Nimble's Jon Ferrara Shows What Social CRM SHOULD Be

Nimble's CEO Jon Ferrara on the DEMO stage in Palm Desert this week. He shows Nimble's new Social CRM application in the video below.

Note: I consult to the company.

New Social CRM Platform Nimble Transforms the Way People Manage Relationships

Nimble Contact, the Social CRM platform that combines relationship management and social engagement into an easy-to-use and integrated solution, unveiled its public beta at the DEMO Spring 2011 Conference today.

Nimble Contact integrates LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google, email contacts and conversations into one seamless, intuitive environment, empowering small businesses in today’s socially connected world to attract and retain the right customers.

Combining the “4 Cs” -- contacts, calendar, communications and collaboration -- professionals can now more easily and efficiently manage the way they see, hear and connect with their company's most important asset: their business contacts, all under one roof.

Nimble Contact is the next evolution in relationship management – a social relationship manager that makes it fun and easy to nurture personal and business relationships.

Below: A screen grab of the Activities Record

Nimble Contact’s core benefit lies in its ability to unify email, calendar activities and social channels, and automatically link all three to business contacts. This allows businesses to easily see all of the communications they and their teams have had with their contacts, no matter where those conversations take place, and without having to jump from window to window, tab to tab, network to network, or application to application. 

Below is a Social Stream View:

KEY FEATURES:

One Unified Solution – Nimble connects contacts to calendars, communications, tasks and social conversations -- all in one easy-to-use interface.

Social Listening – Nimble lets companies monitor the most popular social networks – LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook – from one screen.

Social Engagement – Nimble's unified inbox helps companies respond to conversations and engage prospects more quickly via email or social media networks.

Works with Existing Tools - Nimble synchronizes with Google Apps, including email and calendars, so users can continue to use their familiar tools.

Easy to Use – Unlike more traditional CRM systems, Nimble’s sleek interface reveals the information companies need to see and hides the rest.

Web-Based & Secure – As a web-based solution, Nimble requires no set-up or maintenance, making it far easier to get up and running. Nimble Contact’s encrypted security and redundant servers are built to keep information safe.

Even before being out of the 'public gate,' Nimble was recently named to “The CRM Watchlist 2011” by Social CRM expert and best-selling author, Paul Greenberg. Published by ZDNet, Nimble was one of only seven companies selected for the “Social Mainstream” category from a field of nearly 130 companies.

The standalone product, Nimble Contact, is free and available online at www.nimble.com. More functionality to be added for businesses as they start to grow in the coming months.

Note: I'm a consultant to Nimble.

JetStreamHD Streams Movies, Music, Photos & Other Digital Content to the Palm of Your Hand

JetStreamHD, the world's first consumer electronics product to stream all of your digital media stored anywhere on a home computer network to the iPad, was announced today at DEMO Spring 2011.

JetStreamHD enables iPad users to instantly access and stream any video, song, or photo from their home network while traveling for business, visiting friends and family, or simply relaxing anywhere – without upfront planning, conversion headaches, download time, sync hassles, or iPad memory limits.

Consumers own an enormous and expanding volume of digital media and are increasingly using mobile devices to enjoy it. Consequently, the market potential for mobile media streaming devices is exploding: according to IDC, the global smartphone market recently surpassed the PC market, with over 100 million units sold in Q4 of 2010 alone. Research firm iSuppli forecasts cumulative sales of iPad and other mobile media tablets to exceed 600 million units by 2015, while a recent InStat survey reports that 50% of US home network users are interested in products that enable video streaming.

Using JetStreamHD, a person at a coffee shop, on the train, a business trip, or at a friend's place, can use their iPad to easily find and instantly play videos, listen to music, or show-off some photos from their home-based media collection – at the highest possible resolution without stuttering.

