Customer Relationship Management (CRM) news

Is It CRM Time Yet?

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:00:00 GMT

If you're in the CRM industry, you may have a slightly skewed view of the world when it comes to CRM penetration. Many of my peers, when they hear about a company that still uses a home-brew system to manage sales, marketing and service, are aghast. With hundreds of applications out there and thousands of man-years of thought behind it, how can a business remain without a formal CRM application?

Salesforce.com Spreads Chatter to Mobile Devices

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:30:11 GMT

Salesforce.com has announced it is making its social tool Chatter available for mobile devices within the next several months. Chatter is a real-time social collaboration application and platform for the enterprise, allowing employees to create profiles, and send feeds and status updates about projects, account and clients.

Counting Your Negatives

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Back in August I wrote about some research I had gotten into mostly for fun. You might recall it. I searched on a company name and the word "sucks" and reported what I found. The point of the research was not to be salacious or to offend anyone. In political circles, it's known as discovering one's "negatives" -- here's how it works.

Teaching Sales and Web Strategies to Sing in Harmony

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Consider the left hand of sales methodology and the right hand of digital strategy. It's 2010 and the two hands still do not know what the other is up to. Even with the most advanced of our clients, the digital strategy is focused on lead generation, awareness and a bevy of other activities aimed at the top portion of the sales funnel, traditionally owned by marketing.

What Is Stopping You? Artificial and Real Barriers To Pursuit!

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:11:48 GMT

"How you ever gonna know what it's like to dance. How you ever gonna know if you never take the chance..."

Marketers, Let's Get Personal

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:00:00 GMT

On Aug. 13, IBM and Unica Corporation announced they had entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Unica, a leading provider of marketing software solutions that focuses on streamlining marketing program development, execution and management to achieve improved marketing effectiveness.

Making Change Happen Every Day: Q&A With GSA's David McClure

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:00:00 GMT

The U.S. government spends $80 billion annually on information technology. The U.S. General Services Administration is directly involved in nearly 25 percent of federal IT procurement activities through its Schedule 70 acquisition program, including nearly $9 billion directly for information technology investments. GSA has emerged as a leader in guiding federal investments for information technology.

The Server Side: Top 3 Performance Problems in Custom MS CRM Apps

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:37:11 GMT

MS CRM provides an SDK to access Entity objects and MetaData from the CRM Data Store. Custom CRM Applications use this SDK without knowing what is really going on under-the-hood leading to performance problems when accessing or updating larger amounts of data from the CRM Store. The Top 3 Performance Problems can be avoided preventing from long running and timed out requests to the CRM Application.

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How to Build a Better Business Blog

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:00:00 GMT

About the easiest way for companies to dip their toes into the social media waters is the blog. There are few technical burdens to setting them up, the time needed to create posts can flex with the workloads of the assigned writers, and they can become a conduit for customer conversations through the comments section. So every business is leaping eagerly into blogging. Right? Well, not exactly.

CRM: What to Consider When Choosing a System

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:00:00 GMT

SaaS-based CRM applications may cost less, but on-premise software is more easily integrated with other enterprise systems

VRM's Missing Ingredient

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:00:00 GMT

I spent an interesting day at Harvard Law School last week at the invitation of Doc Searls for a conference on the intersection of CRM and VRM, or vendor relationship management. Doc's involved with the Berkman Center at Harvard, which sponsors research into issues of law and the Internet, among other things.

Consona CRM Awarded Spot on KMWorld's 2010 Trend-Setting Product List

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:47:49 GMT

Consona Corporation , a worldwide leader in providing customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning software and services for companies of all sizes, today announced that Consona CRM has been named to KMWorld's 2010 Trend-Setting Product list for eight years running.

Rural Outsourcing: Why It's Better in Des Moines

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:00:00 GMT

When it comes to total cost of ownership, outsourcing stateside to Iowa or Arkansas trumps offshoring for some CIOs.

What Does a Social CRM Process Look Like?

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:04:00 GMT

Social Customer Relationship Management (Social CRM or SCRM) can mean many things to many people and organizations. This post explores visually what a Social CRM process for organization can look like.

Read full story...

Interacting With the Connected Customer: Don't Forget the Cake

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

I was at a friend's dual celebration of birthday and wedding anniversary recently, and as part of the occasion someone had prepared two fantastic cakes, which were both amazing to behold and a delight to eat. While the appearance was all to do with the icing, the taste and nutrition were defined by what was under the icing -- the cake itself.

Oracle Open World Presentations

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:49:42 GMT

I'm giving two presentations this year at OOW. One is technical for performance tuning, and the other is a case study on a really cool project I'm leading right now.

The Secret of E-Commerce Success: Many Channels, One Brand

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Not very long ago, both social media and e-commerce were new and innovative. Now, they're simply elements of today's marketing mix -- part of the fabric of how you reach your customer engagement and revenue objectives. During the slow economic recovery, it has become business-critical to conduct more business using digital channels: websites, social media and email.

Anything Desktop Salesforce Can Do, Mobile Salesforce Can Do Better?

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Salesforce.com is a top provider of CRM software in large part because its application is intuitive and easy to use and deploy. It is interesting, therefore, that many Salesforce.com users are opting for Salesforce.com Mobile because it is even easier and more intuitive to use than the desktop version, according to the company.

