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Forrester
Acquires JupiterResearch
Forrester Research, Inc. announced that it has acquired JupiterResearch,
LLC, and its parent company, JUPR Holdings, Inc., from MCG Capital
Corporation for $23 million in cash plus assumed liabilities, subject
to post-closing adjustments, in a strategic purchase that complements
Forrester's syndicated business model. Forrester serves marketing
and strategy, IT, and technology industry leaders across 19 professional
roles. The addition of JupiterResearch will fortify Forrester's
existing data-driven insight, forward-looking research and analysis,
objective advice, and best practices for Marketing & Strategy
professionals globally.
New NetSuite CRM+ Features Enhance Ease-Of-Use With Advanced AJAX-Powered
Workflows
NetSuite Inc., a vendor of on-demand, integrated business management
software suites for the mid-market enterprise business and divisions
of large companies, has announced new capabilities for its flagship
CRM product, NetSuite CRM+, featuring AJAX-powered workflows that
enhance ease-of-use of marketing automation and knowledge management
functionality used in customer support and customer service. These
new workflows center around step-wise, dynamic user interaction
and are now also supported in the new Firefox 3 web browser, along
with other capabilities of NetSuite such as eXtreme list editing,
rich-text editing, drag-and-drop and quick-add portlets. For more
information about today's product release please visit
CDC Software Launches CRM Platform Based on Microsoft.NET
Technology
CDC Software has announced the general availability of Pivotal CRM
6.0, a newly-designed CRM platform based on Microsoft.NET technology
that provides task-based navigation, embedded Microsoft SharePoint
and Office applications, easy customization, a smart client user
interface, high user adoption and a low total cost of ownership.
Pivotal CRM 6.0 is a significantly redesigned platform that provides
users with out-of-the box, task-based navigation, forms and portals
that have the look and feel of Microsoft applications and that have
the ability to model complex workflow.
Oilco Services Installs Soffront CRM to Provide Better Customer
Service
Soffront Software Inc., a provider of mid-market CRM software, announced
that Oilco Services Ltd. is using Soffront CRM to improve customer
service. Oilco supplies, installs, commissions and maintains equipment
for retail petroleum stations in India. Oilco Services deployed
Soffront Customer Service, Defect Tracking, and Customer Portal
to help its service division better monitor problem resolution and
provide a simple way for its customers to check on the status of
issues. The software improves customer satisfaction through an easy
to use, online customer portal, allowing customers to enter issues
and monitor their resolution through a secure, web-based portal.
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Achieving
Change Management from a Business Perspective
August 14, 2008 11:00 am PT
This SupportIndustry.com webinar,
conducted by Pete McGarahan and FrontRange Solutions,
examines IT and ITIL best practices for managing change
across the entire IT infrastructure.In
this webinar, you will learn:
- Why the first question during
a system outage should be “What Changed?”
- Why formal and controlled IT Change
Management is a high priority for the business
- The metrics that matter most for
IT and the business
- Positioning IT Change Management
on your ITSM Roadmap
- Changing the IT Culture to adopt
and adapt to this formalized process for implementing
change
- The business speaks – real
life stories regarding change gone badly!
Register
today!
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| Only 40 Percent
Have Formal Systems, Processes to Align Critical Sales and Marketing
Functions
A new global study by the Chief Marketing Officer Council shows
that many companies worldwide still lag in their ability to integrate
and align sales goals with marketing activities, thus reducing the
overall business performance of their organizations.
Over 55 percent of some 506 sales and marketing professionals surveyed
by the CMO Council and its CLOSE community say their companies have
yet to, or are only planning to, implement formal programs, systems
or processes for unifying sales and marketing functions. In contrast,
of those who have, nearly 50 percent report success in synchronizing
and optimizing these often-polarized areas.
While many recognize the benefits of better partnering across these
key demand-generating functions, they are being stymied by lack
of processes and systems, siloed operations, insufficient management
mandate, and ineffective reporting and organizational structures.
Still more respondents seem to be stuck in corporate culture-biases
about sales and marketing roles, making alignment and collaboration
a treacherous bridge to cross.
When marketers were asked how they viewed sales, 40 percent said
they had some top producers but there was mostly a need for improvement.
In comparison, sales professionals tended to have a very tactical
view of marketing with only 10 percent seeing marketers as market-savvy
and on-target with demand-generating campaigns. The vast majority,
41 percent, rated marketing marginally on their ability to provide
good content and the right sales support materials. However, respondents
agree that the top three measures of sales performance and productivity
are lead quality and ROI, conversion and close rates, and level
of action on opportunities --all very tactical and all tied directly
benefited by a deeper alignment and integration between sales and
marketing.
Key findings from the report showed that:
- Less than
20 percent of respondents say their sales and marketing organizations
are extremely collaborative; most felt the two groups had intermittent
relations and interactions.
- In looking
at ways sales could add value to marketing messaging and communications,
survey participants felt engaging strategically with customers
to better understand issues and needs was the most valuable contribution.
