Category Archives: Marketing

Customer Relationship Management, Marketing, Social, Social CRM, Social media, social media monitoring

IntelliBuzz Helps Companies Monitor Social Media

Intelliverse has launched IntelliBuzz, a social media monitoring service.  IntelliBuzz  helps organizations listen, engage, measure and optimize interactions across multiple social platforms to develop a better understanding of customers and markets, integrate a social CRM channel and align social strategies with overall business objectives.

“Today’s businesses cannot choose whether or not to engage in social media,” said Frank E. Paterno, VP of Marketing at Intelliverse. “Customers are expressing both joy and frustration socially. Companies that aren’t listening and choose not to participate in these conversations will quickly become obsolete.”

The IntelliBuzz service can help companies in the following areas:

  • Provides marketers with a single dashboard to publish, engage, manage, analyze and report across multiple social campaigns and platforms. It also helps marketers schedule future posts and trend the social activity about their brand, which can range from protecting the brand during everyday operations to uncovering opportunities for social outreach and meaningful conversations.
  • Empowers customer service and sales organizations to listen to and respond to customer and prospect conversations originating on the social web. Benefits include quickly responding to questions from prospects to delighting customers with surprise resolutions to socially made complaints. Customer service organizations can easily integrate IntelliBuzz into an overall CRM strategy and have the tools in place to find questions, comments or complaints on the internet, deliver them to the responsible team and track each interaction to ensure a timely response.
  • Allows a human resource organization to gauge employee happiness, gain insight into potential negative organizational issues and evolve corporate values by monitoring the social media activity of the organization’s employees.
  • Intellectual Property – Lets an organization know if the organization’s intellectual property (e.g., trademarks and service marks) and confidential information is being used inappropriately so it can respond accordingly.

Customer experience, Customer Relationship Management, Marketing, Mobile

Total Communicator Solutions Launches Mobile Marketing Communication Platform

Total Communicator Solutions has launched its Mobile Marketing Communication Platform, a cloud-based platform which enables a company to communicate with their clients who download the company’s mobile app via a simple web based dashboard interface.  The solution includes a mobile app that can be dynamically changed and controlled by the CRM system.

“We have created a business solution by combining cutting edge mobile technologies such as an Augmented Reality (AR) solution with a powerful cloud based CRM system. With this we have developed a simple to use Mobile Marketing Communication Platform,” explained TCS Founder and CEO Erik Bjontegard .  “The CRM system serves as the central nervous system. The app can be used to gather information such as activity, location and more – the system then can deliver content that is relevant to the app user’s context and behavior. We have gone from context awareness to what I like to call contextual intelligence.”

The platform is targeted for use by a company’s marketing department. It enables automatic delivery of messages, content and offers based on a variety of parameters. These include location, activity and past behavior within the app. The solution can also reward those that use the app to share with others through their social networks.

The first company to use the application is the cutting edge restaurant group Enlightened Hospitality Group of San Diego. They are active users of social and digital marketing and have their own in house digital ad agency. Partner and CEO, James Brennan states, “When we first saw the TCS solution, we knew we wanted this, and wanted to be the first to use it.  This fits perfectly in our marketing plans where we promote our restaurant group as well as our celebrity Chef, Brian Malarkey .”

3Cinteractive, Enterprise Mobile, Fision, Marketing, Mobile, Mobile application development, Mobile device, Partnerships

Fision Partners with 3Cinteractive to Integrate Mobile into Its Distributed Marketing Automation

Image representing 3Cinteractive as depicted i...

Fision, the leading sales and marketing automation SaaS provider, today announced an agreement with 3Cinteractive, the leading provider of cloud-based, enterprise mobile solutions, to leverage its Switchblade platform to extend sales and marketing automation across messaging, mobile web, smartphone apps, voice, and social media.

“Control, compliance and measurement of campaign distribution across all media channels has always been a recurring problem for businesses,” said Mike Brown, CEO of Fision. “This agreement furthers our mission to provide a simple solution that optimizes that effort. Mobility is the next mainstream media channel and the capabilities of 3Cinteractive extend the power of Fision to address that demand.”

Fision’s platform allows enterprises and small businesses in manufacturing, health care, retail, financial and business services to store, customize and distribute marketing materials, giving companies real-time metrics on customer behavior. Switchblade, 3Ci’s cloud-based mobile platform, provides businesses with a single platform to deploy multi-channel mobile applications to any mobile device throughout the world. The combination of these capabilities will extend Fision’s offering to include mobile solutions that engage consumers and increase their lifetime value.


