September 11, 2002 

DecisionOne Deploys Salesforce.com for Online Sales Force Automation
Salesforce.com, an online customer relationship management solutions provider, has announced that DecisionOne, a provider of technology deployment and support for the digital world, has standardized its North American sales operations on salesforce.com's Enterprise Edition. With 4,000 employees throughout North America, DecisionOne chose salesforce.com for its rapid, cost-effective deployment and ability to offer offline access for its mobile sales personnel. After an implementation period of approximately 25 business days, DecisionOne was up and running on salesforce.com and able to create a singular, company-wide view of its sales process.

FrontRange Solutions Introduces GoldMine CustomerIQ
FrontRange Solutions Inc., a provider of CRM and customer service and support software, has announced its next-generation CRM solution for the mid-market, GoldMine CustomerIQ. The new software combines FrontRange's proven architectural framework with industry-specific functionality, making it a true vertical CRM solution offering out-of-the-box functionality for the financial services or wealth management and discrete manufacturing markets. The new software also offers a high degree of adaptability, enabling users to easily customize their own unique business processes. Developed specifically for medium-sized companies, GoldMine CustomerIQ provides extensive core CRM functionality, while simultaneously offering unique features for the vertical industries.

Epicor Ships CRM Application Architected for Microsoft .NET
Epicor Software Corp., a provider of integrated enterprise, e-business and collaborative commerce software solutions for midmarket companies, has announced the immediate availability of Clientele Customer Support 8.0, which delivers new levels of scalability, reliability and integration capabilities. Completely architected on the Microsoft .NET Platform, Clientele Customer Support 8.0 is the first application in the Clientele CRM.NET Suite available to customers. Clientele Customer Support 8.0 enables companies to offer more effective customer service by exploiting the benefits of the Microsoft .NET architecture, delivering powerful accessibility, extensibility and integration. Employing native Web services and XML throughout, Clientele Customer Support 8.0 makes integration to external applications easier and faster than ever before, allowing companies better interaction with partners, customers and suppliers.

Astea Announces Next Generation Web-based CRM Solution
Astea International Inc., a provider of CRM solutions, has announced Astea AllianceEnterprise V.6, a comprehensive software suite designed to meet the unique needs of companies that market, sell, support and service mission-critical assets. Designed from the ground-up for the Internet, Astea AllianceEnterprise V.6 helps companies extend relationships from the field to the front office, increase revenue, reduce costs, and improve service consistency across the organization. The software suite consists of modular, fully integrated applications for marketing, sales, customer contact centers, and service. It enables realtime information sharing among local, remote and mobile employees. The new release provides the same robust functionality in use today at hundreds of Astea customer sites, but it has been completely re-architected to be browser-based and portal-driven.

LiveWire Logic Launches RealDialog
LiveWire Logic Inc. today announced the initial general availability of RealDialog, a customer self-service solution that delivers an automated agent capable of engaging customers in a web-based dialog to more accurately provide answers. RealDialog uses computational linguistics at its core to immediately parse user questions and understand the intent of a users' request, resulting in much greater accuracy of response. To enhance the user experience with web-based self-service, RealDialog employs a RealDialog Agent, enabling any customer or employee-facing Web site to automatically respond to end user questions with immediate and accurate answers. RealDialog Agents can correctly answer the majority of user questions, reducing stress on all support touch points and greatly lowering the cost structure of customer support and call centers, while significantly improving customer satisfaction.

Siebel Systems Delivers Hundreds of Business Processes in Siebel 7.5
Siebel Systems Inc., a provider of multichannel e-business applications software, has announced the delivery of hundreds of business processes embedded in Siebel 7.5, the latest release of Siebel eBusiness Applications. Featuring industry-specific best practices and new functionality for multichannel sales, marketing, service, and partner and employee relationship management, Siebel 7.5 enables organizations to easily leverage and modify proven business processes to deliver superior customer experiences. With comprehensive support for Web Services and Universal Application Network, a standards-based solution for multiapplication integration, Siebel 7.5 enables the interoperability of Siebel eBusiness Applications with Microsoft .NET and J2EE-based applications.

