to address the printing needs of the general-office worker with its Okidata C610dtn, a color laser printer that can handle everything from 3" x 5" cards to banner-size sheets. For security-conscious environments, there is the option of purchasing add-on features such as data encryption and password protection. To monitor the printer, users can view the device's operator panel, which displays toner levels, provides printer/network status, and enables printer and network settings changes. The C610dtn can hold up to 400 sheets of paper; businesses can opt to add up to two more trays, increasing paper capacity to 1,460 sheets. Price: $649 Paper capacity: 400 sheets Paper trays: One; can add up to two more trays Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 75,000 pages B&W print speed: 34 ppm Color print speed: 32 ppm Max. print resolution: 1200 x 600 Time to first page: 9 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Workgroups See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>The Xerox Phaser 7760/DX--which has two lower-priced siblings--targets enterprise users with color-intensive, graphics printing needs. The 7760/DN, which starts at $4,899 after $600 rebate, does not include built-in PhaserMatch 4.0 Color Matching software, although it is available as an option, and the 7760/GX, listing for $5,299 after $1,300 rebate, can manage up to 2,150 sheets of paper and includes the color-matching software. For its part, the <a href="http://www.office.xerox.com/printers/color-printers/phaser-7760/enus.html">Xerox Phaser 7760/DX </a> includes the PhaserMatch color-matching and calibration software, and a black trapping feature to enhance the appearance of documents printed on dark backgrounds with light inks. CentreWare Internet Services network Web administration tools allow users to manage, configure, troubleshoot the device from any computer, and the printer learns when users begin and end their day in order to shut-down and restart to save energy, according to Xerox. Price: $5,499 (after $1,400 rebate) Paper capacity: 3,150 sheets Paper trays: Two, optional three more Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 150,000 B&W print speed: 45 ppm Color print speed: 35 ppm Max. print resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi Time to first page: 6 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Departments See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>The Konica Minolta magicolor 7450 II grafx was designed specifically to meet the needs of the color printing business. The <a href="http://kmbs.konicaminolta.us/content/products/models/magicolor7450IIgrafx.html">magicolor 7450</a> includes photorealistic image resolution, Pantone color tables, built-in 40 GB hard drive, 768 MB memory, and a 733 MHz G4 processor. Professionals can print out on 12.25" x 18" paper, heavy stock, envelopes, labels, and full-color 12.25" x 47.24" banners, according to the developer. In addition, the Magicolor 7450, which works with both Macs and PCs, features professional-quality color tools and emulation profiles, smart calibration system and enhanced Automatic Image Density Control (eAIDC) to maintain consistent color values through long print runs, Konica Minolta said. Price: $3,199.00 Paper capacity: 500 sheets Paper trays: One; add up to three for total of 1,850 Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 120,000 B&W print speed: 24.5 ppm Color print speed: 24.5 ppm Max. print resolution: 9600 x 600 dpi Time to first page: 12 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Color printing business See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>The Brother HL-4570CDWT, a color laser printer, includes dual paper trays that can house up to 800 sheets, a time-save for employees at enterprise workgroups. The device, which includes automatic duplex to allow users to print two-sided documents to save paper, can be connected to the network wirelessly, and Brother offers a free app that enables users to print JPEG images from their Android smartphones directly onto the <a href="http://www.brother-usa.com/Printer/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=HL4570CDWT">HL-4570CDWT</a>. Users also can print PDF and JPEG files directly from a USB flash memory stick. High yield replacement toner cartridges are available to reduce the cost of printing and ownership. Price: $599.99 Paper capacity: 800 sheets Paper trays: Two Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 60,000 B&W print speed: 30 ppm Color print speed: 30 ppm Max. print resolution: 2400 x 600 dpi Time to first page: Less than 16 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Workgroups, mobile workers See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>The HP Color LaserJet Enterprise CP4025 can handle a bevy of media types, ranging from everyday to glossy papers, as well as envelopes, transparencies, and card stock. Its ability to cost-effectively print black and white and color documents has made it popular with many enterprise departments such as marketing, which rely on producing glossy, high-quality paperwork internally. The device comes equipped with 512 megabytes of memory, expandable up to 1 gigabyte, and uses automatic two-sided printing via a paper capacity of 600 sheets, which can be increased to 1,100 sheets with the purchase of add-on hardware. The LaserJet Enterprise CP4025 also includes HP Advanced Auto Media Sensing and a 4-line color control panel with auto-navigational help to help businesses improve printing efficiency. Price: $999 Paper capacity: 600 sheets; expandable to 1,100 sheets with add-on hardware purchase Paper trays: Two Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 100,000 pages B&W print speed: 9.5 seconds Color print speed: 9.5 seconds Max. print resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi Max. scan resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi Time to first page: 9.5 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star, Instant-on technology Designed for: Workgroups and departments See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>Marketing departments, advertising agencies, and other graphics-intensive departments are the core group Ricoh is targeting with its Aficio SP C821DN. The printer, which offers true 1200 x1200 dpi resolution, can reach 9600 x 600 dpi using the system's 4-bit color and interpolated resolution, according to <a href="http://www.ricoh-usa.com/products/product_details.aspx?cid=25&scid=21&pid=1575&ptm=features#pdtfeatures">Ricoh</a>. The printer's glossy mode allows users to print photographic-quality prints. To reduce printing errors, a driver allows users to choose the correct paper weight for any job. The Aficio SP C821DN can handle multiple sizes, including banners up to 2" wide and up to 49.6" long. Price: About $3,500.00 Paper capacity: 3,200 Paper trays: Two; Optional: 3,000-Sheet Finisher, 1,000-Sheet Booklet Finisher or 4-Bin Mailbox Maximum Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 200,000 pages B&W print speed: 50 ppm Color print speed: 50 ppm Max. print resolution: 1200 x 1200 Time to first page: 7 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Marketing departments, advertising agencies and other graphics-intensive environments See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>Designed for enterprise departments, the Lexmark C935hdn delivers both 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 17 printing, a built-in hard disk, three extra 540-sheet input trays, professional paper-handling options, and cost-cutting color controls to help businesses keep their printing expenses in check. The printer features a coverage estimator that show users the cost of a color page before they print, a move designed to prevent unnecessary printing of color pages. Lexmark also sells add-on products for stapling, hole punching, and booklet finishing. Businesses also can add input drawers for storage or to load multiple types of media. Price: $5,499 Paper capacity: 2,180 Paper trays: Five Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 200,000 B&W print speed: 45 ppm Color print speed: 40 ppm Max. print resolution: 2400 Max. scan resolution: 2400 Time to first page: 5 seconds Environmental features: Energy Star Designed for: Departments See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>The newly released Lexmark C792dhe features a color touchscreen, additional memory, and a hard disk as part of its standard equipment. The color laser printer takes up less floor space than many comparable models, due its vertical-oriented <a href="http://www1.lexmark.com/products/view/Printers/Lexmark-C792dhe/catId=cat10006-category&prodId=6471-product">design</a>. The Lexmark C792dhe's 4.3-inch color touchscreen lets users easily navigate the system, access workflow solutions and shortcuts, and preview documents and print jobs. Lexmark sells an add-on, optional sheet-staple finisher; hole-puncher, and off-set stacker. Price: $3,100 Paper capacity: 1,000 pages Paper trays: Five-bin mailbox Duplex printing: Yes Monthly duty cycle: 150,000 pages B&W print speed: 50 ppm Color print speed: 47 ppm Max. print resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi Max. scan resolution: 2400 x 600 dpi Time to first page: 8 seconds (black) Environmental features: Energy Star, print preview Designed for: Enterprise workgroups See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228201060">Dell Updates Laser, Multifunction Printers For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/228200309">Lexmark Combines Laser, Inkjet Divisions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/227500337">HP Updates Printer Line</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/227500043">Apple Adds Wireless Printing To iPad, iPhone, iPod</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/226600345">Xerox Advises Securing Data In Printer Hard Drives</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500035">HP Drives Further Into Web Printing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/225500020">HP Enables Print By E-Mail</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/peripherals/224900390">HP To Bring Palm WebOS To Printers</a>2011-04-08T11:56:00ZSciQuest Refreshes Collaborative eProcurementEnterprise-wide spending compliance and aggregate buying are among the features added to the on-demand procurement and supplier-management offering.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229401285?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsSciQuest, which provides on-demand procurement and supplier-management software and services, on Thursday released the latest iteration of its eProcurement offering, designed to enable enterprises to ensure global, corporate-wide spending compliance, aggregate buying power, and consolidate multi-location organizations' purchasing functions. The Cary, N.C.-based developer created an Amazon.com-like shopping <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/229400183"> marketplace</a> for procurement professionals, said Max Leisten, market director, in an interview. SciQuest attracts and qualifies suppliers, and drives its approximately 300 business, government, and higher-education customers to these preferred suppliers, he said. SciQuest then streamlines the order, invoice, and purchase process, automating the process and ensuring compliance with buyers' contracts, said Leisten. "It's built around attracting suppliers, both non-diverse and diverse suppliers, qualifying them, and then allowing your sourcing team to engage in bidding events and making them available to your shoppers," he said. SciQuest targets vertical markets such as life sciences--including 13 of the top 15 life sciences companies--healthcare, higher education, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/cloud-saas/229400268">government</a>, and other industries. "There's tremendous cost pressure. [Life sciences companies'] patents are expiring. They are negotiating contracts at a global level: They want a contract across the globe, but also must be accommodating to local needs," said Leisten. "Being able to identify what can be negotiated and supported globally versus what can be negotiated and supported locally is a challenge for all companies." In its latest iteration, the SciQuest eProcurement solution includes the multi-business unit, which allows organizations with multiple locations--including those in different countries--to consolidate their purchasing functions with centralized technology and purchasing control, according to <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110407005417/en/SciQuest-Unveils-Latest-Release-Collaborative-Procurement-Solution">SciQuest</a>. For example, corporate headquarters can mandate <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=165700829">global</a> use of a particular rental car agency, shipping company, and hotel chain, and inform all local offices of these selections. But local offices then have the option of choosing regional marketing firms, said Leisten. With its new Consortium feature, organizations now can aggregate buying power in a virtual environment that centralizes sourcing and catalog-management processes in order to deliver deeper discounts and more insight into group spending, according to SciQuest. Organizations with similar interests, enterprises with partners, or other like-minded groups can create consortia, said Leisten. In addition, SciQuest added pCard Marketplace, which allows enterprises, states, or group purchasing organizations to invite the public into general membership for Internet-based shopping that grants buyers access to discounts. The State of Georgia--a SciQuest customer--set-up a website allowing small businesses to purchase at its reduced rates, for example, Leisten said. At the suggestion of its customers, SciQuest also made more investments in its healthcare-specific supply solutions, adding the SciQuest Virtual Item Master that allows healthcare organizations to manage contract-compliance for physician preference items and purchased services, SciQuest said. The developer also improved its catalog and price-management capabilities to ensure pricing and goods are up-to-date and accurate, the company added.2011-04-08T07:00:00ZSocial Media Influences Website Traffic IndirectlyAlmost 20% of visits to company sites are prompted by social media, whereas less than 1% come via direct links, according to ForeSee study.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229401208?