The Walmart Foundation today announced a $350,000 donation to the Vital Voices Latin America and Caribbean Women’s Business Network. The program seeks to strengthen women’s business networks, provide opportunities for women to enhance their skills and economic independence, and promote a culture of female entrepreneurship in the region. “At Walmart, we are committed to providing opportunities for women around the world,” said Doug McMillon, president and CEO, Walmart International. “Through this program, we aim to expand the number of women in business and advance the role of women in society.” Each network will offer mentoring programs and leadership training, host speakers programs through which ...Read More

Executive Offices Group launches new Executive Business Lounge Membership package with five prestigious venues across London providing an ideal place to meet for small business and individual business travellers. With small businesses all looking to capitalise on the anticipated market upturn in 2010 and beyond, Executive Offices Group has launched its new Executive Business Lounge Membership package at five prestigious locations across the City, Midtown and West End of London. These relaxed, informal and professional business lounges provide a unique environment for individuals and businesses looking for a place to meet customers in the centre of London. Emily Smith, Marketing Director of Executive Offices Group, comments: “Our ...Read More

Polaris Retail Infotech Ltd. (PRIL), a leading Retail Software provider and a wholly owned subsidiary of Polaris Software Lab Ltd, today announced the launch of Linux powered Retail Store Management solution “iStore Linux”. PRIL has signed up Samsonite to rollout iStore Linux in its 60 exclusive brand outlets across India. iStore is available on all Linux flavors present in the market. The combination of SOA based iStore application on Linux system can potentially bring down the set-up and running cost of retail store software by 50%. Samsonite in India chose PRIL’s iStore bundled with IBM’s Retail Integration Framework to gain advantages of scalability and flexibility that a next generation retail solution and an ...Read More

The wiki-powered business website Bizwiki.com announced its American version went fully live today. Bizwiki was launched as an Alpha in the USA in December 2008, promising to change the way local search works by enabling its users to build up the most detailed and up-to-date index of business in the United States. The new fully live version features over 5,000 categories of business, and in contrast to traditional Yellow Pages websites invites business owners and representatives to add and improve their companies’ records with everything from contact details to prices and opening hours, completely free of charge. “We are also launching new functionality today that allows the site’s users to ‘Watch’ any business, receiving an ...Read More

Appia Communications believes it is. The provider of managed communication and networking services reports that its customers are increasingly deploying “virtual” call centers — in which agents are located at home or in small offices — rather than traditional centralized call centers. “The ability to locate agents and supervisors anywhere results in significant savings in operating expenses,” said Victor von Schlegell, Appia’s president. “The most obvious savings are in office rent and in commuting time and costs, but there are both hard and soft advantages to the flexibility decentralization provides. It enables call center managers to hire the best people, regardless of where they are physically located, and makes it ...Read More

GrowCo Factoring & Financial, a company that offers creative financing solutions to help growing small businesses meet their cash flow needs, has announced the launch of a new program designed to facilitate the factoring process for new clients. A company accepted under the new “Light Documentation Program” can borrow up to $100,000 monthly against unpaid invoices. Invoice factoring, receivable factoring and purchase order financing are becoming increasingly popular sources of alternative funding now that the credit market has dried up and business lending has effectively come to a halt. “Times are tough,” says Roger Snyder, managing director of GrowCo and commercial lending veteran. “Many businesses ...Read More

CustomerGauge, provider of a hosted software solution for automatically surveying customers and calculating Net Promoter® Score, today announced a new tool designed for small and medium enterprises. The new tool, “CustomerGauge b2b Edition”, allows companies to survey their customers or channel partners using the enterprise-standard Net Promoter Score, quickly, easily and at a breakthrough cost. In response to the recent trend of companies announcing a Net Promoter Score without qualifications, the new CustomerGauge tool features a Net Promoter Score “Document of Record” listing the relevant information. This document acts as a certificate, and can be published internally within the organisation, or displayed ...Read More