“Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.”

It’s a quote that embodies many of the same core values we hold near and dear at 360 Vantage: that the holidays are about giving from the heart and delivering an exceptional experience for the people you care the most about. For us, that’s our amazing team and their incredibly supportive families, our phenomenal customers, loyal partners, and everyone who gives so much of their time and energy at ICAN to make a difference in so many lives.

ICAN is a Chandler-based non-profit that provides positive programs for youth and their families, and a tremendous organization that we’ve been proud to support since our inception.

Every year our entire team gathers together to go on a team shopping trip to buy holiday gifts for ICAN families. This year we donated $360 per family, and purchased and wrapped a room full of gifts. It’s a great time for building deeper bonds among the 360 team, and most importantly, reminding us all that the spirit of the holiday season is about giving back to those in need.

This season — no matter which holiday you celebrate — we encourage you to find time to reflect on what’s truly important in life, to be thankful no matter what your circumstance, and to find a way to give back any way you can — big or small.

You can also give a year-end, tax deductible donation to ICAN to help this incredible organization.

On behalf of 360 Vantage, best wishes for a safe, happy and healthy holiday season, and a prosperous new year!

Cheers, 

—Mario

In response to increased client demand for the company’s existing CRM and CLM apps, this latest enhancement lets customers seamlessly access and use functionality from both apps through a single interface on the iPad. Both products are also available as individual offerings on the iPad as well as other platforms.

The integrated solution helps sales reps be more proactive in pre-call planning, more responsive to customers, and have more effective interactions while in front of physicians and end customers. The solution also brings new efficiencies to the business with mobile access to the data, while giving management an integrated view of business performance.

Marketing teams are able to wirelessly deploy and manage digital assets, more easily support compliance requirements and access analytics to measure the effectiveness of the messaging strategy across all sales aids and assets.

As native applications for Salesforce.com built on the Force.com platform, both apps are specifically designed to help sales, marketing and management be just as effective and efficient from a mobile device as they are from the desk.

About 360 Vantage^®
Established in 2005 and headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, 360 Vantage^® is a leader in sales and marketing technology solutions designed to solve the unique challenges of the Life Sciences industry and the mobile workforce . The company offers a full suite of professional and managed services in addition to its 360 CRM™, 360 CLM™, eLearning and compliance solutions, implemented in record time and with unparalleled user adoption rates. Solutions are designed to empower the business with anytime, anywhere access to integrated customer and market information – from any device – giving the organization a distinct competitive advantage. The company CEO and co-founder, Mario Martinez II, is a Life Sciences, sales and marketing technology veteran and can be found on the company blog, Twitter @360Vantage or @360CEO, LinkedIn, and Facebook. For more information, visit www.360vantage.com.

# # #

We’re also excited to announce 360 Vantage as a 2011 Fast Lane Honoree, among 17 other successful companies who received this unique recognition. Companies in the Fast Lane category were recognized for their achievements in advancing the speed, flexibility and progress of the biotech industry… to help them move forward faster. Our congratulations to all winners from the evening’s event, which you can read more about in the Phoenix Business Journal.

We look forward to supporting these companies and the industry in our quest to help them find new ways to leverage the cloud and mobile technologies to streamline the R&D process and bring new efficiencies to their commercial operations.

Cheers,

The 360 CRM™ app is built on Salesforce.com and the Force.com platform, and designed to simplify and accelerate the unique business processes of the sales and marketing teams. Businesses with more complex sales cycles and regulatory environments benefit from cloud and mobile solutions to help streamline workflows, improve time to market and lower their total cost of ownership as compared to legacy systems.

360 CRM Key Product Features:

• Real-time access to customer and account data
• Wireless, background data synchronization
• Electronic signature capture
• Integration with back office systems
• Territory and route management with integrated Google Maps
• Analytics and dashboard reporting

Clients that have already implemented 360 CRM are able to offer more device options to their user bases with this latest update, and new clients that are pre-implementation can offer more flexibility in device choice as the system is rolled out.

The company expects to make its closed loop marketing app, 360 CLM™, available on the new platform near the end of Q3, 2011.

