CRM Daily

Apple Will Fix MacBook Pros with Faulty Nvidia Chips

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:50:49 -0500

When Apple released its MacBook Pro laptop, reviewers called it an evolutionary improvement and touted its new GeForce 8600 GT mobile graphics processor, made by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia. Now some models may have faulty chips.

After months of speculation that the MacBook Pro included failing Nvidia chips, Apple finally said Thursday that three MacBook Pro models manufactured between May 2007 and September 2008, including the 15-inch, 17-inch and Early 2008, may have faulty chips.

But Apple said it was not at fault in a note posted on its MacBook Pro Web site. The company said Nvidia told Apple that Mac computers with the graphics processors were not affected.

It was not until its own investigation that Apple determined some MacBook Pro computers with the GeForce processors were affected.

"Our analysis shows that a failure in an Apple MacBook Pro notebook is remote," Nvidia spokesperson Derek Perez said in an e-mail. "However, Apple, like other OEMs, decides on their own how to handle their warranty and repair programs, based upon their own quality standards. Regardless, we stand by our products, thus the reason why we set aside such a large reserve, and we have and will continue to work closely with Apple and their customers."

Extended Warranty

MacBook Pro users, according to Apple, need to check their systems for distorted or scrambled video or the absence of video when the computer is running.

"If the Nvidia graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or fails within two years of the original date of purchase, a repair will be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty," Apple said.

Owners of affected MacBook Pros are asked to bring them to an Apple retail store or Apple authorized service provider. Customers who already paid for repairs to the MacBook Pro as a...

CRM Solutions for WiMAX Service Providers

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:17:45 -0500

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Oct 09, 2008 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- Aptilo Networks and IntraISP announced that the two companies have partnered to offer a complete back-end system with billing, customer relationship management (CRM) and operations support system (OSS) together with the Aptilo WiMAX CSN System, a pre-integrated wireless broadband data and voice services solution for standards compliant mobile WiMAX authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA); policy management and service control.

Aptilo is a provider of pre-integrated solutions for Service Management and Access Control for wireless networks including WiMAX, wireless mesh and Wi-Fi hotspots. IntraISP is a billing, CRM and OSS solution for WiMAX and broadband service providers. Together, Aptilo and IntraISP deliver a combined solution integrated with a WiMAX service management system.

"Aptilo and IntraISP offer service providers a flexible, proven, and cost effective solution to deliver WiMAX service that is unmatched in the industry while reducing time-to-market," said Peter Esparrago, President and CEO of IntraISP. "We have successfully implemented our combined solution at other WiMAX service providers and IntraISP and our customers have been impressed with Aptilo's capabilities."

"Service providers will benefit from this partnership with IntraISP, which seamlessly integrates advanced billing, CRM and OSS capabilities into the Aptilo WiMAX CSN platform," said Torbjorn Ward, CEO, Aptilo Networks. "We are proud to announce this partnership with IntraISP."

With IntraISP's CRM functionality, all customer information, services, and billing can be managed from a single interface. In addition, customer issues can be managed through the built-in trouble ticket system optimized for broadband service providers. Customer, service, and radio tower related issues can be handled with automated routing to assigned work queues.

Aptilo's WiMAX CSN System is a multi-access solution that has CSN subsystems integrated into the platform prior to deployment. It delivers an AAA, policy management and service control solution for Mobile WiMAX and Wi-Fi network...

