Marketing Body Strengthens European Presence
Marketing Body Strengthens European Presence The CMO Council, a California-based association of senior marketing professionals, has signalled an intention to expand its activities in Europe by partnering with German marcoms agency, Matchcode. Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director CMO Council commented: 'The CMO Council Europe will enjoy a vibrant and compelling schedule of programmes providing insight into a range of marketing challenges including improving customer analytics, marketing performance measurement, local market/regional/global marketing campaign integration, better aligning the sales and marketing functions, and maximizing return on investment.'

Industries Missing Out On Cost Savings From Waste Management
Companies compost an average of 9% of their total waste despite the fact that industry estimates show that about 70% of waste can be composted, according to a report entitled "Garbage Is a Terrible Thing To Waste," released by the Global Renewable Energy and Environmental Network (GREEN). The report focuses on biodegradable/organic waste streams, which represent a major opportunity including potential ROI from many sources including reduced hauling and tipping fees, operational efficiencies, avoidance of governmental penalties and waste byproduct utilization. "Waste management obviously isn't a glamorous subject, but it's one that organizations can no longer ignore," said Eric Gertsman, director of GREEN, a business-minded affinity group committed to advocating clean energy and sustainability solutions.

Identity Crisis for CMOs
Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) have an even shorter shelf life than CEOs today, according to a new study from the CMO Council, a nonprofit membership organization for senior marketing and brand decision-makers. To avoid an “identity crisis” among CMOs and reduce the high turnover rates, chief executives and their boards need to clarify the requirements of the role and clearly convey those requirements to executive search firms. “Conventional wisdom holds that the CMO is a strategic player in the C-suite, but this study shows a significant gap between perception and reality,” says Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. The council advocates a significant change, driven by the CEO, in the way the position is defined and structured.

SaaS in perspective
AXS-One, which offers an archiving and electronic records management (RM) software platform, just announced a SaaS product for large enterprises. The company had been providing a hosted solution for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and dealer-brokers through partners, but now sees a strong demand from large businesses.

AXS-One Provides Platform to Manage Electronic Records
AXS-One Inc., a provider of records compliance management solutions, has launched a hosted version of its AXS-One Compliance Platform. AXS-One stated that the managed solution integrates AXS-One’s functionality with managed hosting and storage services from EDS, a global technology services company. AXS-One explained that its platform could help companies prepare for new compliance measures that mandate that companies have all electronically-stored information under control and be able to access it quickly and accurately.

Chief Marketing Officers Need To Be Strategic Players
A new study warns that senior management must redefine the role of the chief marketing officer so that it is better aligned with business strategies. The study, "Define & Align the CMO", conducted by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and sponsored by MarketBridge, found that title inflation, unrealistic expectations, flawed hiring practices, talent deficiencies and lack of requisite business and strategic leadership skills are big contributors to the limited shelf life of CMOs. The Council's research also points to the fact that 50% of executive searches are to replace incumbent CMOs who are primarily hired to fix broken marketing organizations, not drive business value.

Integrated archiving for Sun JMS Environments; * AXS-One's AXS-Link for Sun Java Messaging Server
Last week, AXS-One announced AXS-Link for Sun Java Messaging Server, an archiving solution designed specifically for JMS environments. This policy-driven system is the only archiving system integrated into the Sun Java Communications Suite and is a native JMS application. As with AXS-One's other archiving offerings, AXS-Link provides a full archiving feature set, including policy-based retention and disposition, compliance capabilities and support for legal discovery efforts. AXS-Link will be marketed by AXS-One, by Sun itself and by Sun's network of resellers as part of Sun's Compliance and Content Management Solution

Web Sites 2.0
In the real estate world, agents are using online tools from blogging to lead generators like Reply! as business tools. It makes perfect sense, when real estate is all about building and maintaining relationships and social networks. In fact, social networking tools stand as one of the most effective ways for agents to use the Web to connect with potential buyers and sellers. As Frazier already knows, when you receive a lead through an online social network, it comes your way with a certain level of trust and "warm" quality to it.

