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Cognos to Acquire Applix
Cognos, a provider of business intelligence and performance management solutions, and Applix Inc., a provider of analytics solutions, have jointly announced the execution of a definitive agreement for Cognos to acquire Applix. The planned acquisition is a cash tender offer of $17.87 per share, which equates to approximately $339 million or $306 million net of Applix cash on hand. The transaction is subject to the receipt of regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Cognos expects the acquisition to be completed in the fourth calendar quarter of 2007.
Talend Announces Data Integration for SugarCRM
Talend, a provider of open source data integration software, has announced the availability of SugarCRM integration within Talend’s open source data integration solutions, Talend Open Studio, Talend On Demand and Talend Integration Suite. The newly available business connector enables SugarCRM users, developers and partners to integrate SugarCRM deployments with third party databases and applications without requiring any additional development or programming.
Center 7 Announces the Release of Service Management On-Demand
Center 7 Inc., a provider of hosted business solutions, has announced the release of software-as-a-service application PilotCenter Service Management On-demand. Center 7’s PilotCenter is an “On Demand” solution that is a complete, turnkey Service Desk, without the inherent risk and investment in a costly services infrastructure. PilotCenter is also a complete ITIL certified service desk suite.
KPN Selects Accenture as its Lead CRM Systems Integrator
Dutch telecom provider KPN has selected Accenture as its lead systems integrator to transform its CRM capabilities across its businesses in the Netherlands. The goal of the project is to help KPN transform itself into a truly customer-centric organization, revolutionizing the way it conducts business in all of its interactions with customers, businesses, channels and partners. Accenture will work with KPN to design and implement a new CRM suite that will enable KPN to gain a 360-degree view of its customers across all of its products and channels. Accenture will help KPN shape and implement the transformational CRM program leveraging Oracle’s Siebel CRM software applications.
Knoa Announces End User Experience Management for Siebel Version 8.0
Knoa, a provider of user experience and management software, has announced that Knoa Experience and Performance Management (EPM) is now available for Oracle Siebel CRM Version 8.0. Knoa EPM for Oracle Siebel CRM monitors real end user experiences and captures end-to-end transaction response times, ecosystem and application errors, and a time-synchronized workflow – from all users, at all locations, at all times. The software enables alerting and proactive remediation of end user issues (system errors, user errors or performance problems), identifies training requirements and highlights process compliance and adoption issues.
Avaya Updates Self-Service Software to Enhance Customer Service
Avaya Inc., a global provider of business applications, systems and services, has debuted new versions of its self-service software. The new enhancements make it easier and more cost-effective to improve customer service with speech automation, and provide a foundation for using self-service to create faster, more productive business processes. The new products include Avaya Voice Portal 4.0, the company's flagship self-service software, and Interactive Response 3.0, a widely deployed self-service platforms. Also unveiled was the new version of Avaya Dialog Designer 4.0, a tool for developing next-generation speech self-service applications.
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"Strategies for Service Excellence"
Las Vegas, NV, November 5-7, 2007
Join us in Las Vegas for the Services Industry Summit - "Strategies for Service Excellence", at the Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, November 5-7, 2007. Network with industry leaders, who will share their strategies for delivering world-class service and support. Presentation topics include Service Excellence by Design, Mergers and Acquisitions - Strategies for Successful Integration, Strategies for Managing Staff Performance, Service Excellence and the Trusted Advisor, and more.
Don't
miss this event! Click
here for details.
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| Worldwide CRM Software Market Will Grow 14 Percent in 2007
As enterprises continue to invest in front-office applications, worldwide CRM software revenue is forecast to exceed $7.4 billion 2007, up 14 percent from $6.5 billion in 2006, according to Gartner, Inc.
The strong performance of the CRM software market is being fueled by growth across all subsegments and the explosive growth of software as a service (SaaS) solutions within the sales subsegment. In 2006, SaaS represented 12 percent of total CRM software revenue, and it is on track to reach nearly 14 percent in 2007. By year-end 2007, SaaS is forecast to represent more than $1 billion in CRM software revenue, growing at more than double the rate of the total CRM software market.
The worldwide CRM software market will experience healthy growth through 2007; however growth will slow in the next 12 to 18 months because of the downstream impact of economic conditions, but also because the market size overall will increase. The market is forecast to grow to more than $11.4 billion in total software revenue by 2011.
More...
Viral Marketing Missteps Reach Epidemic Proportions
JupiterResearch reports viral marketing efforts have failed to effectively reach the mass audiences advertisers had anticipated. Despite the growing popularity of such social media sites as MySpace and You Tube, viral marketing campaigns are consistently proving ineffective in delivering and sustaining a brand over time, due mainly to misdirected tactics.
These findings are outlined in a new report published by JupiterResearch, “Viral Marketing: Bringing the Message to the Masses”, and indicate only 15 percent achieved the goal of prompting consumers to promote their messages for them in the past year. Although targeting influentials was the most popular technique to stimulate viral behavior, viral marketers plan to decrease use of this tactic by 55 percent within the next year. While social media sites eliciting user generated content would seem to provide a perfect vehicle for viral marketing campaigns, those initiating the campaigns must dig deeper to understand the tendencies of the appropriate audiences.
Relatively older online users are actually more likely than are relatively younger users to forward advertising messages to friends or tell friends about ads. Although young audiences show increased use of social sites, relatively older audiences show increased use of e-mail, watch some video, and should be absolutely incorporated into viral marketing campaigns -- especially because they are the traditional target audiences for brands or products.
More...
