DirectPointe To Offer Managed Services to Consumers
Michael Proper is the CEO and entrepreneurial vision for the fast-growing DirectPointe, a provider of managed computing services that make technology simple, manageable and affordable for small and midsize businesses. DirectPointe has established itself by offering great support to organizations who are looking for a partner to manage the technology they need to grow their business. DirectPointe manages the entire computing lifecycle, including procurement, deployment, management, protection and support, so customers have one company to handle all their computing needs–at a set monthly fee.
With a enterprise platform of services defined and running for small and medium businesses, Proper sees the opportunity to take these same computing services to the consumer market. By tapping into Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who have an existing relationship with customers, DirectPointe can offer their services as an add-on revenue product or through a private-label service.
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Demo: AtTask Project and Portfolio Management
AtTask’s VP of Sales, Abraham Knell, shows off the @task Project and Portfolio Management solution. The application has a simple UI that is easy to learn and use. Tabs and drop-down menus in headers give the web-based offering a rich, desktop client-like experience without the hassle of software installs or updates. AtTask offers APIs to integrate into other Enterprise and workflow systems. And with Apple as a client, it should come as no surprise that there is an iPhone application.
Employees can collaborate and update projects through Microsoft Outlook. Dashboards with traditional Gantt charts and graphical cost, risk, and benefit views make it easy for management to determine status.
VideoAtTask is Used by Apple, Disney, CBS, and More…
AtTask provides on-demand project and portfolio management software. Scott Johnson, CEO and Founder, and his team have self-funded and enhanced the @task offering over the past six years with dashboard UI, Web 2.0 collaboration, workflow, templates, APIs, and global language support. In that time, AtTask landed an impressive customer list, Apple, Chevron, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, and more. To accelerate their business, AtTask recently completed a $7M funding round from OpenView Venture Partners.
Johnson introduces AtTask, the company, and provides details of the new Enterprise version of @task. AtTask also launched Project Daily, a blog with the best thoughts coming out of the project management industry.
OrangeSoda: Online Marketing with Fizz
After Jay Bean launched and sold his former company ah-ha (now Enhance Interactive) to Marchex, he put his experience in local search, web marketing, and company building to work at OrangeSoda.
OrangeSoda’s primary focus is on helping small and medium-sized companies have online marketing success. They do this through a web-based system that lets OrangeSoda and their clients easily create and manage campaign, track success, view reports, and optimize search results. Their integrated system let’s small business owners work with all the major search engines and advertisers through a single, simple web user interface. OrangeSoda pushes everything out and collects all the results so their clients don’t have to worry about all the different requirements from each ad system or search engine.
Bean explains the secret behind the OrangeSoda name to Brad Baldwin as well as why it is focused on online marketing for small and medium business.
COMPLETExRM: Enterprise 2.0 Foundation for CxRM
CRM is migrating from desktop applications to Software as a Service (Saas). COMPLETExRM is a new company based in Salt Lake City that offers a highly customizable CxRM foundation based on a SaaS platform. This allowed COMPLETExRM to create PlanPlus Online, a custom planning and enterprise-grade CRM solution offered by partner FranklinCovey.In addition to its OEM parnters, COMPLETExRM is offering Enterprise 2.0 integrated sales, marketing, and project management solutions to small and medium business.
To support their growth, COMPLETExRM landed funding and a board seat from Donald L. Lucas, a respected VC and board member at Oracle and other tech companies.
Alianza’s SaaS-Based VoIP Platform is Partner Friendly
Broadband Service Providers (including WiMax Providers, Cable Operators, ISP’s, Telco’s, Managed Service Providers, Satellite Broadband Operators, etc.) are feeling pressure from customer churn because competitors offer bundled packages that include voice (VoIP) services. Alianza enables these same service providers to deliver commercial, private label VoIP products to business and residential customers in less than 30 days, with no capital expenditures.
Alianza offers the first hosted, fully-integrated IP-based platform for delivering Unified Communications Applications via software as a service (SaaS). Value-added applications include VoIP, hosted PBX, IVR, integrated messaging, and conferencing. With business-friendly solutions including a rich help-desk and integrated billing systems, partners can lean on Alianza to drive a new revenue stream from existing customers. Services providers can access Alianza’s partner resources to quickly review the business benefits and ROI models of partner vs. build.
Scott Bell, Chief Technical Office at Alianza, introduces Brad Baldwin to the value proposition and opportunity offered to service partners.
Demo: Net Nanny Provides Filters, Reports, Alerts
Net Nanny provides parents with a way to manage how, what and when the Internet can be used in a home. Ken Knapton, ContentWatch’s Chief Technology Officer, gives us a demo of the latest version of Net Nanny which includes ContentWatch’s latest dynamic filtering technology. With dynamic filtering, Net Nanny can adapt on the fly to potentially harmful content inside Instant Messaging applications, behind popular social networks like MySpace or other what appears to be innocent URLs. Knapton also shows off time restrictions, drill-down reporting and email alerts. So whether it’s pornography, hate/violence, gambling or other harmful content, Net Nanny is watching when you aren’t.