Why CMOs Are Endangered - And is the CEO to Blame?
The casualty rate of chief marketing officers (CMOs) could be reduced if CEOs and boards better understood the role, requirements and value of the CMO and empowered them to gear the company's operations toward customer experiences, according to the new 'Define & Align the CMO' study by the CMO Council. "Conventional wisdom holds that the CMO is a strategic player, but this study shows a significant gap between perception and reality," concluded Donovan Neale-May, executive director for the CMO Council. "That's why the CMO Council advocates a significant change in the way this position is defined and structured."

IT Security Going Unused
IT and security executives in the US have the jitters, according to DigitalPersona and Business Performance Management (BPM) Forum's "Secure Your Network Assets" study. About three-fourths of the study's respondents said that password security has become a bigger issue within the last year, and 77% said that a network data breach could be critical or disastrous to their company.

Just let your finger do the authenticating
One of these is the new DigitalPersona Pro 4.0 system from DigitalPersona. It’s an enterprise single sign-on system, which means you can replace multiple passwords with a single fingerprint. For example, you could use your fingerprint to log on to multiple Web sites and applications in addition to your computer. What’s more, you can deploy it on notebook PCs with integrated fingerprint readers so users can benefit from the single sign-on capability. DigitalPersona is the only company on the market that supports embedded third-party fingerprint readers from major notebook PC vendors, such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, IBM and Itronix.

POS Security Priorities
By transitioning to a biometrics-based system from Digital Persona, Redwood City, Calif., Holt Renfrew gained a new way to identify associates. Holt Renfrew is using fingerprint authentication to create a user-unique audit trail that monitors employee access to POS terminals. Within two weeks, the chain seamlessly integrated Digital Persona’s Software Development Kit (SDK) within the chain’s Tradewind POS software from Datavantage Corp., Cleveland. Digital Persona’s fingerprint readers were integrated with the chain’s POS hardware.

CMO: Black Sheep or Golden Child?
A new study from the Chief Marketing Officer Council reveals that the role of the CMO does not have to lead to the chopping block. While unrealistic expectations, poor hiring practices, and inadequate performance metrics critically plague the senior marketer role, the study argues that if this role is more clearly defined these problems can be eradicated. The study, "Define and Align the CMO," was conducted by the CMO Council and sponsored by MarketBridge, the sales and marketing consultancy. The report aims at developing a current definition of where the CMO fits in an enterprise and what responsibilities he or she should assume.

Messaging Firms Atwitter Following Virginia Tech massacre
Messaging system companies set their marketing programs on "vibrate" last week in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, sending out reminders to the higher ed community that effective electronic messaging systems are essential tools of public safety on campus. Mobile Campus Inc., which markets an advertiser-supported campus text-messaging system that is otherwise free to affiliated universities, sent out a notice announcing the "availability of a free service capable of immediately and simultaneously alerting students, university employees, and others via text messages on cell phones."

MojoPac: A Laptop Hobo's Best Traveling Companion
Simply plug in your USB device (in which you've pre-loaded MojoPac, along with all the stuff you'd load onto your home computer-save for the actual operating system) into the host computer and their screen becomes your familiar desktop. Toggle back and forth between the host environment and your MojoPac view. Their Internet connection is yours, and there's no need to add anything to the host computer.

Text Messaging Service Keeps UF Students in the Loop
Mobile Campus, a cell phone messaging service the university offers to students, faculty, and staff. The service, which costs the university nothing, allows "members" to connect through their cell phones using text messages. Unlike e-mail, text messaging is nearly instant, and cell phones, of course, are ubiquitous on campus.The university is currently using Mobile Campus as one more way to broadcast general campuswide messages, such as hurricane warnings. Off campus and commuter students in particular are more likely to receive that kind of last-minute message than they are e-mail. "It's part of our formalized communication plan," says Chris Cupoli, director of student involvement at UF.

PGP Launches Revamped Partner Program
As more companies wake up to the benefits of encryption technology, PGP is turning to partners to grab a larger share of the market. Set to launch Tuesday, PGP's new Global Channel Program gives channel partners new sales and technical certifications and helps fund their efforts to obtain them, said Karen Hartsell, director of channel marketing at the Palo Alto, Calif.-based vendor.

Cox Adds Web-Based Workforce System
In-house technicians will continue to use Ventyx (formerly MDSI), which has been deployed by Cox since 1998. The system, a product of vendor TOA Technologies of Cleveland, Ohio, will replace a workforce program Cox has used since 1998. That traditional software-based technology was housed on company servers and accessed from the field via laptops, according to Cox director of field-service technology Mark Leuenberger.