LexisNexis intros InterAction 6.0 for MS Outlook

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:46:45 GMT

InterAction 6.0 software embeds features and functions of InterAction, a Customer Relationship Management application for professional services, directly within Microsoft Outlook.

Analytics and Social CRM: Parallel Evolution?

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Social CRM has earned widespread appreciation as a real business tool. It's no longer an idea or a theory or a hunch. However, it's still a new idea, and many are approaching it with trepidation because its impact on the bottom line is not yet well understood. I don't believe there's a single set of best practices for succeeding in Social CRM.

Got Data?

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

I feel like social CRM has become a burger joint. "You want fries with that?" is the traditional up-sell question made famous in skits and jokes, but now I feel like we need to ask something akin in social CRM. The revised question: "You got any data to go with that?"

Is Your Social Media Project Failing? Maybe it's Your Strategy

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:45:00 GMT

Gartner predicted that over 50% of online communities created for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) purposes would fail in 2010 alone. Why? Because clearly defined values were not established at the onset of a social strategy for both the customer and the company. A new study helps us understand why social media project failures occur.

Read full story...

From Pushing Paper to Pulling for Success

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

No self-respecting professional wants to be known as a paper pusher or bureaucrat, but it can be a hard label for them to avoid when they're managing projects. Projects create paper, or more specifically, they create documents. Whether those documents are paper or electronic, they can take on a life of their own.

The Paradigm of Cross-Channel Marketing, Part 1

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Marketing channels have evolved over the past few decades from just print to electronic media to the Internet. With the advent of information technology, today's marketers have the luxury to decide on the most potent mix for the products they are trying to sell. It becomes essential to understand the difference between a multichannel marketing approach and a cross-channel marketing approach.

Health IT: The Race Is On

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

A $30 billion information technology market is hard to pass up. That's why the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' program to invest that huge amount of money in health records technology has received a lot of attention in the IT vendor community. That's normal. What's unusual is that Congressional hearings followed on the heels of new regulations in a matter of mere days.

Open Source, CRM and the Realities of Business

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

A funny thing happened to open source CRM over the last few years: It stopped being all about open source and started being about delivering CRM -- at least, for some vendors. That shift makes sense. Customers of CRM products want applications that meet their business needs, not their desire to have access to the source code. That access is a bonus.

Healthcare's Great Wireless Transformation

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

About 15 years ago, I had an office next door to Barry Green. At the time, our businesses had nothing in common. I was a wireless analyst and he was in healthcare. I recently got a call out of the blue from Barry asking for my help in evaluating an opportunity. When I took a look at what he was doing, I realized the world has changed dramatically. Our previously unrelated businesses of wireless and healthcare were crashing together.

The 2 Customer Experience Killers, Part 2

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Last week I looked at an interesting downside of social media. Social media makes it possible for anyone with very little effort to start a blog or social group that thrashes a vendor. Generally speaking, the people behind these sites have a gripe that has a fragment of truth in it, and it would be harder for a corporation to fight these annoyances than to simply let them be.

The Economics of FREE!

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:04:22 GMT

I just published a blog on my music site about the economics of FREE music. Blog authors are, quite naturally, people who adopt a price of FREE strategy. The payout typically coming in other ways and through other avenues.

It can range from prestige, future speaking or consulting

Marketing Maven at SES: Forget Viral, Forget ROI, Forget Fear

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:02:12 GMT

Community building is the key to successful social media marketing, Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, the former chief marketing officer at Eastman Kodak, told an audience at the SES Conference and Expo in San Francisco on Tuesday. "You want to build hearts and minds, not eyeballs and ears," he said in the opening keynote speech at the event, which runs through Thursday. "Social media is not a destination, it's a tool."

Friend and Foe? Combating E-Commerce 'Friendly Fraud'

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

While financial cybercrime against card-not-present retailers has many forms, "friendly fraud" has emerged as a particularly painful thorn in the side of e-commerce merchants. Defined as a situation in which a customer disputes a legitimate credit card transaction, falsely claiming fraud or non-delivery of goods, friendly fraud is extremely hard for retailers to identify and nearly as costly to their business as criminal fraud.

How to Tear Down the Language Wall

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Less than 15 years ago, establishing a global presence was a conscious decision that a company made. It usually involved long and complex discussions about offices, physical presence and physical travel. With the advent of the Web, all of that changed in an instant. With the establishment of a website, every company, no matter how big or small, was instantly a global entity -- whether it was prepared to be or not.

Plug-and-Play State of Mind

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Young folk under 30 may not remember this, but years ago "plug and play" referred to hardware installation for computers. As the information revolution penetrated American households, consumers demanded setup procedures that did not require an advanced degree in computer science. Today, this process is standard for almost all hardware. This plug-and-play mentality has transformed consumer expectations.

SAP Mobile CRM Users Can Have Their Security and Their iPhones Too

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Sybase has only recently formally entered the SAP corporate family. However, the two companies have collaborated on software integration projects for years: hence, the introduction of Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM, a native iPhone app.