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/web_services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228200568"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/538/TweetDeck_tn.jpg" alt="Top 20 Apps For Managing Social Media" title="Top 20 Apps For Managing Social Media" height="118" class="img175" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div class="storyImageTitle">Top 20 Apps For Managing Social Media</div></div>Although a new study suggests social media has very little direct impact on most website traffic, social networking sites do influence consumers' interest in visiting companies' URLs. In fact, fewer than 1% of website visits came from a link to a social media page, according to <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/foresee-results-benchmark-breaks-down-impact-of-social-media-on-web-traffic-119392459.html">research</a> released Thursday by ForeSee Results. However, 18% of website visitors said social media content--such as a Tweet or a friend's comment on Facebook--prompted them to stop by the URL, the study found. These are benchmark averages, with some individual companies seeing vastly different results in both direct and indirect influence percentages, ForeSee cautioned. "We ask people, 'What influenced your visit to this website?,' and then we give them a list of choices. We ask about primary, secondary, and tertiary influences so we are able to get a good sense of what kinds of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218850"> marketing</a> activities have the most impact. If someone "likes" Best Buy on Facebook and sees that there is a sale on TVs and then types www.bestbuy.com into their browser and clicks through a Google ad, Best Buy will register that as an SEO win rather than a social media win," said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee, in an interview. "We feel it's very important to have behavioral data--like where they came from--in addition to attitudinal data--what influenced them, what satisfies them, etc." The study results should sound a cautionary tone for brands that solely track direct links from social media, he said. Companies have been able to count Facebook fans and Tweets, but it has been difficult for them to measure a tangible return on investment, said Freed. Indeed, 61% of companies said they did a poor or very poor job of measuring their social media ROI, according to a report by Internet Retailer. Given the often circuitous nature of social media, enterprises can be missing vital information about the value of their social media investments if they do not consider indirect interactions, said Freed. "What's interesting to me isn't even really the 1% or the 18%--it's the gap, it's the fact that if you are measuring only referring URLs, you are getting a picture that is incomplete at best and misleading at worst," he said. By linking those visitors who were influenced--directly or indirectly--by social media to their spending, brands can quantify their social networking investments on sales, thereby creating a hard-number <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229400335">ROI</a>. In some cases, the results can be well worth the expenditure, said Freed. <a href="http://www.foreseeresults.com/">ForeSee Results</a>, which provides customer-satisfaction measurement services, has some clients that enjoy millions more in revenue as a direct result of social media, he said. In other cases, the results have been less positive or dramatic, said Freed. "We have some clients who are finding that tens of millions of dollars of revenue are heavily influenced by social media. These also tend to be the clients who have better social campaigns because they are actually actively measuring their customers' experience with their social activities, not just throwing stuff out there and hoping it sticks," he said. "When you measure, you can manage and improve. We have others who find that social media has very little value. But the point is that you really don't know what benefits it has or doesn't have if you aren't measuring." Dell Outlet, for example, used Twitter to generate millions of dollars for the computer manufacturer, while Procter & Gamble determined its BeingGirl.com website was more effective at driving sales than TV advertising, said Augie Ray, social media marketing analyst at Forrester, in a <a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/augie_ray/10-07-19-roi_social_media_marketing_more_dollars_and_cents"> blog</a>. No matter the payoff, however, businesses must invest in some components of social media, just as they first bought into the Internet, he said. "We used to ask about the a <href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300653">ROI</a> of the Web; now we just invest in the Web, regardless of how much ROI can be validated in the short run--we just know it's necessary," Ray wrote. "Some aspects of social media will work the same way, while others will require (and prove) short-term ROI. But in the end, creating loyalty, awareness and purchase intent always pays off in the end."2011-04-06T15:10:00ZSugarCRM Boosts Social Customer Relationship Management IntegrationThe software maker announced it has extended the capabilities of its mobile apps, deepened its relationship with IBM, and acquired iExtensions CRM.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229401153?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/galleries/workgrouping_team_collaboration_workspaces/229300480/top-15-cloud-collaboration-apps"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/585/AtTask_tn.jpg" alt="Top 15 Cloud Collaboration Apps" title="Top 15 Cloud Collaboration Apps" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: Top 15 Cloud Collaboration Apps</div> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300480">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</a> </div>SugarCRM has extended the capabilities of its social customer relationship management (CRM) software through new integration with applications from a bevy of industry heavyweights -- including expansion of the company's partnership with IBM, as well as SugarCRM's acquisition of iExtensions CRM from iEnterprises. The announcements were made during the annual Sugarcon conference this week. These steps should help SugarCRM grow its overall sales and further expand into the enterprise, said James Ward, president of BrainSell, an integrator that recommends, sells, and supports CRM software by SugarCRM, SalesLogix, Act, and Sage. The solution provider is entering the second year of its relationship with SugarCRM, and on Monday, SugarCRM named BrainSell MVP for the Massachusetts region and honored the company for doubling its SugarCRM sales, Ward said. "They are doing all the right things. They are doing all the things that allow them to cross the chasm. All the signs are there that I think this company will take off," he said. "They've done a great job of being relevant in that [social] space. We're adopting a lot of those products, and we're evangelists of this social CRM, or I'd more call it 'impact CRM.' Finally, CRM has an impact. They're on a rocket launch right now." BrainSell -- which saw revenue increase 31% in 2010 -- soon expects to close a contract for 15,000 to 30,000 seats, said Ward. And the solution provider has cut its own costs by using Sugar's CRM software internally. "On December 31, I ceased all Google pay-per-click advertising and began using Sugar social CRM with all integrated solutions," he said. "For the quarter, our sales this year are up 51%. If you follow inbound marketing and use CRM, it is really hard not to get [a return on investment]." This news-laden week highlighted SugarCRM's ongoing strategy of forging relationships and integration with the developers and applications in use at enterprises and smaller organizations, according to Larry Augustin, CEO of the open source developer. Sugar 6 now integrates with applications from IBM, Google, Cisco WebEx, Citrix Online, and InsideView, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228200854">SugarCRM</a> said. While SugarCRM executives did not respond to requests for comment, Augustin said in a statement, "today's professionals are demanding business tools that enable them to work the way they want to work -- in a connected, always-on world with fewer barriers." Increasingly, businesses are investing in social CRM, according to several studies. In fact, over the next couple of years, about 30% of companies will extend their online communities to encompass customer support, according to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/229300370"> Gartner</a>. C-level executives are encouraging customer service managers to incorporate social media into CRM and customer support, reported the research firm. The incentives include consumers' willingness and interest in communicating via these platforms, social media's cost-effectiveness, and the speed of responsiveness. However, some businesses are holding back, uncertain about how to integrate fast-moving social media platforms into their CRM applications, or how to figure out the return on investment. Last year, only 5% of organizations used social CRM for customer support, said Drew Kraus, research VP at Gartner. Within five years, Gartner predicts community peer-to-peer support via social media CRM will augment or replace tier 1 contact center support in more than 40% of Fortune 1,000 companies with a contact center. With Sugar 6, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224700249">SugarCRM</a> hopes to simplify -- and encourage -- this adoption. Users, for example, will be able to upload, manage, and share Google Docs from within the Sugar 6 interface, and integrate with collaborative tools such as Cisco WebEx Meeting Center and Citrix GoToMeeting. Going Mobile <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229400465"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/610/clearvalex1_tn.jpg" alt="Broadvision's Clearvale Express Offers Free Social Media Capabilities" title="Broadvision's Clearvale Express Offers Free Social Media Capabilities" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: Broadvision's Clearvale Express Offers Free Social Media Capabilities</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>On Wednesday, SugarCRM announced it had expanded the capabilities of its mobile Sugar 6 -- CRM Made Simple -- to include support for the Android mobile OS, the Blackberry platform, native iPad support; offline synchronization capabilities; and a new HTML5-based charting engine. Like the existing iPhone mobile product, the newer mobile versions feature core Sugar modules and customization capabilities that allow IT departments to create mobile applications for field agents and other members of an enterprise's mobile workforce, according to <a href="http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/press-releases/2011/mobile62">SugarCRM</a>. "Generally speaking, based on observations in the industry, CRM is one of the more highly adopted applications for the cloud; it's one of the most immediately beneficial types of service," said Stefan Bewley, director of Altman Vilandrie & Co., a consulting group that recently released a <a href="http://cable.tmcnet.com/topics/cable/articles/159870-demand-bandwidth-fuel-business-opportunities-telcos-survey.htm">study</a> on bandwidth demand. The people using that are usually on the road or in remote offices. It's one of the key applications for a mobile worker. In a separate announcement, SugarCRM touted the extent of its deepening relationship with IBM, including the company's Lotus unit, a step designed to help business employees increase sales, deliver marketing campaigns, keep customers, and create custom business applications, according to SugarCRM. These new solutions include integration between SugarCRM and IBM LotusLive; connectors for IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Suite and IBM Websphere Cast Iron for SugarCRM's integration platform, the CRM developer said. "These new combined solutions and connectors to powerful IBM solutions extend the existing relationship between SugarCRM and IBM," said Clint Oram, co-founder and CTO of SugarCRM, in a <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110405005099/en/SugarCRM-Announces-Integrations-IBM-Software">statement</a>. SugarCRM for Lotus Notes, currently available, lets users schedule and host meetings from within their CRM program, as well as upload, share, and collaborate on documents, such as quotes or contracts, from within Sugar 6. But SugarCRM did not only focus on integration and partnerships. The developer also improved the software's Sugar Activity Streams, which are designed to improve internal and external collaboration. The software's latest features allow users to reply to individual posts; view profile photos within posts; and integrate a user's Twitter streams and Facebook news feeds, according to SugarCRM. Activity Streams are designed to help employees become collaborative and social by importing external data sources into their customer and business systems, the developer said. By accomplishing this task, enterprises become more customer-friendly and consumer-centric, and therefore are more responsive and see improved service, sales, and revenue. Of course, internal data is critical. Businesses that can successfully analyze and leverage sales data create a competitive advantage, which spurred SugarCRM's integration with <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229400277">InsideView</a>, which develops sales intelligence software. Sugar 6 will include InsideView's SalesView pre-loaded, giving users access to thousands of global data sources for insight into prospects and customers, according to InsideView. "A CRM system is only as good as the data inside of it," said Umberto Milletti, CEO of InsideView, in a statement. "By accessing real-time sales intelligence and relevant social information within Sugar 6, users can discover prospects, qualify leads, engage decision-makers, close deals, and grow customer relationships more quickly." One method for growth, of course, is through acquisition -- and this was the path that SugarCRM opted for when it announced Tuesday it would buy iExtensions CRM from iEnterprises for an undisclosed amount. Expected to become part of the spring 2011 release of Sugar 6, iExtensions functionality includes more support for Notes; Notes email and calendar plug-ins; and a connector to IBM Domino, according to iEnterprises. As a result of this acquisition, iEnterprises CEO John Carini joins SugarCRM as VP of collaboration solutions. Other members of iEnterprises' development team also became SugarCRM employees, and iEnterprises will sell its iExtension framework as a SugarCRM value-added reseller.2011-04-04T14:17:00ZFacebook App Connects Buyers To Manufacturers' ResellersChannel Intelligence's Where to Buy Facebook helps brands use the social network to direct consumers to the retailers that sell their wares.