Economic downturn boosts CRM

After the economic downturn, CRM vendors are reporting growing interest in their products, writes Computerworld.

Fred de Jong, GM of StayinFront New Zealand, says CRM is essentially about selling more and managing customers better, highlighting that cloud-based CRM services are becoming more popular.

“There is definitely a trend towards hosted CRM systems, and increased interest in the concept of 'social CRM', which can be a minefield of wasted time if not approached properly and supported by the appropriate functionality in CRM,” he says.

Microsoft has sold its Expression Media photo-catalogue software to Phase One, a digital camera maker, reports IT Pro Portal.

The software was marketed as part of the Office for Mac software suite, developed using technology from iView Multimedia.

“We're excited about taking ownership of Expression Media,” says Phase One CEO Henrik Hakonsson. “We have worked with Microsoft for several years, during which many of our customers have chosen Expression Media for their digital asset management needs.”

The LG Fathom mobile phone will support Office 2010 for mobile office productivity, states Top News.

The phone runs Windows Mobile 6.5 and is one of the first smartphones to grant full access to PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Office Mobile 2010.

It is a 3.2-inch WVGA touch-screen smartphone, powered by 1GHz snapdragon processor, offers micro SD card support, a 3.2-megapixel camera, WiFi connectivity, and a slide-out qwerty keyboard.