CRM Update – Mar 27 : 8:09 pm

The House of Representatives voted to pass the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS Act) Tuesday, a bill that aims to make it easier for startup businesses to raise capital, partially via online crowdfunding.
The measure passed 380-41 and is headed to the White House for President Obama’s signature.
It’s the second time the House passed the JOBS Act. It sailed through the House earlier this month on a bipartisan basis after being introduced by Republicans, but found opposition in the Senate…

New release allows business users on the go access opportunities big data reveals.

It’s legal for 17-year-olds to go to the pharmacy and buy emergency contraception like Plan B, but that isn’t stopping pharmacy workers from lying to teens and telling them they’re too young for it, says an undercover survey included in a new study.

MSNBC says a report in the journal Pediatrics found that pharmacists would lie to girls seeking emergency contraception, but then proffer the correct information when a doctor called about obtaining the drug for a 17-year-old patient…

Just one month after Tumblr banned content that “actively promotes or glorifies self-injury or self-harm,” Pinterest has updated its terms of service to prevent users from pinning content of a similar nature. This is the second update Pinterest has made to its terms of service in the past week.
Pinterest now expressly forbids any content that “creates a risk of harm, loss, physical or mental injury, emotional distress, death, disability, disfigurement or physical or mental illness to yourself, to any other person, or to any animal…

This week, Microsoft is adding new streaming video applications from HBO Go, Major League Baseball and Xfinity from Comcast. And while announcing that new streaming video service, Xfinity’s overlord Comcast say the traffic from the streaming video service won’t count against Comcast’s 250GB monthly data cap.

That’s ruffling the feathers of some network neutrality advocates, reports Ars Technica.

Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said in an emailed statement that the new policy “raises questions not only of the justification for the caps but, more importantly, of the survival of an Open Internet…

Like something the cartoon character Cathy might dream up when she’s despairing over trying on bikinis, a new study has found a link between frequent chocolate consumption and weight loss. This is akin to someone announcing that you will get paid to sleep. Life changing.

Before we get all ecstatic over the gist of the research, it’s important to note that the findings in the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, don’t tell people to go off and gorge on a mountain of candy bars or stick their faces in a fountain of liquid chocolate…

A Parks Associates survey set out to find out just how well-liked Siri is. The verdict — more than 70% of iPhone 4S users said they are very satisfied or satisfied with the intelligent assistant.
For the most part, iPhone 4S users love Siri. She’s usually helpful, witty and funny even with her quirks and kinks.
With this kind of consumer support, it seems iPhone users would be excited to use Siri voice command with other electronics — but the numbers say otherwise. According to the survey, consumers are unsure about Siri’s ability to function properly…

What could terrify passengers even more than a flight attendant ranting on the PA system about crashing while still on the runway? Perhaps when a plane’s captain is in the midst of a “medical situation” where he’s reportedly yelling about blowing up the plane during the flight, as happened to JetBlue passengers this morning.

The Amarillo Globe News says the flight bound for Las Vegas from New York made an unexpected landing in the Texas panhandle after an episode with the captain…

Company adds Zoho Projects for iPhone, Zoho CRM, and Zoho Docs for Android.

Craigslist has been a fertile source of comic inspiration for some time, but few have mined it as compellingly as startup Replyboard.
The Seattle-based company, which went live on Monday, launched with four videos that feature Replyboard‘s co-founder Steinar Skipsnes and friend Nick Ellis punking real Craigslist sellers.
The methods they use are inspired. For example, a guy selling a guitar is dumbstruck when the two put sheer stockings over their heads (who wouldn’t be?) and a woman erupts in a screaming fit when Ellis uses her bathroom to take an impromptu shower…

Facebook is hoping to stamp out what it considers an “opportunistic and fraudulent” lawsuit filed by Paul Ceglia, who claims that he owns half of the social media behemoth.
Ceglia filed the suit in 2010, which alleges that he gave Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg $1,000 in start-up capital for Facebook in exchange for 50% of the company if it took off.
To back up his claims, Ceglia produced a contract which he argued showed that he had hired Zuckerberg to do some “limited website development work” for StreetFax, an out-of-business company which Ceglia once ran…

Consumerist reader Mike has a Capital One credit card. He’d hoped to get one of the bank’s customizable “Image Cards” printed with a big red “A” for atheism. His initial upload was rejected by Capital One, which sent him a long list of possible reasons. And when he called to appeal, things just more bizarre.

The first person Mike spoke with said they had no idea why it was rejected and submitted his appeal.

Then the image was rejected a second time.

“I spoke to someone after the second rejection that someone there said that there was a note in my file regarding the fact that they do not allow religious or anti-religious images,” Mike tells Consumerist…

Completion of testing provides set-up and support assurances for customers integrating with Microsoft Lync Server 2010

Amassing a giant chunk of change is the best way to nail down a lower payment for a vehicle or home, but the process can be so long and arduous that it prevents you from proceeding. The key to following through with your goal is to set a reasonable plan in place and stick to it. The tough part is to find a way to get the ball rolling.