Decision Making Problems Part 2

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:48:51 GMT

Now that you�ve written down that you want to be a BA you need to do other things: 1. Positive statements about it 2. Negative statements about it 3. All of the evidence that you have in front of you 4. Then begin to document and research 5. As you document and research fill all your thoughts in on the �Spider Diagram� 6. Look for relationships Let�s take an example from my life. I used

Week in Review: The Latest CMS, Web Engagement and Enterprise Collaboration Buzz

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:38:39 GMT

Enterprise collaboration proves to be a spicy hot topic, as we continue to explore the twists and turns of the modern Enterprise 2.0 highway. Below is a little sampler from this week’s enterprise collaboration menu, get more mind-nourishing treats here:

Three Types of Collaboration that Drive Innovation. A company that strives to be innovative must be collaborative. But not all collaboration is the same.
Collaboration – an Intranet Perspective. Collaboration applications never seem to need a business case, other than a senior manager deciding that there is poor collaboration in the organization.
The Tools and Technology That Enable Enterprise Collaboration. While we know that enterprise collaboration is not about the technology, the right technology can go a long way.

And in Other Industry News

The M&A season is still (again?) in full swing with IBM buying Datacap and Unica (Did someone just say CEM?) in one quick sweep, and Google - Jambool and Slide Inc. These big games is, perhaps, something that smallish Web CMS vendors like EPiServer can only marvel at — especially, after recently pulling off their own IPO last minute.

‘Weblogs’ are in the news again, as if it is the 90s all over again, as we re-evaluate blogs and offer some tips on better usability and greater engagement — important for enterprise bloggers, too. While Twitter, HTML5 and general content management business is, as always, on our radars. Hey, and it looks like a new buzzword is sprawling. How would you like some ACM?

Editor’s Picks

EPiServer Withdraws Plans to Go Public. The big Initial Public Offering (IPO) party we anticipated is not going to happen.
IBM Buys Advanced Document Capture with Datacap. The acquisition will add new technology that will enable users to extract data from structured and unstructured formats.
W3C Illuminates Differences, Rationale Behind HTML5. In a recently published work the W3C details the differences between HTML 4 and HTML 5 and provides insight into the thinking behind the changes.
Top 3 Usability Tips for Building Better Blogs, Maximizing Engagement. Chances are your company’s blog is not featured prominently on your site, or not optimally marketed to your constituents.
What’s the Right Level of Marketing Engagement on Twitter? When it comes to Twitter, conversational marketing is a hot topic, but for how long?
Webiva Delivers Open Source Web CMS on Rails. Webiva is yet another content management system that aims to give the likes of WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal some competition.
What is Adaptive Case Management? It’s true that “case management” has been around for some time, but the buzz is growing these days around ACM because of the increasing importance of “knowledge work” on the “demand side."

The Critical Quest for Customer Data Insight

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

On July 5, Pitney Bowes announced it had received acceptances for over 90 percent of the existing issued ordinary shares of Portrait Software, a leading provider of solutions that focus on enhancing customer relationship management systems and enabling clients to achieve improved customer retention and profitability.

The Critical Quest for Customer Data Insight

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

3 Industries Where Service Should Change the Equation

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Customer service is being touted as a lot of things these days -- "the new marketing," "the new CRM," even "the new sales." That's all well and good, but many customers just wish customer service could be "the new, actually functional customer service." The situation isn't abysmal everywhere, but there are certain vertical markets where customer service remains absolutely terrible.

Decision Making Problems Part 1

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:13:01 GMT

Business problems are elusive little demons. Finding your way in business is your first business problem. Once you find your way then others can follow. Any time that you need to make a decision you probably seek advice and listen to people talk. Some of it makes sense and some of it doesn't. You get subject matter experts and then they talk. All the while you are listening, taking notes and hoping

Cracking the Tough Online Payment Nut

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

The online sales channel continues to grow each day, touching every corner of the globe and nearly every type of merchant or marketplace. A fundamental component to the success of this channel is the payment system -- but choosing the right one may seem like a daunting task. One of the first questions to ask is whether to build or buy.

The 2 Customer Experience Killers, Part 1

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Last week in New York, I began some field research in social CRM that will result in a longer paper later this fall. One of the things that interested me was the level of frustration and, well, anger that some customers have for some of their vendors. It's a mixed bag, really -- some people take great umbrage at Starbucks, others at a social networking site, and still others target their ire at oil companies.

CRM Evolution: The Evolution of Customer Relationship Management

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:45:00 GMT

This past week I had the privilege of attending CRM Evolution hosted by CRM Magazine. Here are my thoughts on the event as well as key takeaways and vendors that I thought were interesting. I highly recommend that anyone reading this put CRM Evolution on their calendar of events for 2011.

Read full story...

Aberdeen Report Details the Next Generation of Web CMS

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:54:23 GMT

As CMSWire readers know, typical online buyers use a number of different channels to research and make purchase decisions. Consequently organizations need to find ways to intelligently engage with their customers across channels and in a personalized manner.

According to an Aberdeen’s Report (download the PDF), the top two digital channels used to reach customers are the website (60%) and email (47%). Therefore, it would seem that the key to success online is for you to prioritize the delivery of smart content via these two channels. Easier said than done.

With so many different technologies available to provide pieces of this multi-channel puzzle, integration issues are a top concern. As a result, there is increasing pressure to use a web content management system that encompasses much of the needed capabilities.

According to Aberdeen, the next generation of web content management systems (WCM) need to support the marketer by providing actionable insights that can drive more online engagement. To do this, capabilities such as lead scoring, web analytics, customer relationship management and email marketing need to be tightly integrated into the Web CMS platform.