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400825?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227800083"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/532/RSSGrafitti_tn.jpg" alt="Top 15 Facebook Apps For Business" title="Top 15 Facebook Apps For Business" class="img175" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: Top 15 Facebook Apps For Business</div> </div>Channel Intelligence, a developer of e-commerce software and services for manufacturers and retailers, today unveiled CI Where to Buy Facebook, an application to help manufacturers use the social media site to connect potential buyers to retailers that sell their products. The company's latest product joins its <a href="http://www.channelintelligence.com/">CI Boost</a> family, which includes a product-search tool used within Google and Bing; display advertising; shopping engines used on sites such as PriceGrabber.com and Shopzilla.com; marketplaces for discontinued, refurbished, and end-of-inventory items used on sites like eBay and Amazon; e-commerce sites; and Where to Buy, which directs consumers to retail outlets from a manufacturer's site. "A lot of manufacturers are still figuring out how to be in the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229400530">right place</a> at the right time. The popularity of Facebook is undeniable," Alan Fulmer, CI's executive VP and co-founder, said in an interview. "They know they want to be there and interact with their consumers. People are interacting with brands. If you're looking for opportunities with discounts, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300933">deals</a>, or coupons, and there's a buying moment, [manufacturers] want to help them close that process and help them buy." More than 100 of CI's 140-plus manufacturing clients have a Facebook page, according to the marketing software and service firm's internal research. About 10 of those manufacturers have created a temporary Facebook solution to help guide their customers to retailers, perhaps by adding a list of retail locations that sell their wares, said Fulmer. "They're definitely looking for a solution and we know that, now that we've rolled this out, there's going to be huge demand almost immediately to get a solution up to take advantage of the fact they've got traffic. There's going to be a push," he said. TrippLite, a manufacturer of uninterruptible power supplies, has already signed on for CI's new Facebook service, said Fulmer. Manufacturers and retailers continue to investigate ways in which they can leverage <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300370">social media</a>, he said. "Just the fact that Facebook is the second most popular website in the world increases its importance as an area that manufacturers and retailers have to look at to ensure they're taking advantage of the opportunities that are presented there," said Fulmer. "If it's not the highest priority, it's becoming one of the highest priorities for both. To sell products you have to be where the people are. Facebook has made themselves a priority by being where people are. You have to come up with some kind of solution. You want to do it well and you want speed. You want to do it efficiently and effectively."2011-04-04T08:00:00ZTop 15 Cloud Collaboration AppsJudging by the investments that developers -- both well-established and start-ups -- are making in the collaboration market, software vendors are paying more than lip service to the adage that no man is an island. Certainly, businesses are investigating -- and investing in -- tools that help employees brainstorm, locate each other, schedule meetings, and communicate via social networks. Collaboration technology itself covers a broad spectrum of devices, from instant messaging and email, to cell phones and videoconferencing equipment. The cloud empowers individuals to use these tools practically anywhere, further boosting corporate productivity and spurring investment. Here's 15 of the leading cloud collaboration applications.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229300480?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsAtTask, which develops a social work management platform and on-demand project and portfolio software, extended its incorporation of social media elements with the February unveiling of Stream. The new <a href="http://www.attask.com/press-releases/attask-announces-new-vision-for-project-management">feature</a> is an ongoing flow of conversational data that employees enter into the software, a capability that boosted productivity at many beta sites, AtTask said. "Our team members really like using TeamHome," a dashboard-like workspace designed to help team members understand, organize, and get their tasks done, said John Gilmartin, head of programs at Sage, a software developer and customer of AtTask. "They like how they can add their own tasks, prioritize them on their homepage, and spend less time fumbling through the software wondering what their tasks are -- everything is in once place and is easy for them to access." Worldwide, collaborative decision-making (CDM) software, which represents only a portion of the collaborative software world, is expected to reach $769.2 million in 2011, up 15.7% from 2010, according to Gartner. Last year, the researcher predicted revenue would reach $664.4 million. This year, CDM is expected to integrate deeper with business intelligence tools, Gartner said. "Social software improves the connectedness of workers, promotes collaboration, and helps capture informal knowledge. Social software excels in business contexts that leave room for individuals to interact informally, brainstorm, explore ideas, and encourage or challenge peers. Specific business value can be derived through customer intimacy, product/service excellence, operational effectiveness and creating innovation," said Tom Eid, research vice president at Gartner. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>With tools such as Cisco WebEx, businesses have been able to eliminate many of the costly, time-consuming in-person meetings once such a necessary component of their operations. WebEx Connect IM, part of the total Cisco <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229200162">WebEx</a> system, uses presence and instant messaging to enable users to communicate with colleagues, both inside and outside an organization. Because of the presence technology, <a href="http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10528/index.html">WebEx Connect IM</a> knows whether users are available, reducing communication delays and boosting employee productivity. For its part, Cisco rolled-out the service internally to 90,000 employees, partners, and contractors in 45 days, said <a href="http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/videos/wbx_connect_im_081210.html?CMP=AF17154&vs_f=News@Cisco:+Video+Content&vs_p=News@Cisco:+Video+Content&vs_k=1"> Bailey Szeto</a>, director of strategy and architecture for communication and collaborative IT at Cisco. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>Available free to businesses users -- whether they are Salesforce.com customers or not, Chatter lets users collaborate, share, and interact via a private, secure network. <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/chatter">Chatter</a> works on any desktop, as well as multiple mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. Users also can receive notifications; find and share files; get reports and analytics from the software's dashboard, receive recommendations on people to follow, and invite colleagues to join the social network software. More than 60,000 companies use <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229201270">Chatter</a>, according to Salesforce. Santander Consumer USA, for example, uses Chatter to share presentations, documents, and status updates, the auto-financing company said. "Our employees love using Chatter to stay informed and learn from each other," said Will Stacy IV, director of marketing at Santander, in a <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/showcase/stories/santander.jsp?cloud=sales&internal=true">video</a>. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>With LotusLive Symphony's Web-based software, users can co-edit, organize, and manage document-creation in real-time. Lotus Symphony includes free spreadsheets, document, and presentation software; LotusLive is the developer's online collaboration suite, which includes a 30-day free trial. Unwrapped in late January 2011, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229200114">LotusLive Symphony</a> incorporates feeds from popular social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Although the software will not be released until later this year, it is available now as a <a href="https://www.lotuslive.com/en/catalog/index.php?id=labs&tab=symphony">technical preview</a>. "Social software helps enterprises define their collaboration agenda," said Alistair Rennie, general manager, IBM Lotus Software. "The use of social software can transform the way people work increasing the speed of business." See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>Microsoft SharePoint Online, which can be deployed either on-site or in the cloud, is available bundled with Microsoft's business productivity suite, online standard suite, or as a standalone offering for about $5.25 per user, with a 30-day free trial. The <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/online/sharepoint-online.aspx">software</a>, which is part of Microsoft's Office 365, includes a portal, collaboration and social computing, content management, and search. "Departments are getting information out to stores faster, because <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218588"> SharePoint Online </a> is so easy to use," said Rhonda Cobb, IT manager at REEDS Jewelers. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>The Jive Engage Platform melds together collaboration, community, and social media monitoring software, providing customers with blogs, tags, videos, social bookmarks, collaborative documents, polls, profiles, and status updates. In addition, the software provides social media monitoring, mobile applications, community analytics, and integration with legacy systems, the <a href="http://www.jivesoftware.com/products/platform/features"> developer </a> said. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226000067">Jive</a> Engage works on desktops and mobile devices including the iPhone and BlackBerry. It is sold on-site or as a cloud version. "We quickly realized that Jive had almost everything we needed out-of-the-box for social networking and a vision for future development in line with ours," said Brice Jewell, the senior manager at <a href="http://www.jivesoftware.com/files/pdf/casestudy/Case-Study-Cerner.pdf">Cerner</a> responsible for the health company's social network experience. "Our clients don't want to hear about the 'potential' impact of Web 2.0 on their business. They want real, proven examples from people like them." See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>Touted as easy to use, Google Groups for Business gives users access to email, documents, folders, calendar, and videos. Unlike the free standard edition of Google Apps, <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/groups.html">Groups</a> for Business costs about $50 per user per year, and may include a set-up fee. But the business edition also provides an uptime guarantee, either via Google or an authorized reseller. Companies also can <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218590">disable</a> ads in the Web interface; Google offers a free trial. "Google Apps saves us millions of dollars over five years over any of the alternatives that we looked at and provides us with worldwide disaster recovery, unprecedented integration, and device independence," said customer Todd Pierce, vice president of IT at Genentech, in a video. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>StreamWork marked SAP's foray into the social media collaboration space. The software, available for a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/systems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227700404">free trial</a>, is based on Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, and lets users continue working within their applications while accessing StreamWork, according to SAP. The basic edition is free; the professional version starts at $9 per user per month, and the enterprise edition begins at $192 per user per year, and includes advanced security, provisioning, and auditing. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>Designed to meet the online and collaboration needs of small and midsize enterprises, HyperOffice apps are in-use by more 300,000 users worldwide, according to the developer. The HyperOffice <a href="http://www.hyperoffice.com/about-us/">suite</a> includes features such as business email, contact management, calendaring, document management, intranet and extranet workspaces, forums, Web conferencing, online databases, and Web forms. The <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228000388">HyperOffice</a>software -- which runs on a PC, Mac, or handheld -- is available on a no-contract basis, and starts at $44.99 per month for five users goes to $1,499 per month for more than 250 users, with discounts available for monthly and annual contracts. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>Zoho Projects incorporates email, collaboration, productivity, and business apps into a suite of tools that are free for personal users. The <a href="http://www.zoho.com">software</a> is discounted for non-profit groups, and enterprises fees begin at $12 month for the standard version and $35 a month for the premium version. In February, the developer announced that Zoho Projects was integrated with Zoho CRM; in September 2010, Zoho integrated its capabilities with <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227501055">Google Gmail</a>. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>While some competitors' Web sites are slickly produced, 37signals' is comparatively barebones. But the company, which developed the Basecamp online project collaboration tool, counts businesses such as National Geographic, Patagonia, Warner Bros., and Fox Sports among its clients. <a href="http://basecamphq.com/">Basecamp</a>, used by 5 million-plus individuals, supports multiple languages, and was also designed for mobile devices such as iPhones and Android smartphones. Available with a free 30-day trial option, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220400039">37signals</a>sells Basecamp under three plans: Plus for $49; premium for $99, and max for $149. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>Based on Drupal CMS open source software, OfficeMedium was designed to affordably address small businesses' need to collaborate and manage projects, without spending unnecessary resources buying and managing proprietary software. <a href="http://www.officemedium.com">OfficeMedium</a> software includes contact management, events, tasks, calendars, file sharing, and client integration, the developer said. The software costs $6 per month, per user, and there is a $1 per gigabyte fee. "We understand that your needs may change over time and that you shouldn't have to worry about upgrading or downgrading your account," OfficeMedium said. "We also believe you shouldn't have to pay for features and users you may or may not use. Our software packages come full-featured no matter what -- at no additional costs." See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>Socialtext, founded in 2002, developed software that integrated traditional customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource management (ERP) software with its social media platform. The self-titled <a href="http://www.socialtext.com">software</a> is built on an open, Web-oriented architecture, and includes activity streams, user profile pages, instant messaging, group creation, workspaces, blogging, and user-defined control panels. In November, the developer <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000319">released</a> Socialtext 4.5. The software "makes it easier for you not just to share but to curate and explore your people and content," said Ross Mayfield, chairman, president and co-founder of Socialtext. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>More than 400,000 people use Central Desktop's eponymous collaboration and project-management software to work on documents, share calendars and agendas, team-up on projects, and manage assignments. The <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/systems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227700404">software</a> is available in three versions: Free or basic; workgroup (with free 30-day trial), and enterprise. Internet marketing agency BlueGlass, which began using <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226700298">Central Desktop</a> to manage its 4 offices and 50 employees, chose this software over alternatives because of its lower price, power, and scalability, said chief technology officer Tony Wang, in a <a href="http://customers.centraldesktop.com/internet-marketing-agency-blueglass-collaboration.html">customer profile</a>. "Central Desktop is an indispensable tool for connecting distributed teams," he said. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>With more than 700 customers and 90,000-plus users, Onehub's business has grown since it first opened its doors in 2007. The developer provides online collaboration and file-sharing software, specializing in creative industries and client service organizations. Sign-up for the application is free, and no credit card is required, the <a href="http://onehub.com/">company Web site</a> said. A paid version also is available, ranging from $29 a month for the individual plan to $499 per month for the enterprise program. "Onehub customers typically set up one workspace for each of their clients or one workspace for each of their internal departments. Sometimes, they set up one workspace for each of their projects," Onehub said. See More <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219582">SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219518">Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/business_process/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219141">TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent Integrates With SharePoint 2010</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000839">Bitrix Brings Collaboration Into Cloud</a>2011-04-01T12:10:00ZInfor SharePoint Interface Connects Enterprise AppsWorkspace is a standard SharePoint-based user interface that ties together Infor business applications such as enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, and collaboration.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400743?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/info_management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229203011"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/576/Ten_3052248_tn.jpg" alt="10 Tenets Of Enterprise Data Management" title="10 Tenets Of Enterprise Data Management" class="img175" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: 10 Tenets Of Enterprise Data Management</div></div>Business-application software developer Infor on Thursday released Infor Workspace, a Microsoft SharePoint-based user interface that ties together corporate applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), business intelligence (BI), and collaboration. Infor Workspace is available for <a href="http://www.infor.com/product_summary/erp/ln/">Infor ERP LN</a> for manufacturing; <a href="http://www.infor.com/product_summary/erp/sl/">Infor ERP SyteLine</a> for Microsoft .NET environments; <a href="http://www.infor.com/product_summary/eam/Infor_eam_asset/">Infor EAM</a>, a Web-architected asset-management program; <a href="http://www.infor.com/product_summary/fms/exfm/">Infor FMS SunSystems</a> for financial management; and <a href="http://www.infor.com/solutions/expense/">Infor Expense Management</a> for expense accounts. The developer plans to make it the standard interface when it unveils future browser-based applications over time, Infor said in a <a href="http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Infor-Revolutionizes-Enterprise-User-Experience-With-New-Consumer-Grade-Interface-1420708.htm">statement</a>. Developers are steadily integrating with SharePoint: In February, for example, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">Telligent</a> released a beta of its social-collaboration software that integrated with SharePoint 2010. Last October, Yammer announced its integration with <a href="http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Yammer-Announces-Integration-With-Microsoft-SharePoint-2010-1338093.htm">SharePoint 2010 </a>. Businesses are looking to fully leverage their investment in ERP software, a market expected to become a $4.6 billion industry by 2013, according to Forrester. By leveraging Microsoft's SharePoint and BI expertise, Infor now enables corporate end-users to encounter a common look-and-feel, reducing training, and enhancing ease-of-use, no matter which Infor Workforce software they use, according to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225300150">Infor</a>. The user interface includes single sign-on and seamless navigation, whether an organization has deployed the application on-premise or in the cloud, Infor said. Infor Workspace, which delivers real-time contextual BI, also allows applications to bring in external data such as key performance indicators, dynamic alerts, mapping tools, and currency and time conversion. "Sifting through multiple applications for data greatly hindered the ability of our staff to work on what matters," Dale Brittan, CIO of Brewster Dairy, an Infor customer, said in a statement. "Infor Workspace greatly improves productivity by unifying all relevant information by job function into a single interface and alerting users to take immediate action on any unexpected variations to their standard processes." "No longer will business and social tools be separate. Infor Workspace seamlessly melds them together, making it as easy to interact with co-workers around the world as it is to use the application itself. We call it socializing the enterprise, and believe this kind of new user experience will not only result in dramatically improved employee satisfaction, it will also produce clear, measureable improvements in productivity, performance and return on investment," said Soma Somasundaram, senior vice president, Global Product Development at Infor in a release.2011-03-31T11:49:00ZTelligent Connects With Microsoft LyncThe beta version of the company's community software includes presence, chat, VoIP, and the capability to initiate videoconferences from inside Lync.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400674?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/web_services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228200568"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/538/TweetDeck_tn.jpg" alt="Top 20 Apps For Managing Social Media" title="Top 20 Apps For Managing Social Media" height="118" class="img175" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div class="storyImageTitle">Top 20 Apps For Managing Social Media</div></div>Telligent continued to expand its integration capabilities with Microsoft products, Thursday releasing the beta version of Telligent Connect for Microsoft Lync, which connects its community software with Microsoft Lync Server 2010. Both Telligent's software and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 are designed to enhance and enable collaboration. <a href="http://lync.microsoft.com/en-us/Overview/Pages/what-is-lync.aspx">Lync Server 2010</a> incorporates instant messaging; telepresence; audio, video, and Web conferencing; enterprise voice; and group chat, allowing users to communicate via the Internet, phones, or PCs with a consistent experience and interface. For its part, Telligent Connect for Lync is part of <a href="http://telligent.com/products/telligent_enterprise/">Telligent Enterprise</a>, a social community application designed to destroy data silos and empower employees to easily share information across the corporation. Telligent Connect for Lync includes presence, allowing workers to discover who is online and available to immediately collaborate within Microsoft Lync; the ability to begin a chat with colleagues and respond to co-workers within the Telligent community; and the capability to initiate videoconferences from inside Lync -- adding users, sharing applications, participating in whiteboard sessions, and connecting using VoIP, according to Telligent. "I can tell you all of us at Telligent are thrilled to integrate with Microsoft Lync Server 2010. But, we aren't stopping there. Our team is continuing to innovate and integrate with Microsoft technologies to create easier, faster, and more inspiring ways for employees to communicate and collaborate in their favorite tools," wrote Wendy Gibson, chief marketing officer at Telligent, in a <a href="http://telligent.com/company/news/b/teamblog/">company blog</a>. Indeed, this release comes about six weeks after Telligent took the wraps off the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218770">beta version</a> of an integration package for Microsoft SharePoint 2010. In that application, Telligent created a unified platform for knowledge-capture that melded together Telligent's social community software with Microsoft's document-collaboration tools. This enabled employees to use Telligent Enterprise's interface to check out, edit, and organize documents, and then use the controls within Microsoft's Office applications, according to Telligent. The Telligent Enterprise user interface allows employees to review prior versions of documents and revert to previous editions from within the social collaboration software, Telligent said. "The Telligent Connect family of integrations allows customers to integrate their Telligent applications with leading third-party applications like Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Lync," Gibson said. Increasingly, businesses are seeking ways to enable employees to collaborate and access information previously locked away or difficult to access. After all, companies will generate about half of their Web sales through social and mobile applications by 2015, according to Gartner.2011-03-30T14:30:00ZGoogle Settles FTC Privacy Suit Over BuzzInternet giant agrees to 20 years of third-party audits, as well as implementing programs to protect users' personal data and contacts.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400616?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/internet/browsers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229301210"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/588/chrome10_tn.jpg" alt="Google Chrome 10 Boosts Performance, Management" title="Google Chrome 10 Boosts Performance, Management" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: Google Chrome 10 Boosts Performance, Management</div> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/internet/browsers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229301210">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</a> </div>Under terms of Google's settlement Wednesday with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over charges it violated user privacy with its Buzz social networking service, Google will undergo third-party privacy audits for the next two decades and implement a comprehensive privacy program. The FTC charged Google with using deceptive tactics and violating the company's own privacy promises to consumers, according to the <a href="http://ftc.gov/os/caselist/1023136/110330googlebuzzcmpt.pdf">complaint</a>. The government agency also alleged that Google violated the substantive privacy requirements of the Safe Harbor Framework, which gives companies a method to lawfully transfer data from the European Union to the United States. "When companies make privacy pledges, they need to honor them," said Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC, in a <a href="http://ftc.gov/opa/2011/03/google.shtm">release</a>. "This is a tough settlement that ensures that Google will honor its commitments to consumers and build strong privacy protections into all of its operations." Although terms are Google-specific, the government apparently hopes other social networks pay close attention to the settlement. "Terms of the order apply only to Google. But the best practices set forth in the order should serve as a guide to industry," the <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/FTCgov">FTC tweeted</a>, as part of its steady stream of responses to questions via Twitter. "FTC staff proposed framework for protecting consumer privacy in Dec. Will continue aggressive law enforcement in privacy too." When Google launched Buzz via Gmail in February 2010, the developer led users to believe they could choose whether or not to join the network. But users' options for declining or leaving the social media site were ineffective, according to the FTC. "The launch of Google Buzz fell short of our usual standards for transparency and user control -- letting our users and Google down," wrote Alma Whitten, director of privacy, product, and engineering at Google, in a <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/">company blog</a>. "While we worked quickly to make improvements, regulators -- including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission -- unsurprisingly wanted more detail about what went wrong and how we could prevent it from happening again. Today, we've reached an agreement with the FTC to address their concerns." Google also incorrectly stated it was acting in accord with the Safe Harbor framework, a voluntary program administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce in consultation with the European Commission. In order to participate, companies must self-certify each year that they meet pre-defined privacy principles; the FTC said Google did not give consumers notice or choice when their information was used for a different purpose than for which it was gathered. "Case demonstrates FTC's continuing commitment to enforcing U.S.