CRM Software Industry News

CAMPBELL, CA (May 10, 2006) ľ Saratoga Systems, a global leader in CRM solutions since 1987, today announced that Saratoga CRM 6.5, the company’s enterprise customer relationship software package, was selected by ISM Inc., Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategic advisors, as a Real Time CRM Software Award winner for 2006. This award follows ISM’s recognition of Saratoga CRM with the Top 15 CRM Enterprise Software Award for 2006 earlier this year.

ôThe Real Time CRM Awards, in its inaugural year, will serve as the industry benchmark for the future of the Real Time Enterprise,ö said Barton Goldenberg, founder and president of ISM. ôThe software industry is confronting the future of CRM with its movement towards real time functionality. Saratoga is among the leaders of real time functionality in the CRM industry.ö

ôSaratoga Systems is committed to giving customers access to CRM data in real-time as part of their competitive edge,ö said Al Smith, president of Saratoga Systems. ôThat commitment is reflected in a number of new technologies we recently brought to market, including Apresta, our wireless solution to deliver real-time data to handheld devices such as Pocket PC, BlackBerry and Treo, and our patented technology to speed database synchronization. Our objective is to give our customers access to the most up-to-date customer information wherever and whenever they need it.ö

Saratoga CRM was chosen after intensive testing by the ISM Software Lab at its Bethesda, Md., headquarters. Each package was rated according to five real time solutions criteria, which include Real-Time Dashboard, Rapid Application Development tools (RAD), Workflow building tools, Business Object Configuration and Mobile-Device Implementation.

The movement towards Real Time functionality in CRM led ISM to add five new Real Time criteria in its 2006 CRM software reviews. CRM vendors with the most comprehensive Real Time functionality were selected from the five criteria and as recipients of the 2006 ISM Real Time CRM Awards.

The Real Time CRM selections are featured in ISM’s 14th edition of The Guide to CRM Automation and in a CD format available at ( www.ismguide.com ).

CAMPBELL , Calif. ( March 6, 2006 ) ľ Saratoga Systems ( www.saratogasystems.com ), a global leader in CRM solutions since 1987, today announced the appointment of Rich Koch as Vice President of Marketing. Koch joins Saratoga Systems from Avolent where he successfully drove marketing programs and processes to build the sales pipelines and established high levels of brand awareness for their enterprise solutions.

At Saratoga Systems, Koch will be responsible for creating brand awareness for Saratoga Systems’ new wireless division, Apresta, which delivers enterprise data to handheld devices such as smart phones, Blackberrys and Treos. He also will be responsible for promoting Saratoga Systems latest generation of customer relationship management ( CRM ) software as a competitive edge for Global 2000 companies. He also has been tasked with expanding market awareness for Saratoga CRM for vertical market applications in financial services, energy, health care, and other industries.

“Rich brings an unparalleled experience and expertise in marketing enterprise information systems like CRM,” said Al Smith , president of Saratoga Systems. “We are delighted to have him join our team to help us articulate the return our customers get from Saratoga CRM, and how it extends and extends their existing infrastructure and best sales practices.ö

Koch has been transforming complex and emerging technologies into unique and successful marketing strategies and messages for almost 20 years. Prior to Avolent, he was Vice President of Corporate Marketing for Metreo. Before Metreo, Rich was the Director of Public Relations at Autodesk, the world’s largest provider of design software. Koch also served as part of the original marketing team at Healtheon/WebMD (now Emdeon), where he helped define and establish the e-business space.  

ôSaratoga Systems’ has found a way to provide technology that readily adapts to a variety of business processes and sales applications, and as a result has an impressive roster of customers,ö said Koch. ôI am looking forward to working with Saratoga ’s customer base and sales team to evangelize the true value of a CRM solution that adapts to your way of doing business.

BETHESDA, Md., and SANTA MONICA, Calif . (February 27, 2006) ľ At its annual Intersections User Conference, Saratoga Systems today announced that its Saratoga CRM 6.5 was selected by ISM Inc., Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) and Real-Time Enterprise strategic advisors, as a Top 15 CRM Enterprise Software Award for 2006. This is the fifth time that ISM has selected Saratoga Systems to its Top 15 Award list.

ôThe Top 15 CRM Awards, which serve as the standard for comprehensive CRM software, have evolved since 1990Śwhen ISM began the AwardsŚto be the industry benchmark,ö said Barton Goldenberg, founder and president of ISM. ôThe software industry is meeting the demands of the digital generation with self-service applications and Web-enabled CRM packages.ö

Saratoga CRM 6.5 was chosen after intensive testing by the ISM Software Lab at its Bethesda, Md.-based headquarters. Each package was rated according to 217 s election criteria, including 110 business functions, 49 technical features, 36 implementation capabilities, 5 real time criteria and 17 user-support features.

