BizTalk gets surprise reprieve

Microsoft has reversed course on the fate of BizTalk Server, re-naming the next version and setting a roadmap that calls for a major releases of the middleware every two years.
The decision to continue developing the middleware came as a surprise to some, as BizTalk was to be a launching pad for Microsoft's forthcoming "Oslo" technologies that include messaging (Windows Communications Foundation), workflow (Windows Workflow Foundation) and modeling tools.

Rob Helm, an analyst with independent analyst firm Directions on Microsoft, says: "It is pretty surprising and I have not seen this big a reversal from Microsoft in a while.

"They might be reluctant to yank what is now a fairly successful product for an unproven technology platform."

Microsoft says what was supposed to be BizTalk Server 2006 R3 will now be called BizTalk Server 2009. The full release is slated to ship in the first half of next year. In addition, the company says it will provide details on another new version, code-named BizTalk 7, in the early part of next year.

"We will continue to enhance and extend enterprise activity scenarios" in BizTalk, says Burley Kawasaki, director of product management in the connected systems division at Microsoft. "We will make it simpler, add new capabilities around [business-to-business], build in our new RFID work and expand it to more general purpose asset-tracking, like tracking laptops or servers in your company, and provide a complete end-to-end asset management view. There will also be enhancements around [business intelligence] and business activity monitoring."

Company officials say Oslo will be discussed further during Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in October. "We will talk about linking composite applications you build with Oslo to the existing services you may have already built using BizTalk," Kawasaki says.

In essence, Microsoft plans for now not to isolate current BizTalk users, which would have been the case with a wholesale move to Oslo.

"Our commitment is you can use BizTalk today with R2 and 2009 with our Oslo modeling technology without needs to upgrade," Kawasaki says.

BizTalk 2009 will deliver support for platform technologies including Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, Visual Studio 2008 SP1, SQL Server 2008 and the .Net Framework 3.5 SP1. Microsoft also has improved failover clustering so BizTalk can be deployed in multi-site clusters that eliminate the need for virtual LANs.

Source:- computerworld.co.nz/

Taking Open Source to the Limit: Geeks On The Way Case Study

The Company:
Geeks On The Way provides computer services and technical support to customers across western Canada, and it was named as one of the fastest growing companies in Canada by Profit magazine.

The Challenge:
Geeks On The Way handles hundreds of client calls per day. So, when the company looked to meet its growing demand for its services with a CRM system, not just any system would do. With such strong technology expertise, the company knew it wanted a system that it could customize to fit its unique business process as well as grow with the system.

Additionally, the CRM system would need to fully automate its existing business process from end-to-end.
"We had already outgrown two previous customer management systems," says Geeks On The Way CEO John Leishman. "So, we needed a flexible system that could grow with our business and really scale."

The Solution:
Geeks On The Way was attracted to SugarCRM for various reasons. Since the company had already built out a telephony system on top of an open source phone system, called Asterisk, Geeks On The Way figured that it should look toward open source CRM for its client management needs. "SugarCRM simply had the largest following, the most downloads and provided the most security from a longevity of product development standpoint," Leishman notes, adding that his company felt that the standards-based design and open architecture of SugarCRM would complement the Asterisk implementation well.

The first task for Geeks On The Way after deploying SugarCRM was to integrate it with its Asterisk system, the popular open source telephony package.

Geeks On The Way also integrated Sugar with some back end databases to create efficiencies inside its service delivery model and customized the Meetings module to integrate a system that analyzes the service calls slated for the day.

The Results:
SugarCRM allowed Geeks On The Way to perform deep integrations at the data and application level, according to Leishman. With the integrated system, callers are recognized by their phone number or other identifiers. If a new client is calling, a "new contact screen" pops up to the agent and a tight integration with an external database of address and postal information populates most of the new contact record. This allows agents to process existing customers quickly, and also spend less time adding new customers in to the system. And since customers are well tracked using unique identification numbers, there is less duplication of customer records.

A deep integration to the accounting system also provided strong returns for Geeks On The Way. Since so much activity and data is tracked and captured in Sugar, Geeks On The Way can simply run that data into its accounting system and more efficiently compensate its employees, which range from phone agents to contractors to field technicians. "Accounting used to take us a full 24 hours every pay period," Leishman notes, "But now it takes five minutes with our Sugar integration to our accounting system."

Since it deployed Sugar, the company says it has seen lower marketing costs and improved customer support times. "With SugarCRM, we have reduced call handling times from two to three minutes down to as little as 20 seconds," says Leishman. And the company says simply knowing who an agent is talking to through its integrated system fosters closer relationships with customers and increases satisfaction levels.

Source:- salesandmarketing.com/

SEO long term strategy and lead generation mix

Is search engine optimization in your long term strategy and lead generation mix?

Any business has two important channels: Production and Marketing, where marketing plays an important role; since many businesses have been cutting off on Production in-house. The business centers all on Marketing.

I know of a boy who used to write on communities and photocopy his articles and distribute them to the people residing near by. Then he wrote more and his write-ups took a form of monthly magazine which people started subscribing. And today it is a well-known magazine in different sectors with millions of readers online. When asked for the success, that boy (and the editor today) said: “Strategic Marketing”.

Today Businesses have Marketing Executives, Marketing Consultants and even big Marketing Departments with 100s of employees working specifically for building up the Company Brand. And today, as we know the Digital is transforming all Media! Websites have become an important tool for Marketing one’s Products and Services. Businesses today – small or big are sure to have a website (or a small online-presence –at least). These websites may vary from 3 to 1000s of pages.

But does your Online Business (or your website) really help you marketing your Company? Does your online presence get you leads enough to survive your business? These are some very important questions and your marketing strategies revolve around answering such questions.

Search engines play a dominant role in getting you more business. Search engine research takes place at least one to two months before the buying/final decision made by your customer and a research says “Organic SEO gets over 70 percent of the clicks”. In Search Engines, position is a factor: with over 60 percent clicking on the top 3 listings and moreover, most users decide which listing to click on in just seconds upon scanning the page.

Hence, it is very important to get your website a prime visibility in the Top SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). The most economic and best tool to help your website rise in the organic searches is Search Engine Optimization. Many Businesses go with many strategies and plans like On-Page Optimization of website, Off-page Optimization of website, Link Building, Search Engine Marketing Services, using Social Media to Market Services, etc.

The most important point that lies at the base is Strategy- Strategy of Keywords/phrases, Strategy of the campaigns to be executed - in what substance at what time, Strategy on how to market the services in Social Media, etc.

I have seen Search Engine Optimization working so well with the businesses getting over 1000% increase in their website traffic. I have noted our clients getting rise of over 50% in leads and revenue generation through Search Engine Marketing Services. But this has to be in a very very strategic way as we at Semaphore-software do.

We at Semaphore offer Strategic SEO (Website Optimization) accompanied with Strategic Link-building because where Optimized Content is the King in the SEO Market, Link Building is the queen. A Strategic SEO plan definitely helps a business to rise up in the Search Engines; hence getting more traction, more leads and more business.

Now-days businesses have started understanding the importance of Search Engine Optimization and have SEO as one of the important strategies in their Long Term Marketing Plan. But now arises a million dollar question for you: “Is search engine optimization in your long term strategy and lead generation mix?”

Source:- semaphore-software.com/