The Frugal Toad offers these steps to jolt you into hyper-saving mode:

* Sell stuff. If you own a big-ticket luxury item — say, an all-terrain vehicle, golf clubs or pool table you hardly use — consider selling them off to raise some quick funds…

OnStar Family Link Website

Click here to view this gallery.Sure, GM used a hokey fake family to illustrate how OnStar‘s new car finder and email and text notification service, Family Link, would work for a “real” family, but the demonstration, held at an incredible loft home in Soho, did get the point across: OnStar’s 6 million embedded system customers will soon be able to find family members either passively or actively with the new alert system…

When it comes to food and drink, we’re all different. Some of us don’t mind wine from a box, and some turn up their nose if it isn’t aged to perfection; but when it comes to deals, even the foodiest of the foodies like to save a dime.
That’s where ‘Groupon Reserve’ comes in. The elite daily deal program focuses on the finer things in life. Five-star restaurants, wine tastings, gourmet catering; high-end stuff. The program launched in New York City last fall and has now expanded to Orlando and Seattle, and most recently L…

Veteran software executive will lead the company’s strategic growth in interaction management business,

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 flexible platform can be used to help facilitate various Vendor management processes. It can help with the following areas:

Gain a 360 degree view of all vendors information, including: contacts and communications
Connect vendors to other customer-focused efforts such as, customer records, opportunities, orders, and projects
Connect vendors to marketing campaigns and other sales related activities

When managing vendor relationships in CRM, it is best practices to use the out-of-the-box Account record to store vendors rather than creating a separate vendors entity…

It almost appears that the whole business world has discovered social media as a way to connect and engage clients and users. However, it is far from being true for many big organizations and especially financial institutions and private banks.  A survey conducted by assentium.com, an independent financial information portal for investors reveals that the attitude for most private banks to be on social media is rather reluctant.
An analysis carried out by Assentium through a survey of leading private banks projects banks as entities hesitant to have a social media presence…

To the cable, phone, wireless and broadcasting companies in the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission can sometimes seem to be a big wet blanket on all their merger-happy fun. Thus, Congress is now considering legislation that would revise the way the FCC does everything from introducing regulations to reviewing mergers.

The bill, dubbed the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act, would require the FCC to provide detailed arguments, including cost-benefit analysis, when introducing new rules…

Microsoft plans to release the 1.5 version of its Kinect for Windows software in late May 2012.

The solution can identify and predict customer, service, and operational trends in voice over IP (VoIP) networks, contact centers, and unified communications infrastructures.

New York’s largest art museum — its transit system — can now be carried around in your pocket.
The MTA is now part of the Meridian app, which provides comprehensive details on the wide variety of permanent artwork installed throughout the subway and rail system in New York.
“This is a phenomenal use of technology,” said MTA Chairman Joseph J. Lhota. “This app will help our customers recognize that New York’s transportation system, besides helping 8.5 million people get to work every day, is a world-class art museum with works by many of the most renowned artists of the 20th and 21st centuries…

Saveology “Clocks In” to YouTube as Part of their Daily Deal Promotions
Saveology, the Performance-Based Media Outlet revolutionizing the daily deal space, has integrated humor through video as part of their national daily deal promotions. The specific two video-accompanied daily deals, the Clockly Rolling Alarm Clock starting at $35 and the ESSO Watch discounted to $15, both feature witty YouTube videos corresponding the particular deal.
“The Clockly Experiment”  
Saveology’s daily deal for the Clockly Rolling Alarm Clock is accompanied by a comical mad scientist video cleverly taken from “Inside Saveology Labs”…

What is the Business Benefit?
The first step in deciding whether to make a major purchase or to undertake a major application development/implementation project is to think about and clearly document what you’re trying to accomplish. What are the benefits that will flow from the project? At this point, just focus on the benefits. Once you get a handle on those, you can look at the underlying costs and risks, and decide whether (or how) you can afford to carry out your plan.
Revenues and costs. In most cases, the types of benefits you’ll be looking for are things that increase revenues or decrease costs…

This is a cross-post from Altimeter Group Researcher Jaimy Szymanski’s blog. Follow her on Twitter here. Curation is taking over the digital content scene. With related applications and platforms multiplying, the act of collecting and sharing content has become second nature for most of us. Take a look at your Facebook timeline, Twitter stream and blog. How [...]

JFK International in NYC isn’t just one of the busier airports in the country, it’s also reportedly the place in the Big Apple for passengers to have stuff stolen out of their bags.

CBS NY reports that more than 200 such thefts occur every day at the airport, with much of it apparently happening after travelers hand off their bags to airline and airport personnel.

“The belly of the airplane has become like a flea market for airport employees. They go in there and go through all the luggage unencumbered, unchecked,” one lawyer tells CBS…

We’ve had a little flip-flop this week. March Madness didn’t stack up in the social realm as successfully as last week. No matter, three of the college basketball tournament’s games still managed to sneak onto the charts.
But here’s the real stinker: The Mad Men season five premiere came in under SpongeBob SquarePants. I’m going to assume that’s because all of you were too engrossed in whiskey-soaked plot lines to bother tweeting. At least, that’s what happened in my apartment…

NEA 14 LP is on the way
New Enterprise Associates had such a banner year in 2011 that the company decided to file a new offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company was the big winner in last year’s IPO markets due to a 15 percent ownership Fusion-io Incorporated and its 14 percent stake in Groupon, incorporated.
The original $4.8 million investment into Groupon is currently valued between $1.5 billion and $2 billion depending on Groupon’s share price. The Chevy Chase, Md…

Microsoft’s Bing and Skype units are working on a number of cross-platform products and promotions.