-EU Safe Harbor. Always looking for more cases," the FTC tweeted.<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/mobility/smart_phones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229200208"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/573/translate1_tn.jpg" alt="Real Time Conversation With Google Translate" title="Real Time Conversation With Google Translate" class="img175" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: Real Time Conversation With Google Translate</div></div>As a result of this misrepresentation, Google has agreed to get users' consent before the company shares that information with third parties if Google makes changes to its products or services that alter the privacy promise made when the data originally was collected. In addition, Google will create and maintain a "comprehensive privacy program," and will hire a third party to conduct an audit of its privacy and data-protection practices every two years, the settlement said. "Covered info includes all info collected from or about consumers including search," the FTC tweeted. "Google could be subject to civil penalties in the amount of $16,000 per violation (standard) for violating consent decree." The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a complaint with the FTC soon after Google released Buzz, based on the developer's data-privacy practices. When Buzz debuted, Gmail users received a message about the service and got two options: "Sweet! Check out Buzz," and "Nah, go to my inbox." Even users who selected the opt-out "Nah" button were, however, enrolled in some features of Buzz, the FTC said. Google did not inform users who opted in to Buzz that their most frequently emailed contacts would, by default, be made public, the government said. In addition, the "Turn Off Buzz" choice did not completely remove users from the network, according to the FTC. The government agency was not alone in its complaints. Consumers submitted thousands of grievances complaining about public disclosure of their email contacts which, at times, included former spouses, competitors, patients, students, and employers, the complaint said. Businesses also responded: In May, the University of California-Davis decided to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224700847">end its Gmail pilot</a>, which could have led to campus-wide deployment, because faculty members doubted Google's ability to keep their correspondences private, in large part because of Google Buzz and international outrage -- and lawsuits -- about the social network. Google did make some changes to Buzz in response to those criticisms. In September, for example, Google <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227300202">simplified</a> its privacy policies in an effort to make them easier to understand and to operate with greater transparency. Last year, several independent lawsuits were rolled into a <a href="http://www.buzzclassaction.com/">class action suit</a> against Google and Buzz. Google <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228200049">settled</a> that case in November, committing $8.5 million, less legal fees, to "organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the Web," according to Google.2011-03-29T12:59:00ZConsona Adds Social Media To Knowledge ManagementKM v8.0 captures information from a variety of sources such as social media, blogs, office suites, and other repositories to empower customer service to support clients.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400538?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/web_services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228200568"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/538/TweetDeck_tn.jpg" alt="Top 20 Apps For Managing Social Media" title="Top 20 Apps For Managing Social Media" height="118" class="img175" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div class="storyImageTitle">Top 20 Apps For Managing Social Media</div></div>In the 3.5 years Consona spent on a major upgrade to its knowledge management software, the developer teamed-up with some of the world's largest high-tech product support organizations to pinpoint areas it could enhance to improve the user and administrator experience, redesigned its architecture, and added more than 40 new features. Other than several minor tweaks to the application, Consona Knowledge Management 8.0, or KM v8.0 marks the developer's first release since Consona acquired the knowledge-management program from Knova Software in 2007, according to Consona. Typically, knowledge management software -- a subsection of enterprise management software -- empowers users or groups to collect, share, search, and analyze data in multiple formats such as word processing documents, graphics, emails, and PDF files. On Monday, Consona <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/Consona/Knowledge_Management_v8/prweb8245153.htm">unveiled</a> the results of these efforts, which features redesigned database tables for improved performance; a consolidated RDBMS access layer; Spring Containers for additional performance and stability, and a move to RMI -- or Remote Method Invocation -- for intra-process communication, which are a set of methods for exchanging data among multiple threads in one or more processes. RMI is designed to deliver straightforward support for distributed computing when clients and servers are written in Java, rather than XML (Extensible Markup Language), to improve simplicity, generality, and usability over the Internet. "Consona started from the inside," Mitch Kramer, senior vice president and senior consultant for Patricia Seybold Group, who has written four in-depth evaluations of the product and its predecessors since 2003, said in a statement. "Version 8.0 has a new architecture. Recognizing fundamental design issues and understanding the requirements of Consona's high-tech customers for performance and scalability under complex workloads, the firm's engineers reorganized application components and redesigned and rebuilt the interfaces and mechanisms for process communication and data access. The results? The benefits? Version 8.0's new architecture demonstrates stunningly improved performance and scalability." Enterprises recognize they must tap employees' wealth of knowledge, but may struggle with the many tools at their disposal. Harnessing some of these tools can help corporations reduce reliance on unnecessary and time-consuming duplication of efforts, wasted storage, and drain on productivity, while simultaneously enhancing the company's knowledge base and creating a searchable, real-time resource, according to a paper by Pricewaterhousecoopers. Consona allows enterprise users to search knowledge from throughout various sources such as social media, blogs, office suites, and other repositories, Tim Hines, vice president of product management for Consona's CRM products, said in an interview. "We have refined and expanded our ability to service content, meaning the different content sources we need to access has expanded. Our goal with knowledge management is a little different than say, a search appliance. Google wants to find every instance of a 'k' word that someone types into a search bar. We want to find the exact answer to the question that someone asks," he said. "What has evolved for us is not the goal: We're still trying to find the exact right answer for that question. What has changed is the types of sources that we tap into to get that answer." Many Consona clients are high-tech companies' support groups, plus customer support organizations, that not only must capture user manuals, technical diagrams, and marketing materials, but also need to leverage the often-valuable data floating around the Internet, said Hines. One customer, for example, is a name-brand manufacturer of consumer electronics that has, over its lifetime, generated more than 30,000 products, he said. "Now it's not just the manuals, but they've got years of fixing those products, people writing about those products on FaceBook, [and] they've got forums on the Web, so the amount of content is huge and it's growing because consumers continue to create more information," said Hines. "We're able to leverage that and bring it as a potential solution to a question someone is going to answer." The vendor worked with 15 customers to test both the new architecture's performance and scalability, and created more than 40 new features based on clients' requests, Consona said. New features include support for additional client and server environments such as Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Oracle Database 11g; administration improvements designed to enhance efficiency; expanded content-viability tools to increase user feedback and improve the user experience; better logging and system-monitoring tools for enhanced operational manageability; content-authoring feature improvements to better-align with <a href="http://crm.consona.com/software/solutions/kcs-methodology.aspx">Knowledge Center Support</a> best practices, and enhancements to the software's international capabilities, according to Consona. In addition, KM v8.0 includes CRM integration improvements such as a self-service user experience and extensive capabilities designed to improve both efficiencies and user adoption of the software, the developer said. "We have a unique process around our customer-development process. Consona acquires companies -- we've acquired 11 or 12 -- which means we've probably evaluated a couple of hundred and we've never come across a company that has our development process," Hines said. "What that does is allow us to ensure the product that we release is really well-suited for our existing customers. If we serve our existing customers well, then new customers are served well, too."2011-03-28T12:53:00ZVideoconferencing, Telepresence Spending To Double By 2015Cisco-Tandberg, Avaya, Lifesize, and Polycom are focusing on conference room systems, projected as the area of greatest growth, according to Infonetics.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400432?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227700260"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/528/04_Cisco_UMI_solution_tn.jpg" width="175" alt="Cisco Umi" title="Cisco Umi" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: Cisco Umi Takes Telepresence To The Home</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>Enterprises will spend $5 billion on videoconferencing and telepresence solutions in 2015, Infonetics predicted in a study released Monday. Last year, revenue for these technologies grew 18%, reaching $2.2 billion worldwide, the research firm said. As businesses around the globe continue to seek out new ways of cost-effectively and efficiently communicating, their spending on videoconferencing and telepresence is expected to increase, Infonetics said. "Communicating via video continues to be one of the top trends in telecom, as evidenced by strong growth in the enterprise video market. Businesses worldwide are looking for richer means of communications with their employees, partners, and customers, and enterprise videoconferencing and telepresence solutions are a natural fit," Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise video at Infonetics, said in a <a href="http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=670242&Itemid=29">statement</a>. "The biggest winners in the enterprise communications market will be those who offer solutions that are multi-modal, visual -- e.g., video-based -- and support the collaboration requirements of globally distributed organizations." Enterprises are adopting videoconferencing to address visually-intensive tasks, as well as more esoteric issues, Machowinski said in an interview. "You know what they say about pictures and what they're worth: If you're trying to troubleshoot something, instead of having someone try and describe the problem, if you can see the problem you can resolve it much faster," he said. "Some organizations are highly virtualized where people may rarely, if ever, meet in person. If you enable video communications, you make it easier for these folks to have a workplace culture. People need to be comfortable with each other to have a strong team." Unlike sales of PBX technologies, which dropped about 20% during the recession, videoconferencing product sales remained steady in 2009, Machowinski said. "Videoconferencing was pretty resilient. I think that's pretty telling. Vendors at the time were saying, 'Hey, that's a way you can reduce travel cost.' I don't know how much of a factor it is, but I'm pretty sure it played a role at doing pretty well in the recession," he said. "As economy improves, will companies continue to scrutinize their travel budgets? People will continue to travel, but they can also continue to use this to raise their productivity levels." Businesses increasingly are investing in the infrastructure required to support bandwidth-hungry services such as videoconferencing, according to ABI Research. Fiber broadband -- often used for applications such as videoconferencing and healthcare -- is the fastest-growing broadband platform, said ABI Research's <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110324006379/en/Fiber-Broadband-Enabling-IPTV-Online-Video-High">Broadband Subscribers Market Data</a> report, released last week. On March 23, for example, Black Diamond Video released a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant high-definition videoconferencing