Podcasts Promote B2B IT
According to the "IT Media Consumption Trends and IT Buyer Purchase Intention" study from TechTarget, conducted in collaboration with the CMO Council, B2B IT buyers use multiple media and sources to research their purchases. Study respondents said they used search engines most often to research their purchases. "Technical content publication, distribution and syndication on the Internet have become a significant part of the BtoB technology marketing repertoire," said Donovan Neale-May of the CMO Council. "Understanding online media content consumption preferences, patterns and interests is critical to determining where and how to allocate marketing dollars to improve awareness and consideration."

Accountability and Performance Top Priorities For Marketers in 2007
The 2007 Marketing Outlook survey, by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, to capture insights and opinions about how marketers are focusing their efforts in 2007, finds that marketers look at measurement, improved efficiencies and customer knowledge as top challenges. In addition, they plan on making further changes to upgrade organizational effectiveness, strengthen customer engagement and achieve even greater measurability.

Accountability and Performance Top Priorities For Marketers in 2007 MediaPost
The 2007 Marketing Outlook survey, by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, to capture insights and opinions about how marketers are focusing their efforts in 2007, finds that marketers look at measurement, improved efficiencies and customer knowledge as top challenges. In addition, they plan on making further changes to upgrade organizational effectiveness, strengthen customer engagement and achieve even greater measurability.

A New Economic Theory
For college students, being on the go is a way of life, whether the destination is a class, a library, an activity or just a place to hang out. Mobility has become such a given that many students don't bother to have a traditional landline phone, instead depending on cell phones and other hand-held devices. While the service helps students connect to the university and each other, subscribers receive no more than two promotions from vendors per day. Key to the program is the fact that students must opt-in to be part of the program — at which time, they indicate the type of messages and promotions they want to receive — and that advertisers only can offer promotions that provide tangible financial benefit to the students, said George Tingo, Mobile Campus CEO.

Breaches at Points of Sale
Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, said a recent study of 2,200 consumers conducted by his organization revealed "bricks-and-mortar retail is among the least trusted of all entities. In fact, bricks-and-mortar retailers ranked below Internet retailers." The study, "Secure the Trust of Your Brand," surveyed executives as well as consumers. Of the 250 marketing executives queried, only 29% said their company had a specific crisis-containment plan in the case of a security breach, although an additional 17.7% indicated such a plan was being developed. In light of the rising incidence of compromised consumer data, and the ensuing brand erosion that such breaches produce, it was surprising that more executives were not poised to address the fallout. The CMO Council survey also revealed that 25% of consumers would take their business elsewhere if a company compromised personal data.

The Place (And the Case) for Biometrics
Chip Mesec, senior product marketing manager at biometric identification technology provider DigitalPersona, agrees with Michielli’s opinion that industrial – and societal – education is key to the technology’s success. He even provides some historical and cultural reference as to why the technology elicits uncertainty among American users. In the United States, he says, fingerprints and fingerprinting first became mainstream in the field of law enforcement as a governmental means of identifying and tracking suspect individuals. This lent to the association of a negative stigma for fingerprints.

Behind The News
It was only a matter of time before someone found a way to combine students' love of texting with their love of free food. Student governments are petitioning their administrators to contract with Mobile Campus, a service that allows local businesses to send exclusive coupons to members via cell phones.

Emobile Selects InnoPath's Mobile Management Solution
InnoPath's iMDM Carrier Suite is a single, integrated platform managing the complete lifecycle of a handset. Emobile will be deploying InnoPath's Firmware Manager facilitating software and firmware updates and offering its Configuration Manager enabling remote configuration of settings and new services. "InnoPath's solution provides us with the platform we require to effectively manage the growing complexity of software applications and mobile data services delivered to subscribers' handsets," said President and COO, Haruo Taneno of Emobile, in a statement.

Getting in Touch
The CMO Council's Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience has released “The Global Mobile Mindset Audit: Taking the Pulse of the Global Mobile User,” a study that surveyed more than 14,000 mobile users in 37 countries about issues affecting their mobile experiences. We've broken out some select audit data below covering mobile device ownership and the myriad pains and annoyances respondents face when buying or using a mobile device.

