CRM news
| Imagine..... I had the occasion to write a commentary for the skilled nursing
facility that my mother hopefully will be released from soon. Once I got
to thinking about it I began to wonder if somewhere down the road
someone will develop sympathetic technology for all those aging
boomers out there or could technology be applied to those individuals
who seem to be unreachable. Simplicity, serenity and calming
networking.ittoolbox.com |
7/29/10 2:08 PM
PRM: It's Not Just CRM for Partners CRM is a complex thing. It involves understanding your customers and
your own business -- two difficult things to fully grasp under any
circumstances -- and then using technology to convert that understanding
into a positive impact on your business. Customers, and to a lesser
extent your business, are always changing.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/29/10 1:00 PM
Why That Mountain of Leads Is a Molehill of Sales In the struggle to grow revenues in tighter markets, most companies are
pushing their marketing departments to provide greater market coverage
and deliver more sales opportunities. Yet statistics reveal that an
astonishing 79 percent of leads generated by corporate marketing
departments are never contacted by corporate sales groups.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/28/10 1:00 PM
The Beauty of a Sustainable Supply Chain The new age of sustainability is like a three-legged stool, and over the
last couple of weeks I've discussed my ideas for the first two legs,
including customers and energy or transportation. The third leg
involves products, and this idea takes some thinking to fully
comprehend. Most of us don't think a lot about products because they are ubiquitous.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/28/10 1:00 PM
Doctoring the Customer Experience Retailers' worst nightmare has indeed come to bear: American consumers
have permanently changed their buying habits, according to research by
several firms. Gone are the days of shopping as a pastime. And, for all
practical purposes, brand loyalty has just about evaporated.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/27/10 1:00 PM
How to Waste A Business Analyst 1. Limit them to pulling data and creating stock reports for people who
have no clue about the juicy statistics in the database that they don't
know about 2. Don't put them on projects at the RFP stage after all they
just "do data" 3. Assume they have no project management
skills 4. Ignore what they tell you because you don't understand what
they are saying - good grief asking them to restate it
networking.ittoolbox.com |
7/26/10 3:27 PM
In the Call Center, What Gets Measured Gets Done Its 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning, and Fred from the ABC call center is
logging onto the company's metrics portal to find out his first call
resolution and average handle time. He also has access to a complete set
of other metrics that provide a composite view of his performance over
the previous week. His manager is able to see team's aggregate metrics
and drill down further to see individual performances.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/26/10 1:00 PM
Been Away Yet Again Well, I thought that I was going to dive into July and get back to
business but alas once again challenges have been presented to me. I
have thought hard about writing on this topic and have decided that it
is worthwhile. After years of dealing with severe glaucoma my mom has
developed frightening psychotic symptoms. Most of this month has been
devoted to getting her treatment and to some place
networking.ittoolbox.com |
7/26/10 9:30 AM
Mining the Contact Center for BI Gems The use of analytics in contact centers enables management to extract
critical business intelligence that would otherwise be lost. By
analyzing and categorizing recorded conversations between companies and
their customers, useful information can be discovered relating to
strategy, product, process, customer satisfaction/retention, and
operational issues.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/23/10 1:00 PM
Road Trip - music and workshops I leave home on Thursday, July 29th and then see schedule below. Are you near one of these cities? Do you know someone in one of these cities? The workshops at Sam Ash Music and Guitar Center and any public venue performances, are of course, open to anyone. But if you want networking.ittoolbox.com | 7/22/10 4:03 PM Apple Still Thinks It Controls the Customer Conversation Every business needs to understand its audience in order to put together
a social strategy that makes sense. A one-size-fits-all template fits no
one in the social era. Still, there are some things that you don't do.
You don't try to control the conversation. It is not yours to manipulate
-- even in cases where the conversation is taking place in a community
your company has created.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/22/10 1:00 PM
Facebook Has Half a Billion Members but Few Real Friends Facebook, one of the most popular sites on the Web -- now claiming 500
million users -- also has the dubious distinction of being one of the
lowest-ranked in terms of customer satisfaction. Facebook scored a
paltry 64 on the 100-point scale of the 2010 American Customer
Satisfaction Index E-Business Report. That puts it in the bottom 5
percent of all measured private sector companies.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/21/10 7:17 PM
Treating the Customer as a Renewable Resource Last time, we explored how we can make IT more sustainable by improving
data center energy use. Managing energy use is the most well-understood
form of sustainability we have, but it is largely an internal form of
sustainability practice. If we intend to make our businesses
sustainable, then we also need to consider sustainability in
customer-facing business processes.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/21/10 1:00 PM
Avaya Unveils Reassuring Product Lineup Seven months after Avaya closed its acquisition of Nortel and
simultaneously released a road map for integrating the two product
lines, Avaya has delivered on that plan. It is releasing a cornucopia of
new and enhanced products that largely follow the promises Avaya made in
January. "Most users on both sides of the aisle were frightened or
skeptical of what Avaya might do," said Drew Kraus, an analyst with Gartner.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/20/10 1:00 PM
Solving the Fax-to-Order Customer Service Problem Businesses will probably always have customers who want to place their
orders by fax. When there are manual tasks involved in processing those
orders, they can present a serious problem because companies may fall
short in meeting expectations of the customers who place them.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/19/10 1:00 PM
Week in Review: The CRM Market - From Legal Battlefields to Commercial Wars …I just know I need strength to fight (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
Most Popular ArticlesThese articles were what you fancied most this week, according to Uncle G’s analytics data.