PlanetLogix Announces CRMSales 2.10
PlanetLogixis announced the latest release of its fourth-generation Web-based customer relationship management application, CRMSales. CRMSales is a workflow-centric sales force automation and lead tracking system that enforces ownership and accountability for distributed sales and support teams. The product uses an internal Web server or Microsoft Web servers. Features include the ability to create new fields and default values, support for file attachments, permissions-based email notifications, and embedded Instant Messaging Services.

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AMR Research Reports Latest Spending Figures for CRM Market
Today's CRM users are focused on incremental investments to improve efficiencies and cost savings without sacrificing customer satisfaction, according to the latest CRM application spending report from AMR Research. AMR predicts that as companies begin to realize measurable success from these tactical investments, they will continue to build and expand their CRM initiatives. Indeed, although the CRM market continues to mature, opportunity for future growth in this market still exists. Drivers for CRM spending in 2003 include scaled-down, department-specific investments, and increased spending by companies that do not sell directly to consumers, but rather to other businesses.

In the report, which covers spending for 2002-2004, AMR also reveals:

• Roughly 43% of the 509 companies surveyed are using CRM applications. Of the 57% who are not using CRM, roughly one-third plan to implement customer management software within the next year.
• On average, companies allocate 19% of their current enterprise application budget to CRM.
• Half of CRM spending in vertical markets comes from manufacturers who are now investing in incremental projects.
• ERP vendors are advocating their CRM products to their installed bases. Interest in vendors with vertical-specific products and software from smaller specialty players is also becoming more popular. Meanwhile, CRM deployment is expanding into new vertical industries as well as Small and Midsize Businesses (SMB).
• Automation, productivity, and efficiency are the primary driving forces behind CRM investments.

Few Internet Advertisers Utilize Pop-Up Ads, According to Neilsen
Only 9.2% of all companies advertising online use pop-up ads, despite its seemingly ubiquitous presence in 2002, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Advertisers purchased and launched more than 11.3 billion pop-up ad impressions (including pop-under ads) for the first seven months of 2002, comprising just 2% of the online advertising market. Pop-up advertising is defined as any ad that spawns a new browser without user input, and includes pop-up ads that focus to the front or back (pop-under) of the active browser. Niche categories such as community, yellow pages and games sites posted levels of pop-up advertising well above the market average of 2%, but broader categories such as portals, search engines and shopping sites shied away from utilizing the technology.

Findings from the survey:

• Only a select few advertisers opted to use pop-up technology, with just 63 companies launching 80% of all pop-up advertising, while the other 20% was split between 2,145 advertisers.
• During the first half of 2002, advertisers used pop-up ads primarily as a direct marketing strategy, as opposed to employing pop-up ads to build brands. More than 6.5 billion impressions or 58% of all pop-up ads attempt to drive traffic to the advertiser's site, while 26% offer incentives aimed at increasing sales. This indicates that 84% of all pop-up ads use a direct marketing tactic, much higher than the industry average of 64%.

European Professional Service Applications Market Likely to Pick Up by First-Half 2003, says IDC
The Western European professional services industry was badly affected by the worldwide economic slowdown in 2001, according to IDC. One result: As Western European professional services organizations (PSOs) reacted to the uncertainty about future profit expectations, they slowed down their planned investments in professional services applications. IDC hasn't seen many signs of recovery in the market and does not expect the market to pick up again before first-half 2003.

Findings from the IDC report:

• The Western European market for professional services applications reached $454 million in revenues in 2001, a growth of 11.9% from 2000 to 2001-significantly lower than the 22.7% achieved the previous year. However, even though overall growth of the market is slower than expected, it grew much faster than the overall enterprise applications market for the same period.
• IDC forecasts a 2001 to 2006 CAGR of 13.52% for the Western European professional services applications market, for a market revenue of $856 million by 2006
• Market recovery will be based on an enhanced need for business applications automating the services supply chain and supporting the decision-making process.
• The drivers that will affect market growth over the next five years include an increasing demand from professional service organizations to manage projects and resources more efficiently and impact bottom-line revenue, as well as an increased demand for applications supporting collaboration with partners, suppliers and customers. These applications will enable professional services organizations to benefit from collaborative and workflow functionality as if all supply chain participants were part of the same project/organization.

