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Avidian Technologies Announces Prophet 5
Avidian Technologies has announced the launch of Prophet 5, the newest version of its Outlook-based contact management and CRM solution. Prophet 5 includes improved usability and more advanced contact management features fully integrated with Outlook, eliminating the need to shift back and forth between multiple applications.
Parallels Announces Automation Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Parallels today announced that its Parallels Automation data center solution now supports Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, a fully integrated CRM system. Parallels Automation provides a complete back-office infrastructure so service providers can go to market quickly and incorporate CRM into their service offerings. Parallels Automation provides both operational and business support systems to help service providers optimize the use of server resources.
Unica Releases New Affinium Version
Unica Corp., a global provider of enterprise marketing management (EMM) solutions, has announced enhancements to its Affinium suite that will improve marketers’ abilities to optimize the selection and delivery of the most relevant and profitable marketing messages for each customer — across many channels from potentially billions of possible combinations of offer, channel, and timing. This latest release also delivers performance enhancements and tighter suite integration for improved productivity, time-to-market, and accuracy. With marketers under mounting pressure to deliver more relevant and frequent inbound and outbound offers, Unica’s automated analytics, integrated suite, and cross-channel capabilities can help streamline the entire marketing process.
Numetrics Unveils NMX-ERP 3.0
Numetrics Management Systems Inc., a supplier of schedule predictability for the semiconductor industry, has announced NMX-ERP 3.0, its next generation suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for integrated circuit (IC) development organizations. The new software significantly extends the company’s top-down project planning and risk measurement capabilities. Numetrics’ approach to project planning and risk measurement gives a powerful boost to the customer’s revenue, profits and market share. Packed with dozens of new features, this next generation release of NMX-ERP incorporates a new rich-client graphical user interface, a new project plan synthesis engine, an XML interface to integrate with other enterprise tools, and Numetrics’ eighth generation IC (Integrated Circuit) design complexity calculation engine.
Genius.com Selects Akamai’s Web Application Accelerator Service for Sales and Marketing Solutions
Akamai Technologies Inc., a global service provider for accelerating content and applications online, has announced that Genius.com Inc., an on-demand provider of real-time 1-to-1 marketing solutions for sales and marketing professionals and creator of SalesGenius, has selected Akamai’s Web Application AcceleratorS service to extend market reach and optimize performance of its software-as-a-service offering. Today, Genius.com is serving more than 30,000 users located in nearly 150 different countries.
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Winning the Battle of Expectations vs. Reality in today's service desk
This webinar, conducted by SupportIndustry.com
and presented by industry experts Pete McGarahan and
Stephen Fenter, Director, Best Practices, SupportSoft,
provides you with an insider's view of what is happening
in the Service Desk today.
Attendees will learn how implementing
best practices and taking advantage of the latest support
technologies can increase productivity and improve the
performance of the Service Desk.
View
the webinar today!
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| Benchmarks for Operational Business Intelligence Deployments
Ventana Research’s new benchmark research, “Operational BI – Assessing Market Trends and Use of Business Intelligence in Operations,” finds that usage of BI in Operations is growing, as are operational business user requirements to access multiple data sources and to have available more up-to-date information.
Key findings:
- Operational BI is about improving efficiency and customer service: The most important business benefit to be gained from operational BI is improving efficiency; this was the view of almost two-thirds of the research participants. In addition, 60 percent of participants ranked improving customer service as the most important objective in deploying operational BI.
- Better reporting makes the business case for operational BI: Despite the addition of search, analytics and other advanced tools to BI packages, reporting remains the heart and soul of BI implementations. The two most common methods for accessing information through operational BI deployments are prebuilt reports viewed on a web page (74%) and running reports using custom parameters (63%).
- Users are dissatisfied with the current state of operational BI reporting. In addition, the research shows that delays in deployment, difficulties in integrating multiple data sources and the inability to gain complete views of key information are major reasons for dissatisfaction with operational BI deployments.
- Companies that are mature in their use of operational BI value data timeliness and accuracy: 25% of participating companies were ranked at the highest Innovative level of maturity because their operational BI deployments enable users to trust their information and apply it immediately. Innovative companies typically update their operational BI information once an hour or more often.
