Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Join Reside at Dreamforce 2010

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Reside invites you to join us at Dreamforce:
The Cloud Computing Event of the Year
December 6-9, 2010 | Moscone Center | San Francisco

Save $100 USD on your registration by using Reside’s guest code: EXDRESIDE
Get more information about Dreamforce or register to attend.

Visit Reside at expo booth #927 to talk with our Cloud and Force.com experts and register to win prizes!

Business as we know it is changing. Are you ready?

Digital disruption. Social media. Real-time collaboration. Data convergence. Virtual teams. Agile development. Mobile everything. Cloud computing. The way we work is fundamentally changing. Some companies will adapt and grow. Others will be left behind.



Where do you go to understand the future? Learn from all-star customers? Master the cloud? For seven years, the most successful companies in the world have come to Dreamforce.



Join us at Dreamforce 2010, the cloud computing event of the year. This December 6-9, more than 20,000 fans will gather in San Francisco for our 8th annual user and developer conference.



In four action-packed days, we’ll give you all the education, inspiration, and innovation you need to succeed. There’s no better way to get up to speed on the latest advances in Salesforce apps, the Force.com platform, and cloud computing. And this year we’ll connect you with your peers and heroes in ways you’ve never thought possible.



It’s time to dream again.

Best Places to Work (2010)

Friday, August 27th, 2010

Reside is excited to announce that the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal has named our company one of the Best Places to Work for 2010!  Out of hundreds applicants, 30 small businesses were named as “Best Places to Work”, a distinction earned by being one of the top-scoring businesses on an anonymous employee survey, according to research conducted by Quantum Workplace and the Business Journal.

Among the 30 small businesses honored, Reside was rated #4! 

We celebrated the honor at the August 26th award luncheon, where our entire team accepted the award on-stage.  Reside  previously received this award in 2008.  Huge thanks to our employees, who make Reside the great company that it is!  And congratulations to all the other honorees!

Congratulations to Matt Meents - 2010 Young Entrepreneur Honoree

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

young-entre-image1Last night, the Minneapolis-St.Paul Business Journal awarded nine of the state’s most deserving Young Entrepreneurs. Amongst the nine individuals was Reside’s very own CEO, Matt Meents. Reside is very excited and proud to celebrate Matt’s strong leadership and accomplisment. Below is the article from the Minneapolis-St.Paul Business Journal. 

Matt Meents left  Carlson Marketing to launch Web-services firm  Reside in March of 2001, roughly a year after the dot-com bubble burst, and a few months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

It was a tough time to get a tech company up and running, said Meents, adding that he and co-founder Eric Scheel fought hard for each customer during the company’s infancy. Despite a rocky start, Reside not only survived under Meents’ leadership, it grew.

The company, which offers a mix of technology and marketing services, now has about 30 employees and generated roughly $2.7 million in revenue last year. Meents expects sales will grow to about $4 million by the end of 2010. Over the past nine years, Reside also has landed several big-name clients, including  AMC Entertainment Inc. Häagen-Dazs and Fridley-based  Medtronic Inc.

When Meents, 34, was working for Carlson Marketing, a family friend asked him to build a Web application. He roped Sheel, who also worked at Carlson, into the project and the pair soon decided to launch Reside. “We looked at the business model and thought there’s probably huge demand for this type of development.”

The startup’s first two clients came from the real estate industry, and the company’s name was initially an acronym that stood for Real Estate Software Information Database Experts. However, Reside soon broadened its client base and now builds Web portals that allow companies to interact with customers and clients. For instance, Reside helped Minneapolis-based  Fair Isaac Corp. develop a website for professionals who manage credit scores. Users can head to the site to share ideas, access resources and download software, Meents said.

Reside also made a splash early in 2009, when it helped then President-elect Barack Obama launch a “citizen’s briefing book” - a website that let people submit policy proposals to the incoming administration. Meents landed the deal due to Reside’s previous work with  Starbucks Corp. Obama’s campaign team had seen a Reside-developed site that allowed customers to offer suggestions to Starbucks.

Reside remained a “virtual” company, with no official bricks-and-mortars headquarters, for its first four years. As the company has grown, Meents has taken pride in developing a strong company culture. The company’s mantra is “Rockin’,” which Meents defines as working together for culture, clients and community.

“Culture is about having great people here who all have shared values and vision,” Meents said. “It’s also about listening, innovating, building and maintaining trust, and responding with a sense of urgency.”