Data Breaches And SOX: Where Your Worries Are
In January, retailer TJX Cos. joined the long list of businesses tarred and embarrassed by losing sensitive customer information. One mildly consoling thought for compliance executives: loss of customer data doesn't really harm the integrity of financial statements, so a breach doesn't necessarily plunge you into Sarbanes-Oxley difficulties. Or does it? "The SOX implications of this bill are that if the financial impact of the loss has a material effect on the financial condition of the company, it must be reported," says Marie Patterson, vice president of market strategy for AXS-One, a records compliance-management business.

Mobile Content Usage is Higher in Developing Countries
Mobile users in developing countries are more interested in mobile content and services than other countries, reports ClickZ. That shouldn't be too surprising to anyone, but there are some figures. The article cites the Global Mobile Mindset Audit run by Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience, which revealed that 63.5 percent of people in Latin America want to access the internet on their mobile phones-In Asia that figure is 56.4 percent, in Eastern Europe it's 53.9 percent, in Western Europe it's 30.4 percent and in the US it's only 22.6 percent.

Data-driven decisions: The View from the dashboard
In today's environment of abundant data, it might be assumed that data-driven decisions are the norm. However, a recent survey of corporate decision-makers, conducted by the Business Performance Management (BPM) Forum, indicated that only 26 percent of the organizations had a well-established, formal process for making decisions. In addition, only 40 percent of the respondents had a high level of confidence in their organization's current process for making decisions.

CMO Council to Launch Middle East North Africa (MENA) Chapter at the World CEO Forum 6th-8th
The launch will be officially announced and inaugurated at the 2nd World CEO Forum, being held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, March 6-8, 2007. 'With a high-profile presence in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, the CMO Council's expansion into the Middle East is fitting given the region's extraordinary economic and technological boom and mirrors the strategic importance of Dubai and Abu Dhabi as powerful cogs in an emerging global economic engine,' says Donovan Neale-May, the executive director of CMO Council.

Accountability, Performance Top Priorities for Marketers in 2007
Today’s marketers look at measurement, improved efficiencies and customer knowledge as top challenges according to the 2007 Marketing Outlook survey, released earlier this month by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council. In addition, marketers plan on making further changes to upgrade organizational effectiveness, strengthen customer engagement and achieve even greater measurability.

Reaching Students and Faculty Through Their Phones
Mobile Campus is a text-messaging service that allows college administrators, school clubs -- and marketers -- to reach students and faculty through their phones. Mobile Campus has 30,000 subscribers, and its goal is to reach a half million students at 100 schools within a year. It sends a maximum of two unique discount offers daily, which are redeemable by showing the text messages to a clerk. Mobile Campus charges 19 cents to 50 cents per message sent, depending on the number of schools involved in the promotion. CEO George Tingo said he'll charge higher rates for more specific targeting. Under a revenue-sharing model, Mobile Campus pays the school $1 per student signed up; after that, 5% of gross revenue.

Mobile Study Says Web Trumps Family
An extensive global study of mobile phone users involving some 15,000 respondents in 37 countries indicates both problems and opportunities for marketers of next-generation devices, said Dave Murray, director of the CMO Council's Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience. The CMO Council's Global Mobile Mindset Audit, conducted by Global Market Insite and sponsored by Palm, was delivered at a conference in Barcelona, Spain Feb. 12. The full report will be available in March, Murray said.

Mobile Study Says Web Trumps Family
An extensive global study of mobile phone users involving some 15,000 respondents in 37 countries indicates both problems and opportunities for marketers of next-generation devices, said Dave Murray, director of the CMO Council's Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience. The CMO Council's Global Mobile Mindset Audit, conducted by Global Market Insite and sponsored by Palm, was delivered at a conference in Barcelona, Spain Feb. 12. The full report will be available in March, Murray said.

Mobile Study Says Web Trumps Family
An extensive global study of mobile phone users involving some 15,000 respondents in 37 countries indicates both problems and opportunities for marketers of next-generation devices, said Dave Murray, director of the CMO Council's Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience. The CMO Council's Global Mobile Mindset Audit, conducted by Global Market Insite and sponsored by Palm, was delivered at a conference in Barcelona, Spain Feb. 12. The full report will be available in March, Murray said.