About 360 Vantage^®
Established in 2005 and headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, 360 Vantage^® is a leader in sales and marketing technology solutions designed to solve the unique challenges of the Life Sciences industry and the mobile workforce . The company offers a full suite of professional and managed services in addition to its 360 CRM™, 360 CLM™, eLearning and compliance solutions, implemented in record time and with unparalleled user adoption rates. Solutions are designed to empower the business with anytime, anywhere access to integrated customer and market information – from any device – giving the organization a distinct competitive advantage. The company CEO and co-founder, Mario Martinez II, is a Life Sciences, sales and marketing technology veteran and can be found on the company blog, Twitter @360Vantage or @360CEO, LinkedIn, and Facebook. For more information, visit www.360vantage.com.

# # #

(Chandler, Arizona. April 6, 2011) – 360 Vantage^®, a leader in sales and marketing productivity solutions for the Life Sciences industry, today announced an agreement to expand their partnership with salesforce.com to include a Value Added Reseller (VAR) relationship, opening up their market to sell and deliver highly customized solutions to pharmaceutical and other Life Sciences companies. 360 Vantage is also a salesforce.com ISV and consulting partner.

As a salesforce.com VAR, 360 Vantage will be able to resell and design tailored Salesforce.com CRM solutions as well as custom applications built on Force.com, the leading enterprise cloud computing platform. This provides clients with the flexibility and power of anytime, anywhere access to customer and account data from any mobile device, including smart-phones, tablet PCs and the Apple® iPad™.

360 Vantage clients benefit from a custom system from a single vendor, simplifying their CRM implementation, lowering their total cost of ownership, and ensuring the system meets their unique business processes and field sales requirements.

“We are pleased to expand our alignment with salesforce.com,” said Mario Martinez II, CEO and Co-Founder of 360 Vantage. “We look forward to helping customers leverage their investments in cloud computing and the latest mobile technologies to uncover new competitive advantages in their industry.”

Key Product Features

• 360 CRM™ offers significant productivity gains for Life Sciences sales teams with real-time access to customer and account data from any mobile device including smart-phone, PDA, tablet PC, Apple iPad or laptop.
• Key features designed specifically for Life Sciences organizations that enhance compliance and reduce administrative burden including Samples Distribution and Management, Signature Capture and Physician Aggregate Spend Tracking.
• Accurate, real-time information that helps management view events as they are happening, measure success and quickly plan and adjust based on evolving market conditions.
• 360 CRM™ allows sales reps to manage their territory and routes with a direct integration to Google Maps – helping them maximize their account planning.
• Sales managers can track specific call and prescriber interactions and gain a 360-degree view into each account, including territory and national-level rollup views through simple, real-time reporting and dashboards.

About 360 Vantage^®

Established in 2005 and headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, 360 Vantage^® is a leader in cloud-based sales and marketing productivity solutions designed to solve the unique challenges of the Life Sciences industry. The company offers a full suite of professional and managed services in addition to its 360 CRM™, 360 CLM™, and compliance solutions, implemented in record time and with unparalleled user adoption rates. Solutions are designed to empower the mobile sales force and marketing teams with anytime, anywhere access to integrated customer and market information – from any device – giving the organization a distinct competitive advantage. The company CEO and co-founder, Mario Martinez II, is a Life Sciences sales and marketing technology veteran and can be found on the company blog, Twitter @360Vantage or @360CEO, LinkedIn, and Facebook. For more information, visit www.360vantage.com.

# # #

It’s Time to Celebrate, to Say “Thank You,” and to Give Back

As we celebrate 360 Vantage’s 5 year anniversary, there’s no better time to say ‘thank you’ to all of the people that have had an impact on our success, and to give back to the community that has supported us along the way.  That’s why we ask everyone to join us in supporting a local non-profit that we’ve embraced and are proud to be connected to: ICAN of Chandler, Arizona.

ICAN impacts the lives of Chandler families in remarkable ways, and can do even more with your help.  On Saturday, March 26th, we teamed up with ICAN and the San Tan Sun for their annual Family Fun Run & 5k Event at Tumbleweed Park in Chandler, Arizona. The event was a huge success and a lot of fun for the entire family. Congrats to all who ran the race – it was a fantastic day for it.

From everyone at 360 Vantage, THANK YOU to everyone who donated online or joined us at the event!

It’s Never Too Late to Help ICAN

The event is over, but ICAN still needs your help in time and donations to raise awareness for their amazing cause, and to help them with the building a new computer lab where their families can learn and connect online.  You can continue to donate online  through 360 Vantage through April 30, 2011 — contributions of any amount are greatly appreciated!