Cloud Services, Events, Gartner, Marketing, Parallels Automation, service provider, WPC12

Parallels Named a “Cool Vendor” in Cloud Services by Industry Research Firm

 

 

RENTON, WA and TORONTO – July 10, 2012 – Parallels® (www.parallels.com), the hosting and cloud services enablement leader, today announced technology research firm Gartner has recognized Parallels as a Cool Vendor for 2012 in the recent report, “Cool Vendors in Cloud Services Brokerage Enablers, 2012.” The report recognizes those firms with new and innovative technologies for delivering cloud brokerage services. This announcement was made during the 2012 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, taking place this week in Toronto through July 12.

 

Recognized for its Parallels Automation software, including Parallels Automation for Cloud Marketplace, Parallels is helping service providers profit from the growing demand in Small and Medium Business (SMB) cloud services. Parallels Automation is a complete operational and business support system that automates all aspects of delivering, managing and billing for service providers, enabling them to offer services ranging from Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to Platform and Software as a Service (PaaS and SaaS).  Parallels also pre-negotiates wholesale contracts with ISVs and SaaS providers, and arranges relationships with customer support companies, enabling providers to create a Cloud Services Brokerage quickly and efficiently.  Additionally, Parallels Automation for Cloud Marketplace has a flexible architecture that makes it easy for providers to add additional applications enabled by the open Application Packaging Standard (APS). 

 

“We are honored to be recognized by Gartner as a Cool Vendor in Cloud Services Brokerage Enablement,” said Jack Zubarev, President of Parallels. “With Parallels Automation, including our Cloud Marketplace and our growing list of APS packaged applications, we are making it easy for service providers to quickly and efficiently deliver the full suite of Microsoft hosted applications that meet the diverse needs of SMBs.”

 

Parallels recently announced the general availability of Parallels Automation 5.4, the latest version of the most comprehensive hosting and cloud services delivery system used by hundreds of service providers worldwide — from the world’s largest telecom operators to top hosters and providers of vertical solutions (see the Gartner report for a list of reference partners). Parallels Automation 5.4 now includes support for delivering Microsoft® Lync and other Microsoft® hosted applications, and its built-in Parallels Windows Server® Provisioning Engine helps service providers manage the migration of Microsoft Hosted Exchange® and other applications from Microsoft’s former Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC) solution.  

 

The full Gartner report is available courtesy of Parallels here.

 

About Parallels
Parallels is a worldwide leader in hosting and cloud service enablement and desktop virtualization. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.

 

For information on Parallels, visit www.parallels.com/spp, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ParallelsCloud and Like Us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ParallelsCloud.

 

Disclaimer: 

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. 

 

 

Marketing, Parallels Automation, Saas, service provider, Small Businesses, Software as a service

Parallels Automation 5.4 Launches, Delivering Enterprise-Grade Hosted PBX, Microsoft® Lync and Microsoft® Hosted Exchange Capabilities

 

Additional features, including the new Parallels Web Presence Builder, are specifically designed for service providers to meet the growing demand for cloud services by small and medium businesses (SMBs)

 

We are excited to announce the general availability of Parallels Automation 5.4, the latest version of the most comprehensive hosting and cloud services delivery system used by hundreds of service providers worldwide, from the world’s largest telecom operators to top hosters and providers of vertical solutions. 

 

Among the new cloud service delivery capabilities in Parallels Automation 5.4 is a suite of communications and collaboration features, including a full-featured virtual PBX enablement solution for delivering hosted BroadSoft BroadWorks PBX and hosted Microsoft® Lync™ services. These features are designed specifically to meet the growing demands of small and medium businesses (SMBs) for hosted PBX and other cloud applications. According to Parallels SMB Cloud Insights™, the market for hosted communications and collaboration services experienced a 75% year-over-year growth in 2012, reaching $2.5B and is expected to carry a 35% CAGR through 2014.

 

The new hosted communications and collaboration capabilities in Parallels Automation 5.4 enables hosters of any size to launch much needed hosted PBX services, bundled with business email, instant messaging and other services.  These services are suited to meet the communications needs of SMBs, whether they are replacing a legacy PBX system or moving to their very first PBX service. Parallels has also simplified the deployment of these services by partnering with best-in-breed providers to add flexibility and enhanced capabilities.  Hosters can choose to integrate these services with their own BroadSoft Broadworks solution, or use wholesale services enabled by preferred partners Apptix, Alteva and Sipcom.  