Semantra 2.5 Strengthens Conversational Analytics

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:18:09 -0500

DALLAS, Oct 08, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Semantra, the leading developer of conversational analytics software that breaks the barrier between users and business-critical enterprise data, today announced general availability of Semantra 2.5 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The leading business intelligence and analytics tool empowers users to enter simple commands in a familiar search box to quickly retrieve specific information from enterprise databases. Semantra 2.5 includes several key enhancements:

-- Ubiquitous Data Access: Seamlessly searches all CRM sales, services and marketing data in addition to customized tables and fields

-- Summary Analytics: Aggregates and summarizes data according to specific search parameters

-- Embedded in Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Launches Semantra within the CRM application via single sign on or launched separately from the desktop browser

-- Results Link Back to CRM: Gives users instant access to all CRM record detail directly from a result set

-- Linking to Public Data: Plug-ins facilitate easy linking from result sets to public data including maps, professional networking sites and business reports

-- Improved Comprehension: Enhanced "Did you mean" capability provides helpful suggestions when inquiry is mistyped or not understood

-- Customized Result Sets: "Hide/Show Data" function allows users to modify results for better decision making

Semantra 2.5 was specifically created to extend the value of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, enabling users to make ad hoc inquiries to retrieve precise results from any Microsoft Dynamics CRM database. With little to no training, Microsoft Dynamics CRM users can turn critical questions into precise and actionable answers by entering familiar business terms into a common search box. Semantra 2.5 has been refined and proven through extensive testing by customers in a broad range of business environments.

"We are absolutely thrilled to be partnering with Semantra. Having worked directly with the product and witnessing the value-add of the new and enhanced features, we are extremely pleased to extend this...

YouTube Offers Chance To Buy Music in a Click

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:24:07 -0500

In its continuing effort to find a way to make money from its YouTube unit, Google has introduced a type of e-commerce ad that YouTube users can click to buy digital goods from Apple's iTunes or Amazon.com.

Under the program announced Tuesday, viewers of a video with a music track, for example, will be able to click on an icon to download that song from one of the two music stores.

"If you like the song, you don't need to leave Google or leave the site to buy it," said Bakari Brock, business affairs counsel at YouTube.

The new advertising format is the latest that YouTube has introduced in recent months as it tries to turn the site's large audience into substantial revenue. So far, that effort has met with limited success, according to many analysts.

Google, which paid $1.65 billion for YouTube nearly two years ago, is counting on it to help Google expand into new forms of advertising at a time of slowing in the growth of its core ad business: small text items that appear next to search results.

Brock said the new advertisements were YouTube's first step toward building a viable e-commerce platform. For now, the program is limited to buying songs from EMI or the Universal Music Group on iTunes and Amazon. The recently released video game Spore is also available, Brock said. Over time, YouTube plans to expand the program to include other stores and other merchandise, like concert tickets, he said.

Music labels can choose to place the e-commerce links next to their own videos or on videos uploaded by users, whose images or soundtrack they identified using YouTube's Content ID system, which allows content owners to find unauthorized material on the site.

Google executives have sent mixed messages about their ability to make money from YouTube. Earlier this...

Can America Close the 'Innovation Gap?'

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:25:19 -0500

Judy Estrin, a serial entrepreneur and former chief technology officer of Cisco Systems (CSCO), believes America faces an innovation crisis. Closing the Innovation Gap, which was released early last month, is Estrin's treatise on why America's position in the world has eroded in comparison with emerging powers such as China and India -- and what government and business can do to redress the deficit.

Her text, which was penned well before the American financial system began to unravel, is all the more timely because of the panic in the markets. One core argument is that many executives have a penchant for short-sighted investments, and that cowed corporate boards are unwilling to ask hard questions. The collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers only strengthens this critique.

Like many other commentators, Estrin also takes government to task for scaling back on nondefense science spending, leading some of America's innovation muscles to atrophy. This predicament may soon grow much more serious, as scientists around the world have warned.

Book Offers Diagnosis

Estrin's resume is impressive, and it gives her a unique vantage point. As a graduate student in the 1970s, she was a member of the research group headed by Vint Cerf, a computer scientist credited with developing some of the key building blocks of the Internet. [Cerf is now Google's (GOOG) chief Internet evangelist.] In the late 1990s, Estrin served as Cisco's CTO, one of the most important technology positions in Silicon Valley at its heyday. She now sits on the boards of a number of high-performing companies, including Disney (DIS) and FedEx (FDX).