HOW IT WORKS:

• Plug and play setup in minutes – you simply plug the sleek, quiet JetStreamHD box into your home router and download the free app to your iPad. Within a few minutes, it discovers all of the media that resides in any format, including 1080p HD, on any computer, media server or NAS attached to your network. All of your media is immediately available for viewing on your iPad.
• Easily and quickly find any media with the beautiful iPad app – powerful search, sort and filter controls make it easy to quickly find any item in the largest of libraries. You can quickly sort and filter by movie, genre, rating, date added and much more, and JetStreamHD takes it a step further by automatically adding media cover art, plot summaries and other important data to ensure a rich viewing experience.
• Instant access to your media without any upfront work – as anyone who has worked with digital video knows, video format conversion and streaming is computationally intensive and time consuming. With JetStreamHD, just one touch on the app starts the selected media playing in the best possible resolution without stuttering.
• The best possible mobile viewing experience over any connection – JetStreamHD's powerful hardware takes care of everything automatically as it streams in real-time: converting any format to accommodate your mobile device and adaptively adjusting the streaming bit-rate to make best use of your available Wi-Fi or 3G connection strength. Unlike other solutions, you don't consume one of your home computers to act as the streaming server.
• Support for Apple TV lets you enjoy your JetStreamHD mobile media on the big screen – JetStreamHD streams any video from a home-based media library to any local Apple TV unit using AirPlay, so you can enjoy your media on the iPad or the big screen.
• Multiple iPads, music and photos all at the same time – unlike other solutions, JetStreamHD multitasks as much as you do: more than one iPad user can stream media at the same time or listen to streamed music while also viewing streamed photos or using another iPad app.

JetStreamHD for the iPad, to be priced at $199 USD, is available starting today for pre-order in Canada and the United States at the time-limited special price of $119 USD from the JetStreamHD website (www.JetStreamHD.com). Additional mobile formats will be supported and announced later this year.

Note: I am a consultant to JetStreamHD.

CarWoo! Unveils #1 Factor in Getting Best Deal on a New Car

CarWoo!, the leading online service and marketplace that matches dealers with consumers to get the best deal on a new car, has unveiled the number one factor in getting the best deal on a new car. 

A recent blog post in the Woonomics section of their blog: CarWoo! Chronicle, “It’s Not About Size, It’s About Depth” released key findings to help save money and time for new car buyers.  CarWoo!’s findings disprove the popular myth that increasing the distance that the buyer is willing to travel is the best way to get a great offer.

Data drawn from the CarWoo! Marketplace reveals that it is not distance, but number of offers that yields the best offers.  Buyers who received nine or more offers received offers that were 41% better than those for buyers with three or fewer offers. This is logical given the realities of dealerships where dealers have many different motivations for selling a car.

Unlike many other solutions, buyers receive multiple offers while retaining complete privacy and dealers obtain referrals for buyers that fall outside of the traditional automotive lead system.  

Disclosure: I consult to CarWoo!

CarWoo! Allows Consumers to Negotiate Leases on New Cars + Buyer Rebates & Incentives

Earlier this month, CarWoo! rolled out the ability for buyers (er…borrowers?) to negotiate leases if they wanted to get a new car that way, and created the out-the-door price estimator so that buyers can configure their final price, including taxes and fees, for their unique purchase.

How this works and why its cool!

Maybe you’re an active member of the military. Or perhaps you’re finally over 65. Or there’s that incentive you heard about on a Toyota commercial that advertised free maintenance for two years after purchase. You probably* want the final price you agree to to take into account these rebates and incentives too.

Now on CarWoo!, you can let your dealers know which rebates you qualify for when you sign up, and dealers in turn can let their buyers know what kind of promotions they have going on and the price or cost of these extras will be factored into the final price you get from the CarWoo! site.

Here’s a sneak peak inside the CarWoo! purchase process – check out the new features:

1) Buyers can choose rebates and incentives when configuring a deal

2) Buyers can get qualifying details about each rebate and incentive

3) When dealers go to make offers, they can see which rebates the buyer selected

4) When dealers select rebates, their final offer is automatically recalculated

5) Buyers can see which rebates and offers are included in their final price

This is just one more way that CarWoo! ensures that both the buyer and the dealer are working in a helpful and transparent platform. SO, if you want to get a new car, be sure to put CarWoo! into your car buying process.