As we plan this worthwhile celebration with our team and ICAN, I’ve been reflecting back on our history, and some of the remarkable milestones that have gotten us this far.  We started with 2 people supporting a single client, to a 50-person organization with a long list of amazing clients, and a global, “rock star” technology and delivery team that literally makes history with every single project. We continue to deliver cloud-based sales and marketing solutions for the Life Sciences sector in record time, with precision that is second to none, and with 100% user adoption. Our clients are continually amazed at our team’s ability to bring success to life, and it’s certainly a special ingredient that has contributed to our growth and success.

The other key ingredients are our amazing team, our unique culture and our approach that takes every new project and every new client on with a ‘limitless’ mindset.  We truly believe anything is possible, and that with the cloud and advancing mobile technologies, the solutions to today’s biggest business challenges are not found by looking backwards, but only by looking forward, and thinking beyond the boundaries of what has already been done.

Sure, there are other companies that can deliver cloud and mobile solutions, clearly, but our team consistently plays a strategic role in understanding the intimate needs and nuances of our clients, their unique business processes, their systems, and their goals in such a way that ensures delivery of a 100% solution, every time. It’s a model that allows us to deliver some ‘magic’ to our clients over and over again, and it’s fully ingrained in our thought process and our culture.

So with all sincerity, I say “THANK YOU!“ to our rock star team, our amazing clients, our steadfast partners and our caring community – for 5 incredible years! As we celebrate our successes together, I look forward to creating and celebrating the successes to come with you all (and I’m sure many more!) over the next 5 years and beyond.

Cheers,

Under the new agreements, 360 Vantage will deliver its 360 CLM app as a cloud-based service by which the sales forces can present approved marketing materials directly to Prescribers via the Apple iPad. The tailored CLM systems will support both clients’ requirements for the wireless content delivery and retraction of digital marketing assets including visual aids, package inserts, formulary data, demonstration videos and reprints. 360 Vantage is working closely with both clients and their ad agencies to secure and load approved assets into the system.

“This is truly a game-changer for Life Sciences firms,” commented Mario Martinez II, CEO and co-founder of 360 Vantage. “Reps can be more responsive to individual Prescriber needs and marketers get instant market feedback on materials, maintain compliance, and still reduce production costs in the process. It’s a big win for everyone in value chain.”

The 360 CLM systems will be tailored for individual product brands, and will track detailed usage of assets through the Salesforce.com report and dashboard engine, (already in full production with the 360 CRM™ systems on the iPad as of summer 2010). The closed loop system gives reps the ability to instantly view and push approved content via email to a specific Prescriber, and provides territory- regional- and national-level metrics for all assets in the system.

Client names and terms of both deals were not disclosed as part of the legal agreements, and due to the competitive nature of the Life Sciences industry.

About 360 Vantage®
Established in 2005 and headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, 360 Vantage® is a leader in cloud-based sales and marketing productivity solutions designed to solve the unique challenges of the Life Sciences industry. The company offers a full suite of professional and managed services in addition to its 360 CRM™, 360 CLM™, and compliance solutions in record time and with unparalleled user adoption rates. Built on the Force.com platform and using the core Salesforce.com CRM app, systems are designed to empower the mobile sales force and marketing teams with anytime, anywhere access to integrated customer and market information – from any device – giving the organization a distinct competitive advantage. The company CEO and co-founder, Mario Martinez II, is a Life Sciences sales and marketing technology veteran and can be found on the company blog, Twitter @360Vantage or @360CEO, LinkedIn, and Facebook. For more information visit www.360vantage.com.

# # #

Contact: Kim Halmekangas  |  khalmekangas@360vantage.com

Under the agreement, 360 Vantage will deliver its 360 CRM® platform in addition to a full suite of professional and managed services, including tailored design, data integration, and training. The specialty pharmaceutical company selected the 360 Vantage offering over other legacy and cloud-based CRM providers based on several decision criteria, including: flexibility of the system to support the company’s current and future business processes; no required system upgrades; lower total cost of ownership; technical and process skill set of the 360 Vantage team; and the company’s track record in customer satisfaction, on-time delivery and long-term business impact.

“We’re excited to help another Life Sciences company move sales operations to the cloud,” commented Mario Martinez II, CEO and co-founder of 360 Vantage. “As pharmaceutical companies continue restructuring their business models to improve profitability and handle evolving regulatory pressures, a flexible, cloud-based system can serve as a new competitive advantage, no matter what industry challenges lie ahead.”