Net Nanny and Internet Safety for Families
June is National Internet Safety Month. We caught up to Jack Sunderlage, the President and CEO of ContentWatch and maker of the market-leading Net Nanny software. As part of their efforts, ContentWatch released their top ten safety tips for keeping families safe online. Sunderlage updates us on the acquisition of Net Nanny (February 2007) and where ContentWatch is heading with their business and consumer dynamic filtering solutions.
Add Your Own Footnote to History
Footnote.com has the largest collection of digital images from original source documents on the web. Through a partnership with the US Government’s National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Footnote is digitizing a vast collection of original documents that have been inaccessible to the masses before now.
But Footnote goes beyond providing access to old records. Building on the Web 2.0 collaboration and sharing model, Footnote offers their Story Pages, a place on the Footnote site where users can share their knowledge and research with others. Story Pages let users write what they know, attach original sources that support their story and invite others to share their insights.
Some of the documents available at Footnote.com include:
- Revolutionary War Pension Files
- Mathew B. Brady Collection of Civil War Photographs
- Papers of the Continental Congress
- Southern Claims Commission
- Constitutional Convention Records
- Civil War Pension Index
- Investigative Case Files of the Bureau of Investigation 1908-1922
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Demo: Budgeting with Mvelopes
Mvelopes is a web-based budgeting application that integrates banking and credit card services it an easy-to-use service. Based on the tried and tested visual envelope budget method, Mvelopes helps you manage your finances and track where all your money is going. Mvelopes works with common web browsers so it’s available for Windows and Mac users. And since it’s web-based, Mvelopes even has a Mobile offering that works on your cell phone.
In2M’s VP of Marketing, David Neddo, takes Mvelopes for a spin and shows how you can drag and drop your way to a budgeting breakthrough.
Put Your Money in Mvelopes
Sometimes the best ideas aren’t new, they just get reintroduced in new packaging. In2M’s Mvelopes offering is a good example of this.
Mvelopes is a digital version of the old “put your paycheck into multiple envelopes” budgeting methodology. David Neddo, VP of Marketing at In2M, talks with Brad Baldwin about how Mvelopes has leveraged what is familiar and combined it with an online service, Internet banking, financial reporting and even mobile phone-based access to the system. In2M offers a free 30-day trial for anyone to try before they buy.
Bungee Labs and Their Ajax-Based IDE
After years of working with developers at Microsoft, Alex Barnett thought the pitch from Bungee Labs was too good to be true. A web-based development environment with the richness and power of a fat, local IDE but with a easier way to share, test and publish applications to the web? Then he saw it. Seeing lead to believing. Now Barnett is sharing the story with others as the community manager at Bungee Labs.
Bungee Connect includes an IDE with loads of Ajax goodness that makes it feels like your using a desktop application. More importantly, Bungee Connect offers a system to make it easier than ever for developers to mash-up web services, program entire applications, share with other engineers and deploy applications to the grid. And unlike other development environments, Bungee Connect works from within a standard Internet Explorer or Firefox or Safari web browser.
Demo: Creating Hello World with Bungee Connect
Brad Hintze, Product Marketing Manager at Bungee Labs, shows Brad Baldwin the benefits of Bungee Connect, a rich Ajax and browser-based development environment. Hintze quickly mashes up the Rhapsody service showing how easy it is to create and deploy web apps with this next-generation IDE.
Frucall’s Mobile Barcode Pricing and Shopping
After 18 years designing and managing next-generation telecomm networks at AT&T, Frucall’s CEO Dr. Behzad Nadji is allowing the modern shopper to wage a price war with the all-powerful cell phone. With the Frucall service, when shoppers see a product and want to see if they’re getting the best price possible, they simply enter the product’s barcode through speech, SMS text, or Frucall’s new mWeb site designed for web-enabled phones. Use the result to compare prices, review product details, leave a message for future follow-up, search history review, or even bypass the long lines at a retail store in favor of a better price and eTail check-out experience directly through Frucall. And all of these services are free-of-charge to the consumer.
To speed up the shopping experience from your phone, it’s best to create an account on your computer at www.frucall.com. After your account is set up, you can gain access to the Frucall service using your mobile device through 2-way text messaging, voice (if your looking to program your speed-dial add 1-888-DO-FRUCALL), or the new mWeb service. If you’re into saving money or suffer from the anxiety of buyer’s remorse, this new service should bring you some comfort.
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Demo: WingateWeb’s Event Management System
Tom Karren, CEO of WingateWeb, demonstrates the social networking, auto-calendar population, and session management features in their latest event and conference management system. Fortune 500 companies — including many in the tech sector — turn to the combination of services and private-label friendly WingateWeb solution to pull off high-quality events that satisfy even the most finicky conference goers.
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