Disclosure: I do some consulting for CarWoo!

 

CarWoo! Transforms New Car Buying Marketplace with New Version

CarWoo! officially announces the release of CarWoo! Version 2 today. Currently the leading online service and marketplace through which dealers are connected to anonymous buyers and are then able to extend offers and sell vehicles, but with CarWoo! Version 2, the platform adds lease negotiation, a "name your own price" feature, an "Out The Door Price" estimator, a "Reputation and Rating" system and the ability for buyers to shop or cross-shop for multiple vehicles simultaneously making it the most comprehensive online car buying platform available.

In response to overwhelming demand from both consumers and dealers, the CarWoo! lease negotiation feature allows dealers and buyers to communicate the complex details of automobile leasing in a straightforward, easy to understand format within the CarWoo! interface.

Other new features include:

• "Name Your Own Price" – Once a dealer has extended an offer, the buyer is able is able to name the price at which they would be willing to buy the offered vehicle.  Dealers are able to accept, reject or counter the buyer named price.  CarWoo! marketplace data demonstrates that CarWoo! buyers who choose to negotiate obtain significantly better prices.
• "Out The Door Estimator" – In addition to the sale price of the offered vehicle, with this feature buyers are able to obtain an accurate estimate of the taxes, title, license and registration fees allowing them to understand the actual purchase price before going to the dealership to accept delivery of the vehicle.
• "Dealer Reputation and Rating System" – Buyers are able to comment on and rank their experience with dealers from whom they have received offers or purchased vehicles.  Dealers are able to respond to these comments through CarWoo!.  Because the interaction with the dealer is the leading indicator of whether a buyer with purchase a car from he dealer, with 53% of vehicles sold using CarWoo! are not the lowest offers, this community based reputation system helps appropriately set buyer's expectation regarding the quality of the dealers from whom they are receiving offers.
• "Multiple Deal Support" – Buyers are able to search for multiple cars simultaneously.  This feature allows online shoppers to engage in the common practice of shopping for and comparing different vehicles at the same time.

Through the CarWoo! service buyers are able to interact with dealers through any computer, and are able to communicate comfortably and conveniently with their dealers before taking delivery of their new car.  

Buyers receive multiple offers and are able to converse with the actual dealers who have placed offers on existing inventory while retaining their privacy providing a huge leap forward from the stressful process car buyers face today.  CarWoo! provides dealers with referrals for buyers who often fall outside of the traditional automotive lead system. 

Check out the TechCrunch article yesterday which covers their new Version 2.

Also, CarWoo! will be hosting an event at the NADA 2011 Convention and Expo in San Francisco, CA on Saturday evening, February 5, 2011 at 5:30PM.  Details are available through Support at CarWoo! (http://www.carwoo.com). 

Disclosure: CarWoo is a client of Magic Sauce Media.

Answers.com Agrees to be Acquired for $127 Million in Cash

Answers.com (NASDAQ: ANSW), creators of the leading answer engine Answers.com, announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by AFCV Holdings, LLC, a portfolio company of growth equity investor Summit Partners, for a total cash consideration of approximately $127 million.

AFCV will acquire all outstanding shares of Answers.com common stock, Series A convertible preferred stock and Series B convertible preferred stock. Under the terms of the agreement, Answers.com common stock shareholders will receive $10.50 in cash for each outstanding share of common stock they own. The holders of Series A and Series B convertible preferred stock will also be entitled to receive cash consideration based on the number of the common stock into which those shares are convertible at the time of the merger.

Note: Answers.com is a former client of Magic Sauce Media. Official date of announcement was yesterday, February 3, 2011. Kudos to the Answers.com team.