Reside, now based in St. Louis Park, also is active in the Twin Cities community and works with several local charity organizations. The firm gives employees paid time off to volunteer and hosts quarterly “cocktails for a cause” events.

Meents’ strong leadership, and his ability to build a supportive company culture, is one of many reasons he’s succeeded as an entrepreneur, said Scott Litman, managing partner at Plymouth-based marketing agency Magnet 360. Litman has known Meents for three years and is both a client and investor in Reside. “He’s really passionate, sincere and energetic. He really wants the business to be great, and he wants to build it with his team.”

-Katharine Grayson, Staff Writer

Reside and Haagen-Dazs at Cloudforce 2 Today

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Join Reside and salesforce.com for the Cloudforce 2 Tour at the Hilton Minneapolis TODAY from Noon - 6:30pm.  Connect with Reside in the expo hall, and see our client - Julie Michelutti of Haagen-Dazs Shops - present on their oganization’s use of the Force.com platform for franchise management and engagement.  Event details here.

Reside’s Tina Puente is a 2010 “40 Under Forty” awardee!

Friday, March 26th, 2010

tina_headshot

We’re so proud to announce that our very own Tina Puente - Reside’s Business Development Exec - has today been awarded the honor of one of the Twin Cities’ “40 Under Forty” by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.   (See announcement here.)

This prestigious award - now in its 17th year - spotlights 40 of the region’s top young business and civic leaders.  Finalists for this award were selected from over 300 nominees, and were chosen because they demonstrate consistent, outstanding professional achievement and show a commitment to community service.  That’s our Tina!

Reside alumni of this award include Matt Meents, Reside CEO, and Gabby Matzdorff, Reside CFO.

Want to share your congratulations with Tina?  Give her a shout-out at tpuente@reside.biz.

Reside helps launch UK Telegraph Daily’s crowd-sourcing web site

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

logo_telegraph_co_uk_sm1Yesterday (3.23.10) UK Telegraph Daily, one of the UK’s leading newspapers, and Salesforce.com in partnership with Reside, officially launched a crowd-sourcing web site, to source public opinion during the UK Election. The web site, referred to as Debate2010, was developed entirely on Salesforce Ideas and public Sites platform in only 6 weeks’ time.

The project is similar in scope and nature to the “Citizen’s Briefing Book” ideas portal that Reside launched for the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team in 2009.

Since yesterday, the site has gained much praise, including comments from David Bradshaw, research manager at IDC, “This is an excellent example of how cloud-based technology can reshape the debate and help to engage public opinion. It could also re-shape the nature of political debate moving forward.”

telegraph_multi_ssExplore the community yourself. Debate2010 can be found at www.Debate2010.co.uk

Looking for more press coverage on the Debate2010 community? Lots of Twitter and press coverage already, including:

Largest opinion forum launches pre-election
The Independent, March 23

Telegraph launches crowd-source election site
Computer Business Review, March 23

Telegraph uses Salesforce.com to get real-time opinion polls in run up to General Election
Computer Weekly, March 23

Telegraph launches crowdsourced debate site for general election
Journalism.co.uk, March 23

Vox populi: Salesforce.com teams up with Torygraph for open election debate
CIO, March 23

Telegraph launches social media campaign for Election talk
New Media Age, March 23

Telegraph launches cloud-based election forum
Computing, March 23

Salesforce takes election debates into the cloud
V3, March 23

Telegraph launches cloud-based election forum
Yahoo, March 23 

Introducing Debate2010
The Telegraph, March 23

General Election 2010: What The Crowd Thinks
Fresh Business Thinking, March 23

Telegraph launches cloud-based election forum
Computing, March 23

Blog Coverage
Telegraph launches Debate2010
Online Journalism Blog, March 23

Debate 2010 – The Telegraph
Joanne Jacobs (blog), March 23

Gimmick to win it? Telegraph goes crowdsourcing for election hot topics
The Media Blog, March 23

Telegraph Launches Debate2010 Community Discussion Site
One Man and His Blog, March 23

Telegraph launches cloud-based election forum
Dominic Fallows, March 23

Salesforce.com and Telegraph Media Group launch Debate2010
Software Report Europe, March 23

Bloggers Flock to New Telegraph Real-time Opinion Poll
London Spin Online, March 23

Telegraph launches cloud-based election forum – Computing
Rock’s Blog Spot, March 23

Continue to follow the news on this crowd-sourcing web site:

Follow Debate2010 on Twitter @debate2010 and join the debate with #debate2010

What is Social CRM (SCRM)?