system designed for integration within its Integrated Digital Surgical Suite or as a standalone videoconferencing system for commercial, business, or military organizations. The Sapphire-QHD1 includes bi-directional HD video and audio conferencing, HD video recording, and HD image capture, according to the developer. "HD audio and video conferences can be initiated and accepted with the push of a few buttons from a business conference room," said Ed Priest, founder and CEO of Black Diamond Video, in a <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110323005540/en/Black-Diamond-Video-Launches-Sapphire-QHD1-Conferencing-Solution">statement</a>. In fact, although some vendors are releasing desktop-based videoconferencing systems, most revenue growth will occur in multi-purpose room systems, according to Infonetics. Conference room systems, typically more expensive than single-user setups, are available from many vendors such as Avaya, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/collaboration/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300497">Cisco-Tandberg</a>, Lifesize, and Polycom. Videoconferencing vendors are differentiating their products through price, software, and services such as the cloud. On March 23, Polycom acquired Accordent, a developer of presentation and webcasting management software for the enterprise, for $50 million. Polycom said it will use Accordent's software to enhance its videoconferencing products. For its part, cloud-based videoconferencing provider Nefsis on March 24 <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nefsis-distributed-cloud-technology-accelerates-multipoint-video-conferencing-118568809.html">unveiled</a> real-time routing tables and geo-location to reduce roundtrip latency sometimes associated with videoconferencing and real-time sharing via the Internet. By applying its proximity heuristics, Nefsis allocates resources in real-time, as close to meeting participants as possible, allowing the company to virtualize each conference at the best location, according to Nefsis. "The distributed nature of cloud computing brings automated load balancing, failover, and scalability to a product category -- videoconferencing infrastructure -- that has historically required high investment for a single point of failure and only a few ports for expansion. In other words, cloud computing is more cost effective and easier to expand, and you get some resiliency to boot," Allen Drennan, Nefsis chief technology officer, in a statement.2011-03-25T13:54:00ZIBM Intros Social Media AnalyticsThe cloud-based Coremetrics Social and Unica email optimization suite help businesses assess the impact of social marketing initiatives.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400335?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsIBM is looking to help marketers gain insight from the treasure trove of data strewn across social networks with its release, on Thursday, of two cloud-based applications. IBM Coremetrics Social is designed to aid companies in their analysis of the business impact of their social marketing initiatives. The software uses information that is publicly available on sites such as Facebook and Twitter to enable companies to determine the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns based on social media buzz, retweets, and other online chatter. Also released on Thursday, IBM Unica Pivotal Veracity Email Optimization Suite analyzes email links that are shared across social media platforms, giving marketers the ability to leverage opportunities across multiple communications channels, according to IBM. "IBM's approach to social media analytics is based on the understanding that people interact with an organization's brand in a number of ways -- including email, social networking sites, and company websites -- and the true measure of business impact demands a fully integrated view of the interaction with these resources," said John Squire, chief strategy officer, IBM Coremetrics, in a statement. "The new social media analytics software unveiled [on Thursday] will help marketers develop more targeted, highly measurable, and effective social media marketing campaigns." Measuring the ROI of social media remains a challenge for many organizations. Although almost two-thirds of 2,100 companies polled either were currently using social media channels or have plans to do so, only 12% of respondents said they felt they were effective users of social media, according to a <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101214006801/en/Harvard-Business-Review-Analytics-Services-Releases-Study">study</a> by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, in partnership with <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219129">SAS</a>, released in December. "Most organizations are in discovery mode when it comes to social media," said Alex Clemente, managing director of HBR Analytic Services, in a statement at the time. "But the significant participation in the survey of more than 2,000 senior executives demonstrates how important the topic is -- and it's one they are working hard to figure out. Many executives are keen to learn best practices in a fast emerging field that represents a new paradigm." Like its competitors, IBM is looking to dominate this emerging field, and recently formed a consulting practice to focus on "Smarter Commerce," designed to help clients address today's digital marketplace -- which IBM <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/34024.wss">estimates</a> to be a $70-billion opportunity. The new practice offers cloud analytics software that lets businesses monitor their brand's social media presence in real-time, and adapt marketing campaigns or create promotions based on consumers' responses, IBM said. Coremetrics Social is based on IBM's <a href="http://www.coremetrics.com/solutions/continuous-optimization-platform.php">Coremetrics Continuous Optimization Platform</a> and its suite of marketing software, which uses a unified infrastructure and set of tags to support all of a company's marketing applications, reducing the management complexities generally found when dealing with multiple vendors' products, IBM said. With its cross-channel reporting and benchmark capabilities that track social marketing campaigns, Coremetrics Social lets brands evaluate their marketing initiatives' effectiveness and compare them to competitors' campaigns, according to IBM. For example, businesses can measure how often their promotions -- and those of similar companies -- are shared via social networks, the developer said. Well-known brands can expect up to 38% of their special offer email links to be shared via social media, IBM said, with an average of 28% of these links then "liked" or commented on. For its part, the Unica Pivotal Veracity Email suite tracks and analyzes email links as users share them across networks, giving companies the ability to identify, track, and boost consumers' perception of their brand, IBM said. IBM announced in August it would acquire <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226700235">Unica</a>, a move that was part of IBM's strategy of integrating Web analytics across <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/trends/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227500625">channels</a>, said Yuchon Lee, VP and general manager of IBM Enterprise Marketing Management Group and co-founder of Unica, during a <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/mediapostlive/omma-metrics-yuchunlee">keynote</a> at OMMA Metrics in New York on Wednesday. Marketers want integrated tools, he said. In fact, 87% of marketing professionals agree <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228000079">marketing departments</a> need an integrated application suite, said Lee, citing Forrester Research information.2011-03-24T10:31:00ZColor Labs Offers Location-Based Photo Sharing AppThe software generates a network of users based solely on proximity, and combines users' photographs from the same location and makes them viewable on social media sites such as Twitter.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400235?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsColor is an application that integrates location-based technology with social media, and removes any concept of user privacy. The smartphone app shares images, comments, and videos with other users located within 50 feet of the sender. Created by Color Labs, a startup formed by <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal-tech/digital-audio/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=211300166">Lala</a> founder Bill Nguyen, the app generates a network of Color users based solely on proximity. After loading the free iPhone or Android app, users take photographs. Once online, the software locates nearby phones via its "elastic networking" technology, then combines other users' photographs from the same location, storing the shots on a cloud-based server, and making them viewable on social media sites such as Twitter. There is no password, no friending, and no way for users to limit private content to specific individuals. "The days of having to say anything are done," Nguyen told the <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_17684916?nclick_check=1">Associated Press</a>. "There're no more profiles, there's no more friending, there's no more electronic dog fence created by Facebook. It's all over. This is the post-PC world. It's a brand new way of sharing." This approach also means there is no privacy, a possible concern to some users and enterprises whose employees could use Color. The company spells out its policy in its <a href="http://color.com/terms">privacy terms</a>. "When you create content using our app, that content is immediately published to any unique user who has the app open near you, and often to unique users with whom you've had past contact with (whether they are geographically close or not)," the terms said. "That content is also published and available for viewing through various social media sites. Unique users can view your content and can send to anyone a link to your content, the content of other unique users, or compilations that include your content. Anyone: from grandparents to bosses." The online world was abuzz at Color's financing: The company has received $41 million in funding from Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. "I can just see the pitch for Color: It's Twitter meets Groupon meets Instagram. So it's worth $10B x $25B x $20M = 1 Gajillion!" tweeted David Heinemeier, creator of Ruby On Rails and partner at 37 Signals, who posted what appears to be a joke version of the <a href="https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ajdtctfhv4hn_264g329gwcc&pli=1">pitch</a> shown to venture capitalists. Color Labs plans to seek revenue from advertising before the end of the year, Mike Krupka, managing director of Bain Capital Ventures, told the AP. Restaurants could, for example, post photographs of specials to recent diners. Increasingly, enterprises are using mobile and location-based services as part of their advertising campaigns. Total mobile advertising in the United States is expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2103, up from $593 million in 2010, according to eMarketer. Spending on <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228200314">location-based</a> marketing will grow to $1.8 billion by 2015, Aberdeen Research estimated. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229218850">Businesses</a> are measuring the return on investment for tools such as coupons, promotions, and other specials offered directly to consumers' smartphones. By 2014, 1.4 billion consumers will use location-based services, Gartner predicted, further encouraging businesses to invest in campaigns addressing this group through tailored offerings. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300798">American Express</a>, for example, partnered with Foursquare on a pilot, expected to roll out more widely later this year, that gave special discounts to South by Southwest Interactive attendees and residents of host city Austin, Texas. "In general, American Express needs to go where our card members and our merchants are. More and more they're using social media, and they're using Foursquare," Dave Wolf, vice president of global marketing capabilities, said in an interview earlier this month.2011-03-23T13:00:00ZBox Brings Content Management To The CloudECM Cloud Connect can move information between more than 40 on-site enterprise content management systems like Microsoft SharePoint and EMC Documentum and Box's cloud platform.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400142?