Raising the Stakes with Business Intelligence
For smart companies, the next phase in CRM software implementations involves developing sophisticated customer data analytics to better direct all aspects of product development, marketing, distribution, and service. However, CRM vendors will face competition in the analytics field from already established BI players who are raising the stakes with in-demand capabilities such as predictive analytics, realtime performance, and solutions tailored to vertical segments. Those stakes will get higher, as users shift from integration to continuous optimization strategies, and deploy CRM analytics to amplify other customer initiatives, such as online self-help and customer support. However, companies will not realize big savings unless they use CRM analytics to target Web-based solutions at receptive customer segments.
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In the Field and All Grown Up
The service and support chain, which is ultimately an extension of customer relationship management activities, encompasses all the activities that occur after a product is delivered to the customer. That includes everything from preparing, distributing and updating technical information for maintenance personnel to managing warranty programs, field service personnel, and inventories of spare and replacement parts. This link in the supply chain has been something of a redheaded stepchild to CRM in recent years, despite the fact that companies have been providing solutions for service and support literally for decades. Despite this, executives increasingly have begun to focus on service and support in the past 12 to 18 months, and analysts see interest in applications gaining momentum in 2002. Why? Companies are looking to achieve in the service and support chain the kinds of hard-won efficiencies they have attained in manufacturing, procurement and other business functions.
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This Time Tom Siebel Guessed Wrong
After quarter upon quarter of triumph, Tom Siebel was morose because his company's numbers were so utterly and indisputably bleak in the second quarter: Year-over-year sales are down 28%, profits are off by 61%, and the company is eliminating almost 1,200 jobs, or about 16% of its workforce. Even though it continues to generate ample cash, the technology upstart will post bottom-line losses in the second half of the year because of the $275 million it will spend on severance, lease terminations, and other slimming-down measures.

It would be tempting to blame the economy alone for Siebel's troubles. Certainly the tech-spending slowdown is largely what ails his company now. But he faces longer-term problems as well. For one thing, Siebel software is highly tailored to each industry and hence very expensive. And the very practices that made Siebel Systems shine for nearly a decade-its hand-in-glove relationships with business partners and its insistence on buying from its customers whenever possible-now threaten to taint the company with the suggestion of excessive coziness that is plaguing much of corporate America.
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CRM Kingmakers: How Much Influence Do Consultancies Wield?
For the enterprise, selecting a CRM system often is not a solo decision. Executives with purchasing power often turn to consultancies to help them narrow down their choices. There are dozens of firms active in the CRM arena and there is a real need for their services. How much power do these firms have? What motivates them to recommend certain vendors? A company in the market for a major software initiative would be wise to consider these questions before trusting that it is receiving the very best guidance. In any case, while no analyst firm can substitute for solid due diligence in defining and matching business requirements to vendor capabilities, companies often need validation from an external source.
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ERM for Customer Service
While CRM systems do many things well, there's one area lacking: management and presentment of key, customer-facing documents, such as bills, statements, invoices and general correspondence. So while CRM systems provide access to data such as account activity, payment information and the status of recent or pending issues, they often overlook correspondence and computer-generated output-everyday touchpoints between an organization and its customers. Managing this unstructured and semistructured computer-generated output is the bread-and-butter of enterprise report management (ERM) systems. ERM vendors realize that a new market has opened since the recent CRM evolution and are working to reinforce their positions as key enablers of CRM strategies. They're also beginning to form strategic partnerships with CRM vendors, or they're attempting to replicate integrations with CRM systems that have been deployed in the field.
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