CRM gains ground in Google Apps

CRM software has established a significant foothold in Google's Apps marketplace since its release in March, writes Bloomberg Business Week.

The post lists 13 CRM applications that can be installed on a Google Apps domain. Some offerings are for general-purpose CRM, focusing on the sales cycle and customer service.

Google created the marketplace in an effort to build up a broader ecosystem around its apps business, which competes with Microsoft, IBM and others. Its hope is that Apps users will stitch together an array of business applications, all unified via Google's integration points and management tools.

Research In Motion has updated the BlackBerry App World, the official application store for BlackBerry smartphones, states Market Watch.

BlackBerry App World now supports new payment options, includes enhanced discovery and search features, and introduces a user identification system called BlackBerryID.

Customers will be able to purchase applications using major credit cards, including Visa and MasterCard, in various countries around the world. RIM is also working on integrated billing with various carriers to enable BlackBerry App World purchases to be applied directly to the customer's monthly bill from those carriers.

Adobe Systems and Day Software have entered into an agreement for Adobe to unveil a public tender offer to acquire all of the publicly held registered shares of Day, Bizcommunity reports.

Adobe's acquisition of Day will strengthen the company's enterprise software solutions with Web content management, digital asset management and social collaboration offerings.

It also represents a significant market opportunity for Adobe to help organisations transform themselves by enabling them to create, manage, distribute and monetise content while optimising the web experience for their customers.