Recent News

Silverpop is acquiring CoreMotives, an early leader in the rapidly growing Microsoft Dynamics CRM marketplace. CoreMotives and Silverpop share a similar vision—to help marketers build amazing online relationships quickly and easily. And for the 2 million users of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, CoreMotives sets a new standard in ease-of-use and seamless integration.

Unlike other marketing automation solutions, CoreMotives runs completely within Microsoft Dynamics CRM, so marketers can begin executing their campaigns almost immediately without complicated set ups or learning a new application.

Founded in 2009, CoreMotives has quickly grown to more than 800 accounts in 34 countries, emerging as the leader in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Marketing Automation marketplace. Whether through Silverpop’s Engage platform or CoreMotives’ application, the combined companies offer a range of solutions that can meet the needs of every marketing department, regardless of their size, their budget or their level of expertise.

More details in Silevrpop's statement here

Microsoft Corp. today announced the first major service update for Microsoft Office365, the company’s next-generation cloud productivity service for businesses of all sizes. The service will also be available to try in 22 additional markets today, including Argentina, Iceland, Indonesia, South Africa and Taiwan.

Microsoft is also making more than 30 new updates to Office 365 to enhance collaboration and communication, and for SkyDrive, adding simple app-centric sharing for Office, powerful file management and easier uploads with HTML5 based largely on customer feedback. Key new features and enhancements include the following:

• Support for Lync for Mac. Mac users can now use instant messaging, presence and videoconferencing through Office 365.
• New SharePoint Business Connectivity Services, which allow people to connect to information in their company’s critical line-of-business applications, such as customer relationship management or SAP software.
• Support for Windows Phone 7.5. Starting today, people can access and update documents in SharePoint Online from anywhere using their Windows Phone.
• SkyDrive gets simpler app-centric sharing for Office, powerful file management and easier uploads with HTML5. Share any Office document in one click. Work together more easily with any contact — across email services and connected networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn. Powerful tools to manage and organize files quickly. Drag and drop multiple files to upload across browsers on PC and Mac.

“We are seeing really positive momentum for Office 365. Customers are adopting Office 365 eight times faster than our previous service, and the solution is on track to become one of our fastest-growing offers in Microsoft history.We are also seeing great traction with small businesses, with more than 90 percent of our early Office 365 customers coming from small businesses.” said Kurt DelBene, president of the Office Division at Microsoft.

Office 365 features cloud-based versions of familiar Microsoft productivity and communications tools. It includes access to Office Professional Plus, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online, and Office Web Apps. Plans start at $6 per user, per month, making the offering competitive with Google's Google Apps service, which offers online e-mail, productivity apps, and calendaring starting at $5 per user, per month.

More details at Microsoft News Center.

Microsoft selected Adaptive's customer, Kallistratos ATE, as a case study of advanced use of Office365. Office365 enables instant access to powerful features that generate profit for the customer from day one.

Adaptive's customer, Kallistratos ATE, selected Office365 as its core platform because it provides a scalable, secure and powerful corporate communication platform. Office365 is a “cloud-based” infrastructure with processing (Exchange, SharePoint, Lync) and storage capabilities.

Microsoft Office365 requires nothing to maintain, or support over time – thus lower costs. With zero-footprint, you can start immediately, regardless of your infrastructure.

Microsoft data centers meet compliance standards and other key accreditations for information security, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001:2005, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) 70 Type II.

More details at Microsoft Case Studies.

Adaptive participates in Extreme CRM 2011 Event which will take place at Prague between the 3^rd and 6^th of April 2011. extreme is the premier partner event focused exclusively on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and dedicated to advancing best practices and strategies for Microsoft Dynamics CRM organizations.

The research finds that 39 percent of SMBs expect to be paying for one or more cloud services within three years, an increase of 34 percent from the current 29 percent. It also finds that the number of cloud services SMBs pay for will nearly double in most countries over the next three years. The findings show an increasing opportunity for hosting service providers to profit in the cloud from offering services such as collaboration, data storage and backup, or business-class email. Some key findings include the following:

• Those SMBs paying for cloud services will be using 3.3 services, up from fewer than two services today.
• Past experience with support from a service provider is a key driver of service provider selection among SMBs. Eighty-two percent of SMBs say buying cloud services from a provider with local presence is critical or important.
• The larger the business, the more likely it is to pay for cloud services. For example, 56 percent of companies with 51–250 employees will pay for an average of 3.7 services within three years.
• Within three years, 43 percent of workloads will become paid cloud services, but 28 percent will remain on-premises, and 29 percent will be free or bundled with other services.

IDC said in its latest Worldwide Black Book that IT spending worldwide rose by 8 per cent, to more than $1.5 trillion. The overall information and communications technology (ICT) space grew by 6 per cent, almost hitting $3 trillion globally when you add in telecom gear and voice, data, and hosting services.

SAP AG and Microsoft Corp. executives today announced general availability of Duet Enterprise software, their joint product, and showcased early customer and partner adoption. In addition, SAP and Microsoft launched the new SAP-Microsoft Unite Partner Connection program. President of Microsoft Office Division Kurt DelBene and SAP Executive Board Member Vishal Sikka kicked off the Duet Enterprise Virtual Launch Summit by detailing how the companies’ combined software strategies provide greater value and business potential for their mutual customers and partners.

Duet Enterprise connects Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and SAP solutions, providing end users with easier access to business processes and data. Businesses deploying Duet Enterprise can enhance the return on their existing IT investments and create a more collaborative infrastructure that will help improve overall productivity.

More details at Microsoft Press Center.

During his Thursday keynote, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer made it clear: HTML5 is the future strategy. The only mention of Silverlight was as a development environment and a runtime platform for Windows Phone 7.

Before PDC, it was clear there was a political fight inside Microsoft over whether its strategy for web-based rich-media should favor Silverlight or HTML5. Silverlight was the star of last year's PDC. But since then, HTML5 has caught on, thanks in large part to the backing it received from Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

More details at Changing Era.

Microsoft Corp. announced Microsoft Office 365, the company’s next generation in cloud productivity that brings together Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service. Office 365 makes it easier for millions more organizations to get and use Microsoft’s award-winning business productivity solutions via the cloud. With Office 365, people can work together more easily from anywhere on virtually any device, while collaborating with others inside and outside their organization in a simple and highly secure way. As part of today’s news, Microsoft is also opening a limited beta program for Office 365 in 13 countries and regions.

More details at Microsoft Office 365 microsite.

Temenos, the global provider of banking software, today announced the availability of TEMENOS T24 (T24) on the Microsoft Windows Azure platform, making T24 the first core banking system to go into production with customers on Azure. This technological development builds on Temenos’ experience of core systems applications in hosted environments and will offer far reaching operational and financial gains to certain banking markets across the globe.

More details at Temenos Press Center.

Microsoft Corp. today announced that Microsoft Dynamics CRM has been positioned in the Leaders quadrant of the 2010 Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers. In this research report, Gartner Inc. looks primarily at the first layer: CRM business applications for customer service interactions.

More details at Gartner Magic Quadrant Report

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