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsTo allow enterprise users to remotely access their on-premises enterprise content management (ECM) systems, Box.net on Tuesday released ECM Cloud Connect, which enables organizations to automatically and seamlessly move content between more than 40 on-site ECM systems and Box's cloud platform. ECM Cloud Connect integrates with on-premises ECM applications from multiple vendors such as <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229300772">Microsoft SharePoint</a> and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/info_management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228901534">EMC Documentum</a>, according to <a href="http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Box-Brings-ECM-to-the-Cloud-1415618.htm">Box</a>. The developer also expanded its partner base through agreements with integrator and consulting firms Armedia, BPA Technologies, ConvergePoint, and ZSL, Box said. "We want to help the world's largest enterprises realize the benefits of cloud-enabled content, and building a seamless connection between their existing infrastructure and the cloud is a crucial first step," said <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229001020">Aaron Levie</a>, co-founder and CEO of Box, in a statement. "Mobile access to content and painless external collaboration are critically important for today's enterprises, and with ECM Cloud Connect, Box can fill these gaps -- creating an amazing experience for end users, and increasing the value of existing ECM investments with no hardware or software hassle for IT." Last year, worldwide revenue for ECM software was expected to reach more than $4.2 billion, according to <a href="http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=506302">Gartner</a>, compared with $2.6 billion in 2006. Businesses continued to spend on ECM, even during the down economy, as they struggled to gain control over the unstructured data dwelling in a wide variety of formats across their organizations. Without the ability to centrally store and manage this valuable data, businesses lose a priceless resource. The surge in social networking, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229204225">collaboration</a>, and the seemingly never-ending swelling of more traditional sources of information is expected to create a $10.3 billion ECM market by 2015, according to <a href="http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=1093841">WinterGreen Research</a>. ECM Cloud Connect also allows organizations to be compliant with corporate records-management and archiving policies for content stored in Box's cloud offering, the developer said. Box's cloud platform was designed by <a href="http://www.entropysoft.net/cms">EntropySoft</a>, whose technology is used by software vendors such as Symantec and EMC to simplify integration of their products with ECM implementations and cloud repositories. The software allows IT professionals to set up automatic content archiving from the Box cloud to on-premises ECM software. In addition, organizations can transfer content between on-site and Box ECM systems, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229203070">Box</a> said. "Enterprises are looking to leverage the cloud strategically to meet business and technology challenges, but don't want to create yet another information silo in the process," said Vijji Suryadevara, CEO of Box integration and consulting partner BPA Technologies, in a statement. "ECM Cloud Connect will allow organizations to take full advantage of Box's cloud content management platform, while adding value to their existing on-premises ECM systems." Today, more than 73% of the Fortune 500 make up some of the 60,000-plus Box customers using the company's offerings to access, manage, and share content online, or access their ECM data via iPhones, iPads, or Android devices, according to the developer. In 2010, Box's enterprise revenue more than tripled due to contracts with name-brand businesses including Clear Channel, Dell, and Dole. The <a href="http://www.box.net/features/complete_list">Box Apps Marketplace</a> includes more than 150 integrated partner applications, including apps from Salesforce, Google Apps, LinkedIn, and NetSuite. With the Salesforce app, for example, users can access marketing collateral and other content easily from any page in Salesforce; via the LinkedIn app, users may display a portfolio of work on their profile and collaborate with connections. After all, the primary reason many busy executives use social networks is to collaborate with other professionals, according to a recent report by the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229301199">Society for New Communications Research</a>. Pricing was not available for ECM Cloud Connect.2011-03-22T12:46:00ZON24 Brings Social Media Capabilities To Webcasting Platform The development environment uses widgets to add collaboration, training, and social network feed tools to online meetings.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400046?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsON24, a developer of software as a service (SaaS) applications, on Tuesday released a platform that allows businesses to personalize Webcasts and build custom Webcasting applications, enabling viewers to interact with presenters, communicate with other Webcast participants, and more easily consume Webcast content. With Webcasting Platform 10, ON24 integrated social media capabilities into its Webcasting platform, Mark Szelenyi, senior director of Webcasting, told InformationWeek. Customers can provision the system themselves or turn to ON24 to provide turnkey service, and can use as few or as many widgets available to customize their Webcasts, he said. The cloud-based widget development environment uses open APIs so third-party developers easily can create Flash applications for any Webcasts. Today, there are more than 50 widgets available for Platform 10, according to <a href="http://www.on24.com/2011/03/22/on24-introduces-Webcasting-platform-10/">ON24</a>. These widgets include a Platform 10 social media bundle, which features Web 2.0 and social networking tools such as Twitter, Wikipedia, Facebook, LinkedIn, and RSS feeds; a collaboration bundle featuring tools for group chat and brainstorming that solicits ideas from Webcast attendees and allows all participants to rank and prioritize ideas for later review; and a corporate training bundle, with testing, certification, curriculum management, and Learning Management System (LMS) integration. "Social networking and interaction between attendees is richer," Szelenyi said. "We have a speaker bio widget, which is a custom element that you can open up in the Webcast and you can put it away if you don't want to see it. You can do the same with a Twitter feed, for example, and let people tweet about the Webcast. We've done similar things by allowing you to bring RSS feeds, like the speaker's blog or job feeds, into a Webcast. You can use our transcript widget to bring a Spanish or German transcript on-demand." Access to social networking tools was the most popular feature for almost 40% of respondents in a user poll conducted by <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000140">ON24</a>. In addition, 80% said they preferred the ability to customize their Webcasts and the greater control the Platform 10 gave them, the study said. "Where ON24 is really still at the forefront, especially with the new [Platform] 10 offering, it's allowing the user to create their own experience when they come into the Webinar," Tim Stark, director of online events at Penton Media, told InformationWeek. In the six years it has used ON24 to host and create its Webcasts, the business-to-business publishing company has seen its volume increase from 14 to 400 live events annually, he said. "We're managing at any given time 50 to 55 live events, somewhere in promotion to production," said Stark." On Wednesday, the group is doing seven live at the same time in seven different markets. Are we nervous? Of course, it's live theater. But I'm not nervous about the technology."Platform 10 supports multilingual Webcasts through compliance with Universal Transformation Format (UTF) 8, which is a multi-byte character encoding that can represent every character in the Unicode character set and is backward-compatible with ASCII. The platform's page-building and customization tools support completely localized user interfaces, system checks, and email communications, according to ON24. "With the [Platform] 10 offering, when you come into Webinar, you can make every element its own floating window. You can tweet about what you listen to. You can chat, not only with the speaker, but also with other attendees. That's just awesome. That's just going to make people stay even longer," said Stark. "Now it's like Burger King: They're getting it their way." Multiple presenters now may share their screens with attendees, further bringing the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=215901272">Webinar</a> to life, Szelenyi said. "The screen-sharing capability was something we definitely get a lot of customer demand for," he said. "I can be talking to the audience, and sharing parts of my desktop. That's also multi-presenter." Since users do not only view Webcasts at their desks, ON24 also made its platform accessible via mobile devices including Android, iPhone, iPad, and Windows 7 devices. Advertisers and marketing departments invest in Webinars, in part, because of the volume of information they collect about participants who typically register for these events. With Platform 10, ON24 now delivers graphical-reporting dashboards and real-time analytics to help sponsors measure events' success and qualify leads. These tools help companies measure their return on investment, the effectiveness of the content, and audience members' level of engagement, Szelenyi said. Businesses also use <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/events/index.jhtml">Webcasts</a> to educate and inform their staff -- training departments, delivering news, or holding multi-departmental meetings without the need for costly spending on time-consuming travel. With ON24, department managers can monitor which employees participated in meetings, asking questions and joining the conversation, and which individuals may not have been fully engaged in the discussion, he said.2011-03-21T11:43:00ZBinfire Boosts Project Management In Collaboration AppThe cloud-based software gets a real-time, interactive whiteboard, tagging, and free-form search.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229301331?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsBinfire, which combines project-management tools with collaboration capabilities, added free-form search, tagging, and an interactive whiteboard to the newest version of its eponymous project-collaboration software, released Monday. The company's software-as-a-service (SaaS) based application is part of a growing trend, as businesses increasingly invest in hosted project management programs, according to researchers. As an overall category, SaaS is growing, <a href="http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1406613"> Gartner</a> reported, and segments such as project management, customer relationship management (CRM), and portfolio management are enjoying spectacular growth, the research firm said in a report. For example, CRM accounted for 24% of the SaaS market in 2009; enterprise content management accounted for only 4% of the SaaS market that year, Gartner found. Binfire hopes to carve out its share of the market by offering a free version of its software. In June the company plans to offer a subscription-based version with more features and storage, David Robins, founder and CEO, told InformationWeek. However, the developer will continue to deliver the free edition, with 10 gigabytes of storage, he said. Monday's software release can support up to 100 users in multiple offices. New features include searches based on tags, users, status, or text; status reporting via secure tweets; private and project folders; document management including file version and file locking; user categories and permissions; interactive whiteboard; layers; advanced drawing functions; tagging of tasks and milestones; dependencies for tasks and milestones; and the ability to paste images and PDF files onto the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000361">whiteboard</a>, according to <a href="http://www.prlog.org/11387839-binfirecom-binfires-announces-release-of-tagging-search-and-enhanced-whiteboard.html">Binfire</a>. "You can create multiple whiteboards with your team. Everything is all the same to all users. If you're brainstorming with your team, everything you draws or do is saved. The whiteboard has group chat, too, so you can talk. It's a great collaboration tool. We're really emphasizing that collaboration," Robins told InformationWeek. "There are a lot of project management companies, but we are really not just doing project management. We are adding <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229211111">collaboration</a>. We have people in Israel doing development and we have people in Boston. We use our own software to do the development. Binfire has all the collaboration features you need for a team that is not located in one room. Today, a lot of teams work like that." Since the software saves all notes, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229301051">comments</a>, and chats, users easily can search Binfire's record of meetings and collaborative work efforts if a question comes up, said Robins. Meeting participants can annotate documents in the whiteboard, and drawings immediately are viewable by all group members, he said. This makes meetings more productive, and reduces the risks of introducing errors caused by the use of the wrong documentation or notes, said Robins. "Our tools help the project manager, team members, and other stakeholders in a project to be more productive and have a clear picture of the project status at all times," he said.2011-03-18T13:36:00ZNuix Integrates E-Discovery With Lotus NotesThe software pulls data via Domino Extensible Language (DXL), IBM's preferred method of data-extraction for Lotus Notes, across both email and other Lotus Notes databases.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229301281?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsA lot of law firms use Lotus Notes and need an e-discovery and electronic investigation application that works with the messaging software. To serve that market, Nuix on Thursday released the latest version of its program that integrates with IBM Lotus Notes email and applications. Nuix version 3.2 builds upon the developer's history of Notes integration: The company's first customer was a government security agency with more than 100,000 Lotus Notes users, according to <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110317006181/en/Nuix%E2%80%99s-Big-eDiscovery-Upgrade-Lotus-Notes-Software">Nuix</a>. In its latest iteration, Nuix' software allows users to extract all the data and metadata stored in <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229202070">Lotus Notes </a> email and non-email applications, Nuix said. "Many typical Notes organizations have complex architectures that leverages Notes encryption, making the whole <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/disaster_recovery/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225700501">e-discovery</a> process expensive, slow, and prone to errors and problems," according to the developer. The vast majority -- about 80% -- of e-discovery is conducted by the legal departments of large organizations, while the remaining 20% is done by law firms, said Charles Skamser, president and CEO eDiscovery Solutions Group, a provider of e-discovery services to enterprise clients, in a <a href="http://ediscoveryconsulting.blogspot.com/2010/10/12-billion-ediscovery-market-by-2014.html"> blog post</a>. Estimates on the size of the e-discovery software market range from $1.2 million to $2.8 billion. What ever the number, most analysts expect it to grow as the cost of litigation to corporate America <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/legal/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217700666">keeps growing</a>. "However, under any circumstances, e-discovery is a big market and I believe from personal experience that it should continue to grow," wrote Skamser. "E-discovery solutions enable organizations to identify, collect, analyze, process, and present data stored in various corporate repositories. The data may be collected in response to lawsuits, internal investigations, or regulatory compliance requests. E-discovery solutions today range from custom-built for each individual customer, to pre-packaged solutions that work out-of-the box in less than an hour." The Nuix software pulls data via Domino Extensible Language (DXL), IBM's preferred method of data-extraction for Lotus Notes, across both email and other Lotus Notes databases, and supports decryption of Notes via user ID and password pairs. The upgrade performs offers a 300% speed improvement over the prior version, <a href="http://nuix.com/">Nuix said.