Podcast: Postini: The Future of Email Threats and the Coming Dangers of Web 2.0
Peter Schooff speaks with Dan Druker, Executive Vice President of Postini, about current and future threats against email and the internet.
Download Podcast >>

Spambusters: War on Unsolicited Email
Although it lacks the headline impact of the various forms of nakedly malicious cyber crime such as hacking, phishing, identity theft, worms, viruses and denial of service attacks, spam is fast changing its status from that of on-line nuisance to major global menace.

Data Center Battles the Power Bill with Help From Uptime
Does the Planet use the Tier Rating system? Lowenberg: We take their standards and build to them. [The Uptime Institute] points out any shortcomings; makes suggestions to make things cheaper or easier. We follow their best practices, but we are not certified by them. It is a very time consuming process. All of our data centers are built to a Tier II standard. We've got a lot of redundancy in our power, generators and cooling in all of our facilities. At our Houston data centers, which we've had since late 2000, there has not been any facility-wide downtime

Angles & Dropshots
Unquestionably, WristAssist helped lock my wrist in to a place and helped me accelerate through the ball. It’s probably best worth deploying on a ball machine and grooving a stroke.  

Wireless Customers Don’t Like Too Many Features
A Milestone CMO Council/GMI Study, published earlier this week, found the number one problem reported by users globally is phones have too many features that consumers don't use. The survey included 15,000 consumers in 37 countries. Instead of features, it seems consumers would rather see improvements regarding their retail experience, including more knowledgeable sales associates and faster service.

Toshiba Selects Innopath
InnoPath Software, the industry leader in Integrated Mobile Device Management (iMDM), has been selected by Toshiba Corporation to deliver its device management system on the 2007 spring handset models including SoftBank 812T, 813T, and 911T. The solution has also been deployed on the SoftBank 810T, 811T, and 910T models, which have been available on the market since last year. InnoPath's solution allows for easy and fast software updates to handsets using over-the-air technology.

InnoPath Enhances its Mobile Device Management Suite
InnoPath Software announced a number of enhancements to its Integrated Mobile Device Management (iMDM) server and client suites, which enable seamless updates from the carrier to mobile phones. The new applications add to InnoPath’s firmware, configuration, diagnostics, and security management capabilities across single or multiple operational domains serving both the consumer and business markets.

Software is a Business System
Beachwood, Ohio-based TOA Technologies can help you do this for a piece of your business: your road warriors. If you have an install team, a bucket truck, or a delivery van, TOA Technologies' ETAdirect 3.0 can help you keep track of where your people are and what they're doing. The company calls its product a "service delivery hub."

San Jose Goes Green to Lure Clean Tech Companies
San Jose touts its green building initiatives - it opened the world's first LEED Leadership in Environmental Design) certified public library - and cites local companies' efforts to fight global warming. Software maker Adobe's downtown San Jose headquarters, for instance, has been rated the greenest corporate building in the United States. And it probably doesn't hurt that Al Gore drops in now and again to meet with area tech leaders. Green tech companies, says Krutko, are "looking at communities that have an approach to sustainability. It is very much a competitive advantage in having a community that really gets it in dealing with the global issues we’re facing in terms of climate change and global warming." A point validated last week by oil company BP (BP) when it chose to locate a $500 million biofuels research center at UC Berkeley, in part, because of California's leading-edge efforts to fight global warming.

A Telephony Podcast: Global Mobile Mindset Audit
Telephony's Dan O'Shea talks with Dave Murray from the CMO Council about the group's recent survey of 14,000 mobile users in 37 countries, and what the results could mean for the mobile industry at large.
Listen to Podcast >>

The Planet’s New Reseller Program
Earlier this month, Houston, Tex.-based webhost The Planet launched a PR blitz to announce that after merging The Planet and EV1Servers, the newly massive webhost had chosen to use the name The Planet. The company claims to run "one of the world's fastest networks at 100 Gigabits per seconds." It says it has over 40,000 servers. It also claims 22,000 customers with 2.8 million websites, accounting for "approximately two percent of all U.S. Internet traffic."