ôSaratoga Systems is to be praised for obtaining the Top 15 honor as ISM’s software selection process is strenuous and comprehensive,ö said Goldenberg. ôSaratoga Systems is among the leaders of the CRM industry.ö

ôWe are delighted to receive accolades from ISM for Saratoga CRM for the fifth year,ö said Mark Elconin, CEO of Saratoga Systems. ôFor 20 years we have worked to deliver the best enterprise CRM technology on the market. This latest release is even easier to use and customize and more tightly integrated with other data systems so it makes CRM a truly competitive weapon for our customers’ sales teams.ö

The Top 15 selections are featured in ISM’s 14th edition of The Guide to CRM Automation and in a Top 15 CD available at ( www.ismguide.com ).

BETHESDA, Md., and SANTA MONICA, Calif . (February 27, 2006) ľ At its annual Intersections User Conference, Saratoga Systems today announced that its Saratoga CRM 6.5 was selected by ISM Inc., Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) and Real-Time Enterprise strategic advisors, as a Top 15 CRM Enterprise Software Award for 2006. This is the fifth time that ISM has selected Saratoga Systems to its Top 15 Award list.

ôThe Top 15 CRM Awards, which serve as the standard for comprehensive CRM software, have evolved since 1990Śwhen ISM began the AwardsŚto be the industry benchmark,ö said Barton Goldenberg, founder and president of ISM. ôThe software industry is meeting the demands of the digital generation with self-service applications and Web-enabled CRM packages.ö

Saratoga CRM 6.5 was chosen after intensive testing by the ISM Software Lab at its Bethesda, Md.-based headquarters. Each package was rated according to 217 s election criteria, including 110 business functions, 49 technical features, 36 implementation capabilities, 5 real time criteria and 17 user-support features.

ôSaratoga Systems is to be praised for obtaining the Top 15 honor as ISM’s software selection process is strenuous and comprehensive,ö said Goldenberg. ôSaratoga Systems is among the leaders of the CRM industry.ö

ôWe are delighted to receive accolades from ISM for Saratoga CRM for the fifth year,ö said Mark Elconin, CEO of Saratoga Systems. ôFor 20 years we have worked to deliver the best enterprise CRM technology on the market. This latest release is even easier to use and customize and more tightly integrated with other data systems so it makes CRM a truly competitive weapon for our customers’ sales teams.ö

The Top 15 selections are featured in ISM’s 14th edition of The Guide to CRM Automation and in a Top 15 CD available at ( www.ismguide.com ).

Unique database technology delivers fast data synchronization; ideal for remote and
wireless database users

CAMPBELL, Calif. (February 27, 2006) ľ Saratoga Systems ( www.saratogasystems.com ), a global leader in customer relationship management ( CRM ) solutions since 1987, today announced that the company has filed for a patent on a new technology that provides synchronization of complex heterogeneous databases in a fraction of the time of other solutions. This synchronizing technology works with any complex relational databases and can handle databases with millions of records and thousands of users. This patent-pending data synchronization technology makes it easier to support remote and mobile database users, making Saratoga’s CRM technology an attractive alternative to less nimble CRM software competitors, and to software-as-service alternatives that are subject to outages or web connectivity issues.

ôCRM delivers a competitive advantage to field sales and support, so customer data has to be current,ö said Mark Elconin , chairman and CEO of Saratoga Systems . ôOur new synchronization approach makes it possible to update even the most complex database faster and more efficiently than ever, and it can scale to a virtually unimited number of users. And as the market for mobile data access continues to grow, it will drive the need for fast and effective data synchronization for handheld data devices such as BlackBerry, Palm Treos and SmartPhones running on Microsoft Windows Mobile.ö

The real benefit of this patent-pending synchronization technology is faster synchronization speed. The latest release of Saratoga CRM has been tested handling SQL data synchronization at least seven times faster than previous versions. This will prove a boon to users with large database systems who need to keep their data current, but previously had to schedule synchronization over weekends or long periods, when users could not access the system.

