Software Everywhere : cloud

Choose Your Own Cloud with SugarCRM

'Net Features : wm-software — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:10:00 GMT

Things are getting kind of cloudy for SugarCRM , the customer relationship management solution, as it has recently partnered with VMware to bring its vFabric Application Director 5.0 to SugarCRM clients. VMware is one of the largest cloud infrastructure...(read more)

Billing Made Simple with Aestiva Professional Software

Michael Garrity — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Software provider Aestiva is officially launching the beta version of Aestiva Time and Billing, a new software system for businesses and professionals that bill clients for services to better manage time tracking, expense tracking and the invoicing process.

Businesses that record and bill for professional time should be well aware of all the different records and reports that have to be taken care of, and Aestiva is attempting to alleviate some of the stress inherent to such a system by releasing this end-to-end product that incorporates electronic timesheets, expense reports and leave requests, while also dealing with project management, reporting, audit trails, approval flows and customer invoicing.

The Web- and cloud-based Aestiva Time and Billing was built on the company's pre-existing Electronic Forms technology and browser-native software environment to offer a flexible system for medium to enterprise-level organizations that can easily integrate with external human resources and accounting systems.

Aestiva Time and Billing also offers additional optional extensions to increase functionality to meet an organization's unique needs. The additional extensions, which can be added a la carte, include multi-language support, offline and union-specific time sheets, ACH interfaces, credit card expense reporting, policy flagging, receipt-imaging via email, pre-travel request and approval flow forms and various accounting interfaces that can integrate with Quickbooks, Mas90, MS Dynamics, PeopleSoft, SAP and more.

The new software will be installed on standard servers, thus requiring no desktop installation and allowing users to access the application through an Intranet or Internet from a browser. The solution can also be hosted on the Web without per-user fees.

Secure and Timely Cloud Data Transfers with Discovery Cloud WIRE

Michael Garrity — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:58:00 GMT

The most widely voiced concern about cloud computing is the transfer of critical data and records. Obviously security is an important topic, as is timely delivery in many cases, and cloud service providers have been working hard to try to find the best way to resolve both of these issues.

Cloud-based regulatory, compliance and litigation software provider Nextpoint is the latest company to take on the task with the release of Discovery Cloud WIRE (which stands for Web-services Infrastructure for Records Exchange).

This new solution promises "secure and immediate" delivery of relevant electronic records and will be available for free to users of Nextpoint's Discovery Cloud litigation software platform. WIRE will deliver cloud-based data collections to parties involved in the litigation process, such as judges, opposing counsel or experts.

Nextpoint promises that Discovery Cloud WIRE "reduces complexity and cost in the production of electronic evidence" and will cut out a lot of the excessive time and monetary investments needed to transfer crucial records.

The system works by having users create a secure "clone" database of the digital data in question. This new database can be made available to authorized parties to review or export to the platform of their choice. As an added security measure, the service will verify data delivery, protect privileged information from disclosure and retain any available document metadata for review.

In the Cloud: Sales Performance Management from Xactly

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:30:00 GMT

Xactly today released version 1.6 of its SMB sales compensation management solution Xactly Express.

The self-service sales compensation management software enables users to create sales commission plans, calculate commissions, and export payments to payroll. What makes the release noteworthy is that Xactly Express is delivered in the cloud using the salesforce.com Force.com platform, so it can be up and running in a matter of hours. New features within Xactly Express 1.6 include:

Express Estimator: uses the opportunity data in Salesforce CRM to calculate estimated commissions on upcoming sales deals. With the feature, sales reps can model how different products and service mixes will impact pay-outs for specific sales opportunities.

Improved Hold and Releases on Payments: enables outstanding payments to be released through an intuitive interface (in addition to a file import), allowing for better visibility and flexibility in managing the payment of commissions.

High Transaction Volume Support: makes it easier to handle high data volume on several screens, as well as to build and save views, allowing faster and easier access to key data.

“For SMBs, Xactly Express is the affordable answer to eliminating time consuming, error-prone sales commission spreadsheets - allowing them to spend more time selling and focusing on their core competencies,” said Christopher Cabrera, president and CEO, Xactly Corporation.

Screenshot of Xactly on Force.com:

Cloud Offering for Customer Support

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:30:00 GMT

CodeSmith Tools, a provider of software productivity tools most famous for its template source code generator, has announced the release of a new on-demand help desk product named CodeSmith Insight.

CodeSmith Insight is an on-demand customer support tool built which integrates directly with email and user feedback and can also be fully integrated into applications to provide error reporting details similar to those built by Apple and Microsoft.

What makes the software application so interesting is that it brings in different types of communication (emails, crash reports, customer feedback) all together in one location.

“CodeSmith Insight is all about communication,” says Eric J Smith, founder and CEO of CodeSmith Tools.

“Previously, you would use a series of separate systems to handle all this information, but we know that email, user feedback, and crash reports are just various forms of communication, and that they all belong together. This allows our customers to focus their efforts directly on what their users are experiencing, regardless of how they are saying it."