There’s no need to water down the rave reviews of the new offering from Lifefactory.

When the company offered me a chance to try out their new reusable toxin-free glass water bottles I jumped at the chance. While adequate hydration is absolutely critical to any outdoors recreation, it means a little something extra to me since I’ve been wrestling with a chronic kidney condition for 10 years.

Simply put, without enough water in my system, I crash and burn. Monitoring my fluid levels and figuring out how to keep them high has turned me into something of a connoisseur of water bottles and hydration systems, and many of them have been a disappointment to me.  (Full Article)

Homeowners and real estate agents around the Silicon Valley are all atwitter about the upcoming Facebook IPO. Most of these individuals have no stake in the company (yet); it’s more that they’re eager to help what the New York Times calls “the legion of newly minted Facebook millionaires” – not to mention, billionaires – spend their newly acquired fortunes.

If you want to target millionaires and billionaires, how do you go about it? Can your CRM solution tell you which of your customers have suddenly come into money? Do you want — or need — to engage with newly wealthy clients differently than you have engaged them in the past? If you do want or need to engage differently, what do you need to do? Is it too late? Should you have predicated an opportunity a couple of years ago and delivered the ground rules for the right engagement levels and relationship? Finally, how do you institutionalize that change effectively so that all your employees understand how to to identify and engage with the millionaires and billionaires and potentials in an appropriate manner? (Full Article)

Press Release – InsideView

InsideView, the only social intelligence provider to reveal the person behind the contact, today announced that they have finalized a Social Intelligence Alliance whereby Microsoft will integrate InsideView’s social selling solution into Microsoft Dynamics CRM. InsideView analyzes data from social media, news, and company sources and alerts sales professionals when opportunities for relevant engagement arise. InsideView helps sales professionals reach the right person, with the right message, at the right time. InsideView provides relevant information that can dramatically improve sales results for Microsoft Dynamics CRM users.

“The integration of InsideView with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the result of the two companies’ focus on reimagining CRM to create a fantastic and productive experience by providing useful, actionable insights about customers and prospects to sales professionals,” said Dennis Michalis, General Manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  (Full Article)

The coastal-management consulting company has created a map that follows the movement of radiation in seawater since the Japanese earthquake on March 11, 2011.

(Full Article)

Press Release – InsideView

InsideView Insiders Summit Conference — InsideView, the only social selling provider to reveal the person behind the contact, today kicked off the Insiders Summit 2012 Conference amid heightened industry focus on the bottom line benefits of social business practices for customer-facing employees. Expert speakers include Kim Celestre, senior analyst from Forrester Research, Gerhard Gschwandtner, founder and CEO of Selling Power & Personal Selling, Inc., as well as experts from a variety of CRM, marketing automation, social and sales technology companies.  (Full Article)

Water bottles have evolved well past the $3 plastic variety. They can complement your sport, make sure your drinking water is safe and, of course, keep you hydrated.

Staying hydrated is serious business when you’re working out. Sure, you can just grab any old $3 plastic water bottle and go out for a run, but these days you also can buy a customized bottle that complements your sport, your music and even your hygiene requirements. Here are some of the new shapes, materials, technologies and accessories that’ll help you go with the flow.  (Full Article)

Aravo Solutions, Inc., the leading provider of cloud-based Supplier Lifecycle Management (SLM) and business social network solutions, announced the availability of Premium Memberships in Aravo Assure(TM), the industry’s first — and only — business social network with a focus on risk, performance, compliance, and sustainability. Premium members can dramatically increase their network visibility leading to new sales leads and new customers for their products and services.

Thousands of members use Aravo Assure(TM) every day to identify new suppliers that meet their specific sourcing needs. With a Premium membership, a company’s expanded profile, including all detailed product and services information, is prominently displayed in the Buyer’s search results. Compared to a basic membership, which only returns a company name and description, Premium membership allows members to highlight and showcase their product and service offerings to buyers when they are actively interested in buying. The result for Premium members is more inquiries, more connections and more new customers.  (Full Article)

Anyone remember Linden Lab? How about its game, Second Life? Well, it was the talk of the middle of the last decade (and winner of a 2008 Emmy award), and it’s making moves again. It’s just announced the acquisition of interactive fiction game studio LittleTextPeople.

What this means is that Linden Lab is now able to diversify its gaming offerings, using LittleTextPeople to support that development effort.

“LittleTextPeople brings a depth and breadth of AI and interactive story development expertise that is a great fit for Linden Lab as we launch multiple new products,” said Rod Humble, Linden Lab’s relatively new CEO. “The result of this investment will be a new type of digital entertainment that modernizes the novel as a shared story-telling experience.”  (Full Article)

Three companies are highlighting their sustainability initiatives at the 2012 Grammy Awards. With over 26 million watchers expected, the Grammys will have one headline commercial that will garner the most attention: Chipotle’s “Back to the Start” ad with Willie Nelson singing Coldplay’s “The Scientist.”

The animated ad promotes a sustainable family-farming model in contrast to large commercial food production processes. Chipotle is the only fast food chain that promotes the use of food with integrity: a commitment to use the very best ingredients (organic and locally grown whenever possible) raised with respect to the animals, the environment and the farmers. Proceeds from those who download the video soundtrack benefit the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation.  (Full Article)

Aravo Solutions, Inc., the leading provider of cloud-based Supplier Lifecycle Management (SLM) and B2B information and collaboration solutions, today announced it has surpassed the 1.8 million active suppliers mark using its flagship Aravo Enterprise SLM solution.

Aravo launched the market’s first Supplier Information Management (SIM) solution in 2004 and has been the leading innovator in the space ever since. With global customers including GE and Cisco Systems, Aravo continues to dominate the worldwide market for SIM and now SLM solutions. By transforming their process and technology landscape using Aravo’s technology, clients reduce supplier management costs by up to 72%, avoid supply chain disruptions by proactively managing supplier risk, and accelerate time-to-market through optimized supplier discovery and performance management.  (Full Article)