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Vol 2, #50, Dec. 14, 2010 |
Canadians research gifts online before buying A new study by Staples Canada and Angus Reid discovered that 76 per cent of Canadians will conduct online research before heading out to shop for gifts in-store. This figure is up more than a quarter (26 per cent) from last year. "It shows that the average Canadian does some homework before they open their wallet. The internet is a great resource for learning about products; it's also the easiest way to save time and money. If you are typically a last-minute shopper, you can find some great savings by shopping or researching online, while saving some time," said Craig Taylor, vice-president of e-commerce, Staples Business Delivery, Staples Canada. While most Canadians will research gift ideas online this year, 91 per cent of people still plan to purchase gifts in-store, once they have completed their Internet research. Top of Page Cardlytics and ClairMail, Inc. have announced that the two companies have partnered to bring transaction marketing capabilities to the mobile banking market. Through this partnership, financial institutions will have the capability to present their customers with highly targeted offers from Cardlytics’ portfolio of merchants directly to their mobile phone via ClairMail’s industry-leading mobile banking platform. By utilizing ClairMail’s widely adopted mobile platform, Banks will be able to reach their customers with merchant sponsored offers at any time, anywhere, due to the always-on and transportable nature of the mobile channel. Whether delivered via SMS, mobile application or mobile web banners, the companies’ partnership will result in highly targeted, sophisticated contextual marketing campaigns for the top end of the US financial market, leveraging the full capability of ClairMail’s mobile solutions. Financial Institutions will have the unique opportunity to monetize their mobile banking offering as well as improve their ‘Top of Wallet’ status, influence incremental consumer spending and boost customer loyalty. “ClairMail’s mobile platform has proven itself as the most highly adopted mobile banking solution, working with eight of the top twelve banks in North America,” said Pete Daffern, CEO, ClairMail. “This partnership is incredibly complimentary as both ClairMail and Cardyltics provide world-class, innovative services which help empower Financial Institution customers to take control of their financial life. We look forward to enabling Cardlytics’ mobile initiatives and providing our joint customers with mobile contextual marketing abilities.” “Cardlytics brings valuable and relevant offers to customers through banks’ electronic touch points to increase customer engagement and to provide a compelling reward,” said Scott Grimes, CEO of Cardlytics. “As mobile banking usage continues to grow, it presents new opportunities for financial institutions to communicate and provide value to their customers. We are excited to partner with ClairMail, a pioneer in mobile banking.” theScore, FanXchange simplify ticket purchases Buying tickets to see the next big game just got a whole lot easier! FanXchange, Canada's online ticket marketplace, and theScore, home to hardcore sports fans, announced their newest offering to simplify the hunt for the best tickets. The new alliance enables users to quickly search for seats contextually via theScore.com to buy their sports tickets in real-time, safely and securely. "Our relationship with FanXchange fits well with our mandate of delivering interactive and authentic sports entertainment to our audience," said Benjie Levy, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Score Media Inc. "theScore.com has a strong and growing fan base and we're confident this is a feature they will find valuable." Brandon Koffler , President of FanXchange, adds, "There was great synergy from the moment we first approached theScore. It was always our intention to build the FanXchange brand by extending our offering, so partnering with an iconic sports lifestyle property like theScore was the perfect complement to our brand's evolution." FanXchange empowers fans to buy and sell tickets to sports, music and theatre events across North America and maintains the country's largest inventory, averaging 5.5 million tickets. The site guarantees fans a safe and legitimate transaction along with a money-back guarantee. This partnership allows FanXchange to further enhance their long-standing brand promise: Find the Best Seats, Shop Safely Online and Get Overnight Shipping. These intrinsic elements of the FanXchange service and the recent alliance strengthens the value to sports fans - by putting their needs first. The FanXchange Ticket Centre on theScore.com makes a real difference to fans facing the challenge of finding the tickets they want. The launch phase is supported with an integrated campaign for digital, TV and editorial advertising. Toronto's SPOKE Agency continues their three-year relationship with FanXchange to lead the strategy, creative and technology development for the ongoing partnership. "Our brand is built on the idea that a fan to fan exchange should be safe and easy," says Koffler. "theScore partnership gets hardcore sports fans closer to the action with some of the hottest tickets out there." Sports fans can find tickets faster on theScore.com starting Wednesday, December 8, 2010. Gorilla Nation Canada opens Montreal office Gorilla Nation has announced it is expanding its presence in the Canadian market by opening an office in Montreal and appointing Jean-Sebastien Tremblay as the Director of Sales for Eastern Canada. He will be responsible for spearheading growth in the French Canadian market and will be in charge of GN Canada’s new office in Montreal. Jean-Sebastien will report to Walder Amaya, Senior Vice President, Canadian Operations for GN Canada. Jean-Sebastien joins GN from Jobboom, where he played an instrumental role in developing new business opportunities, serving as the team leader of account managers. Prior to Jobboom, Jean-Sebastien was at Astral Media Inc., where he was the General Manager for internet sales and was in command of the creation of a completely new digital sales division, where he identified revenue opportunities, negotiated rates and closed sales transactions. With over 14 years