CarWoo! Dealer Network Tops 5,000 While New Partners Boost New Car Buyers

CarWoo! announces today that the network of dealers using the CarWoo! portal to sell new cars has now exceeded 5,000 representing 22% of dealerships nationwide.  This figure continues to increase at a rate of approximately 400-500 dealers month over month. Their dealer network includes dealers for all makes of cars and geographies, so new car buyers have a wide range of dealers to choose from in all 50 states.

In addition to the rapidly growing dealer network, CarWoo! is also announcing strategic partnerships with Driverside, committed to be the #1 online resource for anyone who owns a car and NADAGuides.com, the most comprehensive vehicle information website on the Internet today. These two partners will help direct new car buyers to CarWoo!.

With CarWoo!, buyers receive multiple offers and are able to communicate and negotiate with the actual dealers who have placed offers on existing inventory while retaining their privacy, a huge leap forward from the stressful process car buyers face today.  CarWoo! provides dealers with referrals for buyers who often fall outside of the traditional automotive lead system.

Decisions to buy a car are not solely based on a single factor such as price. Buyers elect to buy cars from dealers who interact well, who treat them as valued customers, who provide the vehicle that is a fit to the one they wanted and who are a comfortable distance from them.  Then, buyers ultimately want to know that they purchased their vehicle at a fair price. The combination of the expanding dealer network and two new strategic partnerships positions CarWoo! well in the marketplace to offer outstanding and comprehensive service to new car buyers.

CarWoo! will be hosting an event for dealers at the NADA 2011 Convention and Expo in San Francisco, CA on Saturday evening, February 5, 2011 at 5:30PM.  Details are available through Support at CarWoo! (http/::www.carwoo.com).

Disclosure: I consult to the company.

CarWoo!'s Countdown to SuperBowl Offers Buyers $1,000 Rebates on New Cars

Today, CarWoo!, an online car buying portal, announces their Countdown to SuperBowl promotion where new car buyers will have an opportunity to win a $1,000 rebate when then buy a car using CarWoo!, which on average saves car buyers in excess of $3,500 per vehicle purchased.

The promotion starts today and continues through February 5, 2011. Buyers will have the opportunity to use the promotion code, PackerWoo or SteelersWoo, selecting the team they think will win the SuperBowl.  All buyers who use either of these codes when they start their CarWoo! Plus plan will receive a $25 American Express Gift Card when they accept an offer on CarWoo! and send in a photo of themself with their new car. 

Five of the buyers who picked the winning Superbowl team will be randomly selected to receive the $1,000 rebate.  To be eligible for the $1,000 rebate or the gift card photos must be submitted by February 28, 2011 and all winners will be announced no later than March 5, 2011.

Using CarWoo!, buyers receive multiple offers and are able to communicate and negotiate with the actual dealers who have placed offers on existing inventory while retaining their privacy.   

Disclosure: I consult to the company.

Results From CarWoo! Marketplace Show Clear Value of Negotiating with Car Dealers

According to an analysis of data now made available through the CarWoo! marketplace, negotiating with the dealer when buying a new car can yield significant benefits for new car buyers. Through CarWoo!’s anonymous confidential online marketplace, buyers receiving the best offers consistently make more counter-offers and generally negotiate more aggressively yielding better deals overall, saving them both time and money.

Their findings suggest that not accepting the first offer a dealer proposes is key to getting a great deal. They even have an instance on record of a dealer saying “The price is non-negotiable” and then lowering the price.  

This data, along with their research directly with dealers demonstrate that dealers expect to negotiate.  Virtually every initial offer has “dry powder” built in because dealers expect to have to drop that initial price. It also suggests that buyers who use so-called “no haggle”, or “fixed price” buying services are consistently leaving money on the table.

CarWoo! is an online service and marketplace through which dealers are connected with anonymous buyers, extend offers and sell vehicles. Buyers are charged a nominal fee to access this marketplace while access is free to dealers. Buyers receive multiple offers while retaining their privacy and dealers obtain referrals for buyers that fall outside of the traditional automotive lead system.    

The complete results of this analysis can be found on the http://www.carwoo.com/blog.

 Disclosure Note: I am a consultant for CarWoo.