ôThis new synchronization technology in the latest release of Saratoga CRM allows us to deliver current customer data to thousands of mobile users,ö said Bill Hable, Director, Market Planning, Research & Systems for Johnson Controls, a long-time Saratoga Systems customer. ôThe real challenge with a large database like ours is keeping data fresh in a timely fashion for our field personnel. Now Saratoga CRM solves that problem.ö

This new synchronizing technology is available in Saratoga Systems’ latest version of Saratoga CRM 6.5, which makes Saratoga CRM a superior alternative to ôbehemothö CRM enterprise software solutions that require substantial programming to integrate and customize. Saratoga CRM 6.5 is available now for a per-user license from $1,100 to $1,800.

Innovative wireless technology provides mobile access to any company data without programming

Campbell, California, January 17, 2006 - Saratoga Systems, a global leader in CRM solutions, today announced the launch of its Apresta division to provide mobile access to any enterprise data. Apresta provides an end-to-end solution that delivers enterprise data to handheld devices, such as a BlackBerry or Treo, without programming.

The Apresta division was formed to meet the growing market demand for mobile enterprise data access solutions. Based on Saratoga Systems’ success with Saratoga Wireless, the company decided to form the Apresta division. Formerly known as Saratoga Wireless, Apresta offers easy wireless access to a variety of enterprise systems including Saratoga CRM (customer relationship management). Apresta delivers wide connectivity, since it is compatible with any type of database and connects via ODBC, and Web Services. Some of the back end systems easily connected to include Siebel, SAP, Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL, Remedy, Clarify, Lawson, JD Edwards, i2, Manugistics and of course, Saratoga CRM, among others.

Apresta’s end-to-end solution uses a three-step connect-organize-publish data delivery model. It allows you to connect to back-end enterprise data systems, organize data using data definitions and data modeling, and then publishes the data for presentation on a handheld device. Apresta is ideal for enterprise users looking to optimize sales and service automation and extend their network infrastructure to field personnel.

“Apresta turns mobile data access into a competitive weapon for today’s field force,” said Al Smith, president of Apresta. “Whether you are supporting field sales, customer service, or just need to keep closer track of your business, handheld data delivery gives you access to critical data when and where you need it. And since our Apresta technology gives wireless access to any enterprise data, not just CRM, we decided to give it its own brand.”

Customers can create their own customized wireless reports to monitor sales activity, check inventory, and look up financial data. Using Apresta Studio, users can create a customized, end-to-end wireless data application including data flow, access security, business rules, and more without programming. Apresta even allows you to view graphics and images such as parts or, in the case of one British police force, mug shots.

“Enterprise users are looking for a one-stop solution to mobilize all their data,” said Smith. “Our customers are aware that Apresta is the solution for all their needs across the enterprise. Deploying multiple point solutions or purchasing middle-wear is expensive and time consuming and will not meet the enterprise requirements.”

Smith adds, “Wireless e-mail access is already commonplace. The next killer wireless app will be delivery of enterprise data securely and quickly. Apresta lets you deliver custom reports to handhelds and cell phones to support this new generation of mobile workers.”

Apresta is especially useful for midsize to large enterprise organizations where a mobile sales, support or executive staff needs secure wireless access to enterprise data. The company already has wireless customers in healthcare, financial services, government offices, manufacturing, energy insurance, transportation.

Key Features
Apresta’s wireless enterprise data gateway differs from other wireless technologies because of several key features:

Complete end-to-end mobile solution
Apresta delivers a complete solution to mobilize your business processes. Apresta delivers real-time consolidated data from multiple backend systems in three easy steps. Connect. Organize. Publish.
Single solution for multiple systems
offers connectivity to a wide range of back-end systems including Siebel, SAP, J.D. Edwards, and Oracle - mobilizing business processes for sales, field service and other mobile professionals.
Real-time or offline access
Data can be accessed real-time, or when connectivity is unavailable, it is cached and then synchronized with enterprise applications once the connection is re-established.
Comprehensive alerting capabilities
Apresta’s product offering includes comprehensive alerting technology that monitors multiple systems and processes and delivers instant alerts on critical business conditions.
Quick deployment
Apresta’s end-to-end solution works out of the box, with any handheld device that uses RIM‘s BlackBerry OS or Microsoft’s wireless OS. Absolutely no programming is required. Implementation occurs in weeks not months.
Proven worldwide enterprise success
Apresta has a proven track record of delivering highly configurable end-to-end solutions to enterprises with very demanding requirements, servicing multi-national corporations across a broad range of industries.
For more information on Apresta’s solutions and architecture visit www.apresta.com

“CRM Excellence” Award for 2005
iAvenue 6.4 Honored for Demonstrating Significant ROI for Customer Implementations

Campbell, Calif. Ś July 11, 2005 Ś Saratoga Systems, a global supplier of enterprise software solutions to the mid-to-large enterprise market, announced today that Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC®)ĺs Customer Interaction Solutions® magazine (www.cismag.com) has named iAvenue 6.4 as a recipient of a CRM Excellence Award for 2005.

