Oracle CRM OnDemand offers a very robust CRM program that allows you to organize many types of business contacts, like sales prospects, accounts, and even your vendors, so that you are sure to be in contact with all of these very important people when needed. Oracle also allows you to schedule upcoming events, and log calls and events that happen to any lead or account. You can also add customized fields to Lead and Account pages, which helps when the appropriate field just doesn’t exist. The problem I find with Oracle is that as it is so robust that I don’t need the vast majority of the program, plus its expensive and requires at least a year contract. I am indeed wasting much of this Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) that is being paid for, much like man only using a small portion of the relatively large brain that God (or maybe Darwin) gave me.

Sometimes, simplicity is the key to success. 37 Signals offers me just what I need in a CRM tool called Highrise, in that it is smaller, with a more ‘fluid’ feel. Highrise offers easy to use tools and features that help all of its users, like the ability to upload all of your contacts. It doesn’t look to have any functionality that I don’t need or that I won’t use. It allows me to list several contacts for one business entity, and organizes conversations for each of those contacts… This is something that Oracle lacked. Another neat tool that I enjoy is the integration of outbound emails. Highrise allows me to log all of the emails I send very easily, which makes it easy to find ALL of my conversations with any one of my contacts. That leads to my favorite factor of Highrise; the ease of navigation. Highrise allows me to seamlessly flow from Person A at ABC Co. to Person B at ABC Co., and so on. Highrise is far less expensive than Oracle or Salesforce.com and in my opinion the perfect fit for many small to mid-sized businesses. Check it out, the folks at 37 Signals even offer a risk-free 30 day trial.

If you’re looking into a CRM program for your business, list the types of data that you want to save and log, and make sure you don’t pick a CRM tool that will be cumbersome. Your CRM tool should help you get information about any one of your contacts, deals, or vendors ASAP, keeping your business in motion!

Good luck in your search!
~Dan Shekleton

This in it’s simplest form puts organizations like the RIAA and the MPAA in a position of more authority than our legislative body and law enforcement agencies combined!  The need for a warrant and probable cause to search personal property would no longer apply.  In my opinion this is just a mastermind plan for corporate entities with an outdated business model to take a more powerful position over our government and our rights.

Agree with me or not, but powers of such, should remain with the people or at least those we elect to our government. So take a moment and read about what rights we are about to loose. I encourage you to write President Obama, your representatives in congress and your friends to discuss just how insane this is. So much of this authority supersedes our constitutional protected rights and federal regulations.

You can read more about ACTA on wikipedia.

Here are some April Fools Day ideas (though we do not take responsibility for retaliation or disciplinary actions at work):

• Swap the signs for the men’s and women’s toilets at work – then stand back and admire your excellent toilet humour.
• Unplug a co-workers mouse and then watch them struggle to figure out what happened for several minutes.
• Mix Tang in the office coffee pot once brewed.
• Poke some small holes in the paper water cups, so that next person that gets a drink of water will have some bonus sprinkles.
• Make cat food sandwiches and put them in the fridge. See what happens.
• Tell everyone but your target to bring a couple of changes of clothes to work. Then walk by your target with a different set of clothes on every time.

Thanks to Discoverfun.com and Metro.co.uk for some great ideas.

Just remember April Fools Day was intended to be fun, not harmful so be a good sport.

Other services such as Last.fm, Yahoo Music and Groove Shark still offer unlimited listening services to their members for free.  Of course ads are played and displayed, but heck I don’t think anyone really minds.

I feel the music folks are strapping down the hatches for something that already is very successful in the UK and from what I’ve seen is going to be the killer music app once brought to North America.  Spotify is an application that reminds me of Apple iTunes.  The only difference is you don’t pay for the music you want to hear.  Of course you can purchase your own licensed copy of the music for burning, but Spotify offers a free service that has all the expected features and a low-cost option that allows you to sync your computer and mobile devices for playback even when there is no internet connection.

All I can personally say about Pandora is thank you for the great service over the years, but it may be time to give something else a shot.  So before you whip out that credit card, why not take a few moments to look at what other wonders the internet has to offer.

We’re really excited to be able to help you further. So what are you waiting for? Call us with your next tough question and we’ll give you a helping hand, right over the internet, directly on your desktop. Just another way Openfax is leading the way.

