InfoNow Corp., a channel data and consultant firm for vendors and manufacturers, was applauded by analyst Gartner Inc., for its Insight DQS (Data Quality Service), an application that provides market data on customers and channel partners and their performance across verticals.

Gartner called Insight DQS "the only out-of-the-box solution we know of that can deliver this capability and insight" in its September report.

Part of InfoNow's Channel Insight Solution, Insight DQS is designed to collect data from multiple sources and systems, link it according to client-specific business rules and assign unique identifiers to individual entities, thereby eliminating duplicate records and facilitating improved data management, according to product information released by the company.

The result is a single, accurate view of customers and partners that can be used to support real-time marketing, sales, partner compensation and customer service decisions, the company said.

The Channel Insight line includes channel management solutions for partner profiling and referrals, lead generation and management, and channel visibility.

The software is intended to enable companies to collect partner POS (point of sale) and inventory information to provide more timely and accurate information to vendors and manufacturers.

"Companies are struggling with establishing and maintaining an accurate, complete representation of their customers and partners across their various CRM [customer relationship management], ERP [enterprise resource planning], PRM and data warehouse systems," Mark Geene, InfoNow's executive vice president of field and client operations, said in a prepared statement accompanying the release. "Channel Insight DQS directly addresses this challenge by providing our clients with a single, accurate view of who their customers and partners are."

Insight DQS can be implemented by InfoNow as a one-time customer data cleanup or as an ongoing service.

Get more information here.

Edge Dynamics Inc. this week released Edge Dynamics 3.0, its latest channel commerce management software for enterprise companies, namely pharmaceutical manufacturers, and the first analytics platform built specifically for CCM.

Edge Dynamics 3.0 builds on Edge Dynamics' earlier solutions for market delivery by adding an analytics platform to anticipate evolving channel market dynamics; a plug-and-play SAP connection and integration scenarios; more than 50 new score-carding metrics for performance and compensation; and a comprehensive audit trail to capture the full history of channel decisions.

The CCM solution delivers insight at the point of customer demand, allowing customers to limit excess inventory and procurement costs. Its CCM differs from reporting solutions and ERP customization tools, its closest competitors, by being "pre-built for pharma management, [with] embedded channel best practices [and] continuous, proactive channel control," John McGrory, the company's CEO, said in an interview with eWEEK.com earlier this week.

The solution will be delivered and deployed through Edge Dynamics System Integrator partners.

Get more information about Edge Dynamics 3.0 here.