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Recent news from BigMachines…

TechWeek 100 introduces the 100 most innovative names in Chicago technology.

The purpose of the TechWeek 100 is to give credit to those individuals who are impacting the business and technology landscape on a global scale, from managing fast-growing technology companies to inventing new computer programming languages. The TechWeek 100 is not a rankings but rather a list of 100 technology leaders chosen through a review of nominations by the TechWeek advisors and the TechWeek team.

Included on the list is BigMachines Co-Founder and Senior Advisor, Godard Abel.

Godard was chosen for inclusion based on five major factors including:

1. Founder or executive of a fast-growth technology company
2. Publicity for technology leadership
3. Managing technology for corporations in Chicagoland
4. Support of the technology startup community
5. Making a public impact with technology

Read Godard’s profile and the profiles of all 100 Innovators at techweek.com/conference/techweek-10

There is a systematic shift happening in business. Organizations are becoming aware of the need to tap into new sales channels, but they often do so without adequate planning. B2B ecommerce is gaining increasing interest and adoption as a way to expand sales channels. Multichannel selling is a great path to increase revenue, but sales executives can’t tackle every channel, online, offline, mobile, ecommerce, etc., without the tools necessary to monitor, manage, and follow up.

The bottom line is that most organizations neither sell efficiently nor effectively. Despite the fact that a high performing sales organization is key to growth, our survey showed a clear disconnect between sales and the rest of the enterprise, hampering the success of the sales team. In far too many organizations, the sales organization works in a deep silo rather than in an interconnected, transparent setting. Despite the growing challenges for sales teams, the survey revealed optimism. Deal sizes are expected to increase throughout 2011 and hopefully beyond, pointing to anticipated growth. How can you ensure that your company is among those that fulfill those optimistic forecasts?

Continue reading this post at CRM.com

Salesforce.com’s Cloud Blog recently featured an interesting post on “connected computing” by Peter Coffee. We think it’s an interesting take on what “cloud” really means and how it doesn’t necessarily capture all that the cloud is capable of.

Here at BigMachines, we agree that there is tremendous business value in connecting customers, suppliers, partners as well as your own internal teams. In fact, now that we have all enjoyed the advantages of cloud (connected) computing, no one seems to be longing for the old days of poorly connected systems, accessible only when you are plugged in at your office with bulky devices.

Whether you call it Cloud Computing or Connected Computing, it represents both the present and the future. And BigMachines has been a proponent of it since we started our business in 2000, helping businesses grow revenue, sell more and sell faster – in the cloud and on-demand.

BigMachines was featured recently by P.J. Jakovljevic at Technology Evaluation Centers Inc. TEC helps companies like yours research, evaluate, and select the best enterprise software solutions for their unique business requirements.

According to Jakovljevic, Read the rest of this entry »

This is a repost of a press release from BigMachines

BigMachines today announced it has launched BigMachines Selling Platform for Configuration, Quoting, Pricing and Proposals on salesforce.com’s ChatterExchange, helping to accelerate the market shift to Cloud 2, the next cloud computing paradigm. BigMachines empowers sales teams and channel partners to configure, price and quote (CPQ) complex orders, generate rich proposals and dynamically build contracts, with full integration to Salesforce CRM. BigMachines Selling Platform for Configuration, Quoting, Pricing and Proposals is immediately available on AppExchange 2 at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/. Read the rest of this entry »

As cloud computing and SaaS technologies increase their digital footprint in the technology world, three questions are likely to arise:

1. What is Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS?
2. What are some benefits of the Software-as-a-Service model?
3. Why does BigMachines B2B Selling Platform use a Software-as-a-Service model? Read the rest of this entry »

We launched BigMachines in early 2000 with a vision to provide businesses with innovative software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions that empower people to sell more and sell faster. Our company has grown a lot since then, but our overall vision has not changed, and our growth clearly indicates that the need is there – more than ever. We recently announced another record year in 2010, with 77 percent year-over-year growth in recurring revenue and 72 percent growth in total revenue, along with more than $47 million in contract bookings—and we achieved this by focusing on the needs of our customers and by delivering the most innovative and robust B2B sales platform to meet those needs. I am very excited to witness the growth of our company, the growth of the SaaS market, and the growth that many of our customers have experienced in their businesses. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a repost of a press release from BigMachines

BigMachines, Inc., the leader in product configuration, pricing and quoting, proposal generation and B2B ecommerce, announced today that it has been named to the JMP Securities “Hot 100:The Best Privately Held Software Companies” list for the second consecutive year. JMP Securities is a full-service investment bank that provides equity research, institutional brokerage and investment banking services to public and private growth companies and their investors. The report, issued December 2010, profiles 100 of the leading private companies in the software industry as identified by the software research team at JMP Securities. Read the rest of this entry »

1to1 Media’s Executive Business Editor Tom Hoffman and BigMachines CEO and Co-founder Godard Abel discuss the latest trends in customer strategy and tactics.

Today, many sales teams are under more pressure to convert leads than ever before. According to Godard, the number 1 thing sales teams need to do to convert leads is to make it really easy to do business with you. Read the rest of this entry »

Video Clip from the 2010 Dreamforce Keynote

Sonia Sullivan, Motorola, discusses how they have a 360 view of data through the use of BigMachines, Salesforce.com, Knowledge, Right 90 and Oracle.

In late summer, saleforce.com’s Peter Coffee discussed Cloud Computing Security – a hot topic that weighs heavy on the minds of organizations making the switch to on-demand, web-based software. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a repost from PSVillage

In Part 1 of this article I shared some of the challenges an embedded service team encounters from the perspective of senior management. These observations were based on our experience at Tenrox and my discussions with other CEO’s and executives in various software and high-tech companies. In Part 2, I have included other challenges I have heard from the PS community and offer some solutions and lessons learned to the problems presented. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a repost of a press release from bigmachines.com

The Illinois Technology Association and leading technology companies have partnered in an aggressive initiative to retain the best talent from the state’s top universities, and take back talent that has left the state. The ITA Fall Challenge presented by BigMachines, announced Tuesday, October 12, is intended to have a long-term impact on economic growth across the state and the Midwest.

Illinois boasts some of the top technology programs in the country, with a disproportionate number of university graduates leaving the state. Keeping those students in Illinois will have a long-term impact on the growth and economic impact of the sector to the entire region. To turn the tide back in Illinois’ favor, the Illinois Technology Association (ITA) has initiated the ITA Fall Challenge presented by BigMachines. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a re-post from Acquiring Minds

The digital world is bringing great change to how buyers wish to interact with B2B sales teams.

B2B buyers who are at ease in researching, communicating, collaborating and buying on the internet are choosing to do business differently. Read the rest of this entry »

OpenWorld, Dreamforce, BigIdeas – If you are planning to attend any of these conferences this Fall, or any of the other great events in 2011, learn how to maximize your ROI and make the most of event attendance. Read the rest of this entry »