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ImageX Announces Automated
Channel Marketing System
KIRKLAND, Wash. –
April 30, 2002 – ImageX ® , Inc. the leading provider of online
solutions for managing, producing and distributing sales and marketing
materials, today announced the release of its Channel Marketing System, a
Web-based solution targeted at companies with large sales distribution channels.
"For every dollar a company spends on producing sales and marketing
information, $8- 14 are spent on the process of managing and distributing that
information. What if that could be reduced by $3-5?" said Tim Dowling,
chief operating officer, ImageX. "With the release of the Channel Marketing
System, we are delivering a way for corporations to save up to 30% of their
total cost of print by cutting out waste, obsolescence and administrative
support related to distributing channel information. In addition, this service
ensures timely delivery of accurate, customizable and current sales materials
directly to their channel partners, enabling them to spend more time selling."
A
comprehensive Internet-enabled service, the Channel Marketing System helps
companies increase their value to channel partners by ensuring partners always
have the right sales and marketing information when they need it. According to
industry analyst firm Cap Ventures, more than 25% of a company's customers and
prospects receive out-of-date or incorrect product information – reducing
their competitive edge and sending a significant number of potential buyers to
the competition. In addition, the average sales representative spends
1-2 hours per day answering requests for information from the channel –
time that can be used to call prospects and increase sales. The ImageX Channel
Marketing System addresses these common sales hurdles by automating the
management, production and distribution process. ...ImageX |
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Judge Rules in Favor of
HP-Compaq Merger
April 30, 2002 - in late breaking news today, the
judge ruling on the Hewlett family dispute with the HP-Compaq merger, ruled in
favor of the company. ...HP
profile
Editor's note:- see my article (lower right) "Remember
Compaq?" |
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Technology Demand Rises
Despite Profit Warnings
Emeryville, Calif., -
April 30, 2002 - Amid earnings warnings from technology giants such as Microsoft
and Oracle, technology demand actually rose in the first quarter of 2002 with
additional evidence of future strength. This is according to the latest
study by Techtel Corporation, a leading market research firm that tracks
demand for information technology solutions.
The Techtel Tech Demand Index™ rose due to strength in purchase
and consideration within the General Business Hardware components, which
includes PCs, notebooks, copiers and printers. While demand in the Enterprise
Hardware component (Computer Servers and Storage) softened slightly after a gain
in Q4 2001, a strong surge in enterprise software consideration indicates likely
future sales growth for large enterprise hardware systems.
"While technology companies are softening expectations because of
their own 'limited forward visibility,' real demand for technology solutions is
really on the rise," said Michael Kelly, Chairman and Chief Architect of
Techtel Corporation. "The reality is that the technology sector is poised
for a healthy recovery from a recession as customers fill the demand pipeline."
...Techtel |
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AMD and Microsoft
Collaborate to further 64-Bit Computing
Sunnyvale,
CA - April 24, 2002 - AMD today announced it is collaborating with Microsoft
to incorporate 64-bit support for the future 8th-generation AMD Athlon™ and
AMD Opteron™ processors into the Windows® operating system.
"Since the inception of the PC, hardware and software have been
inextricably linked. The best advances in technology happen when the hardware
and software are in sync. The union of AMD's 8th-generation processor technology
and a Microsoft Windows operating system built to support that technology lays
the groundwork for broader industry adoption of 64-bit computing platforms,
especially in the enterprise, and helps drive performance to stunning new
levels," said Dirk Meyer, group vice president of AMD's Computation
Products Group.
Server applications such as databases, business intelligence, data
warehousing and ERP programs as well as client applications for image
manipulation, technical and scientific computing, and entertainment can all
benefit from 64-bit computing power. Microsoft Corp. is currently developing
support within its Microsoft Windows operating system family to take advantage
of the advanced features in the 8th-generation AMD Athlon™ and AMD Opteron
processors.
AMD also plans to demonstrate its AMD Opteron dual processor-based
server running a developmental 64-bit version of Windows at its annual
shareholders' meeting in New York City on Thursday, April 25. The
demonstration features a server running a 64-bit Windows operating system,
64-bit applications, and other standard 32-bit office software, all on the same
system. AMD plans to begin shipping its 8th-generation AMD Athlon processors in
the fourth quarter. Shipments of the AMD Opteron processor are slated to
commence in the first half of 2003.
Editor's comment:- it's hard
to believe that Microsoft could get even more market share in the OS market, but
when you look at Sun's Solaris, and the wider Linux server market, there's an
attractive market out there which has not felt the need to wait for 5 or 6 years
for Microsoft to grow out of its desktop roots. |
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FineGround Networks Speeds
Sun Microsystems' Global Employee Sales Portal
CAMPBELL,
Calif. - April 22, 2002 - FineGround Networks, Inc. today announced Sun
Microsystems, Inc. has chosen its patent-pending Condenser software to speed
the performance of Sun's global employee sales portal called MySales. The
MySales Portal gives the sales organization centralized access to critical sales
information, such as customer reports, presentations, and market information at
a single access point. By accelerating the performance of the web application,
the Condenser enables sales employees to access product and customer information
faster at anytime, from any location.