Expansion of Social Networking Application Market for Marketing Purposes
The social networking application market was relatively small in 2006, coming in at $46.8 million, a new study published by IDC reports. By 2009, however, this market will grow to $428.3 million creating a new application segment and establishing social networking as a new communications tool used for many purposes other than consumer socializing.
Social networking is the new must-have communication application and is being used for both marketing and operational efficiency, says IDC. Social networking applications drive engagements, information exposure, and conversions as well as reducing marketing and operational costs.
There are three social networking segments emerging, IDC's research indicates. These include: self-service applications used by groups and marketing campaign teams; brand applications that focus on persistent customer engagement; and enterprise applications that provide more effective ways of working with customers, partners, and other external parties.
IDC believes the social networking application market will grow rapidly over the next three years and then level off as the majority of large companies likely to deploy social networking eventually do so.
Other key findings from IDC's study include the following:
- The social networking applications market will grow quickly over the next three years and continue to grow, but at a slower pace, after 2011.
- Social networking application vendors will continue to emerge over the next two years, particularly those focused on vertical applications.
- As the market develops, social networking functionality will be built into core communication platforms like email and instant messaging (IM) applications and the market, particularly the enterprise segment, will consolidate.
More...
AMR Research Releases Enterprise Applications Market Sizing Reports
AMR Research has released its enterprise resource planning (ERP), human capital management (HCM), customer relationship management (CRM), product lifecycle management (PLM), and procurement and sourcing market sizing reports.
Highlights from each of the reports include:
- Customer Relationship Management: The CRM market is now dominated by five big vendors -- SAP, Oracle, salesforce.com, Aspect and amdocs. Together, they make up 40% of the market (nearly $3.4B in total revenue for 2005).
- Enterprise Resource Planning: ERP vendor revenue across all segments is expected to grow from $28.8B in 2006 to $47.7B by 2011. Core ERP license revenue grew to $9.2B in 2006, an 18% increase over 2005.
- Human Capital Management: The human capital management software market, expected to reach $10B in the next five years, is growing twice as fast as the enterprise application market as a whole.
- Product Lifecycle Management: Despite consolidation, the product lifecycle management market continues to grow at a healthy 9.7% as companies look to streamline new product development and launch (NPDL) processes.
- Procurement and Sourcing: The procurement and sourcing market grew 10% in 2005-2006, and is expected to grow 8% each year through 2011. Twelve vendors, including Oracle, SAP, Accruent, American Express S2S, and Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) have established themselves as clear leaders, reporting revenue growth of more than 10%.
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| Great Ways to Get Your Customers Working for You
Almost every company is somewhat embarrassed about the state of its customer data. Yes, it’s true that there are organizations that have perfect and accurate records of their customers’ account information, transaction histories, product ownership, and service and interaction histories. But, to be frank, those organizations are the exception; not the rule. The first mistake that most organizations make is to wait until they have “perfect” customer data to begin exposing it to their customers. There is no such thing as perfect customer information and there never will be. The second mistake that most organizations make is not moving quickly enough to enable customers to enter and manage their own information.
Full Article...
Rising above the Commoditization
Whether it's mobile phones, mortgages or the websites of high street retailers, consumers seem to have a wealth of choice. However, in reality, the market is flooded with products and services that have become commodities. This 'commoditization of everything' is driving businesses to seek alternative ways to stand out. When the goods themselves don't stand out in a customer's mind, how do vendors make their mark? Consumers may not be able to differentiate between multiple service providers but they know they want to do business with the one that will treat them right -- a vendor who will value their time and make the service experience as smooth as possible.
Full Article...
CRM Should Be Your First SOA Application
All of the leading enterprise vendors are touting SOA infrastructures, which promise the development of modular business services that can be easily integrated and reused, creating a truly flexible, and adaptable IT infrastructure. Because an SOA infrastructure can lead to significant time and cost savings, IT organizations can focus more resources and budget on innovation and on delivering new business services. With so many mission-critical applications that are core to an enterprise's business, how do companies know which should first be moved to a SOA-based environment? Consider CRM.
Full Article...
Bring Back The “Human Touch”
In our quest to deliver better, faster and cheaper, we continue to leverage technology to automate processes in order to reduce cost. But where should the line be drawn? Have we gone too far? Is the automation of customer service actually hurting your business by driving customers away? While some automation and self help is desirable, we have gone too far in dehumanizing customer service and therefore are negatively affecting the customer’s experience.
Full Article...
Smart Technology for Working Leads
Most of us spend a tremendous amount of time pursuing new leads; in fact, we are diligent about continuing to generate new leads from all sorts of channels. But the irony of this strategy is that in our determination to chase these potential new customers -- those we have never contacted before -- we are discarding our best leads: those who were not qualified when first contacted, those who chose a different lender and those whom we simply have been unable to reach. So, all along what we've been viewing as our worst leads are actually our best leads? What kind of nonsense is that? Actually, it makes great sense. The leads we are most likely to convert are those with which we've established some degree of a relationship.
Full Article...
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|  Creating Do-It-Yourself Customers: How Great Customer Experiences Build Great Companies
by Peter C. Honebein, Roy F. Cammarano
Everyday, new ways of involving customers in businesses are emerging, evolving, and gaining wider acceptance. Customer satisfaction is high in these do-it-yourself experiences because customers save time, have more control, and achieve self-made results. In Creating Do-It-Yourself Customers, veteran business consultants Peter C. Honebein and Roy F. Cammarano show anyone who serves customers, from CEOs to frontline associates, how to lead the creation of truly outstanding customer experiences.
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
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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
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