PGP: Encryption Everywhere
PGP Corporation is the current corporate residency of Zimmerman and many of the original developers. Corporate deployment of PGP Corp’s products is strong: they’re used by over 94 percent of the Fortune 100. One attraction of PGP’s public/private key encryption was the wide accessibility of key servers; minimal effort was required to exchange or verify a message. That’s okay for personal use, but enterprises want to shoulder the identity issues by issuing their own credentials and running their own key servers. PGP’s central key management is very mature and integrates well with directory systems such as Active Directory or LDAP. Leveraging that central administration across multiple uses makes rollout and operation far more efficient in large deployments.

The Wrist Assist
The WristAssist ($69.95) from SquareHit Tennis is a wrist support system that helps players place the racquet and wrist in an optimum position throughout the hitting zone. Here’s how it works: Velcro straps help fasten a lightweight plastic bracelet to your wrist to keep it firm. Then attach the hooks on the Y-shaped string to the racquet to keep it in the proper position. The string has an elastomer (stretchable material) built-in to allow for a full and comfortable follow through.

SquareHit Tennis
SquareHit Tennis, the leading developer of innovative tennis training equipment, introduces WristAssist ™, a new tennis-training aid that improves a player’s tennis strokes by enabling them to truly experience what a correct tennis stroke should feel like. This training tool fits comfortably on the wrist and attaches to the tennis racquets allowing a stable, solid and confidence-building connection between the player and racquet. The player’s wrist is then in the correct “laid back” position to consistently square the racquet face to and through the ball during impact. The WristAssist sells for $69.95.

There's Hope in the Drug Pipeline
No one is truly happy with the current crop of drugs approved in the United States for the treatment of Alzheimer's. Their names–Aricept, Cognex, Exelon, Razadyne, and Namenda–are familiar to anyone who cares for a dementia patient.

Neuro-Hitech expands Alzheimer's Trial
The trial will be expanded by 30 to 60 participants, an increase of up to 40% from the number originally planned. The company also has earmarked an additional $2 million in funding for the study. Neuro-Hitech has already completed two phase I studies and reached the original enrollment goal of 150 patients in the phase II trials of Huperzine A.

Wrist Assist To The Rescue
WritsAssist ™ from SquareHit Tennis is a wrist-support system that helps players place the racket and wrist in an optimum position throughout the "hitting zone". The product is designed to help improve a range of shots, from the basic forehand to two-handed backhand ground strokes.

Wrist Assit New Training Aid
The wristAssist is the first and only product on the market that allows players of all levels to "train their brain" by creating the optimum grooved swing path to hit solid crisp forehands, two-handed backhands, and forehand and backhand volleys.

WristAssist Lock In Volleys New training tool works well with some ground strokes
The WristAssist is a lock. This new stroke aid enables tennis players to keep a solid wrist position while practicing strokes and locking into the correct position. The $69.95 product emulates the plethora of golf swing aids that help golfers maintain a correct swing and build muscle memory. You strap WristAssist around your hitting wrist, attach your racket with a string and pair of hooks and then adjust the string length to your stroke. Then you hit away...

McAfee Buys Search-Warning SiteAdvisor
McAfee announced Wednesday that it had acquired Boston-based SiteAdvisor to add complementary defenses for customers surfing the Internet. Early last month, the privately-held SiteAdvisor launched free Internet Explorer and Firefox plug-ins that reveal dangerous Web sites listed by popular search engines, including Google, MSN, and Yahoo, before users click on a link...

McAfee Acquires SiteAdvisor
Security vendor McAfee has announced plans to acquire SiteAdvisor. I can't say I'm surprised; SiteAdvisor is one of the most innovative consumer-focused services I've seen. SiteAdvisor assigns safety ratings to links displayed in Google and Yahoo searches, enabling consumers to determine whether a site is safe to visit. The SiteAdvisor toolbar also displays safety ratings for any site visited, alerting users to potential problems with that site. According to Chris Dixon, CEO of SiteAdvisor, McAfee plans to continue offering SiteAdvisor free of charge for personal home use. This is good news indeed.