"Using the FineGround Condenser as a part of Sun's MySales portal
infrastructure will aid in the rapid delivery of critical customer information
to our employees," said Shanker Trivedi, vice president of marketing for
Sun Microsystems' Global Sales Operations. "We can better serve our
customers' needs and gain a competitive edge by getting the right information
rapidly to our people worldwide."
More companies today are rolling out web-based portal applications in
order to streamline business processes and allow employees to instantly enter,
change and share data quickly and efficiently. Instead of using traditional mail
channels to deliver new sales presentations or product data, employees can
access the information directly from the Web. In addition, employees can create
custom sales presentations that incorporate product data and competitive
information that is always up to date. Portals provide companies a means of
integrating business processes into a single website resulting in better
communication and collaboration.
...FineGround Networks |
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New Simba Information
Report Analyzes Advertising and Media Buying Trends in Technology Industry
STAMFORD, CT -
April 22, 2002 - Simba Information reports that while technology
advertisers drastically reduced spending in 2001 and early 2002, most media
segments should expect a recovery by 2003. Simba investigates which print,
broadcast, online and emerging media segments will see the best advertising
revenue growth through 2003 in an essential 232-page market research report,
Future of Technology Advertising & Marketing Report 2002-2003. The study,
formerly titled Computer Publishing Market Forecast, delivers new data on
emerging media and Internet advertising spending, outdoor advertising,
technology event marketing and new sponsorship opportunities.
It also provides new insights on the spending habits of the top
technology advertisers and details on which computer hardware and software
companies spent the most on Internet advertising in 2001. As it has
historically, the report also presents exclusive statistics and analysis on
technology magazine ad revenues and up-to-the-minute company profiles, but the
research has been enhanced to help publishers and technology advertisers plan
for the future.
...Simba Information |
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Why Being #1 on
Search-Engines is the Start of Your Web Promotion, Not the End
April 16,
2002 - a new article MarketingViews discusses the segments in your
market you can reach with search-engines in the high-tech B2B market. The
article explains the disappointing results which can result if your promotion
efforts are primarily search-engine focused. That's not where the biggest
buyers are looking. |
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Forrester's TechRankings™
Evaluates New Marketing Automation Applications
Cambridge,
Mass. - April 15, 2002 - Direct channels like the Web, email, and interactive
television are changing the discipline of marketing and according toForrester
Research, use of direct channels will shift the industry from the
traditional mass-marketing approach to more sophisticated direct techniques.
To adapt, marketers must reduce their reliance on third-party services and
increase internal investments in enterprise marketing automation software.
Marketing automation applications help companies deliver the right message to
the right prospect or customer at the right time. First embraced by financial
services firms, telecom companies, retailers, and catalogers roughly a decade
ago, this software lost some momentum in 2001 due to the bad economy, decreased
marketing budgets, and marketers' continued reliance on outsourced services that
delivered economies of scale.
"Given this bleak environment, it is reasonable to question
whether the demand for marketing software has peaked -- but it hasn't,"
said Eric Schmitt, senior analyst at Forrester. "Marketers are undergoing a
cultural shift and demanding more control over their customer interactions. To
do this successfully, firms are turning to marketing apps that allow them to
tailor communications to individuals and track their efforts and resources more
accurately and cost-effectively."
To reach wider audiences,
Forrester recommends that marketing automation software vendors move beyond
campaign management and analytics to address the breadth of marketers' needs in
planning, process, lead, and asset management. Additionally, to make the
technology more palatable, software vendors need to price more creatively with
pay-as-you-go packages that look like services, with pricing terms tied to
campaign or contract volume, or with hard fiscal goals like revenue uplift. To
help companies choose the best product and vendor to optimize customer
interactions, Forrester Research has updated its Marketing Automation
Application TechRankings with new lab-tested products and enhanced vendor
criteria. |
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MarketingViews | |
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high-tech internet marketing to news@MarketingViews.com |
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Other news on this page
ImageX
Announces Automated Channel Marketing System
Judge Rules in Favor of
HP-Compaq Merger
Technology Demand Rises Despite Profit Warnings
AMD
and Microsoft Collaborate to further 64-Bit Computing
FineGround Networks Speeds Sun Microsystems' Global Employee Sales
Portal
New Simba Information Report Analyzes Advertising and Media Buying
Trends in Technology Industry
Why Being #1 on Search-Engines is the
Start of Your Web Promotion, Not the End
Forrester's TechRankings™
Evaluates New Marketing Automation Applications
earlier news (archive) |
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Nibble: Remember Compaq?
The
April 30 legal ruling in the Hewlett family versus HP-Compaq merger case,
removed the last formal barrier to the new enlarged company. In fact merger
teams have been working on this, the largest ever integration of two computer
companies, non stop anyway. And Carly Fiorina has been reported by CNBC as
saying that she would like to see the new company ready to roll by May 7th. So "Compaq"
is another word you'll be using a bit less often in the future, and can soon
safely forget.