About 360 Vantage®

Established in 2005 and headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, 360 Vantage® is a leader in cloud-based sales and marketing productivity solutions designed to solve the unique challenges of the Life Sciences industry. The company offers a full suite of professional and managed services in addition to its 360 CRM™, 360 CLM™, and compliance solutions in record time and with unparalleled user adoption rates. Solutions are designed to empower the mobile sales force and marketing teams with anytime, anywhere access to integrated customer and market information – from any device – giving the organization a distinct competitive advantage. The company CEO and co-founder, Mario Martinez II, is a Life Sciences sales and marketing technology veteran and can be found on the company blog, Twitter @360Vantage or @360CEO, LinkedIn, and Facebook. For more information, visit www.360vantage.com.

# # #

Contact: Kim Halmekangas  |  khalmekangas@360vantage.com

Several members of the 360 Vantage team attended with a couple key objectives: learn about the latest and greatest Salesforce plans so we can continue plotting short- and long-term value roadmaps for our clients; and get some of the nitty-gritty development futures to see where Salesforce is planning to further extend its value beyond traditional CRM. There is tremendous opportunity ahead on this wave of extension, but as with all great opportunities, comes great risk. In my mind, the biggest challenge ahead for clients that pick (or are already riding) the Salesforce horse is to assess exactly how best to decode and optimize the platform, and when and where to extend its capabilities without overcomplicating the business or diluting the ROI.

And yes, Chatter is interesting and gaining momentum as users realize how to incorporate it into the work of everyday business (although some industries struggle with compliance and regulatory restrictions), so it will be interesting to see where it takes hold as a truly transformative play. We’ll be closely watching initiatives like databases.com and Herouku to see how they bring them to market, and watching the bigger picture unfold on Salesforce’s strategy for extending the brand value into functions and capabilities that are becoming 6-degrees of separation from their core.

Of all the applications we saw in session, however, I’m confident 360 Vantage is still way ahead of the pack on functionality, usability and integration. It is an exciting time though, and from every angle, we’re looking forward to helping clients figure out how to successfully navigate the Salesforce waters, independent of the mobile technology they choose.

Time for another confession: it’s been a little while since I’ve had anything to do with Windows Mobile. Years ago, I left Microsoft for BlackBerry, then I left BlackBerry for iPhone, and now I usually bounce between Google’s Nexus One or iPhone 4, depending on the latest OS update. And yes, I’m really looking forward to Gingerbread (Android’s next update) this month, but I’ll save that for another post.  What struck me most about Windows Mobile was the overtly different approach Microsoft took with this latest version. Clearly, a lot of time and effort was spent on the aesthetics and motion of the interface. Using the phone I felt like I was in the movie Gattaca, what the future of phone interfaces would have looked like from a 1997 point of view. Setup was super fast.  Connecting to Google Enterprise Apps and Social Networks was faster than iOS or Android (from my experience).  And although there is a focus on a People App (no more traditional Contacts), which offers a sort of aggregated insight into your Peoples social activities, I still found myself downloading the traditional Facebook and Twitter apps. This O is definitely geared to the social experience.

My favorite part of the OS is the data that can be displayed on the homepage via what Microsoft calls “tiles” (a quick list of information, updates, and favorite apps or people).  The screens are very responsive and I found the keyboard was easier to usethan Android, but not as easy as the iPhone. The maps function was fast and navigation was intuitive. I didn’t use the XBox Live or Zune integration, but the included Office Word and Excel apps worked fine for a mobile experience.  PDF rendered fast once I installed Adobe Reader from Marketplace.  The Marketplace requires a Windows Live ID, so I had to create one before Icould download anything.  Although I didn’t test it specifically, it seems as if Microsoft spend a good amount of time figuring out easy integration to SharePoint servers.  I think in some enterprise environments, this new OS is a good start, especially if email and SharePoint are the only major business applications.

That said, one of the challenges I think Microsoft will face is the ability to continually innovate on this platform. Convincing developers it’s worthy of their time and attention while providing a truly powerful environment that can connect outside a rigid Microsoft model is the bigger test. I see an average consumer buying one for the holiday, but not sure I see an IT organization actually rolling this out to an entire sales force in the next 12 months. We’ll see how it matures through 2011, and more importantly, monitor response from the enterprise.