Saratoga Systemsĺ iAvenue 6.4 customer relationship management (CRM) software platform raises the bar on flexibility and integration for the industry. Key features in iAvenue 6.4 that enable users to increase their CRM effectiveness include one-click integration with Outlook and Lotus Notes, computer telephony integration (CTI), Form Wizard and speech integration. iAvenue also provides secure mobile connectivity from any Web-enabled wireless device to the iAvenue CRM suite and other back-office database systems.

ôOnce again we are honored for product excellence. This prestigious award for iAvenue further establishes Saratoga Systems as a leader in the CRM space,ö said Mark Elconin, CEO of Saratoga Systems. ôIn order to keep up with the constantly changing CRM landscape, iAvenue provides the industryĺs most flexible, cost-effective solution for delivering faster ROI, increased revenues, and improved sales, marketing and service effectiveness.ö

iAvenue enables businesses to lower cost of implementation and overall total cost of ownership (TCO), to improve visibility of critical sales data, and to provide faster customer responsiveness. Based on a rich, open architecture and proven functionality, iAvenue offers reliable synchronization and superior integration with back-end systems, and the flexibility to adapt and customize to any business processes. The single, unified database provides robust data distribution and complete, real-time access to accurate customer and prospect data anytime and anywhere.

ôCustomer Interaction Solutions magazine implemented the CRM Excellence Awards six years ago as a way of commending the companies that have proven to be true CRM partners to their customers and clients. Saratoga Systems has demonstrated to the editors of Customer Interaction Solutions that their products and services have substantially improved the processes of their clientsĺ businesses by streamlining and facilitating the flow of information needed for companies to retain their most precious asset…their customers,ö said Nadji Tehrani, founder and chairman of TMC, publishers of Customer Interaction Solutions.

Customer Interaction Solutions® has been the premier publication in the CRM, call center and teleservices industries since 1982. The CRM Excellence Award winners for 2005 will be published in the June and July issues of Customer Interaction Solutions magazine.

Unique software architecture delivers fast deployment and tight SAP and Oracle integration for more efficient sales automation processes

CAMPBELL, Calif. (December 13, 2005) ľ Saratoga Systems (www.saratogasystems.com), a global leader in CRM solutions since 1987, today released Saratoga CRM 6.5, the latest version of Saratoga Systemsĺ Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software (formerly iAvenue). The new release includes a number of enhancements and more powerful integration to back-end enterprise data, making Saratoga CRM a superior alternative to ôbehemothö CRM enterprise software solutions that require substantial programming to integrate and customize. The core of the new release is closer, more efficient integration with systems such as SAP using new Web Services support.

ôYou donĺt need to rely on ERP vendors to be the CRM experts,ö said Mark Elconin, CEO of Saratoga Systems. ôWe deliver CRM solutions for companies that are serious about making CRM a competitive weapon, and not just a sales contact database. Our customers tell us that they want a sales automation solution that meets their evolving needs from a CRM expert and not an ERP provider, and they donĺt want a partial on-demand fix. We offer the power of easy-to-adapt software at a price that competes with on-demand solutions that canĺt integrate to back end systems.ö

Other new features in Saratoga CRM 6.5 include a new alert engine, new data push for Outlook and Lotus Notes, an improved Web dashboard, and new query capabilities.

Saratoga CRMĺs unique software architecture makes it far easier to implement and upgrade than competing enterprise CRM solutions. Rather than re-programming the enterprise application to accommodate a CRM implementation, Saratoga CRM lets you customize everything including business processes, and integration with other systems without any programming. Users can create new business applications or optimize current processes in days rather than months, and at a fraction of the cost of other enterprise software solutions. And Saratogaĺs modular design makes it easy to create CRM applications that users can access whenever they need to, either through LAN or WAN, through the Web, or through handheld wireless devices using Saratogaĺs AprestaÖ technology.