Public relations is one of the largest users of broadcast fax. Public relation agencies use broadcast fax to send press releases to hundreds of journalists at once. Public relations firms are not the only industry that can benefit from broadcast fax. Real estate, as an example, is still a fax-heavy industry. Agents fax listings to multiple clients or other agents. Regional managers for large real-estate firms can fax reports to multiple property managers.

Broadcast fax has always been popular for targeted advertising and promotions:

• The travel industry sends special offers, last-minute promotions and travel alerts to thousands of travel agents.
• Restaurant can send lunch menus and weekly specials to local offices that have signed up to receive faxes.
• Businesses of all sizes can offer special deals or promotions to existing clients.

Fax advertising, however, has come under legal scrutiny leading to strict Federal and State anti-spam laws. According to Title 47 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, “It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States to use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile machine”.

[Source: http://uscode.house.gov/download/title_47.shtml]

The law was amended with the passing of the Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005. Under the new legislations, unsolicited faxes can be sent to businesses with which the client has an “established business relationship” or EBR.

An EBR is defined by the Federal Communications Commission as “a prior or existing relationship formed by a voluntary two-way communication between a person or entity and a business or residential subscriber with or without an exchange of consideration [payment], on the basis of an inquiry, application, purchase or transaction by the business or residential subscriber regarding products or services offered by such person or entity, which relationship has not been previously terminated by either party”.

The FCC also establishes several ground rules for obtaining fax numbers from companies and individuals with whom you have an EBR.

You should always make sure the method is in compliance with State and Federal regulations before sending faxes. If you are unsure you should ask your trusted legal professional.

The Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005 also states that all unsolicited fax advertisements must include clear instructions for opting out of all future broadcast faxes from the sender. The opt-out process must be free of charge and must be listed on the first page of the fax. To request to be opted out, all a consumer has to do is provide his fax number to the company directly. Openfax offers a toll-free fax removal service to help with this requirement as an additional service.

[Source: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/unwantedfaxes.html]

By being a responsible marketer and following State and Federal laws and regulations you will not only keep your broadcast fax campaign legal, but earn more business from your established business relationships.

Follow us for Network Alerts

For important network and service related information, customers can follow OpenfaxNetwork for real-time updates should issues arise. The twitter feed is also posted on the side bar or the My Account page at openfax.com.

We hope that these new service will bring you information about Openfax in the quickest and most convenient way possible.

Fax itself has begun to change shape.  People are sending and receiving faxes by email in addition to their normal fax machines.  Fax has become another attachment in an email message to open, which was sent by a trusted source, their electronic fax service provider.  Unlike an email message a fax has to be opened either as a file attachment when received by email or it still has to be picked up off of the fax machine to be read.  There’s still some connection people have to paper that won’t go away for a while.

Email vs. Fax

You may have already tried an email campaign with Openfax Airmail or Openfax EBS.  Though the Openfax Airmail and Openfax EBS services do an excellent job of helping you design, deliver and track email campaigns; we’re still a little partial to fax.  Unlike email, fax is more difficult to automatically sort, block and filter.  For those recipients in your database that have given you permission to fax them; it’s a great way to get through every time.  Email is a complicated beast in nature.  To be frank, peoples’ inboxes are littered with less scrupulous emails, and there are more than just delivery concerns.  Trying to get email campaigns to look great on the many email clients that are available also proves to be challenging for some and unless you have a tight relationship with the recipient, your email may quickly be discarded as SPAM.  There is a right way to communicate with customers by email and it is a journey to become very successful in your email messaging.

Fax is just as quick as email

One of the benefits of email marketing is that it’s instant, on-demand and can quickly promote your message.  With Openfax, fax delivery is just as quick.  With Openfax even your largest fax campaign can be delivered in relatively no time at all; and from what our repeat customers tell us with better results and ROI.  Why not give it a try?

Isn’t Fax more expensive?

What is more expensive; spending money and getting a return or spending money with no return?  Fax delivers your message in a method that in some way or fashion is guaranteed to be seen, as it is tangible.  Unlike email when SPAM filters, inbox rules, and simple disregard for messages plagues your ROI, fax becomes the clear alternative until you have an established email relationship with customers.  Most Email Service Provider (ESPs) charge for email services with a monthly recurring service fee based on the number of emails you attempt to send.  With Openfax Fax Broadcast there is no monthly fee and you only pay for successfully delivered pages.

Give it a try

Sign-up online or contact an Openfax Expert today at 1-866-OPENFAX (673.6329) and see what Openfax Fax Broadcast can do for your business or organization.