of sales experience, Jean-Sebastien has worked with major brands including General Motors Company, Bell, Telus, Molson Coors Canada, and Labatt Brewing Company. “It’s fantastic to join the Gorilla Nation team and help expand the Canadian market,” said Tremblay. “Our entrance into Montreal not only further strengthens us as a global leader, but also increases our cache of sites and augments our reach when working with brands.” “Gorilla Nation Canada is developing at a rapid rate, so it became essential to establish a new office to cater to the demands of agencies and clients, especially on the Eastern Canada front,” explained Amaya. “Jean-Sebastien’s impressive track record and leadership skills will enable us to bolster our innovative ad campaigns and customer service.” Top of Page Atria Networks unveils ConceptWave Order Care ConceptWave Software Inc., a leading provider of Customer, Product and Order Lifecycle Management solutions for the global communications service provider (CSP) market, has successfully implemented its Order Care® software suite at Atria Networks LP. Atria Networks, a Canadian provider of fibre-based network services, was challenged to sell, order, and provision a common set of products and services to a customer base served by multiple technologies and disparate business and operational processes inherited from merger and acquisition activity. Atria decided to transform their business operations in parallel with a major BSS/OSS overhaul—all to be completed within 6 months. Their goal was to reduce service deployment costs by improving operational efficiency, while continuing to provide exceptional customer service. Atria used ConceptWave Order Care® which provided them with Catalog Management (product and service catalog), Order Negotiations (quote, order capture, and configuration), Order Management (order/exception handling, and escalations for all order types), Order Analytics (real-time operational performance reporting), and integration to existing systems. “ConceptWave’s Order Care solution has been essential to our transformation to a fully integrated and automated, corporate-wide platform for order and product lifecycle management,” said Ian Collins, President of Atria Networks. “Our quote to cash process has been fully optimized and we now have complete visibility into our business operations from end to end - great for operational agility and the delivery of superb customer service.” Operating one of Ontario’s largest fibre-optic networks, Atria Networks services include: Internet Access, Wide Area Network Solutions, Carrier Services, and Data Centre Services for Business Continuity Planning. On October 5, 2010, Rogers Communications Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Atria Networks LP to further enhance its business solutions offerings. “We were delighted to accept Atria’s challenge to support their business transformation goals and complete the project within 6 months,” said Zarar Rana, ConceptWave CEO. “Our experienced team, and our flexible software platform that leverages TM Forum’s Frameworx standards, enabled the solution and business results to be delivered in record time.” Telnic Limited, the Registry Operator for the award-winning communications-focused .tel top level domain (TLD), has announced that WebVisible, the leading provider of local online marketing software and services, will now provide .tel domains for all of its small business customers. WebVisible's small business customers will now also be provided with a .tel domain, providing a mobile-optimized presence for customers searching for local content on both basic mobile and smart phone devices, as well as additional search engine optimization support for the customer's online discoverability through the .tel domain's unique use as a single point of contact. "With increasing competition for eyeballs online and the need for small businesses to be in as many places as possible in order to be discovered, we believe that .tel will be a significant enhancement for our clients when it comes to the multiple ways in which consumers are accessing local information," said Doug LaBahn, executive vice president of product development at WebVisible. "The functionality and ease of use of .tel makes it an incredibly useful and low-cost central point of contact." Ian Bowen-Morris, chief marketing officer at Telnic Limited, said: "We're delighted that WebVisible has seen the benefits that .tel domains can bring to small businesses seeking to maximize their brand awareness and discoverability online. A .tel is extremely simple to set-up and provides instant accessibility across all types of browsers and internet-connected devices. Incorporating .tel into an online visibility and marketing offering such as WebVisible's award-winning solution provides its customers with the knowledge that every base has been covered when it comes to managing their online presence." Top of Page OpenText offers Extended ECM enhancements OpenText Corporation has announced a series of enhancements to Extended ECM for use with SAP ® solutions, also resold by SAP AG as the SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management (SAP Extended ECM) application by OpenText. The enhancements allow users to access shared workspaces from their preferred user interface and more easily and productively collaborate on content relating to SAP business transactions. Other enhancements include new social capabilities, including the ability to create user profiles and activity feeds, case management tools, increased security and tighter integration between ECM and SAP applications. Since it began reselling SAP Extended ECM in October 2009, SAP has had great success reselling this and a number of other OpenText solutions for archiving, invoice management, digital asset management and most recently employee file management, as announced earlier this year. "A year ago we called the Extended ECM solution a 'game changer,' and that has certainly proven to be the case as more and more organizations are using it to connect business processes with information assets," said Victor Szczerba, General Manager, Enterprise Information Management, SAP. "With the latest release, OpenText is adding a number of important advancements that will even further enhance the value this solution is bringing to SAP customers, specifically by