Combine lead scoring with dynamic content and profiling and you have a platform that can support the online engagement required to reach your customers and make them buy your products and services.

If you want to understand more about the technology challenges facing marketers today and how the next generation of web content management system can resolve some of these challenges, check out the Aberdeen Group’s report (hosted by Sitecore) entitled Next Generation WCM: A Comprehensive Assessment of Current Challenges and The Future of WCM.

SAP Will Fight Oracle's 'Billions and Billions' Damages Claim

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Oracle's 3-year-old lawsuit filed against the now defunct third-party software service provider TomorrowNow alleging "massive theft" appears to be heading for resolution with owner SAP admitting liability. However, the underlying issue that the suit touched upon -- how much support and maintenance a third-party software service provider can offer its clients without incurring the wrath of the original vendor -- is still wide open.

Funny How Things Work Out

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:33:11 GMT

Some of my readers know that my mother was diagnosed with extreme psychosis a little while ago. Root cause is the fact that she's slowly going blind from glaucoma. The drugs that she has been taking for a very long time can cause psychotic tendencies. In addition people with glaucoma may suffer hallucinations as their optic nerve dies a slow death further messing with their minds. Add into that not

BusinessMan ERP and CRM system updated to version 2 (Macworld.com)

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:24:00 GMT

Macworld.com - Computech IT Services has updated BusinessMan Software, its comprehensive, modular enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with customer relationship management (CRM) abilities. Version 2 of the business-management application brings along a number of new and enhanced features for managing inventory and resources.

BusinessMan ERP and CRM system updated to version 2

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:24:00 GMT

Computech IT Services has launched a version 2 of BusinessMan Software, a comprehensive, modular enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with customer relationship management (CRM) abilities. New features include enhanced resource scheduling, and the addition of Dashboards for quick views of important statistics.

The IT Project-Tracking Database: Keep Your Key People in the Loop

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Information Technology is a project-centric industry. Every task is either performed as a part of a project or constitutes rollup toward creating a new project. No individual, organization, department or company can escape the rigor of discipline and perseverance that project management enforces as prerequisites for success.

Zoho CRM for BlackBerry: Bread and Butter

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Zoho is poised, possibly this week, to take its BlackBerry CRM app out of private beta and make it generally available. It will be followed in the coming weeks by an iPhone app, which is in development now, said Raju Vegesna, evangelist for Zoho. The interfaces of the iPhone and BlackBerry apps are different, of course, due to differences in the respective hardware.

CRM's Pivotal Role in Driving Healthcare Reform

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

The U.S. government's $642-million program to encourage the use of electronic health records through federally created Regional Extension Centers will involve a two-tiered effort featuring customer relationship management technology. The REC program is one of several federal initiatives promoting electronic health records.

CRM's Pivotal Role in Driving Healthcare Reform

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Microsoft, Salesforce Settle Cloud Patent Battle

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:54:28 GMT

No long, drawn-out IP battle for Microsoft, which said Wednesday it has settled the patent-infringement cases Salesforce.com brought against it. Salesforce also settled with Microsoft in a countersuit.

The companies inked a patent agreement in which Salesforce will get broad coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio for its products and services as well as its back-end server infrastructure. In return, Microsoft gets coverage under Salesforce's patent portfolio.

Microsoft filed a patent-infringement action against Salesforce in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in May. Microsoft claimed Salesforce's CRM product trespassed on nine of its patents. Salesforce countersued in June, alleging Microsoft willfully infringed on its intellectual property.

Salesforce Pays Microsoft

Nevertheless, the companies came to an agreement. The financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Microsoft said Salesforce is making a payment based on the strength of Microsoft's patent portfolio in the areas of operating systems, cloud services, and customer relationship management (CRM) software.

"We are pleased to reach this agreement with Salesforce.com to put an end to the litigation between our two companies," said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of intellectual property and licensing at Microsoft. "Today's agreement is an example of how companies can compete vigorously in the marketplace while respecting each other's intellectual-property rights."

The Cloud's IP Shootout

Dana Gardner, principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions, said the Microsoft-Salesforce spat and settlement demonstrates how the cloud-computing...

3 Trends That Will Shape CRM Evolution in the Year to Come

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

This year, the CRM Evolution event was true to its name. The organization of the show reflected the way thinking about CRM has changed over the years, with a breakdown into three tracks: CRM, Social CRM and Deployment Strategies. Really, the tracks parallel the state of CRM for its users -- or rather, where users are on their CRM journeys.

Analysts Laud Microsoft's Dynamics CRM Software

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:08:53 GMT

A pair of leading market analysts has given Microsoft's customer relationship management offering, Dynamics CRM, the highest rank in its category.

Microsoft and Salesforce settle their patent infringement scuffle

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:48:08 GMT

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The patent infringement cases between Microsoft and Salesforce in both the U.S. District Courts of the Western District of Washington and in Delaware have been settled, Microsoft announced today.

Last May, Microsoft sued CRM software company Salesforce for nine counts of patent infringement, and Salesforce followed with its own countersuit a month later, saying Microsoft's .NET platform and SharePoint products violated five Salesforce patents.

The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but the parties have indicated that Salesforce is compensating Microsoft based on the strength of its operating system, cloud service, and customer relationship management software patent portfolio.

