Yamaha Chooses Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com announced that Yamaha Corporation of America has replaced several contact management systems and division-specific databases, as well as a customer service and support application, with Salesforce.com. Yamaha is using Salesforce.com to manage interactions with its channel and distribution partners across numerous product lines, as well as track sales and marketing promotions related to dealers, institutions and individual artists.

Community National Bank Selects SEDONA CRM
SEDONA announced that Northfield, MN-based Community National Bank has selected SEDONA as its CRM provider. Community National invested in another vendor's horizontal CRM system one year ago. Once implemented, the system was unable to deliver the necessary industry-specific capabilities required for the bank to effectively manage the relationships and interactions with its customers. SEDONA's vertical CRM application, Intarsia, was selected to replace the existing system for its banking capabilities as well as its integration with Community National's core processing system.

			Required Reading
		What Users Want    CRM magazine interviewed more than three dozen managers and line-of-business CRM users to see what features could make end users' lives a little easier. It turns out that these users want better functionality, not more bells and whistles. (CRM Magazine) more >>
Archive of past Required Reading articles

Design Within Reach Sees Success With Aspect
Aspect announced that Design Within Reach has achieved a 20-percent decrease in contact center operating costs per order and contact since implementing the Aspect Iphinity Call Center. Standardizing on the solution from Aspect, Design Within Reach (DWR) is also now achieving its service-level goals for phone and e-mail channels without having to hire additional agents.

Comet Selects MicroStrategy To Improve Purchasing Strategies
MicroStrategy announced that electrical retailer Comet has chosen the MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform to deliver new management information to its purchasing teams and improve buying strategies. Using MicroStrategy, Comet's new DPP (Direct Product Profitability) application will not only give its product category managers information on the gross margin of each product but also present them with a profit and loss account for their entire range, by integrating data from various sources.

Parature Expands Global Services and Support Group
Parature announced that it has expanded its global services and support group by 30% to continue delivering customer support for its growing client base. With this announcement, Parature's client base will benefit from quick and efficient customer support, and will be introduced to new service programs to deepen their Parature experience.   (about Parature)