SAP intros CRM giveaway

SAP says its mid-market customers who buy the SAP Business All-in-One product or its enterprise resource planning (ERP) application, SAP ERP, will receive the firm's customer relationship management (CRM) application for free, reports The Frontline.

SAP Business All-in-One is a business management software suite with applications ranging from financials, human resources, procurement, inventory, manufacturing, logistics, product development, corporate services, to customer service, sales and marketing.

SAP added CRM functionality to Business All-in-One last year, borrowed from the firm's Netweaver platform.

NewVoiceMedia has introduced a hosted contact centre solution that is integrated into the Service Cloud, the next-generation customer service application from Salesforce.com, states Call Centre Helper.

With this solution, SMEs can now deploy the same caller-centric capabilities in their contact centre that have only been available to the world's largest organisations up to now. NewVoiceMedia's telephony capabilities are embedded directly into the console that customer service agents use with the Service Cloud, giving agents a single, easy-to-use interface to manage their calls and cases.

All of this is delivered using cloud computing, a revolutionary new technology delivery model that allows companies to access applications over the Internet without having to buy, install or maintain hardware or software.

NetSuite is offering an iPhone app for accessing its business application software in another example of Apple's iPhone gaining credibility in the business world, and demonstrates how mobile apps are a natural extension for software-as-a-service providers, writes InformationWeek.

The app is primarily targeted at salespeople and managers and lets NetSuite users view calendar and task lists, sales leads, customer contacts, orders, and sales quotes. They can view graphical trends and key performance indicators related to such things as sales, forecasts, and orders.

NetSuite users may download the app for free at the iTunes App Store and use their regular log-on credentials to get into NetSuite. The app, however, doesn't work for some user roles, including Employee Centre, Vendor Centre, Customer Centre, and Partner Centre.