"We are pleased to reach this agreement with Salesforce.com to put an end to the litigation between our two companies," Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of IP and Licensing at Microsoft said in a statement today. "Microsoft's patent portfolio is the strongest in the software industry and is the result of decades of software innovation. Today's agreement is an example of how companies can compete vigorously in the marketplace while respecting each other's intellectual property rights."

Salesforce has not yet made a statement regarding the settlement.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Microsoft - Salesforce.com - Intellectual property - Customer relationship management - Patent infringement

SugarCRM starts delivering open source test tools

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:22:00 GMT

SugarCRM has begun to deliver a set of open source test tools that the company has used internally for testing it's customer relationship management software...

Survey Says.....................

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:14:58 GMT

There may be a change in the air with H M Winning and she may be devoting more time to her subject matter and writing. Give a thumbs up on this entry if you would be inclined to read more in depth discussions of conceptual, design and analytical thoughts and tricks. Thanks

In the Cloud, Multitenancy Matters

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Cloud computing is breaking through to the general public. Unfortunately, it's only the most watered down version that the public is hearing about. Last week I listened to a program on NPR that briefly discussed the cloud and some "expert" who worked for a general circulation magazine was happily telling the interviewer that cloud computing was all about servers in the sky. That's it, just servers in the sky.

Collaboration and partnering

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:26:17 GMT

I wanted a nice way to promote The Songwriter & Social Media Tour. Something with music, voice-over, and a couple short segments. I was explaining this to Britt over at Bombshelter

Supply Chain Performance: Beneath the Tip of the Iceberg

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Over my 30-year career as a supply chain business process consultant, I've had the pleasure of working with some of the largest corporations in the world -- so imagine my surprise when many of these companies told me that they were continuing to have problems with their supply chain.

BatchBook: Sociability Meets Mobility

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

There's a slew of CRM applications heading to mobile app format, available at online venues such as Apple's App Store and the Google Apps Marketplace. Social CRM, in particular, is on the vanguard as vendors optimize their applications for mobile use. One example is BatchBlue, a company that offers a mobile app of its primary software, BatchBook, on the Google Apps Marketplace.

CRM's Evolution to Be Showcased at NY Event (PC World)

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:10:35 GMT

PC World - CRM (customer relationship management) users, vendors, analysts and consultants are set to gather in New York next week for the CRM Evolution conference, which will feature discussions on how technologies and economic forces are changing the software segment.

Week in Review: The CRM Market - From Legal Battlefields to Commercial Wars

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:51:39 GMT

…I just know I need strength to fight
Strength to fight that world outside…

(Soundtrack for this weekly round-up: Bob Dylan - Life Is Hard)

This week we saw some nearly-seismic activity in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) sector. Microsoft seems to be under the impression that the upcoming release of Dynamics CRM 2011 will raise the bar in the CRM market, continuing to challenge Salesforce.com’s popularity.

Given the recent legal dueling and countersuing between the two over multiple patent violations, it looks like Microsoft is after adding some commercial insult to legal injury.

Sans fireworks or swinging swords, SugarCRM version 6 went GA, introducing a new user interface, accompanied by a set of new tools for sales and reporting, and information control.

While SugarCRM revolves in a tad different CRM universe, the company is certainly using the occasion to turn itself into a realistic alternative to these two bruisers, especially for the SMBs.

Editor’s Picks

Will the Upcoming Dynamics CRM 2011 Beta Challenge Salesforce? The new release due for public beta in September looks set to challenge Salesforce.com’s dominance in this space.
Sugar CRM v6.0 Goes GA, Targets MS Dynamics and Salesforce? Could it be that SugarCRM is using the occasion to build itself up and turn itself into a realistic alternative to these two bruisers, especially in the SMB market?
CMS Review: Squarespace - SaaS Web Publishing, Blogging Platform. In the hyper-competitive market of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) web content management, vendors are desperate to stand out. Check out how Squarespace differentiates its offering.
Autonomy WorkSite 8.5: When Should Your Firm Upgrade? Part 2. Moving from Autonomy Worksite 8.x to Worksite 8.5 is no small matter. With so many changes to this 8.5 release, you may wonder why it wasn’t called 9.0.
Ingeniux CMS 7: Solving In-Context Editing Challenges, Peeking at WEM. Ingeniux CMS v6 dates back to 2008 with focus on Enterprise 2.0 web content management. What does Ingeniux have to offer in the new v7 after two years in the making?
Interview: Samantha Lofton and the Records Implications of Cloud Computing. Swiftly emerging in the Records field as one of the foremost experts in the relationship between information management programs and cloud storage solutions, Lofton speaks on one of her favorite topics.
WEM: Innovation in Customer Experience. In a complex world, innovation shifts from creating and adding to simplifying and removing.

Open Source, Commercial Diverge in SugarCRM 6

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:08:55 GMT

Sugar CRM may have open source technology at its core, but with the latest release of its customer-relationship management platform offers two different interfaces for the commercial and community versions.

Open Source, Commercial Diverge in SugarCRM 6

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:18:59 GMT

Sugar 6 offers simplified UI and information access

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:57:36 GMT

SugarCRM today launched a major upgrade of its open source customer relationship management platform that emphasizes ease of use, information access and setup.Sugar 6, which was officially launched Tuesday, offers a simplified, Web 2.0 interface with big icons, simplified default views, a ShortCut bar and one-click access to a multitude of application data.Users can, for [...]

