Loopfuse has been actively selling to customers and blogging about its successes for nearly a year now. Yet such is the industry - where open source has become so mainstream that we often neglect the rise of truly innovative software - that it's not surprising that IDG missed Loopfuse until now. We forgive you, IDG! :-)
Regardless, if you haven't heard of Loopfuse or started using its (or a competitor's) marketing automation software, you need to correct this fault. Immediately. Here's what it does:
Lead generation products track the activities of potential customers on a company's Web site and use factors like their job titles and activities on the site to assign "lead scores," which help salespeople to target their efforts. The products work in tandem with customer relationship management software.
This is, in part, what open-source Loopfuse (as well as proprietary products like Eloqua) does. It's more than this, though this would be enough.
... Read moreLoopfuse and CentricCRM announced today a partnership that brings tight integration of Loopfuse's demand-generation software into CentricCRM's Customer Relationship Management suite. I'm a big believer in what Loopfuse is doing, as I've written. This is a logical next step for Loopfuse as it seeks to broaden the reach of data-driven marketing for companies that do business online (which is pretty much everyone).
I like the combination:
... Read more
I had a call with venture capitalist friend yesterday to talk about Eloqua, Loopfuse, and other demand-generation software. Not being nearly as shortsighted as I am, he didn't want to talk about how open-source companies could benefit from such software, but instead wanted to talk about how non-tech companies could.
It's not the first time I've been struck by my own ignorance, but I really wasn't expecting to have to wallow in it yesterday. :-)
I was then surprised to see a similar perspective in this interview with the founders of Loopfuse:
... Read moreToday, Loopfuse announced that it has released the 2.0 version of its open source demand generation product. In case you missed David Skok's exceptional OSBC presentation (Detailing lessons learned from JBoss' success, and an upgrade on my own presentation on this same subject). [Note: If you're prompted for a user name/password, try conference/attendee.]
What is demand generation? If you're an open source company, it's your lifeblood. Open source companies grow up and live online. If you're not using a demand generation tool like Loopfuse (or Eloqua - proprietary and pricey but very good), you're squandering your business. Companies like JBoss, Hyperic, Red Hat, etc. all use demand generation tools to turn downloads into dollars.
Roy (Loopfuse C-something-O) has this bit of propaganda for you to mull over:
Although we've spent the better part of two months creating, testing, refactoring, and testing this new functionality, our customers are already benefiting from its use in our production environment (SaaS offering). In particular, our new email and internet marketing campaign manager, has been accepted with great applause from our customers, as they are able to create campaigns, track campaign performance, and measure the associated ROI via our CRM integration capabilities. So as we say here at LoopFuse, we're turning marketing from an art, in to a science.
Self-serving hoopla notwithstanding :-), what Roy says is correct: open source companies already spend less on sales and marketing than their proprietary competitors - they need to ensure that every dollar is efficiently spent and maximized. Demand generation software does this.
I'm biased in this, of course, as I'm an advisor to Loopfuse. But I'm an advisor because I've been involved with open source companies since 1998, and I'm responsible for Alfresco's P&L here in the US. We're a customer, and would have gone with Eloqua had a solid open source alternative not existed (one that integrates with our chosen CRM system, SugarCRM).
Check it out. Whether you're using Loopfuse or a proprietary alternative, you would be wise to check out demand generation tools.
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