Amy Jo Gladstone's Chic, Comfortable Slippers Elevate the Status of a Staple
Jewelry-turned-slipper designer Amy Jo Gladstone has long made comfort and fashion equal priorities in her eponymous line. From plush spa styles to sexy kittem-heel slides, Gladstone's collection of indoor and outdoor footwear takes pampering to another level- and another price point- as her signature collection, introduced in 1994, retails for as much as $220. With an eye toward more moderate consumers, Gladstone is launching a more affordable comparison line this fall under the Amy label. "It's the same taste level," said Gladstone of the line, which is designed for main floor, department store distribution. "I saw a wonderful opportunity. No one can compete in terms of styling."...

Pamper Your Feet, Feel Beautiful All Over
...Designer Amy Jo Gladstone has made this happen. She designs women’s footwear ranging from slippers to dressy shoes and everything in between. Slip into these shoes, and you will be stepping into both comfort and style. Amy’s line will keep you on your toes and wanting to stay there. You can check out her collection of custom confections at www.amyjogladstone.com. You won’t have to live on a shoestring budget to afford these stylish comfort shoes, either. These fashionable lines are great on your wallet as well. ...

With Online Leads, Quality is Everything
...One of the factors that made it easy for Wright to choose Reply! is the month-to-month contract he’s signed. Wright purchases four leads per month and explains that “all you have to sell is one house to pay for the cost of a year’s worth of leads.” According to Wright, the quality of the leads he receives from Reply! is top-notch. “Three out of four leads are very good leads—people who are actually interested in buying a home and are realistic in knowing what it takes to buy a home,” he says. By “realistic,” Wright means those who are ready to spend between $350,000 and $400,000 to purchase a house or a condominium, the minimum price points in the pricey Southern California marketplace...

Editor's List
Amy Joe Gladstone Slippers My dad used to work on Sunday nights, so as a kid, I'd crawl up into my parents bed at the end of the weekend, and fall fast asleep amidst a sea of feather pillows, high thread-count sheets, and best of all -- my mom. For some reason, she always rubbed her feet together to fall asleep, so naturally, I began to do the same. Now, 20-something years later, I can't get a good night's slumber without givin' the tootsies a good rub. So this year, to honor of my mother, my bestest friend in the whole wide world, I'm giving those fabulous feet of hers a comfy treat. After all, they're the ones who inspired peaceful dozes and sweet dreams night after night. Shoe designer Amy Jo Gladstone not only makes slippers with ones feet in mind -- but their souls, too! Stylish suede on the outside, and heavenly Shearling on the inside, these slippers truly are for royals only, which explains why my mother deserves to wear 'em like Cinderella did her glass. Now if only I could get her that horse drawn carriage... -- Sara

For the Shoe-Crazy Mom
So she's got a closetful of vintage shoes, trendy Choos and Blahniks and still can't resist adding to her collection? Surprise her with these luxurious shearling slippers fro the Amy Jo Gladstone collection. They're a much-needed respite for any woman's stiletto-tired tootsies. Mom will love sinking her feet into these for some end-of-day pampering.

This Week's Must Have
Busy moms need comfortable shoes. A mother of two, Amy Jo Gladstone understands the challenges that today’s busy moms face and has designed slippers, sandals and shoes that are more than just comfy—they're fashionable. Amy’s footwear, which includes flats and 1-inch kitten-heeled shoes, has plenty of cushioning that helps soften the pressure on your tired, achy feet. Pamper yourself with something you need—cozy, stylish footwear.

bridesmade with love
Treat your bridesmaids and their tootsies to a fun surprise with a pair of plush slippers to change into at the reception. Place a pair at each bridesmaid's seat. After the pictures and the formality, let them kick off their heels and cut up the rug in these amazingly beautiful slippers. Check out the entire “spa collection” filled with comfy, gorgeous shoes… “Like teddy bears for the sole.” These slippers are so fabulous that you will want to show them off to every guest at the wedding. Your bridesmaids and their feet will thank you at midnight ...

Virtual Lead Phenomenon Makes Consumers Want to Reply
Payam Zamani, the young, successful Internet entrepreneur who founded AutoWeb.com (the precursor of Autobytel.com), believed that consumers would follow that same trend when seeking a real estate professional, when he founded Reply!com two years ago.
His idea is proving fruitful. Formerly called Next Phase Media, the Walnut Creek, California-based Reply!, Inc. is an online lead generation company that matches consumers with all things home-everything from real estate professionals to cars to insurance, home loans, improvements and moving assistance-can be accessed through the easy-to-use site, www.reply.com....