Microsoft Reveals Details of Dynamics CRM 2011

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:28:04 GMT

The first public beta of Microsoft's customer relationship management software, with stronger integration among other features, is coming this September.

Microsoft Announces Dynamics CRM Beta Release

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:24:35 GMT

On-premise and on-demand preview applications will hit 40 markets in September. Bringing the next major release of its customer relationship management application a step closer to market, Microsoft announced on Monday a September beta preview release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Microsoft's CRM Marketplace Challenges Salesforce.com (NewsFactor)

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:04:18 GMT

NewsFactor - In a move to compete against rival Salesforce.com, Microsoft is making some changes in its customer relationship management (CRM) approach, including a new version of its software and an app store. At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference on Monday, Microsoft showcased the new bells and whistles in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The public beta release is scheduled for September, beginning with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

Microsoft's CRM Marketplace Challenges Salesforce.com

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:04:18 GMT

In a move to compete against rival Salesforce.com, Microsoft is making some changes in its customer relationship management (CRM) approach, including a new version of its software and an app store. At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference on Monday, Microsoft showcased the new bells and whistles in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The public beta release is scheduled for September, beginning with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

Microsoft's marketing theme around Dynamics CRM 2011 is "the power of productivity" through familiar, intelligent and connected experiences. Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, boldly declared that the product raises the bar in the CRM market with new levels of productivity for customers and new development opportunities for partners.

A CRM App Store

One of those opportunities is a store that makes it possible for independent software vendors, global systems integrators, value-added resellers, and other partners to create, package and distribute software extensions and custom solutions in a single environment so enterprises can discover and download them.

Launching in September, the store is called Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace. It's an online catalog of solutions, including industry-specific applications and extensions from both Microsoft and its partners. Microsoft will integrate the marketplace into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 software for quick access. Salesforce.com already offers a marketplace.

"We are excited to get the new release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The new features will give us even more power and flexibility to create and easily customize CRM solutions to meet the unique business needs of our customers and help them be more productive," said Jason Hunt, Avanade CRM and xRM evangelist. "We are also looking forward to the introduction of Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace, as it opens up new opportunities that will enable us to expand our reach and get our CRM solutions out to a broader, global audience."

The CRM Bandwagon

Rob Enderle,...

Microsoft opening CRM app store

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:25:00 GMT

The marketplace, which echoes Salesforce.com's AppExchange, is part of an upcoming CRM release

Microsoft plans to take a cue from rival CRM (customer relationship management) vendor Salesforce.com with the upcoming release of CRM 2011, by adding a marketplace site where partners can sell complementary applications.

Microsoft opening CRM app store

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:25:00 GMT

The marketplace, which echoes Salesforce.com's AppExchange, is part of an upcoming CRM release

Microsoft dynamics CRM extension from Axonom provides powerful sales forecasting abilities

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:00:37 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, July 09, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Axonom, a leading provider of industry-specific Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Partner Relationship Management (PRM) extensions for Mic...

Salesforce strikes back against Microsoft's May patent suit

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:35:50 GMT

sued Customer relationship management (CRM) software company Salesforce for nine counts of patent infringement in the District Court in the Western District of Washington.The complaint appeared to be ...

Salesforce Countersues Microsoft for Patent Infringement (NewsFactor)

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:22:35 GMT

NewsFactor - Salesforce.com is targeting Microsoft in a patent-infringement suit. Salesforce's legal maneuver comes in response to the software giant's intellectual-property suit filed against the customer relationship management (CRM) vendor in May.

Salesforce strikes back against Microsoft's May patent suit

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:36:35 GMT

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Last month, Microsoft sued Customer relationship management (CRM) software company Salesforce for nine counts of patent infringement in the District Court in the Western District of Washington.

The complaint appeared to be a defensive maneuver after Salesforce purchased cloud data management provider Jigsaw, a company in which Microsoft had important interests.

On Thursday, Salesforce filed a countersuit in the U.S. District Court of Delaware, accusing Microsoft of "continuing acts of infringement," which "have caused, and are causing irreparable harm to Salesforce.com."

The lawsuit singles out Microsoft's SharePoint product and .NET platform, accusing them of violating five of Salesforce's patents:

#6,813,633, "Dynamic multi-level cache manager." #6,918,059, "Method and system for handling errors in a distributed computer system." #7,024,454, "Work sharing and communicating in a web site system." #7,209,929, "Java object cache server for databases." #7,305,454, "Apparatus and methods for provisioning services."

Salesforce seeks an injunction on the allegedly offending products.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Microsoft - Salesforce.com - Customer relationship management - United States district court - Microsoft SharePoint

Salesforce Countersues Microsoft for Patent Infringement

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:22:35 GMT

Salesforce.com is targeting Microsoft in a patent-infringement suit. Salesforce's legal maneuver comes in response to the software giant's intellectual-property suit filed against the customer relationship management (CRM) vendor in May.

Salesforce filed suit against Microsoft on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Salesforce alleges that several Microsoft products, including the popular .NET platform and SharePoint collaboration software, trespass on its patents. In fact, Salesforce is asserting that Microsoft willfully infringed on its intellectual property.