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

People have always talked about their customer experiences.   But the speed of the Web and the reach of social media tools have exponentially changed the timing and impact of this sharing.  Traditional CRM strategies and tools have not kept pace with business’ need to respond to the customer’s control of the conversation.  It was this need - to engage with and respond to customers within the context of this real-time dialogue - that gave birth to the concept and practice of Social CRM (or SCRM).  Which means what, exactly?

As with any emerging term, SCRM has been defined in a number of ways by a number of “experts”.  I personally like the definition provided by author and blogger, Paul Greenberg.  I’ll post his short definition here, but I encourage you to check out his full definition and description here.

To quote Mr. Greenberg:

“SCRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes & social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.”

As for how this relates to Reside and our clients, allow me to reference another quote by Mr. Greenberg, from the same post, as he summarizes what the “Big Idea” is behind SCRM:

[Through SCRM] the customer is afforded the ability to co-create by the company. What that means is not all that pat. It can mean anything from customers and the company collaborating on product development, to customer suggestions on how to improve a company process, to customers helping other customers solve customer service issues… . Co-creation is the ability of the company and customer to create additional value for each other - what form it takes is not always THE BIG THING.  But co-creation, mutually derived value, is at the core of SCRM (emphasis mine).

Reside is helping our clients apply the principles and tools of SCRM every day as we work with them to implement Idea Portals, Customer Service Portals and Online Communities.  These solutions give the customer a voice and a “spot at the table” in terms of influencing the business brand.  And smart businesses know that happy customers share those experiences.  And that’s how you grow a business - at the speed of the Social Web.

Reside - Force.com Forty Innovation Showcase Finalist

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Reside received great news from Salesforce last week; we were announced as one of the Force.com Forty Innovation Showcase finalists. In October, Mario Fantauzzi and I traveled to San Francisco to present Reside’s work on FICO’s first-of-its-kind B2B online community in front of a panel of Force.com experts. Reside’s ability to think of innovative cloud solutions to meet FICO’s needs won not only FICO’s business, but the judges respect as well. With the help of the expert team at Reside, we integrated five different cloud services (SaaS applications) into one website, while keeping the look and feel of the brand consistent, making FICO’s Decision Management Community one of the most innovative cloud solutions of the time. This solution enables clients and prospects to effectively collaborate, while capturing and managing the ideas of members. The community also acts as a discussion forum and research center for the users. We are thrilled to be among this elite group of innovators, and are excited to be at Dreamforce this year when the winner is announced! Visit www.reside.biz/dreamforce09 to learn more about the event and where to find us.

Learn more about the innovative solution – Read the FICO Case Study or view a screencast of FICO’s Decision Management Community.

Reside Rocks the TEKNE Awards

Monday, November 9th, 2009

 Reside’s support of the high tech industry included being a Platinum Sponsor at the 2009 Tekne Awards held in late October. The event was inspiring, a great chance to see some of Minnesota’s most cutting-edge companies and products. I was also impressed by the talented students who were chosen as scholarship finalists. I wanted to share this video clip of Reside’s Matt Johnson (MJ) being interviewed on site at Tekne.

 http://www.vimeo.com/7420498

Reside looks forward to continuing to support the Minnesota High Tech Association and the Tekne Awards

2009 Tekne Awards

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Congratulations to the 2009 Tekne Award recipients and scholarship winners! Last Thursday, Reside was a proud platinum sponsor of the Minnesota High Tech Association’s (MHTA) Tekne Awards. Don Mink, Reside’s Practice Director of Technical Services, did a great job presenting an award category, while the ceremony’s MC, John Sweeney of Brave New Workshop, provided comic relief throughout the night. The awards show brought Minnesota’s business, technology and political leaders together on this special evening to celebrate technology innovation in Minnesota. It was amazing to see the innovative solutions these deserving finalists have established within their companies. Among the companies at the ceremony, a few of the winners include:

 

VAST Enterprises, based in Minneapolis, won the cleantech award, Ecolab won the green category award, and Starkey Laboratories Inc. won a medical technology award for their new S2 line of hearing aids.

 

For more Tekne Award winners, read the article from Minneapolis-St.Paul Business Journal. Thanks to everyone at MHTA that made this night possible. Stay tuned for more information regarding the 2010 Tekne Awards.