Welcome back to yet another broadcast of Radio CBM, 98.6 on your radio dial and #1 in your hearts, the Voice of CRM in the Saugerties, all Robert Earl Keen, Jr. all the time:
Callidus Software has unveiled its Callidus Commissions Manager [1], described by the Callidians as a 100 percent native Force.com product.
Company officials emphasized that yes, it is, in fact, 100 percent native, and "we have a certified Hawaii birth certificate to prove it."
The product lets sales reps manage commissions and claims, and users can check the status of commissions, claims and plans through Salesforce.com on the iPhone.
It's designed for small and mid-size businesses' compensation processes, said Lorna Heynike, senior vice president of marketing at Callidus.
And as CustomerThink's Dear Leader Bob Thompson noted [2], if you don't think modeling is important, "then you probably have never put together a plan and then wished you'd considered scenarios where reps followed it a little too, um, seriously. That can lead to embarrassing meetings with the CFO and CEO."
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In politics, President Barack Obama used a speech to Congress [3] to declare "30 million American citizens cannot get" health insurance. As recently as August 10, the president said there are "47 million Americans without health insurance."
White House officials said at this rate, the president will solve the problem of uninsured Americans in "about two or three more speeches."
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Salesforce.com has announced "the next chapter" [4] in "the customer service revolution" with Service Cloud 2.
The Benioff Crew says The Service Cloud, announced in January, has "the world's first knowledge base designed for cloud computing, Salesforce Knowledge," as well as "Salesforce for Twitter" so you, too, can harness the awesome power of Twitter, a technology used by, oh, about five percent [5] of all Americans and fewer than half of everybody who signed up for it.
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Mobridge, South Dakota-based—and when's the last time you heard a news bit start with that, huh?—One World Direct, a call center vendor, has appointed Roy Semplenski [6] as vice president of business development.
In his new role, Semplenski will "develop and expand One World Direct's call center account relationships," One World officials say, adding that they got Semplenski when Brett Favre decided to sign with the Minnesota Vikings instead.
"Rural shoring is a great alternative to off-shoring," said Thomas Unterseher, CEO, One World Direct. Industry analyst Herbert T. Finkelstein agreed, saying Semplenski will "be able to buy the finest house in Mobridge for what he'd pay in parking in Manhattan."
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In sports, the United States took a big step [7] towards securing a berth in the 2010 World Cup, defeating Trinidad and Tobago 1-0. The news was greeted enthusiastically by pretty much every other nation that'll qualify for the World Cup, with several nations clamoring to be placed in America's group.
In the U.S. Open some South American guy beat some Central European guy for the honor of maybe eventually getting served up as cannon fodder to Roger Federer.
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RightNow has signed an agreement to acquire HiveLive [8], a social platform provider, to combine RightNow's on-demand CRM with HiveLive's platform.
The HiveLive platform, available immediately following the acquisition, will be "tightly integrated" into RightNow November '09, according to RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte, who said RightNow's clients and prospects "are clamoring for more social Web functionality."
Industry analyst Herbert E. Finkelstein said it was a good move for RightNow, adding that Bozeman, Montana, where RightNow is located, is "a lot better than South Dakota."
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That's the show for today, we're off to sign a "Save The Hoki" petition [9].