helping to boost user collaboration and productivity." Collaboration Tools Boost Productivity The latest Extended ECM solution introduces Business Workspaces to relate content to SAP business processes. These workspaces are managed together with business objects in SAP solutions such as customers, vendors, products or materials. The advantage of workspaces is that they provide consistent access to business data and unstructured content for users working in different applications with different front-ends, such as SAP GUI, the Web-based Extended ECM UI, desktop applications (Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office) and the SAP NetWeaver ® Portal, among others. Workspaces also incorporate productivity-boosting collaboration tools such as workflows, follow-ups, discussions and activity feeds. Workspaces give users an accurate and holistic view of SAP business processes without having to leave their preferred user environment. Another new addition is OpenText Pulse, a component of OpenText ECM Suite 2010, that allows users to add photos and personas, engage in microblogging, share status updates and content updates, find subject matter experts, all in a dynamic interface that helps users collaborate and be productive. Activity feeds allow users to stay updated on projects, reducing dependence on email and improving relevance. By taking advantage of tight integration with SAP applications, Pulse gives customers a social networking solution that can be fully managed under compliance rules and business policies. OpenText Case Management, which complements the case management capabilities provided by SAP and is now an integral part of Extended ECM, adds a powerful set of case management tools, including case lifecycle management, case file and document templates, and business relationships between cases and business objects in SAP solutions. It supports a full range of case-processing scenarios across collaborative case processing and transactional case processing. It also gives case workers full access to all related SAP data inside a case. Additional enhancements include improved support for linking documents to business objects (so-called business references) and increased security through role and permission synchronization between SAP applications and the OpenText ECM Suite. "It's well proven that if you can remove obstacles that get in the way of people working together effectively, they actually do work better together," said Patrick Barnert, Vice President of SAP Solutions at OpenText. "With this latest release of Extended ECM, a big part of our effort was around making it incredibly easy for users to access information from a comfortable environment tied to the SAP business context. Developing collaboration and social tools that help customers increase user productivity is a key area of focus for us." Postmedia launches local newspaper iPad apps Postmedia Network today announced that nine Canadian cities now have a new way to experience their local newspapers with new apps available for iPad. The ten Canadian newspapers with apps for iPad are: The Vancouver Sun, Times Colonist (Victoria), The Province (Vancouver), the Calgary Herald, the Edmonton Journal, the Leader-Post (Regina), The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon), the Ottawa Citizen, The Windsor Star and The Gazette (Montreal). All ten apps are available now on the App Store. Each of the apps takes advantage of iPad’s large, high-resolution display and innovative Multi Touch interface, and feature customized newspaper content pulled from the best of the web and print editions as well as mobile specific content. Readers can download, save, comment, interact and customize the content, their way. “This is the latest step in our digital first strategy,” said Malcolm Kirk, Executive Vice President, Digital Media. “By combining innovative technology with our newspapers' compelling content, we are proud to invite our readers to experience the latest innovation in Canadian publishing, on iPad. The new apps also give our advertisers an opportunity to reach their target audiences in dynamic new ways.” The new newspaper apps give users a rich and personalized experience and include the following features:
The Vancouver Sun, Times Colonist (Victoria), The Province (Vancouver), the Calgary Herald, the Edmonton Journal, the Leader-Post (Regina), The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon), the Ottawa Citizen, The Windsor Star and The Gazette (Montreal) Apps are all available for free from the App Store on iPad or at www.itunes.ca/appstore. Top of Page iQmetrix partners with TIO Networks Two Vancouver-based startups have teamed up to serve a growing client base of wireless retailers across North America. iQmetrix is pleased to announce a new partnership with leading multi-channel expedited bill payment processor TIO Networks. Beginning in the first quarter of 2011, TIO Networks' new and existing wireless retailer customers will have the choice of processing real-time bill payments via TIO's web-enabled point-of-sale (POS) platform or iQmetrix's revolutionary RQ4 platform. The new integration will be deployed across TIO's entire network of wireless dealers. "We are excited to partner with TIO Networks and offer its real-time bill payment functionality via RQ4," said Christopher Krywulak, president and CEO of iQmetrix. "Our primary objective is to create great experiences in the retail space and by making it easier for customers and retailers to process payments, we know this is a step in the right direction." With this agreement, iQmetrix adds another company to its list of partners, who offer a variety of Value-Added Products for wireless retailers to further maximize information, grow revenues, increase efficiencies, enhance customer experiences and ensure security. "Retailers use POS systems to manage inventory, sales and commissions and are constantly looking for efficiencies to better manage their business," said Hamed Shahbazi, chairman and CEO of TIO Networks. "This integration gives retailers using iQmetrix's industry-leading platform the ability to consolidate all key dealer functions, such as bill pay processing, revenue share reports, inventory reports and ACH history, as well as all POS activity, via one POS system." Top of Page |
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