GREAT PLAINS SOFTWARE (www.greatplains.com).(Company Business and
Marketing)
As a developer of mid-market accounting products, Great Plains has
always relied on value-added resellers for local product support. These
same resellers are now well positioned to become ASP-style . . .
COREL CORP. (www.corel.com).(Product Information)
In November, Corel announced a pilot project to offer subscription-
based remote hosting of its WordPerfect Office applications. Corel
business development manager Sheldon Speers says the new . . .
ATLANTIC MEDIA (www.aboutface.com).(Company Business and
Marketing)
Atlantic Media produces Web-based "facebooks"-graphical
employee directories that the company builds and hosts for large law
firms and other clients. Launched in November 1998, the . . .
SOFTWARE BY SUBSCRIPTION: TEN ASP PIONEERS.(Industry Trend or
Event)
Once again, the software world seems to be on the verge of
reinventing itself. After two decades of selling software as a packaged
product, hundreds of developers and publishers--including most of . . .
DATA POINTS: PUBLISHER COUNTS BY CHANNEL.
Are publishers abandoning the retail channel? That's still a
controversial question, but the latest numbers from PC Data point to an
exodus in most retail categories. During the first eight months . . .
WHY WEB STORES LOSE MONEY.(Column)
It's Christmas, and Web merchants are having a merry old time,
packing toys and books into gift-wrapped boxes faster than Santa's
elves. Down on Wall Street, Christmas stockings are extra-full . . .
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES: HOW TO SELL TRUST.(Company Business and
Marketing)
Faced with sluggish product sales, a good many developers are
beginning to take a fresh look at consulting, custom development,
implementation, and other professional services. And they often make . . .
WHAT'S A GOOD NAME WORTH?(Internet/Web/Online Service
Information)
Much to the delight of high-priced naming consultants, software
companies always seem to be in desperate need of new product and service
names. And with the growing importance of Web URLs, which . . .
WHY WEB STORES LOSE MONEY.
It's Christmas, and Web merchants are having a merry old time,
packing toys and books into gift-wrapped boxes faster than Santa's
elves. Down on Wall Street, Christmas stockings are extra-full . . .
CHECKLIST: WEB STORE DESIGN.(Internet/Web/Online Service
Information)
For the great majority of software companies, electronic commerce
has gotten off to a sputtering, gasping, wheezing start. Books, flowers,
and wine have turned into hot commodities elsewhere on the . . .
KNOWLEDGEPOINT TESTS USAGE-BASED PRICING.(Interview)
Five months ago, KnowledgePoint began testing a relatively new
business model for PC software: usage-based pricing. KnowledgePoint took
Descriptions Now, a $119 product that creates customized . . .
THE BROWSER WARS: WHAT'S AT STAKE.(Company Business and
Marketing)
In a sense, the restraining order that Judge Thomas Penfield issued
last week against Microsoft was little more than a procedural skirmish
in what promises to be a much longer and complex legal . . .
DATA POINTS: DEVELOPER COMPENSATION.(News Briefs)(Industry Trend
or Event)
With U.S. employment rates at near-record levels, R&D managers
understandably feel a trifle nervous about negotiating developer
salaries. But are paychecks really going through the roof? Not . . .
TRIALWARE TIPS.(from ReleaseNow.com)(Industry Trend or
Event)
"Try-before-you-buy" marketing has its roots in
traditional shareware distribution, but lately a good many mainstream
publishers have found that trial downloads can produce sales conversion
rates . . .
HOW TO SHORTEN THE SALES CYCLE.(Industry Trend or Event)
"Too many software developers assume that long, painful sales
cycles are inevitable," says Jim Geisman, a veteran software
pricing and negotiation expert. "In fact, most buyers make a basic
buying . . .
THE MICROSOFT TRIAL: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?(Company Business and
Marketing)(Column)
So here we are, after a year of courtroom theater and millions of
words of commentary, waiting for an out-of-court settlement to what is
grandly titled "United States of America v. . . .
SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS.(Industry Trend or Event)
Data for this survey was collected during September and October
1999 through e-mail and postal survey questionnaires sent to members of
the Association of Support Professionals, Softletter . . .
KNOWLEDGEBASE METRICS.(Industry Trend or Event)
The one feature common to most Web support sites is some form of
searchable knowledgebase, which usually contains hundreds or even
thousands of tech notes, FAQs, application tips, documentation, . . .
E-MAIL METRICS.(Industry Trend or Event)
Increasingly, end users have come to accept e-mail as an
alternative to live phone support. With e-mail, customers generally
don't expect instant answers to their questions, so support reps
can . . .
TRANSACTION COSTS.(online customer service)(Industry Trend or
Event)
No matter how efficiently a call center is managed, live phone
support is always a one-to-one transaction--which means that the cost of
support usually increases in direct proportion to transaction . . .
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