More...
Online Consumers Spend Almost Twice as Much Time Using the Internet as Watching TV
If you have an Internet connection, chances are you are spending much more time surfing the Web than watching TV. A new IDC study of consumer online behavior found that the Internet is the medium on which online users spend the most time (32.7 hours/week). This is equivalent to almost half of the total time spent each week using all media (70.6 hours), almost twice as much time as spent watching television (16.4 hours), and more than eight times as much time as spent reading newspapers and magazines (3.9 hours).
The data also show that consumers tend to use the media they grew up with. The older the respondents, the more they consume TV, newspapers, and magazines; the younger they are, the more the Internet displaces usage of traditional media. Using search engines (84% of respondents), mapping and navigation services (83%), personal research (77%), and using email (76%) are the most frequent online activities.
The types of devices employed to access the Internet will continue to diversify, and Internet usage will become more mobile. In addition to desktops, laptops, and mobile phones, a new category of "web gadgets" such as the Amazon Kindle, the Nokia N800, and the Apple iPod touch will use WiFi to access the Internet.
More...
Consumers are Unaware of True Online Fraud Liability, Causing Checkout Hesitation
It’s 2008. Do you know what your online fraud liability is? While fraud protection and security are the most important factors for online shoppers, 68% of online shoppers who pay with a credit card do not know their liability coverage. This is according to a new national survey of 2,706 consumers conducted by JupiterResearch and commissioned by eBillme, a payment alternative that brings online banking to the eCommerce checkout. And, based on the distribution of other responses from the survey on this topic, it is clear that there is a high level of confusion as to the definition of maximum liability coverage, even among those who think they know what their level of maximum liability coverage might be. With similar data reported among debit card users, it is apparent why consumers are still hesitant to checkout.
The survey evaluated consumers’ considerations when selecting a payment method online and examined potential opportunities for online merchants to convert these hesitant shoppers into confident buyers. The results uncovered interesting insights into consumers’ online shopping behavior indicating that buyer protection is far more important than purchase rewards, which is one of the least important factors for consumers choosing an online payment option:
- 81% of credit and debit card users value fraud protection as the most important factor when selecting a payment option; over 4 times more important than rewards.
- 60% of credit card users and 56% of debit card users prefer product and service guarantees — over 3 times more than those who prefer rewards on their purchase.
- 45% of credit card users and 50% of debit card users value price protection and being offered the lowest available price; 2.5 times over rewards or points earned from making purchases for credit card users and over 3 times for debit card users.
The study also found that 68 percent of credit card users don’t know what percentage of purchases they would be liable for if their card were lost or stolen. And, 77% of credit card users stated that they would accept changes in the online checkout payment process if it would enhance security. 65% of debit card users are similarly unaware of the liability connected with using a debit card. Fraudulent debit card purchases can cost the consumer up to $500 or more if the activity is not reported in a certain allotted time period.
More...
Wireless Carriers Must Effectively Target Customer Segments
Gone are the days when wireless carriers could generate subscriber growth simply by offering standard buckets of minutes at competitive prices; adding customers today requires a targeted approach toward the specific needs of customer segments. Carriers’ recent launches of unlimited plans that focus on high-end users is just one step in the increasingly vital direction of targeted pricing.
A new report from Diamond Management & Technology Consultants Inc. finds that wireless carriers in mature markets typically are not marketing targeted pricing plans to specific customer segments as effectively as they should. Diamond explains that targeting can be performed on the basis of wireless subscribers’ usage patterns or demographics, but notes that pricing is just one element of a targeted value proposition.
Discounts on new phones for existing subscribers and other incentives have added to carriers’ difficulty in converting competitors’ subscribers, known as “customer churn.” According to Diamond’s report, these factors have largely contributed to a drop in monthly churn rates from 2.5 percent in 2000 to 1.7 percent today -- and only 1.3 percent for postpaid plan subscribers.
For instance, carriers need to weigh the value of mass-market advertising campaigns against the value of marketing specific pricing plans through media outlets that cater to particular demographic segments. While some companies have developed innovative pricing structures, most wireless carriers adopt the mass-market approach for pricing plan introductions — often not the most cost-effective approach.