 

In addition, Parallels Automation 5.4 delivers hosted Microsoft Lync services, appealing to the 178 million employees of SMBs worldwide who seek to leverage cloud-based messaging, collaboration and unified communications across desktops, laptops and mobile devices. Microsoft Lync also includes built-in web and call conferencing support and is a natural upsell to those SMBs already utilizing Microsoft Exchange, either on-premises or in a hosted environment. Parallels Automation 5.4 also provides billing automation and provisioning of this and other hosted Microsoft services, while enabling additional application integration of other hosted third-party applications from leading ISVs.

 

“Parallels Automation continues to be a competitive differentiator for Apptix and a key reason why blue chip channel partners are turning to Apptix to drive their cloud success,” said Joy Nemitz, Chief Marketing Officer, Apptix. “It provides a single platform for provisioning, management, and billing of all of our Cloud services and allows us to beat our competitors to market with new services and capabilities into the market – such as Microsoft Lync.”

 

“Parallels Automation continues to be the platform of choice for service providers seeking to profit from the rapidly-growing opportunity for delivering cloud services to SMBs,” said Jack Zubarev, President of Parallels. “With the addition of hosted PBX, and Microsoft Lync, Parallels Automation is delivering even more opportunities for service providers to meet the diverse needs of SMBs.”

 

In addition to the Hosted PBX and Microsoft Lync capabilities, Parallels Automation 5.4 also delivers number of enhancements, including:

 

  • • Updated Control Panel – Parallels Automation has an entirely refreshed end-user control panel. Many scenarios have been optimized based on customer input and the look and feel has been unified with Parallels Plesk Panel to offer a common interface throughout all Parallels control panels. These and other new self-service features make Parallels Automation more efficient for both the service provider and their end-user customers.

 

  • • New Parallels Web Presence Builder – As the worldwide market for Web presence is expected to grow to $12.6 billion by 20141, hosters continue to seek ways to capitalize on this growing market, to differentiate their offers and grow their service revenue. The new Parallels Web Presence Builder features prebuilt site templates with customized text for more than 75 different industries – enabling SMBs to set up a complete, professional-looking website in record time.  Parallels Web Presence Builder also enables users to easily customize website content, integrate it with Facebook, and let visitors share content on popular social networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

  • • Parallels Windows Provisioning Engine (WPE) – As Microsoft has wound down its Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC) solution, service providers will have to find a new platform to deliver hosted and syndicated Microsoft Exchange and other tools. Parallels Automation 5.4 is a leading Microsoft-certified solution that allows service providers to migrate their customers from HMC to future hosted e-mail and other applications.  This includes Hosted Exchange 2010 SP2 services via Parallels WPE, which enables the migration from older Exchange versions.

 

 

The market continues to take notice of Parallels momentum. In a recently published report, technology industry research firm IDC states, “Given Parallels’ current base of 5,000 partners/customers in the SMB IT channel (hosting providers, resellers, and integrators) and market penetration of the Parallels Plesk Panel product (50% market share in the control panel segment), IDC believes that the company is well positioned to establish an up-the-stack presence in the service delivery/enablement platforms of SMB cloud IT supply chain participants.”2 The full IDC report is available for download from Parallels Web site at: http://bit.ly/yt6kg7

 

For more information on Parallels Automation, visit: http://www.parallels.com/products/automation/

 

 

1 Parallels SMB Cloud Insights, 2012

2 IDC, Parallels Private Vendor Watchlist Profile: Helping Service Providers Compete in the Cloud, doc #233149, Feb. 2012


CRN, Marketing, Vendor, Virtualization

CRN Names Parallels in 2012 Virtualization Who’s Who

 

 

CRN.com, leading source of news, analysis and perspective for VARS and technology integrators, recently published their 2012 Virtualization 100 list. With the number of businesses in the virtualization industry increasing year over year, Parallels is honored to be named among the ‘who’s who of virtualization players’. Parallels is a global leader in hosting and cloud services enablement and desktop virtualization software. Whether you’re looking to virtualize Windows on your Mac without rebooting and access everything from your iPad or migrate your business to the cloud, Parallels offers a solution. 

 

CRN previously named Parallels in their list of 20 Coolest Cloud Platforms & Development Vendors.