Her views may be rooted in Silicon Valley, but her diagnosis applies broadly to the U.S. economy. In the book, she ranges comfortably across all aspects of business, academia, and government. While it is now clear that many Wall Street firms had...

Online Recruiting: Monster's Big China Move

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:20:35 -0500

There's no shortage of U.S. Internet companies that have failed to replicate their successes at home in Chinese cyberspace. Despite throwing considerable resources at its Chinese-language operation, for instance, Google (GOOG) is a distant No. 2 in online search [BusinessWeek.com, 8/30/07] behind local champion Baidu.com (BIDU). In online auctions, eBay (EBAY) threw in the towel [BusinessWeek.com, 12/19/06] in December 2006 after failing to dislodge the market leader, Hangzhou-based Taobao, and joined forces with Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's TOM Online. In instant messaging, Microsoft (MSFT) lags far behind local rival Tencent. Most recently, News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace has had a disappointing performance in its attempt to export its social-networking model to China.

Edward Lo, the top China executive for online recruitment company Monster Worldwide (MNST) knows all about this sorry track record, but he says those failures won't deter him and his colleagues. In a sign of their confidence, Monster on Oct. 8 announced it was taking 100% control of ChinaHR, one of the top online recruiting companies in the country. Monster, which already owned a minority stake in the company, is paying $174 million for the remaining 55% of the Beijing-based ChinaHR.

Why is Lo so confident that Monster can avoid the traps other U.S. e-commerce powerhouses faced in China? Demographics. With some 70 million college graduates a year, China has a strong demand for online recruitment, he argues, and Monster can capitalize on that. "The key thing is, we are in the right space," says Lo, a former executive at AIG (AIG) who joined Monster in January.

Net-Savvy Job Seekers

Another plus: China's young people are extremely savvy about using the Net, he says. Chinese college students spend a lot of their time playing online games, sending instant messages, and participating in social networks. So it's only natural that young Chinese will...

Your Company's Best Sales Tool

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:15:54 -0500

Customers are cutting back and scrutinizing their budgets. That's the reality facing small-business owners today. An October survey by the PNC Financial Services Group PNC shows growing pessimism among small- and midsize business owners and decision-makers, much of it tied to unstable energy prices, a credit squeeze [BusinessWeek.com, 9/26/08), and slowing sales. Only 43% of the nearly 1,000 polled expect an increase in their company's sales over the next six months.

"When spending is off, companies cast a critical eye on every last dollar," says Dale Washburn, president of Seattle marketing firm Washburn Communication. That means your product or service must deliver what it promises -- saving your customer money, making them money, or providing the tools to make more efficient use of the money they have. Washburn believes that in times of financial crisis, sales and marketing materials are met with increased skepticism. He says one of the most persuasive tools available to most small-business owners is word of mouth -- recommendations from peers and colleagues.

Large, established companies know that a list of reputable and satisfied customers is critical for sales success. In fact, some large companies have employees whose job it is to gather and distribute in-depth customer testimonials demonstrating their product or service's effectiveness to their prospects. Most small-business owners don't have the time or budget to do the same, but they can easily borrow from their larger counterparts' strategies. I've identified three you can use below.

Invite customers to share the stage. When large companies launch new products, they usually have tested it with customers or partners who have agreed to endorse it publicly. For example, new releases of Microsoft's (MSFT) SQL Server data management platform are accompanied by a list of organizations already using them. Case studies are available on the company's Web site, CEO Steve Ballmer...

MySpace, HP in Deal To Encourage Photo Printing

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:17:34 -0500

Among all the profiles on MySpace, the social networking site's users have uploaded almost 4 billion photos. Now through an agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co., MySpace hopes people will increasingly print these images and, eventually, buy photo-embellished merchandise, too.

MySpace and HP said Tuesday that they are starting a business relationship that will put Web-based printing software from HP into the photo sections of MySpace.

