REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 12, 1999 — Microsoft Corp. recently recognized the winners of the 1999 Industry Solution Awards for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Internet Solutions. The awards for Best Internet Solution were presented to three leading independent software vendors: Pivotal Corp. for Best Internet Solution – Customer Self Service; UpShot.com for Best Internet Solution – Partner Relationship Management; and Onyx Software Corp. for Best Internet Solution – Other Applications. Sponsored by Microsoft, DCI Telecommunications Inc. and Sales & Marketing Automation magazine, the awards are designed to recognize the independent software vendors in the CRM market that best utilize Microsoft® technology to provide tangible business and customer benefits via Internet technology. The awards were presented during a ceremony at the DCI CRM conference at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston on Oct. 26, 1999. The winners of the additional three Industry Solution Award categories were UpShot.com for Best Mobile Solution, Clarify Inc. for Best Call Center Solution, and Pivotal for Best Integrated CRM Solution.
Winners and finalists for the Industry Solution Awards were selected by an independent panel of judges who scored entries based on their use of the Microsoft Windows NT® Server operating system and the BackOffice® family of products, including Microsoft SQL Server TM 7.0, to provide measurable business and customer benefits in the areas of sales, marketing and service. Finalists were selected in September for six categories: Best Mobile Solution, Best Call Center Solution, Best Integrated CRM Solution, Best Internet Solution – Customer Self-Service, Best Internet Solution – Partner Relationship Management and Best Internet Solution – Other Applications.
“It’s terrific to see such a growing number of independent software developers creating world-class CRM Internet applications on the Microsoft platform,”
said Frederica Carpenter, industry manager for Customer Relationship Management, Microsoft.
“Onyx, Pivotal and UpShot have each developed a very impressive Internet solution for their specific category based on Microsoft’s technology, delivering outstanding, measurable results for their customers.”
Best Internet Solution – Customer Self-Service: Pivotal eRelationship
“Pivotal’s e-business relationship management strategy has been validated with this double-award recognition by Microsoft,”
said Norm Francis, president and CEO of Pivotal.
“By recognizing Pivotal’s excellence in e-business self-service as well as integrated customer relationship management, these awards underscore our leadership in this rapidly developing market that fuses capabilities from CRM and e-commerce into a revolutionary new platform for e-business relationship management.”
Pivotal is a global supplier of 360-degree CRM and eBusiness Relationship Management (eBRM) solutions that enable organizations to increase revenue by enhancing relationships with customers and business partners, and conducting personalized online commerce. Pivotal’s eBRM solutions fuse e-commerce, customer relationship management and business portals to manage sales, marketing and customer service relationships between employees, business partners and customers over the Internet and corporate networks. Pivotal solutions are licensed on either a perpetual basis or on a monthly subscription through Pivotal’s Internet application hosting services. Pivotal’s international distribution channel consists of direct salespeople, certified value-added resellers, systems integrators, technology partners and distributors. The company has more than 650 customers worldwide with more than 80,000 licensed users. Customers include Yahoo!, Excite@Home, Bottomline Technologies, Micrografx Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., UNOCAL Inc., Kimberly-Clark Corp., Intel Corp., Siemens Electric Ltd., USG Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc., Holophane Corp., The Principal Financial Group and Sun Healthcare Group. More information about Pivotal can be found at http://www.pivotal.com/ .
Best Internet Solution – Partner Relationship Management: UpShot Sales
“Winning the Microsoft Industry Solution Award for Best Mobile Solution and Best Internet Solution – Partner Relationship Management confirms our leadership in Web-powered solutions for marketing and sales teams,”
said Keith Raffel, president and CEO of UpShot.com.
“Our use of Microsoft tools and products enables us to give those teams what they want – ease of use, quick deployment and any-time, anywhere access.”
UpShot.com was launched in 1997 to increase business team productivity through the use of innovative Internet technology. UpShot offers Web-based sales management applications that combine high value with fast deployment and ease of use. Among the investors in the company are Advanced Technology Ventures, Alloy Ventures, Intel Corp., TTC Ventures and Worldview Technology Partners, as well as Informix Software Inc. Chairman Robert J. Finocchio, Echelon Corp. CEO Ken Oshman, Intuit Inc. Co-Founder and Netpulse Communications Inc. CEO Tom Proulx, and Compaq Computer Corp. Chairman Ben Rosen.
Best Internet Solution – Other Applications: Onyx Front Office
“This is a very exciting award for Onyx Software because it recognizes that we are offering the industry’s most integrated, scalable, effective and usable customer relationship management system on the market today,”
said Brent Frei, president and CEO of Onyx Software.
“More than 88 percent of our customers are using Onyx Front Office in three or more departments. Enterprisewide CRM is what we have been doing at customer sites since 1994. Regardless of the industry or size of company, Onyx Front Office can help companies automate their sales, marketing and service organizations and extend them to partners, customers and prospects via the Internet. Sierra Health Services, our showcase customer in this award entry, is a prime example of how companies have gained competitive edge and a better view into the health of their business by using Onyx as their CRM system.”
Onyx Software (Nasdaq
“ONXS”
) is a leading provider of Web-based CRM systems. The company’s innovative e-business software combines comprehensive CRM functionality, third-party applications and Internet content into personalized digital workplaces for marketing, sales and service employees, business partners and customers. The company’s systems are scalable, flexible, reliable and deploy quickly, resulting in a rapid return on investment and industry-leading customer satisfaction. Onyx Software operates worldwide, supporting large, medium-sized and small companies such as American Express Co., Cognos Corp., Credit Suisse, FirstWorld Communications, Giga Information Group, InfoSpace Inc., Interactive Intelligence, NTL Internet, Plumtree, Portland Trailblazers, Prudential, Sharp Electronics, Sierra Health Services, Singapore Press Holdings and US Bancorp Piper Jaffray. More information can be obtained by calling (888) 275-6699, visiting the Onyx Web site at http://www.onyx.com/ or sending e-mail to [email protected].
Finalist Selection Committee
The members of the finalist judging panel were Hugh Bishop, Christopher Fletcher, Donovan Gow and Chris Martins, Aberdeen Group Inc.; Peggy Menconi, AMR Research Inc.; Tim Bajarin, Creative Strategies Inc.; Rich Bohn, Denali Group Inc.; Jim Dickie, Insight Technology Inc.; Judy Hodges, International Data Corp.; Sam Clark, META Group Inc.; Larry Tuck, Sales & Marketing Automation; Jennifer DiMarzio, Summit Strategies; Barry Trailer, Trailer Vavricka Inc.; and Chris Selland, Yankee Group.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software – any time, any place and on any device.
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