Try... It's actually quite hard to
deliberately forget something. Compaq... Compaq... Compaq...
Does it
keep coming back? Well whatever, Compaq may have meant to you in the past, your
memory will eventually make space for some new ideas to fit into that old Compaq
space.
Compaq... Compaq... Compaq... It keeps coming back, but it
won't last all day. Trust me.
I'm not going to dwell in this article on
what Compaq achieved, or what the merger will do for the storage market. That's
all been analysed before, and much of the speculation is going to be wrong
anyway. Instead I'm going to reflect on just how easy it is for the name of a
significant computer company to disappear without trace. That'll help you get "Compaq"
out of your system, and if you're an older reader (like me) you may actually
have come across some of these names below in real life, and not just in a text
book or marketing case study. This is meant to be fun and not really serious.
But do these names mean anything to you?
Burroughs? Osborne? Data
General? Imprimis? Apollo? Digital Equipment?
Well let me remind you,
from my own memory, which may be faulty, just who they were.
Burroughs
used to be the world's #2 maker of mainframes back in the 1970's. There used to
be an acronym to help you remember IBM's mainframe rivals. It was the "BUNCH"
for Burroughs, Univac, NCR, CDC and Honeywell. Burroughs and Univac merged into
Unisys, and then kept very quiet, hoping that no one would cause them any
trouble. (That's a different idea of stealth marketing to that which we see
nowadays in many new VC funded startups. It's kind of a post marketing peak
stealth mode. Find a few vertical markets where you are well known, then dig in
and hope no one else comes round to take them away.)
Osborne
was a publishing company in the mid to late 1970's which did reference books on
newly emerging microprocessors. The same Osborne then launched the world's first
Intel based portable PC. That was before Compaq, and before Microsoft became an
operating systems company. The Osborne PC used the #1 Intel operating system of
its day:- called CP/M. I don't think Osborne survived much longer than CP/M.
Data
General was a minicomputer manufacturer in the 1970's which was #2 to
Digital Equipment. Their design of the Eclipse range using AMD's bit-slice (4
bit) microprocessor technology was immortalised in the book "Soul of a New
Machine." In those days, bit-slice gave you a slight performance edge over
ready made chips from Intel, Motorola etc, but the lego like building blocks hit
a technical and architectural dead-end when companies like LSI Logic made it
easy and cheap for anyone (like Sun) to design their own completely customised
single chip RISC processor in low to medium volumes. One of Data General's
brands still lives on in the Clariion, which was acquired by EMC.
Imprimis.
I put Imprimis in this list, because I thought we should actually have a storage
company. Imprimis ws the short lived name given to the disk drive operation at
CDC. It was spun off as a separate company sometime in the late 1980's and made
the fastest 8" and 5.25" drives. It was then acquired by Seagate, who
carried on the tradition of making the fastest drives in popular form factors.
Apollo
was the #1 workstation company in the mid 1980's. But it used its own
proprietary operating system instead of Unix. The company was acquired by HP,
which also had a sizable workstation business. In the busy period which followed
the Apollo acquisition by HP, and while people were still doing the new
organisation charts and rearranging the deck chairs, little old Sun
Microsustems came along and blew them all away. By the time HP recovered in the
workstation market, a decade later, there wasn't really a workstation business
any more, and Sun had transformed into something more difficult to ignore.
Digital
Equipment (which everyone called "DEC", but which liked to call
itself "Digital") was the #1 minicomputer maker in the 1980's. In
fact the first edition of Unix and the C programming language were developed on
DEC hardware. DEC had an idea that it could ignore the IBM PC when that came
along, and that it could ignore Unix too. Unfortunately, for DEC, both were
cheaper than its own offerings, and both were eventually faster too. DEC
confused and alienated its server customers by lots of bad decisions, false
starts and dead ends. But meanwhile another part of the company had developed a
well respected and fast multi-platform storage family called StorageWorks. DEC
was acquired by Compaq in the mid 1990's, and gave the company a very bad case
of indigestion. The StorageWorks brand is still, at the time of writing,
probably the best legacy still surviving from the older company.
And
now after our trip down memory lane, we return to the subject of Compaq itself,
which if you remember, we are trying hard to forget...
How will we
remember Compaq in 10 years or so, using the brutally short style I've used for
these other companies?
Well, here's a possible summary, circa 2010.
Compaq
designed the first IBM compatible portable in the early 1980's and showed that
Wintel compatibility was the important factor for success on the desktop. You
didn't have to buy an overpriced PC from IBM after all. But then Dell came along
and showed that you didn't have to buy an overpriced Wintel PC or server from
Compaq either. Then Compaq was acquired by another company which made storage
and printers. I think that company was called HP. HP later split into two parts
which are now known as...
You see. It's easier than you thought. | |