Our Polls and Your VotesThe Intranet as we know it is a rapidly evolving creature, at least for some of us. Our latest poll looks at how your Intranet is being used (or if you even have one at all) and whether collaboration tools are present. Poll: Does Your Intranet Include Collaboration Tools or Features? This poll will remain open until July 21. But don’t wait until then, vote now and watch how the results unfold. So far, blogs and wikis seem to be winning the Intranet race: Also, check out our previous polls: Content Management JobsHere’s what’s been brewing lately in the CMS jobs and careers field. Both seekers and employers, catch the best fish of the season on our content management job board. Featured Jobs
Traveling or Virtual, There are Events to AttendWondering how to spend your time in the next few weeks or months? Attend a conference, or maybe just a webinar or two. Have a look at our Industry Events Calendar to see what’s happening in your area. Featured Events:
A Product Content Strategy for 'Commerce Anywhere' All it takes is one bad experience to turn a customer away -- which is
why the delivery of accurate and consistent product data across all
channels is fast becoming one of the most important criteria for online
and cross-channel success. Whether consumers visit a site to make a
purchase, use their mobile devices to conduct research, or place a call
to a contact center with a question, today's etailers and online
marketers need to be able to flow content and context across all
channels with ease.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/16/10 1:00 PM
Clinching the Sales Quota: It's All in the Prep With the advent of technologies enabling buyers with increasing insight
into the sellers' products and competitors, the traditional strategies
of bringing qualified prospects to a closed deal require a new set of
contemporary skills among sales staff. Recent research offers further insight.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/16/10 1:00 PM
Apple Disgruntlement Reaching Fever Pitch It has not been a pretty few weeks for Apple. Almost immediately
following its release of the iPhone 4, reception problems began popping
up, with complaints quickly spreading online through traditional and
social media. Then, came Consumer Reports' review of the phone -- which it did not recommend due to its antenna
problems. The issue reached a crescendo as talk of a recall made the rounds.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/15/10 8:53 PM
Forgotten Features Could Squeeze Out More CRM Value If you've ever implemented a CRM application or trained to use one,
you've undoubtedly noticed that there are an awful lot of features that
you never touch. Some just aren't useful for your circumstances or for
your particular vertical industry segment; some are overkill; some are
just attempts by your vendor to anticipate a need that never materializes.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/15/10 1:00 PM
New Rules Lay Out 'Meaningful Use' Requirements for Electronic Health Records The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released its final
version of rules that define the parameters under which physicians and
hospitals can qualify for funding to upgrade their electronic medical
records systems. Included are new definitions for what will constitute
"meaningful use" of electronic records to meet objectives of
the programs.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/14/10 8:29 PM
The Subscription Prescription: Q&A With Zuora CEO Tien Tzuo Zuora, a provider of on-demand subscription billing and payment
services, was cofounded in March 2008 jointly by Tien Tzuo, who serves
as its CEO; Cheng Zou and K.V. Rao. It received $6.5 million in Series A
funding later that month and $15 million in Series B funding in October
of 2008. It has been profitable since.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/14/10 1:00 PM
The Greening of Business Sustainability The most popular concept of sustainability revolves around energy use,
and while I have no issues with energy as an issue, I think in business
the idea goes further -- all the way to products and customers. I will
leave the last couple of ideas for another time and concentrate on
energy today.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/14/10 1:00 PM
Consulting 101 - My Beginnings, My Growth, and Are You Ready? Some questions, some answers, embrace the fear, and bootstrapping is key
networking.ittoolbox.com |
7/14/10 10:46 AM
Open Source, Commercial Diverge in SugarCRM 6 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. www.linux.com | 7/14/10 6:08 AM Open Source, Commercial Diverge in SugarCRM 6 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. Sugar 6 offers simplified UI and information access 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 [...]
www.zdnet.com |
7/13/10 7:57 PM
Microsoft Dynamics Aims to Steal a Little Salesforce Thunder Microsoft is set to release both the online and in-house versions of its
new CRM package this fall. Along with the beta release of Microsoft
Dynamics CRM 2011, the company will be opening an app store for
third-party developers called "Microsoft Dynamics
Marketplace." That's according to a company announcement made at
the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/13/10 1:00 PM
Microsoft Reveals Details of Dynamics CRM 2011 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 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. www.topix.net | 7/12/10 11:24 PM Microsoft's CRM Marketplace Challenges Salesforce.com
(NewsFactor) 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.