"This is a normal defense until someone finds a compelling reason to come to the table and work it all out. You would think Microsoft would have the deeper patent portfolio because they've been around longer and have been doing this longer," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "Typically in a battle like this, the larger, longer-existing company and better-funded company wins. It's that kind of a fight."

Microsoft's First Missive

Microsoft filed a patent-infringement action against Salesforce in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in May. Microsoft claims Salesforce's CRM product trespasses on nine of its patents.

The patents in question work to make CRM software more efficient. But by targeting Salesforce with the suit, it appears Microsoft is going for the jugular. CRM is at the heart of Salesforce's business model.

Microsoft is seeking a court order that would prohibit Salesforce from offering features in its software suite that infringe on its patents. If Microsoft succeeds, it could damage the core of Salesforce's business.

Is Microsoft a Patent Troll?

It's rare for Microsoft to file a patent-infringement suit. Microsoft has only filed four such suits in its history, though the company has been the defendant in scores of suits. It's possible that Microsoft feels threatened by Salesforce's software-as-a-service model. And it's clear that Salesforce feels threatened by Microsoft. Salesforce...

Salesforce Chatter Aids Collaboration in the Enterprise

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:08:03 GMT

Salesforce.com is encouraging enterprises to get chatty with the release of its Chatter cloud-based enterprise social-collaboration platform. Analysts said this could signal an impending wave of similar solutions in industries beyond Customer Relationship Management (CRM) because Chatter creates opportunities for developers to build and resell apps that include the platform.

Chatter leverages familiar social-networking features from Facebook and Twitter, including profiles, status updates, and real-time feeds. The platform lets enterprises collaborate around documents, but it also lets employees "follow" people, business processes, and application data. The goal is to boost business intelligence by driving real-time insights into programs, projects, people, customers, cases, documents and business data.

"Salesforce Chatter is nothing short of revolutionary for the enterprise," said Denis Pombriant, founder and managing principal of Beagle Research Group. "Salesforce Chatter creates an entirely new way to work for employees by opening up lines of communication and ad hoc coordination across every level of an organization. Enterprises can now realize new highs in productivity by harnessing the power of social collaboration."

What is Cloud 2?

Salesforce Chatter is a Cloud 2 application. Much like Web 2.0, Cloud 2 is the next generation of enterprise cloud computing, which is social, mobile and real time. Familiar Cloud 2 applications include Facebook, Google and Twitter. But Chatter is the first Cloud 2 collaboration application for the enterprise.

Farmers Insurance is one of about 100 beta testers for Chatter. The insurer has multiple stakeholders working on different aspects of its marketing strategies -- and Chatter fits the solutions bill, said Mitch Varhula, marketing consultant at Farmers.

"With Salesforce Chatter, the advertising department has increased collaboration across marketing initiatives and improved service levels to our internal customers of more than 14,000 agents," Varhula said. "What's been most amazing about Chatter is how it leverages a secure platform with a trusted sharing model to...

Taking the Personalized Marketing Path to CRM Nirvana

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:00:00 GMT

As businesses worldwide increasingly focus on e-commerce as a vehicle for driving new revenue streams, most e-commerce sites still struggle to leverage the growing wealth of customer data to which they have access. This failure to integrate customer relationship management activities with online visitor behavior is wasting a significant opportunity.

Harley-Davidson integrates Connect CRM system with DMS

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:30:58 GMT

Harley-Davidson has given its dealers a technological assist by integrating its customer relationship management system, Connect, with its TalonES dealer management system.

EDS settles lawsuit over botched CRM project for $460M

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:00:00 GMT

EDS has agreed to pay a staggering $460 million to settle a long-standing lawsuit brought against it by U.K.-based British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC over a botched Customer Relationship Management project.

Integration Is Key to Successful CRM: Consona White Paper

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:47:27 GMT

The challenges facing a support organization seeking functional and successful Customer Relationship Management are many and deeply rooted in the continually perpetuated idea that CRM "modules" and "add-ons" are the way to go for beneficial knowledge management deployment.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adds Portal Capabilities to SDK

Fri, 28 May 2010 13:45:00 GMT

Last year, adxstudio (news, site) released a number of extensions for Microsoft Dynamics that beefed up the Customer Relationship Management application. Microsoft must have been impressed because now it has included xRM web portals into its Dynamic CRM Software Development Kit (SDK).

Read full story...

Relationship 2 makes contact, project management easier (Macworld.com)

Wed, 19 May 2010 18:14:00 GMT

Macworld.com - Jumsoft, makers of Money 3 and themes for Pages, iWeb, and other apps, has released Relationship 2, a major upgrade to its CRM (customer relationship management) app for small-to-medium businesses.

Or perhaps it's something else: Microsoft combats a CRM + cloud colossus

Wed, 19 May 2010 15:59:57 GMT

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Customer relationship management (CRM) software has typically fallen outside the realm that Betanews has covered, at least in recent years. It falls outside the realm a lot of publications cover, not because it's the least bit obscure or unimportant or even a segment of the information industry around which billions of dollars in invested capital revolve, but because it isn't usually the stuff around which soap operas are based. If someone left a spare, unauthorized beta copy of Dynamics CRM at a bar, it's not something Gizmodo would be snapping photos of and TMZ would be scooping interviews about.