- In contrast,
two of the most important roles marketing could play in optimizing
sales performance were fielding campaigns that generated and nurtured
leads and opportunities, as well as providing customized value-
selling content and presentation materials.
Barely
12 percent of sales and marketing professionals say they have
a well-integrated, real-time view of all customer interactions,
while only 37 percent report good visibility into prospects,
pipeline, deal flow and conversion rates. By comparison, 20
percent indicate that marketing hands off leads to sales yet
marketing has no insight into conversion and close outcomes,
13 percent say most leads are never captured, qualified or acted
upon, and about 11 percent report they have no on-premise or
on-demand CRM system in place.
- Among those
who have CRM applications, only 13 percent view the application
as highly valued and widely deployed, while 42 percent see growing
acceptance and adoption.
- While CRM
systems tend to be mandated and adopted across the sales organization,
they tend to be more selectively embraced by marketing teams in
business units and departments
Data analytics,
reporting and forecasting tend to be the biggest deficiencies
in optimizing the functionality and usability of current CRM
solutions. The top three areas highlighted by nearly 50 percent
of respondents were the ability to easily create analytic reports,
customization of the application and forecasting capabilities.
Real-time and historic analytics placed a close fourth (40%)
adding to the call for more analytics and user friendly tools.
- While 50
percent of those surveyed said they had pretty good or extensive
visibility into customer accounts and business activity, the other
50 percent said they had trouble finding customer account data,
did not have enough information, or none at all.
Respondents
to the survey were drawn from all industry sectors with over
43 percent in companies with annual sales of $100 million or
more. The average sales cycle is 2 to 6 months (36 percent)
with 14 percent of respondents claiming a sales cycle of 1 to
2+ years. Nearly 70 percent were drawn from BtoB companies.
Virtually all companies operated in North America, over 50 percent
in Europe, 47 percent in Asia, 30 percent in Latin America,
26 percent in the Middle East and nearly 20 percent in Africa.
Over 35 percent of responding companies had more than 1,000
employees and 65 percent had less than 1,000 employees.
More...
Business Needs Customer Experience Management
Most businesses today have not advanced very far in how they manage
their customers' experiences with them, according to newly released
benchmark research from Ventana Research. The new research, "Customer
Experience Management: Improving the Consistency and Quality of
Customer Interactions" confirms that businesses are only beginning
to advance towards managing the customer experience across the broad
set of customer interactions that occur every day.
Ventana Research
defines customer experience management as a focus on improving the
effectiveness of the people, processes, information and technology
involved in the customer interaction at every touch point in the
organization. The new research evaluated the maturity of customer
experience management and found that only 12 percent of organizations
are truly mature in their focus on ensuring the optimal customer
experience.
The research
report notes that customers are one of a company's key assets, and
the way they behave will have a strong impact on the success or
failure of the company. If they remain loyal and continue their
purchasing, the company's prospects will be good, but if the costs
to support them exceed the revenues they generate, prospects will
look bad. Nearly all interactions occur through a customer service
agent in a call center or through the Web, and the research shows
that customers are less than satisfied with the results of their
calls, and only 40 percent of participants reported that issues
usually are resolved during the first call. Curiously, though, only
slightly more than one-third of the organizations participating
in the research said they intend to upgrade the desktop technology
on which agents rely in the next 12 months.
More...
Behavioral Targeting and
Privacy
Marketers today must face the ongoing challenge of determining the
proper balance between online ad targeting and privacy. However,
the general public may be less concerned about the matter than privacy
advocates might suggest.
Of the 2,513
respondents to a recent Harris Poll, 55% said they were very or
somewhat comfortable with Web sites that had privacy policies allowing
targeted advertising and content. And, unsurprisingly, the youngest
respondents --ages 18 to 31 -- were more comfortable than average,
with 62% indicating approval of such privacy policies.
Still, 45% of
the Internet users polled said they were not comfortable with policies
that allow ad targeting -- and that is too big a group for marketers
to ignore.
Research from
TNS Global and TRUSTe -- a privacy advocacy organization -- found
that 70.5% of the 3,260 US adult Internet users surveyed agreed
somewhat or strongly with this statement: "When I am online,
I am aware that my browsing information may be collected by a third
party for advertising purposes."
Awareness and
comfort diverge, however, since 57.2% of respondents also indicated
they were not comfortable with advertisers using their browsing
history to serve them relevant ads -- even if the data used could
not be tied to their name or other personal information.
Consider that
in light of the TNS/TRUSTe result showing 74.3% of US adult Internet
users are aware of tools that help them protect their online privacy.
Further, a whopping 91% of respondents say they would take the necessary
steps to protect their privacy.
On the Internet,
however, privacy is a slippery concept. As Information Week has
pointed out, the same "aggregation of the many small pieces
of innocuous data" that powers behavioral targeting also allows
further analysis that breaches the privacy barrier.