ôWith Oracleĺs acquisition of Siebel, customers are actively seeking CRM alternatives that allow them to mine enterprise data and power new business processes without a lot of programming maintenance and service fees,ö said Al Smith, president of Saratoga Systems. ôWe designed Saratoga CRM for companies that need sales automation systems that can be easily adapted as a tactical market weapon. Saratoga CRM offers an attractive alternative to Siebel customers because it separates the CRM engine source code from the business rules and processes, which means it delivers superior integration with back-end systems at a fraction of the cost.ö

New Features In Saratoga CRM 6.5 With the release of Saratoga CRM 6.5,
Saratoga Systems has added a number of features to improve reporting and customization, and more closely integrate with back-end processes, including:
New Web Services support ľ Saratoga CRM adds a new Web Services interface to access any type of SAP data anywhere in the enterprise. As a result, Saratoga CRM can now consolidate information gathering for manufacturing, supply chain, order processing, human resources, and any other SAP-driven applications.

A new alert engine ľ This alerting tool monitors the CRM system as well as other back end systems and generates e-mail notifications instantly when certain conditions and business rules apply, such as when a contract is about to expire or a credit threshold is exceeded.

New Outlook and Lotus Notes push capability ľSaratoga CRM can push tasks, appointments, or contacts to Outlook and Lotus Notes en masse, and then keeps the information automatically synchronized with the CRM database.

New, extremely powerful web dashboard ľ This new feature allows each user to create any number of sophisticated dashboards via an intuitive drag and drop interface.
Saratoga CRM 6.5 is especially useful for midsize to large organizations that need versatile sales force automation that leverages back-end enterprise data sources. Saratoga CRM begins shipping this month. Pricing is based on per-user licensing and averages from $1,100 to $1,800 per user.

WIRELESS ENTERPRISE SYMPOSIUM, ORLANDO, FL. ? April 19, 2005 ? Saratoga Systems Inc., a global supplier of enterprise software solutions to the mid-to-large enterprise market, today announced a version of its Saratoga Wireless™ data enterprise information solution platform optimized specifically for BlackBerry® wireless handheld devices from Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM); (TSX: RIM). Saratoga Wireless for BlackBerry enables mobile professionals to access data from multiple back-end systems ? including CRM, ERP, and any legacy data systems ? and remain productive even when out of wireless coverage areas or offline.

?The combination of Saratoga Wireless and RIM?s BlackBerry was really a slam dunk for us,? said Larry Bassett, IT Director at Phoenix Contact. ?In one device, we have access to mission critical information so that we can respond faster to customer inquiries and requests. It allows our sales force to out-sell and out-service the competition. Saratoga Wireless and BlackBerry offer seamless and secure access to our CRM, ERP and other back office applications.?

?As a member of the BlackBerry ISV Alliance program, we are pleased to partner closely with Research In Motion to optimize productivity solutions for the growing ranks of professionals compelled to be productive ?anytime, anywhere,?? said Mark Elconin, CEO of Saratoga Systems. ?Saratoga and BlackBerry customers share a common goal that has driven the development of Saratoga Wireless for Blackberry ? increasing productivity and shortening response times for mobile professionals.?

?BlackBerry offers the optimal platform for wireless CRM, and RIM is very pleased to work with innovative enterprise software developers like Saratoga Systems to help further enhance the capabilities and ROI of BlackBerry deployments,? said Mark Guibert, Vice President, Corporate Marketing at Research In Motion. ?Saratoga is an important contributing member of the BlackBerry ISV Alliance community that serves our customers with value-added solutions.

Delivers anytime/anywhere access via any mobile device to data, applications, and business processes to boost mobile worker responsiveness

CAMPBELL, Calif.  April 12, 2005  Saratoga Systems Inc., a global supplier of enterprise software solutions to the mid-to-large enterprise market, announced today the general availability of the Saratoga Wireless data access solution. Saratoga Wireless enables enterprises to offer mobile workers real-time access via any handheld device to multiple back-end systems, including CRM, ERP and financials.

The combination of Saratoga Wireless and RIM’s BlackBerry was really a slam dunk for us, said Larry Bassett, IT Director at Phoenix Contact. In one device, we have access to mission critical information so that we can respond faster to customer inquiries and requests. This allows the Phoenix Contact sales force, to out sell and out service the competition. Saratoga Wireless and BlackBerry offer seamless and secure access to our ERP and CRM and other back office applications.”

In today’s heterogeneous wireless environment, the Saratoga Wireless platform supports all wireless devices and networks, and as a competitive business tool will allow mobile workers to more quickly capitalize on opportunities and make more informed decisions in the field, said Mark Elconin, CEO of Saratoga Systems. Also, Saratoga Wireless unique architecture provides a complete end-to-end solution with no programming. Saratoga Wireless will help any enterprise customer secure the fastest and greatest possible return on their wireless technology investment.