us.rd.yahoo.com |
7/12/10 10:04 PM
Microsoft's CRM Marketplace Challenges Salesforce.com 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,... www.cio-today.com | 7/12/10 8:04 PM Microsoft opening CRM app store 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.  www.macworld.co.uk | 7/12/10 7:25 PM Microsoft opening CRM app store 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.  www.macworld.co.uk | 7/12/10 7:25 PM Delivering Exceptional Customer Experience in a Multichannel World It's been more than 10 years since Time magazine named Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos Person of the Year for his
success in popularizing the ability to shop for and purchase just about
anything online. At that time, you didn't have to go far to find experts
touting e-commerce as the total replacement for the communication
channels typically used in a traditional "brick and mortar" organization.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/12/10 1:00 PM
The Cloud's Answer to the Knowledge Management Challenge One of the most vexing problems facing organizations for years has been
knowledge management. In the past, the task of capturing, organizing and
disseminating valuable information so it could be properly utilized by
end-users and business executives was an herculean effort that produced
limited results. Today's cloud computing movement offers exciting
opportunities to remedy those age-old challenges.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/9/10 1:00 PM
Health Information Exchanges, Part 2: The IT Challenges In an economy where automobiles are essential, information about car
performance and cost is readily available. With a few computer
keystrokes a prospective buyer shopping the "previously owned"
car market can trace the history of a vehicle through multiple owners
and across state lines. Now there is a major national program underway
to similarly track individual health records as people move around the country.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/9/10 1:00 PM
Microsoft dynamics CRM extension from Axonom provides powerful sales forecasting abilities 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...
story.venezuelastar.com |
7/9/10 9:00 AM
6 Steps to CRM Transformation In general, professionals and customers involved in unsuccessful CRM
transformations commonly point to certain causes of failure. These vary
from lack of customer-centric strategy to absence of measurable goals,
poor change management to poor implementation. In our personal
experience, most CRM implementations have been beset with similar challenges.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/8/10 1:00 PM
Don't Just Build a Community - Engage It Social media can be wonderful tools for sales and marketing, but so far
most companies and most anecdotal evidence that I have seen point to
practices that are mired in old-think, with the result that social media
is being questioned as a strategy. Here are some ideas that I give my
clients when they are trying to figure out an approach involving social
media. It's a new world, so stop treating it like the old world.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/7/10 1:00 PM
A Personal Declaration of Independence Thoughts on risk and fear.
networking.ittoolbox.com |
7/7/10 10:50 AM
Health Information Exchanges, Part 1: Follow That Patient When a person from Texas relocates to California and changes physicians,
the new doctor is likely to know next to nothing about that person's
physical condition. The doctor typically will conduct a complete
physical exam, perhaps order a few tests, and depend upon the patient's
recollections to create a medical history.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/6/10 1:00 PM
Shrink the Cycle, Clinch the Deal, Hit the Numbers Aberdeen research conducted for "B2B TeleServices: The 2009 Buyer's
Guide" has shown the end-user value of deploying external,
customer-facing teams to source, nurture and convert the most highly
qualified leads on behalf of an internal, B2B-focused field sales
organization. Additional findings in "Inside Sales Enablement: Let
Them Drink Coffee!" provide insight into internal teams.
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/2/10 1:00 PM
Taking the Technology Out of the Changing Customer Equation The facts about today's customers are well established: They know more
about your business than ever before, they're talking to their peers and
to the wider public about you, they want to be communicated with through
the channels of their choosing, and they desire to have a more
partner-like relationship with your company. So, what are you going to
do about it?
www.crmbuyer.com |
7/1/10 1:00 PM
Contemplating Technology and Tools I Use Sometimes, I just say WOW!!
networking.ittoolbox.com |
7/1/10 10:31 AM
The Subscription Economy There are multiple ideas about the shape of the future competing for
primacy in the electronic village. I am pushing on sustainability, but
another idea that I really like is called "the subscription
economy," championed most vociferously by Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora.
Subscriptions fit well into Tzuo's company plan, since his company has a
billing and payments system for subscription purchases.
www.crmbuyer.com |
6/30/10 1:00 PM
The Real Killer App Inside Chatter They say we have big brains because we have all needed to work better
together over the past 150,000 years. The more people work together, the
more tools they need to make collaboration a productive art, rather than
a befuddled mess. Rather than wait for human evolution to keep up the
pace, Salesforce.com recently delivered its Chatter cloud-based
collaboration service.
www.crmbuyer.com |
6/29/10 1:00 PM
Consulting and the Assumption of Knowledge All this time and I thought you knew.. doh!!!
networking.ittoolbox.com |
6/29/10 8:56 AM
Strategic vs. Tactical Last question to answer with our project case study so far do you view
this as a strategic or tactical endeavor? In short there really
shouldnt be any great gap between strategic and tactical and if I can
go even further any strategy needs a tactical plan and hopefully
tactical plans contain strategy. Right now in my environment, in a
classic case of jump on the bandwagon, I am
networking.ittoolbox.com |
6/28/10 8:26 PM
The Diagrams and ABC Costing At the risk of being redundant, indulge me in one more turn through the
diagrams. We began with some high level conceptual drawings that I
called Spider diagrams and this established our concept. Everything is
represented in high level business terms. We drew out our first concept,
analyzed it and found that we needed to adjust our mode of thought.
Next we began to dive down into the drawings
networking.ittoolbox.com |
6/28/10 8:24 PM
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