Advertisers,
publishers and ad companies hoping to placate privacy concerns will
need to expand on informed consent. Website visitors will have to
actively opt in to behaviorally targeted advertising with the full
understanding of the implications of their assent. They will also
need to be informed of the real benefits of saying yes, including
more-relevant advertising and the possibility of free services such
as video, photo storage and so on.
More...
Majority of Web Analytics Customers Content With Service
IupiterResearch, an authority on the impact of the Internet and
emerging consumer technologies on business, has found that despite
volatility in the market, costs related to switching Web analytics
providers remain high, while more than two-thirds of current analytics
customers are content with their current provider.
According to
the report, the feature war is over, and differentiators are surfacing
in pricing, flexibility, and scalability. Site operators must quantify
visitors’ relationships and experiences through segmentation,
engagement, and attribution.
A new frontier
for Web analytics is data integration and the ability to stitch
together a holistic view of customers' experience across multiple
touch points. Several analytics vendors are establishing integration
platforms that enable data to be passed from independent marketing
applications (e.g., e-mail, content management, search) to analytics
solutions for blended analysis. Others are consolidating marketing
functions within a suite-like ecosystem to augment enterprise marketing
capabilities, or enabling data sharing and use in any number of
formats to provide the most flexible use and analysis.
Solutions from
Omniture, Unica, and Coremetrics emerged as industry leaders for
large enterprises using analytics. WebTrends, Google Analytics,
IndexTools a Yahoo! Service, and Lyris HQ ClickTracks also attained
industry-leader status for small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) through
demonstrated value.
More...
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| What's the
Real Cost of a Hosted CRM Solution?
While general wisdom holds that hosted, or SaaS (software as a service)
CRM is much less expensive than the on-premise alternative, that
doesn't necessarily mean that hosted CRM is cheap. There are many
factors to consider in calculating total cost of ownership and ROI.
Full
Article...
Quality Data Can Yield Amazing Insight
NewVantage Partners co-founder Paul Barth likes to tell the story
of a commercial wholesale bank that saw the opportunity to grow
business and customer satisfaction by up-selling existing customers.
Its sales force had traditionally been organized around product
lines, but the bank knew that cross-selling was an unexploited opportunity.
The question was what to sell to whom.
Full
Article...
Finding the Sigma Level of Customer Complain
Few companies have extended Six Sigma from a manufacturing application
to manage customer satisfaction or customer complaints. But it is
possible to measure the sigma level of customer complaints, and
this information can be valuable when making improvements to customer
service processes and delivery.
Full
Article...
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid...of Your Customers
CEOs around the world are waking from nightmares drenched in a cold
sweat. No, it's not the slowing economy that has them shaking in
their boots; the horrors facing these executives are their own customers.
In the good old day, a bad service experience stayed pretty much
between the consumer and the company. Those days are over. Issues
can spread worldwide to tens of thousands of existing and potential
customers within hours and a simple miscommunication between an
agent and a customer can make your company and your brand a laughingstock
around the world.
Full
Article...
Speech Within Your Reach: Hosted Systems for Everyone
Today's hosted speech solutions create more satisfied customers
and fewer boring, rote tasks -- which leads to happier call-center
agents, less burnout and, therefore, less turnover in the workforce,
which is a major cost savings, since recruiting, hiring and training
agents is the single largest expense of the contact center.
Full
Article...
House Calls: Home Agents Can Succeed
At some of the most progressive and successful contact centers,
a large percentage of agents very rarely show up. While such a scenario
typically indicates rampant agent burnout and turnover, at these
centers quite the contrary is true. At these centers, agents are
truly engaged and committed precisely because they don’t have
to show up. They are work-at-home agents.
Full
Article...
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|  Coaching
Contact Center Agents
By Dr. Jon Anton, Howard Lee
This is a book focused on one of the most important
and least understood jobs in a contact center, namely, coaching
the front-line agent. In preparing the materials for the book, the
authors interview successful coaches and spent time watching them
using call evaluation reports to determine agent call handling improvements.
The book is full of tips and ideas gleaned from site visits to contact
centers. In addition, the authors include verbatim suggestions from
contact center coaches detailing their advice on what works and
what doesn't work in dealing with agent improvement initiatives.
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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Visit the CRM Solution Center
CRMindustry.com and KnowledgeStorm have joined forces to offer you access to the CRM Solution Center, a fast, intuitive way to locate, research and qualify potential CRM and IT solutions.
The CRM Solution Center provides you unlimited access to white papers, case studies, detailed product information and more. Registration is quick and easy -- in 30 seconds or less, you will be on your way to accessing this valuable resource
Click here to start searching!
Research Results: 2008 Trends in Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
The majority of respondents (81%) in CRMindustry.com's "2008 Trends in Customer Relationship Management (CRM)" survey are happy with the overall performance of their CRM technology vendor. The research, conducted in November - December 2007, surveyed high-level CRM executives representing a range of industries. The data gathered provides valuable insight into the issues and challenges important to those responsible for CRM in their organization.
Click Here to get a complimentary copy of the executive summary, as well as view the graphs.
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