Nevertheless, CRM is a huge industry; and while Microsoft has been a big player in that market since its acquisition of Great Plains Software in 2001 and Navision the following year, it has never been the #1 player. PeopleSoft had a very competitive CRM offering for small businesses in the early part of the last decade, then Oracle acquired that company in 2004. Later, Siebel had the lead, and Oracle acquired that company in 2006. (You can see a pattern here.)

Then, as though Calvin "Freakin'" Borel were jockeying it, Salesforce.com has surged forward with a spectacularly successful alternative that is now a prime example of the success of cloud-based Web apps. Microsoft could very well be left behind in this market unless it makes some deals.

Evidently, that's what it was trying to do: Jigsaw is a CRM software producer's Holy Grail. Think of one colossal database of cloud-based, crowd-sourced contacts, assembled through the sheer momentum of tens of thousands of willing contributors. Connect Jigsaw to your CRM product and you have a high-bandwidth gold mine.

Just last month, CRM Magazine's Lauren McKay learned, Jigsaw was preparing to announce a deal with a handful of companies, including Microsoft and Oracle, to extend its cloud-based connectivity to Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Siebel. The result would probably have been a set of branded add-ons that resemble this currently available third-party utility that connects Dynamics with Jigsaw.

Then Salesforce.com purchased Jigsaw outright. Almost immediately, Salesforce began marketing Jigsaw Data Management as its own product -- the biggest link to the broadest cloud database of sales contacts in the world.

The problem with cloud-based products is that they're practically monopolistic by design. Just as there's no sensible business reason for anyone to build "another Wikipedia," it would be considered foolish for anyone to try a "competitive cloud" for even a barely-established product, including Jigsaw.

The objective now for any competitor, including Microsoft, is to try to keep enough of a foot in the door to remain a competitor, before it gets boxed in with the slow horses in the middle. Apparently Microsoft chose to fire a broadside with the weapons at its disposal at the time, which yesterday were comprised of some very old patents on "technologies" such as stacking toolbars together -- methods for which you'd think the rest of the world had already been granted perpetual license by default.

But regardless of whether you buy into the theory that Microsoft has any rights to claim, for instance, the ability to embed a menu in a Web page (patent #5,742,768), it's now an established fact that somebody in Tyler, Texas would buy into it, and it's an academic matter to seat such a person on a jury (even in Washington State where the suit was filed). So even if Microsoft's artillery rounds are made of paper, they can inflict damage.

This lawsuit isn't really about toolbar stacking. It's about making certain a competitor with momentum and motive doesn't lock down the cloud.

Microsoft Files Patent Suit Against Salesforce.com

Wed, 19 May 2010 15:13:08 GMT

Microsoft on Tuesday filed a patent-infringement action against Salesforce.com in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Microsoft claims Salesforce.com's customer relationship management (CRM) product trespasses on nine of its patents.

The patents in question work to make CRM software more efficient. But by targeting Salesforce.com with the suit, it appears Microsoft is going for the jugular. CRM is at the heart of Salesforce.com's business model.

Microsoft is seeking a court order that would prohibit Salesforce.com from offering features in its software suite that infringe on its patents. If Microsoft succeeds, it could damage the core of Salesforce.com's business.

Microsoft vs Salesforce.com

"Microsoft has been a leader and innovator in the software industry for decades and continues to invest billions of dollars each year in bringing great software products and services to market," said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of intellectual property and licensing. "We have a responsibility to our customers, partners and shareholders to safeguard that investment, and therefore cannot stand idly by when others infringe our IP rights."

Salesforce.com Director of Public Relations Gordon Evans declined to comment on the lawsuit. However, the company's recent regulatory filing mentions a "large technology company" alleging patent infringement in 2009. In the regulatory filing, Salesforce.com said it was in talks with the company.

"The resolution of this claim is not expected to have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, but it could be material to the net income or cash flows or both of a particular quarter," Salesforce said in the filing. Unless there are additional IP-infringement allegations that have not yet been revealed, it appears that "large technology company" could be Microsoft.

Is Salesforce.com a Threat?

It's very unusual for Microsoft to file a patent-infringement suit. In fact, Microsoft has only filed four such suits in...

Microsoft sues 'cloud' firm Salesforce.com

Wed, 19 May 2010 06:13:57 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it filed a lawsuit against online customer relationship management (CRM) firm Salesforce.com Inc, claiming it infringed nine Microsoft patents. Mi...

Microsoft Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Salesforce.com

Wed, 19 May 2010 02:11:00 GMT

Both companies sell Customer Relationship Management (CRM) products, and the lawsuit appears to be aimed at Salesfroce.com's well-known and successful "Software-as-a-Service" (SAAS) software.

Microsoft sues Saleforce.com over 'crown jewel' patents

Tue, 18 May 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Microsoft sued Salesforce.com in federal court on Tuesday, alleging that the customer-relationship management (CRM) vendor has violated nine of Microsoft's patents.

SAP Developing Collaborative CRM App (PC World)

Mon, 17 May 2010 20:40:12 GMT

PC World - SAP is working on a new on-demand CRM (customer relationship management) application that will also incorporate social collaboration tools, a company executive said in an interview at the Sapphire conference in Orlando.

Taking computing to the cloud

Sun, 16 May 2010 20:17:12 GMT

Total Environment, one of Bangalore's luxury property developers, has just gone live on Salesforce.com's CRM (customer relationship management) solution. The company will pull the solution from Sal...