 

APS, APS Partners, Cloud Services, Events, Marketing, Parallels Automation, Saas, service provider, Small Businesses, Software as a service, Webinar

APS and SaaS Webinar for Service Providers featuring Solgari, Ecwid, VMWare and Quest

 

Our recent case study describes how leading Hong Kong hosting service provider, Pacificnet Hosting Limited (PacHosting), used Parallels Application Packaging Standard (APS) to broaden its portfolio and reduce time-to-market for new services. With APS, PacHosting was able to create new revenue opportunities in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) space and rapidly ramp-up services. We have arranged for some leaders in the SaaS field to explain how your business can profit like PacHosting by offering the most in-demand applications to small and medium business customers. This is a great opportunity for service providers to learn how to easily market and sell high-demand commercial applications and services, and how Parallels can help providers of any size be successful in increasing ARPU and reducing customer churn.

 

This month’s scheduled presentations include:

 

Solgari – Discover the fantastic opportunity to provide Solgari Hosted PBX & Voice Services to your business customers

Ecwid – Find out how you can grow your ecommerce base with our 100% AJAX widget shopping cart

VMware – Learn how Zimbra Collaboration Server allows you to offer an advanced enterprise email & calendaring solution at a low TCO

Quest – Discover the many benefits of Quest’s OnDemand Migration for Email

 

Webinar starts Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 8am PDT. Don’t miss it – Register now!

Cloud Services, Events, Hosting, IaaS, Marketing, Webinar

Best Practices for Growing your VPS and Cloud Server Business

 

Parallels recently published a case study looking at how leading Australian web hosting provider, Net Logistics, was able to create new revenue opportunities through Virtual Private Servers (VPS) offerings. In the case study, Net Logistics Business Development Manager, Joseph Salim, described how it took just three years to go from no VPS offerings to VPS accounting for 40% of their customer base. Today, 60% of all new customers buy VPS from Net Logistics. 

 

 

The demand for Virtual Private Servers continues to explode, and can include everything from a single VPS to elastic, hourly-billed cloud infrastructure. Deploying cost effective VPS and cloud server solutions is the key to accelerating revenue and realizing profit. In our upcoming webinar on May 9, the focus is on growing your VPS and cloud server business. Lowell Anderson, Parallels Director of IaaS Product Marketing, will share the results of our latest market research and the best practices to optimize your cost structure and drive profits from your VPS solutions. Liam Eagle, Editor in Chief of Web Host Industry Review (The WHIR), , will moderate the discussion through a range of topics including market survey results describing VPS revenue opportunities, buyer preferences and what drives purchasing for VPS services, best practices for profiting from VPS services and how to plan for the future. 

 

 

Would you like to find out how your business can capitalize on this market opportunity by offering VPS to your customers? Please join us May 9, 2012 at 11am-12pm Pacific, 2pm-3pm Eastern for our Best Practices for Growing your VPS and Cloud Server Business webinar. 

 

 

To register or invite customers to attend, click here. 

 

Aprimo, Big Data, eCircle, M&A Activity, Marketing, Teradata, Teradata Aster

Teradata Acquires eCircle

Teradata and Aprimo, a Teradata company today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Munich-based eCircle, a European cloud-based digital marketing company.

The combination of Teradata’s analytical capabilities, Aprimo’s Integrated Marketing Management, and eCircle’s digital messaging solution will enable marketers worldwide to create integrated customer experiences across online and offline channels that leverage Big Data insights to grow existing customers, attract new customers, and increase revenues. Digital marketers will also have the option to leverage the eCircle solution as a standalone offering. The addition of eCircle more than triples Aprimo’s European team, expertise and reach in all major European countries, creating the largest marketing applications provider in Europe and enabling the delivery of eCircle solutions globally.

Components of the combined Teradata, Aprimo, and eCircle offering will include:

•        An Integrated Marketing Management solution that provides access to all marketing applications from the cloud – including digital, campaign and operational – thus enabling faster time to market, higher ease of use, and less IT complexity;

•        Ability to easily create targeted, personalised digital campaigns that are among the world’s most robust in their compliance with security and privacy regulations;

•        A digital messaging platform for social, mobile, web and email that can scale to support hundreds of billions of messages a year;

•        Multi-channel data management, advanced segmentation and optimisation,

•        Access to digital marketing services such as messaging, content creation, best practices and lead generation delivered by Aprimo digital marketing experts;

•        Big Data analytics from Teradata and Teradata Aster that turns content from social, mobile, web and email channels into actionable insights; and,

•        Unified reporting.

eCircle will also be available as a standalone solution for the digital marketer who wants a simple to deploy but powerful and easy to use digital messaging infrastructure.