This means MySpace pages will display HP-branded click-to-print buttons. The buttons are meant to make it easier for users to print content stored on their MySpace profiles -- like photos and blog postings -- than it would be to do so through their Web browsers.

The buttons are expected to appear in November on MySpace in the U.S., Australia, Western Europe and Canada. And in the following months, people will be able to buy things emblazoned with photos from the site, MySpace Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe said.

For example, bands with MySpace profiles might eventually set up their own online merchandise stores where people could choose photos they like and have them printed onto shirts through HP, he said.

"It's pretty powerful when you think we have over 5 million bands on MySpace," he said.

MySpace, part of News Corp., is not releasing financial details of the agreement.

Such partnerships may be worth trying because it has generally proven difficult for social networking sites to make money from advertising. MySpace does have a variety of large advertisers, but many analysts believe social network sites have barely tapped their potential for revenue, given that they have large audiences that spend lots of time on the sites.

Soothing Jittery Investors, One Ad at a Time

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:21:56 -0500

It was a daunting task for any ad agency copywriter. In the last days of the life of Washington Mutual -- Sept. 15 to Sept. 25 -- terrified customers withdrew $17 billion in deposits from the failing savings and loan, which U.S. regulators then took over and sold to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion.

How, then, to create a campaign that would project confidence in an institution that will be remembered as having suffered the largest bank failure of its time? Humor, decided the two banks' agencies, which worked together on ads to promote the fire sale -- er, merger.

"We love Chase," reads the headline of an advertisement for Washington Mutual. "And not just because they have a trillion dollars." (The Washington Mutual name will remain on those branches for the time being, a Chase spokesman said, but will be replaced by the Chase name in a year or two.)

The same challenge is playing out in the marketing department of virtually every financial institution. As the stock market swoons, investors are watching their paper losses mount and their retirement accounts dwindle. As the most trusted names in banking and brokerage have fallen like dominoes -- despite reassurances from top executives that nothing was wrong -- what message or slogan could possibly reassure a jittery public?

"This is not the time for keeping to the course," said Gary Stibel, chief executive of the New England Consulting Group in Westport, Connecticut, which is starting a practice devoted to financial crisis management. "The ads should tell people with money: 'There is every reason to worry. That's why we're here.'"

For Washington Mutual, the important message was the happy new marriage to JPMorgan Chase, which provided a handsome dowry. "WaMu & Chase. Safe & secure," said one ad.

The advertisements were necessary, said a spokesman for JPMorgan...

Google Launches Click-To-Buy Links on YouTube

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:01:30 -0500

Google is adding click-to-buy links to its YouTube video-sharing site. The new feature will let customers purchase songs and video games they like while watching videos on the site.

Google calls it instant gratification. Click-to-buy links, the company said, are non-obtrusive retail links positioned on the watch page beneath the video with other community features. That means users can buy products the same way they share, comment on, and respond to videos.

Google's first step is to embed iTunes and Amazon links in videos from companies like EMI Music, and provide Amazon product links to the newly released video game Spore on videos from Electronic Arts.

Just the Beginning

According to Glenn Brown, YouTube's strategic partner development manager, and Thai Tran, YouTube product manager, this is just the beginning of building a broad e-commerce platform for users and partners on YouTube.

"Our vision is to help partners across all industries -- from music, to film, to print, to TV -- offer useful and relevant products to a large yet targeted audience, and generate additional revenue from their content on YouTube beyond the advertising we serve against their videos," they wrote in the company blog. "And those partners who use our content identification and management system can also enable these links on user-generated content by using Content ID to claim videos and choose to leave them up on the site."

The retail links are being gradually added to YouTube's library of music videos -- and only in the United States. But YouTube is looking to expand the program to additional content and product partners, and to international users. YouTube also said it will be experimenting with the user interface over time to make sure this works for the community and will innovate based on feedback.

Ads as Content

Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, said...