Dave Chase interviewed after New Business Models for News Summit

Chase was interviewed by David Cohn of Spot.Us about his experience at the New Business Models for News Summit that was put on by CUNY, David Cohn and Jeff Jarvis. He shared his experiences about building a successful hyperlocal local media business particularly in this challenging economic time. The interview can be watched here.

The company that Dave is working with is NextNewsNet that builds off of the success of SunValleyOnline and NewWest.Net. He has been applying both the methodologies of Altus’ Sales Learning Curve and Sales Process Optimization practices with the help of Bill Lawler. Bill’s background with Dell has been particularly helpful in developing a low cost customer acquisition model. NewWest.Net has already seen the quantity of HOT Opportunities increase 4-5x in the early stages of the project. If past experience holds, this will result in a significant increase in revenue.

The video is of Dave Chase doing a “lightning round” at the summit explaining what has been learned with SunValleyOnline and NewWest.Net that is being applied to the NextNewsNet business model is located here.

Successful exit built on the strength of Sales Process Optimization

This week another Altus Alliance client had a successful exit that was reported on Forbes.com. The following is an excerpt from the beginning of the article.

Media Recovery, a leading Datacenter products and services company, has acquired ISSI Data (www.issidata.com), a privately held company headquartered in the Seattle, Wash., area. ISSI Data is a recognized national reseller and direct marketer of information security and storage infrastructure solutions.

The acquisition of ISSI Data will enable Media Recovery to harness the power of a strong inside sales operation and an expanded online catalog sales business.

From the time that Altus partner Bill Lawler joined the firm we saw the opportunity to build a practice we refer to as our Sales Process Optimization practice that has a major effect on Inside Sales operations. ISSI was one of the first clients where we saw the impact of optimizing the sales process from lead generation through acquisition, development and retention of clients’ sales organization. As the examples at the aforementioned link demonstrate, optimizing the sales process can have a dramatic effect on revenue and profitability. We are thrilled that ISSI has had a successful exit particularly in the midst of a tougher climate for exits.

ISSI was a great example of how Altus engages with a client to tap into the breadth of Altus’ expertise. Dave Jones was the original partner helping with business development. During that time, he brought in Dave Chase for a day to tap his knowledge around Internet marketing and lead generation and again when Chase helped on a 6-week Sales Learning Curve Assessment project. Later the baton was handed off to Bill Lawler to address the areas identified in the assessment which manifested itself as one of the first Sales Process Optimization projects.

Originally, we thought of the Sales Process Optimization practice as strictly a complement to our Sales Learning Curve and Outsourced Business Development practices that would apply later in a company’s lifecycle as was the case with ISSI. Instead, we have found that startups at a much earlier stage in their development are interested in ensuring their end to end sales process is optimized from day one. For example, NextNewsNet is a digital media startup in the local Internet media arena that is applying the Sales Process Optimization methodology as it prepares to make its first sales call. NextNewsNet’s team and advisors are some of the most seasoned and well known people in the Internet media business who know driving down the cost of customer acquisition is vital from Day One. It’s much cheaper to get it right from the early days than reengineering later.

Digital media client: Kontiki is acquired by Verisign

VeriSign announced Monday that it plans to acquire Kontiki for $62 million, in a move to enter the broadband content services market.

Enterprise Software Client: CallVision acquired by VeriSign

VeriSign, a provider of infrastructure services for the Internet and telecommunications, has signed an agreement to acquire CallVision, a provider of online analysis applications.

The transaction is valued at $30 million in acquired cash.

Vernon Irvin, executive vice president and general manager of VeriSign, said: “The acquisition of CallVision is a strategic investment that furthers our goal of providing intelligent infrastructure services that enable rich and seamless communications, commerce and content services for carriers, online portals, media companies and consumer brands worldwide.”

CallValue’s applications will be added to VeriSign Commerce Suite. The acquisition will enable VeriSign to provide converged ebill presentation, payment and customer self-care applications to mobile operators, Tier 1 carriers, broadband companies and consumer-brand MVNOs.

CallValue allows its clients to use its applications to transform billing data into sources of business intelligence.

“This is done by consolidating billing data from multiple systems, products, geographies, languages and currencies into a single electronic analysis and bill payment view and creating one view of multiple accounts.”

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2006.

Altus Alliance assists Callvision in landing Genesys Conferencing

 Genesys Conferencing, provides audio, data, video and Web-based conferencing services around the globe from local offices in 21 countries in the Asia/Pacific region, Europe, and North America. The company’s meeting center service enables companies to use desktop computers to perform interactive meetings that combine audio and video over the Internet. Genesys also provides managed services for large organizations wishing to outsource the logistics of their big teleconferencing events.

Callvision was selected among more than a dozen vendors that bided for this contract. Altus provided both senior level contacts and strategic guidance in the sales process. This was a strategic win for Callvision because it will enable the company to successfully launch their efforts in the EU with a strong reference account.

Altus Alliance helps take ScreenPlay’s core business Online

ScreenPlay Incorporated in Seattle has been in the business of creating and supplying video environments for large retailers for over 15 years. With the penetration of Broadband and the Internet across business and in 50% of US homes, ScreenPlay is expanding its video offerings to Online. Now more and more consumers are searching online for their entertainment needs. And, recent research has revealed that movie trailers are the #1 source of online entertainment with the majority of viewers purchasing 5+ movies, every month. In addition, Music Videos are becoming a large component of the music industry which are also becoming compelling content online.

With ScreenPlay’s extensive catalog of movie clips and music videos, Altus Alliance was able to develop a business model for the online market and drive their initial foray into this new market. After only a short period, the streaming group has achieved profitability and is supplying some of the largest brands on the Internet with movie clips and video content. Companies such as the Target, BestBuy, and Blockbuster are enhancing their retail experience and sell through by adding video to help inform the consumer before the purchase. Online entertainment sites such as Amazon’s Internet Movie Database (IMDb), MTV, VH1 and leading newspapers like NY and LA Times are each expanding their editorial and entertainment coverage with ScreenPlays video content and delivery infrastructure.

Altus helps Widemile obtain online music leader Napster as new customer

Widemile (formerly Memetic Systems) has been chosen by Napster to assist in increasing customer loyalty, subscriptions, and conversions. Napster is the world’s most recognized brand in online music. Napster has extensive content agreements with the five major record labels, as well as hundreds of independents. Napster delivers access to the largest catalog of online music, with more than 500,000 tracks spanning all genres from Eminem to Miles Davis. Widemile was chosen based on its flexible business approach, partnership model, history as a quality service provider, and its ability to meet the fast paced needs of the music industries music release schedules.

Digital Media client: PhotoAccess acquired by Photoworks

PhotoWorks Announces Agreement to Acquire PhotoAccess Technologies, Online Photography Technology Leader.

Altus Alliance supports Callvision and CGI in selling Bell Canada

 After extensive research, due diligence and product demonstrations, Callvision and Altus convinced Bell Canada to replace their existing customer facing applications with the Callvision product suite. This was largest win for Callvision since its inception. The Callvision product suite will be used by all of Bell’s 400,000 business customers and will be Bells key strategic customer facing initiative for 2004. Both Callvision and CGI were very pleased by the strategic sales and positioning provided by Altus Alliance throughout the sales process to secure this major deal. Callvision competed with a host of players including Amdocs, IBM, and Cognos.This deal will provide a smooth path for Callvision to gain access to large tier 1 enterprise telecommunication customers globally.