Diamond’s report provides high-level analysis of six targeted pricing plan examples, each of which holds a unique value proposition that justifies the offer. Some targeted customer segments for the sample plans are:
- Nationwide Heavy Usage – The core segments are businesspeople and traveling professionals who demand an abundance of peak calling time and currently subscribe to wireless plans starting at 1,500 minutes. The plan offers simplicity and predictability to its subscribers, who pay $100 per month and do not need to worry about budgeting their minutes, or risking the possibility of incurring additional fees for overages.
- Local Medium-Heavy Usage – The plan is targeted at small-business workers, including blue-collar workers (such as plumbers, electricians, and taxi drivers), social workers, real estate agents, and other locally- or regionally-based traveling salespeople. A secondary segment includes in-state college students and young adults. This plan offers simplicity and predictability at a relatively low price point, and it carries a greater perceived value than plans offered by competitors.
- Very Low Usage – The targeted customers are elderly individuals who have basic mobile service needs; subscribers do not want to pay for an expensive postpaid plan. At the same time, they may eschew prepaid service because of its top-up requirements, varying expiration dates, and limited customer care. Such a plan offers a combination of affordability and simplicity, with the price aimed at people with very limited mobile phone needs. The postpaid model makes it more predictable and easy to use than prepaid alternatives.
- Heavy Messaging – The target segment for this plan is teenagers, especially those who are graduating from prepaid or family plans. The offer should be attractive to a segment that has perhaps the largest appetite for text messages. Teens also tend to focus calls to a circle of friends and family members, and have less of a need for peak minutes due to school and after-school activities.
To properly validate a targeted pricing plan, wireless carriers should ask itself such questions as “Does the pricing plan speak to the targeted segment’s needs, price sensitivity, and usage behaviors that currently are not addressed by existing plans?” and “Do pricing plans drive retention and loyalty in the target segments?”
More...
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| Add Mobile to the CRM Mix
It's the moment dreaded by every marketer who considers herself "tech-savvy" — the moment when that new medium for reaching customers transitions from bleeding edge to leading edge. It happened with email and Internet marketing — and now, after rapid adoption in Europe, it's happening here in the United States with mobile marketing and mobile CRM.
Full Article...
Oracle Skins CRM with Social Networking
There’s been a lot of debate and soul-searching among so-called Enterprise 2.0 gurus and vendors about how to bring social networking to the enterprise. There’s been an interesting new take on the subject from Oracle CRM: build social networking into the applications enterprises already use.
Full Article...
Social Media Will Change Your Business
It's time for a frank talk. And no, it can't wait. We know, we know: Most of you are sick to death of blogs. Don't even want to hear about these millions of online journals that link together into a vast network. Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they're going to shake up just about every business —including yours.
Full Article...
The Ten Easiest Ways To Lose Your Customers
Winning business often requires a significant investment in time. But customer care, unfortunately, is still regarded by many as a costly activity or a burden on resources. Some organizations have already recognized the importance of customer care, and a few are very advanced in the practice of customer service — but very few.
Full Article...
Seven Social Networking Strategies for Smaller Businesses
From sourcing talent to building brand awareness to prospecting for customers, social networking can help you manage many aspects of your smaller business — if you know what you're doing. This article details how to hit the goldmines and avoid the landmines as you pursue all those social networking opportunities.
Full Article...
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|  Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands
by Alina Wheeler
From translating the vision of a CEO and conducting research, through designing a sustainable identity program and building online branding tools, Designing Brand Identity helps companies create stronger brands by offering real substance. With step-by-step considerations and a five-phase process for creating and implementing effective brand identity, the book offers the tools you need — whether a brand manager, marketer, or designer — when creating or managing a brand.
For
more information, or to order your copy...
You can find
more industry sepcific books at our web site:
http://www.crmindustry.com/
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| CRM Blog
The CRMindustry.com blog provides readers with access to the latest Customer Relationship Management (CRM) industry buzz, analyst data, and an in depth look at the tools that are shaping CRM.
Check it out today! http://crmindustry.blogspot.com
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