</a> When it benchmarked its Lotus Notes process, the software delivered 100 gigabytes of Notes Storage Facility (NSF) data types in 2 hours and 55 minutes on one midsize server, delivering full metadata and text extraction, the developer said. "During 2010, Nuix came across numerous extensive multi-country Lotus Notes investigations and e-discovery cases. As we progressed through them, we decided to put significant additional resources into overcoming the various challenges that IBM's Lotus Notes platform created for its customers when they have litigation, regulatory, compliance or internal investigations," said Eddie Sheehy, CEO, Nuix. Other new features include easier, faster, and more robust processing of NSF data types, and double-byte Unicode compliance for encoding. Nuix' software also maintains the rich text format of the original Lotus Notes email during export, according to the developer.2011-03-17T13:49:00ZExecutives Flock To LinkedInCorporate leaders are shying away from Twitter, Facebook, and other consumer-oriented sites and embracing LinkedIn and specialty business networks, according to the Society for New Communications Research.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229301199?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsDecision-makers are using social media as knowledge and communication networks, primarily visiting these Web sites to access the wealth of available thought-leadership content, according to a report published Thursday by the Society for New Communications Research. In the second annual <a href=" http://www.slideshare.net/sncr/the-new-symbiosis-of-professional-networks-2010 ">New Symbiosis of Professional Networks Study</a>, SNCR polled 114 executives across 10 countries, most of whom were key decision-makers at companies ranging in size from fewer than 100 to more than 50,000 full-time employees. Interestingly, executives have decreased their use of all social networks other than LinkedIn, the report found. Almost all -- or 97% -- of those surveyed used <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229301024">LinkedIn</a> in 2010, compared with 92% in 2009, according to the study, released Thursday. By contrast, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228200267">Twitter</a> use dropped to 33% last year vs. 40% in 2009; <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229202279">Facebook</a> usage fell to 20% compared with 51% the year prior, and Plaxo decreased to just 5% from 14% a year ago, the report found. "Hundreds of other networks were mentioned, many by only one or two respondents," wrote SNCR fellows Donald Bulmer, VP of global communications, industry, and influencer relations at SAP, and Vanessa DiMauro, CEO of Leader Networks. Today, 55% of executives surveyed participate in three to five social networks, slightly up from the 50% who were involved in that number of social media sites in 2009. Eighty-four percent of respondents were either satisfied or very satisfied with online professional networks, the report found. Apparently there is room for specialty social networks that focus solely on particular issues or vertical markets. Although most executives polled participate in large professional networks such as LinkedIn and 65% are active in open social networks like Yelp and Twitter, 48% of respondents said they were involved in "midsize or specialized membership-specific industry, roles, or interest-specific groups online" and 26% said they "prefer to engage with a smaller peer group in a private and confidential exchange." These professional social networks have become a trusted environment for relationship management and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000780">decision support</a>, the study said. In fact, 60% said one benefit of participation was increased competitive brand monitoring and performance; 60% said it was to establish or increase their professional network. Professional collaboration is changing from a small professional exchange into an interaction with content in more public ways," said DiMauro, in a <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/sncr/symbiosis_study/prweb5169454.htm">statement</a>. "The consequence of sharing content online is enhanced influence." Networks also give executives access to information they otherwise could not get, said many respondents. Eighty percent of respondents are able to accelerate decision processes and information or strategy development by participating in online communities, according to the study. "Business professionals are changing how they collaborate as a result of online professional communities and peer networks," said Bulmer, in a statement. Not surprisingly, almost all -- or 97% -- of executives log-on to social networks via a PC or Macintosh. Mirroring the consumer world, a growing number of professionals now visit these sites using mobile devices: In 2010, 59% used a mobile device compared with 44% in the prior year, according to the study. More than half, or 52%, used an iPhone; 37% used a BlackBerry; 15% relied on an Android; and 15% used an <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000361">iPad</a>, the report said. To keep up with their colleagues, the world, and their business, executives check-in frequently, with 43% logging on more than three times per day, according to the study. More than one-third log-on once a day, and only 2% said they check-in occasionally, the report found.2011-03-17T11:32:00ZSeesmic Desktop Adds Yammer Plug-InFacebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are among the social networking content streams available via the Seesmic client due to integration with Yammer.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229301195?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsSocial media tools developer Yammer now integrates with Seesmic Desktop 2, a free desktop client that enables users to view multiple content streams from an array of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. "If you're a Yammer user, you know how powerful an internal collaboration tool can be for the productivity of a team. Now, that productivity you've come to love on Yammer.com is seamlessly tied into your social media dashboard on Seesmic," said Seesmic on its <a href="http://blog.seesmic.com/2011/03/introducing-the-yammer-plugin-now-in-public-beta.html">company blog</a>. "With an internal network like Yammer alongside external networks like Twitter, Facebook, and anything else you can imagine, you'll be amazed by how slick the integration really is. With one click, information that was once external now becomes an actionable piece of data within your internal network." Through the integration, which currently is in public beta, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000319">Yammer</a> users now can access their Yammer feed -- including their company feed, replies, direct messages, sent messages, liked items, bookmarked items, and RSS feeds -- from the Seesmic desktop application via a mobile device, a desktop computer, or the Web. In addition, users can search their Yammer network with any keyword or phrase, and may post new messages to Yammer, including support for attaching files, the company said in a <a href="http://blog.yammer.com/blog/2011/03/yammer-now-available-on-seesmic-destkop2-.html">blog post</a>. "We've heard from users that a lot of them want a desktop client that can run Yammer and Twitter and things like that in multiple columns or one client," David Sacks, CEO of Yammer, told InformationWeek. "We didn't want to build that ourselves because feeds between services isn't what we do. Seesmic was interested in doing this. Seesmic's been very forward-looking. They're ahead of the curve in terms of aggregating feeds from other players." Yammer users also can reply to, bookmark, and like any messages in a feed, view other users' profiles, and follow them from each individual's profile page, as well as update their Yammer profiles directly from Seesmic Desktop 2. "Using Seesmic's ability to cross-post to several networks, you can now post Yams (when appropriate) to external networks," Yammer said. "We truly hope that you will enjoy this integration, and that it will bring you additional efficiency that you have come to expect from both companies' products." The plug-in is listed in the <a href="http://marketplace.seesmic.com/plugins/yammer/">Seesmic marketplace</a>. When it debuted in September 2010, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228000489">Seesmic Desktop 2</a>, which is written in Microsoft Silverlight, supported more than 40 customizable plug-ins for content streams ranging from social media heavyweights such as Facebook and Twitter, to Salesforce Chatter and eBay. The SAP company also spurred its growth through the 2008 acquisition of Twhirl, a desktop Twitter client, and its January 2010 purchase of Ping.fm, a service that allows users to publish content to over 50 social networks with a single click. For its part, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229215134">Yammer</a>, which first opened its doors in 2008, is now used at 90,000 companies and organizations, including more than 80% of the Fortune 500, according to the <a href="https://www.yammer.com/about/about">company</a>.2011-03-16T12:06:00ZSAP Adds OpenSocial API To StreamWorkApps built with the social Web development standard can be made available to users of SAP's collaborative decision-making software.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229301083?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsSAP has expanded its potential base of application partners for StreamWork by adding support for OpenSocial, a common set of programming standards in use by many social Web application developers. SAP StreamWork is collaborative decision-making software, designed to make it easier for individuals -- both inside and outside an organization -- to work together. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) application synchronizes data to ensure people are using the same information at all times, and lets users work with existing programs such as WebEx, Evernote, Microsoft Outlook, and Google Gmail, according to SAP. "If you've developed an application using the popular OpenSocial API, you'll now be able to register it with SAP StreamWork and make it available to users in the SAP StreamWork tools catalog," SAP said on its <a href="http://www.sapstreamwork.com/news-blog/sap-streamwork-adds-opensocial-support">Web site</a>. Already, at least six third-party developers have adopted SAP StreamWork, according to SAP. Atlassian; CS Odessa; Doodle; <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228600100">Google</a>; Got Decisions; and MindMeister have registered with SAP and offer their applications through StreamWork's catalog. Atlassian integrates both its enterprise wiki-tracker Confluence and issue-tracker JIRA with SAP StreamWork, enabling SAP users to embed gadgets into an activity. This provides them with more insight, allowing them to more efficiently and speedily come to decisions, said Alex Loddengaard, product marketing manager at Atlassian, in a <a href="http://www.sapstreamwork.com/news-blog/using-sap-streamwork-software-development-and-product-management">blog post</a>. A user could embed a JIRA gadget, for example, in SAP StreamWork to show the rate at which issues are created and resolved. "Software developers and product managers have become familiar with using issue trackers and wikis, but now have a new opportunity to become <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000780">more productive</a> using SAP StreamWork. Such a gadget would help a software development team understand their backlog and general development rates," Loddengaard said. Organizations that want to use MindMeister's mind-mapping capabilities must first create a gadget from within SAP StreamWork's partner tools section of the tools catalog and then can begin using the software as part of the creative process, said Dan Taylor, director of marketing at MindMeister, in a <a href="http://www.sapstreamwork.com/news-blog/mind-mapping-mindmeister-sap-streamwork">blog post</a>. "By employing MindMeister mind maps within your SAP StreamWork collaborative decision-making process, everyone on board is able to visualize each idea and understand where it originated," he said. CS Odessa's ConceptDraw MindWave is a visual mind-mapping collaboration application that supports team content generated during Web-based meetings. The software lets users quickly build interactive maps that represent current or future projects and tasks, the <a href="http://www.conceptdraw.com/">developer</a> said. Got Decisions also addresses the complexities of decisiveness. The software's wizard analyzes data, asks a series of questions that allows a user to create preferences for the decision-making criteria, and then creates a customized decision application used to rank possible results. "By providing an interface that allows you to rank data based on tradeoffs, Got Decisions can help you make smarter and more informed decisions. In contrast to other search models, the tradeoff-based approach presents a graphical, intuitive, and simple view of data. Combined with the collaborative environment of SAP StreamWork, it's a powerful tool for understanding the priorities driving your organization's decisions," according to <a href="http://www.sapstreamwork.com/news-blog/how-make-tradeoff-based-decisions-got-decisions-and-sap-streamwork">Got Decisions</a>. Scheduling time often is a time-wasting component of reaching a decision, especially at organizations where personnel are scattered across offices and time zones. Doodle addresses this headache by using consensus-based scheduling, and the integration in SAP StreamWork delivers Doodle where teams need it, so they don't have to switch back and forth between calendar, email client, and workflow to set up a meeting, according to <a href="http://www.sapstreamwork.com/news-blog/doodle-sap-streamwork-brings-scheduling-teams-where-they-need-it">Doodle</a>.